"The second contribution in this part deals with a completely different but highly topical risk. By switching focus from state actors to private actors, Joris Larik searches for ways to curtail the currently largely unfettered power of multinational corporations. With yearly turnovers that sometimes exceed the gross national product of states and corresponding political influence, such corporations not only theoretically can, but in the past repeatedly have, created detrimental effects for states and individuals in their sphere of operations. On the other hand, viable international solutions to subject multinational corporations to international rules and obligations comparable to those applicable to states are missing, except for voluntary partnerships like the UN Global Compact introduced by former UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan or efforts to make human rights obligations applicable to multinational corporations. Larik therefore explores possibilities to extent the applicability of international criminal law to legal persons such as corporations. Instead of interpreting a given treaty, the author shows how often-mentioned theoretical 'stumbling blocks' such as establishing a corporation's criminal intent (mens rea), corporate complicity, and means of punishment for corporations can be overcome. He demonstrates that all three issues are not irresolvable and that international criminal law bears the potential to give remedy to victims not only to crimes committed by states and individuals but also by multinational corporations. Only in extending the scope of international criminal law to multinational corporations, Larik argues, can the former live up to its role not only as a means to punish but also to protect." (extract)
"Zahlreiche Studien belegen, dass Jugendliche und junge Erwachsene türkischer Herkunft auf dem deutschen Arbeitsmarkt in besonderer Weise benachteiligt sind. Der Beitrag untersucht vor diesem Hintergrund, ob hierfür neben den formalen Bildungsqualifikationen weitere gesellschaftsspezifische Kapitalien verantwortlich sind. Während die assimilationistische Perspektive in diesem Zusammenhang vor allem einen Mangel an zentralen Ressourcen und Fertigkeiten des Aufnahmelandes vermutet, wird im populären Konzept der Segmented Assimilation betont, dass unter Umständen gerade die Pflege eigenethnischer Kapitalien und Orientierungen ein Rezept gegen den strukturellen Misserfolg bilde. Die beiden Grundpositionen und die verwandte multikulturalistische Perspektive werden in diesem Beitrag abgegrenzt und mit Daten des Sozioökonomischen Panels überprüft. Danach sind für die Arbeitsmarktprobleme junger Türkinnen und Türken vor allem mangelnde Deutschkenntnisse und eine mangelnde Einbindung in Netzwerke der Aufnahmegesellschaft verantwortlich, während eigenethnische Kapitalien weder einen Ersatz darstellen noch einen zusätzlichen Nutzen versprechen. Die Bedingungen des deutschen Arbeitsmarktes scheinen also weitgehend den in der assimilationistischen Perspektive vermuteten zu entsprechen." (Autorenreferat). Die Untersuchung enthält quantitative Daten.;;;"Many studies show that second generation Turks face specifically severe disadvantages in the German labour market. In this paper the author analyses whether, besides formal education, a lack of country-specific capital may account for this fact. While an assimilationist approach would regard several host-country specific resources and skills as necessary for labour market success, the popular concept of Segmented Assimilation argues that, in contrast, under certain conditions it is ethnic capital and orientations that may advance it. The paper delineates both positions as well as the related concept of multiculturalism and tests their empirical relevance using data from the German Socio-economic Panel (GSOEP). It turns out that the labour market problems of young Turks can be explained by a lack of German language proficiency and low access to German social networks, while ethnic capital neither compensates for host country specific capital nor promises any additional gain. The conditions of the German labour market thus seem to correspond largely to the assimilationist perspective." (author's abstract).
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
"Sino-Vatican diplomatic relation was established in 1924 but was formally cut in 1951 with the expulsion of the Papal Nuncio Archbishop Riberi from China (Chen/Jiang 2003, 162-276). With Mao Zedong's emphasis an dass struggle and his intolerance toward ideological issues, religious idealism in China, including Catholicism, had to give way to the dialectical materialism of Marxist-Leninism and Maoist thought. Also Vatican represented a dass which Mao aimed to get rid of. Only after Deng Xiaoping initiated the modernization policy in 1978 and China began to merge from its isolation was there a possibility for a dialogue, with the view of establishing a Sino-Vatican Concordat. In the context of Vatican's Ostpolitik with Communist states, in 1981, Cardinal Casaroli, then Secretary of the State of the Vatican, made the first overture to China, aiming at normalizing the relationl. China frowned upon the Vatican's unilateral appointment of Bishop Dominic Deng Yiming in 1982, a released prisoner of conscience after 22-years imprisonment as the Archbishop of Guangzhou. By Beijing's order, contact had been temporaries suspended for a short while as retaliation. However, informal contact between the Vatican and China was resumed shortly thereafter, and progress was made. In November 1987, Zhao Ziyang, then Secretary General of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), met Cardinal Jaime Sin of Manila in Beijing and they agreed to have their aides-de-camp threshing out more details to initiate formal Sino-Vatican negotiation. The meeting gave hope for heralding a new dawn in the Sino-Vatican rapprochement. Twenty years have passed (1987-2007). Since then, it seems the sun has set on the prospects for further dialogue, and that no rapprochement can be imagined for the near future. The change in the political landscape in the international arena and within China added new factors to the SinoVatican negotiation, including the Hong Kong issue. When old problems of appointing bishops have not been resolved, two new requests from Beijing add difficulties to the complexity of the negotiation. These are 1) the transference of the ecclesiastical power of administration to the civil authority in local dioceses and 2) demanding the Vatican to validate appointed bishops. Above all, the tensed Catholic-government relations in Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (HKSAR) is among other factors which caused international attention and it should prompt Beijing and the Vatican to reconsider serious about the dormant negotiation. This article aims at discussing 1) the role played by Hong Kong in the Sino-Vatican relations vis-ä-vis in the revival of the Chinese Catholic Church, and 2) the conflicting Catholic and government relations in Hong Kong Special Administrative Region. The research Eindings reflect on Hong Kong's political participation as viewed from the perspectives from China and the Vatican might throw some light on the Hong Kong Factor in the Sino-Vatican negotiation." (author's abstract)
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.).
"The current European Commission policies are guided by the 'Europe 2020' strategy paper under which the 'Innovation Union' forms one of the mayor policy flagship initiatives for the years to come. These policies are led by the Commissioner of Research and Innovation. The Innovation Union document understands innovation in a much broader sense than it was traditionally the case with seeing innovation as a technology-based process. This recent policy consensus includes social innovation as an integral part of the Innovation Union Flagship Initiative and the documents foresee a monitoring of innovation in order to control the progress made by innovative actions at European Union and at Member State level. Measuring innovation and in particular social innovation is quite a new and challenging approach in methodological and practical terms. Therefore, the author reflects on the feasibility of measuring progress caused by social innovations and on pre-conditions to monitoring policy impact in relation to social innovations at international level. Currently, innovation monitoring chiefly is applied with an economic focus although social data base developments have been funded by the European Commission research and development programs over years. The paper presents selected EU research activities as well as the method and policy relevance of two innovation monitoring approaches targeting the economic dimension in the EU: the Innovation Union Scoreboard (IUS) and the Community Innovation Survey (CIS). The approaches shed some light on how monitoring instruments of social innovation may be developed. The paper concludes that a high obstacle to monitoring social innovation is its proliferation of targets in various policy fields. Therefore, the notion of social innovations may be blurred too much in the current policy debate in order to be instrumental for measurement. Consensus needs to be reached on the point of view if either targets of specific policies (innovation, security, health, social, environment, transport, etc.) shall be monitored to which social innovation is instrumental, or if social innovation is a subject in its own to be monitored." (author's abstract)
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 present article is a summary of a quantitative Social History in three volumes (can be obtained directly from the author) treating of the 24 cathedral chapters of the Old German Empire in the 17th and 18th Century. The research on the cathedral chapters which were as well spiritual as secular corporations, until now is rather traditional in its methods, i.e. focusing on the constitutions and the biographies of the canons. Actually there are only a few monographies. Our study which comprehends all chapters examines 5 725 cases. The case-unit is not the person, but the prebend. The following variables are taken up: name (locality) of the chapter, dignitaries, degrees (for commoners), the ways of applying to and retiring from the chapters, social status (seven categories for the nobility, two for the commoners), advancements in rank, origin, cumulations. The completeness of the data is generally more than 90%, often towards 100%. All data is published in form of chronological lists of the canons in every chapter, besides an index of names is given. Therefore our work serves as a reference-book too. The data were processed with SPSS, crosstabulations and other statistics are published also. For regional inquiries the chapters were classified into three groups: Northern Germany, the chapters of the Knights of the Empire (i. e. Rhineland and Franconia), Southern Germany and Austria. To show the chronological development we divided the entire period (1601-1803) into four periods of about fifty years. The article presents some important results for every variable. Some general Statements are possible. From the viewpoint of social history the hypothesis of three regional types has been verified. Chapters at the border of the Empire form a particular group which shows more and more deviations to the Standard. On the other hand the chapters in the center assimilate. Spatial mobility decreases, local recruitment increases. There are tendencies to closeness and occasional provincialism. Cumulations increase in the second half of 18th Century. Canons from the middle and lower classes were almost completely eliminated during the two centuries. Thus the European feudal reaction can clearly be demonstrated using the example of the German cathedral chapters. Our research shows that the chapters get into a crisis in the late 18th Century. They could no more accomplish their functions as providing institutions for the German nobility. For many reasons the run to the prebends grew as well as the commoners' criticism influenced by the Enlightenment. They disapproved the loss of the chapters' spiritual functions, the prevalence of the nobility, the grewing exclusion of the commoners and the enormous cumulations. Proposals to a reform failed. The difficult Situation in the Empire during the Napoleonic Wars forced the secularization (1803) which brought the end to the old German cathedral chapters.
"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)
