Johannes Pflegerl
@fhstp.ac.at
Departmen of Social Sciences/ Faculty of Health and Social Sciences
University of Applied Sciences St. Pölten
RESEARCH, TEACHING, or OTHER INTERESTS
Social Sciences, Sociology and Political Science, Health (social science)
Scopus Publications
Scholar Citations
Scholar h-index
Scholar i10-index
Scopus Publications
Hemma Mayrhofer, Natalia Waechter, and Johannes Pflegerl
Springer Science and Business Media LLC
Johannes Pflegerl
Springer Science and Business Media LLC
W. Lutz, R. Richter and Chris Wilson
Routledge
Ongoing global changes bring fundamentally new scientific problems requiring new concepts and tools. A key issue concerns a vast variety of practically irreducible uncertainties, which challenge our traditional models and require new concepts and analytical tools. The uncertainty critically dominates, e.g., the climate change debates. In short, the dilemma is concerned with enormous costs vs. massive uncertainties of potential extreme impacts. Traditional scientific approaches usually rely on real observations and experiments. Yet no sufficient observations exist for new problems, and "pure" experiments and learning by doing may be very expensive, dangerous, or simply impossible. In addition, available historical observations are contaminated by actions, policies. The complexity of new problems does not allow to achieve enough certainty by increasing the resolution of models or by bringing in more links. Hence, new tools for modeling and management of uncertainty are needed, as given in this book which was prepared for an interdisciplinary audience, and addresses open problems, limitations of known approaches, novel methods and techniques, or lessons from the applications of various approaches. Thus, the book contributes to a better understanding between practitioners dealing with the management of uncertainty, and scientists working on either corresponding modeling approaches that can be applied for improving understanding or management of uncertainty.
Rudolf Richter and Johannes Pflegerl
University of Toronto Press Inc. (UTPress)
Despite the breakdown of Apartheid urban policies in South Africa, the migrant labor system continues to be a reality affecting African family life extensively. This article is based on qualitative research focusing on the impact of the migrant labor system on the family life of Black South Africans, in terms of both the marital and parental relationships. Rather than focusing only on the negative impact of labor migration on the relationships in African families, such as the experience of marital and familial dissolution and breakdown, the research also sheds light on the way in which these families utilize cultural values and survival strategies to ensure that the oscillating nature of the immigrant labor system does not completely uproot them from their traditional way of life.