Humanities & Social Sciences

Forest management has evolved from a mercantilist view to a multi-functional one that integrates economic, social, and ecological aspects. However, the issue of sustainability is not yet resolved. Quantitative Techniques in Participatory Forest Management brings together global research in three areas of application: inventory of the forest variables that determine the main environmental indices, description and design of new environmental indices, and the application of sustainability indices for regional implementations. The book outlines a public participatory process to assess sustainability in forest management. It explores a new approach that links human and natural systems, reconsiders our interdependence with the diversity of life, and recognizes our role in a unique and complex system. The book also identifies quantitative indices that provide a vast amount of information on soil, landscape, and ecological functioning. It highlights the importance of these indices for public information programs on participatory processes and provides an operating procedure to identify the degree of convergence in the utility of multiple evaluators. The last chapter describes a downloadable computer application that integrates the techniques explained in the book. Users accessing the application are offered a map representing their preferred forest management plan in the study zone. They are also given a map with the results of their corresponding community of evaluators, including the numerical and qualitative data for both. The system stores a record of the visit, including the visitor's profile and responses, to progress towards the joint forest management plan. The quantitative techniques highlighted in this book create the basis for the development of scientific methodologies of participatory sustainable forest management. It details the methodology for the design of a forest management plan that best suits a specific preference system.

Phosphorus is a crucial element in agriculture to feed the fast-growing global population. Its sustainable supply has ecological, social and human dimensions and it is classified as critical to European industries. On the other side, phosphate can also be critical for the producing countries as phosphate mining contributes to their national economies. This work investigates implications of environmental and social impacts and the resource governance to mitigate global phosphate criticality.

In this publication, we provide an overview of climate risks in Latin America and Caribbean countries, using the European Investment Bank’s country climate risk scores. This is followed by an assessment of the region’s climate investment needs and potential sources of financing, against the current macroeconomic and fiscal backdrop. We describe the role of public development banks in the region, their current contribution to mitigating climate risks, and the results of our survey. In the last section, we present the main findings and policy recommendations.

Critical Perspectives on Cultural Memory and Heritage focuses on the importance of memory and heritage for individual and group identity, and for their sense of belonging. It aims to expose the motives and discourses related to the destruction of memory and heritage during times of war, terror, sectarian conflict and through capitalist policies. It is within these affected spheres of cultural heritage where groups and communities ascribe values, develop memories, and shape their collective identity. Chapters in the volume address cultural memory and heritage from six global perspectives and contexts: first, the relationship between cultural memory and heritage; second, the effect of urban development and large infrastructure on heritage; third, the destruction of indigenous heritage; fourth, the destruction of heritage in relation to erasing memory during sectarian violence and conflict; fifth, the impact of policymaking on cultural heritage assets; and sixth, a broad reflection on the destruction, change and transformation of heritage in an epilogue by Cornelius Holtorf, archaeologist and Chair of Heritage Futures at UNESCO.

From Wilderness to Paradise presents an in-depth study of the large mosaic pavement in the East Church at Qasr el-Lebia in Cyrenaica, Libya. The pavement, which survives almost in its entirety, consists of fifty panels, each containing a different image. Despite being described as ‘the finest and most interesting set of Christian mosaics yet found in Libya’ (Illustrated London News, December 1957), subsequent studies have generally dismissed the pavement as a random selection of images with no symbolic meaning and no overarching scheme. This book argues that the remarkably rich and complex mosaic should be understood as a coherent whole.A discussion about reading imagery in Late Antiquity precedes a meticulous iconographical study. Within the pavement’s overall coherence, the grid layout allows the panels to be read in different directions, rather like a crossword puzzle, their meaning shifting with each change of focus. Particular attention is paid to small groups of images related either by subject matter or location, and the discussion shows how the placement of certain panels impacts the surrounding imagery, giving meaning over and above the significance of individual motifs. The iconographical study concludes by considering the mosaic from the viewpoint of those moving across the pavement and the phenomenological responses this interaction may have elicited. It suggests that as the images passed fleetingly underfoot, a journey unfurled and one was led from a chaotic oceanic wilderness in the east, to a more orderly paradisiacal world further west.

Decades of neoliberal efficiency thinking have turned education into a straight, results-oriented school corridor and closed off the space for alternatives. Can the German ideal of free self-formation, or Bildung, change that? This book provides the answer, but it also practices thinking in alternatives by digging up another, forgotten Bildung tradition and rewriting the history of German Romanticism. Joris Verheijen shows that at the same time as the conservative Bildung philosophy of Johann Wolfgang von Goethe and Wilhelm von Humboldt, a radical-romantic Bildung emerged, which, according to Georg Forster, Caroline Böhmer and Friedrich Schlegel, called for drastic social changes. Their revolutionary ideas, however, have been suppressed and erased from cultural memory. It is precisely from these radical romantics that we can learn today how a truly critical thinking can ignite in and about our schools, how writing instruction can be freed from the straitjacket of linear assignments and how students can form themselves, instead of being deformed.

Arguing with Anthropology is a fresh and wholly original guide to key elements in anthropology, which teaches the ability to think, write and argue critically. Using the classic 'question of the gift' as a master-issue for discussion, and drawing on a rich variety of Pacific and global ethnography, it provides a unique course in methods, aims, knowledge, and understanding. The book's highly original hypothetical approach takes gift-theory - the science of obligation and reciprocity - as the paradigm for a virtual enquiry which explores how the anthropological discipline has evolved historically, how it is applied in practice and how it can be argued with critically. By asking students to participate in projected situations and dilemmas, and in arguments about the form and nature of enquiry, it offers working practice of dealing with the obstacles and choices involved in anthropological study. * From an expert teacher whose methods are tried and tested * Comprehensive and fun course ideal for intermediate-level students * Clearly defines the functions of anthropology, and its key theories and arguments * Effectively teaches core study skills for exam success and progressive learning.

This coursebook offers an expansive exploration of bioethics, an interdisciplinary field examining ethical, social, and legal dilemmas in medicine, life sciences, and beyond. It challenges conventional boundaries, embracing Van Rensselaer Potter’s vision of bioethics as a global, holistic ethics of life—integrating human health, environmental considerations, and transdisciplinary insights. Through engaging discussions, thought experiments, and case studies, the book empowers students to critically reflect on ethical questions without dictating rigid answers. Topics range from the historical roots of ethical thought to cutting-edge debates in molecular biology, such as epigenetics and exposomics, demonstrating how interconnected human, animal, and environmental health truly are. Central themes include the limits of scientific knowledge, the biases shaping research, and the evolving interplay between moral philosophy and empirical science. Students will encounter key philosophical frameworks—ontology, epistemology, and ethics—woven into practical bioethical applications. Feminist philosophy, experimental bioethics, and embedded ethics enrich this perspective, urging readers to question assumptions, embrace diverse viewpoints, and connect ethical principles with real-world science. Targeted at students in philosophy, biology, biomedical sciences, and bioengineering, this book is a toolkit for future thinkers, fostering a nuanced understanding of how ethical science advances humanity in a complex, ever-changing world.

"What is the essence of martial arts? What is their place in or relationship with culture and society? Deconstructing Martial Arts analyses familiar issues and debates that arise in scholarly, practitioner and popular cultural discussions and treatments of martial arts and argues that martial arts are dynamic and variable constructs whose meanings and values regularly shift, mutate and transform, depending on the context. It argues that deconstructing martial arts is an invaluable approach to both the scholarly study of martial arts in culture and society and also to wider understandings of what and why martial arts are. Placing martial arts in relation to core questions and concerns of media and cultural studies around identity, value, orientalism, and embodiment, Deconstructing Martial Arts introduces and elaborates deconstruction as a rewarding method of cultural studies."

In late medieval Italy, the importance of lordship has often been overlooked by studies. Yet its diffusion was far from marginal: indeed, in most Italian regions it stretched over larger portions of population and territory, larger than in previous centuries. In 2017, a collective research project was undertaken to fill this gap in studies, the PRIN La signoria rurale nel XIV-XV secolo: per ripensare l’Italia tardomedievale. This volume constitutes its latest outcome. It summarises the main acquisitions achieved and provides new reflections on the many themes dealt with in the PRIN research: the economy of lordships, the forms of documentation and celebration, the relationship with cities, states and communities, the political action of the subjects, the social impact of lordship and more.

Mit einem Titel wie "Die Rolle des Erzählers" oder "Die Bedeutung der Autorengestalt" stellt man sich mitten hinein in die Auseinandersetzung, die seit längerer Zeit die literaturtheoretische Diskussion um Fragen des epischen Erzählens bestimmt. In diesem Sinne als Methode, als ein Mittel, dem Verständnis von Puškins Werk näherzukommen, wird das Problem in dieser Arbeit verstanden. Nicht als theoretische Frage, die Aufschluß über die Struktur des epischen Erzählens an sich gibt, interessiert hier die Autorengestalt, sondern als Untersuchungsmethode, als ein allzu wenig begangener Weg zum besseren Verständnis der Verserzählungen Puškins. Der Hauptakzent liegt also auf der konkreten Analyse der einzelnen Werke, nicht auf der theoretischen Darstellung.

" By the time Frederich Schiller came to write the Wallenstein trilogy, his reputation as one of Germany’s leading playwrights was all but secured. Consisting of Wallenstein’s Camp, The Piccolomini and The Death of Wallenstein, this suite of plays appeared between 1798 and 1799, each production under the original direction of Schiller’s collaborator and mentor, Johann Wolfgang (von) Goethe. Across the three plays, which are now commonly performed and printed together, Schiller charts the thwarted rebellion of General Albrecht von Wallenstein. Based loosely on the events of the Thirty Years' War, the trilogy provides a unique vantage on an army’s loyalty to their commander and the machinations and intrigues of international diplomacy, giving insight into the military hero who is placed on the threshold between these forces as they are increasingly pitted against one another. The Wallenstein trilogy, formally innovative and modern beyond its time, is a brilliant study of power, ambition and betrayal. In this new translation—the latest in a long line of distinguished English translations of the play, starting with Coleridge's in Schiller's lifetime—Flora Kimmich succeeds in rendering what is often a difficult source text into language that is at once accessible and enjoyable. Coupled with a complete and careful commentary and a glossary, both of which are targeted to undergraduates, and accompanied by an authoritative introductory essay by Roger Paulin, this edition also includes embedded readings in German of the play and links to the original German text. It will be an invaluable resource for students of German, European literature and history, and military history, as well as to all readers approaching this important set of plays for the first time. "

Ebben a kötetben első ízben olvashatók teljes kiadásban és fordításban Matolai Jánosnak, a tokaji bor és szőlőművelés egyik legjobb 18. századi ismerőjének a témába vágó írásai. A nemesi születésű, klasszikus műveltségű, földmérésben is járatos szakember Bél Mátyás hatalmas országleíró vállalkozásának résztvevőjeként járta az országot, számos megye leírásához hozzájárult, és kiemelt figyelmet fordított a borvidékekre; Bél Mátyás a „legszorgalmasabb munkatársának” nevezte őt. Két fennmaradt hegyaljai témájú írásában, egy 1730-as évekből való fogalmazványban és 1744-ben megjelent Értekezésében a helyi szőlőművelés addigi legrészletesebb leírását nyújtja, és külön kitér a legjobb adottságú szőlődombokra is. Tárgyalja röviden Hegyalja történetét, a tokaji bor összetevőit és a növényi arany legendáját is. Mindeme témák feltérképezésében, a művek keletkezési körülményeinek megismerésében és a kérdéses szöveghelyek magyarázatában magyar és angol bevezető tanulmány, illetve szövegkritikai és tárgyi jegyzetek segítik az olvasót.

The last historiographical work of Poggio Bracciolini (1380-1459), the Historiae Florentini populi, is composed of eight books, of which only four have survived in their original draft. In 1472 Poggio’s son, Iacopo Bracciolini (1442-1478), dedicated this work to Federico da Montefeltro in a radically revised version. We publish here, for the first time, the edition of the original draft of the first four books of the Historiae Florentini populi. Machiavelli criticized both Bracciolini’s Historiae and Leonardo Bruni’s Historiarum Florentini populi libri for their lack of attention to the internal social and political dynamics of Florence. In reality, if Bruni describes the history of Florence from its origins to 1402, Poggio focuses on the wars sustained by the city between 1350 and his day, identifying the Peace of Lodi (1454) as the watershed event of the fifteenth century.

Animal, Mineral, Vegetable examines what happens when we cease to assume that only humans exert agency. Through a careful examination of medieval, early modern and contemporary lifeworlds, these essays collectively argue against ecological anthropocentricity. Sheep, wolves, camels, flowers, chairs, magnets, landscapes, refuse and gems are more than mere objects. They act; they withdraw; they make demands; they connect within lively networks that might foster a new humanism, or that might proceed with indifference towards human affairs. Through what ethics do we respond to these activities and forces? To what futures do these creatures and objects invite us, especially when they appear within the texts and cultures of the “distant” past?