Humanities & Social Sciences

"Mendl Mann’s autobiographical novel The Fall of Berlin tells the painful yet compelling story of life as a Jewish soldier in the Red Army. Menakhem Isaacovich is a Polish Jew who, after fleeing the Nazis, finds refuge in the USSR. Translated into English from the original Yiddish by Maurice Wolfthal, the narrative follows Menakhem as he fights on the front line in Stalin’s Red Army against Hitler and the Nazis who are destroying his homeland of Poland and exterminating the Jews. Menakhem encounters anti-Semitism on various occasions throughout the novel, and struggles to comprehend how seemingly normal people could hold such appalling views. As Mann writes, it is odd that ""vicious, insidious anti-Semitism could reside in a person with elevated feelings, an average person, a decent person”. The Fall of Berlin is both a striking and timelylook at the struggle that many Jewish soldiers faced. An affecting and unique book, which eloquently explores a variety of themes – such as anti-Semitism, patriotism, Stalinism and life as a Jewish soldier in the Second World War – this is essential reading for anyone interested in the Yiddish language, Jewish history, and the history of World War II. "

Das vorliegende Buch fasst die Resultate des Projekts „Smart City Ethical Toolbox“ zusammen, welches als Teilprojekt von „Smart City Research Lab“ an der Universität Bamberg zwischen 2019 und 2022 durchgeführt wurde. Unsere Handreichung zielt darauf ab, die Digitalisierung der Stadt Bamberg derart zu begleiten und zu optimieren, dass die mit ihr verbundenen Chancen und Risiken aus ethischer Hinsicht präzise thematisiert werden können. Damit die Smart City sich fair entfalten kann, gilt es im Zuge der Digitalisierungsmaßnahmen insbesondre eine enge Kooperation zwischen Wissenschaft und Öffentlichkeit anzustreben. Als theoretische Basis haben wir den Begriff der Menschenwürde als unhintergehbaren Grundwert gesetzt, aus dem wir dann weitere Werte abgeleitet haben. In Teil I wird dieser ethische Ansatz theoretisch eingehend beleuchtet und in grober Skizze dargestellt. Teil II widmet sich Detailanalysen, die Werte wie Autonomie und Gerechtigkeit, sowie den Bereich der Natur (Nachhaltigkeit) näher untersuchen. Hier wird auch eine konkrete Fallanalyse vorgestellt, die den in Smart Cities verbreiteten Ein-satz von E-Scootern anhand unserer „Ethical Toolbox“ auswertet. Im letzten Teil machen wir zuerst auf unterschiedliche kulturelle Kontexte aufmerksam, in denen die Digitalisierung vonstattengeht. Als Ausblick halten wir fest, dass ethische Reflexionen künftig sowohl durch digitale Apps als auch in zwischenmenschlichen Dialogen mehr angeregt und vorangetrieben werden sollen. Denn nur so lässt sich die Mensch-Maschine-Interaktion auf Basis zwischenmenschlichen Vertrauens gestalten.

Die vorliegende Arbeit beschäftigt sich mit der Validierung eines neuen Tests zur Messung von Experimentierfähigkeit in Large-Scale-Assessments. Die Testaufgaben erfordern die Planung, Durchführung und Auswertung typischer physikalischer Schülerexperimente der Sekundarstufe I. Anstelle von Realexperimenten werden interaktive Simulationen zum Aufbau von Experimenten und zur Durchführung von Messungen eingesetzt. Die Bearbeitung der Testaufgaben erfolgt vollständig am Computerbildschirm. Diesen Bearbeitungen werden in der Auswertung Punkte (Testwerte) zugewiesen. In der heute gültigen Vorstellung ist Validierung im Wesentlichen als ein theorie- und evidenzbasierter Argumentationsprozess aufzufassen. Nach der Nennung und Begründung notwendiger Validierungsschritte erfolgt eine schlüssige Validitätsargumentation. Ein Validierungsschritt kann z. B. darin bestehen, zu überprüfen, in wieweit zur erfolgreichen Bearbeitung der Testaufgaben Experimentierfähigkeiten eingesetzt werden. Die Ergebnisse der Validierungsschritte lassen sich wie folgt zusammenfassen: die Aufgabeninhalte und -anforderungen des Tests passen zum Physikunterricht der Sekundarstufe I; die Schüler denken und handeln bei der Bearbeitung der Testaufgaben experimentell; der verwendete Bewertungsmaßstab misst Experimentierfähigkeit; die erreichten Testwerte korrelieren mit den Testwerten, die bei inhaltlich identischen Realexperimenten erreicht werden. Zusammenfassend ist festzuhalten, dass der computerbasierte Test das Spektrum der in Large-Scale Assessments erfassbaren Experimentierfähigkeiten erweitert.

This open access book aims to provide an initial but comprehensive roadmap for the Chinese civil litigation system. It starts with some basic concepts of the Chinese judicial system (e.g., court system, case numbering, hierarchical trial system, etc.) and runs through the entire process and most aspects of civil litigation cases (e.g., jurisdiction, service of process, rules of evidence, enforcement, representative actions, etc.). The first target audience for this book is lawyers outside of mainland China. For professors and law students, this book also serves as a window into the Chinese judicial system in a short period of time. It is my hope that this book serves as a backdrop for additional observations of Chinese judicial practice, such as a review of recent cases. This is an open access book.

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.

Since the 1990s, internationalisation has become key for institutions wishing to secure funding for higher education and research. For the academic community, this strategic shift has had many consequences. Priorities have changed and been influenced by new ways of thinking about universities, and of measuring their impact in relation to each other and to their social goals. Debates are ongoing and hotly contested. In this collection, a mix of renowned academics and newer voices reflect on some of the realities of international research partnerships. They both question and highlight the agency of academics, donors and research institutions in the geopolitics of knowledge and power. The contributors offer fresh insights on institutional transformation, the setting of research agendas, and access to research funding, while highlighting the dilemmas researchers face when their institutions are vulnerable to state and donor influence. Offering a range of perspectives on why academics should collaborate and what for, this book will be useful to anyone interested in how scholars are adapting to the realities of international networking and how research institutions are finding innovative ways to make North–South partnerships and collaborations increasingly fair, sustainable and mutually beneficial.

During the Edo period (1603-1868) in Japan, ghost stories flourished. Some of these stories are particularly interesting for jurists analysing the Tokugawa legal system through the lens of popular culture. This article examines one of these stories: the tale of a servant who is killed by the hands of an unjust lord and returns as a ghost constitutes a faithful depiction of the tension between law and justice under the Tokugawa. The story shows, albeit indirectly, how the legal system was unable to provide justice for the lower strata of the population. Finally, the ghost itself plays a distinctive and important role in the collective imaginary as an agent of justice in the Edo period.

An exploration of the intersections of politics and public engagement, Democratising History reveals how history itself has been shaped by democratic forces. How has democracy transformed modern Britain and the way we teach its history? Democratising History answers this question by showcasing how scholars have successfully united social and cultural histories of democracy in British history. Nine research-led chapters provide an ‘inside’ perspective on democracy in modern British history, covering the complex relationship between Britain and its Empire, the democratisation of metropolitan culture, and how experts aimed to inform public debate in a changing democratic society. An ‘outside’ perspective is brought by six interludes that engage with the democratising forces at work in the twenty-first-century academy that are reshaping the profession, and thus the histories that scholars produce. In bringing these two histories of democracy together within a single conceptual framework, this book narrates an important shift in the landscape of UK higher education from the ‘inside’ and the ‘outside’, insisting that professional and intellectual changes must be seen alongside one another. Collectively, this volume responds to the scholarly and professional contributions of Peter Mandler, whose sensitive readings of cultural discourses and their social reach has inspired a generation of modern British historians. Through novel methods, insightful case studies and broader reflections on the profession, it shows how modern British history is being transformed by these questions and wider social and economic changes in contemporary Britain.

Pichi is an Afro-Caribbean English-lexifier Creole spoken on the island of Bioko, Equatorial Guinea. It is an offshoot of 19th century Krio (Sierra Leone) and shares many characteristics with West African relatives like Nigerian Pidgin, Cameroon Pidgin, and Ghanaian Pidgin English, as well as with the English-lexifier creoles of the insular and continental Caribbean. This comprehensive description presents a detailed analysis of the grammar and phonology of Pichi. It also includes a collection of texts and wordlists. Pichi features a nominative-accusative alignment, SVO word order, adjective-noun order, prenominal determiners, and prepositions. The language has a seven-vowel system and twenty-two consonant phonemes. Pichi has a two-tone system with tonal minimal pairs, morphological tone, and tonal processes. The morphological structure is largely isolating.

Presents original archival research on eight largely unknown émigrée translators whose work during the Cold War actively contributed to and, in some cases, decisively shaped the reception of Russian and Soviet literature throughout the English-speaking world. In this open access volume, Cathy McAteer profiles female translators of Russian and Soviet literature into English during the last century, focusing on the UK, USSR and US. Through cultural mediation, most often translation, each woman represents a unique encounter with Cold War politics. Drawing from extensive archival material, including British Intelligence files, reviews, publications and memoirs, Cold War Women sketches the microhistories of eight complex and occasionally controversial bilingual women: Moura Budberg, Vera Traill, Evelyn Manning, Margaret Wettlin, Violet Dutt, Edith Bone, Olga Carlisle, and Mirra Ginsburg. Many of these women, in addition to their work as translators and publishers of Soviet literature, led complex political lives that brought them under scrutiny for espionage, and even suspected assassination. Cold War Women explores how literary translation became a uniquely enabling career for each of these women, both in personally challenging gender norms, and in showing translation's soft power for galvanizing propagandist and humanitarian change. The book thus rehabilitates forgotten but influential female translators of Russian literature whose contributions helped to shape the Anglophone reception of Russian and Soviet literature both during and beyond their fraught historical moment. The ebook editions of this book are available open access under a CC BY-NC-ND 4.0 licence on bloomsburycollections.com. Open access was funded by the University of Exeter.

Wie wir arbeiten, beeinflusst in hohem Maße, wie wir uns selbst als Subjekte verstehen. Das gilt auch für Menschen mit Lernschwierigkeiten, die meist in Werkstätten oder Inklusionsbetrieben beschäftigt sind. Sarah Karims ethnografische Studie untersucht im Anschluss an die soziologischen Disability Studies sowie an Subjektivierungs- und Praxistheorien, wie Arbeitspraktiken das Handeln und Selbstverständnis der Beschäftigten beeinflussen. Anschaulich wird herausgearbeitet, dass Menschen mit Lernschwierigkeiten einem ambivalenten Umgang am Arbeitsplatz ausgesetzt sind. Dabei entwickeln sie eigenwillige und kreative Praktiken, um mit den Herausforderungen von Verbesonderung und Inklusion umzugehen.

The interaction of light with matter has triggered the interest of scientists for a long time. The area of plasmonics emerges in this context through the interaction of light with valence electrons in metals. The random phase approximation in the long wavelength limit is used for analytical investigation of plasmons in three‐dimensional metals, in a two‐dimensional electron gas, and finally in the most famous two‐dimensional semi‐metal, namely graphene. We show that plasmons in bulk metals as well as in a two‐dimensional electron gas originate from classical laws, whereas quantum effects appear as non‐local corrections. On the other hand, graphene plasmons are purely quantum modes, and thus, they would not exist in a “classical world.” Furthermore, under certain circumstances, light is able to couple with plasmons on metallic surfaces, forming a surface plasmon polariton, which is very important in nanoplasmonics due to its subwavelength nature. In addition, we outline two applications that complete our theoretical investigation. First, we examine how the presence of gain (active) dielectrics affects surface plasmon polariton properties and we find that there is a gain value for which the metallic losses are completely eliminated resulting in lossless plasmon propagation. Second, we combine monolayers of graphene in a periodic order and construct a plasmonic metamaterial that provides tunable wave propagation properties, such as epsilon‐near‐zero behavior, normal, and negative refraction.

This study is directed towards providing basic background material for the understanding of South Sumatran social organisation. To this end, four legal codes from the first half of the nineteenth century are presented and analysed. The method used in the analysis is a modification of that used by Levi-Strauss for the analysis of myth.

This edited collection provides a unique insight into sexual health in Scotland. It sets out the challenges facing Scotland in terms of poor sexual health and inequalities, within devolved government arrangements and a different healthcare system from the rest of the UK. It suggests that these factors have facilitated the development of an integrated model of sexual health planning and delivery with resonance beyond Scotland. Chapter authors include clinical specialists, managers and policy-makers, academics and senior government officials from Scotland and other parts of the UK, all of whom have an active role in commissioning, delivering or commenting upon sexual health services or sexual health. Both editors have significant experience in developing, delivering and managing innovative sexual and reproductive health services and have held national and international leadership and advisory roles concerning health policy and service management. They were instrumental in developing and delivering Sandyford, NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde’s sexual health service – the largest in the UK and viewed as the UK leader in progressive service development.

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