Industrial Relations and Justice Ideologies in the Firm: A Justice-Based Explanation of Works Council Effectiveness

This paper investigates why the effectiveness of works councils varies across firms. Drawing on a large body of literature on justice in organizations, and on the basis of the premise of methodological individualism, we present the groundwork for a justice-based theory of workplace codetermination. The theory focuses on workers' attitudes toward justice in organizations, the structural reasons behind these attitudes, and their consequences for the effectiveness of codetermination. Results from a qualitative employee survey in four German firms provide first empirical support for the theory presented.     

全球化视域中的国际传播与中国对外宣传

在经济全球化的进程中,信息传播的意义重大,它使以民族国家为主要载体的国际传播,在国际政治、经济关系的互动中发挥着重要的作用。因此,为更好地“让世界了解中国,让中国了解世界”,必须遵循传播活动的规律,搞好对外宣传工作,这样才能有效地优化中国现代化建设的国际舆论环境,更好地为社会主义建设服务。     

关于大学生人际交往的心理素质教育

随着社会经济的发展,大学生在社会环境和成长过程中面临的问题更加复杂、多样:自以为是、以自我为中心,自卑心理、怀疑心理极强。这些不良的心理素质的形成往往受到社会环境、家庭教育、校园环境等影响。为此,必须把心理健康教育渗透于学科教学中,组织开展健康的校园文化活动及建立心理咨询服务组织,不断提高大学生人际交往的心理素质。     

Japan and identity change: why it matters in International Relations

Abstract

Two approaches to identity have been employed to explore issues in Japan's international relations. One views identity as constituted by domestic norms and culture, and as constitutive of interests, which in turn cause behaviour. Proponents view Japan's ‘pacifist’ and ‘antimilitarist’ identity as inherently stable and likely to change only as a result of material factors. In the other approach, ‘Japan’ emerges and changes through processes of differentiation vis-à-vis ‘Others’. Neither ‘domestic’ nor ‘material’ factors can exist outside of such identity constructions. We argue that the second, relational, approach is more theoretically sound, but begs three questions. First, how can different identity constructions in relation to numerous Others be synthesised and understood comprehensively? Second, how can continuity and change be handled in the same relational framework? Third, what is the point of analysing identity in relational terms? This article addresses the first two questions by introducing an analytical framework consisting of three mutually interacting layers of identity construction. Based on the articles in this special issue, we argue that identity entrepreneurs and emotions are particularly likely to contribute to change within this model. We address the third question by stressing common ground with the first approach: identity enables and constrains behaviour. In the case of Japan, changes in identity construction highlighted by the articles in this special issue forebode a political agenda centred on strengthening Japan militarily.     

Fiji’s Foreign Relations: Retrospect and Prospect

Abstract

Of all the island states of the Southwest Pacific, Fiji’s foreign relations have been the most fraught since the advent of independence in the region, due largely to a succession of coups d'état. These have invariably precipitated adverse responses from major partners and aid donors, notably Australia, New Zealand, the United States and the European Union. The last coup in 2006 also unsettled relations in Fiji’s more immediate region, especially among some of its smaller Polynesian neighbours, contributing to Fiji’s unprecedented suspension from the Pacific Islands Forum. This article reviews Fiji’s foreign relations from the time of independence in 1970 through the period of successive coups to the 2014 elections. It also examines Bainimarama’s strategies in extending foreign relations in the broader international sphere as well as issues surrounding the ‘normalisation’ of relations with its traditional partners.     

Uncertainties at the European Union's southern borders: actors,policies, and legal frameworks

A multiplicity of legal and political arrangements regulate the European Union's external borders. With borders representing the intersection between national and international law and politics, the EU also acquired some legal competences in this realm. The resulting triple set of rules coincides with the growing disaggregation of the classical functions of borders. This state of affairs generates legal and procedural uncertainties and results in a growing ambiguity and lack of transparency, in terms of competences and accountability. Due to the EU's concerns with transnational terrorism, and the growing securitization of migration, the EU's borders with the states of the Middle East and North Africa are particularly relevant in this regard, with the resulting uncertainties touching upon fundamental rights. This article discusses the conceptual starting point of the growing institutional, legal, and political complexity at the EU's southern borders, together with relevant aspects and developments, thus also providing the background to the different contributions in this special issue.     

远东纲要实施以来的中俄区域合作

俄罗斯2002年3月开始实施的远东纲要为我国发展同远东地区的经贸合作提供了前提条件。纲要实施两年以来,远东各联邦主体纷纷制定发展战略和采取措施,加速经济与社会的发展,并在大力发展对外关系时,把发展同中国东北边境地区经贸合作列为优先发展方向。这促使该地区与中国北方省份的区域合作出现飞速发展的可喜局面。     

劳资关系的文化视角

作为社会关系之一的劳资关系 ,既是一种市场经济关系 ,也是一种市场文化关系。这种文化关系的客观存在 ,既因其与经济关系内在有机联系的不可分性所决定 ,又是市场经济发展的必然要求和产物。正确认识把握劳资间的文化关系 ,将给我国社会主义市场经济中新兴的劳资关系铺垫一个自觉合理的文化底蕴和社会氛围 ,同时 ,也为劳资双方调节彼此关系提供一个新的视角和途径 ,更好地实现劳资合作的经济价值和社会价值。     

理解含义:理论、话语和国际关系

近年来,语言在国际关系中的重要作用逐渐引起人们的兴趣和关注,出现国际关系研究的“语言转向”。这一学术转向的意义在于,它试图探索国际关系中的人和事件如何在语言的作用下被赋予含义,以及这种含义反过来如何影响并建构着国际关系“现实”。符号含义的不固定性、多层性和争议性,不仅挑战了国际关系“知识”中的话语霸权现象,而且提醒人们有必要对国际关系的不同“现实”进行理解,并说明国际政治不仅是竞争物质实力的领域,而且还是争夺话语含义的场所。     

The State and Human Rights: Governance and Sustainable Human Development in Yemen

International Relations theory has had difficulty explaining the global spread of human rights norms, and in particular the spread of human rights norms in the non-Western world. An exploration of Yemen's integration of human rights-based approaches to economic development into its policymaking gives the empirical foundation to examine the interplay of both norms and self-interest and external and internal pressures in framing such policies. In the case of Yemen, at least, each of these contrasting pairs is to a large degree mutually constituted. Conceptualizing norms and self-interest and external and internal pressures as mutually constitutive differs from the usual contrasts painted between these pairs in international relations theory, but is an important step in moving beyond an impasse among realist, liberal, and constructivist theories and toward a usefully integrative approach.