Humanities & Social Sciences

Coffee has been grown on Java for the commercial market since the early eighteenth century, when the Dutch East India Company began buying from peasant producers in the Priangan highlands. What began as a commercial transaction, however, soon became a system of compulsory production. This book shows how the Dutch East India Company mobilised land and labour, why they turned to force cultivation, and what effects the brutal system they installed had on the economy and society.

Co-production of actionable knowledge as a development strategy entails working in partnership with different institutions and sharing power so that communities can participate in planning urban futures. From housing, access to land, services and livelihoods, co-production strategies serve to advance collective interventions to improve inhabitation in cities around the world. Over time, experiences of co-production have generated critical insights about the opportunities and limits of such partnership strategies. Co-production of Knowledge in Action engages with this critique from the perspective of practice. It examines how co-production is articulated and deployed in cities such as Lima, Freetown, Kampala, Dar es Salaam and Delhi, and explores ongoing experiences of co-production-inspired action, mapping the different aspirations that inform co-production practices and the impacts on urban communities. While the volume recognises the limitations of co-production, and the ways it can serve to reproduce power structures if emptied of its political, transformatory intent, the authors also seek to understand the emancipatory potential of co-production as an incremental strategy that has the power to transform urban planning practices.

The volume, dedicated to the 44th International Conference of the Italian Union for Drawing, investigates the theme of ‘Transitions’, which particularly effectively represents our time and the current condition of the discipline of Drawing. The term, beyond its generic meaning of an intermediate stage in a process in which a condition changes from one state to another, has always been used in various fields, from music to geophysics. In fact, the disciplines of drawing have always been confronted with themes and issues relating to transitions from one condition to another. The history of representation tells us of transformations, even epochal ones, relating to ‘drawing’, with all that such transitions entail: suffice it to think of the evolution of forms of representation, of instrumental apparatuses, of the mutability of supports, of the analogical-digital transition underway, of the new modes of communication on platforms, of the hypertrophic offer of images also on the net that confirms Guy Debord’s intuitions relating to the new spectacularisation of society. Similarly, representation triggers transitions in the prefiguration and communication of design, the anticipation and foreshadowing of future events.The challenges posed by the digital pose open questions whose scope can only be glimpsed, such as the relationship between drawing and the act of modelling, and the construction of new paradigms of visual language and communication. ‘Transitions’, almost implicitly, points to possible futures, the evolution of technique and the search for new modes of expression; at the same time, however, it can suggest silences and reflections in a process of connection between history, theory, criticism and construction.

In der Schweiz sind transreligiöse Unterbringungen in evangelikale Pflegefamilien eine verbreitete Praxis. Rechtlich obliegt jedoch den Herkunftseltern als Inhabern der elterlichen Sorge die religiöse Erziehung des Kindes, bis dieses sechzehn Jahre alt ist. Da der Missionsauftrag ein Kernelement des Evangelikalismus ist, ergibt sich hier ein Spannungsfeld. Mithilfe qualitativer Methoden zeigt Noëmi J. van Oordt multiperspektivisch auf, wie Fachpersonen der Pflegekinderhilfe diesem mit informellen Regeln zwar zu begegnen versuchen, die vorgesehene religiöse Erziehung aber trotzdem missachtet und die Identitätsentwicklung der Pflegekinder durch die evangelikale Erziehung tangiert wird.

With the rapid development of modern science and technology, great progress has been made in many high-tech fields such as aerospace engineering, ultra-precision machining and assembly, biomedical engineering, precision optical engineering, and micro-electromechanical systems. Since the developmental trajectory of modern high-tech fields is towards high precision and miniaturization, precision driving technology with micro-nano-level positioning accuracy is a key supporting technology. Piezoelectric driving technology has gradually become the main implementation method of micro-nano driving technology due to its high precision, fast response, strong anti-electromagnetic interference, and adaptability under extreme conditions. This book summarizes the latest progress in precision piezoelectric actuators.

The here collected contributions relating to the 46th International Conference of the Representation Disciplines Teachers, organized jointly by Sapienza University of Rome, Roma Tre University, and San Raffaele Roma University, aim to offer the scientific community a reflection on the theoretical and methodological aspects related to the concept of èkphrasis, a term that, in the field of representation, concerns descriptive, analogical, and digital activities that generate new knowledge in several areas of application. The Conference aims to place at the center of the discussion an interpretation of the concept of research that, without neglecting an idea of study, protection, and enhancement of environmental and cultural heritage, focuses on the needs of contemporary society and its possible developments, making use of innovative theoretical, methodological, and operational activities, including those characterized by an interdisciplinary approach. According to this interpretation, research can also be seen as a foreshadowing of the definition and testing of experimental proposals aimed at exploring new areas of investigation: this opens up imaginative and utopian perspectives in the relationship between the sciences, the arts, and the disciplines that contribute to common goals, through the experimentation of methods, techniques, and languages for conceiving, prefiguring, designing, and representing.

This book explores the latest advancements in transportation systems through the lens of engineering and technology. It covers innovative solutions that enhance the safety, efficiency, sustainability, and connectivity of modern transportation networks. From intelligent transportation systems and autonomous vehicles to smart infrastructure and high-speed rail, this book offers a comprehensive overview of the technologies shaping the future of mobility worldwide. The book delves into key areas such as Intelligent Transportation Systems (ITS), autonomous and connected vehicles, electric and alternative fuel technologies, and smart infrastructure. It examines how these innovations contribute to reducing traffic congestion, enhancing road safety, and minimizing environmental impact. Detailed chapters discuss the integration of IoT and AI for real-time data analysis and predictive maintenance, as well as the development of high-speed rail and maglev systems for efficient long-distance travel. Case studies highlight successful implementations worldwide, demonstrating tangible benefits like improved traffic flow, lower emissions, and increased accessibility. The book also addresses challenges including cybersecurity, regulatory frameworks, and infrastructure investment, offering insights into overcoming these barriers to enable widespread adoption of advanced transportation technologies. This book is designed for engineers, researchers, policymakers, and technology professionals involved in transportation and infrastructure development.

What image of Latin America have North American fiction writers created, found, or echoed, and how has the prevailing discourse about the region shaped their work? How have their writings contributed to the discursive construction of our southern neighbors, and how has the literature undermined this construction and added layers of complexity that subvert any approach based on stereotypes? Combining American Studies, Canadian Studies, Latin American Studies, and Cultural Theory, Breinig relies on long scholarly experience to answer these and other questions. 'Hemispheric Imaginations', an ambitious interdisciplinary study of literary representations of Latin America as encounters with the other, is among the most extensive such studies to date. It will appeal to a broad range of scholars of American Studies.

The aim of this article is to analyse patterns of territoriality constructed “from below”, based on evidence drawn from a wide range of territories, which were held together by the presence of local initiatives instead of being linked automatically to the central-authority organisation. As this situation was typical of the Duero Plateau, three case studies have been chosen (Ausín, Valdesaz, and Palenzuela). An analysis of these cases shows that the territories were shaped around collective action and focused on common goals, mutual defence practices, and the selection of complementary riverside and mountain landscapes. These arenas of local micropolitics were integrated into the encompassing powers, breaking with the early medieval idea of “deterritorialisation”.

Ubuntu: A multidisciplinary perspective to understanding and application is a timely and significant contribution to contemporary African scholarship. This edited volume brings together a diverse group of scholars and practitioners who engage critically and creatively with Ubuntu as both a philosophical lens and a practical framework for transformation. Spanning multiple disciplines, the book demonstrates the enduring relevance of Ubuntu across varied social, educational and health contexts. Rather than presenting Ubuntu as a static cultural ideal, the chapters explore its evolving meaning and application in response to complex contemporary challenges. Themes such as digital mourning, feminist mentorship, tele-audiology, early childhood development and community care illustrate how Ubuntu informs inclusive practice, ethical leadership and socially responsive scholarship. Rooted in interconnectedness, compassion, dignity and solidarity, Ubuntu is positioned as a living and dynamic framework that shapes individual and collective responses to crisis, including the COVID-19 pandemic. The volume combines philosophical depth with thoughtful social critique, offering African-centred perspectives on justice, resilience and social cohesion in a rapidly changing world. This book will be of value especially to scholars, but also to postgraduate students and research-practitioners seeking rigorous, contextually grounded approaches to equity, healing and institutional transformation.

Already by the Late Bronze Age, culturally distinct cults of Kubaba existed throughout the region controlled by the Hittite Empire. After the fall of the empire and the fragmentation of the political landscape of the Syro-Anatolian region, these cults persisted in local contexts, developing along their own trajectories, and thus producing hypostases of the goddess with unique roles, modes of expression, and perhaps aliases. However, these local variations did not evolve in a vacuum, but in many cases through a process of interregional and intercultural interactions. This paper will examine these processes along with the resultant expressions of local cults of Kubaba, demonstrating specific trajectories for interactions between neighboring groups, along with selective adaptations and rejections of foreign cultic concepts. Preliminary results suggest an interesting convergence between these cults and certain sociolinguistic boundaries within the region, perhaps connected to communities with shared group identities.

We live in a world in which courts crucially shape public policy through constitutional adjudication. This is a book written for that world. It brings together a group of distinguished scholars from many disciplines to examine the Supreme Court's recent decision that statutes prohibiting doctors from helping their patients commit suicide may be constitutional. It offers a guide to that decision and to the larger issues it raises for citizens and scholars alike. Law at the End of Life asks everyone's first question: What does the decision mean for today and tomorrow? It asks the lawyer's question: Is the Supreme Court's reasoning clear and convincing? It asks the doctor's question: How will the decision affect the decisions physicians make with their patients? It asks the ethicist's question: Will the decision conduce to wise and just decisions at the end of life? It asks the historian's question: How are we to understand the Court's work in light of our disturbing national experience with euthanasia? Ultimately, it asks the questions citizens need to ask in our new world: Is constitutional adjudication a good way to make public policy? Are courts well equipped -- with experience, with doctrine, with wisdom -- to make good policy? What role should courts have in making policy in a democracy? Has the Supreme Court made good public policy? What is the right policy for law at the end of life?

This research guide was first concieved to fulfill multiple needs of the research team of the Documentary Relations of the Southwest (DRSW) project at the Arizona State Museum. In performing research tasks, it became evident that reference material was scattered throughout scores of books and monographs. A single complete source book was simply not available. Hence, the editors of the DRSW project compiled this guide. The territory under study comprises all of northern Mexico in colonial times.

At the heart of Stripping, Sex, and Popular Culture lies a very personal story, of author Catherine Roach's response to the decision of her life-long best friend to become an exotic dancer. Catherine and Marie grew up together in Canada and moved to the USA to enroll in PhD programs at prestigious universities. For various reasons, Marie left her program and instead chose to work as a stripper. The author, at first troubled and yet fascinated by her friend's decision, follows Marie's journey into the world of stripping as an observer and analyst. She finds that this world raises complex questions about gender, sexuality, fantasy, feminism, and even spirituality. Moving from first hand interviews with dancers and others, the book broadens into a provocative and accessible examination of the current popularity of "striptease culture," with sex-saturated media imagery, thongs gone mainstream, and stripper aerobics at your local gym. Stripping, Sex, and Popular Culture scrutinizes the naked truth of a lucrative industry whose norms are increasingly at the center of contemporary society.Moving from first hand interviews with dancers and others, this book broadens into an accessible examination of the popularity of "striptease culture," with sex-saturated media imagery, and stripper aerobics at your local gym. It aims to scrutinize the truth of a industry whose norms are increasingly at the center of contemporary society.Catherine M. Roach is Associate Professor of New College, and Affiliated Faculty in Religious Studies and Women's Studies, at The University of Alabama, USA. She received her PhD from Harvard University in 1998 and is also the author of Mother / Nature: Popular Culture and Environmental Ethics (Indiana University Press, 2003).

This chapter examines the historical and cultural intersections between the Mediterranean Sea (Mesogeios Thalassa – Dizhonghai 地中海 in Greek-Roman and Chinese sources), particularly the Greek-Hellenistic world and China. Beginning with Herodotus’ depiction of the Mediterranean as an intercultural space and tracing connections through the expansion of Alexander the Great’s dominion, the chapter explores the strategic role of settlements such as Alexandria Eschate in the Ferghana Valley. By analysing Chinese sources, including the Shiji 史記 and Hanshu 漢書, it is possible to highlight the transcontinental networks linking the Mediterranean world to China, emphasising the symbolic and economic importance of trade commodities like silk. Special attention is also given to the toponym Tiaozhi, identified with Characene, and the maritime routes to Da Qin 大秦 (commonly associated with the Roman Empire or its eastern territories). The chapter concludes that Da Qin in Chinese sources provides a sophisticated perspective on the Greek-Hellenistic world, shaped by intercultural exchanges across Central Asia and the Mediterranean world.