@techreport{Bulmahn1998Taking,
abstract = {In the discussion of the sociological and political science research on the unification of  Germany the positions range from the view that intra-German transformation has been  successful on the whole and that it has begun to stabilize to contentions that eastern  Germany has been colonized by western German actors and that Germany's unification has  failed. Between these two poles lie arguments calling attention to newly emerging  differences between eastern and western Germany. Critically reviewing assessments of  German unification, I come to four conclusions. First, the social science discussion about  the topic is divided into two debates. One of them is centered on the controversy between  the modernisation thesis and assertions by skeptics and critics. The other debate is focused  on the problems of controling intra-German transformation. Second, the discussion is  largely isolated from research on transformation underway in eastern and central Europe at  large. Third, the evaluation of the process, impacts, and perspectives of German unification  is affected by the theoretical position of the researchers and the methodological design of  their studies. Fourth, the future development of social science research on German  unification is being determined by two trends, internationalization and regionalization.},
address = {Berlin},
author = {Thomas Bulmahn},
copyright = {http://www.econstor.eu/dspace/Nutzungsbedingungen},
keywords = {300},
language = {eng},
number = {FS III 98-407},
publisher = {WZB},
title = {Taking Stock: German Unification as Reflected in the Social Sciences},
type = {Ver\"{o}ffentlichungen der Abteilung Sozialstruktur und Sozialberichterstattung des Forschungsschwerpunktes Sozialer Wandel, Institutionen und Vermittlungsprozesse des Wissenschaftszentrums Berlin f\"{u}r Sozialforschung},
url = {http://hdl.handle.net/10419/50196},
year = {1998}
}
