Drawing upon philosophy and social theory, Social Theory of International Politics develops a theory of the international system as a social construction. Alexander Wendt clarifies the central claims of the constructivist approach, presenting a structural and idealist worldview which contrasts with the individualism and materialism which underpins much mainstream international relations theory. He builds a cultural theory of international politics, which takes whether states view each other as enemies, rivals or friends as a fundamental determinant. Wendt characterises these roles as 'cultures of anarchy', described as Hobbesian, Lockean and Kantian respectively. These cultures are shared ideas which help shape state interests and capabilities, and generate tendencies in the international system. The book describes four factors which can drive structural change from one culture to another - interdependence, common fate, homogenization, and self-restraint - and examines the effects of capitalism and democracy in the emergence of a Kantian culture in the West.

/pdf/social-theory-of-international-politics-3eegdnnwai.pdf

Social Theory of International Politics

Acknowledgments Introduction 1. Ethnicity without Groups 2. Beyond "Identity" 3. Ethnicity as Cognition 4. Ethnic and Nationalist Violence 5. The Return of Assimilation? 6. "Civic" and "Ethnic" Nationalism 7. Ethnicity, Migration, and Statehood in Post-Cold War Europe 8. 1848 in 1998: The Politics of Commemoration in Hungary, Romania, and Slovakia Notes References Index

/pdf/ethnicity-without-groups-34krft0iw6.pdf

Ethnicity without Groups

Methodological nationalism is understood as the assumption that the nation/state/society is the natural social and political form of the modern world. We distinguish three modes of methodological nationalism that have characterized main- stream social science, and then show how these have influenced research on migra- tion. We discover parallels between nationalist thinking and the conceptualization of migration in postwar social sciences. In a historical tour d'horizon, we show that this mainstream concept has developed in close interaction with nation-state building pro- cesses in the West and the role that immigration and integration policies have played within them. The shift towards a study of 'transnational communities' - the last phase in this process - was more a consequence of an epistemic move away from methodo- logical nationalism than of the appearance of new objects of observation. The article concludes by recommending new concepts for analysis that, on the one hand, are not coloured by methodological nationalism and, on the other hand, go beyond the fluidism of much contemporary social theory. After the first flurry of confusion about the nature and extent of contemporary pro- cesses of globalization, social scientists moved beyond rhetorical generalities about the decline of the nation-state and began to examine the ways in which nation-states are currently being reconfigured rather than demolished. That nation-states and nationalism are compatible with globalization was made all too obvious. We wit- nessed the flouring of nationalism and the restructuring of a whole range of new states in Eastern Europe along national lines in the midst of growing global interconnec- tions. The concomitance of these processes provides us with an intellectual opening to think about the limitations of our conceptual apparatus. It has become easier to under- stand that it is because we have come to take for granted a world divided into discrete and autonomous nation-states that we see nation-state building and global inter- connections as contradictory. The next step is to analyse how the concept of the nation-state has and still does influence past and current thinking in the social sciences, including our thinking about transnational migration. It is our aim in this article to move in this direction by exploring the intellectual potential of two hypotheses. We demonstrate that nation-state building processes have fundamentally shaped the ways immigration has been perceived and received. These perceptions have in turn influenced, though not completely determined, social science

Methodological Nationalism and Beyond: Nation-State Building, Migration and the Social Sciences

Ethnic Groups in Conflict

Survey questions asking about taboo topics such as sexual activities, illegal behaviour such as social fraud, or unsocial attitudes such as racism, often generate inaccurate survey estimates which are distorted by social desirability bias. Due to self-presentation concerns, survey respondents underreport socially undesirable activities and overreport socially desirable ones. This article reviews theoretical explanations of socially motivated misreporting in sensitive surveys and provides an overview of the empirical evidence on the effectiveness of specific survey methods designed to encourage the respondents to answer more honestly. Besides psychological aspects, like a stable need for social approval and the preference for not getting involved into embarrassing social interactions, aspects of the survey design, the interviewer’s characteristics and the survey situation determine the occurrence and the degree of social desirability bias. The review shows that survey designers could generate more valid data by selecting appropriate data collection strategies that reduce respondents’ discomfort when answering to a sensitive question.

Determinants of social desirability bias in sensitive surveys: a literature review

Soziologie. Spezielle Grundlagen.

Soziologie : Allgemeine Grundlagen

Sprache und Integration : Die sozialen Bedingungen und Folgen des Spracherwerbs von Migranten

Starting from discussions on the validity of the classical assimilation concept, a general model for the explanation of different structural outcomes of interethnic relations is developed. The core of the model builds on the assumption that different outcomes are the often unintended and situation-logic results of (mis-)investments in and with ethnic and non-ethnic capital. Central initial conditions of the model are group size, social and cultural distances and the availability of social capital. The model specifies the mutual relations between these three constructs. Different variants of intergenerational integration of immigrants can thus be reconstructed as special cases of a general mechanism.

http://edoc.vifapol.de/opus/volltexte/2014/5164/pdf/wp_71.pdf

Does the new immigration require a new theory of intergenerational integration

Die "Integration" von fremdethnischen Migranten und von ethnischen Minderheiten ist eines der wichtigsten aktuellen gesellschaftspolitischen Probleme im Zusammenhang mit Uberlegungen einer als dauerhaft angesehenen gesteuerten Zuwanderung. Kaum jemand streitet dabei ab, dass die Integration ein zentrales Ziel oder gar eine Vorbedingung der Regelungen des Migrationsgeschehens sei, an dem sich alle weiteren Uberlegungen zu orientieren hatten. Das Problem ist nicht neu, und es gibt eine lange Tradition von soziologischen Beitragen dazu. In der Soziologie der Migration und der interethnischen Beziehungen spielte der Begriff der Integration daher auch immer schon eine besondere Rolle. Er kann eigentlich als geklart gelten, insbesondere in Beziehung und Abgrenzung zu verwandten oder ahnlich klingenden Konzepten, wie etwa "Inkorporation", "Absorption", "Akkulturation" oder auch "Assimilation". Leider sind diese Klarungen in den offentlichen und teilweise auch in den wissenschaftlichen Debatten nicht uberall prasent. Oft werden bestimmte Begriffe in diesem Zusammenhang, wie der Begriff einer "multikulturellen Gesellschaft", das Konzept der "Assimilation" oder auch die These einer nationalen "Leitkultur", der sich die Migranten gegenubersehen sollen, auch mit ideologischen Bewertungen belegt, mit versteckten anderen politischen Konzepten in Verbindung gebracht oder als normatives Ziel ohne weitere Berucksichtigung eventueller Folgen vertreten. Und nur selten werden die inzwischen gut bekannten empirischen und theoretisch begrundbaren Zusammenhange, Voraussetzungen und Folgen einer "Integration" in die Beurteilung der Konzepte mit einbezogen, von denen jede auch politische Beurteilung und jede praktische Masnahme und Regelung ausgehen mussten.

/pdf/integration-und-ethnische-schichtung-4e6bokbfng.pdf

Hartmut Esser

Papers

Soziologie. Spezielle Grundlagen.

Soziologie : Allgemeine Grundlagen

Sprache und Integration : Die sozialen Bedingungen und Folgen des Spracherwerbs von Migranten

Does the new immigration require a new theory of intergenerational integration

Integration und ethnische Schichtung