Osterreichische Zeitschrift fuer Soziologie最新文献

Slaughterhouse work has a bad reputation and many slaughterhouse workers experience moral stigmatization, although meat consumption is the dominant diet in Western societies. So far, moral stigmatization of slaughterhouse workers has not been analyzed systematically. The article answers the following research questions: Which coping strategies regarding moral stigmatization can be found among slaughterhouse workers and how do these strategies relate to hegemonic narratives about their job? The article answers the research questions using concepts from sociological theories of culture, stigma and dirty work and is based on a qualitative content analysis of 13 problem-centered interviews with workers from six German slaughterhouses. The analysis showed that slaughterhouse workers are responding to moral stigmatization by questioning the cultural ideas on which stigmatization is based and by arguing for the validity of their own cultural ideas about "slaughter animals". The interviewed slaughterhouse workers also use rigid group boundaries to delegitimize the authority of external actors to judge slaughterhouse work. The article is innovative because it systematically analyzes how slaughterhouse workers cope with moral stigmatization.

Previous analyses of environmentally conscious intentions showed that the willingness to sacrifice for the environment decreased during the COVID-19 crisis in Austria. There is a large body of empirical research and theoretical models dealing with the explanation of environmental behavior, but these explanations have always been considered in the context of a pandemic-free society. The aim of this research note is therefore to consider the willingness to sacrifice in a crisis period. The data used for the analyses is the Austrian part of the international 'Values in Crisis' survey. For this purpose, more than 2000 individuals were surveyed online about their values, social orientations and their current life situation during the first COVID-19 wave (May 2020). Blockwise regression models are used to examine the influence of crisis perceptions, environmental attitudes and values on the willingness to sacrifice for the environment. The analyses show a relatively strong influence of environmental attitudes and values, but also additional effects of concerns about the COVID-19 crisis and especially its economic impact.

The article investigates the development of loneliness before and in the first months of the Covid-19 pandemic against the background of the socio-economic situation of older people. For this purpose, variance analyses are carried out with data from Lower Austria utilizing two surveys (pre-pandemic, peri-pandemic). The analyses show that older people are not a homogeneous group, i.e. the level of loneliness was already divergent before the pandemic and these existing differences were largely maintained at a somewhat higher level during the pandemic with little variation.

The requirements of "social distancing" during the Corona pandemic raised challenges for the implementation of psychosocial care services for children, adolescents, and families, which are traditionally reliant on face-to-face contact. Between March and October 2020, this qualitative study investigated the impact of the pandemic on the provision of psychosocial care at three points in time. We examined how staff and managers of psychosocial institutions experienced their work under the changing circumstances and what opportunities as well as risks they perceived for their work with clients. Their work situation is investigated by means of the concepts of the "Arbeitskraftunternehmer" and of vulnerability. This paper presents two topics that emerged from the analysis of the first two waves of data collection. The first expresses a conflict between practitioners need to protect their own health and their aspiration to maintain services. The second addresses practitioners' experiences of stress due to their own affectedness by the crisis as well as significant changes in work realities. Our data show the strong effort of professionals to maintain supportive services during the crisis despite difficult conditions. However, it also shows the strain on social workers in the field and that adequate framework conditions are necessary both to strengthen psychosocial care in general and to cope with social crises on this scale.