In the transition from an industrial society to a service society, particularly changes on the labour market are likely to occur. A number of authors assert that these changes will result in an increasing external-numerical flexibility, which is assumed to affect labour market processes in terms of generally higher labour market mobility and decreasing employment stabil-ity (Speeding-up-Thesis). The consequence of this process is said to be a levelling out of employment opportunities and risks; uncertainties that in industrial societies were unevenly distributed along clearly defined socio-economic demarcation lines are said to be becoming increasingly generalised. The old division between core and peripheral workforces is said to be dissolving into general employment instability (De-Structuring-Thesis). Therefore, the dissertation investigates into the individual and firm specific determinants of job stability and how these determinants maybe have changed over time by estimating transition rate models to test both hypotheses. For this reason the event history data of the IAB Employment Subsample (IABS) is used. The results are very different from those one would expect from the de-stabilisation hypothesis and the de-structuring hypothesis. There is no evidence for socio-economic de-structuring, but rather for a socio-economic re-structuring process. This restructuring process has simultaneously led to an increasing polarisation and to an increasing levelling out of employment chances and risks.

The thesis in social science concerns problems of guadianship for adults, which is in a process of getting a liberal profession. The first part treats with the classification of guardianship from a theoretical point of view. Next, an empirical exploration is presented, that contains aspects of the actual professional profile of guadians by focussing the professions of social work. The dissertation closes with an résumé of results and proposals of further research.

This doctoral thesis examines the role and influence of civil society organisations in European multilevel governance structures. Therefore the policy field of sustainability is chosen to analyse how and if civil society organisations can take part in European decision making processes. The case study focuses on the participation process for the organised civil society during the negotiations for the European Constitution by analysing the conventions forum as a new and electronically based participation-channel. Background of the examination are the reforms of the European Commission under the presidency of Romano Prodi, in office from 1999 to 2004; with a focus on the European Governance Reform introduced basically by the Commissions White Paper on Governance in the year 2001. The theoretical background of the study is the theory of ecological communication by the German sociologist Niklas Luhmann to reflect the problems and chances for societal communication processes in functional differentiated societies. The specific role organisations can play to transform and communicate relevant information and alternative knowledge requests innovative governance structures which are able to improve the quality of societal communication and which are necessary to find generally accepted solutions for problems with supra-national character. The specific role of civil society organisations for societal- and systemic integration is underlined by Montesquieus theory of secondary powers (pouvoirs intermédiaires) and leads to a differentiated understanding of NGOs in processes of political communication.

Latest since the early eighties destandardisation of employment became a term of wide comprehension. Especially in Germany the once predictable employment biography would have been dissolving for an occupational career with phases of unemployment and many job changes. Employment careers are seen to be more heterogeneous, former guaranteed securities would have been broken and working future would be no more predictable. By means of a longitudinal dataset on the basis of the German Socio-economic panel covering the years 1985 to 2000 this dissertation is showing that the destandardisation of work in West Germany is first beginning in the middle of the nineties. This is reflected in the increase of flexibilisation, the reduction of job stability (quantitative dimension) and the decrease of job security (qualitative dimension). These developments do not affect the collectivity of the work force. In the course of time a polarisation of social unemployment is arised along occupational classes and levels of education.