OA eBooks Collection
The Future of Self-Governing, Thriving Democracies: Democratic Innovations By, With and For the People
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This book offers a new approach for the future of democracy by advocating giving citizens the power to deliberate and to decide how to govern themselves.
Innovatively building on and integrating components of representative, deliberative and participatory theories of democracy with empirical findings, the book provides practices and procedures that support communities of all sizes to develop their own visions of democracy. It re-vitalizes and re-infuses the ‘democratic spirit’ going back to the roots of democracy as an endeavour by, with and for the people, and should inspire us in our search for the democracy we want to live in.
This book will be of key interest to scholars and students in democracy, democratic innovations, deliberation, civic education, and governance and further for policy-makers, civil society groups and activists. It encourages us to reshape democracy based on citizens’ perspectives, aspirations, and preferences.
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Politik in Fernsehserien: Analysen und Fallstudien zu House of Cards, Borgen & Co.
House of Cards, Borgen und Co. – seit einiger Zeit boomen Fernsehserien, die explizit den politischen Betrieb fokussieren. Diese erreichen nicht nur ein akademisches Nischenpublikum, sondern erzielen insgesamt hohe Zuschauerquoten. Die Beiträge des Bandes analysieren, wie der Gegenstand Politik in den Serien aufgegriffen und als Material für ihre auf Unterhaltung ausgerichteten Erzählungen aufgearbeitet wird. Über die Auseinandersetzung mit popkulturellen Produkten zeigen sie, wie politische Bilder in populären Filmen und Serien konstruiert und reproduziert werden und wie diese sich auf Wahrnehmungen und Vorstellungen von Politik auswirken. Das Interesse gilt dabei den konstruierten Bildern von Politik im Allgemeinen, aber auch den sich darin äußernden nationalen Besonderheiten.
A Poetics of Neurosis: Narratives of Normalcy and Disorder in Cultural and Literary Texts
While psychiatry and the neurosciences have dismissed the concept of neurosis as too vague for medical purposes, in recent years literary studies have adopted the term by virtue of its abstractness. This volume investigates the verbalization of neurosis in literary and cultural texts. As opposed to the medical diagnostics of neurosis in the individual, the contributions focus on the poetics of neurosis. They indicate how neuroses are still routinely romanticized or vilified, bent to suit aesthetic and narrative choices, and transfigured to illustrate unresolved cultural tensions.
Musikalische Praxis als Lebensform: Sinnfindung und Wirklichkeitserfahrung beim Musizieren
Wie wirklich ist musikalische Praxis und was hat sie mit dem alltäglichen Leben zu tun? Eva-Maria Houben zeigt, dass sich das Musizieren verändert, sobald dessen Sinn nicht in der zweckorientierten Produktion von Arbeitsergebnissen, sondern im Musizieren als Beschäftigung und um des Spielens willen gefunden wird. Musikalische Praxis ist prinzipiell unabgeschlossen. So bleibt das Tun auf Wiederholung ausgerichtet und befreit von Perfektion, Produktivität, Zweckgebundenheit. Sinn wird in der jeweiligen Situation, am spezifischen Ort, im Beziehungsgeschehen selbst erlebt. Musikalische Praxis kann so zur »Lebensform« und dabei eine eigene Wirklichkeit werden.
Improvisation und Organisation: Muster zur Innovation sozialer Systeme
Um in komplexen und dynamischen Umwelten agieren und diese aktiv gestalten zu können, sind formalisierte Arbeitsabläufe und geronnene Strukturen oft nicht hilfreich. Wir benötigen ein performatives, fließendes Verständnis von Organisation und die Beherrschung agiler Prozesse: Das oft versteckte Erfahrungswissen (tacit knowing) wird zur Grundlage der heute benötigten »Kunst« der Improvisation. Die Beiträge zeigen: Implizites und intuitives, vorausschauendes Wissen und experimentierend-spielerisches Handeln sind die Grundlage für Innovation und agiles Lernen in Organisationen und sozialen Systemen. In der Analyse von »organizational patterns« und »musikalischem Denken« entsteht ein neues Verständnis flexibler und dynamischer Organisationen.
Fanfiction and the Author: How Fanfic Changes Popular Cultural Texts
Whether you look at quantity, quality, or readership, we are in an unprecedented era of fan fiction. Thus far, however, the genre has been subject to relatively little rigorous qualitative or quantitative study—a problem that Judith May Fathallah remedies here through close analysis of fanfiction related to Sherlock, Supernatural, and Game of Thrones. Her large-scale study of the sites, receptions, and fan rejections of fanfic demonstrate how it often legitimates itself through traditional notions of authorship even as its explicit discussion and deconstruction of the author figure contests traditional discourses of authority and opens new spaces for writing that challenges the authority of media professionals.
Aufbruch in die Öffentlichkeit?: Reflexionen zum ‘public turn’ in der Religionspädagogik
Die Religionspädagogik wird in zunehmendem Maße öffentlich. Damit reiht sie sich in den ¼public turn½ der Wissenschaften ein, wie er derzeit in der Soziologie, der Theologie oder den Erziehungswissenschaften zu beobachten ist. Bernhard Grümme zeigt: Was in den verheißungsvollen Aufbrüchen der öffentlichen Religionspädagogik unterbleibt, ist das Bedenken des Öffentlichkeitsbegriffs selbst. Es fehlt vor allem eine Kritik seiner Konstruktionsmechanismen, was dazu führt, dass die Religionspädagogik weder ihr kritisch-konstruktives Potenzial ausloten noch ihre eigenen Verwicklungen in hegemoniale Strukturen von Macht und Exklusion selbstkritisch reflektieren kann.
The Cultural Life of James Bond: Specters of 007
The release of No Time To Die in 2021 heralds the arrival of the twenty-fifth installment in the James Bond film series. Since the release of Dr. No in 1962, the cinematic James Bond has expedited the transformation of Ian Fleming’s literary creation into an icon of western popular culture that has captivated audiences across the globe by transcending barriers of ideology, nation, empire, gender, race, ethnicity, and generation. The Cultural Life of James Bond: Specters of 007 untangles the seemingly perpetual allure of the Bond phenomenon by looking at the non-canonical texts and contexts that encompass the cultural life of James Bond. Chronicling the evolution of the British secret agent over half a century of political, social, and cultural permutations, the fifteen chapters examine the Bond-brand beyond the film series and across media platforms while understanding these ancillary texts and contexts as sites of negotiation with the Eon franchise.
Zivilisieren durch Strafen: Britisch-Indiens Gefängnisse in der globalen Wissenszirkulation über die strafende Haft, 1820–1889
Mitte des 19. Jahrhunderts verfügte Britisch-Indien über die größten Gefängnisse der Welt. Stolz rühmten sich Kolonialbeamte damit, ein “”zivilisiertes”” System des Strafens eingeführt zu haben, das mit den Institutionen in den Metropolen vergleichbar war. Woher kam dieser Stolz und der Drang nach Vergleichbarkeit? Angesichts der großen Bedeutung, die die Konstruktion einer fundamentalen Differenz zwischen Kolonialherren und Kolonisierten für die Herrschaftslegitimation hatte, ist die Geschichte des kolonialen Strafvollzugs oft als die einer unvollständigen Modernisierung erzählt worden. Strafinstitutionen wie das Gefängnis wurden primär unter dem Gesichtspunkt der Repression gesehen. Aber warum investierte der Kolonialstaat so erhebliche Summen in den Strafvollzug, wenn es ihm nur um Repression ging? Diese Fragen sind nur vor dem Hintergrund der globalen Diskussion um den Strafvollzug im 19. Jahrhundert verständlich. Michael Kläger zeigt, wie koloniale Räume wie Britisch-Indien schon früh in geographisch weit ausgreifende Diskurse eingebunden waren, in denen Wissen über Formen und Zwecke des Strafvollzugs, über “”Besserung”” und Repression zirkulierte.
Nüchterne Staatsbürger für junge Nationen
Seit dem späten 19. Jahrhundert organisierte sich eine weltweite Temperenzbewegung gegen den Alkoholkonsum. In Argentinien und Uruguay begannen ab Ende der 1870er Jahre als erstes Mediziner insbesondere den massenhaften Konsum von Alkohol unter den eingewanderten Arbeitern aus Europa zu problematisieren. Zu Beginn des 20. Jahrhunderts engagierten sich dann weltweit vermehrt Frauen gegen den Alkoholismus der Männer. Diese Alkoholgegnerinnen und -gegner unterschiedlichster Couleur initiierten nationale Kampagnen stets im Spannungsfeld zwischen Erwägungen vor Ort und dem Austausch über globale Netzwerke. So standen etwa Aktivistinnen in Montevideo stets mit Gleichgesinnten der US-amerikanischen Temperenzbewegung gegen den Alkoholismus als gemeinsame Bedrohung in Kontakt, versuchten sich jedoch gleichzeitig von den “Schwestern” im Norden abzugrenzen. Sönke Bauck untersucht auf Basis bislang unerschlossener Quellen die Interaktionen und Kampagnen einer globalen Temperenzbewegung am Rio de la Plata – einer Bewegung, die letztlich ein Terrain der Konfrontation und Aushandlung nationaler, kultureller und religiöser Identitäten sowie von Geschlechternormen, Familienmodellen und schließlich auch Weltbildern und Weltordnungsentwürfen war.
La guerre et la paix dans la poésie épique en France (1500–1800)
Les conflits en France entre 1500 et 1800, qui résultent entre autres de bouleversements confessionnels (les guerres de Religion), politiques (la monarchie absolue) ou concernant l’histoire des idées (les Lumières), font naître un vaste panorama de poèmes épiques aux sujets mythiques, historiques, bibliques ou scientifiques. Depuis les premiers essais épiques au temps des guerres d’Italie jusqu’aux Colombiades au XVIIIe siècle, la dimension de la guerre, qui se veut une constante dans la tradition du genre depuis Homère, ainsi que celle de la paix, liée à la vision d’un âge d’or chez Virgile, sont représentées et évaluées de manière variée et polyvalente. Ces variations dépendent du modèle épique choisi, des considérations poétologiques ainsi que de l’arrière-plan socioculturel auquel les poètes appartiennent. Elles concernent tant la représentation de la violence sur les champs de bataille que la conception et la modélisation du héros épique. Au sein d’un genre fortement codifié émergent donc de multiples essais qui conçoivent de nouveaux regards sur la guerre et la paix tout en les intégrant dans le répertoire de la tradition épique.
Die Lehren des Luftkriegs
Wie viele Bomben braucht es, bis eine Gesellschaft zusammenbricht? Sophia Dafinger untersucht eine Gruppe sozialwissenschaftlicher Experten in den USA, für die der Zweite Weltkrieg ein großes Forschungslaboratorium war. Der United States Strategic Bombing Survey bildet den Ausgangspunkt für die Frage, wie die Lehren des Luftkriegs nach 1945 von den Experten des Luftkriegs formuliert, verbreitet, aber dann auch wieder vergessen wurden. Dafingers Beitrag zu einer modernen Gewalt- und Konfliktgeschichte des 20. Jahrhunderts thematisiert die Rolle der Wissenschaften in demokratischen Staatswesen – eine Geschichte, deren Auswirkungen bis in unsere Gegenwart reichen.
Die Krise des demokratischen Rechtsstaats im 21. Jahrhundert
Der demokratische Rechtsstaat ist im 21. Jahrhundert ins Wanken geraten – keineswegs nur in Europa. Entwicklungen wie beispielsweise in den USA und in Brasilien zeugen von der globalen Tragweite dieses Phänomens. Auf Grund der Vielzahl besorgniserregender Ereignisse ist es von eminenter Bedeutung, diese Krise zu analysieren. Wie kann den Angriffen auf die Demokratie begegnet werden? Stehen uns internationale oder supranationale Mittel zur Bewältigung zur Verfügung? Wie können Antworten aussehen, wenn der freiheitliche Rechtsstaat von Voraussetzungen lebt, die er um seiner Freiheitlichkeit willen nicht (mehr) selbst garantieren kann?
Die Autorinnen und Autoren setzen sich mit der historischen Dimension der Thematik auseinander und nehmen Gegenwartsanalysen vor, die auf konkrete Auswirkungen und zeitnah drohende Konsequenzen des Phänomens eingehen. Insbesondere wird die Verbindung von Rechtsstaat und Demokratie beleuchtet: Kann es eine Demokratie ohne Rechtsstaat oder den Rechtsstaat ohne Demokratie geben?
Women’s Perspectives on (Post)Migration: Between Literature, Arts and Activism – Between Africa and Europe.
This volume takes a closer look at women’s perspectives on (post-)migration and explores the uncertainties, frictions, struggles and opportunities emerging from that context. It revolves around African and Afrodescendant female writers and artists and refers to the uncomfortable stories they tell, stories about what it means to have migrated to, live in, or have been born in Romance-speaking Europe. Their voices reveal positionings of the ‘female Other’ that oscillate between alienation and belonging, moving between African, European and other (diasporic) spaces.
Necessity or Nuisance?: Recourse to Human Rights in Substantive International Criminal Law
What are chances and challenges of referring to human rights law in defining crimes under international law? Under what circumstances is a reference to human rights law dogmatically appropriate and practically likely? The answers to these questions are explored through a look at the theoretical framework, practical application in jurisprudence as well as empirically through interviews with judges. By highlighting the common roots and the differences between both areas of law, the existing inconsistencies in the application of the law, as well as approaches which could contribute to their solution, the book presents a crucial contribution to the debate on legal certainty and innovation in international criminal law.
Mozart’s Tempo-System: A Handbook for Practice and Theory
A reference book for the musician’s practical work of interpretation, this volume, after a general presentation of 18th century principles for determining a tempo, offers a compendium of all Mozart’s autograph tempo markings in 420 lists of pieces of similar character. Thus, a comparison of slower and quicker movements is made possible by 434 music examples, and there follows a wide-ranging collection of relevant texts taken from historical sources.
The book does not claim to know “the single correct tempo” for the works of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. It hopes to be of assistance in the unavoidable search by every interpreter for the “true mouvement” of each work—for the work itself, for the performer, the instrument or instruments, the room, the public, the nature of the event. It follows that there can be no absolutely “authentic” tempo for Mozart’s works. And yet his tempo markings, since he chose them so meticulously, should be taken equally seriously with the other parameters of his famously precise notation.
Accelerators in Silicon Valley: Building Successful Startups
This book describes how accelerators, the ‘schools of startup entrepreneurship’, help startups to become successful companies in Silicon Valley, the world’s most successful innovation region.
IT Laws in the Era of Cloud-Computing: A Comparative Analysis between EU and US Law on the Case Study of Data Protection and Privacy
This book documents the findings and recommendations of research into the question of how IT laws should develop on the understanding that today’s information and communication technology is shaped by cloud computing, which lies at the foundations of contemporary and future IT as its most widespread enabler. In particular, this study develops on both a comparative and an interdisciplinary axis, i.e. comparatively by examining EU and US law, and on an interdisciplinary level by dealing with law and IT. Focusing on the study of data protection and privacy in cloud environments, the book examines three main challenges on the road towards more efficient cloud computing regulation:
-understanding the reasons behind the development of diverging legal structures and schools of thought on IT law
-ensuring privacy and security in digital clouds
-converging regulatory approaches to digital clouds in the hope of more harmonised IT laws in the future.
International Humanitarian Law in Areas of Limited Statehood: Adaptable and Legitimate or Rigid and Unreasonable?
Areas of limited statehood, in which the territorial State lacks effective control, either completely or in part, challenge International Humanitarian Law in various ways. This volume explores if and how the law adapts to these challenges on the basis of mainly two legal issues: detention and investment protection in (non-)international armed conflict. Does a sufficient legal basis exist for the former? Is it International Humanitarian Law that determines what the investor is owed under a ‘full protection and security’ standard?
More fundamentally, the contributions strive to shed light on these practical legal issues in a manner that is also historically and theoretically informed. How can international law be effective in areas of limited statehood, in particular as regards non-State actors? Can the law provide incentives for compliance? Is it in need of being developed? If so, who enjoys the legitimacy to do so?
Europe – Against the Tide
Was sind die gegenwärtigen Herausforderungen der Europäischen Union? Wie reagiert sie auf internationale Veränderungen und Krisen? Und wie antwortet sie auf ihre Kritiker in den Mitgliedsstaaten? 16 Beiträge von internationalen Experten geben auf diese Fragen eine Antwort.
Digitization and the Law
Neue Technologien bedeuten neue Herausforderungen für das Recht. Das Internet ist kein Neuland mehr, kritische Themen wie Cyberattacken, Privatsphäre, der Schutz Minderjähriger oder auch das Cloud Computing sind jedoch keinesfalls ausdiskutiert. Die zunehmende Digitalisierung und Technisierung beschränkt sich nicht auf das World Wide Web. Der automatisierte Straßenverkehr ist ein ebenso zukunftsweisendes Thema, dessen Entwicklung rechtlich begleitet werden muss. Im vorliegenden Band sind Forschungsarbeiten von Rechtwissenschaftlern aus Deutschland, den USA, Kanada und Griechenland zusammengefasst.
Constitutional Issues of EU External Relations Law
The present book invites the reader to rethink some questions raised in EU external relations law in the light of recent developments in the case law of the Court of Justice, from the perspective of the constitutional foundations of the Union. The various chapters invite the reader to take a look at the balance between the specific legal regime for EU external action and the constitutional fundamentals of the EU legal order such as: the principles of conferral, loyalty, and institutional balance, as well as the rule of law, democracy, and fundamental rights protection. The accommodation between specificity and fundamental principles is, thus, a transversal constitutional issue.
Conceptualizing Power in Dynamics of Securitization: Beyond State and International System
This volume addresses the ‘question of power’ in current constructivist securitisation studies. How can power relations that affect security and insecurity be analysed from both a transdisciplinary and historical point of view? The volume brings together contributions from history, art history, political science, sociology, cultural anthropology and law in order to determine the role of conceptions of power in securitisation studies, which has tended to be dealt with implicitly thus far. Using conceptual theoretical essays and historical case studies that cover the period from the 16th to the 21st century, this book portrays the dominant paradigms of critical security studies, which mostly stem from the field of international relations and see the state as a major focal point in securitisation, in a new light.
Amicus Curiae before International Courts and Tribunals
Amicus curiae participation in international courts is steadily growing since the late 1990 despite lack of clarity on the concept’s nature, function and utility in international dispute settlement. Does amicus curiae infuse international judicial proceedings with alternative views, including the public interest in a case, as often advocated by NGOs? Does it increase the legitimacy and transparency of international dispute settlement, or the coherence of international law? Or is it an unhelpful impostor that impedes negotiated solutions and derails the proceedings at the expense of the parties to advance its own agenda?
By way of an empirical-comparative analysis of the laws and practices of the ICJ, the ITLOS, the ECtHR, the IACtHR, the IACtHPR, WTO panels and the Appellate Body, and investment arbitration the dissertation examines the status quo of amicus curiae before international courts and tribunals to determine if the current amicus curiae practice is of added value to international proceedings and international dispute settlement in general.
The dissertation shows that there is no common concept of international amicus curiae, but that amicus curiae before the international courts examined share a few characteristics. A proposed functional systematization highlights overlaps and diverging uses of the concept before international courts and helps scholars and practitioners to assess the opportunities and limits of the concept. Analysis of the concept’s current regulatory framework and its substantive effectiveness reveals a hesitation in particular by courts with a strong adversarial tradition to take into account the views of a non-party despite the positive experience with the concept in regional human rights courts. The dissertation concludes that neither the expectations nor the concerns attached to amicus curiae participation in international proceedings have materialized. It argues that the concept can contribute to improved decisions and decision-making in international dispute settlement if regulated and used properly.
The Visual Worlds of Social Network Sites: Images and image-based communication on Facebook and Co.
The central form of communication on social network sites (sns) is the communication with and through images. Accordingly, the present volume highlights images and image-based communication on sns, such as Facebook, and on nightlife platforms, such as Tilllate. First, the authors analyze the two central image categories in depth – profile images and photo albums. What follows is the portrayal of dramaturgical and staging strategies of the (semi) professional photography on the nightlife platforms, which leads to an evaluation of the importance of the international glamour photography as a parameter of private photographic self-expression. Other questions that the authors ponder in the volume are: Which functions and meanings do images have for the communications between users on social network sites? To what extent could certain design characteristics in the image-based communication on sns establish themselves as prototypical staging patterns? Which staging traditions are followed thereby? Which staging strategies are followed on different online platforms by the users’ (self) visualizations?
Torture: Moral Absolutes and Ambiguities
Not so long ago, the only respectable question for philosophical, legal, and political scholars to ask about torture was how to ensure its effective legal prohibition. Recently, however, some leading lawyers and legal theorists have challenged those who are absolutely opposed to torture, arguing that, in some circumstances, torture may be morally permissible or even required. This has provoked a range of responses, from outraged dismissal to cautious concessions that the law has to adjust to new realities. This volume contains writings by some of the leading contributors to these debates. Distinctively, it supplements the discussion about the morality of torture – and the morality of discussing torture – with essays which provide important legal, sociological, and historical analyses of this appalling human practice and of the attempts to control it. With an international and interdisciplinary authorship, Torture: Moral Absolutes and Ambiguities will be essential reading for legal and political theorists, philosophers, sociologists, historians, and indeed anybody interested in serious and informed thinking about this most disturbing phenomenon.
The Impact of Mass Media on Political Support: A Preferences-Perceptions Model of Media Effects
Why is citizens’ support for political actors and institutions declining? Recent research suggests that voter cynicism is fueled by the manner in which mass media covers political events and issues. This dissertation provides evidence regarding the impact that media coverage of political decision-making procedures has on an audience’s political support. It focuses on the role of individual expectations and preferences of the audience. Empirically-standardized online surveys, an experimental study, and a comprehensive content analysis of news coverage were conducted for this study. It shows that mass media may contribute to a decrease of political support by shaping the perception of political processes. In addition, the findings suggest that the media’s impact on political support was particularly strong if media coverage shapes the impression that political processes do not match individual preferences. This book contributes to a differentiation of the rather general claim that negative or critical media information results in a decline of political support.
Trust and Terror: Social Capital and the Use of Terrorism as a Tool of Resistance
Why do some individuals choose to protest political grievances via non-violent means, while others take up arms? What role does whom we trust play in how we collectively act? This book explores these questions by delving into the relationship between interpersonal trust and the nature of the political movements that individuals choose to join. Utilizing the examples of the Arab Spring uprisings in Egypt, Libya and Syria, a novel theoretical model that links the literature on social capital and interpersonal trust to violent collective action is developed and extended. Beyond simply bringing together two lines of literature, this theoretical model can serve as a prism from which the decision to join terrorist organizations or violent movements may be analyzed. The implications of the theory are then examined more closely through an in-depth look at the behavior of members of political movements at the outset of the Arab Spring, as well as statistical tests of the relationship between interpersonal trust and terrorism in the Middle East and globally.
Freedom of the Press: On Censorship, Self-censorship, and Press Ethics
Since antiquity it has been known that without the freedom to speak, and later to publish, the road to fanaticism and totalitarianism lies wide open. This book focuses on how the ‘press’ reacted, when press freedom was under strain in number of cases in the 20th century and the beginning of the 21st century. Contemporary literature on the freedom of the press has its focus on the role of the press in relation to democracy; how media influences democracy, how the political and the ethical aspects are managed etc. This book is on the one hand part of this central discourse. On the other hand, it attempts to broaden views by focusing on the historical and contemporary experiences, when press freedom was under strain in significant periods since the 1930s. Also, its geographical scope is broader than most books, and it brings together experienced journalists and known academics adding to the dynamism of the discussion and challenging the reader to find his own position concerning censorship, self-censorship and press ethics.
The Economic Ethics of World Religions and their Laws: An Introduction to Max Weber’s Comparative Sociology
Based on analyses of the essays written by Max Weber on China, India, ancient Judaism and also on the dispersed material about Islam, Eastern Christianity and Occidental Christianity, this book examines the economic ethics of Asian and Christian traditions and their corresponding legal systems. Drawing also on Weber’s methodology (particularly the concept of adequate causation), the author reveals that the nature of Asian religions as well as the nature of customary and other not formally rational laws in Asian cultures could not lead to modern capitalism out of their own sources, although capitalism could be adopted from the outside. The culture of the Occident, upon which capitalism is based, is revealed to consist of a double rationalisation: the formal rationality of the exterior circumstances of life (administrative and legal) and the innerworldly practical rationality of the inner motivations of the Protestants, supported by a goal-oriented rational technology.