Humanities & Social Sciences

In the digital world of scholarly publishing online access is provided to articles, hyperlinked reference and supplementary data. Connection with social networking, e.g. blogs, relation with other materials, e.g. multimedia, and semantic context, e.g. XML, is not realised widely at present. Publications and related objects are processed separately as single objects and connections between them are not easy to find. As no relation between single objects is provided, it is difficult to find out whether related objects are available. Meanwhile, the number of scholarly objects on the Internet is growing very quickly. Integration of all this scientific information by linkage is necessary to keep publishing efficient and to maintain control over the process. Therefore, publications should provide those links, resulting in ‘Enhanced Publications’.

Current historical and political issues, such as the refugee crisis and climate emergency, are deeply intertwined with notions, images and narratives of (in)hospitality and climate emergency. Departing from seminal works such as those by Kant and Derrida on these subjects, the chapters in this volume engage with these issues and examine how new postcolonial, gender, environmental and medical perspectives reshape current approaches to hospitality in literature, culture and the arts. Through a comparison of case studies from multiple national backgrounds, Hosts, Hospitals and Hospitalities shows how the concept of hospitality shapes the way in which we relate with the Other in diverse – as well as changing – cultural, political, social and environmental contexts. By examining the issues of hospitality from a post-pandemic standpoint, which revised the roles of our private and public spaces in the aftermath of Covid-19, by dwelling on novel issues of climate emergency and by focusing on current developments in terms of migration and displacement, the book adds new light and significant theoretical and methodological perspectives to previous debates about hospitality.

»Facing Drag« brings together international experts from cultural studies – including history, media, theatre, dance, and performance studies – to explore how gender, race, and ethnicity are impersonated across time and cultures. Drawing on diverse case studies, the volume examines performative acts of crossing, appropriation, and re-signification, foregrounding their political, ethical, and aesthetic dimensions. Expanding the concept of drag beyond gender bending, it investigates the interrelations of drag, processes of racialization and colonial histories. The essays offer critical insights into both the subversive potential of drag and its entanglement with violent forms of Othering and exclusion.

The article adresses the well-known question about the eventual links between the Old Russian Domostroi and the European domestic handbooks and focuses on the aporia to which lead all the previous comparative works. The methodological character of the impasse apears clearly when we analyze those works in the light of a clearly defined comparative method. As a result, the author suggests to address the relationships between the Domostroi and its European analogues no more from the traditional literary point of view but from a historical one.

The theme of the contributions is the centrality of culture, referring to the Dante metaphor of the sapiential banquet and of "culture as food." The interventions intend to stimulate the start of an interdisciplinary reflection on the humanities in their sense of complex field and creative practice. Starting from different disciplines - from philosophy to literature and anthropology - and through dialogue between literati of various backgrounds, a perspective is proposed that encourages the encounter between "high" and "low" and between elite culture and folkloric culture . The arc of interest ranges from the texts of ancient Indian literature, to the Grail of Chrétien de Troyes and to the philosophical formation offered to the public by Dante's Convivio; from the fascinating stratification of traditional knowledge in the Lunari, to the carnival folkloric practices and to the imagination of the Land of Cockaigne; and again from the use of food as belonging in the writings of Italian emigrants in America.

In the late Middle Ages and early modern times, able-bodied men between sixteen and sixty years of age were called upon all over Europe to participate in raids, sieges and battles, for the defense of home and hearth. Because these men are regarded as amateurs, military historiography has paid little attention to their efforts. This book aims to change that by studying the mobilization, organization and weaponry of popular levies for a time when war was frequently waged between states in the making. Central to the book is the composition and development of the rural and urban militias in Friesland, dissected in a comparative Northwest European perspective, along with an examination of why the self-defense of the Frisians ultimately failed in their efforts to preserve their political autonomy. The main source is an extensive series of muster lists from 1552 that have survived for six cities and fourteen rural districts.

For 25 years, Wissenschaft weltoffen has provided a valid basis for monitoring the internationalisation of studies and research in Germany and around the world. Every year, it sheds light on developments relating to international students and researchers in Germany, the mobility patterns of students and researchers from Germany abroad as well as academic mobility patterns worldwide. As of 2024, it also analyses structural aspects of internationalisation, such as university administrative staff, the availability of English-language study programmes, international university partnerships and third-party funding, plus transnational educational programmes. The project draws both on international data (published by UNESCO, OECD and Eurostat, for example) and national data (from the Federal Statistical Office and the findings of surveys carried out by the DAAD and DZHW). The regular data basis is supplemented by spotlights from guest authors on current topics. This year's spotlights focus on the mobility and career plans of international doctoral students in Germany and the state of virtual internationalisation at higher education institutions in Germany. Since 2001, this standard reference work has been issued as a collaborative effort by the German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD) and the German Centre for Higher Education Research and Science Studies (DZHW).

The Routledge Handbook of Chinese Translation presents expert and new research in analysing and solving translation problems centred on the Chinese language in translation. The Handbook includes both a review of and a distinctive approach to key themes in Chinese translation, such as translatability and equivalence, extraction of collocation, and translation from parallel and comparable corpora. In doing so, it undertakes to synthesise existing knowledge in Chinese translation, develops new frameworks for analysing Chinese translation problems, and explains translation theory appropriate to the Chinese context. The Routledge Handbook of Chinese Translation is an essential reference work for advanced undergraduate and postgraduate students and scholars actively researching in this area.

"How do university finances really work? From flagship public research universities to small, private liberal arts colleges, there are few aspects of these institutions associated with more confusion, myths or lack of understanding than how they fund themselves and function in the business of higher education. Using simple, approachable explanations supported by clear illustrations, this book takes the reader on an engaging and enlightening tour of how the money flows. How does the university really pay for itself? Why do tuition and fees rise so fast? Why do universities lose money on research? Do most donations go to athletics? Grounded in hard data, original analyses, and the practical experience of a seasoned administrator, this book provides refreshingly clear answers and comprehensive insights for anyone on or off campus who is interested in the business of the university: how it earns its money, how it spends it, and how it all works."

Under conditions of heightened uncertainty, cities face enormous challenges in responding to contemporary crises. The contributors to this volume explore the conflictual dynamics that arise when urban futures are imagined, negotiated, and materialized. Through the lens of urban future-making, they provide a timely analysis of the conflicts that shape planning projects, architectural interventions, and new experiments in the built environment. Their analyses show how urban future-making is conditioned by conflicting governance arrangements, actor constellations, and power dynamics – offering rich insight into the critical role of professionals as key agents of urban transformation.

A public and highly popular literary form, English Renaissance drama affords a uniquely valuable index of the process of cultural transformation. The Expense of Spirit integrates feminist and historicist critical approaches to explore the dynamics of cultural conflict and change during a crucial period in the formation of modern sexual values. Comparing Elizabethan and Jacobean dramatic representations of love and sexuality with those in contemporary moral tracts and religious writings on women, love, and marriage, Mary Beth Rose argues that such literature not only interpreted sexual sensibilities but also contributed to creating and transforming them. ; A public and highly popular literary form, English Renaissance drama affords a uniquely valuable index of the process of cultural transformation. The Expense of Spirit integrates feminist and historicist critical approaches to explore the dynamics of cultural conflict and change during a crucial period in the formation of modern sexual values. Comparing Elizabethan and Jacobean dramatic representations of love and sexuality with those in contemporary moral tracts and religious writings on women, love, and marriage, Mary Beth Rose argues that such literature not only interpreted sexual sensibilities but also contributed to creating and transforming them.

SARS (Acute Respiratory Syndrome) first presented itself to the global medical community as a case of atypical pneumonia in one small Chinese village in November 2002. Three months later the mysterious illness rapidly spread and appeared in Vietnam, Hong Kong, Toronto and then Singapore. The high fatality rate and sheer speed at which this disease spread prompted the World Health Organization to initiate a medieval practice of quarantine in the absence of any scientific knowledge of the disease. Now three years on from the initital outbreak, SARS poses no major threat and has vanished from the global media. Written by a team of contributors from a wide variety of disciplines, this book investigates the rise and subsequent decline of SARS in Hong Kong, mainland China and Taiwan. Multidisciplinary in its approach, SARS explores the epidemic from the perspectives of cultural geography, media studies and popular culture, and raises a number of important issues such as the political fate of the new democracy, spatial governance and spatial security, public health policy making, public culture formation, the role the media play in social crisis, and above all the special relations between the three countries in the context of globalization and crisis. It provides new and profound insights into what is still a highly topical issue in today’s world.

The book collects the contributions of a group of scholars, with different scientific backgrounds, on the issue of the relationship between taxation, solidarity and citizenship within the EU. The common thread linking them is the inescapability of the tax duty in a community of rights and the incompleteness of the European system, which performs important functions of collective interest without claiming any cost for those who use it. What emerges is the need for a genuine EU own tax, which, without the intermediary of the Member States, would burden the users of European public goods, increasing awareness of the social value of the EU, amplifying its solidarity dimension, and outlining a new concept of citizenship. In short, I pay, therefore I am (European citizen).

Allmählich beginnt man zu erkennen, daß die moderne Wirkungsgeschichte des Islams wie kaum ein anderes Phänomen dazu beigetragen hat, die Grundlagen der westlichen Geistes- und Sozialwissenschaften in Frage zu stellen. Die vorliegende Textsammlung beobachtet und analysiert diese Prozesse aus mehreren Perspektiven: Erstens nimmt sie die Rückwirkungen und Verunsicherungen in den Blick, die die moderne Beschäftigung mit dem Islam in bezug auf die »eigenen«, abendländischen »fundamentals«, die Wesenszüge des modernen Selbstverständnisses, auslöst. Zweitens widmet sich das Buch der Frage nach den Dynamiken und Richtungen der Globalisierung, die das Verhältnis von Islam und europäischer Moderne in Gang setzt. Drittens enthält das Buch einige Untersuchungen zu den sozialen Spannungen, die durch das Aufeinandertreffen von ideologisch politisiertem Islam und überkommener Alltagspraxis vor allem im ländlichen Ägypten entstehen. Dabei werden auch Fragen an die klassische deutsche Islamwissenschaft gestellt. Es wird diskutiert, inwieweit auf sie aufbauend die Probleme des Islams in der modernen, globalisierten Gesellschaft untersucht werden können und entsprechende Forschungsansätze entwickelt.

This is the first study to examine in detail ritual objects known as ‘Lamak’, a fascinating and unique form of ephemeral material culture which is a prominent feature of Balinese creativity. A lamak is a long narrow ritual hanging that is an essential requirement at almost all rituals in Bali. It is hung from altars and shrines at temple festivals and on festive holy days. Made usually of palm leaves, it is by nature ephemeral and it is made time and again. Even though permanent forms of the lamak, made of cloth or coins, do exist, the ephemeral palm leaf form must be present. Sometimes reaching a length of several metres and decorated with a range of motifs, its most elaborate forms are made by specialist craftsmen and women. The lamak serves as base for offerings and attracts deities and deified ancestors to them. Decorative motifs representing sources of life are ordered according to Balinese concepts of the vertical structure of the cosmos. Best known among the motifs is the cili, a human figure in female form that symbolizes human fertility and regeneration. Through offerings and the active role of the lamak, worshippers offer thanks to their deities and request prosperity and protection. Despite decades of change and modernization that have affected all aspects of life in Bali, the essential role of the lamak has survived intact. Although there are many studies of Bali’s internationally appreciated arts and crafts, this is the first one to examine in detail this fascinating and unique form of ephemeral material culture which is a prominent feature of Balinese creativity. The study answers the question: why do Balinese make lamak and why do they continue to make them time and again? It examines the use and function of the lamak in ritual, the motifs that decorate them, the materials and techniques to make them, regional and individual styles, and processes of change and commercialization.