Welcome to our book review site go-pdf.online!
You may have to Search all our reviewed books and magazines, click the sign up button below to create a free account.
Consumer Policy from Below
Since its existence in the 1950s, consumer policy in Germany has been understood and pursued primarily as a bundle of actions and measures initiated and institutionalised by the state. In many cases, the state has also issued corresponding mandates and set up support models, which has created the impression that we are basically dealing with a 'consumer policy from above' imposed by macro-politics. Not that there have not been repeated attempts in the past decades to give impetus to consumer policy from the middle of civil society - often in the form of small citizens' initiatives. And in recent years in particular, a number of new consumer organisations have emerged which operate much close...
Difference and Democracy
As Europe becomes increasingly diverse, understanding the effects of differences among citizens within European democracy crucial. The contributors to Difference and Democracy take a novel interdisciplinary approach to this important dimension of social interaction, drawing on political science, sociology, communications studies, legal studies, and art history. Contrary to alarmist accounts of difference in Europe, these essays explore its potentially positive impact, outlining the conditions under which differences could lead to effective and legitimate political action.
NGOs, Civil Society, and the Public Sphere
This book investigates how nongovernmental organizations can become stronger advocates for citizens and better representatives of their interests. Sabine Lang analyzes the choices that NGOs face in their work for policy change between working in institutional settings and practicing public advocacy that incorporates constituents' voices.
Globalizing Interests
Globalizing Interests is an innovative study of globalization "from inside," looking at the reaction of nationally constituted interest groups to challenges produced by the denationalization process. The contributors focus on business associations, trade unions, civil rights organizations, and right-wing populists from Canada, Germany, Great Britain, and the United States, and examine how they have responded to three extremely globalized issue areas: the Internet, migration, and climate change. What they find is that "the politics of denationalization" is a new game with new rules, new teams, and surprisingly broad support for governance beyond the nation state.
Emotions in American History
The study of emotions has attracted anew the interest of scholars in various disciplines, igniting a lively public debate on the constructive and destructive power of emotions in society as well as within each of us. Most of the contributors to this volume do not hail from the United States but look at the nation from abroad. They explore the role of emotions in history and ask how that exploration changes what we know about national and international history, and in turn how that affects the methodological study of history. In particular they focus on emotions in American history between the 18th century and the present: in war, in social and political discourse, as well as in art and the media. In addition to case studies, the volume includes a review of their fields by senior scholars, who offer new insights regarding future research projects.
Heimat
A new analysis of one of the most loaded terms in the German language: Heimat, or Homeland. The idea of Heimat (home, homeland, native region) has been as important to German self-perceptions over the last two hundred years as the shifting notion of the German nation. While the idea of Heimat has been long neglected in English studies of German culture--among other reasons because the word Heimat has no exact equivalent in English--this book offers us the first cross-disciplinary and comprehensive analysis, in English or German, of this all-pervasive German idea. Blickle shows how the idea of Heimat interpenetrates German notions of modernity, identity, gender, nature, and innocence. Blickle...
The Promise and Perils of Transnationalization
Benjamin Stachursky's book questions the unvarying positive view of transnationalism on domestic forms of activism, arguing for a more nuanced analysis that permits an understanding of the enabling and restricting effects of transnationalism. Looking at the period from the mid-1980s up to present developments such as the Arab Spring, Stachursky analyzes the emergence and development of NGO activism in Egypt and Iran, the social, political, and legal context of NGO activism, and key domestic debates on the impact and legitimacy of the actors operating in women's rights activism.
Their Members' Voice
The role of civil society organisations in Brussels is debated. Some view them as representatives of their members and thus as legitimising agents for policy-making in the European Union. Others see them as being elitist and out of touch with their membership bases, therefore ill-suited to promote democracy at the EU level. Taking civil society organisations in the EU’s external relations as an example, Meike Rodekamp submits these controversial views to a reality check. Interviews with representatives of civil society organisations in Brussels and their member organisations in the EU show that the Brussels offices have not lost contact with their members. However, member organisations differ substantially in their participation in internal decision-making processes, which raises doubts about the legitimacy gains through civil society participation in EU policy-making.
