Italian-speaking Switzerland Research Articles

The normative order of sensing: enacting the tasting sheet in tasting training sessions

Abstract Tasting sessions are a social activity in which the senses and the sensorial features of the tasted objects are the main focus of the participants, who do not only experience taste but also aim at precisely describing it. For doing that, they use pre-formatted tasting sheets and pre-existing standardized repertoires of descriptors. This paper investigates the relations between bodies and sensations, linguistic expressions and the normativity of lexical repertoires. While the literature has insisted on the sensorial lexicon of diverse languages and its specialization within expert domains, the very way in which the sensing body, language, and the normativity of standardized categories are precisely articulated in tasting practices remains understudied. Using an ethnomethodological and conversation analytic approach, this paper demonstrates how participants in training tasting sessions achieve practically, bodily and materially the association between the sample tasted, the sensing body and the use of lexical repertoires. Artefacts and tools like tasting sheets and lexical lists are situatedly mobilized in a way that enhances the senses but also socializes and standardizes them. On the basis of cheese tasting sessions video-recorded during training workshops of professional tasters in Italy and Italian-speaking Switzerland, the paper demonstrates how the normative order of sensing is achieved through the imbrication of the use of tasting sheets within the sensory examination of samples – thus showing how body, materiality, language, and artefacts are normatively constrained, practically managed and bodily aligned in the tasting session.

Prevalence and severity of bowel disorders in the third trimester of pregnancy

Bowel-related disorders are common conditions associated with pregnancy and are a cause of significant distress and healthcare burden. However, there is a lack of data in the literature about these disorders. This study aimed to investigate bowel dysfunctions during the third trimester of pregnancy in a large cohort of women using the validated bowel domain of the Italian version of the Pelvic Floor Questionnaire for Pregnant and Postpartum Women. This was a secondary analysis of a multicenter cross-sectional study conducted in hospitals in Italy and Italian-speaking Switzerland. Women in the third trimester of pregnancy were asked to complete the Italian Pelvic Floor Questionnaire for Pregnant and Postpartum Women. During the study period, 927 pregnant women in the third trimester of pregnancy responded to the questionnaire and were included in the analysis. Overall bowel dysfunctions were reported by 29.6% of patients. Constipation was reported by 66.6% of pregnant women, whereas symptoms of obstructed defecation were reported by 49.9% of patients. In contrast, urgency was reported by 41.1% of patients. Incontinence to flatus and incontinence to stool were reported by 45.1% and 2.8% of patients, respectively. Moreover, age >35 years, familiarity with pelvic floor disorders, nicotine abuse, and pelvic floor contraction inability were identified as independent risk factors for at least 1 bowel symptom. Bowel symptoms are extremely common in the third trimester of pregnancy and can greatly affect a patient's quality of life; therefore, bowel symptoms deserve to be investigated and managed properly. The use of validated questionnaires represents a precious tool to investigate functional symptoms that could be very frequent and disabling in this particular period of life for women.

The Protective Role of Social-Oriented Digital Media Use in Children’s and Adolescents’ Life Satisfaction During the Covid-19 Pandemic

Covid-19 measures have reduced children’s and adolescents’ life satisfaction (LS), a key indicator of well-being. However, we have limited evidence of the longitudinal associations between changes in LS and different types of digital media use throughout the pandemic. Using data collected in Ticino, Italian-speaking Switzerland from 764 children and adolescents (Mage = 12.51, SDage = 4.00, 52% females) over five months starting from September 2020, the current study investigated temporal variations in LS, and how process-oriented versus social-oriented digital media use predicted LS, controlling for socio-demographic variables. Results of the quadratic latent growth curve model showed a steeper decrease in LS at the beginning of the second wave of the pandemic in Autumn 2020. Process-oriented digital media use predicted lower starting levels (i.e., the intercept) of LS, whereas social-oriented digital media use acted as a protective factor against the initial decrement of LS (i.e., linear slope) and positively influenced the rate of change of LS (i.e., the quadratic slope), pointing towards a faster return to baseline levels. Females, adolescents, participants with low subjective socio-economic status, and non-Swiss participants reported lower levels of LS. Results suggest that when in-person social contacts are compromised, social-oriented use of digital technologies should be promoted in young people to obtain and maintain social contacts that are crucial for LS and their well-being. LS may be conceived as a predisposing condition to accumulate, preserve, and restore mental and social well-being, which, in turn, allow individuals to contribute to their community and society at large.

Die kommunalen Parlamente in der Schweiz: Eine Frage der Sprachregion und weniger der Gemeindegröße

Communes form the third tier of the Swiss state structure and are organized differently from a political perspective . Parliaments are one possibility . In some Cantons, parliaments are the mandatory organizational form, while other Cantons lack the necessary foundations for a parliament; in other cantons again, the organizational form can be chosen . Parlia- ments are also unevenly distributed across the language regions: they are widespread in French- and Italian-speaking Switzerland, characterized by very long traditions, while less so in German-speaking Switzerland . In German-speaking Switzerland the communal assembly is most commonly found . Across all Cantons, only a few provisions by the legisla- tor define their internal organization . Parliaments have great freedom to shape their parlia- mentary law, such as their basic organization, frequency of meetings, procedures, speaking times, leadership, and parliamentary instruments; significantly, there are very different requirements concerning the number of seats . Consequently, parliaments are characterized by great heterogeneity .

Knowledge Gaps in End-of-Life Care and Planning Options Among Older Adults in Switzerland.

Objectives: Good knowledge about end-of-life (EOL) care options helps in discussing and planning important aspects of the end of life in advance and contributes to improved well-being among dying patients and their families. Methods: Our study explores knowledge levels of EOL care and planning options and its sociodemographic and regional patterning using nationally representative data from respondents aged 55+ of wave 6 of the Survey of Health, Ageing and Retirement in Europe in Switzerland (n = 2,199). Results: Respondents answered correctly on average to just under four out of eight questions regarding EOL care options. Women, individuals with higher education levels, and those living with a partner showed a higher EOL knowledge score, whereas the score is lower among older adults (75+) and individuals living in French- and Italian-speaking Switzerland. Conclusion: In view of the significant EOL knowledge gaps among older adults in Switzerland, further education efforts on EOL care options are needed, with particular attention to the population groups most affected.

The impact of screen time and green time on mental health in children and adolescents during the COVID-19 pandemic

The COVID-19 pandemic has affected the life of children and adolescents in an unprecedented way. In the present study, we focused on two activities that have been likely affected by mitigation measures: screen time and green time. We investigated how both influenced each other during the pandemic, how they affected children’s and adolescents' mental health, and which role socio-demographic characteristics have in predicting screen time, green time, and mental health. We used data collected between autumn 2020 and spring 2021 from 844 participants aged 5 to 19 of a population-based, prospective cohort study in Canton Ticino, Italian-speaking Switzerland. We analyzed the data using an extended version of the Random Intercept Cross-Lagged Panel Model with time-invariant socio-demographic covariates and mental health as outcome. Results showed that, at the between-person level, screen time was a risk factor and green time a protective factor of mental health. However, within-person deviations of screen time and green time during the pandemic did not consistently predict mental health. Furthermore, they did not influence each other over time. Gender, age, perceived economic situation of the family, Body Mass Index and the availability of green space nearby all influenced stable measures of green time and screen time (i.e., random intercepts). Our results highlight the need for targeted actions to promote green time and raise awareness about the detrimental effect of screen time on children’s and adolescents’ mental health.

Factors Related to Non-compliance With Non-pharmaceutical Interventions to Mitigate the Spread of SARS-CoV-2: Results From a Survey in the Swiss General Adult Population.

BackgroundNon-pharmaceutical interventions (NPI) play an important role in national efforts to control and contain the spread of SARS-CoV-2, but some people do not comply with these public health measures. The aim of this study was thus to describe this group of noncompliant people.MethodsA random sample of 1,157 people was drawn from the adult general population of Switzerland based on a three-stepped quota scheme considering the variables age (18–31, 32–45, 46–59, and ≥60 years), sex (male and female), and language region (German-, French-, and Italian-speaking Switzerland). We assessed a global scale of non-compliance with NPI based on several individual measures such as wearing face masks and social distancing. As predictor variables we included objective sociodemographic variables (e.g., age, sex) and easy measurable constructs (e.g., fears and worries about COVID-19, trust in medical experts).ResultsOut of 14 predictor variables tested, seven were statistically significantly associated with increased non-compliance with NPI: male sex, younger age, self-identification as low-risk group, judging the consequences of an infection with SARS-CoV-2 as non-serious, less worries and fears about the pandemic, not obtaining regular information from health authorities, and not trusting in medical experts. The most parsimonious multivariable prediction model included the variables younger age, low appraisal of negative consequences, less fear and worries, not obtaining regular information from health authorities, and not trusting in medical experts. The model accounted for 27.9% of variance explained in non-compliance with NPI.ConclusionYoung adults who perceive COVID-19 as mostly harmless/inconsequential and who ignore and/or mistrust information from health authorities and medical experts, are the population most likely to be noncompliant with NPI. These findings may help to target a group of people at high risk of infection and to efficiently concentrate educational and interventional public health measures.

Prevalence and severity of pelvic floor disorders in pregnant and postpartum women.

This multicenter study aimed to evaluate risk factors, prevalence and severity of pelvic floor disorders (PFDs) as well as their consequences on women's emotional well-being, using a questionnaire validated specifically for pregnancy and postpartum. Prospective study conducted in eight teaching hospitals in Italy and Italian-speaking Switzerland. Pregnant and postpartum women completed the Italian Pelvic Floor Questionnaire for Pregnancy and Postpartum anonymously. Prevalence of, severity of, and risk factors for PFDs were evaluated for all the four domains considered: bladder, bowel, prolapse, and sexual function. A total of 2007 women were included: 983 of the patients were bothered by at least one kind of PFD: bladder, bowel, and sexual dysfunction were more frequently reported. There were no significant differences in PFD prevalence between pregnancy and postpartum, except for bladder disorders, which were more prevalent in pregnancy. Familiarity for PFDs, pelvic floor contraction inability, cigarette smoking, body mass index more than 25 (calculated as weight in kilograms divided by the square of height in meters), and age more than 35years were confirmed risk factors for the development of PFDs during pregnancy and postpartum. Almost half of the women included in the study suffered from PFD-related symptoms with important consequences on quality of life. Validated questionnaires are fundamental in early diagnosis and treatment of PFDs.

Introducing cross-cultural education in palliative care: focus groups with experts on practical strategies

BackgroundThe linguistic and cultural diversity found in European societies creates specific challenges to palliative care clinicians. Patients’ heterogeneous habits, beliefs and social situations, and in many cases language barriers, add complexity to clinicians’ work. Cross-cultural teaching helps palliative care specialists deal with issues that arise from such diversity. This study aimed to provide interested educators and decision makers with ideas for how to implement cross-cultural training in palliative care.MethodsWe conducted four focus groups in French- and Italian-speaking Switzerland. All groups consisted of a mix of experts in palliative care and/or cross-cultural teaching. The interdisciplinary research team submitted the data for thematic content analysis.ResultsFocus-group participants saw a clear need for courses addressing cross-cultural issues in end-of-life care, including in medical disciplines outside of palliative care (e.g. geriatrics, oncology, intensive care). We found that these courses should be embedded in existing training offerings and should appear at all stages of curricula for end-of-life specialists. Two trends emerged related to course content. One focuses on clinicians’ acquisition of cultural expertise and tools allowing them to deal with complex situations on their own; the other stresses the importance of clinicians’ reflections and learning to collaborate with other professionals in complex situations. These trends evoke recent debates in the literature: the quest for expertise and tools is related to traditional twentieth century work on cross-cultural competence, whereas reflection and collaboration are central to more recent research that promotes cultural sensitivity and humility in clinicians.ConclusionThis study offers new insights into cross-cultural courses in palliative and end-of-life care. Basic knowledge on culture in medicine, variable practices related to death and dying, communication techniques, self-reflection on cultural references and aptitude for interprofessional collaboration are central to preparing clinicians in end-of-life settings to work with linguistically and culturally diverse patients.

Social, cultural and experiential patterning of attitudes and behaviour towards assisted suicide in Switzerland: evidence from a national population-based study.

Switzerland has the longest history of the legal practice of non-physician assisted suicide of any country. Assisted suicide is not very tightly regulated in Switzerland, and almost all assisted suicides are supported by a right-to-die organisation. Our study investigates older adults’ attitudes and behaviour towards assisted suicide, and the associations of these with the individuals’ sociodemographic and cultural characteristics, as well as with their own health status and healthcare-related experiences in Switzerland. We performed weighted prevalence and multivariable logistic regression estimation on a nationally representative sample of adults aged 55 and over from wave 6 (2015) of the Survey of Health, Ageing and Retirement in Europe (SHARE) in Switzerland (n = 2168). Overall, 81.7% of respondents supported the legality of assisted suicide, as is currently the case in Switzerland, and 60.9% stated that they would potentially consider asking for assisted suicide under certain circumstances; 28.2% of respondents reported either that they are already or that they are likely to become a member of a right-to-die organisation, with 4.9% of respondents reporting to already be a member of such an organisation at the time of the survey. Higher levels of education and previous experience as a healthcare proxy were positively associated with more favourable attitudes and behaviour towards assisted suicide. Compared to individuals aged 55–64, adults aged 65–74 generally showed more favourable attitudes and behaviour towards assisted suicide. By contrast, religious persons displayed more negative attitudes and behaviour towards assisted suicide. Attitudes towards assisted suicide were also more negative in the oldest age group (75+) in comparison to adults aged 55–64, and among persons living in French- and Italian-speaking Switzerland compared to those living in German-speaking Switzerland. While approval for assisted suicide is high overall in Switzerland, more vulnerable population groups, such as older or less educated individuals, have less favourable attitudes towards assisted suicide. In addition, cultural sensitivities to and personal experiences with death and dying are likely to shape the approval or rejection of assisted suicide as it is currently implemented in Switzerland.

Nativist Authoritarian Far-right Flirtations with Progressive Education: Exploring the Relationship in Interwar Switzerland

Progressive education is generally thought to bear little commonality with authoritarianism and nativism. However, several studies show far-right governments and movements embracing progressive tenets. This article investigates the reasons behind this phenomenon by confronting the educational ideas of key far-right parties and educators in interwar German- and Italian-speaking Switzerland. Our systematic analysis of texts produced by these actors suggests that they subscribed to progressivism not in spite of their political views, but precisely because it aligned with their authoritarian and nativist ideology. This finding calls for more scholarship exploring and theorising the relationship between political ideologies and (progressive) educational ideas and movements.

Awareness, approval and completion of advance directives in older adults in Switzerland.

Advance directives enable people to describe their preferences for medical treatment (living will) and/or to appoint a healthcare proxy who may decide on their behalf should they lose decision-making capacity. Advance directives are potentially important in determining the course of end-of-life care, as deaths are frequently preceded by end-of-life treatment decisions, which often require someone to make decisions on the patient's behalf. Switzerland introduced legally binding advance directives through its new child and adult protection law of 2013. But there is still no comprehensive evidence on older persons' awareness, attitudes and behaviours with regard to advance directives in Switzerland. Our study aimed to assess levels of awareness, approval and completion of advance directives, as well as their respective associations with sociodemographic characteristics in the Swiss population aged 55 and older. Our study was cross-sectional and used data from the Survey of Health, Ageing and Retirement in Europe (SHARE), which included a special module on end-of-life issues in wave 6 (2015) in Switzerland (n = 2085). Two years after the introduction of advance directives in Switzerland, 78.7% of adults aged 55 years and older had heard of them prior to the survey and 24% reported that they had completed one. Awareness of advance directives was higher in the German-speaking part of Switzerland (91%) than in the Italian- (57.1%) and French-speaking (43.3%) regions (p <0.001). Advance directive completion also differed significantly between the German- (28.7%), French- (10.3%) and Italian-speaking (17.9%) regions of Switzerland (p <0.001). Overall, 76.7% of Swiss adults aged 55 and older generally approved of advance directives, i.e., they either reported having already completed one or were planning to do so in the future. Of those who had not yet completed an advance directive, 32.9% believed that it was still "too early" for them to do so and 30.1% believed that they would not need one. Levels of awareness, approval and completion of advance directives also varied significantly by sex, age, education level and household composition. Our results show some potential for improvement in levels of advance directive awareness and, especially, completion among older adults, notably in the French- and Italian-speaking Switzerland. In view of the generally high levels of approval of advance directives, our findings point to important barriers to their completion by older persons that should be addressed by policy makers in order to ensure an effective translation of individual intentions to complete an advance directive sometime in the future into concrete and timely actions toward this end.

Patients’ need for information provision and perceived participation in decision making in doctor-patient consultation: Micro-cultural differences between French- and Italian-speaking Switzerland

ObjectivesTo explore micro-cultural differences in patients’ need for information provision, perceived participation in decision making, and related concepts during the doctor-patient consultation between French- and Italian-speaking patients in Switzerland. MethodsIn 2012, 153 French- and 120 Italian-speaking patients with chronic low back pain (cLBP) were surveyed on their need for information provision, perceived participation in decision making, cLBP knowledge, psychological empowerment, and trust in their doctor. T-tests and regression analyses with interaction terms were performed. ResultsResults show that French- and Italian-speaking patients significantly differed in their participation in decision making, with French-speaking patients reporting higher involvement. Need for information provision was related to empowerment among French- and to trust among Italian-speaking patients. For participation in decision making, trust was the only related concept among French-, and cLBP knowledge among Italian-speaking patients. Significant interaction terms indicate a moderation of micro-cultural background. ConclusionFindings point towards differences in the relationships between individual patient characteristics (i.e. knowledge, empowerment) and relational doctor-patient characteristics (i.e. trust) and patients’ need for information provision and participation in decision making between French- and Italian-speaking patients in Switzerland. Practice implicationsDoctors should be aware of these differences when dealing with patients of different micro-cultural backgrounds.

New Research on a Rare Fresco Map of Jerusalem

The church of Santa Maria degli Angeli in Lugano, in southern Italian-speaking Switzerland, contains a remarkable depiction of Jerusalem that deserves to be better known, especially for its cartogr...

Il Modello di Impresa Sociale 'Made in Switzerland': Risultati di un’Indagine Eeplorativa Condotta sul Piano Nazionale (The Social Enterprise 'Made in Switzerland': Findings of an Exploratory Analysis at National Level)

Thanks to the success of the country’s economic and social model, in Switzerland thinking on and practice of social economy are not so developed as in other countries. However, in the last two decades, we have observed the birth of different forms of social enterprise, initiated mainly by not-for-profit organisations.This paper sets out the principal results of an exploratory analysis of the social enterprise sector in Switzerland, funded by the Swiss National Science Foundation. The study focused on the aim of integrating vulnerable persons into employment.48 organisations participated in the survey, 20 of them based in German-speaking Switzerland, 21 in French-speaking Switzerland and 7 in Italian-speaking Switzerland. We have tried to cast light on the phenomenon at the national level, assessing in particular: the magnitude and genesis of the sector, the factors that have influenced its development, the awareness of social enterprise identity, the peculiarities of the Swiss situation as compared with European practice with regard to some of the EMES criteria (integration schemes, production activity, type of resource mobilisation, forms of governance). Finally, we identified 4 prototypes of social enterprise and set out some thoughts on how the Swiss social enterprise sector might develop.

Towards a new semiotics of landmark knowledge

This paper proposes to reconsider the relation between language, truth and knowledge, based on an integrational semiology as developed by Roy Harris: at its centre of interest is the question of what it is to know the name of a landmark, and how that in turn relates to the general concept of landmark knowledge. It is claimed here that previous research interested in referential talk involving landmarks adopted a “mythological” view of language and communication, which leads to conflating knowledge with verbal displays of knowledge. Taking the present author's fieldwork in Bellinzona, the capital of Italian-speaking Switzerland, as a case in point, it is argued that by generating communicational situations where informants are unaware of being objects of study and can no longer rely on an “ideal” (and idealized) name–referent relationship (i.e. for each object there is one “proper” name), it becomes possible to understand reference as an integrational process (rather than as a form of linguistic knowledge), which in turn lends further support to the notion of knowledge as integration.

Prevalence rates of at risk, problematic and pathological gambling in Switzerland

Background and Objectives: Few studies have assessed pathological gambling in Switzerland. We employed the National Opinion Research Center DSM Screen for Gambling Problems (NODS) to assess prevalence of gambling problems in Germanand Italian-speaking Switzerland. Methods: A random sample of 4997 individuals participated in a computer-assisted telephone interview in 2007 and 1388 of the individuals who refused to participate on the telephone interview completed a paper questionnaire. The total sample included 6385 participants (52% women); the return rate was 52.2%. Results: Among the general population over 18 years of age, 2% engaged in lifetime atrisk gambling, 0.5% in problematic and 0.3% in pathological gambling. We found pastyear prevalence rates of 0.7% of at-risk gambling, 0.1% for problematic and 0.02% for pathological gambling. Conclusions: These rates are at the lower end of international statistics and are lower than rates in previous Swiss studies. This may be due to measures to reduce false positive diagnoses in our study. Large differences between lifetime and past-year prevalence rates indicate that problematic and pathological gambling are not necessarily progressive and chronic disorders. Received 14 March 2008 Revised 31 October 2008 Accepted 19 November 2008 68 JEANNETTE BRODBECK ET AL. However, some researchers consider a cutoff score of four criteria as more adequate for a diagnosis of pathological gambling1,2. In addition to person-based cognitive, personality and biological factors, structural characteristics of the games and social factors such as cultural attitudes towards gambling, structural preventive measures and the accessibility of gambling activities have an impact on the development of gambling problems3,4. Slot-machines especially have great potential for addiction5. In Switzerland, gambling is legally regulated by a governmental monopoly. The most popular gambling activities are lotteries. Casinos were prohibited until 2002. Today, Switzerland has a very high ‘density’ of casinos (19 for a population of 7,459,000 inhabitants). Casinos are legally obliged to implement prevention measures to detect at-risk gamblers early and harm reduction measures to reduce problematic and pathological gambling, such as (self-)exclusion at casinos. In addition, proper training of casino staff and provision of data for research are required. Counselling facilities and public campaigns to increase community awareness of problematic gambling have been established during the last years. Slot-machines, other than in casinos, have been prohibited since 2005; before that they had to make a submission for authorization. To assess prevalence of problematic and pathological gambling, two instruments have been established and frequently used: The South Oaks Gambling Screen (SOGS)6 and DSM-IV-based instruments such as the National Opinion Research Center DSM Screen for Gambling Problems (NODS)7. The NODS is designed to be more restrictive than the SOGS and relates more closely to the DSM-IV-TR criteria of pathological gambling. About half of the SOGS items focus on sources of borrowed money and no items regard tolerance and withdrawal. Since, to date, there is no gold standard for the definition of pathological gambling, we rely on the current clinical definition of the DSM-IV-TR and the NODS. Until now, few gambling prevalence surveys have been conducted in European countries. Different or even not specified timeframes, selection or sampling biases and different assessment measures complicate comparison of the existing studies8. Replications of results are often missing. Thus it is difficult to formulate well-founded statements about the frequency of excessive gambling in European countries. Excessive gambling seems to be more prevalent in the US, Canada and countries of Asia than in Europe3,8. A recent British study found oneyear prevalence rates of 0.6% of problematic (including pathological) gambling in 20079. In Scandinavian countries recent one-year prevalence rates were around 0.4% for problem gambling and 0.1-0.2% for pathological gambling. An Italian study found one-year prevalence rates of 0.7% for problem gambling and 0.4% for pathological gambling8. In Switzerland only three prevalence studies of gambling problems exist. Bondolfi and colleagues10,11 found lifetime prevalence rates of 2.2% for problematic and 0.8% for pathological gambling in 1998 and of 2.2% for problematic and 1.1% for pathological gambling in 2005. Participants of the German-speaking part of Switzerland are however under-represented in these studies (32 and 36% in the study samples compared with 71% Swiss inhabitants in the German-speaking part of Switzerland). Therefore the database for this region is small and the generalizability is questionable. This is relevant because in the French-speaking part of Switzerland, the availability of gambling activities such as electronic gambling machines outside of casinos differs from the rest of Switzerland. A study by Zangerl and colleagues12 found five-year prevalence rates in the year 2004 of 1.9% for probable pathological gamblers and 1.8% for potential pathological gamblers or problem gamblers. One other study covering the Italian-speaking part of Switzerland found lifetime prevalence rates of 0.6% for both problematic and pathological gambling13.

The ‘dialect myth’ and socio-onomastics. The names of the castles of Bellinzona in an integrational perspective

In this paper, it is argued that name variation and change cannot be studied in a satisfactory way within a variationist sociolinguistic framework, as the latter cannot ultimately cope with the psychological complexity involved in human communication. The reason why variationism does not describe a social ‘reality’ has to do with its insistence that lexical variants have to be assignable to ‘fixed codes’ (‘dialects’, ‘sociolects’, ‘style lects’) and that two speakers using different codes will result in misunderstandings and communication breakdowns. The present contribution offers an alternative approach to synchronic name variation inspired by an integrational semiology, thus treating linguistic signs (in this case, toponyms) as context-sensitive and in need of instantaneous referencing. By not considering proper names as part of any fixed codes the integrational fieldworker is able to observe language use unbiased, prepared to accept that in principle any name may be used between any two speakers in any situation. The objects of study for this paper are the names of the three Medieval castles of Bellinzona (Italian-speaking Switzerland), which the present author already investigated in an orthodox sociolinguistic perspective in the 1990s.

Schweizer Literaturgeschichte by Peter Rusterholz, Andreas Solbach

6io Reviews form constitutes a relatively rare exception in a book organized according to theme and authorship. Indeed, demolishing the assumption of a congruence between the twowastes a disproportionate amount of space, and isnot always successful. Para doxically, it also leads to the inclusion, especially but by no means exclusively, in Erin McGlothlin's final essay on 'Writing by Germany's Jewish Minority of a good number of texts that are not fiction and/or not written (or even interested) in the Berlin Republic. And that then raises serious issues of focus and purpose. Equally, the ubiquity of translations suggests that the book is aimed at people not familiarwith the terrain.Yet almost no attempt is made to cater to this constituency. The translations of titlesand concepts are oftenmechanical, inconsistent, ideological, or just plain wrong. (Particularly crass is the translation 'Middle' for '(Berlin) Mitte'; but we also have 'False Hare' for themeatloaf that is 'Falscher Hase', 'Fall of the Berlin Wall' and 'political turn' for 'Wende\ and 'Legacy for 'Mitgift'.) Buzzwords such as 'Frauleinwunder, 'Generation Golf, '78er\ even '68er\ are explained inade quately and inpassing. (Conversely, afterFinlay's magisterial treatment of the topic, further explanations of the 'Literaturstreit' are redundant.) The two chapters with transnational potential, by Ingo Cornils on 'LiteraryReflections on "68"' and Sabine von Dirke on 'Pop Literature in the Berlin Republic', remain resolutely parochial. And for someone who does not know the text, tobe told that 'Hans Ulrich Treichel's Der Verlorene is included in Bill Niven's discussion of Germans as perpetrators ofNazi crimes, but itmight also have appeared inHelmut Schmitz's examination of "German wartime suffering'" (p. 11) isworse than unhelpful. Anyone familiar with Treichel's book, of course, will find the remark equally infuriating. For experts, moreover, the secondary material cited isworryingly narrow. Unfortunately, then, forall its sundry strengths, this isnot the book thatwe needed. Queen Mary University of London Robert Gillett Schweizer Literaturgeschichte. Ed. by Peter Rusterholz and Andreas Solbach. Stuttgart and Weimar: Metzler. 2007. 529 pp. 49.95. ISBN 978-3-476 07136-9. Eight chapters of Schweizer Literaturgeschichte, each written by an established spe cialist, deal in chronological order with the literature ofGerman-speaking Switzer land from its perceived beginnings in theMiddle Ages to the year 2000, and constitute four-fifthsof the book. The remainder contains a chapter of some forty pages on the literature of French-speaking Switzerland from the Reformation to the end of the twentieth century, ten pages on that of Italian-speaking Switzerland, two chapters providing twenty pages on Romansh literature, and three 'Exkurse' by other authors, on 'Exilliteratur, on 'Der neue Schweizer Film', and on women's writing inGerman-speaking Switzerland since 2000. The composition and proportions of Schweizer Literaturgeschichte present one solution to the problems of organization posed by its title,but it is fairlycertain that this titlealso sets in train in themind of a potential reader differentexpectations of a more equitable distribution of constituent elements. The' Vorwort' does not really ac MLR, 104.2, 2009 611 count for theparticular structure of thebook. The editors point to themarginal place accorded to Switzerland in several recent histories of literature inGerman and to the limitation to the twentieth century of the one recent specialized work of note, Klaus Pezold's Schweizer Literaturgeschichte:Die deutschsprachige Literatur im20. Jahrhun dert (Leipzig: Militzke, 2007) (reviewed in MLR, 104 (2009), 291-92), and posit as a consequence the desirability of 'eine Geschichte der Literatur aus der Schweiz' which, going beyond the texts themselves, sets themmore widely 'imKontext der Geschichte der Kulturen, der Geschichte und Politik der Schweiz* (p. ix).The volume also seeks to encourage the reading of 'Literatur aus den Kulturraumen' of Switzer land among awider public since the individual contributors 'mochten [...] Lesende mit unterschiedlichen Voraussetzungen furdiese Literaturen gewinnen' (p. xii). Schweizer Literaturgeschichte contains good examples of contextualization and promotion, namely those chapters in the German section which are sustained by a strong,wide-ranging, and coherent narrative highlighting the characteristics of the period under discussion and the relationship of outstanding figures to it. Remy Charbon on 'Das achtzehnte Jahrhundert (i700-i83o)>, Dominik Miiller on 'Der liberale Bundesstaat (1830-1848-1914)', and Beatrice Sandberg on 'Geistige Landesverteidigung (1933-1945)' all...

Pathological, problem and at-risk gambling in German- and Italian-speaking Switzerland assessed with a DSM-IV-based instrument

Pathological, problem and at-risk gambling in German- and Italian-speaking Switzerland assessed with a DSM-IV-based instrument