Students:2009/2010 student themes: Difference between revisions

'''[[List of possible sub-themes]] for the Global Risk Society theme'''

=== Jule Kathinka Plawitzki ===

There are lots of, more or less theoretical, definitions of globalization, for example: “Globalization (…) can be thought of as the widening, intensifying, speeding up, and growing impact of world-wide interconnectedness.” (Held, McGrew, Goldblatt & Perrat, 2008, p. 2). This phenomenon is accompanied by a wide range of positive as well as negative consequences for humanity in general, society and the environment. One example of an abstract description of the consequences for society was mainly coined by the socialist Ulrich Beck in the mid eighties: The risk-society. When the past was characterized by difficulties of a just distribution of wealth, today in this “second, reflexive modernity” (Gane, 2001, p. 83) the production of wealth comes with the production of risks: It is no longer only a distribution of wealth, as well as a distribution of risks (cf. Gane, 2001, p. 83). A second change related to the distribution of risks is the decreasing of the importance of borders: On the one hand the result of an event takes place in another part of the world and on the other hand a small local event can cause a global reaction (cf. Held et. al., 2008, p. 2). There are lots of economical, social and cultural examples for these phenomena. Because the following text will mainly focus on the enviromental issue, the given example is the climate change, facing Copenhagen, probably the most popular one right now. This risk is caused by the production of wealth and will, at least in the beginning, mainly effect the “undeveloped countries”, but furthermore as well the globalization in general (cf. Curtis, 2007). Further examples are decreasing biodiversity, pollution of atmosphere, oceans, soil etc.

Facing these complex environmental problems national states and multilateral contracts are important- but obviously not powerful enough. Held et. al. point out that there is no institution “able to amass sufficient political power, domestic support or international authority to do more than limit the worst excesses of some of these enviromental threats” (Held et. al., 2008, p. 9).  

That is why there is the discussion about a [[World Environment Organization]]. The following text will discuss the potential of such a global environmental governance, facing global environmental problems. Therefore first the idea of such an organization especially related to the UNEP will be presented, second arguments for and against this approach will be described and in the end a prospect of the future will be given.

===Corinna Lohrengel===

'''Globalisation – boon or bane?'''

According to J.Rosenau, “the era of national states has passed” (Mezřický 2006). The cause is in international organisations which control and reduce the power and sovereignty of each state. But not only states lost their independence. Also the market is kept under surveillance by institutions as WTO or IMF. The new possibility is to give the less developed countries the chance to reach the level of the industrial countries with the help of those. But where are the drawbacks?

There are many theories concerning globalisation. One of them is the ''global risk society theory'' by U.Beck. The idea of this theory is that ecological disasters reinforce the awareness of globalisation. That leads to “an awareness of shared fate” (Mezřický 2006) as well as to a more cosmopolitan society.  

The following exposition will analyse the new possibilities and limitations coming along with the process of globalisation. The focus will be on the less developed countries, but also individuals just as industrial countries will be taken into account. After reading, the reader will hopefully have an own opinion if globalisation is either boon or bane.  

This presents the world with wide ranging questions and challenges on which paths are to be taken in order to guarantee a secure and cheap energy supply. The following article will analyse some current trends, especially in the field of electricity production, and the question on how the growing demand will be met.

== Marenka Krasomil ==

Globalisation contains a lot of different fields. One part is the process of word wide interaction and linking up between people, companies and nations. The interaction increases especially in the field of politic, economy, culture, environment and communication. This interaction effects individuals in the same way as institutions ore societies.  

Big parts of the world population still do not have access to healthy water. This water shortage will highly increase in the next years and wound stay a regional problem of developing countries.

Water covers 75 % of the surface of the earth, but just 2,6 % of this water is freshwater and 0,6 % is usable, the rest is contained in the ice of glaciers or part of the eternal snow. The water deposit on earth is unchangeable but the regeneration cycle of water takes several of hundreds of years. Through water pollution and other reasons as highly usage of water in the agriculture sector and the unequal distribution of goods in general this water shortage will be one of the biggest problems to be solved in the next years, to secure human living.

With complex and costly methods attempts are made to compensate the approaching shortage. For example plans are made for river-linking in Spain, or the construction of pipelines from Canada to California.

An other problem is the privatisation of the public water supply, caused through financial straits. Private investors have the chance to control the water supply and gain power over the formation of price and this will cause the widen of the gap between rich and poor. The process of privatisation in the last years always was a process of loosing codetermination of the population too. The interests of big companies were more important than civil rights.

To solve the upcoming water problem the whole world has to work together to pursuit the goal of a world wide and equal water supply.  

=== Josef Nový ===

Quite a controversial topic frequently discussed in last years is the position of Islam and Islamists within the European society. The fact is that Europe has not yet been able to deal with this issue in a satisfactory manner and its importance is rising. The number of European inhabitants who profess this religion has been increasing rapidly. Public opinion remains divided on this trend. Considerable part of the citizens and even some intellectuals describe this situation in a very negative way, they find accepting these different people as spoiling our culture and speak about a danger or threat. With regard to the cultural heritage some voices talk about, professor Sami Zemni stresses the necessity of defining our European identity, thus what exactly is to be preserved, since a specific demarcating is very difficult. In the terms of their non-supporters, Islamists mostly deserve to be isolated (most of the Muslim immigrants live at the edges of cities in ghettos) because they are neither able nor willing to assimilate. The question is whether this lack of mutual understanding is entirely their fault. If they do not imitate our habits and mentality, they are often perceived as less developed intruders without any right to raise demands and should not be treated as equal. Because of this xenophobia and prejudice, immigrants feel deceived and come back to their roots disappointed, disgusted and less disposed to adapt than ever before. All the declared ideals of religious liberty, respect for all human beings etc. look like a shifty lie to them. That is why many academics speak of a great challenge for our democracy emphasizing the need of integration and tolerance. According to Savage: “Even though they (Muslims) may be third-generation citizens, they often are not viewed as fellow citizens by the general public but are still identified as foreigners and immigrants instead”. As we will see, the presence of Islamists in our continent is not new at all. What is new is just the fear spreading around, since their number is growing and the real integration is not progressing very well. To an uncommitted observer, it may seem as if democracy in our countries was a privilege for a certain group of chosen-ones. But then it would not be a democracy any more. On the grounds of several scholars' works I will try to outline where the problem is and the possible causes.

=== Julia Wolter ===

Introduction:

In this wiki the aspects of Globalization are analysed in relation to and in the disciplinary perspectives of sociology. To discuss the focussed theme the ideas of Zygmunt Baumann (Globalization: The Human Consequences, 1998), Ulrich Beck (What is Globalization?, 2000) and Anthony Giddens (Runaway World: How Globalization is reshaping our lives, 1999), summarized by Nicholas Gane in his article “Chasing the ‘Runaway World’: Politics of recent Globalization Theory”, which was published 2001, were critically disposed and were very useful to understand the different arguments this theme is implicating. Also the more shortening and assembling assignments of David Held, Anthony McGrew, David Goldblatt and Jonathan Perraton gave very good input, but in a wider perspective.  

The article “The future of the Welfare State and Democracy: the effects of Globalization from a European Perspective” (2007) from the poland Professor Marek Kwiek analysed the results from his colleagues in some cases –mostly by analysing Ulrich Beck- nearly 10 years later, which makes his conclusions very up to date and it was really refreshing to get through his work. Also the often cited aspects sorted out from Jürgen Habermas enriched the sociological discussion about the risk society and it seems to be a very fascinating work to dive deeply into the different opinions and their resulting predictions which are very often spelled out.  

Globalisation is a concept nowadays every single one of us has heard of. However, not many people deal with the subject of globalisation. The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) for instance refers to this mistakable term as “a process of closer economic integration of global markets“ ([1]) and although quite simple it can be regarded as a reasoned definition for an organisation, which deals primarily with economical issues. Nevertheless, this definition is too limited in order to stress the complexity and duality of the process of globalisation. The German Federal Ministry of Economics and Technology adds, that “this development is being driven forward by world-wide information networks and communication technologies“ ([2]), while the U.S. Department of Commerce focusses on the “potential to affect each other more quickly and to a higher degree than ever before“ (Globalization and Minority-owned Businesses in the United States: Assessment and Prospects (2003), p. 4). Hence, misunderstandings and information of dubious origin lead ([[http://cozpserver1n2.jinonice.cuni.cz/vcsewiki/index.php/User:Wehling]])

== Ilknur Yilmaz ==

The word “globalisation” is a term almost everybody has already heard of, but although quiet everybody has got an idea concerning the term globalisation, it is doubtful if everybody associates the same with this term. The reason for this is the fact that there is no standard definition and moreover the meaning if this term contains different areas of widespread different topics.   

In general the word globalisation describes a process of changes and developments and global integrations of different fields like economics, politics, environment, communication, technology, culture. It can be defined as a “process which embodies a transformation in the spatial organization of social relations and transactions, generating transcontinental flows and networks of activity, interaction and power” (Held, McGrew, Goldblatt & Perrat, 2008, p. 2). Moreover this process of changes contains the four interacting types of development, stretching, intensification, speeding up and growing extensity, intensity and velocity. Stretching means that activities in politics and economy cross frontiers and borders, secondly the intensification describes for example the growing dimension of interconnection and global trade. The speeding up relates to the faster global interactions concerning communication and transport while the growing extensity, intensity and velocity is referring to the disappearing boundaries between local and global matters (Held, McGrew, 2008, p. 2). These mentioned types of change can be seen in different fields of politics, economies, communication, society, culture and the environment, as mentioned before.

To give some examples, the base of globalisation and thus one of the mostly named reasons for globalisation, the technological progress can be mentioned. Concerning the economical globalisation the increase of global trade and more and more global corporations of different businesses can be indicated.  

The aspect most depressing seems to be the issue of environment. The increase of the global production and manufacturing causes an increase of the environmental pollution just as the ozone problem. Nevertheless these environmental problems are not to be solved by only one region or nation, but it is consequently a global matter, that is to be solved also in a global integration, what leads again to the integrating process of globalisation.  

The cultural aspect describes the blending, border-crossing and the spreading of different cultures. There are different chances and risk that can be discussed, therefore advantages and disadvantages of the globalisation for all these different areas concerning every single person as part of the social life and the global living. The different chances and risk concernin one of this fields (eventually social, culutural aspect)in detail will be discussed later in this text.

One form of using sustainable energy is the sun. Solar energy is one of the sustainable methods. There a more techniques like wind power or using water for getting energy, but the following text will be written about solar energy; what it is, how it works and what the advantages and disadvantages are. In the beginning it will describe in short form the technical way of this system, afterwards there will be a short term about some other forms of sustainable energy systems. Following the text will move on to the advantages and the disadvantages of using solar energy. And at the end there will be written a conclusion of this way of using sustainable energy.

Solar energy means the energy which is produced throw atomic fusion. Lately it is not known that the energy of the sun decreases, it stays constant. Parts of the energy gets reflected and other components of the energy gets absorbed and already changed into heat energy. And the rest gets throw, down to the earth. How much of the sun energy will get to earth depends on the humidity, the cloudiness and the length of the way the sunbeams needs to put back. The energy of the sun is five thousand times higher then the energy the mankind needs. This already is one point why using the energy of the sun. There will still be enough electricity and the limited capabilities of the earth won‘t be used.

Bibliography:

== Fabian Siggemann ==

Globalization: More or less than a blessing?

Globalization in its current speed overwhelms the adaptability of many people. In the western industrialized countries, many workers are facing unemployment or have been affected. For older workers, it is difficult to adapt to the new situation. A whole generation of workers thus falls into a deep crisis.  

In developing countries, many people feel that they can’t prosper.  

In those countries, although come to something, but this is unevenly distributed. There are extremely rich man on the other hand, many very poor people living in slums.  

In the coming years we will recognize where the globalization will lead us. Economic crisis will bring us to other ways that we previously believed not to go.

The notion of globalisation can be defined as a “process (...) which embodies a transformation in the spatial organization of social relations and transactions, generating transcontinental or interregional flows and networks of activity, interaction and power.” (Held, D./McGrew, A./Goldblatt, D./Perraton, J. (1999) What is Glabalisation?). So it affects nearly every aspect of human life and is ubiquitous. But globalisation is not narrowed to the spatial coherence. It’s also taking place in digital space which is getting more and more important.

Very important and new in global economy is the aspect that national states have less power over huge companies or even the whole market: “Since the authority of states is territorially bound, global markets can escape effective political regulation.” (Held, D./McGrew, A. (2006) Globalization). Governments of countries have to make out the framework conditions but companies can choose in which country they want to build a factory. So states try to attract companies with tax savings, subsidies or smooth laws. Those who don’t play along are falling by the wayside.  

*Helena Radoňová

== Jonas Schier ==

Already in the late fifties the first Federal Chancellor of Germany, Konrad Adenauer, has indicated most of the main challenges for societies nowadays: