Educational pathways of minority youth in Norway: intersections of gender, ethnicity and social class

Educational aspirations during lower secondary school and choice of upper secondary education are important for young people���s future trajectories into higher education and labour market positions. In line with ideas about reflexive, autonomous individuals (Giddens, 1991), choice of education is often represented as a young person��� individual decision, and educational guidance as aimed at discovering what ���fits��� an individual���s personality, interests and abilities. Educational aspirations and choices are also social patterns that are reproduced. Some population categories represent exceptions from expected patterns of social reproduction of educational level and professions. In several countries, one such category is young people from families with migration experiences (Lauglo, 2000; Modood, 2004). In Norway, students have a legal right to non-compulsory upper secondary schooling and 96 percent of the students continue from lower to upper secondary school. In spite of positive developments regarding minority youths��� completion of upper secondary and higher education in later years, studies still persistently show lower educational attainment among minority youth, particularly among boys (Fekjaer, 2006). However, in lower secondary school, minor ity youth tend to have markedly higher educational aspirations and stronger learning motivation than their majority peers, as well as greater effort in school and strong adherence to school values (Lauglo, 2000) despite lower educational attainment or lower socio-economic backgrounds. In addition, gender differences in educational aspirations seem to be smaller among minority youth. The principal objective of the study in progress that will be presented in this paper, is to describe how processes relating to gendered, ethnic and class-based identities influence young people���s educational choices. The study is undertaken as a PhD project in social anthropology. The methodological approach is ethnographic longitudinal fieldwork in two multicultural lower secondary schools in Oslo. The study is part of a larger project that also include quantitative analyses of longitudinal data covering 9th graders in Oslo 2006 through four data collections during lower and upper secondary school.

Federalism and democracy. The case of minority nations: a federalist deficit

In this chapter, after pointing out the different logics that lie behind the familiar ideas of democracy and federalism, I have dealt with the case of plurinational federal democracies. Having put forward a double criterion of an empirical nature with which to differentiate between the existence of minority nations within plurinational democracies (section 2), I suggest three theoretical criteria for the political accommodation of these democracies. In the following section, I show the agonistic nature of the normative discussion of the political accommodation of this kind of democracies, which bring monist and pluralist versions of the demos of the polity into conflict (section 3.1), as well as a number of conclusions which are the result of a comparative study of 19 federal and regional democracies using four analytical axes: the uninational/plurinational axis; the unitarianism-federalism axis; the centralisation-decentralisation axis; and the symmetry-asymmetry axis (section 3.2). This analysis reveals shortcomings in the constitutional recognition of national pluralism in federal and regional cases with a large number of federated units/regions with political autonomy; a lower degree of constitutional federalism and a greater asymmetry in the federated entities or regions of plurinational democracies. It also reveals difficulties to establish clear formulas in these democracies in order to encourage a ���federalism of trust��� based on the participation and protection of national minorities in the shared government of plurinational federations/regional states. Actually, there is a federal deficit in this kind polities according to normative liberal-democratic patterns and to what comparative analysis show. Finally, this chapter advocates the need for a greater normative and institutional refinement in plurinational federal democracies. In order to achieve this, it is necessary to introduce a deeper form of ���ethical��� pluralism -which displays normative agonistic trends, as well as a more ���confederal/asymmetrical��� perspective, congruent with the national pluralism of these kind of polities.

Intertwined cultural demands of immigrants and minority nations

Since at least the last two decades of the 20th century, the normative debate on multiculturalism has been one-dimensional. It has deployed arguments related to cultural demands either linked to feminism and sub-cultural identities, immigration or national minorities. Little attention has been given to the relations between these dimensions, and how they effect each other in putting forward demands to the nation-state. The purpose of this article is to analyse the interaction between cultural demands of immigrants and minority nations. The basic objective of this paper is to give an overview of different reflections coming from three basic contributors: J. Carens, W. Kymlicka and R. Baub��ck.

Cosmopolitan justice and minority rights: the case of minority nations (or Kant again, but different)

Global Justice has usually been understood to mean institutional and social justice (political and redistributive issues on a global scale). In contrast, issues involving different national and cultural identities, are usually marginal in reflections on global justice. This occurs despite the fact that human rights include political social and cultural rights. This paper links a conception of global justice, moral cosmopolitanism, with plurinational democracies. After giving a brief description of moral cosmopolitanism I go on to analyse notions of cosmopolitanism and patriotism in Kant's work and the political significance that the notion of "unsocial sociability" and the "Ideas of Pure Reason" of Kant's first Critique have for cosmopolitanism. Finally, I analyse the relationship between cosmopolitanism and minority nations based on the preceding sections. I postulate the need for a moral and institutional refinement of democracies and international society that is better able to accommodate national pluralism than has so far been achieved by traditional liberal constitutionalism and cosmopolitanism

A citation analysis of Catalan literary studies (1974-2003): towards a bibliometrics of humanities studies in minority languages

A citation analysis was carried out on the most important research journals in the field of Catalan literature between 1974 and 2003. The indicators and qualitative parameters obtained show the value of performing citation analysis in cultural and linguistic areas that are poorly covered by the A&HCI. Catalan literature shows a similar pattern to that of humanities in general, but it could still be in a stage of consolidation because too little work has as yet been published.

Nationalist neoliberalism? Minority Nationalism, competitiveness and the urban question

Presentation at: II IAS Annual Research Programme International ConferenceSession: Governing Regions, Lancaster Setember 17-19 2007

Markets and linguistic diversity

The choice of language is a crucial decision for firms competing in cultural goods and media markets with a bilingual or multilingual consumer base. To the extent that multilingual consumers have preferences over the intrinsic characteristics (content) as well as over the language of the product, we can examine the efficiency of market outcomes regarding linguistic diversity. In this paper, I extend the spokes model and introduce language as an additional dimension of product differentiation. I show that: (i) if firms supply their product in a single language (the adoption model) then the degree of linguistic diversity is inefficiently low, and (ii) if some firms supply more than one linguistic version (the translation model) then in principle the market outcome may exhibit insufficient or excessive linguistic diversity. However, excessive diversity is associated to markets where the fraction of products in the minority language is disproportionately high with respect to the relative size of the linguistic minority.

Conflict prevention and decentralized governance: some remarks about the state of the art in theory and practice

Is there a link between decentralized governance and conflict prevention? This article tries to answer the question by presenting the state of the art of the intersection of both concepts. Provided that social conflict is inevitable and given the appearance of new threats and types of violence, as well as new demands for security based on people (human security), our societies should focus on promoting peaceful changes. Through an extensive analysis of the existing literature and the study of several cases, this paper suggests that decentralized governance can contribute to these efforts by transforming conflicts, bringing about power-sharing and inclusion incentives of minority groups. Albeit the complexity of assessing its impact on conflict prevention, it can be contended that decentralized governance might have very positive effects on the reduction of causes that bring about conflicts due to its ability to foster the creation of war/violence preventors. More specifically, this paper argues that decentralization can have a positive impact on the so-called triggers and accelerators (short- and medium-term causes).

Cultural relativism in the Universal Periodic Review of the Human Rights Council

This Working Paper aims to offer an up-to-date list of cultural relativist players and arguments with respect to human rights, constituted by China, Viet Nam, Myanmar, Iran, Pakistan, Yemen, Syria, Malaysia and Cuba. This working paper argues that Indonesia, Iraq, Colombia and Mexico are not in the same cultural relativist group of states maintained by renowned scholars, notably Cristina Cerna and Dianne Otto. As such, apart from this form of cultural relativism based on the respect for the self-determination of indigenous peoples and communities, this working paper exposes two different categories of radical cultural relativism based on revolutionary discourse and/or radical Islamism, as well as targets the credibility on the latter two based on the information facilitated by the United Nations (UN) Human Rights Council (HRC) Universal Periodic Review (UPR).

Pr��cticas etnobot��nicas e identidad cultural de las minor��as ��tnicas de Yunnan

El trabajo de investigaci��n aborda la evoluci��n de las pr��cticas etnobot��nicas (PEB) tradicionales, la evoluci��n reciente de estas pr��cticas en un contexto de mutaciones en China en las ��ltimas d��cadas y su valor como marcador de la identidad cultural (IC) de las minor��as ��tnicas de la provincia China de Yunnan. Se trata de evaluar la realidad de la utilizaci��n, la preservaci��n y la evoluci��n de la etnomedicina en esta regi��n y especialmente de las PEB, aclarar las relaciones que se pueden establecer entre la IC y las PEB y por lo tanto se estudian los nexos de uni��n entre las PEB y la IC de las minor��as ��tnicas de Yunnan (MEY).

La mujer y la geografia universitaria espa��ola

This article lies within the sphere of studies initiated recently in various social sciences and which aim to introduce women's problems as an element of analysis, or in other words, the gender perspective. In the field of geography, the earliest contributions of this nature were made in English-speaking countries. It is only in the 1980s that similar contributions begin to appear in Spanish geography, albeit sporadically . In the first part of this article, an analysis is made of the presence of women geographers in Spanish universities, based on a questionnaire submitted to twenty-six departments of geography. The questionnaires provide information on the age, sex and marital status of women staff, and other relevant facts. It becomes evident that women lecturers are in the minority in Spanish university Geography Departments, especially in the top posts, although the percentage compares favourably with English-speaking countries. The second part of the article consists of a study of the written contributions of women geographers through the analysis of the various geographical magazines published by geography departments and other related bodies. The author reaches the conclusion that the percentage of articles written by women geographers is even lower than the corresponding percentage of staff members. Especially noteworthy is the very limited number of articles in the fields of physical geography and geographical theory, in contrast to a certain tendency to publish studies on, for example, population or urban topics with a highly restricted territorial scope

La reincid��ncia en el delicte en la just��cia de menors

El present estudi aporta dades concretes i actualitzades de la reincid��ncia en el delicte que protagonitzen els joves infractors que han entrat en el circuit de la just��cia de menors en l�����mbit territorial de Catalunya, despr��s de l���entrada en vigor de la Llei Org��nica 5/2000, que regula la responsabilitat penal dels menors. L'estudi fa el seguiment de 2.903 menors del total de 3.728 que van finalitzar una intervenci�� de la Direcci�� General de Just��cia Juvenil l���any 2002 i els segueix fins el desembre de 2004, per tal de saber si han reincidit en el delicte, ja sigui com a jove o com adult. La recerca aporta tamb��, entre moltes altres dades, les diferents taxes de reincid��ncia, el perfil del reincident i del no-reincident i altres caracter��stiques de la reincid��ncia i del propi delicte. Aix�� mateix, tracta el perfil detallat tant de les noies com dels estrangers, les caracter��stiques dels quals quedaven dilu��des fins ara en tots els estudis, pel fet de formar part de col���lectius minoritaris dins del context dels joves infractors

La reincidencia en el delito en la justicia de menores

Esta investigaci��n recoge las caracter��sticas m��s destacadas de los j��venes infractores que han pasado por la Direcci��n General de Justicia Juvenil a lo largo del 2002 y les hace seguimiento hasta diciembre de 2004 para ver si han reincidido en le delito. Tambi��n estudia espec��ficamente a chicas y extranjeros, para tener datos significativos de dos colectivos minoritarios pero poco estudiados en el contexto de los j��venes infractores

Stockholder conflicts and dividends

Conflicts of interest between majority and minority stockholders affect a large proportion of firms in any economy, but has received little attention in the empirical literature. We examine the link between the potential for such conflicts and the firm's payout policy on a large sample of Norwegian private firms with controlling stockholders and detailed ownership data. Our evidence shows that the stronger the potential conflict between the stockholders, the higher the proportion of earnings paid out as dividends. This tendency to reduce stockholder conflicts by dividend payout is more pronounced when the minority is diffuse and when a family's majority block is held by a single family member. We also find evidence that a minority-friendly payout policy is associated with higher future minority investment in the firm. These results are consistent with the notion that potential agency costs of ownership are mitigated by dividend policy when the majority stockholder benefits from not exploiting the minority.

Traject��ries d�����xit dels i les joves marroquines a Catalunya. Una an��lisi qualitativa des d���una perspectiva comparada

Les investigacions mostren que en la majoria dels pa��sos hi ha difer��ncies significatives en el rendiment escolar entre els estudiants estrangers i els seus companys nadius. Tamb�� indiquen que, tot i tenir una actitud m��s positiva cap a l'escola i aspiracions m��s elevades, els joves estrangers obtenen pitjors resultats i les seves aspiracions disminueixen amb el temps d'estada. I, especialment entre certs grups, no hi ha una millora en els seus resultats acad��mics. No obstant aix��, la literatura de recerca sobre migracions i educaci�� tamb�� mostra com es distribueixen les oportunitats com les pol��tiques p��bliques -educatives - i l'estructura i cultura escolar col���laboren en la construcci�� de les traject��ries dels i les joves de minories. Ara b��, aquestes tend��ncies no poden invisibilitzar les traject��ries d'��xit escolar i la creixent participaci�� social d'una part considerable de joves (nois i noies) d'ascend��ncia marroquina en la societat catalana. Aquest informe mostra els resultats del projecte de recerca realitzat, que analitza les condicions i possibilitats per a l'��xit acad��mic i la continu��tat educativa entre aquests joves.L'an��lisi reconstrueix els factors centrals que han perm��s el desenvolupament d'aquestes traject��ries i la consolidaci�� d'aspiracions acad��miques de llarga durada.