*** Futuribles. L'anticipation au service de l'action. Futuribles Sarl (47 rue de Babylone, F-75007 Paris. Tel: (33-1) 53633770 - Fax: 42226554 - email: revue@futuribles.com - Internet: http://www.futuribles.com ). March-April 2013, No. 393, 192 pp, €22. Annual subscription: €115. ISBN 978-2-84387-406-2.
This issue of the well-known review, 'Futuribles,' deals with a question that is continually growing in importance, namely the social and political impact of religions in Europe. In the editorial, Hugues de Jouvenel explains that 'faithful to the spirit of examining future trends, determinedly taking a long view of issues around which debate is very heated,' the special report deals 'in a serene and detailed manner with changes in religious beliefs and practices around the world,' not to mention the fact that the authors also examine 'how they influence changes in values and behaviour.' This assessment, it turns out on reading the book, is far from deceptive sales talk, being instead an accurate reflection of the high quality and reliability of the information and reflections contained in this book, the scientific leadership of which was carried out by Prof. Pierre Bréchon of the Institut d'Etudes Politiques in Grenoble, France.
Researcher François Mabille (member of the Groupe Sociétés, Religions, Laïcités at the Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique in France) starts the special report by setting the backdrop, explaining which religions numerically dominate in the world, along with their geographic breakdown. He points out that Christianity still has the biggest numbers, some 32% of the world population, with Islam only 23%. He sets the record straight by explaining that there are more Muslims in China than in Syria, more Muslims in Russia than in Jordan and Libya combined and more in Germany than in Lebanon… After noting that the 'individualisation of beliefs affects all religions, starting with Christianity and Islam,' which weakens the statistical approach to religion, François Mabille analyses four big trends that have emerged in the globalisation of the presence of religions, namely the return of religious figures to the political agenda, both nationally and internationally; the widening of the spectrum of religious movements; the growing role of ethnic-religious diasporas; and the vitality of both Islam and Christianity. All these evolutions, explains the researcher, combine to complicate the potential processes of secularisation. Against this backdrop, he finally ventures to consider the future of Catholicism ('From crisis to decadence?'), of Islam ('Secularism, fundamentalism or liberalism?') and Western-style Buddhism. Pierre Bréchon makes a detailed analysis of the social and political effects of the religious dimension in Europe. Based on the results of the most recent European Value Study opinion poll, he shows that the dominant values found in the various 'geo-religious' areas identified largely coincide with those of individuals who say they are from the corresponding religious sphere of influence: Protestants have tend to have more modern values (less attached to the traditional family model, greater liberalism in terms of morals, greater politicisation and so on), as do those who say they do not have a religion (whose numbers are rising); while Muslims and Orthodox Christians have a more traditional value system (family, morality, authority, pride in their nationality and the like); with Catholics lying somewhere between the two. Pierre Bréchon demonstrates that it is religious geography that introduces the biggest differences in value systems and that it is the degree of religiosity that has the greatest influence in terms of generating traditional moral values, irrespective of the actual religion or confession.
Director of Studies at the Ecole Pratique des Hautes Etudes (Paris-Sorbonne), Philippe Portier looks at the development in relations between Church and State in Western Europe. After pointing out the weight of traditional heritage, he describes the two dominant models, namely 'confessionalisation' - the model in which one religion is officially distinguished from others (this is found in Protestant and Orthodox countries in particular) and the model of separation of Church and State, which can be either flexible (as in Central European countries) or rigid (mainly in France). But the author distinguishes above all an ever more marked trend in the longer term for a 'crossing of trajectories,' in other words, a simultaneous movement away from 'de-confessionalisation' in traditionally Catholic countries (Italy and Spain) and also Lutheran countries (Norway) or Orthodox countries (like Greece), and re-association of the religious with the public sphere, which is particularly noticeable in France. Philippe Portier says these developments could well lead to the emergence of a common European model of secularism which, without totally blotting out national differences or regulating beliefs, would bring them closer to a relatively unified system of 'cooperative separation.'
Whoever talks these days in Europe or elsewhere of the impact of the religious element inevitably thinks of Islam. Particular attention is of course paid in this book to the presence of people of the Muslim religion in Europe and the various forms of both public and private expressions of Islam in European countries. Director of Research at CNRS Franck Frégosi puts forward in this connection aspects that suggest that Islam is maturing and adjusting to the prevailing tradition of secularism in Western Europe. This is clearly a very interesting analysis, as are others on Islam (Islams) and Islamists in the Arab Spring and, more widely, on the impact of all types of fundamentalism. An extremely valuable issue with equally useful articles on many other subjects (retirement pensions in France, voting by foreigners from outside the EU, for example).
Michel Theys
*** THIERRY CÔME, LUDMILA MESKOVÁ (Eds.): Management de la diversité culturelle: quels enjeux en Europe ? / The Management of Cultural Diversity: What are the Stakes in Europe? Éditions Bruylant (Groupe De Boeck, 39 rue des Minimes, B-1000 Brussels. Tel: (32-10) 482511 - Fax: 482693 - email: commande@deboeckservices.com). 2012, 299 pp, €95. ISBN 978-2-8027-3560-1.
This book reports on the proceedings of a conference three years ago at the faculties of human science, political science and international relations and the economy at Matej Bel University in Banská Bystrica, Slovakia. Scientists of a number of disciplines examined the role that cultural diversity in Europe and the European culture arising from it should have in the context of European integration. In the first section of the book, the management of cultural diversity is explored through the prism of enterprise, with Dana Benciková stressing the need for company heads to incorporate cultural intelligence in their implantation strategy and in the selection of staff, in other words a person's ability to work effectively in situations characterised by cultural diversity and multiple reference points, which can be interpreted as a cultural quotient. In the second section of the book, examining European institutions and identities, the contributions look at the consequences of European multigovernance on the identity of European Union citizens, European justice as an engine of the Europeanising of national legal culture and the European identity being 'reinvented' within universities. Finally, cultural and economic practices are examined in the third part of the book, which includes a reflection by Prof. Gilles Rouet on how the economy can be integrated with the management of culture.
(PBo)
*** JOSEF LANGER, GORAN VLASIC, BOZENA KRCE MIOCIC (Eds.): EU Local Imprints. The Case of South Central Europe. Peter Lang (1 Moostrasse, CH-2542 Pieterlen, Switzerland. Tel: (41-32) 3761717 - Fax: 3761727 -email: info@peterlang.com - Internet: http://www.peterlang.com ). 2012, 206 pp, €37.80. ISBN 978-3-631-60176-1.
Arising from a conference organised by the tourism and communications departments at Zadar University in Croatia and the sociology department at Klagenfurt University in Austria, this academic tome is dedicated to examining how the European Union impacts on local affairs, particularly in candidate countries' pre-accession phase. As the book's editors point out, the authors examine the positive and negative imprints of the accession process, whether vis-à-vis culture (primarily in terms of risk perception), education systems as important carriers of knowledge and culture, communication and media, which serve as a basis for creating public opinion and therefore generating potential for positive change and finally, tourism as an important industry that has been subject to strong transformation processes as a result of successive EU enlargements. Using the example of Croatia, they show how the way that the elite see things does not necessarily coincide with the view of people on the ground…
(PBo)
*** DANIELE BIANCHI: La politique agricole commune (PAC). Précis de droit agricole européen. Éditions Bruylant (Groupe De Boeck, 39 rue des Minimes, B-1000 Brussels. Tel: (32-10) 482511 - Fax: 482693 - email: commande@deboeckservices.com - Internet: http://www.bruylant.be ). 2012, 646 pp, €105. ISBN 978-2-8027-3434-5.
A member of the European Commission's legal department, Daniele Bianchi has written this second edition of his summary of European agricultural law, a perfectly readable manual providing a detailed legal picture of the Common Agricultural Policy. The author starts by pointing out where the first common policy came from historically, describing the changes it has undergone over the decades and explaining the emergence of some of these reforms that still have an impact today. He point out, however, that the objectives laid down in the Treaty of Rome have never been altered. The first section of the book is devoted to changes in the treaties and also in the CAP's scope of application and its own decision-making process. The author then examines law derived from the basis of two pillars. The first is concerned with market support with the policy of prices, aid, intervention measures, export subsidies and the like. Daniele Bianchi analyses this market support firstly by examining the various common aspects for farm products currently covered by the common organisation of the single market. He goes on to look at legislation on direct payments and the right to payment, in other words the single payment system introduced in the CAP reform of 2003. The second pillar covers rural development and the policy in favour of agricultural structures. In the final section of the book, the author examines measures shared by the pillars, namely financing, international relations, competition rules and information policy, with an appendix on agri-food law. This is a revealing book which, as Commissioner Dacian Ciolos points out, is highly useful at a time when the 'society project' of the Common Agricultural Policy is preparing for another 'important reform.'
(PBo)
*** PAUL DAVID: A Guide to the World Anti-Doping Code. The Fight for the Spirit of Sport. Cambridge University Press (The Edinburgh Building, Shaftesbury Road, Cambridge CB2 8RU, UK. Tel: (44-1223) 326050 - Fax: 315052 - Internet: http://www.cambridge.org ). 2013, 398 pp, £95, $160. ISBN 978-1-107-00346-0.
A lawyer practising in Auckland, Paul David was for ten years an independent advisor to the New Zealand anti-drugs association before recently being appointed as one of the arbitrators of the Court of Arbitration for Sport. This anti-doping expert was therefore ideally placed for writing on methods used to combat this scourge at global level and he published the first edition of the current book back in 2008. Since then, there have been a number of changes, particularly following the amendment of the World Anti-doping Code in 2009. The updated and expanded chapters in this second edition discuss the ever more detailed and complex anti-doping regulations, while more than forty summaries of recent cases illustrate the operation of the key provisions of the 2009 Code, in particular the Articles relating to anti-doping rule violations and sanctions.
(PBo)
*** Politique. Revue de débats. ASBL Politique (9 rue du Faucon, B-1000 Brussels. Tel: (32-2) 5386996 - email: secretariat@politique.eu.org - Internet: http://politique.eu.org ). May/June 2013, No. 80, 84 pp. Annual subscription: €40.
This progressive Belgian review takes a look at the big picture in this issue, with an assessment of the work of Jean Baubérot, founder of the sociology of secularism, which neatly connects up with the review at the beginning of this week's European Library. Europe and the way it is being built is the subject of several essays, most of them critical. Bruno Poncelet, for example, makes a direct attack on the people building the transatlantic market who, headed by the Barroso Commission, want to neutralise parliaments and 'kill off local democracy for the benefit of global technocrats, with political decisions being taken by unelected experts, who are as little known to the general public as they are appreciated by the multinationals to whom they act as faithful lackeys.' Inès Trépant is equally uncompromising with the people, headed by the Barroso Commission, who are leading 'a crusade at all levels against export taxes' in order to ensure that the European Union can get a good supply of rare raw materialism and who take the attitude that it is simply too bad if this means that developing countries, particularly in Africa, the Caribbean and the Pacific, lose the possibility of escaping from poverty. Finally, while Henri Goldman relays an appeal for a European citizenship of residence to be established, open to foreigners residing legally in a member state, a more severe picture is drawn, criticising the treaty on stability, co-ordination and governance, which 'should not be signed,' with the left in government described as going off track by reluctantly agreeing to it.
(MT)