Humanities & Social Sciences

Günter Grass has primarily been perceived by research and the public as an author. But he was also an influential political actor. His political work was not just limited to the Brandt era but also helped to define the Berlin Republic. By harnessing his communicative power, he shaped public discourses as an intellectual and advised top politicians, as unpublished sources and background conversations show.

Standard histories of medicine identify Hippocratic texts such as Epidemics as the earliest medical case histories in human history. In contrast to the Hippocratic case histories, it is often stated that Babylonian medicine made no use of individual case histories. In this paper, I investigate ‘depersonalized case histories’ in the Babylonian therapeutic corpora (ca. 800–600 BCE, although in many cases probably based on earlier lost sources). On the face of it, the suggestion that certain complex collocations of symptoms derive in a straightforward way from individual cases might seem far-fetched, or at minimum not a demonstrable interpretation. Comparison of Babylonian therapeutic texts with the treatment of ‘cases’ in Mesopotamian law, in particular in so-called imperial rescripts in which an individual case is converted into a general statute, suggests that certain clusters of symptom descriptions actually represent ‘depersonalized’ case histories in which personal details have been intentionally omitted from the tradition in order to make these cases suitable for inclusion within authoritative(or as I suggest we call them infrastructural) technical corpora. The identification of this process of ‘depersonalization’ may also play an important role in bringing epistemological critiques of one kind or another (Foucault on ‘the clinical sciences’ or Forrester on ‘thinking incases’) into a fruitful dialogue with Mesopotamian materials.

How can we reduce economic violence? Can financial literacy and education enhance economic wellbeing? The present paper reports the results of a research conducted by ALTIS – Università Cattolica and Global Thinking Foundation for the evaluation of changes, improvements and consequences produced by the educational course in financial literacy ‘Donne al quadrato’, provided by the Foundation among the policies against economic violence implementation. In this study, impacts’ measurement refers to conceptual framework of financial wellbeing, a composite notion constructed of objective and subjective dimensions related to people’s financial behaviour. The expression ‘Financial Wellbeing’ highlights how economic issues are inextricably bound to individual and social wellness. Helping people enhancing their own financial wellbeing – in a broad sense – should then be the very first purpose of economic education activity. In the present research, financial wellbeing has been measured by the implementation of a synthetic index, based on studies of World Bank and University of Bristol. The index is intended to measure people’s self-sufficiency and independence about their financial situation, resources and capabilities. The indicator takes into account both micro and macro features, being the first ones specific of the sample analysed and latter territorial context variables employed for the removal of the macroeconomic changes affecting the entire population from the specific changes proceeding from the training. The trial, involving different Italian regions, has been fulfilled by the administration of a tailoredmade survey pre and post the “Donne al Quadrato” course, during academic year 2019/2020, in order to register the change occurred in the respondents’ perception of their knowledge, behaviour, personality and aptitudes. The results of the experimentation demonstrated that financial education could engender the modification not only of knowledge but also of awareness and proficiency in financial behaviours, as well as the increase of course participants’ financial wellbeing.

The volume Trasparenze ed epifanie. Quando la luce diventa letteratura, arte, storia, scienza (“Transparencies and epiphanies. When light becomes literature, art, history, science”) brings together thirty contributions presented at the interdisciplinary conference organized at the University of Florence on the occasion of the International Year of Light 2015. Scholars in the fields of science, history, history of art and cinema, philosophy, philology, Italian and foreign literature and literature literary theory from seven departments of the Florentine university introduce various meanings and symbolic representations of the concept light during the ancient, medieval, modern and contemporary epoch. Moreover, they also propose a common “luminous journey” in the civilisation of open scientific and cultural discussion.

Considerable socio-political change has re-configured the discursive space once occupied by ‘utopia’. Within the cultures of late capitalism and the organisational matrices of bio-political administration, that space is no longer animated by images of idealised states that are yet to come, or by a sense of simple failure in the production of those same states. Rather, it is overdetermined by a condition of differentiation in the representation of reality. The origins of that differentiation of representation appear to lie deep within the modernist project. In the Place of Utopia explores how that condition of representation might be animated anew by the discursive circuits through which modernity has come to operate, so as to enliven the ability of transformative ideas to lever change from within a range of organic crises current to the world system: the financialisation of global capitalism; the subsumption of worker subjectivities to the logic of capital; the broadening of the metabolic rift through industrial-capitalism. Central to this animation of transformative ideas is the relationship between language andthe body.

Health development science; Developmental origins of chronic illnesses; Community; Diabetes; Autism; Obesity; Nutrition; Health disparities across the lifespan; Fetal programming

From early answer sheets filled in with number 2 pencils, to tests administered by mainframe computers, to assessments wholly constructed by computers, it is clear that technology is changing the field of educational and psychological measurement. The numerous and rapid advances have immediate impact on test creators, assessment professionals, and those who implement and analyze assessments. This comprehensive new volume brings together leading experts on the issues posed by technological applications in testing, with chapters on game-based assessment, testing with simulations, video assessment, computerized test development, large-scale test delivery, model choice, validity, and error issues. Including an overview of existing literature and ground-breaking research, each chapter considers the technological, practical, and ethical considerations of this rapidly-changing area. Ideal for researchers and professionals in testing and assessment, Technology and Testing provides a critical and in-depth look at one of the most pressing topics in educational testing today. The Open Access version of this book, available at http://www.taylorfrancis.com, has been made available under a Creative Commons Attribution-Non Commercial-No Derivatives 4.0 license.

In Zeiten des Fachkräftemangels sind Bibliotheken auf ausreichendes und qualifiziertes Personal angewiesen. Effektive Personalgewinnung ist von entscheidender Bedeutung, um den Herausforderungen des Fachkräftemangels zu begegnen und eine hochwertige Bibliotheksarbeit zu gewährleisten. Eine gute Personalgewinnung ermöglicht es Bibliotheken, auch bei einem sich stetig verändernden Berufsbild, einem herausfordernden demografischen Wandel, eingeschränkten Ressourcen und verwaltungsinternen Vorgaben sowie in Zeiten der digitalen Transformation talentierte Fachkräfte anzuziehen, zu rekrutieren und langfristig zu binden. Ziel des Praxishandbuches ist es, einen Überblick über das Themenfeld Personalgewinnung zu geben, den Lesenden mit den Ansätzen des Employer Brandings vertraut zu machen und praxisnahe Beispiele aus verschiedensten Bereichen des Personalgewinnungsprozesses aufzuzeigen, die für Bibliotheken, gleich welcher Größenordnung, übertragbar und anwendbar sind. Darüber hinaus werden Einblicke in Good Practice Beispiele vorgestellt, die bereits innovative Wege im Bereich Marketing und Personalgewinnung gegangen sind. Das Praxishandbuch richtet sich in erster Linie an Leitungen öffentlicher und wissenschaftlicher Bibliotheken und weiterer Informationseinrichtungen, sowie Bibliotheksmitarbeitende, die mit der Personalgewinnung und -entwicklung (inkl. Ausbildung) betraut sind, sowie an das Bibliothekspersonal, welches im Bereich Marketing und Öffentlichkeitsarbeit beschäftigt ist.

In Schulbüchern spiegelt sich das Selbstverständnis von Gesellschaften wider: Durch sie ist der Werte-, Themen- und Literaturkanon rekonstruierbar, der zu einem gewissen Zeitpunkt in einer Gesellschaft dominant ist. Ab der zweiten Hälfte des 19. Jahrhunderts werden durch Schrift und Schule auch nationale Identitätskonzepte konsolidiert. Diese Fallstudie zeigt für slowenische Schullesebücher, welchen großen Beitrag Übersetzungen dabei leisteten, zeichnet ihre Entstehungsumstände und die Leistungen der Beteiligten nach und richtet das Augenmerk auf die Verfestigung einer einheitlichen slowenischen Schriftsprache und einer nationalen Gruppenidentität, wie sie durch das Schullesebuch vorangetrieben und in diesem sichtbar wurde.

Die Südosteuropa-Studien werden von der in München ansässigen Südosteuropa-Gesellschaft, der wichtigsten Wissenschaftsorganisation der Südosteuropa-Forschung im deutschsprachigen Raum, herausgegeben. Sie dienen der vertieften und interdisziplinären wissenschaftlichen Darstellung wichtiger Themen aus der Südosteuropa-Forschung. Auch Fragen zur aktuellen politischen und sozio-ökonomischen Entwicklung in der Region Südosteuropa werden aufgegriffen. Herausgeber der Einzelbände sind renommierte Repräsentanten der deutschen und internationalen Südosteuropa-Forschung.

This open access book explores the history of risk management in medieval and early modern European maritime business, focusing particularly on 'General Average' – a mechanism by which extraordinary expenses regarding ship or cargo, incurred during a voyage to save the venture, are shared between all participants to protect equity. This volume traces the history of this risk management tool from its origins in the pre-Roman Mediterranean through to its use in the shipping sector today. Contributions range from the Islamic Mediterranean to the Low Countries, and taken together, provide a wide-ranging analysis of social, cultural, and political aspects of pre-modern maritime commerce in Europe.

This Chapter examines the regulatory and voluntary anti-trafficking governance architecture in the private sector, as well as the power dynamics in MNEs’ GVCs as vectors of norm transmission. It argues that, whereas the public authorities in the EU and ASEAN’s Member States have an increasingly robust legal and policy framework to fight child trafficking, public authorities and multinational enterprises (MNEs) are jointly contributing to upholding the exploitative practices towards children, by leaving untouched the economic structures that fuel trafficking. The model is starting to be overhauled in some sectors of the economy, through strategies to gain back control over GVCs, whether through the shortening of supply chains, or other strategies such as the establishment of direct relations with small producers, who are given a fairer deal compared to situations when they are end producers in long GVCs. It will require more efforts to scale up these initiatives and create sufficient momentum to efficiently combat anti-trafficking, otherwise “blue” initiatives of social sustainability risk leading to further sustainability-driven supplier-squeezes, reinforcing the divide between small businesses and large corporations, and increasing the structural vulnerability of children to trafficking.

This book constitutes the proceedings of the 16th International Conference on Informatics in Schools: Situation, Evolution and Perspectives, ISSEP 2023, held in Lausanne, Switzerland, during October 23–25, 2023. The 14 full papers presented in this book were carefully reviewed and selected from 47 submissions. They are organized in four topical sections named: artificial intelligence and its applications; competitions, problem solving, and computational; robotics and unplugged modalities; and curricula and computer science concepts. This is an open access book.

This open access Handbook offers readers a state-of-the-art guide to the public debates and scholarship on religious heritage in contemporary Europe. It contains articles by scholars, policy makers and heritage practitioners, who explore the key challenges facing the organizations, churches, and government bodies concerned with religion and heritage. Featuring polemics, case studies, and analysis, the volume is united by major themes, including Jewish, Muslim and Christian heritage, the (post)secular, interreligious heritage, sacred texts, museums, tourism, and contemporary art. The book explores the shifting significance of Europe’s historic churches, synagogues, and mosques, many of which are caught between declining numbers of worshippers, increasing numbers of tourists, and the pressure to find new uses. It also examines the key role religious heritage plays in political discourse, both in the interest of including and excluding religious minorities. The ebook editions of this book are available open access under a CC BY-NC-ND 4.0 licence on bloomsburycollections.com.

Das Verwaltungsrecht der USA gilt als ein besonders politisch geprägtes Recht. Es hat sich von früh an um einen demokratischen Zuschnitt seiner Handlungsweisen bemüht; "freedom of information" und seine kommunikativen Rechtsetzungsverfahren sind vielfach Vorbilder für andere Verwaltungsrechtsordnungen geworden. Trotzdem wird seine Legitimität bis in die jüngste Zeit hinein immer wieder angezweifelt. Das vorliegende Werk bietet eine systematische Behandlung der verfassungsrechtlichen Grundlagen sowie der Handlungsformen, der Verfahren, der Haftung und des Rechtsschutzes in Verwaltungssachen, und es analysiert die den amerikanischen "Administrative State" kennzeichnenden Spannungen zwischen politischem Gestaltungsauftrag und neutralisierender Rechtsbindung.