Kommunale Wirtschaftsförderung

Einleitung Die nachhaltige Globalisierung der Wirtschaft versch?rft nicht nur den internationalen Standortwettbewerb für Unternehmen, sondern führt auch zu einem gro?en Anpassungsdruck für die deutschen Kommunen. Gleichzeitig engt die angespannte Finanzlage den Handlungsspielraum der Kommunen nicht unerheblich ein. Die kommunale Wirtschaftsf?rderung als Mittler zwischen Verwaltung und Unternehmen kann – bei effizienter Aufgabengestaltung – gro?en Einflu? auf die Anpassung der ?rtlichen Wirtschaft auf die Ver?nderungen nehmen Auch wenn die kommunale Wirtschaftsf?rderung selbst keine Finanzmittel oder Subventionen an die Unternehmen ausgeben darf, bieten die M?glichkeiten der Wirtschaftsf?rderung gro?en Spielraum. Nach wie vor ist die Beeinflussung materieller Standortfaktoren, wie z.B. in der Gewerbefl?chenpolitik, von zentraler Bedeutung. Zus?tzlich gewinnen aber “klimatische”, also im weitesten Sinne weiche, Faktoren an Bedeutung. Hierauf weisen nicht nur aktuelle theoretische Konzepte zur Regionalentwicklung hin, sondern auch empirische Befunde der Unternehmen. Zu diesen, auch als Fühlungsvorteile bezeichneten “weichen” Standortfaktoren z?hlen, z.B. die Geschwindigkeit, mit der Unternehmensantr?ge bearbeitet oder Genehmigungen beschieden werden, das Engagement der Wirtschaftsf?rderung bei der Beseitigung von Investitionshemmnissen sowie bei der Herstellung von Kontakten und Beziehungen zwischen allen lokalen und regionalen, bisweilen auch überregionalen Akteuren. Eine Studie des Instituts für Mittelstandsforschung Bonn (IfM), deren Ergebnisse u.a. auf Fallbeispielen aus Nordrhein–Westfalen, Bayern und Brandenburg basieren, zeigt, dass die Notwendigkeit zu einer Neuorientierung von nahezu allen untersuchten Kommunen erkannt, eine tats?chliche umfassende Umsetzung jedoch nur von den wenigsten realisiert wird. Insbesondere im Bereich der Organisationsstruktur sowie bei der Abstimmung mit anderen regionalen Akteuren offenbart sich nach wie vor gro?er Handlungsbedarf. Auch das Neue Steuerungsmodell hat bisher zu keiner grundlegenden Verbesserung geführt, da seine Einführung zumeist auf die Fach?mter für Finanzen beschr?nkt ist. Eine Reform, die auf eine st?rkere Kundenorientierung der kommunalen Verwaltung abzielt, mu? jedoch insbesondere die Unternehmen als Adressaten im Blick haben. Deren Interessen werden aber vor allem in der Wirtschaftsf?rderung berücksichtigt, insofern bedeutet die Realisierung von Kundenorientierung vorrangig eine effiziente und auf die Unternehmensbedürfnisse ausgerichtete Organisationsstruktur der Wirtschaftsf?rderung. Diese Problemstellung nahm das IfM Bonn zum Anla?, ein idealtypisches Modell einer kommunalen Wirtschaftsf?rderung zu entwickeln, das als Grundlage für weiterführende Diskussionen dienen soll. Das Modell setzt sich aus drei Stufen zusammen, in denen die interne Organisationsstruktur der Wirtschaftsf?rderung sowie ihre Einbindung in ein intra- sowie interregionales Beziehungsgeflecht betrachtet wird. Zus?tzlich berücksichtigt das Modell die beiden in der Praxis gel?ufigsten Organisationsformen der kommunalen Wirtschaftsf?rderung: Das Amt für Wirtschaftsf?rderung sowie die privatrechtlich organisierte Gesellschaft.     

Infrared radiofluorescence (IR-RF) dating of middle pleistocene fluvial archives of the Heidelberg Basin (Southwest Germany)

The infrared radiofluorescence (IR-RF) dating technique was applied to eight fluvial samples that were collected from two sediment cores at the Heidelberg Basin located near Viernheim and Ludwigshafen in southwest Germany. Based on the IR-RF derived ages of the samples it was possible to establish a chronological framework for the Mid-Pleistocene fluvial deposits of the Heidelberg Basin. The results allow us to distinguish between four main periods of aggradation. The lowermost sample taken from 100 m core depth lead to an IR-RF age of 643 ± 28 ka pointing to a Cromerian period of aggradation (OIS 17–16). For the Elsterian it is now possible to distinguish between two aggradation periods, one occurring during the Lower Elsterian period (OIS 15) and a second during the Upper Elsterian period (OIS 12–11). For the so called Upper interlayer (or “Oberer Zwischenhorizont” — a layer of organic-rich and finer-grained deposits), the IR-RF results point to a deposition age of around 300 ka, with samples taken directly on top and out of this layer yielding IR-RF ages of 288 ± 19 ka and 302 ± 19 ka, respectively. Hence, the measured IR-RF ages clearly point to a deposition during the Lower Saalian period (OIS 9–8) whereas earlier studies assumed a Cromerian age for the sediments of the Upper Interlayer based on pollen records and also mollusc fauna. The new IR-RF dataset indicates that significant hiatuses are present within the fluvial sediment successions. In particular the Eemian and Upper Saalian deposits are missing in this part of the northern Upper Rhine Graben, as the 300 ka deposits are directly overlain by Weichselian fluvial sediments. It is obvious that time periods of increased fluvial aggradation were interrupted by time periods of almost no aggradation or erosion which should have been mainly triggered by phases of increased and decreased subsidence of the Heidelberg Basin.     

Gendered division of labour and feminisation of responsibilities in Kenya; implications for development interventions

Analysing gender roles as a social organisation element of a community is critical for understanding actors’ rationales and agency with regard to allocation and use of resources. This article discusses gender relations and how they determine development outcomes, based on a highland-lowland case-study of participants of Farmer Field Schools in Kakamega Central Sub-County (highland) and Mbeere South Sub-County (lowland). The gender relations at stake include the gendered division of labour, gender roles and intra-household power relations as expressed in access and control of resources and benefits and their implications for agricultural development. The study used mixed methods, the Harvard Analytical Framework of gender roles and draws on the Neo-Marxist position on exploitation, categorisation and institutionalisation of power relations, empowerment and the critical moments framework to discuss the results. Results in both Sub-Counties show that patriarchy prevails, determining institutional design, access and control of resources and benefits. Social positions shape capabilities and strategies of actors in decision-making and use of resources to justify gender-specific institutional arrangements. In Kakamega, men get the lion share of incomes from contracted sugarcane farming despite overburdening workloads on women, while in Mbeere, both men and women derive incomes from Khat (Catha Edulis) enterprises. However, women are expected to spend their earnings on household expenditures, which were hitherto responsibilities of men, thereby contributing to the feminisation of responsibilities. Development policies and interventions thus need to be based on an understanding of men and women’s differential access and control over resources and the institutions underpinning men and women’s bargaining power in order to adopt more effective measures to reduce gender inequalities.     

Agamben in the Ogaden: Violence and sovereignty in the Ethiopian–Somali frontier

This paper asks what makes the periphery or the frontier a prime locus of the “inclusionary exclusion” that is, according to Giorgio Agamben, so constitutive of the state of exception. By applying Agamben’s analytics to the Ogaden – a frontier province of the Ethiopian state – we propose an interpretation of the political history of the Ethiopian Ogaden as a recurrent government by exception that spans the Imperial rule (c. 1890–1974), the socialist dictatorship of the Derg (1974–1991), and the current revolutionary democratic regime led by the Ethiopian Peoples’ Revolutionary Democratic Front (EPRDF) (1991–today). Drawing attention to the historical continuities in the exercise of (Ethiopian) state sovereignty in its (Somali) frontier, we offer a genealogy of the violent incorporation of the Ogaden into the Ethiopian body politic. We identify recurring practices of sovereign power by successive Ethiopian regimes that are constitutive of the state of exception, namely a conflation between law and lawlessness, the politics of bare life and an encampment strategy. By doing so, this paper insists on the constitutive importance of land appropriation – Carl Schmitt’s Landnahme – in performances of sovereignty and territorialization at the margins of the postcolonial state.     

The calm before the storm: A punctuated equilibrium theory of international politics

Research has shown that policymaking in numerous domestic policies, across a multitude of polities, systematically produces a pattern of change that matches Punctuated Equilibrium Theory (PET), characterized by many incremental and occasional dramatic changes. The field of International Relations (IR), however, has paid surprisingly little attention to PET, even though the same pattern of change is also found in international politics. This study attempts to fill this gap and explains stability and change in international politics based on PET. Specifically, we detail the dynamics behind this pattern of behavior, both at the domestic and the international level, as well as their interplay. The empirical section shows that different indicators of international politics, including troop deployments, foreign aid and international trade, follow a leptokurtic pattern of change, which characterizes Punctuated Equilibrium, and whereby changes in countries' behavior are generally incremental, representing periods of relative stability, and punctuated by large changes that dramatically overthrow existing policies. Moreover, our results indicate that policy outputs where greater friction is at play are more punctuated than those policies that cannot as easily or directly be managed. This study urges future research to further explore the dynamics of stability and change at the aggregate, international level.