What are the reasons for the rapid economic growth of regions and their later decline? Why does the development of a certain region create under-development in another region within a national or global sphere? A central paradigm for explaining such phenomena is core–periphery relations, and the case study presented in this paper is the port city of Thessaloniki and its regressive and peripheral status within the regional (Macedonia and the Southern Balkans), national (State of Greece), and international (the capitalist world- system) spheres during two main political periods: (i) the final decades of the Ottoman regime in Macedonia (1870–1912); (ii) the first quarter of a century in which Thessaloniki integrated with Greece (1912–1936).

Was den Kern der europäischen Identität ausmacht, ist freilich mehr der Charakter schmerzlicher Lernprozesse als dessen Ergebnis. Die Erinnerung an den moralischen Abgrund, in den uns der nationalistische Exzess geführt hat, verleiht unserem heutigen Engagement den Stellenwert einer Errungenschaft. (Jürgen Habermas1)

Genetic engineering (GMO-technology) offers great opportunities to contribute to the public good by improving public health, e.g. by improving the micro-nutrient status of poor populations, cost effectively and – therefore – sustainably. The prime example for such a project from the public domain for public good is ‘Golden Rice’ (www.goldenrice.org). There are exclusive public funds involved (from altruistic organizations), no dependence from industry except for in-kind support and help in acquiring free licenses for humanitarian use. There is no financial reward for anyone involved. The only beneficiaries are the poor in developing countries. Theoretically, when considering the arguments of the anti-GMO lobby, this is an ideal application of GMO-technology. However, Golden Rice is considered a Trojan Horse, which must be prevented under all circumstances. The consequence: millions of avoidable blind and dead children. The author considers those who are responsible for this avoidable suffering of many innocent children (and mothers at childbirth) a crime to humanity. There are those who commit this deliberately and those who are participating passively, such as numerous ‘humanitarian organizations’ and ‘decision makers’ in politics and elsewhere. There is a wealth of scientific information and broad consensus that GMO-technology is at least as safe as any other technology involved in any context with our food or our environment. What we experience here is an example of ‘unreason’ and a perfect example in the context of The March of Unreason. Our ‘enlightenment’ and science-based successful European culture is on the verge of being replaced by unreason-based failure and lack of culture.

Core–periphery analysis is vital to an understanding of the European Union (EU) and regional development. The European Economic Community (EEC), which would eventually become the EU, was formed in 1957 in order to promote progressive economic integration. Recognizing that there were depressed regions within both peripheral and core nation-states, the EC adopted a programme with the goal of bringing those regions into convergence. Its programme is essentially a liberal centre–periphery model similar to the one proposed by Friedman. Many of the nation-states within the EC also have their own regional policies and programmes regarding intervention within their own spatial boundaries. To present an approach for comparison this article will focus on two examples of regional policy: Britain's attitude toward regional development in the North and the German programme for integrating East Germany.

Assisted reproduction has been carried out within the Danish health care system since the beginning of the 1980s. The first independent act on artificial reproduction was adopted in Denmark 15 years later, in 1997. The issue of assisted reproduction is still a subject of debate in Denmark. The main driving forces in Danish society when establishing legal regulation in this area are existential, social and cultural/religious. The involvement of both scientific and lay voices and the timing of the ethical debate are important factors in the creation of the Danish legislation on assisted reproduction.

The author attempts a redefinition of literary epochs or periods as problematics, i.e. as constellations of problems to which individuals and groups react in many different ways. In this respect he differs from those who construct literary periods as world visions, ideologies, aesthetics or stylistics. He defines problematics from a sociosemiotic point of view: as socio-linguistic situations in which competing collective languages (sociolects) and discourses react critically and polemically to one another.

When the debate on globalization started in the early 1990s, the dominant assumption was that globalization was a shocking new phenomenon. Moreover, this new development was seen as an attempt to undermine the sovereignty and economic functions of the nation state, hence undermining the fundamental basis of the welfare state. According to this perspective, the welfare state was expected to collapse as a result of economic constraints. Some influential publications promoted the idea that countries would find themselves captured in a global trap. At least in the field of social sciences, this thesis was interpreted differently: the weakening of the nation state by globalization was considered a myth that served as an excuse for cutting government budgets. Since then, the social sciences have developed an approach to globalization as a long-term trend within the capitalistic framework, driven by economic and political developments and dependent on pre-existing social conditions.

The goals and methods of a global history of literature may not always be easily reconcilable with those pertinent to local (‘national’ or ‘regional’) literary traditions; however, behind the, at times, lengthy or painstaking discussions on the criteria of selection, emphasis, and on more or less necessary nuances, there are also a number of deeper and more fundamental issues at stake in a global history of literature that can be fruitfully approached through the looking-glass of a local literary tradition. Even characteristics of a particular tradition of literature that may seem specific, even highly specific, can give rise to intriguing questions bearing on some of the wide-ranging issues tied to a global perspective on literature. More in particular, with regard to Italian literature, three issues come to the fore: the way literary history deals with the question of agency, the connections between literary history and cultural repertoires, and the question of canonicity and ideology in literary historiography.

By predicting a global change of the Earth's climate, scientists are delivering an uncomfortable message. The release of the fourth IPCC report in 2007 has led to a surge of scepticism and criticism of both the science and the scientists. All this has received a lot of press coverage. Here I discuss the roots of climate change scepticism and how it has been triggered by the complex and novel aspects of climate science. I also call for more transparent and open practice in science, as more light is precisely what its opponents cannot afford.

Science is often seen as empirical inquiry that aims at proof or explanation, but eschews normative considerations. This, I shall argue, is inadequate. Scientific thinking and practice also depend on additional standards, including a range of norms that are not and cannot be established by empirical methods. It follows that science cannot and should not aspire to be value free.

The opposition between rationality and irrationality is often portrayed as a struggle between rational evidence-based science and irrational, ungrounded myth. I shall argue that this is too simplistic and that different forms of rationality need to be recognised – in particular, the rationality of everyday life. All scientific inquiry and reasoning is based and depends upon the practices, activities and antecedent beliefs of human knowers, who are embedded in cultural life-worlds in ways that science has hitherto ignored. Progress in civilisational rationality requires that the rationality of the life-world be understood.

It is argued that patterns of behaviour that distinguish human ‘moral communities’ have evolved culturally and been subject to natural selection. For this to work, these behaviour patterns must be maintained stably over substantial numbers of people and periods of time. Religious prescription – which is essentially equivalent to ethics – has provided this stability.1–3 It follows that ethics must also have evolved and been subject to natural selection.

If someone says ‘I'm good thank you!’, usually in response to a polite ‘how are you,’ I am tempted, and often do, reply: ‘That's an interesting claim or hypothesis – how are we going to test it?’ This paper is about testing that hypothesis, taken literally; the hypothesis that someone is good, how such a claim might be tested and what thinking about the exercise tells us about goodness and hence of course about how to increase goodness in the world and in people.