Western European Studies Research Articles

High genetic connectivity of two pollinating flies despite urban disturbance

AbstractHoverflies (Syrphidae) are essential pollinators, and their severe decline jeopardizes their invaluable contribution to plant diversity and agricultural production. However, we know little about the dispersal abilities of hoverflies in urbanized landscapes, limiting our understanding of the spatiotemporal dynamics of plant–pollinator systems and reducing our ability to preserve biodiversity in the context of global change. Previous work has not addressed how urbanization affects the functional connectivity of hoverflies and whether dispersal is a limiting factor in their population dynamics. In this study, we investigated the spatial genetic structure of two nonmigratory species of hoverflies in two urban areas. We collected more than a thousand specimens of each Syritta pipiens and Myathropa florea, each, by hand netting in two western European urbanized study areas of 490 and 460 km2 in 2021, and we genotyped them at 14 and 24 microsatellite loci, respectively. Based on spatial and nonspatial Bayesian clustering methods, we failed to reject the null hypothesis of panmixia, suggesting that both species exhibited high genetic connectivity despite urbanization. The distribution of allele frequencies was not correlated with geographic distance, implying that isolation‐by‐distance was negligible at the investigated spatial scale in both species. Although anthropogenic land cover changes generally have dramatic consequences on biodiversity, these hoverfly species retain high connectivity, which suggests that dispersal is not a strong limiting factor in their metapopulational dynamics. However, high effective population size and its confounding effect on signals of genetic drift may limit our ability to conclude confidently about landscape effects on gene flow in those two species. Provided we maintain or restore habitat, recolonization may be prompt even in urban areas.

Factors affecting overall survival and disease-free survival after surgery for hepatocellular carcinoma: a nomogram-based prognostic model – a western European multicenter study

Factors affecting overall survival and disease-free survival after surgery for hepatocellular carcinoma: a nomogram-based prognostic model – a western European multicenter study

ДИСКУРСИВНА ЛЕКСИКОГРАФІЯ У ПРОСТОРІ ЗАХІДНОЇ НАУКИ

The development of discursive lexicography in modern Ukrainian linguistics, which corresponds with similar American and Western European practice is conceptually argued in the article. A new lexicographic search based on the proposed scientific problem allows to understand the challenges facing modern linguistics in its adequacy to the needs of modern societies in the information age, and to create new dictionaries that will meet the requirements of time and communicative space. The authors analyze the factors that led to the development of discursive lexicography in the modern world. The model of dictionaries of a new type represents neolinguistic directions of modern humanitarian knowledge and as a result is considered in the context of social needs of the post-information age. Media and legal linguistics, business and political linguistics, imageology and linguistic expertise, communicative directions of advertising, branding, PR, etc., — in these modern sciences research methods, models, characteristics, conceptual scope of terminology intersect in order to optimally provide linguistics with new search ideas and lexicographic practices. The structure and peculiarities of the lexicographic description in the dictionaries of the discursive type «Medialinguistics: dictionary of terms and concepts» and «Legal linguistics: dictionary of terms and concepts» — innovative scientific editions in Ukrainian linguistics of the 21st century — are considered and justified. The dictionaries were created with attention to American and Western European studies in media and legal linguistics, communicative studies, functional stylistics, which allows correlating the lexicographic experience in compiling of the discursive dictionaries. The authors conclude that the tasks of modern discursive lexicography are focused on the formation of a holistic scientific cognition and systematic professional knowledge in the process of language communication.

Ethnicity-based differences in thrombosis in lower extremity vascular bypass: a review of current literature.

Understanding prothrombotic factors is important in vascular surgery for surgical planning, preoperative evaluation, and post-operative management. The purpose of this study was to investigate ethnicity-based differences in coagulation between East Asian and Western cohorts by comparing patency rates after infrainguinal bypass surgery. A review of infrainguinal bypass patients was conducted for East Asian (including Chinese, Japanese, and Korean) and Western (North American and European) studies between 1990 and 2015 within the Journal of Vascular Surgery. The number of patent grafts at 1-year and 5-years were calculated from reported patency rates for PTFE grafts, Dacron grafts, all prosthetic grafts, autogenous grafts, and all grafts. Statistical analysis was performed using Chi-square test for each graft type at each time point. A total of 9972 grafts from 50 studies were included in our review. There were 3592 grafts from East Asian patients and 6380 grafts from Western patients. There was a statistically significant (P<0.05) difference between East Asian and Western cohorts in both 1-year and 5-year patency rates for PTFE, all prosthetic, and all grafts. East Asians had significantly higher patency rates after infrainguinal bypass surgery for PTFE, all prosthetic, and all graft types compared with Westerners, showing an ethnicity-based difference in thrombosis. Further research is needed to identify the specific genetic or dietary influences causing this significant difference.

Prospective Studies Comparing Structured vs Nonstructured Diagnostic Protocol Evaluations Among Patients With Fever of Unknown Origin

Patients meeting the criteria for fever of unknown origin (FUO) can be evaluated with structured or nonstructured approaches, but the optimal diagnostic method is unresolved. To analyze differences in diagnostic outcomes among patients undergoing structured or nonstructured diagnostic methods applied to prospective clinical studies. PubMed, Embase, Scopus, and Web of Science databases with librarian-generated query strings for FUO, PUO, fever or pyrexia of unknown origin, clinical trial, and prospective studies identified from January 1, 1997, to March 31, 2021. Prospective studies meeting any adult FUO definition were included. Articles were excluded if patients did not precisely fit any existing adult FUO definition or studies were not classified as prospective. Abstracted data included years of publication and study period, country, setting (eg, university vs community hospital), defining criteria and category outcome, structured or nonstructured diagnostic protocol evaluation, sex, temperature threshold and measurement, duration of fever and hospitalization before final diagnoses, and contribution of potential diagnostic clues, biochemical and immunological serologic studies, microbiology cultures, histologic analysis, and imaging studies. Structured protocols compared with nonstructured diagnostic methods were analyzed using regression models. Overall diagnostic yield was the primary outcome. Among the 19 prospective trials with 2627 unique patients included in the analysis (range of patient ages, 10-94 years; 21.0%-55.3% female), diagnoses among FUO series varied across and within World Health Organization (WHO) geographic regions. Use of a structured diagnostic protocol was not significantly associated with higher odds of yielding a diagnosis compared with nonstructured protocols in aggregate (odds ratio [OR], 0.98; 95% CI, 0.65-1.49) or between Western Europe (Belgium, France, the Netherlands, and Spain) (OR, 0.95; 95% CI, 0.49-1.86) and Eastern Europe (Turkey and Romania) (OR, 0.83; 95% CI, 0.41-1.69). Despite the limited number of studies in some regions, analyses based on the 6 WHO geographic areas found differences in the diagnostic yield. Western European studies had the lowest percentage of achieving a diagnosis. Southeast Asia led with infections at 49.0%. Noninfectious inflammatory conditions were most prevalent in the Western Pacific region (34.0%), whereas the Eastern Mediterranean region had the highest proportion of oncologic explanations (24.0%). In this systematic review and meta-analysis, diagnostic yield varied among WHO regions. Available evidence from prospective studies did not support that structured diagnostic protocols had a significantly better rate of achieving a diagnosis than nonstructured protocols. Clinicians worldwide should incorporate geographical disease prevalence in their evaluation of patients with FUO.

Interpretations of Dante’s Esotericism in British and Russian Studies from the Mid-19th to the Late 20th Century

This contribution has a historiographical nature and is devoted to the interpretations of the esoteric content of Dante's works made by British and Russian scholars from the middle of the nineteenth to the second half of the twentieth century. In particular, the meaning of the British tradition of interpreting Dante's esotericism – from George MacDonald to C.S. Lewis, with a special focus on Charles Williams – is here explored. The neo-Romantic theology of Williams is analyzed along with its rigid connection between the metaphysics of love and the doctrine of Empire. This connection, in fact, makes it possible to compare Williams' achievements with the later works of Guido de Giorgio and Romano Guardini. In this regard, Williams' interpretation of Beatrice image appears to be close to Sophiology. The main achievements of Western European studies of Dante’s esoteric heritage are then compared with the contributions of the Russian specialists. The role of Rev. Georgy Florovsky, who was interested in Dante’s metaphysics of the Empire and was the first to introduce Williams' works among Russian authors, is highlighted. Particular attention is paid to Rev. Pavel Florensky’s “Imaginary Numbers in Geometry” – a work that was ahead of its times both in approaching the “Divine Comedy” from a cosmological point of view and in making a unique attempt of interpreting its physical and mathematical structure. Finally, this article considers the works of the late Soviet (1960s – 80s) and post-Soviet academic scholars, who reexamined a number of esoteric issues in Dante’s output. The author concludes that – unlike what happened in Italy and in France – both in Great Britain and in Russia it is not possible to speak of a historiographical continuity within the studies on Dante’s esotericism. However, this fact does not prevent from emphasizing the outstanding achievements of some individual Russian, English, and Scottish scholars.

The U.S. Sentencing Commission’s Recidivism Studies

Recidivism is now the guiding principle of punishment and has become the new hallmark of criminal justice reform, as reflected in the U.S. Sentencing Commission’s recidivism project. So far, the Commission has issued three reports in 2020 alone, which outline the parameters within which “safe” criminal justice reform can proceed. Yet the overly broad definition of “recidivism” and the focus on easily measurable and static risk factors, such as prior criminal record, create a feedback loop. The Commission’s work should come with a warning label. Its recidivism studies should not be consumed on their own. Instead, they must be read in conjunction with U.S. Probation and Pretrial Services recidivism research, which includes data on the impact of programming, treatment, and services on reentry success. Yet, concerns about undercounting recidivism events drive the entire U.S. approach. Western European studies reflect different philosophies and values that explain some of the underlying reasons for the dramatically different imprisonment rates on the two sides of the Atlantic. These recidivism studies raise also questions about the Commission’s role. Its ongoing preference for imprisonment indicates that it continues to consider itself the guardian of incarceration-driven guidelines. The studies reenforce the status quo and the Commission’s role in it. They threaten to propel us into data-driven selective incapacitation and continuously long prison terms for those with prior criminal records, all in the name of public safety.

Osmanlı İmalat Sanayisinde Sermayenin Kurumsallaşması Sorunsalı: Bursa İpek Sektörü Üzerine Bir Değerlendirme

The debate on transition to capitalism in the Ottoman Empire continues. In this study, the role of capital in the development of capitalist relations in the Ottoman Empire in the absence of an institutional credit mechanism was investigated through the incorporation practice. For this purpose, the XIXth century Bursa silk sector case was analysed. This is because it is the most integrated among the Ottoman Empire sectors with the European markets. This quality of the sector has enabled the comparison of Western Europe with the Ottoman Empire in terms of industrial capitalism. For making the comparison, Western European company history, secondary sources and studies on the subject were examined. In this context, the political, religious, and socioeconomic features that were effective on the emergence and development of institutional organizations in the Ottoman Empire were taken into consideration. Depending on the characteristics in question, it was understood that the capitalist transformation was realized through formal and tacit agreements of usurer-foreign/minority merchant-bureaucrat cooperation in Bursa silk sector, differently from the corporation in Western Europe, even at the point of raw material-intermediate production. However, the capitalist transformation was not observed in the manufacture of final products and other textiles, and that then loss of employment and production appeared in these branches of activity as a result of the complete incorporation of the Empire into the center-periphery relationship with the Act of Port of Treaty of 1838 signed with Britain.

Do Low-Openness, Low-Transparency Procedures in Academic Hiring Disadvantage Women?

Research has shown that low openness and low transparency in the process of recruitment of new (associate) professors put women at a systematic disadvantage. Examples include professorships awarded by direct invitation (as opposed to job calls); contexts where nominally open job calls routinely get only one applicant; and procedural rules that allow the filtering out of qualified applicants without sharing the grounds of the decision with the candidates. We investigated one decade (2007–2017) of hiring of new (associate) professors in one Faculty at the largest university in Norway, the Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU) (n = 79). The Faculty is a highly gender-equal setting, in that the share of women among associate professors has been &gt;40% for over a decade. We found (1) a high share (about 40%) of women among applicants, maintained among winners; (2) a very sporadic use of direct invitations (two in a decade) and no sign that their use advantages men; (3) no nominally ‘open’ job calls with only one applicant; (4) no disadvantage for women when the pool of applicants is small; (5) no systematic filtering out of women when low-transparency internal formal preselection procedures are used because of organizational contingencies (e.g., a high number of applicants). We found an overall high degree of openness in the selection procedure when compared to other Scandinavian and Western European studies. Contrary to our expectations (based on the relevant literature), we found no link between low openness in the selection process and gender inequality in the outcome. The latter finding must be interpreted in context. We conclude that the overall good gender balance locally is an antidote to the potential biasing effect of low-openness and low-transparency procedures, so long as such procedures are used only exceptionally, and their use is clearly tied with organizational contingencies. At the same time, we found no indication that low-openness and low-transparency procedures systematically advantage women.

Assessments on the impact of high-resolution-sensor pixel sizes for common agricultural policy and smart farming services in European regions

High-resolution (5–50 m) remote sensing satellite sensors provide a reliable, free and open data infrastructure for public and private agriculture and land use services. The further market penetration of these services critically depends on the fraction of agricultural fields and area that the services can cover. EU’s Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) and smart farming services require a minimum of spectrally pure measurements per agricultural field. The impact of pixel size on the coverage of agriculture is studied in this paper considering present free and open optical sensors (Sentinel-2 and LANDSAT). It further studies the implications of the selection of spatial resolution of planned extensions of these sensors, i.e. the next generation of Sentinel-2, as well as Copernicus’s hyperspectral CHIME and thermal LSTM future candidate missions.The paper analyzes the 2018 vector boundaries and crop types of 3.6 million agricultural fields in the German States of Bavaria and Lower Saxony and the Netherlands. The fields were rasterized using Sentinel-2 flight geometry and a pixel spacing of 5, 10, 20, 30 and 50 m. The study specifically considered: (1) fields with no pure pixel inside where no CAP services can be provided and (2) fields with less than 50 pure pixels inside, which is estimated to be the critical number for site-specific smart farming. The percentage of agricultural fields and agricultural area was determined for the main crop types. It shows, that with 10 m pixel spacing 2–4% and 20 m pixel spacing 12–22% of the agricultural fields in the study area do not contain a single pure spectral sample (Sentinel-2 case). This fraction decreases to 1–3% at 5 m spacing and increases to 25–40% for 30 m (LANDSAT and CHIME) and 50–70% for 50 m (LSTM) spacing. The percentage of fields with less than 50 pure pixels is 20–50% at 10 m and 70–85% at 20 m spacing (Sentinel-2). This fraction decreases to 5–12% for 5 m spacing and reaches the level of 92–97% for 30 m (LANDSAT) and 99% for 50 m spacing (LSTM). Our analysis shows, that with a pixel spacing of 5 m the Sentinel-2-based site-specific smart farming services could increase their potential customer base from ~50% to ~90% of the agricultural fields and could potentially cover 99% of the regions’ agricultural area. A 20 m pixel spacing would increase the agriculture area from 23% to 56% in the Central and Western European study regions on which the Copernicus hyperspectral candidate mission CHIME is capable to measure pure and full spectra for highly advanced future site-specific management services. LSTM would also profit from a spatial resolution of 30 m, which would raise coverage of the agricultural area in Central Europe with pure thermal measurements from 3% at 50 m to 23% at 30 m.

COMPARATIVE ANALYSIS METHODS IN MODERN POLISH AND UKRAINIAN DRAMAS

The article states that comparison of a certain range of Ukrainian and Polish dramas, for example, about the power of land in the second half of the 19th — beginning of the 20th centuries, requires a systematic presentation of methods of comparative analysis. The subject is studied differently in Slavic and Western European literary studies, and involves the problem of defining genre, genre canon, text poetics. This creates the need to present the principles of receptive aesthetics, post-structuralism, genealogy, interdisciplinary studies, and semiotics. Modern principles of comparativism mentioned above are described in the framework of contact-genealogical and typological methods, which emphasizes the commonality of drama topics not only from the perspective of artistic connections in the borderlands, but also due to typological coincidences in the world literary process. Thus, thanks to modern horizons of comparative studies, for example, the subject of earth is analyzed not only within the poetics of the text, but is interpreted as a multilevel figurative-mental (cognitive) structure with layers of literary, national, meta-artistic meanings.Having looked at a number of theoretical-methodological and historical-literary works of comparative or descriptive character, some theoretical and methodological foundations, which are used in comparative study of the mutual influence of the thematic complex and genre nature in modern Polish and Ukrainian drama, are characterized and generalized. The conclusion emphasizes the importance of using techniques and principles of formal analysis method, structural-semiotic, hermeneutic, phenomenological, genological, cultural-anthropological, intertextual, interdisciplinary methods, method of receptive aesthetics when comparing thematic aspects of literary aspects. These approaches are predominantly involved in the historical and typological direction, but some aspects, such as thematology, influence, archetype theory have been considered from the perspective of contact-genetic artistic relations.

Embracing a Global Middle Ages

As I understand them, the Journal of Medieval Worlds has at least four goals. First, it aims to publish research that expands upon the concept of a “global Middle Ages.” The editors seek contributions, in other words, that both illuminate traditional Western European medieval studies from a global perspective as well as scholarship that treats parts of the world outside the traditionally accepted boundaries of medieval history in Europe and the Mediterranean basin. Here, we have been particularly anxious to receive contributions that treat Asia, the Middle East, Africa, and the Americas, as well as pieces that are thought provoking and make theoretical contributions to our understanding of this larger vision of the medieval period. Second, the journal aims to publish work that is comparative, setting the findings from one geographical or chronological space alongside another in an effort to make new observations about each. Third, we have been particularly interested to support research that illuminates traditional questions and problems—the migrations of peoples, the transmissions of texts, the development of social networks, to name just a few—through new methods. From the first, our discussions about the journal’s brief pointed to the growing body of research that draws upon new scientific methods like DNA analysis in the quest to deepen understanding of the movement of peoples, or the possibilities that computer-assisted research offers to mine large data sets. And finally, the journal is committed not just to the publication of original research, but to expanding readers’ understanding of best practices in pedagogy related to global studies and the Middle Ages. This issue offers something that speaks to all these goals. The first piece, “Verifying Source Citations in the Hadith Literature” by Mairaj Syed, Danny Halawi, Behnam Sadeghi, and Nazmus Saquib, reports on their efforts to evaluate the reliability of Gawāmiʿ al-Kalim …

The lived experience of people with diabetes using off-the-shelf prescription footwear in Singapore: a qualitative study using interpretative phenomenological analysis

BackgroundDiabetic foot ulceration (DFUs) is increasingly prevalent in Singapore. Appropriate management is important since DFU brings with it an associated risk for lower limb amputations, high morbidity rates and costs. Footwear prescription has been a part of clinical guidelines to manage DFUs. However, adherence to prescription footwear is typically poor amongst patients. Reasons for this have been explored in Northern American and Western European studies, but not in Singapore’s context. As cultural and climate differences limit transferability of findings from existing studies to individuals in Singapore, this study aims to explore the lived experiences of participants with diabetes using prescription footwear in Singapore.MethodsThis was a qualitative study using interpretative phenomenological analysis (IPA) to understand some people’s personal experience of using off the shelf prescription footwear. A total of 8 people with diabetes who received prescription footwear as part of their diabetic foot management were recruited. All participants provided written consent and took part in a semi-structured interview lasting up to an hour. Interviews were digitally recorded, transcribed and analysed using an IPA approach.Findings and discussionThe analysis identified the super-ordinate themes of 1) security and 2) acceptance with sub-themes of 1.1) risk and 1.2) protection and 2.1) personal and social acceptance and 2.2) social and cultural acceptance respectively that inter-related to influence how participants’ made footwear decisions. This process of evaluation was portrayed to be a fluctuant one, making it difficult to predict yet necessary to understand. A modified seesaw model of adherence is suggested to explain this decision-making process.ConclusionsThe complex manner by which participants grappled with security and acceptance is often overlooked when footwear is prescribed, highlighting a need for a more collaborative clinician-patient partnership for these issues to surface in clinical practice. Furthermore, prescription footwear should be seen more holistically. Empowering patients with choice to select from a range of therapeutic yet normalised footwear could increase the level of security and acceptance they experience with its use.

Measuring the self-efficacy of in-service teachers in Slovakia

The paper describes the construct of teacher self-efficacy, which draws on Albert Bandura’s social-cognitive theory. Self-efficacy is defined as teacher judgement about teacher’s capacities to bring about the desired outcomes of instruction. It has been proved in many studies that high self-efficacy positively affects pupil’s motivation and learning. The process of adaptation of the Slovak version of Gibson’s and Dembo´s Teacher Efficacy Scale (TES) is described in detail. The wording of scale items as used in our earlier research (Gavora 2009, 2010) has been altered to reflect the more internal/external orientation of TES dimensions rather than personal teaching efficacy/general teaching efficacy dimensions. The new version of the TES was factor-analysed to assess its construct validity, and reliability coefficients were calculated. A sample of 217 teachers in 5 regions of Slovakia filled in the TES. The data were categorized according to teachers’ years of practice, gender, and the level of school (primary/ lower secondary). The findings are not dissimilar from those in North American and Western European studies showing that (1) an above-average level (as assessed theoretically) of perceived self-efficacy of teachers is a characteristic of the majority of in-service teachers, (2) general teaching efficacy scores are lower than those of personal teaching efficacy, (3) in-service teachers are superior to the pre-service teachers in our previous sample (Gavora, 2009, 2010) in terms of personal teaching efficacy but not in general teaching efficacy, and (4) likewise, female teachers are superior to male teachers in personal teaching efficacy while no statistical difference was detected in general teaching efficacy.

Przyczynek do identyfikacji średniowiecznej aparatury destylacyjnej w Polsce

Although alembics, erstwhile distilling-apparatus, are deeply rooted in Polish traditional culture, they have not been yet analysed separately. Ceramic and glass alembics, rarely being discovered during excavations within Poland, are also seldom published. Therefore using Western European studies seems to be necessary to amend that state of being. The case study on distilling-apparatus from France and Great Britain, which was used in the article, has been compiled by S. Moorhouse and N. Thomas. They presented morphologic traits of the devices: vaporizer – distilling-base or cucurbit used for heating the raw material, and alembic – a still-head with collecting-channel and spout. The authors also described industrial, kitchen and alchemical use of the devices. Based on the morphological traits, 3 types of ceramic and glass alembics were established, and presented in the article. Article uses findings already published, focuses on preliminary issues and is an attempt on introducing the reader to the matter of former distilling-apparatus. Amongst sources published in Poland one should distinguish graphics from Marcin Siennik’s Herbarz, to iest ziol tutecznych y zamorskich opisanie, Polish 16th century herbarium, fragments of pottery distilling-base from the knight’s stronghold from Mymon, Podkarpackie Voivodeship and alembic from castle in Puck, Pomeranian Voivodeship. The latter, although ceramic, represents advanced type of distilling-apparatus with an external cooling system – removable pipe, placed in the barrel with water. Amongst instalations associated with alembics, one should mention special furnaces (athanors), ember dispensers and receivers for distillate. Another fact worth mentioning is that distilling-apparatus could be luted with a special alchemical clay, recipe of which is known from Renaissance herbarium by Marcin Siennik. Alchemical utensils were frequently placed in a separate room, especially in pharmacies and distilleries. Distilling-apparatus, artefacts heretofore neglected in Poland, could help in development of studies in the history of chemistry and complement an image of cultural space in pre-industrial Central Europe.

Идеология и международные отношения: взгляд из России. Интервью с академиком РАН В.Г. Барановским (ИМЭМО РАН)

Vladimir G. Baranovskiy is one of the leading specialists in the field of international relations in Russia. He was born on December 30, 1950 in Moscow. In 1972 he graduated from the Moscow Institute of World Economy and International Relations of the USSR Ministry of Foreign Affairs. In 1973-1976 he studied at the graduate school of the Institute of World Economy and International Relations (IMEMO) of the USSR Academy of Sciences. Since 1976 he works in the structure of the IMEMO Academy of Sciences of the USSR. In 1982-1988 - Head of the International Security Sector of the IMEMO Academy of Sciences of the USSR. In 1986he defended his doctoral thesis on “The European Community in the System of International Relations”. In 1988-1992 - Head of the Department of Western European Studies, IMEMO USSR Academy of Sciences (IMEMO RAS). In 1992-1998 he was the chief research fellow at IMEMO RAS. In 1992-1996 he led the project at the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI). Since 1998 - deputy director of IMEMO RAS. Since 2005 - Professor of the Department of International Relations and Foreign Policy of the Moscow State Institute of International Relations. Since 2011 - full member of the Russian Academy of Sciences. In his interview, V. G. Baranovsky talks about ethics and morality in international relations, multipolarity and the role of ideology in foreign policy.

Readings and Misreadings?: The GDR and the GSA

Readings and Misreadings?The GDR and the GSA Marc Silberman (bio) When the Western Association of German Studies (WAGS)—the forerunner organization of the German Studies Association—was founded in 1976, its vision was to provide a space for interdisciplinary encounters around issues of teaching and researching “things German.” In the mid-1970s there was hardly a consensus that “things German” included a focus on all German-speaking areas, as stated in the front matter of each annual conference program until 1993: “The interest of the Association spans the period from early times to the present German Federal Republic, German Democratic Republic, Austria, and Switzerland, and includes Germans and German culture in other countries.” By embracing the GDR from the outset in its mission, the association was in the academic vanguard and responding to a palpable upswing in this broadening of the geographical and political inclusiveness of “things German.” The end of World War II and the Allied occupation of Germany yielded the Soviet Occupation Zone (SBZ) and in fall 1949 the GDR and FRG as two separate German states. But the combination of America’s postwar introversion, the cold war stand-off, and West Germany’s 1955 Hallstein Doctrine that divided the world into the friendly nations that did not recognize the GDR and unfriendly ones that did, contributed to the erasure of East Germany in the West. With the passage of the National Defense Education Act (NDEA) in 1958 the US government began to invest significant funding in area studies to guarantee a future pool of foreign language experts and scholarly expertise deemed strategic for US interests abroad. However, in this context the GDR was considered to be a German-German issue, with the result that it was excluded from eastern European studies because “Germany” was equated with West Germany, and treated as a footnote in western European studies because East Germany was considered to be in the Soviet Bloc. A few specialists in GDR affairs, journalists, and political scientists who worked generally on German issues, published the first books treating East Germany in the late 1960s, yet both the academe and the broader public knew virtually nothing about this terra incognita. The key year for GDR studies in the US was 1974, a full twenty-five years after the state was founded. What might seem like a dramatic onset of scholarly interest, [End Page 611] in retrospect emerges from a context growing out of various factors. First and foremost, the modification of cold war confrontation through a policy of détente in the early 1970s resulted in the signing in December 1972 of the Grundlagenvertrag, the “Basic Treaty” in which the two German states mutually recognized their sovereignty. Thereupon the US followed in September 1974 by officially recognizing the GDR. This in itself, however, cannot explain the remarkable concatenation of scholarly energies in the course of that year. The newly launched journal New German Critique published its second issue in spring 1974 as a focus issue on the GDR—the very first of its kind in the US—introduced by the editorial collective as “a first attempt of New German Critique to open discussion of this largely neglected moment in the development of socialism” (3). In April the first major conference on the GDR took place at Washington University in St. Louis with over 150 Germanists in attendance.1 Also in spring 1974 the literary scholar Robert Weimann of the Zentralinstitut für Literaturgeschichte held guest lectures at the University of Virginia, and writer Christa Wolf and her writer-critic husband Gerhard Wolf were in residence at Oberlin College in Ohio, followed by Ulrich Plenzdorf one year later and Jurek Becker in 1978. In addition, a session arranged by the American Society for the Study of the GDR focused for the first time on the GDR in a conference of the American Association of Teachers of German (AATG) at Fairfield University in Connecticut. Finally, at the Modern Language Association (MLA) annual convention held in New York City at the end of December 1974 a GDR seminar was scheduled for the first time as part of the German literature offerings. The accumulation of events in 1974 did not...

Литературные течения. К проекту «Словаря течений литературы ХХ века. Европа и Америка»

The article is the outcome of the theoretical research prepared for the encyclopedia in progress entitled Dictionary of Literary Trends in the Twentieth Century Europe and America. This is the first such encyclopedia known to exist, with no predecessors in Russia or abroad. The encyclopedia material is organized around the term “literary trend” that defines its specificity. The author examines the history of this concept in Russian and Soviet literary criticism introducing a number of contraversial interpretations. A different situation is observed in Western European and American literary studies where this theoretical problem does not seem to exist and such terms as “trend,” “movement,” and the like are seen as contingent on specific contexts of their applicability. This pragmatic approach shall be used in the Dictionary as well. The author introduces the term “artistic community” that goes beyond the scope of individual poetics and should be used as a selective criterion for the encyclopedia material. As the work with the glossary has shown, this criterion is a verbal designation of a certain artistic community that is either coined by artists themselves or by critics. However, this criterion is not as primitive as it may seem. It implies — already in the given name or in the self-name — a number of critical operations: statement or declaration of aesthetic similarities and common aesthetic principles shared by a number of authors; their union on these grounds; a brief description of these aesthetic similarities coined in the name of the trend that is intended not only to identify a certain artistic community but also to differentiate it from others. In the case of self-naming, the recognition of the phenomenon’s value is added. However differently the names of communities are verbarly articulated, each name is informative, semantically rich, and reflects different types of artistic communities discussed in the article.

Increasing protandry in the spring migration of the Pied Flycatcher (Ficedula hypoleuca) in Central Europe

Sexual selection theory suggests that the degree of protandry in spring migration should increase when earlier males benefit from better mating opportunities. Western European studies failed to show differences in sex-specific arrival dates for the Pied Flycatcher. However, different climatic conditions and other constraints may affect its phenology in continental Europe. Here, we present evidence that sex-related phenological changes have occurred over the past 25 years (between 1989 and 2013) in Central Europe (Ocsa Bird Ringing Station, Hungary). The spring arrival of male flycatchers shifted to earlier dates whereas female arrival showed no change, implying an increasing degree of protandry.

Western Balkan Countries and European Neo-regionalisation Case study: CEFTA and its impact on Kosovar economy: 2007-2013

Selection of “the problem” of neo-regionalisation for study directly deals with its importance as a determining factor of many developments in the arena of international relations. Its importance appears especially when it is manifested as a theoretical approach, as an analytical category and as a new practice of economic and political organisation in the regional level and in the same way in the international aspect as well.Although studiers concede that the world is going towards larger units of integration in global level, however, regionalisation (neo- regionalisation) is becoming a new identity for people in the 21st century. This is valid especially for the European societies and states aiming to be part of the supranational structures of the European Union.In relation to this, the study below is focused on new integrating practices in Europe, which is known as “Neo-regionalism” in order to see how this new practice is influencing in intensifying the regional cooperation. To make the study even more concrete, a concentration in case study has been made in regional cooperation within CEFTA with a particular focus in its implications towards Kosovo and vice versa. The theses will also be discussed whether Kosovo has benefited or lost from this cooperation to review the possibilities of continuing further cooperation or to quit it.Undoubtedly, the establishments presented above may be used for reaching a concrete conclusion for the results of this cooperation, what is going to serve as a platform for drawing some recommendations for further coordination of actions for cooperation in the regional plan.