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After overcoming the divergence from the general features of Western and international urban development caused by Germany's division, Berlin is catching up with and imitating almost all features of post-modern city formation constituted and demonstrated in the last two decades. Berlin is trying to make good its backwardness and to keep abreast of the metropolis in Europe and the world through a strategy aimed at a cultural re-evaluation of urban structure and architecture. The so-called Prussian style based on the Classicist tradition of the beginning of the 19th century is the historical and asthetic horizon. A small administrative and architectural elite pushing the redefinition of the social, political and asthetic meaning of public space ignores consciously the architectural reality in the Eastern and Western parts of the city. Crucial objectives are the cultural, political and economic recapturing of the traditional centre of Berlin profoundly marked by its socialist past and the protection of middle class interests.
In the rapidly growing literature on globalization, many authors have emphasized the apparent disembedding of social relations from their local-territorial preconditions. Such arguments neglect the relatively fixed and immobile forms of territorial organization upon which the current round of globalization is premised, such as urban-regional agglomerations and territorial states. Drawing on the work of David Harvey and Henri Lefebvre, this article argues that processes of reterritorialization - the reconfiguration of forms of terrritorial organization such as cities and states - must be viewed as an intrinsic moment of the current round of globalization. Globalization is conceived here as a reterritorialization of both socio-economic and political-institutional spaces that unfolds simultaneously upon multiple, superimposed geographical scales. The ongoing restructuring of contemporary urban spaces and state institutional-territorial structures must be viewed at once as presupposition, a medium and an outcome of this highly contested dynamic of global spatial restructuring. New theories and representations of the scaling of spatial practices are needed to grasp the rapidly changing territorial organization of world capitalism in the late 20th century.
J. Kiaupiene, a severe critic of Kosman’s ideas, presents a different view on Lithuanian history. Kosman's description of Lithuania's past is neither exact nor new. Scholars in Russia, Poland and Belorussia have interpreted Lithuania's history in very different ways. The reason for this variety is the difference of national interests. Kosman's view reflects Polish messianism and cultural hybris. But even among Lithuanian scholars there are conflicting views on this nation's history and cultural identity.
Lithuania and Poland had cooperated for centuries and even created a political union. The pacts had been very useful for both sides and consequently, the peoples and especially the Lithuanian elite was ready to absorb parts of the Polish culture. Lithuania broke with this tradition dating back to the Middle Ages only after the first division of Poland. During 1944- 1990, the so-called "Soviet period in Lithuania", two different processes could be observed: Russification and Lithuanification. Although dependent on Moscow, the leading Lithuanian politicians never forgot Lithuanian interests and supported the national conscience. After Lithuania gained independence in 1990, a huge wave of national enthusiasm swapped over the country. In the meantime, politicians came back to reality: The independence of Lithuania seems consolidated and the old tradition to re-establish the Polish-Lithuanian cooperation seems to be on the run since Aleksander Kwasniewski had visited Lithuania in January 1996.
Germany gained its unity, but the restoration of virtual national cohesion presents itself as a lasting problem. The rebuilding of common national identity forms one complex aspect. Particular West and East German political, social and cultural features still exist. The East Germans brought elements of a peculiar identity into the unity; as a repercussion of some setbacks in their position and of some actual inter-German distinctions, their peculiarities are not yet in retreat. They prolong their role as conventional feelings, in temporary behaviours as an answer to their actual stance, and to a certain extent also with traits staged and suggested by entrenched media interpretations about the presently hampered inter-German evolution.
The self-awareness of the subject is always dependent on interaction with others. Thus, self-awareness and social awareness are two sides of the same coin. The Self is not only to be won through social ties with others, but at the same time through distance from them. So long as this does not lead to isolation, there is a possibility of working out common values and identities. The construction of common identities is a process of social definition and construction. Materials for this are space-time, social, cultural, economic, and administrative-legal attributes which are transformed into identity-building attributes. Ethnic movements are often portrayed as social dramas. The processes of institution-building and nation-building never stop. Their supporters relate identity management to the central nation-state and consensus, possible minorities count on a strategy of differentiation and conflict instead.
The attitude of the East Germans to the Polish is burdened with the heritage of the past. After 1945 the composition of the population on both sides of the new border along the Oder and Neisse rivers changed drastically. On the eastern side the Germans were expelled and Polish people were settled. On the western side many expelled Germans found a new home. Despite the fact that the GDR signed the Oder-Neisse border treaty, the ruling communist party (SED) did not encourage contacts between the people living on both sides of Oder and Neisse in the following years. The policy of the SED towards the Polish communists during the whole period between 1946-1989 was characterised by arrogance and suspicion, at times falling back on old anti-Polish stereotypes. Especially in the 1980s, the GDR tried to prevent the influence of Solidarnosc and dissident ideas from entering the country. Despite this policy, substantial personal contacts developed, particularly in the 1970s when the border was fully opened. The authors argue that current German-Polish relations should make use of these experiences.
Since the end of the year 1989 Liberia has been ravaged by a bloody civil war. It has almost completely destroyed the state structure of Liberian society which was manipulated by military ruler Samuel Doe and a small elite with the ends of amassing wealth and retaining power during the decade of 1980 to 1989. The state and almost all political institutions were stripped of credibility and legitimacy. During the war it was easy for the warlords of the various factions and their mostly young supporters to seize power and the remaining resources of the country. They established a radical free market system with the help of internationally operating companies and banks, protecting it by terror. Nearly two thirds of the population have left their homes and now live as refugees abroad, in the capital Monrovia or in Buchanan, where remnants of state structure and a weak civil society survive under the protection of a regional intervention army (Ecomog). By discussing different sociological explanations, the author traces the origins of the civil war and of its extreme brutality.
Inhalt: Veränderte ostdeutsche Lebenswelt - Darstellung der Verschiebungen innerhalb des Erwerbsstatus in den neuen Bundesländern Erwerbsstatus in Ostdeutschland vor und nach staatlichen Eingriffen Die sektorale Verteilung der ostdeutschen Wirtschaft - Erfinder und Nachahmer? Die sektorale Verteilung der ostdeutschen Wirtschaft im Bundeslandvergleich - Exkurs: Der öffentliche Dienst Die neuen Berufe - Klassifizierung der ausgeübten Tätigkeiten in den tertiären Beschäftigungsbereichen - Entwicklungsdynamiken an ausgewählten Beispielen des Dienstleistungssektors - Geschlecht und Alter als Determinanten der Beschäftigung
Die vorliegende Untersuchung basiert auf einer Befragung von insgesamt 93 Unternehmen aus den Regionen Potsdam, Berlin und Chemnitz. Die Interviews wurden im Zeitraum Mai/Juni 1996 durchgeführt und dauerten ca. 1 Stunde. Im Mittelpunkt der Befragung standen die Themenbereiche: ökologische Betroffenheit, Einstellung zum Umweltschutz, Markt- und Wettbewerbsbedingungen des betrieblichen Umweltschutzes, Umfang und Intensität betrieblicher Maßnahmen zum Umweltschutz sowie Verhaltensbarrieren. Als Interviewpartner standen in der Mehrzahl der befragten Unternehmen die Geschäftsführer oder Umweltbeauftragte bzw. andere Personen in Führungspositionen zur Verfügung. Zum überwiegenden Teil waren die von uns befragten Unternehmer selbst Eigentümer der Unternehmung. Die befragten Unternehmen gehören überwiegend dem Konsumgütersektor (44%) an. Ein Drittel der Unternehmen stammt aus dem Investitionsgütersektor (33%). Der Dienstleistungssektor ist mit lediglich 23% in der Stichprobe vertreten. Insgesamt bildet die Stichprobe ein breites Branchenspektrum ab, wenn auch die Geschäftsbereiche Maschinenbau und Anlagen, bedingt durch ihre starke Präsenz im Raum Chemnitz, deutlich überrepräsentiert sind. Hinsichtlich der Beschäftigtenzahlen und Umsätze handelt es sich in der Befragung überwiegend um kleine und mittelständische Betriebe, wiewohl auch einige größere Unternehmen berücksichtigt wurden.