More than providing simply nutritive value, food in human societies can be endowed with great social weight. Aspects of any given food system inform, and are informed by, a variety of social, economic, religious, historical, ecological, cultural, and political processes. Moreover, food systems are often intentionally designed and executed to communicate key aspects of a consumer’s identity incl...

Nanotechnology has emerged as one of the dominating themes of international science policy in the last decade. I argue that, rather than considering this as the emergence of a new scientific field, nanotechnology is best thought of as a socio-political project that has arisen as a result of influences both from within science, and from the wider political, economic and cultural climate.

this paper presents pluralism as a historical process. the term pluralism frequently appears not only in the field of political philosophy but also in social sciences. in one sense, the growing literature is stimulating and enriching, nevertheless the abundance of material attempting to explain the various interpretations of pluralist theory can be convoluted and overwhelming. despite the const...

Life expectancy, especially in the older age groups, is growing enormously due to better social and medical care. According to published data on disabled people (1997), about 30 % of the total population (7,119,000) in Austria suffer from at least one physical disability. In this study, data from a micro census as well as a report from the Federal Ministry for Social Security and Generations is...

Introduction Developing countries which suffer from several technical and technological weaknesses and of under-developed socio-economic systems, also face energy shortages and inefficient energy systems. This situation gets worse if we take into account the high population growth rate in these countries. Such an enormous increase in population leads to a scramble for limited energy resources a...

Since the 1960s, Western Europe has been host to a large Turkish immigrant community. While many such communities shift to the majority language in the space of a few generations, language maintenance is remarkably successful in this community. This is partially because of continuing immigration, but it is also typical of a transnational identity that characterizes many bilingual communities in...

The rural communities in South Korea have faced serious challenges as the country has gradually opened the agricultural market and extended the conclusion of Free Trade Agreement with more and more countries. Moreover, due to the national socio-economic and political structures, South Korea has been undergoing the technological imbalance between rural and urban areas. In order to cope with thes...

AIM To describe the benefits and restrictions that emerged in health monitoring of the Northrhine-Westphalian migrant population. METHODS Analysis of official register data, description and classification of benefits and restrictions, and systematic derivation of implications of general validity. RESULTS The comparison of the native German and migrant populations revealed which health relev...

Three country studies on Great Britain (C. Peach), the Netherlands (S. Musterd/W. Ostendorf), and Sweden (R. Andersson) outline key features of ethnic residential segregation and discuss their relevance for the integration of migrants. For all three countries the degree of settlement concentration is considered moderate. Empirical results are presented on links between neighbourhood and, e. g.,...

The consequences of climate change are felt earlier and more intensely in the Arctic region than in the rest of the world. Climate change causes melting of the Arctic Ocean sea ice, which has profound implications for the Arctic ecosystem and the geopolitical position of the Arctic region. In this new situation, understanding of the interplay between environmental change and human activities is...