Uwe Fachinger

The Lower Saxony research network design of environments for ageing: towards interdisciplinary research on information and communication technologies in ageing societies

Worldwide, ageing societies are bringing challenges for independent living and healthcare. Health-enabling technologies for pervasive healthcare and sensor-enhanced health information systems offer new opportunities for care. In order to identify, implement and assess such new information and communication technologies (ICT) the ‘Lower Saxony Research Network Design of Environments for Ageing’ (GAL) has been launched in 2008 as interdisciplinary research project. In this publication, we inform about the goals and structure of GAL, including first outcomes, as well as to discuss the potentials and possible barriers of such highly interdisciplinary research projects in the field of health-enabling technologies for pervasive healthcare. Although GALs high interdisciplinarity at the beginning slowed down the speed of research progress, we can now work on problems, which can hardly be solved by one or few disciplines alone. Interdisciplinary research projects on ICT in ageing societies are needed and recommended.

Micro-Firms and the Margins of Entrepreneurship: The Restructuring of the Labour Market

This paper deals with the margins of entrepreneurship at which small business owners are working almost on their own with no or very few employees, and where some work for low returns and run firms that lack stability and/or prosperous dynamics. However, even the area of ‘entrepreneurship at the margins’ is a wide field, embracing not only the broad margins of entrepreneurship but also the fluid borders between entrepreneurship and the informal sector on the one side and the labour market system on the other. New firms – even those that are ultimately very successful – may be more or less created in an experimental market and product testing phase, in which business founders are still employed or registered as unemployed before becoming self-employed. In such cases, the practical starting-point of an entrepreneurial existence is part of a fluent continuum of different activities closely connected to the entrepreneurs sphere of dependent work as an employee or job-seeking during a period of unemployment. The paper addresses this area of entrepreneurship within an integrated framework, which combines entrepreneurship analysis with labour market research and studies on social stratification and social mobility. It contributes to the debate on entrepreneurship at the margins by combining selected empirical information on the case of Germany with conceptual ideas of a labour market perspective. The integrated approach highlights some key issues and raises further questions about the field of entrepreneurship.

Information and communication technologies for promoting and sustaining quality of life, health and self-sufficiency in ageing societies – outcomes of the Lower Saxony Research Network Design of Environments for Ageing (GAL)

Many societies across the world are confronted with demographic changes, usually related to increased life expectancy and, often, relatively low birth rates. Information and communication technologies (ICT) may contribute to adequately support senior citizens in aging societies with respect to quality of life and quality and efficiency of health care processes. For investigating and for providing answers on whether new information and communication technologies can contribute to keeping, or even improving quality of life, health and self-sufficiency in ageing societies through new ways of living and new forms of care, the Lower Saxony Research Network Design of Environments for Ageing (GAL) had been established as a five years research project, running from 2008 to 2013. Ambient-assisted living (AAL) technologies in personal and home environments were especially important. In this article we report on the GAL project, and present some of its major outcomes after five years of research. We report on major challenges and lessons learned in running and organizing such a large, inter- and multidisciplinary project and discuss GAL in the context of related research projects. With respect to research outcomes, we have, for example, learned new knowledge about multimodal and speech-based human–machine-interaction mechanisms for persons with functional restrictions, and identified new methods and developed new algorithms for identifying activities of daily life and detecting acute events, particularly falls. A total of 79 apartments of senior citizens had been equipped with specific “GAL technology”, providing new insights into the use of sensor data for smart homes. Major challenges we had to face were to deal constructively with GAL’s highly inter- and multidisciplinary aspects, with respect to research into GAL’s application scenarios, shifting from theory and lab experimentation to field tests, and the complexity of organizing and, in our view, successfully managing such a large project. Overall it can be stated that, from our point of view, the GAL research network has been run successfully and has achieved its major research objectives. Since we now know much more on how and where to use AAL technologies for new environments of living and new forms of care, a future focus for research can now be outlined for systematically planned studies, scientifically exploring the benefits of AAL technologies for senior citizens, in particular with respect to quality of life and the quality and efficiency of health care.

Self-Employment and Wealth-Creation: Observations on the German Case

For the past two decades the subject of entrepreneurship has been revived in public discourse and economic debate. The call for entrepreneurship tends to become a call for self-employment. The authors argue that the assumption that entrepreneurship means self-employment is not correct. In addition, they focus on a key issue that frequently surfaces in the debate — the wealth of the self-employed. Their conclusion is that attention must be drawn to the multiple forms of self-employed activities, some of which are far removed from those that are normally associated with the term ‘entrepreneurship’.

How Diverse is Entrepreneurship? Observations on the social heterogeneity of self-employment in Germany

The discussion on entrepreneurship often treats entrepreneurs as agents of ideas of economic change and growth. Entrepreneurs are considered to serve as potential multipliers delivering individual and social wealth and prosperity. In that context entrepreneurship has been treated as a rather homogenous category, internal differences were not in the focus of academic talk. In public policy discourse entrepreneurship and the labour market category of self-employment are often used interchangeably. Images and interpretation of self-employment are mostly based on comparison of self-employment with other categories of wage or salary dependent labour market groups. This way self-employed people prove to become an averaged one-type figure. The proposed paper wants to highlight the other side of economic and social reality: the heterogeneity of self-employment. Referring to empirical data for the case of Germany the argumentation intends to illuminate different levels of social and economic integration of self-employed people. Working parameters and firm sizes, economic sectors of activity, income patterns, working hours and biographies have diversified and became increasingly heterogeneous so that further discussion is ultimately provoked: Which entrepreneurship are we talking about when talking entrepreneurship? Where are links between different fractions of the category of self-employment compared to each other and to other socio-economic groups? The contribution must be regarded as a theoretical and empirical task to connect entrepreneurship with debate on innovation, culture and finance.

Mikro-Selbstständigkeit und Restrukturierung des Arbeitsmarktes – Theoretische und empirische Aspekte zur Entwicklung des Unternehmertums

Vor noch nicht allzu langer Zeit galten in der Bundesrepublik Deutschland die Selbststandigen als eine privilegierte Berufsgruppierung, die sich vor allem mit Blick auf ihren sozialen Status und ihre Einkommenssituation uberdurchschnittlich positiv von anderen Berufsgruppen unterschied. Zwischenzeitlich ist jedoch das Bewusstsein gestiegen, dass auch innerhalb der Selbststandigen enorme Differenzierungslinien zu beobachten sind und wir auch hier im Rahmen des gesellschaftlichen und wirtschaftlichen Wandels ‚Gewinner‘ und ‚Verlierer‘ finden konnen. Diese Spreizung mag es historisch gesehen schon immer gegeben haben, aber sie tritt fur die Bundesrepublik Deutschland erst neuerlich starker (wieder) in das akademische Bewusstsein. In sektoraler und horizontaler Hinsicht finden sich hier zunehmend variierende und differenzierte Formen an Sozial- und Berufsexistenzen, von denen die Solo-Selbststandigen mit ihren Mikrofirmen eine realiter wachsende Gruppierung darstellen.

Rentenanpassung und Altersarmut

In einem dynamischen Wirtschaftsprozess kann Stillstand relativen Ruckschritt bedeuten. Bei im Zeitablauf variierenden, aber durchschnittlich insgesamt steigenden Erwerbseinkunften oder Preisen mussten sich beispielsweise auch die Alterseinkommen erhohen, soll das Ziel der Lebensstandardsicherung oder der Vermeidung materieller Armut im Alter erreicht werden.2

Armut und Reichtum. Einkommen und Konsumverhalten älterer Menschen

Einkommen und Vermogen sind fur die Lebensgestaltung im Alter von zentraler Bedeutung. Die hierdurch beschriebene materielle Situation ist jedoch auserordentlich vielgestaltig. Die im Titel dieser Studieneinheit enthaltenen Ausdrucke »Armut« und »Reichtum« kennzeichnen lediglich den unteren und oberen Bereich des breiten Einkommens- und Vermogensspektrums. Wegen der Komplexitat und Vielfalt der wirtschafuichen Situation ergeben sich erhebhche Probleme bei der Beschreibung und Erklarung. Dies wird exemplarisch daran deutlich, dass man nicht nur die Situation einzelner Personen zu berucksichtigen hat, sondern auch deren Einbettung in Haushalts- und Eamih- enzusammenhange, daneben unterschiedhche Einkunftsarten sowie die Vielfalt der sie beeinflussenden Faktoren. Weiterhin geht es bei den Einkommen um den Unterschied zwischen BruttobtimgQn vor Abzug direkter Abgaben (wie zum Beispiel von Lohnsteuer und Sozialbeitragen) und Aetobetragen sowie um nominale und reale (das heist preisbereinigte) Grosen, um nur einige wichtige Aspekte zu nennen.

Business model for sensor-based fall recognition systems

AAL systems require, in addition to sophisticated and reliable technology, adequate business models for their launch and sustainable establishment. This paper presents the basic features of alternative business models for a sensor-based fall recognition system which was developed within the context of the “Lower Saxony Research Network Design of Environments for Ageing” (GAL). The models were developed parallel to the R&D process with successive adaptation and concretization. An overview of the basic features (i.e. nine partial models) of the business model is given and the mutual exclusive alternatives for each partial model are presented. The partial models are interconnected and the combinations of compatible alternatives lead to consistent alternative business models. However, in the current state, only initial concepts of alternative business models can be deduced. The next step will be to gather additional information to work out more detailed models.

Selbstständigkeit und Entrepreneurship: Soziale Vielschichtigkeit und Forschungsfragen

Wer die Sozial- und Wirtschaftsstruktur moderner Gesellschaften lediglich im Sinne einer „Blaupause“, also wie eine Momentaufnahme, betrachtet, vernachlassigt die Dynamik, die sich hinter den zu beobachtenden Salden vollzieht: Eine Bestandszahl kann dieselbe bleiben, wahrend sich „dahinter“ unter Umstanden ein betrachtlicher sozialer Austausch vollzieht. Die Konstanz einer soziookonomischen Kategorie bei einer gleichzeitig laufenden Veranderung und Umschichtung der personellen Zusammensetzung hatten schon Schumpeter inspiriert zu schreiben, dass jede Klasse wahrend der Dauer ihres Kollektivlebens einem Omnibus oder Hotel gleiche, welche standig besetzt seien, aber von immer anderen Leuten. Von Bedeutung sind immer haufiger einmal erwerbsbiographische Aspekte, demnach Menschen zwischen abhangiger und selbststandiger Beschaftigung wechseln, je nach Erwerbsgelegenheiten, Alter und sonstigen individuellen und gesellschaftlichen Abwagungen. Dann gibt es weiterhin hybride Erwerbsformen: Das sind insbesondere Kleinstselbstandigkeiten, die nebenher abhangig „jobben“, um ein hoheres Einkommen zu erzielen, oder abhangig Beschaftigte, die nebenberuflich Formen beruflicher Selbststandigkeit ausuben. Schlieslich ist weiterhin das Phanomen bekannt, dass Formen beruflicher Selbststandigkeit gelegentlich eher an Formen abhangiger Beschaftigung erinnern, weil unternehmerische Spielraume und Handlungsalternativen der Beteiligten, wenn uberhaupt, dann nur stark eingeschrankt vorhanden sind.