Suchergebnisse

This paper is about the effect of climate change on Sub-Sahara African (SSA) agricultural production in a post-colonial setting. While agricultural production certainly is the result of a multi-dimensional process (influenced by diverse branches of politics, by technology, and also by trade patters and violent conflicts, among others), already the partial analysis of the most obvious factors of influence is certainly valuable in the African case. Since agriculture is not only the single most important sector for the greatest majority of people there, but also a low-tech endeavor in Africa, the impact of temperature and particularly rainfall is crucial - to the point of life-threatening crop failure. In sum, we are able to shown that climate change influenced agricultural production in Sub-Sahara Africa in an unfavourable way. When considering traditional and modern inputs (labour, land and livestock, as well as capital and fertilizer, respectively) in a fixed-effects-model, particularly the effect of rainfall is significantly positive and important. Further, by separating countries into a low- and a med-tech group (with respect to modern inputs), different relationships between the standard factors can be revealed, and by refining the specification with respect to regional climatic differences some complexities in these general patterns can be shown.

The Congo region is one of the best examples of the negative consequences of world market integration (and hence globalization) in the world. Today's Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) is an almost perfectly failing state - although not necessarily with respect to a state's function as a revenue machine for its rulers, but definitely with respect to almost all other state functions, including the most basic ones, like security or infrastructure provision for its people. However, the recent civil war was only the tip of an iceberg of a well-established system of structural violence, which is neither simply a result of post-colonial nor colonial heritage. Remarkably stable, it dates back to the very beginning of the integration of the Congo into the global economy. Since the first contact with Europeans, it has experienced a vicious cycle of exploitation that promotes violence and is driven by internal power relations but even more so by world market demands. While the object of these demands (slaves, ivory, rubber, copper, diamonds, coltan) changed over the centuries and decades, the structures of dependence and the patterns of exploitation did not change fundamentally. Hence, every effort to sustainably improve the economic, social and political conditions in the Congo, which are among the most devastating in the world, must take this heritage into account.

"Africa research in Austria is multifaceted, multidisciplinary and multilocal. Besides the continuous output of many scholars, this is also shown by the activities
of the research group "African Studies at Austrian Universities", established in 2013. The book Africa Research in Austria: Approaches and Perspectives is a product of this fruitful engagement. The collection assembles contributions
to the second workshop of the research group, which was held in Innsbruck, 19-20 March 2015. The topics covered span from pan-Africanism and popular culture, the use of research films in African studies, and reflections on the
Nigerian writer Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie to students' exchange between Tanzania and the two German states, the role of the UN in the Congo Crisis, and post-colonial conflicts and limited access orders in Africa. It contains contributions by Eric Burton (Vienna), Birgit Englert (Vienna), Andreas Exenberger (Innsbruck), Maximilian Feldner (Graz), Thomas Lechner (Graz), Silvia Lercher (Innsbruck), Ulrich Pallua (Innsbruck), Arno Sonderegger (Vienna) and Thomas
Spielbüchler (Linz)." - Die Afrikaforschung in Österreich ist vielfältig, multidisziplinär und multilokal. Neben den fortgesetzten Bemühungen verschiedener WissenschaftlerInnen wird das auch durch die Aktivitäten der Arbeitsgruppe "Afrikastudien an österreichischen Universitäten" zum Ausdruck gebracht, die 2013 gegründet wurde. Das Buch Africa Research in Austria: Approaches and Perspectives ist ein Ergebnis dieses fruchtbaren Engagements. Die Sammlung vereinigt Beiträge zum zweiten Workshop der Arbeitsgruppe, der am 19. und 20. März 2015 in Innsbruck abgehalten wurde. Die Themen reichen dabei vom Pan-Afrikanismus und der Populärkultur, der Verwendung von Forschungsfilmen in den Afrikastudien und Reflexionen über die Nigerianische Schriftstellerin Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie zu historischen Themen wie dem Studierendenaustausch zwischen Tansania und den beiden deutschen Staaten, der Rolle der UNO in der Kongokrise und dem Zusammenhang von post-kolonialen Konflikten und institutionellen Ordnungen in Afrika. Es enthält Beiträge von Eric Burton (Wien), Birgit Englert (Wien), Andreas Exenberger (Innsbruck), Maximilian Feldner (Graz), Thomas Lechner (Graz), Silvia Lercher (Innsbruck), Ulrich Pallua (Innsbruck), Arno Sonderegger (Wien) und Thomas Spielbüchler (Linz).

"The publications of the interdisciplinary and internationally networked Research Platform "World Order – Religion – Violence" seek to improve our understanding of the relationship between religion, politics and violence. It therefore deals especially with the return of religious themes and symbols into politics, with the analysis of the link between political theory and religion, and finally with the critical discussion of the secularization thesis. At the centre of the research are questions concerning the causes of violent conflict, the possibilities for a just world order and the conditions for peaceful coexistence on a local, regional, national and international/worldwide scale between communities in the face of divergent religious and ideological convictions. Its task is to initiate and coordinate thematically related research-efforts from various disciplinary backgrounds at the University of Innsbruck. It creates a network between departments, research-teams and single researchers working on topics of religion, politics and violence. The overall aim of the research platform World Order-Religion-Violence is to promote excellence in social and human science research on religion and politics at the University of Innsbruck and to guarantee the diffusion of this particular competence on a national and international level." - "Band 1 versammelt Analysen und Kontroversen zum Thema Religion und Gewalt in Hinblick auf die Herausforderungen, die durch technologische Entwicklungen, wirtschaftliche Globalisierung und zivilisatorischen Wandel entstehen. Mit Beiträgen von Aleida Assmann, Jörg Becker, Mariano Delgado, Wolfgang Dietrich, Jean-Pierre Dupuy, Andreas Exenberger, Wilhelm Guggenberger, Simon Hartmann, Hartmann Hinterhuber, Rüdiger Lohlker, Wolfgang Palaver, Robert Rebitsch, Willibald Sandler, Raymund Schwager, Roman Siebenrock, Petra Steinmair-Pösel, Kristina Stöckl und Claudia von Werlhof. "

"The publications of the interdisciplinary and internationally networked Research Platform "World Order – Religion – Violence" seek to improve our understanding of the relationship between religion, politics and violence. It therefore deals especially with the return of religious themes and symbols into politics, with the analysis of the link between political theory and religion, and finally with the critical discussion of the secularization thesis. At the centre of the research are questions concerning the causes of violent conflict, the possibilities for a just world order and the conditions for peaceful coexistence on a local, regional, national and international/worldwide scale between communities in the face of divergent religious and ideological convictions. Its task is to initiate and coordinate thematically related research-efforts from various disciplinary backgrounds at the University of Innsbruck. It creates a network between departments, research-teams and single researchers working on topics of religion, politics and violence. The overall aim of the research platform World Order-Religion-Violence is to promote excellence in social and human science research on religion and politics at the University of Innsbruck and to guarantee the diffusion of this particular competence on a national and international level."

"The publications of the interdisciplinary and internationally networked Research Platform "World Order – Religion – Violence" seek to improve our understanding of the relationship between religion, politics and violence. It therefore deals especially with the return of religious themes and symbols into politics, with the analysis of the link between political theory and religion, and finally with the critical discussion of the secularization thesis. At the centre of the research are questions concerning the causes of violent conflict, the possibilities for a just world order and the conditions for peaceful coexistence on a local, regional, national and international/worldwide scale between communities in the face of divergent religious and ideological convictions. Its task is to initiate and coordinate thematically related research-efforts from various disciplinary backgrounds at the University of Innsbruck. It creates a network between departments, research-teams and single researchers working on topics of religion, politics and violence. The overall aim of the research platform World Order-Religion-Violence is to promote excellence in social and human science research on religion and politics at the University of Innsbruck and to guarantee the diffusion of this particular competence on a national and international level."

"The world today is far less a global village than a "global city", as global network of multidimensional urban spaces of congestion prominently forming – and also formed by – globalization. But the relevance of cities is nothing but new. They were essential for culture and civilization worldwide, they allowed a centralization of power and knowledge and they were crucial for the division of labor and for the organization of mass demand. Further, as places of intense and continuous interactions, cities are the locations par excellence for global history to take place. Thus, there is a need to study the history of cities in connection with the history of globalization from this perspective. This book is dedicated to contribute to the still underdeveloped but growing literature connecting the history of cities worldwide and their relation to global processes. The authors do so from various disciplinary backgrounds and by referring to different times and places. We visit ancient Alexandria, nineteenth century Zanzibar, and modern-day São Paolo, among others, and we view these cities not only in their globality, but also through their heritage, their economic relevance, their architecture, or financial flows connecting them. Further, the book also contains systematic considerations about "global city", especially the general role of cities in development, cities in global history teaching, and cities' relationships to global commodity chains." - Die Welt ist heute viel weniger ein globales Dorf als eine globale Stadt, eine "global city". Dieses weltumspannende Netzwerk multidimensionaler urbaner Räume der Verdichtung steht dabei in einem wechselseitigen Verhältnis zu Globalisierung: es gestaltet sie zugleich, wie sie auch durch sie beständig mitgestaltet wird. Aber die Bedeutung von Städten ist alles andere als neu. Weltweit waren sie entscheidend für Kultur und Zivilisation, sie erlaubten eine Zentralisierung von Macht und Wissen und sie waren zentral für die Arbeitsteilung und die Organisation der Massennachfrage. Als Plätze der anhaltenden Interaktion waren und sind Städte außerdem prototypische Orte, an denen sich Globalgeschichte ereignet. Daher ist es nötig, die Geschichte von Städten in Zusammenhang mit der Geschichte der Globalisierung zu erzählen. Dieses Buch untersucht den Zusammenhang zwischen der Geschichte von Städten weltweit und ihre Beziehung zu globalen Prozessen. Die AutorInnen betrachten u.a. das antike Alexandria, Zanzibar im 19. Jahrhundert und das heutige São Paolo nicht nur in ihrer Globalität, sondern auch durch ihr kulturelles Erbe, ihre wirtschaftliche Bedeutung, ihre Architektur oder durch Finanzflüsse zwischen ihnen. Zudem enthält das Buch systematische Beiträge zur "globalen Stadt", insbesondere zur Rolle von Städten für die Entwicklung, den Stellenwert von Städten im Globalgeschichteunterricht und ihre Beziehung zu globalen Güterketten.

Globo - Eine neue Welt mit 100 Menschen ist das neue Werk aus dem Hause teamGlobo. Andreas Exenberger, Stefan Neuner und Josef Nussbaumer besuchen dabei das aus Unser kleines Dorf bekannte Weltdorf Globo wieder und begleiten die 100 Einwohnerinnen und Einwohner bei der Herausforderung durch siebzehn "nachhaltige" Entwicklungsziele (SDGs), wobei die Menschen diesmal auch ein (nicht nur statistisches) Gesicht bekommen. Auf diese Weise zusammengeschrumpft und individualisiert, werden globale Probleme greifbarer, wird aber auch klarer, welche Lösungen möglich sind. Die Erlöse aus diesem Buch fließen zu 100 Prozent dem Verein teamGlobo und damit lokalen und globalen Sozialprojekten zu