Securing one's livelihood. Philanthropy in a mixed economy of welfare in the early 20th century

Since the late 19th century different social actors have played an important role in providing social security in Switzerland. Cooperatives, philanthropic organisations, social insurances, and the poor relief of the communes were all part of a "mixed economy of welfare". This article examines how the different actors in this "mixed economy" worked together, and asks what forms of help they supplied. It raises the question of whether a dichotomy between public and private forms of relief can be traced in the Swiss case. Did democratically legitimised processes of redistribution shape the social security system? Or was social security rather funded by private relief programs? The author argues that in the early 20th century, a complex public-private mix structured the Swiss welfare state and the poor often depended on both public and private funding. In this system, financially potent philanthropic organisations successfully contested the legal power of public actors.

Editorial. Einige grundsätzliche Überlegungen zum (Um-)Verteilen

Gisela Hürlimann, Malik Mazbouri, Sonja Matter, Andreas Behr

Historische Entwicklungen im Wohlfahrtswesen der Schweiz

In diesem Handbuch werden Themen, Handlungsfelder und Organisationen des Schweizer Sozialwesens «sichtbar» gemacht: historische Entwicklungen, aktuelle Herausforderungen, Abhängigkeiten und Zusammenhänge. Fachpersonen aus den Organisationen des Schweizer Sozialwesens sowie Wissenschaftler und Wissenschaftlerinnen aus Hochschulen zeigen auf, welchen Einfluss Entscheidungen in der Sozial- und Bildungspolitik auf die Lebensverhältnisse der Bevölkerung haben und welchen Beitrag das Sozialwesen an das Wohl aller leistet. Exemplarisch verdeutlicht werden die Besonderheiten des Schweizer Sozialwesens anhand der Sozialversicherungen, der öffentlichen und privaten sozialen Dienste sowie der Sozialen Arbeit als Profession und Disziplin. Beiträge über Subsidiarität, Integration, Lebensqualität, Staatlichkeit und Zivilgesellschaft, Effizienz- und Wirkungsorientierung, Risikominimierung, Prävention, soziale Ungleichheit, Eigenverantwortung und Selbstbestimmung schaffen einen Überblick über aktuelle soziale Problemlagen in der Schweiz und darauf zielende Konzepte. Das Handbuch wurde für die 2. Auflage überarbeitet und ergänzt. Es ist ein unentbehrliches Nachschlagewerk für alle, die sich mit dem Sozialwesen auseinandersetzen: Fachleute aus dem sozialen Bereich, Politikerinnen und Politiker, Studierende, Medienschaffende und weitere interessierte Personen.

Long-term results of endoscopic third ventriculostomy: an outcome analysis.

OBJECT Endoscopic third ventriculostomy (ETV) is the procedure of choice in the treatment of obstructive hydrocephalus. The excellent clinical and radiological success rates are well known. Nevertheless, very few papers have addressed the very long term outcomes of the procedure in very large series. The authors present a large case series of 113 patients who underwent 126 ETVs, and they highlight the initial postoperative outcome after 3 months and long-term follow-up with an average of 7 years. METHODS All patients who underwent ETV at the Department of Neurosurgery, Mainz University Hospital, between 1993 and 1999 were evaluated. Obstructive hydrocephalus was the causative pathology in all cases. RESULTS The initial clinical success rate was 82% and decreased slightly to 78% during long-term follow-up. Long-term success was analyzed using Kaplan-Meier curves. Overall, ETV failed in 31 patients. These patients underwent a second ETV or shunt treatment. A positive impact on long-term success was seen for age older than 6 months, and for obstruction due to cysts or benign aqueductal stenosis. The complication rate was 9% with 5 intraoperative and 5 postoperative events. CONCLUSIONS The high clinical success rate in short-term and long-term follow-up confirms ETV's status as the gold standard for the treatment of obstructive hydrocephalus, especially for distinct pathologies. The patient's age and underlying pathology may influence the outcome. These factors should be considered carefully preoperatively by the surgeon.

Morphological variation within the diatom taxon Cyclotella comensis and its importance for quantitative temperature reconstructions

1. The morphologically complex taxon Cyclotella comensis Grunow had no clear relationship with environmental parameters in a study using sediment surface samples from the Swiss Alps. The morphological heterogeneity of the taxon was investigated by applying a principal component analysis (PCA) to 9000 presence/absence descriptions of valves from surface samples of six lakes from different altitudes (15 characteristics, 100 valves each lake). The PCA allowed the classification of six morphs, which differed mainly in size and length of striae. Photographs of the morphs are shown in this paper. 2. Sixty-eight sediment surface samples were analysed using these newly defined six morphs. Summer temperature explained a major part of the variance between the morphs as assessed by a redundancy analysis (RDA). Summer temperature optima and tolerances were estimated using weighted averaging. 3. The influence of the revised C. comensis taxonomy on the diatom inferred summer temperature of a high alpine lake is discussed in a multiproxy context for the past 800 years.

Betriebsanleitung zum Schweizerischen Strafgesetzbuch. Allgemeiner Teil. 1. Auflage

Die Betriebsanleitung zum Allgemeinen Teil I des Strafgesetzbuches versteht sich als neue Form von Lehrmittel. Sie will Studierende zur Arbeit mit dem Gesetzestext anleiten, den sie ob all der Grundlagenprobleme gerade zu Beginn ihres Studiums im Strafrecht vielfach vernachlässigen. Das StGB ist jedoch Grundlage und Ausgangspunkt jeden Nachdenkens über das geltende Recht. Seine Vorschriften enthalten, so knapp sie mitunter auch sein mögen, wichtige Informationen, mit deren Aneignung sich der ebenso abstrakte wie differenzierte Stoff der Straftatkonzeption besser meistern lässt. Das Kurzlehrbuch behandelt die wichtigsten theoretischen Lehren des Aufbaus der allgemeinen Verbrechenslehre, veranschaulicht sie mit Gesetzesauszügen und demonstriert die Gesetzesanwendung anhand zahlreicher Praxisbeispiele. Ein Glossar am Ende rundet das Lehrmittel ab.

Using multiple landscape genetic approaches to test the validity of genetic clusters in a species characterized by an isolation-by-distance pattern

Bayesian clustering methods are typically used to identify barriers to gene flow, but they are prone to deduce artificial subdivisions in a study population characterized by an isolation-by-distance pattern (IbD). Here we analysed the landscape genetic structure of a population of wild boars (Sus scrofa) from south-western Germany. Two clustering methods inferred the presence of the same genetic discontinuity. However, the population in question was characterized by a strong IbD pattern. While landscape-resistance modelling failed to identify landscape features that influenced wild boar movement, partial Mantel tests and multiple regression of distance matrices (MRDMs) suggested that the empirically inferred clusters were separated by a genuine barrier. When simulating random lines bisecting the study area, 60% of the unique barriers represented, according to partial Mantel tests and MRDMs, significant obstacles to gene flow. By contrast, the random-lines simulation showed that the boundaries of the inferred empirical clusters corresponded to the most important genetic discontinuity in the study area. Given the degree of habitat fragmentation separating the two empirical partitions, it is likely that the clustering programs correctly identified a barrier to gene flow. The differing results between the work published here and other studies suggest that it will be very difficult to draw general conclusions about habitat permeability in wild boar from individual studies.