European Attitudes Research Articles

Salt Marsh Morning-glory (Ipomoea sagittata, Convolvulaceae)—An Amphi-Atlantic Species

Salt Marsh Morning-glory ( Ipomoea sagittata , Convolvulaceae)—An Amphi-Atlantic Species. The American species Ipomoea sagittata was reported in the southeastern United States in the 1720s by Englishman Mark Catesby and the Frenchman Pierre Francois Xavier de Charlevoix. Remarkably, in 1675, almost 50 years earlier, the same species had been collected and described from the Greek island of Zante in the Ionian Sea. This amphi-Atlantic distribution confounded scholars for the next several decades since they thought the two were distinct species. The history of discovery, the associations with people in both regions, and the current divergent European attitudes regarding these plants are discussed. Three possible scenarios (medicine, ornamental, seeds in ballast) are offered on the transport of the Salt Marsh Morning-glory from the New World to the Mediterranean.

European Identity and its Relationship to National and Ethnic Identities among Younger and Older Members of Ethnic Minority Groups

Abstract European Identity and its Relationship to National and Ethnic Identities among Younger and Older Members of Ethnic Minority Groups. European identity is neither a new phenomenon nor a new concept. Yet, after almost three decades of research, this area is characterized by a wide variety of concepts and little empirical evidence. Existing studies in the area propose homogeneous concepts of societies and often disregard European identity among ethnic minorities and non-citizens. This paper addresses the gap in the literature and analyses European identity among 12 minority groups living in Central and Eastern European (CEE) countries that have already become or might become EU members. The purpose of this study is to examine the choice of European identity and attitudes towards Europe in relation to other identities among respondents with an ethnic minority background. The paper addresses this question within the life-course perspective and examines differences in identity levels between the young and older cohorts of minority groups. For our analysis we have used a sample of 6800 members of ethnic minorities living in CEE (ENRIValues and Identities Survey). Our results indicate a stronger level of European orientation among minority young people in comparison to adults. Moreover, the study shows that while young minority cohorts manifest stronger levels of European identity than adults, their levels of national and ethnic identity are significantly lower. While adults consider their national identity to be more salient than European identity, young people give the two equal degrees of importance. At the same time, for both young people and adults, the results illustrate that European identity is compatible with both national and ethnic identities

The 2009 European Election in Italy: National or European?

In June 2009, European citizens voted in the European Parliamentary elections. Despite the relevance of the election, turnout across countries was particularly low. In Italy, too, abstention is growing and this paper aims to explain why. Traditionally, low turnout in European Parliamentary elections is explained by the fact that they are considered second-order elections and, thus, less important than national elections. According to this perspective, national factors are the main cause of lower turnout as compared to national elections. Thus, it is generally considered that low turnout is not related to citizens' support for the European Union or other European attitudes, such as European identity. In this article, this perspective is questioned and other individual factors are considered. In particular, a number of European attitudes are considered as independent variables together with national factors. The findings show that abstention in European Parliamentary elections in Italy is directly linked to citizens' disaffection with politics, rather than disaffection with government performance. Furthermore, attitudes toward the European Union integration project play a role only when the level of political involvement is high. Thus, European questions matter and turnout in European Parliamentary elections is driven not only by national-level factors, but also by citizens' satisfaction with the European Union and sense of European identity.

Race, Citizenship and Social Order in William Shakespeare’s Othello

This paper examines the issue of race in Shakespeare’s Othello. It attempts to show that race is a very important issue raised by Shakespeare in the play in his eagerness to highlight the racial problems confronting Europe in the seventeenth century. In this play he attempts to expose the racial prejudice that exists in the Venetian society in particular and Europe in general. He also attempts to subvert the European feelings of racial superiority against the blacks in particular and people of other races in general. He sets out to do this by making a black man (Othello) marry a white woman (Desdemona) of an aristocratic extraction against the will and wish of her father. This inter-racial marriage may not in reality be possible in the seventeenth century, but all the same Shakespeare contrived it to be so, possibly as a way of foregrounding future change in European attitudes toward other races. The paper also looks at how individual citizens of a city-state like Venice can constitute themselves as threats to its social well being, by allowing their personal interests to override the national ethos. In this regard the activities of Othello, Iago and Roderigo are examined.

The Whangaroa Incident, 16 July 1824 A European–Māori Encounter and Its Many Incarnations

ABSTRACTThis paper examines an incident in 1824 in which the Ngāti Pou of Whangaroa Harbour (New Zealand) boarded a European ship, holding its crew and three missionaries captive for two hours. During the 19th century the incident was retold approximately 30 times in Europe and America. This paper describes the original incident from primary sources and then discusses how the various incarnations of the story enabled different authors to draw diverse moral lessons. The changing narrative provides a window into various European attitudes towards the Indigenous peoples of New Zealand.

Muslims and <i>Chichimeca</i> in New Spain: The Debates over Just War and Slavery

The author explores the contested relationship between changing identities, legal patterns, and cultural practices along the northern frontier of New Spain. Arguments in favor of enslaving the Chichimeca must be understood in the context of a broader historical process concerning Christian-Muslim relations on the Iberian peninsula, specifically policies toward the Granadan Moriscos. Analyzing often overlooked references to Muslims in colonial documents concerning the status of Amerindians can provide fresh insight into the relationship between European attitudes toward non-Europeans that was articulated at both imperial administrative and local levels along the contested frontier.

Who Blames the Poor?

ABSTRACTThe article analyses the support for and determinants of individualistic explanations of poverty among Europeans. The analyses are conducted using multilevel logistic regression models. Findings suggest that the level of support for the individualistic explanation of poverty varies between European nations. Hence, the results contradict the analysis of Alesina and Glaeser (2004, Fighting Poverty in the US and Europe. A World of Difference), which gives us a very homogenous picture of European attitudes towards the poor. Among the determinants of poverty perceptions, welfare regime, short-term economic growth and social expenditures as well as individual-level demographic factors, perceived economic hardship, political affiliation and egalitarian values are associated with the individualistic attribution for poverty. In general, the findings hold critical implications for future research to develop further dynamic measurement of contextual level explanatory factors.

Russian citizenship: from empire to Soviet Union

Russian Citizenship is the first book to trace the Russian state's citizenship policy throughout its history. Focusing on the period from the mid-nineteenth century to the consolidation of Stalin's power in the 1930s, Eric Lohr considers whom the state counted among its citizens and whom it took pains to exclude. His research reveals that the Russian attitude toward citizenship was less xenophobic and isolationist and more similar to European attitudes than has been previously thought--until the drive toward autarky after 1914 eventually sealed the state off and set it apart. Drawing on untapped sources in the Russian police and foreign affairs archives, Lohr's research is grounded in case studies of immigration, emigration, naturalization, and loss of citizenship among individuals and groups, including Jews, Muslims, Germans, and other minority populations. Lohr explores how reform of citizenship laws in the 1860s encouraged foreigners to immigrate and conduct business in Russia. For the next half century, citizenship policy was driven by attempts to modernize Russia through intensifying its interaction with the outside world. But growing suspicion toward non-Russian minorities, particularly Jews, led to a reversal of this openness during the First World War and to a Soviet regime that deprived whole categories of inhabitants of their citizenship rights. Lohr sees these Soviet policies as dramatically divergent from longstanding Russian traditions and suggests that in order to understand the citizenship dilemmas Russia faces today--including how to manage an influx of Chinese laborers in Siberia--we must return to pre-Stalin history.

Droit comparé en santé de la reproduction : un droit à se reproduire ? Une vision européenne.

This article discusses the meaning of reproductive rights, and European attitudes to this issue, from both the ethical and legal standpoints. There is a difference in the international nomenclature between "reproductive rights "and a "right to reproduce", which translates in medical practice into a right to fertility treatment. Major national differences are outlined, particularly between France and the UK. Finally, the new phenomenon of cross-border reproductive care, a direct consequence of different national interpretations of reproductive rights, is discussed.

Freiheit, Fortschritt, und Verheißung: Blickwechsel zwischen Europa und Nordamerika seit der frühen Neuzeit

Freiheit, Fortschritt, und Verheißung: Blickwechsel zwischen Europa und Nordamerika seit der frühen Neuzeit

The 1857 Panic and the Fabrication of an Indian ‘Menace’ in Singapore

AbstractThis paper examines how local and transnational developments converged in 1857 to transform European attitudes towards Indian inhabitants in Singapore. Recognized in preceding years as useful to the security and the development of the colony, by late 1857, Indians in Singapore had come to be viewed by Europeans as a ‘menace’. That change in disposition was largely the product of factors extraneous to the actions of the local Indian inhabitants themselves. Besieged by news of multiple challenges to the British Empire, European nerves were rattled by perceived threats emanating from sections of the Asian populace in Singapore. In early 1857, a dispute between Tamil-Muslims and Europeans brought to the fore the latter's anxieties and prejudices. That episode was followed, in May, by news of the massive rebellion of native troops in India. The emerging distrust for Indians was exacerbated by public rumours and fanned by editorials and reports published in the local press. Perceptions of immediate danger from the colony of transported convicts, and the fear of an Indian conspiracy during Muharram, sparked a panic that would have ramifications on the position of Indians in Singapore and leave an imprint on the long term political development of the Straits Settlements.1

Myopathies constitutionnelles ou acquises chez l’enfant : les éléments d’orientation du diagnostic

Epidemiological research methods have been shown to be useful in determining factors that might predict commonly reported negative public attitudes toward stuttering. Previous research has suggested that stuttering attitudes of respondents from North America and Europe (i.e., “The West”), though characterized by stereotypes and potential stigma, are more positive than those from several other regions of the world. This inference assumes that public attitudes within various regions characterized by “The West” are similar.This study aimed to determine the extent to which public stuttering attitudes are similar or different both within regions of three different European countries and between or among five different European countries or similar geographic areas. It also aimed to compare these European attitudes to attitudes from 135 samples around the world using a standard measure.Using convenience sampling, 1111 adult respondents from eight different investigations completed the Public Opinion Survey of Human Attributes-Stuttering (POSHA-S) in the dominant language of each country or area. In Study I, the authors compared attitudes within three different regions of Bosnia & Herzegovina, Italy, and Norway. In Study II, the authors compared attitudes between combined samples from Bosnia & Herzegovina, Italy, and Norway (with additional respondents from Sweden), and two other samples, one from Germany and the other from Ireland and England.Attitudes of adults from the three samples within Bosnia & Herzegovina, Italy, and Norway were remarkably similar. By contrast, attitudes between the five different countries or area were quite dramatically different. Demographic variables on the POSHA-S did not predict the rank order of these between-country/area differences. Compared to the POSHA-S worldwide database, European attitudes ranged from less positive than average (i.e., Italians) to more positive than average (i.e., Norwegians and Swedes).Factors related to national identity appear to play a significant role in differences in public attitudes in Europe and should be explored in future research.

Explaining attitudes toward genetically modified foods in the European Union

This article examines the factors that condition citizens’ attitudes toward genetically modified (GM) foods by considering individual-level attitudes in 15 European Union member states. Previous research has shown that European attitudes toward GM foods are influenced by overall levels of scientific literacy, consumer exposure to media coverage, and broader socio-political preferences. This article seeks to expand on this literature by testing some of these explanations in a multivariate analysis. To test our propositions, we develop and estimate a logistic regression model using data derived from Eurobarometer surveys. While the sources of information that people value and their attitudes toward EU policy in related areas explain to some extent support for GM foods, our strongest finding confirms the importance of public understanding of science as a basis for support for this emerging technology.

The Vulnerability of Nations: Food Security in the Aftermath of World War II

Abstract The present essay focuses on the scientific approaches emerging from the war that attempted to identify key risks to food security. It shows how a number of scientists in the United States and Britain addressed the problem of human vulnerability in the immediate postwar years, prior to the implementation of the Marshall Plan. The goal of the essay is to highlight how wartime experiences informed notions of food security within international organizations for many decades to come. It encourages scholars to look beyond the East-West and to look in addition to the ways in which American attitudes stood in conflict with European (particularly British) ones in the immediate postwar years. Attitudes in the longlived organization, FAO, were deeply influenced by European attitudes, which in turn were fundamentally shaped by wartime experience, in ways that often stood in stark contrast with American views. We can see these differences in sharp relief when experts debated diet, crops, and the overall approach to managing global food insecurity in the long term.

Assessing Human Rights in Russia: Not to Miss the Forest for the Trees A Response to Preclik, Schönfeld and Hallinan

AbstractLooking fourteen years into the past, Russia has made enormous progress in reforming its legal system in order to ensure human-rights protection under the Convention. This process of reform is still ongoing. The causes of the existing difficulties in the area of human-rights protection are better explained in terms of difficulties with implementation of standards in the Russian legal system rather than any antagonism between Russian and European human-rights attitudes. There are several groups of violations of the ECHR that need to be analyzed separately because of the different nature of the problems. Some of them reflect structural and practical problems of the Russian legal system immanent in a transition period of reforms and of the dismantling of old regulations and attitudes; others may be accounted for by the lack of proper (efficient, adequate and balanced) measures and solutions to address the numerous new challenges that Russian society is facing after the collapse of the Soviet Union. There are many examples that provide evidence that Russia is trying to amend its legal and political system to meet the requirements of the Convention.

Writing for the Jews, Writing for the Goyim: Twentieth-Century Jewish Adaptations of “The Merchant of Venice”

This article traces the evolution of mid-twentieth-century Jewish adaptations of Shakespeare's comedy Merchant of Venice, which aimed to counter the perceived antisemitism of the play that had pervaded European attitudes toward Jews. Through close comparative readings, I attempt to tease out the disparities between successive and at times overlapping versions, and I suggest some historical and cultural causes of these differences. The adaptations, which all date to the crucial years 1943-48, shift between genres, languages, and places of origin. They are informed by, and reflect, the events and historical processes of the period.

Social inclusion affects elderly suicide mortality

National attitudes towards the elderly and their association with elderly suicide mortality in 26 European countries were assessed, and Eastern and Western European countries compared. For each country, mean age-adjusted, gender-specific elderly suicide rates in the last five years for which data had been available were obtained from the WHO European Mortality Database. Questions about citizens' attitudes towards the elderly were taken from the European Social Survey. Correlations between attitudes and suicide rates were analyzed using Pearson's test. Differences between mean scores for Western and Eastern European attitudes were calculated, and data on labor-market exit ages were obtained from the EUROSTAT database. Perception of the elderly as having higher status, recognition of their economic contribution and higher moral standards, and friendly feelings towards and admiration of them are inversely correlated with suicide mortality. Suicide rates are lower in countries where the elderly live with their families more often. Elderly suicide mortality and labor-market exit age are inversely correlated. In Eastern European countries, elderly people's status and economic contribution are seen as less important. Western Europeans regard the elderly with more admiration, consider them more friendly and more often have elderly relatives in the family. The data also show gender differences. Society's attitudes influence elderly suicide mortality; attitudes towards the elderly are more favorable among Western European citizens; and extended labor-market inclusion of the elderly is a suicide-protective factor.

P.7.e.002 European professionals' attitudes and practices in the management of ADHD

P.7.e.002 European professionals' attitudes and practices in the management of ADHD

Engines of the Imagination: Renaissance Culture and the Rise of the Machine (review)

Reviewed by: Engines of the Imagination: Renaissance Culture and the Rise of the Machine Andrew Fleck Jonathan Sawday, Engines of the Imagination: Renaissance Culture and the Rise of the Machine. London: Routledge, 2007. xxii + 402 pp. index. 30 b/w illus. Optimism about the power of ingenuity to allow human beings eventually to overcome many limitations of the material world might seem to be a modern phenomenon. Renaissance humanists' hopes about human perfectibility, however, gave impetus to many European technological advances of the fifteenth, sixteenth, and seventeenth centuries, important predecessors for European industrialization typically dated to a later period. In his provocative Engines of the Imagination, Jonathan Sawday offers brilliant insights into early modern attitudes toward technology. He uncovers and explores a paradox at the center of European understandings of the purpose of machines: human beings may develop technology to supplement their imperfect condition in an approximation of their Edenic perfection, but in doing so they may run the risk of sinfully transgressing the limitations imposed upon them as a consequence of original sin. The period thus encodes machines doubly, as signs of fallen humanity's weakness and as divinely merciful means of repairing the deficit. The book includes fascinating readings of Leonardo da Vinci, Agricola, Montaigne, and Francis Bacon, among a vast array of others, contributing an important intervention in the history of science. Unfortunately for the readers of this journal, only a small portion of the book treats matters of the Restoration, and these chapters are slightly less compelling than the rest of the study. But Sawday's bold approach to the questions he raises about European attitudes to the natural and the constructed environments and the technology that fuses the two offers an important foundation and fascinating background for thinking about engines of the Restoration imagination. In five chapters on pre-Restoration topics, Sawday isolates key facets of Renaissance Europeans' fascination with machines, offering dazzling readings that focus on Montaigne's Essais, a painting of a woman at a spinning wheel (Las Hilanderas) by Velasquez, portions of Edmund Spenser, and scenes from William Shakespeare. Beginning with primarily Continental texts, Sawday explores da Vinci's, Montaigne's, [End Page 57] and the Italian architect Domenico Fontana's fascination with machinery's ability to magnify power. He mentions in passing a theme that will recur at various points in his study: that for these men such engines acquire symbolic significance for the Renaissance state. He turns next to the importance of the print revolution for Renaissance mechanical thinking, focusing in particular on "machine books"—texts devoted to complex and typically unique engines such as those found in Agricola's illustrated De Re Metallica, one of scores of such tomes—arguing that such books contributed to the process by which "labor or work was itself being redefined by machinery" (88). In a chapter devoted to the gendered component of Renaissance technology, Sawday explores the imaginative connection of women and wheels, focusing particularly on the spinning wheel, but looking as well at Fortuna and her wheel. He then proceeds to a lively reading of Renaissance texts concerned with the oxymoronic possibility of mechanical life. He considers the many idiosyncratic Renaissance automata as part of the period's poetic investigations into the boundaries of art and nature. As mechanistic thinking took deeper root in the Renaissance imagination, he argues in his next chapter, Francis Bacon and others reoriented attitudes toward technology, moving from the enhancement of human perception to the treatment of bodies (and the universe) as merely complex machines whose operations—even the act of intercourse—submit to a dull regularity of process. In the final pages of his chapter on "Reasoning Engines," Sawday explores a distrust of mechanistic thinking in John Wilmot's (Rochester's) verse. This final fifth of his study may be most pertinent to scholars of the Restoration. The final two chapters of Engines of the Imagination treat John Milton and Andrew Marvell and the place of machinery in their poetry. Contrasting Milton's Paradise Lost to the idealism of the Royal Society, Sawday argues that the poet reveals a skepticism about ingenuity, aligning invention and industry with the sinister figures of the epic and the consequences...

Declining might in the limelight: European responses to new regional powers

The article analyses the responses of three established European powers, France, Britain and Germany, to a world of rising regional hegemons. It argues that Europe as a region remains unique as it consists of three regional powers of similar material and ideational power resources and is the most institutionalised region worldwide. The current transformation of world power configurations, debated in competing visions of global order, challenges Europe's central place. Facing gradual marginalisation, the foreign policy adaptations of Germany, Britain and France have been insufficient and remarkably static. Old foreign policy identities still play a significant part in European self-perceptions. However, views are gradually changing as the world becomes more heterogeneous. Among the emerging regional powers, China, India and Russia are perceived as decisive global players. Other rising powers are viewed as mainly regional and, hence, more manageable actors. Finally, the article calls for a general shift in European attitudes towards the non-European world and argues that European powers should overcome traditional Euro-centric world views. Rather, they should start to engage with rising powers in a serious discourse over common global responsibilities.