Bøker utgitt av ibidem-Verlag, Jessica Haunschild u Christian Schon

How far have universities in post-Communist states adopted the practices and habits of their branded and consumer-oriented equivalents in the English-speaking world? While not assuming that university education in those states reflects in any mechanistic way the regulated, business-led system long established in places like the US, and now being dramatically realized in countries like Britain, this edited collection identifies some marked shifts in the direction of what might best be described as 'neoliberalisation', examining its particularities in local situations where establishment ideologies were, until the early 1990s, deeply alien to all kinds of commercially driven entities. Many of the authors are concerned not only with the linked issues of commercialism, instrumentalism, bureaucracy, and managerialism, framed locally and nationally, but also with the meaning and purpose of universities outside or against their status as efficient gatherers of income. The collection makes specific reference to Lithuania, Hungary, Azerbaijan, Ukraine, Georgia, and Russia, and comprises theoretical as well as empirical studies of diverse but connected subjects, including the marketization of the academy, regional reactions to globalization as expressed in the representational rhetoric of specific curricula, the role and place of civic education, comparisons between educational settings, pedagogies for a critical and ethical consciousness, corporate and state demands and their effects on academic freedom, and the positive potential of new communication technologies. In all these cases, the system of neoliberalism, or rather an uneven process of neoliberalisation, forms a backdrop to the particular issues discussed.

Rolando Dromundo presents a political and historical analysis of the state-building processes in Ukraine, Moldova, and the unrecognized Republic of Pridnestrovia from the Soviet fall until 2015, starting with a sketch of the main geopolitical trend that surrounds these polities and its influences on them, and paying special attention to the vicissitudes of the Ukrainian political crisis of 2013¿14 and its immediate consequences in Crimea and the Donbass.This book is a must for scholars with an interest in the Post-Soviet Space and to anyone curious about an international conflict from a realist perspective. It offers an original insight on the understanding of the oligarch¿s role in the Ukrainian political life and presents a different perspective of the unrecognized Republic of Pridnestrovia. Dromundo writes neither pro-Russian nor pro-Western. He sheds light on the problems from different angles and illustrates how the local inhabitants turned out to become the biggest losers in the game because they have fallen prey to local elites allied with different foreign powers disregarding local identities and needs.Altogether, the book helps to better understand the complexity of local state-building processes in a multiethnic society.

Recently, a renewed international interest in Russia as a world political actor has emerged. Against this background, it is useful to better understand how international relations and foreign affairs are studied in Russia and how future Russian political actors, diplomatic personnel, ministerial bureaucrats, business managers, area experts, and other officials, activists, or researchers are taught for their work on the international arena. What are the theories, approaches, and schools that guide Russian teaching on, and research of, international relations?The current state of Russian studies of International Relations (IR), to a large degree, reflects the history and development of IR research during Soviet times. However, over the past 25 years, one could also observe a number of new developments-both substantive and institutional-which are important not only for properly assessing the new state of this academic discipline in Russia, but also for better comprehending Russian foreign policy as well as various international activities of Russia's regions, businesses, media, etc.

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.

The twentieth century began with a deep identity crisis of European parliamentarianism, pluralism, rationalism, individualism, and liberalism¿and a subsequent political revolt against the West's emerging open societies and their ideational foundation. In its radicalism, this upheaval against Western values had far-reaching consequences across the world. Its repercussions can still be felt today. Germany and Russia formed the center of this insurrection against those ideas, norms, and approaches usually associated with the West. Leonid Luks's essays deal with various causes and results of these Russian and German anti-Western uprisings in twentieth-century Europe. The book also touches upon the development of the peculiar post-Soviet Russian regime that, after the collapse of the USSR, emerged on the ruins of the Bolshevik state that had been established in 1917. What were the determinants of the erosion of the "second" Russian democracy (after the first of February 1917) that had been briefly established following the disempowerment of the CPSU in August 1991, and that existed until the rise of Vladimir Putin? Further foci of this wide-ranging collection of essays include the specific 'geopolitical trap' in which Poland-constrained by its two powerful neighbors-was caught for centuries. Finally, Luks explores the special relationship that all three countries of Central and Eastern Europe's 'fateful triangle' had with Judaism and the Jews.

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 (1979-1996), 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 (1996-2009), 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.

Sophie Falsini presents a fascinating analysis of the current state and future prospects of Ukrainian civil society in light of the 2013¿2014 events. Since then, the country has been shaken by both socio-political disorders and a deep humanitarian emergency, also exacerbated by the crisis of internally displaced people. Yet, it is under these same premises that civil society emerged as a main societal actor in post-Euromaidan politics, development, and reform. Through its war relief work and the endeavors to lead Ukraine towards democratization, civil society has, to a considerable degree, offset the lack of an efficient state administration and activated vital components of Ukrainian social capital.In respect to these achievements, Falsini explores the way and the extent to which the events occurring in Ukraine since late 2013¿the Euromaidan revolution, the annexation of Crimea, and the war in the East¿have contributed to the growth of social capital as well as to the resulting change in the shape and in the structure of civil society in the country.Through a multidimensional approach, combining theoretical interpretation with empirical analysis, the study examines Ukraine¿s transformed civil society in terms of its social relations, societal networks and resources, and collective action. Based on the theory of social capital after Lin Nan, the empirical analysis revolves around the case studies of 12 civil society organizations active in providing help to internally displaced people. Semi-structured interviews were conducted in Kiev, Dnipro, and Kharkiv aiming to confirm or discard the thesis of a post-Euromaidan civil society powered by increased levels of social capital. The collected data show that the 2013¿2014 events did indeed contribute to the reshaping of the structure of Ukrainian civil society as they reversed people¿s preference for informal and cross-level networks, mistrust towards the system, and disappointment with public institutions. Compared to the past, Ukraine¿s ¿civil society 2.0¿ saw the rise of grassroots and voluntary movements which triggered social mobilization, and a long-term investment of resources for the benefit of the public good. These developments have significantly contributed to an increase of the level of social capital in post-Euromaidan Ukraine.

Skylarks and Rebels is a story about Latvia's fate in the 20th century as told by Rita Laima, a Latvian American who chose to leave behind the comforts of life in America to explore the land of her ancestors, Latvia, which in the 1980s languished behind the Soviet Iron Curtain. In writing about her own experiences in a totalitarian state, Soviet-occupied Latvia, Laima delves into her family's past to understand what happened to her fatherland and its people during and after World War II. She also pays tribute to some of Latvia's remarkable people of integrity who risked their lives to oppose the mindless ideology of the brutal and destructive Soviet state.

Vasily Yan (Vassily Grigoryevich Yanchevetsky, 1874¿1954) was a writer of historical novels whose popularity survives the test of time. He was widely read throughout the Soviet era and continues to be popular in the post-Soviet era. This book is not just a biographical sketch of an important Russian/Soviet writer basically unknown to the Western public. The focus on Yan and his work also impressively demonstrates the dominant role of ideology in a totalitarian society, which is not just a socio-economic and political system of the past, but could reemerge in the future as ISIS has demonstrated. Shlapentokh shows that ideology and the cultural and intellectual life in totalitarian regimes are more complex than is often assumed. Intellectuals often enough engaged in stressful, but¿in its literary outcome¿captivating ¿cat and mouse¿ games with censors, the powerful, and the government.

The concept of concurrences is a blanket term for challenging dominating statements of the past and present. Concurrent stories have varying claims to reality and fiction, as well as different, diverging, and at times competing claims to society, culture, identity, and historical past. Dominant Western narrations about colonial power relationships are challenged by alternative sources such as heritage objects and oral traditions, enabling the voice of minorities or subaltern groups to be heard. Concurrences is about capturing multiple voices and multiple temporalities. As such, it is both a relational and dynamic methodology and a theoretical perspective that undergirds the multiple workings of power, uncovering asymmetrical power relations. Interdisciplinary in nature, this anthology is the outcome of scholarship from the humanities and social sciences with an interest in the multiple temporality of postcolonial issues and engagements in various places across the world.

Brussels made democracy, human rights, the rule of law, and good governance its top co-operation priorities in the EU Strategy Framework towards Central Asia for 2007-2013. This book examines two interrelated questions: To what extent has EU democracy promotion in Central Asia been successful? And, to the extent that it was successful, why was it so?The book presents a comprehensive analytical framework for the evaluation of democracy promotion, including factors which may facilitate or hinder democratic development in Central Asia. It demonstrates the validity of a holistic approach to analyzing impediments of democracy promotion meaning that external pro-democratic support is affected by a variety of diverse factors whose impact can vary as international, regional, and domestic conditions change.The stable and rich authoritarian state of Kazakhstan is different from the much poorer Kyrgyzstan-a state prone to political instability, but also to democratic openings. By contrasting the success of democracy promotion in these two countries which have different strategic importance for the EU, this study provides valuable insights into how non-normative interests interfere with normatively driven policies.

Translation Studies have traditionally been known to be interdisciplinary. What better term to sum this up than boundaries? A term that means different things in different fields and can be applied to a multitude of topics. Political, personal, symbolic, or professional boundaries, boundaries of the mind as found in psychology, or boundaries in the sociological sense where they separate different fields of knowledge. From politics to geography, boundaries are everywhere. They need to be identified, drawn, or overcome-depending on circumstances and context. What are the boundaries translators and interpreters have to deal with? How do they relate to Translation Studies in general? Boundaries and translation go hand in hand. As the discipline grows and ever more elements of interdisciplinarity come into play, the more the question of what the boundaries of translation are needs to be asked. Some of the research topics presented in this collection may well extend the boundaries of the discipline itself, while others may look at the constraints and limits under which translators and translations operate, or showcase the role translation and interpreting play in overcoming social or political boundaries.It is with this in mind that the group of young researchers presented in this book has come together to create an overview of current research in Translation Studies. The papers offer insights into the state of the discipline in various nations, often touching on under-researched topics such as the role of translation in the creation of national as well as individual identities or the translation of popular music. They look at the role of culture and, more specifically, sociocultural influences on translation. At the same time, non-linguistic, intra- and extratextual factors are taken into account with particular attention to multimodality. What unites the papers collected is the general tendency to see translation as a means of bringing people together and enabling dialog, a means of overcoming ideological and social boundaries. By looking both to the past and the future of the discipline, the authors aim to (re)define the boundaries of Translation Studies.

This second volume of the Applied Human Cryobiology series contains presentations on the second German scientific symposium 2014 in Dresden as well as contributions of outstanding scientists in cryonics. Included are laudations to the awardees of the Robert Ettinger Medal.The brain as the only totally individualized human organ cannot be replaced (e.g. by cloning or stem cells). Therefore analyses of brain structure as well as studies in the postmortem stability of this organ are crucial for methods of vitrification and the rewarming of cryonics patients. Other organs and organisms are useful models for the development and testing of cryopreservation methods. These require strategies for the control and prevention of cryopreservation damage as well as damage caused by dying. New technologies can help to achieve these aims. An important field of research in this context is molecular repair.The further development of cryonics needs self-control, e.g. by analysis of its historical development and actual progress. Cryonics represents a method of life span extension and can be supported by other methods favoring longevity.This volume demonstrates that substantial progress has been made in all of these fields of research as well as in the application of the results of this research.