Youth Participation, globalisation and democracy

in Coyote (2009), (14), 39-42

Youth Protest in Switzerland, the Netherlands and Germany

in Nasr, Salim; Hanf, Theodor (Eds.) Urban Crisis and Social Movements - Arab and European Perspectives (1987)

Youth reporting as an instrument of knowledge production

Scientific Conference (2012, September 22)

European societies are reshaping and young generations in particular face the subsequent economic and social changes. The current economic crisis exacerbates the risk of youth poverty, aggravates social ... [more ▼]

European societies are reshaping and young generations in particular face the subsequent economic and social changes. The current economic crisis exacerbates the risk of youth poverty, aggravates social exclusion, and threatens the overall integration and participation of young people (Willems, Heinen & Meyers, 2012). Policymakers as well as stakeholders of the practical field have to find answers and solutions to tackle these challenges. They need reliable knowledge and systematic information to develop appropriate and effective measures. Social reporting generating “information on social structures and processes and on preconditions and consequences of social policy, regularly, in time, systematically, and autonomously” (Zapf, 1977, p.11) can provide an important evidence base for the decision-making process in policy and praxis. Our contribution starts with the argument that in modern knowledge societies, the autonomy of science has decreased and has become more open to politics and praxis. This becomes obvious by an increasing importance of co-production and participation in science and research (Nowotny, 2001; Weingart, 1997). Using the first Luxembourgish youth report as an example, we outline its underlying innovative concept of participatory social reporting. The report’s main characteristic is the systematic involvement of experts from the fields of policy, practice and research throughout the entire period of reporting. It aims to open the research process to experts and to integrate their professional knowledge (Willems et al., 2010). The presented concept of youth reporting is not an autonomous and exclusive process reserved to researchers. It is rather a “hybrid panel” (Lüders, 2006) where evidence is negotiated in a co-productive process between researchers and experts. Thus, the concept is characterised by its open, participatory and dialogue approach. We show how this concept was realised in the different phases and how it contributes to the reporting process: (1) In a first phase to explore socially relevant topics and issues and to define an agenda, (2) in a second phase to generate evidence and (3) in a final phase to define measures and actions for policymakers. [less ▲]

Youth transitions and integration in a multicultural society

in EARA Newsletter - European Association of Research on Adolescence (2014)

From a sociological perspective youth as a life phase is mainly characterized by processes of socialization and individual development on the one hand and the managements of transitions to adulthood on ... [more ▼]

From a sociological perspective youth as a life phase is mainly characterized by processes of socialization and individual development on the one hand and the managements of transitions to adulthood on the other. Transitions to adulthood are related to young people’s development of social and economic independence and their societal integration and participation. Transitions have changed substantially over the past decades: they are postponed, de-standardized and supposed to be rather subject to individual choice than the result of prescribed patterns. Hurrelmann distinguishes four domains of transition: (1) the development of intellectual and social competence (in order to achieve the occupation role), (2) the ability to enter a relationship (in order to fulfil the partner and family role), (3) the ability to use the market (in order to enter the consumer role) and (4) the development of a system of norms and values (in order to assume the political citizen role). From a functionalist point of view, these tasks form the key dimensions for societal integration. Young people have to assume certain social roles in order to maintain the continuity of the society. But in the perspective of a theory of action, social roles also form the key elements for the individual development. Young people are considered to be active agents and “navigators” that call the offered social roles and role behaviours into question and develop them further. hese theoretical concepts form an important reference for the migration and integration research as well. Since the developmental tasks refer to an individual life-course perspective, the focus of migration and integration research is rather on the institutions and the participation of young migrants. Based on the scientific discourse in the field of migration research Willems, Filsinger and Rotink define four main dimensions of integration: structural integration (education, employment), cultural integration (values, normative orientation, language), social integration (friendship, peer group), and identity integration (sense of belonging to the host society). The present article takes up some of these dimensions in order to describe the situation of young migrants in Luxembourg. It presents selected empirical data for the Grand Duchy and focuses on the different dimensions of integration. [less ▲]

Yvonne, Beat, Romy, Nadia, Balian and the others: the ' I 's in German autobiographies written by trans people

Scientific Conference (2018, March 23)

Z4 parafermions in one-dimensional fermionic lattices

in Physical Review. B, Condensed Matter (2018), 98

Parafermions are emergent excitations which generalize Majorana fermions and are potentially relevant to topological quantum computation. Using the concept of Fock parafermions, we present a mapping ... [more ▼]

Parafermions are emergent excitations which generalize Majorana fermions and are potentially relevant to topological quantum computation. Using the concept of Fock parafermions, we present a mapping between lattice Z4-parafermions and lattice spin-1/2 fermions which preserves the locality of operators with Z4 symmetry. Based on this mapping, we construct an exactly solvable, local one-dimensional fermionic Hamiltonian which hosts parafermionic edge states. We numerically show that the parafermionic phase remains stable in a wide range of parameters, and discuss its signatures in the fermionic spectral function. [less ▲]

Z4 parafermions in time-reversal invariant topological insulators

Scientific Conference (2015, April)

Z_2^n Supergeometry

Presentation (2014, December 17)

Z_2^n-Supergeometry II: Batchelor-Gawedzki Theorem

E-print/Working paper (2014)

Zahlen und Psychomotorik

in Motorik (2008), 2