Drawing on the sociology of Max Weber, Barbara Theriault investigates today's relations toward difference within German police forces. Accompanying and interviewing police officers whose job it is to contribute to the acknowledgement of difference, the sociologist outlines three ideal types of actors - an empathetic, a principled, and an opportunist one - and the motives underlying their actions. A fourth type, the specialist, is conspicuously absent. Why is that so? Solving this enigma helps depicting the relations to difference within police forces: it points to a specific "spirit" of...

The discourse on transplantation and brain death has become emblematic of conflicts between certain perspectives on adequate medical care, death, and dying. Scientific and religious, modernizing and traditional as well as academic and popular voices debate how to approach these topics. This work captures the heterogeneous and often contradictory views on the Malaysian transplant venture and the treatment option of end-stage organ failure from the Malay and Chinese population, physicians, state officials, and Muslim, Buddhist, and Daoist clergy. It also addresses vital issues as to the use of...

For the police, work effectiveness or fairness in encounters is especially important to ensure institutional trust and procedural fairness. Emphasizing social trust and criminal victimization, Silvia Staubli offers an analysis of attitudes toward the police in Eastern and Western Europe, addressing sociology, political science, criminology, and social anthropology equally. The study provides insight on how public opinion toward institutions is shaped.