Internationaler Policy Transfer in der Berufsbildung

The international practice of transferring educational structures, curricula and best practice, shortly summarized under the term ??policies??, from Germany to many other countries has taken place since more than 40 years. In this article we will first explain the theoretical framework for the analysis of policy transfer. In the second part the model of work culture as a developmental approach and extended theoretical framework that can be used for the analysis of context factors in the policy transfer process will be introduced. This model is applied to the analysis of policy transfer in vocational education and training in China and Turkey and used to explain context, actors and goals as well as transfer attainments.     

Groundwater protection： What can we learn from Germany？

For drinking water security the German waterworks proceed on a comprehensive concept, i.e., the protection of all the regions from the recharge area to the client. It includes the protection of the recharge area by a precautionary management, a safe water treatment, a strict maintenance of the water distribution network, continuous control and an intensive training of staff. Groundwater protection zones together with effective regulations and control play a very important role. Three protection zones with different restrictions in land-use are distinguished. Water in reservoirs and lakes is also protected by Surface Water Protection Zones. Within the surrounding area the land-use is controlled, too. Special treatment is necessary if acidification happens caused by acid rain, or eutrophication caused by the inflow of sewage. Very important is the collaboration between waterworks and the farmers cultivating land in the recharge area in order to execute water-protecting ecological farming with the aim to reduce the application of fertilizers and plant protection agents. Probable financial losses have to be compensated by the waterworks.     

Sites of attractiveness: Japanese women and westernized representations of feminine beauty

Ever since Japan's entry into global geopolitics, scholars have identified Japanese popular cultural texts as a terrain on which this country's complex relationship to the West is negotiated. Few studies, however, have adequately addressed how such texts—and Western influence in general—might be experienced differently by different groups and/or strata of Japanese society. Inspired by the work of postcolonial feminist scholars who argue that gender, race, class, and cultural identity must be examined in relationship to each other, this study focuses on a group of 29 women with whom the author conducted interviews and extensive participant observation during eight months of fieldwork in a small Japanese community. It examines, in particular, how these women negotiated Westernized representations of feminine beauty omnipresent in the Japanese media. This article argues that even though informants assertively critiqued and actively negotiated media representations, their own conceptions of attractiveness—and their daily relationships to their physical selves—matched those of the Westernized media‐defined ideals. In view of these findings, it concludes with a call for a more systematic and critical assessment of gender in transcultural relations.     

In search of market niches

This article explores marketing issues in the development of new print media products, reviewing factors that contribute to the success and failure of new publications in Europe. The author then suggests eight principles that characterize the successful launch of a new newspaper or magazine.