Cultural practice and utopian desire in German Social Democracy: Reading Adolf Levenstein's Arbeiterfrage (1912)

During the Wilhelmine period, leaders of the German Social Democratic Party began to redefine socialism as a 'cultural movement' which was concerned as much with the educational, artistic and leisure-time needs of workers as it was with trade union struggles and the future prospect of revolutionary social transformation. This drew them into a debate about the relationship between politics and 'culture', understood in terms of both 'high' and 'mass' culture, and the role of the latter in mobilizing German workers to the cause of socialism. Drawing on the methods of cultural studies, this article offers a close reading of Adolf Levenstein's important survey of the attitudes, 'hopes and wishes' of male rank-and-file Social Democrats and trade unionists from 1912, and his other related publications, in order to examine the ways in which German workers assigned meanings to cultural texts. In this way, it identifies the utopian political investments revealed in workers' leisure-time practices, ranging from poetry writing to novel reading, and their challenges to the structuring binarisms - oppositions between culture and politics, high culture and mass culture, art and everyday life, the masculine and the feminine, and reality and fantasy - of Social Democratic cultural politics in pre-war Germany.     

Kosovo's social policy during self‐management,UNMIK and independence: Persisting high inequality and social exclusion

This study examined: (i) Kosovo's social policy's poverty and inequality outcomes in recent history, namely during Yugoslav self‐management socialism (1952–1989), the United Nations Mission in Kosovo (UNMIK) (1999–2008) and independence (2008 onwards), and (ii) the impact of local politics in the more recent trajectory of social policy. The study shows that the poverty rate after the war (1999) is significantly lower than it was during socialism, but that there is persistent high and deepening Gini inequality and social exclusion. Transfers and taxes of the residual‐liberal policy have reduced more pretransfer–pretax inequality, and especially poverty, compared with self‐management's insurance‐dominated socialism, but their effectiveness is declining due to the policy's underlying long‐term, pro‐market logic and its increasing particularism with respect to short‐term transfers. The article argues that the main local political cleavages have originated from self‐management socialism's extensive stratification. These cleavages matter in distributive conflicts, and they mattered also during the UNMIK period by easing the pathway for the unprecedented influence international organisations have had on policy formation.     

城市公用事业的市场化改革与政府管制研究——以北京市生活垃圾处理产业为例

为了推进城市公用事业的市场化改革,加强政府管制,实现城乡统筹发展、建设生态城市的目标,本文结合北京市生活垃圾处理的实际,分析研究规范生活垃圾处理的特许经营制度、确立生活垃圾处理的资产管理体制、加快生活垃圾处理单位的现代企业制度改革,提出落实生活垃圾处理的区县政府区域责任制、完善生活垃圾处理市场化中的政府管制制度等对策思路。     

"No fertile soil for pathogens": rayon, advertising, and biopolitics in late Weimar Germany

Recent research on twentieth-century German history has begun to re-examine the centrality of race as a category of analysis. While not discounting its importance in the shaping and enacting of Nazi policies and practices, race is seen instead as one among many factors leading to the crimes of the Nazi regime. In this paper, the author considers the role consumerist desires and fantasies played in the wider context of the inter-war European fascination with notions of technology, "hygiene," democracy, and modernity. Using advertisements that were created to promote manufactured-fiber (rayon) apparel, this article suggests that continuities across cultures and time periods necessitate a re-evaluation of race as the signal organizing principal. Instead, the author argues that by complicating the intersections between class, science and technology, and an emerging, but troubling, modernity, 1920s rayon advertising offers an especially rich site for analysis of the ways in which biopolitics and nascent consumerism both sold products and constructed ideologies before 1933, and influenced the post-war welfare state.     

Lawrence R. Klein 1920–2013: Notes on the early years

Klein can well be said to have created the field of macroeconometric modeling almost singlehandedly. His international influence started at an early stage. The article offers scattered archive observations on Klein's early years from undergraduate study to the University of Pennsylvania in 1958. Klein was in 1944 recruited by the Cowles Commission in Chicago to construct the first macroeconomic model in the USA, drawing on the experiences of the interwar modeling work of Jan Tinbergen and the new path-breaking econometric methods developed by Trygve Haavelmo. The first Klein model was taken into use at the end of 1945 to shed light on the prospects for the US economy in the transition from war to peace. After two-three years in Chicago Chicago, Klein traveled for a year in Europe and initiated macroeconometric modeling work in Canada, at the University of Michigan, and at Oxford University. This was only the beginning of the lifelong influence exerted on modelers around the globe. The article pays attention to Klein's relation to Paul Samuelson, Jacob Marschak, Trygve Haavelmo, Ragnar Frisch, and others.     

NIMBY opposition and solid waste incinerator siting in democratizing Taiwan

To address Taiwan's waste crisis, the Taiwanese government has embraced incinerators as a major policy instrument for waste disposal. Although the adoption of waste burning policy was not debated much, the siting of incinerators has been vigorously opposed by community-based protest movements, emerged with Taiwan's transition to democracy. In response, both the Kuomintang (KMT) government and the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) government have used compensation to induce the acceptance of local hosting communities as in other countries. Nevertheless, the use of compensation has never been effective in resolving not-in-my-backyard (NIMBY) conflict without mobilizing local political and government support to suppress NIMBY protests in order to enforce the timely construction of needed incinerators. To accommodate the rising democratic expectation of public participation in deliberations over the incineration waste policy, this article also argues that the role of citizen participation must be addressed to increase public support for incinerator option in managing Taiwan's waste.     

France and the First Sino-Japanese War, 1894-1895

Around the time of the outbreak of the First Sino-Japanese War, France reiterated that it had no direct interest in the Korean issue, and professed to be an onlooker. But from the very beginning, in fact, France viewed the war as an opportunity to consolidate its alliance with Russia and further encroach on China’s southwest frontiers; it was therefore happy to see war break out between China and Japan, and took Russia’s position on stopping Britain from playing a dominant role in mediation between them. As the outcome of the war became clear, exposing Japan’s ambition to invade China, France turned from its wait-and-see attitude to intervention, taking an active part in the peacemaking activities of Russia, Britain and France and the triple intervention of Russia, France and Germany. In so doing, it attempted to safeguard general European interests and consolidate its alliance with Russia, as well as preventing Japan from replacing Europe as the dominant force in China. At the same time, it demanded a quid pro quo from the victim. During negotiation over the return of the Liaodong Peninsula, France put aside its conflicts with its old enemy Germany and endeavored to mediate in disputes between Germany and Russia so as to maintain concerted action under the triple intervention. It proposed to sacrifice the interests of China to satisfy the wishes of Japan and Russia for a swift resolution of the issue of the Liaodong Peninsula.     

Social work and social problems: A contribution from systems theory and constructionism

Social work builds its identity on social problems. The goal is to generate knowledge about causes, consequences and solutions. However, there is a lack of theory of social problems. We suggest that research on social problems can benefit by ‘bringing the observer in’: Loseke's constructionist framework and Luhmann's systems theory. According to Loseke, social problems appear differently when constructed by different observers. Constructions vary in terms of morality, conditions, victims/villains and solutions. From Luhmann we learn that modern society consists of a multitude of social systems (e.g. politics, science, economy etc.), each operating with their own communicative codes. Combining both approaches, we hypothesise that any social system constructs its own (version of) social problems. Illustrating with the empirical case ‘suicide among mentally ill people’, we examine how a phenomenon is constructed differently as a social problem by four different social systems: the disability movement, politics, medicine and social work.     

“Respect for each gender”: Gender,equity and backlash in Australia's male health policy

Australia is one of the few countries which has specific health policies for boys/men and girls/women as distinct groups. In this article I present an analysis of the discourses of gender, equity and disadvantage drawn upon in Australia's men's health policy. Through comparison with the women's health policy, I show that a dual focus on the essential differences between men and women and the ways in which the health system has failed men contribute to an adversarial gender politics, positioning men and women as rivals with competing needs. Reflecting broader debates concerning the negative impact of societal change on boys/men, I argue that, in its current form, Australia's health policy both taps into and, crucially, legitimises backlash politics, enabling it to ‘pass’ as sound public policy.     

Successful yet insufficient: German policies for higher employment rates among older age groups

In recent years among the OECD countries, Germany has witnessed the largest increase in the employment rates of older people. This increase, and general German employment rates, are associated with both supply side measures in the fields of pensions and unemployment policies and employment promotion policies. Yet, supply side measures and Germany's shift from conservative towards liberal policy goals and policies in the case of older workers have resulted in economic inequality. These policies could be complemented by pro‐employability measures in order to become fully effective. This article describes recent policy reforms in the main policy fields of retirement, unemployment, and employment promotion, considers their effects on employment and inequality, and offers reform suggestions to raise further older worker employment rates without increasing inequality.     

Vinayak & me: Hindutva and the politics of naming

This article examines political and intellectual influences of Vinayak Damodar Savarkar's Hindutva: Who is a Hindu? (published in 1923) on the development of nationalism in India. The article argues that contemporary political concerns about national identity raised in India have historical links that go back to Savarkar's text, especially the discourses on the politics of naming. The article considers the implications of these writings on one of Savarkar's disciples: Dr Dattatrey Parchure, an individual who had acquired notoriety for his role in Mohandas K. Gandhi's assassination in 1948. By examining Dr Parchure's life-story, the article shows how transformations in the family, the medical profession, masculinity and religion were directly intertwined with an emergent Hindu nationalism. But more specifically, the article examines Dr Parchure's decision to name children Vinayak as a way of evoking a mental image of Savarkar as an icon in everyday life and to propagate the ideals of Hindutva . The article posits that the politics of figures like Dr Parchure and Savarkar reflect a conjuncture in the development of nationalism in India during the colonial period, and their legacies continue to influence the making of today's post-colonial nationalism.     

Class, Attitudes and the Welfare State: Sweden in Comparative Perspective

One of the most important arenas for contemporary class politics is the welfare state. In this article, attitudes towards welfare policies among different classes in Sweden are compared with other Western countries and over time. In the first part of the article, attitudes towards state intervention among different classes are compared across four Western countries: Sweden, Germany, Britain and the USA. The data come from the 1996 survey on “The Role of Government” conducted within the International Social Survey Programme. In the second part of the article, more detailed national data sets are used in order to track developments within Sweden from the early 1980s until 2002. Attitudes towards welfare spending, financing of welfare policies and service delivery are used to track developments of class differences in attitudes over time. It is concluded (a) that class differences are particularly large in Sweden, and (b) that changes over time indicate stability in overall class differences, combined with changes in attitudes among non‐manual employees. The implications of the results for recent arguments about the restructuring of class relations and the impact of welfare policies on stratification are discussed.     

The working practices of Birmingham's Centre for Contemporary Cultural Studies

This article offers a history of the working practices of the Birmingham Centre for Contemporary Cultural Studies. Based on extensive interviews with former members and on research into a new archive of the Centre, housed in the Cadbury Research Library, University of Birmingham, it argues that cultural studies as practised in the 1970s was always a heterogeneous subject. The CCCS was heavily influenced by the events of 1968 when it tried to develop a new type of radical and collaborative research and teaching agenda. Despite Stuart Hall's efforts to impose a focused link between politics and academic practice, the agenda soon gave way to a series of diverse and fruitful initiatives associated with the ‘sub-groups’ model of research.     

Globalization and Political Change in the Women's Movement: The Politics of Scale and Political Empowerment in the World March of Women*

Objective. The objective of the article is to show that in order to understand the ongoing transnational mobilizations of the European wing of the World March of Women (WMW) between 2000 and 2006 we also need to consider the politics of scale of the transnational social movements' mobilizations. The WMW is a transnational collective action that integrates women from grassroots organizations, labor unions, and leftist political parties in over 150 countries (approximately 6,000 groups) into a process of transnationalization of solidarities. Method. The method is based on the analysis of internal documents of the international and European wings of the movement, interviews with key actors and militants, and direct observations over the years 1998–2005. Results. The results are twofold: we investigate the shift in the politics of scale of the movement, from using the same scale as the political authorities with which they interact to the creation of its own scales of action (first part); we focus on the articulation of different scales of protest, showing how, by constructing networks and coalitions, actions, and demands under the WMW umbrella, grassroots women's groups are becoming empowered and are regaining political power over the definition, dissemination, and resolution of gender issues (second part). Conclusion. The conclusion is that this specific process of empowerment helps to explain why feminist activists pursue transnationalization actions despite all the material, ideological, and relational difficulties that accompany such actions.     

Observing different orders of risk aversion

A decision maker's attitude towards risk is said to be of orderi, i=1, 2, if for every given riskē with expected value zero, the risk premium the decision maker is willing to pay to avoid the risktē goes witht to zero at the same order ast ⁱ. This article presents an experiment testing the order of decision makers' attitudes toward risk. Its major result is that both attitudes exist, each in significant proportions. Moreover, two classes of first-order behavior are defined. The rank-dependent model (Quiggin, 1982) belongs to one, the disappointment aversion model (Gul, 1991) to the other. We show that only the first of these two classes appears among our subjects.     

The challenge of pension reform in Georgia: Non‐contributory pensions and elderly poverty

Georgia's national social security system offers almost universal non‐contributory basic pension coverage. The basic pension has, to date, proved effective in dealing with old‐age poverty. But Georgia's fiscal constraints and ageing population also highlight the importance of improving the pension system, in order to ensure its sustainability. This article presents policy reform choices, which suggest that, in Georgia, pension reform might include increasing the statutory retirement ages and reducing the generosity of benefits through means testing. The case of the Georgian non‐contributory basic pension might hold value for some low‐ and middle‐income countries that are considering the implementation of, or expanding coverage under, a non‐contributory pension programme.     

Wrestling with Legacy

Abstract

Those of us who are children of Holocaust refugees and survivors inherit a complex, multi-faceted legacy that manifests itself in various conscious and unconscious ways at different stages of our lives. In the following pages, I share my journey toward a better understanding and integration of my parents' Holocaust experiences, and of the losses they and their extended families suffered under Nazi rule. That understanding necessitated traveling to my father's place of birth, developing relationships with Germans currently residing there, and immersing myself in the details of the demise of the Jewish community of the small rural village of Roth, Germany.

Immersing myself in my father's Holocaust history was both daunting and healing. It provided me with an opportunity to wrestle with my legacy in a way that interrupted the cycle of intergenerational prejudice that I was passing on to my own children. It inspired me to create an educational exhibit that could teach the lessons of the Holocaust in a way that is personal and relevant to students, with the intent of helping visitors to understand their civic responsibility to actively protest against prejudice and social injustice.     

"Hate Has Not Come Easily to Me"

… I read the Moscow papers carefully, but I cannot pretend I understood everything. I remembered how Bonnet and Chamberlain used to dream that Hitler would march on the Ukraine; the Soviet-Nazi Pact had been dictated by necessity. The drble de guerre [phoney war] and the persecution of (French) communists proved that Daladier had no real intention of fighting Hitler. Nonetheless Molotov's phrase about "the nearsighted anti-fascists" cut deep. That was the winter when I first needed a pair of glasses; but I wasn't ready to consider myself "nearsighted": my memories of the Spanish War were still fresh; fascism remained for me the main enemy. I was profoundly shaken by Stalin's telegram to Ribbentrop which spoke of a friendship cemented by blood that had been shed. I must have reread that telegram a dozen times, and although I believed in Stalin's genius as a statesman I was boiling. This was blasphemy1 How was it possible to equate the blood of Red Army soldiers with the blood of Nazis? And how to forget the rivers of blood drawn by the fascists in Spain, in Czechoslovakia, in Poland, in Germany itself?     

Reflections on 9/11: Vulnerability and strength in the “new world order”

One year after the tragedy and horror of the events of September 11, 2001, many still struggle to understand their meaning and long‐term impact. This article provides a brief overview of critical stress debriefings and describes the author's work offering disaster mental health services to survivors of the World Trade Center attacks in the immediate aftermath of the 9/11 disaster. The essay considers gaps in mental health services and the toll that such relief work can take on mental health responders. Implications for healing are considered in the context of the government's crackdown on civil liberties and its plans for war with Iraq.     

Balancing Efficiency and Legitimacy: Institutional Changes and Rural Health Organization in China

The aim of this article is to contribute to the understanding of the institutional arrangements within which China's rural health facilities are embedded and of the contribution of policy to the creation of these arrangements. Information collected through field observations and in‐depth interviews with the managers, staff and patients of a township health centre indicates that with the gradual evolution of markets, encouraged by state policies, health care in rural China took on more of the characteristics of a commodity. In order to adapt to this change, the health centre and its employees are adjusting their behavioural norms and reconstructing an institutional network within which daily activities of simultaneously fulfilling public health responsibilities and pursuing economic gain are legitimized. This article focuses on the interwoven relationship between politics and markets at the micro level and examines the negotiations between stakeholders in constructing new institutional arrangements. It also describes how health sector managers are creating regulations to influence the performance of their facility. The article argues that while government policies play a crucial role in shaping the direction of development, institutional arrangements strongly influence the attempts by rural health organizations to implement them. It concludes that it is critical to take institutional factors into account in analyzing China's rural health‐care reforms.