This open access book focuses on a particular but significant topic in the social sciences: the concepts of “footprint” and “trace”. It associates these concepts with hotly debated topics such as surveillance capitalism and knowledge society. The editors and authors discuss the concept footprints and traces as unintended by-products of other (differently focused and oriented) actions th…
This open access book describes how elite studies theoretically and methodologically construct their object, i.e. how particular conceptualizations of elites are turned into research practice using different methods for collecting, dealing with and analyzing empirical data. The first of four sections focuses on what Mills named the power elite and includes Bourdieu’s field of power. The secon…
This open access book offers a concise overview of the theories constructed within the various human sciences around the theme of creativity as a symbolic capacity to link things together: it manifests itself when the individual endowed with a certain type of intelligence encounters cultural and social conditions that enable them to develop that capacity to the maximum, rather than inhibiting i…
This open access book explores a range of new and older systems mapping methods focused on representing causal relationships in systems. In a practical manner, it describes the methods and considers the differences between them; describes how to use them yourself; describes how to choose between and combine them; considers the role of data, evidence, and stakeholder opinion; and describes how t…
In diesem Open-Access-Buch stehen Software und ihre Rolle für das Soziale im Mittelpunkt. Die Arbeit stellt Grundprobleme und Lösungsansätze einer Soziologie der Software vor und skizziert damit eine soziologische Perspektive auf einen Forschungsgegenstand, der für das Verständnis digitalisierter Gesellschaften zentral ist. Dafür werden organisations- und techniksoziologische Forschu…
Dies ist ein Open-Access-Buch.Im Zentrum des Bands steht die gesundheitsförderliche Gestaltung flexibler Dienstleistungsarbeit. Am Beispiel von technischen, d. h. agilen IT-Services und sozialen, d. h. ambulanten hauswirtschaftlichen Diensten werden Belastungskonstellationen und Gesundheitsressourcen von Beschäftigten im Umgang mit Flexibilitätsanforderungen analysiert. Zugleich werden betri…
This Open Access book compiles the findings of the Scientific Group of the United Nations Food Systems Summit 2021 and its research partners. The Scientific Group was an independent group of 28 food systems scientists from all over the world with a mandate from the Deputy Secretary-General of the United Nations. The chapters provide science- and research-based, state-of-the-art, solution-ori…
This open access publication deals with the operationalisation of the welfare state as an independent variable. To study how welfare states affect social inequality, individual behaviour, attitudes and more in different countries, an empirical operationalisation of the welfare state or specific elements of social policy is required. However, this operationalisation is fraught with some impor…
This open access publication deals with the operationalisation of the welfare state as an independent variable. To study how welfare states affect social inequality, individual behaviour, attitudes and more in different countries, an empirical operationalisation of the welfare state or specific elements of social policy is required. However, this operationalisation is fraught with some impor…
This edited volume lays the groundwork for Social Data Science, addressing epistemological issues, methods, technologies, software and applications of data science in the social sciences. It presents data science techniques for the collection, analysis and use of both online and offline new (big) data in social research and related applications. Among others, the individual contributions cover …