Suchergebnisse

Behind the image of a globalised, mobile elite there is a wide range of social realities. In Europe today, there are many types of international migrants. This paper focuses on the field of qualified, professional migration, a type that falls between the two extremities on the social spectrum: the elite corporation, top executives in the world of globalisation, and poor migrants or asylum-seekers, with little capital. Our starting point is the theory that today in Europe, certain young people from the "middle class" of the south of the continent and/or massified higher education establishments use geographical mobility as a means to social mobility (move out in order to move up). We also hypothesise that this often has consequences on both their lives and their original geographical region. We have chosen to show the "human side" (Smith; Favell, 2006) of globalisation, instead of the more common viewpoint of theory and rhetoric, by asking former Erasmus students about their careers and experiences, both professional and non-professional. We analyse to what extent their careers correspond to new injunctions and how these non-linear, reversible paths have an impact on the entry into adult life for young people from average social and professional categories. On the basis of an in-depth content analysis of around fifty semi-directive interviews with young Italian, French and English people, we show how student mobility corresponds to expectations of the economic and social world, which go beyond the expectations of the participants themselves. The question of a possible reinforcement of existing social and economic inequalities within the European Union is thus raised through the relative "freedom" of the students when confronted with exchanges.

Competitiveness race in the global economy, on the one side, and the acknowledgement of the sustainable development dimension, on the other side, brings Europe against extraordinary challenges but also to great opportunities. Mapping the future sustainable competitiveness creates a need for research initiatives to develop the new concept of competitiveness, with much of the research focusing on how sustainable development and competitiveness interact. The changing policy context, growing role of sustainable development, the transition to a green economy and the new European Union strategy Europe 2020 (2010) for smart, sustainable and inclusive growth leads to the "rethinking" of the main drivers of the sustainable competitiveness in the long prosperity and the future competitiveness leadership. The approach to natural resources, especially forests, as to the one of the future sustainable competitiveness resources, with the specific focus on its ownership is addressed in this article. Darnaus konkurencingumo šaltinių paieškos: miškų nuosavybės aspektai Santrauka. Lenktyniavimas dėl konkurencingumo pozicijos globalioje ekonomikoje ir vis didėjantis darnaus vystymosi svarbos pripažinimas kelia Europai didelių iššūkių, o kartu atveria naujų galimybių. Darnaus ateities konkurencingumo šaltinių paieškos lemia naujas mokslinių tyrimų iniciatyvas, kuriomis būtų plėtojama darnaus konkurencingumo koncepcija, apimanti darnaus vystymosi ir konkurencingumo sąryšį. Kintanti politinė aplinka, didėjanti darnaus vystymosi svarba, perėjimas prie "žalios" ekonomikos ir nauja Europos Sąjungos pažangaus, darnaus ir integracinio augimo strategija "Europa 2020" skatina iš naujo įvertinti pagrindinius ilgalaikio darnaus konkurencingumo šaltinius. Straipsnyje plėtojamas požiūris į gamtos išteklius, ypač miškus, kaip į vieną iš ateities darnaus konkurencingumo šaltinių, kartu detalizuojant kai kuriuos miškų nuosavybės aspektus. Reikšminiai žodžiai: konkurencingumas, darnus vystymasis, darnus konkurencingumas, natūralūs ištekliai, miškai, miškininkystė, nuosavybė, valstybiniai miškai, privatūs miškai. First Published Online: 10 Feb 2011

The Finnish 'westernizing' narrative emphasizes Finland's 'westernness', i.e. the idea that Finland and Finns have always been western and part of the 'European family'. The recent past is not seen as an obstacle for this interpretation. Thus, according to this type of discourse, after the collapse of the Soviet Union, and 'liberated' from the constraints of the Cold War, Finland could finally 'return' to the West, to Europe, to its 'natural' origins. This article examines in short what might be called the post-Cold War narrative of Finnish westernness as it appears in the English language sources. It argues that the westernizing narrative is very important in justifying Finland's post-Cold War position in the international politics, especially its position in the European politics. The article is divided in two parts. The first one examines the narrative of the westernness of Finland, Finns or Finnish 'identity' as it appears in some scientific writings, press materials and political texts. Within this narrative an important element is the re-evaluation of Finland's international position during the Cold War. Therefore, the Finnish security 'solution' – by some called 'Nordic and neutral identity' – is either criticized, attacked and characterized as an aberration and betrayal of the 'Finnish western identity', or accepted as the only possible 'instrument for pursuing national security interests' in those times. The second part of the article advances some explanations for this narrative and addresses questions such as: why was it developed, by whom, and how successful was it? The article shows how highly political is the (re)presentation of Finnish history and how much its 'western character' is related to Finland's current political situation and goals in Europe. It also reveals how important the ideology is in backing a political choice.

In this paper, an argument is developed in favour of further integration of "Europe" and, most importantly, its increased "politicization". It is not based on any romantic or idealistic vision of a positive European cultural identity, but on an assessment of Europe's reality as already integrated economically, socially and ecologically, however lagging behind politically in terms of democratic government and citizenship. The seemingly endless discussions about Europe's identity, limit, unity, civilization, etc. are not a problem that is yet to be solved, but are, precisely, the core of what makes Europe what it is: a plurality in unity instead of a "unity in plurality", as one of the official slogans of the European Union (EU) has it. Current social, economic and environmental problems require European solutions as well as a moreactiveEuropean citizenship. However, European civil identity that is to match European societal reality, will not be a unitary and homogeneous identity, but heterogeneous and diverse, covering a plurality of perceptions, preferences and ideals ‐ it will beplural, not as a first step towards unity, but in its core; and it will bedivided, but not along national lines. Vieningumo pliuralumas: europietiškasis tapatumas ir europietiškasis pilietiškumas Santrauka.Tolesnė "Europos" integracija ir svarbiausia – vis dažnesnės "politinės diskusijos" šia tema yra remiamos ir skatinamos. Vadovaujamasi ne romantine ar idealistine pozityvaus europietiškojo tapatumo vizija, bet Europos ekonominės, socialinės ir ekologinės integracijos vertinimu bei požiūriu, esą ji politiškai atsilieka demokratinio valdymo ir pilietiškumo atžvilgiais. Tariamai nesibaigiančios diskusijos Europos tapatumo, ribų, vieningumo, civilizacijos ir panašiais klausimais nėra ta problema, kuri jau turi būti išspręsta, bet iš esmės sudaro tokios Europos, kokia ji yra, pagrindą: vieningumo pliuralumas vietoj "pliuralumo vieningumo", kaip skelbia vienas iš oficialių Europos Sąjungos (ES) lozungų. Nūdienės socialinės, ekonominės ir ...

Reverse discrimination suffered by Member State nationals in purely internal situations has traditionally been considered by the Court of Justice to be a permissible difference in treatment that falls outside the scope of EC law. The principal aim of this article is to argue that, in the light of the introduction of the status of Union citizenship and, in particular, the interpretation afforded by the ECJ to some of the citizenship provisions, the Court should reconsider its stance on the issue of reverse discrimination. It will be explained that the Court has already made some tentative steps towards this direction: in line with the overall developments in the EC since 1993, the Court in recent years, in some of its case-law, has extended the scope of application of the free movement Treaty Articles to situations which presented a very tenuous link with those provisions, preventing, in this way, the emergence of reverse discrimination. It will be concluded that, although the Court's underlying objective in those cases has been correct, the approach it has followed in attaining that objective has, nevertheless, been the wrong one. Reverse discrimination is, indeed, an incongruity in a Citizens' Europe, yet, the scope of the fundamental freedoms provisions can never be extended in such a way as to encompass this difference in treatment since it does not impede the achievement of their sole aim (the establishment of a single market). Therefore, some other way should be employed for bringing reverse discrimination within the scope of EC law and, where appropriate, for ruling that it amounts to a prohibited difference in treatment. Reverse discrimination will be re-proposed as an unjustified violation of the general principle of equality, the latter being one of the core principles that must be respected in a Citizens' Europe.

This working paper summarizes the annual estimates, for each of the world's main high-income countries, of key distortion indicators defined in Anderson et al. (2008), and provides some summary statistics for the group's estimates. It begins with tables for the countries of Western Europe, followed by Japan, the United States, Canada, Australia, and New Zealand. Shorter versions for subsets of countries are reproduced also as Appendixes in Anderson, Lattimore, Lloyd and MacLaren (2008), Gardner (2008), Honma and Hayami (2008), and Josling (2008). Four tables are provided for each country: (a) the nominal rate of assistance to individual farm products covered in the study and their weighted average, using as weights production valued at undistorted prices; (b) the relative rate of assistance to producers of agricultural (relative to non-agricultural) tradable, again using as weights production valued at undistorted prices, and the component parts of the Relative Rate of Assistance (RRA) calculation; (c) the weights themselves for individual covered farm products and for the residual non-covered group of products, shown as percentages and so they sum to 100 percent; and (d) the trade status of each covered product each year. In the case of the European Union (EU) countries of Western Europe, the trade status is assumed to be that of the EU membership in any given year, since the Nominal Rate of Assistance (NRA) for each product is assumed to be the same for each EU member (with the membership growing progressively from initially 6 to 9 (from 1973), 12 (from 1986), and 15 (from 1995). The average NRAs for all covered products differ across EU member countries though, because of their different weights for each product in their national value of agricultural production.

To be published in the proceedings of the 2nd ESHS conference (Krakow, September 2006) ; International audience ; Before World War II, international science was mainly European and Eurocentric. The International Council of Scientific Unions and the International Institute for Intellectual Co-operation paid very little attention to science and scientists beyond Europe, which were mostly confined to colonial science institutions. Non-Western scientific achievements were ignored. When joining the new international scientific bodies after WWII, the politically engaged scientists tried to implement new principles rooted in the pre-war "social relations of science" movements. Joseph Needham developed his ideas in three memos during the war, and tried to put them into practice as the first head of Unesco science division (1946-1948). According to what he called "the periphery principle", Unesco had to support voluntarily the scientists and the scientific activities outside "the bright zone". Western scientists did not need such a support. My paper will present the various projects realized, or initiated, by Needham: the field scientific cooperation offices, international laboratories outside Europe such as the Amazon Institute, the promotion of national science organization, the popularization of science, the Scientific and Cultural History of Mankind, etc. I will confront Needham's initial aims with the results, to analyse the limitations and the contradictions of his projects in the political context (the growing Cold war), in the social context of the scientific milieu (mainly hostile to the periphery principle – Needham spoke later of the "parochial mind" of his colleagues) and in his own intellectual context (Needham kept some Eurocentric features and practices). Nevertheless, the issues raised by Needham marked Unesco for more than the two years he headed the science division, and revealed to be pertinent even now, in the present globalized world.

International audience ; The future of the European energy system will strongly depend on a future world energy context that will be dominated by two key challenges. The first challenge corresponds to the necessity of meeting the energy needs of a growing population in Asia, South America and Africa, while some key energy resources – oil and natural gas – enter in a process of increasing scarcity. The second challenge results from the need to rapidly adjust the structure of the world energy system in order to meet the tightening constraints induced by the will to limit anthropogenic climate change. Both issues are clearly strategic for Europe as on the one hand the Union will have to master a growing import dependency from the international markets and neighbouring regions, and as on the other hand it intends to take the lead on the international scene for climate change mitigation policies. Analyses of world long term energy scenario show that the growing scarcity on hydrocarbon supply will not solve the climate change problem as it will rather result in increased coal consumption. Conversely seriously addressing the climate change challenge will imply lower fossil fuel consumption, allow an extension of oil and gas reserves and lead to a real double dividend in terms of sustainability: by climate change mitigation and by reduced tensions and risks of crises on the oil and gas markets. Similarly, ambitious GHG abatement scenarios for Europe will allow limiting the Union's import dependency, which is of course one key element of overall security. Thus, addressing the fossil fuel emissions abatement issue clearly appears as a top priority on the agenda. In this paper we focus on what GHG emissions mitigation policies mean for the European energy system within a global framework

To be published in the proceedings of the 2nd ESHS conference (Krakow, September 2006) ; International audience ; Before World War II, international science was mainly European and Eurocentric. The International Council of Scientific Unions and the International Institute for Intellectual Co-operation paid very little attention to science and scientists beyond Europe, which were mostly confined to colonial science institutions. Non-Western scientific achievements were ignored. When joining the new international scientific bodies after WWII, the politically engaged scientists tried to implement new principles rooted in the pre-war "social relations of science" movements. Joseph Needham developed his ideas in three memos during the war, and tried to put them into practice as the first head of Unesco science division (1946-1948). According to what he called "the periphery principle", Unesco had to support voluntarily the scientists and the scientific activities outside "the bright zone". Western scientists did not need such a support. My paper will present the various projects realized, or initiated, by Needham: the field scientific cooperation offices, international laboratories outside Europe such as the Amazon Institute, the promotion of national science organization, the popularization of science, the Scientific and Cultural History of Mankind, etc. I will confront Needham's initial aims with the results, to analyse the limitations and the contradictions of his projects in the political context (the growing Cold war), in the social context of the scientific milieu (mainly hostile to the periphery principle – Needham spoke later of the "parochial mind" of his colleagues) and in his own intellectual context (Needham kept some Eurocentric features and practices). Nevertheless, the issues raised by Needham marked Unesco for more than the two years he headed the science division, and revealed to be pertinent even now, in the present globalized world.

AbstractIn this article, I review legal initiativaes to improve conditions for the Roma peoples who live in the states of Europe. The question is timely given the accession of Romania and Bulgaria to the European Union on 1 January 2007. Romania contains the largest concentration of the Roma population in Europe. My article uncovers a schism between political theory and international law on the question of minority rights. I distinguish how the conclusions of Will Kymlicka, one of the most prolific writers on the subject of multiculturalism in political theory, differ from the international jurisprudence that protects minority groups. In this essay, I analyse Kymlicka's claim that multicultural policies are contextually dependent, and an inappropriate subject for a common legal regime of international human rights treaties. To determine the implications of human rights jurisprudence for this normative claim, I also research court cases filed by the Roma under the European Framework Convention for the Protection of Minorities and the European Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms. I contrast the international treaties that protect minority groups from political theorist accounts of multiculturalism in three areas. First, my article discusses jurisdictional issues concerning whether the particular groups defined by minority rights, irrespective of their geographical location or contextual experience, are proper subjects for protection by a common rights regime. Next, I illustrate how cultural rights are distinguishable from traditional civil rights laws. Finally, I examine how the historic persecution of the Roma violates human rights standards that protect minorities. The Roma have a long and unique relationship with the European states, which serves to demonstrate whether or not a common regime of minority rights safeguards the cultural development of the Roma.

International audience ; The future of the European energy system will strongly depend on a future world energy context that will be dominated by two key challenges. The first challenge corresponds to the necessity of meeting the energy needs of a growing population in Asia, South America and Africa, while some key energy resources – oil and natural gas – enter in a process of increasing scarcity. The second challenge results from the need to rapidly adjust the structure of the world energy system in order to meet the tightening constraints induced by the will to limit anthropogenic climate change. Both issues are clearly strategic for Europe as on the one hand the Union will have to master a growing import dependency from the international markets and neighbouring regions, and as on the other hand it intends to take the lead on the international scene for climate change mitigation policies. Analyses of world long term energy scenario show that the growing scarcity on hydrocarbon supply will not solve the climate change problem as it will rather result in increased coal consumption. Conversely seriously addressing the climate change challenge will imply lower fossil fuel consumption, allow an extension of oil and gas reserves and lead to a real double dividend in terms of sustainability: by climate change mitigation and by reduced tensions and risks of crises on the oil and gas markets. Similarly, ambitious GHG abatement scenarios for Europe will allow limiting the Union's import dependency, which is of course one key element of overall security. Thus, addressing the fossil fuel emissions abatement issue clearly appears as a top priority on the agenda. In this paper we focus on what GHG emissions mitigation policies mean for the European energy system within a global framework

Stéphane de Tapia
Europe, Asia, Eurasia, Turks and Tatars – or how to lay down the improbable eastern border
Turkey's declaration as a candidate to the European Union and above all, the actual approach towards opening negotiations, have sparked off an ardent debate throughout the European Community as to the "non-European" or "Asiatic", and in any case non-conform, nature of this application to the EU. The issue even played a part in the discussions and results of the Referendum on the Constitutional Treaty, probably substantially fuelling the Dutch and French "no". What does geography have to say on limits and belonging ? Everything and its opposite ! Not that geographers have nothing interesting to say on the subject, but geography is often used here as an alibi for shameful and relatively worrying arguments as to the moral and mental health of these undetectable Europeans, who definitely exist (we meet them every day) and who are, moreover, somewhat nice. Failing a definitive answer which can but be political, this contribution proposes a reflection on Western Europe, that customarily thinks of itself as Christian (even with lay definitions), maritime, and limited by the Ocean (Finis Terrae), and which is suddenly confronted with the vertigo of infinite horizons represented by the Steppe and the Taiga, which are Muslim, sometimes Buddhist and further on even Shamanist. At the beginning of the 21st century, does Turkey represent for a number of Europeans what the Russians in colourful, but very eloquent terms call "the stranger next door" ? In other words, when the collective imagination of Mehmet knocks at the door, it's Attila and Genghis who invite themselves in !

There have been dramatic transformations in the migration regulatory environment across Europe that has followed in the wake of a new wave of immigration that commenced in the late 1980s/early 1990s. The European Union has led initiatives, especially through the instrument of the and indirectly sought to coordinate policy formation across the European landscape. This has been particularly important in engendering policy formation in the Mediterranean member states of the EU which, formerly countries of emigration, are now significant destinations for migrants entering Europe. However, the regulatory frameworks within the respective Mediterranean nation-states are decidedly uneven. Nowhere is this unevenness more pronounced than in Greece. The legislative developments have tended to be ill-considered and inconsistent and lack the institutional force of the state to establish any meaningful measures for the regulation of the movement of people. The study seeks to unravel the dynamics of state formation by critically assessing the integrity of the efforts of the Greek government to establish the frameworks and institutions to regulate the movement of people. It will examine how the rhetoric of the political will of the state of coordination of policy across relevant state apparatuses. It will elaborate the implications of this for labour market formation by focusing on the effectiveness of policy in managing the entry of migrant workers into the Greek labour market. This provides the foundation for considering the effect of state intervention, and the different social and political forces that shape state interventions, in institutionalising the place of migrant workers within the labour market and, in the process, structuring labour market experience. Attention will concentrate particularly on the position of the different cohorts of migrant women workers to examine the differential impacts of state policy in underscoring labour market segmentation.

Most discussions regarding the fate of the democratic left in Europe focus on individual parties in national political systems. Beyond this level, individual political figures have strode across the (West) European stage symbolizing the principles and values of social democracy; one thinks, for example, of Willy Brandt or Olaf Palme. By and large, though, when the health of the democratic left is assessed, it is done so by counting the number of parties in European governments. This "counting game" does not evaluate the ideological attraction of these parties, but rests solely on the outcomes of competitive elections, which does not necessarily attest to the popularity of the winning party, and in many cases reflects on the deeds of the incumbent party. Nevertheless, the main point is that measuring the prospects for the democratic left has always implied a focus on the individual national political system. At the beginning of the twentieth-first century, it is now possible to speak of an emerging European left, that is, a political presence representing a common set of issue preferences actively trying to influence the decision-making process of the European Union. One of the organizational nodes of this political presence is the Party of European Socialists (PES). This essay aims to explore the PES—its background, organizational development, and capability to influence the challenges to social democracy. The attempt to form a European-level social democracy represents one of the possible futures for the democratic left in Europe. This is because the intensity of the European integration process has permeated so many areas of national policymaking. Indeed, "more so than at any point in history the fate of social democracy and European integration have become interlinked."