Humanities & Social Sciences

When King’s Digital Lab was established in late 2015 it was conceived as both a craft factory (working with colleagues to produce digital outputs) and a technical experiment (a site where the intersection of technology and the humanities could be explored). Significant progress has been made on both of those fronts: dozens of projects have been enabled, operational white papers have been shared, and research outputs have explored the intellectual and philosophical aspects of the laboratory environment. It is now possible to move beyond the techniques that enabled this success and use insights from the philosophy of technology to explore long-standing concerns about the role of technology in society. In doing so, the laboratory would become an applied techno-philosophical experiment. More radically, it could rehabilitate the use of technical objects in the humanities and reject technophobia as not only unproductive but unethical. Technical (digital) objects could thus be accorded droit de cité in the field of the humanities. This perspective fits well with emerging work in the humanities that highlights the history of the field, its relationship to modelling, the indeterminacy of computer technology, and the potential for human-machine relations to be reconciled through aesthetics.

The ethical dimension of research in adult education is deeply connected to the real, substantial quality of research. The ethical dimension of adult education research, mostly neglected, is analysed from an epistemological perspective. We assume that ethical conduct of educational research is more complex than adhering to a set of rules and procedures as it has to deal with the meaning and purpose of adult education research, the distribution of pedagogical powers and the control over them to put individual and collective answers in practice.

The end of the 16th century saw Dutch expansion in Asia, as The Dutch East India Company (the VOC) was fast becoming an Asian power, both political and economic. By 1669, the VOC was the richest private company the world had ever seen. This landmark study looks at perhaps the most important tool in the Company' trading - its ships. In order to reconstruct the complete shipping activities of the VOC, the author created a unique database of the ships' movements, including frigates and other, hitherto ingored, smaller vessels. Parthesius's research into the routes and the types of ships in the service of the VOC proves that it was precisely the wide range of types and sizes of vessels that gave the Company the ability to sail - and continue its profitable trade - the year round. Furthermore, it appears that the VOC commanded at least twice the number of ships than earlier historians have ascertained. Combining the best of maritime and social history, this book will change our understanding of the commercial dynamics of the most successful economic organization of the period.

The reference point for this publication is the concept of the "coastal image" which is represented from different professional perspectives by their representatives. The aim of the volume is not a synthesis of different positions, but rather to identify divergences and convergences that could trigger the technical discussion. The pluralism of perspectives on the "coastal image" in the individual scientific disciplines and practice areas presented in this volume is therefore deliberate and represents interdisciplinary views, approaches and concepts for accessing the "coastal image".

This open access book is a practical guide to choosing and using theoretical frameworks in humanities and social sciences. Written by and for Ph.D. students, early career researchers, and academic supervisors, it tackles one of the most challenging parts of research and writing, that of selecting and applying theoretical frameworks in the humanities and social sciences. The book shows how theoretical frameworks operate in real doctoral projects: how they are chosen, adapted to context, justified to different audience, and sometimes refined or rethought as the study evolves. It also clarifies what a “theoretical framework” is (and is not), and how it differs from concepts such as methodology and method when it is used as a lens to investigate the research problem. The book includes 20 richly contextualized theoretical frameworks. These theoretical frameworks are drawn from doctoral research conducted in diverse global settings. The topics span across various domains, including AI in education, teacher identity, inclusion, and cultural studies, making the book relevant to readers across a wide range of disciplines and methodological orientations. Each chapter illustrates how emerging scholars move from conceptual interests to workable analytical lenses, showing the reasoning, constraints, and trade-offs behind theoretical decisions and the implications for data and claims. The book bridges the gap between talking about theory and research practice. This is done by offering firsthand accounts of how doctoral researchers engage with influential frameworks such as Sociocultural Theory, Activity Theory, and Critical Discourse Studies. Readers will see how theory shapes research design, informs research questions, and guide data collection and analysis, and supports interpretation and argumentation. Equipping readers with strategies, reflective prompts, and interdisciplinary perspectives, the book helps scholars develop a defensible theoretical stance and communicate it with clarity. Whether you are drafting a dissertation proposal, revising a literature review, refining your methodology, or supervising doctoral work, this volume is an indispensable resource for building theoretical coherence, analytic rigor, and scholarly confidence.

Environment, nuclear power Plant, pollution, rejection, water

Warum obligatorischer Musikunterricht? Musikunterricht wird oft als ›nice-to-have‹ betrachtet und im Rahmen knapper Ressourcen in Frage gestellt. Der Begründungsdruck führt dazu, dass der Musik Wirkungen zugesprochen werden, die wissenschaftlich nicht haltbar sind. Ist das Schulfach Musik tatsächlich zu begründen? Wie soll es ausgerichtet sein? Gelingender Unterricht ist nicht nur von Lehrplan und Qualifikation der Lehrpersonen abhängig. Vielmehr spielen Haltungen und Überzeugungen von Lehrenden und Lernenden eine entscheidende Rolle. Markus Cslovjecsek zeigt auf, wo die Beteiligten die Legitimation von Musikunterricht sehen und richtet sich damit an alle, die an schulischem (Musik-)Unterricht und seiner Begründung interessiert sind - ein ›must-have‹ für alle Bildungsverantwortlichen.

Visions and Revisions of Europe offers a multidisciplinary debate on the various political, social, and cultural issues that are at the heart of contemporary European discourse, with a focus on the relations between the so-called “New” and “Old” Europe. A range of possible scenarios for the future of the EU, as well as a discussion of the factors affecting current crises are at the forefront of the debate, which lead the reader to reflect upon often overlooked aspects of European integration, such as Germany’s hegemonic role in the Union, or historical narratives and myths that need to be deconstructed and critically analysed. Contemporary populist movements also play a key role, as do the often difficult processes of migration and EU mobility, which reveal the tensions, fears, and lines of exclusion in contemporary European societies. Finally, the role of values – namely an adherence to human rights and responsibility over the global social order – which in the 1970s was a cornerstone of EU discursive action and identity building, serves as a lasting point of reflection on the uncertain future of the EU’s axio-normative direction(s).

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.

The massively multiplayer online role-playing game World of Warcraft has become one of the most popular computer games of the past decade, introducing millions around the world to community-based play. Within the boundaries set by its design, the game encourages players to appropriate and shape the game to their own wishes, resulting in highly diverse forms of play and participation. This illuminating study frames World of Warcraft as a complex socio-cultural phenomenon defined by and evolving as a result of the negotiations between groups of players as well as the game’s owners, throwing new light on complex consumer-producer relationships in the increasingly participatory but still tightly controlled media of online games.

This open access book provides an extensive review of ethical and regulatory issues related to human infection challenge studies, with a particular focus on the expansion of this type of research into endemic settings and/or low- and middle-income countries (LMICs). Human challenge studies (HCS) involve the intentional infection of research participants, and this type of research is rapidly increasing in frequency worldwide. HCS are widely considered to be an especially promising approach to vaccine development, including for pathogens endemic to LMICs. However, challenge studies are sometimes controversial and raise complex ethical issues, some of which are especially salient in endemic and/or LMIC settings. Informed by qualitative interviews with experts in infectious diseases and bioethics, this book highlights areas of ethical consensus and controversy concerning this kind of research. As the first volume to focus on ethical issues associated with human challenge studies, it sets the agenda for further work in this important area of global health research; contributes to current debates in research ethics; and aims to inform regulatory policy and research practice. Insofar as it focuses on HCS in (endemic) settings where diseases are present and/or widespread, much of the analysis provided here is directly relevant to HCS involving pandemic diseases including COVID19.

Floods are a fundamental part of Dutch history. Indeed, having ‘tamed’ the threats associated with living below sea level is part of Dutch national identity. In the cultural depictions of these devastating events, however, national pride at a certain collective resilience goes hand-in-hand with the collective trauma of exposed vulnerability. All too often, the Dutch were the losers in these battles against the elements. In a time of rising global sea levels, cultural scholar Lotte Jensen dives into the stories and images of the past to unpack this paradox for today. Over the centuries, large parts of the Netherlands have been progressively reclaimed from its river delta home. Throughout that process, the country suffered countless floods, a number of which were truly catastrophic, such as the Saint Elizabeth’s Flood of 1421 or the North Sea Flood of 1953. Jensen describes how the Dutch have dealt with these disasters, in practice but also in the imagination. It is the story of babies in floating cradles, fatherly monarchs, community fundraisers, and the boy who stuck his finger in the dike. Centuries before the nation-building associated with the 1800s, the Dutch created a unifying ‘us’ – the image of the Dutch lion – against a ‘them’ – the ‘waterwolf’, the major threat which water embodied. This national feeling and narrative were crafted with a set repertoire of images; role models (heroes and monarchs); charity (national and international solidarity); and a culture of remembrance. Jensen gives particular attention to the at times funny poems, books and songs, later criticized as clichéd or melodramatic, which these collective traumas inspired. She also demonstrates through monuments and works of art how this narrative has multiplied and acquired variations with time right up to the present. Though once cast in a more religious light – the flood as punishment for a general lack of religious devotion – the waterwolf has become, for example, a collective responsibility for the environment that begins with lifestyle choices. Today the Netherlands lives with water more than it battles it, some thinkers even envisioning an ‘amphibian’ future for the country. The stories and images of the past, however, reveal that precisely vulnerability can be fertile ground for solidarity and togetherness. With rising sea levels representing a growing threat, this well-researched and highly readable cultural history shows how over time a culture’s imagination can gain new relevance beyond its borders. Acknowledging and building from a place of collective vulnerability might now be more important than ever.

Kukveni—footprints—are a powerful historical metaphor that the Hopi people use to comprehend their tangible heritage. Hopis say that the deity Máasaw instructed their ancestors to leave footprints during their migrations from their origin place to their home today as evidence that they had fulfilled a spiritual pact to serve as stewards of his land. Today’s Hopis understand these footprints to be the archaeological remains of former settlements—pottery sherds, stone tools, petroglyphs, and other physical evidence of past use and occupation of the land. The fourteen chapters in Footprints of Hopi History: Hopihiniwtiput Kukveni’at focus on these Hopi footprints as they are understood through a variety of research techniques, including archaeology, ethnography, documentary history, plant genetics, and educational outreach. The editors and contributors offer fresh and innovative perspectives on Hopi archaeology and history, and demonstrate how one tribe has significantly advanced knowledge about its past through collaboration with archaeologists and cultural anthropologists. The book features managerial uses of research, cultural landscape theory, use of GIS in research, archaeological interpretations of social identity and immigration, analysis of corn genetics, heritage education of youth, and research of oral traditions and documentary history. Footprints of Hopi History highlights the Hopi tribe’s leadership in sustained efforts to create bridges between tribal goals and anthropology, forging a path for others to follow.

Contemporary Spanish theatre has sporadically dealt with recent or ongoing conflicts in the Middle East, but with extremely interesting results: Palestinians, Israelis, Iraqis, Moroccans, Syrians are characters that appear in texts such as El suicidio del ángel by Aurora Mateos (2007), Bajo el cielo de Gaza by Luis Matilla (2015) or Mare Nostrum, finis somnia vuestra by Marco Magoa (2016). Violence is, unfortunately, the red thread that binds an otherwise heterogeneous production in terms of verbal and theatrical language. The contribution aims to investigate the expressive modes through which the obscenity of war, conflicts, clashes, blood, wounds are brought to the stage.

We have entered the digital era: increasingly powerful computational devices are implemented everywhere and generate increasing flows of information. The digitalization of processes and products implies the combination of different knowledge sources: structured, unstructured, textual, visual and acoustic. Profound and extensive changes emerge: from the design of a good or service to their distribution on the markets and the interactions with consumers. The relationships between the physical and virtual world will be the source of continuous innovations thanks to the pervasiveness of artificial agents with abilities close to the human ones: learning, adaptability, forecasting skills. It is the 'physical-digital universe', which requires new knowledge tools and innovative decision-making strategies.