Western States Of Germany Research Articles

Mud, metaphors and politics: Meaning-making during the 2021 German floods

On 14 July 2021, the western states of Germany, Rheinland Palatinate and North-Rhein-Westphalia experienced major flash floods and about two hundred people died. This article explores how those affected and journalists they spoke to created meaning from the mayhem of an unprecedented disaster and how social representations of flooding emerged in which language, politics and values were intimately intertwined. Combining thematic analysis with elements of social representations theory, and analysing a sample of articles from a national news magazine, we show how social representations of the floods were shaped by the objectification of the floods through metonymy (mud and debris) and the anchoring of the floods through personification and metaphors (natural and mechanical forces), thus adding a new dimension to the existing body of work on flood and metaphors. We claim that the immediate focus on the extreme force of the 2021 floods, on the one hand, and the weakness of political response, on the other, may entrench feelings of helplessness and divert attention away from more systematic and long-term engagement with flood dangers in the context of climate change, including extreme weather events.

A Short Scale for Measuring Political Secularism

AbstractAs religiousness is declining across democracies, scientific interest in secular orientations and their political implications is growing. One specific and particularly important aspect of secular attitudes is political secularism. Political secularism is not merely the absence of religiousness, but rather a world view which holds that religious beliefs should play no role in politics. While there are hundreds of survey instruments that measure the strength and content of religiousness, there is no comparable measure that taps into political secularism. In this research note, I briefly review the concept of political secularism and present a cluster of items which target it. Utilizing data from four large population representative samples taken from the eastern and western states of Germany, I use confirmatory factor analysis to show that these items form a short but internally consistent scale. This scale also displays convergent and discriminant validity. It may be readily used in future surveys.

Use of Physical Therapy in Patients With Osteoarthritis in Germany: An Analysis of a Linkage of Claims and Survey Data.

To examine the utilization of physical therapy (PT) and predictors for its use in individuals with osteoarthritis (OA) while focusing on sociodemographic and disease-related factors. For this cross-sectional study, 657,807 patients (age 30-79 years) diagnosed with hip, knee, or polyarticular OA were identified in claims data. In 2016, a questionnaire including information on disease status, demography, and socioeconomics was sent to a random sample of 8,995 patients stratified by sex, age, and type of diagnosis. Claims data from 2016 included the utilization and type of PT, as well as the prescribing medical specialist, and were linked to questionnaire data. Multivariable logistic regression was conducted to determine variables associated with the use of PT. In total, 3,564 (40%) patients completed the questionnaire and agreed to linking questionnaire and claims data (69% female, mean age 66.5 years). In 2016, 50% of the study population received PT at least once, and women received it more frequently than men (53% versus 43%). Most PT was prescribed by orthopedists (45%) and general practitioners (32%). Multivariable logistic regression showed that women, higher household income, having both hip and knee OA, lower functional status, higher disease activity, and individuals living in the eastern, southern, and western states of Germany were associated with an increased utilization of PT. Considering current guideline recommendations and that more than one-third of OA patients with high functional impairment and/or pain did not receive PT in the last 12 months, there is considerable potential for improvement. This is especially true for men and individuals with a low income.

Trends in Intragenerational Income Mobility in the Western States of Germany and the United States (1984 – 2006)

Abstract Using the Shorrocks R, we compare trends in intragenerational income mobility for the western states of Germany and the United States (1984 – 2006) and test the sensitivity of our results to the starting point and number of years considered. We find that our mobility estimates do not converge to a constant over time so the starting year chosen for the analysis matters. We conclude that income mobility declined in the western states of Germany over time and is now much closer to income mobility in the United States than was the case in the 1980s. JEL Codes: J6, Z13

The distributional impact of unification and the 1992–93 recession on West German households

The 1992–93 recession in the western states of Germany has been attributed, in substantial measure, to the macroeconomic consequences of policies to finance unification. Studies of the costs of unification have not attempted to measure the burden of the recession. We estimate a dynamic, panel model of household incomes using data from the German Socio‐Economic Panel (GSOEP) and use it to forecast what these incomes would have been in 1992–94 without a recession. Using a ratio of actual to forecast incomes, we compare the relative burden of the recession across households. Our findings suggest that western households below the median income bore the brunt of the combined impact of unification and the recession of 1992–93.JEL classification: P3, D3, E3.

LABOR EARNINGS AND HOUSEHOLD INCOME MOBILITY IN REUNIFIED GERMANY: A COMPARISON OF THE EASTERN AND WESTERN STATES

Using data from the German Socio‐Economic Panel, we compare income mobility of persons from the eastern and western states of Germany between 1990 and 1995. We consider income mobility between consecutive years and between the first and the final year of this time period. We find that gross individual labor income mobility was much higher in the east than in the west during the first years after reunification, but that this difference has become much smaller until 1995. Changing to measures that reflect economic well‐being more accurately, we observe that gross equivalent labor income mobility and net equivalent income mobility initially were also much higher in the eastern states than in the western states, but converged over time as well. This convergence has been particularly strong for net equivalent income mobility, suggesting that the social protection system has greatly reduced mobility risks associated with the transformation process in the eastern states of Germany.

Recent epidemiological studies on ionizing radiation and childhood cancer in Germany

Purpose: The results from recent epidemiological studies based on the German Childhood Cancer Registry are summarized. Materials and methods: An oecological study covers 16 years' incidence of childhood malignancies in areas surrounding nuclear facilities and in matched control regions. Two population-based case-control studies explore potential risk factors of childhood leukaemia in the state of Lower Saxony (1988-93) and in all western states of Germany (1992-94). Results: There was no increased incidence of childhood leukaemia and other malignancies in the vicinity of nuclear installations. X-ray examinations during pregnancy and in early childhood were not associated with an increased risk of childhood leukaemia. There were no data to support Gardner's hypothesis of an increased risk due to paternal pre-conception exposure to ionizing radiation. Following the Chernobyl accident, the reported incidence of neuroblastoma and infant leukaemia was increased. The increase cannot be explained by exposures due to the accident. Conclusions: Although the carcinogenic effect of ionizing radiation is well known, the recent population-based epidemiological studies show that under current conditions exposure to ionizing radiation in Germany does not constitute risks of childhood malignancies that are relevant to public health.

Reasons for tooth extraction in the western states of Germany

The purpose of this study was to collect information on the main causes of tooth loss in the western states of Germany as perceived by dentists and their patients. Sixty-eight dentists, out of 80 that were selected with a systematic random method for an epidemiological study in the western states of Germany, recorded their reason for tooth extraction. Included in the study were only extractions of permanent teeth during a period of 2 weeks (March 1990), up to a maximum of 20 patients per dentist. Of 926 returned questionnaires, 882 could be evaluated. In all 1215 teeth in 882 patients were extracted. The extraction of third molars was included as a reason, when caries, periodontal reasons and others were not indicated. Caries was the reason given for 20.7% of all extractions; periodontal diseases for 27.3%; caries and periodontal reasons for 18.7%; third molars for 14.7%; prosthetic reasons for 11.2%; orthodontic reasons for 4.1%; trauma for 0.4% and others for 2.9%. While caries is a major reason in all age groups, periodontal diseases and the combination of caries and periodontal reasons are more frequent than all other reasons for the age groups beyond 40 or 45 yr, respectively. The third molar was the most often extracted tooth. The patients were asked for their main reason for tooth extraction. For the patients, pain was the major reason for extraction (47.2%). According to the participating dentists periodontal disease is the most frequent cause of tooth extraction for people over 40 yr of age, while for those below 40 yr of age, caries and third molar extractions are the most frequent reasons.