Christmas Market Research Articles

Ataki terrorystyczne, poważne incydenty i infrastruktura krytyczna. Spostrzeżenia z Berlina

Dramatic security incidents, such as terrorist attacks, generate widespread public interest. They arouse strong emotions, on the wave of which there are appeals to the authorities to counter threats more effectively, passionate demands for changes and declarations of their introduction. This usually lasts for a few months and then the topic goes quiet. In the interview, Paul Fröhlich from the Operations Division of the Berlin Police, an expert in the EU Protective Security Advisors programme, refers to a figurative term for this phenomenon - disaster dementia. He suggests ways to counter it, mentioning, among other things, the lessons learned and lessons identified by the Berlin police after the terrorist attack on the Berlin Christmas market. He emphasises the importance of being prepared for crises not only at national but also at individual level and the role of institutional and non-institutional cooperation.

Intangible Heritage and Its Associative Objects as Exemplified by the Materiality of the Portable Material Culture of German Christmas Markets

Many aspects of intangible cultural heritage have associated objects of material culture that augment or enable aspects of intangible heritage to be exercised or emphasized. Christmas markets have been publicized as the quintessential event in Germany leading up to Christmas, with the over 2000 locations attracting large numbers of local, domestic, and international visitors. From their origins as mercantile venues during the medieval period, Christmas markets have evolved into multisensory social and experiential events, where the acquisition of Christmas decorations or gifts has been supplanted by the consumption of mulled wine in a social setting. Christmas markets represent intangible cultural heritage staged in ephemeral surroundings. While the abundance of material culture in Christmas markets is widely understood, this focuses on the objects offered for sale at the markets, rather than the objects that characterize a Christmas market and enable its functioning. This paper provides the first comprehensive assessment of the portable material culture associated with the German Christmas markets, covering objects as diverse as payment tokens, lapel pins, special postmarks, beer mats, and commemorative cups issued for the consumption of mulled wine. These objects, as well as numerous other manifestations of material culture, are discussed in the wider framing of the materiality of the markets, examining their ontological qualities within the multiple spheres in which these objects attain meaning (i.e., personal, event, social, and public spheres). It demonstrates that the wide range of alienable material culture associated with German Christmas markets has different manifestations of materiality, depending on the viewpoint of the user (i.e., participant, vendor, organizer), and these manifestations have different expressions of representativeness. On this foundation, this paper examines the various groups of portable and alienable material culture and discusses them in terms of their authenticity and to what extent these are representative of German Christmas markets. While all items have a connection with Christmas markets and function as symbolic shorthand souvenirs, commemorative cups issued for the consumption of hot drinks as well as the deposit tokens associated with these are both genuine and authentic and are also representative of the conceptual, social, and experiential dimensions of the event.

Effectiveness and context dependency of social norm interventions: five field experiments on nudging pro-environmental and pro-social behavior.

Social norm interventions hold the potential to change people's behavior. Five field experiments (N = 1,163) examined the effects of a simple and easily realizable social norm nudge based on the social media format "Be like Bill." The nudge consisted of a stick figure named Toni that communicated descriptive and injunctive norms regarding pro-environmental or pro-social behaviors. Nudge conditions were compared to no-intervention control conditions. Experiment 1 (N = 179) focused on paper towel consumption in a women's restroom at a German university. The nudge condition used less paper towels than the control condition, d = 0.48. Experiment 2 (N = 183) replicated this result (d = 0.32) in a more diverse setting of a women's restroom at a German Christmas market. Experiment 3 (N = 250) examined differences in the effects of prescriptive (i.e., 'do-norm') versus proscriptive (i.e., 'do not-norm') social norms on paper towel consumption again in a university women's restroom. The effectiveness of both social norm nudge conditions was shown in comparison to the control condition (d = 0.46; d = 0.40), while the prescriptive and proscriptive social norm manipulations did not differ. Experiment 4 (N = 206) applied the nudging approach to the use of plastic lids in a coffee shop, where no effect was found. Finally, Experiment 5 (N = 345) focused on the pro-social behavior of mask wearing in a bakery toward the end of the Covid-19 pandemic restrictions in Germany. In the nudge condition, more visitors put on face masks compared to the control group, d = 0.39. Limitations and contextual factors regarding the applicability of our social norm nudge are discussed.

Posttraumatic stress disorder and depression after the 2018 Strasbourg Christmas Market terrorist attack: a comparison of exposed and non-exposed police personnel

ABSTRACT Background: Police personnel are among the first responders exposed to terrorist attacks, raising in number in the late decades. Due to their profession, they are also exposed to repetitive violence, increasing their vulnerability to PTSD and depression. Objective: Our study aims at comparing the prevalence of PTSD and depression, and the risk factors associated with these conditions among directly and indirectly exposed versus non-exposed police personnel during the Strasbourg Christmas Market terrorist attack. Method: Three months after the attack, participants completed a survey assessing their sociodemographic characteristics, occupational data, degree of exposure, sleep debt around the event, event centrality (CES), and three mental health conditions: PTSD (PCL-5), depression (PHQ-9), and suicide risk (yes/no questions). Results: A total of 475 police personnel responded to the questionnaire: 263 were exposed to the attack (182 of them directly) and 212 were non-exposed. Among directly exposed participants, the prevalences of partial and complete PTSD were 12.6 and 6.6%, and the prevalence of moderate-to-severe depression was 11.5%. Multivariate analysis revealed that direct exposure was associated with a higher risk of PTSD (OR = 2.98 [1.10–8.12], p = .03). Direct exposure was not associated with a higher risk of depression (OR = 0.40 [0.10–1.10], p = .08). A significant sleep debt after the event was not associated with a higher risk of later PTSD (OR = 2.18 [0.81–5.91], p = .13) but was associated with depression (OR = 7.92 [2.40–26.5], p < .001). A higher event centrality was associated with both PTSD and depression (p < .001). Conclusions: Police personnel directly exposed to the Strasbourg Christmas Market terrorist attack were at higher risk of PTSD but not depression. Efforts to prevent and treat PTSD should focus on directly exposed police personnel. However, general mental health should be monitored for every personnel member.

Exploring Terrorism Prevention: An Organizational Perspective on Police Investigations

Abstract The article analyzes the investigations conducted by the Berlin police into the subsequent perpetrator of the vehicle-ramming attack at a Berlin Christmas market on December 19, 2016. We explore why the police closed these investigations prematurely and thereby focus on an attempt to prevent lone actor terrorism. The analysis shows that the police closed its investigations owing to organizational dynamics driven by an increasing need to justify further resource investments in the face of absent conclusive evidence and scarce resources in relation to the organizational case ecology. We propose hypotheses for future research and formulate three contributions to existing research on the sociology of police, terrorism prevention, and lone actor research.

Attitudes of visitors towards Christmas lighting at the Christmas market in the face of the energy and climate crisis

Attitudes of visitors towards Christmas lighting at the Christmas market in the face of the energy and climate crisis

The temporality of commodified landscapes at events &amp; local constructions of identity in Salzburg

Abstract This paper presents a study of how temporary, fixed-term local semiotic landscapes in Salzburg, Austria, contribute to a construction of local identity. For this purpose, two main events in the city’s calendar were investigated, the Ruperti fair in the autumn and the Christmas market in the winter. I explore how and the extent to which semiotic resources such as linguistic features index local pride and become commodified, i.e., utilized for economic gain. The indexicality can be temporary or even volatile with some signs and creates an event-specific or non-event specific semiotic ‘register’ (enregisterment). The analysis follows two major commodifying practices, historicizing (in particular, the use of blackletter) and localizing (use of non-standard Austro-Bavarian dialect), and employs a multimodal approach. A qualitative analysis reveals how signs add to the temporary local authentication and discusses how LL research can benefit from capturing event spaces and the temporality of signs.

Time Bomb from the West: Video, the Advertising Industry, and Consumer Culture in Late-Socialist Czechoslovakia

Time Bomb from the West: Video, the Advertising Industry, and Consumer Culture in Late-Socialist Czechoslovakia

Hiding from danger, not from fear: Lockdown as a risk factor of probable PTSD among civilians after Strasbourg Christmas market terror attack

On December 11, 2018, five people were killed and 11 injured during a terrorist attack on Strasbourg's Christmas market. As the attacker was on the run during the night, part of the population was locked down for several hours. Our study aimed at assessing factors associated with the development of PTSD and health services use among the victims. Four hundred and twelve victims were followed up from 6 to 11 months after the attacks through phone calls by psychologists. The presence of probable PTSD was assessed with the Trauma Screening Questionnaire. In addition, we evaluated the type and level of exposure, and health services use after the attacks. Two hundred and twelve participants completed the phone interview. The prevalence of probable PTSD was 26.4%. Being locked down during the attack and the level of exposure were associated with probable PTSD (OR = 2.32 [1.17–4.59], p = 0.016 and OR = 1.49 [1.10–2.03], p = 0.010 respectively). Lockdown was especially associated with symptoms suggesting adrenergic hyperactivation (startle at surprise, dreams about the event). General and mental health services use was frequent among our sample (83% consulted either their GP or a mental health professional), but people living alone tend to use these health services more infrequently than these living with others. Though necessary, measures taken to protect victims, such as lockdown, may foster PTSD. Victims of terror attacks having been subjected to lockdown may have experienced powerlessness, fostering prolonged stress and fear. These victims may benefit from mental health support over the following months.

Using Lotus Blossom Strategy in Geography

"This research analyses the way in which the Lotus Blossom technique has been described and used worldwide, including Romania and it investigates several ways to apply it based on the geographic content. Based on analysing the way this technique was applied it has been found that it may be applied to various topics, both individually and in groups, depending on the geography teacher’s expertise, creativity, skills and employed methodology. During the organised activities, Lotus Blossom was used to highlight and develop the most relevant subtopics on a topic, this process being also applied as an activity of introducing and assessing students’ knowledge, of extracting, evaluating, selecting, and synthesising information from various sources while systematising them by visual representation (diagram or table). During an activity in which students were asked to solve a problem (“Christmas Market”), Lotus Blossom was used head-on to break down the problem into “smaller” sub-problems or tasks, to identify or discover them, and to further analyse and split them in order to be able to solve them punctually. In this case, the Lotus Blossom strategy can be compared to the Kaoru Ishikawa diagram."

Christmas markets in city centers: how do they impact local residents and businesses?

PurposeChristmas markets have more recently become important tourist attractions in Europe. The purpose of this study is to understand how does this recurring event impact local businesses and residents. The research focuses on the city of Cluj-Napoca, Romania.Design/methodology/approachThis study used both quantitative and qualitative methods. First, a survey was conducted with local residents to evaluate the impact of the Christmas market on the local community. Residents’ perception of social impacts was ascertained by using a five-point Likert scale. The data collected was then processed using the SPSS software. Second, to assess the impact of the Christmas market on the businesses located in the city’s historic central square, semi-structured interviews with managers and front-line employees were conducted. In total, 21 people were interviewed for this study. The interviews were then transcribed, and the content analysis was applied to the textual data.FindingsThe study found that both residents and local businesses have a positive attitude toward the Christmas market. The only negative impact, identified by a segment of the population and some companies, was crowding of public spaces (including parking problems and traffic jams).Originality/valueThis study is novel in that, with one exception, there are no studies on the community impacts of Christmas markets. Moreover, to the best of the authors’ knowledge, this is the first study on Christmas markets in Romania and one of the very few in Eastern Europe.

Malicious attacks detection in crowded areas using deep learning-based approach

With the increasing need to ensure people's safety in crowded areas, the development of a systematic anomaly detection mechanism is becoming indispensable. Here are a few examples of recent malicious attacks targeting crowded areas in big cities: in 2016, a truck driver attacked and killed 84 persons walking in the promenade in Nice, France; and on 19 December, 2016, a truck was deliberately driven into the Christmas market, in Berlin, Germany, killing 12 people and injuring 56 others. These attacks demonstrate the need for efficient monitoring systems to avoid such devastating attacks. To do so, early detection and prevention abilities are vital. Detecting and localizing abnormal events in crowded scenes is important and has significant implications in video surveillance applications. Video surveillance can be challenging, as abnormal events can be unpredictable and changing, based on the context. Accurately detecting and localizing anomalies in videos is a powerful tool that can help to improve security and understand the behavior of anomalies. In this paper, we present an automated visionbased monitoring scheme specifically designed for atypical event-detection and localization in crowded areas.

Attitudinal and Emotional Consequences of Islamist Terrorism. Evidence from the Berlin Attack

Studies about Islamist‐inspired terror attacks in the Western world have identified a recently declining impact on public opinion. What explains this development? I argue that the wider audience of terrorist attacks has become desensitized. Cognitive desensitization occurs when citizens increasingly expect an attack, reducing the likelihood of attitudinal change. Emotional desensitization occurs when audiences lose sensitivity to attacks, tempering emotional arousal. To assess the implications of desensitization, I analyze a survey conducted around the Berlin Christmas market attack in 2016 and account for baseline information of the surveyed individuals, an approach not used before due to data limitations. I find that attitudes like trust in government, national identification, and views of Islam remain unchanged. Sadness and anger are heightened in the immediate aftermath of the attack. The wider German audience may thus have expected an attack but still be emotionally sensitive to it in the short term. These findings are relevant as political leaders have justified important policy changes in fields like migration and even war making with reference to supposed shifts in public opinion after attacks.

The Christmas Market Attack in Berlin and Attitudes Toward Refugees: A Natural Experiment with Data from the European Social Survey

Using a quasi-experimental research design, this study examines changes in attitudes toward refugees after the terrorist attack on the Berlin Christmas market of December 19, 2016. In our analysis, we make use of random variation in the field period of the European Social Survey (ESS) to fashion a natural experimental design. The survey’s field period took place in Germany from August 23, 2016, to March 26, 2017. Hence, the Christmas market attack took place approximately halfway through the ESS’s field phase, thus making it possible to study the causal effect on changing attitudes toward minorities before and after the attack. We argue that the terrorist attack creates a spillover effect and negatively shapes public opinion of uninvolved ethnic minorities. Our data analysis suggests that immediately after the event, only people with a right-wing political attitude appear to be affected by the proposed spillover effect. However, we find that the worsening of attitudes toward refugees can also be observed in the general population as time progresses. We do not find variation according to educational levels.

“Did you read about Berlin?” Terrorist attacks, online media reporting and support for refugees in Germany

We analyze whether the Islamist terror attack on the Christmas market in Berlin in 2016 had an impact on public opinion toward immigration in general and, since the attacker has entered Germany to apply for asylum, toward refugees in particular. An analysis of this natural experiment reveals a negative shift regarding the latter, while no differences are observed for the former. To shed more light on the driver of attitude change, we combine these findings with a quantitative content analysis of online media reporting about refugees before and after the attack. Mass media have long been considered to have an impact on exclusionary attitudes toward ethnic minorities. However, empirical evidence on this relationship remains largely anecdotal. We draw upon unsupervised machine learning to quantify the developments in reporting in three popular German online news websites. Results reveal that the attack had significant impact on media reporting on these websites. However, the strong focus on the attack was only short lived, quickly decreasing already in the second week after the attack. Linking media data to the public opinion data reveals no clear connection between reporting and attitudes. In contrast to theoretical expectations, descriptive evidence even shows that both follow almost opposite trends, since people changed their attitudes only weeks after the attack. We discuss potential explanations of these, at first sight, counterintuitive findings.

Trouble

Trouble Mariah Garnett (bio) When I began making Trouble (2019), I wrote down what happened every day for the first six weeks of shooting. This is when I was staying in my dad's art studio in Vienna. I wasn't sure what would come of it, but about a year later when I made Other & Father (2016), this text was exhibited alongside a two-channel projection of my shot for shot remake of archival news footage of my dad from 1971. And in 2019, all of these elements ended up in the final cut of Trouble as onscreen text. What began as research, or as a playful exercise, or a means of recording information for posterity, often ended up sitting alongside material specifically crafted for the film. This is true in most of my work. [End Page 92] Day 1 I arrive at the airport. It's David's birthday. I decide not to ask about filming. Click for larger view View full resolution Day 3 I ask David about filming. He tentatively says yes but feels uncomfortable. He talks at length about Belfast. I wish I had my camera. I meet with a collector for lunch and I'm wearing a Raiders sweatshirt. He is wearing a suit. I feel embarrassed about my clothes. I meet Anne at a bar David used to drink at in his wilder days. I can't tell if I have a crush on her. She tells me I walk as fast as she bikes. Click for larger view View full resolution [End Page 93] Day 5 Get AIDS test at the free clinic. Kill time looking at Tinder and feel like a monster. Later, I go to a gallery where I am supposed to meet some people. I see at least two people from the waiting room for the AIDS clinic at the opening. I tell my new "friends" this. Wonder if it is appropriate. Click for larger view View full resolution Day 6 I have a dream that I am a piece of paper floating above the rooft ops. I float over the whole city and I am on fire. The pain is so excruciating I beg god to kill me and put me out of my misery. Click for larger view View full resolution [End Page 94] Day 8 Supposed to go to the countryside but David says it's too gloomy so we don't go. I try not to take this personally but am not entirely successful. We go to see an art show and he starts coming up with ideas for ways we could shoot stuff together. I am elated. At home, I watch Se7en with German dubbing. The neighbors scream at each other. I turn my sound recorder on and fall asleep. Click for larger view View full resolution [End Page 95] Day 11 David takes me to the Osteopath. She tells me my uterus has shifted. I feel nervous about videoing even though she said its ok. I don't record the good part, only the stuff that comes right after. Afterwards we meet some of my new friends at the gay Christmas market. My uterus hurts from her moving it around. David worries he'll have to take me to the hospital. He is jumpy around my friends. Astrid asks if the Osteopath was expensive and he replies in German and walks off. Astrid asks me "do you know what he just said?" I don't. "He said 'I never gave her anything so I figured this was the least I could do.'" Click for larger view View full resolution [End Page 96] Day 12 Joanna and I meet Kevin and David at the natural history museum and all bomb around like children. We lick the salt rock. Afterwards, we hang out on the steps outside. We talk about composing images. I feel like I haven't composed a single one since I've been here, just turned the camera on and off. Click for larger view View full resolution [End Page 97] Day 15 In my dream, my dog runs away because I left the door wide open. I spend hours looking for...

La clé USB by Jean-Philippe Toussaint

Reviewed by: La clé USB by Jean-Philippe Toussaint Alexander Hertich Toussaint, Jean-Philippe. La clé USB. Minuit, 2019. ISBN 978-2-7073-4559-2. Pp. 192. Toussaint's latest novel is an odd amalgamation. First there is espionage. Jean Detrez, an expert in "strategic foresight" at the European Commission and the novel's narrator, discovers a USB flash drive filled with information about secret deals, holding companies, computer backdoors, and bitcoin mining. The flash drive was accidentally dropped during a meeting by John Stavropoulos, a shady lobbyist who along with his colleagues Dragan Kucka and Yolanda Paul—with their overcoats and sunglasses, internationally ambiguous names, and unplaceable accents—seem as though pulled from detective fiction. Drawn in by the unfolding mystery and against his better judgement, Detrez, without telling anyone his plan or destination, eventually travels to China to investigate. There he meets the taciturn Gu Zongqing, director of BTPool Corporation, a subsidiary of Dalian Weilei Technologies, led by Madame Li, a close affiliate with the Eastern European company XO-BR Consulting, whose subsidiary, Kaliakras Ltd., Stavropoulos represents: "J'étais maintenant en train de m'enfoncer profondément dans la clandestinité, de sorte que plus personne au monde ne pouvait savoir où j'étais en ce moment et ce que j'étais en train de faire" (118). Second, we learn about Herman Kahn and the history of scenario planning, about bootstraps, blockchain technology, and the equipment required to make it work, and about the protocols and routines of technocrats in Brussels. In addition to several touchstones of Toussaint's works, including meditations on time and ironic detachment, the novel [End Page 269] also contains intratextual winks at other works. During one ludic scene in a hotel restroom in China, the narrator, pensive, notes the calm and peacefulness inside the stall: "Je ne faisais absolument rien, je savourais l'instant présent" (130), an allusion to L'appareil-photo (1989), before exiting and catching a partial glimpse of his distorted self in the mirror in La réticence (1991). We also find out that the office for his former job was an "ancienne salle de bain" (148). As the novel concludes it takes a sudden turn from professional worries to personal ones when the protagonist rushes home from Japan. In several interviews Toussaint has proclaimed that this novel is his most autobiographical work, evoking Brussels, his childhood and current home, as well as the death of his father. Yet even with its specific references to recent history (9/11 and the 2016 Berlin Christmas Market attack, among others), La clé USB is not a precise key to reality. With writing we must dive deep below the water's surface, far from quotidian reality, to borrow a metaphor from Toussaint's L'urgence et la patience (2012). In the novel we are in gauzy, undefined "zones d'ombre" (9), somewhere between time zones, between the fast-paced technology-driven world of today with blockchains and data mining, exemplified by the East, and the humanist tradition of Europe. This space allows Toussaint's fiction to surge forth from both inside and outside of our contemporary world. Alexander Hertich Bradley University (IL) Copyright © 2020 American Association of Teachers of French

Blurred Boundaries and Strategic Surveillance: Regulating Behaviour in Bristol’s Commercialised Spaces

This article explores how models of architecture, surveillance, and ownership define commercialised spaces, and in turn dictate how these spaces are experienced – not only by their users but also by the ethnographer. I argue that the supposedly inclusive and open design of Cabot Circus in the city centre of Bristol, UK, has resulted in a privatised, impersonal and exclusionary shopping centre. Its mode of operation and regulation threatens to encroach on the adjacent publicly accessible commercial area of Broadmead, through events like the Christmas market, which blurs the boundaries between the two environments. By reflecting on the difficulties I faced as an ethnographer when attempting to conform to my expected role in the space as an active and visible participant, I suggest that power has become so deeply embedded in the contemporary shopping centre that an innovative and reflexive methodological approach is necessary to capture the true machinations of the privatisation of urban public space. By directing attention towards recent efforts to privatise law enforcement and regulate visitor behaviour in these reconfigured commercialised spaces, this research also raises more ‘fundamental questions about how urban citizenship and social exclusion are defined’, simultaneously exposing the ‘importance of consumption… to daily urban life’ (Flint, 2002: 66).

Escaping from the Event? Residents' Perception of Christmas Markets in Northern Italy

Christmas markets as annual cultural events are constantly changing and have become a mass phenomenon of our day. Even though they represent a promising strategy to extend low seasons in tourism, the growing number of visitors can negatively impact residents' perceptions of the event and its authenticity. The central purpose of this study is to gain a new perspective on Christmas markets as cultural events focusing on residents by considering them as important actors within a tourism destination. Qualitative interviews with residents of Meran, a Christmas market destination in Northern Italy, explored their meaning for the locals and the impact of increasing numbers of visitors on their loyalty to the event, by implementing the GABEK qualitative research strategy. The results give insights into central aspects of the events' authenticity, show a shift to less commercial settings in rural areas, and highlight some negative impacts.

Collective sense-making in times of crisis: Connecting terror management theory with Twitter user reactions to the Berlin terrorist attack

Recent terrorist attacks have increased the need to examine the public's response to such threats. This study focuses on the content of Twitter messages related to the 2016 terrorist attack on the Berlin Christmas market. We complement the collective sense-making perspective with the terror management theory (TMT) perspective to understand why people used Twitter in the aftermath of the attack. We use structural topic modeling to analyze our dataset of 51,000 tweets. Our results indicate that people used Twitter to make sense of the events and as part of typical reactions in TMT, that is, to validate their own worldviews and maintain their self-esteem. In accordance with TMT, we found that people used Twitter to search for meaning and value, show sympathy for victims and their families, or call for tolerance, but also to express nationalistic sentiment and greater hostility toward values and views other than their own. We further show that topics varied over the course of the attack and in the days that followed. Whereas in the first two days there were many emotion-related tweets and operational updates, subsequent days saw more opinion-related tweets. Our findings contribute to the literature on collective behavior in the aftermath of terrorist attacks.