Sociology

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his theses on the development of parliamentarianism and party systems in modern Western democracies, have by now become historical documents themselves.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.

Civil society has gained importance in the social sciences. Civil society organisations are active in numerous policy fields. They engage in advocacy as well as service delivery. Members, volunteers, philanthropists and sponsors are important stakeholders of civil society organisations. The series provides an interdisciplinary forum for discussing the theory and practice of civil society. The editors invite contributions from the various disciplines of the social sciences, especially business and economics, history, political science, sociology and law. The series is comparative in nature and covers a wide range of topics from civic engagement, volunteering, protest movements and corporate citizenship to public-private partnerships between state, market and civil society.

This publication series reports of the activities of the International Association of Legislation (IAL). The volumes deal with practical and theoretical problems of (better) regulation. Since Europe makes enormous progress in uniting, issues of comparison and approximation of law prevail. The volumes of this series may serve as practical manuals for the legislator as well as materials for academic research.

The series of publications entitled “Rekonstruktive Weltpolitikforschung” publishes studies which address the pulsating developments in world politics and share an interest in adopting approaches to a subject that are exploratory and allow for theories to be devised as well as in the continued development of the research methods they employ. These studies all have a mutual formal theoretical basis which neutralises and integrates the typical clashes between talking and taking action, theory and practice, or understanding and explaining. Moreover, the authors of these studies all agree that events in global politics are determined by a universe of interpretations and convictions, intersubjective rules and norms and systemically induced effects whose substance can be reconstructed in detail.

This series deals with intercultural and international aspects of the media and communication, particularly focusing on transcultural phenomena which arise from globalisation, cultural homogenisation and cultural synchronisation. It contains works from a variety of fields written in either German or English.