Open Access Books

This book proposes a series of studies devoted to one of the most important areas of political and institutional history, that of the relations between the political dimension and the exercise of justice. Centred on the experience of Florence, but open to comparison with that of other parts of Italy, the investigation brings to light how, in the transformation of the political framework of the age of the Comune to that of the territorial State between the thirteenth and the fifteenth centuries, in the relations between the powers active in the territory the sphere of justice offered scope for debate and political competition as well as leverage for legitimisation. One of the intentions of the book is, in fact, to contribute to revising the concept of justice, going beyond the traditional vision of public function and an aspect of the progressive affirmation of the State.

Creative Research in Music explores what it means to be an artistic researcher in music in the twenty-first century. The book delineates the myriad processes that underpin successful artistic research in music, providing best practice exemplars ranging from Western classical art to local indigenous traditions, and from small to large-scale, multi-media and cross-cultural work formats. Drawing on the richness of creative research work at key institutions in South-East Asia and Australian, this book examines the social, political, historical and cultural driving forces that spur and inspire excellence in creative research to extend and to cross boundaries, to sustain our music industry, to advocate for the importance of music in our world, and to make it clear that music matters. In the chapters, our authors present the ideas of informed practice, innovation and transcendence from diverse international perspectives. Each of these three themes has an introductory section where the theme is explored and the chapters in that section introduced. Taken as a whole, the book discusses how the themes in combination, with reference to the authorial group, are able to transform music pedagogy and performance for our global and complex world.

After fifteen years of reconstruction in a relatively peaceful environment spanning the years 1990 to 2004, Lebanon has experienced successive violent political events resulting from complex entangled internal and external struggles. The Syrian crisis and its political, economic and demographic consequences on Lebanon have increased these tensions. This atlas sheds light on these new challenges and adds new data that complete the analyses already published in the Atlas du Liban. Territoires et société (Atlas of Lebanon. Territories and Society) released in 2007 by the same research team. Some of its components are included in this edition. Beyond the international regional crisis and the population movements, it takes into account Lebanon’s socio-economic dimensions, the environmental issues linked to uncontrolled urbanization and to natural risks, as well as conflicts due to local territorial management. This atlas is the result of a collaborative endeavor between French and Lebanese researchers. It uses a geographical approach that puts in the foreground a spatial analysis of social and natural phenomena. Public sources are scarce in Lebanon, especially at the local scale. They are sometimes less reliable and difficult to access. It is particularly the case for the Lebanese census data, conversely data are abundantly available on the refugees population, which is less known than the population of refugees. International data help compare Lebanon to its neighbors. Thematic data produced by some ministries are helpful to provide a detailed view regarding specific domains. Analyses processed on aerial and satellite images have produced essential data on urbanization and environment. Local thematic fieldwork surveys have provided additional data. The book consists of seven chapters. The first one deals with the territorial state-building seen in the light of regional geopolitics, and emphasizes internal violence and the reemergence of militias and armed groups that fight each other and the state army. Lebanon is once again perceived as a territory divided between multiple allegiances. The second chapter is devoted to the analysis of population dynamics, despite the lack of reliable data whose sources are subject to discussion. It includes analyses of internal population flows, the Lebanese diaspora, and the assessment of Syrian refugees’ influx. The third chapter shows the fragility of the Lebanese economic model. Its dependency on foreign investments and on the remittances of the diaspora, as well as the deadlocks of industry and agriculture, which aggravate social imbalances. The fourth chapter is an assessment of urbanization in the country, which has increased by 80% in surface in twenty years at the expense of natural spaces and agriculture. The shore is highly coveted and widely artificialized and damaged. Multiple signs of environmental degradation are examined in chapter five. They seem to announce the global climate change and its local effects. In addition to that, there is a direct link between massive urbanization and many risks, measured and mapped in an increasingly detailed way. Chapter six tackles the dysfunctional public services that exploit natural resources: water and energy supply, both marked by massive shortages, and the management of solid waste hit by a serious crisis. The seventh and last chapter studies the mutations of the local territorial management, which is marked by the retreat of the state, if not its marginalization, and the rise of other actors, notably municipalities, local powers and also civil society organizations.After fifteen years of reconstruction in a relatively peaceful environment spanning the years 1990 to 2004, Lebanon has experienced successive violent political events resulting from complex entangled internal and external struggles. The Syrian crisis and its political, economic and demographic consequences on Lebanon have increased these tensions. This atlas sheds light on these new challenges and adds new data that complete the analyses already published in the Atlas du Liban. Territoires et société (Atlas of Lebanon. Territories and Society) released in 2007 by the same research team. Some of its components are included in this edition. Beyond the international regional crisis and the population movements, it takes into account Lebanon’s socio-economic dimensions, the environmental issues linked to uncontrolled urbanization and to natural risks, as well as conflicts due to local territorial management. This atlas is the result of a collaborative endeavor between French and Lebanese researchers. It uses a geographical approach that puts in the foreground a spatial analysis of social and natural phenomena. Public sources are scarce in Lebanon, especially at the local scale. They are sometimes less reliable and difficult to access. It is particularly the case for the Lebanese census data, conversely data are abundantly available on the refugees population, which is less known than the population of refugees. International data help compare Lebanon to its neighbors. Thematic data produced by some ministries are helpful to provide a detailed view regarding specific domains. Analyses processed on aerial and satellite images have produced essential data on urbanization and environment. Local thematic fieldwork surveys have provided additional data. The book consists of seven chapters. The first one deals with the territorial state-building seen in the light of regional geopolitics, and emphasizes internal violence and the reemergence of militias and armed groups that fight each other and the state army. Lebanon is once again perceived as a territory divided between multiple allegiances. The second chapter is devoted to the analysis of population dynamics, despite the lack of reliable data whose sources are subject to discussion. It includes analyses of internal population flows, the Lebanese diaspora, and the assessment of Syrian refugees’ influx. The third chapter shows the fragility of the Lebanese economic model. Its dependency on foreign investments and on the remittances of the diaspora, as well as the deadlocks of industry and agriculture, which aggravate social imbalances. The fourth chapter is an assessment of urbanization in the country, which has increased by 80% in surface in twenty years at the expense of natural spaces and agriculture. The shore is highly coveted and widely artificialized and damaged. Multiple signs of environmental degradation are examined in chapter five. They seem to announce the global climate change and its local effects. In addition to that, there is a direct link between massive urbanization and many risks, measured and mapped in an increasingly detailed way. Chapter six tackles the dysfunctional public services that exploit natural resources: water and energy supply, both marked by massive shortages, and the management of solid waste hit by a serious crisis. The seventh and last chapter studies the mutations of the local territorial management, which is marked by the retreat of the state, if not its marginalization, and the rise of other actors, notably municipalities, local powers and also civil society organizations.

This is an open access title available under the terms of a CC BY-NC-ND 4.0 License. It is free to read, download and share on Elgaronline. This book discusses the crisis in modern governance rooted in the social fragmentation of modern society, the expanding diversity of values, beliefs and lifestyles generated by globalization and the technological revolution. Chapters advocate for a convergence of the institutional theory of polycentricity and the political philosophy of modus vivendi – live and let live – as a basic conceptual framework to uphold a peaceful and tolerant society, while presenting detailed analysis of a wide range of case studies.

Quand l’enseignement supérieur s’intéresse à l’entrepreneuriat et entend développer l’esprit d’entreprendre des étudiants que fabrique-il ? Des entrepreneurs ? Des professionnels plus compétents ? Des citoyens entreprenants ? C’est tout l’enjeu de cet ouvrage que de tenter de répondre à ces questions. Les travaux pluridisciplinaires réunis ici donnent des clés pour comprendre l’actualité en la matière et dessiner des perspectives pour l’avenir d’un point de vue critique au sens scientifique. L’ouvrage offre un panorama représentatif de l’essor contemporain de l’entrepreneuriat dans l’enseignement supérieur en explorant cinq dimensions : les politiques et contextes en France et aux États-Unis ; l’ingénierie et la mise en œuvre de dispositifs dédiés ; les effets et impacts des formations à l’esprit d’entreprendre ; leur évaluation ; la transformation ou construction de la professionnalité des intervenants de l’enseignement supérieur. L’ouvrage offre de nombreuses entrées pour permettre aux chercheurs, acteurs de l’enseignement supérieur et grand public de comprendre les changements à l’œuvre, les discuter, depuis des points de vue pluriels.

This book is available as open access through the Bloomsbury Open Access programme and is available on www.bloomsburycollections.com. Since at least the mid-seventeenth century, the concept of revolution has been an important tool both for those seeking to bring about political change and for those trying to understand it. And it is as relevant today as it has ever been. This volume re-evaluates our understanding of the history of revolutionary thought by examining a selection of key texts. These range from the 17th to the 20th century, and are carefully chosen to include both constitutional documents and theoretical works by figures such as James Harrington, Jean-Jacques Rousseau, Maximilian Robespierre, Peter Kropotkin and Deng Xiaoping Each chapter engages with a particular revolutionary moment via a specific text, usually an extract of around 300 words, and considers the significance of the text for the history of revolutionary thought. The structure of the book allows readers to make connections and comparisons across the different revolutionary texts and moments, thereby providing a broader, deeper and more nuanced understanding of revolutions. Stimulating, accessible and interdisciplinary, Revolutionary Moments will appeal to students and researchers in the history of political thought and intellectual history, and beyond.

Title in English: Test versions equivalence of the Slovak upper-secondary school leaving examination The research presented in this book strives to answer how test versions equivalence – a necessary condition for meaningful and fair interpretation and comparison of students’ results – could be achieved in the context of high-stakes examination. The research was carried on the Slovak upper-secondary school leaving examination in English at B1 level, namely on the tests of receptive skills operationalized between 2012 and 2015. Theoretical research on the methods and procedures and the application of some of them on the Slovak examinations in the empirical part provided deep insight into the degree of comparability of the test versions used between 2012 and 2015 and made it possible to identify problem areas in terms of test versions comparability. The research helped to identify suitable methods and approaches that might enable to develop equivalent test versions and subsequently, to interpret meaningfully the test results and the measured construct, i.e. students’ language proficiency.

Automating Empathy assesses technologies used to gauge how people are feeling. The book begins by historically situating the belief that by reading the body and its expressions one might ‘feel-into’ another. Finding this premise to be epistemologically problematic, the book then progresses to highlight the role of ethics. Automating Empathy advances a ‘hybrid’ approach to questions of technology and ethics, which starts from the position that people are entangled in new technologies. The book is pluralistic, attending to philosophies well-equipped to deal with questions of what is collectively good for society in relation to technologies that interact with intimate dimensions of human life. With early chapters introducing recurrent arguments and positions, the second part of the book addresses technologies and organisational uses. These include education and uses of automated empathy in classrooms and online settings; cars and transport, where cameras and other sensors gauge states such as fatigue, anger, and other emotions, and where cars themselves are design to feel; usage in the workplace, including assessment of bodies and voices in physical sites of work and online settings, and gauging of emotion through proxies in gig work settings; development of brain–computer interfaces that have scope to impact on multiple aspects of everyday life; and finally, renewed interest in enabling people to sell data about themselves. The book concludes automated empathy and its deployment needs to be inverted if systems are to function ethically.

Since its first publication in 1961, H. L. A. Hart’s “The Concept of Law” has been at the forefront of debates in legal theory and philosophy. However, its influence has waned in the face of fierce and determined criticism from the likes of Ronald Dworkin and Joseph Raz. Alongside these well-worn arguments, new challenges have recently emerged in the form of Mark Greenberg’s award-winning work “How Facts Make Law”. Similarly, new challenges to the metaphysics and epistemology of doing legal theory have emerged, particularly well articulated in the work of Hillary Nye. This book discusses these old and new critiques in relation to Hart’s theory and offers a rigorous defence.

En octobre 2002 se tenait à Aix-en-Provence un colloque international sur « Religion et pouvoir », dont le présent volume publie les actes. Il s'agit de concentrer le regard sur une composante de cette grande institution judiciaire ecclésiastique que fut l'Inquisition et, qui jusqu'ici, a été peu observée : son rapport au pouvoir. Celui-ci peut s'exprimer dans trois directions : le pouvoir au sein de l'Inquisition ; les rapports de celle-ci avec les divers pouvoirs (politique, économique, ecc...

Legume crops provide an excellent source of high quality plant protein and have a key role in arable crop rotations reducing the need for fertilizer application and acting as break-crops. However, these crops are affected by a number of foliar and root diseases, being ascochyta blights the most important group of diseases worldwide. Ascochyta blights are incited by different pathogens in the various legumes. A number of control strategies have been developed including resistance breeding, cultural practices and chemical control. However, only marginal successes have been achieved in most instances, most control methods being uneconomical, hard to achieve or resulting in incomplete protection. This eBook covers recent advances in co-operative research on these diseases, from agronomy to breeding, covering traditional and modern genomic methodologies.

Within and outside Germany, practical phases in teacher education have been expanded in recent years. In contrast, empirical studies show that it is not primarily the duration of the internships but their qualitative design that is significant for the acquisition of competencies by the students. Against this background, the academic examination of concepts of learning support is gaining in importance. The authors in this volume take up this assumption and present ten context-bound learning support concepts and their empirical examination. Using qualitative and quantitative research methods, theory-based hypotheses are tested and framework conditions are included in the discussion. In this respect, the results of the studies presented promise on the one hand in-depth insights into the opportunities and challenges of learning support services in the school internship, and on the other hand they point to desiderata for further studies in this field of research.

This reprint synthesizes contemporary advancements in seismic analysis and design methodologies for civil infrastructures, encompassing buildings, bridges, and associated structural systems. The contributions compiled herein address a spectrum of cutting-edge topics, including base isolation systems, energy dissipation dampers, soil–structure interaction, and corrosion-induced degradation. Methodologically, the studies employ multidisciplinary approaches spanning theoretical frameworks, finite element-based numerical simulations, and experimental investigations under quasi-static and shaking table testing.

Energy management systems (EMSs) are nowadays considered one of the most relevant technical solutions for enhancing the efficiency, reliability, and economy of smart micro/nanogrids, both in terrestrial and vehicular applications. For this reason, the recent technical literature includes numerous technical contributions on EMSs for residential/commercial/vehicular micro/nanogrids that encompass renewable generators and battery storage systems (BSS) The volume “Energy Management Systems for Optimal Operation of Electrical Micro/Nanogrids”, was released as a Special Issue of the journal Energies, published by MDPI, with the aim of expanding the knowledge on EMSs for the optimal operation of electrical micro/nanogrids by presenting topical and high-quality research papers that address open issues in the identified technical field. The volume is a collection of seven research papers authored by research teams from several countries, where different hot topics are accurately explored. The reader will have the possibility to benefit from original scientific results concerning, in particular, the following key topics: distribution systems; smart home/building; battery energy storage; demand uncertainty; energy forecasting; model predictive control; real-time control, microgrid planning; and electrical vehicles.

Vor dem Gesetz sind alle gleich. Gerade dieser Grundsatz ist es, der von einer zunehmenden Zahl ökonomisch geprägter Rechtswissenschaftlerinnen und Rechtswissenschaftler aus den USA in Frage gestellt wird. Neue Informationstechnologien ermöglichen es, Werbung und Preise zu personalisieren und so Gewinne zu maximieren. Warum sollten dann nicht auch die Rechtsnormen unter Zuhilfenahme von Big Data personalisiert werden, sofern sich damit Wohlstandsgewinne erzielen lassen? Philip Maximilian Bender tritt diesem Personalisierungsprojekt entgegen. Sein Ziel ist es, Bewusstsein für den Wert generellen Rechts zu schaffen, um einem schleichenden Systemwandel vorzubeugen. Eine auf Algorithmen aufbauende, allein an ökonomischen Erwägungen ausgerichtete Rechtssetzung würde - so die zentrale These - die Grundlagen einer liberalen Gesellschaftsordnung angreifen und in ein System mikrosozialistischer Fremdsteuerung münden.