Married 40 years
This was an unusual year because it was 40 years ago that we married in Vienna. It happened that just this year Willem was invited to teach during the fall in Vienna. We did not have to think too long about this invitation although we had enough other things to do. However the idea to be in Vienna for a longer period after 40 years was for both of us too exciting to refuse.
Before gong there I had first to teach in ESADE as usual, I was asked to substitute Albert Satorra in a course in the economic faculty of the Universitat Pompeu Fabra (UPF) and I was asked as keynote speaker at the RC33 group of the International Sociological Association (ISA) in Naples. Besides all these special events we had of course also our work for the ESS and I tried to realize a research centre in Barcelona.
Before gong there I had first to teach in ESADE as usual, I was asked to substitute Albert Satorra in a course in the economic faculty of the Universitat Pompeu Fabra (UPF) and I was asked as keynote speaker at the RC33 group of the International Sociological Association (ISA) in Naples. Besides all these special events we had of course also our work for the ESS and I tried to realize a research centre in Barcelona.
My first course at the UPF
Having been teaching at the business school ESADE was a special experience, but now I was going to teach students of the master program of the economic faculty of the UPF. The statistics of the course were not very different from other courses but the topic for empirical research had to be different. I thought that it would be a nice topic for them to study the relationship between income and satisfaction with the income. I provided them with the data from different countries. In general the correlation is very low, the explained variance is below .10. Most of these economics students liked this empirical research and tried to develop alternative explanations.
There was one student who was very interested in this empirical work and tried a lot of different models. That was a student from France, Melanie Revilla, who had chosen to study this year in Barcelona. At the end of the course I asked her whether she would like to continue this kind of work in our research group for the ESS. She became one of my best companions in the ESS research group.
Having been teaching at the business school ESADE was a special experience, but now I was going to teach students of the master program of the economic faculty of the UPF. The statistics of the course were not very different from other courses but the topic for empirical research had to be different. I thought that it would be a nice topic for them to study the relationship between income and satisfaction with the income. I provided them with the data from different countries. In general the correlation is very low, the explained variance is below .10. Most of these economics students liked this empirical research and tried to develop alternative explanations.
There was one student who was very interested in this empirical work and tried a lot of different models. That was a student from France, Melanie Revilla, who had chosen to study this year in Barcelona. At the end of the course I asked her whether she would like to continue this kind of work in our research group for the ESS. She became one of my best companions in the ESS research group.
Looking for support for RECSM
To try to get support for our research centre I went with Mariano Torcal of the UPF to the local government of Catalunya. They found our idea of an expertise centre for survey research interesting, but said that we first had to speak with the Catalan survey research organization to present our plan there. That we did and the discussion went very well but after that nothing happened. Afterwards, I think that we were too optimistic about our own position: without a commitment in the form of a considerable financial support of the different involved universities we had no chance to realize our plan. Certainly ESADE was not really interested in this development, although formally they supported our proposal. This methodological research was too far from their main focus: teaching and advising business management
Time to go to Naples
I was honoured that I was asked for a key note speech in Naples in the meeting of the ISA conference. In the past I had organized together with others several of the meetings of the methodological committee, RC 33. My interest was considerably reduced when qualitative researchers took over the activities of the Research Committee 33 of the ISA. Now it seemed to go again a bit in the other direction and so I accepted the invitation and spoke about the work I had done with Albert Satorra concerning testing of structural equation models. My idea was that this topic would be an important issue for many social science researchers but it seemed that the topic was still too technical because there was only a limited interest in my speech.
To try to get support for our research centre I went with Mariano Torcal of the UPF to the local government of Catalunya. They found our idea of an expertise centre for survey research interesting, but said that we first had to speak with the Catalan survey research organization to present our plan there. That we did and the discussion went very well but after that nothing happened. Afterwards, I think that we were too optimistic about our own position: without a commitment in the form of a considerable financial support of the different involved universities we had no chance to realize our plan. Certainly ESADE was not really interested in this development, although formally they supported our proposal. This methodological research was too far from their main focus: teaching and advising business management
Time to go to Naples
I was honoured that I was asked for a key note speech in Naples in the meeting of the ISA conference. In the past I had organized together with others several of the meetings of the methodological committee, RC 33. My interest was considerably reduced when qualitative researchers took over the activities of the Research Committee 33 of the ISA. Now it seemed to go again a bit in the other direction and so I accepted the invitation and spoke about the work I had done with Albert Satorra concerning testing of structural equation models. My idea was that this topic would be an important issue for many social science researchers but it seemed that the topic was still too technical because there was only a limited interest in my speech.
We had also organized during that conference a meeting of the board of the ESRA because many board members were also at the RC33 meeting. There we made some decisions about the ESRA conference which would be held next year in Warsaw. It was of course nice to look around in Naples.
We were impressed by the number of churches that were built there in one of the main streets. Approximately every 75 meters there was another big Roman Catholic Church. How they were able to pay for the maintenance of all these churches was an obvious question that we asked ourselves and others.
Back in Vienna after 40 years
Irmtraud very much liked to be for a longer period in Vienna again and I liked it too. We had booked a small apartment with a view on the famous Naschmarkt, a very nice place to live. Irmtraud went there to prepare our stay from October 1 till the end of December. I came a bit later after a meeting in Berlin with some ESRA people talking about life satisfaction research. At the other side of the Naschmarkt was the “Theater an der Wien” where we went several times for concerts and an Opera.
We were impressed by the number of churches that were built there in one of the main streets. Approximately every 75 meters there was another big Roman Catholic Church. How they were able to pay for the maintenance of all these churches was an obvious question that we asked ourselves and others.
Back in Vienna after 40 years
Irmtraud very much liked to be for a longer period in Vienna again and I liked it too. We had booked a small apartment with a view on the famous Naschmarkt, a very nice place to live. Irmtraud went there to prepare our stay from October 1 till the end of December. I came a bit later after a meeting in Berlin with some ESRA people talking about life satisfaction research. At the other side of the Naschmarkt was the “Theater an der Wien” where we went several times for concerts and an Opera.
In Vienna I would teach two courses. One was my standard course on survey research following our recently published book and the other was about the application of this approach on a topic that was, at that time, very popular “Social Capital”. The first course was in the main building of the University which was very impressive. The students were good and interested. Some were following both courses and some only one.
Although I invested a lot of effort in my courses as always, we had enough time to go around and enjoy the memories of the past. Grinzing was now too full with singing tourists to be fun but there were enough nice new places. Close to our flat there were several open air bars and restaurants where we went.
New were the facilities on the Donau-insel. There outdoor bars and restaurants were created along with walking paths, playgrounds and bicycle and skating routes. The last attracted me a lot and regularly I went with my inline skates to the Donau-insel by subway, went skating and met Irmtraud afterwards on one of the terraces.
Although I invested a lot of effort in my courses as always, we had enough time to go around and enjoy the memories of the past. Grinzing was now too full with singing tourists to be fun but there were enough nice new places. Close to our flat there were several open air bars and restaurants where we went.
New were the facilities on the Donau-insel. There outdoor bars and restaurants were created along with walking paths, playgrounds and bicycle and skating routes. The last attracted me a lot and regularly I went with my inline skates to the Donau-insel by subway, went skating and met Irmtraud afterwards on one of the terraces.
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When it became colder I looked for an ice rink and found a famous one next to the Concert House, two stops away with the subway from our flat. I bought hockey skates to skate on the small place and skated many small rounds. I envied the elderly Viennese men who came there every day around 10 a.m. and when the women came, a bit later, they asked them to dance on the ice. I was sorry that I never had learned to dance like them on the ice. It must be a lot of fun. |
Going around in the town we were very impressed by the many buildings of the beginning of the last century, when Vienna was one of the main centres of Art Deco. Just opposite of our flat on the Naschmarkt there was a very nice example, an art deco facade.
Very impressive was also the art deco railway from the centre of the town to Schönbrunn, the palace of the former emperor . Recently these monuments were again restored in their old glory.
Very impressive was also the art deco railway from the centre of the town to Schönbrunn, the palace of the former emperor . Recently these monuments were again restored in their old glory.
Before our stay in Vienna ended, Christmas markets were opened and we enjoyed going around from one to the other, drinking “glühwein” or punch. We also enjoyed this nice atmosphere. We thought that we had enjoyed the 40th year of our marriage in a proper way.