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- Digitalisation as Distinction' Identity Articulation and Tacit Competition
in the Swiss University Field, 2010–2020
Abstract: This article examines how digitalisation is used for organisational distinction in the field of Swiss universities for the period 2010–2020. It shows that digitalisation does not fundamentally challenge the order of the Swiss university field but triggers competitive dynamics that are accompanied by different forms of identity articulation. The article concludes that the interplay of competition and identity articulation of actors is complex and must be analyzed in the context of relative field positions.
PubDate: Tue, 31 Oct 2023 00:00:00 GMT
- A Tamed Transformation. Debating Digitalisation in Research and Higher
Education Policy in Switzerland, 1998–2020
Abstract: In this article, I investigate the discursive field of the digital transformation of higher education and research policy in Switzerland. The qualitative analysis of political strategies and documents shows that actors in this policy field use open, ambiguous terms to characterise digitalisation. By building on this discursive strategy, the political actors aim not only to reduce uncertainty about the digital transformation as a complex phenomenon but also to build political consensus about the future development of this discursive field.
PubDate: Tue, 31 Oct 2023 00:00:00 GMT
- Introduction to the Special Issue: Digital Academia. Investigating Science
and Higher Education in the Digital Age
PubDate: Tue, 31 Oct 2023 00:00:00 GMT
- Institutional Arrangements in the Absence of Disciplinary Definitions:
Digital Humanities in Switzerland
Abstract: The digitalization of research practices in the humanities has led to the emergence of the field of digital humanities (DH). DH has made significant progress in institutionalization, while remaining underdefined. Through a qualitative study of Swiss universities we explore how institutional structures and definitions of DH interact. We show that underdefinition enables flexibility in institutionalization, while the local contexts that lead to diverse institutional arrangements may necessitate the underdefinition of DH.
PubDate: Tue, 31 Oct 2023 00:00:00 GMT
- Beyond the News Media Logic' Analyzing the Social Media Orientation of
University Leadership
Abstract: Building on scholarship on the mediatization of organizations, we propose a conception of the social media orientation of organizational leaders and apply it to higher education. Based on an online survey of 276 leaders of Swiss higher education institutions, we show that social media platforms have made their way into university management and communication but are still not as important as news media. The study discusses differences between university types and uses the literature on new public management to derive influencing factors.
PubDate: Tue, 31 Oct 2023 00:00:00 GMT
- Claiming Universal Epistemic Authority – Relational Boundary Work and
the Academic Institutionalization of Data Science
Abstract: This article studies the rise of academic data science in Germany, Austria and Switzerland. By focusing on the boundary work that accompanies this development, we try to understand current transformations in knowledge production within digital academia and beyond. Drawing on qualitative interviews with data science scholars, we identify five lines of demarcation in claiming universal epistemic authority. This boundary work is characterized by multiple tensions and varies depending upon context and counterpart, making it inherently relational.
PubDate: Tue, 31 Oct 2023 00:00:00 GMT
- Social Class Inequalities in Children’s Cognitive Test Scores: Comparing
Similarities Test Scores in Two British Birth Cohort Studies
Abstract: This paper contributes to the sociological understanding of social class inequalities in childhood similarities test scores. We undertake a comparative analysis of two cohorts of British children born 30 years apart. There is a similar negative relationship in both cohorts. Children born in families in the less advantaged social classes have lower childhood similarities test scores. This is consequential because these children enter secondary school with restricted capabilities in logical thinking, concept formation and abstract reasoning.
PubDate: Fri, 18 Aug 2023 00:00:00 GMT
- Schools as Differential Environments for Students’ Development: How
Tracking and School Composition Affect Students’ Transition After the
End of Compulsory Education
Abstract: Tracking leads to differential developmental environments resulting in educational inequalities. We investigated whether tracking and school composition affect students’ transition to post-compulsory education. Based on data of two Swiss school-leavers’ cohorts (2000/2016), multilevel analyses show that the social and achievement-related school composition and track affiliation predict transitions beyond students’ individual characteristics. Compositional effects were in part differentially predictive depending on students’ track affiliation.
PubDate: Fri, 18 Aug 2023 00:00:00 GMT
- Diverging Educational Aspirations Among Compulsory School-Leavers in
Switzerland
Abstract: Educational aspirations play an important role in shaping students’ educational trajectories and destinations. Drawing on longitudinal data from the TREE2 study, this paper investigates the effect of tracking on the formation and adjustment of the educational aspirations of Swiss students upon leaving compulsory school. We show that educational aspirations are highly responsive to the educational track attended in upper secondary education. While students in general education tend to stick to their aspirations, their counterparts in vocational programmes exhibit less stable aspirations.
PubDate: Fri, 18 Aug 2023 00:00:00 GMT
- Back to the Features. Investigating the Relationship Between Educational
Pathways and Income Using Sequence Analysis and Feature Extraction and
Selection Approach
Abstract: This article compares two methods to study the link between educational pathways and income. Sequence analysis provides a holistic view but might fail to identify key trajectory characteristics. A new validation method overcoming this limit is proposed. Feature extraction and selection can directly identify these key characteristics. The conclusion summarizes the strengths and weaknesses of each method and provides guidelines on how to choose a method to study the relationship between a previous trajectory and a later-life outcome.
PubDate: Fri, 18 Aug 2023 00:00:00 GMT
- Smoother School-to-Work Trajectories in the Early 2010s' Evidence for
School-Leavers With At Most Intermediate-Level Certificates and Regional
Disparities in Germany
Abstract: The study examines differences in the school-to-work trajectories (STWT) across time and federal states in Germany. It uses administrative data of school-leavers with at most intermediate-level certificates from 2009, 2011 and 2013. While the chances of a smooth STWT improved by increasingly favourable economic development after 2009, the relative disadvantage of school-leavers with low certificates continued. The probability of a problematic STWT remained unaffected and did not vary according to state differences in subsidized training schemes.
PubDate: Fri, 18 Aug 2023 00:00:00 GMT
- Introduction to the Special Issue: Exploring Life Courses in Their Making
PubDate: Fri, 18 Aug 2023 00:00:00 GMT
- Parental Investment in Children’s Educational Pathways: A Comparative
View on Swiss and Migrant Families
Abstract: What strategies do parents adopt when it comes to realizing the aspirations they have for their children’s educational career' Drawing on a longitudinal and intergenerational mixed-method study, we explore the complex interplay between children’s educational pathways and parental educational aspirations and strategies. We focus on parents of modest social status (with and without migration background) whose children’s educational trajectories have developed successfully.
PubDate: Fri, 18 Aug 2023 00:00:00 GMT
- Safety First' On the Timing of Moving in With a Partner and Its
Determinants
Abstract: We analyze the first cohabitation with a partner as one of the key events in the transition to adulthood and consider its interdependencies with other life events, using life course data from the survey AID:A 2019 of the German Youth Institute (DJI). A remarkable finding is that for men, cohabitation with a partner usually occurs after an individual’s entry into permanent employment.
PubDate: Fri, 18 Aug 2023 00:00:00 GMT
- Working for World Peace: Between Idealism and Cynicism in International
Organizations
Abstract: In International Organizations (IOs), noble ideals often clash with harsh realities on the ground. It should therefore come as no surprise if IO employees become cynical over time. However, while there is a large body of work on “organizational cynicism” in sociology and management studies, a systematic examination of cynicism is lacking in IO research. The article addresses this gap and explores the causes and consequences of cynicism among IO staff based on insights gained in 50+ in-depth interviews with staff members at the UN Secretariat from 2020 to 2022.
PubDate: Fri, 03 Mar 2023 00:00:00 GMT
- Anchoring International Organizations in Organizational Sociology
PubDate: Fri, 03 Mar 2023 00:00:00 GMT
- The Bureaucratic Competency: A Source of Power' An Exploration of
International Organizations Staff Through the Notion of Competency in
Organizational Sociology
Abstract: Bureaucratic competency arises from an approach combining a concept from organizational sociology (functional competency by Crozier) and a research in political science on individual competency in international organization (IO). The article shows that IO agents must master areas of uncertainty inherent in the career in IOs. To deal with this, they develop a multi-form bureaucratic skill. The analysis of this competency reveals individual strategies, far from a vision of competency as a collective resource for IOs.
PubDate: Fri, 03 Mar 2023 00:00:00 GMT
- Intimate Partner Violence and the Complexity Turn. The Multiple
Conceptions of Gender in IPV Policy in Switzerland
Abstract: Based on socio-historical research of domestic violence treatment in the cantons of Vaud and Geneva, this article analyses how the co-presence of many actors and approaches has affected the definition of intimate partner violence (IPV) in Switzerland. IPV policies centred on gender and then reframed to define violence as a complex issue. We show what the consequences of framing complexity for policy are.
PubDate: Fri, 03 Mar 2023 00:00:00 GMT
- The Impact of the Covid-19 Pandemic on Perceived Employment (In)Security
in Switzerland
Abstract: The Covid-19 pandemic and the way this health crisis has been handled has changed labour market inequalities. We argue that workers are affected differently by changed work and employment conditions, depending on the workers’ employment relations and study the impact of remote work, polarization of the core, and peripheral workforce as well as changes in working time during the Covid-19 pandemic on perceived employment insecurity. Based on data from the Swiss Household Panel and its special wave (“Covid-19 Study”), our results show that the perceived employment insecurity is related to employment strategies aimed at increasing flexibility in the labour market. In particular, short-time work increased perceived employment insecurity.
PubDate: Fri, 03 Mar 2023 00:00:00 GMT
- A Moral Entrepreneur in the Land of Consensus: Making School Policy in
Switzerland
Abstract: This article examines the way in which political decisions on schooling are made, with the double constraint of a search for consensus, anchored in Swiss politics, and the presence of moral entrepreneurs (Becker, 1985).We analyse the tensions that this creates in the design of a reform of lower secondary education and the forms that the conflict takes. The analyses show an over-politicisation of educational issues, exacerbating the divisions between policy actors.
PubDate: Mon, 27 Feb 2023 00:00:00 GMT
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