Supranational Context Research Articles

TURKISH YOUTH IN THE EUROPEAN KNOWLEDGE ECONOMY

ABSTRACT Globalisation and Europeanisation are complementary and partly overlapping processes that identify the increasingly supranational context in which political and educational systems are operating. This article explores how Turkish youth in two German and English secondary schools relate to the European knowledge economy, and how their political identities are shaped by school dynamics (ethos, curriculum and peer cultures) and social class positioning.1 Drawing upon mainly qualitative data, the paper indicates that when the concept of Europe is allied to multiculturalism, there is the possibility of including minority ethnic groups like the Turkish Muslims and giving them the opportunity of relating to the European knowledge economy. If, however, Europe is understood as a white Christian concept, then Turkish teenagers will struggle to relate positively to Europe as a political identity. The article not only gives voice to young Turkish Muslims in Europe but also assesses the potential for Europe to be a common ground for all youth to negotiate their identities. 1An earlier version of this paper was presented to the European Conference on Educational Research (ECER) in Dublin, September 2005. The presentation was highlighted in the Times Educational Supplement, 16 September 2005 (No. 4652).

Incompatible Visions of Supra-Nationalism: National Identity in Turkey and the European Union

This essay looks at Turkish-EU relations with a specific focus on identity narratives from the Turkish point of view. It outlines Turkey's official national narrative in its Ottoman, Turkic, and Islamic supra-national contexts and compares it with the supranational framework of EU member states' national narratives. According to the official Turkish historiography, Turkey is not part of a European family of nations. Turkey's non-European post-imperial identity is found to be comparable to that of Britain.

Contested Meanings of Norms: A Research Framework

Constitutionalism is ‘a legal limitation on government’ and ‘an antithesis of arbitrary rule.’ It is this aspect of constitutionalism which the contributions to this special issue discuss with reference to various forms of governance beyond the state. It focuses on accommodating cultural diversity within the constitutional framework of one State (e.g. Canada) and on addressing recognition in a constitutional framework beyond the State (e.g. the European Union, the United Nations, or, the World Trade Organization). Once constitutional norms are dealt with outside their sociocultural context of origin, a potentially conflictive situation emerges based on de-linking two sets of social practices (i.e. cultural and organizational practices). The article argues that the potential for conflict caused by moving fundamental norms such as human rights, citizenship, sovereignty or the rule of law outside the bounded territory of states a decoupling of the customary from the organizational occurs, which creates a situation of enhanced contestedness. That is, through this transfer between contexts the meaning of norms becomes contested — as differently socialized individuals (politicians, civil servants, NGO activitis, parliamentarians or lawyers trained in different legal traditions) seek to interpret them. That is, while in supranational contexts actors may agree on the validity of a particular norm, say for example human rights, that agreement may not be recognised outside these limited negotiating contexts. Subsequently, associative connotations with normative meaning is likely to differ according to experience with norm-use. It is therefore important to ‘recover’ the hidden interrelation between cultural and organizational practices. Both contribute to the interpretation of meanings that are entailed in fundamental norms which are, in turn, constitutive for democratic governance beyond the state.

CHALLENGES TO EU POLITICAL INTEGRATION AND THE ROLE OF DEMOCRATIZATION1

The European Union project of political integration faces three main challenges. The first concerns the constitutional make-up of the European Union as a political system. Key here is the role of subsidiarity and the question of statehood. The second challenge has to do with the opportunity structures for participation in a multilevel and supra-national context of governance. The third challenge is that of political identity. In the contemporary political debate, the first of the above challenges is discussed almost exclusively in terms of institutional mechanisms, the third in terms of symbolic identification based on culture and language. Opportunity structures for participation are thought to matter as a means of legitimacy or, alternatively, in terms of political acceptability. The underlying assumption is that policy is mainly a matter of technocratic management and politics a question of identity. This is the key problem of the contemporary discourse regarding European integration and the EU democratic deficit.

Towards an integrated approach for sustainability labelling and certification

A European research project (EVG1-CT2000-00031) was started in 2000 with the aim of providing the European Union with an analytical framework for assessing ecologically, economically and socially responsible labelling and certification schemes, in order to present a conceptual and theoretical elaboration of the key issues in the international and supranational legal context. The present short paper is solely intended to present the main results of such a project, which consisted of five steps: a) Interdisciplinary framework for analysis; b) Analysis of the international legal, institutional and organisational framework for sustainability labelling and certification schemes; c) Global inventory of sustainability labelling and certification schemes, d) Six case studies focusing on specific schemes; e) The development of an analytical framework for assessing sustainability labelling and certification schemes. Preliminary definition of the problem: The adoption of the evolving concept of sustainable development has led social participants to adopt various schemes in relation to product and service labelling and certification. During the last years we have been witnessing a multiplicity of initiatives by NGOs, industry, governments and by partnerships between NGOs and industry. All these initiatives indicate diverse systems with diverse objectives in diverse sectors and diverging approaches and interpretations of sustainable development. The key challenge to the European Union is that all these diverging systems may give rise to trade barriers within the context of the EU’s internal market and within a North-North and a North-South context. This is specially so, since although these schemes are aimed at niche markets, opponents argue that these schemes may gradually become standard setting instruments and that the process of developing such labels is not fully transparent.

Comparing Jacques Delors and Jacques Santer as Presidents of the European Commission: Skill in Supranational Context

This article compares the leadership skills that Jacques Delors (1985–1995) and Jacques Santer (1995–1999) brought to the presidency of the European Commission. It analyses challenges common to all presidents of the Commission, not least a wide range of disagreement as to exactly what their leadership role should be. It then goes on to qualify the received wisdom that Delors and Santer were ‘strong’ and ‘weak’ presidents respectively. Instead it suggests that the two men had contrasting leadership skills—those of risk‐taker (Delors) and consolidator (Santer)—which, crucially for the development of the European Union in the 1980s and 1990s, were deployed sequentially.

Whither Nineteenth-Century American History?

12Historically Speaking April 2002 Daniel Walker Howe Whither Nineteenth-Century American History? How should 2 lst-century America view 19th-centuryAmerica? Every generation, we have come to expect, reinterprets its past in the light ofits own experience. During the past forty years we have witnessed dramatic changes in our discipline. Most notable has been the rise of the New Social History with all its ramifications , which include such varied and important developments as the use of gender as a categoryofanalysis, the redefinition ofWestern historyas die studyofa region rather dian a process, and a diorough transformation in the prevailing view of Reconstruction after the Civil War. In the excitement of die new, odier modes ofhistorical inquiry—political, diplomatic, economic, müitaryhistory—have been neglected or turned over to other disciplines . In presentingmyviews onwhere the study of19di-centuryAmerica might go next, I am talking primarily about what I believe historians should do, not trying to predict what diey will do. Actually, I feel reasonably sanguine about the prospects for 19th-century American historyin the comingyears, and die chances that my hopes for the discipline will be realized seem good. Unlike the early enthusiasts of the New Social History, I do not repudiate die previous generation's efforts or seek to jettison them. We can build upon dieir achievement and diat ofearlier generations . IfI could encapsulate myprescriptions for improving history into a single phrase, it would be: avoid arbitrarydivisions. One such unfortunate dichotomy is built into die very definition ofAmerican history, and thatis die splitbetween United States and all odierhistory . Fromjuniorhigh school on, students are taughthistoryin two separate compartments: American history and other (mainly European ) history. Mostcollege and universityhistory departments are bifurcated along diese linesin dieirpractical, everydayorganization. At die lower division level, die Americanists teach introductory courses in American history , while the odier colleagues teachWestern Civilization or World Civilization. U.S. history is seldom integrated into Western Civilization or World Civilization. Many practicing historians ofthe United States have relatively little training in other kinds ofhistory, and we tend to specialize more narrowlyman historians in other fields do. Too few of us try to keep up with work done in other areas ofhistory. Yetexperience has shown thatvery often the best work in American history has Thefinalartificial division I wish to see overcome is that between academic history andpopular history . been inspired by work done on odier countries , such as die guidance die FrenchAnnales School provided to die New Social History. American historians working in the United States compound dieirprovincial isolation by paying too little attention to die work done byhistorians ofthe United States outside die United States. For example, the wide-ranging and profound scholarship ofthe British historian William R. Brock on American history is scarcely known in the United States. Recent initiatives by the Organization of American Historians have undertaken to bridge diis divide, and I am pleased to see diat historians workingon the United States outside ofdie United States no longer feel quite so marginalized by dieir colleagues here. The organization ofthe historical profession around national identities is and should be headed for serious modification. For American historians, this means increasing attention to supranational contexts. Perhaps the most important of these at present is the Adantic World. David Brion Davis and Bernard Bailyn have taken a leading part in defining this field, but many odier historians have enriched die study ofeconomic, social, cultural, and diplomatic contacts and conflicts among the countries and continents bordering die Adantic. The Adantic slave trade, die Scottish-American Enlightenment, and die Anglo-American community ofhumanitarian reform are but three of the best known historical topics illuminated by the study of American history in an Atlantic context. Aldiough die studyofdie AdanticWorld has been carried outmore bycolonialists than by historians ofthe 19di century, in factwe have as much to learn from itas any. The 19th century was not the time ofAmerican isolation that it sometimes seems. Most economic and cultural developments ofdieVictorian age— whedierone is discussingdie industrial revolution , die relations between science and religion , the rise ofthe novel, or the women's suffrage movement—were transadantic in nature and cannot be understood in solely American terms. As globalization and migration continue to integrate the economies and cultures ofdie world...

Assessing the Constructive Potential of Union Citizenship - A Socio-Historical Perspective

In European integration studies citizenship policy has not received much attention as a practice. Instead much of the literature has predominantly focused on legal assessments of Union citizenship shedding light on the limitations of supranational citizenship - compared to the familiar statist concepts of citizenship. Legal approaches have thus often adopted a minimalist perspective on citizenship, establishing what Union citizenship is not leaving aside the constructive potential of Union citizenship. This paper seeks to demonstrate that a constructive perspective on the practice of citizenship facilitates valuable information about the creation of the institutionalized terms of citizenship over time. If it is true that Union citizenship is different from other types of citizenship, what is new about it? Constructive approaches suggest, that if we are to establish the dynamics which characterize Union citizenship analyses need to allow for a way of appreciating historical variability of context and contents of citizenship. To that end the major part of this paper seeks to develop a way of assessing the constructive potential of citizenship based on its newly institutionalized terms such as the shared values, objectives and regulations that have been established by citizenship policy over time. Beyond describing the emergence of EC/EU citizenship the paper promotes a systematic approach to reconstruct the policy in this supranational context. It is assumed that citizenship did not emerge out of the blue on the agenda of the Maastricht Intergovernmental Conference but that it is possible to identify agenda-setting steps in earlier stages of the policy process. If this assumption is correct, then a historical account could bring the various steps of citizenship policy which led to the history-making decision at Maastricht summit to the fore.

The Determination of a Group for Accounting Purposes in the UK, Poland, and the Czech Republic in a Supranational Context

A detailed cross-national and supranational comparison of the de jure requirements for the determination of a group for accounting purposes in the United Kingdom (UK), Poland, and the Czech Republic establishes differences at both levels. The analysis identifies cross-national differences that cannot be fully explained by non-equivalencies between relevant International Accounting Standards (IAS) and the European Commission (EC) 7th Directive on consolidated accounts. These differences are non-trivial and more numerous than the research literature suggests and provide evidence of the prolonged nature of the accounting reforms in economies in transition. In the absence of a theoretical framework for determining the content and sequence of accounting reform in transition, accounting change defaults to an iterative process of learning by doing.

European and North American Contexts for Cross-border Regionalism

SCOTT J. W. (1999) European and North American contexts for cross-border regionalism, Reg. Studies 33 , 605‐617. This paper discusses cross-border regionalism within the supranational contexts of the European Union and the developing North American Free Trade Area. Focusing on planning and regional development issues, cross-border regionalism as a new form of governance is investigated, based on a comparison of supranational integration logics, co-operation frameworks and instruments, and co-operation agendas and strategies. In both contexts, discrepancies between programmatic objectives and co-operation results are striking, eliciting questions as to the greater potential significance of cross-border regionalism. The paper argues that theories of political regulation and constructivist perspectives might help relate cross-border regionalism to broader economic, political and cultural variables, explaining how regionalist agendas and strategies emerge, and how they are a response to local interests and aspirations and to external economic and political pressures. SCOTT J. W. (1999) Le régionalisme transfrontalier: études de cas européennes et nord-américaines, Reg. Studies 33 , 605-617. Cet article discute du régionalisme transfrontalier à partir des études de cas supranationales, à savoir l'Union européenne et la zone de libre-échange nord-américaine (NAFTA). Portant sur des questions concernant la planification et l'aménagement du territoire, l'article examine le régionalisme transfrontalier en tant qu' un nouveau système de gouvernement, fondé sur une comparaison des logiques relatives à l'intégration supranationale, sur les cadres et les instruments de coopération, et sur les programmes et les stratégies de coopération. Dans les deux études de cas, les divergences entre les objectifs des programmes et les résultats de la coopération s'avèrent frappantes, d'où des questions quant à l'importance éventuelle accrue du régionalisme transfrontalier. Cet article affirme que les théories de la réglementation politique et les perspectives constructivistes pourraient aider à établir un rapport entre le régionalisme transfrontalier et les variables économiques, politiques, culturelles plus larges afin d'expliquer comment les programmes et les stratégies régionalistes se font jour, et jusqu'à quel point ils constituent une réponse aux intérêts et aux attentes locaux et aux contraintes économiques et politiques externes. SCOTT J. W. (1999) Europäische und nordamerikanische Rahmen für grenzüberschreitenden Regionalismus, Reg. Studies 33 , 605‐617. Dieser Aufsatz behandelt grenzüberschreitenden Regionalismus im überstaatlichen Rahmen der Europäischen Union und der sich entwickelnden nordamerikanischen Freihandelszone. Grenzüber schreitender Regionalismus als eine neue Regierungsform wird unter besonderer Berücksichtigung von Planungs-und Regionalentwicklungsfragen einer Untersuchung unterzogen, die sich auf einen Vergleich überstaatlicher Integrationsverfahren stützt, sowie auf Kooperationsrahmen und-instrumente und Kooperationsprogramme und-strategien. In beiden Rahmen sind die Diskrepanzen zwischen den erklärten Zielen der Programme und den Ergebnissen der Zusammenarbeit verblüffend, und stellen die weitere politische Signifikanz des grenzüberschreitenden Regionalismus in Frage. Der Aufsatz vertritt den Standpunkt, daß Theorien politischer Regelung und konstruktivistischer Perspektiven grenzüberschreitendem Regionalismus zu umfassenderen wirtschaftlichen, politischen und kulturellen Variablen in Beziehung setzen könnte, indem er erklärt, wie regionalistische Programme und Strategien formuliert werden, und inwiefern sie eine Antwort sowohl auf örtliche Interessen und Aspirationen wie auf wirtschaftlichen und politischen Druck von außen darstellen.

The Constructive Potential of Citizenship: building European union

English This article seeks to develop a way of assessing the constructive potential of citizenship based on its newly institutionalised terms such as the shared values, objectives and regulations that have been established by citizenship policy over time. It builds on a study of European citizenship policy making over two decades. Beyond describing the emergence of citizenship, it promotes a systematic approach to reconstructing the policy in this supranational context. It is assumed that citizenship did not emerge out of the blue on the agenda of the Maastricht Intergovernmental Conference which negotiated the Treaty of European Union in 1990–91, but that it is possible to identify agenda-setting steps in earlier stages of the policy process.

From Parliamentarism to Pluralism

Academic observers have long criticized the European Union for being plagued with a `democratic deficit', a critique that is based on the European parliamentary model of democracy. Although widely considered to be a valid foundation for democratic evaluation of the Union, the parliamentary model is irrelevant to the EU's supranational context and character. This irrelevance brings the mainstream democratic deficit literature into question. The American `pluralist' model, with its emphasis on societal interest groups and a fragmented governmental structure, provides a more appropriate foundation for democratic decision-making at the EU's supranational level. This framework explains recent contributions to the literature, and suggests a transition from the traditional democratic deficit critique to a new theoretical conception of democracy in the European Union.

La voie britannique vers une constitution européenne

Britain Steeps Towards a European Constitution. A process of constitutional change is under way in Great Britain which could have unexpected precedents for constitutional development in the European Union. This article shows how current constitutional expectations at the national level are a reaction to the centralist local government policies of the conservative governments preceding Tony Blair. There is a widespread impression among experts and citizens that the non-written constitution of the UK is under attack which has led to calls for the incorporation of a bill of rights in national law. Lobbying by citizens' organisations and local authorities in this constitutional process has given rise to a view of society based on participatory democracy. This social vision is the same as that being developed in a supranational context. Even in the EU there is a constirutional process under way.

The linguistic manifestations of primary and secondary functions of law in the national and supranational contexts

The linguistic manifestations of primary and secondary functions of law in the national and supranational contexts