Open Access Books

In this study, Ng examines the aftermath of the massive protests in 2019 and the implementation of the National Security Law in Hong Kong. Despite 2 years of fluctuating COVID measures and social constraints, the city witnessed an unparalleled cultural resurgence after the enactment of the National Security Law in 2020. This book explores Hong Kong beyond the end of the Anti-Extradition Bill Movement in 2019, to examine what happened afterward, how society repaired itself, how the people of the city resumed their everyday life, and what this everyday life entails. Ng examines the social debates and conversations during these 2 years, analyzing a wide range of creative projects in the city, from television shows, popular music, and social media to literary writings. She describes the difficulties, emotional experiences, and also daily strategies to repair local life, recreate a self-identity, and reclaim the city’s narrative against the pressures from China. This book is a valuable resource for researchers, scholars, students, and general readers interested in popular culture and society, and the global uprisings of the first decades of the twenty-first century. The study, supported by detailed research, also makes this essential reading for those with a specialized interest in global studies, and China and Hong Kong studies.

The book "Information Systems in Organizations" focuses on key aspects of implementing and utilizing information systems in organizations, with a particular emphasis on public administration in Poland. The publication is divided into four main parts, which describe in detail: the basics of information systems, the implementation process, aspects of use, and the future of information technology. Particular attention is paid to the practical applications of information systems, with examples of real implementations, such as the Electronic Platform of Public Administration Services (ePUAP) or the Electronic Document Management System of the Podlaskie Voivodeship Office (EZD PUW). The publication highlights the challenges and benefits associated with the digitization of public administration, with a particular focus on technical, organizational, and economic aspects, as well as the sources of problems encountered during implementation. The author demonstrates how modern technologies, such as artificial intelligence and the Internet of Things, shape the future of information systems and impact the efficiency of an organization's work. The book “Information Systems in Organizations” is a valuable resource for students, IT specialists, and managers responsible for digital transformation.

Miocene sedimentary rocks containing siliceous algae are rare in Slovenia. They have only been discovered in six shorter sections in the Sava basin. Paleontology, stratigraphy, paleoecology, and paleobiogeography of the diatoms, which appear in Slovenian localities, are studied accurately in the monograph. It is possible to deduce from the paleontologic datings of mollusc localities in the Krško basin and from the paleogeographic distribution of certain fossil groups that the connection of the Central Paratethys with the eastern and western Mediterranean also existed in the Late Badenian. On the basis of the geographic distribution of the species Pereiraea gervaisi the author presumes that the connection of the Central Paratethys with the Mediterranean through the Slovenian corridor did not cease in the Middle Badenian but, in fact, persisted up to the end of the Badenian.

Os textos reunidos nessa coletânea visam contribuir para ampliar as possibilidades de discussão sobre a história do urbanismo nessas décadas cruciais em que as cidades sul-americanas conhecem expressivas taxas de crescimento, o agravamento dos problemas urbanos e a busca, em várias frentes e de diferentes maneiras, de soluções para enfrentá-los. A partir de perspectivas diversas, eles buscam aproximar diferentes experiências nacionais, explorar singularidades, rastrear o surgimento de redes profissionais, mapear discussões, identificar enfim caminhos e descaminhos da construção de uma cultura urbanística no âmbito continental.

Since its inception six decades ago, the RAND Corporation has been one of the key institutional homes for the study of deterrence. This book examines much of this research for lessons relevant to the current and future strategic environment. It is therefore part intellectual history and part policy recommendation, intended to encourage debate and discussion on how deterrence can best be incorporated into U.S. strategy.

Im Jahr 719 übernahm der alemannische Kleriker Otmar als Abt die Verantwortung für die religiöse Gemeinschaft am Grab des heiligen Gallus. Unter ihm entwickelte sich das Kloster St. Gallen zu einem Zentrum mit überregionaler Bedeutung. Gleichzeitig kam es zu entscheidenden kirchlichen und politischen Veränderungen im Frankenreich und den angrenzenden Gebieten. Trotz der schwierigen und komplexen Überlieferungslage lassen die Quellen wichtige Entwicklungen in der Darstellung des Abbatiats Otmars, der Klostergeschichte von St. Gallen sowie des Mönchtums und der Vorstellungen, die es beeinflussten, erkennen. Die Beiträge in diesem Sammelband gehen diesen Entwicklungslinien nach.

Buddhist monasteries, in both Ancient India and China, have played a crucial social role, for religious as well as for lay people. They rightfully attract the attention of many scholars, discussing historical backgrounds, institutional networks, or influential masters. Still, some aspects of monastic life have not yet received the attention they deserve. This book therefore aims to study some of the most essential, but often overlooked, issues of Buddhist life: namely, practices and objects of bodily care. For monastic authors, bodily care primarily involves bathing, washing, cleaning, shaving and trimming the nails, activities of everyday life that are performed by lay people and monastics alike. In this sense, they are all highly recognizable and, while structuring monastic life, equally provide a potential bridge between two worlds that are constantly interacting with each other: monastic people and their lay followers. Bodily practices might be viewed as relatively simple and elementary, but it is exactly through their triviality that they give us a clear insight into the structure and development of Buddhist monasteries. Over time, Buddhist monks and nuns have, through their painstaking effort into regulating bodily care, defined the identity of the Buddhist saṃgha, overtly displaying it to the laity.

Les 22 essais qui constituent le présent ouvrage analysent le mouvement dans un ensemble varié d’œuvres littéraires, iconographiques et musicales, de l’Antiquité au xviiie siècle. Après un cadrage philosophique et historique de la notion au moyen du rythmos, compris comme temps, forme, ou mesure, la réflexion est déclinée en trois moments. “Figures du mouvement” s’intéresse aux formes du mouvement restituées par la tradition textuelle médiévale, inscrites dans les portails romans d’Aquitaine, les Annonciations flamandes et les extases baroques, ou gravées dans des objets du quotidien, vaisselle ou jetons. “Objets en mouvement” considère les œuvres dans leur matérialité, et examine la circulation des parfums antiques et des objets votifs médiévaux, le mécanisme des “marionnettes sacrées” du Christ et de la machinerie théâtrale, ou le fonctionnement des processions, rituelles ou profanes, en Italie et dans l’espace franco-bourguignon. Enfin, avec “Mouvements du corps”, entre iconographie étrusque, rondeaux latins et acrobates des chapiteaux romans, la gestualité est décrite et analysée dans la musique et dans la danse, réelle ou sculptée. Le mouvement apparaît ainsi comme l’une des modalités les plus accomplies de l’œuvre d’art, qu’elle soit texte, tableau, sculpture, dispositif ou monument.

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The enterprises operate in a competitive and unstable environment, which is considered a normal phenomenon in a free-competitive economy. They constantly look for better and better solutions for the effective functioning of their business. Micro, small and medium-sized enterprises (MSMEs) are a key element of any market economy. These entities are perceived as a group facing numerous barriers, both at the time of their creation and further operation. One of the key limitations, often conditioning the establishment or continuation of operations, is the difficult access to financing sources. Therefore, this publication focused on selected methods of raising capital that are currently convenient for the MSME sector. The following instruments were analyzed and assessed: crowdfunding aimed at enterprises, loans and credits, considered from the perspective of microfinance, as well as a mortgage loan as a way to finance investment projects. All these forms share a common idea - financial support for the MSME sector in accessing capital. The main aim of the study was to broaden the knowledge of the indicated financial instruments, to present their functioning in Poland in a compact manner and to verify their current structure and availability for enterprises. It should also be emphasized that all the discussed instruments can be used successfully in the booming economy, but they are of particular importance in a downturn. The period covered by the analysis is the perspective of the last dozen or so years, and the geographical scope covers Poland, with reference to examples occurring in other countries.

This open access volume contains the proceedings of the X Hotine-Marussi Symposium on Mathematical Geodesy which was held from 13 to 17 June 2022 at the Politecnico di Milano, Milan, Italy. Since 2006 the series of the Hotine-Marussi Symposia has been under the responsibility of the Inter-Commission Committee on Theory (ICCT) within the International Association of Geodesy (IAG). The ICCT organized the last five Hotine-Marussi Symposia held in Wuhan (2006), Rome (2009, 2013 and 2018), and Milan (2022). The overall goal of the ICCT and Hotine-Marussi Symposia has always been to advance geodetic theory which is indeed documented by the 22 research articles published in these proceedings. The jubilee X Hotine-Marussi Symposium was organized in 10 topical sessions covering all parts of geodetic theory including reference frames, gravity field modelling, adjustment theory, height systems, time series analysis, or advanced numerical methods. In total, 60 participants attended the Symposium who delivered 62 oral and 18 poster presentations. During a special session, five invited speakers discussed two basic concepts of physical geodesy – geoid and quasigeoid.

This book offers a critical contribution to feminist peace and disaster research by challenging the successful disaster recovery narrative of the Kachchh 2001 earthquake in Gujarat, India. Engaging in a feminist intersectional analysis of complex cascades of violence, the book uses a theoretical and methodological approach to studying cascades of violence of populist post-disaster recovery, communal violence, and urban development - each with implications for intersectional social divisions, ecology, and thus, everyday peace. The book follows the mundane everyday and life-historical trajectories of the residents of the temporary shelter neighbourhood in Bhuj, drawing attention to an emerging feminist peace from below through silent resistance, care, and solidarity. It demonstrates that the impacts of disaster populism in the name of being "pro-poor" do not impact the marginalised segments of the society and disaster-affected communities, even within the same neighbourhood of the dispossessed, in the same ways. Combining underexplored newspaper and project documentation archives, the speeches of Narendra Modi delivered in Kachchh, and urban life historical ethnography, the book offers a rich analysis of gendered and intersectional experiences of how dispossession and mundane violence are embedded in the earthquake recovery – and how international humanitarian aid and urban disaster recovery are entangled with complex cascades of violence. This book will be of much interest to students of feminist theory, peace studies, post-disaster recovery, and South Asian politics. The Open Access version of this book, available at www.taylorfrancis.com, has been made available under a Creative Commons Attribution (CC-BY) 4.0 license.

Construction History is still a fairly new and small but quickly evolving field. The current trends in Construction History are well reflected in the papers of the present conference. Construction History has strong roots in the historiography of the 19th century and the evolution of industrialization, but the focus of our research field has meanwhile shifted notably to include more recent and also more distant histories as well. This is reflected in these conference proceedings, where 65 out of 148 contributed papers deal with the built heritage or building actors of the 20th or 21st century. The conference also mirrors the wide spectrum of documentary and analytical approaches comprised within the discipline of Construction History. Papers dealing with the technical and functional analysis of specific buildings or building types are complemented by other studies focusing on the lives and formation of building actors, from laborers to architects and engineers, from economical aspects to social and political implications, on legal aspects and the strong ties between the history of construction and the history of engineering sciences. The conference integrates perfectly into the daily work at the Institute for Preservation and Construction History at ETH Zurich. Its two chairs – the Chair for Building Archaeology and Construction History and the Chair for Construction Heritage and Preservation – endeavor to cover the entire field and to bridge the gaps between the different approaches, methodologies and disciplines, between various centuries as well as technologies – learning together and from each other. The proceedings of 8ICCH give a representative picture of the state of the art in the field, and will serve as a reference point for future studies.

Ernst Lubitsch (1982–1947) was one of the most successful and influential German filmmakers in American film comedy. In this volume, Rick McCormick argues for a more transnational view of Lubitsch's career and films with respect to nationality, ethnicity, migration, class, sexuality, and gender. McCormick focuses on Lubitsch's Jewishness, which is inseparable from the distinct transnational character of the director, categorizing his early films as "Jewish comedies" where Lubitsch strikes a tenuous balance between Jewish humor, antisemitic jokes, stereotypes, and the incorporation of antifascist subjects into his popular films. Above all, the larger political issues at stake in Lubitsch's work are brought forward: German-Jewish perspectives and experiences, the subtle treatment of covert political and social messages, and the relationship of comedy, especially sexual comedy, to emancipatory politics and, in particular, to the turbulent politics of Europe and the United States in the first half of the twentieth century. The book discusses in depth the following films by Lubitsch: The Pride of the Firm (1914), Shoe Palace Pinkus (1916), Meyer From Berlin (1918), I Don't Want to Be a Man (1918), The Oyster Princess (1919), Madame Dubarry (1919), The Doll (1919), Sumurun (1920), The Wildcat (1921), The Marriage Circle (1924), The Student Prince in Old Heidelberg (1927), The Love Parade (1929), The Man I Killed (1932), Trouble in Paradise (1932), Design for Living (1933), Ninotchka (1939), The Shop Around the Corner (1940), and To Be or Not to Be (1942).

An investigation of borders as moving entities that influence our notions of territory, authority, sovereignty, and jurisdiction. In Borders as Infrastructure, Huub Dijstelbloem brings science and technology studies, as well as the philosophy of technology, to the study of borders and international human mobility. Taking Europe's borders as a point of departure, he shows how borders can transform and multiply and how they can mark conflicts over international orders. Borders themselves are moving entities, he claims, and with them travel our notions of territory, authority, sovereignty, and jurisdiction. The philosophies of Bruno Latour and Peter Sloterdijk provide a framework for Dijstelbloem's discussion of the material and morphological nature of borders and border politics. Dijstelbloem offers detailed empirical investigations that focus on the so-called migrant crisis of 2014–2016 on the Greek Aegean Islands of Chios and Lesbos; the Europe surveillance system Eurosur; border patrols at sea; the rise of hotspots and “humanitarian borders”; the technopolitics of border control at Schiphol International Airport; and the countersurveillance by NGOs, activists, and artists who investigate infrastructural border violence. Throughout, Dijstelbloem explores technologies used in border control, including cameras, databases, fingerprinting, visual representations, fences, walls, and monitoring instruments. Borders can turn places, routes, and territories into “zones of death.” Dijstelbloem concludes that Europe's current relationship with borders renders borders—and Europe itself—an “extreme infrastructure” obsessed with boundaries and limits.