As a matter of course, science has to keep up with the findings. Only generations later, some papers have caused laughter in hindsight. Nonetheless, scholars had to dare to make the best out of their sources. Whilst editions of the Codex Argenteus became even more elaborate by comments and translations, mere grammar and vocabulary studies came into existence. The ‘Neuzeit’ output is connected to names as Grimm and many others. Especially in the past century, publications on Gothic have proliferated, and some text books still found their way to college and university – be it in Europe or America: especially US immigrants with German background have deserved their credits. Nowadays, Bologna-process, PISA-studies and the like have rung the death knell for this very discipline. Sapere aude!
The article attempts to examine genre changes within the genre pattern of the weather forecast. In the first part, I propose a categorisation of the weather forecast as a text genre, mainly focusing on its television variant. Thereby, I point out pertinent research in the Polish and German literature for the reasons of comparison. I continue by outlining the assumptions of multimodal text analysis that I have used n my investigation of the television weather forecast, highlighting the fact that it represents an audiovisual text in which meaning is constructed through the conceptual combination of semiotic devices present in it. In the second part, I present the results of my analysis of a particular weather forecast broadcast on Channel TVP 1 after the main edition of the news. I describe the modifications to its design for over the past 30 years and demonstrate the phases of the pattern transformation starting at the beginning of the 1990s and reaching the forms of expression nowadays. Based on the comparison, I attempt to answer the question of how media texts in general, and television weather forecast in particular, have changed over the period of time I have focused on. The conclusions summarise the research results obtained and indicate the reasons for the genre changes taking place.
Although conspiracy theories moved to the centre of the public debate during the Covid-19 pandemic and have severe consequences on politics and society, the link between Covid-19 conspiracy beliefs and democracy has hardly been scrutinized. By combining the literature on understandings and conceptions of democracy and the literature on upward conspiracy theories, we ask whether citizens who share Covid-19 conspiracy beliefs have a specific conception of democracy. Using data from a representative survey conducted in the East German Land of Thuringia in summer 2021 and by employing a fine-grained measure of attributes of democracy, we show that Covid-19 conspiracy belief is neither significantly associated with support for the idea of democracy nor with support for non-democratic forms of government. Instead, Covid-19 conspiracy believers have a particular understanding of democracy in which power is to be taken away from the political elites of representative democracy and more control is given to citizens.
The article is devoted to the novel genre in Ukrainian literature. The authors offer an answer to the question of why the genre of the novel appeared so late in Ukrainian literature and what genre features the Ukrainian classic novel has. The article examines the historical background of the genre development in 19th-century Ukrainian literature, which developed in the Austro-Hungarian and Russian empires. In these empires, there were different conditions for the development of Ukrainian literature: quite liberal in Austria-Hungary and very limited in Russia due to the ban on the Ukrainian language. The article examines and analyzes in more detail three reasons explaining the late emergence and establishment of the Ukrainian novel: 1) language, 2) subject matter, and 3) literary terminology. The novel as a “non-canonical genre” (Bakhtin) requires a direct dialogue with contemporariness, and such a dialogue was impossible in the case of the 19th-century Ukrainian novel because the language of Ukrainian intellectuals at that time was not Ukrainian. In the Russian Empire, it was French or Russian, and in Austria-Hungary, it was German or Polish. Similarly, the subject of both the new Ukrainian literature in general (Ivan Kotlyarevskyi) and the first Ukrainian novels was connected not with contemporariness, but with the heroic past, that is, with the Cossack era of the 17th century (Panteleimon Kulish, Vasyl Doroshenko). The issue of literary terminology is also problematic because Ukrainian authors defined their large prose works not novels, but “opowidannia” or “powist’”, using in this case the meaning of these terms in the German tradition (Erzählung) or Polish (powieść), respectively.
During the first decades of the 20th century, many European intellectuals were developing negative responses to modernity. Hermann Hesse was aware of the moral and social difficulties plaguing Europe at that time and dealt with these problems in his writing. Despite being a German author, he is well read even today, and his characters' quests and journeys of self-discovery captivate young people worldwide. This study aims to bring out the relevance of Hesse by analysing the historiography of the studies on Hesse's works and interrogating the significance of different perspectives on him, which will open doors for future studies in health humanities and memory studies. The authors systematically analyse 100 studies on Hesse and his works from journals indexed in the Web of Science. It is concluded that Hesse’s literary world, comprised of novels, poems, and autobiographical reflections, is deeper and bigger than what has been discovered.
<p>Probabilistic seismic hazard estimates are a key ingredient of earthquake risk mitigation strategies and are often communicated through seismic hazard maps. Though the literature suggests that visual design properties are key for effective communication using such maps, guidelines on how to optimally design hazard maps are missing from the literature. Current maps use color palettes and data classification schemes which have well-documented limitations that may inadvertently miscommunicate seismic hazard. We surveyed the literature on color and classification schemes to identify design criteria that have empirical support for communicating hazard information. These criteria were then applied to redesign the seismic hazard map for Germany. We established several communication goals for this map, including essential properties about moderate-hazard seismic regions and a critical hazard threshold related to the German seismic building codes. We elucidate our redesign process and the selection of new colors and classification schemes that satisfy the evidence-based criteria. In a mixed-methods survey, we evaluate the original and redesigned seismic hazard maps, finding that the redesign satisfies all the communication goals and improves users’ awareness about the spatial spread of seismic hazard relative to the original. We consider practical implications for the design of hazard maps across the natural hazards.</p>
Over the last 15 years, research on carbon lock‐in has investigated why decarbonization evolves so slowly in Western industrialized countries. In this paper, we argue that the role of discourses has been overlooked in the literature on carbon lock‐in. We argue that discourses are both part of lock‐in mechanisms and, using the concept of discursive turning points, important factors in explaining change. This implies that we need to carefully investigate the dominant discourses that constitute and justify the very technologies, institutions and behaviors of the status quo. For the case of the German energy transition, we demonstrate the importance of discursive turning points for overcoming carbon lock‐in, based on a literature review. Germany's long‐standing lock‐in of fossil fuels and nuclear power was undermined by the rise of the energy transition discourse. This discourse transitioned from a very marginal position to dominance through a number of factors, winning against the energy mix discourse. Over time the energy transition discourse became de‐radicalized. Coal has been able to defend its role in the German energy mix in the name of affordability and energy security. While renewables continue to grow, this happens alongside a remaining carbon lock‐in. We conclude that discursive lock‐in and discursive turning points are useful analytical tools that help to explain how the transition to renewable energies unfolds. In future research, the interaction between discursive lock‐ins and other types of lock‐in should be investigated.
Philipp Emmerich, Anna-Gesina Hülemeier, David Jendryczko
et al.
Abstract Technology acceptance represents a challenge for the successful implementation of emerging energy technologies. Building on previous literature, we developed and assessed a socio-psychological factor model, which we apply to three different energy technologies that are relevant to the German energy transition. Our model analyses factors such as trust in industry, trust in municipalities, perceived problems of the current energy system and environmental self-identity with regard to acceptance both in general (general acceptance) and in the context of a scenario featuring a nearby implementation (local acceptance). These factors are mediated by affect and perceived effects, including perceived benefits, costs and risks. We tested the applicability of our model across three different energy technologies: hydrogen fuel stations, biofuel production plants and stationary battery storage facilities. Our study confirms previous findings, which stress the relevance of psychological and social factors. It also extends the literature, testing a universal model across different technologies and examining acceptance on both the local and the general level. We explored the implications of our findings for the selected technologies and managerial practice.
Abstract To analyse the adoption of drones in agriculture as the latest tool added to the set of precision agriculture technologies, this paper makes use of a novel application of the trans-theoretical model of behavioural change by analysing a sample of 167 large-scale German farmers collected in 2019. The model provides a gradual measure of farmers' decision making with respect to the adoption of drones, which gives more detailed insight into farmers' adoption processes than the more common approach of applied binary classifications. Ordinal logit regression results show that, among other factors, farmers' age, precision agriculture technology literacy and farm size affect farmers’ adoption process. Thus, this paper contributes to the literature by identifying key determinants of the drone adoption process in agriculture. Furthermore, this study provides information about the fields of drone application as well as reasons that oppose the usage of drones by farmers. The results are of interest for policy makers and suppliers of drones.
The aim of the article is to examine the lexical structure of the biographical entries in lexicons and encyclopedias. In the light of previous research questions, there’s no existing treatment of biographical encyclopedic keywords. The analysis is based on encyclopedic entries of a biographical character using the example of Heinrich Laube, the German writer and theater director. For the purposes of the study, the following terms were defined: biography and encyclopedic reference works (lexicons and encyclopedias), entries (lemma articles / dictionary articles). The goal is to examine how the biographical entries in such reference works are structured in terms of content and syntax. The question of whether they have a complex and regular construction and if a sample of the biographical text type can be created on this basis is investigated. The research material consists of printed German and Polish lexicons and encyclopedias, mainly from the 19th and 20th centuries, and also includes current online reference works for comparison. The analysis proves that the biographical entries in encyclopedias form a visible and regular structure. The Polish and German documents are compared with one another and, based on the analysis of 18 German and 24 Polish reference works, it is determined that none of the research sources contain any major deviations and that they are structured similarly in terms of both content and syntax. Finally, it is proven that the articles consist of six following thematic parts: Brief introduction (surname, first name, pseudonyms), dates of birth and death, main title (occupation), chronological presentation of facts from life, performance and works and in the case of Online Sources – Additional Notes on His Death and Grave. The analysis could have a practical implementation in further treatment of biographical text types or text variants and complements the previous examination of dictionary articles.
The literature on the social legitimacy of welfare benefits has shown that sick persons are perceived more deserving than unemployed individuals. However, these studies examine sick and unemployed persons as distinct groups, while unemployment and sickness are in fact strongly related. Policymakers across Europe have been increasingly concerned with discouraging a medicalization of unemployment and activating sick unemployed persons. Therefore, it is crucial to understand welfare attitudes toward this group. Using a factorial survey fielded with a representative sample of German-speaking adults (N=2,621), we investigate how sickness affects attitudes toward a hypothetical unemployed person on three dimensions: benefit levels, conditions, and sanctions. Respondents allocated similar benefit levels to unemployed persons regardless of whether they have an illness. Yet, they were more hesitant to apply existing conditions (e.g., active job search, job training) or sanction benefits when the unemployed person was also sick. This is except for conditions that tie benefits to obligatory health services (back training or psychological counseling) which was supported by the majority of respondents. Our research shows that the German public is not more generous and only partially more lenient toward sick unemployed persons as there is strong support for conditions targeted at overcoming ill health for this group. The findings underscore that sickness matters for how unemployed persons are perceived, but the impact varies across different dimensions of welfare attitudes.
The article is intended to analyse the sources and functions of mottoes to chapters in political publications as presented in the topical book BREXIT. Eine Bilanz by Rudolf G. Adam (2019). This German author worked as an adviser, diplomat, (vice)president, academic teacher and writer in many fields and was associated with influential national and international institutions. His close connection with life and culture in the United Kingdom for more than 60 years, and with Britain’s relationship towards the European Union which resulted in the Referendum on June 23, 2016, provide the background for Adam’s critical book BREXIT. The mottoes to each sub-chapter as intertextual links have been drawn chiefly from British and American literature. They constitute an essential structural element throughout this book and bear witness to the author’s pro-found knowledge and personal historical commitment. In addition to mot-toes, he uses proverbs, quotations, maxims, slogans and proverbial sayings also in the following text. In this respect, the exposed mottoes and the traditional phraseological expressions in their textual environment are striking stylistic features of R.G. Adam’s linguistic portrait.
That a writer should change the language in which he writes, or that he or she should write from the start in a non-native language, is an increasingly common phenomenon. Economic migrations in the latter half of the 20th century, intensified in the 1990s by migrations due to political conflict, have resulted in a larger number of writers who do not write in their native language. Also, the question of defining the concept of native language in bilingual or multilingual speakers is quite complex. The established definition according to which the mother tongue is the language that is unconsciously acquired in a natural social environment in childhood, does not necessarily correspond to language development in the diaspora, where the first language to be acquired is not always the language of the family. Authors who write in a language that is not their first are not a new phenomenon in literature; on the contrary, they are a historical constant as are migrations themselves. There have been a number of attempts to coin a name for this phenomenon. Terms like exile literature, gastarbeiter (in German-speaking countries) literature, migrant, intercultural, multicultural or transcultural literature have been used. In their works, writers who as individuals are multilingual but write only in a language which is not their first, often engage with themes inspired by their own or their ancestors' cultural milieu. Also, they often engage in translation, thus additionally contributing to the interweaving of two cultures. The Austrian writer Milo Dor who, apart from some early poetry in his mother tongue – Serbian, created his entire literary oeuvre in the German language, is one such author. He wrote in German, was fluent in several languages principally using German and Serbian for communication, and drew on his cultural sphere and experience for his literary themes and range of social engagement. This interconnectedness of cultures is reflected not only in the themes of Dor's prose works, characterized by biographism, but also in his translations and in his work as editor. For writers from the territory of Yugoslavia, Dor represented for decades an important link with German-speaking countries, working tirelessly to promote them both in Austria and in Germany.
The present research paper summarizes the results from a broader
research on the topic “Bulgarian tourism and the problem of poverty in
Bulgaria” commissioned by the German Foundation “Fridrich Ebert”,
Sofia Bureau in 2014. Here, a more detailed literature review has been
added to the one of the original research with the aim to follow the
scientific discussion on this issue in the Bulgarian society for more than
a century and to step on the more recent publications existing
worldwide. The study examines the question about the ability of
Bulgarian tourism to solve the problems with the widespread poverty
in Bulgaria in the context of the two main issues such as: (i) the degree
of association (in terms of Pearson’s Product-moment coefficients) of
the Bulgarian tourism with the economic performance of the EU
tourism emitting economies, and whether this association in particular
contributes for “transmission of poverty”, and (ii) what will be the
estimated volume of the average month salary of the employees on
labor contracts in Bulgarian tourism for the next ten years by the HoltWinters exponential smoothing method. These two sub-questions,
these two issues, have been chosen deliberately as the usual excuse of
the representatives of the Bulgarian tourism industry for the much
weaker results in comparison to the neighboring competing countries
is that the tourists who come usually to Bulgaria from Western Europe
are poorer. Another reason for the above posed questions is the
contentiously repeated in the Bulgarian society “mantra” that the
tourism sector in the country will grow on its own without any need of
government support and direction and it will lead to a steady increase
in the disposable incomes of the employed personnel. Although this
claim might have appeared true for the end of the 1990s, the monthly
level of salaries in tourism lags significantly behind many other service
sectors in Bulgaria.
Recreation leadership. Administration of recreation services
Feridun Zaimoglu is one of the most important writers in German language to introduce the history and the experiences of immigrants and their forefathers in their literary texts. The novel Leyla, published in 2006, is a paradigmatic example, since its fictional universe presents a temporal configuration that precedes the arrival of the Turkish immigrant in Germany. This article aims to discuss the novel in two aspects: the genesis of a voice in spaces with power imbalance and, on the other side, the genesis of an image of the other in the characters’ personal universe.
German literature, Germanic languages. Scandinavian languages
This article concerns the literature of “minor homelands” representing the territories that were included within Poland’s post-1945 borders. Preoccupied with a search of Otherness and with the concept of a multicultural borderland, this literature rose to popularity in the 1990s. Writers associated with it drew on the poetics elaborated in the context of Poland’s so-called borderland literature [literature kresowa] to rediscover traces of German culture that had been erased during the People’s Republic. By drawing on the poetics of retrospective utopia, however, this literature marginalizes the fundamental problem of forced migration. Siewior describes the strategies of masking that ‘migratory gap,’ i.e. the aestheticizing transfers of older (borderland) traditions, the return to the grandparents’ experience, or the reconstruction of the perspective of the Other. These narrative strategies suggest that this literature is unwittingly entangled in dominant discourses of identity and memory – discourses rooted in nostalgic postwar borderland literature.