Sebastian Koos | University of Konstanz, Germany (original) (raw)
Papers by Sebastian Koos
Communications Earth & Environment
How do the impacts of acute crises influence citizens’ willingness to support different types of ... more How do the impacts of acute crises influence citizens’ willingness to support different types of climate measures? An acute crisis can be understood either as an impediment or as an opportunity for climate change mitigation. In the first perspective, crisis impacts would create negative spill-overs and dampen citizens’ willingness to support climate action, while in the second perspective, the opposite would occur. Based on a survey experiment fielded in Germany in 2022 (n = 5438), we find that the economic implications of the Russo-Ukrainian War do not decrease behavioral willingness, while restrictions of civil liberties to combat the COVID-19 pandemic lead to higher climate support, underpinning the crisis-as-opportunity perspective. Willingness to support climate measures is strongest among (1) those most concerned about climate change, and (2) those who trust the government. We conclude that individuals do not wish climate change mitigation to be deprioritized on the back of ot...
Economic Sociology, 2009
This research is devoted to ethical consumption understood as the buying or not buying of goods, ... more This research is devoted to ethical consumption understood as the buying or not buying of goods, for ethical, political or environmental reasons. This type of consumption is studied from the moral economy perspective. The data used here for analysis is the European Social Survey (ESS) of 2002/ 2003. In a cross section of 19 European countries the author explores determinants of self-reported ethical, political and ecological consumption. On the individual level he finds that especially education and values concerned with environmental care are important explanations for ethical buying or boycotting behaviour. Country level differences in ethical consumption can to a large degree be explained by the affluence of countries.потребление
Frontiers in Sociology
Contact restrictions and distancing measures are among the most effective non-pharmaceutical meas... more Contact restrictions and distancing measures are among the most effective non-pharmaceutical measures to stop the spread of the SARS-CoV2 virus. Yet, research has only begun to understand the wider social consequences of these interventions. This study investigates how individuals' social networks have changed since the outbreak of the pandemic and how this is related to individuals' socio-economic positions and their socio-demographic characteristics. Based on a large quota sample of the German adult population, we investigate the loss and gain of strong and weak social ties during the pandemic. While about one third of respondents reported losing of contact with acquaintances, every fourth person has lost contact to a friend. Forming new social ties occurs less frequently. Only 10–15% report having made new acquaintances (15%) or friends (10%) during the pandemic. Overall, more than half of our respondents did not report any change, however. Changes in social networks are ...
Die Studie untersucht am Beispiel der Fair-Handelsbewegung, wie sich die Entstehung und Verbreitu... more Die Studie untersucht am Beispiel der Fair-Handelsbewegung, wie sich die Entstehung und Verbreitung des ethischen Konsums in Europa seit dem Ende der 1990er-Jahre erklären lässt. In Ergänzung zu den existierenden akteurszentrierten Erklärungen ethischen Konsums werden Ansätze sozialer Bewegungstheorien verwendet, welche die organisationalen Dimensionen der Fair-Handelsbewegung und die nationalen Opportunitätsstrukturen in den Blick nehmen. Im Artikel wird argumentiert, dass der Wandel der Feldlogik der Fair-Trade-Bewegung von einer zivilgesellschaftlichen hin zu einer Marktlogik einen zentralen Impuls für die Entstehung und die Diffusion des Konsums fair gehandelter Produkte, aber auch für das Wissen über Fair Trade darstellte. Die Hypothesen werden anhand einer Mehrebenen-Analyse mit Daten einer Eurobarometer-Umfrage (1997) überprüft, die um Informationen zu den nationalen Fair-Trade-Organisationen und den ökonomischen und kulturellen Opportunitätsstrukturen ergänzt wurden. Die Erg...
Policy Papers, 2020
The coronavirus crisis exacerbates inequality in the European Union. It gives rise to a critical ... more The coronavirus crisis exacerbates inequality in the European Union. It gives rise to a critical debate about the future of Europe concerning a key question: In what way does the project of integration require a higher degree of European solidarity? To what extent are Europeans willing to help each other, and what kind of help are they willing to provide? The results from a recent survey of the German residential population, presented in this paper, offer a mixed picture: Whereas people strongly support medical solidarity, their willingness to support fi nancial redistribution is limited. As a consequence, it will be crucial to use ideational leadership to activate the potential for solidarity towards a united, viable Europe marked by limited inequality—especially with the German Council Presidency commencing on July 1st, 2020.publishe
Highlights • Beträchtlicher Umfang an lokaler Hilfe während der Corona-Krise • Viele Helfer*innen... more Highlights • Beträchtlicher Umfang an lokaler Hilfe während der Corona-Krise • Viele Helfer*innen haben schon vor Corona geholfen • Hilfewahrscheinlichkeit variiert nach Alter, Bildung und Einkommen Lokale Solidarität während der Corona-Krise: Wer gibt und wer erhält informelle Hilfe in Deutschland?
Die Dokumente auf EconStor dürfen zu eigenen wissenschaftlichen Zwecken und zum Privatgebrauch ge... more Die Dokumente auf EconStor dürfen zu eigenen wissenschaftlichen Zwecken und zum Privatgebrauch gespeichert und kopiert werden. Sie dürfen die Dokumente nicht für öffentliche oder kommerzielle Zwecke vervielfältigen, öffentlich ausstellen, öffentlich zugänglich machen, vertreiben oder anderweitig nutzen. Sofern die Verfasser die Dokumente unter Open-Content-Lizenzen (insbesondere CC-Lizenzen) zur Verfügung gestellt haben sollten, gelten abweichend von diesen Nutzungsbedingungen die in der dort genannten Lizenz gewährten Nutzungsrechte. Terms of use: Documents in EconStor may be saved and copied for your personal and scholarly purposes. You are not to copy documents for public or commercial purposes, to exhibit the documents publicly, to make them publicly available on the internet, or to distribute or otherwise use the documents in public. If the documents have been made available under an Open Content Licence (especially Creative Commons Licences), you may exercise further usage rights as specified in the indicated licence.
Aus der Perspektive nationalstaatlicher Politik erschien die Globalisierung wirtschaftlichen Hand... more Aus der Perspektive nationalstaatlicher Politik erschien die Globalisierung wirtschaftlichen Handelns von Beginn an als ein Prozess, der die vermeintliche „Abgeschlossenheit der einzelnen Nationalitaten“ untergrabt und seine Protagonisten „uber die ganze Erdkugel“ jagt (Marx und Engels 1969, S. 465). Wenn man globale okonomische Vernetzung als De- oder Transnationalisierung und damit als eine Form des „disembedding“ (Dicken 1998) begreift, liegt die Frage nach „Gegenbewegungen“ nahe: Unter diesem Titel werden seit Polanyi (1957) Formen der „(Selbst)Verteidigung der Gesellschaft“ gegen die Expansion der Marktwirtschaft diskutiert. Kritische Beobachter der zeitgenossischen Globalisierung suchen nach Aquivalenten – und werden mal mehr, mal weniger fundig (Birchfield 2005; Burawoy 2014; Silver und Arrighi 2016).
Handbook of Economic Sociology for the 21st Century, 2021
The recent war against Iraq may have implications for various defense programs of interest to Con... more The recent war against Iraq may have implications for various defense programs of interest to Congress. This report surveys some of those potential implications, and will be updated periodically as new information becomes available. Three cautionary notes associated with post-conflict "lessons-learned" reports apply to this report: Information about the Iraq war is incomplete and imperfect, so early lessons are subject to change. Each war is unique in some ways, so observers should avoid "overlearning" the lessons of the Iraq war. And potential U.S. adversaries can derive lessons from the Iraq war and apply them in future conflicts against U.S. forces, possibly devaluing U.S.-perceived lessons. It can also be noted that some persons or organizations offering purported lessons of the Iraq war may have a financial, institutional, or ideological stake in the issue. Many observers have concluded that the Iraq war validated the Administration's vision for defense transformation, or major parts of it. Other observers disagree. The issue is potentially significant because implementing the Administration's vision could affect the composition of U.S. defense spending, and because the Administration may invoke the theme of transformation to help justify or seek rapid congressional consideration of legislative proposals, including proposals that could affect Congress' role in conducting oversight of defense programs. The Iraq war may influence debate on whether active-duty U.S. military forces are sufficiently large to carry out current U.S. military strategy, and on whether greater emphasis should be placed on forces that are less dependent on access to in-theater bases. One of the most significant defense-program debates going into the Iraq warand potentially one of those most significantly influenced by the war-concerns the future size and composition of the active-duty Army. Both supporters and opponents of maintaining at least 10 active-duty Army divisions may find support in the Iraq war for their positions, as may both supporters and opponents of the current Army plan to shift toward a mix of fewer heavy armored units and a larger number of lighter and more mobile units. The Iraq war validated the effectiveness of combat-aircraft armed with precision-guided weapons, and may influence discussions about current plans for investing in specific aircraft and munitions programs. The Iraq war may reinforce support generated by the war in Afghanistan for increased investment in U.S. special operations forces. It may also highlight questions concerning reserve combat divisions and the potential consequences of extended callups of large numbers of reserve forces. The war appears to have demonstrated the value of network-centric operations and timely battlefield intelligence, and the potential value of psychological operations. It appears to have confirmed the importance of preparing for urban combat. The war offered a limited real-world test of the Patriot missile defense system. The war may lead to renewed discussions about strategies for reducing CRS-2 special operations forces, have received very little press coverage. Knowledge about the war at this point is thus fragmentary and unbalanced. Historically, moreover, early information that is publicly available about a war often proves to be inaccurate. Attempts to identify lessons should be tempered by an appreciation for gaps and imperfections in the available information. As information becomes more complete and accurate with time, early lessons may need to be modified or dropped. ! Each war is unique; avoid "overlearning" the lessons of this war. Particularly for U.S. military forces, which fight conflicts in different parts of the world against various adversaries, each war is characterized by a unique combination of variables such as geographic setting, pre-conflict warning and preparation time, U.S. and enemy war aims, the size and composition of enemy military forces, the quality of enemy military training and leadership, the amount and kind of military assistance that the United States or the enemy receives during the war from other governments or groups, the enemy government's degree of popular support among its own population, and the presence or absence of factional divisions within the enemy country's population due to ethnic differences or other factors. Given how at least some of these factors usually change for the United States from one war to the next, it has long been a staple of U.S. lessons-learned reports to note that lessons from one conflict may not necessarily apply to the next, might need to be applied with caution, or might contradict lessons of previous conflicts. Some of the lessons of the Iraq war, for example, may differ from lessons of the U.S.-led war in Afghanistan in 2001-2002 or the U.S. military operation in Kosovo in 1999. In short, the lessons of the Iraq war should not be "overlearned" because the Iraq war in some ways might not serve as an accurate template for future conflicts. ! Non-U.S. observers derive lessons as well, possibly devaluing U.S.perceived lessons. The United States is not the only country that derives lessons from U.S. military operations; observers in other countries do so as well. Non-U.S. observers keenly observe the U.S. way of war and draw conclusions about its strengths and weaknesses. These conclusions, if correct, can be applied by potential U.S. adversaries to improve their ability to contest U.S. forces in a future conflict. Serbia, for example, observed the 1991 Persian Gulf war and drew lessons from it on how to counter the effects of U.S. air power. These lessons were applied with some success by Serbian forces in Kosovo in 1999. In short, lessons that U.S. observers reach about a given U.S. military operation can be devalued by lessons that potential adversaries draw from that same operation. This is another reason to avoid "overlearning" the lessons of a given U.S. military operation. Numerous persons or organizations may offer what they contend are the lessons of the Iraq war. In evaluating purported lessons offered by various sources, one factor to consider is whether those sources have a potential financial, institutional, or ideological stake in the issue. Persons or organizations identifying the lessons of a war can be influenced, perhaps strongly, by such a stake. Indeed, some persons or organizations may deliberately identify and publicize purported lessons with the aim of influencing policy decisions on defense programs in a way that promotes their own CRS-3 interests. Although lessons offered by persons or organizations with a stake in the issue in many cases may be reasonable or correct, policymakers may wish to take such interests into account in evaluating lessons put forward by such sources.
Communications Earth & Environment
How do the impacts of acute crises influence citizens’ willingness to support different types of ... more How do the impacts of acute crises influence citizens’ willingness to support different types of climate measures? An acute crisis can be understood either as an impediment or as an opportunity for climate change mitigation. In the first perspective, crisis impacts would create negative spill-overs and dampen citizens’ willingness to support climate action, while in the second perspective, the opposite would occur. Based on a survey experiment fielded in Germany in 2022 (n = 5438), we find that the economic implications of the Russo-Ukrainian War do not decrease behavioral willingness, while restrictions of civil liberties to combat the COVID-19 pandemic lead to higher climate support, underpinning the crisis-as-opportunity perspective. Willingness to support climate measures is strongest among (1) those most concerned about climate change, and (2) those who trust the government. We conclude that individuals do not wish climate change mitigation to be deprioritized on the back of ot...
Economic Sociology, 2009
This research is devoted to ethical consumption understood as the buying or not buying of goods, ... more This research is devoted to ethical consumption understood as the buying or not buying of goods, for ethical, political or environmental reasons. This type of consumption is studied from the moral economy perspective. The data used here for analysis is the European Social Survey (ESS) of 2002/ 2003. In a cross section of 19 European countries the author explores determinants of self-reported ethical, political and ecological consumption. On the individual level he finds that especially education and values concerned with environmental care are important explanations for ethical buying or boycotting behaviour. Country level differences in ethical consumption can to a large degree be explained by the affluence of countries.потребление
Frontiers in Sociology
Contact restrictions and distancing measures are among the most effective non-pharmaceutical meas... more Contact restrictions and distancing measures are among the most effective non-pharmaceutical measures to stop the spread of the SARS-CoV2 virus. Yet, research has only begun to understand the wider social consequences of these interventions. This study investigates how individuals' social networks have changed since the outbreak of the pandemic and how this is related to individuals' socio-economic positions and their socio-demographic characteristics. Based on a large quota sample of the German adult population, we investigate the loss and gain of strong and weak social ties during the pandemic. While about one third of respondents reported losing of contact with acquaintances, every fourth person has lost contact to a friend. Forming new social ties occurs less frequently. Only 10–15% report having made new acquaintances (15%) or friends (10%) during the pandemic. Overall, more than half of our respondents did not report any change, however. Changes in social networks are ...
Die Studie untersucht am Beispiel der Fair-Handelsbewegung, wie sich die Entstehung und Verbreitu... more Die Studie untersucht am Beispiel der Fair-Handelsbewegung, wie sich die Entstehung und Verbreitung des ethischen Konsums in Europa seit dem Ende der 1990er-Jahre erklären lässt. In Ergänzung zu den existierenden akteurszentrierten Erklärungen ethischen Konsums werden Ansätze sozialer Bewegungstheorien verwendet, welche die organisationalen Dimensionen der Fair-Handelsbewegung und die nationalen Opportunitätsstrukturen in den Blick nehmen. Im Artikel wird argumentiert, dass der Wandel der Feldlogik der Fair-Trade-Bewegung von einer zivilgesellschaftlichen hin zu einer Marktlogik einen zentralen Impuls für die Entstehung und die Diffusion des Konsums fair gehandelter Produkte, aber auch für das Wissen über Fair Trade darstellte. Die Hypothesen werden anhand einer Mehrebenen-Analyse mit Daten einer Eurobarometer-Umfrage (1997) überprüft, die um Informationen zu den nationalen Fair-Trade-Organisationen und den ökonomischen und kulturellen Opportunitätsstrukturen ergänzt wurden. Die Erg...
Policy Papers, 2020
The coronavirus crisis exacerbates inequality in the European Union. It gives rise to a critical ... more The coronavirus crisis exacerbates inequality in the European Union. It gives rise to a critical debate about the future of Europe concerning a key question: In what way does the project of integration require a higher degree of European solidarity? To what extent are Europeans willing to help each other, and what kind of help are they willing to provide? The results from a recent survey of the German residential population, presented in this paper, offer a mixed picture: Whereas people strongly support medical solidarity, their willingness to support fi nancial redistribution is limited. As a consequence, it will be crucial to use ideational leadership to activate the potential for solidarity towards a united, viable Europe marked by limited inequality—especially with the German Council Presidency commencing on July 1st, 2020.publishe
Highlights • Beträchtlicher Umfang an lokaler Hilfe während der Corona-Krise • Viele Helfer*innen... more Highlights • Beträchtlicher Umfang an lokaler Hilfe während der Corona-Krise • Viele Helfer*innen haben schon vor Corona geholfen • Hilfewahrscheinlichkeit variiert nach Alter, Bildung und Einkommen Lokale Solidarität während der Corona-Krise: Wer gibt und wer erhält informelle Hilfe in Deutschland?
Die Dokumente auf EconStor dürfen zu eigenen wissenschaftlichen Zwecken und zum Privatgebrauch ge... more Die Dokumente auf EconStor dürfen zu eigenen wissenschaftlichen Zwecken und zum Privatgebrauch gespeichert und kopiert werden. Sie dürfen die Dokumente nicht für öffentliche oder kommerzielle Zwecke vervielfältigen, öffentlich ausstellen, öffentlich zugänglich machen, vertreiben oder anderweitig nutzen. Sofern die Verfasser die Dokumente unter Open-Content-Lizenzen (insbesondere CC-Lizenzen) zur Verfügung gestellt haben sollten, gelten abweichend von diesen Nutzungsbedingungen die in der dort genannten Lizenz gewährten Nutzungsrechte. Terms of use: Documents in EconStor may be saved and copied for your personal and scholarly purposes. You are not to copy documents for public or commercial purposes, to exhibit the documents publicly, to make them publicly available on the internet, or to distribute or otherwise use the documents in public. If the documents have been made available under an Open Content Licence (especially Creative Commons Licences), you may exercise further usage rights as specified in the indicated licence.
Aus der Perspektive nationalstaatlicher Politik erschien die Globalisierung wirtschaftlichen Hand... more Aus der Perspektive nationalstaatlicher Politik erschien die Globalisierung wirtschaftlichen Handelns von Beginn an als ein Prozess, der die vermeintliche „Abgeschlossenheit der einzelnen Nationalitaten“ untergrabt und seine Protagonisten „uber die ganze Erdkugel“ jagt (Marx und Engels 1969, S. 465). Wenn man globale okonomische Vernetzung als De- oder Transnationalisierung und damit als eine Form des „disembedding“ (Dicken 1998) begreift, liegt die Frage nach „Gegenbewegungen“ nahe: Unter diesem Titel werden seit Polanyi (1957) Formen der „(Selbst)Verteidigung der Gesellschaft“ gegen die Expansion der Marktwirtschaft diskutiert. Kritische Beobachter der zeitgenossischen Globalisierung suchen nach Aquivalenten – und werden mal mehr, mal weniger fundig (Birchfield 2005; Burawoy 2014; Silver und Arrighi 2016).
Handbook of Economic Sociology for the 21st Century, 2021
The recent war against Iraq may have implications for various defense programs of interest to Con... more The recent war against Iraq may have implications for various defense programs of interest to Congress. This report surveys some of those potential implications, and will be updated periodically as new information becomes available. Three cautionary notes associated with post-conflict "lessons-learned" reports apply to this report: Information about the Iraq war is incomplete and imperfect, so early lessons are subject to change. Each war is unique in some ways, so observers should avoid "overlearning" the lessons of the Iraq war. And potential U.S. adversaries can derive lessons from the Iraq war and apply them in future conflicts against U.S. forces, possibly devaluing U.S.-perceived lessons. It can also be noted that some persons or organizations offering purported lessons of the Iraq war may have a financial, institutional, or ideological stake in the issue. Many observers have concluded that the Iraq war validated the Administration's vision for defense transformation, or major parts of it. Other observers disagree. The issue is potentially significant because implementing the Administration's vision could affect the composition of U.S. defense spending, and because the Administration may invoke the theme of transformation to help justify or seek rapid congressional consideration of legislative proposals, including proposals that could affect Congress' role in conducting oversight of defense programs. The Iraq war may influence debate on whether active-duty U.S. military forces are sufficiently large to carry out current U.S. military strategy, and on whether greater emphasis should be placed on forces that are less dependent on access to in-theater bases. One of the most significant defense-program debates going into the Iraq warand potentially one of those most significantly influenced by the war-concerns the future size and composition of the active-duty Army. Both supporters and opponents of maintaining at least 10 active-duty Army divisions may find support in the Iraq war for their positions, as may both supporters and opponents of the current Army plan to shift toward a mix of fewer heavy armored units and a larger number of lighter and more mobile units. The Iraq war validated the effectiveness of combat-aircraft armed with precision-guided weapons, and may influence discussions about current plans for investing in specific aircraft and munitions programs. The Iraq war may reinforce support generated by the war in Afghanistan for increased investment in U.S. special operations forces. It may also highlight questions concerning reserve combat divisions and the potential consequences of extended callups of large numbers of reserve forces. The war appears to have demonstrated the value of network-centric operations and timely battlefield intelligence, and the potential value of psychological operations. It appears to have confirmed the importance of preparing for urban combat. The war offered a limited real-world test of the Patriot missile defense system. The war may lead to renewed discussions about strategies for reducing CRS-2 special operations forces, have received very little press coverage. Knowledge about the war at this point is thus fragmentary and unbalanced. Historically, moreover, early information that is publicly available about a war often proves to be inaccurate. Attempts to identify lessons should be tempered by an appreciation for gaps and imperfections in the available information. As information becomes more complete and accurate with time, early lessons may need to be modified or dropped. ! Each war is unique; avoid "overlearning" the lessons of this war. Particularly for U.S. military forces, which fight conflicts in different parts of the world against various adversaries, each war is characterized by a unique combination of variables such as geographic setting, pre-conflict warning and preparation time, U.S. and enemy war aims, the size and composition of enemy military forces, the quality of enemy military training and leadership, the amount and kind of military assistance that the United States or the enemy receives during the war from other governments or groups, the enemy government's degree of popular support among its own population, and the presence or absence of factional divisions within the enemy country's population due to ethnic differences or other factors. Given how at least some of these factors usually change for the United States from one war to the next, it has long been a staple of U.S. lessons-learned reports to note that lessons from one conflict may not necessarily apply to the next, might need to be applied with caution, or might contradict lessons of previous conflicts. Some of the lessons of the Iraq war, for example, may differ from lessons of the U.S.-led war in Afghanistan in 2001-2002 or the U.S. military operation in Kosovo in 1999. In short, the lessons of the Iraq war should not be "overlearned" because the Iraq war in some ways might not serve as an accurate template for future conflicts. ! Non-U.S. observers derive lessons as well, possibly devaluing U.S.perceived lessons. The United States is not the only country that derives lessons from U.S. military operations; observers in other countries do so as well. Non-U.S. observers keenly observe the U.S. way of war and draw conclusions about its strengths and weaknesses. These conclusions, if correct, can be applied by potential U.S. adversaries to improve their ability to contest U.S. forces in a future conflict. Serbia, for example, observed the 1991 Persian Gulf war and drew lessons from it on how to counter the effects of U.S. air power. These lessons were applied with some success by Serbian forces in Kosovo in 1999. In short, lessons that U.S. observers reach about a given U.S. military operation can be devalued by lessons that potential adversaries draw from that same operation. This is another reason to avoid "overlearning" the lessons of a given U.S. military operation. Numerous persons or organizations may offer what they contend are the lessons of the Iraq war. In evaluating purported lessons offered by various sources, one factor to consider is whether those sources have a potential financial, institutional, or ideological stake in the issue. Persons or organizations identifying the lessons of a war can be influenced, perhaps strongly, by such a stake. Indeed, some persons or organizations may deliberately identify and publicize purported lessons with the aim of influencing policy decisions on defense programs in a way that promotes their own CRS-3 interests. Although lessons offered by persons or organizations with a stake in the issue in many cases may be reasonable or correct, policymakers may wish to take such interests into account in evaluating lessons put forward by such sources.
In an effort to bridge research on political consumerism across disciplines, I have created a wor... more In an effort to bridge research on political consumerism across disciplines, I have created a working 'database' of studies on political consumerism. To update this document to include your work and/or your colleagues' work, please go to https://goo.gl/i71KDt . Please include citation in APA format, link to article, and abstract.