Suchergebnisse

In the first half of the 2002-2003 academic year, the members of a focus group at Collegium Budapest centred their research on examining the subject "Honesty and Trust in the Light of the Post-Socialist Transition". There were economists, political scientists, sociologists, anthropologists, legal scholars and philosophers in the group, some of them from the post-socialist region and others from elsewhere, conveying their experiences of honesty and trust in their respective countries. The research covered hundreds of phenomena and relations. The author of this paper confines himself to three problems: relations between firms; building a trustworthy state; the strategy for building trust.

The authors provide a case study of a partnership agreement in the Tyneside maritime construction industry. They focus on the role of trade unions and the complex tensions that emerge between regional and local officials and workplace representatives. They argue that agreements can only be understood within the context of existing employee relations structures. Their conclusion suggests that the agreement had little impact on a "branch plant" of a national company and that it was often received with hostility and little commitment. As a consequence the partnership became a symbolic agreement with potential significance for external customers but no role in shaping workplace employee relations.

This article examines the self-concept of adolescent girls in Israel as an indication of their relative well-being. It compares self-concept of girls cared for by kin with those cared for in non-related foster families. Self-concept was defined phenomenologically and measured using the Offer Self Image Questionnaire, OSIQ. Results indicate significant differences in psychological self-image, in social relations, sexual self-image and ability to adapt to new situations; adolescents placed with their relatives scored better on all criteria. Results are interpreted according to the girls' characteristics, biological and adoptive families and relations with them. The authors suggest pointers for future policy and clinical intervention.

Policies and policy-making are not really considered as relevant variables to analyse the evolution of centre/periphery relations in Spain. The institutionalisation of autonomous communities and the development of regional policies constitute, however, a great shift in the relations between the central government and peripherical regional spaces. Governments of autonomous communities have now the capacity to differentiate oneself from the State and its standardizing norms. In this perspective, the analysis of the implementation of the county policy in the autonomous community of Galicia shows how the organisation and redefinition of local territories are become strong political stakes between the different levels of government in Spain.

Discusses how Japan has moved nearer to the models of the Western states, development of the Greater Chinese Economic Area and importance of the overseas Chinese, relations between regional associations in Asia, changes in economic policy in South Korea, and economic relations of Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar, and Vietnam. Regional associations: Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), established by the governments of Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore, and Thailand on Aug. 8, 1967, with Brunei, Vietnam, Myanmar, Laos, and Cambodia joining as members in the late 1990s; Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC), formed by 12 nations in the autumn of 1989, which now has 21 members.

Geller hypothesized a mediational model of environmentally responsible behavior. Specifically, Geller proposed that "actively caring," a component of altruism, mediated the relation between environmentally responsible behaviors and personality factors related to self-affirmation (i.e., self-esteem, belonging, and personal control). The present study tested this hypothesis. Participants completed a lengthy questionnaire that assessed their levels of self-esteem, belonging and personal control, dispositional levels of actively caring (i.e., sympathy for others), and environmentally friendly behaviors. Results were largely consistent with Geller's model. Specifically, sympathy, the proxy measure of actively caring used in this study, mediated the relation between personal control and environmentally friendly behaviors.

The recent change of government brings to an end a sustained attempt to transform British industrial relations by legislative action. This article explores the consequences. It explains the cumulative effect of the legal changes since 1979, including the growing influence of the European Community, and examines the economic and social results. While legal intervention has had an impact on the institutions of industrial relations, most notably in reducing the power of organised labour, this cannot be isolated from wider structural changes in labour and product markets. A review of research on economic outcomes suggests an uneven and tenuous link between institutional change and economic performance.

Although the North American Free Trade Agreement has proven contentious and looms ominously threatening as a new source of economic dislocation, its greatest significance, together with that of similar trade agreements (e.g., GATT), may ultimately lay in the emphasis and legitimation it contributes to social and economic changes already under way. These social and economic changes lend themselves to the further articulation of new class divisions in the United States. These emerging new class divisions are explored in relation to both the implications that they have for society in the U.S. and in relation to some of the questions they pose.

Heightened worker autonomy and participation characterize emerging workplace relations in the 1990s. Some analysts fear that, while such relations may make the workplace more hospitable for workers, they may also undermine workers' solidarity and unity. We investigate this thesis using a telephone survey of a random sample of employed persons from a Midwestern state. Participation increases rather than decreases worker solidarity and it is a more important factor in this regard than job autonomy. In addition, participation heightens workers' concerns with organizational injustice. These findings contrast sharply with fears that heightened autonomy and participation will undermine workers' autonomous cultures of solidarity and resistance.

RECENT NEO-MARXIST ATTEMPTS TO CONSTRUCT A GENERAL THEORY OF THE LOCAL STATE HAVE FOCUSED ON HOW THE UNEVEN SPATIAL DEVELOPMENT OF SOCIAL RELATIONS WITHIN CAPITALIST SOCIETIES UNDERPINS LOCAL POLITICAL AND POLICY CONTRASTS. IN BRITAIN, EMPIRICAL APPLICATIONS OF THESE THEORIES HAVE CONCENTRATED ON LOCALITIES WITH DISTINCTIVE POLITICAL HISTORIES--MOST NOTABLY PLACES WHERE RADICAL SOCIALISM CONSCIOUSNESS AND POLICY HAVE COME INTO DIRECT CONFRONTATION WITH CENTRAL GOVERNMENT. BY EXAMINING THE SOCIAL RELATIONS IN AND ABOUT LOCAL GOVERNMENT IN TWO TOWNS IN BRITAIN'S `M4 CORRIDOR' THIS PAPER CONSIDERS THE CHALLENGE OFFERED BY LOCALITIES WHICH ARE SOCIALLY AND OCCUPATIONALLY HETEROGNEIOUS AND HAVE UNREMARKABLE POLITICAL HISTORIES.

Two aspects of the relation between sexual difference and democracy are discussed: (i) the construction in classic contract theory of the 'natural' difference between the sexes as a relation of superiority and subordination; (ii) the peculiarities and paradoxes of women's standing as citizens as the 'different' sex. This is illustrated by the examples of motherhood ‐ women have been seen as having a distinctive political duty as mothers, but motherhood is also seen as the antithesis of citizenship ‐ by the difficulties surrounding women and consent, and by the questions raised by contemporary feminists about the meaning of ('normal') 'sex'.

This paper seeks to theorise change and resistance to change in contemporary gender relations as these are manifest in Canadian national sport organisations. Interviews which sought to explore why women were under-represented in senior technical, administrative, and volunteer positions pointed to lack of qualifications and family responsibilities as the two most widely perceived reasons. As many respondents argued though, these phenomena themselves are rooted in structures of gender relations which transcend sport. The final section considers theories which seek to explain these deeper structures, and argues that the evidence supports a theory based on the analysis of power and conflict.

HEGEL'S BRIEF AND NOTORIOUS STATEMENTS ABOUT WAR HAVE BEEN SUBJECT TO DISPARATE INTERPRETATIONS RANGING FROM THE VIEW THAT HEGEL GLORIFIES WAR AND CONSIDERS IT "GOOD IN ITSELF" TO THE VIEW THAT HEGEL CONDEMS WAR PER SE AND HOLDS THAT WARS ARE NEVER MORALLY JUSTIFIABLE. THE AUTHOR SUGGESTS THAT HEGEL HAS TWO INDEPENDENT ARGUEMENTS FOR THE NECESSITY OF WAR: AN ARGUEMENT FROM THE ETHICAL RELATION OF THE INDIVIDUAL TO THE STATE AND AN ARGUEMENT FROM THE NATURE AND RELATIONS BETWEEN NATION STATES. THE AUTHOR TAKES THE "MIDDLE VIEW" THAT HEGEL DOES FIND A PHILISOPHICAL JUSTIFICATION FOR WAR, BUT DOES NOT GLORIFY IT OR FIND IT "GOOD IN ITSELF."

Trade Union Mouvement in Belgium has never been an enduring structured entity. In pluralistic political systems, trade unions develop rather pragmatic relations and act as competitors. Economic recession determined the trade union strategy in the seventies : focus of the policy switches towards employment (instead of income and wages). ABVV (socialist trade union) and ACV (Chrisian trade union) cultivated different viewpoints concerning the solution of crisis, which resulted in a tense relationship.In the early eighties, relations sunk to the ultimate point of rare contacts, none or few common statements and many accusations. From 1982 on, cooperation grew again: contacts intensified and common actions got higher frequency again.

Results of studies of the relation between media consumption and political knowledge are mixed. This study looked at three media consumption variables—reliance, media use, and focused media use—and their relation to knowledge of issues in a state tax referendum. Focused media use was defined as reading or viewing of news about state and local politics. Reliance on TV news correlated negatively with knowledge of issues. Reliance on newspapers did not correlate at all. Focused TV news use correlated more highly with knowledge of issues than did general TV news use. For newspapers, both focused and general use had strong correlations with knowledge measures.