Cultural Diversity and the Empowerment of Minorities: Perspectives from Israel and Germany / Edition 1

by Rosemarie Mielke, Majid Al-Haj

Overview

Conflicts between different racial, ethnic, national and other social groups are becoming more and more salient. One of the main sources of these internal conflicts is social and economic inequality, in particular the increasing disparities between majority and minority groups. Even societies that had been successful in dealing with external conflicts and making the transition from war to peace have realized that this does not automatically resolve internal conflicts. On the contrary, the resolution of external conflicts may even sharpen the internal ones. This volume, a joint publication of the University of Haifa and the International Center for Graduate Studies (ICGS) at the University of Hamburg, addresses questions of how to deal with internal issues of social inequality and cultural diversity and, at the same time, how to build a shared civility among their different national, ethnic, religious and social groups.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781845451950
Publisher:	Berghahn Books
Publication date:	12/01/2007
Pages:	304
Product dimensions:	6.20(w) x 9.30(h) x 0.80(d)

About the Author

Rosemarie Mielke is Professor for Educational Psychology at the University of Hamburg. She has published books on attitude and behavior and self related concepts like control, self-monitoring, self-efficacy and social identity. Her present research projects deal with strategies to cope with "negative" social identity, the influence of (minority/majority) group membership on self-evaluation and achievement behavior and the relationship between self-concept, values and the ethics of biogenetics.

Majid Al-Haj is Head of the Center for Multiculturalism and Educational Research at the University of Haifa and lectures at the Department of Sociology at the University of Haifa. He has published extensively on the social and political structure of the Palestinians in Israel, Palestinian refugees, Russian immigrants in Israel, and freedom of expression. His books include Social Arab Local Government in Israel, co-authored with Henry Rosenfeld (Westview Press, 1990); Education, Empowerment and Control: The Case of the Arabs in Israel (SUNY Press, 1995), Sociology of War and Peace in Israel in a Changing Era (co-editor with Uri Ben Elezer- Haifa UniversityPress , 2003) and Immigration and Ethnic Formation in a Deeply Divided Society: The Case of the 1990s Immigrants from the Former Soviet Union in Israel (Brill, 2004).

Table of Contents

List of Figures and Tables
Preface

Introduction: Education, Multiculturalism, and Empowerment of Minorities – An Overview
Majid Al-Haj and Rosemarie Mielke

PART I: GENERAL OVERVIEW

Chapter 1. Stories of Struggle: Transnational Advocacy and Democracy Education
Gordon Mitchell

Chapter 2. What’s Going on between Members of Majorities and Minorities? Contributions from Social Psychology
Rosemarie Mielke

Chapter 3. Talking at Cross-purposes: Misunderstanding in Intercultural Communication
Juliane House

PART II: THE ISRAELI CASE

Chapter 4. A Curriculum between Conflict and Peace: The Teaching of History in Jewish and Arab Schools in Israel
Majid Al-Haj

Chapter 5. The Evolving Arab Reception of the Holocaust and Palestinian Textbooks: A Contribution to Democracy and Peace Education?
Schirin Fathi

Chapter 6. Police–minority Relations in a Multicultural Society: The Israeli Case
Badi Hasisi

Chapter 7. On the Central Role of “Threat Perception” in Mediating the Influence of Socioeconomic Factors on Xenophobic Attitudes
Eran Halperin, Daphna Canetti-Nisim, and Ami Pedahzur

Chapter 8. A Multimedia Lexicon as a Tool for Increasing Societal Tolerance
Oz Almog and Tami Almog
Chapter 9. When Gender Differences Surpass Cultural Differences in Personal Satisfaction with Body Shape in Israeli College Students
Marilyn P. Safir, Shimrit Flaisher-Kellner, and Amir Rosenmann

Chapter 10. Postcolonial Feminism, the Politics of Identification, and the Liberal Bargain
Amalia Sa’ar

PART III: THE GERMAN CASE

Chapter 11. Acculturation Attitudes and Bilingual Classrooms in Germany. The Portuguese–German Example
Joana Duarte

Chapter 12. “Not Always Proud to be American”: The Reconstruction of National Identity by Americans Residing in Germany
Inke Du Bois

Chapter 13. Oral Mistake Corrections in Second-language Classrooms
Olga Visbal

Chapter 14. Intercultural Competence in Management Consultancies in Germany: Does It Exist?
Melissa Lamson

Notes on Contributors
Index of Names
Index of Subjects

Editorial Reviews

“…this volume makes a valuable contribution to our understanding of the various dynamics and manifestations of conflict underlying majority-minority relations in Israel and Germany. Furthermore, the book makes a unique contribution in its application of democracy education as a means of empowering minorities and alleviating tensions. For these reasons, the book will likely appeal to both policymakers and scholars alike in its reference to a wide range of issues such as education, immigration, and gender issues.” • H-German

From the Publisher