The effects of the demographic challenge will change the nature of politics and the emphasis of political sectors over the next 20 years, especially on a local level. This calls for new ways of thinking, new social skills and a new frame of awareness to allow for sustainable development. The community of Illingen in the Saarland, a town of 18,000 residents, has not denied the demographic change, but has accepted it. It shows how the populace, politics and administration have been confronted with inconvenient truths in a participation process. The process of strategically aimed, participative development planning allows for flexible responses to new situations – even to new suggestions in governmental arrangements. For the first time we can empirically support the claim that demographic change can be controlled using an integrated development concept.
This study focuses on the "European city" model and its impact on urban policies, emphasising city centre housing as a central issue. The urban renaissance as it is discussed in literature will also be reconsidered, as this study seizes on these two subject matters and explores their relation looking at Berlin's historic city centre as the study area. The development of Berlin's historic city centre as a housing location since 1990 is analysed showing how in four phases the change of this area from a marginal populated urban frontier to one of Berlin's most favoured and expensive housing locations has developed using the "European City" as a development model.
The introductory article of the book outlines the project EUCOWE 'Working Times and Operating Hours in Europe'. In the context of this project, a survey of companies on working and operating hours was conducted in six European countries - France, Great Britain, the Netherlands, Portugal, Spain, and Germany, in 2003. The project EUCOWE is the first representative and standardised European company survey that covers companies of all categories and sizes, as well as all industrial sectors. Theoretical aspects of the comparative measurement of operating hours are discussed. Aims, methods, and progression of the project are presented, and the six empirical chapters of the volume are summarised. (IAB)
In this article, the relationship between operating hours and working time models, depending on company size, is investigated. The focus of the study, which is based on data from the project EUCOWE 'Working Times and Operating Hours in Europe', is on the question of specific patterns in the utilisation of different working time models aimed at the disconnection and increased flexibility of working and operating hours in small and medium-sized enterprises, as compared to large establishments. Also, further company characteristics such as the establishment's independence, industrial sector, and competitive orientation, are taken into account. Furthermore, country-specific differences in the organisation of operating hours in the investigated countries (Germany, Spain, Portugal, France, Great Britain, the Netherlands) are demonstrated. (IAB)
This article provides the first international comparison of the duration and composition of operating hours in the service sector, which was conducted within the project EUCOWE 'Working Times and Operating Hours in Europe'. The specific structures of the service sector are exposed, and the theoretical discussion of measurement of operating hours in the service sector is retraced. Using descriptive statistics and multivariate analyses, it is shown how company size, country-specific factors, and working time patterns impact on the duration and composition of operating hours in the various branches of the service sector. Therein, it is differentiated between trade and company-related, social and person-related, and public and private-business services. (IAB)
The main explanatory variables used to analyze the transformation of state social ist societies are elite circulation and renewal. It is contended that, while the transformation may be elite-led, transformation should be analyzed as a revolutionary process promoted by, and favoring, class interests. It is hy pothesized that the transformation of the postcommunist countries has involved a process in which endogenous and exogenous class forces have played a major role. The absence of (economic) civil society under state socialism gave rise to a deficient ascendant capitalist class. Viewing capitalism as an international system, political elites acting in the international arena, through an alliance with exogenous elites, activated a move to markets and privatization. In the post-communist period, class in equality and tension have risen. The weakness of civil so ciety is a consequence of an undeveloped incumbent bourgeois class, which in turn limits the effectiveness of class rule. The rapid forms of imposed economic and political change, involving the dislocation of the social structure, have weakened the formation of an oppositional class consciousness. The inclusion of counter-elites into the political system (the "elite settlement") ensuring a form of political management represses ideological opposition and further limits the rise of class consciousness.
Die Autoren geben zunächst einen kurzen Überblick über die Forschungsliteratur zum allgemeinen Wesen sozialer Probleme, zur Wahrnehmung sozialer Probleme bei Jugendlichen und zu ihrem Wissensstand über militärische und sicherheitspolitische Themen. Sie berichten anschließend ausführlicher über die Ergebnisse aus dem "Biannual Attitude Survey of Students" (BASS), in welchem nach den Terroranschlägen des 11. September drei Gruppen von US-amerikanischen Studenten im Frühjahr 2003 befragt worden sind: College-Studenten, Kadetten des "Reserve Officer Training Corps" (ROTC) und Absolventen der Militärakademie. Die vorgestellten Ergebnisse beziehen sich jeweils auf die verschiedenen Kategorien von Gemeinschaft, Nation und Welt und die Wahrnehmung sozialer und militärischer Probleme in diesen Bereichen. (ICI).
The paper "Israel in the European neighborhood policy" attempts to explain the importance of the relation EU-Israel for the security of the European Union, but also for the global security. This task will be accomplished by analyzing basic documents vital for European political architecture, such as the European Security Strategy, Strategy Paper for Israel for the period 2007-2013, or EU/Israel Action Plan. The speeches of members of European Commission about the relation of EU with Israel are also important sources of the present paper, bringing valuable ideas who successfully complete the content of EU-Israel treaties. This paper attempts, also, to explain the functionning and the role of European neighborhood policy, its principles of action and objectives and, later on, to analyse the importance of Israel as a country found in the proximity of European Union. The reason for choosing Israel from all the other neighbors of the European Union, as subjects of European neighborhood policy, was the common values reflected in tradition and culture of the Jews from Israel and of the Europeans, enhanced by the European Jewry Heritage from Europe. We consider that the relationship between European Union and Israel is very normal and useful. Among the priorities of action established by the two parts as a consequence of European Union-Israel treaties, we would like to point out the assignment to fight against anti-Semitism and against terrorist actions. The Jewish people are a people who passed through a lot of difficulties and inconveniences during history and through a great tragedy during the Holocaust. Israel represents the refuge they longed for centuries and democratic states do support Israeli aspiration towards having their own fatherland. Anti-Semitism increased now in the Arab world being the consequence of the conflicts between Palestinians and Israelites in the last decades. Some times it can take the form of terrorist action and hence the connection with terrorist networks. The fight against terrorism is not strictly connected with anti-Semitism; terrorist networks are acting more and more widely, including actions versus western civilization. So it is both in the interest of Europeans and Israel to act against the ones who put in danger the basic human values. Both Israel and European Union and United States also, have to reconsider their relation with Arab world whose aggression increased as being home for numerous extremist and terrorist Islamic movements. Terrorism is the present day threat and not a global war. But terrorism can cause much more damage than a war as affecting the entire world and mainly civilians. No place can be safe enough when confronting with such a threat. But the treaties between Israel and European Union have also economic, social, political, security related objectives. They have at their base the common values that Israel and European Union countries share: democracy, human rights and respect for fundamental freedoms. They wish to create more prosperous and secure countries. And they open European economy to Israeli participation. Strenghtening the economic ties between Israel and European Union, all sectors of cooperation will be strenghtened because economic interest is at the basis of long term relations. The method of work will be critical interpretation of the documents concerning European neighbourhood policy and its connection to Israel. The purpose is to understand the written base of EU and Israel relations as a precondition for further possible analysis of the diplomatic relations and politics of the two entities. Our position is to encourage the relationship between Israel and European Union. Israel and the European Union countries are united through historical ties as Jews from whole Europe contributed after 1948 to the creation and development of the Israelian state. Their relationship appears us very normal and an expected result.
