Arbeit - Technik - Organisation - Soziales / Work - Technology - Organization - Society – serie

Japan and Germany as the number two and three of the economic powers base their success more than others on their industries. These have created in the past heavy environmental hazards (Minamata disease and ‘Waldsterben’), which again led to the fact that they have become leaders in environmental technologies and protection. This volume presents the most outstanding contributions of a conference organised at the Musashi Institute of Technology, Yokohama, in October 2002, by the German-Japanese Society of Social Sciences, which assembles some of the most prominent specialists in the field of both countries.

Global trade liberalization with regard to the readymade garments industry is a topic of highest relevance for the Bangladeshi economy and linked very strongly to its changing social structure. Garment industry actually is a very new, export-oriented sector of the Bangladesh economy. It was only some twenty years ago that this sector was fully established in Bangladesh. Today it has grown to the number eighteen exporter world-wide, employing some 1.8 million people directly, of whom most of them are women, and another 10 million indirectly. The main markets are the EU and NAFTA. The development of Bangladesh garments industry was facilitated by the different Multi Fibre Arrangements. Therefore – as many other new competitors have grown over the last couple of years, namely South and East Asian including China, the ASEAN, Mexico and 24 Caribbean countries – Bangladesh’s garment industry will face a difficult period after 2004.

This book is published during a phase of crisis and transformation for the automobile industry across the world; this crisis is particularly acute in Europe and the United States. The book is written especially for the non-specialist with more than a passing interest in the sector, such as experts of other sectors, trade unionists, representatives of the corporate world, policymakers and public managers who deal with industry, commerce and public planning. The authors provide up-to-date information and assessments of what is actually taking place, with particular attention paid to the sub-supply companies. The main focus lies on four European countries, Germany, Spain, Sweden and Italy, each of which is significant for its different experiences. Finally, three important non-European situations, the United States, Brazil and Japan, are examined.

Given the catastrophic history of the ‘short 20th century’ (Hobsbawm), the crucial question facing the new millennium – all over the world – is that of the future social as well as political development. At the centre of our engagement with this question should lie reflections on participatory forms of democratisation in as many societies around the globe as possible, so as to make globalisation more than simply an economic theme. Such reflections – as the contributions in this book show – from this perspective would also examine the possible ways in which relations might be constituted within political socialisation, participation and education. These concepts are in turn to be explored in the substantive discussions of ‘democracy’ and ‘democratisation’ in relation to individuals as well as political systems. If educational policy is social policy, if a democratic society demands citizens who are educated and thus capable of political action, the themes ‘Political Education’ and ‘Political Socialisation’ need to be addressed anew, and this is equally important for a rethinking of the future of the ‘political’ more generally. The contributions to the book contribute to a challenging debate.