A basin-wide Black Sea Mnemiopsis leidyi database

A specific marine biological data management tool, the Black Sea Mnemiopsis leidyi database system was created within the European Commission 6th framework Black Sea SCENE project for the Black Sea region and is now being supported by the Permanent Secretariat of the Black Sea Commission. The core team of scientists studying M. leidyi in the Black Sea was brought together and all their available M. leidyi data and metadata were loaded into the common database. This works on the Internet and has a simple user interface. It gives Black Sea scientists the option to load all their corresponding data on the database and to use it as an effective tool to work both with M. leidyi and, in future, with other gelatinous organisms’ data, including another invasive ctenophore Beroe ovata. All loaded metadata and historical data are available to the entire scientific community. More recent data are available to the team members and with some restrictions to other scientists.JRC.H.5-Land Resources Managemen

‘Blessed’ Science, ‘Rationalized’ Saint Veneration, and Ambiguous Modernization: The Nurcus in Germany

Tezcan L. ‘Blessed’ Science, ‘Rationalized’ Saint Veneration, and Ambiguous Modernization: The Nurcus in Germany. In: Nökel S, Tezcan L, eds. Islam and the new Europe: continuities, changes, confrontations. Yearbook of the sociology of Islam. Vol 6. Bielefeld: Transcript; 2005: 283-312

Islamic issues in studies on Muslims in Germany

Tezcan L. Das Islamische in den Studien zu Muslimen in Deutschland. Literaturbericht. Zeitschrift für Soziologie. 2003;32(3):237-261.Due to its international importance Islam has become a very desired object of the scholarly studies. The current interest in Islam reminds us of El Dorado. This article aims at providing orientation in the jungle of fieldwork-based studies regarding the subject of Islam/Muslims in Germany. One crucial point in the scholarly work is the attempt to position Islam in relation to modernity. The question is quickly translated into politics: are Muslims able and willing to be integrated? This report on the academic literature wants, for one, to give an overview of the main approaches. At the same time, some empirical results will be presented. In addition, attention is directed to problems with this research. The difficulties are mostly based on interpretations that too quickly attempt to view Muslims in terms of theories of modernization and individualization. At the same time, this indicates that the cultural background of the researchers may have implications of its own for the interpretations suggested. The author pleads finally to consider the contemporary effects of modernity and the obstinacy of religious patterns in a common framework without reducing either to the other