*** ANDREAS WALTHER, MANUELA DU BOIS-REYMOND, ANDY BIGGART (Eds.): Participation in Transition. Motivation of Young Adults in Europe for Learning and Working. Peter Lang (1 Moosstrasse, CH-2542 Pieterlen. Tel: (41-32) 3761717 - Fax: 3761727 - E-mail: info@peterlang.com - Internet: http://www.peterlang.de ). 2006, 245 pp. ISBN 3-631-54593-2.
Political discourse about citizen involvement in daily life is increasing and such rhetoric at European level is a key element in the Lisbon Strategy, for example, focussing on the need to reach 70% employment levels. The involvement of some groups of people in economic and political life is not automatic, however, as is the case for some young people. Since time immemorial, some young people have been tempted to withdrawn from 'normal' society as lived by their parents, although this trend changes and takes different forms in different epochs. As the authors note at the beginning of the book, 'in recent policy and academic discourses about young people there has been a general shift of emphasis from portraying 'youth as a problem group' towards seeing 'youth as a resource'.' The way society is changing is causing many young people to be concerned about their job prospects and therefore their lives. Education and training are stressed but it is becoming ever more evident that young people lack the motivation to actively develop their own human capital. Many decide to drop out of education as soon as they have the option or even drop out of higher education part way through their studies, with others constituting a 'zero status' group, burning bridges with all institutional interfaces (training, employment agencies, etc).
This book looks at getting young people involved in their education and the transition to working life through three closely connected areas of research. The first is young people's motivation (or lack of motivation) to enter employment. The basic postulate is that their motivation (or lack of it) cannot be simply explained by innate character traits but is strongly determined by the young people's past experience and therefore by their social situation. The second area of research is young people's 'learning biographies', the way they perceive their past and what this implies in terms of strengths and weaknesses, and how their subjective past affects their aspirations. The third area of research is the concept of involvement, the feeling of belonging to society and the way young people interact with society. To this end, the authors entered into direct contact with young people, interviewing 365 young people from various countries in Europe and nearly 140 experts (careers advisors, social workers, legislators and teachers). Most of the young people were 'disengaged youths' but the authors also interviewed trend setters, young people who had been disengaged at some point in their lives and shared the same mistrust of formal education and systems to get people into work, but who had managed to bounce back in an innovative way by means of their 'human', cultural and social capital. The book includes excerpts from these interviews to illustrate various points. The research was carried out under the 'European Group for Integrated and Social Research' funded from 2001 to 2004 by the European Commission's Research Framework Programme. The research looked at a number of European countries whose cultural and political heritage, economic and social framework, social policies and strategies for getting young people into jobs vary enormously. The young people interviewed were from Ireland, the United Kingdom, the Netherlands, Germany, Denmark, Portugal, Spain, Italy and Romania, many of them involved in projects to get them into employment. The aim was not to make direct comparisons among the different countries but rather to discern the connections between the young people's personal situation and their life environment, in order to be able in turn to discern the limits of social policy.
The book describes research combining various approaches in a coherent whole, covering socio-economic, psychological and educational aspects to provide a livelier and clearer picture of the young people interviewed, who were having problems with the transition to paid work, along with internal and external factors (different types of formal and informal education, for example) that make it easier or more difficult for them to get into paid work.
Frederik Ronse
*** JONAS SPROGØE, THYGE WINTHER-JENSEN (Eds.): Identity, Education and Citizenship - Multiple Interrelations. Peter Lang (see above). "Comparative Studies Series", No. 13. 2006, 135 pp, €50-50. ISBN 3-631-55307-2.
The way people see themselves and their role in society is highly structured during childhood and youth and it is undeniable that schools (and then university) play a leading role in the formation of identity and citizenship of individuals and hence the perpetuation or changes in characteristics of the social fabric. Throughout Europe, the education sector is subject to pressure to change and against the backdrop of globalisation, education policies are no longer established at local or national level but are coming under increasing influence from international factors. In this connection, Jagdish Gundara writes that 'instead of utilising the potential contribution of public servants and teachers to enhance the best interests of society, education is seen as a handmaiden to strengthen the narrow interests of the liberalised market.' The two dozen essays in the book were presented at a Comparative Education Society in Europe conference at Copenhagen University, Denmark, in June 2004. The book is divided into three main sections. The first looks at changes in the concept of citizenship in the light of different backgrounds and eras. The second includes comparative studies of innovation in education and how concepts inherited from the Enlightenment period (like cosmopolitanism) are perpetuated in modern education systems. The third part looks in more detail at changes in education at the EU level, through national analysis (looking, for example, at the application of EU policies in the Greek university system), comparative studies (comparing the French secular, Republican system with the UK's 'virtual market' system which is more open to diversity), and more horizontal studies like statistical research in several EU Member States and Japan, looking at whether European universities properly equip students to meet the needs of the information society. The essays move beyond education to touch on the controversial issues of equal opportunities, religious tolerance and social integration.
(FRo)
*** MATHILDE ANQUETIL: Mobilité Erasmus et communication interculturelle. Une recherche-action pour un parcours de formation. Peter Lang (see above). "Transversales" series, No. 17. 2006, 342 pp, €53-50. ISBN 3-03911-188-4.
How can one avoid the aims of the Erasmus Programme (increasing interaction in the multi-cultural area of European citizenship) being reduced to a routine of being temporary hosts in national universities? According to Mathilde Anquetil, a doctor of language and culture politics, education and training with a degree in language and culture, Erasmus is the humanist side of the European project because it tries to establish a concrete area of free circulation of individuals and ideas, like during the mercantile area. Anquetil notes that the Erasmus Programme, a tool of educational engineering, has met its targets in terms of promoting young people's employability but the outcome remains below investment in terms of forming the basis of active European citizenship through contributing to the building of a third identity area where multi-culturalism means more than simply cohabiting in mutual respect. At Macetara University, along with Erasmus students, the author carried out research to verify her starting hypothesis that universities can contribute to citizen education if they organise a connection between training through experience and the reflexive approach characteristic of higher education. The book reports back on the research. The author starts by studying how modern-day mobility is upsetting the applecart of language and culture training, providing new educational tasks that the university system has to re-interpret. After discerning the intercultural skills of mobile students, Mathilde Anquetil puts forward various suggestions, based on her experiments, in order to ensure mobility accompaniment measures move beyond social work paradigms. She also suggests creating a new, wholly European, academic course.
(MT)
*** STEFAN TROEBST: Kulturstudien Ostmitteleuropas. Peter Lang (see above)."Gesellschaften und Staaten im Epochenwandel" series, No. 11. 2006, 411 pp, €29-90. ISBN 3-631-54581-9.
The eleventh volume in this series of books on transition societies includes a number of scientific and more spontaneous essays by Stefan Troebst, Professor of Slav Studies and the cultural history of central and East European countries at Leipzig University. The book illustrates the aims of his subject matter, allowing readers to get to know and gain better understanding of the special culture of central and Eastern Europe. Alongside studies of various issues and aspects of the region, the texts are part of the tradition of history research launched before the Second World War by Polish historian Osca Halecki, fully expressed in his famous book published in 1950, "The Limits and Divisions of European History". Defining a culture by a 'historical region', the author provides an original new contribution to the way the specific problems of Central and Eastern Europe should be approached. An inter-disciplinary approach is vital for these 'cultural studies' providing university students with a wholly original experience and new horizons for future research. Through his descriptions of the special programme in this field developped by Leipzig University since 1999, Stefan Troebst has written a very enriching introduction and a useful tool for understanding the future European project in this region.
(GFr)
*** DANIEL DOLEZAL, HARTMUNT KÜHNE (Eds.): Wallfahrten in der europäischen Kultur - Pilgrimage in European Culture. Peter Lang (see above). "Europäische Walffahrtsstudien" series, No. 1. 2006, 730 pp. ISBN 3-631-54996-2.
This very impressive bilingual English and German book of more than 700 pages is the first in a new series launched to provide information about recent developments in research into pilgrimages in European culture. The series will enable scientists from all disciplines to write about new research in this field, recently revived in universities in Central and Eastern Europe. Pilgrimages are universal and are found in all the world's religions, all of which had and still have sacred sites, special places that inspired prophets and sanctuaries ensuring the salvation of believers who come to make their devotions there, but there was no systematic research for decades in Central and Eastern Europe into the Jewish and Christian traditions that developped in the Middle Ages in Europe during the Communist regime's silencing of manifestations of popular religiosity.
This fine work arose following a meeting of researchers who had become aware of the need for a renaissance in their field. They met in 2004 in the town of Pøíbram, in the Czech Republic, itself the site of a famous pilgrimage. The four dozen essays in the book look at a wide range of aspects culled from a diverse array of disciplines, geography (6,150 sanctuaries in Western Europe alone), demographics (it is estimated that around 300 million pilgrims travel around the world every year, 200 million Christians, 40 million Hindus, 30 million Muslims and Buddhists and the rest from other religions), ethnology, history, history of art and culture, archaeology, religious psychology, liturgy, theology, etc. A rich book providing interesting prospects for understanding a historical, religious and often highly dogmatic phenomenon, which is currently in the process of becoming a more syncretic, diversified form of religious tourism. A very useful book explaining changes in European culture.
(GFr)
*** JEAN-LOUP BOURGET: Hollywood, un rêve européen. Armand Colin (Paris). "Armand Colin Cinéma" series. 2006, 286 pp. ISBN 2-200-26924-2.
Holder of the Chair in Cinema Studies at the 'Ecole normale supérieure' in France, Jean-Loup Bourget has written a delightful, erudite book summarising the presence and and aesthetic contribution of Europeans in Hollywood, ranging from Erich von Stroheim, Greta Garbo and Marlène Dietrich to Antonio Banderas via directors as distinguished as Ernst Lubitsch, Fritz Lang, Billy Wilder and Alfred Hitchcock. The author highlights the classical Hollywood period from 1920 to around 1960, extending his reflection to contemporary examples in order to discern the constants and ruptures that characterise the current status and work of Europeans in Hollywood by comparing them with the classic period. He observes in the conclusion, for example, that these days, the difference between Hollywood and Europe means above all, a commercial clash between the Hollywood movie industry in a dominant position and a European cartel trying rather clumsily to preserve or win back market share by producing multinational movies, like the ones by the Eurimages Fund. Each chapter in the book comes with a bibliography which will delight the most ardent cinema-lovers.
(PBo)