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The growth of a societal base of xenophobia in Europe poses a challenge for the Muslim minorities to alter power relations in the society. In the light of the previous and the current research as well as established theoretical insights, this paper suggests that racial discourse now strategically allows a particular form of pluralism in society, a dominant pluralism, which occludes the possibility for the Muslims to be involved equally in the public and political life. The results of the qualitative analysis, based on interviews conducted with groups holding xenophobic ideas in Austria, Bulgaria and Italy, confirmed earlier observations on contemporary racism, which suggested incommensurability of Muslim minorities with the European culture; their non-assimilative adaptation to society; their expulsion if this adaptation fails and advocating populism. Space is a crucial aspect of exclusion in this discursive frame because minorities are excluded from public and communicative spaces. The discourse is supported by the conceptual sources of a dominant form of pluralism that are found in Michel Foucault and master–slave relationship in philosophy. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Based on research undertaken as part of the EU funded EPPIC project, this paper aims to update and elaborate on the relationship between drug use and offending behaviours by exploring variations within a cross-national sample of drug-experienced young people in touch with criminal justice systems. Adopting a trajectory-based approach, interviews were undertaken with 198 young people aged 15–25 in six European countries (Austria, Denmark, Germany, Italy, Poland, and UK). Data were analysed by applying the Bennett and Holloway categorization of the drugs-crime link, with a focus on the concept of social exclusion as developed by Seddon. Three main types of mechanisms (economic, pharmaceutical, and lifestyles) are used to interpret the data, showing how the relationship between drugs and offending can vary according to type of substances and over time. Furthermore, it can be associated with very different degrees of social exclusion and needs. The results suggest that while economic inequalities still play key roles in explaining drug use and offending, both behaviours can originate from a state of relative deprivation, resulting from the contradictions inherent in 'bulimic societies' that raise aspirations and desires while providing young people scarce opportunities for self-realisation and social recognition. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

At the population level, there is limited empirical evidence on the characteristics of individuals who were hospitalized because of Covid-19, the role of hospitalization in mortality risk, and how both evolved over time. Through the analysis of surveillance data for 7 million people in Austria, Germany, and Italy, we investigate: (1) the demographic characteristics and outcomes of individuals hospitalized because of Covid-19; and (2) the role of demographic risk factors and healthcare utilization (as measured by hospitalization) for the individual probability of dying because of Covid-19, in both cases comparing the period February to June 2020 with July 2020 to February 2021. We find that the demographic profile of individuals who were hospitalized or died because of Covid-19 is the same in both periods, except for a younger age profile for hospitalizations in the second period. Mortality differentials across countries result from the interaction of demographic risk factors and hospitalization at the individual level. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The COVID-19 pandemic highlighted global interdependencies, accompanied by widespread calls for worldwide cooperation against a virus that knows no borders, but responses were led largely separately by national governments. In this tension between aspiration and reality, people began to grapple with how their own lives were affected by the global nature of the pandemic. In this article, based on 493 qualitative interviews conducted between 2020 and 2021, we explore how people in Argentina, Austria, Bolivia, Ecuador, Ireland, Italy and Mexico experienced, coped with and navigated the global nature of the pandemic. In dialogue with debates about the parameters of the 'global' in global health, we focus on what we call people's everyday (de)bordering practices to examine how they negotiated (dis)connections between 'us' and 'them' during the pandemic. Our interviewees' reactions moved from national containment to an increasing focus on people's unequal socio-spatial situatedness. Eventually, they began to (de)border their lives beyond national lines of division and to describe a new normal: a growing awareness of global connectedness and a desire for global citizenship. This newfound sense of global interrelatedness could signal support for and encourage transnational political action in times of crises. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study investigates 'Little Europe', the rural, mountainous Italian region of the quadrilingual Valcanale, bordering Austria and Slovenia. The combined analysis of cultural landscape, linguistic landscape (LL) and symbolic ethnicity provides a new concept to examine multilingual regions. In this once Austrian valley, where German was the official language before WWI, Italian now dominates over minority languages, as exemplified by official signs. However, elements of the area's cultural and linguistic landscape reveal unexpected linguistic practices and visible, locatable artefacts of the Valcanale's ethnolinguistic heritage, which we assume to play a key role in the preservation of symbolic ethnicity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background. Dealing with work related stress is a declared priority of European Union mental health policy. A particularly under-researched sector in this regard is the community vocational support sector for people with mental health and intellectual disability problems. Aims. To report on the organisational profile of the vocational support and rehabilitation sector forpeople with mental health and intellectual disabilities as this relates to occupational stress, in five European countries (Austria, Ireland, Italy, Romania and UK). Methods. A sector profile questionnaire was distributed to representative organisations in five countries and a short face-to-face survey was conducted with 25 local managers (five from each country) to draw up a profile and facilitate a comparative description and analysis. Results. It was found that there is no national and European data collected at any level in this sector upon which to base effective policy interventions to combat occupational stress specific to professionals working in this sector. Results indicate that the sector in a number of the countries sampled does not have effective mechanisms in place to deal with occupational stress. Conclusion. Developing effective transnational occupational stress management policy that supports staff working in this sector and measuring its success is greatly impaired by a failure to effectively define the purpose of the sector and collect and collate national data to support it. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Historians generally depict the Italian peninsula after the Congress of Vienna as primarily under the influence of the Habsburg Empire. It is surprising, therefore, that some 150 years after the death of one of the most influential figures of the period, the Austrian Chancellor Clemens Wenzel Lothar Nepomuk Prince von Metternich (d. 1859), there is still no comprehensive study of his Italian policies, even though such a study would throw important new light on the final stage of Metternich's career at the Viennese Chancellery from 1830 to 1848. This paper addresses only a few months in this period, but it draws on the archives in Vienna, London, Moscow, Berlin, Munich, Brussels, Prague and Decin to show that, although Metternich's Austria played a critically important role in the Italian politics, its influence in the southern part of the peninsula was considerably lower than is generally assumed. In fact, as will be shown, in this region the conservative central European monarchy had to share its influence with Great Britain and France. Nor did the two liberal powers automatically regard this area as an exclusive sphere of Habsburg influence, as became evident a quarter a century after the Congress during the so-called Sulphur Crisis in 1840, when a dispute between Great Britain and the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies about the control over the production of the Sicilian sulphur led to a serious crisis that was finally solved by the mediation of France. As we shall see, Austria was excluded from the management of this crisis both because the British foreign Secretary, Henry John Temple Lord Palmerston, did not want to allow Metternich to play the role of arbitrator and because the Austrian influence over the court of Naples was in reality very weak. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The study examined the relationship between perception of COVID-19, travel risk perception and travel behaviour among travellers in the DACH region (Germany, Austria, Switzerland) – an important tourism market and, after Italy, the second region in Europe that was impacted by COVID-19. Data were collected at two points of time: the sample of the study in Period 1 (n = 1158) was collected at a critical point in time in the beginning of March 2020, when Italy was already massively affected by COVID-19; the sample of the study in Period 2 (n = 212) was collected two weeks later, when Europe has seen immense impacts and COVID-19 was declared a pandemic. Cluster analysis was performed and defined three unique clusters in both periods with distinctive characteristics. In addition, results revealed a significant increase in risk perception of COVID-19, travel risk perception and travel behaviour over a short period of time. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Born to a noble family in the Italian Trentino, Prati studied philosophy in Austria and Germany. Returning to Italy, he joined the carbonari, a network of revolutionary secret societies. Forced into exile in Switzerland, he worked as an educator alongside Pestalozzi. Following his expulsion from Switzerland, Prati sought refuge in Britain, becoming acquainted with Coleridge, the Benthamite utilitarians, and the Owenites. Following the July Revolution, Prati went to Paris, where he became a Saint-Simonian. Returning to Britain, he sought to convert the British to Saint-Simonism, before undertaking a series of other literary projects. He eventually returned to Italy, where he entered into correspondence with the Roman Catholic philosopher Antonio Rosmini. Prati left behind him a trail of letters, newspaper articles, pamphlets, and books, written in four different European languages. These have been hitherto neglected by scholars, and constitute the basis of the current article. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

School tracking is usually criticised as a mechanism for social and cultural reproduction. Evidence from the literature shows a significant effect of early tracking on social inequality. Some studies also show that early tracking has a negative effect on the probability of completing higher education. This study uses PISA 2009 data and the propensity score matching technique to compare the effect of academic and vocational tracks on students' educational expectations and whether the effect varies across different socio-economic status in Austria, a country with an early tracking system, and Italy, a country with a later tracking system. The results show that students in Italy have significantly higher educational expectations for academic tertiary degrees than students in Austria. However, the findings do not show any evidence that the effect of tracking on expectations varies by students' socio-economic status in either country. The findings suggest that a later tracking system is associated with higher probabilities of having academic educational expectations; however, this finding should be interpreted with caution as the higher education and vocational education systems are different between the two countries, as well as the valuation of tertiary degrees in the labour market. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

‘If governments allow themselves to be entirely bound to the decisions of their parliament, without protecting their own freedom to act, a break up of Europe would be a more probable outcome than deeper integration.’ The statement of the Italian Prime Minister and head of the so-called ‘governo tecnico words have to be seperated ’ is one remarkable instance for colliding visions of representation in EU member states affected by the financial crisis. It exposes an old problem of representation: that is, representation of the whole versus representation of the parts. National parliaments are called to endorse the European decisions of their governments and simultaneously to sell the sacrifices to their constituencies. This development is conducive to clashes between parliaments and governments. The collision occurs between governments representing the Euro and Europe and national parliaments representing national voters’ interests. Nevertheless in the period of analysis (2010–2012) the governments generally succeeded in commanding the majority needed to pass relevant legislation, whereby most intriguingly majorities were repeatedly formed by government and opposition parties. We are interested in the analysis of how this came about, how MPs argued over and negotiated the outcome. The hypothesis is twofold: First, we expect that despite reservations the majority consents because entrapped in a European discourse, building on arguments of how the rescue mechanisms are in the best European as well as national interests. Second, budget competence being the ‘crown jewel’ of parliaments these are anxious to keep control of decisions taken at the European level and have to be satisfied through side-payments or constitutional concessions strengthening their control function. To test our hypothesis we analysed parliamentary debates and negotiations of national parliaments in three member states: Germany, Italy and Austria. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Background. Occupational support workers in the mental healthcare sector are exposed to considerable occupational stress and have little access to stress management facilities. Aims. This article describes the process behind creating a web-based stress management intervention (SMI) for occupational support workers in the mental healthcare sector. Method. Mixed methods were used to inform the content of the web-based SMI, following MRC strategy for designing interventions and PRIMA-EF guidelines for best practice in SMI design. We conducted a literature review to ascertain the content of interventions that had been shown to be successful in reducing stress in mental healthcare populations. In addition, we conducted focus groups in order to assess specific stressors that individuals in the occupational support sector deemed to be important. Results. The literature review showed that a variety of methods had been successful for reducing occupational stress in the mental healthcare sector including: Relaxation and Cognitive Behavioural Therapy techniques, and skills training in; time management, problem-solving and communication. Individuals in the focus groups identified both personal and organisational stressors to be addressed in the intervention. Conclusions. This intervention was developed with reference to a design strategy, using input from the target population. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Three new troglobitic species of rhagidiid mites of the genus Troglocheles - two from northern Italy, Troglocheles quinquesolenidiata sp. nov. and T. lanai sp. nov., and T. christiani sp. nov. from Austria - are described. A key to adults of the known species of the genus Troglocheles Zacharda of the world is given. In these vicariant species the different apomorphic morphological traits, troglomorphisms, are discussed in aspects of allopatric speciation, climatic relict hypothesis and evolutionary processes of adaptation to specific niches and time of occupation of the subterranean habitat. All new taxa are authored by M. Zacharda only. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article offers information on several conferences related to sports for June 2010 to July 2011 including the 12th Spanish National Congress on Sport Psychology and 1st International Seminar on Sport Psychology in Madrid, Spain from June 23-26, 2010, the International Congress of Applied Psychology (ICAP) in Melbourne, Victoria from July 11 to 16, 2010 and the Asics Conference of Science and Medicine in Sport in Port Douglas, Queensland from November 4-6, 2010.

The article traces the foreign relations of 81 European regions by looking first at the constitutional competences which these regions enjoy within their nation-states. We discover that the regions in federal states have expanded their competences in two directions: conducting autonomous foreign activities and influencing national foreign policy. How far the Belgian regions, as well as the German and the Austrian Länder go in both directions depends very much on the scope of their competences in domestic politics. In non-federal states (France, GB, Italy), regionalisation brought rather more leeway to conduct a certain level of autonomous foreign activity than regional influence in national foreign policy. When we - in a second step - trace the strategies or directions of international activities which the regions pursue it becomes obvious that setting up an office in Brussels in order to adapt to political integration is very common among West European regions. In contrast, much more variety can be observed when examining the regions' strategies to adapt to fundamental economic and cultural transformations. Some European regions invest heavily in economic promotion offices and in transnational partnerships while others lack the motivation or ability to invest in these forms of foreign relations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

During World War I, on the front between the Austro-Hungarian Empire and the Kingdom of Italy, weak codes and ciphers and their usage greatly aided Austrian intelligence in breaking the most secret Italian messages. As an aid some ingenious mechanical devices were constructed which assisted the Austrian codebreakers in their work. Few rare and precious exemplars still exist in a museum and those are described and analyzed and shown in various figures within this article. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this article I argue that the radical right articulates a coherent ideology vis-à-vis immigration. Radical right populist parties assert that uncontrolled immigration increases crime, threatens security, precipitates the lost of cultural identity, removes jobs from locals and overstrains the welfare state. After focusing on the immigration ideology of the Freedom Party and the Lega Nord, I then examine whether the ideology of these two radical right populist parties have influenced immigration policy in Austria and in Italy. Highlighting the link between ideology and public policy, I argue that the Freedom Party and the Lega Nord have been instrumental in passing more restrictive immigration policy, limiting the flow of immigrants and the ability of non-EU-labour to live, work, and settle permanently in either Austria or Italy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The public debate around food confidence stimulated by food scares, the opening up of wider food markets and the introduction of GM foods provides an opportunity to analyse citizens' identification with their community sociologically, as it is reproduced through mundane practices. In order to do so, this article examines the GM food debate in Italy and the implications for food and agricultural policy of Austria's entry into the EU. Britain, with its highly industrialized agriculture and political commitment to open markets and new technologies, acts as a bench-mark. We distinguish between disembedded and embedded trust regimes; the former being predominant in freer markets and the latter a resource which can be mobilized in cases where remnants of 'traditional' agricultural production and supply can still be found (Italy and Austria). The increasing emphasis upon the regional origin of food, its traceability and organic production by key actors - the state, consumers' movements, retailers and marketing boards - we interpret as a confidence-building strategy which attempts to address deficits in disembedded trust resulting from widening chains of interdependency, crises such as BSE and the introduction of unfamiliar new technologies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Here, we report regarding the health status and medical support for patients suffering from endometrioisis in South Tyrol, which is a politically autonomous province in the north of Italy containing three different ethnic groups. The health service is administered largely by the autonomous regional government. Because of the establishment of a centre for reproductive medicine and the introduction of laparoscopy as a prime surgery method, the gynaecological department of the hospital in Bruneck developed into a reference centre for diagnosis and surgical treatment for endometriosis. The planned future social, health care and insurance developments on local and national level regarding this illness will be discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]