György Széll

Historical Perspectives on Participation

The communal idea is investigated theoretically and through contemporary experiences on the verge of the 21st century. This idea draws its vitality from potent civilizational codes, and while its realizations come up unavoidably to self-betrayal, its renewal from ashes is not less unavoidable.

Social Innovation, Social Entrepreneurship and Development

Social innovation and development have to be placed in the perspective of sustainability. Overcoming poverty and pauperisation is not only an issue for the Third World; however, the so-called developed nations, i.e. mainly the OECD countries, are facing increasing social inequality and pauperisation after their short dream of ever-lasting prosperity (Lutz 1984). Mini-credits have been regarded as a means of overcoming pauperisation first in Third World countries, later in developed countries as well, and the idea has been compensated by the Nobel Prize for peace in 2006. But not only since the recent conflict about its initiator, Muhammad Yunus, there has been rising critique, especially in India. Strategies for sustainability include Corporate Social Responsibility, the development of a strong civil society, the quality of democratic participation, and by it strengthening the trade unions as the largest democratic institutions in our societies.

Neue Technologien und alte Technokratiedebatte

Anmerkungen — schon das Wort gleitet so leicht dahin. Anmerkungen werden eigentlich zum Selbstverstandlichen gemacht, das folglich auch keiner naheren Untersuchung bedarf. Mit Anmerkungen stellt der Autor eher seine Position zu einem Objekt dar, seltener tragt er zu dessen Klarung bei. Und wirklich, wenn man die in der Uberschrift genannten Begriffe nimmt, scheint jeder andere geistig-literarische Zugriff verfehlt — so klar stehen sie da: oft gehort, oft gelesen, nichts Neues unter der Sonne.

Democracy and participation in the twenty-first century

ABSTRACT Democracy is again under attack. Only a small minority, i.e. 19 out of 167 countries can be regarded as full democracies. This themed section with its six contributions is addressing the challenges from different angles: it starts with ‘Deliberative Democracy in the Real World. The contribution of the capability approach’ by Jean-Michel Bonvin, and is followed by György Széll’s ‘The Future of Cooperatives and Trade Unions: The Relevance for the Question of Democratization of Society’. ‘Public Participation and the Politics of Humiliation’ by Dasarath Chetty is the next one. Gloria Ostos conducts a case study of the application of the first international standard ISO 18091:2014 on Quality Management Systems in Local Government. Finally, Jo Morris-Ellis and Heinz Sünker address the issue of children politics, definitely the main issue for the future of democracy.

The future of cooperatives and trade unions: the relevance for the question of democratization of society

ABSTRACT Co-operatives and trade unions are the oldest organizations of democratic participation, founded nearly 200 years ago. For sure the main challenges for the world and especially for the trade unions and the social economy today are the environmental degradation in all realms and globalization dominated by the financial capital. To better understand these issues a historical approach is needed.

Desafios da Educação e das Ciências Sociais para o Século 21

A manutencao e a construcao da paz interna e externa, assim como a sustentabilidade, da forma como foi exigida na conferencia de 1992 no Rio de Janeiro, sao os maiores desafios da humanidade e, com isso, tambem da educacao e das Ciencias Sociais. Para tanto, e necessario considerar a condicao de crise do capitalismo (a estrutura economica dominante) como fenomeno duradouro. Nesse sentido, pode auxiliar o retorno a base de todas as Ciencias Sociais e educativas modernas, ou seja, a filosofia antiga e aqui, especialmente, ao principio aristotelico da Phronesis, a licao acerca da boa sociedade.

Two new books by Marcel Bolle De Bal – one on Freemasonry and another one on some great French-speaking sociologists

not always have they acknowledged it. Jürgen Habermas clearly has, even if a great part of his work on the public space as a key element of modernity did not include any theorization about the gendered aspects of the private/public divide. His theory of communicative action has been extensively criticized by feminist thinkers, some of them, on the other hand, quite close to his work like Nancy Fraser who wrote a wellknown article called ‘What is Critical about Critical Theory? The Case of Gender’. She points to the systemic intervention of the state in private life which preserves the subordination of women, an aspect overlooked by Habermas, as well as to the hidden masculine domination and violence within family relationships. By 1990, he introduces in his theory the exclusion of women from the public sphere as a structural element and examines the notion of needs in parallel to Fraser’s work on these issues. He became genuinely interested, as Estelle Ferrarese tells us in the book, in Gilligan’s concept of care and reacts to feminist discussants like Iris Young or Seyla Benhabib on issues like justice, ethics, responsibility, and dependence. Contrary to Habermas who debates openly with feminist expertise, when Pierre Bourdieu develops the issue of women’s domination, late in his career, he fails to take into account the abundant literature produced by feminist scholars on this topic during the 1970s and 1980s. Rather than just a book, this collective work can be considered as a research line with potential for further developments. It raises a good number of issues that are just suggested or outlined and that could be worth exploring more extensively. After reading this book, one gets the impression that there is more gender beneath sociology than is usually thought. And that the other way round might also be true.

On the European side: a new sociological field

There is an old/new sociological field emerging and developing in Europe, i.e. existential sociology. A very promising sub-discipline inside sociology as a whole. New in Europe, but not so new in the US, as a matter of fact. Edward Tiryakian has been quite a pioneer in that field. In the early 1960s he stressed the necessary and potentially fruitful relations between existentialist philosophy (mainly European) and sociology (Tiryakian 1962, 1965, 1968, 1972, 1973). However, he never came to the point to propose the creation of a real existential sociology. Other Americans have done so (Douglas and Johnson 1977). Is that innovation specific to American sociology? One could suppose it: In their many books and articles, one does not find any reference to other sociological cultures. Too bad, indeed. In Europe, existential sociology does exist, at least since 1985 and the presidential address of one of the founders of the French-speaking sociologists international association (AISLF: Association Internationale des Sociologues de Langue Française), Marcel Bolle De Bal, but also without reference to the American literature in that field (Bolle De Bal 1986). Amazing spontaneous birth on the two sides of the Atlantic Ocean. Spontaneous but meaningful: It reveals a shared need of a new sociological branch, of a more humane sociology. But unlike the US-American writings, the Belgian sociologist did not start from philosophy in its existentialist dimension (Sartre, Merleau-Poty, etc.) but from his experience as a psycho-sociologist in group dynamics. However, one must recognize that the American and European researchers agree to build an interdisciplinary form of sociology, enriched by analyses from psychology and philosophy, both devoted to study problems of human existence.

Sociology and Industrial Democracy

The breakdown of fascist regimes in Europe1 after the Second World War put into question authoritarian structures in all action spheres, including the organisation of work. The following intensive social change stimulated the development of studies on industrial organisation, marked by a high cognitive potential and civic sensitivity. Especially those social scientists, who had immigrated to the US and returned to Europe, contributed to the democratisation of authoritarian societies and to the renaissance of sociology (Adorno and Horkheimer, 1950). But it was overshadowed by the Cold War.

The prospects of labour-oriented science and research in the nineties

A series of decisions covering agriculture as well as industrial and regional policy fundamentally affect the very own interests of the dependently employed. For some years, the trade unions of all European countries have been on the defensive, undergoing a legitimation crisis. The improvement of the social charter and of the rights of the European Parliament are not sufficient to overcome this crisis and to secure a human, social, ecological and democratic future. For this reason, the order of the day must not only be a socially and ecologically compatible design for technology, but a socially and ecologically oriented one. There is certainly an enormous quantity of accompanying research within the European Community, but it is doubtful in how far this research takes into account the requirements of the majority of the population.