Arbeit, Bildung und Gesellschaft / Labour, Education and Society – serie

This interdisciplinary book has contributions from scholars in the US, the EU, Korea, and Hungary from the fields of political science and education, sociology, communications, social work, and psychology. The major topics are political culture and socialization, education and learning theory, and communications, media, and politics. Specific topics include constructive patriotism, national pride, political socialization, public diplomacy, authoritarianism and democracy, political cynicism, race and politics, civic education, gender and politics, the Internet and political media use, and electoral politics. This collection provides a fresh perspective on current issues such as political culture/socialization and civic education/media use. Readers interested in politics, history, sociology, psychology, communications, and education will discover many new perspectives on everyday life and politics.

The world of work and labour is in a permanent transformation affecting the various social groups in the different parts of the world quite unequally. Social innovations, related to the idea of economic progress and well-being, tackle the problems of employment leading to social exclusion and poverty as a consequence of the extreme positioning in favour of economic performance. An alternative economy complements the deficiency of both the market and the State. This volume presents contributions from scholars coming from different continents, about Social Economy, Labour Rights, corporate Social Responsibility, Social Regulations and Public Policies. Social innovations have huge impacts on national and regional economies as their sources come from the citizen. Many initiatives presented in this volume are a social response by civil society to poverty, precarious employment, job losses, long term unemployment, delocalisation and de-industrialisation.

The topic on the quality of life and working life in a comparative perspective between Japan and Germany is of high relevance for the sustainability of our societies. The interdisciplinary approaches from the diverse fields of social sciences, i.e. sociology, psychology, economics, political science, architecture and environmental studies cover the diverse issue as well from a theoretical, empirical and historical perspective. The volume assembles the 26 best contributions to the 10th meeting of the German-Japanese Society for Social Sciences, which took place in August 2008 in Osnabrück.

Participation is a social process, which is basically part of an exchange relationship. Thus, it is principally pluralist and ambiguous in its meaning. As a consequence, the reconciliation of voices needs innovative approaches to support balanced participation experiences. The ambivalent character of participation intends to provide a look at new initiatives in the various fields of work­place participation. Leading international scholars examine the role of institutional contexts for participation, the development of new forms of interest organisation as well as the relationship between organisational performance, participation practices and quality of working life. The contributions are not limited to taking stock of new experiences in the field of workplace participation, but also contribute to designing a new research agenda.

Since the turn of the millennium, various ways of «turning to practice» have resurfaced as major concerns of organisational researchers. And once again, the call is out for relevant and actionable knowledge among management and organisational researchers. This book shows how action research and related approaches have turned to practice by developing knowledge both from practice and for practice without giving up on theoretical and methodological ambitions. Contributions from Norway, Ireland, France, and the USA are included, relating action based approaches to other more mainstream methodological and theoretical approaches. How can practical alternatives to both explanatory and interpretative approaches be developed? How can we devise methods that actually support both practical change and creation of valid knowledge? How can we include local knowledge in the research process? The authors – all organisation researchers – present different answers but are united in addressing and discussing urgent questions like these.

This book takes up a critical and realistic perspective on what is happening in China, India and other Asian countries in comparison with Western countries. It avoids hiding problems and difficulties, but communicates a positive message on the possibility to proceed in achieving a better situation. In this perspective the analysis of the public policies is a key point. These policies, in the Eastern as well as in the Western countries show objective difficulties and social contradictions but also that improvement is possible. The initial chapter is completely devoted to a study of China from within. The other topics analysed in the book are related to the social and natural environment’s sustainability: innovation, research and education on the one side and the life of workers on the other; also including the «invisible» people of the informal employment and the economic migrants, especially in Asia.

This study examines Japan’s transnational environmental policy through environmental technology transfer to Newly Industrializing Countries (NICs) in the 1990s. It addresses the ability of Japan to take up the challenges in this transnational sphere. Social scientists differ in their assessment about the future of nation-states’ capability to steer policy formulation under this changing framework. However, transnationalization does not necessarily undermine the state, but includes transformations of state forms and policy making. The transfer of environmental technology to NICs proceeds on the assumption of the existent, but probably reduced capacity of states to act. Based on the policy cycle model, this study focuses special attention to the actors based on Albrecht Dehnhard’s theory that nation-states are gaining power in international circles.

This study focuses on the status and prospects of collective bargaining in China based on lessons learned from the post-war United States and Germany. The author regards collective bargaining as a type of core wage regulation that emerged from production regimes at the factory level and from economic and labor policies of the state. This analysis compares the production regimes and the state-labor-capital relations in China today with the U.S. and German models in order to identify the missing links as well as potential driving forces in the current system of collective contract in China. Finally, the author proposes an ideal model of collective bargaining in China, one that offers solutions to a more just and sustainable trajectory of industrial development and that tailors to the power status of the major actors in industrial relations.

This book examines the state of print and electronic media in the United States of America, Europe, and China. The latest mass communication advances demonstrate that we live in an increasingly media-centric world. The chapters include theoretical and empirical studies that shed light on the meaning of this development. The trajectory of peoples move to electronic communication is a global phenomenon affecting their daily life. Does this trend aid or impede democracy? Is there an emerging digital divide contributing to an increasing gap between the rich and poor people and nations? The four parts of this book explore various aspects of political socialization and its relationship with different media, including print, broadcasting, and the Internet.

This volume is a collection of essays on the process of obtaining a PhD degree at a Finnish university. The contributors share the common background of coming to Finland from abroad especially for the purpose of taking up PhD studies. They hail from different countries and academic backgrounds and obtained their degrees at different Finnish universities from Helsinki in the south of the country up to Oulu in the north. Moreover, they studied and conducted research at different faculties. The individual processes, academic, social, and cultural experiences and challenges form the core of the individual essays.

This book explores the Capability Approach (CA) as an alternative critical lens through which to regard early childhood education (ECE) curricula. The CA framework is a counter narrative to the narrow instrumentalism that reduces education to a mere process of academic skills acquisition for a future workplace. Primarily the book draws on the example of the Greek case. Criticizing the «bit role» that the front-line implementers play in the curriculum design and planning procedure it argues that efficient curriculum development can only occur when a zymosis between the pedagogues’ beliefs, practical experience, and theoretical knowledge is accomplished. Evidence shows that beliefs define the educators’ practices into the pedagogical context. The issues discussed are unlikely to be confined to this country alone and will have resonances on other contexts.

The book investigates Greek industrial relations in a global context at different periods. Combining sociological, institutional, political and social aspects, it discusses industrial relations from statism that prevailed up to the ‘80s, to policies after the early ‘90s requesting modernisation and democratic neocorporatism. It also analyzes the dramatic overthrow of the institutional and real balance in the labour market after the conclusion of the Memorandum with the E.U. and I.M.F. and the great recession of the last six years.

The onset of democracy in South Africa provided South Africans with the opportunity to build a truly democratic, non-racial, non-sexist society in which there would be opportunity for all to make material, social and intellectual progress. This vision was enshrined in a Constitution intent on deepening democracy by treating people with dignity and ensuring that democratic participation was not restricted to a trip to the voting booth once every five years. To give democracy real meaning, the Constitution declared that municipalities, in particular, must facilitate public participation for true legitimacy in its development endeavours. Various mechanisms have been put in place to achieve this objective, but the process has not been without its impediments and difficulties. This book reviews the context, approaches and challenges to the public participation process using international comparisons.

Sustainable Work in Europe brings together a strong core of Swedish workinglife research, with additional contributions from across Europe, and discussionof current issues such as digitalisation, climate change and the Covid pandemic.It bridges gaps between social science and medicine, and adds emphasis onage and gender. The book links workplace practice, theory and policy, and isintended to provide the basis for ongoing debate and dialogue.

The universal quest for peace, safety, and security aptly captured in The 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, approved by all United Nations Member States in 2015, serves as a collective outline for peace and prosperity for all citizens globally. Equally entrenched in the 17 UN Sustainable Development Goals is Goal 16, which promotes Peace, Justice, and Strong Institutions. Yet the pursuit of Goal 16 is inadvertently hampered by social, economic, and political power struggles in the era of neoliberal globalisation. These struggles are experienced on a global scale but evidentially concentrated in Africa.This book, mainly based on empirical data, provides fascinating insights into the situation in Africa. The insights related to intra-national conflicts, civil strife, and peacekeeping initiatives, as well as explanations for gender-based violence, xenophobia, food security, cyber security, student insecurities, and hostel violence. The insights captured in individual chapters are primarily from early career academics, supported by more seasoned peers and colleagues. The trajectory in the culmination of this publication lasted almost painstakingly fruitful 24 months. The data and analyses presented in each chapter are nuanced but embrace the golden thread of Peace and Security in Africa. The fascination with the book is further enriched by the individual lenses through which each narrative is captured. The vastness of topics introduces fresh insights and perspectives to the orthodox understanding of Peace and Security.

This anthology pinpoints how interdisciplinarity can strengthen democratic knowledge communities. The authors show that interdisciplinarity is not only a methodological choice but also a political and cultural stance. It challenges entrenched hierarchies of expertise, creates space for alternative voices and fosters co-production of knowledge responsive to complex societal problems. The urgency of making interdisciplinary practices the norm rather than the exception is emphasised, and the book warns of what is at stake if these debates are ignored. Without deliberate efforts to integrate diverse perspectives, knowledge risks becoming either narrowly technocratic or so fragmented that it loses the capacity to inform collective decision-making. Both scenarios threaten the democratic promise of knowledge as a shared resource for society, and it is argued that legitimacy, access, and responsiveness are not optional add-ons but prerequisites for meaningful knowledge communities.

This book opens a view into the dialogical methods used in national policy programmes and in local action research projects in Finland. On the basis of versatile academic and facilitator experience the authors shed light on the theoretical-philosophical backgrounds of the methods and analyze the prerequisites and the challenges of dialogue in case studies in different work environments – from day care to new technology. Dialogue is seen both as episodic situations and as continuous processes that may promote the quality of working life and the effectiveness of organizations. The creation of permanent development structures by using dialogue as a driver of learning, action and change is proposed to be one of the most challenging aims of the research-assisted development activities.

This book addresses the question of cultural pluralism and its implications for citizenship and national identity in post-war Britain. The author examines the role of underlying public philosophies reflected in laws, policies, and institutional arrangements. When a political community faces challenges of diversity, people explore new principles of social formation, that is, what kind of society they desire based on which methods of maintaining peace and cooperation. In other words, citizens of a political community try to forge a new social contract which is fair to social majorities as well as minorities. Such a contract includes rights and obligations on three levels: the range of state intervention, acceptable responsibility of society, and due liberty of the individual. This book explores Britain’s approach to responding to such challenges of diversity as devolution, European integration, and multiculturalism have deepened. The author interprets Britain’s principles under the name of deliberative multiculturalism, which consists of rational dialogue and mutual respect with firmly guaranteed political rights.

Through a detailed reconstruction of American rearmament programs to Italy from the birth of NATO through the implementation of multilateral military assistance during the early 1950s, this research challenges the idea that the end of reconstruction marked a striking American shift from economic aid to defense policies. The case study of Italy highlights the impact that the defense procurement contracts had both on monetary stability and balance of payments, as well as the integration of the Italian products within the infant European trade area. This monograph demonstrates that through military assistance the United States promoted balance of payments equilibrium and expansionary domestic aggregate demand to lay down the foundation of a mass consumption market. Furthermore, this work makes the point that the Italian elites resorted to Italy’s industrial role as production source for NATO to both export manufactured products to the West European economies and import high added value instrumental goods from the U.S. markets.