Open Access Books

Even before the spread of COVID 19 across the globe during the crisis of 2020, cities and regions acted as venues and drivers for a dualistic development dynamic by both creating and dissolving borders. The results obtained from various university seminars and a European summer school form the basis for a crisis manuscript, while serving to review the planning and design activities in different European cities and regions. For the first time ever, a network of students from the urban planning and design departments at 19 European universities have defined common requirements for crisis-resistant and people-friendly urban planning in Europe: On the one hand, crisis-related experiences act as catalysts for fundamental social, economic, and ecological changes, and, on the other hand, they accelerate changes that are already underway with regard to urban development policies. The crisis and border situations explored in this joint investigation extend beyond the mere operating principles of European cities and regions. In fact, as an endurance test and didactic example, they provide a guide for crisis-proof urban renewal in Europe. They lead the way in building a bridge between the European architecture and planning disciplines to create vibrant border landscapes.

This introductory chapter sets out the book’s aims and contributions, outlines its main lines of argument, and details the theoretical foundations underpinning the African Mining Consensus, which holds that transnational mining corporations are best placed to drive structurally transformative processes of mining-based development on the continent. It then moves on to document how, in establishing this Consensus position, proponents have tended to misrepresent or disregard some of the classic critiques mounted by a group of pioneering early development economists. These critiques focused on the specific challenges and constraints faced by income-poor peripheral countries seeking development through deeper integration with the global capitalist economy. Returning to these earlier critiques provides helpful lenses with which to explore, with some adaptation, several axes of tension within the ongoing process of foreign corporate-led mining industrialization in low-income African countries that are overlooked by the absent or simplistic representation of these critiques by Consensus proponents.

In 1664 Molière and his troupe played in the gardens of Versailles, in front of the Sun King, La Princesse d'Elide a rewriting of the Desdén con el Desdén by Moreto. As Maria Grazia Profeti pointed out in her writings, Genette's analysis still allows, after some time from the critical works of the critic, to avoid the ever-present and threatening obstacles of moral, formal or aesthetic value judgements accompanied by the more or less declared idea of superiority or inferiority of an author or a culture and dramaturgy. Entering the Molierian laboratory, after having highlighted how much the French hypertext owes to its Spanish hypotext, the essay tries to recontextualize the pièce within the Royal Festivals of the Plaisirs de île enchantée also in the light of the reception of contemporaries: wearing virtually the spectacles of a spectator of the time, and taking into consideration the transvalorizations carried out by the French playwright, he also tries to grasp the meaning that the Molierian play may have assumed for the Sovereign and the public in the context of the political and sentimental biography of the King of France at that chronological height.

"The Handbook of Computational Social Science is a comprehensive reference source for scholars across multiple disciplines. It outlines key debates in the field, showcasing novel statistical modeling and machine learning methods, and draws from specific case studies to demonstrate the opportunities and challenges in CSS approaches. The Handbook is divided into two volumes written by outstanding, internationally renowned scholars in the field. This first volume focuses on the scope of computational social science, ethics, and case studies. It covers a range of key issues, including open science, formal modeling, and the social and behavioral sciences. This volume explores major debates, introduces digital trace data, reviews the changing survey landscape, and presents novel examples of computational social science research on sensing social interaction, social robots, bots, sentiment, manipulation, and extremism in social media. The volume not only makes major contributions to the consolidation of this growing research field, but also encourages growth into new directions. With its broad coverage of perspectives (theoretical, methodological, computational), international scope, and interdisciplinary approach, this important resource is integral reading for advanced undergraduates, postgraduates and researchers engaging with computational methods across the social sciences, as well as those within the scientific and engineering sectors."

The commodification of Islamic antiques intensified in the late Ottoman Empire, an age of domestic reform and increased European interference following the Tanzimat (reorganisation) of 1839. Mercedes Volait examines the social life of typical objects moving from Cairo and Damascus to Paris, London, and beyond, uncovers the range of agencies and subjectivities involved in the trade of architectural salvage and historic handicraft, and traces impacts on private interiors, through creative reuse and Revival design, in Egypt, Europe and America. By devoting attention to both local and global engagements with Middle Eastern tangible heritage, the present volume invites to look anew at Orientalism in art and interior design, the canon of Islamic architecture and the translocation of historic works of art. Readership: All interested in tangible heritage in Cairo and Damascus, visual Orientalism (including photography), Islamic art collecting, and anyone concerned with commodification and intercultural contact zones.

Kinks and domain walls are the simplest kind of solitons and are invaluable for testing various ideas and for learning about non-perturbative aspects of field theories. They are the subject of research in essentially every branch of physics, ranging from condensed matter to cosmology. This book, first published in 2006, is an introduction to kinks and domain walls and their principal classical and quantum properties. The book examines classical solitons, building from examples in elementary systems to more complicated settings. The formation of solitons in phase transitions, their dynamics and their cosmological consequences are further discussed. The volume concludes with an explicit description of a few laboratory systems containing solitons. This text will be of interest to both graduate students and academic researchers in theoretical physics, particle physics, cosmology and condensed matter physics. This book has been reissued as an Open Access publication.

This book engages the Chester Beatty Biblical Papyri, one of the most important collections of early manuscripts of Jewish scripture and the New Testament, by placing them within larger conversations relating to ancient literature and its interpretation, papyrology, and the ethics of collecting and scholarship. Ninety years after Beatty acquired these manuscripts, their value for scholarship and culture remains largely unexplored.

Sustainable solar energy conversion is one of the main tasks of younger human history to be able to herald a successful energy turnaround by using profitable and environmentally friendly energy sources and carriers. The use of nanostructured architectures, such as the implementation of molecular electron donor-acceptor systems in opto-electronic applications, is a promising option. Various strategies can be pursued: On the one hand, the development of novel and promising carbon rich compounds, the fundamental characterization of those plays a major role in this PhD thesis, and, on the other hand, the development and optimization of already existing compounds of molecules and materials, whose enormous potential has perhaps not yet been fully exploited. Moreover the combination of solar fuels such as hydrogen, as well as the use of novel, economical solar cells, but also sustainable OLEDs, will be important elements to protect life as we know it today and will make it worth living for future generations. Nachhaltige Solarenergieumwandlung ist eine der Hauptaufgaben der jüngeren Menschheitsgeschichte, um durch den Einsatz profitable und umweltfreundliche Energiequellen und -träger eine erfolgreiche Energiewende einleiten zu können. Der Einsatz von nanostrukturierten Architekturen, wie z.B. die Implementierung von molekularen Elektronen Donor-Akzeptor-Systemen in optoelektronischen Anwendungen, ist eine vielversprechende Option. Dabei können verschiedene Strategien verfolgt werden: Zum einen die Entwicklung neuartiger und vielversprechender kohlenstoffreicher Verbindungen, deren grundlegende Charakterisierung in dieser Dissertation eine große Rolle spielt, und zum anderen die Entwicklung und Optimierung bereits bestehender Verbindungen von Molekülen und Materialien, deren enormes Potenzial vielleicht noch nicht voll ausgeschöpft ist. Darüber hinaus werden die Kombination von solaren Brennstoffen wie Wasserstoff sowie der Einsatz neuartiger, kostengünstiger Solarzellen, aber auch nachhaltiger OLEDs, wichtige Elemente sein, um das Leben, wie wir es heute kennen, zu schützen und für zukünftige Generationen lebenswert zu machen.

Biography, Literature and Literary studies

This work describes the grammar of Gayogo̱hó:nǫˀ (Gayogo̱hó:nǫˀnéha:ˀ, Cayuga), an Ǫgwehǫ́weh (Iroquoian) language spoken at Six Nations, Ontario, Canada. Topics include Gayogo̱hó:nǫˀnéha:ˀ morphology (word formation); pronominal prefix selection, meaning, and pronunciation; syntax (fixed word order); and discourse (the effects of free word order and noun incorporation, and the use of particles). Gayogo̱hó:nǫˀnéha:ˀ morphophonology and sentence-level phonology are also described where relevant in the grammar. Finally, the work includes noun, verb, and particle dictionaries, organized according to the categories outlined in the grammatical description, as well as lists of cultural terms and phrases.

In the 1830s, decades before Darwin published the Origin of Species, a museum of evolution flourished in London. Reign of the Beast pieces together the extraordinary story of this lost working-man's institution and its enigmatic owner, the wine merchant W. D. Saull. A financial backer of the anti-clerical Richard Carlile, the ‘Devil's Chaplain’ Robert Taylor, and socialist Robert Owen, Saull outraged polite society by putting humanity’s ape ancestry on display. He weaponized his museum fossils and empowered artisans with a knowledge of deep geological time that undermined the Creationist base of the Anglican state. His geology museum, called the biggest in Britain, housed over 20,000 fossils, including famous dinosaurs. Saull was indicted for blasphemy and reviled during his lifetime. After his death in 1855, his museum was demolished and he was expunged from the collective memory. Now multi-award-winning author Adrian Desmond undertakes a thorough reading of Home Office spy reports and subversive street prints to re-establish Saull's pivotal place at the intersection of the history of geology, atheism, socialism, and working-class radicalism.

In einer Welt, in der alte Gewissheiten prekär werden, ist Sicherheit zu einer zentralen Wertvorstellung geworden. Terroranschläge, Naturgefahren, Pandemien, Ausfälle vitaler Infrastrukturen und technische Störfälle führen immer wieder vor Augen, dass es "keine hundertprozentige Sicherheit" gibt. Als Alternative zum Versprechen von Sicherheit wird in jüngster Zeit verstärkt das Leitbild der Resilienz ins Spiel gebracht - die Fähigkeit, Risiken und Gefahren erfolgreich zu bewältigen. Dieses Buch untersucht die komplexe Sicherheitslandschaft der Gegenwart. Es befragt Praktiken der Sicherheit nach ihrer historischen Herkunft und ihren sozialen Effekten und versucht, unser Verständnis von "Sicherheit" zu verunsichern. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/

This book compares perspectives on gender equality in Norway and Japan, focusing on family, education, media, and sexuality and reproduction as seen through a gendered lens. What can we learn from a comparison between two countries who stand in significant contrast to each other with respect to gender equality? Norway and Japan differ in terms of historical, cultural and socioeconomic backgrounds. Most importantly, Japan lags far behind Norway when it comes to the World Economic Forum’s Gender Gap Report. Rather than taking a narrow approach that takes as its starting point the assumption that Norway has so much ‘more’ to offer in terms of gender equality, the authors attempt to show that a comparative perspective of two countries in the West and East can be of mutually benefit to both contexts in the advancement of gender equality. The interdisciplinary team of researchers contributing to this book cover a range of contemporary topics in gender equality, including fatherhood and masculinity, teaching and learning in gender studies education, cultural depictions of gender, trans experiences and feminism. This unique collection is suitable for researchers and students of gender studies, sociology, anthropology, Japan studies and European studies.

Seemingly detached from attractive mobility alternatives in cities the car remains highly relevant in personal mobility. In order to investigate the role of the car, a new survey concept for a multidimensional analysis of urban mobility is presented: the travel skeleton. The modular design combines the collection of everyday trips in a typical week with occasional long-distance trips in a quasi-longitudinal approach. The concept also captures associated psychographic characteristics.

Nordic Homicide in Deep Time draws a unique and detailed picture of developments in human interpersonal violence and presents new findings on rates, patterns, and long-term changes in lethal violence in the Nordics. Conducted by an interdisciplinary team of criminologists and historians, the book analyses homicide and lethal violence in northern Europe in two eras – the 17th century and early 21st century. Similar and continuous societal structures, cultural patterns, and legal cultures allow for long-term and comparative homicide research in the Nordic context. Reflecting human universals and stable motives, such as revenge, jealousy, honour, and material conflicts, homicide as a form of human behaviour enables long-duration comparison. By describing the rates and patterns of homicide during these two eras, the authors unveil continuity and change in human violence. Where and when did homicide typically take place? Who were the victims and the offenders, what where the circumstances of their conflicts? Was intimate partner homicide more prevalent in the early modern period than in present times? How long a time elapsed from violence to death? Were homicides often committed in the context of other crime? The book offers answers to these questions among others, comparing regions and eras. We gain a unique and empirically grounded view on how state consolidation and changing routines of everyday life transformed the patterns of criminal homicide in Nordic society. The path to pacification was anything but easy, punctuated by shorter crises of social turmoil, and high violence. The book is also a methodological experiment that seeks to assess the feasibility of long-duration standardized homicide analysis and to better understand the logic of homicide variation across space and over time. In developing a new approach for extending homicide research into the deep past, the authors have created the Historical Homicide Monitor. The new instrument combines wide explanatory scope, measurement standardization, and articulated theory expression. By retroactively expanding research data to the pre-statistical era, the method enables long-duration comparison of different periods and areas. Based on in-depth source critique, the approach captures patterns of criminal behaviour, beyond the control activity of the courts. The authors foresee the application of their approach in even remoter periods. Nordic Homicide in Deep Time helps the reader to understand modern homicide by revealing the historical continuities and changes in lethal violence. The book is written for professionals, university students and anyone interested in the history of human behaviour.