Search results for ""ibidem-Verlag""

The European social sciences tend to absorb criticism that has been passed on the European approach and re-label it as a part of what the critique opposes; criticism of European social sciences by subaltern social sciences, their talking back, has become a frequent line of reflection in European social sciences. The re-labelling of the critique of the European approach to social sciences towards a critique from Southern social sciences of Western social sciences has somehow turned Southern as well as Western social sciences into competing contributors to the same globalising social sciences. Both are no longer arguing about the European approach to social sciences but about which social thought from which part of the globe prevails. If the critique becomes a part of what it opposes, one might conclude that the European social sciences are very adaptable and capable of learning. One might, however, also raise the question whether there is anything wrong with the criticism of the European social sciences; or, for that matter, whether there is anything wrong with the European social sciences themselves. The contributions in this book discuss these questions from different angles: They revisit the mainstream critique of the European social sciences, and they suggest new arguments criticising social science theories that may be found as often in the Western as in the Southern discourse.

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At the beginning of the new millennium, the social sciences discover an epochal turn making it necessary to revolutionise their theory-building: As a response to what they call the globalisation of the social, they find the need to globalise their theorising as well. It is odd to discover after two centuries of colonialism and imperialism, after two world wars and several economic world crises that there is a world beyond the national socials; it is even more strange that the social sciences globalise their theorising by comparing theories about nationally confined socials and by creating all sorts of, preferably, local theories, just as if any national social was a secluded social biotope. Discussing how to globalise the social sciences, they argue that globalising social science theorising means finding a way of theorising that must, above all, be liberated from scientism in order to allow a provincialisation of thinking. Not surprisingly, the globalising social sciences also rediscover mythological and moral thinking as a means for a true scientific universalism. Michael Kuhns book presents many thought-provoking arguments on the oddities of the globalising social sciences and on how these oddities are not accidents, but a consequence of the nature of how the social sciences theorise about the social.

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The special issue offers an interdisciplinary approach to exploring the questions of agency of less mainstream groups in protest movements in patriarchal and authoritarian societies. The themes covered include the place of feminist and gender equality movements in democratically restricted environments, intersections between feminism and nationalism and citizenship, possibilities of right-wing feminism and pop-feminism, the role of gender in high politics and the relationship between nationality and sexuality in the context of protest movements. The journal features contributions by scholars, human rights and gender equality activists, and journalists, and facilitates a constructive and wide-ranging discussion of the recent and ongoing protest movements in Belarus, Russia, and Ukraine.

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As Germany and the Soviet Union engaged in colossal battles during World War II, a much smaller but vicious struggle broke out in the borderlands of south-eastern Poland, resurrecting longstanding ethnic and territorial conflicts between Poles and Ukrainians. During the war, both sides organised large partisan armies and sought to establish control over territory each deemed integral to their post-war national visions. The violence reached a fever pitch only in the years immediately following the war. This comprehensive study provides a unique overview to Polish-Ukrainian relations dating back to the tenth century. Examining the development of this long-standing feud as part of a longer historical process that has occurred between the Polish and Ukrainian ethnic groups in Europe, Rapawy takes into consideration centuries of ethnic strife, population shifts that resulted from ethnic conquests, and the formation of national states after the First World War on multi-ethnic territories as a pre-condition for the events that occurred on the years following World War II.

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How can the performing arts add value to peacebuilding programs? Is it possible to use participatory theatre to reconnect and reconcile enemies? What is the trauma-healing effect for those acting in a theatre troupe? Claus Schrowange has explored these questions and the opportunities of using forum theatre in peace work in Uganda, South Sudan, Rwanda, and DR Congo. His conclusion is that forum theatre is more than mere entertainment. It is an aesthetic tool for social change. But the value of theatre is not generated automatically, the way it is done matters. If it is done in a participatory manner with an authentic, believable acting style, involving both the audience and stage actor in a vivid and touching experience, the impact is immediately felt. This book presents the approach Schrowange developed together with a team of African theatre practitioners in a variety of circumstances and environments. It is illustrated with case studies taken from the author s direct experience of using the approach he describes in Eastern DR Congo and Rwanda.

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Surrogate motherhood is expanding all over the world. Debates rage over how public policy should consider the signing away of the parental rights of birth mothers in favor of a 'commissioning' couple or an individual. In this book, Daniela Danna describes the situation in English-speaking countries and worldwide, from California to Greece, presenting the legal alternatives regulating (or not) these peculiar exchanges. Should surrogacy remain a private agreement? Should it be treated as an enforceable contract? Are surrogate mothers workers? What happens inside the countries that have chosen different ways of handling this new and controversial matter? And, the most important question of all: How can we live in this era of new techno-medical possibilities and try to stay human? Can we resist commodification in the field of human relations concerning procreation? Contract Children discusses the different ways available to obtain a child through surrogate motherhood. It is fundamental reading for anyone wanting to be involved in the surrogacy process. It gives prospective surrogate mothers and infertile couples the background information necessary for their own informed decision. It is also an essential instrument for policy makers and activists in the field of women's rights, social justice, and children's rights. The question of how to publicly deal with surrogate motherhood touches upon our social vision of motherhood, ultimately marking the position of women in contemporary society.

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Baers biography of the former Czechoslovak Foreign Minister Vladimír Clementis (19021952) is the first historical study on the Communist politician who was executed with Rudolf Slánský and other top Communist Party members after the show trial of 1952. Born in Tisovec, Central Slovakia, Clementis studied law at Charles University in Prague in the 1920s and had his own law firm in Bratislava in the 1930s. After the Munich Agreement of 1938, he went into exile to France and Great Britain, where he worked at the Czechoslovak broadcast at the BBC for the exile government of Edvard Bene. After the Second World War, Clementis political career at the Czechoslovak Foreign Ministry blossomed: In 1945, he became Assistant Secretary of State under Foreign Minister Jan Masaryk. After Masaryks mysterious death in 1948, Clementis was appointed Foreign Minister. This biography offers an unprecedented insight into the mind of a Slovak leftist intellectual of the interwar generation who died at the command of the comrade he had admired since his youth: Generalissimus Stalin.

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Text in German. Seit 1997 ist das FORUM fester Bestandteil der Zeitschriftenlandschaft der Osteuropaforschung. Neben Fakten der Zeitgeschichte bietet es tiefe Einblicke in die Ideengeschichte, spiegelt aktuelle Diskussionen wider und liefert Rezensionen zu Werken der mittel- und osteuropäischen Zeitgeschichte. Gerade in den Rubriken Ideengeschichte und Zeitgeschichte bietet es mehr als "nur" Geschichte fächerübergreifend kommen u.a. Politologen, Literatur-, Rechts- und Wirtschaftswissenschaftler sowie Philosophen zu Wort. Das FORUM versteht sich als Brücke zwischen Ost und West. Durch die Übersetzung und Veröffentlichung von Dokumenten und Beiträgen aus dem Russischen, Polnischen und Tschechischen bietet es dem westlichen Leser Einblicke in den wissenschaftlichen Diskurs Osteuropas. Heft 1/2014: Der lange Abschied vom totalitären Erbe Das Modell der bundesrepublikanischen Vergangenheitsbewältigung gilt als Vorbild für viele postautoritäre bzw. posttotalitäre Transformationsstaaten in Ost und West, ungeachtet mancher Schattenseiten des langwierigen Prozesses der deutschen Vergangenheitsbewältigung nach der "Stunde Null". Das aktuelle Forum-Heft vergleicht in seinem thematischen Schwerpunkt die Spezifika der deutschen Erinnerungskultur mit denjenigen der osteuropäischen Länder, vor allem Polens und Russlands, seit dem Beginn der Entstalinisierungsdebatten.

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The violent protests that shook Bulgaria in recent years were fueled by a widespread belief that, after 25 years of transition, a new base for the political process is required. In this important new study, Popivanov provides a critical re-assessment of the role of the Bulgarian Socialist Party - arguably, the single most important political entity in Bulgaria's post-communist history. Assessing its internal problems and the challenges it faces from a new and radical grassroots Left, Popivanov asks why and how Bulgaria's Socialist Party was the only one in the Eastern bloc to remain an important political organization, after the end of communism. This timely book skillfully analyzes the current societal and political situation in Bulgaria that threatens the Socialists and argues for a complete reformulation of the concept of the 'Bulgarian Left'.

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Global, local, glocal reflecting on the area of world social science seems to be above all a matter of space. In these spatial dichotomies the global has no location and locations seem beyond this world. Discourses about world social science thought not only distinguish social thought along spaces where they are created. Space has become an attribute of thinking when social scientists reflect on the world of social thought: Southern, Western and Northern knowledge, the location in which thoughts are created, is not only a hint about the address of a thinker, but about the theoretical perspective through which social science thinkers look at social reality. Social thoughts are imagined as imprisoned in the spatial context in which they are created, and social science thinkers are imagined as representatives of spaces, whether these are defined politically, culturally, or in any other context in which their thoughts must be rooted as if the product of human minds was nothing but a voicing of the nature of spaces. And should we imagine the world social science arena, the encounter of all these spatially bound thoughts, as the encounter of many parochial knowledges that never manage to arrive at shared thoughts unless they already share the same spatial context? Why should we then at all meet each other? This book discusses examples of spatially constructed knowledges and the struggles these knowledges encounter as they seek to meet one another and escape from the mind prison of their spatial contexts. Or does the world social science arena after all only prove that the 'Western' dogma of contextualising social thought is a dead end road for social thought -- everywhere?

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Text in German. Die Überwindung der europäischen Spaltung ruft bis heute Staunen hervor. Damit ist vor allem das Szenario gemeint, nach dem die Rückkehr nach Europa" der vergessenen" östlichen Hälfte des alten Kontinents 1989-1991 erfolgte. Seit der bolschewistischen Machtergreifung im Oktober 1917 betrachteten die Kommunisten jede Infragestellung ihres Machtmonopols als eine gegenrevolutionäre Verschwörung, die sie mit allen ihnen zur Verfügung stehenden Machtmitteln zu ersticken suchten. Warum ließen sie sich dann in vielen Ländern des Ostblocks in den Jahren 1989-91 beinahe widerstandslos entmachten? Mit dieser Frage befassen sich mehrere Aufsätze der vorliegenden Sammlung, und zwar am Beispiel der Sowjetunion (der Metropole des Ostblocks) und Polens - der unruhigsten Provinz an der westlichen Peripherie des äußeren Sowjetimperiums". Andere Beiträge des Bandes sind dem dornigen Weg des postsowjetischen Russland zur offenen Gesellschaft und der autoritären Wende im Lande nach dem Machtantritt Vladimir Putins im Jahre 2000 gewidmet, wobei auch manche Parallelen zwischen der ungefestigten zweiten" russischen Demokratie und den früheren demokratischen Experimenten in Russland (Februar-Oktober 1917) und in Deutschland (Weimarer Republik) erörtert werden.

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This book brings together monumental voices in the social sciences -- such as Jean-René Ladmiral from Paris and Peter Caws from Washington DC -- to begin to address the Humanities' specific issues with and debt to translation. Calling for a re-examination of how translations are read, critiqued, and taught in Philosophy, History, Political Science and Sociology departments, this book provides tools for reflection, bases for reconsideration of given translations, and historical observations on how thought has been shaped across national borders. The volume ends with four case studies -- examples from auto-translation in postcolonial literature, cultural issues of translation in Chinese-language cinema, negotiating meaning between linguistically and culturally different audiences in the United States and Lebanon, to verbal-visual questions of translation in marketing to German and French clients. All in all, this book is a comprehensive, compact survey of the cultural and linguistic translation and transmission issues in the social sciences today. The book is illuminating and informative. A great tool for study or debate.

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This compilation of essays by scholars from the region, Western Europe, and the US, explores the intersection of international politics in the post-Yugoslav states with a focus on the influence and impact of the European Union, the United States, Russia, China, and Turkey. The implications of external actors policy in the region for its Euro-Atlantic integration, its security, and stability are examined and discussed. In assessing the importance of the post-Yugoslav states for the EU and US and the current trend of disengagement by these two democratic actors in the region, answers are revealed regarding the question whether we are seeing a new Eastern Question emerging in the post-Yugoslav states. Likewise, when looking at the role of Russia, China, and Turkey in the regionand in contrast to European and US policies, it becomes obvious to what extent the region, once again, is becoming the playground of Great Power games and wider geopolitical strategic interests. The analytical time frame covers the period 19912018. The changes in the foreign policies of great powers are explored as they relate to the institutional set-up of the region. For instance, do the changes affect the EUs hegemony in the region? Do Russia, China, and Turkey actively contribute to changing the rules of the game in the regionbe it the accession process or regional cooperation?

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This collection is a multi-author volume of essays examining the work of over twenty poets from South Western Ireland, who write in both English and Irish. Offering overviews of each of the poets work, the chapters also focus on significant features of their respective oeuvres. Among the poets studied are Eiléan Ní Chuilleanáin, Seán Ó Tuama, John Montague, Gerry Murphy, Thomas McCarthy, Trevor Joyce, and Doireann Ní Ghríofa. The multifaceted volume addresses the different currents that are significant in the work of these poets, from the Modernism of MacGreevy to the politico-historical approach adopted by Thomas McCarthy. It places poetry in English and Irish side by side and creates a system of echoes that become apparent when the poets work is read in conjunction with that of their fellow writers. The contributors to the volume come from Ireland, the US, and Europe and include confirmed and emerging academics.

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This is an award-winning exploration of both the histories and personal stories of fourteen ethnic minority groups living within the boundaries of present-day Ukraine: Czechs and Slovaks, Meskhetian Turks, Swedes, Romanians, Hungarians, Roma, Jews, Liptaks, Gagauzes, Germans, Vlachs, Poles, Crimean Tatars, and Armenians. Based on a combination of academic research, fieldwork, and interviews, Olesya Yaremchuks literary reportages paint realistic, thoughtful, and historically informed depictions of how these various groups arrived in Ukraine and how they have fared within the countrys borders. Accompanied by vivid photographs that bring the reportages to life, Our Others is in some respects a chronicle of the myriad voluntary and forced migrations that have rolled through Ukraine for centuries. Simultaneously, the book offers a tender -- and timely -- study of the little islands of cultural diversity in Ukraine that have survived the Soviet steamroller of planned linguistic, cultural, and religious unification and that deserve acknowledgement in Ukraines broader cultural identity. The volumes contributors are: Marta Barnych (contributing co-author), Anton Semyzhenko (contributing co-author), Ostap Slyvynsky (foreword)

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This collection of texts by writers, historians, philosophers, political analysts, and opinion leaders combines reflections on Ukrainian history and analyses of the present with outlines of conceptual ideas and life stories. The authors present a multi-faceted image of Ukraines memory and reality touching upon topics from the Holodomor to Maidan, from the Russian aggression to cultural diversity, from the depth of the past to the complexity of the present. The contributors include Ola Hnatiuk, Irena Karpa, Haska Shyyan, Larysa Denysenko, Hanna Shelest, Andriy Kulakov, Yaroslav Hrytsak, Serhii Plokhy, Yuri Andrukhovych, Andriy Kurkov, Andrij Bondar, Vakhtang Kebuladze, Volodymyr Rafeenko, Alim Aliev, Leonid Finberg, and Andriy Portnov. The book was initially published by Internews Ukraine and UkraineWorld with the support of the Ukrainian Cultural Foundation.

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This book begins with an examination of the powers of the UN General Assembly and the legal character of its resolutions, analyzing the UN Charter and related documents, as well as the interpretation of relevant provisions by the International Court of Justice, the General Assembly itself, and international legal doctrine. The author analyzes the UN General Assembly resolutions from 2014 through 2023 on the territorial integrity of Ukraine, condemnation of the armed aggression of the Russian Federation, war crimes committed by its political and military leadership and Russian citizens, the legal responsibility of the Russian Federation and its citizens, as well as the parameters of a future just and lasting peace.

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The social sciences and humanities worldwide are discovering the necessity to self-critically reshape their theorizing: The first critique of social science theorizing calls for globalizing, the second, parallel critique, for de-colonizing social thought. In his highly topical book, Michael Kuhn discusses · why and how the globalization of social science theorizing introduces thinking through nation state perspectives as an up-to-date methodological must; · how the de-colonialization of social science theorizing with the critique of Eurocentrism and its thinking through space paves the way for the worldwide implementation of thinking through nation-state views, transforming the social science world into a multiplicity of provincialized theories; · with which odd argumentations the indigenization of thought produces contributions to the ideological armament of the new states in the so-called 3rd world after their transformation into the very society system of the former colonizers; · how these indigenized theories make discourses among de-colonized theories a matter of which provincialized theory manages to rule the worldwide creation of theories; · how the masterminds of globally de-colonized thinking present imperial thought as guiding theories for mankinds thinking; · what templates for the turn from anti-capitalist towards nationalistic thinking Historical Materialism has provided, and · what consequences all this has for the social sciences as a voice in political debates about the world.

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In the opinion of some historians the era of fascism ended with the deaths of Mussolini and Hitler. Yet the debate about its nature as a historical phenomenon and its value as a term of historical analysis continues to rage with ever greater intensity, each major attempt to resolve it producing different patterns of support, dissent, and even hostility, from academic colleagues. Nevertheless, a number of developments since 1945 not only complicate the methodological and definitional issues even further, but make it ever more desirable that politicians, journalists, lawyers, and the general public can turn to "experts" for a heuristically useful and broadly consensual definition of the term. These developments include: the emergence of a highly prolific European New Right, the rise of radical right populist parties, the flourishing of ultra-nationalist movements in the former Soviet empire, the radicalization of some currents of Islam and Hinduism into potent political forces, and the upsurge of religious terrorism. Most monographs and articles attempting to establish what is meant by fascism are written from a unilateral authoritative perspective, and the intense academic controversy the term provokes has to be gleaned from reviews and conference discussions. The uniqueness of this book is that it provides exceptional insights into the cut-and-thrust of the controversy as it unfolds on numerous fronts simultaneously, clarifying salient points of difference and moving towards some degree of consensus. Twenty-nine established academics were invited to engage with an article by Roger Griffin, one of the most influential theorists in the study of generic fascism in the Anglophone world. The resulting debate progressed through two 'rounds' of critique and reply, forming a fascinating patchwork of consensus and sometimes heated disagreement. In a spin-off from the original discussion of Griffin's concept of fascism, a second exchange documented here focuses on the issue of fascist ideology in contemporary Russia. This collection is essential reading for all those who realize the need to provide the term 'fascism' with theoretical rigor, analytical precision, and empirical content despite the complex issues it raises, and for any specialist who wants to participate in fascist studies within an international forum of expertise. The book will change the way in which historians and political scientists think about fascism, and make the debate about the threat it poses to infant democracies like Russia more incisive not just for academics, but for politicians, journalists, and the wider public.

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At 5:08 a.m. on February 24, 2022, Kateryna woke up in Kyiv to the sound of bombing. This marked the end of her world, work plans and ideas, travels All that remained was to save herself and her children. The inevitable changes, which shook something deep and significant within her, became an impetus to write about what had caused her and all Ukrainians so much pain. She wrote, one after another, novellas, poems, and essays that reflect the story of the war during the first months of Russia's full-scale invasion. This book contains words woven with emotions and experiences of ordinary people who have become heroes. The main goal of this collection is to help people all over the world better understand what each Ukrainian felt and how this war changed us all.

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Ukraine is a misfit among post-communist states, being neither a respectable, stable democracy nor an autocracy. Nor does it sit well as a patronal political system, like other post-Soviet regimes, since the Euromaidan Revolution. This study examines the presidencies of Petro Poroshenko and Volodymyr Zelenskyy focusing on their common tendency to subordinate the legal system and use it as a political instrument. It finds that this pattern of power struggle concentrated in the president's office was, contrary to the theory of patronal politics, more dominant than clientelism. The second theme of this book is each president's handling of relations-largely meaning the war-with Russia, in the wake of the annexation of Crimea in 2014 and culminating in the invasion of 2022, as the key challenge to the nation's survival. One way or another, unable to reform itself or to withstand the Russian assault, post-Euromaidan Ukraine will have come to an end.

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The philosophic spirit has persisted as part of the human spirit and human culture for over twenty-five centuries. This book presents examples of this spirit from its beginnings in Greek thought through the modern age. Among these examples are an account of Empedocles jumping into the volcano of Mt. Etna to join the gods, Plato's quarrel with the poets, St. Anselm's famous argument for the existence of God, Descartes's Archimedean proof of his own existence, and Kant's description of the perfect island of the Understanding. Attention is also given to Cassirer's concept of symbolic forms and Whitehead's theory of actual entities. The volume concludes with a discussion, based on the thought of Giambattista Vico, of a way to approach philosophy through a balance between the Ancient and the Moderns.

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This book investigates the making of Ukraine's foreign policy towards the European Union and Russia between February 2014 and February 2015. To contextualize the events of the first year of the Russian-Ukrainian War, Nychyk lays out the history of the EU-Ukraine-Russia triangle since 1991 and draws lessons relevant for the 2022 Russian full-scale invasion of Ukraine. The book is based on her doctoral research and rests on a game-theory-inspired approach to foreign policy analysis. It relies on 38 elite interviews, official documents, and media reports.Nychyk uncovers various mutual misperceptions in EU-Ukraine-Russia relations. Looking at Ukraine's 'side of the story', her analysis shows how Russian assertiveness and the EU's passivity, but also Ukrainian leaders' limited crisis management experience and erroneous policy decisions contributed to worse outcomes for Ukraine. The latter included poor analysis of foreign interlocutors, trust in their good intentions, and corruption. After 2015, a persistence-although with certain changes-of some of these pathologies left Ukraine in a weaker position in the face of Russia's full-scale invasion in February 2022.

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ContentsSpecial Section: Russia`s Annexation of Crimea IIIGergana Dimova and Andreas Umland: Introduction. Perspectives on Russia's 2014 Annexation of Crimea: Empirical and Theoretical ExplorationsGreta Lynn Uehling: The Personal Stakes of Political Crisis: The 2014 Attempted Annexation of CrimeaKerstin S. Jobst: "Dark" and "Golden" Times: The Crimean Tatar Population under Tsarist and Soviet Rule (1783–1941)Jan Zofka: Agents of Separatism: Social Background to the Pro-Russian Movements in Crimea and the Moldovan Dniester Valley in Comparison (1989–95)A Debate on Prospect Theory and Explaining Russia's Annexation of CrimeaIon Marandici: Loss Aversion, Neo-Imperial Frames, and Territorial Expansion: Using Prospect Theory to Examine the Annexation of CrimeaDiscussionFeaturing contributions by Peter Rutland, Tor Bukkvoll, Mykola Kapitonenko, Rumena Filipova, Martin Malek, Ion MarandiciArticlesChris Monday: Mikhail Putin (1894–1969) and Socialist Competition: Exploring a Neglected Branch of the Putin Family TreeReviews:Inna Chuvychkina on Elizabeth Buchanan; Brendan M. McElmeel on Juliane Fürst; Olga Khabibulina on Hubertus Jahn; Elise Westin on Natalia Knoblock; Manne Wängborg on Andrei Kozyrev; Giulia Prelz Oltramonti on Anna Matveeva; Kimberly St. Julian-Varnon on David Rainbow; John (Ivan) Jaworsky on Josephine von Zitzewitz; Yana Ostapenko on Jessica Zychowicz; Dima Kortukov on Vladislav M. Zubok

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In Statu Nascendi is a peer-reviewed journal that investigates specific issues through a sociocultural, philosophical, and anthropological approach to understand the complexity ofcontemporary crisis, instability, and warfare situations in which the "stage-ofbecoming" plays a vital role. Issue 2022:2 deals with issues related to Gender Equality in Politics, International Relations and Philosophy, Feminism in the Global Landscape, and Women's Engagement in International Peace and Security. It features an interview with the Revolutionary Association for Women of Afghanistan (RAWA) and deals with the situation of women in Ukraine.

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This work is a contemporary historical, narrative analysis of events in and around Ukraine from 2013 to 2019. These years were almost as significant for Ukraine as the achievement of independence in 1991, because Ukraine was in danger of losing its independence again after the victory of the "Maidan". This popular uprising against the kleptocratic regime of President Yanukovych led to a takeover of power by the parliamentary opposition-and to the total loss of influence by Russia. Against the threat of Russian troops deploying along the border, Russian agents in eastern Ukraine tried to bring about a "Crimea scenario," i.e. the secession of the eastern part of the country.President Putin intended to resolve the "Ukraine conflict", which in truth is not a "civil war" but a Russian war of attrition against Ukraine, on his terms in the "Minsk process": namely, by creating an "autonomous" part of the Donbas within the Ukrainian state-as a lever for Russian influence over the whole of Ukraine.The author concludes by placing the Russian-Ukrainian conflict in the context of the dawning "Chinese century".The book draws from academic literature, official publications, and a variety of current news in print and digital outlets. It is essential reading for everyone who wants to understand the current situation in Ukraine.

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In Statu Nascendi is a peer-reviewed journal that aspires to be a world-class scholarly platform encompassing original academic research dedicated to the circle of Political Philosophy, Cultural Studies, Theory of International Relations, Foreign Policy, and the political Decision-making process. The journal investigates specific issues through a socio-cultural, philosophical, and anthropological approach to raise a new type of civic awareness about the complexity of contemporary crisis, instability, and warfare situations, where the "stage-of-becoming" plays a vital role.Issue 2022:1 focuses on the novels of Haruki Murakami.Haruki Murakami: What is the relation between philosophy and an acclaimed Japanese literary writer? Murakami himself has been reluctant to expound on any deeper meaning to be found in his stories. The answer can be found in the great interest in and diverse engagement of readers with Murakami's work. In a truly global sense, readers have sensed such a depth in Murakami. Whether it is psychoanalytical, sociological, mythological, or political, readers are motivated to extend Murakami's texts: to think about and work with them long after their initial reading. The objective of this special issue of ISN is to explore this depth to Murakami's work from an interdisciplinary perspective in order to present novel arguments to the growing research community.

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This volume offers a selection of critical essays on texts that can be broadly categorized as popular literature. The essays are inclined to question the idea of 'the Canon' and re-consider the divide between the canonical and the popular. As such, besides engaging in a serious critical reading of typical popular literary texts like The Jungle Book and The Hound of the Baskervilles, the book also considers populist tendencies in literary classics like Jane Eyre and Frankenstein. It will be of interest to young scholars and readers of popular literature, science fiction, detective fiction, genre studies, and culture studies. The volume's contributors are: Anisha Ghosh, Arnab Dasgupta, Goutam Karmakar, Jaya Sarkar, Jaydip Sarkar, Madhuparna Mitra Guha, Mandika Sinha, Mitarik Barma, Pinaki Roy, Puja Chakraborty, Rajadipta Roy, Rupayan Mukherjee, Shirsendu Mondal, Shubham Dey.

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This collected volume presents research focusing on the interaction of domestic, foreign, and transnational actors in the process of the construction of national interests. The contributors concentrate on the extent to which the role of non-state actors has strengthened the formulating of national interests of the Slovak Republic in the post-integration period. The book addresses academic readers as well as everyone interested in Slovakia and its recent development.

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India and Pakistan have been in a state of persistent conflict that goes back to the very creation of these states after decolonization. This conflict has resulted in several wars and continuing armed clashes. After both states became nuclear powers, one would have expected a fundamental change in the way they wage war, since it is a fundamental principle of International Relations theory that nuclear-armed states do not go to war with each other. But the situation in South Asia seems to defy this principle. Indias conventional superiority should be neutralized by Pakistans nuclear capability, while Pakistans risk-taking behavior should be reduced. But as a matter of fact, the situation has turned out quite differently: Although large-scale conventional wars have not occurred, the nuclear status seems to have encouraged conflict and risk-taking. The number of armed clashes rose. Bluth and Mumtaz scrutinize the atypical and seemingly paradoxical impact of nuclearization on the conflict between India and Pakistan, paying extra attention on the question of how stable this paradoxical strategic relationship is. They demonstrate that the dominant paradigm used in the International Relations literature is by far not adequate to explain the strategic relations between India and Pakistan and set to work on developing a more coherent explanation. A must-read for everyone interested in International Relations and conflict resolution research.

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The third instalment of this multi-volume project presents a selection of archival sources from the time of Ukraine's Revolution on Granite in October 1990. They include telegrams sent to participants of the Revolution from supporters in different parts of Ukraine, KGB documents such as internal notes and other records, as well as transcripts of parliamentary sessions from the time of the revolution. All materials included in the volume are published in two languages: the original language of the document (Ukrainian or Russian) and in English translation. The publication completes two earlier SPPS volumes: Three Revolutions: Mobilization and Change in Contemporary Ukraine I – Theoretical Aspects and Analyses on Religion, Memory, and Identity edited by Paweł Kowal, Georges Mink, and Iwona Reichardt (2019), and Three Revolutions: Mobilization and Change in Contemporary Ukraine II – An Oral History of the Revolution on Granite, Orange Revolution, and Revolution of Dignity edited by Paweł Kowal, Georges Mink, Iwona Reichardt, and Adam Reichardt (2019).

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A good biography is a well-staged illusion. It creates - on paper - a vivid, rounded, and immediate sense of lived life. In contrast to purely fictional forms, biography writing does not allow total freedom to the biographer in the creative act. Ideally, a biography's backbone is formed by accurate historical facts. But its soul lies elsewhere. Since the concern is life, something more is needed: Nothing dry, cold or dead, but a vibrant impression of life that is left in the air after one turns over the last page. But how does a biographer do it? The way a biographer creates a subject is largely dictated by the historical distance between them. There are three types of distance in biographical writing: First, where the biographer and the subject personally know one another; second, where the biographer is a near contemporary of the subject; and third, where biographer and subject are distinctly separated, in some cases, by hundreds of years. This study explores how some of the most accomplished biographers manage to recreate life" across time and space. She closely examines Samuel Johnson's Life of Mr. Richard Savage, James Boswell's Life of Samuel Johnson, Lytton Strachey's Eminent Victorians, Michael Holroyd's Lytton Strachey, Park Honan's Jane Austen, and Andrew Motion's Keats.

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Reports by international governmental and non-governmental organisations on the 2004 presidential elections in Ukraine constituted a significant factor in generating, facilitating and completing the Orange Revolution. Ukrainian civil society, mass media, courts and political parties were the main driving force behind the popular uprising that returned Ukraine to the path of democratisation it had embarked on in 1991. Yet, the unambiguous stance and political weight of such institutions as the EU, PACE, NATO, and, above all, OSCE played their role too. The democratic movement benefited from the spectre of international isolation and stigmatisation of the Ukrainian state had President Leonid Kuchma decided to prevent a repetition of the second round of the voting. The volume collects not all, but some of the most widely discussed reports, including English translations of selected sections of the three reports produced by the CIS International Observers Mission. The latter as well as a report by an Israeli institute depart from the assessments of the other organisations represented here, allowing for comparison of diverging evaluations of the same events. The volume assembles full or excerpted official reports of the International Republican Institute, Tel Aviv Institute for the Countries of Eastern Europe and CIS, European Network of Election Monitoring Organizations, Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe, Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights, and Commonwealth of Independent States. Contributions by Jevgen Shapoval and Roman Kupchinsky introduce and conclude the collection.

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When the SS Empire Windrush berthed at Tilbury docks in 1948 with 492 ex-servicemen from the Caribbean, it marked the beginning of the post-war migrations to Britain that would form part of modern, multi-cultural Britain. A significant role in this social transformation would be played by the literary and non-literary output of writers from the Caribbean. These writers in exile were responsible not just for the establishment of the West Indian novel, but, by virtue of their location in the Mother Country, were also the pioneers of black writing in Britain. Over the next fifty years, this writing would come to represent an important body of work intimately aligned to the evolving and contentious notions of home" as economic migration became a permanent presence. In this book, David Ellis provides in-depth analyses of six key figures whose writing charts the establishment of black Britain. For Sam Selvon, George Lamming and E R Braithwaite, writing home represents a literature of reappraisal as the myths of empire -- the gold-paved streets of London -- conflict with the harsh realities of being designated an immigrant. The unresolved consequences of this reappraisal are made evident in the works of Andrew Salkey, Wilson Harris and Linton Kwesi Johnson where radicalism in both political and literary terms can be read as a response to the rejection of the black communities by an increasingly divided Britain in the 1970s. Finally, the novels of Caryl Phillips, Joan Riley and David Dabydeen mark an increasingly reflective literature as the notion of home shifts more explicitly from the Caribbean to Britain itself. Containing both contextual and biographical information throughout, Writing Home represents a literary and social history of the emergence of black Britain in the second half of the twentieth century.

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Looking for a gripping and thought-provoking read? Look no further than this captivating book about two journalists, a Tanzanian, Agnes and Jon, an Englishman, who embark on a dangerous journey to report on the trafficking of West African migrants. As they travel from Senegal and Mali through Mauritania, Morocco, Spain, France and eventually to England, Agnes and Jon encounter heart-wrenching tales of hardship and loss. But their own lives are also at risk, as Agnes is kidnapped by traffickers and Jon sets out to rescue her. Along the way, they meet Ana, a journalist from Spain, and later a daring romance develops involving the three of them. Their journey takes them to the slums of Paris and London, where they inspire the BBC to film their story. But their quest for truth comes at a high price, as they are captured by a guerrilla movement in Morocco and ultimately meet a disastrous end in Libya. This fast-paced and gripping story sheds light on the harsh realities of trafficking and the bravery of journalists who risk everything to uncover the truth. Full of danger, excitement, and humanity, this is a book you won't be able to put down.

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In Eastern Ukraine, unfathomable human dramas have unfolded since 2014. Thousands died in the fighting. The homes of tens of thousands were destroyed. Many were captured and tortured, millions ousted from their homes. The lives of many were broken. Volunteers started to collect food, clothes and even weapons for the frontline. Charity organizations transferred donations to the Donets' Basin (Donbas). Priests became chaplains for soldiers. Journalists and photographers flooded into the war-zone and sometimes became involved in the events. A Hungarian and Ukrainian journalist, Eperjesi and Kachura had the opportunity to meet and talk to many of these characters. The book provides a tableau of the emblematic figures of the war in the Donbas. It not only presents tragedies, but also human moments and noble deeds. The two journalists show how the lives of ordinary people have changed as a result of the horrors of war. They also spoke to pro-Russian militiamen and even with a Russian military officer captured in Ukraine. Shreds of War is one of the few authentic books with on-the-spot coverage, interviews, and dramatic photos documenting the war in Eastern Ukraine.

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This comparative study harks back to the revolutionary year of 1989 and asks two critical questions about the resulting reconfiguration of Europe in the aftermath of the collapse of communism: Why did Central and East European states display such divergent outcomes of their socio-political transitions? Why did three of those statesPoland, Bulgaria, and Russiadiffer so starkly in terms of the pace and extent of their integration into Europe? Rumena Filipova argues that Polands, Bulgarias, and Russias dominating conceptions of national identity have principally shaped these countries foreign policy behavior after 1989. Such an explanation of these three nations diverging degrees of Europeanization stands in contrast to institutionalist-rationalist, interest-based accounts of democratic transition and international integration in post-communist Europe. She thereby makes a case for the need to include ideational factors into the study of International Relations and demonstrates that identities are not easily malleable and may not be as fluid as often assumed. She proposes a theoretical middle-ground argument that calls for qualified post-positivism as an integrated perspective that combines positivist and post-positivist orientations in the study of IR.

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The contributors to this volume show that the themes of empire, colony, and national liberation movements can be addressed in a European continental as much as in Asian, Latin American, or African contexts. There is a further benefit from a within-Europe comparison: It calls into question the tendency to assume fundamental differences between "western" and "eastern" Europe, including the now largely abandoned distinction between a "western" nationalism, defined as a civil nationalism, and an "eastern" one, defined as ethnic. It also answers the question whether intra-European comparison of this kind is possible, in a context where post-Soviet scholarship is often invisible in Anglo-American scholarship. As Norman Davies reminds us, low public awareness of Europe's smaller and, in west-European minds, "more distant" nations, underlies the persistence of false generalizations about them, including assumptions like "that the whole of the west was advanced while the whole of the east was backward."

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The biannual, peer-reviewed Journal of Romanian Studies, jointly developed by The Society for Romanian Studies and ibidem Press, examines critical issues in Romanian studies, linking work in that field to wider theoretical debates and issues of current relevance, and serving as a forum for junior and senior scholars. The journal also presents articles that connect Romania and Moldova comparatively with other states and their ethnic majorities and minorities, and with other groups by investigating the challenges of migration and globalization and the impact of the European Union. Issue No. 6 is a Special Issue on Communication, Raluca Radu and Ioana Coman. It contains contributions by Radu Silaghi-Dumitrescu, Lucian-Vasile Szabo, Alla Rosca, Marius Dragomir, Dumitrița Holdiș, Cristina Lupu, Manuela Preoteasa, Marian Voicu, Antonio Momoc, Onoriu Colăcel, Tibori Szabo Zoltan, Andrei Richter, Paolo Mancini, Anca Șincan, Roland Clark, Dana Domsodi, R. Chris Davis.

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Philosophical Ideas: A Historical Study invites the reader to consider central ideas from Plato, Hegel, Vico, and Cassirer from points of view that have not been fully articulated in the most frequently encountered interpretations of their works. It is an examination of the ideas of poetics, dialectics, science, and symbol as they function in their works with focus on the problem of knowledge as present in each of them. The history of philosophy, approached in this way, is a treasure house of ideas that constitutes the subject matter of the contemplative life.

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The biannual, peer-reviewed Journal of Romanian Studies, jointly developed by The Society for Romanian Studies and ibidem Press, examines critical issues in Romanian studies, linking work in that field to wider theoretical debates and issues of current relevance, and serving as a forum for junior and senior scholars. The journal also presents articles that connect Romania and Moldova comparatively with other states and their ethnic majorities and minorities, and with other groups by investigating the challenges of migration and globalization and the impact of the European Union. Issue No. 5 contains: Roland Clark The Shape of Interwar Romanian History. Lucian Turcescu and Lavinia Stan -- The Romanian Orthodox Church and its Financial Dealings in Post-Communism; Valeska Bopp-Filimonov -- Shaping, Questioning, Contradicting 'Bad Communism:' Aspects of Generational Memory in Romania after 1989; Amelia Miholca -- Re-Envisioning Cubism in Romanian Avant-Garde Magazines; Radu Parvulescu -- The Romanian Judicial Professions Database: An Open-Source Tool for Researching the Romanian Legal System.

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Markus Jaeger explores the coalescence of Joan Baez's work as a singer and songwriter with her endeavors as a political activist throughout the last sixty years. He illustrates an American popular singer's significance as a political activist -- for her audiences and for her opponents as well as for those victims of politically organized violence who have profited from her work. Mingling popular culture with political activism can be a helpful means to achieve non-violent societal progress: Joan Baezs work offers an excellent example for this hypothesis. Revised and updated edition, with an additional chapter on Joan Baezs artistic and political endeavours in the 2010s.

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This book provides a new understanding of fictocriticism -- a genre stemming from metafiction, écriture feminine, and postmodernism -- via original creative and experimental writing devoted to the issue of the contemporary self, offering a reinvigoration of fictocriticism as a writing strategy. Cholewa explores questions surrounding what fictocriticism is and what it can do, and the essential paradox between theories surrounding fictocriticism suggesting how freeform it is, yet how non-freeform and chameleonic it still seems to be due to its lack of theoretical rules. Evaluating fictocriticism as both an art form and as a vehicle for higher theory and criticism, he offers and proposes further academic attention across a plethora of sociocultural, artistic, scientific, educational, political, and historical fields. Propelled by the work(s) of Roland Barthes, the godfather of fictocriticism, the ultimate goal of this research and text is to provide new and expanded reading tools that both explain the subjectivity and context of fictocritical writings and simultaneously innovate on the form.

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Although productive imagination has played a highly significant role in (post-) Kantian philosophy, there have been very few book-length studies explicitly dedicated to its analysis. In his new book, Saulius Geniusas develops a phenomenology of productive imagination while relying on those resources that we come across in Edmund Husserl's, Max Scheler's, Martin Heidegger's, Ernst Cassirer's, Miki Kiyoshi's, Jean-Paul Sartre's, Maurice Merleau-Ponty's, and Paul Ricoeur's writings, while also engaging in present-day philosophical discussions of the imagination. Investigating the relation between imagination and embodiment, affectivity, perception, language, selfhood, and intersubjectivity, the book provides a phenomenological conception of productive imagination, which is committed to basic phenomenological principles and which is sensitive to how productive imagination has been conceptualized in the history of phenomenology. Against such a background, Geniusas develops a new conception of productive imagination:It isa basic modality of intentionality that indirectly shapes the human experience of the world by forming the contours of action, intuition, knowledge, and understanding. It is not so much a blind and indispensable function of the soul, but an artconcealed in the body, for it springs out of instincts, drives, desires, and needs. The author discloses the unexpected ways in which phenomenology of productive imagination enriches our understanding of embodied subjectivity.

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After the break-up of the USSR, the former Soviet countries took different paths. While many of them face severe economic problems or have become only questionably democratic, Georgias socio-political development has become a relatively successful post-Soviet transition story. A deeper understanding of Georgia can offer insights that are also useful for other transitional and developing states. Many of the good governance implications of the research papers assembled in this volume are highly relevant to the broader Caucasus region and other post-Communist countries. The contributions deal with central issues pertinent to Georgian public policy, administration, and politics, as well as to Georgias ongoing struggle for independence and democracy. The collection illustrates a particularly revealing case in the comparative study of modern governance.

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During the 1950s, Michael Randle helped pioneer a new form of direct action against nuclear war, based on the teachings of Mahatma Gandhi. At the forefront of the British campaign, he worked closely with Peace News editor Hugh Brock (19141985) and other distinguished anti-nuclear pacifists such as Pat Arrowsmith, April Carter, and Ian Dixon, serving as chairman of the Direct Action Committee against Nuclear War (1958-1961) and secretary of the Committee of 100 (1960-1961). In 1966, he helped spring the Russian spy George Blake from Wormwood Scrubs Prison. Thereafter, he campaigned vigorously on behalf of the Greek democratic opposition, conscientious objectors, and Soviet dissidents. He has always been a man of rare candour and singular energy and principles, even enduring imprisonment for his beliefs. Nowadays, Michael lives in Shipley near Bradford, where he continues to write as a respected expert on people power. Martin Levys interviews with Michael Randle introduce the reader to a tumultuous life that is nothing short of extraordinary.

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