Sprache als Mittel der „Grenzüberschreitung“ – von Hürden und vom „Brücken bauen“ in multikulturellen Regionen der Slowakei und Serbiens

Dieser Beitrag befasst sich mit Sprache als Mittel der „Grenzüberschreitung“ in multikulturellen Regionen der Slowakei und Serbiens. Es wird aufgezeigt, welche Rolle Sprache in den inter-ethnischen Beziehungen in Ostmitteleuropa spielt, welche Hürden existieren und aufgebaut werden, gleichzeitig aber auch, wie diese abgebaut werden können, oder versucht wird, diese abzubauen. Es geht dabei erstens um die Problematik des Sprachunterrichts in geteilten, multikulturellen Gesellschaften sowie den Herausforderungen für Minderheiten in diesem Zusammenhang. In einem zweiten Schritt werden Initiativen der Zivilgesellschaft diskutiert und dabei Möglichkeiten aufgezeigt, wie Grenzen mithilfe von Sprache gerade in einem politisch heiklen Umfeld überwunden werden können.

‘Continue or terminate?’ Determinants of long-term volunteering in sports clubs

This study analyzed the determinants underlying sports club volunteers' tendencies to continue or terminate their long-term commitment to volunteering in order to help sports clubs improve their volunteer management. Their risk of terminating was viewed in terms of subjective expectations and evaluations (satisfaction) regarding club-related working conditions and normative commitments (solidarity) to the sports club. These relationships were tested empirically with an online questionnaire of 441 sports club volunteers in a selection of 45 Swiss sports clubs. Results showed that the constructs orientation toward collective solidarity and volunteer job satisfaction correlated positively with long-term volunteering commitment. The effect of the former was stronger than that of the latter. Volunteers with a higher orientation toward collective solidarity were unlikely to terminate their voluntary engagement in their club. The discussion presents recommendations to help clubs retain volunteers.

Quantifying entrepreneurship and its impact on local economic performance: A spatial assessment in rural Switzerland

Regional and rural development policies in Europe increasingly emphasize entrepreneurship to mobilize the endogenous economic potential of rural territories. This study develops a concept to quantify entrepreneurship as place-dependent local potential to examine its impact on the local economic performance of rural territories in Switzerland. The short-to-medium-term impact of entrepreneurship on the economic performance of 1706 rural municipalities in Switzerland is assessed by applying three spatial random effects models. Results suggest a generally positive relationship between entrepreneurship and local development: rural municipalities with higher entrepreneurial potential generally show higher business tax revenues per capita and a lower share of social welfare cases among the population, although the impact on local employment is less clear. The explanatory power of entrepreneurship in all three models, however, was only moderate. This finding suggests that political expectations of fostering entrepreneurship to boost endogenous rural development in the short-to-medium term should be damped.

Entrepreneurship in a Hub-and-Spoke Industrial District: Firm Survey Evidence from Seattle's Technology Industry

Mayer H. Entrepreneurship in a hub-and-spoke industrial district: firm survey evidence from Seattle's technology industry, Regional Studies. The paper investigates entrepreneurial dynamics in a hub-and-spoke industrial district. Using data on the genealogy of high-technology firms in Seattle, Washington State, the study examines the ways in which entrepreneurial firms relate to their parent firms and the role of agglomeration economies. The results illustrate that entrepreneurship is an important vehicle for the diversification of such a district. When compared, hub-related spinoffs such as those founded by former Microsoft employees do not differ much from other start-ups. The differences between Microsoft spinoffs and start-ups are very limited; both diversify the regional economy by entering new markets when compared with their parents.

The Role of Small and Medium-sized Centers for Territorial Development in Switzerland

This paper describes the role of small and medium-sized urban centers in Switzerland. Switzerland is a highly urbanized country where small and medium-sized urban centers play an important role in ensuring a balanced national urban system. Besides the four largest metropolitan regions （Zurich, Geneva, Basel and Bern）, small and medium-sized towns function as central places for a wider, often extensive hinterland. They provide opportunities for living and working and they connect rural and mountain regions to national and international networks. Using secondary statistics and a case study, the paper shows that small and medium-sized urban centers are home to significant concentrations of export-oriented industries. Firms in these value-adding secondary sectors are rooted in these places and benefit from strong local embeddedness while also being oriented towards global markets. Small and medium-sized urban centers also profit from their strong local identities. While these places face various challenges, they function as important pillars in creating a balanced regional development pattern. Swiss regional development policy follows the goal of polycentric spatial development and it employs various instruments that aim to ensure a balanced urban system.

White matter microstructure alterations of the medial forebrain bundle in melancholic depression

BACKGROUND The medial forebrain bundle (MFB) is a key structure of the reward system and connects the ventral tegmental area (VTA) with the nucleus accumbens (NAcc), the medial and lateral orbitofrontal cortex (mOFC, lOFC) and the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (dlPFC). Previous diffusion tensor imaging (DTI) studies in major depressive disorder point to white matter alterations of regions which may be incorporated in the MFB. Therefore, it was the aim of our study to probe white matter integrity of the MFB using a DTI-based probabilistic fibre tracking approach. METHODS 22 patients with major depressive disorder (MDD) (12 melancholic-MDD patients, 10 non-melancholic-MDD patients) and 21 healthy controls underwent DTI scans. We used a bilateral probabilistic fibre tracking approach to extract pathways between the VTA and NACC, mOFC, lOFC, dlPFC respectively. Mean fractional anisotropy (FA) values were used to compare structural connectivity between groups. RESULTS Mean-FA did not differ between healthy controls and all MDD patients. Compared to healthy controls melancholic MDD-patients had reduced mean-FA in right VTA-lOFC and VTA-dlPFC connections. Furthermore, melancholic-MDD patients had lower mean-FA than non-melancholic MDD-patients in the right VTA-lOFC connection. Mean-FA of these pathways correlated negatively with depression scale rating scores. LIMITATIONS Due to the small sample size and heterogeneous age group comparisons between melancholic and non-melancholic MDD-patients should be regarded as preliminary. CONCLUSIONS Our results suggest that the melancholic subtype of MDD is characterized by white matter microstructure alterations of the MFB. White matter microstructure is associated with both depression severity and anhedonia.

Prostitúciós terek performativitása - szexmunkások és a nyilvános tér Magyarországon

Az állami intézmények tereket hoznak létre azáltal, hogy meghatározott területekre vonatkozóan szabályokat vagy normákat írnak elő. Az ott élő, tevékenykedő emberek használják e tereket, stratégiákat alkotnak, alkalmazkodnak a törvényekhez és piaci viszonyokhoz, kiskapukat keresnek, hogy megélhetésüket, túlélésüket biztosítsák. Eközben ők maguk is olyan tereket hoznak létre, amelyeket a társadalom szimbolikusan értékel vagy stigmatizál. De a terek maguk is alakítják az embereket, lehetőséget biztosítanak számukra, hogy alkalmazkodjanak a feltételekhez, amivel ugyanakkor megteremtik a társadalmi változások alapjait – akárhogyan is alakuljanak e változások. A médiában, a prostitúcióról szóló hírekben a főszereplők jellemzően háttérben maradnak, e tanulmány nekik szentel figyelmet. Ezzel egyidejűleg a szerző megkíséreli a magyarországi nyilvános tereken zajló prostitúciót Budapest, Pécs és Nyíregyháza legkülönfélébb terein megvizsgálni.

Who Is Afraid of School Choice?

This study uses survey data to investigate attitudes among Swiss voters to different models offering more freedom of choice in the educational system. There is a clear opposition to the use of taxpayer money to fund private schools, while free choice between public schools seems to appeal to a majority. The opinions appear to be based on a rational calculation of personal utility. For both types of choice, approval rates are lower for middle to high-income groups and individuals with a teaching qualification. Furthermore, residents of small to medium-sized towns are opposed to more school choice. On the support side, approval rates for private school choice are higher among parents of school-age children and residents in urban areas. The results also indicate differences between the country's language regions, attributable to intercultural differences in what people consider the role of the state.