Search results for ""ibidem-verlag""

Text in German. Migration from the country -- this phenomenon can be found wherever there are undemocratic, generally unfree conditions. There are numerous examples and fates where fleeing the homeland was the only option, as in the Czech and Slovak history of the 20th century at the time of totalitarian regimes. In his present book, Slavomír Michálek deals with escapes from Czechoslovakia (ČSR) in the years 1948 to 1953. In doing so, he looks in particular at four hijackings of civilian aircraft and a passenger train and the subsequent "response of the communist hammer", the Czechoslovak State Security (tB ). The foreign political context associated with the kidnappings and the resulting consequences are also highlighted. With the takeover of power by the communist regime in the Czech Republic and as a result of its totalitarian character, the waves of flight began - people were fleeing in search of their salvation, their freedom and a new home. Refugees towards democracy, whether for economic, political or social reasons, characterized the entire 40-year existence of the communist regime in Czechoslovakia. With his book, Slavomír Michálek offers an excellent introduction to a closer examination of the subject of flight and the causes of flight.

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This collection of essays reflects the personal experience of a Ukrainian intellectual engaged, since his Soviet-time youth, in a painstaking but fascinating process of the both cultural and political Europeanization of his country. The title refers, ironically, to the notorious Chancellor Metternichs quip that Asia presumably begins at the eastern fence of his garden (or, as another apocryphal version maintains, at the eastern end of the Viennese Landstrasse). This is a story of both exclusion and inclusion, of walls and fences, but also of a longing for freedom and a quest for solidarity. It is a book on different ways of being a European -- at both the collective and individual level -- despite various challenges or, perhaps, thanks to them.

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People are often surprised to learn that although the current global levels of food production are sufficient to feed all of humanity, the problems of undernourishment increase year by year in many countries. Economic growth, while important, is not a guarantee for reducing hunger. The intensification of income concentration worldwide, in the face of the persistence of millions of hungry families, demonstrates that economic interest is not guided by the needs of humanity. Moreover, the problem of food no longer refers to the lack of food alone. Many people are still unaware that our diets are not simply choices of taste and tradition but the result of international dynamics driven by geopolitical factors, the trajectory of capitalism, and other ulterior forces. The authors deepen the link between international relations and food security by exploring the humanitarian and ethical importance of a solution to the problem of hunger; the role of the state as a strategically relevant actor in achieving food security; and the nature of the problem of food security in a world in which the rationale guiding food production and distribution is a capitalist one.

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Vanessa Freerks analyses how Baudrillard re-actualizes Nietzsche's On the Genealogy of Morals, investigating how themes and approaches in Baudrillard's Consumer Society, Simulacra and Simulations and Symbolic Exchange and Death resonate with Nietzsche's On the Genealogy of Morals. This book fills a gap in the limited literature available on the relation between Baudrillard's thought to that of Nietzsche and Heidegger. Baudrillard with Nietzsche and Heidegger: A Contrastive Analysis is essential reading for students and scholars of continental philosophy, sociology, and cultural theory.

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2019 was a defining year for the radical right globally. From national and supranational elections that witnessed a surge in support for radical right parties to transnationally-inspired terrorist attacks in New Zealand, the USA, and Germany, the radical right is not just on the rise, but becoming an international mainstream phenomenon. The yearbook draws upon insightful analyses from an international network of scholars, policymakers, and practitioners who explore the processes and impact of the radical right. Beginning with reflections on the ideology and then historical perspectives of the radical right, the volume then turns to contemporary manifestations of movements and political parties as well as terrorism and the role of online spaces. It ends by examining various perspectives towards countering and challenging the radical right. This overview provides a widespread examination of the global radical right in 2019, which will be useful to scholars, students, policy makers, and the public.

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Border and Bordering: Politics, Poetics, Precariousness focuses on the idea of border and its various geopolitical, sociocultural, and cognitive incarnations. In recent times, border has emerged as a common trope in contemporary language with phenomena such as bordering, borderless, building borders, breaking borders, crossing borders, porous borders, and shifting borders. Whether concrete or shadow, borders are omnipresent. The volume contains sixteen essays on various aspects of thinking border as well as border-thinking in literature, philosophy, historiography, strategic studies, films, and TV series. Such a collection is symptomatic of the very interdisciplinarity of border and the varied experiences of bordering as manifested in different modes of expression. This study of the multiplicity of experiences is intrinsic to our understanding of border, so much so that borders can only be read through an interdisciplinary approach. This interdisciplinarity is immanent to the concept of border and imminent (to come) to the phenomenon of bordering. Also, the volume quite explicitly deals with themetaphorsof border(s): as border(s) may not necessarily be always visible and tangible but also cognitive and metaphysical. This volume intends to attract not only academics but all readers, and that is precisely the reason why it has been designed in such a way.This book, therefore, is not yet-another volume on critical border studies and area studies. In doing border, the book enables us to go beyond the boundaries of border studies and area studiesas its authors believe that studies of border studies and area studies have become as regimented as the borders of the nation-state.

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A famous Soviet general who fought in the Battle of Moscow (1941/1942) and the siege of Leningrad (19411944), Andrey Vlasov (19011946) was captured by Nazi troops and then defected to the Third Reich. Supported by Nazi propaganda, he created a Russian Liberation Committee that later became the Russian Liberation Army (RLA). The RLA was a body of several hundred officers and several thousand troops who had defected from the USSR and served Nazi purposes on Soviet territory. Vlasov was arrested by Soviet troops in Czechoslovakia while trying to escape to theWestern Front and was subsequently tried for treason and executed by Soviet authorities. In 2015, the Russian State Archive of Social and Political History (RGASPI) released three volumes of archives documenting the infamous Vlasov Case, the main instance of Soviet collaborationism with Nazi Germany. With this volume, which draws on the archives of Russia, Belarus, Germany, and the US, the English-speaking audience can now access the most important documents on this topic for the first time. The documents tell the story of Vlasovs betrayal, from the moment he became a prisoner, to his service under the Nazis, and up through the trial in Moscow in 1946. Volume 1 is comprised of archival documents on Vlasovs activities from 1942 to 1945. Volume 2 explores the Soviet investigations of Vlasov during the 19451946 trial.

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"Leaders of hybrid regimes in pursuit of political domination and material gain instrumentalize both hidden forms of corruption and public anti-corruption policies. Corruption is pursued for different purposes including cooperation with strategic partners and exclusion of opponents. Presidents use anti-corruption policies to legitimize and institutionalize political domination. Corrupt practices and anti-corruption policies become two sides of the same coin and are exercised to maintain an uneven political playing field. This study combines empirical analysis and social constructivism for an investigation into the presidencies of Leonid Kuchma (19942005), Viktor Yushchenko (20052010), and Viktor Yanukovych (20102014). Explorative expert interviews, press surveys, content analysis of presidential speeches, as well as critical assessment of anti-corruption legislation are used for comparison and process tracing of the utilization of corruption under three Ukrainian presidents."

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This timely book provides a comprehensive, multi-dimensional and comparative analysis of political uncertainty. It is innovative in introducing the notions of inter-institutional, verbally induced, and historical uncertainty. It argues for an inclusive approach which considers multiple aspects of uncertainty, even when they are of a different nature. Combining aggregate statistical analysis and qualitative case studies, it compares political uncertainty in established and non-consolidated democracies. Overall, this book furnishes important insights into uncertainty in political life and how the discipline of political science is coming to terms with it.

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Nationalism, national identity, and ethnicity are complex social phenomena worldwide and especially so in post-Soviet Ukraine. This monograph explores the causes and conditions of post-communist nationalist revivals focusing on the re-emergence of Cossack movements in Russia and Ukraine since the late 1980s. The study explores how different theories of nationalist movements underpinned different national policies and, ultimately, different socially constructed realities that led to the armed conflict between Russia and Ukraine.

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Over the last three decades, migration management in the newly independent states which emerged from the ruins of the USSR in 1991 has become a tool for staking out zones of influence, a winning slogan for election campaigns, and a handle on the domestic population. Such an instrumentalisation of migration is widespread in all post-Soviet republics. (Geo-)political games around migration issues are also a mechanism of foreign influence and a method of destabilisation across the former USSR as well as an apology for slowing down reforms and even for transforming their character or vector. The ruling elites of the newly independent states exploit, with different degrees of intensity and success, institutions and rules of migration laws, including the granting of citizenship, asylum, temporary and permanent residence authorisation, etc., in order to advance certain foreign and domestic policies. The directions of various post-Soviet nations migration policies -- be they pro-European, pro-Asian, or pro-Russian -- are informed less by a pursuit of cultural, historical, or economic advantages for the respective countries and their populations than by the dynamics of geopolitical rivalry and often by the principle either an ally or a rival; there is no middle ground. This fascinating volume explains why shifts in migration management in the post-Soviet countries are both causes for and consequences of political changes that influence foreign and domestic policy making.

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Dustin Peone argues that memory is the foundation of philosophical thought. This may seem strange to the contemporary reader, but it is something that philosophers themselves have known since before Socrates. Peone advocates a doctrine of memory as philosophy that ties philosophical recollection back to the wisdom of the Muses, daughters of Memory, who sing of what was, is, and shall be. Part One draws on the work of philosophers from Cicero to Vico to Bergson to articulate the meaning and significance of memory. Peone understands memory not merely in its psychological sense, but as the key to metaphysical and moral thinking. Part Two takes up the philosophical history of memory. Peone gives an overview of its role as both a speculative and technical instrument from ancient Greece through Renaissance Europe. Then with the rise of modernity and the critical philosophy of Descartes, the memory tradition falls into disrepute. Why did this happen? Was it accidental? Is a philosophical system grounded in memory possible after Descartes? In the final chapters, Montaigne and Hegel are analyzed as practitioners of memory as philosophy in the modern world.

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In early 2014, sparked by an assault by their government on peaceful students, Ukrainians rose up against a deeply corrupt, Moscow-backed regime. Initially demonstrating under the banner of EU integration, the Maidan protesters proclaimed their right to a dignified existence; they learned to organize, to act collectively, to become a civil society. Most prominently, they established a new Ukrainian identity: territorial, inclusive, and present-focused with powerful mobilizing symbols. Driven by an urban bourgeoisie that rejected the hierarchies of industrial society in favor of a post-modern heterarchy, a previously passive post-Soviet country experienced a profound social revolution that generated new senses: Dignity and fairness became rallying cries for millions. Europe as the symbolic target of political aspiration gradually faded, but the impact (including on Europe) of Ukraines revolution remained. When Russia invaded -- illegally annexing Crimea and then feeding continuous military conflict in the Donbas -- Ukrainians responded with a massive volunteer effort and touching patriotism. In the process, they transformed their country, the region, and indeed the world. This book provides a chronicle of Ukraines Maidan and Russias ongoing war, and puts forth an analysis of the Revolution of Dignity from the perspective of a participant observer.

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Volume One of Three Revolutions presents the overall research and discussions on topics related to the revolutionary events that have unfolded in Ukraine since 1990. The three revolutions referred to in this project include: the Revolution on Granite (1990); the Orange Revolution (20042005); and the Euromaidan Revolution (20132014). The projects overall goal was to determine the extent to which we have the right to use the term revolution in relation to these events. Moreover, the research also uncovered the methodological problems associated with this task. Lastly, the project investigated to what extent the three revolutions are connected to each other and to what extent they are detached. Hence, the research in this volume not only discusses the theoretical aspects but also provides new analyses on such issues as religion, memory, and identity in Ukraine.

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The region that once comprised the Soviet Union has been the scene of crises with serious implications for international law. Some of these, like the separatist conflict in Chechnya, date to the time of the dissolution of the USSR. Others, like Russias forcible annexation of Crimea and intervention in Ukraines Donbas, erupted years later. The seizure of Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania, which took place long before, would trouble Soviet-western relations for the Cold Wars duration and gained new relevance when the Baltic States re-emerged in the 1990s. The fate of Ukraine notwithstanding, the Budapest Memorandum of 1994 complicates future efforts at nuclear non-proliferation. Legal proceedings in connection with events in the post-Soviet space brought before the International Court of Justice and under investment treaties or the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea may be steps toward the resolution of recent crises -- or tests of the resiliency of modern international law.

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In early 2014, sparked by an assault by their government on peaceful students, Ukrainians rose up against a deeply corrupt, Moscow-backed regime. Initially demonstrating under the banner of EU integration, the Maidan protesters proclaimed their right to a dignified existence; they learned to organize, to act collectively, to become a civil society. Most prominently, they established a new Ukrainian identity: territorial, inclusive, and present-focused with powerful mobilising symbols. Driven by an urban bourgeoisie that rejected the hierarchies of industrial society in favor of a post-modern heterarchy, a previously passive post-Soviet country experienced a profound social revolution that generated new senses: Dignity and fairness became rallying cries for millions. Europe as the symbolic target of political aspiration gradually faded, but the impact (including on Europe) of Ukraines revolution remained. When Russia invaded -- illegally annexing Crimea and then feeding continuous military conflict in the Donbas -- Ukrainians responded with a massive volunteer effort and touching patriotism. In the process, they transformed their country, the region, and indeed the world. This book provides a chronicle of Ukraines Maidan and Russias ongoing war, and puts forth an analysis of the Revolution of Dignity from the perspective of a participant observer.

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Language policy and usage in the post-communist region have continually attracted wide political, media, and expert attention since the disintegration of the USSR in 1991. How are these issues politicised in contemporary Estonia, Latvia, and Ukraine? This study presents a cross-cultural qualitative and quantitative analysis of publications in leading Russian-language blogs and news websites of these three post-Soviet states in the period from 2004 to 2017. The most notable difference observed between Ukraine, on the one side, and the two Baltic countries, on the other, is that many Russian-writing users in Ukraines internet tend to support the position that the state language, i.e. Ukrainian, is discriminated against and needs special protection by the state, whereas the majority of Russian-speaking commentators on selected Estonian and Latvian news websites advocate the establishment of Russian as a second state language. Despite attempts of Ukraines government to ukrainianise the public space, the position of Ukrainian is still perceived, even by many Russian-writing commentators and bloggers, as being precarious and vulnerable. This became especially visible in debates after the 20132014 Revolution of Dignity, when the number of supporters of an introduction of Russian as a second state language significantly decreased. In the Russian-language segments of Estonian and Latvian news websites and blogs, in contrast, the majority of online users continue to reproduce the image of being victims of their countries nation-building. They often claim that their political, as well as economic rights are significantly limited in comparison to ethnic Estonians and Latvians. This book illustrates thatnotwithstanding variations between the Estonian as well as Latvian cases, on the one hand, and Ukraine, on the otherthere is an ongoing process of convergence within Ukrainian debates if compared to those held in the other two countries in terms of an increasing degree of discursive decommunisation and derussification.

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Analysis of strategic culture facilitates a comprehensive understanding of a nations security identity and patterns of policy conduct. Though strategic culture changes over time, why and how these mutations take place has not been researched much so far. This book sheds light on the reasons why specific features of a countrys strategic thinking remain rigid while others transform. The national strategic cultures of post-communist Eastern Europe have been exposed to a panoply of shocks and shifts. Romanias communist regime cultivated a uniquely thorny relationship with the Soviet Union, which facilitated the development of a national security narrative legitimizing a highly isolationist foreign policy. These factors have heavily weighed on Romanian post-communist strategic thinking and complicated the transition process. At first glance, Romania went through an astonishing adaptation to novel security challenges. Ultimately, however, its traditional national strategic thinking remained in some ways constant. Core features of Romanias strategic culture -- such as the state-nation constellation -- were the most resilient to change. In contrast, the intermediary features -- such as the understanding of security and role conception -- as well as outer layers -- such as the foreign policy orientation and guidelines to using force -- of strategic culture were more prone to influence by shocks, shifts, and norm entrepreneurs.

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This volume explores the issues of extremism and violent extremism in Serbia through research from a multitude of different interdisciplinary perspectives. The topic of violent extremism and radicalization leading to terror (VERLT) has grown as a field of policy and donor aid support, globally and in the western Balkans. This new focus has been manifest through both increased counter-terrorism support as well as efforts to prevent and counter violent extremism (P-CVE) -- activities which are often peacebuilding as well as democratization initiatives. The main manifestation of extremism of interest to foreign donors (and often domestic authorities) is ISIS-inspired Salafi jihadism. However, in many of the countries in the region, and in the case of Serbia, there are other forms of extremism -- namely far-right nationalism, violent hooliganism, and neo-Nazi movements -- that are considered to be more of a threat, particularly as they are often viewed as examples of normalised political expression. In addition, these extremisms can magnify one another through a process of reciprocal radicalization and interconnected spirals of exclusion, marginalization, grievance, and perceived victimhood. This volume explores the issue as evident on the ground in Serbia in 2017 and 2018, using fresh and original research and perspectives that demonstrate that Serbia is at risk of many types of extremism, which are interconnected and can best be prevented by achieving the liberal, democratic, rights-based reforms that have remained elusive for over two decades.

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In our time of well-publicized health care travails, in the USA and the UK and elsewhere, matters of financing too often subsume the dimension of patient care. In his latest book, Alexander L. Gungov studies a vital but neglected aspect of patient safety. Of the thousands of medical errors committed on a daily basis, in the bulk of unfortunate clinical decisions, a significant share pertains to various logical flows and epistemological fallacies. By focusing on the logical dimensions of clinical medicine, Gungov promotes awareness of the logical and epistemological traps that lie in the day-to-day care of patients. Such a focus not only allows us to avoid falling into them, but demonstrates the practical value of looking at medicine from a new philosophical perspective. That perspective involves a broad and unusual collection of philosophers. The discussion takes its starting point from J. S. Mills inductive methods and Giambattista Vicos verum-factum principle, but then sets out a unique combination of Charles Sanders Peirces abductive reasoning, Immanuel Kants reflective judgment, as well as G. W. F. Hegels and D. P. Verenes speculative thinking, all marshalled to present a novel philosophical account of clinical diagnostics. Interpretation of practical examples elucidate the logical aspect of medical errors and suggests strategies of overcoming them. The book as a whole demonstrates the value of Hans-Georg Gadamers hermeneutical insights into the enigmatic character of health. This much-needed book will be of interest to medical practitioners, health policy-makers, patients and their families, and to advanced students and scholars in medicine, the medical humanities, medical epistemology, and the philosophy of medicine in general.

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Why are recommendations like "Think outside the box!", "Go around", "Think Different!" the real killers of creative thought? What are the eight proven tools which lead to a winning idea, even for one who does not consider himself a creative person? What is the ideal product and how does it help to sell the real product? What is a powerful approach ad people can borrow from physicists and children? Why is the trial-and-error method a sure way to waste intellectual resources? How do you force competitors to advertise your services? What is functional blindness and how does it reduce human creativity? How can you compel a banker to pay you 10 times more for your job? Why does a true ad man constantly feel like a loser? How does a poetry reading improve response on copywriting? Which useful insights can an advertiser learn from a taxi driver? How has symmetry prevented seeing the obvious solution during seven decades? Which tool is the favorite among advertising men of all countries, times, and nationalities? Alexey Ivanov, one of the best 'advertising men' and copywriters in Russia, gives convincing answers and provides fresh new insights.

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In Statu Nascendi is a new 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 2018:1 comprises, amongst others, the following articles: · Corporate Instrumentalization of Deliberative Democracy in Global Governance · Being Transgender and Transgender Being · A Comparative Study between Levinas and Kierkegaard on Subjectivity and the Self · The Kremlins Reaction to the St. Petersburg Metro Attacks seen through the Prism of Russian Intervention in Syria · Donald Trump's visit to Saudi Arabia, Saudi-Iranian Relations, and the Future of the Iranian Nuclear Deal · The United Kingdom on the Verge of a Constitutional Crisis: Between the Possibility of a Second Referendum on the Membership in the European Union and a Potential Second Vote on Scottish Independence.

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San Francisco in the early 1990s. Cab is on the deep end of a losing streak. After having been dumped yet again, he moves to Haight-Ashbury fresh out of college. It is the middle of a recession, before the dot-com boom, and AIDS is an immediate and untreatable reality. He finds himself working in a housing program for people with HIV/AIDS. The entire city is reeling. His clients are dying. Cab records their every word. He starts drafting a narrative of every person with whom hes slept: those who dropped him, those he adored, and those he let go of without a second thought, to reassess what he has left behind from the South of his childhood of dyslexia and infatuations, football and ecstasy, divorce and sex panics. In between girlfriends, acting up, attempts at romance, and trying to find his place in the greater San Francisco narrative, Cab is looking for something, tracing the interconnecting stories of the people hes meeting, sleeping, and drinking with, as everyone tries to find a space in the city. As treatments emerge and the economy changes, a new story takes shape in Cabs life and the city.

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This truly unique collection is the essential guide to archival research on conservatism, the right wing, and the far right, offering a detailed overview of primary sources in all media (documents, film, video, sound recordings, microfilm and microfiche, cartoons, sheet music, newspaper art, etc.) housed in more than 4500 archives across 22 countries. Designed as an indispensable reference work for anyone researching in the field of right-wing politics, this astonishingly detailed account includes: collections of personal and institutional papers; archives of right-wing periodicals in the Japanese, Romanian, and Russian languages; collections of pamphlets, ephemera, vertical files, and press cuttings; oral histories; library-accessible commercial databases; digitised collections and exhibitions; archived web sites; microfilm and microfiche collections with right-wing material. The description of each archive contains its physical address and other identifying information, a summary of its contents and highlights, lists of publications and web pages citing the archive, and links to online finding aids. This book will be a crucial guide for anyone conducting primary research in the field.

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In this unique study, Jean-Pierre Clero examines medical ethics from a philosophical perspective. Based on the thoughts of great philosophers, he develops a theory of medical ethics that focuses on the values of intimacy.

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When Samuel Becketts work first appeared, it was routinely described, by Adorno amongst others, as a clear example of European high culture. However, this judgement ignored an aspect of Becketts work and its reception that is, arguably, not yet fully understood; the intimate relation between his work and popular culture. Beckett used popular cultural forms; but popular culture has also found a place both for the work and for the man. This collection of essays examines how popular cultural forms and media are woven into the fabric of Becketts works, and how Beckett continues to have far-reaching impact on popular culture today in a host of different forms, in film and on television, from comics to meme culture, tourism to marketing.

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This unique collection from Syria presents research papers focusing on topics in cultural research that are relevant to the current Syrian situation, especially with regard to the fundamental changes in the relationship of Syrians to the society they live in and the dynamic transformations they are witnessing. Through its unique inside views, the volume offers a fascinating alternative narrative of the current societal context in Syria. Ettijahat Independent Culture is a Syrian cultural organization founded in 2011. Ettijahat seeks to involve independent culture and arts positively in the process of cultural and social change. Ettijahat supports artists and people engaged in cultural initiatives, works to build consensus and alliances between individuals and cultural institutions, promotes the arts and artists through regional and international platforms, helps Syrian communities in having access to culture and arts, and funds young researchers focusing on the current cultural and societal situation in Syria.

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"In this timely study, Jean Buttigieg demonstrates the necessity to make it a legal principle of international law that the human genome is a common heritage of mankind. In 1997, the UNESCO General Conference declared the human genome a common heritage of humankind. This declaration was followed by the Joint Statement of March 14, 2000, by US President Bill Clinton and British Prime Minister Tony Blair, in which they stated that the fundamental data on the human genome, including the human DNA sequence and its variations, should be made freely available to scientists everywhere. This announcement to allow unencumbered access to this fundamental data on the human genome, for the benefit of all humanity, appeared to endorse the UNESCO Declaration of 1997 on the human genome. But as it turns out, these statements were only political slogans since there is a complete lack of any genuine attempts to make the human genome a legal principle of international law so far. This study's foremost goal is to re-introduce the philosophical and political implications of the concept of common heritage of mankind into public discourse, as intended by Arvid Pardo when he addressed the UN General Assembly on November 1, 1967, and apply them to the human genome. As Buttigieg demonstrates, the biggest challenge here comes from the patent system in its present form, which encourages the commercialization of the human genome by explicitly denying scientists unencumbered access to the fundamental raw data. By putting individual rights before community rights, the patent system effectively hinders discoveries that prompt new and better medical treatments. Buttigieg also discusses issues of biotechnology. While the biotechnology debate is very often centred on which new applications of biotechnology should or should not be permitted, it so far lacks a critical philosophical analysis of biotechnology itself. The true essence of the human genome, Buttigieg argues, is to be found in metaphysics and not biology. This study fills a gap in the literature on the human genome and the common heritage of mankind by addressing the metaphysical nature of the human genome and discussing the philosophical concerns surrounding the field of biotechnology."

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This volume considers from a risk perspective the current phenomenon of the new Alt-Right authoritarianism and whether it represents real democracy or an unacceptable hegemony potentially resulting in elected dictatorships and abuses as well as dysfunctional government. Contributing authors represent an eclectic range of disciplines, including cognitive, organizational and political psychology, sociology, history, political science, international relations, linguistics and discourse analysis, and risk analysis. The Alt-Right threats and risk exposures, whether to democracy, human rights, law and order, social welfare, racial harmony, the economy, national security, the environment, and international relations, are identified and analyzed across a number of selected countries, including the US, UK, Austria, France, Germany, Netherlands, Norway, and Russia. Potential strategies to limit the Alt-Right threat are proposed.

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This cumulative course on Johannes Heinrichs philosophical works presents the essence of his previous publications: A rich, consistent, and novel monolithic system defying temptations by the zeitgeist. Starting with an emphasis on reflection as the basis of epistemology, Heinrichs also covers the mind-body dualism in an anthropology chapter, moves on to presenting summaries of his Theory of Democracy as well as of his Philosophical Semiotics, followed by an outline of structural and integral ontology. An overview of ethical positions in the final chapter proves the fertility of Heinrichs theoretical-reflection methods.

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"Da Nang City, located in the South Central Coast region of Vietnam, has developed in many aspects in the last two decades and has been known as one of the five independent municipalities of Vietnam. Today, it constitutes the Key Economic Zone in Central Vietnam. Rapid industrialization and urbanization have caused incessant change of land use and land cover (LULC) in Da Nang City. Linh Nguyen's study aims at detecting, quantifying, and characterizing the changes of LULC in the Da Nang City region by using multitemporal satellite images from 1979 to 2009; it further explores the effects of LULC changes on landscape structure through spatial landscape metrics. In a simulation it also shows the changes of LULC under different scenarios, utilizing the model of system dynamics and the model of dynamic conversion of land use and its effects. The results show that 37% of the total land has undergone change. Before being separated from Quang Nam Province (19791996), the LULC in Da Nang City changed gradually. However, after becoming an independent municipality, the LULC changed with accelerated speed, especially in the urban areas. Within 13 years (19962009), the urban area grew by 86.6%. The study suggests this is caused by a strong focus on economic development. Conversely, agriculture and forests had a high rate of change. The dynamic change of landscape indices reveal that agricultural areas were broken into smaller patches. However, except agriculture, patches of forestry and urban spaces tended to have a uniform landscape configuration. To simulate the future changes of LULC at Da Nang City from 2009 to 2030, three scenarios with different missions were developed, namely, Development as Usual, Aggressive Development, and Optimal Development. All scenarios result in a continuous increase in urban area and a gradual decrease in agriculture, barren, and shrub areas during the simulated period. The study provides new strategies for land use planning in comparable regions facing rapid urbanization."

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This is a book about the crisis of the European integration project as seen from the vantage point of people's movements across and to the European continent. But why should the issue of refugees or of migration have anything to do with the dynamics of the integration or disintegration of the European Union? If anything, the existing global refugee protection regime was conceived in Europe at about the time when Europe began to integrate: It was seen as a moral imperative in the context of European solidarity and in the face of crisis. How did refugee protection become so controversial as to usher in a crisis of its own? Why do European governments and their peoples see refugees and migrants as the cause of a crisis in and of Europe? Solidarity, legitimacy, democracy, welfare, rights: How has refugee migration undermined European positions on all that has defined EU integration so far? This collection engages with these questions by focusing on the construction of the crisis narrative, offering an insight into distinctly European perspectives on and analyses of political responses to refugees, migration, and economic challenges. The aim of the volume is to provide an empirical and thematic context for understanding the link between refugee migration and the overpowering perception of Europe in crisis.

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Much has been written on the 19171920 revolution in Ukraine, on the national movement, the Makhnovists and the Bolsheviks. Yet there were others with a mass following whose role has faded from history books. One such party was the Borotbisty, the heirs of the mass Ukrainian Party of Socialist-Revolutionaries, an independent party seeking to achieve national liberation and social emancipation. Though widely known in revolutionary Europe in their day, the Borotbisty were decimated during the Stalinist holocaust in Ukraine. Out of print for over half a century, this lost text by Ivan Maistrenko, the last survivor of the Borotbisty, provides a unique account on this party and its historical role. Part memoir and part history, this is a thought-provoking book which challenges previous approaches to the revolution and shows how events in Ukraine decided the fate not only of the Russian Revolution but the upheavals in Europe at the time.

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"This book on the Auschwitz Concentration Camp provides a chronological account from the camp's beginning in 1940 right up to its liberation in January 1945, and beyond. Chris Webb manages to find a balance between detailing the sufferings of the victims and the actions, characters, and fates of the perpetrators. He gives, in a concise form, a thorough and deeply disturbing overview of all aspects of Auschwitz and its many satellite camps. In addition, the book contains a vast collection of photographs and documents, some of them never shown in public before. It ends with the 2017 recollections by students who visited Auschwitz from Teesside University."

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What would you do if your brother turned out to be your enemy? Gate of Mercy takes its readers into the heart of the Israeli-Arab conflict, taking the history of modern Israel to the very personal level of intertwined Israeli-Arab families.Told from the perspective of eight-year-old Avram, the compelling story unfolds over seven decades. Bit by bit, the long-held secrets of Avrams family are uncovered. A story of love and passion, of destiny and redemptionand of the bonds between different cultures that persist despite all conflicts.

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When public protests first began in Ukraine at the end of 2013, the failed promise of the Orange Revolution was still fresh in the minds of many Ukrainians. However, unlike in the aftermath of 2004/2005, the political and military crises ignited by the Euromaidan brought profound changes not only for Ukraine, but also for neighboring states and Europe more generally. The annexation of Crimea by Russia in March 2014, along with the outbreak of fighting in the Donets Basin, has resulted in a profound shift in how domestic and regional security is perceived. More broadly, these events have also called into question the durability of the post-Cold War world order, which had been based upon peaceful coexistence between states, the integrity of sovereign borders, and an acceptance of the legitimacy of international law. While the effects of the Euromaidan have already been analyzed in terms of Ukrainian politics and relations between Ukraine, Russia, and the EU, what has not yet taken place is a sustained analysis of how its legacies have reverberated throughout the post-communist region and wider Europe (and how these altered international perceptions have, in turn, affected the subsequent course of Ukraines domestic politics). Writing from a variety of viewpoints and backgrounds, this volumes contributors seek to address these lacunae. Among other topics, they focus on Russias dissatisfaction with the post-Cold War international order, examine issues of ontological insecurity in an increasingly networked world, assess the limits of Western leverage, evaluate Ukrainian public opinion concerning NATO and the EU, consider the broader security implications of the Euromaidan for Eastern Europe, explore the role of migration and demographic factors for Ukrainian security, and assess how contentious pasts are being utilized as tools of statecraft by both Ukrainian actors and outside forces.

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This book is a comprehensive study of the social roots of citizen raising in contemporary Russia. It traces the development of governmental patriotic programs in recent decades, discusses how the Soviet past and political traditions influence todays system of patriotism formation, and presents numerous examples illustrating real-life processes in current patriotic education. While the topics of patriotism and patriotic education are highly politicised, this study approaches them from a sociological perspective. It identifies the basic model of patriotic education as a fairly stable structure born of the values and attitudes of different agents: teachers, school administrators, and civil servants. Patriotic education in Russia is shown as a particular example of how a political idea can lead to the formation of social structures, and how, in time, those social structures can lead to the restoration of the original political idea.

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Religion and magic have played important roles within Eastern European societies where social reality and socio-political balance may differ greatly from those in the West. Although often thought of as being two distinct, even antagonistic forces, religion and magic find ways to work together. By taking on various examples in the multicultural settings of post-Soviet and post-socialist spaces, this collection brings together diverse historical and ethnographic analyses of orthodoxy and heterodoxy from the pre- and post-1989 periods, studies on the relationship of religious and state institutions to individuals practicing alternative forms of spirituality, and examples of borderlands as spaces of ambiguity. This volume is at the crossroads of anthropology, history, as well as cultural memory studies. Its archival and field research results help us understand how repurposing religious and magic practices worked into the transition that countries in Eastern Europe and beyond have experienced after the end of the Cold War.

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This innovative book concentrates on the important distinction between philosophy of medicine and medical philosophy, by expanding the focus from knowing that of the first term to the knowing how of the latter. Thus, the idea of patient and provider self-discovery becomes integral part, method, and strategy at the basis of therapeutic treatment. Among the most important contributions of this volume, the definition of Central Medicine, overcoming the dichotomy Western-Eastern medicine and Traditional-Integrative approaches, is presented under the lenses of hermeneutics, with particular regards to neurosciences, psychiatry, and psychology. Evidence-Based and Patient-Centred Medicine are analysed within the debate on placebo and non-specific effects. Furthermore, the clinical research presented in the appendix investigates the patient-doctor relationship, and the interactive nature of human relationships in general, including environment, personal beliefs, and perspectives on lifes meaning and purpose. Tomasis research covers neuroscience, psychology, philosophy, and medicine. In this book, a wide array of questions and answers pertaining to these areas is presented in a clear, readable, and detailed way, satisfying the needs of professionals, students, and anyone who enjoys the exploration of the complexity of human mind, brain, and heart.

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Worldwide child and youth poverty and deprivation remain the biggest barrier to achieving a better life in adulthood. Progress in lifting children out of poverty in the last decades has been slow and limited in the developing world, while the recent global economic crisis has exacerbated child poverty, youth unemployment, and social exclusion in many developed countries. By critically unravelling the long-term consequences of growing up poor, the close linkages between multiple deprivations and violation of human rights in childhood and adolescence, and their effects on labour market entry and future career in a number of developing and developed countries, this book significantly enriches the existing literature. Drawing on multiple disciplinary perspectives, it makes a forceful case for the eradication of child poverty to take centre stage in the Sustainable Development Goals.

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This book addresses the ways in which a range of representational forms have influenced and helped implement the project of human rights across the world, and seeks to show how public discourses on law and politics grow out of and are influenced by the imaginative representations of human rights. It draws on a multi-disciplinary approach, using historical, literary, anthropological, visual arts, and media studies methods and readings, and covers a wider range of geographic areas than has previously been attempted. A series of specifically-commissioned essays by leading scholars in the field and by emerging young academics show how a multidisciplinary approach can illuminate this central concern.

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This volume explores the relationship between new media and religion, focusing on the WWW's impact on the Russian Orthodox Church. Eastern Christianity has travelled a long way through the centuries, amassing the intellectual riches of many generations of theologians and shaping the cultures as well as histories of many countries, Russia included, before the arrival of the digital era. New media pose questions that, when answered, fundamentally change various aspects of religious practice and thinking as well as challenge numerous traditional dogmata of Orthodox theology. For example, an Orthodox believer may now enter a virtual chapel, light a candle by drag-and-drop operations, send an online prayer request, or worship virtual icons and relics. In recent years, however, Church leaders and public figures have become increasingly sceptical about new media. The internet, some of them argue, breaches Russia's "spiritual sovereignty" and implants values and ideas alien to the Russian culture. This collection addresses such questions as: How is the Orthodox ecclesiology influenced by its new digital environment? What is the role of clerics in the Russian WWW? How is the specifically Orthodox notion of sobornost' (catholicity) being transformed here? Can Orthodox activity in the internet be counted as authentic religious practice? How does the virtual religious life intersect with religious experience in the "real" church?

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Within the past 40 years, shopping centres have increasingly formed the European cityscape and gained in importance, not only from an architectural and urban planning perspective, but also from an economic and social point of view. Owing to its rising significance, the European shopping centre necessitates an analytic statement on the part of architectural research. By comparing the shopping centre sector of a selection of countries, this pilot project offers a holistic approach to a better understanding of the shopping centre's role in the architecture of our cities and the urban structure of our countries. The project is organised in a top-down structure and subdivided in three research levels. Beginning with the survey of two European countries and their 1,616 shopping centres on the first level, the focus shifts towards a selection of 40 sector-relevant cities with 645 shopping centres on a second level, before focusing on eight cities with 124 shopping centres on the third and final level. The deductive analysis of a rising number of basic key features on every research level aims to evidence the constants and variables of the building type. The constants outline the essential basic properties that are considered indispensable for the efficiency of a shopping centre. Again, the variables show the adaptation of these basic key features to the various local conditions and particularities, allowing conclusions in terms of their adaptation, improvement, difficulties, and opportunities. Together, the outcomes of the three research levels assemble a detailed overall picture of the shopping centre sector from the perspective of architecture and urban development, leading to a general characterisation of the building type in the selected countries. From a scientific perspective, the study offers a methodology and basis of comparison for the evaluation of other European countries while, from a practical perspective, the findings can be used as recommendations for future shopping centre projects.

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This book illustrates why and how informality in governance is not necessarily transitory or temporary, but a constant in most systems of the world. The difference between various administrative structures is not whether informality is present or not, but where, in which areas, it is located. The essays gathered in this volume demonstrate that, in some cases, informal mechanisms are self-protective, while, in others, they are perceived as normal responses and a set of tactics for individuals, classes, and communities to respond to unusual demands. Where expectations of the state, a company, or some commission are too far from citizens' existing models of normative behaviour, informal behaviour continues to thrive. Indeed, new tactics are adopted in order to cope with disjunctions between theory and reality as well as to serve as contrasts to values imposed by a centre of power, such as a central state, a city administration, or the management board of a large company. The focus of the papers contained in this book is two-fold and rests on an analysis of phenomena manifesting themselves "beyond" and "in spite of" the state. The first part deals with areas where the state is not always, or only marginally, active whilst the second analyses activities performed in conflict with state regulations (ie: behaviour often studied from a criminal and legal standpoint).

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The voice traverses Beckett's work in its entirety, defining its space and its structure. Emanating from an indeterminate source situated outside the narrators and characters, while permeating the very words they utter, it proves to be incessant. It can alternatively be violently intrusive, or embody a calming presence. Literary creation will be charged with transforming the mortification it inflicts into a vivifying relationship to language. In the exploration undertaken here, Lacanian psychoanalysis offers the means to approach the voice's multiple and fundamentally paradoxical facets with regards to language that founds the subject's vital relation to existence. Far from seeking to impose a rigid and purely abstract framework, this study aims to highlight the singularity and complexity of Beckett's work, and to outline a potentially vast field of investigation.

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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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This double special issue investigates the experiences of Soviet Afghan veterans and the ongoing impact of the Soviet-Afghan war (1979-89); and the new and reconstituted narratives of martyrdom that have been emerging in connection with 20th-century history and memory in the post-socialist world. The JOURNAL OF SOVIET AND POST-SOVIET POLITICS AND SOCIETY (JSPPS) is a new bi-annual companion journal to the Soviet and Post-Soviet Politics and Society (SPPS) book series (founded 2004 and edited by Andreas Umland, Dr. phil., PhD). Guest editors: Felix Ackermann (European Humanities University); Michael Galbas (Konstanz University); Uilleam Blacker (UCL)

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What did the citizens of the Soviet Union identify with? Where did the societal faultlines lie? Did mass demonstrations effectively de-stabilize Soviet order? How did informal groups come into being within a society based on uniformity? What impact did new media and new forms of interconnectivity have on the development of a multinational Soviet society? What remained after the end of the Soviet Union? Using Soviet soccer teams from Moscow (Spartak, Dynamo, ZSKA) and Kiev (Dynamo) as examples, Manfred Zeller tells a story of community and enmity in the post-Stalinist multinational empire. This brilliant monograph exposes the complex loyalties that governed group identities and explains phenomena like the love-hate relationship between Kiev and Moscow. 'Moscow against Kiev' in Soviet times wasn't a question of war and peace, but in soccer it was already a feeling of 'us against them' and a question of victory or defeat in the complex multinational setting of the region. Zeller's book is an important contribution to the research of Soviet pop culture after Stalin as well as to contemporary debates on antagonism in the post-Soviet world.

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