Search results for ""Verlag Barbara Budrich""

After 9/11 presents 17 interviews with America´s leading political thinkers. Renowned experts such as Zbigniew Brzezinski, Francis Fukuyama, and Noam Chomsky discuss the nation’s foreign policy in the post-9/11 world. Yet, they also comment on their own role in US society – and the mounting challenges they face today. The conversations illustrate the hopes and expectations, the anger and frustration, the shattered beliefs and unshakable convictions of the nation´s preeminent minds – at a time when America made its epic transition from George W. Bush to Barack Obama. Renowned experts engage in a vibrant debate about their nation´s position on the global stage: What is America´s foreign policy in the post-9/11 world? What should it be? What led to the catastrophe of September 11? How best to prevent another one, and how to restore America´s damaged reputation? What to expect of Obama? While struggling to define their nation´s role in a world that has changed since the terror attacks, the intellectuals discuss their own role in 21st-century society – a society that thrives on public discourse. The book is written for students, graduates, and lecturers in political science, sociology, culture studies, philosophy, and history. However, anyone interested not only in the political positions of America´s most prominent thinkers but also in how these thinkers feel about what they do and how they do it will enjoy this book. Interview partners: Benjamin Barber John Bolton Zbigniew Brzezinski Noam Chomsky Francis Fukuyama Jean Bethke Elshtain Robert O. Keohane James M. Lindsay Michael Novak Joseph Nye Clyde Prestowitz Anne-Marie Slaughter Nancy Soderberg Strobe Talbott Michael Walzer Cornel West Howard Zinn (†)

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This book explores the politics of gender and democracy in post-communist Europe. Utilising the concept of political representation, the book scrutinises women’s legislative presence and highlights the opportunities and obstacles to parity democracy in this region of Europe. The book examines the link between women’s membership of national parliaments and the substantive representation of gender interests. It investigates the role of civil society, the state and the European Union in representing women’s interests and in promoting gender politics. The book provides an important and timely contribution to the classical political questions of who represents, what is represented, and how representation takes place. In adopting an integrated approach to political representation, the book extends current understanding of this fundamental concept. Using new research, it provides the first comprehensive comparative analysis of the interplay between emerging democracies and gender politics in post-communist Europe.

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The quest to create an evidence-based Social Work practice is emerging strongly in different fields of Social Work and social policy. In this volume internationally renowned proponents and opponents of this approach deliver profound analyses of the meaning and implications of an evidence based perspective which clearly challenges the nature of the knowledge base of the established Social Work practice and apparently reevaluates and reshapes the character of welfare professionalism. Aus dem Inhalt: What Knowledge? Evidence-based Practice, Profession and Users Organising, Measuring and Implementing Evidence Towards an Evidence-based Professionalism

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The book Political Psychology provides detailed information about the development of the field of political psychology, a subfield of both political science and psychology. It describes the evolution of concepts and theories within political psychology, international influences in the field, current concepts and methodology, and trends that augur for the future of the enterprise. Contributors: Betty Glad, Kathleen M. McGraw, Elizabeth Marvick, Brent Strathman, Donald A. Sylvan, Linda Valenty, David G. Winter

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Why is there a regional participation of Saxony-Anhalt within the European Multi-Level Governance system? The author provides an account of the characteristics of European Multi-Level Governance (EMLG) and regional participation therein, by describing the EMLG and identifying its topics and categories of meaning for regional participation. She establishes the mechanisms responsible for regional participation, highlighting the patterns that emerge.

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Women‘s movements in Islamic countries have had a long and arduous journey in their quest for the realization of human rights and genuine equality. The author examines whether discriminatory laws against women do in fact originate from Islam and, ultimately, if there is any interpretation of Islam compatible with gender equality. She investigates women’s rights in Iran since the 1979 Revolution from the perspectives of the main currents of Islamic thought, fundamentalists, reformists, and seculars, using a sociological explanation.

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The formation of governments without a majority in parliament is a counterintuitive, albeit empirically relevant, phenomenon: minority governments make up about one-third of all governments in Europe. The author offers an analysis of the conditions leading to the formation of minority governments in Central and Eastern Europe and provides the reader with a detailed overview of the processes underlying the formation of governments from the early 1990s up to 2010.

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The book brings together unique teaching experiences of young researchers innovating their teaching and student learning and enhancing student engagement. Their teaching innovations serve as a valuable source of inspiration for other young teachers who face similar pedagogic problems.

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How do NGOs influence the promotion of gender equality in education in Bangladesh? What do they achieve and which challenges are they confronted with in local contexts? The author provides insights regarding three non-formal primary education programmes.

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Die COVID-19-Pandemie hat weltweit dramatische Auswirkungen auf sämtliche Aspekte des Berufs- und Alltagslebens, auch auf den Bereich der frühkindlichen Bildung und Betreuung. Dieser Band beleuchtet das Thema Führung in Kitas: Wie erleben Leitungskräfte die Herausforderungen, mit denen sie konfrontiert sind, und welche Bewältigungsstrategien wenden sie an, um mit den Veränderungen im Alltag und in der Praxis in der Kita umzugehen? Autor*innen aus zwölf Ländern präsentieren empirische Befunde, die Informationen über verschiedene Mechanismen der Krisenbewältigung von Kinderbetreuungssystemen auf der ganzen Welt liefern.

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Education for sustainable development should enable people to think and act in a way that is fit for the future – in the face of challenges such as climate change, environmental degradation, loss of biodiversity, poverty and inequality. How can different disciplines address this task? In this volume, academic interdisciplinary contributions from philosophy, social sciences and education are complemented by transdisciplinary contributions from practical fields (e.g. museum education, journalism). The current contributions provide impulses for reflection and open up spaces for thinking in order to do justice to the complexity of the task of socio-ecological transformation.

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Refugees face transitions in their lives: on an individual, a social and a cultural level. This book covers various aspects of these transitions and their intersections with educational experiences. Studies from different country contexts show the complex relationships between individual, culture, society and institutions. Examining these relationships and experiences during transitional processes aims to contribute to a deeper understanding of the different types of transitions in the context of refugee education, which may lead to an improvement of support structures in the future. The aim of this book is to present various aspects of transitions that refugees are facing in their lives and the intersections among these transitions and refugee education. Chapters from different country contexts reveal how refugees engage in several transitional processes due to movement between different countries, their settlement in a new country, as well as the transitions that are inherent to their life-course. Examining the various aspects of such relationships and experiences during transitional processes may help to understand the typologies of different transitions in the context of refugee education. Transitional processes that the chapters of the book tackle include educational transitions, transformative transitions, cultural transitions as well as social transitions from various refugee groups’ perceptions including parents, students, teachers and unaccompanied minors. Several chapters discuss how experience of transition is influenced by rules, regulations, and responses of micro and macro environments, such as local community, institutions, governments at the national and international levels while some other specifically indicate the aspects of transitions taking place in schools.

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Kurdish memories of the Armenian Genocide challenge the systematic denialism established by the Turkish state structures and foster new possibilities of coming to terms with the past. This book examines Kurdish biographies, especially from Van, Turkey, and explores the dynamics of intertwined remembrance regimes concerning the political violence on Armenians and Syriac Christians of Ottoman imperial subjects and on Kurdish citizens of Turkey. These life stories shed light on the complexity of remembering, including collective and individual memory notions on violence, perpetratorship and victimhood from past and present. The author focuses on the Kurdish collective and individual memories through reconstructing biographical narrative interviews and ethnographic data. Based on such empirical inquiry, Yetkin argues that the genocide memory helps the Kurdish society articulate, describe, and discuss its own experiences with the state and political violence. Thus, denialism as a systematic notion by the Turkish state apparatus appears to be read accurately when the ongoing state violence on Kurds is problematised parallelly. Alternative younger voices questioning the forefathers’ involvement in the persecution have repeatedly confronted Kurdish positions in politics and civil society fostering critical discussions on the past – underscoring reconciliation with Armenians yet employing anachronistic patterns of storytelling. They have opened up new trajectories based on their experiences. Hence, the author understands the situation as a multi-faceted and multi-layered memory complexity that contains interwoven narratives starting the Kurdish social time with the genocidal violence on Armenians and Syriac Christians of the region and pointing out continuous oppression. In short, a sphere of contested and multidirectional memories challenging foundations of denialism and settled stories emerges within this context and makes the Kurdish experiences discussable.

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Migrants’ minority and majority identity are controversial political topics, offering insights into challenges of integration and social cohesion. Based on a two-dimensional model of ethnic identity, the book asks about the role of social status for migrants’ identification with their origin group and the majority population. It focuses on intergenerational differences, migrant visibility, status mismatch, and exposure in the receiving country. Results reveal forms of ethnic identity beyond the classical assumption of mutual exclusiveness, which suggests minority identity among status-lower, and majority identity among status-higher migrants.

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The confluence of entrepreneurship, gender, sustainability and especially the social dimension is intricate and underestimated. This book analyses social entrepreneurship through a gender lens by portraying German female social entrepreneurs and their political, social and economic contexts. Within a descriptive qualitative research design, a secondary analysis of different dimensions of the social entrepreneurship system and twenty-five in-depth interviews with social entrepreneurs and experts were conducted. The author shows that this sector entails potential to re-do gender and reframe the economy, challenging norms and borders towards systemic change.

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Who decides to initiate change processes in organizations? Who sets the goals? What does it mean for employees to participate in change processes? The book examines organizational change processes based on collaboration between employers, employees and action researchers in Europe and the U.S. in the later part of the 20th century. The authors offer important insights into participation and change in organizations for researchers and practitioners by identifying dilemmas and paradoxes, conflicting interests and exercising of power.

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What contribution can a humanistic pedagogy make in the context of a migration society? The author uses three examples to illustrate the deficit-oriented pressure to assimilate that foreigners are often subjected to: the Chicago School of immigration studies, the "2008 Integration Plan" of the Austrian federal state of Salzburg, and Hartmut Esser's phases of integration. The illustrative critique of these models is primarily based on Edward W. Said's theory of "othering", Zygmunt Bauman's diagnoses of modernity, and the socially critical reflections of Max Horkheimer and Theodor W. Adorno. In this way, the author develops components for a humanistic education within a migration society, presenting it as a universalistic alternative to the prevailing particularistic approaches in contemporary educational theory.

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Die Studie widmet sich intersektionalen Verletztbarkeiten, sozio-geografischen und rassistischen Ungerechtigkeiten sowie dem Traumapotenzial von Reproduktionsmedizin, Menschenhandel und Schwarzmarkt-Organhandel. Mittels eines empirischen, kritisch-diskursanalytischen, künstlerischen und philosophisch-theoretischen Zugangs entwickelt die interdisziplinäre Studie praktische kreative Werkzeuge für eine Pädagogik, die Würde und Integrität betont und die Menschenrechte im Alltag der betroffenen Bevölkerung unterstützt.

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In order to write and publish successfully, academic writers must be aware of their skills and their role as writers. They need to be able to answer fundamental questions about their writing, enabling them to make conscious and strategic decisions. Only in that way they will become writing professionals who successfully carry out their profession.

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In the wake of the 2008 financial crisis Germany became Europe’s most influential nation state. This book aims to provide a comparative assessment of how this is reflected in the country’s bilateral security relationships with key global and regional partners. Prepared by an international team of scholars, it will offer unique, in-depth perspectives on the ways these evolving interactions affect the prospects for addressing recent and emerging security challenges. The fact of Germany’s (re-)emergence as Europe’s leading state is now undisputed, even if the implications are not. The post-2008 financial crisis, heightened conflict along Europe’s eastern and southern fringes since 2014, and the populist political wave across the West have all driven stronger German engagement in international affairs. While German policy seeks to exercise “leadership from the middle” via multilateral frameworks such as the United Nations, NATO, and the European Union, this entails major adjustments in interactions with other states. Indeed, the future of the security order built on these institutions now hinges on the quality of Germany’s key bilateral ties. With such stakes in mind, this volume offers a comparative assessment of the background, status, and prospects of a selection of the most significant cases. These investigations cover Germany's relationships with the US, Russia, UK, France and China as well as with Poland and the Balkans. The volume concludes that, though active German leadership is more necessary than ever, it remains insufficient for European or broader international security. Germany and its new partners must aim for a balanced model of cooperation that responds to both the internal and external challenges of the early twenty-first century.

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International migration is one of the most controversial political topics today which demands innovative approaches of global and regional governance. The book provides a fresh theoretical framework to understand European responses to the international migration of people and explains the dynamics of Germany’s migration and refugee policy during the last two decades. Against traditional theories and their inherent focus on the national political sphere, the book highlights supranational and multi-level political processes as increasingly important factors to account for national policy changes. Confronted with the most recent developments of international migration, the study offers students and practitioners the necessary background to participate in today’s debates.

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Debate among politicians and academics alike vacillates as to whether the euro is the crowning achievement of a half-century of European integration efforts, or now constitutes a force that threatens to drive European Union member states apart. This book introduces both the political and economic forces at play in the eurozone crisis that have shaped this debate and changed the face of European integration.

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Whether increasing life expectancy leads to better health remains still controversial. Three topics are explored: (1) vanguard groups which inform about possible levels of health if the general social and environmental conditions were to approach those of the vanguard group; (2) the social and behavioral determinants of health differentiated into proximal and distal factors; (3) vulnerable groups such as migrants and the health differences between migrant groups. Newly available population-based data as well as new study designs and advanced stati¬stical modelling form the basis for the empirical analyses.

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The book constitutes a sociological analysis of the origins of the Polish-German antagonism in the nineteenth and twentieth century and of the process of overcoming it. The author discusses the role played by the religious and political leaders as well as intellectuals of both nations and presents survey research data showing the marked improvement in mutual relations. After a long history of alternating relations, things between Poland and Germany were as bad as never before after World War II. The Nazi attack on Poland in 1939 and the atrocities committed during the occupation resulted in intense Polish hostility towards Germany. On the German side, the loss of territories created a feeling of harm and contributed to deepen anti-Polish stereotypes. The process of reconciliation emanated from initiatives taken by the Christian churches and courageous individuals on both sides, but the crucial step was taken by Chancellor Willy Brandt and the Polish communist leader Wladyslaw Gomulka, who in 1970 worked out a comprehensive agreement for normalizing relations between Poland and the Federal Republic. Following the collapse of communist regimes and unification of Germany mutual relations took the form of co-operation and partnership within the structures of democratic Europe. Today, both sides are about to overcome former stereotypes. While some differences of interests still remain, the overall picture of the current relations between Germany and Poland is one proof that even deepest wounds of the past do not prevent nations from overcoming antagonism and from building friendly relations.

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The authors engage a dialogue between European integration theories and gender studies. The contributions illustrate where and how gender scholarship has made creative use of integration theories and thus contributes to a vivid theoretical debate. The chapters are designed to make gender scholarship more visible to integration theory and, in this way stimulates the broader theoretical debates. Investigating the whole range of integration theory with a gender lens, the authors illustrate if and how gender scholarship has made or can make creative use of integration theories.

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The authors take a detailed look at the economic competence and financial literacy of young adults, especially of those who start an apprenticeship or who take up their studies at a university. Economic competence and financial literacy are of special interest within this group, because these young people are – mostly for the fi rst time in their lives – responsible for autonomously managing their own fi nancial affairs and deal with economic challenges.

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Scientific contributions authored by distinguished experts from the field of early education are published periodically within the framework of the series Scientific Studies on the Work of the “Haus der kleinen Forscher” Foundation. This publication series serves to foster informed dialogue between the Foundation, scientists, and practitioners with the aim of giving all early childhood education and care centres, after-school centres, and primary schools in Germany scientifically sound support in fulfilling their early education mandate. This fifth volume in the series focuses on goals of science education at the level of the children, the early childhood professionals, and the pedagogical staff at after-school centres and primary schools, and on process-related quality criteria for science teaching at pre-primary and primary level. In their expert reports, Yvonne Anders, Ilonca Hardy, Sabina Pauen, Beate Sodian, and Mirjam Steffensky specify pedagogical content dimensions of the goals of early science education at pre-primary and primary school age. In addition to theoretically underpinning these goals, the authors present instruments for their assessment. In his expert report, Jörg Ramseger formulates ten quality criteria for science teaching. Early childhood professionals and pedagogical staff at after-school centres and primary schools can draw on these process-related criteria when planning lessons and conducting self-evaluations of science learning opportunities at pre-primary and primary level. The concluding chapter of the volume describes the implementation of these expert recommendations in the substantive offerings of, and the accompanying research on, the “Haus der kleinen Forscher“ Foundation.

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Corruption has an impact. It is about time that anticorruption starts having an impact, too. This is the first annual policy report of the European Seventh Framework Research Project ANTICORRP, which has started in 2012 and will continue until 2018. Based on the work of 21 different research centers and universities gathering original data, ANTICORRP offers yearly updates on the latest from corruption research, analyzing both the consequences of corruption and the impact of policies attempting to curb it. This first report offers a methodology to evaluate corruption risk and quality of government at country, region and sector level by means of corruption indicators that are sensitive to change and policy intervention. The aim of the project is to offer testable, easy to handle policies which reduce corruption risk. Corruption distorts market competition, bolsters deficits on behalf of discretionary spending, hurts real investment in public health and education, reduces tax collection, detriments the absorption rate of EU funds, and generates vulnerable employment and brain drain. This study estimates that if EU member states would all manage to control corruption at the Danish level, tax collection in Europe would increase by 323 billion Euro per year – double of the EU budget for 2013.

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The international system is undergoing a fundamental change from unipolarity to multipolarity and is facing the growing importance of Asia in world politics. In order to build global governance for the 21st century, the multipolar state system must be complemented and linked with structures of multilateral cooperation.

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During the last 30 years, the governments of many Western countries have repeatedly called for an end to welfare. While the virtue of this goal and the means of achieving it continue to be debated in politics, much of contemporary social science research assumes that, in fact, the end of the welfare state has already occurred. The authors of this volume hope to contribute to a clearer understanding of how, where and to what extent welfare state settings really have changed since the 1980s. Their work examines questions of change and continuity while exploring various welfare practices in the Western world.

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The contributions in this book shed critical light on the shaping, negotiation, and creation of inclusive conditions of local authorities and localities. The authors analyse policy programs and reflect on their inclusive or exclusive effects in European and non-European contexts. Despite a number of global effects, which come about through supra-locally made decisions and influence the scope of action on the ground, many contributions emphasize the crucial role of the municipal level for a successful realisation of inclusion.

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After nearly two decades of war, on February 2020, the Trump administration signed an agreement with the Taliban through which the US and its NATO allies' troops must leave Afghanistan within the following few months. This agreement also paves the ground for Intra-Afghan talks between the US backed Islamic Republic of Afghanistan and the Taliban militant group. This book critically reviews the US/NATO military, peace-and-statebuilding intervention since 2001 in Afghanistan. In addition, based on collected field interviews, it presents the Afghan perception and discourse on the topics such as democracy, Islam, women rights, formal and informal governance, ethnic divide and the state democratic governmental design at the national and subnational level.

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This volume highlights the impact of border controls on migrants’ journeys in two major areas of immigration: the European Union and the United States of America. In order to show the linkages between border control policies and migratory practices, the book combines empirical insights from ethnography with approaches from political science. Describing migrants’ realities reveals that the impact of border control policies goes beyond the actual border area affecting many lives and states.

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The authors discuss individual and societal factors which influence the gender biased image of science, engineering and technology (SET) prevalent in young people. From different angles the authors investigate the consequences of this often unattractive but also partly obsolete image for gendered study and occupational choices of girls and boys. Besides peers, school and media as main influencing socialisation instances the contributions focus on young people’s selfconcept regarding the development of gendered attitudes towards SET. Further this book includes approaches and concepts of inclusion measures aiming on changing the image of SET and attracting young people, and especially girls, for these study and job fields.

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The book examines U.S.-Cuba relations within the framework of the United States long-standing policy agenda of promoting a democratic transition in Cuba. The study builds a theoretical framework which is used to analyze the assumptions underlying the U.S. strategy and presents a rich empirical analysis that gives insight into the failure of U.S. policy to produce neither the collapse of the Cuban regime nor a transition to democracy.

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As children grow up, they discover taboo areas in their environment and in life. They are in need of advice to prevent them from placing themselves in risky situations. The primary preventive approach to a life skills programme on HIV/AIDS and sex education, called “Child Mind Project”, can be seen as such an initiative.

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Why do we need evidence based youth policies? International in scope, this book presents a systematic and interdisciplinary reflection on what has been termed the “magic triangle”, i.e., the relationship between youth policies, youth research and practical youth work, based on the necessity of organising knowledge exchange between different actors in the youth field. On this basis, researchers from across the globe analyse and discuss youth policy development, the theories that underlie youth policy, as well as the models and impact of youth policy in different societies. They respond by: - Analysing the impact of economic, social and cultural change on young people in different world regions, locations and social contexts; - Presenting and explaining theories of youth; - Discussing strategies for the development and implementation of youth policies in different world regions; - Evaluating the impact of current youth policies at regional, national and international levels; - Analysing and discussing applied models of cross sectional policy and practice in the youth sector; - Discussing contributions of youth research to the development of evidence based youth policies in areas such as values, employment, participation, citizenship, migration, social exclusion and vulnerability.

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Non scholae, sed vitae… ? Institutions for and processes of out-of-school education are of growing importance in modern societies. This is the case not only with a view to the scale of the (public or private) range of education but also with a view to the need, i.e., from families that are ambitious with a view to education and training. The contributions deal with the importance, the impact, as well as the future of out-ofschool education—processes as well as institutions— from eight different European countries.

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What is special about small states? How do they adapt their policies and patterns of governance to meet turbulent times such as a new security environment and the international financial crisis? Answers to these and further questions are provided by experts. What are the constraints on and opportunities of governance of small states in an interdependent and increasingly turbulent global setting? How do small states deal with radical changes in the international environment? What is the role of political institutions in facilitating and constraining policy responses to a rapidly changing international environment? How can political leadership contribute to stability in times of change? This book seeks to answer these questions by taking a comparative perspective on the processes of change and adaptation in the governance of Norway and Slovakia. These two small European states with highly open economies have been exposed to the same set of global turbulences related to post Cold War changes in the security environment and the global financial crisis; they are also facing internal challenges that spring from rapidly rising expectations while demographic shifts put pressure on their welfare systems. Their governance structures and processes are informed by their different political-administrative cultures, different history and levels of stability of democratic governance structures and, indeed, by their different modes of attachment to the European Union and other regional integration frameworks. These differences and a comparative approach in exploring the questions raised above can shed light not only on the specific forms of adaptation of governance structures in two small European states, but also generate insights into the role of integration structures in facilitating and constraining change.

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The volume relates the Capabilities Approach to research and practice in education, welfare economics and social policy. Thus, it challenges traditional objectives and approaches in these fields. The authors suggest a capabilities perspective that calls into question the metric of success of these disciplines and in the fields of politics. It moves the attention away from economic growth and human capital towards autonomy and “agency freedom” of (young) individuals. Especially with respect to the young this implies a substantial shift of perspectives. Young persons have been particularly highlighted in the political debate: on the one hand side they are one of the groups with the highest risk to face situations of poverty, on the other hand side young persons are the main focus group of educational strategies in the form of investments in human capital which dominate the discourse. In this context, the capability perspective implies a provoking shift of paradigms because it takes place against the background of capitalist societies redefining their notion of “the public” and diminishing the collective responsibility for the vulnerable. The volume discusses whether and in how far the capabilities perspective makes a difference and provides additional value in terms of promoting democracy and justice on a social level as well as well-being on the level of individual (particularly young) individuals.

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Values – elites and ordinary people This book reveals the diverse worlds of history, civic culture and values of South Africa, South Korea, Chile, Poland, Turkey, Germany and Sweden. It explores the similarities and contrasts between the values of the elites and the ordinary people. Written from various disciplinary perspectives and offering both empirical evidence and insiders’ knowledge, this book is bound to interest a wide variety of readers. The study on which the book reports was in the main based on analyses of value orientations of the parliamentary and media elites and those of the ordinary citizens. The data for the elites were obtained from surveys conducted for the purposes of the study; the data for the general population were drawn from the latest World Values Surveys. The volume is divided into two parts. The first part, entitled Theory and history, considers the quality of democracy in the context of the historical and cultural heritage of the seven countries, their civic culture and notions of citizenship, and their constitutions as foundations of the democratic political order. The second part of the book, entitled Theory and empiricism, assesses the quality of democracy by means of comparative analyses of the convergence and divergence in value orientations of the elites and the masses, both within each case and across all the seven cases.

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Family in all its aspects Familienbande International experts provide an overview of the current state-of-the-art of European family research and outline the multiple formations, structures and configurations of family in Europe. Four aspects are discussed in depth: family images, sex/gender roles, globalisation and family development processes. Influenced by globalisation, European countries experience processes which still have greatly varying consequences. Cultural differences, reflected in a range of family schemes and national family policies, are one reason for the continued existence of differences in the scope and speed of change processes. Quite generally, images and concepts of family have become more heterogeneous and flexible. The flip side of this coin is that family members are increasingly faced with the challenges of achieving a satisfactory work-life balance – a task aggravated by globalisation. We therefore need to ask how family policy can help families enjoy adequate freedom of action and latitude for their decision-making. To summarise: a read well worth the effort for all experts working in family research and family policy.

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Job-related spatial mobility is a subject of great importance in Europe. But how mobile are the Europeans? What are the consequences of professional mobility for quality of life, family life and social relationships? For the first time these questions are analysed on the basis of the data of a large-scale European survey. This vo l - ume analyses the causes and determinants of job mobility and their individual and societal consequences in cross-national comparison.

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The World of Political Science - New volumes The book traces the disciplinary development of political sociology and the transdisciplinary research into the overlapping issues involving politics and society. The contributions cover overviews of the history, methodological and theoretical development of this academic discipline. Successes as well as failures in past, unexplored areas and salient issues in ongoing research are also highlighted. From the Contents: Subrata K. Mitra and Malte Pehl, Taking Stock of Political Sociology Dirk Berg-Schlosser, Political Culture at a Crossroads? Kay Lawson and Mildred Schwartz, Parties, Interest Groups and Social Movements: Shall Change be Mid - wife to Truth? Eva Etzioni-Halevy, Socio-Political Inequalities: Elites, Classes and Democracy Prakash Sarangi, Contemporary Approaches to the Study of the State Jan van Deth, Political Sociology: Old Concerns and New Directions

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How can sustainable peace be achieved? The book identifies potential supranational, state and non-state actors involved in peacebuilding processes. Further - more, it develops strategies to address the problems and dilemmas of international peacebuilding. An important contribution to a highly topical debate. Hopes for a less conflict-prone world after the end of the Cold War were bitterly disappointed. Instead, the international community is faced with protracted wars and violent conflicts today. In addition, social, economic and cultural insecurities as well as fragile statehood challenge the post-Westphalian environment. As a result, scholars and policy-makers alike are trying to develop viable strategies for sustainable peace. The book contributes to this debate, as it illustrates current research results on the topic and addresses the complex problems and dilemmas that various international peace - building actors are confronted with.

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This research considers the mixed results of international agencies in democracy promotion despite their attempt to shape a common policy emphasized in various international agreements. On the background of backlashes and the search for new answers it analyses how the UNDP and the EC promoted democracy in Rwanda from 2003 until 2013. As a result, the author outlines how democracy strategies differ; she defines variance factors in impact, and develops a new concept of variances.

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Is Japan prepared for an ethnically diverse society? The volume examines the past and future trajectory of Japan’s immigration and integration policies and related institutions, taking a cross-disciplinary approach in social sciences. The authors highlight critical issues and challenges that the nation is facing as a result of the government’s inarticulate migrant-acceptance policy, e.g. in the fields of deportation, refugee policy, multicultural education and disaster protection. How can the situation be improved? The book investigates the changes and initiatives needed to build a resilient policy regime for a liberal, pluralistic, and inclusive Japan.

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