Peter Herrmann

The guiding question of this work is the following: In which way, if at all, can we define a framework that allows a comparative view on social professional activity in an international perspective? Going beyond positivist research usually means to look for qualitative standards, however remaining caught by taking individual professions in a national setting from one country for granted and looking from what we know for 'counterparts' and/or 'partners' in other countries. To avoid the subsequent shortcoming of an underlying 'professional rigidity' we face the need of developing a functional perspective, focusing on the societies in which Social Professional Activities (SPA) emerge in their respective particular national patterns. This means, however, to start by defining 'the social' as determining societies in general, looking from there at different national patterns -- pragmatically but as well structurally the nation state will be taken as point of reference. In such a perspective, several current concepts have to be fundamentally questioned as far as the mainstream consensus is concerned. Terms in question are in particular: the social, professions and social problems - this is especially necessary when it comes to developing an international perspective. Despite the need of looking for a general definition of the social, there is in particular a more specific need for debating the understanding of different strands of activities that are - in the widest sense - captured as social professions, for example social work, community/youth work, nursing and care professions, but as well social management and social action (especially the latter pointing on the problematique of professionalisation in strictu sensu). International comparative research of social professional activities does not fail (primarily) because of the huge variety of national regimes and regulations. The actual reason is the fundamentally different point of departure, expressing various national traditions of the reasoning on the state - a reasoning being at the end a practical reasoning. In other words, we have to recur on the different national understanding of 'social contracts'. This approach allows taking a dialectical perspective in order to revisit the actual character of social professional activities. It is the practical confrontation of the individual with his/her environment that constitutes processes of socialisation.

Social Professional Activities and the State

Mehmet Okyayuz

Letlhokwa George Mpedi

Junxiang Mao

The book aims at presenting an updated version of the basic and general human rights debates. While it is frequently suggested that Human Rights are universal and indivisible, it is an undeniable fact that this is far from being true. And if there was ever any justification for talking about an ending to history, that narrative has definitely lost all justification in the light of recent developments. In fact, we are now witnessing a new harsh round of global system competition, often at the edge of a global hot war, now not anymore in a bipolar world but in a multipolar setting.The book contributions include reflections on history and theory, the reinterpretation of rights in different national contexts and/or in relation to specific groups (e.g. women) and areas (e.g. digitization).The book is meant to be a food for thought, at the end arguing in favour of the need to redefine Human Rights, reflecting the changes since the inauguration of the UDHR.

Reflections on Fundamental Challenges

Human Rights in a Changing World

This book constitutes the refereed proceedings of the Third International Conference on Trust Management, iTrust 2005, held in Paris, France in May 2005. The 21 revised full papers and 4 revised short papers presented together with 2 keynote papers and 7 trust management tool and systems demonstration reports were carefully reviewed and selected from 71 papers submitted. Besides technical issues in distributed computing and open systems, topics from law, social sciences, business, and psychology are addressed in order to develop a deeper and more comprehensive understanding of current aspects and challenges in the area of trust management in dynamic open systems.

Third International Conference, ITrust 2005, Paris, France, May 23-26, 2005, Proceedings

Trust Management

Sibel Kalaycioglu

The present book gathers edited contributions from a conference which had been held end of 2010 in Ankara, Turkey. This event brought together scientists and trade unionists from several EU- and non EU-countries, exploring one of the major, though frequently underestimated challenges of societal integrity. This continuing debate of the experts of the European S.U.P.I.-Network focussed in particular on the more fundamental issues of precarity. As much as precarity is a matter of socio-individual concern, having severe repercussions on the life of an increasing number of people, it is moreover a development that fundamentally challenges. It questions many of the values claimed by enlightenment and capitalist revolutions as universal, including solidarity, mutual support and equality - though they are formally still claimed as valid; and moreover these developments are part of structural changes that easily fissure the contemporary mode of production. Does this mean the end of society? Or could it be a take-off for another renaissance?

Or: Cynicism of EU's Concept of Economic Freedom

Precarity - More Than a Challenge of Social Security

Valerie Issarny

Simon Shiu

This volume constitutes the proceedings of the 3rd International Conference on Trust Management, held in Paris, France, during 23–26 May 2005. The conf- ence follows successful International Conferences in Crete in 2003 and Oxford in 2004. All conferences were organized by iTrust, which is a working group funded as a thematic network by the Future and Emerging Technologies (FET) unit of the Information Society Technologies (IST) program of the European Union. The purpose of the iTrust working group is to provide a forum for cro- disciplinary investigation of the applications of trust as a means of increasing security, building con?dence and facilitating collaboration in dynamic open s- tems. The notion of trust has been studied independently by di?erent academic disciplines, which has helped us to identify and understand di?erent aspects of trust. Theaimofthisconferencewastoprovideacommonforum,bringingtogether researchers from di?erent academic branches, such as the technology-oriented disciplines, law, social sciences and philosophy, in order to develop a deeper and more fundamental understanding of the issues and challenges in the area of trust management in dynamic open systems. The response to this conference was excellent; from the 71 papers submitted to the conference, we selected 21 full papers and 4 short papers for presentation. The program also included two keynote addresses, given by Steve Marsh from National Research Centre Canada, Institute for Information Technology, and Steve Kimbrough from the University of Pennsylvania; an industrial panel; 7 technology demonstrations; and a full day of tutorials.

Third International Conference, iTrust 2005, Paris, France, May 23-26, 2005, Proceedings

Ka Lin

Social quality thinking emerged from a critique of one-sided policies by breaking through the limitations previously set by purely economistic paradigms. By tracing its expansion and presenting different aspects of social quality theory, this volume provides an overview of a more nuanced approach, which assesses societal progress and introduces proposals that are relevant for policy making. Crucially, important components emerge with research by scholars from Asia, particularly China, eastern Europe, and other regions beyond western Europe, the theory’s place of origin. As this volume shows, this rich diversity of approaches and their cross-national comparisons reveal the increasingly important role of social quality theory for informing political debates on development and sustainability.

A New Perspective on Social Development

Social Quality Theory

Hasan Malay

This volume covers 101 unpublished Greek inscriptions, all from the Hermos and Cayster valleys. Most date from the Roman Imperial period. Each item is illustrated, and a map gives their geographical location.

New Documents from Lydia

Frank Alexander Kraemer

This book constitutes the throughly refereed post-proceedings of the 6th International Workshop on Systems Analysis and Modeling, SAM 2010, held in collocation with MODELS 2010 in Oslo, Norway in October 2010. The 15 revised full papers presented went through two rounds of reviewing and improvement. The papers are organized in topical sections on modularity, composition, choreography, application of SDL and UML; SDL language profiles; code generation and model transformations; verification and analysis; and user requirements notification.

6th International Workshop, SAM 2010, Oslo, Norway, October 4-5, 2010, Revised Selected Papers

System Analysis and Modeling: About Models

Leonid E. Grinin

Andrey V. Korotayev

Ilya V. Ilyin

The scope of human thought along with its ability to proceed from reconstruction of the most ancient periods to anticipation of the distant future, from small objects to galaxies and the Universe as well as, to embrace different trends and dimensions of reality never ceases to amaze us. You are reading a new issue of the Yearbook which contains some ‘grains’ of the description of the billion years' path. This Yearbook presents the global studies which cover different fields of research. The present volume is the sixth in the series of yearbooks with the title Globalistics and Globalization Studies. The subtitle of the volume is ‘Global Evolution, Historical Globalistics and Globalization Studies’ which reflects the contents. The present issue brings together a variety of contributions devoted to mega- and global evolution (Part I); historical globalistics (Part II); globalization and glocalization (Parts III–IV). Besides, Part IV comprises some issues on the view in the future. We become more and more accustomed to think globally and to see global processes. The yearbook will be interesting to a wide range of researchers, teachers, students and all those who are concerned about global issues.

Global Evolution, Historical Globalistics and Globalization Studies

Globalistics and globalization studies

Again and again debates are focussing on issues around the supposed interference between political and economic system, rejecting the current dominance of 'economic thinking'. As justified many contemporary critical voices are, they make us occasionally forget that a more thorough consideration does have to deal with two major issues if it aims on progressive politics: * suggesting that economic development is increasingly controlled by political decisions means that the entire system and 'its composition' itself underwent a fundamental change - finally, capitalism had been the victory of 'economic law' over 'political law'. * subsequently we have to reconsider against this background also the question of rights - the present debate offers some considerations on overcoming the individualist approach towards defining social rights and aims on developing an approach that is based on a definition of the socio-political system as grounded in processes of relational appropriation, opening perspectives on multiple ontological relationality, concerned with auto-relation, group-relation (as general sociability), 'other'-relation (as 'institutionalised' and 'defined' socialbility - including class relationships etc.) and, environmental ('organic nature') relations. One important aim of this third volume of the 'Writings on Philosophy and Economy of Power' is again to localise the changes of the current mode of regulation in a more fundamental way, emphasising the need to elaborate the changes of the political economy. Answers on the guiding question 'Do we face a new renaissance?' is further elaborated.

Rights - Developing Ownership by Linking Control over Space and Time

Seit mehr als 20 Jahren leitet Peter Herrmann Supervision und Fortbildung von LehrerInnen mit Methoden der systemisch-lösungsorientierten Beratung – in diesem Buch teilt er seine umfangreichen Erfahrungen mit.Wissenschaftliche Ergebnisse fließen hier in praktische Handlungsanleitungen. Die angebotenen Sichtweisen bieten Lehrerinnen und Lehrern wirkungsvolle Möglichkeiten der Intervention bei schulischen Problemen, sowohl in der Klasse wie im Kollegium. Das entspannt kritische Situationen und unterstützt solidarische Lösungsansätze.

Systemische Interventionen in der Schule

Blockaden lösen

Claire Dorrity

The volume brings together contributions that reflect on issues about migration in terms of the countries of immigration: ways of “reception“. It is underlined in all contributions that effective humanitarian legislation can only be implemented together with a deep understanding of the problems faced by refugees/asylum seekers and the social relations that determine their position in society. Mehmet Okyayuz, grown up in Gemany, studied political science, philosophy and sociology in Paris, Berlin and Heidelberg. MA from Heidelberg and Doctorate in Marburg. Since 1995 he is teaching at ODTU in Ankara, focusing on political theory, history of labour movement, policy analysis and migration. Peter Herrmann, Dr. phil (Bremen, Germany), Studies in Sociology (Bielefeld, Germany), Economics (Hamburg, Germany), Political Science (Leipzig, Germany) and Social Policy and Philosophy (Bremen, Germany), is currently academic director at the European Observatory on Social Quality (EOSQ at EURISPES), Rome, Italy, adjunct professor at the University of Eastern Finland (UEF), Department of Social Sciences (Kuopio, Finland) and associate honorary professor at Corvinus University (Budapest, Hungary). Claire Dorrity comes from a background in Nursing and Social Care. She completed her Bachelor of Social Science degree at University College Cork (UCC) in 2001. She is currently working as a lecturer in School of Applied Social Studies, UCC where she is also undertaking her PhD. Claire is also the Nursing Studies Co-ordinator in the School of Applied Social Studies and also contributes to teaching on the BSW programme.

Migration - global processes caught in national answers

Developing the before presented methodological framework further, is a self-referential and self-reflexive process. This simply means that detailing and weighing criteria can only emerge from already applying the historical analysis, by this enabling the author to develop the foundation further theoretical and then more detailed historical analysis. Thus, SPA can be localised dialectically as part of the process of socialisation. To conceptualised socialisation and the models of socialisation -- and aiming by this on developing a framework for the analysis of SPA -- has to start, however, by analysing the reality on which the theoretical thinking is grounded, which it mirrors. To truly understand the different contractualist ideas we first have to understand the conditions and their development from where and as part of which they emerge and into which they provide an input, actively influencing contemporary developments.

Historiography of Social Professional Activity

Vyacheslav Bobkov

Currently it is fashionable to talk about digitisation, robotisation, industry 4.0, but also about the gig economy, the Millenials, precarisation and the like. However, the relevant issues are too often taken in isolation, referring to an extrapolation of overcome structures. The present collection aims on moving further by qualifying some aspects, and also by approaching the topic from distinct perspectives in order to arrive at an assessment of emerging changes of the socio-economic formation. Content Digitisation and Precarisation – Redefining Work and Redefining Society · Economy of Difference and Social Differentiation. Precarity – searching for a new interpretative paradigm · Society under Threat of Precarity of Employment · Precarious Employment: Definition of the Concept Given by Russian Researchers · Digitisation: A New Form of Precarity or New Opportunities? · Labour market performance and digitisation of work: brief overview · Australia’s precarious workforce and the role of digitisation · The Czech Republic – a Case Study · “Predictable uncertainty” – Social Land Programme in Hungary · Affirmative and Alternative Discourses and Practices of Knowledge Production and Distribution in Turkey · Electric dreams of welfare in the 4th industrial revolution: An actor-network investigation and genealogy of an Algorithm · Bringing Precarity to the Political Agenda The Editors Vyacheslav Bobkov, Doctor of Economics, Professor, Chief of the Laboratory of Problems of Life Quality and Living Standards of the Institute of Socio - Economic Problems of Population of the Russian Academy of Sciences, Moscow, Russia Peter Herrmann, social philosopher, having worked globally in research and teaching positions in particular on social policy and economics

Redefining Work and Redefining Society

Digitisation and Precarisation

Elieth P. Eyébiyi

Veronica Sheen

"This volume brings together a cross-section of papers presented at the 33rd International Council of Social Welfare (ICSW) conference in Tours, France, in July 2008. ...The contributions raise important topics offering great insight into the multiplicity of ways that nations and communities are responding to the challenges of globalisation as well as internal demands for greater social justice and equality as well as mechanisms for civil society."--Back cover.

Global Crossroads in Social Welfare

William R. Thompson

Arno Tausch

Willi Semmler

Stephen I. Ternyik

Brian J. L. Berry

Philippe Jourdon 

Lucas Bernard

Aleksandr V. Gevorkyan

Tom Palley

Denis J. Dean

Euel Elliott

Jonas Van Vossole

Leo Nefiodow

 Simone Nefiodow

Anton L. Grinin 

Valentina M. Bondarenko

Nikolai D. Kondratieff

Barry K. Gills

 Robert A. Denemark

In the period from the 1920s to 1930s the theory of economic cycles underwent dramatic changes. Due to the research of such famous economists as Nikolay Kondratieff, Joseph Kitchin, Wesley Mitchell, Simon Kuznets, and Joseph Schumpeter the idea of a whole system of economic cycles (with characteristic periods between two and sixty years) was developed. The idea of a system of intertwined economic cycles is nowadays paramount to the school of evolutionary economics and its development promises rather interesting future outcomes. That is why this issue of our ‘Kondratieff Waves’ Yearbook is devoted to the interconnections between various economic cycles. As to the subtitle of this volume, one should note that many of the contributors refer to the system of cycles and the fact that real economic cycles make up a system, whereas among different types of cycles, the Juglar, Kuznets, and Kondratieff cycles are the most important ones for the present-day economic dynamics. Although Kondratieff himself considered long waves as above all an economic phenomenon, the theory of the long waves became, however, very actively developed in connection with their political and geopolitical aspects. In this Yearbook, the political aspect of Kondratieff waves is the subject of several articles in the second section. The last section of this Yearbook is devoted to the heritage of Kondratieff and other prominent economists. The year 2015 marks the 150th anniversary of the outstanding Russian economist, one of the most prominent researchers of medium-term economic cycles, Mikhail Tugan-Baranovsky, and the volume is concluded with Kondratieff's article about him. Concerning 2015, we should mention another anniversary, namely, 30 years since the death of Simon Kuznets (1901–1985). This edition will be useful for economists, social scientists, as well as for a wide range of those interested in the problems of the past, present, and future of global economy and globalization.

Juglar – Kuznets – Kondratieff

Kondrarieff waves

This is the first volume in a series on recent developments, international and comparative perspectives. As social professions are more and more forced to walk a pathway of cut-backs and political restrictions under supposedly democratic goals, this book aims at taking an active part in the international debate around the political responsibility of those working in the field, aiming as well at bringing together the different areas of professional work in the social science field. The contributions of the first volume deal with subjects connected to social integration -- the more practically oriented contributions are: The systems of guaranteeing sufficient resources in the Republic of France and the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland; Anti-racism, citizenship and integration in contemporary France; Enduring Inequalities in Transitions to Labour: Class, Education and Community Disadvantage in Ireland; Two further contributions on Faith, State and Charity and aspects of the changing political environment of applied social studies.

Mapping Applied Social Studies

Between Politics and Sociology

The present volume is the fifth in the series of yearbooks with the title Globalistics and Globalization Studies. The subtitle of the present volume is Global Transformations and Global Future. We become more and more accustomed to think globally and to see global processes. And our future can all means be global. However, is this statement justified? Indeed, in recent years, many have begun to claim that globalization has stalled, that we are rather dealing with the process of anti-globalization. Will not we find ourselves at some point again in an edifice spanning across the globe, but divided into national apartments, separated by walls of high tariffs and mutual suspicion? Of course, some setbacks are always possible, because the process of globalization cannot develop smoothly. It is a process which is itself emerging from contradictions and is shaped by a new contradiction. They often go much further than underlying systemic changes allow. They break forward, as the vanguard of a victorious army, and then often meet resistance of various social and political forces and may suddenly start to roll back just at the moment when everyone expects their further offensive. We believe that this is what is happening with globalization at present. The yearbook will be interesting to a wide range of researchers, teachers, students and all those who are concerned about global issues.

Global Transformations and Global Future.

Social policy is widely accepted as scientific discipline – and this includes that it accepts for itself another meaning of this status, one which is usually not considered: the subject is disciplined, i.e. regimented. One important point in this context is that social policy is focused and thereby forgets systematic economic determinants and the historical perspective on its own existence. The present book recalls some fundamental issues – such as the partial liberation of human decision making from extramundane powers – and as well as topics that are being discussed in contemporary settings. The volume brings different dimensions together in an insightful way and is a stimulating read for those who are ready to engage with the complexity of political questions, are looking for instruments for an analysis that reaches beyond “yesterday’s solutions for the problems we don’t really know anyway”.

Social Policy in Context

With the process of a 'wider Europe' (EU-Commission President Romano Prodi's 'ring of friends') that extends from Marrakech in Morocco to St Petersburg in Russia gathering speed, the growing rift between Europe and America also is about how to deal politically with the countries of the Mediterranean-Muslim world. The house of Islam (Dar al Islam) was pivotal to the European path to the Renaissance and to the re-discovery of classic Greek philosophy. The Mediterranean policy of the European Union aims at a positive and co-operative relationship with the region. A successful integration of the Mediterranean South would have tremendous and positive repercussions for regional and world peace. World-wide leading experts from the field of world systems analysis, economics, integration theory, political science, theology and area studies, agnostics, Christians, Jews and Muslims alike discuss the issue with European decision makers. The outcome is an interdisciplinary evaluation of this projected export of peace, co-operation, dialogue and stability in the framework of world centre-periphery relationships.

Peter Herrmann

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