Given the catastrophic history of the 'short 20th century' (Hobsbawm), the crucial question facing the new millennium - all over the world - is that of the future social as well as political development. At the centre of our engagement with this question should lie reflections on participatory forms of democratisation in as many societies around the globe as possible, so as to make globalisation more than simply an economic theme. Such reflections - as the contributions in this book show - from this perspective would also examine the possible ways in which relations might be constituted...

This book presents the best contributions and some more invited papers of a Conference which was organised at the University of Durban-Westville in South Africa by the Research Committee 10 Participation, Organisational Democracy & Self-Management of the International Sociological Association, and the South African Sociological Association, from 1 to 5 October 2000. The nineteen contributions come from Africa, America and Europe and cover the topic in an interdisciplinary way. A major concern within the process of globalisation being democratic participation and cultural diversity. A critique...

Japan has dominated over many years the discussion on corporate governance, and has even served as best practice and benchmark in this regard until the end of its Bubble Economy in the 1990s. This model was characterised as Lean Management or Toyotism. On the other side, in Europe, has the model of the Rhenanian Capitalism, i.e. Germany, largely influenced the European corporate governance structure and debate. Its main feature is its participatory approach by codetermination, Mitbestimmung, which has found its European dimension in the European Works Council, the...

This book presents a selection of presentations during the Fifth Congress of the International Network Regional and Local Development of Work and Labour. The congress took place at the University of Osnabruck in September 2006. However, it was not a traditional congress, but it revived the practice of future workshops, which were invented by Robert Jungk. The book assembles 33 articles covering all social sciences by authors from 16 different countries: Austria, Brazil, Denmark, Germany, France, India, Italy, Japan, The Netherlands, Nigeria, Norway, Poland, Russia, South Africa, Spain, and...

The onset of democracy in South Africa provided South Africans with the opportunity to build a truly democratic, non-racial, non-sexist society in which there would be opportunity for all to make material, social and intellectual progress. This vision was enshrined in a Constitution intent on deepening democracy by treating people with dignity and ensuring that democratic participation was not restricted to a trip to the voting booth once every five years. To give democracy real meaning, the Constitution declared that municipalities, in particular, must facilitate public participation for...