The Plurality of Peter Berger's “Two Pluralisms” in Germany

The aim of this paper is to unfold Peter L. Berger’s new paradigm of the “Two Pluralisms” for the German context, concretizing and localizing the management of religious plurality with regard to central societal fields. It is argued that, besides the bird’s-eye view of the global and national developments, more differentiated analyses of smaller-scale units (like federal states, municipalities, and cities) are needed which zoom into the concrete local negotiation processes, opening them up with regard to their topics, actor constellations, dynamics, and effects. While Berger builds up his new paradigm in the connection of the social macro-level and the individual micro-level, this paper deals primarily with the meso-level and the consequences of the “Two Pluralisms” in the institutional contexts of politics/law, education, symbolic representation, and communication that are currently undergoing a significant change through secularization and religious pluralization while, however, have so far hardly been examined with regard to their dynamics and the intended integrative effects.     

Was National Socialism Anti-Sex? On Left-Wing Fantasies and Sex as the Dark Matter of Politics

Drawing on an extensive amount of work by other researchers, as well as some literary sources from the time, Göran Adamson discusses the widespread view that Nazism was anti-sex. Indeed, during Nazi rule homosexuality and street prostitution were persecuted, and Jews and “degenerates” were prevented from having sex (not merely by law, but by elimination). However, reported circumstances such as cheap access to condoms, a high number of pregnancies during party rallies, and quasi-religious cultivation of “the Germanic sexual instinct” would suggest that matters may have been much less restrictive for the majority of Germans. The idea of an overall Nazi anti-sex attitude may well have been constructed by intellectuals from the Freudian Left/Frankfurt School, especially their theories of an intimate connection between sexual repression and authoritarianism. Such views gained widespread popularity with the 68′ generation, and they were an essential reason why sexuality came to be considered the cure for all social evils. This overestimation of the significance of sexual liberation, and recent conservative reactions to it, constitute an important part of today’s political landscape.     

Age estimation in small children: reference values based on counts of deciduous teeth in Finns

The eruption of teeth in the mouth is suitable for age estimations during the period when teeth are actively emerging, in the deciduous dentition phase approximately from the age of 6 months to 2.5 years. Estimations of age can be performed simply by counting the number of teeth in the mouth. Reliability of the estimates depends on the reference data available and each population group should preferably have its own standards. In the present study timing of eruption of successive deciduous teeth was studied longitudinally in 129 Finns. The dates of clinical eruption of deciduous teeth were recorded by mothers and checked by dentists. In 40 of the 129 children emergence ages of at the most the four last teeth were based only on semiannual registrations performed by dentists. The main purpose was to provide normal timetables of tooth eruption in small children in forms that are practical in estimations of dental age. No sexual dimorphism existed in the timing of clinical eruption of successive deciduous teeth. The mean age corresponding to the presence of one tooth in the mouth was 7.1 months (S.D.=1.78) and that corresponding to tooth count 19 was 27.8 months (S.D.=3.99). If the chronological age is known, the presented distributions and means with variations make it possible to estimate the degree of advancement or delay in a child’s dental development. If the age of the child is not known, the mean and median ages can be used for estimations of chronological age. However, estimations of age should not be based only on tooth counts because of marked variation also within this homogeneous group.     

The EU's Role in the Fight Against Racism and Xenophobia: Evaluation and Prospects After Amsterdam and Tampere

The Treaty of Amsterdam has strengthened thepossibility of the European Union (EU) adoptingmeasures in the fight against racism and xenophobia.These can be based both on the extendednon-discrimination clause of Article 13 TEC and newArticle 29 TEU relating to common action in thecontext of the area of freedom security and justice.So far EU action has concentrated on public awarenessmeasures, increasing the exchange and the analysis ofinformation on racism and xenophobia, and improvingjudicial cooperation and cross-border training in thisarea. The scope of EU action continues to be limited,however, because of the absence of a `mainstreamingclause', very limited funding and structural deficitsin the decision-making system. Both the new AmsterdamTreaty provisions and the renewed emphasis placed onthe fight against racism and xenophobia by the TampereEuropean Council of October 1999 should be used forextending the EU's role in this area which is ofcrucial importance to its credibility as a politicalcommunity.     

Precontractual Duties of Disclosure: A Comparative and Economic Perspective

If during precontractual negotiations a person deliberately keeps quiet about facts which he knew or should have known were of particular importance to the other party that party may avoid the contract on the ground of deceit if, and only if, a duty of disclosure can be found to exist. What are the conditions that must be satisfied to assume the existence of such a duty of disclosure? The European legal systems merely offer vague formulas with little or no operational power. Can economic theory provide more precise criteria? The general principle should be that a negotiating party must proffer information in his possession which is material to the other party's decision. However, economic analysis suggests that a party should be allowed to withhold material information if the information is “productive” and was costly to obtain unless its acquisition and disclosure were owed under a contract for value. These rules are discussed in the light of a number of cases from various European jurisdictions.     

troubling romance tourism: sex,gender and class inside the Argentinean tango clubs

This article aims to explore and make theoretical sense of a stream of tourism that blurs the boundaries between sex, romance and intimacy, and diffuses the line between affectionate and economic relations. The empirical scope is the expanding international tourism of tango dancing—meaning the increasing number of people from all over the world travelling to Buenos Aires to dance tango and engage with the local tango culture. In contrast to women's sex tourism on the beaches of Jamaica and Ghana, the relationships evolving in the Argentinean dance halls only occasionally lead to sexual affairs and temporary romances, but they are still part of a sensual geography made up of a transnational skin-to-skin intimacy. In addition, the relations between local dancers and tourists rarely result in economic transactions of sex for money; however, they engage with a growing market of intimate dance services and are part of the economic injustices and exotified projections of our post-colonial time. Hence, this article seeks to shed critical light over a broader area of transnational romance. The case of tango evokes new sets of critical queries regarding the trade of bodily intimacy and affection; the consequences of economic inequality in the area of heterosexual romance; and the production of class morals and racialised gender regimes. Through an exploration of these intimate practices, discourses and sets of emotions produced in this particular context, a complex landscape of market forces and close-embrace dancing unfolds.     

Organisierte Zivilgesellschaft im EU-Verfassungsprozess: Partner des Regierens oder Konstituent politischer Ordnung?

A new role has been ascribed to civil society within the EU-constitutional process. It is not only regarded as a partner in governance but also as a constituent of the emerging EU-polity. Civil society appears in this process primarily as the structure of voice that is articulated in relation to EU-governance and that claims to represent European citizens. The article proposes an analytical framework and a methodology of how to analyze civil society in its role as constituency. The research agenda is linked to the intermediary and the representative function of organised civil society as a transmission belt of legitimatory discourse on the EU. In order to reconstruct how potential interests, identities and normative ideas relating to the legitimacy of a EU constitutional order are contested within national politics, our research draws on a survey of German civil society organisations in three sectors: a) consumer interest organisations, b) churches and religious organisations, and c) women and gender equality groups.     

Assumptions in the European Union biofuels policy: frictions with experiences in Germany, Brazil and Mozambique

The biofuel project is an agro-industrial development and politically contested policy process where governments increasingly become global actors. European Union (EU) biofuels policy rests upon arguments about societal benefits of three main kinds - namely, environmental protection (especially greenhouse gas savings), energy security and rural development, especially in the global South. Each argument involves optimistic assumptions about what the putative benefits mean and how they can be fulfilled. After examining those assumptions, we compare them with experiences in three countries - Germany, Brazil and Mozambique - which have various links to each other and to the EU through biofuels. In those case studies, there are fundamental contradictions between EU policy assumptions and practices in the real world, involving frictional encounters among biofuel promoters as well as with people adversely affected. Such contradictions may intensify with the future rise of biofuels and so warrant systematic attention.     

The Combined Effects of Self-Referent Information Processing and Ruminative Responses on Adolescent Depression

Adolescents who develop depression have worse interpersonal and affective experiences and are more likely to develop substance problems and/or suicidal ideation compared to adolescents who do not develop depression. This study examined the combined effects of negative self-referent information processing and rumination (i.e., brooding and reflection) on adolescent depressive symptoms. It was hypothesized that the interaction of negative self-referent information processing and brooding would significantly predict depressive symptoms, while the interaction of negative self-referent information processing and reflection would not predict depressive symptoms. Adolescents (n = 92; 13–15 years; 34.7 % female) participated in a 6-month longitudinal study. Self-report instruments measured depressive symptoms and rumination; a cognitive task measured information processing. Path modelling in Amos 19.0 analyzed the data. The interaction of negative information processing and brooding significantly predicted an increase in depressive symptoms 6 months later. The interaction of negative information processing and reflection did not significantly predict depression, however, the model not meet a priori standards to accept the null hypothesis. Results suggest clinicians working with adolescents at-risk for depression should consider focusing on the reduction of brooding and negative information processing to reduce long-term depressive symptoms.