Transcending the Nation-State?: The European Commission and the (Re)-Discovery of Europe

Abstract: This article examines the process of European integration from a cultural perspective. Taking up questions posed by social scientists and European Community (EC) officials concerning the possibility of transcending nation-state and nationalism in Europe, it explores the European Commission's attempts to do this, particularly through the EC's campaigns and initiatives for forging a sense of European identity and culture at the level of popular consciousness. Following Hobsbawn and Ranger, I argue that the history of EC cultural politics provides an interesting case study of invented traditions and manufactured heritage. The political implications and problems of using culture as a vehicle for nation-building at a pan-European level are analysed. The article concludes with a critical appraisal of the concept of European identity and questions whether the EC's project for constructing a post-nationalist political order in Europe is feasible or politically desirable.     

East European assimilation and (re)integration: the interwar legacies of transatlantic migration and “Russian” Orthodox conversion (1918–1939)

In the 1920s and 30s, mass conversion movements to “Russian” Orthodoxy emerged among Greek Catholics in Czechoslovakia and Poland, comprising a new chapter in a continuing saga of conversion which began in the late nineteenth century, in what was then Austria–Hungary. Pre-1914 conversion movements arose in large part due to transatlantic migration – especially return migration – between Austria–Hungary and the Americas. Americanists have generally treated the 1920s and 30s as the era when transnational migration’s impact waned owing to US immigration restrictions, while East Europeanists have minimized or ignored the impact of transnational migration upon East European regions. Interwar Catholic-to-Orthodox conversions, however, are not merely attributable to historical legacy: transatlantic migration continued to influence the dynamics of conversion as an active, contemporary force. As had been true prior to World War I, returning migrants and their families comprised the most significant constituency of the movements after the war; migrants remaining in the Americas supported the East European movements with economic and social remittances, and activists on either side of the Orthodox/Catholic divide treated the conversions as transnational phenomena. This essay analyzes the impact of transnational migration upon shifting ethnoreligious identifications, in the context of shifting social, national, and geopolitical circumstances, 1918–1939.     

Ruins of Yuanmingyuan(Garden of Perfect Splendor)

LOCATED in the northwestern outskirts of Beijing, the world-renowned Yuanmingyuan was built as an imperial playground during the flourishing period of the Qing Dynasty (1644-1911). Yuanmingyuan included three separate areas: The Garden of Perfect Splendor, The Garden of Everlasting Spring and The Garden of Blossoming Sping (later renamed as the Garden of Ten Thousand Spring Seasons). The three gardens covered an area of nearly     

Melody of Autumn (oil painting)

Perhaps because of the nature of a woman, I take great interest in painting flowers and plants. But the difference is I prefer instead of the blooming flowers the dry flowers surviving the blossom. The dry cockscomb, sunflower, lotus and the wild flowers whose names I don't know can always remind me of past stories. In recent years, my dried flawers have been displayed at exhibitions both at home and abroad and won appraisal and the top prize at the 1995 Eighth National Arts Exhibition. Some works have been collected by the China Art Gallery and private collectors from Hang Kong, Singapore, Taiwan and Europe.     

Schooling a European Identity: ethno‐cultural exclusion and nationalist resonance within the EU policy of “The European dimension of education”

This article aims to explore how the role of education as an aide in the process of “European” identity formation is being articulated in the European Union's (EU) policy of “The European dimension of education”. After having located the EU's views on education in the context of the neo‐liberal discourse on economic globalization, the article goes on to trace EU discussions of the European dimension of education historically. Subsequently, it deliberates on the understanding of European culture and identity which the European dimension of education endeavours to advance. Here a critique is developed of the policy's ethno‐culturalism, thereby excluding delineation of a collective identity in the EU. Basing itself on a notion of cultural identity which, implicitly, includes only those who fit certain versions of European historical “roots” and cultural “heritage”, the policy, it is argued, impedes a discussion of how a trans‐ethnic identity formation could be created in today's EU. Towards the end of the article, a scrutiny of the European dimension's perception of the so‐called “language diversity” in the EU seeks to illustrate this issue further.     

Criminal Law of the People's Republic of China (extracts)

This issue u'e uould like to inlroduce our readers to the Criminal Lau' of the People's Republic of China. The law was adopted at the Second Session of the Fifth National People's Congress on July 1, 1979, promulgated by Order No.5 of the Chairman of the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress on July' 6, 1979 and effectire as of January 1, 1980.The Criminal Lau' consists of tu'o parts. The first has 5 chapters and 89 articles and the second has 8 chapters and 192 articles. We hare only extracted a feu' articles concerning u'omen and children and some general prorisions.     

Theory and Practice? A Comparative Analysis of Migration and Development Policies in Eleven European Countries and the European Commission

This article analyses international policy discussions on migration and development (M&D) and contrasts these with the actual M&D policies and practices of 11 European countries who were among the main proponents of this international discourse. Desk research of public documents and accompanying information sought from these 11 governments as well as in the European Commission (EC) provide the basis for a comparative analysis of their overall M&D policies and strategies, and institutional settings for formulating and implementing these. The comparison shows that M&D policy and practice remains in a tentative and experimental phase, and that countries experience difficulties reflecting their international positions in their own policies, as well as in learning from their own efforts and those of others. While stressing the developmental potential of migration in international discussions, most of the countries’ policies still reflect an understanding of migration as a problem and a preoccupation with short‐term domestic interests.     

Framing European integration in mediated public spheres: an increasing nationalization and contestation of European issues in party political communication?

This article proposes a claims-making analysis of party political communication over Europe in mediated public spheres in France, Ireland, the UK and Spain between 1993 and 2006. It demonstrates that office-seeking parties and especially the representatives of the executive power generally dominate Europeanized debates. In contrast, peripheral parties and other party actors such as party MPs and extra-parliamentary politicians face significant difficulties in obtaining visibility and resonance for their Europeanized frames. The empirical and longitudinal analysis also shows the prevalence of claims directed towards the EU level and of nationalized debates over Europe. Overall, even though critical engagements with Europe have progressed over time, the domination of mainstream parties and party actors in framing European integration and the pro-European consensus between office-seeking parties nevertheless limit the potential for contestation on European matters.     

The 40th Anniversary of Women of China (English Monthly)

Some noted women painters present their works to Women of China. Huang Qizao, Vice President of the All-China Women's Federation, talks with them.     

European Cohesion? Globalization,Autonomization, and the Dynamics of EU Integration

Globalization is frequently assumed to be responsible for creating the economic environment in which a much greater degree of European Union (EU) economic integration is deemed necessary. In contrast, this paper argues that globalization, in conjunction with neo-liberal growth, has led to autonomization as well as integration. The term autonomization designates both that economic governance is increasingly delegated to autonomous regions, and that neo-liberal economic policies tend to fragment and divide in their pursuit of growth. The paper investigates the tension between the role in which globalization has cast the region, and the region as a central player in the EU's cohesion strategy. Cohesion policy-measures to combat underdevelopment and backwardness-plays a key role in integration and growth strategies. It is argued that cohesion has become detached from its redistributive origins and incorporated in a discourse of competitiveness and growth. The region has emerged as both the site upon which the global acts upon the EU, and the level at which the EU has determined that the processes of globalization can best be accommodated. It is suggested that the tension between cohesion and autonomization introduced by globalization is a central dynamic at work in the contemporary EU.     

Subjective well-being in European countries��on the age-specific impact of physical activity

As an attempt to measure the ‘experienced’ utility of individuals in economics, the investigation of individuals’ subjective well-being (SWB) was pioneered by Van Praag and Frijters (1999) and Kahneman et al. (1999). Since then, a number of studies has analysed the factors associated with SWB and policy makers are now recognising the importance of SWB as a policy target, with the implication being that one could target its factors associated with increase in the overall SWB in countries. However, despite its significance to economies, and increasing policy relevance, investigations on the impact of sport and physical activity on SWB are relatively rare [e.g. Rasciute and Downward in Kyklos 63(2):256–270, 2010]. More specifically, despite sports participation and engagement in physical activity having a strong age-specific profile (Breuer et al. in Eur Rev Aging Phys Act 7:61–70, 2010; Hinrichs et al. in Eur J Sport Soc 6(1):49–57, 2010; Mechling and Netz in European Rev Aging Physical Activity 6(2):89–97, 2009), there is no study that investigates whether the magnitude of this impact is age-specific. Consequently, this paper seeks to make a unique contribution to the existing literature by exploring the age-specific effects of physical activity on SWB for a broad cross-section of 19 European countries. Overall, the results suggest that engagement in physical activity generally contributes to the SWB of individuals on a European level but that significant age-specific differences exist.     

Adolescents' understandings of binge drinking in Southern and Northern European contexts – cultural variations of ‘controlled loss of control’

Previous research on youth drinking has brought out important features in young people's time- out cultures as and how they relate to the current neo-liberal social order with its expectation of self-governing individuals. However, previous research has not sufficiently considered cultural variations on the meaning of binge drinking for young people; in particular, there have been very few studies dealing with under-aged drinkers. This paper considers the applicability of binge drinking as ‘controlled loss of control’ in Northern and Southern European contexts by comparing young people's perceptions of binge drinking in Finland and Italy, which have conventionally been considered as representing sharply contrasting drinking traditions. The data consist of 28 focus-group interviews conducted at schools among 15-year-old pupils (N = 148) in Helsinki and Turin. In both countries, binge drinking was seen as risky, but it was associated with social norms that defined the limits of successful or failed drinking experience. Cultural variations were found especially in the ways self-control was defined with regard to drinking regulation. However, in both data the competence of the drinker and self-control was emphasized, thus contradicting the interpretation of binge drinking as loss of control or a time-out from the neo-liberal social order.     

Making sources of energy: the case of coal (1900–1936)

Recent contributions to a sociological analysis of energy and society focus mostly on its political, economic and technological organization. Yet contrary to other parts of nature, little social scientific attention has been paid to how politics, economics and technology have come to produce and stabilize the concept of energy in the first place and how different natural materials were transformed into “sources of energy.” Drawing from insights of the sociology of comparison, quantification and commensuration, “energy” in this paper is conceived as a “statistical object,” around which a public discourse develops in which comparisons between resources are drawn. Since the beginning of the twentieth century, this discourse has been more and more stabilized by the regular, public production and ever tighter net of elements of comparison, the creation of a highly abstract, potentially quantified point of comparison, and the definition of various criteria tying the compared entities together with more general models and narratives. This theoretical framework is put into practice by an explorative analysis of coal classification in the first quarter of the twentieth century. In this empirical analysis, three fields are identified where coals were “made the same”: engineering, economics and resource statistics. It is shown that the “calorific value” plays an important role for classification in all three fields and, furthermore, constitutes a measure that links coal to other fuels.     

The Integration of Immigrants in Sweden: a Model for the European Union?

In an overall ranking by the Migration Policy Group of 2006 measuring immigrant integration policies in 28 countries, Sweden scored more points than any other country. This result is especially interesting given that Swedish integration policies differ considerably from integration policies applied in other EU countries. Whereas in countries such as the Netherlands, Germany, Denmark, the United Kingdom, and France integration conditions have become increasingly restrictive in recent years, in Sweden the participation in integration courses is still voluntary and no integration requirements must be met for long‐term residence or citizenship. Moreover, the Swedish integration programme is characterised by an increasing number of labour‐market related integration measures. Yet, in contrast to the Migration Policy Group ranking, data collected from the OECD and Eurostat seem to indicate unfavourable integration outcomes in Sweden, at least in terms of labour market participation. The gap in employment rates between the native and foreign‐born population in Sweden widened during the 1990s and has not narrowed significantly since then. This means that the outcome of Swedish integration policies is at least ambiguous, which makes the use of Sweden as a model for integration policies in other member states inconceivable.     

Validation of the Chinese Version of the Gamblers’ Belief Questionnaire (GBQ-C)

A growing body of evidence is documenting the significant role of cognitive factors in influencing gambling behaviors. Although measures of cognitive biases have been developed, further validation of these scales is needed among non-Western samples. The 21-item Gamblers’ Belief Questionnaire was originally developed and validated by Steenbergh et al. (in Psychol. Addict. Behav., 16: 143–149, 2002). The scale then has been widely used in the gambling research of the West. The present study was designed to examine and validate the Chinese version of Gamblers’ Belief Questionnaire (GBQ-C) using 258 Chinese participants. Confirmatory factor analyses indicated the 2-factor model provided a good fit to the data as evidenced by various model fit indices (CFI?=?.91, RMSEA?=?.08 and SRMR?=?.05). Additional evidence for the validity of the GBQ-C was provided by significant correlations with other relevant measures (range .40–.75). In sum, the present study provides support for the GBQ-C as a valuable tool for assessing gambling cognitions among Chinese samples.     

Facing Unemployment (2)——Efforts of Women's Federations

ZHANG Xiuwen lost her job in March 1993 when the Tianjin Photographic Materials Chemical Factory closed due to the intense competition in the emerging market economy. Zhang, who had worked for more than 10 years, panicked when forced to enter the ranks of Tianjin's 260,000 laid-off workers. While Zhang continued to receive a living allowance from the factory, she was supporting a son in high school, and found it difficult to make ends meet. She resorted to selling clothing