Defence research and development is an important public policy phenomenon, which represents a relevant part of security policy and interferes with many other areas when considered in a wider perspective. My diploma thesis presents an analysis of the Czech policy of defence research and development and an international comparison with the Netherlands and Slovakia. Governmental policy in this area is relatively pro-active as regards its declared settings. On the other hand, its actual practise reveals many problematic areas. Ministry of Defence's expenditure on defence research and development has been falling since 1999 and recently finds itself well below the limit guaranteed by the law. Insufficient utilisation of foreign financial support might be considered negatively as well. The analysis that I carried out in my thesis identified fundamental shortcomings of the Czech system, the functioning of which is far from being optimal. The deficiencies have mostly a systemic manner and can not be solved by partial changes. Due to this reason I propose an alternative set up of the Czech policy of defence research and development, based on a shift to the agency model inspired by the Dutch experience.

This thesis deals with the determinants and mechanisms of individual secularisation processes in a cross-national perspective. In this ‘collected volume’ of six stand-alone articles, I examine religious beliefs and behaviours as well as attitudes towards religion and politics, whereby the validity of the main theories of religious change (classical secularisation theory, existential security hypothesis, supply-side explanations, historical/cultural approaches and conflict theories) are put to an empirical test. The main conclusion is that the fundamental mechanisms suggested by secularisation theories are valid and that we can identify main determinants of religiosity worldwide. However, only a combination of existing approaches is capable of explaining a broad range of the phenomena observed. Chapter 1 (co-authored with Nan Dirk de Graaf and Peter Schmidt) deals with the fundamental mechanisms that facilitate the socialisation of religious beliefs. Under conditions of high inequality, religion acts as a source of social capital that benefits the religious socialisation of individuals outside of the family context. If levels of inequality fall, this ‘social value of religion’ is diminished and religious socialisation depends more strongly on parental efforts, thereby gradually leading to intergenerational secularisation. In Chapter 2 (co-authored with Anja Neundorf) we show that the state in Eastern Europe played a crucial role in de-establishing as well as re-establishing religious plausibility structures, which explains lower levels of religious belief in Cold War cohorts as well as the religious revival after the end of the Cold War. Chapters 3 and 4 examine the topic of religion and politics and the mechanisms behind the support for the 9/11 attacks in the Muslim world. Levels of existential security and income inequality have a strong impact on the preferences for religious politicians in a cross-sectional as well as in a longitudinal perspective. Moreover, religiosity and altruistic behaviour run the risk of being converted into pro-terrorist support under conditions of high levels of inequality and low development levels. The final two chapters show that –in a world-wide comparison development levels, inequality and the Socialist history of countries explain 75% of the variation in religiosity between countries. Furthermore, future developments in religious change will also be subject to changes in fertility. The main drivers of secularisation processes can be identified, but for the majority of the world population these conditions are not met at present, nor will they be met in the near future.

Im Unterricht laufen routinierte Handlungen oft unbewusst ab. Solche Handlungsmuster sind wichtig für Lehrkräfte sowie für Schüler, da sie dem Unterricht Struktur geben und Sicherheit vermitteln. Sind sie aber hinderlich für die Entwicklung von Schülerleistungen, müssen sie verändert werden. Ziel der vorliegenden Arbeit ist es, kulturspezifische als auch schulstufenspezifische Handlungsmuster in Bezug auf die Umsetzung der Phasen der Erkenntnisgewinnung mit Hilfe einer Videoanalyse zu identifizieren. Dabei werden zusätzliche Qualitätsmerkmale einbezogen. Weiterhin wird überprüft, ob die Umsetzung der Erkenntnisgewinnung mit den Lehrer- und Schülervorstellungen zum Naturwissenschaftsverständnis zusammenhängt. Die Analyse der Unterrichtsvideos ergab, dass mehr Unterschiede hinsichtlich der Umsetzung von Erkenntnisgewinnungsprozessen auf kulturspezifischer Ebene bestehen als auf schulstufenspezifischer Ebene. Dabei fokussieren die schwedischen Lehrkräfte auf die Phase der Untersuchung und die dazugehörende Planungsphase. Die Lehrkräfte der deutschen Sekundarstufe I setzen hingegen auch andere Phasen der Erkenntnisgewinnung wie die Hypothesenbildung und die Auswertung und Interpretation vergleichsweise häufig um. Weiterhin zeigte sich trotz des (vorgegebenen) Fokus auf Erkenntnisgewinnung in der deutschen Sekundarstufe I eine konstant hohe Bedeutung der Vermittlung von Fachwissen. In der deutschen Sekundarstufe II ist auffällig, dass viel Zeit dazu verwendet wird, Versuche in selbstständiger Schülerarbeit aufzubauen. Vermutlich wird diesem Befund eine höhere Komplexität experimentellen Arbeitens zugrunde liegen. Generell werden im Chemieunterricht selten Fragestellungen formuliert und naturwissenschaftliche Untersuchungen reflektiert. Als zentrale Schlussfolgerung aus den Befunden kann abgeleitet werden, dass die Förderung einer ganzheitlichen, expliziten und möglichst offenen Umsetzung der Erkenntnisphasen in Schule und Lehrerausbildung notwendig ist. / In the classroom, routine actions are often carried out unconsciously. Such teaching patterns are important for teachers as well as for students as they structure lessons and provide security. However, if they are likely to be detrimental to the development of students, they must be changed. The aim of the current study is to identify culturally specific teaching patterns as well as teaching patterns between lower and upper secondary classes, by a comparison between students in Germany and Sweden followed by comparing teaching practices within several grades in Germany. This was achieved using video analysis to investigate the teaching practices used during the phases of Scientific Inquiry. During the analysis, further characteristics of quality were assessed. Further attention was paid to whether the implementation of Scientific Inquiry was related to the views of the nature of science held by the teachers and students. The analyses showed that the implementation of Scientific Inquiry differs more between Germany and Sweden than between grades. Swedish teachers focus on the investigation and the subordinate planning phase. Teachers of the German lower secondary classes focus more on other phases of Scientific Inquiry, such as formulating hypotheses and evaluation and interpretation. Although the focus of the lessons was given, content knowledge was often a particular focus in the German lower secondary classes. In German upper secondary grades it was apparent that a lot of time was spent enabling students to set up experiments on their own. This is presumably due to the higher complexity of the experimental work. In general, time is seldom spent on formulating scientific questions and reflecting on the scientific investigations. A major conclusion that can be derived from this study is that the support of a holistic, explicit and open implementation of the teaching of Scientific Inquiry remains indispensable in school and in teacher training.

In the last two years, CS as a school subject has gained a lot of attention worldwide, although different countries have differing approaches to and experiences of introducing CS in schools. This paper reports on a study comparing current trends in CS at school, with a major focus on two countries, Germany and UK. A survey was carried out of a number of teaching professionals and experts from the UK and Germany with regard to the content and delivery of CS in school. An analysis of the quantitative data reveals a difference in foci in the two countries; putting this into the context of curricular developments we are able to offer interpretations of these trends and suggest ways in which curricula in CS at school should be moving forward.

Flourishing economy, rapid industrialization and increasing trend of motorization have been shaping societies in the developing countries like India in an unprecedented manner.Infrastructure backlog amid such rapid growth in all imaginable directions has heavily exacerbated the urban transport crisis in these countries by alarming increase in vehicular travel demand, road fatalities, and environmental pollution. To address urban transport challenges, the necessary development and implementation of effective transport planning and policies have generally lagged in the developing countries compared to that seen in the developed countries due to several constraints including resource constraints, knowledge constraints, institutional constraints and so on. However, in the recent past, with the rapid development seen by several emerging economies and the explosive growth in transportation infrastructure investment, there is a growing interest in the development and implementati on of advanced travel demand modeling systems in developing countries. But lack of necessary research and exploration of travel behavior in a developing country context has left very limited knowledge for us to understand the extent of applicability of these advanced theories and methodologies in a different socio-cultural perspective. Assessing the practical relevance of the subject, this research adopts a comprehensive approach to explore the activity engagement pattern and time use behavior from a developing country standpoint. To accomplish this goal, a series of empirical and analytical studies are performed on a household travel survey data set available from Thane Metropolitan Area in India. The study also introduces new concepts and facilitates enhancements of existing modeling methodologies in the field of travel behavior and time use research. The study results provide very insightful findings and plausible interpretations consistent with a developing country perspective reco gnizing a wide spectrum of differences and similarities in activity patterns and time use behavior between a developed and a developing country. Specified model structures are meaningfully able to incorporate various socio-cultural and institutional constraints and reflected sensitivity to the behavioral variability between the contexts suggesting that advanced analytical techniques may be satisfactorily applied on the data set from developing countries which may contribute important ingredients in the development of advanced activity-based model system in the countries like India.

The promotion of science & technology and the creation of an enabling environment for countries innovation systems has been a growing worldwide trend in developed countries, with 21 out of 30 member countries of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) currently utilising some form of tax incentive program aimed at encouraging investment in research and development (R&D) by private industry. 1 Encouraging R&D and associated innovation is generally seen as an effective tool in advancing science and technology, which in turn leads to the creation of new products and services, an increase in international competitiveness of local business, direct foreign investment and social spin-offs in the form of increased employment and economic growth? R&D is, however, expensive and involves high levels of technical risk, with the costs and risk involved often outweighing the potential profit. Consequently, many businesses choose not to perform R&D, which has resulted in governments of most developed countries having implemented various incentives to encourage private business to undertake R&D. These incentives can take the form of either direct incentives (grants, soft loans, subsidies etc) or indirect incentives (such as tax incentives). Tax incentives effectively subsidise the costs of R&D, making it a more attractive and profitable alternative for business. Developed countries, including: the United States of America (US), the United Kingdom (UK), Japan, China, Canada and Australia have all adopted a combination of both direct and indirect incentives, with various tax incentive measures receiving much attention in the last 2 decades. In South Africa the legislation providing for R&D tax incentives has been substantially amended in recent years through a number of Taxation Amendment Acts,] culminating in the enactment of s lID of the Income Tax Act 58 of 1962 (the Act). The aim of this dissertation is to critically examine the current South Afi'ican tax incentive scheme as contained in sliD, focusing on the eligibility requirements of that incentive. In addition, the dissertation will highlight design features and characteristics of the incentive, particularly in respect of its generosity, predictability, simplicity, administration and targeting. 4 The design and characteristics of the South African incentive is then compared to those of three different countries: the UK, Australia and Canada.s Based on the analysis and comparison, certain lessons are identified for South Africa6 and various opinions are advanced on the effectiveness of the current structure and whether particular aspects of it could be improved going forward. / Thesis (LL.M.)-Unversity of KwaZulu-Natal, Durban, 2010.

Disruptions severely undermine the reliability of railway systems. Consequently, a lot of investments are made to improve disruption management. Much has already been written about disruption management, often with the purpose of supporting operators in their decision making. However, to the best of our knowledge, this literature doesn't consider the structural differences of disruption management in different countries. An overview of the various ways in which disruptions are solved and conditions under which that happens could help rail infrastructure managers and train operating companies to reconsider the ways in which they operate. This paper takes stock of the similarities and differences in how disruptions are managed in Austria, Belgium, Denmark, Germany and the Netherlands. Of importance is not only how these systems work on paper, but above all what happens in practice, i.e. the habits and routines that operators have developed for solving disruptions.

Recent research into job insecurity (JI) features a greater tendency to undertake target group-specific investigations into the construct, in view of the growing diversity in the world of work. The present doctoral thesis focuses on a group that previous research into JI has so far failed to investigate fully, namely apprentices. The past disregard of this group is surprising, considering that young adults are at greater risk of unemployment than the average gainfully employed person (cf. de Witte, 2007). To meet the research objective of the present study, a JI tool validated by Staufenbiel et al. (2009), used to distinguish between four JI components within a 2*2 design, was modified for the target group of apprentices. In line with Borg and Elizur (1992), a differentiation was made between a cognitive and an affective JI component; furthermore, in line with Hellgren et al. (1999), quantitative JI involving the complete loss of employment was separated from qualitative JI, involving the aversive change of valued job features. In the first study, a survey was conducted amongst apprentices (a total of n = 392, from vocations requiring training in the areas of trade, crafts, industry and health care) at various vocational schools in the City of Osnabrück. Within the longitudinal design, potential antecedents and consequences of JI were gathered from these apprentices on two survey dates (T1: one year before completing the apprenticeship; T2: three to four months before completing the apprenticeship). Confirmatory analysis revealed the best fit for a two-factor model that differentiated between a cognitive and an affective JI component. Since qualitative items failed to be established on separate subcomponents within the structural analyses, as conceptually planned, these items were neglected, and further work was conducted using quantitative items only. The two-factorial structure of JI (cognitive versus affective) determined in the first study was replicated in the other two studies undertaken within the doctoral thesis. The longitudinal analyses conducted by structural equation modelling demonstrated that occupational self-efficacy and employability are the best predictors of cognitive and affective JI components, respectively. In the second study, an exhaustive survey was conducted amongst the apprentices of a large industrial group operating in the metal-working industry. These apprentices were practising various craft occupations that require training. In contrast to the preliminary study, the apprentices were at different stages of their apprenticeship at the time of the survey, enabling potential differences in levels of JI in the course of training to be determined. Furthermore, the second study focused solely on JI consequences. In addition to data provided by the apprentices, behavioural data such as absence data and the apprentices’ performance appraisals by their respective company trainer were also drawn on. The trajectory of JI in the course of the apprenticeship showed that JI was felt the least in the first year of training and the most in the penultimate year. In the third study, the focus on JI amongst apprentices was extended to the international context. To this end, around 100 wholesale trade apprentices were surveyed in each of three European countries that feature very different training systems, namely, Germany, the Netherlands and Spain. While vocational training in Germany is traditionally offered as a dual system in which apprentices attend vocational school and work at the company in roughly equal parts, practical elements are less predominant in the Netherlands and are substituted fully by full-time school education in Spain. In addition to demonstrating the psychometric adequacy of the JI tool, its metric measurement invariance for samples taken amongst apprentices from the three countries was also shown in the international comparative analyses. Furthermore, employability was established as the most significant predictor of both JI components in all three countries. All in all, the results of the doctoral thesis confirm that JI is a considerable stressor for apprentices in the national and international context. The doctoral thesis concludes with a summary of the topic’s relevance in international education policy in view of the prevailing sustained high youth unemployment. With regard to methodology, diary studies are recommended for future study designs to enable the better estimation of JI covariations over time.

Dans de nombreux états providences, les systèmes de santé subissent de nos jours d’importantes transformations en réponse aux pressions budgétaires et caractérisées par le rôle croissant du marché et des mesures de rationalisation. C’est dans ce contexte que la France et l’Allemagne ont mis en place des programmes de Disease Management (DM) dans le but de fournir des soins plus structurés et de paiement à la performance (P4P) pour inciter financièrement les fournisseurs à répondre à certains objectifs.Ces réformes, qui reflètent le rôle croissant de l’État dans les deux systèmes d’assurance maladie, se sont inspirées des modèles anglo-saxons mais se concrétisent de manière distincte en fonction des caractéristiques des systèmes des deux pays. En Allemagne, DM et P4P se sont basés sur la concurrence croissante entre les caisses d’assurance maladies et entre les hôpitaux tandis qu’en France, ces réformes ont reflété un changement du rôle de l’assurance maladie « de payeur à acteur ».Le positionnement de la profession médicale vis-à-vis de ces nouveaux instruments de gouvernance, qui sont de nature hiérarchique et qui imposent une logique comptable, est une question clef en France et en Allemagne. Dans les deux pays, les processus de négociations ont été lié à un écart grandissant entre les représentants des médecins et leurs membres, et ce malgré les différences dans la manière dont les médecins sont traditionnellement intégrés dans la régulation des systèmes de santé respectifs. / Health systems in many welfare states are undergoing important transformations, triggered by increasing budgetary pressures and characterized by the growing role of market and rationalization measures. In this context, France and Germany have introduced disease management (DM) programs to deliver more structured patient care and pay-for-performance (P4P) measures to provide financial incentives for providers meeting certain objectives.These reforms, which reflect the increasing role of the State in both statutory health insurance systems, were inspired by Anglo-Saxon models but translated in distinct ways, owing to differences in the two countries’ systems. In Germany, DM and P4P were based on increasing competition between sickness funds and between hospitals, while in France these reforms reflected a shift by its central insurance system “from payer to player”.The positioning of the medical profession vis-a-vis these new instruments of governance, which are hierarchical in nature and impose stronger public accountability, was a key issue in both France and Germany. The negotiation processes were accompanied by a growing disconnect between physician representatives and their memberships in both countries, despite significant differences in the way physicians are traditionally integrated into health system regulation.

Für den internationalen Vergleich von Gesellschaften wird ein System gesellschaftlicher Dauerbeobachtung vorgeschlagen, indem aufgrund einer Auseinandersetzung mit der sozialphilosophischen Diskussion acht Performanzkriterien für den internationalen Vergleich von Lebensbedingungen bzw. der „Wohlfahrt der Nationen“ entwickelt werden: Wohlstand und Wachstum; ökologische Nachhaltigkeit; Innovation; soziale Sicherung durch Unterstützungsleistungen im Risikofall sowie vorsorgend durch Bildungsinvestitionen; Anerkennung der Besonderheiten (Frauenfreundlichkeit und Migrantenfreundlichkeit); Gleichheit der Teilhabe; soziale Integration; Autonomie („freedom of choice and capabilities”). All dies betrachten wir als gesellschaftlich wünschenswerte Ziele. In unserem Ansatz gehen wir nicht von einem einheitlichen Pfad der Modernisierung in Richtung Wachstum, Partizipation und Inklusion aus, sondern unterscheiden in Erweiterung der „drei Welten des Wohlfahrtskapitalismus“ von Esping-Andersen (mindestens) fünf verschiedene institutionelle Entwicklungspfade der Modernisierung: Der sozialdemokratisch-universalistische Pfad, der wirtschaftsliberale Pfad, der Status-konservierende Pfad, der „familistische“ Pfad und die Entwicklung der Gruppe der ex-sozialistischen Länder, die sich in einem Prozess der Ausdifferenzierung befinden. Ab der 3. Auflage werden nun 36 Länder verglichen (incl. aller EU-Mitglieder) statt wie zuvor 28 Länder, in der 7. Auflage auf dem Stand von Januar 2012. Zur Analyse der Sozialstrukturen werden als Modelle sozialer Lagen berücksichtigt: Marx, Weber, Roemer/Wright; soziale Schichten, berufliche Lagen, Goldthorpe-Modell; Bourdieu, Vester, Hradil. Als Anwendungsbereiche werden behandelt: Dienstleistungsgesellschaften und Erwerbstätigkeit, Bildung; Wohlfahrtsregime und soziale Sicherung; Wohlstand, Einkommen, Vermögen und Armut; soziale Mobilität; soziale Ungleichheiten zwischen Frauen und Männern; Bevölkerungsstruktur und Lebensformen; Lebensstile; Individualisierung und ihre Gegenbewegungen; zusammenfassender Vergleich von Lebensbedingungen in verschiedenen Ländern und Wohlfahrtsregimen. / For the international comparison of societies a system for continuous observation is proposed, based on a discussion of moral values in social philosophy, which results in eight criteria of performance of societies in the following living conditions: Wealth and growth; ecological sustainability; innovation; social security by supporting benefits in the case of risk and preventive by investments in education; appreciation of peculiarities (women friendliness and migrants friendliness); equality of are sources and rights; social integration; autonomy ("freedom of choice and capabilities"). In our approach we do not assume a uniform pathway of modernization in the direction of growth, participation and inclusion, but differentiate in extension of the "three worlds of welfare capitalism" of Esping-Andersen (1990) (at least) five different institutional pathways of modernization: The social democratic (universalistic) path, the economically liberal path, the status-conserving path, the familistic path and the development of the group of post-socialist countries, which are in a process of differentiating. We compare 36 countries including all members of the EU and the anglo-saxon countries as well as Japan. For the analysis of social structures the following models of social positioning are considered: Marx, Weber, Roemer/Wright; social strata; occupational positions, Goldthorpes model; Bourdieu, Vester, Hradil. As fields of application are discussed: Service societies and employment, education; wealth, income, property and poverty; social mobility; social inequalities between women and men; demographic structure and forms of living; life styles; welfare regimes and social security; individualization and its counter-movements; summarizing comparison of the living conditions in different countries and welfare regimes.