Suchergebnisse

Following an overview of the realist tradition in international relations, two criteria for judging its theoretical progress -- explanatory power & internal fertility -- are offered. Competing theories -- neorealism, defensive realism, offensive realism, & neoclassical realism -- are detailed in terms of the debates surrounding their respective utility. Neorealism is seen to originate with Kenneth Waltz (eg, 1979); criticisms center on the purely structural theory's parsimonious nature. Defensive realism makes an important revision to Waltz's structural theory by looking to the "fine-grained structure of power" & how geography & technology together impact state security. Offensive realism offers the greatest challenge to defensive realism, emphasizing the inability of states to gauge each other's intentions with total confidence, leading to competition. The split between offensive & defensive is illuminated to show how the two might be reconciled. Neoclassical theory returns, to a degree, to the views of Thucydides, Machiavelli, Carr, & Morgenthau, combining elements of structural theory with an empirically grounded sensitivity to the calculus of real-world decisionmakers. It is seen as useful in building historical narratives. Key limitations include ad hoc incorporation of domestic variables & a lack of its own explanatory hypotheses. Important theoretical refinements coming from the realist tradition include work on alliance theory, international political economy, emerging topics (eg, military doctrine, coalition formation), international history, & the post-Cold War era. Incisive realist critiques of alternative traditions (eg, institutionalism, cultural approaches) are noted. Remaining areas of inquiry are addressed along with the position of the realist tradition in international relations. J. Zendejas

The present contribution is devoted to some aspects of history and evolution of
the early Solar System. The origin of the Sun, Earth, other planets and its satellites
has long been a matter of great concern for people. Over the past few decades
astronomers and cosmologists have considerably advanced in the perception
of the structure, history, and evolution of the Solar System. However,
one can hardly speak about a proper narrative here; we more often work with
hypotheses. The present paper is structured as follows. First, it outlines the
history of formation of the Solar System in the first billion years of its existence,
when the most considerable changes took place. Then while describing certain
formative processes we show the opportunities to define them in terms of evolutionary
laws and rules. Of course, this paper presents only a few such laws and
rules. We suppose that the present study will be of interest to a reader in two
ways. First, there are quite a few consistent and brief surveys of the Solar System
history accounting the latest achievements in astrophysics and cosmology.
Meanwhile, they are very important and productive for theorizing part of Big
History. Second, the discussion employing the general evolutionary laws and
rules allows defining some common features in the formation of the Solar System
and especially of its planetary system which are characteristic for every
level and stage of Big History. This brings us to the idea of the integrity of Big
History not only in historical and systemic terms but also with respect to its
integrity in detecting general laws, patterns and mechanisms.

"Der Vortrag beschäftigt sich mit dem Themenfeld Bioethik. Fokussiert wird dabei der Diskurs zur Stammzellenforschung der erst vor kurzem neuen Auftrieb gewonnen hat. Ziel ist es, die Spezifika bioethischer Diskurse zu erklären. Die Positionen in diesem Diskurs laufen nämlich quer zu bewährten Explanans der Politikfeld- oder Diskursanalyse. Weder kann man Positionen an wirtschaftlichen Interessen, an professionellen Deutungsmustern oder gar (partei-)politischen Überzeugungen fest machen. Die Fragen der Bioethik durchschneiden gewohnte Koalitionen wie dies in ähnlichem Ausmaße nur noch bei Fragen des Schwangerschaftsabbruches der Fall war. Kann von einem sich anbahnenden 'Kulturkampf' gesprochen werden (Hintze 2001) oder geht in den Kampf zu ziehen für eine 'Forschung ohne Fesseln' (Schröder 2005)? Ein deutliches Zeichen für einen Kulturkampf kann darin gesehen werden, dass Kompromisse auf diesem Felde immer als 'faule' Kompromisse angesehen werden, und keine Seite wirklich zu befrieden in der Lage sind. Konnte man im Falle des Schwangerschaftsabbruches noch die Kompromisslösung vertreten, diese sei zwar verboten unter gewissen Umständen jedoch straffrei, so bewirkt die Lösung des Embryonenschutzgesetzes, die Einfuhr bestimmter Embryonen aus dem Ausland sei zwar erlaubt ihre Herstellung in Deutschland jedoch verboten, keine adäquate gesellschaftliche Befriedung. Weiterhin werden die verschiedenen Positionen lautstark vertreten. Kompromisse sind nicht in Sicht und ein Konsens ist ohnehin unvorstellbar. Dort, wo es um Geburt, Leben und Tod geht, kommen gesellschaftlich konstruierte Sinnzusammenhänge vor allem als moralische Instanzen ins Spiel. Schleiermacher hatte in diesem Zusammenhang die gesellschaftsübergreifende Institutionalisierung religiöser Riten gesehen, welche für ihn noch um spezifische Riten des Erwachsenwerdens ergänzt werden müssen. Engelhardt konstruiert aus diesen Ereignissen im Lebenslauf eine gemeinschaftliche Grundbedeutung, die sich institutionell-gesellschaftlichen Bedeutungen entgegenstellen kann (Engelhardt 1996). Religionssoziologisch gesehen, handelt es sich um Bereiche, die für subjektive Sinngebung besonders empfänglich sind und daher gleichsam auf einer gesellschaftlichen Ebene die Institution der Religion ins Leben rufen (Luckmann 1960, 1963, 1991). Am Diskurs zur Stammzellenforschung kann man nun sehr gut deutlich machen, dass die durch die Lebenswissenschaften angestoßenen Sinngebungs- und Deutungsmuster auch dort religiöse Züge annehmen, wo sie sich im rein positiven Sinne als wissenschaftlich verstehen. Anhand der Interpretation von narrativen Interviews mit 20 Mitgliedern des Deutschen Nationalen Ethikrates werden diese religiösen Deutungsmuster einer antikirchlichen Argumentation dargestellt und einer wissenssoziologischen Analyse unterzogen. Als Basis vornehmlich naturwissenschaftlicher Argumentation in Fragen der Bioethik kann dabei ein methodologischer Funktionalismus konstatiert werden, der mit seinen teleologischen Sinnbezügen quasi-religiösen Charakter annimmt und dennoch gleichsam objektive und 'kulturfreie' Handlungsoptionen offerieren will. Der Diskurs zu Stammzellenforschung deckt damit die religiösen Grundmuster naturwissenschaftlicher Argumentation auf und macht deutlich, dass es eine wissenschaftliche Begründung ethischer Positionen nur als gesellschaftlich konstruierte Sinngebung gibt, die im Wettbewerb etwa mit anderen Rationalitäten keine herausgehobene Stellung für sich einklagen darf." (Autorenreferat)

Contends that Michael Hardt & Antonio Negri's Empire (2000) presents a postmodern form of global sovereignty increasingly separate from the socioeconomic sphere. The text is deemed inadequate for meeting the challenges of contemporary globalized social conflict for its refusal of law as a mechanism of representation. Analysis of the American Revolution, which Hardt & Negri view as a break in the genealogy of modern sovereignty & an example of constituent power, demonstrates how the overlap of state/law & society impelled the Founding Fathers to use law to create a constituent act, which upsets Hardt & Negri's strict separation of constituent & constituted power. British Americans are shown to employ a narrative of ancestry to create a rights-justifying identity. In addition, in scrutinizing the Declaration of Independence, how claiming legal rights produces a corresponding form of subjectivity is illustrated; the constant invocation of rights & legal principles evoked the identity of the American nation. Attention turns to articulating the boundaries that identify the American people & the exclusions rendered by those boundaries. In addition, some issue is taken with Hardt & Negri's rendering of the multitude, arguing that their legal invocation of it, while generating the possibility of a political subject, necessarily renders impossible the total inclusivity they claim on its behalf; ie, either the ontological multitude exists immanently, with inclusivity, & without political subjectivity, or it has such subjectivity but accompanied by difference. The implications of this for revolution are contemplated. It is concluded that Hardt & Negri's notion of the distinct separation of state (ie, law) & society as the passage to postmodernity overlooks the mutual overlap of state & society & mutually constitutive law-society relationship. J. Zendejas

Taking a nod from Haraway, Spivak, & Stoler, the ideologies of family, sexuality, & reproduction informing US imperialist & racial projects are explored, focusing on Puerto Rico. US imperialism is assessed in terms of the US imperialist period, beginning in 1898 with interventions in Cuba, Puerto Rico, & the Philippines & ending in 1917, & its problematic isolation from other imperialist periods (eg, the Cold War). Discourses of domesticity & science, reproduction, & sexuality are seen to have legitimated US colonialism by pushing for the "modernization" of those spheres for so-called failed Puerto Rican nuclear families. Contending that imperialist projects are linked to one or the other of the modernist narratives of women's rights & scientific progress, the violence of colonialism is examined via prostitution policy, arguing that US discourse was simultaneously biomedical & familial. The 19th-century British Contagious Disease Acts are viewed as colonialist, part of the imperialist project to reform prostitution, ie, controlling disorderly women, via registration, with the emergence of US colonialism depicted as an insertion into preexisting colonialist models, specifically through this practice of prostitution registration; ie, registration to control venereal disease evidences colonialist practices prior to 1898 & is indebted to European colonial administration. The movement to repeal the Contagious Disease Acts is described along with debates surrounding prostitution, before turning to the US colonialist project in Puerto Rico. It is maintained that domesticity was organized in colonies like Puerto Rico & not in the metropoles, with the Contagious Disease Acts evidence of the essentially colonial nature of prostitution reform. It is concluded that the political & cultural organization of families was a product of US colonialism, preceding & exceeding metropolitan projects. J. Zendejas

Taking a nod from Haraway, Spivak, & Stoler, the ideologies of family, sexuality, & reproduction informing US imperialist & racial projects are explored, focusing on Puerto Rico. US imperialism is assessed in terms of the US imperialist period, beginning in 1898 with interventions in Cuba, Puerto Rico, & the Philippines & ending in 1917, & its problematic isolation from other imperialist periods (eg, the Cold War). Discourses of domesticity & science, reproduction, & sexuality are seen to have legitimated US colonialism by pushing for the "modernization" of those spheres for so-called failed Puerto Rican nuclear families. Contending that imperialist projects are linked to one or the other of the modernist narratives of women's rights & scientific progress, the violence of colonialism is examined via prostitution policy, arguing that US discourse was simultaneously biomedical & familial. The 19th-century British Contagious Disease Acts are viewed as colonialist, part of the imperialist project to reform prostitution, ie, controlling disorderly women, via registration, with the emergence of US colonialism depicted as an insertion into preexisting colonialist models, specifically through this practice of prostitution registration; ie, registration to control venereal disease evidences colonialist practices prior to 1898 & is indebted to European colonial administration. The movement to repeal the Contagious Disease Acts is described along with debates surrounding prostitution, before turning to the US colonialist project in Puerto Rico. It is maintained that domesticity was organized in colonies like Puerto Rico & not in the metropoles, with the Contagious Disease Acts evidence of the essentially colonial nature of prostitution reform. It is concluded that the political & cultural organization of families was a product of US colonialism, preceding & exceeding metropolitan projects. J. Zendejas

"Die sozialwissenschaftliche Diskursanalyse stellt sprachlich-symbolische Äußerungen ins Zentrum der Analyse, wobei Diskurse strukturierte Aussagen- Zeichen- und Symbolzusammenhänge oberhalb der Ebene singulärer Äußerungen und isolierter individueller Sprechakte sind. Sie konstituieren, reproduzieren oder transformieren symbolische Ordnungen und (soziale) Wirklichkeit als bedeutungsvolle Wissensordnungen. Von den konkreten materialen Manifestationen der symbolischen Ordnungen durch Diskurse als textübergreifende Sinn- und Aussagenzusammenhänge ist die Praxis der Erzeugung von Diskursen zu unterscheiden. Diskurse manifestieren sich im Rahmen von Praktiken sowie Interaktions- und Kommunikationszusammenhängen zwischen Akteuren und Akteursnetzwerken in je spezifischen sozio-historischen/ materiellen Kontexten - in diesem Sinne handelt es sich nicht um 'freischwebende' Sprachspiele. Vielmehr stehen die diskursiven Praktiken einerseits in einem rekursiven Verhältnis zur (verfügbaren) Kultur, sie sind aber andererseits virtuell ereignisoffen (Keller 2005: 283-309). Gegenstand der Diskursanalyse sind die durch Aussagenzusammenhänge konstituierten symbolischen (Wissens-)Ordnungen, die Prozesse und Praktiken ihrer Erzeugung, Reproduktion und Transformation, die in die Diskurse involvierten Diskurskoalitionen sowie die Dispositive und deren Machteffekte. Dispositive bezeichnen in diesem Zusammenhang die Objektivierungen von Diskursen in Formen von Texten (Gesetzestexte, Kommentare, Ausführungsbestimmungen etc.), Praktiken (der Entscheidungsfindung, des Strafvollzugs etc.) und materiellen Objekten (Techniken, Gebäude, Infrastrukturen etc.). Diskursanalysen untersuchen a) Diskurse im Hinblick auf deren Regelstrukturen, ihre symbolische, semantische, pragmatische und kognitive Strukturierung (Diskurse als strukturierte Sinnsysteme) und b) die Praktiken und (rhetorischen) Strategien ihrer Artikulation durch Akteure und Akteursgruppen (Diskurskoalitionen) in Inter-Aktion (Diskurse als System von Praktiken). Schließlich geht es um die Frage der sozialen, politischen und institutionellen Wirkung von Diskursen. Diskurse können sowohl in synchron-vergleichender als auch in diachroner, historisch vergleichender Perspektive untersucht werden. Diskursanalysen können sich dabei auf Prozesse des (politischen und medialen) agenda-building und der Institutionenbildung (Internationale Regime) ebenso beziehen, wie auf die Genese, Implementation und Evaluation konkreter Policies (z.B. Hartz IV, Embryonenschutzgesetz). Sie können themen- und politikfeldspezifische (Renten-, Umwelt-, und Außenpolitik), akteurs-, organisations-, institutionenspezifische (Interessengruppen, Parteien und Internationale Regime) sowie bereichsspezifische Diskurse zum Gegenstand haben (wissenschaftliche, rechtliche, öffentliche, wirtschaftliche, politische Diskurse). Die Diskursanalyse ist keine Methode, sondern ein (sehr heterogenes) disziplinspezifisch auszubuchstabierendes Forschungsprogramm, das sich auf textübergreifende Aussagenzusammenhänge und mithin große 'Textmengen' bezieht und dessen Umsetzung offen für eine Reihe methodischer Verfahren ist, welche von der grounded theory (siehe 'grounded theory') bis zur Sequenzanalyse und von der narrativen Semiotik bis zur qualitativen Inhaltsanalyse reichen. Gleichwohl gibt es auch im Feld der sozialwissenschaftlichen Diskursanalyse in jüngster Zeit Bemühungen um eine Explizierung der methodischen Verfahren, die es erlauben, zu intersubjektiv nachvollziehbaren Analyseergebnissen zu gelangen. Methodisch rekurrieren Diskursanalysen zumeist auf qualitative Verfahren; sie sind aber, je nach Untersuchungsgegenstand, für quantitative Methoden und computergestützte Verfahren der Textanalyse anschlussfähig." (Autorenreferat)

A case study of Indian Hindu right-wing icon Rithambara as orator/activist in mobilizing nationalist support for the Ramjanmabhumi movement underpins a discussion of the performative spaces she & others like her occupy & the impact of such discursivity. It is contended that the sexualized & violent speech of such Hindu nationalist public performers is dictated by the role they play in the movement as instigators of emotion & as progenitors of collective identifications. At issue is the challenge to the women-pacifism relationship -- particularly the Ghandhian equation of femininity with nurturance, spiritual strength, & nonviolence -- brought by this exercise of violence. It is contended that the confused narratives of Rithambara's speech might be rehearsed for effect, but the performative space exposes the audience to "queer pleasures" in stark contrast to the pedagogic heteronormative Hindutva discourse. Rithambara's performances dutifully work for the Hindutva; however, they also evidence a hidden rage against the Hindu nationalist male cadre. Formulations of "queer" are scrutinized to illuminate a reading of the "queer body," & context-specific designations of normative sexuality are defined to delineate the queer in Rithambara's performances. Historical aspects of RSS & Samiti gendered & sexed imaginaries are examined to position the local norm against which is pitted the queer bodies of Rithambara's performances as seen in an Apr 1991 speech. Two nodes of queerness are discerned: (1) She evokes the queer unruly body in attempting to establish Hindu normativity. (2) Bigendered Rithambara & her audiences might elicit queer (political) pleasures from consuming queer bodies, landscapes, & her discourse. It is concluded that such a postmodern politics of pleasure might have more staying power in this context than thought by much feminist criticism. J. Zendejas

A case study of Indian Hindu right-wing icon Rithambara as orator/activist in mobilizing nationalist support for the Ramjanmabhumi movement underpins a discussion of the performative spaces she & others like her occupy & the impact of such discursivity. It is contended that the sexualized & violent speech of such Hindu nationalist public performers is dictated by the role they play in the movement as instigators of emotion & as progenitors of collective identifications. At issue is the challenge to the women-pacifism relationship -- particularly the Ghandhian equation of femininity with nurturance, spiritual strength, & nonviolence -- brought by this exercise of violence. It is contended that the confused narratives of Rithambara's speech might be rehearsed for effect, but the performative space exposes the audience to "queer pleasures" in stark contrast to the pedagogic heteronormative Hindutva discourse. Rithambara's performances dutifully work for the Hindutva; however, they also evidence a hidden rage against the Hindu nationalist male cadre. Formulations of "queer" are scrutinized to illuminate a reading of the "queer body," & context-specific designations of normative sexuality are defined to delineate the queer in Rithambara's performances. Historical aspects of RSS & Samiti gendered & sexed imaginaries are examined to position the local norm against which is pitted the queer bodies of Rithambara's performances as seen in an Apr 1991 speech. Two nodes of queerness are discerned: (1) She evokes the queer unruly body in attempting to establish Hindu normativity. (2) Bigendered Rithambara & her audiences might elicit queer (political) pleasures from consuming queer bodies, landscapes, & her discourse. It is concluded that such a postmodern politics of pleasure might have more staying power in this context than thought by much feminist criticism. J. Zendejas

This is an advance summary of a forthcoming article in the Oxford Research Encyclopedia of Politics. Please check back later for the full article.The global palm oil industry has been the target of vociferous criticism from various local and international commentators for its role in the Southeast Asian 2015 haze crisis, as well as for environmental degradation and social conflict in large parts of the global South. In the face of negative media attention and public criticisms, the industry has made explicit policy intentions to embrace more sustainable practices. This is demonstrated in the increased membership to the leading certification body, the Roundtable for Sustainable Palm Oil, and the creation of the Sustainable Palm Oil Manifesto by five of the largest firms. The backdrop to the policy transformation is an emerging politics of sustainable development: a clear recognition of the need for the sustainable production of palm oil at international and national levels, while facing up to the localized political realities of economies reliant on the export of primary commodities. In light of the actual and intended changes in palm oil environmental governance, three related questions are raised and need to be addressed: First, to what extent is the global palm oil industry an example of so-called "ecological modernization," whereby environmental problems are solvable within the context of existing institutions, power structures, and continued economic growth? Second, in countries that produce and consume palm oil, how are the politics of sustainable development shaping the emergence and adoption of sustainability discourses? Third, in terms of the heterogeneity of palm oil producers in the sectors and geographies in which they operate, how inclusive are current sustainability narratives and the specific mechanisms to support the transition towards the sustainable production of palm oil? The arguments made are supported by a review of corporate environmental governance, company policies, government reports, grey literature produced by non-state actors, and interviews with key industry personnel. In addition to a novel analysis of current sustainability trends in the global palm oil industry, the paper contributes to our understanding of the relevance and reach of critical social and political theories, such as the ecological modernization theory, in the context of the global South.

Looking at research on social change in Eastern Germany and Eastern Europe in the last decade, one finds a dearth of qualitative studies. Particularly lacking are theory of action studies and genetic analyses, i.e. empirical reconstructions of transformations and reproductions of individuals' history of action (exceptions include the biographical analyses by Miethe 1999; Delow 2000). By contrast, a substantial number of empirical socio-structural analyses on
transformation in East Germany can be found, especially event history analysis (cf. Berger 1996). Peter A. Berger calls for an analysis of structures from the inside, i.e. from the perspective of the actors. Though this sounds familiar to us as interpretive researchers, analyses of "factual" events of individual life courses tell us little about the autobiographer's own perspective. Such studies based on socio-structural data and measures of institutional change may be able to generate hypotheses about cognitive, mental changes, as well as about changes in habits, but they are not really empirically grounded. In other words, in order to prove or ground such hypotheses empirically, we need interpretive analyses that are designed to capture and reconstruct the selfinterpretations of society members as well as the histories of their actions and of their families. This is exactly the contribution of sociological biographical research in a family-sensitive form. Biographical research can meet the demand for a full understanding and explanation of transformation processes not only by reconstructing post-transformation biographies and societies, but also by retrospectively reconstructing the earlier biographies and societies. This is exactly where there are gaps in our knowledge about the social reality of Eastern Germany and of Eastern Europe in general. We cannot know how social reality was altered after the system changed if we do not know what it was like beforehand.

It is now more than twenty years since I first came across biographical research in connection
with my doctoral thesis. It was a time when this approach was beginning to re-establish itself
after half a century, in German sociology in particular but also at the international level.
Sociological biographical research began in the 1920s, in association with the migration study
The Polish Peasant in Europe and America by William Isaac Thomas and Florian Znaniecki
(1918–20; 1958) at the University of Chicago. Even then, empirical work was already concentrating
on the single case study. Alongside documentary analysis on the migration process, this
voluminous work contains only one biography of a Polish migrant, commissioned by the
researchers. It was not so much the concrete biographical analysis that made this work so influential for subsequent interpretative sociology and biographical research, but rather the two authors' general methodological comments.

How do three generations of families live today with the family and the collective past during the Nazi period? What influences does this past of the first generation, and their own ways of dealing with it, have upon the lives of their offspring and on the ways in which the latter come to terms with their family history? These are the general empirical questions put forward by our current researchi. The specific focus of our study lies in comparing different family constellations based on whether the first generation can be categorized as victims, perpetrators, or Nazifollowers during the Nazi period. Particulary form a sociological perspective we also investigate how biographically different family histories after 1945 - in Israel, in West Germany (FRG) and in the one-time East Germany (GDR) - affect the process of transmission from one generation to the next. In three generations of Jewish and non-Jewish German and Israeli families we examine the process by which the famliy history is passed down through the generations. The aim is to reconstruct constellations in life-stories which may facilitate the psychological and social integration of people burdened with a threatening collective and family past.