Malene Gram, PhD, lecturer (International Studies Research Unit, Aalborg University)

Family holidays: what makes a good experience?
A qualitative study of German and Danish Families
This is a study of what a good family holiday is perceived to be by German and Danish families. Family holidays are seen as breaks away from busy everyday lives. They are supposed to be a relief from stress and chores, giving time for recovery and rest in pleasant companionship of the family, but it sometimes may turn out to be a bit of a challenge having to combine needs and desires of several actors in the family: parents and children, mothers and fathers, young children and older children. It is not all harmony and does also generate stress and conflicts at times. But families also experience really good moments. Some family holidays - or at least - some situations in family holidays are perceived as successful and just the way they were supposed to be. But what are these 'good experiences' and 'good moments' like, and what constitutes a good family holiday?

This paper is about the 'good experiences' and 'good moments' in the family holiday from the perspective of mothers, fathers and children. It is based on an empirical study of 26 extensive interviews with German and Danish families and on literature on family holidays. The good moments are perceived to be moments where all members of the family are content and happy, with no nagging or sulking, and in situations where the children are absorbed by activities, not necessarily with their parents.

Keywords: family holidays, experience, ideals for holidays

Anette Therkelsen, Ph.D., Associate Professor (Tourism Research Unit, Aalborg University)

Family Holidays and Decision Making - the Role of Children
The decision making process in connection with family holidays is not thoroughly discussed in the tourism literature, particularly not the influence of children on holiday choices (Cullingford 1995; Nickerson & Jurowski 2001; Seaton & Tagg 1995; Thornton, Shaw & Williams 1997). The consequence of this is that very little knowledge exists of the negotiations, compromises and modifications of the individual family member's behaviour which would seem the natural consequence of the decision making within such a composite buying units. Moreover, as children are increasingly developing into independent consumers as well as central influencers of parents purchases at an earlier and earlier age (Hansen et al. 2002; Lindstrom 2003; McNeal 1999), it is highly relevant to direct one's attention at the role of children in holiday decision making.

Thus this presentation focuses on whether and if so how children influence the holiday decision making process - both the choice of holiday destination and the choices made at the destination. Point of departure is taken in the existing, though limited research on the topic, which forms the basis of a qualitative interview study of holiday decision making carried out among Danish and German families in Spring 2003. The analysis reveals a typology of family decision making processes based on the interplay between two continua: one focusing on needs (ranging from parents' to children's needs); the other focusing on negotiation (ranging from extensive to no negotiation). On this basis three types of family decision making processes in relation to holidays materialise. It furthermore appears that the placement of the individual families within this framework to a large degree is dependent upon the stage of the family life cycle they are at.

Keywords: family holidays, decision making, the role of children, typology

Simona Vonica Radutiu (Visiting PhD candidate, Bucharest University)

The Globalization Process and the New Configuration of Welfare
This paper is part of my PhD topic 'Welfare state models between survival, reform and European Integration'. The scientific purpose is oriented to comparative analyses of welfare regimes in Europe. The research hypothesis is based on the idea that the world is witnessing a new paradigm of defining welfare basically through transformations and adaptations to different challenged national or international factors. The paper focuses on the impact of the globalisation process on the welfare state. Because of its direct recognized impact on the financial area, the globalisation process is often perceived as a threat directly addressed to welfare states, particularly so in countries with high taxation as the Nordic countries. The welfare state in most capitalist countries has been under pressure since the 1970s but how and to what extent these challenges have affected social welfare programs is a matter of controversy. While some argue that welfare programs will be reduced to a minimum, others contend that the welfare state has been resilient against these challenges.

Peter Wennersten (Visiting Marie Curie Fellow, Dept. of Social and Political Sciences, European University Institute, Italy)

Identity Conflicts and EU Enlargement – The Case of France.
The talk will address the Eastern enlargement of the EU from the French perspective and has a focus on intersubjective meaning. The immediate problem is how to understand French politics and attitudes towards the upcoming enlargement, politics that often seem both favourable and reluctant. Mainstream academic knowledge can basically be summed up in more or less sophisticated versions of the 'talk is cheap' position, indicating that France is principally opposed to enlargement, as would be obvious from for instance beak-and-claw bargaining about agricultural reform. I argue that the picture is actually more complex, and that an inquiry into ideas about the French nation and state can shed more light on French behaviour in the enlargement process. I thus propose to understand French behaviour by applying the concept of 'identity conflicts' to the process.

Key Words: France, EU Eastern enlargement, CAP, dichotomies (ideational/material, identity/interest), identity conflict.

Zsuzsanna Trón (Visiting Doctoral Candidate, Faculty of Economic and Business
Administration, University of Debrecen, Hungary)

The Evolution and Reforms of the Regional Policy of the EU and Its Conflicting Interests
In the European Union the discussion of each budgetary period sees fierce debates about the structural expenses and their distribution. The researcher presents a summary of the principles of those involved and tries to catch them in the policy making of Brussels. In the first half of the presentation the necessity of regional policy and its theoretical foundation are examined touching upon the so-called convergence and divergence theories. This is followed by the discussion of the conflicting interests and motifs shaping the regional policy. The final question is whether the expences of the Structural Funds can be justified in view of the processes and results shown.

Trine Flockhart (European Research Unit)
'Complex Socialisation' - Towards a structural framework for explaining norm change

The paper is placed within the current debate in International Relations between rationalist and constructivist conceptions of whether behaviour is the result of rational action based on fixed preferences, or whether behaviour arises from actors' preferences that are formed and generated through identity construction prior to the exercise of instrumental rationality.

The paper is specifically concerned with providing a framework for understanding norm change through various forms of socialisation of new norms into a given social group. In that sense the paper is itself an expression of a social constructivist perspective, based on the view that preferences are formed through the social construction of particular identities. By utilising Social Identity Theory and Self- and Other Categorisation theories from social psychology, the paper sets out to develop a framework, which can explain norm transfer through socialisation, whilst at the same time account for the considerable degree of variation across cases often observed in studies on the socialisation of norms, but not satisfactorily accounted for in existing models of norm socialisation.

The paper develops a framework in which the degree of successful norms transfer will depend on the ideational distance between a socialising agent (in-group) and a number of socialisees (out-groups). Distance between the socialising agent and the socialisee is determined along two dimensions of ideational closeness divided between state/elite - nation/people, and takes place through three stages. First stage is the initial self-and other categorisation process where ideational distance is determined between the in-group and the different out-groups, giving rise to a hierarchy of different out-groups. Second stage is socialisation at the state/elite level within the different out-groups, where the position in the hierarchy will determine channels of influence open and socialisation strategies to be used. Third stage is socialisation at the nation/people level, where socialisation channels and strategies will depend on ideational distance between the nation/people and the socialising agent AND the ideational distance between state/elite and nation/people. The result is a framework which does seem to explain the highly complex process of norm socialisation, and to account for differences in the degree of success between different cases.

Xiangming Chen (Professor, Department of Sociology, University of Illinois at Chicago, USA)
Modernity and Transnational Cultural Flows in the Era of Globalization: Change and Continuity in the Context of Shanghai, China.

In this lecture, Prof. Chen will address the extent and mechanism of global cultural convergence through transnational cultural flows and diffusion, while talking about the simultaneous adaptation and even resistance of national and local cultures and how this may lead to the emergence of tension between global (primarily Western) and indigenous values and of hybrid consumer attitudes and tendencies, illustrated with his empirical work on Shanghai.

Jens Eistrup (PhD Candidate, SPIRIT)
War and Sovereignty in Political Philosophy: The Schizophrenia of Jean-Jacques Rousseau.

In this paper I deal with the relationship between the concepts of war and sovereignty in the political thought of Jean-Jacques Rousseau. The hypothesis that is pursued is the following:

Jean-Jacques Rousseau is a 'schizofrenetic', divided between (1) a radical democratic renewal of the classic concept of sovereignty inherited from Jean Bodin and Thomas Hobbes - pointing towards a principle of actual autonomy and self-determination on a collective level and (2) Schmittian and Wilsonian (!) grasps of sovereignty and autonomy as being inescapably linked to other sovereignties and autonomies in world society or world politics.

Rousseaus sense of the destructivity of wars between states play, I believe, a key role in his rather dispairing description of the prospects of national or popular selfdetermination, a description that effectively undermines his own construction of legitimate popular will formation. This tension between the idealism of the general will, on the one hand, and the sorry conditions of the same selfdetermination in the real system of states, politics and war on the other, is both an (other) interesting contradiction in the Rousseau-universe and an extremely important feature of the ongoing normative debate on democracy and selfdetermination as such. The recent trends in political analysis to de-contruct sovereignty as a pivotal political concept seem to leave behind a 'vacuum of politics' in which no alternative concepts have taken the place of sovereignty as the underlying, sensemaking framework of politics.

The two poles between which this schizofrenetic oscillates are, as mentioned above, Rousseaus 'predecessors' in political thought Jean Bodin and Thomas Hobbes and his 'successors' Carl Schmitt and Woodrow Wilson. It might seem astonishing that the authoritarian Schmitt and the democratic idealist Wilson are pooled together, but I hope the following argument will demonstrate the shared conceptual caracteristics of these two (otherwise) antagonists in political theory, as well as their common affiliation with (one half of) Rousseau.

Karen Bird (Visiting AMID Fellow, Department of Political Science
McMaster University, Canada)
The Political Representation of Women and Ethnic Minorities:
A Framework for Comparative Research.
Over the last twenty or so years, we have seen growing concern within democratic societies with the facial composition of representative assemblies. It seems increasingly important that legislatures be (or appear to be) inclusive and representative of the broader society. While there are some common explanations for the growing concern across many democracies with the under-representation of historically marginalized groups, there are vast differences within and between countries in the steps that have been taken to increase the political representation of those groups. This essay attempts to disentangle the broad idea of descriptive representation, as applied to women and ethnic minorities across Western democratic political systems, and to point out the conditions under which it may be easier or harder for some groups to achieve a voice in the political process. The
paper draws attention to and provides direction in addressing four questions
concerning women's and ethnic minority representation:

1. Are there similar factors behind the movement for increased women's and ethnic minority representation?
2. What are the mechanisms that have been used in various countries to improve the political representation of marginalized groups, and how are they different for women and minorities?
3. How do women and ethnic minorities engage with the political system, and to what extent do they act as representatives for group members?
4. To what extent are ethnic minority and feminist organizations allies engaged in related struggles for better political representation?

Helene Beck Pristed (PhD Candidate, SPIRIT)
Does Deliberative Democracy Work in Practice – Methodological Considerations.

Having previously argued that traditional liberal and communitarian views on minority rights hardly provide any workable guidelines for how to accord such rights in practice, I have turned my investigation of minority rights to focus on the model of deliberative democracy.

This model, which is sometimes referred to as participatory democracy, is based on the assumption that different groups within any given society can and should have influence on policy areas that affect their daily living. In this respect, the model of deliberative democracy is obviously a normative one. As such, one might wonder whether it will prove more workable than the previous models of liberal and communitarian approaches to minority rights. Hence I ask: Does deliberative democracy work in practice?

Obviously, the only way to answer this question will be to ask people from minority communities about their experiences with gaining access to the policy making process. My paper thus aims to present the methods of inquiry I plan to use in conducting this investigation. A number of different possibilities for designing such a study present themselves, and I do indeed plan to use a mixed methods design. Hopefully the seminar will provide feedback and reactions to my approach, which, on the one hand, is somewhat closed due to the application of a priori theory, but which I, on the other hand, also hope to keep sufficiently open.

Jeppe P. Trautner (PhD candidate, ERU)
"Mastering ‘Noble Dogs": Theories on Democratic Control with the Armed Forces - Towards an Understanding of Coalitional Military Interventions

This SPIRIT seminar focuses on Democratic Control with the Armed Forces, a sub-field of Civil-Military Relations. The core issue of civilian control is the “Preatorian problem”: Anybody securing themselves against an external threat with an armed guard faces the risk of an internal threat from the guard itself. The Western democracies have developed efficient democratic control with their armed forces, and are not risking military coups. But one issue remains unresolved as three approaches severely at odds strive for domination: How should politicians direct military forces participating in humanitarian (military) interventions abroad? Surely politicians decide when the state should employ its armed forces, and for what aims. But what role should politicians play in the direction of on-going 'peace support operations' and wars? Should they participate in the development of strategy, have oversight on the intermediate 'operational level' and occasionally dive into events at the lowest tactical level of warfare? Or will any uncalled for political attention at any level of warfare constitute counter-productive interference?

(The paper is accessible from Jeppe P. Trautner's web page: www.humsamf.auc.dk/~trautner).

Laura Salciuviene (Visiting Marie Curie Fellow, Department of Marketing, Kaunas University of Technology, Lithuania)

Linking Cultural Linking Cultural Values and Brand Choice of Lithuanian and Danish Consumers
The identification of consumers' values, satisfaction of their needs and knowledge of their preferences to buy specific brands is fundamental for business success. It is widely agreed that differences in cultural values exist across countries. Cultural differences provide important explanations for variances in values and consumer brand choice behaviour. The marketing literature has mostly focused on the impact of values on consumer buying decisions; however, despite numerous studies there is still no general consensus on how to develop instruments for measuring cultural values. Thus, the overall research question of the PhD project is to assess to what extent the choice behaviour of consumers is dependent on values, which constitutes an essential element of culture. Knowledge on whether the values are useful in differentiating customers' characteristics in markets may increase firms' competitive advantage and business success. Moreover, understanding the role and extent of cross-cultural differences between Lithuanian and Danish consumers in choosing specific brands may have important implications for marketing policy development by companies.

David May (AMID, Aalborg University)

Immigrants in Danish Associations
In Aalborg there is a surprisingly small number of immigrant associations compared to Århus and Odense. This is probably due to two facts, first that there is not as large a concentration of immigrants, the critical mass is not reached, and second that greater numbers of immigrants came to Aalborg only in recent years while they came at an earlier stage to Århus and Odense. This phenomenon leaves immigrants with various options for becoming active in Danish Associations. The presentation starts out with a quantitative overview of immigrant participation in Danish associations and a discussion of the major trends in the immigrants' distribution across different types of associations. The second part of the presentation deals with the immigrants' motivation for and profit of participating in Danish associations. The profit of participation is analysed more thoroughly using the following concepts: recognition, learning of everyday competence, social capital, and power.

Wolfgang Zank (ERU, Aalborg University)

The Power of Nationalist Mythology. A Critique of Important Authors on Nationalism Who Became Conquered by the Ideology They Wrote About (E. Gellner, A. Smith, and Particularly L. Greenfeld).
Nationalist Mythology has undoubtedly been a very important factor in history. Important components of this mythology have been

1. the idea that nations have been culturally homogeneous, or, if not completely homogeneous, having at least a set of common characteristic cultural traits, the "-ness" ("Danishness", "Britishness" etc.)
2. that this "-ness" has been constant for a long time.
   Biological analogiees (nations as "natural organisms") has also been a feature which could be observed frequently with nationalists.

The tenets of nationalist mythology have at best been gross exaggerations of real phenomena, and usually patently at odds with reality; when it comes to values, norms, outlooks etc. (as opposed to some symbols), nations have invariably been heterogeneous, and their cultural mix has been changing all the time. Nevertheless have nationalist mythologies entered to quite some degree, as uncontrolled assumptions, the works of important authors on nationalism. This is demonstrated in some detail by a critical review of Ernest Gellner's Nations and Nationalism, and Anthony Smith's National Identity. The paper discusses also Liah Greenfeld's Nationalism. Five Roads to Modernity, and to a shorter extent, Daniel J. Goldhagen's Hitler's Willing Executioners. Both works are methologically similar and exhibit a systematic selectivity of the empirical evidence, plus a serial mangling of evidence, in order to "prove" an ideological position. These two works should best be seen as pieces of contemporary nationalist mythology.

Simona Vonica Radutiu(Visiting Marie Curie Fellow, Faculty of Sociology and Social Work, Bucharest University, Romania)

Social Policy reform in post-communist Romania

The new enlargement of the European Union with ten new members and
forthcoming accession of other two in 2007 increase the interest in
studying the statement of political, economical and social achievements
within the former communist countries. The framework of this paper is
social policy reform in East European countries in particular the case of
Romania.
First, the paper examines the Romanian welfare system by offering a general
overview of the social policy configuration during the communist regime.
Second, within the transition period, it explores two particular components
of social reform. Due to the communist lack on unemployment and
means-tested benefits, the research is concern with the policy
implementation regarding active measures in combating unemployment and the
implementation of minimum income guarantee law.