These essays on Finalization in Science - The Social Orientation of Scientific Progress comprise a remarkable, problematic and controversial book. The authors propose a thesis about the social direction of scientific research which was the occasion of a lively and often bitter debate in Germany from 1976 to 1982. Their provocative thesis, briefly, is this: that modern science converges, historically, to the development of a number of 'closed theories', i. e. stable and relatively completed sciences, no longer to be improved by small changes but only by major changes in an entire theoretical structure. Further: that at such a stage of 'mature theory', the formerly viable norm of intra-scientific autonomy may appropriately be replaced by the social direction' of further scientific research (within such a 'mature' field) for socially relevant or, we may bluntly say, 'task-oriented' purposes. This is nothing less than a theory for the planning and social directing of science, under certain specific conditions. Understandably, it raised the sharp objections that such an approach would subordinate scientific inquiry as a free and untrammeled search for truth to the dictates of social relevance and dominant interests, even possibly to dictation and control for particularistic social and political interests.

Investigating the issue of employee representation in multinational companies (MNCs), this book sets out to systematically conceptualise the modes of articulation between different action fields. While previous studies have focused on forms of employee representation that have emerged throughout recent decades, rather little is known about the interaction and coordination of representational bodies and actors, such as trade unions and European or World Works Councils. Given the growing importance of transnational restructuring in MNCs, understanding the conditions under which employees are able to participate in company decision-making is a crucial issue. Based on empirical case studies and interviews with employee representatives from ten countries across Europe, the authors investigate the role of representational bodies in periods of company restructuring. Proposing a shift in perspectives in research on transnational labour relations and bringing new insights into structures and practices of employee representation in MNCs, this book will be a valuable read for both scholars and practitioners.

These essays on Finalization in Science - The Social Orientation of Scientific Progress comprise a remarkable, problematic and controversial book. The authors propose a thesis about the social direction of scientific research which was the occasion of a lively and often bitter debate in Germany from 1976 to 1982. Their provocative thesis, briefly, is this: that modern science converges, historically, to the development of a number of 'closed theories', i. e. stable and relatively completed sciences, no longer to be improved by small changes but only by major changes in an entire theoretical structure. Further: that at such a stage of 'mature theory', the formerly viable norm of intra-scientific autonomy may appropriately be replaced by the social direction' of further scientific research (within such a 'mature' field) for socially relevant or, we may bluntly say, 'task-oriented' purposes. This is nothing less than a theory for the planning and social directing of science, under certain specific conditions. Understandably, it raised the sharp objections that such an approach would subordinate scientific inquiry as a free and untrammeled search for truth to the dictates of social relevance and dominant interests, even possibly to dictation and control for particularistic social and political interests.

Investigating the issue of employee representation in multinational companies (MNCs), this book sets out to systematically conceptualise the modes of articulation between different action fields. While previous studies have focused on forms of employee representation that have emerged throughout recent decades, rather little is known about the interaction and coordination of representational bodies and actors, such as trade unions and European or World Works Councils. Given the growing importance of transnational restructuring in MNCs, understanding the conditions under which employees are able to participate in company decision-making is a crucial issue. Based on empirical case studies and interviews with employee representatives from ten countries across Europe, the authors investigate the role of representational bodies in periods of company restructuring. Proposing a shift in perspectives in research on transnational labour relations and bringing new insights into structures and practices of employee representation in MNCs, this book will be a valuable read for both scholars and practitioners.

This book examines the role that European employee representatives play in the restructuring of firms. In a globalized economy, company internationalization and transnational restructuring are of growing concern for employees and trade unions. In the European Union, the still rather new institution of European works councils provides basic rights for employees. Using examples of eight large automotive manufacturers like Volkswagen, GM or Toyota, the volume analyzes the internationalization strategies of the companies and the effects of European works councils, pointing to a high degree of variation in strategies and effectiveness of cross-border employee representation.

Recent trends in Marxist economic theory have sponsored the methods of modern logic and mathematics. In doing so, they have displaced not only the relatively philosophical style of reflection found in Capital but also certain key problems addressed there by Marx. Ulrich Krause breaks new ground by applying mathematical techniques in an analysis of labor, money and exchange. Rejecting the notion of "homogeneous labor" as a basis of value theory, Krause develops his own understanding of the Marxist concept of "abstract labor," which he then integrates with an analysis of money in the process of commodity exchange. His book concludes with a new discussion of Marx's theory of value and surplus-value. Money & Abstract Labour is a major intervention in one of the most vigorously contested areas of contemporary economic theory.

This book focuses on the way in which people were treated by the police and military guards in nineteenth-century Prussia, in the general context of Prussian bureaucratic development. It shows how the daily routine of officialdom supported and promoted an image of the police state, which placed the emphasis on violent methods in dealing with the 'subjects' of those in authority. The main argument of the book discusses the methods and standards of everyday policing and the consequential creation of a classe dangereuse. The author also shows how military routines were adopted by civilian officials and policemen. Thus by the middle of the century a military type of policing had become widespread and generally unquestioned by high-ranking officials or ministers. The book therefore offers an understanding of the repressive side of the Prussian and German state since the middle of the nineteenth century.