Papers
Bernd Hamm
New Trends in Urban Social Sciences
Abstract
The
paper looks critically at the lines of development of
international urban social science research, and specifically
at the role and significance of international networks and
defines a research agenda for the present through a closer
look at the UNESCO MOST programme on the ‘Management of
Social Transformation’ which places an emphasis on urban
research.
Pierpaolo Donati
Identity and Solidarity in the Complex of Citizenship:
The Relational Approach
Abstract
Within
modernity, social identity and solidarity are deemed to be
conflicting terms on principle. What has been called the
culture of difference triggers a week solidarity anywhere. But,
if it is really so, how can we explain the rise of new social
solidarities, a phenomenon which is nevertheless occurring
throughout Europe along with concomitant processes of
fragementation and differentiation? The author’s general
argument is that conflicts between social identities and
solidarities cannot be understood in terms of a clash between
individual and holistic perspectives. We need a relational
perspective. From this angle, the author tries to explain why
and how a postmodern societal balance between social
solidarity and social identities (i.e. a new citizenship) is
emerging today, from the society rather than from the state,
in such a way as to build up new forms of interdependences and
links between idetentities and solidarities. Sociologically
speaking, it may be that a new societal semantics is emerging,
according to which citizenship is a complex of rights and
duties not only of individuals but also of social groups,
arranging civic life into a number of ‘universalistic
autonomies’ capable of reconciling collective goals and
self-management practices, solidarity and identity issues.
This is the new challenge for postmodern societies. The name
of this new game is ‘societal citizenship’ or citizenship
of social autonomies, including regional ones.
Haldun Gülalp
The Crisis of Westernization in Turkey: Islamism versus
Nationalism
Abstract
The
article investigates the rise of the Islamist political
movement in Turkey which it argues is a product of the
frustration of the promises of Westernist modernization and,
thus, represents a crisis of the Kemalist ideology and a
critique of modernism. The Kemalist revolution transformed the
Ottoman empire from an Islamic empire to a national state, and
its legimitizing ideology from Islam to nationalism. Soon
after the creation of the Republic the Kemalist project came
to be identified with statist-nationalist developmentalism.
But when this development model exhausted its initial
rapid‑growth capability, a radical restructuring was
imposed. With the help of a military regime installed in 1980,
the Turkish development trajectory turned from a nationalist‑statist
strategy to a transnationalist and market‑oriented one.
The decline of nationalist and statist policy also brought
about a crisis in the popular ideology which supported
nationalist‑statist developmentalism. The state could no
longer claim the loyalty of its people. Secularist
legitimation was undermined together with the collapse of the
conviction that the state would deliver and that the common
national interest of development would be protected. The
Islamist movement came as a response to the crisis of
dependent modernization in Turkey. In the eighties, a large
marginalized and dispossessed segment in the metropolitan
centers joined the petty bourgeoisie of provincial towns in
support of Islamist politics. In addition to these social
classes, there is also a new social segment in the leadership
position of the current religious radicalism: university
students and upwardly mobile young professionals. In this
connection, it has to underlined that the Islamist critique
coincides with the postmodernist critique of Western culture,
but, unlike the latter, offers a concrete political project.
Hasan Ünal
Nalbantoðlu
Problematic Concepts, Ambivalent Identities: Western
Identity Seen from the Otherland
Abstract
The
article attempts to deconstruct the historical construct of
‘The West’ from the perspective of the Otherland and
demystify ‘West/Orient’ dichotomy. The dichotomy, the
author contends, originated primarily, albeit not exclusively,
in the struggle between monotheistic religions and reproduced
itself to date even during the stretches of time when it was
overshadowed by other political exigencies. It is, however,
especially at crucial times like the present when Europe is
undergoing significant changes, that such ‘fictions’
supporting a restless, albeit hegemonic, psychic ‘ensemble’,
have to be subjected to a ‘deconstruction’ process.
Peo Hansen
Questions from Somewhere - Who's Who in Attitude
Research about 'Immigrants'
Abstract
The
article looks into how the binary opposition ‘we’ and
‘them’ is reproduced and legitimized in attitudinal
surveys, specifically the Eurobarometer series. The
Eurobarometer 30 and 39 are among the most widely cited and,
therefore, most influential sources among academics and
politicians interested in knowing about how Europeans think of
those defined as ‘non-Europeans’. The author contends that
attitudinal research of the kind exemplified by the
Eurobarometer problematizes the ‘other’ instead of
recognizing that it is our ability to speak about an
‘other’ as ‘out-group in the first place which
constitutes the problem; in that it establishes yet another
space in which a stereotypical and debasing language of ‘we
and them’ becomes the norm.
Judit Juhász
International Migration in Hungary
Abstract
The
article provides an overview of the contemporary migration
trends affecting Hungary from a historical perspective and
with particular emphasis on legal and illegal immigration and
the development of migration policy and discourse.
Charles E. Grantham
and Eric D. Paul
The 'Greening' of Organizational Change: A Case Study
Abstract
There
are many emerging corporate strategies designed to make large,
complex business enterprises more responsive to environmental
concerns. One major corporate innovation that has a direct
environmental impact is the increased use of telework options
for employees. These programmes significantly reduce the
amount of employee travel, thereby reducing air pollution. However,
adoption of telework programmes requires a change in
organizational management strategies. The prevailing attitude
of „If I can’t seem them, how do I know they are working“
must be changed. This attitudinal change, coupled with the
structural move towards the ‘virtual corporation’ can be
managed using existing organizational development strategies
and tactics. The paper reports the results of several field
studies in California which examined the phenomenon of
telework. The studies consistently report increases in worker
productivity of 16 per cent and a significant reduction of
personal automobile travel of between 20 and 40 per cent while
engaged in telework. The paper concludes with a set of
recommendations for a management strategy for managing this
change and highlights areas for future research.
