Open Access Books

How best to bring the genius of African traditional philosophy into dialogue with the European and global traditions of thought? The philosophy of Aristotle – ‘baptised’ by medieval Christian philosopher Thomas Aquinas – has been formative in premodern European thought. Now this frame of thinking, predating the skepticism and relativism that has accompanied the culture of modernity, has been re-expressed in a contemporary vein by Bernard Lonergan and Alasdair MacIntyre. Patrick Giddy shows how the critical realism of Lonergan (d. 1984) and the communitarian ethic of MacIntyre (d. 2025) – both counter-cultural thinkers – are in tune with the African traditional understanding of the world. Aristotle, he argues, ‘belongs’ to Africa.Refereeing Giddy’s PhD thesis, Ethics and Human Nature (1994) MacIntyre commented, “this is the best account I have read of my philosophy”. In Aristotle in Africa, Giddy brings the Aristotelian tradition to bear on fundamental topics in African thought and applies these ideas to various areas of ethics as well as to rethinking the university curriculum.

The Routledge International Handbook of Ecological Psychology provides the definitive international reference for understanding how humans perceive and control goal-directed behavior in everyday environments. This authoritative volume examines the rapidly expanding field that bridges perception, action, and environmental interaction across diverse real-world contexts. The handbook comprehensively surveys theoretical developments, empirical evidence, and practical applications spanning laboratory research and real-world practice. It explores behavioral dynamics across multiple scales, examining both affordances that create behavioral opportunities and the perceptual information that guides behavioral control. Key domains include child development, rehabilitation, sports performance, artistic expression, diversity studies, and technological innovation. The volume establishes fundamental ecological psychology concepts while showcasing cutting-edge research on lawful perceptual control of everyday actions. Additionally, it maps emerging trends and contemporary debates, positioning new developments against established findings and theories to demonstrate how innovative ideas are challenging traditional viewpoints and advancing the field's theoretical landscape. This handbook serves researchers, graduate students, and academics working in ecological psychology, cognitive science, and related disciplines. It provides essential reference material for those seeking comprehensive understanding of current scholarship and emerging developments in this rapidly evolving field.

Innovation is generally viewed as something inherently good, a source of progress and prosperity in our society. But innovation can also have negative, unintended, and wasteful effects, if policies are misdirected and organizations pursue innovation to look good and convey a message, rather than to actually achieve improvements of technologies, services, and products. This book makes the case that innovation has become a buzzword, a political cure-all, and increasingly an empty phrase, and that this has become detrimental to innovation itself. Governmental (and supra-governmental) innovation policy is often unrealistically phrased and shaped, and corporate innovation projects are not seldom meaningless acts of window-dressing. The book describes the problems this presents for society, organizations, and individuals, and seeks explanations for why it has come to be this way. Giving way to a more realistic view of what innovation really is, and how it can be accomplished, the book develops a multifaceted sociological and historical argument where several complementary reasons for the prevalence of “empty innovation” are proposed. The book will be of great interest to scholars and students of innovation, entrepreneurship, sustainability, and all those with an interest in the failures of current innovation strategies. This is an open access book.

Dieser Tagungsband verfolgt zwei Hauptziele: die Analyse neuer Bildungsherausforderung in der arbeitsbezogenen und technischen Bildung, die durch den Wandel von Arbeits- und Lebenswelt entstanden sind, und die Forderung der mndigen Teilhabe aller Menschen an der gesellschaftlichen Transformation. Alle Beitrage beleuchten daher fachbezogene Bildungs- und Unterrichtsstrategien, die lebensweltliche und arbeitsweltbezogene Handlungskompetenzen der jungen Generation starken. Der Band ist in vier thematische Abschnitte gegliedert. Zunachst werden Fragen einer Bildung fur nachhaltige Entwicklung thematisiert, es folgen Darstellungen zum digitalen Lernen und Lehren. Der dritte Abschnitt behandelt Fragen einer diversitatsbezogenen fachlichen Bildung. Abschliessend werden Problemlagen und Aufgaben der Fachdidaktik und Lehrkraftebildung errtert. Die Beitrage bieten vielfltige fachliche und transdisziplinre Perspektiven sowie theoretische und anwendungsbezogene Anstze zu schulischer, auerschulischer und universitrer Bildung. Behandelt werden bildungspolitisch und wissenschaftlich relevante Querschnittsthemen wie inklusive Bildung, heterogene Lernumgebungen, finanzielle Allgemeinbildung, technische und konomische Bildung, zur haushalts- und ernhrungsbezogenen Bildung sowie zur Verbraucherbildung und vorberuflichen Bildung. Neben theoretischen und fachdidaktischen Fragestellungen werden subjektive Vorstellungen von Schuler:innen zu Arbeit sowie Unterricht errtert. Beleuchtet werden zudem Fragen zur Aus- und Fortbildung von Lehrkrften sowie Anforderungen an eine zuknftige Lehrkrfteprofessionalisierung. Dieser Tagungsband dokumentiert die Vortrage der gemeinsamen Jahrestagung der Deutschen Gesellschaft fur Technische Bildung (DGTB) und der Gesellschaft fur Arbeit, Wirtschaft und Technik im Unterricht (GATWU). Die Tagung fand im September 2023 an der Universitat Potsdam statt.

Race and inequality have always been sensitive topics in South African society due to its colonial past, diverse social composition and apartheid legacy of legal discrimination against people on the basis of their skin colour. Racial tensions seem to be escalating in South African society and disturbing racialised rhetoric and slogans are re-entering the political and social landscape. Another disturbing phenomenon has been violent incidents of xenophobia against African immigrants. The question probed by this book is: What perspectives can theology offer in addressing the roots of racism, inequality and xenophobia in South Africa and how can it and the church contribute to reconciliation and a sense of togetherness among South African citizens? Various methodologies and approaches are used to address this question. In chapter 1, Theuns Eloff employs a historical and socio-analytical approach to describe the social context that has given rise, and is still giving impetus to racism and other forms of intolerance in South African society. Nico Vorster approaches the issue of distorted racial identity constructions from a theological-anthropological perspective. Utilising various empirical studies, he attempts to provide conceptual clarity to the concepts of racism, nationalism, ethnocentrism and xenophobia, and maps the various racisms that we find in South Africa. His contribution concludes with a theological-anthropological discussion on ways in which theology can deconstruct distorted identities and contribute to the development of authentic identities. Koos Vorster provides a theological-ethical perspective on social stratification in South Africa. He identifies the patterns inherent to the institutionalisation of racist social structures and argues that many of these patterns are still present, albeit in a new disguise, in the South African social order. Jan du Rand provides in chapter 4 a semantic discussion of the notions of race and xenophobia. He argues that racist ideologies are not constructed on a factual basis, but that racial ideologies use semantic notions to construct social myths that enable them to attain power and justify the exploitation and oppression of the other. Du Rand’s second contribution in chapter 5 provides Reformed exegetical and hermeneutic perspectives on various passages and themes in the Bible that relate to anthropology, xenophobia and the imperative to xenophilia [love of the stranger]. Dirk Van der Merwe’s contribution analyses, evaluates, and compares both contemporary literature and ancient texts of the Bible to develop a model that can enable churches to promote reconciliation in society, while Ferdi Kruger investigates the various ways in which language can be used as a tool to disseminate hate speech. He offers an analytical description of hate language, provides normative perspectives on the duty to counter hate speech through truth speaking and phronesis (wisdom) and concludes with practical-theological perspectives that might enable us to address problematic praxis. Reggie Nel explores the Confessions of Belhar and the Declaration of Accra as theological lenses to provide markers for public witness in a postcolonial South African setting. The volume concludes with Riaan Rheeder’s Christian bioethical perspective on inequality in the health sector of sub-Sahara Africa. This book contains original research. No part was plagiarised or published elsewhere. The target audience are theologians, ministers and the Christian community, but social activists, social scientists, politicians, political theorists, sociologists and psychologists might also find the book applicable to their fields.

This open access book summarizes the first two decades of the NII Testbeds and Community for Information access Research (NTCIR). NTCIR is a series of evaluation forums run by a global team of researchers and hosted by the National Institute of Informatics (NII), Japan. The book is unique in that it discusses not just what was done at NTCIR, but also how it was done and the impact it has achieved. For example, in some chapters the reader sees the early seeds of what eventually grew to be the search engines that provide access to content on the World Wide Web, today’s smartphones that can tailor what they show to the needs of their owners, and the smart speakers that enrich our lives at home and on the move. We also get glimpses into how new search engines can be built for mathematical formulae, or for the digital record of a lived human life. Key to the success of the NTCIR endeavor was early recognition that information access research is an empirical discipline and that evaluation therefore lay at the core of the enterprise. Evaluation is thus at the heart of each chapter in this book. They show, for example, how the recognition that some documents are more important than others has shaped thinking about evaluation design. The thirty-three contributors to this volume speak for the many hundreds of researchers from dozens of countries around the world who together shaped NTCIR as organizers and participants. This book is suitable for researchers, practitioners, and students—anyone who wants to learn about past and present evaluation efforts in information retrieval, information access, and natural language processing, as well as those who want to participate in an evaluation task or even to design and organize one.

The aim of this work is to identify the factors which contributed to create Lourdes' success. This analysis starts from the comparison between the 18 apparitions in Lourdes with some similar and contemporary episodes occurring in France, but with a somewhat different outcome, intended as success among the pilgrims. The initial historical, political and cultural contextualization work is accompanied by the analysis of some key aspects of the Catholic Church of that time. In reference to the purpose of the text, two areas are analysed more in-depth: medical science and literature, both closely connected with the question of miracles.

There are two broad schools of ethical theory: consequentialism and non-consequentialism. According to consequentialism, the right act is that act which has the best consequences. According to non-consequentialism, the rightness of an action is not solely determined by its consequences. (Though, most versions of non-consequentialism allow some ethical relevance of consequences). The most famous version of non-consequentialism is deontology, which holds that one has an absolute duty to obey certain rules. “Never kill an innocent person” or “never lie” are examples of such rules. Christianity is one form of deontology and the Ten Commandments represent one set of rules. Medical law exists at the intersection between consequentialism and deontology. Much of medical law is consequentialist in nature. However, having evolved from a set of Christian values and principles, it retains certain deontological characteristics. In particular, it retains a commitment in many jurisdictions to the Sanctity of Life Doctrine, though this is being shed or modified as assisted dying becomes legalised. In this chapter, we will begin by defining consequentialism, and contrasting it with deontology. We will describe some examples of the influence of consequentialism over current medical law. We will close by outlining the areas where consequentialism is at odds with current medical law and how medical law should evolve according to consequentialism.

This open access book examines the ways that consent operates in contemporary culture, suggesting it is a useful starting point to respectful relationships. This work, however, seeks to delve deeper, into the more complicated aspects of sexual consent. It examines the ways meaningful consent is difficult, if not impossible, in relationships that involve intimate partner violence or family violence. It considers the way vulnerable communities need access to information on consent. It highlights the difficulties of consent and reproductive rights, including the use (and abuse) of contraception and abortion. Finally, it considers the ways that young women are reshaping narratives of sexual assault and consent, as active agents both online and offline. Though this work considers victimisation, it also pays careful attention to the ways vulnerable groups take up their rights and understand and practice consent in meaningful ways.

This paper engages critically with the idea that the individual household is the basic unit of social production and reproduction in peasant societies. Building upon a relational approach to agency and a critical approach to institutions, it argues that in order to develop a comprehensive theoretical framework on peasant agency in early medieval societies, we must account for the attested forms of collective action and consider the institutions that may have served as an interface between individual and collective agency. To demonstrate the potential of such approach, the paper addresses the role of property and commons as institutions mediating access to natural resources and conditioning individual agency. For this, the paper focuses on the extant written sources from NW Iberia. Ultimately, the aim is to explore avenues for dialogue between different disciplinary and methodological approaches to peasant agency in early medieval societies.

This chapter focuses on the German translations of La Vita of Raffaello by Vasari. Ballestracci focuses her attention on translations into German of the word «disegno», on its complex and multifaceted meanings and its crucial role in Vasari’s work. After presenting all the occurrences of the word forms from the lemma «disegn-», Ballestracci analyses the instances in which «disegn-» was not translated directly as «Zeichnung» in two different target texts. Results of this study confirm the fascinating hypothesis by which the translations of a polysemous term cause the surfacing of meanings in the target text that were hidden in the source text and that, in this particular case, carry key aspects of Vasari’s thought.

This is the first study to examine Finnish trauma fiction in detail. The book discusses the novels of Katja Kettu, Sofi Oksanen, Elina Hirvonen and Emmi Itäranta, where historical and collective traumas meet stories of personal vulnerability. Traumatic Memory in Contemporary Prose Fiction addresses war traumas and marks left by terrorism, colonialism, domestic violence and sexual violence, and analyses the aspects of ecological trauma and future threats. The study combines the latest discussions on cultural memory studies and trauma theory with critical perspectives offered by feminist criticism and research in transnationalism. It illustrates how cultural narratives, literary conventions and aesthetic strategies regulate and produce traumatic experiences. Traumatic memory is not only a phenomenon dealing with the past, but it involves a wide range of individual, cultural, ecological, political and economic dimensions.

The world is currently undergoing an historic energy transition, driven by increasingly stringent decarbonisation policies and rapid advances in low-carbon technologies. The large-scale shift to low-carbon energy is disrupting the global energy system, impacting whole economies, and changing the political dynamics within and between countries. This open access book, written by leading energy scholars, examines the economic and geopolitical implications of the global energy transition, from both regional and thematic perspectives. The first part of the book addresses the geopolitical implications in the world’s main energy-producing and energy-consuming regions, while the second presents in-depth case studies on selected issues, ranging from the geopolitics of renewable energy, to the mineral foundations of the global energy transformation, to governance issues in connection with the changing global energy order. Given its scope, the book will appeal to researchers in energy, climate change and international relations, as well as to professionals working in the energy industry.

Life sciences; Agriculture; Nutrition ; Plant breeding; Food—Biotechnology; Agricultural economics

Around the world trans and gender diverse people are marginalized and discriminated against in medical, psychological, and nursing care. This anthology is the first to address the current situation of this population in various global healthcare settings. The perspectives from 11 different countries give insight into the difficult experiences of the trans and gender diverse community when seeking healthcare, and how self-organized community structures can help to overcome barriers to often inaccessible public healthcare systems. The majority of contributions are written from a lived trans and gender diverse perspective.