How to evaluate German unification?

The title of this contribution is a question with a double meaning: On the one hand it refers to the method, on the other hand it refers to the results of German unification. After a preview of recent evaluations we discuss comparisons of the Federal Republic and the GDR from the 1960s, 1970s, 1980s. Five asymmetries between the two German states are delineated: Size and population, economic strength, migration, travel and mass-communication, massexit and mass protest. Next we resume our theses of a stabilizing transformation, East German counter arguments and the most recent research results on living-conditions, political culture, convergences and divergences. --

Social reporting in the 1970s and 1990s

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Pattern-driven Process Design

Prozess , Simulation, Muste

Modernization theory - and the non-western world

In this paper I want to deal with three topics: first, with the development and the ups and downs of modernization theory and its treatment of the non-Western world (I); secondly, with some basic social structure distributions and trends of human development for selected societies, including Islamic countries (II); thirdly, with modernization and modernity in the non-Western world, especially in the Arab world (III). This third part is based only on my reading of some works by area specialists and specialists on Islam; therefore, it barely represents more than the average layperson's current level of information today in Western Europe

How to evaluate German unification?

The title of this contribution is a question with a double meaning: On the one hand it refers to the method, on the other hand it refers to the results of German unification. After a preview of recent evaluations we discuss comparisons of the Federal Republic and the GDR from the 1960s, 1970s, 1980s. Five asymmetries between the two German states are delineated: Size and population, economic strength, migration, travel and mass-communication, massexit and mass protest. Next we resume our theses of a stabilizing transformation, East German counter arguments and the most recent research results on living-conditions, political culture, convergences and divergences

Ecocriticism, Cultural Ecology, and Literary Studies

Key words: German ecocriticism, cultural ecology, Peter Finke, Gregory Bateson, cultural ecosystem, cultural self-renewal, Turkish ecocriticism, discursive representation Ecocriticism is gaining increasing international recognition as a field of research that opens up new perspectives reaffirming the relevance and responsibility of the humanities, in an age of pressing social and political problems seemingly incapable of purely technological and economic solutions. Many of its most significant practitioners in Germany subscribe to the theory of Cultural Ecology. Drawing on the ideas of Gregory Bateson, Peter Finke and others, Cultural Ecology presents a new framework for understanding the particular contribution of literature and art to our general social knowledge, including knowledge about our relationship with the natural environment.  Palabras clave: ecocrítica alemana, ecología cultural, Peter Finke, Gregory Bateson, ecosistema cultural, renacimiento cultural, ecocrítica turca, representación discursiva La ecocrítica está obteniendo cada vez más reconocimiento internacional como un campo de investigación que establece nuevas perspectivas que reafirman la relevancia y la responsabilidad de las humanidades en una era de problemas políticos y sociales urgentes que, aparentemente, no encuentran solución puramente tecnológica ni económica. Muchos de sus profesionales más importantes en Alemania se adhieren a la teoría de la Ecología Cultural. Valiéndose de las ideas de Gregory Bateson, Peter Finke y otros, se ha desarrollado un nuevo marco para entender la contribución particular de la literatura y del arte a nuestro conocimiento social general, incluyendo el conocimiento sobre nuestra relación con el entorno natural