Suchergebnisse

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to outline the particular character of the research and development project "Sustainable University – Sustainable development in the Context of University Remits" which lies both in its integrative perspective on universities and the attempt to transfer its findings onto other higher education institutions.Design/methodology/approachThe paper describes the testing and further development of transdisciplinary research methods (transformative approach, scenario development) for the purpose of both exploring and testing potentials/capabilities for sustainable development of a single institution (case study: University of Lüneburg, Germany) against the backdrop of sustainability concept; and making this kind of development transferable to other universities. The paper offers additional reinforcement of strategic scope/effectiveness by means of reference to findings of higher education research (e.g. relevance of neo‐institutionalism)FindingsThere is empirical evidence for successful development of transdisciplinary techniques for sustainability in higher education domains (among others management, research, and teaching – cf. other contributions of this issue). Further, dissemination of the "Lüneburg Approach" by establishing an intermediate level of collaboration between sustainability activists within universities and in higher education policy and administration (e.g. constitution of working groups in northern Germany and at the federal level)Research limitations/implicationsThere is a need for enhancing research tools for transdisciplinary sustainability science; deliberating on international transferability (current focus: (solely) German academia)Practical implicationA systemic approach is indispensable: instead of focusing upon isolated sustainability fields of action" (management, research, teaching, etc.), all‐embracing advancement to encompass their strategic relationships and thus synergies.Originality/valueThe paper provides a holistic view of academic organisations addressing the issue of how universities are to be proactive in advancing sustainable development.

When the Iron Curtain finally lifted, one of the many surprises was the revelation that over 59,000 Vietnamese were employed in GDR factories, by far the largest contingent of foreign workers in the country. Why their number had escalated from a mere 1,500 at the beginning of the 1980s and the kind of lives they had led in the niches of their hostels was terra incognita for most East Germans. Drawing on pioneer research by Eva Kolinsky and on a series of interviews that she conducted with Vietnamese living in Berlin and Eastern Germany as well as on numerous archival sources, this article will try to fill in some of the gaps. One key finding is that economic necessity and inefficiencies inherent in the command economy, rather than proletarian internationalism and solidarity with opponents of imperialism, drove the GDR into the large-scale mobilisation of foreign labour. An examination of Vietnamese behavioural patterns further reveals that traditional interpretations of Vietnamese passivity and vulnerability to officialdom need to be qualified. Despite the elaborate framework of state controls and surveillance so typical of the authoritarian GDR, the Vietnamese circumvented many restrictions on their mobility and private entrepreneurial activities, asserted their demands at work in the face of opposition from factory managers, and fostered their own social and ethnic links in the hostels and other social niches. As Eva Kolinsky has shown in her many studies of foreigners in Germany, such embryonic networks were crucial in helping them to cope with the dramatic social and economic changes and xenophobic outbursts after the collapse of state socialism. (German Politics / FUB)

В статье автор анализирует американскую политику в отношении Западной Германии после Второй мировой войны, охватывая исторический промежуток с 1945 по 1963 гг. Именно немецкая политика США в Европе, и в Западной Германии в частности, определяла динамику и характер германо-американских отношений, возникших на долгосрочной основе после образования ФРГ в сентябре 1949 г. Рождение нового западногерманского государства, его динамичное экономическое развитие, формирование политической культуры и стратегический курс ФРГ на западноевропейскую интеграцию при активной поддержке США были неразрывно связаны с именем первого канцлера ФРГ К. Аденауэра, проамериканское ориентирование которого позволило создать уникальные по своей природе отношения между ФРГ и США, пережившие свой яркий расцвет в середине 1950-х гг. на фоне самых первых шагов на пути к единой Европе. ; The author analyses US policy towards West Germany after the World War II covering the historical period from 1945 to 1963. The dynamics and character of German-American relations established on a long-term basis after the emergence of the FRG in September 1949 were primarily determined by the German policy of the USA in Europe and in particular in West Germany. The birth of a new West European state, its prolonged economic growth, the formation of its political culture and West Germany's strategic course towards West European integration under active US support were inseparably linked with the name of the Federal Republic of Germany's fi rst chancellor Konrad Adenauer. Adenauer's pro-American orientation gave rise to the unique relations between the FRG and the USA which fl ourished in the middle of 1950s, at the of the fi rst political steps towards a united Europe.

In late 2005 Czech authorities first began to discover substantial amounts of municipal waste illegally transported from Germany to the Czech Republic. The dumping of more than 30000 tonnes of German waste in 'black dumps' throughout the Bohemian countryside raised social, economic, and political questions about how to mitigate the negative human health and environmental impacts and prevent dumping in the future. In addition to prompting practical policy questions, the situation challenges sociologists to theorise the causes, effects, and possible responses to the problem. This article draws on the environmental sociological Treadmill of Production (ToP) theory to examine the role of the state in managing the crisis. The author presents the history of the Bohemian illegal waste problem and then describes and analyses relevant waste management policies in the Czech Republic, Germany, and the European Union in the light of the ToP theory, which hypothesises that environmental degradation is caused primarily by institutional political-economic forces, and that the protection of environmental quality can be achieved only through structural reform. The dilemma of illegal waste shipment highlights the difficult role of the government, which must balance its responsibilities to protect environmental quality and human health and promote commerce and economic growth in an international context. Data from interviews and documentary analysis are used to describe the case study and test the ToP theory. The author concludes that while the ToP theory is useful for analysing the illegal waste issue by highlighting the structural character of the problem, some refinement of the theory may be necessary to better understand this case study.

Im Rahmen des 'Ersten Gesetzes für moderne Dienstleistungen am Arbeitsmarkt' wurden die Zumutbarkeitskriterien verschärft und die Sperrzeitendauer reformiert, um die Sanktionsinstrumente der Bundesagentur für Arbeit (BA) leichter anwenden zu können, den Missbrauch von Versicherungsleistungen zu reduzieren sowie den Abgang aus dem Leistungsbezug zu beschleunigen. Der vorliegende Beitrag analysiert die Wirkungen der Reformen auf die Sanktionspolitik der BA und ihrer regionalen Arbeitsagenturen. Dabei liegt das Hauptinteresse auf der Implementation der Sanktionen in den Arbeitsagenturen vor und nach den Hartz-Reformen. Der Fokus ist auf die Aussprache von Sperrzeiten, die den Bezug von Lohnersatzleistungen unterbrechen, gerichtet. Die Analysen basieren auf regionalen Geschäftsdaten der BA-Statistik, die für den Zeitraum 2000 bis 2004 quartalsweise vorliegen, einer schriftlichen Befragung aller Arbeitsagenturen sowie qualitativen Interviews in zehn Agenturen. Die empirische Analyse beruht auf linearen Paneldatenmodellen. ; In the context of the first so-called 'Hartz law' reforming labor market policy in Germany, the criteria for appropriate work have been sharpened and the duration of unemployment benefit sanctions designed more flexibly. The aim of these reforms was to make the sanction instruments of the German public employment service ('Bundesagentur für Arbeit', BA) more usable, to reduce the misuse of unemployment insurance benefits and to accelerate the outflow rate from unemployment. This paper analyzes the impact of those reforms on the BA sanction policy and its regional unemployment offices by focusing on the implementation of sanctions before and after the 'Hartz reforms'. The imposition of a sanction is defined by a so-called 'Sperrzeit', a temporary withholding of unemployment benefits after the unemployed refuses to take an appropriate job offer on the first or second labor market. The analysis is based on regionally aggregated administrative data from the German public employment service, which was provided on a quarterly basis, a survey of all regional employment offices in Germany and qualitative face-to-face interviews in selected employment agencies. The empirical analysis makes use of different types of linear panel data models.

Раздел "Международные отношения" ; В 1994—1998 гг. взаимодействие между Германией и Украиной было более активным, чем в первые годы украинской независимости. Правительство Г. Коля продолжало успешно реализовывать стратегию в отношении постсоветского пространства с целью установить тесные торговые отношения со странами СНГ и в то же время использовать финансовую помощь в качестве инструмента для влияния на политику этих государств. В случае Украины такие усилия были особенно эффективны, чтобы вынудить украинские власти остановить функционирование Чернобыльской АЭС. Федеральное правительство должно было также учитывать интересы Украины в связи с расширением НАТО. По этой причине Федеративная Республика поддерживала украинское стремление развивать тесное сотрудничество со «старыми западными демократиями» и их альянсами и тем самым укреплять внешнеполитические позиции этой страны как нового партнера Германии в Восточной Европе. = In 1994—1998 the interaction between Germany and Ukraine was more active than in the first years of the Ukrainian independence. The government of H. Kohl continued to realize successfully its strategy concerning the post-soviet space to establish close trade relations with the CIS countries and at the same time to use the financial aid as an instrument to influence the policies of these states. In the case of Ukraine such efforts were especially effective to force the Ukrainian authorities to stop the Chernobyl station functioning. The federal government had also to take into consideration the interests of Ukraine due to the NATO enlargement. Therefore, the Federal Republic supported the Ukrainian striving to develop a close cooperation with the «old western democracies» and their alliances and thereby strengthened the foreign policy positions of this country as a new partner for Germany in Eastern Europe.

Across Europe, there are much fewer women than men employed in executive positions. On European average, only 10% of the members of the highest decision-making bodies in the top 50 publicly quoted companies are women. However, the situation varies substantially from country to country. The European countries with the highest shares of women managers are Slovenia and Latvia, at 22% each, while the country with the worst record is Italy, at 2%. Germany, with a 10% share of women managers, is in the middle of the ranking order. However, the picture in Germany becomes less favourable when the figures for enterprises and associations are examined separately. For example, women occupy only 1% of the seats on the boards of management and 8% of the seats on the supervisory boards of Germany's 87 largest 'old economy' joint-stock companies. The situation is more favourable in the workers' representative bodies and the professional associations, where women account for between one fifth and one quarter of the executives - a figure that is still far removed from parity, however. Even under the broader definition of specialist and managerial staff in all areas of white-collar and public-service employment, the share of women is still less than one third, although women account for 45% of total employment in these areas. The German business sector's agreement of 2001 with the German government to commit itself to voluntarily promoting equal opportunity for women and men in the private sector has had very little impact to date at managerial level. Substantial effort is still required if this situation is to improve.

The author reviews Donald W. Shriver's Honest Patriots: Loving a Country Enough to Remember Its Misdeeds (New York: Oxford University Press, 2005).The title and subtitle of this book may mislead, for it is not primarily a study of the meaning of patriotism, but rather a kind of commentary, and often a very personal one, of the way three countries have remembered, or failed to remember, past "misdeeds." As the three countries include the United States and South Africa, a review in these pages seems appropriate. Though the bulk of this book is concerned with the United States, Shriver begins with a chapter on Germany, followed by a chapter on South Africa. Though his book is addressed to "we Americans," it has significance beyond the United States. Shriver shares the angst of American liberals about the rise of antiAmericanism and the way the image of the country has, in the era of "the war against terror" and the Iraq war, taken a beating. Many of the issues the book raises are as relevant for South Africa as for either of the two other countries it concerns. As we shall see, Shriver believes there are lessons for the United States to learn from Germany and South Africa (e.g., 125). While the "misdeeds" of his subtitle include the most appalling atrocities imaginable, the spirit of his book is, he insists, "celebratory: how some of us…recover facts and images of painful historical pasts for the sake of honouring those who suffered them and for committing our societies to 'never again'" (209).

As there are apparently no doubts concerning the existence of Nazi anti-Semitism before 1933 regarding this topic – having largely been ignored by scholars of contemporary history – seems to be no use. This article tends to trace the role of anti-Semitism during the ascend of the Nazi-movement. Therefore, the author describes the theoretic function of this phenomena for the NSDAP by referring to Hitler's Weltanschauung and the official program of the party. But how did this anti-Jewish ideology find its way into the party's day-to-day agitation? By analysing Hitler's political speeches it is shown how, after 1925/26, the Führer tried to present himself as a moderate politician – for he had realised that the NSDAP had to become a mass-movement in order to gain political power in Weimar Germany. Vis-à-vis the party's antisemitic membership, mainly retailers and graduates, anti-Jewish stereotypes were pushed in propaganda. Yet, National Socialist anti-Semitism was not only opportunist in that it was played up or down depending upon when and where it hit responsive chords, it was also subject to the regional Gauleiter if this phenomena was promoted like in Streicher's Franconia or restricted like in Württemberg, Hamburg or Danzig. Only after the world-wide economic crisis of 1929 the NSDAP had considerable success in the Reichstag's elections. The party presented itself as the only power being capable to establish a new order in Germany. The propaganda focused on the main enemies of the National Socialists: Communism and the liberal democracy – in this context, the anti-Semitism was negligible.

This paper presents an outcome-based payment scheme to reward ecological services in agriculture. It was designed by a research group from the Georg-August-University of Goettingen. Starting in January 2004 the payment scheme is tested upon it's implementation as an agri-environmental program in a model-region (administrative district Northeim in the south of Lower Saxony – Germany). The intention of the program is to overcome the disadvantages of existing and mostly action-orientated agri-environmental programs, especially those in the European Union. The design of the payment scheme is based on fundamental criteria of market economy such as supply and demand and it integrates auctions as an award procedure. Furthermore it is outcome-based and considers the interests of the local people and the relevant stakeholders and their demand for botanical diversity. The main research topic is to explore the use of auction in agri-environmental programs seen from an transaction cost economics point of view. Therefor the relevant farmers transaction costs will be measured. In the course of this research it is essential to analyse the practical relevance of transaction costs and to draw conclusions to their theoretical foundation. Results as well as of the first auction and two surveys of local farmers already show, that this payment scheme is not just an theoretical construct but that it is already practicable in the model-region. However further research is needed to make sure that at the end of the current case study this payment scheme is authorised from an ecological economics point of view and has a high potential to be a part of a sustainable future agri-environmental policy in Germany and the European Union.

Following the development of large-scale use of biomass energy in the EU, international biofuel trade is a plausible scenario and something that is already taking place in Northern Europe. This paper focuses on Swedish biofuel imports, both direct and indirect imports, the latter which derive from the fact that part of the imported pulpwood and timber end up as fuel. The objective is to describe the biomass import flows, the actors involved and analyse the fundamental drivers for the trade flows. The rapid expansion of biomass energy, that has taken place in district heating since the early 1990s in Sweden, has been met partly by imports. The direct biofuel import was estimated to 18 PJ for 2000, which corresponded to 26% of the biofuel supply in district heating. The total indirect biofuel import was estimated to 9 PJ of which 5.5 PJ is consumed in the district heating sector. Sawmill wood chips, decay-damaged stemwood and pellets are imported from Estonia and Latvia, whereas used wood and solid recovered fuels are imported from Germany and the Netherlands. Tall oil and pellets are imported from North America. Key factors related to the Swedish biofuel import are analysed, both from the view of Swedish demand and from the view of supply in the Baltic countries as well as supply from Germany or the Netherlands. National differences in energy policy are perhaps the most important driving force behind the seemingly strange trade flows. Structures in the different national energy systems are also discussed as well as the transformation process that has taken place in the forest sector in the Baltic countries.

This article revisits the conventional conceptual distinction between `fascism' proper, `para-fascism' and `fascistization' in the context of interwar European politics. While postwar interpretations of the interwar dictatorial regimes have widely introduced a heuristic dichotomy between radical fascism and para-fascist authoritarianism, essentially pointing to two different ideal-types of rule, the subsequent analysis aims to challenge the inflexible way in which the concept of `fascism' has been employed with regard to the description of interwar political systems. Although from the point of view of the history of ideas, fascist ideology can be juxtaposed to the fascist-authoritarian amalgam of the 1920s and 1930s systems of rule (even the `reference' regimes of Italy and Germany), it should not be forgotten that both `fascist' and `para-fascist' regimes originated within a matrix of élite experimentation with novel forms of political control and populist legitimation. This process (in itself based on a fusion of `fascist' and traditional authoritarian elements) started in Italy in the early 1920s and was a powerful precedent for sympathetic or simply crisis-ridden élites across Europe. The result was a single trend towards fascistization (the term indicates approximation of `fascism', not adoption of fascist ideology) that manifested itself in three different forms: voluntary appropriation of fascist trapping from above; preventive co-opting of fascist constituencies (primarily leaderships), under overall élite control; and, finally, fascistization as a last resort strategy, through the co-habitation of fascist and traditional élites in a confused and uneasy cosntellation of power that in some cases (notably Italy and Germany) resulted in the domination of the fascist partner.

Die Rolle der Hochschulen im Innovationssystem sowohl der BRD als auch der DDR hat sich in den letzten fünfzig Jahren zum Teil dramatisch geändert. Der Veränderungsprozess in der Bundesrepublik lässt sich grob in drei Phasen einteilen, die sich zwar überlappen, dennoch im wesentlichen eine zeitliche Abfolge darstellen. 1) Grundlagenorientierung und Anwendungsferne (1940er und 1950er Jahre), 2) Berufsausbildungsfunktion (1960er), 3) Wirtschaftsorientierung (1970er bis heute). Die große Drittmittel- und Wirtschaftsorientierung allein, die es in ähnlicher Form auch in der DDR gegeben hat, garantiert allerdings noch keinen Erfolg des Innovationssystems. Die vorliegende Studie untersucht den Disziplinbildungsprozess in der Verfahrenstechnik an ost- und westdeutschen Hochschulen - speziell geht es um die Frage, inwieweit die beiden politischen Systeme zu einer differenzierten Ausrichtung der Disziplin und zu unterschiedlichem Innovationsverhalten geführt haben könnten. Durch den methodisch-theoretischen Zugang der Kollektivbiographie zeigt sich, dass die unterschiedlichen Reaktions- und Verhaltensmuster der wissenschaftlich-technischen Eliten in Ost- und Westdeutschland den Disziplinbildungsprozess in verschiedene Richtungen vorantreiben. ; The role of universities in the system of innovation changed dramatically in the last fifty years. This observation is evident from the analysis of (examples in) the German Democratic Republic (GDR) and the Federal Republic of Germany (FRG). The change in the FRG can be structured in three phases: 1) Orientation towards basic science and neglection of applications (1940´s and 1950´s) 2) Orientation towards the educational function of universities for professional careers (1960´s) 3) Orientation towards industry and business (1970´s onwards) The orientation towards industry and business existed in similar form in the GDR but did not guarantee the success of the system of innovation. This study examines the process of discipline establishment in 'Verfahrenstechnik' (chemical engineering) at east and west German universities. Specifically, the following question is posed: To what degree did the two political systems lead to a different approach of the disciplines towards innovation. Employing the method of collective biography this study demonstrates that the scientific elites in east and west Germany developed their respective disciplines differently.

Der Ausgangspunkt der vorliegenden Dissertation ist die nationale Identitätsproblematik in den westdeutschen und georgischen Autorenfilmen zwischen den 60er- und 80er- Jahren. Die Arbeit analysiert zwei unterschiedliche, in verschiedenen sozial-kulturellen Bedingungen und unterschiedlichen politischen Systemen entwickelte Filmkulturen, die über zwei Jahrzehnte hinweg die kulturelle Szene der jeweiligen Länder besonders geprägt haben. Sie gliedert sich in mehrere Teile, die sich mit folgenden Schwerpunkten auseinandersetzen: - Die Filmsituation der jeweiligen Filmkulturen in der Nachkriegszeit und in den 50er Jahren als Vorgeschichte des Autorenfilms. - Die Entwicklung des Autorenfilms in beiden Ländern und im internationalen Vergleich. - Das Verhältnis der Autorenfilmemacher/Innen zur Frage der nationalen Identität. - Die Analyse der unterschiedlichen Aspekte, Stoffe, Motive und besonderer filmischer Sprache verschiedener westdeutscher und georgischer Autorenregisseure/Innen vor dem Hintergrund ihrer jeweiligen kulturhistorischen Spezifik. - Interviews mit westdeutschen und georgischen Autorenfilmer/Innen zu diesem Thema. - Vergleichende Gegenüberstellung der westdeutschen und georgischen Autorenfilme. Die Arbeit endet mit einer Filmographie der interpretierten Filme sowie einem Literaturverzeichnis. ; The thesis analyses and compares the two different cultures of cinema in West Germany and Georgia which evolved under different sozio-cultural conditions in two different political systems and which had a strong impact on cultural life in their countries for decades. The thesis focuses on the question of national identity reflected in the West German and Georgian cinema between the 1960s and the 1980s. The thesis has following structure: - Prehistory of Autorenfilm in West Germany and Georgia: The national cinemas after World War II in the late 1940s and in the 1950s in both countries. - The evolution of the Autorenfilm in both countries between the 1960s and the 1980s in comparison to other national cinemas - The relationship of filmmakers toward the the question of national identity - Analysis of artistic aspects, motivs, themes and filmic language in the films with regard to the cultural history background in the Georgia and Westgermany. - Interviews with West German and Georgian filmmakers - Comparison of selected West German and Georgian films A filmography and a list of literature is included in the thesis.