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Contemporary Trends in European Social Sciences - The ICCR Book Series

The ICCR publishes an English book series bearing the title 'Contemporary Trends in European Social Sciences'; this relies on the research work done at the ICCR. The book series is published by Ashgate Publishing in the United Kingdom.

 

'Coping and Pulling Through - Action Processes in Vulnerable Situations'
Vivianne Châtel and Marc-Henry Soulet

Exclusion is a popular area of sociological research, with much analysis pointing towards survival practices and inclusion mechanisms as ways to cope with and confront exclusion. However, the question of what it means to act and how it is possible to do so from a vulnerable situation has yet to be properly addressed.

This resourceful volume takes on this challenge, examining how to react and the measures to employ in instances of material and symbolic deprivation. It analyzes whether alliances can be formed and their potential benefit, and discusses which supports are available despite structural inequality and no opportunity for reciprocation. Drawing together illustrative case studies from across Europe, the contributors consider in depth how a community or individual can take support from a spoiled identity and transform both it and the physical situation. This illuminating volume also includes discussions of living without support, security of living conditions and dignity, claims for citizenship, collective action, continuity and survival. It proposes an innovative and groundbreaking theory for 'weak' action.

'Coping and Pulling Through - Action Processes in Vulnerable Situations', Vivianne Châtel and Marc-Henry Soulet, 2004, published by Ashgate, ISBN: 0-7546-3467-1

'Transport Projects, Programmes and Policies - Evaluation Needs and Capabilites'
Alan Pearman, Peter Mackie and John Nellthorp

The European Union is constantly struggling to find effective ways to plan major transport infrastructure developments at a European level. This is a critical factor in the emerging debates surrounding the absorption of the accession states into the EU, but it is essential for these states that their economic competitiveness is supported by appropriate and effective transport infrastructure. It is therefore crucial to find innovative approaches to the infrastructure itself, how it is financed and the ways in which proper evaluation procedures are implemented to select which policies, programmes and projects should be supported.

This informative volume brings together leading international specialists in economic evaluation applied within the transport sector. Their contributions encompass all the main levels at which transport planning is typically conceptualized - strategic/regional policy, programme and project planning. It therefore examines how coherent economic evaluation practice can be developed and applied not only across different physical scales, but also across national borders.

'Transport Projects, Programmes and Policies - Evaluation Needs and Capabilities', Alan Pearman, Peter Mackie and John Nellthorp, 2003, published by Ashgate, ISBN: 0 7546 3032 3

'Project and Policy Evaluation in Transport'
Liana Giorgi and Alan Pearman with Annuradha Tandon, Dimitrios Tsamboulas and Christian Reynaud

There is a multitude of assessment methods available for analyzing and reporting on the impacts of policies, all with different underlying assumptions and a wide range of criteria. Since the 1950s, much research has gone into creating guidelines for policy analysis, yet only a small percentage of evaluation has been carried out on transport policy – and none by political scientists or social policy specialists.

The editors of this volume recognize that European integration has seen a drive to bring policy evaluation on to the transport agenda and has increased demands for "strategic assessments." It has become apparent that to gain a fuller understanding of the success of a transport programme, a much more complex combination of analytical methods must be used, and a set of guidelines specifically for the field of transport must be developed. This book achieves this by bringing together a multidisciplinary team of analysts from throughout the EU to discuss in a much broader way the various types of assessment methods and how they can best be used to evaluate transport programmes and systems, both individually and in combination.

'Project and Policy Evaluation in Transport', Liana Giorgi and Alan Pearman with Annuradha Tandon, Dimitrios Tsamboulas and Christian Reynaud, 2002, published by Ashgate, ISBN 0-7546-1787-4

'Transport Policy and Research: What Future?'
Liana Giorgi and Ronald J. Pohoryles

What is the meaning of ‘sustainable mobility’? Is there a European common transport policy? To what extent is policy relevant for transport developments? What is the contribution of European transport research? These are some of the questions and themes addressed by this new book in the ICCR book series European Transport Policy and Research: What Future?.

The book is organised around the core theme of policy analysis. At the eve of the millennium and as the twin processes of European integration and enlargement gain momentum, it is necessary to develop and elaborate strategic visions for the future that can assist the formulation and implementation of relevant measures towards sustainable mobility. To do this it is important to understand the dynamics surrounding policy formulation and implementation, the conflicts of interest underlying these processes at the regional, national and supra-national levels, the inherent contradictions of the ecological modernisation discourse as it applies to transport and the role of the public or the citizen in determining trajectories for future developments. In addition the book looks into the dynamics of the science-policy interaction in the field of transport.

'Transport Policy and Research: What Future?', Liana Giorgi and Ronald J. Pohoryles, 2001, Published by Ashgate, ISBN 0-7546-1459-X

'Modern Roots - Studies of national identity'
Alain Dieckhoff and Natividad Gutiérrez

Interest in the study of national identity as a collective phenomenon is a growing concern among the social and political sciences. This book addresses the scholarly interest in examining the origins of ideologies and social practices that give historical meaning, cohesion and uniqueness to modern national communities. It focuses on the various routes taken towards the construction of cultural authenticity as an inspirational purpose of nation-building, and reveals the diversity of the themes, practices and symbols used to encourage self-identification and communality. Among the techniques explored are the dramatization of suffering and tragedy, the exaltation of heroes and deeds, the evocation of landscape, nature and arts, and the delimitation of collective values to be pursued during reconstruction in post-war periods.

'Modern Roots - Studies of national identity' Alain Dieckhoff and Natividad Gutiérrez, 2001, Published by Ashgate, ISBN 0 7546 1152 3

'Can Small Urban Communities Survive? - Culturological analysis in urban rehabilitation: Cases in Slovenia and Scotland'
Branka Berce-Bratko

Throughout the post-war period, there has been much activity in the conservation and renewal of old town centers throughout Europe. A considerable body of knowledge has been built up on the technical side of rehabilitation over the last forty years, but very little attention has been paid to related societal and cultural aspects. More often than not this results in a degree of failure in the rehabilitation process. This book explores how the planning and design of urban areas might be improved by the incorporation of Culturological analysis within the town planning process. European practice in residential rehabilitation and conservation is reviewed in order to gauge what progress has been made in recent years, with particular emphasis on the solutions and remedies associated with cultural, ethnicity and minority aspects.

'Can Small Urban Communities Survive? - Culturological analysis in urban rehabilitation: Cases in Slovenia and Scotland' Branka Berce-Bratko, 2001, Published by Ashgate, ISBN 1 84014 157 3

'130 Years of Catching Up With the West'
Peter S. Biegelbauer

Can we learn from history or are we damned to repeat the same mistakes over and over again?. The basic assumption that we can indeed learn from history underlies Peter Biegelbauer's analysis of both the Hungarian research sphere and the policies directed at it from the beginnings of industrialisation until today. More concretely, this study focuses on three aspects: The development of a process oriented understanding of history, which allows us to see "transactions" in a historical perspective as a regular turnover of power instead of a singular event connected with the fall of the iron curtain in 1989; The analysis of the changes in the ideas and paradigmatic notions underlying the policies directed at the S&T sphere; Finally, as an evaluatory aspect linked closely to the two other questions, the reasons for success and failure of the steering efforts over the 130 years in question are subject to analysis.

'130 Years of Catching Up With the West' Peter S. Biegelbauer, 2000, Published by Ashgate, ISBN 1-84014-930-2

'The Politics of Belonging: Migrants and Minorities in Contemporary Europe'
Andrew Geddes & Adrian Favell

Europe develops an original and insightful approach to the analysis of immigration related politics. It gathers analyses undertaken by experts on immigration politics in many of the key European countries of immigration.

Contents: Notes on contributors; Introduction; The politics of belonging: some theoretical considerations; Immigration and minority policy debate in Britain: multicultural political narratives contested; Re-imagined communities? Education policies and national belonging in Britain and France; The politicization of belonging: post-war legal developments in the administrative identities of non-nationals in France; Coming home? Ethnic Germans and the transformation of national identity in the Federal Republic of Germany; The perception of the "other" and the integration of immigrants in Greece; Immigrants and the changing relations of trust between government and electorates: the effects of referenda in Switzerland; The ethno-national mobilisation of Croat immigrants in Vienna: some problems with an undifferentiated notion of the politics of belonging; The effects of the construction of Europe on national immigration and refugee policies: the case of Belgium; The development of EU immigration policy: supranationalisation and the politics of belonging; Is there such a thing as "global belonging"? Transnational protest during the "Rushdie affair"; To belong or not to belong: the postnational question.

Andrew Geddes, European University Institute, Florence, Italy and Adrian Favell, ERCOMER Utrecht University, The Netherlands.

'The Politics of Belonging: Migrants and Minorities in Contemporary Europe' Andrew Geddes & Adrian Favell, 1999, Published by Ashgate, ISBN 1-84014-177-8

'Political Symbols, Symbolic Politics: European identities in transformation'
Ulf Hedetoft

This book addresses the topic of European unity and/or fragmentation from the vantage point of cultural and symbolic tension, and thus the often ambiguous and unresolved figurations of the symbolic politics employed by proponents of integration in depth and the political symbolics of nation-states and national identities. The anthology sets out to highlight the tensions and conflicts resulting from the interplay between these two sets of symbolic identity construction, pivoting around different ways of staging culture and identity as a 'new battlefield' between forces of unity and forces of (national or regional) fragmentation, and comprising theoretical as well as empirical contributions. It is a novel input to ongoing debates on the question of how most appropriately and adequately to conceptualize the interplay of political integration in Europe with (inter) cultural analysis and national identity.

'Political Symbols, Symbolic Politics: European identities in transformation' Ulf Hedetoft, 1998, Published by Ashgate, ISBN 1-84014-355-X

'The Post-Socialist Media: What Power the West?'
Liana Giorgi

The second book of the series 'Contemporary Trends in European Social Sciences' focuses on 'The Post-Socialist Media: What Power the West?'. This volume delineates the effects of the transition process underway in Central Eastern Europe on media structures, both the print and the audio-visual sector. Three countries define the field of investigation: Poland, Hungary and the Czech Republic. The book covers the following main themes: the development of media-related legislation; the process of privatization and internationalization as reflected in the major trends of foreign investment characteristic of each country; the transformation of the former opposition press; and the development of the journalistic profession. The book includes original unpublished material and information.

'The Post Socialist Media: What Power the West?' Liana Giorgi: 1995, Published by Avebury, 151 pages, Hardback, ISBN 1-85628-654-1

'European Transformations: Five Decisive Years at the Turn of the Century'
Ronald J. Pohoryles with Liana Giorgi, Henrik Kreutz, John Rex and Philip Schlesinger

In the aftermath of World War II, there followed a period of stability of the political systems in East and West. This period, which has lasted for more than four decades, was characterized by gradual, stepwise changes which only from an ex-posteriori perspective could be interpreted as forerunners to the dramatic changes that occured during the eighties. Although at first sight the respective processes of systemic transformation in East and West appear grounded on different economic, social, and cultural causes, a closer unbiased view reveals quite striking similarities.

The convergence of the transformation processes in East and West may be judged by the similarity of the symptoms of crisis prevalent in both geopolitical areas: the emergence of neo-populist movements, the (hopefully ephemeral) success of which derives from the paradoxical - at first sight - combination of the general discontent with what is perceived as a decline of the moral standards of the political class in democracies with open chauvinism and xenophobia. The paradox of this situation lies in the parallelism of integration and disintegration processes.

The reader will realize that the originality of the book lies in the selection of the papers presented here: it represents a document of the transformation processes underway in both East and West at the turn of the millenium. The main aim of this book is to show that there are many more links between the different parts of Europe, however much they may differ from each other; and that both national and supranational forms of egotism can only lead to a negative sum game for both sides. It is this criterion that has guided our selection of the contributions included in this reader.

The book includes:
Part One: After the Cold War: What Europe? with contributions by Ronald J. Pohoryles and Philip Schlesinger

Part Two: The East: Late Communism - and thereafter? with contributions by Gabriele Schreiber-Tuitz, Jaroslaw Gorniak, Vladim S. Rogovin, László Bruszt & Tamas Reti, Jacek Tarkowski, Patrick Michel, György Csepeli & Tibor Závecz, Robert J. Brym, Mart Rannut, Endre Sik and János Szántó Part Three: The West: Disintegration After the Loss of the Foe?with contributions by Yngvar Løchen, Pierpaolo Donati, John Rex, Liana Giorgi, Giancarlo, Sabine Pohoryles-Drexel & Ronald J.Pohoryles, Mike King, and Michael Pinto-Duschinsky Part Four: Towards a Common Europe? Problems to Overcome Henrik Kreutz, Alberto Melucci, Heribert Adam, and Anatol Rapoport

'European Transformations: Five Decisive Years at the Turn of the Century' Ronald J. Pohoryles with Liana Giorgi, Henrik Kreutz, John Rex and Philip Schlesinger:1994, ISBN 1-85628-656-8
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