Community In Germany Research Articles

Amrita Datta, Stories of the Indian Immigrant Communities in Germany: Why Move?

Amrita Datta, <i>Stories of the Indian Immigrant Communities in Germany: Why Move?</i>

Exploring Dehumanization In The Maus Comics By Art Spiegelman

This study limits the problem its problem to the issue of social dehumanization depicted in the comic Maus, which as a reflection of the Jewish community’s condition in Germany during the Nazi regime. This research is qualitative research that uses Ian Watt's sociology of literature as a basis for theorizing. By regarding literature as a reflection of society, this research aims to elucidate how the comic Maus reflects the issue of dehumanization, based on the social realities of the World War II era. The data used in this study are quotations from the comic Maus, supplemented by supporting literature such as books and scholarly articles. The data collection techniques employed in this research include: 1) identifying social issues within the comic, 2) analyzing and interpreting these social issues, 3) examining the data as a reflection of society depicting the social problem of dehumanization among the Jewish community in Germany during the Nazi regime, and 4) formulating conclusions based on the analysis conducted. The conclusion drawn from this research is that the comic Maus serves as a reflection of the dehumanization in Germany according to the author's perspective or ideology, influenced by the author's social background. As a reflection of social realities, Maus cannot fully represent the entirety of society. Through the author, who represents a segment of society that experienced the Holocaust, Spiegelman presents his social viewpoint on the dehumanization that occurred in Germany, drawing from his family's experiences as survivors of the horrific events perpetrated by the Nazis.

Beyond Formal Structures: Exploring Bottom-Up Governance Dynamics in the Assyrian Community’s COVID-19 Response in Germany

This article examines pandemic governance towards migrant communities in Germany in the context of mobilisation and demobilisation of state–society relations during the COVID-19 crisis. By studying how informality is reproduced in social practices and community networks as a response to top-down governance practices in the case of Assyrians – a quintessential diaspora community that settled in Germany through various migratory waves starting from the 1960s – this article aims to explore the bottom-up dynamics of governance practices among migrant communities. The study identifies three key themes for studying bottom-up dynamics of governance: informality embedded in everyday practices in response to formal governance, particularly vaccine policies; the existence of alternative epistemologies based on mistrust towards authorities, manifested in dual narratives; and the articulation of migrant agency in navigating top-down structures. Adopting a grounded theory approach, the study utilises theoretical sampling. Data were collected from various sources, including reports, newspaper articles, official statements and press releases from migrant organisations, alongside interviews with key migrant stakeholders.

Rethinking Consanguineous Marriages in a Diasporic Setting: A Case Study of ar-Rashidiyya Kinship Community in Germany

This article explores the changing landscape of consanguineous marriages among Germany's ar-Rashidiyya community, originally from Turkey's Mardin province. The study employs ethnographic methods to understand how younger members are questioning entrenched marital norms, influenced by factors like migration, education, familial conflicts, individualism, and health concerns. Challenging misconceptions linking these practices to ‘clan crime,’ the article delves into the nuanced relationship between cultural tradition and individual agency. It concludes that consanguineous marriages within the community are no longer rigid practices, but are becoming increasingly adaptable due to both internal community dynamics and wider societal influences.

Tradition and Transformation: Spirituality in Church-Related Caring Communities in a Pluralistic Society

Demographic change in aging societies makes it urgent to ask how care can be understood as a social task. This is where the concept of caring communities comes in, which understands care as a task of many, indeed, of society as a whole, and aims to offer mutual care in communities. While the concept has been described in theory many times, empirical studies are rare. In pluralistic Western societies, the church as an institution is becoming less important while spirituality and spiritual needs are increasing in prominence. These processes of secularization run parallel to a growing interest in spirituality and an individualization of religion. Nonetheless, church congregations have always offered a place of mutual care and lived religion that functions as a network and social resource. So far, the role of spirituality in church-related caring communities has not been sufficiently addressed. In an exploratory qualitative study of three church-related caring communities in Germany, we focus on the target group of caring relatives, of whom we interviewed nine. The results show that church-related caring communities provide important spiritual resources and rely on the basis of shared values that are closely connected to Christian convictions. However, the different understandings of care and spirituality point to the relevance of discussing the often preliminary motives and values of care. Especially in plural societies, the discourse on plural values for mutual care is important and can form a basis for caring practices such as spiritual and pastoral care. Opportunities and places to discuss and debate different and shared values underlining care practices are necessary. The potential of spiritual and pastoral care in church-related caring communities is important and needs to be further strengthened.

Review Article: The Impact of the COVID-19 Pandemic on Minority Communities in Germany, Poland, Portugal, and Spain: Was There a Specific Minority Angle to the Public Health Emergency?

Mindretallet under Corona-pandemien 2020-2021. Mogens Rostgaard Nissen (ed.), Dansk Centralbibliotek for Sydslesvig, 2022, 52 pp. Discriminación y Comunidad Gitana – Informe Anual FSG 2021. A Fondo: El Impacto de la Pandemia en la Discriminación y el Antigitanismo. Cristina de la Serna et al., Fundación Secretariado Gitano, FSG, 2021, 228 pp. Newsletter ObCig (Observatório das Comunidades Ciganas), 24 de junho 2020. Organizacje mniejszości narodowych i etnicznych w dobie pandemii. Piotr Kwapisiewicz (ed.), Żydowskie Stowarzyszenie Czulent, n.d., 23 pp.

Total and thermal load forecasting in residential communities through probabilistic methods and causal machine learning

Indoor heating and cooling systems largely influence the power demand of residential buildings and can play a significant role in the Demand Side Management for energy communities. We propose a novel method for probabilistic forecasting of the total load of a residential community and its base and thermal components, combining conformalized quantile regression and causal machine learning techniques, using only aggregate consumption and environmental conditions data. We applied the proposed methods to the dataset of a residential community in Germany, which includes separate measurements of the total electricity demand and of domestic heating system consumption. The results show that the proposed method produces probabilistic day-ahead hourly forecasts of total energy demand that outperform benchmarks and forecasts of electricity consumption components that are not only more accurate than benchmarks but also close to the accuracy achievable with models trained directly on individual load component data. The T-learner method resulted the most effective among the causal methods for load disaggregation in terms of accuracy, simplicity, and potential for extension.

Strengthening resilience in reconstruction after extreme events – Insights from flood affected communities in Germany

Disaster resilience and building back better (BBB) are key concepts in the disaster risk and resilience discourse; however, these concepts often remain vague for many stakeholders involved in recovery. Based on the reconstruction process in Germany after the extreme floods of 2021 that caused more than 180 deaths, we explore challenges and opportunities to strengthen resilient recovery in one of the world's wealthiest and most technologically advanced countries. We examine factors that contributed to severe losses and damages and assess different phases of the reconstruction process. In addition, we identify and discuss measures to support resilience building, focusing particularly on issues of land management, planning and infrastructure. Our findings provide new insights into how funding schemes and planning approaches contribute to or block resilience building and BBB. The results are also highly relevant for other world regions hit by extreme events and for the international discourse on disaster resilience, loss and damage and BBB, for example, how funding arrangements and quality criteria need to be designed to support disaster resilient reconstruction.

Is Religion More than a Hobby? Social Media Debates on Germany’s Religious-Political Order during COVID

&#x0D; This study uses social media comments on news reports about the exemption of religious communities in Germany from COVID-19 restrictions as empirical data for researching a contemporary, everyday understanding of religion as suggested by Michael Bergunder (2014). To analyse the discourse on religion, a qualitative content analysis is applied, which pre-structures the corpus. This allows for diverse attitudes towards policies on religion, as well as their correlations to understandings of religion to be identified. The results show that the contested role of religion in society and its relationship to the state is linked to the struggle over the filling of the concept of religion. Finally, a critical assessment following Bergunder’s approach is applied, emphasizing the need to research the current understanding of religion as a contested concept.&#x0D;

Simple Ceramics? Design, Decorative Materiality and Anabaptist Pottery in Early Modern Central Europe

Abstract This article traces the manufacture and consumption of faience ceramics made by Hutterite communities in central Europe from the sixteenth to nineteenth centuries. The production, use and survival of Anabaptist Haban ware offers insights into the nature of Anabaptist material regimes and communities and into overlapping but distinct communities of consumption and collecting. Hutterite craftsmen were instructed to produce objects ‘in the same way as was always done’, with regulations about uncomplicated designs and colours. Yet faience Haban ware was highly sought after, and decorative items were made for powerful patrons from materials drawn from all over Europe. Such objects have now become associated with specific national ‘folk’ cultures. These distinctive remnants of Hutterite communities in Germany and central Europe problematize the material dimensions of survival, conformity and separatism in Anabaptist communities and give access to the complicated affective properties of the white faience ware that Hutterites produced.

How familiar are German dermatologists with placebo and nocebo effects and to what extent are these targeted in clinical practice: A survey within the dermatological community.

Every medical treatment inevitably comprises not only physiological, but also psychological components, reflected by placebo and nocebo effects, which significantly affect treatment outcome. However, the extent of knowledge on the mechanisms steering placebo and nocebo effects in the dermatological community in Germany is currently unclear. To assess the state of knowledge about placebo and nocebo effects in the German dermatological community, to evaluate whether this knowledge is already being used in clinical practice, and to investigate whether German dermatologists are interested in learning more about the topic. German Dermatologists, the majority working in their own practice, were asked to fill in an online survey addressing the knowledge about placebo and nocebo effects and the feasibility of special techniques to enhance placebo and minimize nocebo effects within the clinical routine. N = 154 complete (79%) or partial (21%) responses to the survey were recorded in the online database and included in the analysis. All participants reported to know what the placebo effect is and 59.7% (74/124) indicated that they already had experience with prescribing or recommending a treatment without active substances. In contrast, only 62.0% (80/129) stated to know what the nocebo effect is. Participants showed a rather superficial knowledge regarding placebo and nocebo mechanisms. The majority of participants (76.7%, 99/129) expressed their willingness to be further educated about the underlying mechanisms mediating placebo and nocebo effects and the possible application in clinical practice. The current survey offers a so far unique insight into the state of knowledge of German dermatologists on placebo and nocebo effects. The results indicate a need for education about this topic. Encouragingly, however, German dermatologists considered communication strategies to maximize placebo and reduce nocebo effects and expressed motivation to be trained to implement these strategies in everyday clinical practice.

Participation as a research approach in academia: a converging field

Citizen science, transdisciplinary research, dialogic forms of science communication or public engagement: these and other research approaches and fields, often subsumed under participatory research, have in common that they enable people outside of academia to actively engage in the production of scientific knowledge. However, each of these fields sets its own goals, uses different formats and has a different scope and impact. The conference 'Opportunities and Limitations of Participation in Academia' held in September 2022 as part of the German Science Year 'Participate!' aimed to connect the various participation communities in Germany and to explore commonalities and success factors. Through intensive discussions in four working groups, a keynote speech and a panel discussion, the conference initiated an exchange of ideas and experiences amongst researchers in a converging field. This report is a summary of the key questions and outcomes of the conference.

Identity and Belonging: Emotional Assimilation in Two Immigrant Communities in Germany

In this article, we analyze emotional assimilation (host country identification) within Germany’s two largest immigrant communities—ethnic Germans from the former Soviet Union and those German citizens with an ethnic Turkish migration background. Specifically, we investigate the strength of emotional assimilation among these two communities and the differences that might exist between them. To what degree have these two large immigrant communities cultivated a sense of host country identification or German national identity? What factors shape emotional assimilation in these two communities? We find that ethnic German citizens with a background from the former Soviet Union have a stronger German identity than do citizens with a Turkish background. Nevertheless, the difference between these two groups is substantively small, perhaps because the transformation of immigration rules, citizenship laws, integration policies, and social norms in Germany over the last two decades has led to a greater identification with Germany and its emerging multicultural society.

Analysis of fatality impact and seroprevalence surveys in a community sustaining a SARS-CoV-2 superspreading event

There is an ongoing debate on the COVID-19 infection fatality rate (IFR) and the impact of COVID-19 on overall population mortality. Here, we addressed these issues in a community in Germany with a major superspreader event analyzing deaths over time and auditing death certificates in the community.18 deaths that occurred within the first six months of the pandemic had a positive test for SARS-CoV-2. Six out of 18 deaths had non-COVID-19 related causes of death (COD). Individuals with COVID-19 COD typically died of respiratory failure (75%) and tended to have fewer reported comorbidities (p = 0.029). Duration between first confirmed infection and death was negatively associated with COVID-19 being COD (p = 0.04). Repeated seroprevalence essays in a cross-sectional epidemiological study showed modest increases in seroprevalence over time, and substantial seroreversion (30%). IFR estimates accordingly varied depending on COVID-19 death attribution. Careful ascertainment of COVID-19 deaths is important in understanding the impact of the pandemic.

Dyskurs o kobietach na łamach prasy żydowskiej w Niemczech w latach 1933-1938 a powieść obyczajowa w odcinkach pisarek żydowskich w gazecie „Israelitisches Familienblatt” na przykładzie Mutter von sechs Kindern (Matka sześciorga dzieci) Adeli Elkan

This article focuses on the discourse on the roles of Jewish women in society and family that was carried out in Jewish newspapers in Nazi Germany. Women were abandoning workplaces outside the home and leaving the best paying jobs for men. Many male journalists and com-munity leaders stressed the importance of the Jewish family, its traditions, and their religion for the survivors of the Jewish community in Germany. Women were not only caretakers of their families’ material needs, but they also acted as spiritual leaders who introduced the concept of Jewishness to their children.The second part of the article shows how female writers at the time responded to this discourse in their novels. For example, the novel Mother of Six written by Adele Elkan focuses on the history of a single mother and her struggles to raise six children in the Weimer Republic during first years of Nazi Germany. Elkan’s novel offers a rebuke to the prevailing discourse and argues that widows and single mothers have a right to happiness — women should not have to sacrifice their lives for the sake of their children and families.

The multilingual Twitter-discourse on vaccination in Germany during the COVID-19 pandemic

There is evidence that specific segments of the population were hit particularly hard by the Covid-19 pandemic (e.g., people with a migration background). In this context, the impact and role played by online platforms in facilitating the integration or fragmentation of public debates and social groups is a recurring topic of discussion. This is where our study ties in, we ask: How is the topic of vaccination discussed and evaluated in different language communities in Germany on Twitter during the Covid-19 pandemic? We collected all tweets in German, Russian, Turkish, and Polish (i.e., the largest migrant groups in Germany) in March 2021 that included the most important keywords related to Covid-19 vaccination. All users were automatically geocoded. The data was limited to tweets from Germany. Our results show that the multilingual debate on Covid-19 vaccination in Germany does not have many structural connections. However, in terms of actors, arguments, and positions towards Covid-19 vaccination, the discussion in the different language communities is similar. This indicates that there is a parallelism of the debates but no social-discursive integration.

Micro-Segregation and the Jewish Ghetto: A Comparison of Ethnic Communities in Germany

AbstractThis study introduces the concept of micro-segregation as an alternative to ghettoization in order to understand residential patterns in historical Jewish communities. The process of ghetto formation is associated with the spatial separation of a minority group as a result of racial stigma and poverty. It operates at a large scale and posits that ghetto boundaries will be rigidly policed. By contrast, the process of micro-segregation is associated with the separation of a minority group as a result of marginalized legal status. It operates at a smaller scale and posits that the boundaries of ethnic communities are porous, offering sites of economic value. To assess the conceptual utility of micro-segregation, we apply it to four Jewish communities in the German states before the 20th century. Spatial analysis suggests that the communities varied in their degree of micro-segregation, but consistently offered economic opportunity at the boundaries of Christian and Jewish worlds.

The Refugee’s Dilemma: Evidence from Jewish Migration out of Nazi Germany

AbstractWe estimate the push and pull factors involved in the outmigration of Jews facing persecution in Nazi Germany from 1933 to 1941. Our empirical investigation makes use of a unique individual-level data set that records the migration history of the Jewish community in Germany over the period. Our analysis highlights new channels, specific to violent contexts, through which social networks affect the decision to flee. We estimate a structural model of migration where individuals base their migration decision on the observation of persecution and migration among their peers. Identification rests on exogenous variations in local push and pull factors across peers who live in different cities of residence. Then we perform various experiments of counterfactual history to quantify how migration restrictions in destination countries affected the fate of Jews. For example, removing work restrictions for refugees in the recipient countries after the Nuremberg Laws (1935) would have led to an increase in Jewish migration out of Germany in the range of 12% to 20% and a reduction in mortality due to prevented deportations in the range of 6% to 10%.

The role of thermal energy communities in Germany's heating transition

A rapid decarbonization of the energy sector is key for mitigating climate change and in this transformation a transition to renewable heating is essential. To date, most attention in both research and policy on decarbonization has been on electricity and transport systems, with less interest in the heating system. Half of the EU's final energy consumption is made up by the heating and cooling sector, making this an important sector for reducing fossil fuel consumption. This article addresses the lack of research on decarbonization of heating by answering the question, what barriers and drivers do Thermal Energy Communities (TECs) perceive when trying to enter the market and play a role in the decarbonization of heating in Germany? Eight TECs and four umbrella organizations in Germany have been interviewed about their experiences of initiating and running a TEC. The results show, amongst others, that the political support of municipalities is put forward as an essential driver and important factor for success. However, barriers for municipalities to get involved were often that they lacked expertise, capacity and financial resources. An important driver for TECs was the involvement of local experts and professionals who could support the volunteers often in charge of a TEC. The results show that TECs that included professionals had an advantage in building heating systems, as they could better address their complexity and high initial costs. Another prevalent result was the need for community engagement and citizen mobilization, which is a greater need in heating projects compared to those focusing on electricity, due to community heating systems requiring a substantial number of customers for profitability.

THEMATIC PATTERNS OF RUSSIAN DISINFORMATION

The article presents a description of a text collection representing disinformation messages about the war in Ukraine published on one of the Telegram channels in order to influence the Russian-speaking community in Germany. The main subjects that Russian propaganda used at the beginning of its full-scale invasion of Ukraine were determined on the basis of deductive thematic analysis, content analysis, and semantic and stylistic analysis of the texts. It has been established that the similarity of the subjects of Russian disinformation and the identity of their coverage in different countries allows us to talk about a full-fledged system of moderation by official Russia not only traditional media, but also social networks; a special news selection for commenting, the so-called agenda, and a certain way of commenting them. The same type set of topics and the identity of their coverage in different countries gives reason to conclude that they have been transformed into peculiar patterns, according to which a carefully constructed image unfolds through the story. The task: to compromise Ukraine, as well as European countries and politicians who did not support the Kremlin's military aggression; to impose a favorable for Russian vision of its attack on Ukraine; to cause panic with threats of global military conflict with the use of nuclear weapons among European citizens, and an energy and food crisis in Europe; to destabilize the domestic political situation within Germany; to demonize the image of the US to divert attention from the real aggressor and to compromise the partnership between the European Union and the US.