The European Union and its Northern Frontier : EUropean Geopolitics and its Arctic Context

The present study explores EUropean geopolitical agency in a distinct spatio-temporal context: the Arctic region of the early 21st century. Thus, it provides an in-depth analysis of the European Union’s process to construct EUropean legitimacy and credibility in its ‘Northern Neighbourhood’ between 2008 and 2014. Embedded in a conceptual and methodological framework using critical geopolitics, this study assesses the strategic policy reasoning of the EU and the implicit geopolitical discourses that guide and determine a particular line of argumentation so as to claim a ‘legitimate’ role in the Arctic and accordingly construct a distinct ‘EUropean Arctic space’. In doing so, it establishes a clearer picture on the (narrated) regional interests of the EU and the related developed policy and concrete steps taken in order to get hold of these interests. Eventually, the analysis gets to the conceptual bottom of what exactly fashioned the EU with geopolitical agency in the circumpolar North. As a complementary explanation, this study provides a thick description of the area under scrutiny – the Arctic region – in order to explicate the systemic context that conditioned the EU’s regional demeanour and action. Elucidated along the lines of Arctic history and identity, rights, interests and responsibility, it delineates the emergence of the Arctic as a region of and for geopolitics. The findings indicate that the sui generis character of the Arctic as EUropean neighbourhood essentially determined the EU’s regional performance. It explicates that the Union’s ‘traditional’ geopolitical models of civilian or normative power got entangled in a fluid state of Arctic affairs: a distinct regional system, characterised by few strong state actors with pronounced national Arctic interests and identities, and an indefinite local context of environmental changes, economic uncertainties and social challenges. This study applies critical geopolitics in a Political Science context and essentially contributes to a broader understanding of EU foreign policy construction and behaviour. Ultimately, it offers an interdisciplinary approach on how to analyse EU external action by explicitly taking into account the internal and external social processes that ultimately condition a certain EUropean foreign policy performance.

Concepts of the Global South

Where and what is the Global South? If you ask people on the street, many would probably not have the faintest idea. In everyday parlance and mass media, Global South has hardly become a household term. In academic and (global) policy circles, though, the term is used with much more gusto. Politicians refer to it. The United Nations organize their statistical data in accordance with the term. Academics write books about it - or, as in our case, explicitly include the term in the name of a research center: Global South Studies Center (GSSC). But what does the term entail? Who uses it and why? And what are the implications of marking distinctions between the Global South and the Global North? We thought it relevant to address these questions in more detail – after all, we work for a recently established research institute featuring the term in its name. Accordingly, we asked a number of academics, journals and academic institutions to reflect on the term. In this online issue, we share their various perspectives and critical reflections on the notion of the Global South – see also a short discussion on a number of YouTube videos we have included.

Reflections on migration in the global south

How can we achieve a better understanding of the variations in international migration to, from, and within the Global South? To facilitate a dia-logue about this topic, we asked a number of contributors to write or to provide a video statement about their region of expertise. To some we explicitly posed the following question: Is it possible to distinguish current or historical experiences or patterns of migration in the Global South that differ from patterns in the Global North?

GeographielehrerInnen erproben Service Learning. Empirische Rekonstruktion von Bewertungsmustern, Akzeptanzkomponenten und Gelingensbedingungen für einen gemeinwohlorientierten Geographieunterricht

Ausgangspunkt dieser Arbeit ist die Frage: „Wovon hängt die Bewertung von Service Learning-Projekten durch GeographielehrerInnen ab?“. Der empirischen Beantwortung dieser Forschungsfrage geht eine theoretische und literaturgestütze Potenzialanalyse von „Service Learning im Geographieunterricht“ voraus. Diese offenbart, dass Service Learning als innovativer und vielversprechender konzeptioneller Ansatz für einen an den Bildungsstandards (DGFG 2012) orientierten und modernen Geographieunterricht bewertet werden kann. Sie zeigt jedoch auch, dass Service Learning - trotz dieser vermeintlichen Potenzialvielfalt - bislang nahezu keine Anwendung im Geographieun-terricht gefunden hat. Es ist das Ziel dieser Arbeit zu erforschen, welche Gründe und Barrieren für den zu-rückhaltenden Umgang der GeographielehrerInnen mit der Unterrichtskonzeption vor-liegen und - in einer positiven Betrachtungsweise und als Forschungsschwerpunkt - welche Akzeptanzkomponenten für Service Learning im Geographieunterricht sich aus den Wahrnehmungs- und Bewertungsmustern von LehrerInnen, die erstmalig ein Ser-vice Learning-Projekt umgesetzt haben, ableiten lassen. Diese so gewonnenen Akzep-tanzkomponenten werden abschließend im Sinne der Grounded Theory (GLASER & STRAUSS 1967) zu einem Gelingensbedingungsgefüge verknüpft. Dieses kann als wis-senschaftlich hergeleitete Hilfestellung für Initiations- und Implementationsprozesse der Unterrichtskonzeption Service Learning in den Geographieunterricht verstanden werden und richtet sich somit an GeographielehrerInnen, FachleiterInnen und Geographiedidak-tikerInnen.