Contemporary New Age transformation in Taiwan: A sociological study of a new religious movement

This article explores commentary in UK newspapers which, while sympathetic to the notion of Turkish EU membership, still deploys a discourse that remains exclusionary where assumptions of Turkey's intrinsic cultural and civilisational ‘Europeanness’ are concerned. Turkish membership is advocated as a sort of strategic supplement to a historical ontology of ‘Europe’ proceeding from a grand narrative of Latin Christendom – Reformation – Enlightenment – Modernity (adorned with the selective appropriation of Classical antiquity), superimposed upon a wider historico-cultural and religious milieu. Membership is supported on the basis that Turkey is an exceptional case, considered on the instrumental grounds of guaranteeing Turkish secular democracy within the context of EU institutions while presenting an ‘example’ to the wider Islamic ‘world’. Support for membership does not proceed from assumptions that Turkey may possess an existing, intrinsic, historically locatable European ‘right’, implied by the extension of the EU into Ottoman successor states in south-eastern Europe as well as Cyprus. The potential for the deployment of this latter discourse to support Turkish membership from an assumed a priori cultural and historical European belonging is explored.     

National Attachment and Patriotism in a European Nation: A British Study

This study explores identification with one's national group using two distinct but interrelated concepts: identity content and relational orientation. Theoretical distinctions were drawn between two forms of identity content: traditional-cultural and civic, and between two forms of relational orientation: blind and constructive. The multidimensionality of both identity content and relational orientation and the relationships amongst these components were examined in a British sample: positive relationships were hypothesized between blind orientation and traditional-cultural content and between constructive orientation and civic content. Principal components analyses confirmed the hypothesized factor structures, and the resulting scales were highly reliable. Relationships amongst the resulting factors were explored using regression analyses. The overall results indicate support for the orthogonality of both the two orientation dimensions and the two content dimensions. Moreover, the hypothesized relationships between forms of orientation and content were largely supported. In conclusion, this study highlights the importance of looking at the relationship between identity content and relational orientation. The implications of these observations for theory and research are discussed with reference to using categories to "group" participants in research, citizenship education, and more general attitudes towards social change.     

欧洲妇女健康战略行动计划及启示

妇女健康一直是国际和欧洲组织的优先关注领域。为进一步改善欧洲妇女的健康状况,世界卫生组织欧洲区办事处组织编制了《欧洲妇女健康战略行动计划》。简要介绍了该战略行动计划的制定背景及主要内容,并总结其特点,为我国制定妇女健康战略行动计划提供一些启示。     

The development and dissemination of Council of Europe policy on education about religions and non-religious convictions

This article, written from an insider perspective, and in a personal capacity (the author has been involved with the Council of Europe’s work on religion and education since its inception in 2002), gives an account of the developing interest in the study of religions (and latterly non-religious convictions) in publicly funded schools by the Council of Europe, one of several international institutions to have focused on the place of religions and beliefs in public education in recent years. Particular attention is given to the 2008 Recommendation from the Committee of Ministers (the Foreign Ministers of the 47 member states of the Council of Europe) on teaching about religions and non-religious convictions in schools, and to current work on its dissemination. In 2011, the Council of Europe and the European Wergeland Centre set up a joint committee to produce a document (Policy and Practice for Teaching about Religions and Non-Religious Worldviews in Intercultural Education) to assist policymakers, schools and teacher trainers in implementing the Recommendation, adapted to different contexts across Europe. The present author has written the text on behalf of the joint committee. Signposts was published by Council of Europe Publishing in September 2014 (Jackson, R. 2014. Signposts: Policy and practice for teaching about religions and non-religious worldviews in intercultural education. Strasbourg: Council of Europe Publishing.). The article details the Council of Europe’s approach, includes an explanation of the process of consultation with various stakeholders, and summarises key issues to be addressed in the document. The general approach covered enables member states to increase competence of students to engage in the field of religions and beliefs, in ways that potentially contribute to various aspects of their personal and social development. It is hoped that the document will stimulate and contribute to constructive discussion, policymaking, teacher training, classroom practice and community links in different parts of Europe, and perhaps beyond.     

The French New Right: multiculturalism of the right and the recognition/exclusionism syndrome

This article studies a seeming paradox – the adoption of multi-culturalist strategies and arguments by the neo-fascist European New Right. Why would neo-fascists adopt such a theoretical framework, and why has multiculturalism failed in Europe? In this article, I argue that the European New Right employs a multiculturalism framework, which I define as a recognition/exclusionist one, in order to create a new discourse of ‘legitimate exclusionism’ of non-authentic European immigrants. In short, multiculturalism, by celebrating differences between ethnic and cultural groups, inherently admits that there exist such differences between individuals. This allows neo-fascists to distinguish between themselves and ‘others’, immigrants not sharing their cultural heritage, and to claim the need for protecting such a cultural heritage through exclusion of others. As this article attempts to claim, immigrants will not benefit from multiculturalism, but the right of the radical integralist in its different versions.     

The Job Demand-Control-Social Support Model and Wellness/Health Outcomes: A European Study

The EUROTEACH study which is reported here, comprised 2796 secondary school teachers from 13 European countries. The study firstly aimed at testing an extended Job Demand-Control-Social support (JDCS) model and checking its gender specificity. While this study failed to provide evidence for the buffer hypothesis derived from the JDCS-model, the strain hypothesis was mostly supported. Additional job conditions tested in this study proved to be important predictors of the outcome variables (emotional exhaustion, depersonalisation, personal accomplishment, somatic complaints and job satisfaction) and standard of living indicators also added explained variance in these outcomes. The study proved that the JDCS model cannot be called a male model. Secondly the study looked at the comparability of 3 European regions (South, West, East). Apart from important regional differences in job conditions, standard of living indicators and outcomes, the most important finding is that the JDCS model explains most variance in outcome variables in Western Europe, and the least in Eastern Europe, and thus seems to suffer from a Western bias.     

What is it all about? Some reflections on Wouter Hanegraaff's Esotericism and the Academy

In reviewing the growth of the field of study of ‘Western esotericism,’ this article compares the attempts at delineating its intellectual and religious genealogy by von Stuckrad (Locations of Knowledge in Medieval and Early Modern Europe. Leiden: Brill, 2010) and Hanegraaff (Esotericism and the Academy: Rejected Knowledge in Western Culture. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2012). The essay challenges the thesis that ‘Western esotericism’ was a decisive element in the formation of modern Western identities and some other elements of the reconstruction of the origin of the field delineated by Hanegraaff.     

Health and human services for persons who stutter and education of logopedists in East-European countries

The International Association of Logopedics and Phoniatrics (IALP) assessed the therapy status of fluency disorders, service opportunities, and education of logopedists (speech-language pathologists) with a mail survey in Eastern Europe. Information was collected on the following aspects: incidence, prevalence, availability of information, non-therapeutic support for persons who stutter (PWS), providers of diagnostics and therapy, cooperating professionals, therapy approaches, forms, goals, financing, early detection and prevention, training of professionals, specialization in stuttering therapy, needs for improving the situation of PWS, and problems which hinder better care. Stuttering therapy for children is available in many countries and is frequently provided by the educational system. Therapy for adults is provided best by the health services but is not satisfactorily available everywhere. Modern therapeutic approaches coexist with obsolete ones. Lack of resources, awareness, entitlement, and assessment of therapy effectiveness are pervasive problems.

Educational objectives: Readers will be able to describe and evaluate: (1) the therapy status of fluency disorders and service opportunities in various East-European countries; (2) the training of logopedists (speech-language pathologists); (3) specialization in stuttering therapy; and (4) the organizational services for PWS within the health and human service systems.     

Secular Tolerance? Anti‐Muslim Sentiment in Western Europe

The literature about secularization proposes two distinct explanations of anti‐Muslim sentiment in secularized societies. The first theory understands it in terms of religious competition between Muslims and the remaining minority of orthodox Protestants; the second understands it as resulting from value conflicts between Muslims and the nonreligious majority. The two theories are tested by means of a multilevel analysis of the European Values Study 2008. Our findings indicate that, although more secularized countries are on average more tolerant towards Muslims and Islam, strongest anti‐Muslim attitudes are nonetheless found among the nonreligious in these countries.