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This paper reconsiders American conservatism in relation to European feudalism and medievalism. The paper argues and shows that conservatism in America has typically been an American variant or proxy of European feudalism in particular and medievalism in general. Specifically, this is argued and shown for American economic and political conservatism with respect to feudalism in economy and its despotic ramifications in politics, as reciprocally related and reinforcing elements of European medievalism. The paper also identifies other interconnected elements of European medievalism in American economic and political as well as cultural conservatism. It finds that in economic-political terms, conservatism in America, irrespective of its assumed and celebrated lack of a European feudal and medievalist past, has been and continues to be a functional equivalent of feudalism and other medievalism in Europe. The paper concludes that American conservatism, including neo-conservatism, is a sort of European neo-feudalism and neo-medievalism rather than, as it claims and widely supposed, non-feudal and non-medievalist, thus questioning received views in the literature and society. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper highlights the juridical Genetic Modified Organisms statu artis and its legal definition in Italy, Europe and in the rest of the world in order to compare different cultural approaches to needs, interests, fears and precautions against a not scientifically certain innovation. It also stresses the legislative processes towards an extended participation that unifies economic interests, political goals, customer satisfaction, collective safety, and human construction for a sustainable future, a new form of governance. The paper ends with a sociological and comparative analysis of needs, fears, interests and responsibilities related to GMO in Italy and Europe, with the aim of defining some possible evolutions of ruling uncertainty today.

This paper investigates the multiple dimensions in the identity constructions of the daughters of the Muslim migrations to Italy. It focuses on the transformations in the way girls and young women relate to religion, in the transition from the generation of mothers, who emigrated from countries with a Muslim majority, to the generation of daughters, who grow up in a European context where Islam is a minority religion. It discusses ‘transmissions’, ‘translations’ and ‘betrayals’ in the migration experience, from a standpoint which highlights the specificities of gender and of generation. The article is based on an intersectional analysis of biographical accounts by Muslim girls and young women of Bengali and Moroccan origin who were born and/or grew up in Italy. Intersecting religious identity with other identity lines such as national belonging (to the parents’ country of origin and to the country where they were born or grew up), gender, class, color and age, multiple reactions and positions emerged. In this context, the religious dimension inherited/experienced/reinvented/called into question by the daughters of migrations appeared to be in constant evolution. Indeed, the stories contained herein of young Muslims tell of the emergence of European Islam. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The population crisis in European countries can be synthesized into two phenomena: the loss of vitality and the aging society. What are the main consequences of this crisis? Can the family play a determining role in helping to face and overcoming these consequences? In this paper we suggest promoting the family as a possible means to help sustain or bring about a recovery in the demographic health of society. The first section is devoted to an analysis of the demographic decline across European countries by examining converging patterns in culturally, politically, and historically different contexts. The second section explores more deeply the interrelations between the determinants of the population crisis and living arrangements. A picture of the new shape of families across Europe precedes an analysis of the changing patterns in living arrangements and their link to reproductive functions. A final section studies the extent to which the family influences the role of women in the labor market. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Paid work is generally accepted as an important dimension of hegemonic masculinities and men's identities, which can become heightened when they become fathers. Changes in global economies together with educational shifts and other demographic patterns mean that paid work has become a significant feature of many women's lives too. Increasingly across Europe women who are mothers combine caring, domestic chores, and paid work. Using data from a qualitative longitudinal study on women's experiences of transition to first-time motherhood in the UK, this paper will explore how women narrate and reconcile their decisions either to return to paid work or not to, following the birth of their first child (Miller 2005). These findings are considered alongside a companion study on men's experiences of transition to first-time fatherhood (Miller 2011). The comparison shows that women articulate work and caring decisions in narratives which convey a sense of ‘guilt’, whilst the men are able to talk more freely – and acceptably – about ‘career progression’ and the importance of work to their identity and their new family. Even though recent research points to some changes in men's involvement in caring and women's increased activities in the work-place, particular aspects of these arrangements remain seemingly impervious to change. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This paper discusses the relationships between the migratory policies of the EU countries with more experience of immigration and their national political cultures. It focuses on France, Germany and the United Kingdom. It then looks at Italy, a relatively new country of immigration, which, with 3,000,000 legal immigrants, has become the fourth country of immigration in Europe and the first in the Mediterranean basin. In its final part it highlights the incipient process of 'communitarisation' of the immigration policies of EU countries in the last decade. This process, which has already entailed a significant convergence of their migratory policies, is expected to continue after the recent enlargement of the European Union. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The sociological study of professions as a special category of occupational groups is a long standing field of academic research with its own history and distinctive comparative and historical modes of analysis. The intellectual field includes the study of occupations which are knowledge-based and achieved following years of higher education and vocational training. There are, however, important differences between Anglo-American and continental European modes of production of professionalism. Professional associations have not existed in the same way nor performed the same functions in European nation-states. In Europe, state bureaucracies have operated the licensing and control procedures resulting in closer connections between professions and states in professionalization processes. For a period in the development of the sociology of professions as an intellectual field, professions were severely criticized In the 1970s and 1980s, professions were condemned by academics for their self-interest and market protectionism. In the 1980s, radical governments successfully challenged professions and promoted deregulation, increased competition, free markets and customer sovereignty.

This article proposes a gendered critique of the European Neighbourhood Policy, a framework that, amongst other things, aims to facilitate the mobility of migrants to the EU from the bordering countries. We highlight the ambivalences of European gender and migration regimes, and we take issue with the celebration of the ‘feminisation of migration’. The former fails to offer opportunities to women to safely embark on autonomous migratory projects, the latter contributes to reproduce traditional gender biases in the countries of origin as well as of destination. We conclude by suggesting that the EU critique to emigration countries for failing to tackle women’s discrimination is less than persuasive when assessed vis-á-vis with the curtailment on women’s independent mobility across European borders. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Today marriage-migration remains the dominant form of naturalization in Italy and Greece, even for women from such high-income countries as the USA. Pilot studies of intra-OECD female migrants to Southern Europe show that the majority of them marry local men, consider their matrimony a mistake, and feel isolated. Unfortunately, there is no comprehensive knowledge about dynamics of their socio-cultural integration or expat nationalism (although scholarship generally acknowledges a strong relationship between these two processes). Based on narrative-biographic interviews with 60 Anglophone female expatriates married to Italian and Greek men, our study explores the women's negotiation of culture within the context of their Italian and Greek families, and looks at emerging challenges for their integration. We show that these women are nationalistic and culturally stringent actors, who often find it extremely difficult fully to learn and integrate to the new cultures of Southern Europe. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The objective is to test if religiosity affects environmental opinion in Europe. Using data from European Social Survey (ESS) 2002/2003, the study answers three questions. At the societal level: Is public opinion about the environment different in political systems with different Christian traditions? Is environmental concern less or higher in the public opinion depending on the degree of secularization in the political systems? At the individual level: Is the environmental opinion of the individual affected by the personal confession of faith, religious involvement, and the dominant religious context? At the societal level, the findings show stronger concern for the environment in Catholic and Eastern Orthodox countries than in Protestant countries. The tendency also shows a weakened concern for the environment in countries with a rather secular population. At the individual level, there are significant positive effects on environmental care from Catholic culture, negative effect from Protestant culture, and no effect from religious involvement. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

An introduction is presented in which the editor discusses various reports within the issue on topics including families, social change, and welfare state in Europe.

Our purpose is to show that a well-designed Welfare State is a fundamental fiscal policy instrument which allows mending of the main shortcomings of the market mechanism, i.e. lack of Stability, Inequality, disregard of Needs, lack of economic Security: in short, we call them the market's SINS. We show how the family is the main agent for an effective Welfare State, as the firms are for the market. We use detailed data on all the European countries to characterize the different models of welfare within Europe. A cross-section analysis shows that the main goals are better achieved when the social protection benefits focus on the functions of family and children, sickness and health care, because they induce the greatest poverty reduction. We show that for families with children the better working arrangement – which is associated with higher GDP per capita and lower inequality – is one parent working full-time and one parent part-time. We quantify the cross-section variability related to the age structure for the function of pensions. For a sample of seven major European countries we measure the degree of pro-cyclical or countercyclical relationship between social protection expenditures and GDP per capita from 1995 to 2010. In Germany, a Keynesian economic policy in 2009 is associated with a sharp rebound in 2010. We measure the relationship between Welfare State benefits and public budget, given as a constraint. We show a possible relationship between social protection benefits and family savings. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

For quite some time, experts and policy-makers in Western societies have been looking at young people with concern, extending their analysis from the potential for conflict and divergence, to socio-cultural dynamics and inter-generational relations. There is certainly intense debate as to how close or distant young people are to forms and content of citizenship as experienced in the creation of modern democracy. Such a debate, developed at both the institutional and the scientific level, focuses particularly on concepts of participation and active citizenship and identifies in the civic engagement and participatory citizenship of young people the key factors for the maintenance of democracy and social cohesion. By bringing to light the meanings, implications, and ambivalences of the concepts at the centre of the debate, also with a view to European policies, the article aims at highlighting rhetoric, voids, and emerging contradictions and pointing out questions and possible research paths. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Fertility rates have fallen dramatically in Western Europe during the last 50 years. Initially explanations were tied to women taking on work obligations and choosing to reduce their fertility. But this explanation is no longer valid in Western Europe because those countries where women are least likely to work, the Mediterranean countries, are also among the countries with the lowest fertility rates. A more recent explanation rests on the availability of child-care; for example, Sweden and France have universal child-care and fertility rates near replacement. Much of this discussion has focused on socio-political conditions and structural explanations outside of the family, e.g. state policies and programs to support working mothers, as well as institutional models of the family as a breadwinner family or as a non-breadwinner family (cf. McDonald 2000a). Clearly there have been many important changes in this area. But, perhaps, even more important to understanding fertility decisions may be what is happening to interpersonal relationships within the couple. One aspect of this decision which has not been fully explored is an understanding of the perceived justice of the couple situation after the birth of the first child and its impact on the decision for a second child. This research will review the concept of justice, with a focus on justice in the division of child-care, and indicate how it can be used to understand a woman's fertility plans after the birth of the first child. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The article offers information on immigrant women workers in the underground economy of Europe. It discusses the increase in the underground economy and undocumented labor as it relates to the informalization of the economy, which is said to be a characteristic of capitalist economies. The article discusses employment conditions for immigrant women, who often work in the caregiving, domestic, and hotel sectors. Implications for social policy are noted.

The article discusses the migrant family which is considered as a failing institution in providing the care and support to their other young members in Europe. Migrant family is also responsible for the failure of education of young migrants and youth delinquency. Selective migration policies and migration management suggests several integration courses or integration tests focus on family migrants to prepare migrants for the immigration and to ensure a minimum level of knowledge about the country

As far as distributive justice is concerned, an important issue is to know whether the different principles by which a given distribution of goods is judged fair or unfair are exclusive or complementary. The European Values Survey carried out in 1999 shows clearly the priorities of Europeans in this matter. The first concerns the guarantee that 'basic needs are met for all', then comes 'recognizing people on their merits' and finally 'eliminating big inequalities in income'. The consensus on this hierarchy is not altered by national, demographical, social, economic or political divisions. These different divisions do indeed influence opinions on each criterion, but, with very few exceptions, they are not sufficient to upset this order of priorities. Thus, the usual applied principles of distributive justice do not define competing spheres. Their nested (or 'lexical') order is compatible with the purely procedural condition of 'equal liberty'. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Despite the increase in, and focus on, gender equality in European debate - along with a substantial amount of policy initiatives and legal regulations - gender equality in the workplace and in careers is still some way off. In order to see the magnitude of the gap between women and men in European countries we have considered some significant domains such as the economy (employment structure and occupational segregation), education (educational attainment) and politics (political empowerment). The article aims to present data demonstrating that the employment structure in the EU, even in those countries where women have achieved high employment rates, still suffers from segregation, both 'horizontally' and 'vertically'; and to single out some 'weak signals' but with a strong potential for social change and some indicators for social alternatives for the future. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Gender mainstreaming is the major global strategy for the promotion of gender equality. Clear intergovernmental mandates for gender mainstreaming have been developed for all the major areas of work of the United Nations and the European Commission, including disarmament, poverty reduction, macro-economics, health, education and trade. The evaluation of equal opportunities mainly focuses on qualification measures for unemployed women and improvements in childcare facilities, and on consideration of gender mainstreaming in other policy areas as well as macro-economic effects on employment and unemployment of women. It is evident that the promotion of qualification measures and childcare facilities increases the activity rate of women, although there remain doubts about the quality and sustainability of many measures and the impact on families. In particular this article focuses on the relation between gender mainstreaming and equality issues to examine whether and how the debate on the topic is a real way to improve equality without missing gender differences and women's rights. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The idea of a cosmopolitan Europe is defined against a ‘national Europe’, on the one side and on the other, ‘global Europe’ where an internationalist EU-led Europe plays a major role in the world. A cosmopolitan Europe is a more accurate designation of the emerging form of Europeanization as a mediated and emergent reality of the national and the global. It is possible to conceive of European identity as a cosmopolitan identity based on a cultural logic of self-transformation rather than as a supranational identity or an official EU identity that is in a relation of tension with national identities. As a cosmopolitan identity, European identity is a form of post-national self-understanding that expresses itself within, as much as beyond, national identities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The continental European philosophies and theories of social interaction, with focus on heterogeneity and interaction were discussed. First to be discussed was the idea of creative evolution. Then the authors focused on the negative effects of egocentrism and ethnocentrism. Then the authors described formal binary logic. The authors concluded the article with the discussion of the theory of communicative action.

Focuses on the creation of the European market for mobile telephony. Merits of the global system for mobile communications; Reasons for the emergence for a market for mobile telephony. Discusses the socio-economic factors that influenced the development of the mobile telephony market, the writings of Karl Polyani, instituted process, the process of standardization, digital technology, European telecommunications during the 1980s, and the development of market structure in the global equipment industry.

This article focuses on self-employment of women and welfare-state policies. The considerations presented in this article are based on a comparative study entitled "Self-employment Activities Concerning Women and Minorities; Their Success and Failure in Relation to Citizenship Policies", conducted in six European countries and financed by the European Union. The reasons for women's exclusion from the labor market and for the fact that self-employment is an option for them are various. The first of the four reasons for women to have become self-employed is, not surprisingly, age. Some women were fired in their 50's and were told that they were too old to reenter the job market. Some also dreamed of getting a second chance in their professional life, a goal, which often turned out to be elusive. In both cases, self-employment appeared to have been an alternative strategy. Entrepreneurs have to overcome a lot of hurdles before they can establish their businesses. Most of the problems entrepreneurs face are the same for male and female new starters; for example, obtaining sufficient credit.

This article focuses on immigration and the underground economy in new receiving South European Countries. In all the countries of southern Europe, it is forbidden for citizens from a non-European country without a residence permit for working reasons to get a registered job, either as an employee or as a self-employed worker. By the mid-1990's, controls on land and sea frontiers were intensified in all countries. The results, however, were very poor everywhere, but in Spain, where new unauthorized entries have slowed down substantially since 1992, so that the 1996 regularization could be devoted only to migrants who had received a previous authorized status. In conclusion it could be said that a strategy capable of dealing with unauthorized immigration as well as a domestic underground economy should be even more complex than is usually forecast. In particular, it should be coupled with an important policy respecting the creation of regular jobs, more generous welfare provisions, and an advertising program to make public opinion aware of how useful the migrants' work is for the receiving society.

This article focuses on the transformation of Muslim self and the development of a new discourse on Europe. This article keeping the cited methodological discussion in mind will focus on the transformation of Islamic groups in Turkey in a historical context. Islamic studies' have always been something of a mystery to those outside the discipline. A Muslim in search of his own redemption may not appreciate democracy. As there is no essential relationship between democracy and paradise, a path to the personal and religious redemption may be found in the most tyrannical systems in the world. However, this flexibility does not necessarily refer to a structural contradiction between democracy and Islam. The point to be underlined here is the ordinary Muslim's perception of life and democracy. In Islamic salvation, like other Abrahamic traditions, rather than systemic arrangements, one's personal well-being and correctness seem to have more priority. The religious people in Turkey have usually been criticized because of being community centered. Accordingly; the centrality of Islamic text and community is claimed as a big handicap against the emergence of the Muslim individual.

The article focuses on the changes of ideological conceptions relating to communist system in Central and Eastern European countries. The aim of this article is to analyse the transformations in the social conceptions of democracy, the capitalist economy and socialist economy throughout the last few years, i.e., between the beginning of 1991 and June 1994. The appearance of equal rights for women and men as an element of the charge of the first factor should be treated as a broadening of the conviction on the need for equality of rights, and not as specific support for equalling out the chances for the representatives of both genders. The study has shown that the basis for building the concepts discussed here was to a large extent the negative evaluation of the relationships that existed in the period of the last governments before changing the political system and undertaking steps to transform into a free-market economy. This negative evaluation was the basic `negative source' of support and legitimation of the changes that occurred. Support for the changes did not so much have its source in the mechanisms and elements of the created system, as outside it, in the discarded system.

The article focuses on the future of professions in modern society. Professions are a mechanism of transition from the society of estates of early modern Europe to the functionally differentiated society of modernity. This transitional character may be the most important point in the history and sociology of the professions. The article outlines professions as a transitional mechanism, and then some aspects of the stability discontinuity of the form profession in modern society is discussed. Religious orders and fraternities, cities, universities and professions were candidates for being a corporation. All these types of systems were defined by being specialized on a functional domain and not by occupying a position in a hierarchy of societal ranks. Occupational groups were one possible type of corporation, especially the learned professions of law, medicine and theology, but also, even occupational groups in the crafts and trades. Professionalization means the existence of one occupational group defining the system in its identity and combining classical attributes of professions, such as: orientation to clients, possession of an intricate knowledge system, service ideals, claims to professional monopolies, etc.

This article discusses the nationhood as an inescapable fact of political life in Europe during the 19th century. Nationalism is a political ideology which claims that the world is divided into nations and only into nations; and that each individual belongs to a nation and only to one nation; nations may be defined by various characteristics, but crucial among them is their relationship to a particular territory and their claim to exercise political control over that territory in the name of the nation. The 1990s have clearly seen a major shift in the functions, perceptions and effects of nationalism in Europe. Whereas in the immediate postwar years, nationalism was for all practical purposes a kind of political pariah, a phenomenon that was regarded with maximum disfavor, and the emphasis was all on integration, federalism and the long vision for Europe. Because the devastation caused Nazism were widely attributed to nationalism, the entire area of thought concerning nationhood, national identities and nationalism was swept under the carpet and regarded as something that no longer concerned Europe which had embarked on a different project, that of integration.