Acta Sociologica

In this article, I analyse a theoretical multi-level model of entrepreneurship in which institutional variables associated with different variants of capitalism and individual level differences in resources can potentially explain whether and why new firms are created. Our model answers calls for more research on why countries differ in terms of ‘entrepreneurial spirit’ and whether and how individual level predictors of start-up activity vary across countries and institutional contexts. In addressing these issues, I ‘merge’ insights from ‘entrepreneurship studies’ in management and the varieties of capitalism tradition in economic sociology. The empirical research draws on a database containing information about 188,835 individuals from 21 countries.

This article compares Burma-related solidarity campaigns in Denmark in 1988 and 2007 to demonstrate an increasing transnational complexity of domestic solidarity campaigns and, more generally, domestic public spheres. Differences between 1988 and 2007 are identified in four areas or ‘complexities’: Informational complexity, organizational complexity, composition complexity and analytical complexity. Informational complexity is identified in the increasing variation in information sources between the two years. Organizational complexity is evidenced by the fact that an organizational infrastructure related specifically to Burma emerged in the period between 1988 and 2007. Composition complexity is expressed in the greater intensity of the 2007 campaign, as well as in the broader set of actors involved in it. In particular, corporations emerged as central players in the period. Analytical complexity is found in the way prognostic frames in the 2007 case consistently placed the issue of Burma in a larger world political context.

Despite decades of research on the association between socio-economic status (SES) and crime, its strength and nature remain contested. Using a unique dataset combining data from several administrative registers with a nationally representative sample of 28,485 19 to 30-year-old Finnish citizens, we examine SES differences in violent offences, property offences and driving while intoxicated. We use multiple measures of SES in order to see what it is in SES that increases crime risk. We also test the strain accumulation hypothesis to find out whether presence of multiple strains increases crime risk disproportionately. The results indicate that, in addition to male gender, SES is strongly associated with all three types of crime, and the predictors are largely similar for all the offence types in question. Long-term unemployment and having only a basic education, in particular, were the most robust predictors of offending. These associations held after controlling for previous criminal involvement as well as other social characteristics, whereas the effect of low income on crime was primarily attributable to prior involvement in crime. Overall, the results imply that there are both causation and selection mechanisms at play. No interactive effect was found for strain accumulation.

This article focuses on Bauman’s contribution to political sociology and proposes that, in spite of his apparently pessimistic critique of contemporary society, his work has much to offer the ‘new positivity’ within the social sciences. Drawing upon his writings on socialism and utopia, as well as his frequently normative ‘liquid sociology’ period, the article pursues the idea that Bauman’s work offers a vital compass — understood as a particular way of orientating ourselves towards the present — such that we are better able to navigate the complexities and uncertainties of the current interregnum. Given the various social, economic, political and environmental crises that have come to characterize the first decade of the twenty-first century, the article concludes by suggesting that Bauman’s compass provides a useful sense of direction for rising to the task of rethinking global societies in order to meet these shared challenges to human social life.