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The post-communist countries of Central-Eastern Europe (CEE) when implementing agricultural and conservation policies, face other challenges than Western European countries: (1) specific institutional design for each, developed on the remnants of totalitarian system causing difficulties for transposing directives; (2) different integration of Natura 2000 network into national protected area governance resulting in slow elaboration of the management plans; (3) farming landscapes were better preserved than in Western Europe, but lacking the continuity of extensive farming so large areas of conservation and (4) formal protection of sites, lacking in many cases financial support. This paper summarizes: the historical background of the last century that changed the farming landscapes of the CEE countries and the challenges in the management of protected areas in an unsteady socio-economic and political context. The results are focusing on the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Hungary and Romania. Two main conclusions are proposed. First, socialism and capitalism slowly abolished family farming, causing people to become disconnected from the landscape - a key element in conservation oriented grassland management. Second, the gaps of knowledge on different aspects of policy implementation sabotage the results of conservation initiatives. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Th e aim of the paper is to describe the land ownership relations in the area of the current Czech Republic since the foundation of Czechoslovakia. Th e description of the history of changes of land ownership in the Czech Republic is important for the perception of the current nature of the land use and land market. Land use and ownership was always related to the historical context and political regime. Th e time periods are divided by the important historical events: after 1918 (foundation of the Czechoslovak Republic), 2nd World War period, after 1948 (takeover of the power by the Communist Party of Czechoslovakia and the centrally planned economy period) and after 1989 (foundation of the market economy). During this era, three land reforms took place. Th e main role was played by the political apparatus the aim of which was to enhance its economic and political influence, and international interests. It can be concluded that the ownership of land in the Czech lands was always uneven. During the period, the state expropriated land from diff erent society spheres and reallocated it to others. No other property in private ownership underwent so many ownership changes in the legal organization of the state. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper tests the impact of various determinants of the preference for two key elements of the European social models: redistribution and trade unions, using individual data from the first round of the European Social Survey. The basic hypothesis is that the main determinant of an individual’s support for these elements of the European models is the social position of the individual in terms of income, status and risks attached to their labour market insertion. The paper also considers the relative importance of less ‘materialist’ influences such as religion or other cultural determinants. The estimations show that ‘materialist’ determinants are by far the most important influences on individual preferences, contrary to what most social theories of modernisation contend. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) make up the vast majority of businesses in Europe. These enterprises are vitally important for a healthy dynamic market economy. However, the environmental impact of small firms is not known either at national or regional levels. Voluntary self-regulatory initiatives such as the eco-management and audit scheme (EMAS) and the international environmental management system (EMS) standard ISO 14001 seek to provide all businesses with the means to develop systematic approaches to improve environmental performance. All purport to be relevant and applicable to small and medium-sized firms; however, their uptake by SMEs has been patchy at best and down right miserable at worst. This paper sheds some light on the barriers, opportunities and drivers for EMS adoption by the SME sector. Drawing on original research investigating EMAS implementation across the European Union and a major detailed review of 33 studies which explore the sector’s use of EMS, this paper estimates the number of SMEs registered to EMAS and ISO 14001 and identifies a range of issues which influence the adoption of formalised EMS. Despite these problems, the paper suggests SMEs do find real benefits from adopting EMS. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: This paper examines global (mature market) and regional (emerging market) spillovers in local emerging stock markets. Tri-variate VAR-GARCH(1,1)-in-mean models are estimated for 41 emerging market economies (EMEs) in Asia, Europe, Latin America, and the Middle East. The models capture a range of possible transmission channels: spillovers in mean returns, volatility, and cross-market GARCH-in-mean effects. Hypotheses about the importance of different channels are tested. The results suggest that spillovers from regional and global markets are present in the vast majority of EMEs. However, the nature of cross-market linkages varies across countries and regions. While spillovers in mean returns dominate in emerging Asia and Latin America, spillovers in variance appear to play a key role in emerging Europe. There is also some evidence of cross-market GARCH-in-mean effects. The relative importance of regional and global spillovers varies too, with global spillovers dominating in Asia, and regional spillovers in Latin America and the Middle East. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

The article presents information on several papers presented at the conference "This Town Is Gonna Blow..." European Protest Movements and Society in the 1980s. Topics discussed include viewing the Bremen riots in a European context, the role of consumption in the development of the protest movements in the 1980s and the denunciation of capitalism in Europe by leftist governments.

This paper analyses the transformations of mass media in the process of constructing the European identity after the two enlargements. I will focus on the impact of mass communication on Europeanization. I study the transition in Romania in particular to understand Europeanization, otherwise it sounds as if my study covers the broad scope in Europe, and case study is Romanian media. My thesis is that mass media could play an active role in promoting the European integration process if it shifted its attention from reflecting historical particularities to reflecting upon the modern evolution of each EU member. I introduce the concept of tendentious modernity, useful in studying mass communication in transitional societies. In such societies, modernization began with political institutional construction and not with the building of the capitalist economy. Modernity is the framework and main element upon which a nation is supported, a mosaic however not by means of economy, the basis of a national development and progress. In these societies, such as Romania, mass media promote this mosaic modernity, and, at the same time they, acts the primary messenger of modernity and Europeanization. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines the theme of the 'survival' of Asian business in the period of European colonial domination in Asia, i.e. c. 1750-1950, through the trajectories of some Indian merchant communities. It shows how Indian nationalist discourse systematically overlooked the role played by Indian merchants in the economies of colonized countries outside India. A critique of the paradigm of the great pan-Asian bazaar as put forward by the Indian historian Rajat Ray follows. The last section looks at two networks of Sind merchants which operated worldwide during the colonial period, and proposes a different reading of the evidence regarding the insertion of Indian merchants within a European-dominated world economy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Globalization is widely held to circumscribe the parameters of political and economic choice in contemporary Europe, just as it has come to circumscribe the parameters of debate on the future of European models of capitalism. Yet opinions on the question of convergence nonetheless vary markedly, with proponents of the hyperglobalization thesis pointing to a simple and inexorable process of neoliberal convergence while an increasingly influential school of neo-institutionalists point to a rather more complex process of 'dual' or 'co-convergence', reinforcing the distinctiveness of liberal and coordinated market economies. In both accounts, the exhibited pattern of convergence (dual or otherwise) is seen to be driven by globalization. In this paper I provide a theoretical and empirical critique of this important literature, challenging the contextualization of the question of convergence with respect to globalization which both perspectives share. I advance a distinctive variant of the new institutionalism which emphasizes: (i) the contingency of any process of convergence observed; (ii) the frequently political as opposed to economic nature of convergent tendencies; (iii) the counter-tendencies which might be mobilized to such tendencies; and (iv) the invariably far greater significance, in the establishment of common trajectories, of regional rather than genuinely global processes of integration. Though common trajectories are discernible within contemporary Europe, associated in particular with the institutional architecture of EMU and an accelerating process of European economic integration, they have been embraced more or less enthusiastically and at variable paces, leading not to convergent but to divergent outcomes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents an analysis of nonprofit organizations—the organizational infrastructure of civil society—in East Central Europe, from one important respect: by placing them in the context of the comparative historical sociology of the region's widespread informality. This involves two steps: (1) summarizing an argument about the role of informality in East Central European capitalism today in order to (2) outline its implications for the study of post-state-socialist nonprofits. Most of the empirical examples come from Hungary. These examples serve illustrative purposes and are intended as devices to provoke new analysis. They are meant to open, rather than close, discussion. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]