Humanities & Social Sciences

With his religious politics and his self-representation as the vicar of God on Earth, Justinian I (527-565) had an enduring impact on Late Antiquity. What part did monks, believed to be heavenly angels, play in promoting this notion? This book offers the first exhaustive investigation of Justinian`s personal relations to monkhood and the role of monks in religious and legislative politics.

Die Arbeit untersucht die Auswirkungen einer Einführung und Anwendung von Konsumsteuern in offenen Volkswirtschaften. Berücksichtigt werden neben der indirekten Umsatzsteuer verschiedene direkte Konsumsteuern. Anhand eines Zwei-Länder-Falles wird analysiert, welche einzelwirtschaftlichen Reaktionen die unilaterale bzw. bilaterale Substitution der Einkommensteuer durch eine Konsumsteuer auslöst. Ferner werden die Konsumsteuern im Vergleich zur Einkommensteuer unter allokativen, distributiven und administrativen Gesichtspunkten bewertet. Es stellt sich heraus, dass der Konsum unter Berücksichtigung der in einer offenen Volkswirtschaft auftretenden Komplikationen keine bessere Steuerbemessungsgrundlage als das Einkommen ist.

The contributions in this anthology take a praxeological perspective on the historical dynamics surrounding the emergence, organisation and transformation of school subjects. The focus is therefore primarily on the materialities of teaching, e.g. teaching materials, teaching media and the mode of dealing with knowledge - knowledge practices that make up the specialised nature of school subjects.

In the last decade, Germany has become the European country hosting the greatest number of forced migrants in absolute terms. Due to a dispersal policy and a residence rule, asylum seekers, recognized and resettled refugees must increasingly be considered also a rural phenomenon. Against this backdrop, the study aimed to better understand the onward (im)mobilities and integration processes of these ‘refugee newcomers’, focusing on rural specificities in terms of settlement and integration. Drawing on an interdisciplinary multi-method approach and a case study in rural Bavaria, Germany, this cumulative PhD thesis analyzed three aspects: first, the discursive framing of refugee settlement processes in rural areas; second, the residential and everyday (im)mobilities of refugee newcomers in these regions; and, third, characteristics of mechanisms of socio-spatial exclusion and inclusion of forced migrants in terms of everyday mobility and access to rural housing.

Auf dem Dachboden des botanischen Instituts der Georg-August Universität Göttingen lagerte über sechzig Jahre, in ca. 50 Kisten verpackt, eine pharmakognostische Sammlung: Dokument einer Fachrichtung, die bis 1938 vom Institut vertreten wurde. Die Sammlung umfasst etwa 8.000 Proben und Objekte aus allen Bereichen der Materia Medica des 19. und beginnenden 20. Jahrhunderts; sie gehört damit zu den wenigen Universitätssammlungen, die in nahezu vollem Umfang erhalten blieben – ein Vergleich mit zeitgenössischen Lehrbüchern und Pharmakopöen zeigt, dass nahezu alle gängigen Drogen in zahlreichen Varianten enthalten sind. Die erhaltenen Sammlungsmuster zeigen, dass es sich nicht nur um eine bis heute wissenschaftliche Referenzsammlung handelt, sondern dass die Sammlung zugleich wichtige Funktionen in Forschung und Lehre incl. Ausbildung übernommen hat. Parallel zu der Katalogisierung wurde die Geschichte der Sammlung in Ansätzen rekonstruiert, und zu Teilbeständen wurden natur- und kulturwissenschaftliche Studien durchgeführt. Dabei wurde zunehmend deutlich, dass das Potential der Sammlung als Quellenbestand und Grundlage für eine Vielzahl wissenschaftshistorischer und naturwissenschaftlicher Studien erheblich ist; durch die Präsentation des Bestandes und seiner Geschichte hoffen wir, zu solchen Studien anzuregen. Prof. Dr. Volker Wissemann ist Professor für Spezielle Botanik an der Justus-Liebig-Universität Gießen, Direktor des Instituts für Botanik incl. Herbarium, Kondirektor der Hermann-Hoffmann-Akademie und wissenschaftlicher Leiter des botanischen Gartens Gießen. Er ist Mitglied der Akademie der Wissenschaften zu Göttingen und Alumnus der Georgia Augusta. Prof. Dr. Kärin Nickelsen ist Professorin für Wissenschaftsgeschichte am Historischen Seminar der Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München. Sie ist Mitglied der Nationalen Akademie der Wissenschaften (Leopoldina) und Alumna der Georgia Augusta.

This open access edited book captures the complexities and conflicts arising at the interface of intellectual property rights (IPR) and competition law. To do so, it discusses four specific themes: (a) policies governing functioning of standard setting organizations (SSOs), transparency and incentivising future innovation; (b) issue of royalties for standard essential patents (SEPs) and related disputes; (c) due process principles, procedural fairness and best practices in competition law; and (d) coherence of patent policies and consonance with competition law to support innovation in new technologies. Many countries have formulated policies and re-oriented their economies to foster technological innovation as it is seen as a major source of economic growth. At the same time, there have been tensions between patent laws and competition laws, despite the fact that both are intended to enhance consumer welfare. In this regard, licensing of SEPs has been debated extensively, although in most instances, innovators and implementers successfully negotiate licensing of SEPs. However, there have been instances where disagreements on royalty base and royalty rates, terms of licensing, bundling of patents in licenses, pooling of licenses have arisen, and this has resulted in a surge of litigation in various jurisdictions and also drawn the attention of competition/anti-trust regulators. Further, a lingering lack of consensus among scholars, industry experts and regulators regarding solutions and techniques that are apposite in these matters across jurisdictions has added to the confusion. This book looks at the processes adopted by the competition/anti-trust regulators to apply the principles of due process and procedural fairness in investigating abuse of dominance cases against innovators.

Any social and political arrangement depends on acceptance. If a substantial part of a people does not accept the authority of its rulers, then those can only remain in power by means of force, and even that use of force needs to be accepted to be effective. Gramsci called this acceptance of the socio-political status quo “hegemony.” Every stable state relies primarily on hegemony as a source of control. Hegemony works through the dissemination of values and beliefs that create acceptance and that serve the interests of the state and/or the ruling elite (the “hegemones”). Hegemony is most efficient if it remains invisible. A key hegemonic belief is the idea that there is no alternative to the current socio-political status quo or that the way things are is “natural.” The current hegemony – that is, the set of values and beliefs that bolster the current socio-political status quo – is a hegemony of psychopathy: it promotes “cultural psychopathy” and destroys empathy and compassion, thus threatening everything that makes us human. The hegemony of psychopathy is responsible for massive human suffering. It must be fought and replaced with a counter-hegemonic set of values and beliefs that promote compassion and care. Fighting hegemony requires fighting the “pillars” that support it. Most important among these are the mass media and culture industry, and mainstream economics. The former is responsible for a continuous stream of hegemonic propaganda; the latter – among others – for providing a pseudo-scientific justification for the false belief that there is no alternative. The Hegemony of Psychopathy concludes with some considerations on tactics and strategy in the struggle against the hegemony of psychopathy, but does not – and cannot – offer any concrete advice.

This volume brings together a selection of articles illustrating the multifaceted nature of current research in generative syntax. The authors, including some of the leading figures in the field, present analyses of typologically diverse languages, with some studies drawing on dialectal, acquisitional and diachronic evidence. Set against this rich empirical background, the contributions address an equally wide range of theoretical issues.

This open access volume examines current threats to democracy with a focus on Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania. These small democracies face unique challenges from climate change, hybrid security threats, and geopolitical tensions. The book examines how these nations have adapted their institutions and practices to withstand disinformation campaigns, cyberattacks, and economic coercion, while also addressing environmental issues such as extreme weather and biodiversity loss. Part of the two-volume Democratic Resilience in the Baltics, Volume 1, "Resilient Governance and Democratic Stability," highlights the mechanisms the Baltic states have developed to counter hybrid threats and maintain democratic integrity. It covers political, economic, legal, and social resilience, and provides insights into crisis management and infrastructure protection. It also covers underexplored areas of resilience such as legal frameworks and intelligence mechanisms. The two volumes offer valuable lessons for other small democracies and larger states alike, highlighting the importance of resilience in safeguarding democratic institutions in an increasingly unstable world.

Media; political journalism; media effects; media theory

Public Administration; Minorities

A Refuge for Jae-in Doe and Other Fugues is the lyric memoir of Korean American survivor Seo-Young (Jennie) Chu. It is also a meta-memoir, one that is aware of its makeshift nature, poses questions about the genre(s) it inhabits, and self-consciously reflects on what it means to write autobiographically. Throughout the book, Chu experiments with the first-person singular “I,” tracing the polyphonies always implicit in the memoirist’s first-person singular voice. Writing polyphonically allows Chu to explore the plurality within her “I,” the uncanny homes she has found in dissociation, the appeal of other-than-first-person pronouns as sites of autobiographical consciousness, as well as the literal and figurative fugue states—from spells of incantatory writing to oneiric re-namings of the self—in which Chu finds refuge from intergenerational distress and rape trauma. Moving from one fugue state to another, Chu explores a wide range of topics relevant to her meta-autobiography, including the nature of time, the history of the sonnet, code-switching, suicidal ideation, the model minority myth, late-stage capitalism, institutional violence, rape culture, standardized tests, the Korean Demilitarized Zone, what it means to read a book, and what it means to be a self.

Bodenpolitische Fragen sind zukunftsweisend, denn sie entscheiden über Erhalt oder Zerstörung unserer Lebensgrundlagen. In den Debatten um Zugang, Verteilung und Nutzung von Boden wird heute die Eigentumsfrage neu gestellt: Wo sollte Boden Gegenstand von Privateigentum sein, wo als Gemeineigentum verwaltet werden? Und wie kann Recht Eigentumskonzentration verhindern und die gemeinwohlorientierte Nutzung von Grundeigentum sichern? Die Beiträge antworten mit einer Stadt und Land verbindenden Bodenpolitik und präsentieren Initiativen sowie Instrumente aus sozialen Bewegungen, Wissenschaft und Verwaltung, die eine gerechtere Verteilung, eine demokratischere und selbstbestimmte Verwaltung und eine nachhaltige Nutzung von Boden ermöglichen.

Jainism, perhaps more so than any other South Asian tradition, focuses strongly on the ethics of birth, life, and death, with regard to both humans and other living beings. Insistent Life is the first full-length interdisciplinary examination of the foundational principles of bioethics within Jain doctrine and the application of those principles in the contemporary sphere. Brianne Donaldson and Ana Bajželj analyze a diverse range of Jain texts and contemporary sources to identify Jain perspectives on bioethical issues while highlighting the complexity of their personal, professional, and public dimensions. The book also features extensive original data based on an international survey the authors conducted with Jain medical professionals in India and diaspora communities of North America, Europe, and Africa.

Radio signals keep making material, informational, political, and social connections in this world. Exploring these signals architectonically, the contributors engage with the situatedness of radio signal recordings in nature and with knowledge implied in radio communication. Rooted in experimental design and data feminism, the book presents innovative tools for navigating data by spanning media theory, information studies, and feminist new materialism. This offers an intersectional and post-disciplinary approach to computation, classification, and search that is accessible to artists, technologists, and researchers - facilitating interdisciplinary collaboration and deepening the understanding of information technologies.