Open Access Books

Russia is a large, diverse, and complicated country whose far-flung regions maintain their own histories and cultures, even as President Vladimir Putin increases his political control. Powerful, autocratic regimes still need to establish their legitimacy; in Russia, as elsewhere, developing a compelling national narrative and building a sense of pride and belonging in a national identity is key to maintaining a united nation. It can also legitimate political power when leaders present themselves as the nation’s champions. Putin’s hold thus requires effective nation building— propagating the ever-evolving and often contested story of who, exactly, is Russian and what, exactly, that means. Even in the current autocratic system, however, Russia’s multiethnic nature and fractured political history mean that not all political symbols work the same way everywhere; not every story finds the same audience in the same way. The message may emanate from Moscow, but regional actors—including local governments, civic organizations, and cultural institutions—have some agency in how they spread the message: some regionalization of identity work is permitted to ensure that Russian national symbols and narratives resonate with people, and to avoid protest. This book investigates how nation building works on the ground through close studies of three of Russia’s ethnic republics: Karelia, Tatarstan, and Buryatia. Understanding how the project of legitimating nationalism, in support of a unified country and specifically Putin’s regime, works in practice offers crucial context in understanding the shape and story of contemporary Russia.

Ce nouveau corpus « Éclairages » est le fruit d’une mise en réseau internationale de chercheuses en sciences sociales, autour du lieu d’échanges et de réflexions VisaGe : Violences fondées sur le genre, données, santé, jeux d’échelles. L'ouvrage donne à voir dans leurs dimensions les plus actuelles et les plus localisées certaines des opérations de reconnaissance des violences vécues par les femmes les filles, par les dissident.es de l’ordre hétéro-normé, par les défenseuses des droits humains. Il rappelle l’importance, dans un contexte où les prises de conscience récentes paraissent saturer l’espace médiatique, de préserver une approche historique et une documentation de première main. Le corpus portant sur l’Amérique latine, nous avons mêlé les langues française et espagnole dans l’économie générale de l’ouvrage.

Ce livre présente, sous forme documentaire, cinquante villes, villages, communes, banlieues et quartiers syriens qui se sont révoltés en 2011. Les textes rapportent le début du mouvement de révolte, son expansion, ses répercussions dans chaque région, et les initiatives qui rendent compte des différents aspects et évolutions du mouvement. Ce sont des œuvres réalisées par des artistes, des activistes et des habitants des lieux cités, certains auteurs étant anonymes, qui illustrent les textes choisis.

In search of a history of teacher training at the Normal School of Rio Grande de Sul, the author presents the trajectory of the Normal School in Porto Alegre/Rio Grande do Sul between the years 1922 - 1931, a period in which the magazine O Estúdio was published. circulated, being a differentiated print, produced by students and future teachers, where they can be considered intellectuals of a time when there were not many female writers. In this book, Fernanda Plaza Grespan seeks to understand, through the data and information contained in the magazine, the emphasis given to knowledge for teachers as subjects in the magazine, emphasizing the feminization of teaching.

The Routledge Handbook of Yoga and Meditation Studies is a comprehensive and interdisciplinary resource, which frames and contextualises the rapidly expanding fields that explore yoga and meditative techniques. The book analyses yoga and meditation studies in a variety of religious, historical and geographical settings. The chapters, authored by an international set of experts, are laid out across five sections.

The aim of this Special Issue is to immerse readers in the latest developments of the DRHBc mass table collaboration and related key research areas. These include structural evolution across various nuclear regions, the investigation of possible magic numbers in superheavy nuclei, and the study of diverse exotic nuclear phenomena. This Special Issue features 10 selected papers presented at the "7th workshop on the nuclear mass table with DRHBc theory", which was successfully held in Gangneung, Korea, from 1 to 4 July 2024.

Micro-bioreactors offer unique opportunities to study biological systems under fluidic conditions. The concept of micro-bioreactors suggests that biological reaction conditions on a large scale can be scaled down to micro-volumes while maintaining performance and functionality. Models and operation principles can be simulated at a smaller scale, either by scaling down organs in the human body, or using bioreactors for the production of biologics. This book highlights these issues with a strong focus on new engineering design. The initial chapters cover the conceptual design of microbioreactors and organ-on-chips, and the role of microbioreactors in tissue engineering for clinical and therapeutic targets. Two chapters are dedicated to microbioreactors for implementing tumor models. Other chapters discuss three-dimensional models for hepatic and cardiac cells for toxicity testing and drug evaluation. Finally, the design of organ chips for cartilage scaffolds and the integration of sensors are covered in separate chapters. We believe the book will have substantial value for researchers active in bioreactor engineering, drug development and cell physiology, as well as readers interested in these topics.

"The idea of the Anthropocene often generates an overwhelming sense of abjection or apathy. It occupies the imagination as a set of circumstances that counterpose individual human actors against ungraspable scales and impossible odds. There is much at stake in how we understand the implications of this planetary imagination, and how to plot paths from this present to other less troubling futures. With Anthropocene Unseen: A Lexicon, the editors aim at a resource helpful for this task: a catalog of ways to pluralize and radicalize our picture of the Anthropocene, to make it speak more effectively to a wider range of contemporary human societies and circumstances. Organized as a lexicon for troubled times, each entry in this book recognizes the gravity of the global forecasts that invest the present with its widespread air of crisis, urgency, and apocalyptic possibility. Each also finds value in smaller scales of analysis, capturing the magnitude of an epoch in the unique resonances afforded by a single word. The Holocene may have been the age in which we learned our letters, but we are faced now with circumstances that demand more experimental plasticity. Alternative ways of perceiving a moment can bring a halt to habitual action, opening a space for slantwise movements through the shock of the unexpected. Each small essay in this lexicon is meant to do just this, drawing from anthropology, literary studies, artistic practice, and other humanistic endeavors to open up the range of possible action by contributing some other concrete way of seeing the present. Each entry proposes a different way of conceiving this Earth from some grounded place, always in a manner that aims to provoke a different imagination of the Anthropocene as a whole. The Anthropocene is a world-engulfing concept, drawing every thing and being imaginable into its purview, both in terms of geographic scale and temporal duration. Pronouncing an epoch in our own name may seem the ultimate act of apex species self-aggrandizement, a picture of the world as dominated by ourselves. Can we learn new ways of being in the face of this challenge, approaching the transmogrification of the ecosphere in a spirit of experimentation rather than catastrophic risk and existential dismay? This lexicon is meant as a site to imagine and explore what human beings can do differently with this time, and with its sense of peril."

Social media increasingly shapes the way in which we perceive conflicts and conflict parties abroad. Conflict parties, therefore, have started using social media strategically to influence public opinion abroad. This book explores the phenomenon by examining, (1) which strategies of external communication conflict parties use during asymmetric conflicts and (2) what shapes the selection of these communication strategies. In a comprehensive case study of the conflict in Israel and Palestine, Bernd Hirschberger shows that the selection of strategies of external communication is shaped by the (asymmetric) conflict structure.

For over 50 years, the Army has tried to develop and field survivable, lethal infantry fighting vehicles (IFVs). The Ground Combat Vehicle is an attempt to provide the infantry with an IFV that can carry a full infantry squad of nine men capable of dismounting under fire and defeating the enemy in complex terrain.

The fifth Factor X publication from the Federal Environment Agency (Umweltbundesamt, UBA), The Impossibilities of the Circular Economy provides an overview of the limits to the circular economy, emphasising the relationship between integrated resource use and more systemic leadership-management approaches. On a European level, the book ties into the recent European Green Deal and aims to empower actors across sectors and EU member countries to transition from existing linear models of value capture and expression to more systemic-circular solutions of value capture and expression. The volume provides a hands-on contribution towards building the knowledge and skill sets of current and future decision-makers who face these complex-systemic crises in their day-to-day business. The book further provides access to best practices from cutting-edge research and development findings, which will empower decision-makers to develop a more sustainable and equitable economy. Providing solutions for a more sustainable economy, this book is essential reading for scholars and students of natural resource use, sustainable business, environmental economics and sustainable development, as well as decision-makers and experts from the fields of policy development, industry and civil society.

Le déplacement forcé en Colombie touche une majorité de femmes et d’enfants qui, pour fuir un conflit armé ravageant leurs campagnes natales, se réfugient dans l’anonymat des périphéries urbaines. Ce travail de recherche, réalisé auprès d’une association de femmes déplacées à Bogotá, s’attache à souligner la manière dont une organisation sociale destinée à faire face à l’exil peut se convertir en espace d’interactions au sein duquel les femmes redéfinissent leur position dans la société. L’é...

À la marge des mondes indiens et chinois, territoire essentiel pour la compréhension des origines de l’homme et des peuplements anciens, carrefour migratoire pour la faune asiatique, le nord de la Thaïlande offre des conditions favorables à la conservation des vestiges du passé. Autant de raisons qui ont suscité les recherches récentes menées par la mission paléolithique franco-thaïe et dont le présent volume constitue une première synthèse. Au fil d’un itinéraire archéologique qui guide le lecteur dans les karsts du sud du Triangle d’Or, les auteurs revisitent l’archéologie préhistorique du Sud-Est asiatique à travers l’exploitation de nouveaux sites. Outre une étude détaillée de la mise en place des restes paléontologiques dans les grottes, les découvertes inédites de matériel lithique sont l’occasion d’une révision complète du faciès Hoabinhien. En s’appuyant sur ces données nouvelles, les auteurs proposent une synthèse originale intégrant la question du peuplement humain, l’évolution des techniques et l’histoire de la faune et des milieux anciens de la région. Ils ouvrent ainsi la voie vers une paléoécologie du milieu tropical forestier. Au travers de l’occupation des grottes par les moines bouddhistes, l’histoire récente est également traitée. Ces différentes approches permettent une relecture des événements qui, sur le temps long, ont abouti à la pluralité de l’homme actuel et de son environnement.

Soybean is an agricultural crop of tremendous economic importance. Soybean and food items derived from it form dietary components of numerous people, especially those living in the Orient. The health benefits of soybean have attracted the attention of nutritionists as well as common people.

"KiMu – Kinder als Musiker – Children as Musicians" is the name of a music project at South Tyrolean primary schools. As part of an empirical study in cooperation between the Free University of Bozen-Bolzano and the Hochschule für Musik und Theater Leipzig, three teaching units were videographed and inclusive qualities of music teaching were worked out with the help of high and low-inference qualitative research methods. Insights into the leading dimensions of inclusive teaching practice are gained and interpreted with the theoretical framework of resonance theory.; „KiMu – Kinder als Musiker“ nennt sich ein Klassenmusizierprojekt an Südtiroler Grundschulen. Im Rahmen einer empirischen Studie in Kooperation zwischen der Freien Universität Bozen und der Hochschule für Musik und Theater Leipzig wurden drei Unterrichtseinheiten videographiert und inklusive Qualitäten des Musikunterrichts mit Hilfe von hoch und niedrig inferenten qualitativen Forschungsverfahren herausgearbeitet. Dabei werden Einblicke in die Leitdimensionen inklusiver Unterrichtspraxis gewonnen und diese mit dem theoretischen Rahmen der Resonanztheorie interpretiert.