Open Access

While global food production greatly exceeds dietary energy demand, undernutrition remains, and diets largely fail to ensure the health of the population. Agricultural biodiversity is crucial for the world’s food security, but genetic diversity has been degraded. In Mexico, the dietary transition towards processed foods has contributed to malnutrition and a rise of diet-related chronic diseases. Mexico’s indigenous people are conserving and creating valuable plant genetic resources in their swidden milpas and traditional agroforestry systems but remain the country’s most vulnerable population group. The Teenek (or Huastec), an indigenous group that habitat the Huasteca Potosina, a region in north-eastern Mexico cultivate a high diversity of edible plants in their home gardens (solar), milpas, and agroforestry systems (te’lom, or finca). However, migration has been leading to the abandonment of traditional farming in the region. The objective of this study was to analyse if the managed agricultural biodiversity of the different traditional land use systems contributes to the food security of the farming households in the community of Jol Mom. Food availability and access were investigated. In total, 40 households were surveyed. Dietary patterns were identified through principal component analysis. Informal interviews, semi-structured interviews and participant observation allowed to account for the people’s own perceptions and provided additional insights. Findings showed that traditional Teenek farming systems are the source of a variety of nutritious foods and resulted to be the most important provider of fruits and vegetables. The average production diversity was 34 out of 56 crops, farmers cultivating more than one or two farming systems showed an increase of four and 11 produced species respectively. Production diversity was strongly correlated with food variety in a household’s diet, with an increment of one per 0.85 produced crop. Two main diverging dietary patterns were revealed, a westernized diet relying largely on purchased foods, to which the younger generation was more inclined, and a traditional diet characterized by a high consumption of cultivated products, mostly observed in the older households. In conclusion, farming households in Jol Mom profit from the agricultural diversity of their production systems, either through the consumption of nutritious foods or by the sale of agricultural products. However, a tendency towards nutrient-poor diets was observed. Increasing agricultural diversity and consumption of locally produced foods might help to fight this trend but would require a valorisation of traditional foods and an appreciation of the contribution of indigenous people’s traditional agriculture to food security.

„Gender, Arbeit, Märkte“, gehört seit WS2018 zu dem Seminarangebot des Bachelor-Studiengangs Soziale Arbeit an der TH Köln. In diesem Seminar, das ich wissenschaftlich leite, wird die Beziehung zwischen Wirtschaft und Sorgearbeit untersucht und Alternativen zu dem herrschenden ‚genderneutralen‘ Wirtschaftsmodell „Soziale Marktwirtschaft“ kennengelernt. Im Sommersemester 2019 hatten die Seminarteilnehmer*innen die Möglichkeit, an der Konferenz „Ökosoziale Marktwirtschaft“ teilzunehmen mit den eingeladenen Rednern Oliver Richters, Christian Felber und Robert Habeck. Organisiert wurde sie am 26.3.2019 von Prof. Ursula Binder aus der wirtschaftswissenschaftlichen Fakultät der TH Köln. Die studentischen Essays in diesem Sammelband setzen sich kritisch auseinander mit den in der Konferenz vorgestellten sozialen und ökologischen Wirtschaftsmodellen.

The reinsurance market is currently faced with great challenges and profound changes. Even after the large NatCat claims in Q3-2017, the substantial hardening of the reinsurance market for which reinsurers had hoped failed to materialise in the year-end renewal. Interest is now focussed on the renewal of retrocession agreements as at 1st April 2018. The Cologne Research Centre for Reinsurance analyses the latest developments in the reinsurance market and, where appropriate, monitors these through research projects. In the process, the Cologne Research Centre for Reinsurance links its research activities with practices in the reinsurance sector. Hereby, and facilitated through organisation of the annual Cologne Reinsurance Symposium and the Annual Meeting of the Sponsoring Group Reinsurance, a bi-directional transfer of knowledge between theory and practice is pursued. The content of these two scientific events, as well as the completed research projects, are incorporated into scholarship and instruction at the Institute of Insurance Studies, rounding out practice-oriented training in the field of reinsurance. Currently, there are seven researchers and two coordinating employees on the staff of the Cologne Research Centre for Reinsurance. Thereby, all material and personnel costs are fully financed by third-party funds provided by the Sponsoring Group Reinsurance. We want to thank the Sponsoring Group Reinsurance, the University leadership and administration, and the employees of the Cologne Research Centre for Reinsurance for all their support for the research projects and events of the past year.

In der vorliegenden Arbeit werden verschiedene risikopolitische Maßnahmen zur Reduzierung der Volatilität des Nettoergebnisses eines Erstversicherers beschrieben, mit Hilfe derer Schadenquoten und Ergebnisse zukünftig besser zu planen sind. Als mögliche Ansätze kam die Gründung eines Versicherungspools zwischen zwei oder mehreren europäischen Erstversicherern sowie die Verwendung eines versicherungstechnischen Swaps in Betracht. Aufgrund von geringeren Kosten und höherer Flexibilität erscheint der versicherungstechnische Swap gegenüber der Gründung eines Versicherungspools besser geeignet zu sein. Die Basis der Masterarbeit bildet, neben zur Verfügung gestellter Informationen der beiden Erstversicherer Achmea (Niederlande) und Gothaer (Deutschland) sowie unterschiedlicher Praxisbeispiele, eine ausführliche Auswertung versicherungs- und finanzwissenschaftlicher Literatur. Die Arbeit soll als Diskussions- und Entscheidungsgrundlage zur Implementierung einer der beschriebenen Maßnahmen in die Praxis dienen.

Das vorliegende Paper fasst die Erkenntnisse zum Einsatz von Kundenbeziehungs-management (engl. Customer Relationship Management (CRM)) und geeignete Tools für junge Unternehmen zusammen. Es basiert auf der Bachelorarbeit von Herrn Enes Zafer, die von August bis Oktober 2019 von Prof. Dr. Monika Engelen betreut wurde. Neben einer Recherche der grundle-genden Theorie zu Customer Relationship Management wurden zehn CRM Tools an-hand Ihrer Funktionen beurteilt und verglichen. Der Kerninhalt dieses Papers ist, sowohl ein Verständnis für Kundenbeziehungsma-nagement zu schaffen als auch einen Überblick und Empfehlung von CRM Tools für junge Unternehmen abzuleiten.