Fairtrade and Labour Markets in Ethiopia and Uganda

Drawing on four years of fieldwork in Ethiopia and Uganda, this paper addresses gaps in knowledge about the mechanisms linking agricultural exports with poverty reduction, the functioning of rural labour markets, and the relevance to the lives of the poorest people of Fairtrade. Statistical analysis of survey evidence, complemented by qualitative research, highlights the relatively poor payment and non-pay working conditions of those employed in research sites dominated by Fairtrade producer organisations. We conclude that Fairtrade is not an effective way to improve the welfare of the poorest rural people.     

Political Culture and Post-Communist Transition—A Social Justice Approach: Introduction

Social Justice Research -     

Umweltverträglichkeitsprüfung

Ohne Zusammenfassung     

An Illicit Love Affair During the Third Reich: Who is My Grandfather?*

More than 60 years after an illicit love affair had occurred between Erika H, wife of a Wehrmacht soldier, and a Polish slave worker during World War II, we could clarify the blood relationships of her daughter Uta. When Erika H had become pregnant both of the men could have fathered the child. Erika H was found guilty of fraternization and imprisoned at Ravensbrück concentration camp. She gave birth to Uta and died there in 1944. Uta survived the war as did Erika's husband Gustav, who accepted Uta as his child. Blood samples from family members were taken and DNA extracted. A panel of 16 short tandem repeat (STR) loci were amplified and separated by capillary electrophoresis and the likelihoods calculated using the MLINK software. The combined genotypes yielded a cumulative likelihood ratio of over 200,000 against paternity of Gustav H. This case serves to illustrate the utility of STR profiles for complex deficiency kinship analysis.     

Social norms and religion in Europe and Asia. A cultural comparison

  I shall describe moral sanctions in countries where Christian values prevail and then give an outline of the moral system in Theravada Buddhist countries. Then I shall point out some of the different orientations of the two systems. Finally I shall draw attention to some practical social consequences of the perceived differences.     

The ‘Bulgarian ethnic model’—reality or ideology?

The notion of the ‘Bulgarian ethnic model’ has become part and parcel of the rhetoric of Bulgaria's political elite. While often used to acknowledge the political participation of the Turkish minority, which has played a stabilising role in post-communist Bulgaria, the notion of the ‘Bulgarian ethnic model’ conceals other important aspects of ethnic relations in Bulgaria. The article considers three factors that render the notion of the ‘Bulgarian ethnic model’ problematic: the existence of racism, discrimination and exclusion; the issue of minority rights; and the popularity of nationalist parties.     

Mobile Government Services: An Empirical Analysis of Mobile Government Attractiveness

The development of modern information and communication technology (ICT) fundamentally impacts the way citizens and governments interact with each other. In this context, mobile ICT is an essential driver for governments around the world to provide public services to citizens and organizations. Against this background, mobile government has significantly increased in importance for practitioners and has become a fruitful field of scientific research. Given the lack of empirical research on the attractiveness of mobile government, this study examines the key determinants of mobile government attractiveness.     

Profiling the mobile customer – Privacy concerns when behavioural advertisers target mobile phones – Part I

Mobile customers are being tracked and profiled by behavioural advertisers to be able to send them personalized advertising. This process involves data mining consumer databases containing personally-identifying or anonymous data and it raises a host of important privacy concerns. This article, the first in a two part series on consumer information privacy issues on Profiling the Mobile Customer, addresses the questions: “What is profiling in the context of behavioural advertising?” and “How will consumer profiling impact the privacy of mobile customers?” The article examines the EU and U.S. regulatory frameworks for protecting privacy and personal data in regards to profiling by behavioural advertisers that targets mobile customers. It identifies potential harms to privacy and personal data related to profiling for behavioural advertising. It evaluates the extent to which the existing regulatory frameworks in the EU and the U.S. provide an adequate level of privacy protection and identifies key privacy gaps that the behavioural advertising industry and regulators will need to address to adequately protect mobile consumers from profiling by marketers. The upcoming second article in this series will discuss whether industry self-regulation or privacy-enhancing technologies will be adequate to address these privacy gaps and makes suggestions for principles to guide this process.¹     

E-participation: A Strategic Framework

Despite the rising scientific and practical relevance of e-participation, the field still suffers from a diffuse, heterogeneous state of knowledge and our understanding of successful e-participation strategies and implementation is very limited. This situation is seen as a key reason why e-participation initiatives in practice often fall short of expectations. Against this background, this study compiles the existing insights from the interdisciplinary scientific literature to deduce a unifying definition and propose an integrated strategic e-participation framework that conceptually combines important strategic and organizational factors as well as environmental drivers of e-participation.