Suchergebnisse

In this article, I discuss some of the problems I have encountered in conducting field research abroad, specifically in England, South Africa, Russia and China - a broad variety of societies ranging from free to not free societies. I discuss the problems I encountered and how I overcame some of them and was stymied by others. I have had problems gaining access to interviewees; establishing rapport with interviewees from different societies; and have had my motives questioned. Nevertheless, my research has been rewarding and has resulted in a number of serendipitous discoveries.

Fred Homer, a political science professor at the University of
Wyoming, died of heart failure on January 1, 2006, at the age of
66.

In this case study, the author examines how effectively democracy functions at a Russian university during the post-Soviet period. In doing research for this article, the author conducted a literature review and interviewed in-depth the leading political actors. The author finds that at least at this Russian university, which is beleaguered by an extreme lack of resources, politics is largely devoid of ideological content, but it is highly factional and contentious. The author concludes that the highly divisive nature of politics at this institution is probably indicative of the lack of a civil society in the broader Russian society.

The author was a visiting American scholar in South Africa, Russia and China. The article is a personal account of his trip to China and the problems the NATO bombing of Yugoslavia, especially the NATO bombing of the Chinese embassy, created for the author and others who tried to establish a faculty/student exchange during a period of difficult relations between the USA and China. The article also reviews the reactions of the American and Chinese press to the bombing and places that relation in a historical context. (DÜI-Sen)