Constructing the xenophobic subject

The present paper argues that the new racisms in contemporary advanced industrial societies are of a nature that does not lend itself to a multi‐cultural project that relies on the public/private distinction; the latter is based on the same problematic that underlies new racisms. It is further argued that the unsatisfactory public/private distinction characteristic of western societies is concomitant to the spatio‐temporal contradictions of capitalist development, an instant of which is also, on a more general level, the phenomenon of migration.     

Converging technologies – what future? The views of the science and policy communities

The contention and politicization of knowledge is nothing new but an inherent part of the scientific endeavour. What is new today is that this practice has been institutionalized and transformed into generally accepted practices for monitoring or regulating the production and/or dissemination of novel knowledge. These practices, which include Bioethics Councils or Committees, citizen dialogues or juries, ethical checklists, ex ante risk assessments or ELSA-type accompanying research, have grown exponentially over the last years and have slowly replaced traditional bottom-up forms of mobilization, even within social movements or civil society organizations. Converging technologies presents both old and new challenges for knowledge politics – in view of its uncertain development and inherent risks but also in view of its philosophical agenda and ethical implications. The article reflects on the future effect of discourse and knowledge politics on convergence technologies by considering developments in Austria     

Travelling concepts and crossing paths: a conceptual history of identity

The concept of identity is ubiquitous in public discourse even though its meaning is often imprecise or nebulous – it is maybe because of this that its contents can be taken for granted. One speaks of individual, personal, group, social, collective and political identity; of identity formation, crisis, diffusion, conflict and politics; a multiple identity may be pathological or a component of an integrated identity; culture and ideology but also knowledge and experience supposedly enrich identity; identity may be rigid or open to development and growth – and so on. Against this background the present paper explores the argumentative uses of the concept of identity in psychoanalysis and in social psychology and sociology.     

Surveying the European Public Space - A Political and Research Agenda

This paper examines the reasons why it is justified to talk about a European 'democratic deficit'. The creation and consolidation of a European public space necessitates conceptual clarification at the normative theoretical level - as liberal democracy is historically closely bound to the nation-state - and action at the policy and political levels. A Union of European Citizens is a step towards, but not equivalent to, a democratic Union based on European citizenship. Formal announcements, normative convictions, or even institutional reforms are not enough to guarantee openness or support contestation. European democracy is de facto a process to be observed but it is also a project to be defined. The article outlines an agenda for European democracy both with regard to political deliberation and empirical research.     

Envisioning European Solidarity between Welfare Ideologies and the European Social Agenda

This article uses the debates of the Working Group ‘Social Europe’ of the European Convention for the Future of the European Union that drafted the Constitutional Treaty to explore the views on the European social model among representatives of the European political class. The debates within the European Convention on basic social values, social objectives, the Union's competences, the open method of coordination, the coordination of social and economic policies as well as the role of social partners provide insight into the emerging visions of European solidarity at the crossroads between welfare regime ideologies and Europeanization. It is argued that, despite an overall consensus regarding a greater future role of the European Union in social policy, the contours of the European social model and the scope of the Union's competences remain contested. However, the observed cleavages are to be found mainly on the left–right political scale, and this suggests that we might gradually be observing a re-politicization of the social policy discourse at European level. Nevertheless, the holding on to arguments of subsidiarity and especially sovereignty represents a barrier to envisioning European solidarity and developing a stronger European social agenda.     

A fuzzy logic approach to poverty analysis based on the Gini and Bonferroni inequality indices

In the poverty analysis framework, a great deal of attention has been paid to the poverty measurement in terms of monetary variables, such as income or consumption. In this context, a relevant open problem is connected with the distinction between poor and non-poor. In fact, the concept of poverty is rather vague and cannot be defined in a clear way. In this respect, following a fuzzy logic approach, some new poverty measures are proposed. In particular, the fuzzy extension of two existing poverty measures based on the Gini and Bonferroni inequality indices is provided. Some synthetic and real applications are given in order to show how the proposed poverty measures work.     

Successes,Failures and Prospects for the Common Transport Policy

The paper reviews the development of the Common Transport Policy from a historical perspective and assesses its successes and failures as measured by its direct outputs, i.e. the regulatory, economic and other measures established to achieve its objectives. Despite significant progress with regard to the removal of barriers to competition either through positive regulation - the harmonization of social and technical standards - or through negative regulation - the liberalization and harmonization of the criteria for market access - several problems remain and solutions are outstanding with regard to the main challenges posed by sustainable mobility, namely environmental protection and social cohesion. In relevant action areas the Common Transport Policy is reluctant about following through as strict a regime of policy formulation and implementation as that adopted with regard to market-access-related regulations since 1985. The main reason, the authors argue, has to do with the implications of this for national sovereignty and for subsidiarity as currently interpreted. In the absence of a suitable regulatory framework the approach taken is that of negotiation and incremental improvement. Whether this is appropriate to the challenges faced remains an open question.