Politics

Incisive social transformations turn the focus on spatial forms of organization of social relations. Changes such as the increasing survey of outer space and the growing visualization of the interior of the human body bring up the following questions: In what kind of spaces do we live? How are they created? Who is in charge? The interdisciplinary series sets itself the task to elaborate on these questions from various points of view.

The Nomos’ Political Psychology Series, under the General Editorship of Sonja Zmerli and Ofer Feldman, aims to present a selected number of works related to the Political Psychology field of inquiry. Written by the most prominent and the most promising researchers from different disciplines including political science, international relations, social psychology, and psychology, each volume focuses on particular aspects of the discipline, and underlines the significance of the interrelationships between political behavior and involvement and psychological perspectives. The series offers theoretically, empirically, and methodologically sophisticated accounts on this interdisciplinary field of research to understand the crucial role individuals and groups play in politics; the effects of personality, attitude, learning, information processing and communication on political decisions and activity; and the linkages between situational and cultural features to performances in the public sphere. Among other subject matters the series includes research on individual and collective action, voting behavior and attitudes, political violence and terrorism, stereotypes and prejudice, group dynamics and conflicts, identity, and genetics and neuroscience, on both the domestic and international levels, and in cross-national, cross-cultural settings. Aimed at a broad international academic audience, volumes in this series will be published in English, German, and French. “Political Psychology: Issues, Challenges, and Prospects” will be an indispensable point of reference for anyone interested in political behavior and related fields of study.

Talk of the knowledge society is now almost universally accepted as a representation of social reality. Socially relevant actors have to adjust to it and (learn) to deal with it on a daily basis. However, academic reflections on this situation should not only state how strongly contemporary society depends on knowledge. They must also ask what is known about this knowledge itself and about society’s dependence on it. The question of knowledge in the knowledge society thus leads to the question of the opportunities and limits of the knowable, the intertwining of knowledge and non-knowledge with various forms of social logic, and an increase in knowledge conflicts. In this regard, the editors of this series want to offer an interdisciplinary discussion forum on this subject.

EU-Turkey relations have a long historic trajectory. Turkey is in future likely to remain, despite political tensions, an important country for the EU in economic, political and geostrategic terms. On the one hand, recent developments affecting the EU have motivated the Heads of State or Government to rediscover Turkey‘s relevance as ‚key strategic partner‘. On the other hand, prospects of Turkey‘s accession to the EU have reached an all-time low in the light of Turkey distancing itself from the political accession criterion as well as the multiple internal crises the EU has been confronted with. This renders EU-Turkey relations a highly topical issue for academic research. The Centre for Turkey and European Union Studies (CETEUS) aims at providing a framework for publications dealing with Turkey, the European Union as well as EU/German-Turkish relations regarding multiple thematic dimensions as well as geographic contexts including the neighbourhood and the global scene.

The series of publications entitled “Freiburger Schriften zur Finanzwissenschaft und Wirtschaftspolitik” (“Freiburg Publications on Finance and Economic Policy”) publishes papers from the pre-eminent fields of economics research, which are also rich in tradition, at the University of Freiburg. The array of subjects which these analyses address ranges from the pension system and employment policy, education policy, demography, European and international governance, fiscal sustainability, federalism, healthcare policy, real estate economics, migration, tax and performance-based competition, the causes and effects of transnational conflicts, violence, crime, terror and corruption to behavioural economics and satisfaction research. These studies approach problems from both a theoretical perspective as well as using a selection of econometric, experimental or qualitative research methods. What links them is that they all address both political and social as well as topical academic issues. Their authors’ common, overarching goal is to provide well-founded recommendations on using their findings in politico-economic consulting and to help implement them.

Otto Kirchheimer’s (1905–1965) multifaceted academic works reflect the political and scientific experiences and conflicts of the Weimar Republic and National Socialism, his exile in France and the USA as well as the establishment of the two German states after 1945 in a virtually unique way. Many of Kirchheimer’s studies, such as those on the crisis in the Weimar Republic, his description of the structure of social compromise during the time of National Socialism, the genealogy of modern practices of administering punishment, his analyses of political justice or his theses on the development of parliamentarianism and party systems in modern Western democracies, have by now become historical documents themselves. This edition of his collected works comprises six volumes, each of which opens with a detailed introduction by its editor or editors, and is part of a research project supported by the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG). It will appeal to scholars and students of political science, law, German history, criminology and sociology.

In an increasingly globalized World, transnational interactions in its various forms have a significant impact on the problem-solving capacity of democratic politics, the development of pluralistic societies as well as the reform capacity of political systems and highly-industrialized economies. Growing transnationality is mirrored in policy processes that are more and more organized across different territorial levels of government, in the engagement of non-state actors that provide expertise and organizational support for the solution of global problems, and in societal and economic change that is caused, inter alia, by international migration flows, the trans-border distribution of knowledge and technologies or the intense interconnectivity in the areas of trade and investments. This book series offers edited volumes and monographs that present original research on the different patterns of transnationality and the impact on national political systems and societies. It welcomes disciplinary and trans-disciplinary studies in the fields of social sciences and humanities. It is open for qualitative, comparative or case-study analyses that focus on different actor types, institutional configurations or policy fields. Contributions are invited which have a regional focus on Europe, but also on countries or regions beyond the OECD World.

Our healthcare system is being confronted with fundamental moral and political challenges which affect its basic focus and character, such as persistent and controversial discussions on approaches to health and illness, matters of principle related to fairness and solidarity, medical utopias and dystopias, corruption and ethical questions, the debate about professional identity and commercialization, and the relationship between economics and medicine, to name but a few. This interdisciplinary series of publications encourages the reader to consider fundamental issues related to healthcare. It transcends not only basic medical ethics but also legal, political and economic issues.