Englisch ist die mit Abstand am meisten unterrichtete Fremdsprache in Europa. Betrachtet man die Entwicklung der erlernten Fremdsprachen seit 1998, ist ein Anstieg an Englischschülern in nahezu allen untersuchten Ländern zu beobachten, insbesondere in den osteuropäischen Ländern. Auch...

Are 'modern societies' necessarily democratic societies and capitalist (or: market) societies? This is what most of the social sciences of the post-Second World War period have assumed, while only some strands of critical, often Marx-inspired approaches contested this connection. This essay...

Starting from the idea of quality in education defined as the level of satisfaction offered by the educational system, a level reached by meeting certain required standards due to the aggregated effort of the participants in the process of learning and of other interested stakeholders, the...

The public funding of long-term care (LTC) programs to support the frail elderly is still underdeveloped compared to other areas of social protection for old age. In Europe, any moves to broaden entitlements to LTC are impeded by increasing demand for care coinciding with constrained public...

We investigate whether the home advantage in soccer differs by various dimensions of distance between the (regions of the) home and away teams: geographical distance, climatic differences, cultural distance, and disparities in economic prosperity. To this end, we analyse 2,012 recent matches...

In the run up to the 2014 European Parliament elections, the new Spitzenkandidaten process and European-wide party campaigns fueled expectations of strengthening democratic processes in Europe. At the same time, the anticipated surge of support for anti-establishment and Eurosceptic parties...

This paper analyzes the trends and root causes of extreme working hours in sixteen Western European countries, Canada, and the United States between 1970 and 2010. Earlier literature has revealed increasing trends in extreme working hours in the United States and recognized the negative...

In a recent decision, the European Court of Justice has ruled that insurers cannot discriminate on grounds of sex in setting premiums or determining benefits. This paper discusses the background to this decision. It asks whether we are seeing a US-style ‘rights revolution', fuelled by judicial...

The authors investigate whether the home advantage in soccer differs by various dimensions of distance between the (regions of the) home and away teams: geographical distance, climatic differences, cultural distance, and disparities in economic prosperity. To this end, they analyse 2,012 recent...