The relationship between global war & global social unrest is investigated in the recent empirical research by Arrighi & Silver to argue that there has indeed been an intimate link that is traceable back to the late 18th century age of war & revolution in the Atlantic world, & a speeding up of social history that is visible from one world hegemonic transition to the next. The author draws on empirical research on the world historical dynamics of labor unrest to describe the cycle of war & labor unrest that characterized the first half of the 20th century. Comparative analysis of the transition from Dutch to British world hegemony in the late 18th & early 19th century to the transition from British to US world hegemony in the late 19th & early 20th century a reveals the recurrence of a "a vicious cycle" in both transitions, as well as the increased scale, scope, & speed of the cycle. The implications of these past patterns for understanding the dynamics of war, world politics, & social conflict are related to the theory that the role of aggressive new powers seeking to dominate their neighbors has lessened from transition to transition, whereas the role played by the declining hegemon attempting to cement their slipping preeminence into an exploitative hegemony, has increased. The intuitive response of mass social protests to US attempts to convert declining hegemony into empire through military force suggest particular points of strategic bargaining power for movements. The hope is that actors & global protesters will change the course of the United States, & facilitate a relatively smooth transition from the decaying hegemonic order to a more peaceful & equitable world order. References. J. Harwell
To place the Marxist observation that ". the country that is more developed industrially only shows the country that is less developed, the image of its own future" in its proper context requires reading the preface to that phrase that "social antagonisms that spring from the natural laws of capitalist production (of)." Read in this way, the incompleteness of the development of capitalist production that Marx noted throughout the European continent can be applied to "signs of the times" in Latin America. The author explores three aspects of the internal reorganization of the state in Latin America, & the evidence of an emphatic turn across the region to the systematic pursuit of international competitiveness & the opening up of a new phase of class struggle. Competition authorities have proliferated across the region over the last decade, reflecting a fundamental reorientation in the political economy of the region. Current hyperactivity around the issue competitiveness is demonstrably a reaction to the "palpable evidence" of rapid development in East Asia, & the poor performance of the region. The international organizations are engaged in a shared project of building "competition cultures" at global & regional levels. The current projects of "market led development based on international competition" in Latin America goes beyond the adjustment oriented policies promoted by the IMF to internalize at a national level the logic of capitalist reproduction & hegemony. US empire in the region is concluded to be part of the rivalry between the advanced capitalist countries that extends the social relations of capitalism across the multiplicity of nation-states. Imperialism, it turns out, is the pioneer of capitalism after all. References. J. Harwell
Der Beitrag berichtet über die Ergebnisse zweier Studien, die den Zusammenhang zwischen staatsbürgerlichen Wissen und zivilgesellschaftlichen Orientierungen - hauptsächlich die Einstellung gegenüber Fremden - näher untersuchen. In der ersten quasi-experimentellen Studie wird den Effekten von kognitiven Komponenten (Wissen) auf die (politischen) Einstellungen (Attitüden) in ihrer Varianz vom Alter bei Adoleszenten nachgegangen, während die zweite Studie mittels einer Befragung von Schülern die Korrelation zwischen schulischer Leistung und den Einstellungen untersucht. Beide Studien zeigen, dass staatsbürgerkundliches Wissen nur eine geringe Rolle bei der Entwicklung einer toleranten Einstellung gegenüber Ausländern spielt. Die geringe Relevanz der traditionellen staatsbürgerkundlichen Erziehung erzwingt für den Autor eine grundsätzliche Revision der Ziele und Curricula politischer Bildung. (ICA). Die Untersuchung enthält quantitative Daten. Die Untersuchung bezieht sich auf den Zeitraum 2002 bis 2004.;;;Different ways in which school may affect adolescents' attitudes are briefly addressed, with a particular focus on the acquisition of knowledge. After that, some empirical findings are presented that shed light on the role which knowledge may play in the formation of tolerance in the political and social domain. ... In the following... two examples, taken from the research, that address the relationship between civic knowledge and civic orientations, namely concerning attitudes towards foreigners [are presented]. In the first study, an experimental intervention is used to examine the effects of knowledge on attitudes, while checking for spurious associations due to age-graded changes in both variables. Based on a larger set of questionnaire data collected in schools, the second study examines correlations between knowledge and attitudes depending on the students' grade levels. [The author concludes], if knowledge has any effect on tolerance, this seems to be mainly the case among students in the higher-grade levels. It has to be noted that the research presented could contribute to [the] thinking about civic socialization in school, but it falls short of providing conclusive evidence. More research is needed before arriving at a solid judgment on information-based civic instruction as a way to foster students' tolerance. (DIPF/orig.).
This article is part of the publication of contributions delivered at the 24th annual conference of the Association for Teacher Education in Europe (ATEE), held at the University of Leipzig, 30.08.-05.09.1999. "A change of perspective has taken place in teacher education: It is no longer seen as the problem-solving agent of education but rather as just another source of educational problems. In this article, the author tries to trace the roots of such a negative image. The most obvious approach is a historical one. An enormous number of attempts have been made to reform teacher education. The most important and positive among these attempts has been the academic orientation of teacher education. Yet, seen from the educationalists' perspective, there have appeared a number of traps and false conclusions, possibly due to a misinterpretation of what the role of science in education should be. The reorientation of teacher education, i. e. the turn from purely didactical and practice-oriented courses at educational colleges to mainly academically oriented courses at universities, have brought up new problems that urgently need to be solved. The author discovers major problems in the fact that the great variety of research interests have to be brought in order to make them accessible to students. Didactics which are said to be the most important of all professional disciplines for teachers need to be applied to the structure of the educational discipline as a whole. An agreement on a fundamental canon of topics, methods and knowledge is necessary. This demand is, however, not meant to minimize the range of areas of study; instead, it should rather be considered to broaden specific fields of interest in order to avoid one sided academic points of view. The still unsolved problem of theory and practice is another point to be discussed. The author's question here is: "Where should educational knowledge be grounded - in the discipline or in the profession?" As it is not possible to make a clear distinction between theory and practice but rather to distinguish between the production and the application of knowledge, a curriculum is needed where those two aspects can be put together interactively. This seems to be a solution to many unsolved problems, as it would lead to a more specified target of academic teacher education. In Germany, the academic foundations for the teaching profession are laid in the initial phase of training at university. One should be careful not to ascribe tasks to academic studies that can realistically only be part of the probational second phase of teacher education. Yet, as education needs to be perceived as an action-oriented system of reflection, a significantly stronger combination of practical school experience and theoretical reflection is needed. Ideally, there would be greater stress on the combination of observation and analysis of school work which could be a means to reflect on professional practice. Also, the didactical aspects of teacher training, which are constantly being claimed as being of major importance to teachers, need to be rethought on the level of university teaching. This is a demand going with professionality on the side of academic teachers but it is also meant as a kind of compensation for the lack of practice-related teaching. Seminars and lectures would then be turned into didactical workshops. Another field of possible improvement is seen in an intensified form of investigative learning where school research is seen as a task for both students and teachers. For matters of quality ensurance university teachers need to be willing to co-operate and start to develop ideals and criteria which can later be evaluated. But as the great day of general consent on the national level can not be expected and as new regulations only will not bring real change, innovation can alone be expected by people bearing responsibility at the basis of different universities. The financial crisis of public households should not focus an saddening thoughts an economic efficiency that keep real innovation in the minds of idealists without being ever put to practice." (DIPF/Orig.).
Der Beitrag behandelt die theoretische Erklärung und empirisch feststellbare Bedeutung des Einreisealters für die Entstehung einer (kompetenten) Bilingualität. Im Hintergrund steht die theoretisch nahe liegende, aber umstrittene Hypothese, dass bestimmte soziale Bedingungen, die den Erwerb der einen Sprache fördern, den der anderen behindern, etwa weil sich im Alltag die entsprechenden Sprachumwelten räumlich, zeitlich und sozial meist deutlich verteilen. Beim Einreisealter kommt die - ebenfall umstrittene - Hypothese hinzu, dass es eine "kritische Periode" des Spracherwerbs gebe. In dem Beitrag wird ein theoretisches Modell für den Zweit- und Erstspracherwerb entwickelt und anhand von Daten des Sozio-Ökonomischen Panels empirisch untersucht. Die beiden wichtigsten Ergebnisse sind, dass es zum einen in der Tat einige Bedingungen des Spracherwerbs gibt, die den Erwerb beider Sprachen gegenseitig behindern, und dass das für das Einreisealter in einem besonderen Maße zutrifft, und zum anderen, dass es eine deutlich erkennbare "kritische Periode" beim Zweitspracherwerb gibt (etwa ab 13 Jahre). Die Entstehung der (kompetenten) Bilingualität wird damit von zwei Seiten her erschwert: Ein zu niedriges Einreisealter behindert den Erstspracherwerb, ein zu hohes den Zweitspracherwerb. Die praktische Schlussfolgerung für die Förderung der Bilingualität ist damit die möglichst frühzeitige Ermöglichung interethnischer Kontakte für den simultanen Zugang zu verschiedenen Sprachumgebungen in der Periode der höchsten Lernfähigkeit. (DIPF/Orig.).;;;"This contribution deals with the theoretical explanation and empirically observable impact of the age at immigration on the development of (competent) bilingualism. What is behind this, is the obvious, however also controversial, hypothesis that certain social conditions that foster the acquisition of one language impede the acquisition of the other one. This may be due to the fact that the respective day-to-day language environments often differ in terms of space, time and also socially. In addition, with regard to the age at immigration the - also controversial - hypothesis becomes important that there is a 'critical period' in language acquisition. In this article the author develop a theoretical model of second and first language acquisition and investigate it empirically with data of the socio-economic panel. The two most important results are that, first there are indeed certain conditions that mutually impede the acquisition of both languages and that this is especially true for age at immigration as one of these conditions, and second, that there is a clearly identifiable 'critical period' in second language acquisition (starting at about the age of 13). The development of (competent) bilingualism is thus hindered from two sides: a too low age at immigration obstructs first language acquisition whereas a too high age obstructs second language acquisition. The practical conclusion for enhancing bilingualism is then to allow for interethnic contacts at an early stage in order to provide simultaneous exposure to different language environments during the period when learning aptitude is highest." (author's abstract).
"The question at hand seems relatively simple and straightforward: whether and to what extent the protection and promotion of human rights is necessary for efforts to address conflict and build peace. The issue has been much debated over time. The 1948 Universal Declaration of Human Rights forcefully associated the protection of human rights with the prevention of violent conflict, stating that 'it is essential, if man is not to be compelled to have recourse, as a last resort, to rebellion against tyranny and oppression, that human rights should be protected by the rule of law' (UN 1948, preamble). Yet in 1996, an anonymous author in Human Rights Quarterly accused the international human rights movement of prolonging the war in Bosnia Herzegovina. There, human rights activists had rejected pragmatic deals that could have ended the violence and, from hindsight, were no worse than the eventual agreement in rewarding ethnic cleansing and aggression. In that author's view, it made 'today's living the dead of tomorrow' by pursuing a perfectly just and moral peace that would bring 'justice for yesterday's victims of atrocities' (Anonymous 1996, 259). Since then, the idea that the normative nature of human rights standards may complicate the practical demands of peacemaking has been a recurrent theme in discussions on the relationship between human rights and efforts to address violent conflict. This is especially the case when the latter is conceived of in terms of conflict settlement or resolution. Questions of definitions and objectives are thus key. Also relevant are the time frame, context and level of intervention one focuses on, though few authors on the subject make this explicit. In addition, narrow perceptions and generalizations abound in this debate as people working on human rights, peace and conflict have been grouped into categories of 'human rights activists' and 'conflict resolvers' as if these were homogenous and coherent clusters of actors. In this chapter, the authoress argues that considering human rights and conflict transformation in conjunction deepens one's analysis of what is involved in moving from violence to sustainable peace. It is informed by the idea that the two fill 'gaps' in one another, in that each contributes to a better understanding of the other by highlighting elements that are relatively under-explored in the theory and practice of each separate field. For conflict transformation, which will be the main focus here, the perspective of human rights forces a greater emphasis on structural conditions, especially the role of the state, systems of governance and issues of power in generating, escalating and transforming violent conflict. Considering human rights in relation to conflict transformation, moreover, highlights the need to employ a holistic, multidimensional understanding of human rights that does not reduce them to their legal foundations. This chapter suggests that conflict transformation, because of its explicit grounding in social justice, and hence inherently normative foundation, may provide a more nuanced and fruitful conceptual space for thinking about human rights, conflict and peace than conflict resolution and conflict management. Placing constructive social change at its core, conflict transformation acknowledges the need for addressing power imbalances and recognizes a role for advocacy and the importance of voices that challenge the status quo. Its concern with direct, structural and cultural violence is thus also highly relevant from a rights perspective. In order to place these ideas in context, the chapter will briefly comment on literature that has been published on human rights and approaches for addressing conflict and building peace (section 2). Section 3 proposes a framework for understanding the relationship between human rights and conflict transformation, using the metaphor of an iceberg, with its graphic image of things visible connected to matters unseen. It also introduces four dimensions of human rights that need to be taken into account in processes to build a just and sustainable peace. Section 4 discusses some of the practical implications of adopting a human rights perspective on conflict transformation. Nepal, South Africa, and other countries where the authoress has worked over the past 15 years, are used as illustrative examples throughout sections 3 and 4. Finally, section 5 concludes and points to some areas for further research." (excerpt)
