Die vergessene Dimension

Die in den letzten 20 Jahren zu beobachtende Gesundheitswelle und die steigende Nachfrage nach gesundheitsbezogenen Bildungsangeboten steht eine immer noch in den Anfaengen steckende theoretisch-konzeptionelle Reflexion und Absicherung gegenüber. Im pädagogischen Handlungsfeld ist eine grundsätzliche Auseinandersetzung mit der Gesundheitbildung dringend erforderlich. Dieses Unterfangen wird nicht gerade dadurch erleichtert, dass sich das allgemeine Bewusstsein von Gesundheit und Krankheit in den letzten Jahren stark gewandelt hat. Immer mehr gewinnt die Einsicht an Bedeutung, dass selten eine Einflussgröße allein, sondern mehrere Faktoren und ihr Zusammenwirken zu Erkrankungen führen. Auf diesen Sachverhalt hat bereits 1946 die Weltgesundheitsorganisation (WHO) verwiesen, indem sie Gesundheit als Zustand des körperlichen, seelischen und sozialen Wohlbefindens und nicht nur als das Freisein von Krankheit und Gebrechen definiert. Eine Gesundheitsbildung, die dies berücksichtigt, ist vorrangig auf Gesundheit und den Prozess zwischen Gesundheit und Krankheit ausgerichtet. Sie bezieht Gefährdungen mit ein, die aus den sozialen und ökologischen Gegebenheiten erwachsen und verfolgt das Ziel, jedem Menschen seinen eigenen, besonderen Weg zur Gesundheit zu ermöglichen und ihn zur Wahrnehmung seiner Interessen im persönlichen und gesellschaftlichen Umfeld zu befähigen. Angebote, Didaktik und Methoden einer so verstandenen, integrativen Gesundheitsbildung an der VHS sollen deshalb darauf ausgerichtet sein, soziales und partizipatorisches Lernen zu initiieren, Zusammenhänge zu erschließen und die Kompetenz und Autonomie der Teilnehmer/innen zu fördern. Schließlich sollen Chancen und Grenzen einer Professionalisierung innerhalb der Gesundheitsbildung exemplarisch am Beispiel eines Lehrgangs für GesundheitsbildnerInnen verdeutlicht werden. Das Interesse am Thema entstand durch die langjährige Kursleitertätigkeit am Fachbereich Gesundheit und Umwelt des Bildungszentrums in Nürnberg. Auch die Zusammenarbeit mit dem Bayerischen Volkshochschulverband, die in der Gestaltung und Durchführung von Qualifizierungslehrgängen zum Gesundheitsbildner bestand, ermöglichten die Sammlung von vielen Hintergrundinformationen, die wesentlich für die vorliegende Arbeit waren. Für die Ermöglichung der Auseinandersetzung mit der vorliegenden Thematik und den damit verbundenen Erfahrungen möchte ich meinen besonderen Dank Marco Bielser, Fachbereichsleiter am BZ Nürnberg und den Herren Prof. Dr. Dr. Rolf Schwendter und Prof. Dr. Werner Thole für die wohlwollende Unterstützung aussprechen.

The bonds of democratic politics

This paper is an attempt to analyze bonds and their relevance within the confines of economics. They are discussed as both exogenous and endogenous variables. More specifically, the bonds of democratic politics are compared with those of non-democratic politics. It is argued that only those societies that have at their disposition certain kinds of bonds will be able to sustain democracy. It is further argued that the differential effects of democratic vs. non-democratic regimes on the respective bonds are rather weak. But then again, different kinds of democratic institutions might well have an effect on the prevalent bonds found in a society.

‘Ethical’, but Gender-Biased?

The migration of healthcare professionals from developing to developed countries, often aided by recruitment agencies, is a phenomenon of great international concern, as reflected in the construction of numerous ethical recruitment codes, which aim to govern the process. In an attempt to provide an overview of the situation, dealing specifically with the migration of nurses, as well as a critical and gender sensitive analysis of the codes, this paper follows three broad steps: first, it reviews the literature dedicated to the migration of nurses from developing to developed countries, adding a gendered account to more conventional push-pull explanations; second, it delineates the positive and negative effects that nurse migration has at the stakeholders levels of the individual, institutional, national and international level, paying particular attention to the role of gender; and third, it reviews and compares numerous codes for the ethical recruitment of nurses, highlighting the gendered rationale and consequences they may have. In showing that nurse migration is a gendered phenomenon, the paper questions whether the codes, written in gender neutral language, will come to bear unintended consequences that will effectively work to uphold gender stereotypes and inequalities.

Colombia: compromise or containment?

The design, reformulation, and final signing of Plan Colombia by the then US President, Bill Clinton, on the 13 July 2000 initiated in a new era of the US State´s involvement in supposedly sovereign-territorial issues of Colombian politics. The implementation of Plan Colombia there-on-after brought about a major realignment of political-military scales and terrains of conflict that have renewed discourses concerning the contemporary imperialist interests of key US-based but transnationally-projected social forces, leading to arguments that stress the invigorated geo-political dimension of present-day strategies of capitalist accumulation. With the election of Álvaro Uribe Vélez as Colombian President in May 2002 and his pledge to strengthen the national military campaign aganist the region´s longest-surviving insurgency guerrilla group, Las FARC-EP, as well as other guerrilla factions, combined with a new focus on establishing the State project of “Democratic Security”; the military realm of governance and attempts to ensure property security and expanding capitalist investment have attained precedence in Colombia´s national political domains. This working paper examines the interrelated nature of Plan Colombia -as a binational and indeed regional security strategy- and Uribe´s Democratic Security project as a means of showing the manner in which they have worked to pave the way for the implementation of a new “total market” regime of accumulation, based on large-scale agro-industrial investment which is accelerated through processes of accumulation via dispossession. As such, the political and social reconfigurations involved manifest the multifarious scales of governance that become intertwined in incorporating neoliberalism in specific regions of the world economy. Furthermore, the militarisation-securitisation of such policies also illustrate the explicit contradictions of neoliberalism in a peripheral context, where coercion seems to prevail, something which leads to a profound questioning of the extent to which neoliberalism can be thought of as a hegemonic politico-economic project.

A Comparative Study on Internationalization and the Role of International Offices at Selected Middle Eastern and German Universities

Internationalization of higher education has become one of the most important policies for institutions of higher education worldwide. Though universities are international by nature, the need for intensified quality activities of international nature has promoted internationalization to be under spotlight of researchers, administrators and policy makers and to be an area for research. Each institution follows its certain way to govern its international affairs. Most Universities, especially in the 'Developed World' started to plan it strategically. This study explores the meanings and importance of internationalization especially that it means different things to different people. It also studies the rationales behind internationalizing higher education. It focuses on the four main prevailing rationales; political, cultural/social, economic/financial, and academic on both national and institutional levels. With the increasing need to strategically plan, the study explores internationalization strategies in terms of how to develop them, what are their approaches and types, and their components and dimensions. Damascus University has witnessed an overwhelming development of its international relations and activities. Therefore, it started to face a problem of how to deal with this increasing load especially that its International Office is the only unit that deals with the international issues. In order to study the internationalization phenomenon at Damascus University, the 2WH approach, which asks the what, why, and how questions, is used and in order to define the International Office's role in the internationalization process of the University, it studies it and the international offices of Kassel University, and Humboldt University in Germany, The University of Jordan, and Al Baath University in Syria using the 'SOCIAL' approach that studies and analyses the situation, organization, challenges, involvement, ambitions, and limitations of these offices. The internationalization process at the above-mentioned Universities is studied and compared in terms of its meaning, rationales for both the institution and its academic staff, challenges and strategic planning. Then a comparison is made among the international offices of the Universities to identify their approaches, what led to their success and what led to their failure in their practices. The aim is to provide Damascus University and its International Office with some good practices and, depending on the experiences of the professionals of the case-studies, a suggested guidance to the work of this Office and the University in general is given. The study uses the interviews with the different officials and stakeholders of the case-studies as the main method of collecting the information in addition to site visits, studying their official documents and their websites. The study belongs to qualitative research that has an action dimension in it since the recommendations will be applied in the International Office. The study concludes with few learned lessons for Damascus University and its International Office depending on the comparison that was done according to a set of dimensions. Finally a reflection on the relationship between internationalization of higher education and politics, the impact of politics on Middle Eastern Universities, and institutional internationalization strategies are presented.

The social dimension: a neglected policy item in the Bologna Process

Since its beginning in 1999, the Bologna Process has influenced various aspects of higher education in its member countries, e.g., degree structures, mobility, lifelong learning, social dimension and quality assurance. The social dimension creates the focus of this research. The social dimension entered the Bologna Process agenda in 2001. Despite a decade of reforms, it somehow remained as a vague element and received low scholarly attention. This research addresses to this gap. Firstly, different meanings of the social dimension according to the major European policy actors are analysed. Unfolding the understandings of the actors revealed that the social dimension is mostly understood in terms reflecting the diversity of population on the student body accessing to, progressing in and completing higher education, with a special concern on the underrepresented groups. However, it is not possible to observe a similar commonality concerning the actual policy measures to achieve this goal. Divergence occurs with respect to the addressed underrepresented groups, i.e., all underrepresented groups or people without formal qualifications and mature learners, and the values and institutional interests traditionally promoted by these actors. Secondly, the dissertation discusses the reflection of this social dimension understanding at the national level by looking at cases of Finland, Germany and Turkey. The in-depth analyses show an awareness of the social dimension among most of the national Bologna Process actors and a common understanding of the social dimension goals. However, this understanding has not triggered action in any of the countries. The countries acted on areas which they defined problematic before the Bologna Process. Finally, based on these findings the dissertation discusses the social dimension as a policy item that managed to get into the Bologna Process agenda, but neither grew into an implementable policy, nor drop out of it. To this aim, it makes use of the multiple streams framework and explains the low agenda status social dimension with: i. the lack of a pressing problem definition: the lack of clearly defined indicators and a comprehensive monitoring system, ii. the lack of a viable solution alternative: the proposal of developing national strategies and action plans closed the way to develop generic guidelines for the social dimension to be translated into national policy processes, iii. low political perceptivity: the recent trends opt for increasing efficiency, excellence and exclusiveness discourses rather than ensuring equality and inclusiveness iv. high constraints: the social dimension by definition requires more public funding which is less appreciated and strategic constraints of the actors in allocating their resources v. the type of policy entrepreneur: the social dimension is promoted by an international stakeholder, the European Students’ Union, instead of the ministers responsible for higher education The social dimension remains a policy item in the Bologna Process which is noble enough to agree but not urgent enough to act on.

Influence of pre-plant densities of Meloidogyne incognita on growth and root infestation of spinach (Spinacia oleracea L.) (Amaranthaceae) – an important dimension towards enhancing crop production

Vegetables represent a main source of micro-nutrients which can improve the health status of malnourished poor in the world. Spinach (Spinacia oleracea L.) is a popular leafy vegetable in many countries which is rich with several important micro-nutrients. Thus, consuming Spinach helps to overcome micro-nutrient deficiencies. Pests and pathogens act as major yield constraints in food production. Root-knot nematodes, Meloidogyne species, constitute a large group of highly destructive plant pests. Spinach is found to be highly susceptible for these nematode attacks. Though agricultural production has largely benefited from modern technologies and innovations, some important dimensions which can minimize the yield losses have been neglected by most of the growers. Pre-plant or initial nematode density in soil is a crucial biotic factor which is directly responsible for crop losses. Hence, information on preplant nematode densities and the corresponding damage is of vital importance to develop successful control procedures to enhance crop production. In the present study, effect of seven initial densities of M. incognita, i.e., 156, 312, 625, 1250, 2,500, 5,000 and 10,000 infective juveniles (IJs)/plant (equivalent to 1000cm3 soil) on the growth and root infestation on potted spinach plants was determined in a screen house. In order to ensure a high accuracy, root infestation was ascertained by the number of galls formed, the percentage galled-length of feeder roots and galled-feeder roots, and egg production, per plant. Fifty days post-inoculation, shoot length and weight, and root length were suppressed at the lowest IJs density. However, the pathogenic effect was pronounced at the highest density at which 43%, 46% and 45% reduction in shoot length and weight, and root length, respectively, was recorded. The highest reduction in root weight (26%) was detected at the second highest density. The Number of galls and percentage galled-length of feeder roots/per plant showed significant progressive increase across the increasing IJs density with the highest mean value of 432.3 and 54%, respectively. The two shoot growth parameters and root length showed significant inverse relationship with the increasing gall formation. Moreover, the shoot and root length were shown to be mutually dependent on each other. Suppression of shoot growth of spinach greatly affects the grower’s economy. Hence, control measures are essentially needed to ensure a better production of spinach via reducing the pre-plant density below the level of 0.156 IJs/cm3.