Publication Type: Session Presentation
Abstract: The case will be made for a Germanophone literature by presenting the writings of contemporary Turkish-German and Arab-German authors and discussing how some of these can be used in the German classroom. We will demonstrate a form of the Turkish- and Arab-German interaction within the context of a non-political and non-confrontational mode of co-existence.

Publication Type: Roundtable
Abstract: The paper explores the influences of self-control in studying inter-ethnic aggressive actions among adolescents. In line with considerations by Gottfredson and Hirschi (1990) we expect to find low self-control contributing to more aggressive actions. In contrast, high self-control should be associated with lower frequencies of aggression. Our understanding of Gottfredson and Hirschi’s theory is that self-control reflects personal characteristics rather than being a mediating influence for the explanation of aggression. Thus, cluster analysis was used in order to identify types of self-control for further analyses. The analytical model investigates the effects of proneness towards violence and trust in the judicial system on direct and indirect inter-ethnic aggressive actions controlled for self-control types, gender and educational achievement.
The research design is characterized by the transition from school into the labour market. The quantitative longitudinal survey began at the end of secondary school education in North Rhine-Westphalia in 2001 and is projected to conclude in 2006. For this presentation data from the first three waves (2001-2003) and responses from 1855 German, 717 Turkish and 1439 Aussiedler adolescents will be analysed.

Publication Type: Conference Paper/Unpublished Manuscript
Abstract: The ability to have a distinct voice discernible above the din and the drone of mass produced culture is difficult. In a world in which independent and empowered action and speech are threatened by the homogenizing forces of capitalist production, an individual’s ability to birth a new way of seeing the world and a new articulation of their own conception is increasingly threatened. But threatened does not mean impossible. The power and scope of mass culture does not equate with an overall disappearance in individual artistic agency or meaning.

This paper will attempt a dialectical and discursive presentation of contemporary culture through the metronome of a specific manifestation of the musical form of hip-hop, seeing within that form a potential as a space of distinction and dissent. Through this articulation, I will strive to avoid the “ineluctability of difference” (Aronowitz, p.296) inherent in a negative dialectical approach.

I will first present an understanding of two meta-interpretations of the concept of “culture”, using Adorno’s critical theory of the culture industry and of mass culture and Arendt’s alternative view. With a theoretical critique of modern mass culture thus established, I will present hip-hop as an alternate and Other site of culture for non-North American youth, using a specific subset of hybridized middle Eastern/European youth as a conceptual frame of reference. My intent, then, is to show that they have the potential to move outside of the culture industry and achieve an active agency that Adorno seems to suggest is otherwise lacking.

Publication Type: Poster
Review Method: Peer Reviewed
Abstract: Intergroup contact has a long research tradition within the social sciences, its most prominent theory being the contact hypothesis by Allport (1954). The hypothesis states that contact between groups that have negative views of each other can lead to a reduction in intergroup bias and prejudice if certain optimal conditions are implemented within the contact situation. Despite criticism, recent findings reveal that contact situations structured according to Allport’s optimal contact conditions are indeed effective in reducing intergroup prejudice. A wide array of studies dealing with the effects of intergroup contact exist to date. However, up to now little research has addressed intergroup contact effects in longterm settings or the differential effects of intergroup contact for minority versus majority group members. With regard to Germany’s current integration policy, that specifically aims at the integration of Muslims, this study therefore attemps to create a longterm contact intervention between Germans without migrational background and Turkish immigrants in Germany. The encounter is planned as a Turkish-German language course to take place in Bremen in which participants teach each other German or Turkish respectively. The main aim is to create and evaluate a special form of intervention that is in line with recent research and that could serve as a model for future integration projects. Several research questions will be assesed within this setting, including issues of minority and majority group membership differences in intergroup contact effects, the role of implicit and explicit prejudice and the process that leads to prejudice reduction.