Humanities & Social Sciences

This volume examines the concept of ethnic domination and its manifestations in Israel (within the Green Line) and Estonia. Ethnic domination is a method of managing ethnic differences in multiethnic contexts through asymmetrical power relations, in accordance with an ethnonationalist ideology, whereby a group is subordinated to another holding the power, albeit not intent to directly eliminate the subaltern. The volume compares the predicament of Israeli Palestinian citizens and Estonian Russian-speakers in different dimensions (state-citizenship, government-parliament, parties). Also, the analysis explains the divergent trajectories of the cases: the tightening of the condition of Israeli Palestinian citizens and the democratization of ethnic politics in Estonia.

Indonesia

"The Chuj of northwestern Guatemala are among the least studied groups of the Mayan family, and their relative isolation has preserved a strong indigenous tradition of storytelling. In Chuj (Mayan) Narratives, Nicholas Hopkins analyzes six narratives that illustrate the breadth of the Chuj storytelling tradition, from ancient mythology to current events and from intimate tales of local affairs to borrowed stories, such as an adaptation of Oedipus Rex. The book illustrates the broad range of stories people tell each other, from mythological and legendary topics to procedural discussions and stories borrowed from European and African societies. Hopkins provides context for the narratives by introducing the reader to Chuj culture and history, conveying important events as described by indigenous participants. These events include customs and practices related to salt production as well as the beginnings of the disastrous civil war of the last century, which resulted in the destruction of several villages from which the narratives in this study originated. Hopkins also provides an analytical framework for the strategies of the storytellers and presents the narratives with Chuj text and English translation side-by-side. Chuj (Mayan) Narratives analyzes the strategies of storytelling in an innovative framework applicable to other corpora and includes sufficient grammatical information to function as an introduction to the Chuj language. The stories illustrate the persistence of Classic Maya themes in contemporary folk literature, making the book significant to Mesoamericanists and Mayanists and an essential resource for students and scholars of Maya linguistics and literary traditions, storytelling, and folklore. "

In Anna Seghers’ short story, Gita delle ragazze morte (1943-1944) and in Claudio Magris’ Esterno giorno – Val Rosandra (1982), a group of high school friends and their trip on the eve of World War I provide the narrative nucleus around which individual micro-histories meet macro-history. In the proposed analysis, the reason for the deprivation is identified as an element common to the two texts. In Seghers’ story, the temporal distance is cancelled out in a continuum, whereas Magris’ story operates through multiplication and fading between different typologies of texts: novel, screenplay, film, Goethe’s Faust, and short story.

"This book attempts to equip the reader with a holistic and accessible account of Islam and evolution. It guides the reader through the different variables that have played a part in the ongoing dialogue between Muslim creationists and evolutionists. This work views the discussion through the lens of al-Ghazālī (1058-1111), a widely-known and well-respected Islamic intellectual from the medieval period. By understanding al-Ghazālī as an Ash’arite theologian, a particular strand of Sunni theology, his metaphysical and hermeneutic ideas are taken to explore if and how much Neo-Darwinian evolution can be accepted. It is shown that his ideas can be used to reach an alignment between Islam and Neo-Darwinian evolution. This book offers a detailed examination that seeks to offer clarity if not agreement in the midst of an intense intellectual conflict and polarity amongst Muslims. As such, it will be of great interest to scholars of Science and Religion, Theology, Philosophy of Religion, Islamic Studies, and Religious Studies more generally. "

Als elementarste Körper- und Lebensfunktion scheint Atmung gerade aufgrund ihrer existenziellen Bedeutung selbstverständlich - und rückt vor allem da in den Blick, wo diese Selbstverständlichkeit gestört ist. Wie lässt sich medien- und kulturwissenschaftlich über diesen Vorgang nachdenken? Die Beiträger*innen des Bandes beschreiben Erscheinungsformen, Techniken und Technologien des Atmens in medialen Zusammenhängen. Dabei ist die Frage nach der Medialität nicht zu trennen von der Frage nach der Politik der Atmung - nach den politischen Bedingungen, unter denen sie erschwert oder sogar verunmöglicht wird. »Perhaps all politics starts with breathing« (John Durham Peters).

Cynthia J. Brown explains why the advent of print in the late medieval period brought about changes in relationships among poets, patrons, and printers which led to a new conception of authorship. Examining such paratextual elements of manuscripts as title pages, colophons, and illustrations as well as such literary strategies as experimentation with narrative voice, Brown traces authors' attempts to underscore their narrative presence in their works and to displace patrons from their role as sponsors and protectors of the book. Her accounts of the struggles of poets, including Jean Lemaire, Jean Bouchet, Jean Molinet, and Pierre Gringore, over the design, printing, and sale of their books demonstrate how authors secured the status of literary proprietor during the transition from the culture of script and courtly patronage to that of print capitalism.

Mit der Einsetzung der Schuldenbremse als oberste Finanzregel des Schweizer Bundeshaushalts fand eine lange Phase der Verrechtlichung von Haushaltsführung ihren vorläufigen Abschluss. Die Schuldenbremse bindet die Finanzpolitik an eine übergeordnete Fiskalregel. Sie soll eine stabile, passiv-antizyklische Haushaltspolitik garantieren und dabei in Ausnahmesituationen Massnahmen ermöglichen, die den jeweiligen Erfordernissen angepasst sind. Darüber hinaus diente die schweizerische Schuldenbremse als Vorbild für die bundesdeutsche Schuldenbremse und besteht gleichzeitig neben den vielfältigen Fiskalregeln der Kantone. Die Dissertation zeigt anhand von Vergleichen, insbesondere mit den weit stärker justiziabel ausgestalteten Mechanismen in Deutschland, unterschiedliche finanzrechtliche Herangehensweisen. Eine Durchsetzung der Schuldenbremse im schweizerischen Bundeshaushalt ist nur indirekt und sehr beschränkt möglich – wenn aus rechtlicher Sicht überhaupt von einer solchen gesprochen werden kann. Institutionelle Schranken alleine reichen nicht aus, einen Haushalt ins Lot zu bringen und den Schuldenstand zu stabilisieren. Deshalb sollen weitere Steuerungsinstrumente und bestehende Organe den finanzpolitischen Zielen ebenfalls zum Durchbruch verhelfen. Gleichwohl gilt, dass bei verstärkter Durchsetzung von rechtlichen Regeln eine effektive und effiziente Führung des öffentlichen Haushalts nicht ver- eitelt werden darf. Ist unter diesen Gesichtspunkten ein Ausbau überhaupt sinnvoll und welche Möglichkeiten der Erweiterung gibt es? Die vorliegende Arbeit gibt, eingebettet in den Kontext von Haushalts- und Finanzpolitik, darüber Aufschluss.

Edinburgh was disproportionately affected by HIV/AIDS in the early 1980–1990s, and women and children were affected in higher numbers there than elsewhere in the UK. Edinburgh’s AIDS crisis also followed a different pattern, with new infections predominantly occurring among IV drug users and heterosexuals. Because of the high rates of HIV infection among women in Edinburgh, the city rapidly became host to numerous charities and organisations scrambling to meet the needs of HIV-affected women and families, aiming to prevent new infections and meet the emotional, medical, housing, and educational needs of those already affected by the virus.This chapter traces how healthcare workers and HIV-affected women responded in Edinburgh. This was interdisciplinary collaborative AIDS activism born out of the daily fight for resources, information, space, and empathetic treatment for women and their families. This activism can be traced in texts both academic and creative, and was at the very least a backdrop for many women’s experience of HIV and AIDS in Edinburgh in the late twentieth century. To focus the analysis, the creation of the Paediatric AIDS Resource Centre (PARC) in Edinburgh is examined, alongside some of the items the centre published. The need for PARC is demonstrated not just by placing it in its social, political, and historical context, but by recovering the words of HIV-affected women and healthcare workers drawing on its resources, writing these women back into the history they created as subjects rather than objects.

Since the Middle Ages, hunting has been a privileged pastime for rulers and the powerful in large parts of Europe. In Germany, the aristocratic right to hunt on other people's land did not formally end until the revolution of 1848/49. The interest of historians in hunting is therefore mainly focused on the art forms and attributes of courtly hunting, its protagonists, methods, weapons and equipment, the development of hunting fairness (Weidgerechtigkeit) and hunter's language (Weidmannssprache), hunting signals and hunting dogs. This volume, on the other hand, deals with the question of whether and, if so, under what conditions peasants and members of the lower or non-peasant classes also pursued (huntable) wild animals, using examples mainly from Lower Saxony. The hunting laws generally ruled this out. Was it conceivable that a non-aristocratic hunting culture had survived alongside aristocratic hunting practices? The period under investigation covers the early modern period and the 19th century, with pre- and post-times. Aspects of the development of hunting law, the functions of hunting as a resource for the ruling classes, bird-trapping and poaching as ʻhunting for the little manʼ, animal torture games and hunting criticism as well as the anthropological foundations of hunting are also touched upon.

Sounds in Translation: Intersections of music, technology and society joins a growing number of publications taking up R. Murray Schafer’s challenge to examine and to re-focus attention on the sound dimensions of our human environment. This book takes up his challenge to contemporary audiologists, musicologists and sound artists working within areas of music, cultural studies, media studies and social science to explore the idea of the ‘soundscape’ and to investigate the acoustic environment that we inhabit. It seeks to raise questions regarding the translative process of sound: 1) what happens to sound during the process of transfer and transformation; and 2) what transpires in the process of sound production/expression/performance. Sounds in Translation was conceived to take advantage of new technology and a development in book publishing, the electronic book. Much of what is written in the book is best illustrated by the sound itself, and in that sense, permits sound to ‘speak for itself’.

Philosophical discourses can fail in different ways and for different reasons. If disputants are involved in a mere dispute over words, their dispute is not based on disagreement. Due to a linguistic misunderstanding, they just talk past each other. In its first part, this book outlines for the first time a detailed theory of mere disputes over words. What characterizes such unsuccessful disputes? And what evidence can support the suspicion of a mere dispute over words in philosophy? In the second part of the book, the author then applies the results obtained in a case study to the debate about personal identity.

"Learning by Design and Second Language Teaching establishes theoretical, research, and practice connections between the multiliteracies framework Learning by Design and L2 teaching and learning. A comprehensive introductory chapter presents the theoretical tenets of the approach and is followed by four chapters devoted to the establishment of connections between the framework and L2 instruction, information on evidence-based pedagogical practices and suggestions for their implementation, and task examples that can be adapted for use in a variety of educational contexts. Each chapter links theory and research to practical steps instructors can take to select authentic materials and create tasks in each of the framework’s knowledge processes with the objective of developing L2 students’ performance in the interpersonal (speaking), interpretive (reading and listening), and presentational (writing) modes of communication. A selection of guidance charts, figures, templates, and extra digital resources are included within the text to support learning and teaching. The book will be of interest to graduate students and in-service and future L2 teachers in all levels of instruction."

How do instructors navigate the tension between facilitating safe spaces for students while also challenging students intellectually in increasingly politicized classroom settings? How can trigger warnings be used to empower and/or support students and facilitate antiracist, queer, anticolonial, and other social justice-oriented pedagogies? Trigger Warnings: Teaching Through Trauma brings theory and praxis to examine the ideological underpinnings and pedagogy around trigger warnings and trauma, offering multiple heuristics for classroom implementation. The ongoing interest in trigger warnings is partly a result of trigger warnings and trauma becoming more inextricably interwoven in the past few years in the wake of COVID-19, mental health crises, right-wing attacks on educational institutions, climate change, and attempts at political redress and educational equity. Critiques of trigger warnings come from all sides of the political and pedagogical spectra, and even scholars and practitioners who offer a trauma-informed approach to the topic are not unified in their view of the benefits or drawbacks of trigger warnings. Trigger Warnings: Teaching Through Trauma provides insights through a range of forms: research articles, personal essays, long and short teaching narratives, student perspectives, memoirs, vignettes, autoethnographies, reflections, case studies, manifesto, theory, and history. Not only does this collection create a more varied engagement experience for readers, but, in line with recent scholarship in “counterstory,” it also allows for a wider variety of voices to be heard and for the articulation of experiences that might not be well accommodated by traditional scholarly essays.

From the conflict in Syria to the crisis in Ukraine, Russia continues to dominate the headlines. Yet the political realities of contemporary Russia are poorly understood by Western observers and policy-makers. Andrew Monaghan explains the importance of 'getting Russia right'. Exploring in detail the relationship between the West and Russia, he charts the development of relations and investigates the causes of the increasingly obvious sense of strategic dissonance. He also considers the evolution in Russian domestic politics, introducing influential current figures and those who are forming the leadership and opposition of the future. By delving into the depths of difficult questions such as the causes of the Ukraine crisis or the political protests surrounding the 2011–12 elections, the book offers a dynamic model for understanding this most fascinating and elusive of countries.