Humanities & Social Sciences

In Japan findet jährlich eine Vielzahl von Amateur-Comic-Events, darunter die größte Comic-Messe weltweit, die Comiket, statt. Entgegen dem globalen Trend zur Digitalisierung im Comic-Bereich wird ein Großteil der dortigen Werke nach wie vor von den Künstler*innen selbst verlegt, gedruckt und herausgegeben. Katharina Hülsmann nimmt die Kultur japanischer Fan-Comics (sog. dōjinshi) in den Blick: Wie entwickelte sich eine solch solide Infrastruktur in Japan und warum hält sie sich bis heute? Welche Anschlussmöglichkeiten haben dōjinshi an ein globales Fandom, wenn sie sich im Internet eher wenig verbreiten? Und was treibt japanische Amateur-Künstler*innen an, ihre Werke mit viel Aufwand herzustellen und mit anderen Fans zu teilen?

In der vorliegenden Arbeit soll die erste Ausgabe der Akademiegrammatik von 1802 in sprachlicher Hinsicht analysiert werden. Um die AG innerhalb der vorher erschienenen russischen Grammatiken einordnen zu können, werden zum Vergleich die Rossijskaja grammatika Lomonosovs und die Nacal'nyja osnovanija Rossijskoj grammatiki P. Sokolovs herangezogen. Ziel der Arbeit ist es, durch die Analyse der AG einen Beitrag zur Erforschung der russischen kodifizierten Sprachnorm zu Beginn des 19. Jahrhunderts zu leisten.

This work focuses on the Blue Card Directive, not as a specific instrument, but as an integral part of the EU Immigration Policy Framework. Such an approach is necessary, given the sector-based approach and the legislative patchwork adopted by the EU in the field of Immigration Policy. Moreover, EU law on migration is a new but a very dynamic field which is constantly evolving. Therefore, the project not only analyses the key definitions, central themes and legal issues of the Directive but also examines its interaction and tries to establish some connections with the other EU instruments on legal migration into the EU, most of them adopted on the so-called sector-based approach (Single Permit Directive, Family Reunification Directive, Long-term Residents Directive, Researchers, Students and Others Directive, etc.). In particular, the project tries do draw a parallel between some of the Blue Card Directive provisions and the jurisprudence of the European Court delivered for similar notions or legal problems contained in the others instruments. Furthermore, the work addresses other specific issues such us : mobility, the problem of an “ethical recruitment” of highly skilled workers, the volumes of admission (to be set by the Member States), the maintaining of national schemes for highly qualified migrants besides the EU Blue Card and the integration of migrants already admitted in the Member States.

The volume gathers the proceedings of the Conference held in memory of Giovanni Cherubini (1936–2021), organized by the University of Florence in 2022. Professor from 1967 to 2009 and later emeritus at the University of Florence, Cherubini was one of Italian leading medieval historians. Through contributions by some renowned international specialists, the volume outlines, from a historical perspective, the profile of the professor, and, from a historiographical perspective, the intellectual legacy of the scholar. In particular, it explores both the role of Cherubini as a teacher and colleague, who profoundly influenced the field of medieval studies in Florence, and the innovative contributions he made to some of the most significant thematic areas of Medieval History research: agrarian history, urban history, and the history of southern Italy in the late Middle Ages. As such, the volume represents an important contribution to the history of historiography.

"Challenging the Westphalian view of international relations, which focuses on the sovereignty of states and the inevitable potential for conflict, the authors from the Borderlands Study Group reconceive borders as capillaries enabling the flow of material, cultural, and social benefits through local communities, nation-states, and entire regions. By emphasizing local agency and regional interdependencies, this metaphor reconfigures current narratives about the China India border and opens a new perspective on the long history of the Silk Roads, the modern BCIM Initiative, and dam construction along the Nu River in China and the Teesta River in India. Together, the authors show that positive interaction among people on both sides of a border generates larger, cross-border communities, which can pressure for cooperation and development. India China offers the hope that people divided by arbitrary geo-political boundaries can circumvent race, gender, class, religion, and other social barriers, to form more inclusive institutions and forms of governance."

The theoretical underpinnings of public international law have taken the sovereign status of the nation-state for granted since the beginning of the modern era. After centuries of evolution in legal and political thought, the state's definition as a bounded territorial unit has been strictly codified. The legal development of the nation-state was an ideological project informed by extra-legal considerations. Additionally, the ever-narrowing scope of the juridical idea of sovereignty functioned as a boundary mechanism instrumental in colonising Africa and other regions. While international law claims universal liberalism today, the current system based on sovereign nation-states represents not social inclusion but fierce and dangerous exclusion. The central thesis of this book is that the development of legal sovereignty was, rather than part of the modernist progress narrative, a historically contingent evolutionary regression. While other social systems such as economics and science became globalised, politics and law counterintuitively became more territorialised. It is argued that the nation-state today is not only anachronistic but is dangerously ill-equipped for facing international problems such as the climate crisis or global pandemics. Finally, it also leaves African states and many other formerly-colonised territories at a particular disadvantage by regulating their political practices into a predefined mould.

Ahora bien, junto con las causas de deforestación expuestas concurre lo que estos autores reconocen como causas subyacentes de la deforestación, las cuales hacen referencia a los factores que refuerzan las causas directas e influyen o motivan las decisiones que toman los agentes de la deforestación, lo que explica porqué se presenta este fenómeno. Señalan que las causas subyacentes corresponden a factores demográficos; económicos y tecnológicos; políticos e institucionales; culturales y biofísicos, como, por ejemplo, la visión que tiene el agente sobre el bosque como factor cultural, siendo recurrente que exista “la falsa percepción de que la ruta hacía la obtención de un título de propiedad depende del porcentaje de bosque talado dentro de un terreno baldío” (González, Cubillos, Chadid et ál., 2018, p. 78). La magnitud de la problemática y el acelerado proceso de degradación explican los compromisos adquiridos por Colombia a nivel internacional y los planes, programas y políticas que se han implementado internamente, todos enfocados a un objetivo común: contrarrestar la deforestación y hacerle frente a los impactos que desprende. Resumidos por el Instituto Alexander von Humboldt y wwf (2019), entre estos impactos están la pérdida de biodiversidad y servicios ecosistémicos, alteración de ciclos hidrológicos, nutrientes y erosión del suelo; aumento de emisiones de gases de efecto invernadero y cambio climático; alteración del clima regional y local; y vulnerabilidad de la población y precarias condiciones de vida. A dichas consecuencias ambientales deben añadirse los impactos del narcotráfico sobre los bosques, que van más allá de las plantaciones: carreteras clandestinas, apertura de pistas de aterrizaje, actividades económicas como la tala y la ganadería para lavar dinero (El Tiempo, 2016), nuevos asentamientos y pobladores que detonan nuevos procesos de deforestación (Vélez, 2019) y el establecimiento de zonas de almacenamiento, procesamiento de hoja y alojamiento de jornaleros (González, Cubillos, Chadid et ál., 2018). Esto se agrava en términos culturales y ambientales cuando los cultivos tienen lugar en áreas de especial importancia ecológica y en territorios de grupos étnicos, situación que lamentablemente se presenta en grandes proporciones. Según lo señalando por el Ministerio de Ambiente y el Ideam (2018), el 15,8 % de los cultivos se encuentran en el Sistema de Áreas Protegidas, 53,4 % en territorio de los que son titulares los grupos étnicos y el 1,9 % bajo zonas de reserva campesina. Por su parte, la Oficina de Naciones Unidas contra la Droga y el Delito —unodc— indica que para el 2019 un total de 72 511 hectáreas se encontraban en zonas de manejo especial, de las cuales 24 856 hectáreas se ubicaron en tierras de comunidades negras (unodc y simci, 2020).

From its inception, big business in the western industrialised world has been organised in national business communities. Central elements of these business communities are corporate board interlocks that constitute the notorious 'Old Boys Network'. This corporate elite connects the centres of corporate governance. In recent times, these networks of the corporate elite show signs of decline. Heemskerk investigates how the decline of the old boys network in the Netherlands has affected Dutch capitalism. Combining formal network analysis with insights from interviews with key corporate elite members, he shows how during the last quarter of the 20th century the Dutch business community has disappeared. This is interpreted as a drift towards a liberal market economy. However, as the study shows, even in a liberal market economy corporate directors need social networks to communicate and coordinate their strategic decisions. Hence, the corporate elite shift its meeting network to private and informal circles. To order this book, mail to "mailto:[email protected]">[email protected]

Examines the need to recenter the category of sex–theorizing sex itself as nonbinary–in contemporary studies of gender and sexualityGender has largely replaced sex as a category in critical theory, in progressive cultural circles, and in everyday bureaucratic language. Much of this development has been salutary. Gender has become a crucial site for theorizing trans identifications and embodiments. Yet, without a concomi­tant theory of sex, gender’s contemporary uses also intersect with late neoliberalism’s emphasis on micro-identities, flexibility, avatar culture, and human capital. Contemporary culture has also grown more ambivalent about sexual desire and its expression. Sex is seen as both ubiquitous and ubiquitously a problem.In Defense of Sex theorizes sex as both a nonbinary form of embodiment (one that can comple­ment recent trans conceptions of gender as multiple and nonbinary) and a crucial form of social desire. Drawing on intersex and trans theory as well as Marxist theory, feminist new materialism, psychoanalysis, and accounts of the flesh in Black studies, author Christopher Breu argues for a materialist understanding of embodiment and the workings of desire as they structure contemporary culture. Moving from critique to theorizing embodiment, desire, and forms of bioaccumulation, In Defense of Sex concludes by proposing the unabashedly utopian project of building a sexual and embodied commons.

Women's Health Updates is a book that covers current topics in global health care for women of all ages. This textbook covers topics related to contraception, maternal-fetal medicine, gynecologic cancer, and menopause. It is an essential book for professionals in all fields of health care who are interested in women's health.

Once notorious but now largely forgotten, the political idealist and radical John Baxter Langley was typical of the well-educated and ethical Victorians who struggled to create a fairer, more equal society. Through a long and wide-ranging career of political agitation he was a journalist, editor and owner of several newspapers, was prominent in the call for franchise reform, and opposed religious legislation that prevented Sunday entertainment and education for working men and women. Langley was also integral to the founding of a trade union, campaigned for an end to public executions and built affordable housing in Battersea. Internationally, he condemned the Second Opium War, exposed British brutality in India and worked covertly for Lincoln’s administration. He was a fellow-traveller for many other key radicals of the day, while his founding of the ‘Church of the Future’ garnered the support of Charles Darwin, James Martineau and John Stuart Mill. Through a chronological narrative of Langley's activities, this book provides an overview of many of the most significant political causes of the mid- to late nineteenth century. These include electoral reform, feminism, slavery, racism, trade unionism, workers' rights, the free press, leisure, prostitution, foreign relations and espionage. A neglected but important figure in the history of nineteenth-century radicalism, this work gives John Baxter Langley the attention he deserves and reveals the breadth of his legacy.

This book introduces experiential knowledge of the intersectionality of disability, sexuality, and gender equality issues. Scholars and disabled persons’ organizations in different Asian countries such as China, Vietnam, Myanmar, Nepal, and Japan have contributed to the book. It is a preliminary introduction of the frontline practice of Asian disability activism and the experience of women and LGBTIQ people with disabilities. It presents the direct participation of disability advocates in mapping how both women with disabilities and LGBTIQ individuals with disabilities realize their rights such as identity, work rights, personal safety, and sexual rights. Studies presented here explore the experience of empowering diverse disability groups and advocating for equality and non-discrimination. It explains how to use the leverage of the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD) for further human rights campaigns in a broader context for disadvantaged groups. This collection is the product of a participatory research project, which aims to increase the capabilities of local disabled persons’ organizations and NGOs in utilizing human rights laws and encourage dialogue and collaboration between academia, people with disabilities, and human rights advocates. It will be essential reading for academics, researchers, policy-makers, and campaign groups.

"Theory without practice is empty, practice without theory is blind, to adapt a phrase from Immanuel Kant. The sentiment could not be truer of cultural heritage ethics. This intra-disciplinary book bridges the gap between theory and practice by bringing together a stellar cast of academics, activists, consultants, journalists, lawyers, and museum practitioners, each contributing their own expertise to the wider debate of what cultural heritage means in the twenty-first century. Cultural Heritage Ethics provides cutting-edge arguments built on case studies of cultural heritage and its management in a range of geographical and cultural contexts. Moreover, the volume feels the pulse of the debate on heritage ethics by discussing timely issues such as access, acquisition, archaeological practice, curatorship, education, ethnology, historiography, integrity, legislation, memory, museum management, ownership, preservation, protection, public trust, restitution, human rights, stewardship, and tourism. This volume is neither a textbook nor a manifesto for any particular approach to heritage ethics, but a snapshot of different positions and approaches that will inspire both thought and action. Cultural Heritage Ethics provides invaluable reading for students and teachers of philosophy of archaeology, history and moral philosophy – and for anyone interested in the theory and practice of cultural preservation."

This contribution attempts to offer an overview of my three-year doctoral work, dwelling in particular on the historiographical gaps on Cuban school history, with which I have had to contend in the course of my research. The historiography on the history of Cuban school and education appears to be deficient or at any rate lacking in synthetic works, covering extended periods capable of offering a more complete evolutionary picture. Certainly, there is no shortage of valuable works on circumscribed themes and or periods, but ultimately they do not allow for a comprehensive reading or one that is alien to distorted and sweetened interpretations.

Embedded in Southern voices and epistemologies, this book explores how local communities in Central America understand development and the good life in the context of large-scale infrastructure projects. The analysis focuses on six case studies: the Reventazón hydropower plant and the Guanacaste tourism projects in Costa Rica, the Barro Blanco hydropower plant in Panama, the Bahía de Tela tourism area in Honduras, and the La India and La Libertad gold mines in Nicaragua. The book draws on extensive in-depth interviews, participatory workshops and surveys to demonstrate how different social groups interpret the impacts of megaprojects. It critically examines the tensions between externally-driven investment initiatives — and the values they promote — and locally-rooted worldviews, wellbeing and ways of life. The volume concludes with a practical workshop proposal to help communities strengthen their resilience and formulate alternative development pathways based on their own cultural and social frameworks. This book will be of particular interest to scholars in the fields of development and Latin American studies, as well as policy makers and practitioners working in the region.