Suchergebnisse

"In the post-industrial or service societies of Europe, consumer cooperatives are still seen as a special organizational form, somehow different from ordinary private for-profit firms as well as from voluntary organizations without commercial pursuits. But where are the movements going from here? A number of decades of extensive deregulation and restructuring of many of the industries where cooperatives traditionally are found, and a simultaneous trend within the organizations themselves, have seen a drift towards a more single-minded market orientation. The author notes this development for the case of the consumer cooperative scene in Sweden, but nevertheless maintains that there are today both space and needs for cooperative solutions in our mature societies, in particular in the (co-)production and delivery of social services." (author's abstract)

"The concept of social capital has in recent years become increasingly common in debates across Europe about local economic and social development, social exclusion and the growing social economy. A definition familiar to the European Union through its Article 6 Local Social Capital programme describes it as 'features of social organisation such as networks, norms and social trust that facilitate co-ordination and co-operation for mutual benefits'. Thus, the role of social capital in 'restoring social cohesion, reinforcing local networks and formal and informal groups which seek to facilitate integration of excluded persons into work and start-up businesses and co-operatives' is increasingly recognised, especially in the development of intermediate organisations under Article 6 Local Social Capital. What is more, the 'main drivers of the creation of social capital are people and non-profit organisations that develop initiatives that contribute to the creation of employment and strengthening of social cohesion'. But how can we indicate that social capital has contributed or has been created in such ways? This is one key task of the CONSCISE Project 'The Contribution of Social Capital in the Social Economy to Local Economic Development in Western Europe' - a European Framework V project carrying out fieldwork in 8 different localities in 5 European regions." (author's abstract)

"China now affects every global issue from trade and the economy to climate change and nuclear proliferation, as well as every region from Africa to the Middle East. Europe therefore needs to reframe its China policy in global terms. Instead of thinking of their relationships with China in bilateral terms, EU member states need to take into account China's impact across all of the issues in European foreign policy and in relation with all other countries and regions. Europe needs to co-ordinate its own policy more effectively, preferably of the EU level, and to cooperate with other countries to increase its limited leverage over China. In short, Europe needs a global China policy. In the past, EU member states have struggled to co-ordinate even their own policies toward China, let alone managed to co-operate with other countries. But although China now feels more powerful than ever, especially alter the global economic crisis, greater tensions between China and both its neighbours and the US offer new opportunities for Europe to form new coalitions and to increase its leverage over China. Europe should also reach out to the new actors in the Chinese system with whom it may share interests. To make this global China policy work, however, Europe will need to focus on a limited number of priorities." (author's abstract)

"The author surveys international reactions to the turmoil in Kyrgyzstan in March 2005 and the Andijan massacre in Uzbekistan in May 2005. While she discusses the behaviour of the neighbouring Central Asian states in the first part of the article, in the second part she analyses the responses of China, Russia and the United States, which are competing for influence in Central Asia, especially in the energy sector. In the third part the author examines the development of a post-Soviet multilateralism into a multi-vector one and the co-operation and integration of it into the framework of the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS), the Shanghai Co-Operation Organization (SCO) and the OSCE. She also reflects on the mostly Western international organizations such as the European Union (EU) and international financial institutions such as the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD). Finally she discusses the reactions of international human rights organizations." (author's abstract)

"Thania Paffenholz outlines concepts and experiences for designing and assessing intervention strategies. The article discusses the problems which result from the question of which actor can intervene with which strategies and instruments, and at what time in any particular situation of conflict. Drawing upon her field experience, the author formulates ten issues that need to be addressed in intervention design: 1. the need for vision, goals and commitment; 2. methods of analysing conflicts and actors; 3. strategies and roles of intervening actors; 4. the ongoing search for adequate partners and entry points; 5. timing and exit options of interventions; 6. thinking in processes and building structures; 7. criteria for the recruitment of field staff; 8. co-ordination and co-operation; 9. the inclusion of the goals of sustainability and 10. building learning into the process of interventions. These aspects are examined from the perspective of NGOs' reality in conflict and finally the author raises the difficulties of creating knowledge management mechanisms within organisations and programmes." (author's abstract)

"This contribution adopts a state- and regulation-theoretical approach to the welfare state in Europe and the more general issue of whether the EU operates more as a marionette or regisseur. I argue that the concepts of welfare and competition state are too vague to provide a useful account of recent transformations in European statehood and propose instead that a transition is now well under way from different forms of Keynesian national welfare state to different forms of Schumpeterian workfare postnational regime. I also reject the two competing descriptions of the European Union and suggest an-other, namely, that the EU is a co-dependent co-regisseur of the multilevel metagovernance of the contradictory and conflictual process of Europeanization in a still emerging world society. In this context I further argue that, while the EU is the dominant metagovernance instance within Europe in this regard, it is only a nodal instance of multilevel metagovernance on the global stage." (extract)