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The concept of 'multifunctionality' has developed partly in response to the threat which trade liberalisation presents to European agriculture. In this paper we outline different approaches to multifunctionality and consider whether, and to what extent, the concept may be applied more widely outside its home of origin in Western Europe, and specifically whether it is relevant to liberalised agricultural economies, such as Australia. The focus is on government agricultural and rural policies which contribute to the maintenance or enhancement of the multifunctional characteristics of agriculture and other land uses. We suggest that, despite differences in views of the importance of farming and rural areas, a convergence is appearing between Australia and European countries in the development of policies aimed at the promotion of multiple outcomes from agriculture. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The health of older immigrants can have important consequences for needed social support and demands placed on health systems. This paper examines health differences between immigrants and the native-born populations aged 50 years and older in 11 European countries. We examine differences in functional ability, disability, disease presence, and behavioral risk factors for immigrants and nonimmigrants using data from the Survey of Health, Aging and Retirement in Europe (SHARE) database. Among the 11 European countries, migrants generally have worse health than the native population. In these countries, there is a little evidence of the “healthy migrant” at ages 50 years and over. In general, it appears that growing numbers of immigrants may portend more health problems in the population in subsequent years. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper aims to report on the ‘Innovation through generics’ roundtable, which was convened at the European Parliament in April 2008 to discuss the role of generic medicines in stimulating innovation in the pharmaceutical sector. The roundtable identified a number of factors that hamper generic market entry in Europe and, thus, inhibit competition and innovation in the pharmaceutical sector. These factors include the decline in true innovation in the pharmaceutical sector; shortcomings in current patent and registration systems; pricing and reimbursement delays for generic medicines; greater intellectual property protection and market exclusivity for originator medicines than in the United States; price linkage between generic and originator medicines in some member states; and a lack of demand-side measures that encourage physicians, pharmacists and patients to use generic medicines. There is a need for a pan-European policy relating to patents, registration, pricing and reimbursement, prescribing and dispensing of medicines. In particular, the creation of an internal market will benefit European healthcare by helping to drive down costs. The overall goal should be to support competition and true innovation and, thus, provide sustainable healthcare for patients throughout Europe.Journal of Generic Medicines (2008) 6, 3–8. doi:10.1057/jgm.2008.30; published online 4 November 2008 [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A recently completed project called Economical and Safe Laser Hybrid Welding of Structural Steel (HYBLAS) has developed the use of hybrid laser welding for thicker section steels up to 690 MPa yield strength. The full project involved several European organisations, was part funded by the European Research Fund for Coal and Steel (ERFCS) and was led by Corus RD&T. This paper presents an outline of those parts of the project which relate to those developments which resulted in being able to laser hybrid weld, in a single pass, up to 25 m plate thickness using 20 kW of laser power at speeds of ∼1 m min-1. Multipass and dual sided welding techniques have also been developed up to 30 mm plate thickness and fillet welds up to 20 mm steel thickness. The project examined the weldability of steels from 180-690 MPa and operational windows for defect free welding were defined. In addition various NDE methods were studied for their efficiency in regard to the defect types which can occur in laser hybrid welds. The fracture and mechanical properties of the joints were shown to be perfectly acceptable for all structural uses and an extensive fatigue testing programme demonstrated that the fatigue behaviour of the welded joints exceeded conventional welding expectations. Finally full scale industrial components were manufactured, inspected and tested to demonstrate that the anticipated fatigue benefits were obtained. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper analyzes the residential natural gas demand in 12 European countries using a dynamic demand model, which allows for country-specific short- and long-run elasticity estimates. The own-price and income elasticities tend to be very inelastic in the short run, albeit with much greater responsiveness in the longer run. Our results support very limited technological substitution possibilities between different energy carriers in the short run. Furthermore, the results suggested structural differences of residential natural gas demand across European countries and provide support for employing a heterogeneous estimator such as the shrinkage estimator. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

For impoverished African states the attraction of inward flows of capital is vital and migrants are one such source of finance. Some governments actively encourage this, which brings out tensions between national affiliation and more particularistic forms of identification. This paper examines this in the context of Ghana. Between the mid-1970s and the late 1990s there was large-scale out-migration from Ghana, creating what has been termed a 'neo-diaspora'. The migrants have mainly settled in cities in Western Europe and North America where they have developed institutional networks linking them to other diasporic locations and to Ghana. These migrants have complex identities forged from multiple meetings in numerous places. Some of these are rooted in hometown, clan, and family attachments and the obligations this brings. The current government (in line with many developing countries) is making a major play to 'harness' the diaspora for political support and inward investment. Tensions are being played out about dual citizenship and whether the migrants' economic commitments to Ghana are matched by rights as full citizens. The Ghana government has to tread a careful path between attracting investment and garnering the right sort of political support, since people in the diaspora often have an ambivalent relationship to domestic politics. One of the vehicles through which the Ghanaian state seeks to square this is through encouraging hometown associations in various cities in the global North to fund development at the local level through various local-local partnerships. Hence, the nation, the national good, and development are being promoted through particularistic ethnic and locality-based organisations, which brings to light multiple and overlapping political communities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Since the 1990s the largest transnational temporary staffing agencies have progressively expanded the geographical extent of their operations. Moving beyond the established Dutch, French, UK, and US markets in which the majority are headquartered, and encouraged by supportive supranational and national reregulation, they have entered a number of countries in Southeast Asia, Southern Europe, and Latin America. Moreover, in the run-up to, and since, the accession often new member states to the EU on I May 2004, the leading transnational agencies have turned their attentions to establishing and expanding operations in Central and Eastern Europe. This paper offers an initial assessment of the state of temporary staffing and its regulation in two leading markets in the region, the Czech Republic and Poland. It explores how temporary staffing markets are being forged through the interactions between regulators, transnational agencies, local agencies, trade bodies, and inward investors. Both countries legalized temporary staffing in 2004, having begun the legalization process prior to accession. Rather than these developments heralding the start of a period of sustained growth, however, our research suggests that there are still significant constraints on expansion in markets where the pressure to neoliberalize labour markets intersects with postsocialist expectations, norms, and economic structures. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, we seek to understand why attitudes vary among individuals regarding the issue of income distribution in European Union member states. We believe that the issue of income inequality is a potentially significant political cleavage that may have an important influence in meaningful ways in European politics. Rather than focusing on the national context to explain variation in citizen attitudes toward income inequality, we control for national context and explore the relative influence of various individual-level characteristics in shaping how Europeans think about the distribution of income in their countries. We assess how individuals' political attitude, economic self-interest, and general attitude toward society affect how they think about income equality in their own society. To test these propositions, we devise a series of hypotheses that are tested in an ordered probit model using data from the 2000—1 wave of the World Values and European Values Surveys. It is our contention that the way people think about income inequality in their society is largely a product of the ideas that they hold about politics and society, and not principally a product of their economic self-interest. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper compares electricity wholesale markets in the United States and Europe. The Standard Market Design in the US involves an independent system operator, nodal pricing with financial transmission rights, and integrated markets for capacity and ancillary services. In Europe, there are national, or occasionally zonal, spot markets run by companies independent of the transmission operator, and of the latter's purchases of ancillary services. As the amount of flow-carbon generation increases, prices and transmission constraints are likely to become more volatile, increasing the need to adopt an efficient market design. In most respects, the US standard market design is likely to give better results than the European models. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Over the last decade and a half various aspects of the sustainability of food production have been evaluated by different groups of stakeholders. National and federal legislators have looked at the types of chemicals allowed and the acceptable maximum residue levels permitted for particular crops and conditions. Commercial firms (in both the processing and retail sectors) have developed private company labels that distinguish them from competitors. Their suppliers have to comply under a'licence to deliver'. Some organizations that are concerned with environmental issues have developed guidelines. Finally, producer organizations have developed their own labels. The assumption is that farmers who comply have products with added value, which give rise to better opportunities to sell. Some processors source only from growers complying with such schemes. This paper highlights past endeavours, rules and tools to assure food safety, and present initiatives to bring sustainability into the pre-competitive domain. It also identifies future requirements for sustainability indicators and baseline studies, and demonstrates the need to move from indicator values to target values. This approach allows for the quantitative monitoring of environmental safety that will be required for the food industry of the future, just as food safety is now and was in the past. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper presents panel unit root tests for price convergence of different petroleum products over the last decade. We distinguish consumer and producer price convergence and test for the absolute versus relative version of the law of one price. Comparing the speed of convergence as well as its development over time indicates that price arbitrage in the common EU markets is not sufficiently strong to level the price differentials, mainly caused by different excise taxation. We show that taxation alone leads to market segmentation and that discretionary national tax policy by EU member states is not (yet) threatened by the observable level of cross-border shopping. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A number of recent studies on taxation in the presence of externalities in a second-best framework consider the implications of taking into account the feedback effects of environmental quality. This paper explores by means of GEM-E3. a computable general equilibrium model .for the EU countries, the importance of the ,feedback effects of the health related benefits from an environmental policy. The modelling framework implemented in GEM-E3 allows for three channels through which the feedback can occur: a decrease in medical expenditure, an increase in the consumers' available time and an increase of labour productivity in the production sectors. The results show that the explicit modelling of the health related effect of air pollution on consumers and producers allows for a more precise evaluation of the impact of environmental policies on private consumption and employment. Relative to the included benefits the feedback effects are large. However, in terms of global effect, the impacts of the feedback are small, compared to the standard GEM-E3 model where the health related benefits are evaluated ex-post. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The electricity liberalization is contested by many European consumers" who hold it responsible for the electricity price increase, but such a conclusion is questionable. As the various spot markets are connected, liberalization will imply a convergence of electricity prices for all European countries if any congestion is observed on the networks. We observe today that German gas power stations are often "marginal power stations"; thus the German spot market is often the price maker. High price for oil means high price for natural gas and indirectly" high price for electricity. Moreover increasing interconnection of electricity markets leads to surplus transfers among European consumers and producers of electricity. But for some people the price increase observed today results also partly from a rise in the market power of electricity producers. This paper examines the position of the main European incumbents in this field. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The European Association for Palliative Care Task (EAPC) Force on the Development of Palliative Care in Europe was created in 2003 and the results of its work are now being reported in full, both here and in several other publications. The objective of the Task Force is to assess the degree of palliative care development in the European Region as defined by the World Health Organization (WHO). The Task Force is a collaboration between EAPC, the International Observatory on End of Life Care, Help the Hospices and the International Association for Hospice and Palliative Care. The University of Navarra have collaborated in the dissemination of results and is involved in further developments of this group. Four studies, each with different working methods, made up the study protocol: a literature review, a review of all the existing palliative care directories in Europe, a qualitative ‘Eurobarometer’ survey and a quantitative ‘Facts Questionnaire’ survey. The work of the Task Force covers the entire WHO European Region of 52 countries. In this article we present a comparative study on the development of palliative care in Europe, drawing on all four elements of the study. Different models of service delivery have been developed and implemented throughout the countries of Europe. For example, in addition to the UK, the countries of Germany, Austria, Poland and Italy have a well-developed and extensive network of hospices. The model for mobile teams or hospital support teams has been adopted in a number of countries, most notably in France. Day Centres are a development that is characteristic of the UK with hundreds of these services currently in operation. The number of beds per million inhabitants ranges between 45–75 beds in the most advanced European countries, to only a few beds in others. Estimates on the number of physicians working full time in palliative care are shown. The countries with the highest development of palliative care in their respective subregions as measured in terms of ratio of services per one million inhabitants are: Western Europe - UK (15); Central and Eastern Europe - Poland (9); Commonwealth of Independent States - Armenia (8). This paper also presents indicators on the development of palliative care based on the bibliometric analysis of scientific journals and on the vitality of the palliative care movement in each country. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Mass opposition to Europe may stem from mainstream as well as formally Euroskeptic parties. Large parties in the member states of the European Union (EU) tend to combine support for Europe with a high level of intra-party dissent over the issue. Thus, these parties provide heterogeneous yet potentially influential signals about European integration to their supporters. In this paper, we examine the effect of intra-party dissent on the opinion of party supporters. Our estimation of this relationship explicitly addresses the issues of endogeneity, omitted variables, and measurement problems endemic to the empirical study of elite effects on mass opinion. Specifically, we use variation in the centralization of candidate selection rules as an instrumental variable for intra-party dissent. We find substantial evidence that intra-party dissent does indeed increase variation in support for integration among party supporters. With common levels of intra-party dissent, even pro-EU parties can cause a substantial portion of their supporters to adopt anti-EU opinions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The rapid dissemination of drug use among adolescents in the Czech Republic and other Central and Eastern European countries during the 1990s had a significant impact on health care and social services for this population group. This paper describes the current situation related to drug use among adolescents in the Czech Republic and in other European countries and discusses several attitudinal and behavioral correlates of drug use among young people. The results presented here have been extracted from a database of the European School Survey on Alcohol and Other Drugs (ESPAD) from 1995, 1999, and 2003. At the time of data collection, the average age of respondents in the sample was 15.4 years. Marijuana was the most common illicit substance used by European adolescents. The results also showed a marked increase in the number of adolescents who use substances repeatedly between 1995 and 2003. A marked increase in the popularity of ecstasy occurred in the same period. Between 1999 and 2003, the use of opiates and amphetamines in the Czech Republic decreased slightly. Attitudinal variables indicate that Czech adolescents tend to be more tolerant towards selected forms of drug using behavior than are their peers in Europe. The policy by which society tries to confront drug related health and social issues includes an expansion of the network of specialized facilities for treatment and resocialization and long-term programs in the field of prevention. In the future, the significance of programs that focus on early detection and intervention will increase. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

There is a growing recognition in the United States and Europe that health care is driven to a significant extent by an emphasis on consumer choice and demand. As consumers, people regularly choose their own solutions for health promotion and maintenance, solutions which may or may not be sanctioned by mainstream medicine. Radioactive radon therapy exemplifies a non-sanctioned treatment eagerly sought by certain patients, but scorned or dismissed by many physicians. This is certainly the case in the United States, where well-publicized Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) warnings portray radon as a potential carcinogen. Between 1997 and 2001, I worked with a population of arthritis sufferers who expose themselves to radon gas in Montana radon health mines in order to alleviate their symptoms. In this paper I discuss the decision-making process involved in using radon, and compare the Montana radon health mine facilities with selected radon mines and spas in Europe. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Nurses are responsible for the well-being and quality of life of many people, and therefore must meet high standards of technical and ethical competence. The most common form of ethical guidance is a code of ethics/professional practice; however, little research on how codes are viewed or used in practice has been undertaken. This study, carried out in six European countries, explored nurses' opinions of the content and function of codes and their use in nursing practice. A total of 49 focus groups involving 311 nurses were held. Purposive sampling ensured a mix of participants from a range of specialisms. Qualitative analysis enabled emerging themes to be identified on both national and comparative bases. Most participants had a poor understanding of their codes. They were unfamiliar with the content and believed they have little practical value because of extensive barriers to their effective use. In many countries nursing codes appear to be 'paper tigers' with little or no impact; changes are needed in the way they are developed and written, introduced in nurse education, and reinforced/implemented in clinical practice. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper I argue that increasingly neoliberal forms of governmentality are evident in the educational sector of the European Commission. This is especially the case vis-à-vis the institutional philosophy of how immigrants and second-generation 'minorities' should be best integrated into European society. Both the policies and the programs associated with education and training are becoming more oriented towards the formation of mobile, flexible, and self-governing European laborers and less oriented towards an institutionalized affirmation of personal development and individual or group 'difference'. This represents a fairly substantive philosophical and practical transformation over the past five to ten years, with significant implications for conceptions of European citizenship, multiculturalism, and social belonging. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Clear-cut definitions of strategic spatial planning are rather exceptional. Therefore in this paper I use building blocks from literature (planning and business) and my experience in practice to construct a workable normative definition of the ‘what’ and ‘how’ of strategic spatial planning. Five main characteristics (selective, relational annex inclusive, integrative, visioning, and action orientated) that constitute the hard core of the ‘strategic’ in the normative view are confronted, in a first broad scan, with nine so-called strategic plans from different planning traditions in Europe (Italy, France, Spain, the Czech Republic, Belgium, and the Netherlands) and in Australia (Perth). The confrontation highlights some hesitant shifts towards the normative view but also makes it clear that there is still a long way to go. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) are at the core of the European Commission competitiveness policy. With the entering into force of the latest revision of the European pharmaceutical legislation, new regulatory provisions have been laid down to help these small but dynamic players when dealing with the so-called centralised marketing authorisation procedure and the European Medicines Agency (EMEA). The new incentives address both financial and administrative aspects, such as fee reductions and deferrals for a number of EMEA services, handling of translations, and the establishment of a dedicated SME Office within the Agency. In this paper we explore the newly established regulation and the various provisions to analyse its implications for SMEs in general and generic manufacturers in particular. We also review the underlying assumptions, especially the Community SME definition, and discuss the policy objectives that led to the establishment of this new piece of legislation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article is about a race between the USA and Europe in biosimilars. The race can be defined in several ways: the first launch of a biosimilar; the first cross-border use of a biosimilar in the USA or Europe which was approved in a neighbouring country; the greatest value or profits of biosimilars in 2004; the first legal provision for an abbreviated regulatory pathway applied in a consistent and continued manner; and the race for interchangeability or substitution of biosimilars for reimbursement, a race that is just beginning. The USA has won three of the five races, first-launch, first cross-border use and greatest value of biosimilars according to 2004 sales, but Europe is ahead in the most important race: the application of a consistent and continued regulatory pathway. This paper provides the race results and looks at the race for biosimilar regulatory pathways. Once the regulatory pathway is applied by governments in a consistent and continued manner and many biosimilars are launched, the race begins for interchangeability that affects physician prescribing and generic substitution. Biosimilar interchangeability and subsequent biopharmaceutical affordability, is the ultimate prize for the real winners of the race: the patients. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Active pharmaceutical ingredient (API) distribution in highly developed generics markets must go different roads than in earlier days in order to be successful. This paper deals with the challenges and chances for today’s API manufacturers in a changing environment. It has become crucial for API manufacturers to be part of successful generics development programmes in the generics industry. Service partners offer complete solutions for a launch of a new generic product on day one following patent expiration and so fill the pipelines of generics companies. It is as essential for API manufacturers to back the right horse as it is decisive in generics development to pick the right API partner. All or nothing at all – these are often the clear-cut choices. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The purpose of this paper is to test the hypothesis of the existence of a single economic market for the international coal industry, separated for coking and steam coal, and lo investigate market integration over time. This has been conducted by applying cointegration and error-correction models on quarterly price series data in Europe and Japan over the time period 1980-2000. Both the coking and the steam coal markets show evidence of global market integration, as demonstrated by the stable long-run cointegrating relationship between the respective price series in different world regions. This supports the hypothesis of a globally integrated market. However, when analyzing market integration over time it is not possible to confirm cointegration in the 1990s for steam coal. Thus, compared to the coking coal market, the steam coal market looks somewhat less global in scope. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The so-called ‘Bologna process’ is an effort to standardize higher education in Europe. Among journalism educators in particular, the goal is a harmonization of best practices in order to establish common training protocols. Contrary to assumptions, however, best practices often conflict with cultural values. Specifically, there has been little attention paid to on-camera behavior of TV journalists. Denmark is a case study where standard Anglo-American on-camera presentation styles violate deeply held cultural values. This paper argues that cultural differences matter and have serious consequences for European TV journalism educators in the age of globalization. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper provides a norms-based account of institutional change. It compares two cases of attempted change, one successful and one unsuccessful. The argument advanced is that norm-based change occurs when the norms are congruent with the perceived interests of the actors who have the power to take on the decision. Norms affect the process of institutional change not only by providing legitimacy to some forms of political action, but also by shaping the actors’ perception of their interests as well their strategies. It is argued that norms, in that sense, help political actors combine Max Weber's zweckrational (goal-orientated) and wertrational (value-orientated) categories of behaviour. Empirical evidence drawn from the context of the evolving European Union supports this argument. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A renewal of academic interest in agricultural restructuring in western Europe raises questions about causality, processes and outcomes. In particular, the relationship between deep-set structural tendencies and policy trends and the way these are constituted in relation to, and mediated through, the agency of individual land managers and other actors is emerging as a central research concern of rural social scientists. In this paper we focus on the first part of this equation, arguing that international and European agricultural restructuring needs to be rediscovered as an essentially sociopolitical project, the outcome of a struggle for influence and power between different class fractions of capital during a long and contested transition to a post-Fordist regime of accumulation. Rather than witnessing the shift towards a postproductivist agriculture anticipated by some recent commentators, we argue that the dominant framing is in favour of a neoliberal regime of market productivism, leading to the further integration of large parts of European agriculture into agro-food circuits of capital. While the neoliberal discourse which provides the intellectual justification for this process is heavily contested by advocates of a long standing form of neomercantilism and by a more recently invented discourse of agricultural multifunctionality, the entrenched position of neoliberal ideas and framings within the World Trade Organization (WTO) means that the ideology of the free market is coming to define the terms of international, and thus European, agricultural policy reform. The recent history of reform of the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) and wider rural policy reform in the European Union (EU) nevertheless suggests that the European policy stance is one of partial resistance to unfettered liberalization, policy-makers apparently having embarked on an attempt to combine elements of the neoliberal programme with continued commitment to state assistance in various forms. This sets the frame for the regulation of an increasingly bimodal agricultural industry, in which spaces for postproductivism and rural development are being defined and defended in public interest and public good terms but where there are few opportunities to question the enforced segregation and commodification of rural space and environmental provision that this implies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper attempts to identify whether declining industrial pollution intensities in many European countries are a result of reductions in sectoral emissions intensities (i.e. the effects of regulations and technology) or changes to the product mix (e.g. the decline of heavy industries). This distinction is important since reductions in pollution that are a result of changes to the product mix may simply reflect a transfer of pollution from one country to another, rather than a net reduction. We attempt to resolve this issue by applying the divisia decomposition technique to a new dataset of industry-specific emissions intensities for three common air pollutants, for four European countries. Our results generally indicate the dominance of the sectoral intensity effect although, for the UK in particular evidence of an increasingly clean product mix is found. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The energy marker liberalisation process in Europe is increasingly focused on electricity market integration and related cross border issues. This signals that the liberalisation of national electricity markets is now closer to the long-term objective of a single European energy market. The interface between the national electricity markets requires physical interconnections and technical arrangements. However, further progress towards this objective also raises important issues regarding the framework within which the integrated market is implemented. This paper reviews the progress towards a single European electricity market. We then discuss the emerging issues of market concentration, investments, and security of supply as well as some aspects of market design and regulation that are crucial for dynamic performance of a single European market. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines the creation of independent agencies within the EU, such as the European Environment Agency (EEA) and the European Central Bank (ECB). Majone and others have argued the case for European regulatory agencies. Such agencies can provide for continuity, expertise, accountability and effective authority– in short, aninstitutionalisation of responsibility. Against this optimism, I argue that a dilemma of institutional design naturally arises from the agencies’ situation in the EU. On the one side, we risk creating powerful agencies that institutionalisemonomania– that is, agencies that single-mindedly and all-too-effectively pursue narrow agendas, inadequately checked by other bodies. On the other, we are also likely to encounter relatively impotent agencies which institutionaliseschizophrenia– that is, agencies that must scout around for audience and support, and hence are unable to act effectively. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Growing Arab migration to Europe is a likely scenario for the coming years, poorly prepared for by current policies. The paper examines three reasons for this scenario: new patterns of family-building in Arab countries; aging in Europe; and the emergence of a new demand for migrant labor. While the ongoing establishment of free trade may increase migratory pressures, government policies remain potentially conflicting -- on the Arab side, optimizing the economic benefits drawn from emigrants and reviving their sense of belonging to their culture of origin; on the European side, restricting further immigration and integrating former migrants in the host society and culture. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Cosmopolis is a concept that has a long history in many cultures around the globe. It is a mirroring of the 'social' and 'natural' worlds, such that in one is seen the order and the structures of the other—a mutual 'mapping'. In this paper I examine how the presence of cosmopolis-a Christianised cosmopolis of the European Middle Ages—was made evident in the representation and formation of cities at that time. I reveal a dualism between the social and spatial ordering of both city and cosmos which defined and reinforced social and spatial boundaries in urban landscapes, evident for example in the 11th and 12th centuries. Recently, Toulmin (1992) has taken the idea of cosmopolis to argue that it has been a persistent presence in Western - Enlightenment science, philosophy, and religion—a 'hidden agenda of modernity'. I contend that, as an idea, cosmopolis has a much earlier circulation in European thinking, not least in the Middle Ages. Locating cosmopolis in the medieval and the modern periods then begs a question of what is it that really makes the two distinct and separate? All too often human geographers have emphasised discontinuities between the 'medieval' and 'modern' age, locating the 'rise of modernity' some time in the Enlightenment period. However, what 'mapping' cosmopolis reveals are continuities, binding time and space together, which when looked at begin to help query the modernity concept itself [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

For some, networks have ontological status, being associated with the embeddedness of social life in general and the necessary embeddedness of firms in their industries and regions in particular. For others less certain about ontology, networks are vital ingredients in firm-specific competitive strategies and long-term growth prospects. In this paper we approach the issue with reference to firm-specific competitive strategies, reporting the results of a large-scale pan-European survey of small and medium-sized enterprises' (SMEs) network-related responses to changing market conditions. Distinguishing between different types of production network (supply and distribution) operating at various geographical scales (regional, national, EU, and global), it is shown that the scope and scale of firm networks are strategic issues. All things being equal, firms adopt advanced technologies in response to changing market conditions, enabling their networks to change in scope and geographical scale. We also show that the significance of local as opposed to national and EU networks is changing with less 'localism' and wider geographical scope becoming increasingly important. Using probit models for different types of networks, we identify and distinguish between predictive variables driving network formation, including the type of SME ownership. Implications are drawn for the theoretical status of networks in industrial organisation and their significance for European economic development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The au pair program m general is still known as a form of cultural exchange program and a good possibility for young women to spend a year abroad, although it has undergone great changes during the last 10 years. This article argues that due to different socio-economic and cultural processes in Western postindustrial societies as well as in the eastern and southern parts of the world the au pair program is becoming a form of domestic work with quite similar working and living conditions to that of live-in migrant domestic workers. This article which is based on two empirical studies on the globalizing au pair business in Eastern and Western Europe as well in the United States looks into the motivations and expectations, the living conditions and interactions between the au pairs and the employer families and contrasts these findings with the discourse of the au pair agencies still advertising au pair as a form of cultural exchange. In doing so the paper can show that it is the still dominant image of au-pair as a cultural exchange program (disarticulating the work aspect) that leaves the young au pair women even more vulnerable to exploitation: 'big sisters' are the best domestic servants. This article draws attention to the racialized economization of the private sphere and care work, the inherent traps and exploitative features of this very specific work place. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper begins with an outline of the current German drug control system. Drug use and drug control are viewed theoretically as complementary components of a complex social and historical process that integrates sociology, the sociology of law, political science, and social psychology The German drug control system is viewed as a byproduct of these different disciplines. Within this context, the evolution of pertinent drug laws and their implementation are discussed. Recent developments are viewed as taking place in a series of stages based on three paradigms: (1) criminalization, (2) medicalization, and (3) acceptance. Over time there seems to have been a slow transition from the first to the last of these paradigms, implying that elements of all three approaches have been integrated into various policies and strategies that differ between states and regions of Germany, as well as between different levels of drug policy and drug care. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In relation to the development of medicinal products within Europe, the European Commission seeks to strike a balance between the encouragement of innovation and the avoidance of unnecessary research. This balance is supposedly represented by the rules that afford research-based companies a degree of protection against the use by the authorities assessing subsequent applications, of data submitted in support of the application made by the innovator. This paper reviews these rules as they presently stand, how the European Court of Justice (ECJ) and the national courts have interpreted the many `grey areas' in such rules and the proposals for change for the current regime within the overall review of pharmaceutical regulatory rules to be implemented in time for the enlargement of the Community in early 2004. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Comments on a research paper by Gordon Clark concerning the increasingly precarious nature of solidaristic old-age insurance as a solution to old age poverty in Europe. Impact of demographic developments; Lack of a viable alternative to capital market investment; Exigencies implied by market investment.

In this paper we explore the development and incidence of alternative food networks within a European-wide context. By developing a consistent definition of short food supply chains, we address both the morphology and the dynamics of these, and then examine empirical evidence concerning their incidence and rural development impact across seven EU member states. These developments need to be seen as one significant contribution to the current transitions in rural Europe concerning the crisis of conventional intensive and productivist agriculture and the public consumer pressure for a larger variety of distinctive 'quality' food products. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In recent years, two dominant models for understanding the source of common political identities have emerged in the European context: the universalist paradigm of constitutional patriotism and the communitarian paradigm of ‘civic nationalism’. In view of this dichotomy, one could be tempted to think that only a combination of these two positions could deal with the mixed nature of European architecture. The European Union would thus give birth to the appealing synthesis of a ‘cosmopolitan communitarianism’. This choice of a middle way is challenged in this paper. Instead, I argue that the national or communitarian challenge would be better met by the development of constitutional patriotism rather than by a loose compromise. Contrary to what most commentators seem to believe, constitutional patriotism has practical significance, is historically embedded and seeks to promote a shared political culture. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper explores the logical and historical determinants of European integration and reflects on the potential and dangers this presents for labour movement renewal. Through the principle of ‘subsidiarity’ a regulatory gap has been established between political mobilisation at the national level and neo-liberal regulation at the European level. The historical determination of this form is traced through an exploration of the social struggles against neo-liberalism that have developed within member states and transnational mobilizations that bridge this regulatory gap by linking resistance across national boundaries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper describes prevalence rates of self-reported experiences of alcohol-related problems in six Western European countries and examines how self-reported consumption of alcohol is associated with the likelihood of experiencing these problems. Of particular interest is to assess whether alcohol is more strongly associated with the likelihood of experiencing adverse consequences in Northern Europe than in countries in Central and Southern Europe. Data on self-reported volume of drinking and binge drinking and of experiences of various alcohol-related problems from a general population survey undertaken in Finland, Sweden, Germany, the UK, France and Italy during the spring of 2000 were analyzed. The number of respondents was about 1,000 men and women (ages 18-64) in each country. In the assessment of the link between drinking and harm, results showed that the overall prevalence of alcohol-related harm was highest in Finland and the UK and lowest in Southern Europe. A general positive association was found between volume of drinking and problems, although some country differences were observed. The risk curve analysis also revealed that problems occurred at fairly low drinking levels. In the multivariate logistic regression analyses, the volume of drinking and a measure of binge drinking were both statistically significant predictors of most problems in most countries. A major conclusion is that both volume of drinking and binge drinking are important determinants of the risk of experiencing adverse consequences from drinking in all six European countries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Against the backdrop of a perceived 'crisis' within the field of Anglo-American regional science, in this paper we offer a brief overview of the early engagement of regional science with the regional concept, while placing its theoretical formulations within the wider sociohistorical context of the Cold War period and the rise of positivist social science. With regard to the development of regional science as a field of enquiry with its own theoretical and empirical postulates, attention focuses on what David Harvey has referred to as a "utopianism of spatial form", defined by the idea that spatial constructs can serve to control social processes in positive ways, thus using space to evade historical change. In building bridges from the Isardian promise of the past of regional science to its multiple futures, we suggest that the field today may break out of its current 'isolated state' by entering into creative dialogue with the metaphors animating three research streams: (1) an 'analytical turn' in Marxist economic geography; (2) a Marshallian 'New Regionalism'; and (3) a 'cultural turn' perceived to be occuring within the field of radical political economy. Each stream, addressed here as a successive and broader departure from the more orthodox "utopianism of spatial form" in spatial and regional science, is briefly surveyed in turn. Drawing on the metaphor of borders and borderlands, we conclude by arguing that rather than view each research strand as an 'improvement' on its predecessor they should be viewed as the grounds for a potentially rich cross-fertilization between spatial science and various fields of nonorthodox economics. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Local economic institutions (systems of property rights and rules of land use) influenced the course of economic change in European history, as well as state formation and religious change. In this paper, I outline the theoretical implications of these regional effects. None of our existing macrolevel theories and explanations of the "rise of the West" can adequately incorporate them, so I present an alternative theory, based on rational choice premises. Yet the existence of these regional effects also highlights the deficiencies of a rational choice theoretical approach. First, the approach is unable to explain historical contexts, institutional legacies, or the effects of timing, which were vital for outcomes of social change but that lie outside the model itself. Second, although it can be very useful, the model of the actor motivated by material self-interest often proved inadequate in historical situations. Solutions are suggested. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, I will consider the validity of such assumptions and attempt analysis of their sources through discussion of the position of women in the kibbutz of today in historical terms, relating my own field material[2] to the more general development of the kibbutz movement.[3]. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Western Europe increasingly is regarded as a necessary market for the product of the U.S. television and sports industries. At the same time, the European sports television market is itself in the process of both expansion and economic consolidation. This paper analyzes the recent strategies implemented in both the U.S. and European sports marketplaces in order to explain the changes, successes, and failures; and to discuss the opportunities and limits of the internationalization of sports television. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

At first sight North American Indian and ancient European games appear to be fairly different social activities. Observed closer though, these games and their texture reveal a surprising variety of common features. This paper represents a first attempt to analyse relevant structural similarities (homologies) systematically by focusing upon ball gaines, in particular. The historical cross-cultural (or transatlantic) enterprise is based on two exemplary accounts of folk football and racket, respectively; i.e., they signify "le take off' of the present ethnographic report which employs a theoretical framework provided by the French Annales-historians and N. Elias theory of civilization. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article discusses various matters on migration. The Political Participation of Ethnic Minorities in Europe workshop was organized by the European Consortium for Political Research and was held at the Leyden University, The Netherlands, on April 2 to 8, 1993. This workshop explores the factors which constrain or facilitate the participation of ethnic minorities in the political process and the extent to which such participation has furthered or diluted the pursuit of ethnically-based interests. Meanwhile, the Annual Meeting of the American Catholic Historical Association: Philadelphia was held April 16 to 17, 1993. It included the following papers: The American Catholic Response to Recent Immigration, by M. L. Sullivan; Ybor City Latins and the Church, by M. J. McNally; and Puerto Ricans and the Archdiocesan of Chicago, 1963-1970, by T. Kelliher. In other matters, The Forum for Researchers on Islam in Europe was established to encourage the development of information and interdisciplinary research on Islam and Muslim populations in Europe. It foresees a publication of a newsletter, directory of members, publication of an international bibliography in 1993, a symposium in 1994, and an international conference in 1995.

This paper investigates the influence of generation and country of origin on occupational mobility between 1880 and 1900 among a sample of U.S. white men. Father-to-son mobility is examined for males 5 to 14 years old in 1880, and career mobility is analyzed for men aged 25 to 34 in the same year. While generation and national-origin groups clearly differed in their occupational distributions at each date, we find minimal evidence of differences in overall opportunities or in the relationship between occupational origins and destinations. Thus, on the whole, generation and country of origin appear to have had little influence on the mobility process in the late 1800s. There is some evidence that the men in our sample, who were overwhelmingly of Northern and Western European heritage, gained occupationally from the incipient flow of migrants from Southern and Eastern Europe. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper explores the implications for palliative care practitioners of the pre-eminence of autonomy as an ethical principle in contemporary health care ethics. It is suggested that some of the consequences of respecting patient autonomy might be unacceptable to carers, particularly when they feel their own autonomy might be compromised or their ethical values threatened. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

'America has a negro problem', the Swedish economist Gunnar Myrdal stated in the introduction to his modern classic An American Dilemma first published in 1944 Half a century later the so called immigrant problem is moving to the top of the political agenda of EU Europe. To speak about a European dilemma in this context means to relate established European values of social solidarity and social responsibility to an increasingly ethnicised and racialised social inequality in European cities How can the dilemma be made transparent? How can we transcend the disjunctures between 'creed' and reality? Along these lines the paper debates potentialities for transethnic alignment in the US and EU Europe exposed to a common condition of globalisation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]