Publications Archive 2004

Cash-in or continue? An exploration of the drop out from German foreign language study between AS and A2 levels

Dr Catherine Watts and Dr Angela Pickering, School of Languages, University of Brighton

This study is timely, set as it is against the backdrop of the government's recent strategy to discontinue the study of modern foreign languages from the compulsory curriculum in England after Key Stage 3 (at the age of fourteen) with effect from September 2005 (DfES, 2002) and the number of new initiatives and proposals which target, among others, the 14-19 age group. The main aim of this study was to explore some of the reasons behind the drop out from German foreign language study between AS and A2 levels in England using a mixture of qualitative and quantitative research methods.

December 2004

  • Executive Summary (29 KB)
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The EU Presidency: 'Honest broker' or driving seat?
An Anglo-German comparison in the environmental policy field

By Rüdiger K. W. Wurzel

The office of the Presidency attracts great media and academic interest in the member state holding the Presidency. However, it has remained an under-researched area because most assessments focus on a single Presidency and on ‘high politics' issues, which are usually dealt with by the European Council. This new report focuses on four Presidencies: the United Kingdom's (UK) 1992 and 1998 as well as the German 1994 and 1999 Presidencies. It analyses the main roles and functions of the EU Presidency and compares four Presidencies over time while trying to explain the differences and similarities by making reference to domestic politics demands and Presidency norms.

October 2004

Shrinking to Grow?
The Urban Regeneration Challenge in Leipzig and Manchester

Alan Mace, Nick Gallent, Peter Hall, Lucas Porsch, Reiner Braun, Ulrich Pfeiffer

Both Leipzig and Manchester have experienced a severe loss of population: Manchester
over a long period since the middle of the twentieth century; Leipzig sharply, after
reunification. While both cities have greatly improved their city centres and can claim
many regeneration successes, both have, at best, stemmed their population losses.
Linked to this demographic shrinkage has been the presence of a large stock of low-demand housing. Given this, and the potential for future population loss – especially in
Leipzig, with falling birth rates nationally – in this study the authors asked whether these two cities could plan for an economically sound contraction in their populations. They set out scenarios for future household numbers in both cities and consider the implications of a future loss of households.

October 2004

  • Introduction (404 KB)
  • Zusammenfassung (27 KB)
  • For free download of summary report (619 KB) please click here
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The contribution of degree subject to the gender wage gap among graduates: A comparison of Britain, France and Germany

Stephen Machin and Patrick A. Puhani

It is a fact that women earn less than men. However, there is little consensus as to why
this should be the case. In this project we focus on university graduates and show that degree subject is relevant to the gender wage gap. We draw on person-level data from Britain, France and Germany, and observe wages and degree subject for a large number of graduates.

September 2004

  • Executive Summary (413 KB)
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Non-employment and the welfare state
UK and Germany compared

Jochen Clasen, Jacqueline Davidson, Heiner Ganßmann, Andreas Mauer

The report focuses on the so-called labour market inactive, that is, people of
working age who are neither employed nor unemployed. How and why did the size and
composition of this group change in the UK and Germany during the 1990s?
Concentrating on men and employing a longitudinal data analysis, is estimates the
impact which changes in welfare state regulations had on flows in and out of
employment and different forms of non-employment.

September 2004

  • Executive Summary (30 KB)
  • For free download of complete report (353 KB) please click here
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Human Resource Management of US Multinationals
in Germany and the UK

Michael Muller-Camen, Anne Tempel, Phil Almond, Tony Edwards, Anthony Ferner,
René Peters, Hartmut Wächter

This research examines human resource management (HRM) in subsidiaries of US
multinational firms (MNCs) operating in the UK and Germany. Together with parallel studies in Ireland and Spain it explores the potential tensions resulting from a transfer of US-type human resource (HR) policies to Europe.

September 2004, published online only

  • Executive Summary (27 KB)
  • For free download of complete report (202 KB) please click here
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Conference Report
Academia-Business Links in UK and Germany:
Policy Outcomes and Lessons Learnt

European Research Institute, University of Birmingham

The academic world is undergoing rapid change – scientists and students are identifying new opportunities as entrepreneurs, multinational companies are basing their investment decisions on proximity to leading research centres, and policymakers throughout Europe are looking for new incentive schemes to maximize the economic and social output from academia. This conference report provides an overview of experience gained with policy changes in the field of academia-business interactions from a theoretical and empirical perspective.

August 2004, published online only

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Conference Report
Strategies for Seniors and Sport

Heather Cameron

Physical activity has only recently become a social policy priority. There are two reasons for this heightened attention: (i) health-care and other costs have increased due to inactive lifestyles and (ii) demographic changes require new thinking in many areas, especially concerning how to support activity and foster independent living in older age. The Strategies for Seniors and Sport conference on 27 and 28 May 2004 at the Sports Academy of the Landessportbund Berlin hosted 25 physical activity and health experts from Germany, the UK and Canada to consider these issues. This conference report summarizes their discussions.

July 2004, published online only

The Future of Professionalised Work in Britain and Germany

Christel Lane, Frank Wilkinson, Wolfgang Littek, Ulrich Heisig, Jude Browne, Brendan Burchell, Roy Mankelow, Margaret Potton and Roland Tutschner

Since the early 1980s new specialisms, whose members aspire to professional status, have grown up to challenge existing professions in both the UK and Germany. Four reports demonstrate the impact of these new developments in two well established and two emerging professions – the law and pharmacy, and psychology and business services. They show how the market for professional work and the content of the work itself, as well as the status and well-being of the professionals involved, have all been affected. The reports are derived from a larger study (published in 12/2003) which surveyed the four professionalised occupations in both Britain and Germany.

The findings for each professional group are covered in the following four reports:

1. Human Resource Managers and Business Consultants
July 2004, ISBN 1-900834-45-6
For free download of complete report (208 KB) please click here
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2. Solicitors and Advocates
July 2004, ISBN 1-900834-46-4, £15.00, paperback
For free download of complete report (206 KB) please click here
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3. Pharmacists
July 2004, ISBN 1-900834-47-2, £15.00, paperback
For free download of complete report (223 KB) please click here
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4. Counselling Psychologists and Psychotherapists
July 2004, ISBN 1-900834-48-0, £15.00, paperback
For free download of complete report (205 KB) please click here
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Conference Report
New Members, New Structures

Anglo–German Foundation, the Friedrich Ebert Stiftung and the Hans Böckler Stiftung

Some 30 Germaand British union activists – from leaders and senior policy-makers to workplace organisers – plus policy-makers, researchers and academics took part in the Trade Union Forum 2004. The debate and discussion focused on understanding why unions in both Germany and the UK are facing a potential membership and organisational crisis and how they are developing innovative policy and activity to meet this challenge.

June 2004, published online only

Employment policies in Germany and the United Kingdom:
The impact of Europeanisation

Brian Ardy, Gaby Umbach

The need to respond to a persistently high level of unemployment in an increasingly integrated internal market led the EU to develop the European Employment Strategy (EES). This study considers the operation of the EES in Germany and the UK, which are particularly good exemplars for analysing the impact of the EES because of the large differences in their political and economic systems.

June 2004, published online only

Is it easier to be a Turk in Berlin or a Pakistani in Bradford?

Roger Boyes and Dorte Huneke

The Pakistanis of Bradford and the Turks of Berlin are well-rooted communities, but there is remarkably little curiosity about their collective and individual experiences. Do long-term immigrants feel they belong? Do they want to belong? What are their dreams, their ambitions? This small-scale study uses a combination of journalistic reporting and insights and academic rigour to explore the views and experiences of a range of people in the two communities. The result is a revealing snapshot of two societies in transition. Perhaps even more important, it also teases out significant questions about the nature of British and German society.

June 2004, ISBN 1-900834-50-2, £15.00

  • Introduction (32 KB)
  • For free download of complete report (English version 214 KB) please click here
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German version:

Lebt es sich leichter als Türke in Berlin oder als Pakistani in Bradford?

Roger Boyes und Dorte Huneke

June 2004, ISBN 1-900834-51-0, £15.00

  • Einleitung (32 KB)
  • For free download of complete report (German version 237 KB) please click here
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High-Tech Business Services and Innovation in Germany and the UK:
The Case of IT Outsourcing

Damian Grimshaw and Marcela Miozzo
(in collaboration with Paulina Ramirez, Matthias Knuth and Thorsten Kalina)

This study investigates the case of IT outsourcing in Germany and the UK. In both countries, the rapidly growing IT outsourcing market is an important driver underpinning growth in the computer services sector. Thirteen examples of large IT outsourcing contracts were selected (6 in Germany, 7 in the UK), ranging in value from €25 million to more than €5,000 million. In each case, interviews were conducted with managers in the IT firm and in the client organisation.

June 2004, published online only

  • Summary (35 KB)
  • For free download of complete report (233 KB) please click here
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Conference Report
"From Fossil to Future Fuels"

Anglo-German Foundation

How to push forward the gradual but critically important switch from ‘fossil fuels' to ‘future fuels' was the topic of the fifth British–German Environment Forum, which met in Berlin in February 2004. The 60 participants represented the spectrum of activity in sustainable energy in both countries: politics and policy-making (at local, national and European levels), technological and commercial development, and research, reporting and campaigning. Three main challenges were debated: how to reduce dependence on imports of fossil fuels; how to promote a more rapid take-up of sustainable and energy-efficient practices and technologies and how Germany and the UK can more effectively pursue common aims within the international energy system.

April 2004, published online only

  • Summary (23 KB)
  • For free download of complete report (110 KB) please click here
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  • Participants list (58 KB)

Understandings of Environmental Risk in Two Industrial Towns:
A Comparative Study in Grangemouth and Ludwigshafen

Peter Phillimore, Birgitt Hoeldke, Suzanne Moffatt, Tanja Pless-Mulloli,
Patricia Bell, Achim Schlueter

The importance we attach to ‘risk’ in our daily lives has changed greatly over the past two decades across Europe. Government and public negotiate risk concerns as never before in the policy process. Yet we still know little about the varying ways people actually live with different environmental risks in different countries. This project takes an anthropological approach, using intensive fieldwork to examine attitudes and values in two industrial towns: Grangemouth (Scotland) and Ludwigshafen (Germany). It explores the contrasts and similarities in the ways that people deal with risk in two towns built around substantial petroleum and chemical industries, each undergoing rapid change.

March 2004, published online only

  • Executive Summary (40 KB)
  • For free download of complete report (173 KB) please click here
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The International Market for Medical Services:
The UK–Germany Experience

Ian Birch and Marion v. Boxberg

This report reviews recent experience of contracts between UK health service providers and German clinics and hospitals and assesses the potential for a market for German hospital services to develop in the UK. It also aims to identify barriers to the development of a competitive UK market for German hospital services in the UK, focussing on three categories: Technical, administrative/legal and attitudinal.

February 2004 , published online only

  • Executive Summary (30 KB)
  • For free download of complete report (178 KB) please click here
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The Effects of Flexible Working on Employee Representation:
UK and Germany Compared

Is flexible working a threat to traditional union structures and practices?

Richard Croucher, Nick Kratzer and Ingo Singe

Workplace representation clearly plays an important role in ensuring that the benefits of flexibility for employees are realised in practice, since flexibility in and of itself does not automatically lead to work-life balance. This report presents findings from an empirical investigation into the impact of flexible labour deployment on workplace representatives in Britain and Germany and tries to answer following main question: What effects have flexible working practices had on employee representatives in their representative work?

February 2004 , published online only

  • Executive Summary (28 KB)
  • For free download of complete report (141 KB) please click here
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