Social Control of Deviant Behavior in the Context of Rights and Freedoms of Man

Tatjana Shipunova, St. Petersburg (Russia)

T. Gobbs, an English philosopher, thinking about the problem of sociogenesis, had formulated a question: ‘How can a society exist if dog eats dog?’ (more…)

The Right to the City and the Participative Director Plan of Florianópolis: thoughts on training for the exercise in participative democracy

Iliane Kohler, Priscila Larratea Goyeneche and Vera Herweg Westphal, Florianópolis (Brazil)

The NESSOP (Center of Studies and Research in Social Service Popular Organization/UFSC) in partnership with the UFECO (Community Entities Union of Florianópolis), developed five training seminars on the “Right to the city and the Participative Director Plan of Florianópolis” for leaderships of the socio-community movement in 2007. (more…)

Between paternalism and indifference

Niels Rosendahl Jensen, Copenhagen (Denmark)

The approach of this article may be resumed in a statement: I have learned to be afraid of people who want to be good to other humans, and especially of people who know how other humans get happy. (more…)

Intercountry Adoption Reform Based on the Hague Convention on Intercountry Adoption: An Update on Guatemala in 2008

Karen Smith Rotabi, Richmond, Virginia (USA) and Kelley Bunkers, Addis Ababa (Ethiopia)

Until recently, Guatemala was on a per capita basis the largest source of US-adopted children in the world. (more…)

Survivors of the killing: child soldiers as refugees in Germany

Dima Zito, Wuppertal (Germany)

“There are things I did, that are unspeakable. People I killed come to me in the night. What gives me the power to go on living is the idea of finding a way to make up for it somehow. And maybe of finding my mother again one day.”
Statement of a former child soldier, from a therapy memo by the author

This article presents the issue of former child soldiers as refugees in Germany and the question of support for these traumatized children. (more…)

Equitable growing up in Europe: myth or reality? Great Britain

Ruth Lister, Loughborough (UK)

A few years ago researchers described the UK as ‘contender for the title of worst place in Europe to be a child’ and by extension young person (Micklewright and Stewart, 2000: 23). Last year, in the UNICEF assessment of the well-being of children and adolescents, the UK was ranked worst overall and, with the US, was in the bottom third of the rankings for 5 of the 6 dimensions reviewed (UNICEF, 2007). (more…)

Transnational exchange projects are getting started

Ulrike Wisser, Brussels (EU, Belgium)

A first round of transnational exchange projects has been selected within the new European Programme for Employment and Social Solidarity (PROGRESS). Based on the good experience of one of the former programmes, the European Commission supports European projects that exchange and implement good practice to fight against poverty and social exclusion. (more…)