TY - JOUR A1 - Sorge, Arndt A1 - Streeck, Wolfgang T1 - Diversified quality production revisited BT - its contribution to German socio-economic performance over time JF - Socio-economic review N2 - We revisit the concept of Diversified Quality Production (DQP), which we introduced about 30 years ago. Our purpose is to examine the extent to which the concept can still be considered tenable for describing and explaining the development of the interaction between the political economy and concepts of production, notably in Germany. First, we show why and in which ways DQP was more heterogeneous than we had originally understood. Then, on the basis of evidence with respect to political, business, and economic changes in Germany, we show that DQP Mark I, a regime by and large characteristic of the 1980s, turned into DQP Mark II. In the process, major ‘complementarities’ disappeared between the late 1980s and now—mainly the complementarity between production modes on the one hand and industrial relations and economic regulation on the other. While the latter exhibit greater change, business strategies and production organization show more continuity, which helps explain how Germany maintained economic performance after the mid-2000s, more than other countries in Europe. Conceptually, our most important result is that the complementarities emphasized in political economy are historically relative and limited, so that they should not be postulated as stable configurations. KW - production concepts KW - manufacturing KW - diversified quality production KW - industrial organization KW - industrial relations KW - industrial restructuring KW - globalization KW - skills KW - Germany Y1 - 2018 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1093/ser/mwy022 SN - 1475-1461 SN - 1475-147X VL - 16 IS - 3 SP - 587 EP - 612 PB - Oxford Univ. Press CY - Oxford ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Sieg, Tobias A1 - Schinko, Thomas A1 - Vogel, Kristin A1 - Mechler, Reinhard A1 - Merz, Bruno A1 - Kreibich, Heidi T1 - Integrated assessment of short-term direct and indirect economic flood impacts including uncertainty quantification JF - PLoS ONE N2 - Understanding and quantifying total economic impacts of flood events is essential for flood risk management and adaptation planning. Yet, detailed estimations of joint direct and indirect flood-induced economic impacts are rare. In this study an innovative modeling procedure for the joint assessment of short-term direct and indirect economic flood impacts is introduced. The procedure is applied to 19 economic sectors in eight federal states of Germany after the flood events in 2013. The assessment of the direct economic impacts is object-based and considers uncertainties associated with the hazard, the exposed objects and their vulnerability. The direct economic impacts are then coupled to a supply-side Input-Output-Model to estimate the indirect economic impacts. The procedure provides distributions of direct and indirect economic impacts which capture the associated uncertainties. The distributions of the direct economic impacts in the federal states are plausible when compared to reported values. The ratio between indirect and direct economic impacts shows that the sectors Manufacturing, Financial and Insurance activities suffered the most from indirect economic impacts. These ratios also indicate that indirect economic impacts can be almost as high as direct economic impacts. They differ strongly between the economic sectors indicating that the application of a single factor as a proxy for the indirect impacts of all economic sectors is not appropriate. KW - June 2013 KW - Damage KW - Model KW - Inoperability KW - Disasters KW - Hazards KW - Germany KW - Losses KW - Event KW - Costs Y1 - 2019 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0212932 SN - 1932-6203 VL - 14 IS - 4 PB - Public Library of Science CY - San Francisco ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Semke, Lisa-Marie A1 - Tiberius, Victor T1 - Corporate Foresight and Dynamic Capabilities BT - An Exploratory Study JF - Forecasting N2 - Firms engage in forecasting and foresight activities to predict the future or explore possible future states of the business environment in order to pre-empt and shape it (corporate foresight). Similarly, the dynamic capabilities approach addresses relevant firm capabilities to adapt to fast change in an environment that threatens a firm’s competitiveness and survival. However, despite these conceptual similarities, their relationship remains opaque. To close this gap, we conduct qualitative interviews with foresight experts as an exploratory study. Our results show that foresight and dynamic capabilities aim at an organizational renewal to meet future challenges. Foresight can be regarded as a specific activity that corresponds with the sensing process of dynamic capabilities. The experts disagree about the relationship between foresight and sensing and see no direct links with transformation. However, foresight can better inform post-sensing activities and, therefore, indirectly contribute to the adequate reconfiguration of the resource base, an increased innovativeness, and firm performance. KW - corporate foresight KW - dynamic capabilities KW - forecasting KW - Germany Y1 - 2020 U6 - https://doi.org/10.3390/forecast2020010 SN - 2571-9394 VL - 2 IS - 2 SP - 180 EP - 293 PB - MDPI CY - Basel ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Schwieder, Marcel A1 - Wesemeyer, Maximilian A1 - Frantz, David A1 - Pfoch, Kira A1 - Erasmi, Stefan A1 - Pickert, Jürgen A1 - Nendel, Claas A1 - Hostert, Patrick T1 - Mapping grassland mowing events across Germany based on combined Sentinel-2 and Landsat 8 time series JF - Remote sensing of environment N2 - Spatially explicit knowledge on grassland extent and management is critical to understand and monitor the impact of grassland use intensity on ecosystem services and biodiversity. While regional studies allow detailed insights into land use and ecosystem service interactions, information on a national scale can aid biodiversity assessments. However, for most European countries this information is not yet widely available. We used an analysis-ready-data cube that contains dense time series of co-registered Sentinel-2 and Landsat 8 data, covering the extent of Germany. We propose an algorithm that detects mowing events in the time series based on residuals from an assumed undisturbed phenology, as an indicator of grassland use intensity. A self-adaptive ruleset enabled to account for regional variations in land surface phenology and non-stationary time series on a pixelbasis. We mapped mowing events for the years from 2017 to 2020 for permanent grassland areas in Germany. The results were validated on a pixel level in four of the main natural regions in Germany based on reported mowing events for a total of 92 (2018) and 78 (2019) grassland parcels. Results for 2020 were evaluated with combined time series of Landsat, Sentinel-2 and PlanetScope data. The mean absolute percentage error between detected and reported mowing events was on average 40% (2018), 36% (2019) and 35% (2020). Mowing events were on average detected 11 days (2018), 7 days (2019) and 6 days (2020) after the reported mowing. Performance measures varied between the different regions of Germany, and lower accuracies were found in areas that are revisited less frequently by Sentinel-2. Thus, we assessed the influence of data availability and found that the detection of mowing events was less influenced by data availability when at least 16 cloud-free observations were available in the grassland season. Still, the distribution of available observations throughout the season appeared to be critical. On a national scale our results revealed overall higher shares of less intensively mown grasslands and smaller shares of highly intensively managed grasslands. Hotspots of the latter were identified in the alpine foreland in Southern Germany as well as in the lowlands in the Northwest of Germany. While these patterns were stable throughout the years, the results revealed a tendency to lower management intensity in the extremely dry year 2018. Our results emphasize the ability of the approach to map the intensity of grassland management throughout large areas despite variations in data availability and environmental conditions. KW - Analysis-ready data KW - Big data KW - Large-area mapping KW - Germany KW - Common agricultural policy KW - Time series KW - Land use intensity KW - Optical remote sensing KW - Multi-spectral data KW - PlanetScope Y1 - 2022 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1016/j.rse.2021.112795 SN - 0034-4257 SN - 1879-0704 VL - 269 PB - Elsevier CY - New York ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Samprogna Mohor, Guilherme A1 - Thieken, Annegret A1 - Korup, Oliver T1 - Residential flood loss estimated from Bayesian multilevel models JF - Natural Hazards and Earth System Sciences N2 - Models for the predictions of monetary losses from floods mainly blend data deemed to represent a single flood type and region. Moreover, these approaches largely ignore indicators of preparedness and how predictors may vary between regions and events, challenging the transferability of flood loss models. We use a flood loss database of 1812 German flood-affected households to explore how Bayesian multilevel models can estimate normalised flood damage stratified by event, region, or flood process type. Multilevel models acknowledge natural groups in the data and allow each group to learn from others. We obtain posterior estimates that differ between flood types, with credibly varying influences of water depth, contamination, duration, implementation of property-level precautionary measures, insurance, and previous flood experience; these influences overlap across most events or regions, however. We infer that the underlying damaging processes of distinct flood types deserve further attention. Each reported flood loss and affected region involved mixed flood types, likely explaining the uncertainty in the coefficients. Our results emphasise the need to consider flood types as an important step towards applying flood loss models elsewhere. We argue that failing to do so may unduly generalise the model and systematically bias loss estimations from empirical data. KW - damage KW - insurance KW - Germany KW - transferability KW - preparedness KW - recovery Y1 - 2020 U6 - https://doi.org/10.5194/nhess-21-1599-2021 SN - 2195-9269 VL - 21 SP - 1599 EP - 1614 PB - European Geophysical Society CY - Katlenburg-Lindau ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Ryll, Rene A1 - Eiden, Martin A1 - Heuser, Elisa A1 - Weinhardt, Markus A1 - Ziege, Madlen A1 - Hoeper, Dirk A1 - Groschup, Martin H. A1 - Heckel, Gerald A1 - Johne, Reimar A1 - Ulrich, Rainer G. T1 - Hepatitis E virus in feral rabbits along a rural-urban transect in Central Germany JF - Infection, genetics and evolution : journal of molecular epidemiology and evolutionary genetics and infectious diseases (MEEGID) N2 - Rabbit associated genotype 3 hepatitis E virus (HEV) strains were detected in feral, pet and farm rabbits in different parts of the world since 2009 and recently also in human patients. Here, we report a serological and molecular survey on 72 feral rabbits, collected along a rural-urban transect in and next to Frankfurt am Main, Central Germany. ELISA investigations revealed in 25 of 72 (34.7%) animals HEV-specific antibodies. HEV derived RNA was detected in 18 of 72 (25%) animals by reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction assay. The complete genomes from two rabbitHEV-strains, one from a rural site and the other from an inner-city area, were generated by a combination of high-throughput sequencing, a primer walking approach and 5′- and 3′- rapid amplification of cDNA ends. Phylogenetic analysis of open reading frame (ORF)1-derived partial and complete ORF1/ORF2 concatenated coding sequences indicated their similarity to rabbit-associated HEV strains. The partial sequences revealed one cluster of closely-related rabbitHEV sequences from the urban trapping sites that is well separated from several clusters representing rabbitHEV sequences from rural trapping sites. The complete genome sequences of the two novel strains indicated similarities of 75.6–86.4% to the other 17 rabbitHEV sequences; the amino acid sequence identity of the concatenated ORF1/ORF2-encoded proteins reached 89.0–93.1%. The detection of rabbitHEV in an inner-city area with a high human population density suggests a high risk of potential human infection with the zoonotic rabbitHEV, either by direct or indirect contact with infected animals. Therefore, future investigations on the occurrence and frequency of human infections with rabbitHEV are warranted in populations with different contact to rabbits. KW - European rabbit (Oryctolagus cuniculus) KW - Hepatitis E virus KW - Germany KW - Inner-city area KW - Rural habitat KW - Zoonosis Y1 - 2018 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1016/j.meegid.2018.03.019 SN - 1567-1348 SN - 1567-7257 VL - 61 SP - 155 EP - 159 PB - Elsevier CY - Amsterdam ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Riebold, Diana A1 - Russow, Kati A1 - Schlegel, Mathias A1 - Wollny, Theres A1 - Thiel, Joerg A1 - Freise, Jona A1 - Hueppop, Ommo A1 - Eccard, Jana A1 - Plenge-Boenig, Anita A1 - Loebermann, Micha A1 - Ulrich, Rainer Günter A1 - Klammt, Sebastian A1 - Mettenleiter, Thomas Christoph A1 - Reisinger, Emil Christian T1 - Occurrence of gastrointestinal parasites in small mammals from Germany JF - Vector borne and zoonotic diseases N2 - An increase in zoonotic infections in humans in recent years has led to a high level of public interest. However, the extent of infestation of free-living small mammals with pathogens and especially parasites is not well understood. This pilot study was carried out within the framework of the "Rodent-borne pathogens" network to identify zoonotic parasites in small mammals in Germany. From 2008 to 2009, 111 small mammals of 8 rodent and 5 insectivore species were collected. Feces and intestine samples from every mammal were examined microscopically for the presence of intestinal parasites by using Telemann concentration for worm eggs, Kinyoun staining for coccidia, and Heidenhain staining for other protozoa. Adult helminths were additionally stained with carmine acid for species determination. Eleven different helminth species, five coccidians, and three other protozoa species were detected. Simultaneous infection of one host by different helminths was common. Hymenolepis spp. (20.7%) were the most common zoonotic helminths in the investigated hosts. Coccidia, including Eimeria spp. (30.6%), Cryptosporidium spp. (17.1%), and Sarcocystis spp. (17.1%), were present in 40.5% of the feces samples of small mammals. Protozoa, such as Giardia spp. and amoebae, were rarely detected, most likely because of the repeated freeze-thawing of the samples during preparation. The zoonotic pathogens detected in this pilot study may be potentially transmitted to humans by drinking water, smear infection, and airborne transmission. KW - parasites KW - rodents KW - insectivores KW - Hymenolepis KW - Germany Y1 - 2020 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1089/vbz.2019.2457 SN - 1530-3667 SN - 1557-7759 VL - 20 IS - 2 SP - 125 EP - 133 PB - Liebert CY - New Rochelle ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Reil, Daniela A1 - Imholt, Christian A1 - Drewes, Stephan A1 - Ulrich, Rainer Günter A1 - Eccard, Jana A1 - Jacob, Jens T1 - Environmental conditions in favour of a hantavirus outbreak in 2015 in Germany? JF - Zoonoses and Public Health N2 - Bank voles can harbour Puumala virus (PUUV) and vole populations usually peak in years after beech mast. A beech mast occurred in 2014 and a predictive model indicates high vole abundance in 2015. This pattern is similar to the years 2009/2011 when beech mast occurred, bank voles multiplied and human PUUV infections increased a year later. Given similar environmental conditions in 2014/2015, increased risk of human PUUV infections in 2015 is likely. Risk management measures are recommended. KW - Beech fructification KW - Puumala virus KW - bank vole KW - outbreak KW - nephropathia epidemica KW - Germany Y1 - 2016 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1111/zph.12217 SN - 1863-1959 SN - 1863-2378 VL - 63 SP - 83 EP - 88 PB - Wiley-Blackwell CY - Hoboken ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Rath, Anna von T1 - Strategic label BT - Afropolitan literature in Germany JF - Afropolitan Literature as World Literature N2 - The Afropolitan Berlin novel Biskaya by SchwarzRund (2016) is probably the first novel written in German which demonstratively wears this label – on the front cover of the book, the author announces it to be an Afropolitaner Berlin Roman underneath the title. While addressing quite a few particulars of the Berlin-Brandenburg area, the novel writes itself willingly into the globally popular, yet controversial realm of African inflected cosmopolitanism. In this essay, I will argue that the author uses the label strategically to negotiate the global and the local – or worldliness and cultural specificity – with the aim to increase the visibility of queer of Color critique in Germany. SchwarzRund’s approach may seem contradictory at first: Even though she could have called her novel queer, neuro-diverse, diasporic or Black, she chose Afropolitan. While she wrote an outspokenly political novel, she labeled it with a term often critically denounced as apolitical. Using Afropolitanism, she seems to aim at a rather mainstream audience, but at the same time, she published with a small, activist publishing house. While attempting to tap into the transnational cultural and literary capital of Afropolitanism, the language of the book is German and restricts it to the German-speaking parts of the world. This essay will explore the Afropolitanism depicted in Biskaya and elaborate on the strategic choice of label. I will offer one possible interpretation of the characters and settings which illustrate SchwarzRund’s vision and version of Afropolitanism. In my analyses, I am interested in political questions around the characters’ identities and the setting. The Black protagonists of the novel, Tue and Dwayne, live in Berlin, but grew up on the fictional island Biskaya. This island is located somewhere close to the European mainland and part of the continent; it had an entirely Black population until a destructive event forced many to move to the mainland. The protagonists, now living in a mainly white society, are depicted in a state of interrogation of their own sense of self, measuring oppressive societal norms against other possible ways of interaction. The novel shows how people are deemed strange and not fitting into a network of unspoken rules because of racialized bodies, sexual preferences and#shor lifestyle choices. However, SchwarzRund counters those structures of inequality with her characters’ playful ways to deal with queerness, femininity and blackness subverting imposed norms. The novel challenges imperatives of subordination, creates new visions and inscribes Black Germans as political subjects. KW - Afropolitanism KW - Germany KW - queer KW - black Y1 - 2020 SN - 978-1-5013-4260-8 U6 - https://doi.org/10.5040/9781501342615.ch-003 SP - 37 EP - 56 PB - Bloomsbury Academic CY - New York ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Pospisil, Christina A1 - Czernitzki, Anna-Franziska A1 - Scheffler, Christiane T1 - No association between nutrition and body height in German kindergarten children BT - a pilot study JF - Journal of biological and clinical anthropology : Anthropologischer Anzeiger; Mitteilungsorgan der Gesellschaft für Anthropologie N2 - Anthropologists all over the world are discussing influences on individual height including quantity and quality of nutrition. To examine whether a relationship between nutritional components and height can be found this pilot study has been developed. The research samples consisted of 44 children (age 3–6 years) attending two different kindergartens in Germany. Height measurements were taken for each child. Furthermore the parents had to fill out a 24-hour questionnaire to document their children’s eating habits during the weekend. In order to standardize the measured height values z-scores were calculated with reference to the average height of the overall cohort. The results of correlation analysis indicate that height is not significantly related to any of the main nutritional components as protein (r = –0.148), carbohydrates (r = 0.126), fat (r = 0.107), fibre (r = –0.289), vitamin (r = 0.050), calcium (r = 0.110), potassium (r = 0.189) and overall calorie intake (r = 0.302). In conclusion, it can be stated that the quality of nutrition may not have a strong influence on individual height. However, due to the small sample size further research should be provided with a larger cohort of children to verify the present results. KW - nutritional components KW - individual body height KW - children KW - Germany Y1 - 2017 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1127/anthranz/2017/0704 SN - 0003-5548 SN - 2363-7099 VL - 74 IS - 3 SP - 199 EP - 202 PB - Schweizerbart CY - Stuttgart ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Ozturk, Ugur A1 - Wendi, Dadiyorto A1 - Crisologo, Irene A1 - Riemer, Adrian A1 - Agarwal, Ankit A1 - Vogel, Kristin A1 - Andres Lopez-Tarazon, Jose A1 - Korup, Oliver T1 - Rare flash floods and debris flows in southern Germany JF - The science of the total environment : an international journal for scientific research into the environment and its relationship with man N2 - Flash floods and debris flows are iconic hazards inmountainous regions with steep relief, high rainfall intensities, rapid snowmelt events, and abundant sediments. The cuesta landscapes of southern Germany hardly come to mind when dealing with such hazards. A series of heavy rainstorms dumping up to 140mm in 2 h caused destructive flash floods and debris flows in May 2016. The most severe damage occurred in the Braunsbach municipality, which was partly buried by 42,000 m(3) of boulders, gravel, mud, and anthropogenic debris from the small catchment of Orlacher Bach (similar to 6 km(2)). We analysed this event by combining rainfall patterns, geological conditions, and geomorphic impacts to estimate an average sediment yield of 14,000 t/km(2) that mostly (similar to 95%) came from some 50 riparian landslides and channel-bed incision of similar to 2 m. This specific sediment yield ranks among the top 20% globally, while the intensity-duration curve of the rainstormis similarly in the upper percentile range of storms that had triggered landslides. Compared to similar-sized catchments in the greater region hit by the rainstorms, we find that the Orlacher Bach is above the 95th percentile in terms of steepness, storm-rainfall intensity, and topographic curvatures. The flash flood transported a sediment volume equal to as much as 20-40% of the Pleistocene sediment volume stored in the Orlacher Bach fan, andmay have had several predecessors in the Holocene. River control structures from 1903 and records of a debris flow in the 1920s in a nearby catchment indicate that the local inhabitants may have been aware of the debris-flow hazards earlier. Such recurring and destructive events elude flood-hazard appraisals in humid landscapes of gentle relief, and broaden mechanistic views of how landslides and debris flows contribute to shaping small and deeply cut tributaries in the southern Germany cuesta landscape. KW - Flash flood KW - Debris flow KW - Rainfall-triggered landslide KW - Hazard KW - Germany Y1 - 2018 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1016/j.scitotenv.2018.01.172 SN - 0048-9697 SN - 1879-1026 VL - 626 SP - 941 EP - 952 PB - Elsevier CY - Amsterdam ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Otto, Antje A1 - Kern, Kristine A1 - Haupt, Wolfgang A1 - Eckersley, Peter A1 - Thieken, Annegret T1 - Ranking local climate policy BT - assessing the mitigation and adaptation activities of 104 German cities JF - Climatic change : an interdisciplinary, international journal devoted to the description, causes and implications of climatic change N2 - Climate mitigation and climate adaptation are crucial tasks for urban areas and can involve synergies as well as trade-offs. However, few studies have examined how mitigation and adaptation efforts relate to each other in a large number of differently sized cities, and therefore we know little about whether forerunners in mitigation are also leading in adaptation or if cities tend to focus on just one policy field. This article develops an internationally applicable approach to rank cities on climate policy that incorporates multiple indicators related to (1) local commitments on mitigation and adaptation, (2) urban mitigation and adaptation plans and (3) climate adaptation and mitigation ambitions. We apply this method to rank 104 differently sized German cities and identify six clusters: climate policy leaders, climate adaptation leaders, climate mitigation leaders, climate policy followers, climate policy latecomers and climate policy laggards. The article seeks explanations for particular cities' positions and shows that coping with climate change in a balanced way on a high level depends on structural factors, in particular city size, the pathways of local climate policies since the 1990s and funding programmes for both climate mitigation and adaptation. N2 - Klimaschutz und Klimaanpassung sind zentrale Aufgaben für Städte und können sowohl Synergien bilden als auch in Konflikt zueinander stehen. Allerdings haben weltweit nur wenige Studien bislang untersucht, wie Klimaschutz und Klimaanpassung in einer großen Anzahl an Städten unterschiedlicher Größe zueinander stehen; für Deutschland wurde dies bisher noch gar nicht unterssucht. Daher ist bisher wenig darüber bekannt, ob Vorreiterstädte im Klimaschutz auch das Feld in der Klimaanpassung anführen oder ob sich Städte eher nur auf eines der beiden Politikthemen fokussieren. Dieser Artikel entwickelt daher einen international anwendbaren Ansatz, um Städte hinsichtlich ihrer Klimapolitik zu bewerten. In diesem Ansatz werden mehrere Indikatoren zusammengeführt, die sich hinsichtlich Klimaschutz und -anpassung auf (1) den lokalen Willen und das Engagement, (2) die veröffentlichten Konzepte und (3) die verfolgten Ambitionen beziehen. Diesen Ansatz wenden wir an, um 104 unterschiedlich große deutsche Städte zu bewerten und identifizieren darauf aufbauend sechs Cluster: Vorreiter in der Klimapolitik, Vorreiter in der Klimaanpassung, Vorreiter im Klimaschutz, Aufsteiger in der Klimapolitik, Nachahmer in der Klimapolitik und Nachzügler in der Klimapolitik. Der Artikel diskutiert Erklärungsansätze für einzelne Städtepositionen und arbeitet heraus, dass eine ausgewogene Klimapolitik auf hohem Niveau von strukturellen Faktoren abhängt. Insbesondere die Stadtgröße, Pfade der lokalen Klimapolitik seit den 1990ern und Förderprogramme für Klimaschutz und Klimaanpassung spielen hierbei eine Rolle. KW - Climate mitigation KW - Climate adaptation KW - Climate policy integration KW - Urban planning KW - City ranking KW - Germany KW - Deutschland KW - Klimaanpassung KW - Klimapolitische Integration KW - Klimaschutz KW - Stadtplanung KW - Stadtranking Y1 - 2021 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1007/s10584-021-03142-9 SN - 0165-0009 SN - 1573-1480 VL - 167 IS - 1-2 PB - Springer CY - Dordrecht ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Otto, Antje A1 - Göpfert, Christian A1 - Thieken, Annegret T1 - Are cities prepared for climate change? BT - an analysis of adaptation readiness in 104 German cities JF - Mitigation and adaptation strategies for global change : an international journal devoted to scientific, engineering, socio-economic and policy responses to environmental change N2 - Cities can be severely affected by climate change. Hence, many of them have started to develop climate adaptation strategies or implement measures to help prepare for the challenges it will present. This study aims to provide an overview of climate adaptation in 104 German cities. While existing studies on adaptation tracking rely heavily on self-reported data or the mere existence of adaptation plans, we applied the broader concept of adaptation readiness, considering five factors and a total of twelve different indicators, when making our assessments. We clustered the cities depending on the contribution of these factors to the overall adaptation readiness index and grouped them according to their total score and cluster affiliations. This resulted in us identifying four groups of cities. First, a pioneering group comprises twelve (mainly big) cities with more than 500,000 inhabitants, which showed high scores for all five factors of adaptation readiness. Second, a set of 36 active cities, which follow different strategies on how to deal with climate adaptation. Third, a group of 28 cities showed considerably less activity toward climate adaptation, while a fourth set of 28 mostly small cities (with between 50,000 and 99,999 inhabitants) scored the lowest. We consider this final group to be pursuing a 'wait-and-see' approach. Since the city size correlates with the adaptation readiness index, we recommend policymakers introduce funding schemes that focus on supporting small cities, to help them prepare for the impact of a changing climate. KW - Adaptation tracking KW - Adaptation plans KW - Cluster analysis KW - City ranking KW - Urban climate policy KW - Germany Y1 - 2021 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1007/s11027-021-09971-4 SN - 1381-2386 SN - 1573-1596 VL - 26 IS - 8 PB - Springer CY - Dordrecht ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Natho, Stephanie A1 - Thieken, Annegret T1 - Implementation and adaptation of a macro-scale method to assess and monitor direct economic losses caused by natural hazards JF - International Journal of Disaster Risk Reduction N2 - As one of the 195 member countries of the United Nations, Germany signed the Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction 2015-2030 (SFDRR). Among other targets, the SFDRR aims at reducing direct economic losses caused by natural hazards by 2030. The United Nations Office for Disaster Risk Reduction (UNISDR) has hence proposed a methodology for estimating direct economic losses per event and country, based on experiences from developing countries. Since its usability in industrialized countries is unknown, this study presents the first implementation and validation of this approach in Germany. The methodology was tested for the three costliest natural hazard types in Germany, i.e. floods, wind and hail storms, considering 12 case studies between 1984 and 2016. Although the event-specific input data requirements are restricted to the number of damaged or destroyed units per sector, incomplete event documentations did not allow a full validation of all sectors necessary to describe the total direct economic loss. New modules (cars, forestry, paved roads, housing contents and overall costs of urban infrastructure) were developed to better adapt this methodology to German conditions. Whereas the original UNISDR methodology both over-and underestimates the losses of the tested events by a wide margin, the adapted methodology is able to calculate losses accounting well for all event types except for flash floods. Hence, this approach serves as a good starting point for macro-scale loss estimations. By implementing this approach into damage and event documentation and reporting standards, a consistent monitoring of the SFDRR could be achieved. KW - Germany KW - Direct economic loss KW - Natural hazards KW - Flood KW - Storm KW - Hail KW - Loss modelling Y1 - 2018 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijdrr.2018.03.008 SN - 2212-4209 VL - 28 SP - 191 EP - 205 PB - Elsevier CY - Amsterdam ER - TY - JOUR A1 - März, Moses Alexander T1 - Imagining a politics of relation BT - Glissant’s border thought and the German border JF - Tydskrif vir letterkunde N2 - This study explores the theoretical and political potentials of Édouard Glissant’s philosophy of relation and its approach to the issues of borders, migration, and the setup of political communities as proposed by his pensée nouvelle de la frontière (new border thought), against the background of the German migration crisis of 2015. The main argument of this article is that Glissant’s work offers an alternative epistemological and normative framework through which the contemporary political issues arising around the phenomenon of repressive border regimes can be studied. To demonstrate this point, this article works with Glissant’s border thought as an analytical lens and proposes a pathway for studying the contemporary German border regime. Particular emphasis is placed on the identification of potential areas where a Glissantian politics of relation could intervene with the goal of transforming borders from impermeable walls into points of passage. By exploring the political implications of his border thought, as well as the larger philosophical context from which it emerges, while using a transdisciplinary approach that borrows from literary and political studies, this work contributes to ongoing debates in postcolonial studies on borders and borderlessness, as well as Glissant’s political legacy in the twenty-first century. KW - Edouard Glissant KW - politics of relation KW - Germany KW - border regime Y1 - 2019 U6 - https://doi.org/10.17159/2309-9070/tvl.v.56i1.6271 SN - 0041-476X VL - 56 IS - 1 SP - 49 EP - 61 PB - University of Pretoria CY - Pretoria ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Morandi, Bertrand A1 - Kail, Jochem A1 - Tödter, Anne A1 - Wolter, Christian A1 - Piegay, Herve T1 - Diverse Approaches to Implement and Monitor River Restoration BT - a Comparative Perspective in France and Germany JF - Environmental Management N2 - River restoration is a main emphasis of river management in European countries. Cross-national comparisons of its implementation are still rare in scientific literature. Based on French and German national censuses, this study compares river restoration practices and monitoring by analysing 102 French and 270 German projects. This comparison aims to draw a spatial and temporal framework of restoration practices in both countries to identify potential drivers of cross-national similarities and differences. The results underline four major trends: (1) a lag of almost 15 years in river restoration implementation between France and Germany, with a consequently higher share of projects in Germany than in France, (2) substantial similarities in restored reach characteristics, short reach length, small rivers, and in "agricultural" areas, (3) good correspondences between stressors identified and restoration measures implemented. Morphological alterations were the most important highlighted stressors. River morphology enhancement, especially instream enhancements, were the most frequently implemented restoration measures. Some differences exist in specific restoration practices, as river continuity restoration were most frequently implemented in French projects, while large wood introduction or channel re-braiding were most frequently implemented in German projects, and (4) some quantitative and qualitative differences in monitoring practices and a significant lack of project monitoring, especially in Germany compared to France. These similarities and differences between Germany and France in restoration application and monitoring possibly result from a complex set of drivers that might be difficult to untangle (e.g., environmental, technical, political, cultural). KW - River restoration KW - Project monitoring KW - Hydromorphologic alteration KW - Mitigation measures KW - France KW - Germany Y1 - 2017 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1007/s00267-017-0923-3 SN - 0364-152X SN - 1432-1009 VL - 60 SP - 931 EP - 946 PB - Springer CY - New York ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Mell, Thomas A1 - Jacob, Louis A1 - Fuhr, Ida A1 - Dick, Sandra A1 - Rapp, Michael A. A1 - Kostev, Karel T1 - Patterns of benzodiazepine prescribing by neuropsychiatrists and general practitioners for elderly patients in Germany in 2014 JF - International journal of clinical pharmacology and therapeutics N2 - Background: The patterns of benzodiazepine prescriptions in older adults are of general and scientific interest as they are not yet well understood. The aim of this study was to compare the prescription patterns of benzodiazepines in elderly people in Germany to determine the share or proportion treated by general practitioners (GP) and neuropsychiatrists (NP). Methods: This study included 31,268 and 6,603 patients between the ages of 65 and 100 with at least one benzodiazepine prescription in 2014 from GP and NP, respectively. Demographic data included age, gender, and type of health insurance coverage. The share of elderly people with benzodiazepine prescriptions was estimated in different age and disease groups for both GP and NP patients. The share of the six most commonly prescribed drugs was also calculated for each type of practice. Results: The share of people taking benzodiazepines prescribed by GP increased from 3.2% in patients aged between 65 and 69 years to 8.6% in patients aged between 90 and 100 years, whereas this share increased from 5.4% to 7.1% in those seen by NP. Benzodiazepines were frequently used by patients suffering from sleep disorders (GP: 33.9%; NP: 5.5%), depression (GP: 17.9%; NP: 29.8%), and anxiety disorders (GP: 14.5%; NP: 22.8%). Lorazepam (30.3%), oxazepam (24.7%), and bromazepam (24.3%) were the three most commonly prescribed drugs for GP patients. In contrast, lorazepam (60.4%), diazepam (14.8%), and oxazepam (11.2%) were those more frequently prescribed to NP patients. Conclusion: Prescription patterns of benzodiazepine in the elderly varied widely between GP and NP. KW - benzodiazepines KW - prescription patterns KW - elderly people KW - Germany Y1 - 2017 U6 - https://doi.org/10.5414/CP202904 SN - 0946-1965 VL - 55 SP - 466 EP - 471 PB - Dustri-Verlag Dr. Karl Feistle CY - Deisenhofen-München ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Marienfeldt, Justine A1 - Wehmeier, Liz Marla A1 - Kuhlmann, Sabine T1 - Top-down or bottom-up digital transformation? BT - a comparison of institutional changes and outcomes JF - Public money & management N2 - This article analyses incremental institutional change and subsequent organizational and performance outcomes of the digital transformation from a comparative perspective. Through 31 expert interviews, the authors compare two digitalized public services in Germany. Two digitalization approaches are identified. The voluntary, decentralized bottom-up approach involves layering of new rules, limited organizational restructuring, and performance deficits. Conversely, the compulsory, top-down approach with centralized control facilitates displacement of existing rules and far-reaching organizational change; in this study, it is also associated with improved performance. KW - bottom-up KW - digital transformation KW - electronic tax returns KW - Germany KW - institutional change KW - performance KW - vehicle registration KW - top-down Y1 - 2024 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1080/09540962.2024.2365351 SN - 0954-0962 SN - 1467-9302 PB - Taylor & Francis CY - Abingdon ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Marchewka, Juliette A1 - Tomaszewska, Paulina A1 - Schuster, Isabell A1 - Krahé, Barbara T1 - Unacknowledged and missed cases of sexual victimization BT - a comparison of responses to broad versus behaviorally specific questions JF - Aggressive behavior : a multidisciplinary journal devoted to the experimental and observational analysis of conflict in humans and animals N2 - From the beginning of systematic research on sexual victimization, it has been recognized that a substantial proportion of women report nonconsensual sexual experiences meeting the defining criteria of rape in response to behaviorally specific items, but do not acknowledge their experience as rape in response to broad questions about whether they have ever been raped. Recent studies suggest that rates of unacknowledged rape may be as high or even higher among men than among women. This study examined rates of unacknowledged female and male victims of rape and sexual assault by comparing responses to behaviorally specific items of the Sexual Aggression and Victimization Scale (SAV-S) with responses to broad questions using the labels of sexual assault and rape (SARA) in 593 participants (303 women) in Germany. As predicted, more women and men were classified as rape victims based on behaviorally specific items than on the basis of the broad rape item. The rates of unacknowledged rape were about 60% for women and 75% for men. The gender difference was not significant. Against our prediction, no significant differences in acknowledgement of sexual assault were found in relation to coercive strategy and victim-perpetrator relationship. Few cases of rape and sexual assault identified by the SARA items were missed by the behaviorally specific questions. The implications for establishing prevalence rates of rape and sexual assault and for comparing victims and nonvictims in terms of vulnerability factors and outcomes of sexual victimization are discussed. KW - Germany KW - rape KW - Sexual Aggression and Victimization Scale KW - sexual assault KW - sexual victimization KW - unacknowledged victims Y1 - 2022 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1002/ab.22043 SN - 0096-140X SN - 1098-2337 VL - 48 IS - 6 SP - 573 EP - 582 PB - Wiley-Liss CY - New York ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Liedl, Bernd A1 - Fritsch, Nina-Sophie A1 - Samper Mejia, Cristina A1 - Verwiebe, Roland T1 - Risk perceptions of individuals living in single-parent households during the COVID-19 crisis BT - examining the mediating and moderating role of income JF - Frontiers in sociology N2 - The COVID-19 crisis had severe social and economic impact on the life of most citizens around the globe. Individuals living in single-parent households were particularly at risk, revealing detrimental labour market outcomes and assessments of future perspectives marked by worries. As it has not been investigated yet, in this paper we study, how their perception about the future and their outlook on how the pandemic will affect them is related to their objective economic resources. Against this background, we examine the subjective risk perception of worsening living standards of individuals living in single-parent households compared to other household types, their objective economic situation based on the logarithmised equivalised disposable household incomes and analyse the relationship between those indicators. Using the German SOEP, including the SOEP-CoV survey from 2020, our findings based on regression modelling reveal that individuals living in single-parent households have been worse off during the pandemic, facing high economic insecurity. Path and interaction models support our assumption that the association between those indicators may not be that straightforward, as there are underlying mechanisms–such as mediation and moderation–of income affecting its direction and strength. With respect to our central hypotheses, our empirical findings point toward (1) a mediation effect, by demonstrating that the subjective risk perception of single-parent households can be partly explained by economic conditions. (2) The moderating effect suggests that the concrete position at the income distribution of households matters as well. While at the lower end of the income distribution, single-parent households reveal particularly worse risk perceptions during the pandemic, at the high end of the income spectrum, risk perceptions are similar for all household types. Thus, individuals living in single-parent households do not perceive higher risks of worsening living standards due to their household situation per se, but rather because they are worse off in terms of their economic situation compared to individuals living in other household types. KW - COVID-19 pandemic KW - Germany KW - household types KW - individuals living in single-parent households KW - objective labour market outcome KW - subjective risk perception Y1 - 2023 U6 - https://doi.org/10.3389/fsoc.2023.1265302 SN - 2297-7775 VL - 8 PB - Frontiers Media CY - Lausanne ER -