Drawing on observations from the Polish-German borderland, critically Essay

Drawing on observations from the Polish-German borderland, critically examine the effects which Europeanisation - or EU-isation - Essay Example Once this has been done, the impacts that Europeanisation has had upon the Polish-German borderland will then be highlighted and both the advantages and disadvantages of closed borders will be discussed. Applicable text books, journal articles and online databases will be accessed by conducting both a library and online search. Once the evaluation has been made, an appropriate conclusion will then be drawn, demonstrating that Europeanisation does significantly affect the borderness nature of Eastern Europe. Main Body Europeanisation is a process of change whereby a non-European subject adopts various European features. This has been defined as â€Å"a process involving; construction, diffusion and institutionalisation of formal and informal rules, procedures, policy paradigms and shared beliefs† (Cini, 2007: 407). The European features are initially defined and consolidated within the policy process of the EU and subsequently incorporated into domestic structures. This effecti vely creates a borderless world which was identified by Ohmae (1990: 172) when he stated that; â€Å"national borders have effectively disappeared and, along with them, the economic logic that made them useful lines of demarcation in the first place.† Despite this contention, borders are still greatly important in helping to develop regions that are divided by state boundaries and also for analysing modern geography relating to politics and economics (Nelles and Walther, 2011: 6). They also form part of an ideology and help to demonstrate the limits associated with territorial ownership and control (Herrschel, 2011: 173). They have a significance beyond economics, since borders in all areas of life affect the ways that people perceive themselves and their role in the world: â€Å"Borders are integral to human behaviour – they are a product of the need for order, control and protection in human life and they reflect our contending desires for sameness and difference, f or a marker between ‘us’ and ‘them’.† (O’Dowd, 2002: 14-15). Borders are therefore vital in helping to distinguish different identifies, and yet since the 1989 Revolutions; borders within the EU have undergone some important transformations. Both the re-bordering and de-bordering of the EU has taken place and these processes vastly complicate the ways that people view their own local, regional and national identities. Whilst this proliferation of identities may seem contradictory, greater flexibility now exists for people to step outside both the mental and physical limitations of previous decades. As the example of the Russian-Finnish border has shown, some dimensions of border transformation are relatively easy to implement, while others remain relatively impervious to new rulings, even at the national and international level. This is because â€Å"boundaries are understood as institutions and symbols that are produced and reproduced in soci al practices and discourses† (Paasi, 1999:669). It is this level of symbolic meanings, passed on from person to person through social interaction that is so vital for the successful advance of Europeanisation. Without this level of social engagement to aid with transformation of the deeper significance attached to the border location, any amount of administrative

Gender Discrimination Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2500 words

Gender Discrimination - Essay Example It is understood that the human rights activist cry for equality, a collective recognition is deemed acceptable for all and not merely censored on a few and singular groups. The potential for random discrimination in relation to gender is not dismissed. The so-called moral activists in adherence to old conservative theories still utter a different lament. The social change will take its toll and be delegated to the far recesses of one's imagination unless laws that protect the identity of women and transsexuals are recognized and properly implemented particularly in the workplace environment where common complaints of gender inequality are often heard. With the passing of certain laws that govern sexual discrimination, how are this implemented in the workplace This seemingly simple question carries a multi-faceted approach that require knowledge of the laws that govern our rights. Since the advent of sex discrimination legislation, the United Kingdom and the European region in general saw significant cultural changes across the workplace. When the European Convention on Human Rights recognized individuals other than the traditional gender classification of male and female a ground breaking law was established. In the field of sexual orientation the protection of transsexual rights of gay and lesbian under Article 8 of the European Convention has been interpreted "to extend to an adult's right to participate in private, consensual homosexual activity". In Cossey v U.K.1, when the applicants challenge the government to change their birth certificates to reflect their new gender the basis of denial dwell on the substantial administrative burdens imposed on the birth certificates. This might have to do with the explanation of trying to see to it that the historical records of accuracy are maintained and discrimination is not cited. At the onset of the recognition of transsexual rights, anti-discrimination laws were reviewed immensely. The current framework of Anti-Discrimination Law is made up of three main statutes in the equal protection sense which deals with sex, race and disability issues. The Sex Discrimination Act 1975(SDA 1975)2 prohibits discrimination on the grounds of sex; marital status and now includes gender re-assignment in the field of employment, education and provision of goods and services. The applicability of such laws is considered in England, Scotland and Wales. This Act is currently considered the most valuable tool to combat today's discrimination of employees in the work environment. It is undeniable that for some reasons, employers still practice such measures of exclusions despite claiming substantial media attention on the prosecuted violators. The habit of an imperialistic attitude bordering on the offensive refuses to die immediately which brought relevant complaints from women and transsexuals and will probably continue if proper dissemination of this particular law is not made available to the parties concerned. On the basis of gender discrimination a person's right to exercise his/her skills and training are impeded in the workplace. In SDA 1975, sexual classification as the weaker sex is tantamount as an insult to a person's identity as pointed out in Snook 19993. It is a woman's civil right to a career of her own choice and to earn for herself and her family like any man. With the advent of this law, we can now see a