Computers and Computing in Society

in NTM (2020)

This review essay aims to highlight some of these recent trends within the history of computing and information technology through the consideration of three recently published books : 1/ Frank Bösch (Ed ... [more ▼]

This review essay aims to highlight some of these recent trends within the history of computing and information technology through the consideration of three recently published books : 1/ Frank Bösch (Ed.) 2018. Wege in die Gesellschaft. Computernutzung in der Bundesrepublik (1955–1990). Geschichte der Gegenwart, Bd. 20. Göttingen: Wallstein, geb.; 2/ Marie Hicks 2017. Programmed Inequality. How Britain Discarded Women Technologists and Lost Its Edge in Computing. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press; 3/ Joy Lisi Rankin 2018. A People’s History of Computing in the United States. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press. They are increasingly opening up to approaches that are oriented towards society and actors, whether the latter are producers, regulators, users, or even maintainers. This is achieved with historical rigour by the authors, who highlight the history of a field that is not only scientific, technical, industrial and economic, but also profoundly social, and which is marked by multiple debates, negotiations and power relationships. [less ▲]

The Jew In Czech And Slovak Imagination, 1938-89: Antisemitism, The Holocaust, And Zionism,

in Marginalia Historica (2020)

Review of Clara Rauchegger and Anna Wallerman (eds.) The Eurosceptic Challenge: National Implementation and Interpretation of EU Law (Hart 2019)

in European Law Blog (2019)

Book review published on European Law Blog

Compte rendu de Herbert Ruland, Der Erste Weltkrieg und die Menschen im Vierländerland

in Contemporanea (2019), XXXVIII(3),

[Rezension] Lars Nowak (Hg.): Medien - Krieg - Raum

in MEDIENwissenschaft: Rezensionen, Reviews (2019), 1(2019), 24-27

Fragmente einer neuen Sprache des Rechts : Die nachgelassenen Reflexionen eines Philologen über die Grundlagen der Gerechtigkeit

in Literaturkritik.de (2019)

Texte et Image, Dialog/ues. Schrift & Bild, éd. Claude D. Conter & Myriam Sunnen, Centre national de Littérature, 2018

in Hémecht. Revue d'Histoire luxembourgeoise (2019), 71(3), 376-378

Rezension zu Hiltrud Merten, Die frühchristlichen Inschriften aus St. Maximin bei Trier

in Hemecht: Zeitschrift für Luxemburger Geschichte (2019), 71(2019), 359-360

Rezension Émile Lutgen / Gemeinde Wiltz (eds.), "Durich 200 Joer Weeltzer Geschicht gebleedert".

in Hemecht: Zeitschrift für Luxemburger Geschichte (2019), 71(2), 245

Rezension Estelle Evrard, La Grande Région Saar-Lor-Lux.

in Hemecht: Zeitschrift für Luxemburger Geschichte (2019), 71(2), 248-250

Rezension von: Fouquet, Gerhard / Jan Hirschbiegel Sven Rabeler (Hrsg.), Residenzstädte der Vormoderne. Umrisse eines europäischen Phänomens. 1. Symposium des Projekts „Residenzstädte im Alten Reich (1300-1800)“ der Akademie der Wissenschaften zu Göttingen. Kiel, 13.-16. September 2014 (Residenzforschung. Neue Folge: Stadt und Hof, 2), Ostfildern 2016

in Zeitschrift für Historische Forschung (2018), 45(3), 507-509

The wandering thought of Hannah Arendt. Hans‐Jörg Sigwart. London: Palgrave Macmillan, 2016 Rightlessness in an age of rights. Hannah Arendt and the contemporary struggles of migrants. Ayten Gündoğdu. New York: Oxford University Press, 2015

in Constellations (2018), 25(2), 304-308

Rezension zu: Peter Henrich, mit Beiträgen von Petra Held, Corina Knipper und Kurt W. Alt, Das gallorömische Theater von Dalheim „Hossengronn“ Luxemburg (Dossiers d’archéologie XV Musée national d’histoire et d’art / Centre national de recherche archéologique), Luxembourg 2015

in Hemecht: Zeitschrift für Luxemburger Geschichte (2018), 70(1), 105-108

Achim Hofer, »es möchten manche Leute Vergnügen daran haben« Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdys Ouvertüre für Harmoniemusik op. 24 oder Doberan und die Folgen

in IGEB Mitteilungsblatt (2018), 1-2(2018), 20-22

Rezension von/compte rendu de: Ulrike Hohensee, Matthias Lawo, Michael Lindner, Olaf B. Rader (Bearb.), Dokumente zur Geschichte des Deutschen Reiches und seiner Verfassung.

in Francia-Recencensio (2018), 2018(1),

Urban Policy in the Time of Obama

in DISP Dokumente und Informationen zur Schweizerischen Orts-, Regional- und Landesplanung (2018), 54(212/1), 76

Review of: "Martin Bauch / Julia Burkhardt / Tomáš Gaudek / Václav Žůrek (eds.): Heilige, Helden, Wüteriche. Herrschaftsstile der Luxemburger (1308–1437)"

in Hemecht: Zeitschrift für Luxemburger Geschichte (2018), 70(1), 118-121

Rezension Jean-Paul Hoffmann, Familienchronik der Stadt Vianden

in Hemecht: Zeitschrift für Luxemburger Geschichte (2018), 70(2), 125-126

Rezension des Werkes von Alexander Hilpert, Archäologie im Grenzraum Saar-Lor-Lux. Altertumsforschung, Vernetzung und Identitätskonstruktion in den regionalen Geschichtsvereinen des 19. Jahrhunderts

in Hemecht: Zeitschrift für Luxemburger Geschichte (2018), 66

The future of federalism - intergovernmental financial relations in an age of austerity

in Regional & Federal Studies (2018), 28(1), 102-105

Review: Paul Théberge, Kyle Devine & Tom Everrett (Hg.) (2015). Living Stereo: Histories and Cultures of Multichannel Sound. New York/London: Bloomsbury

in Technikgeschichte (2018), 85(3), 235-236

Review of Meyer, Heinz-Dieter (2017): The Design of the University: German, American, and “World Class”. Abingdon: Routledge

in Comparative Education Review (2018), 62(3), 451-454

By and large, we take our universities for granted. Indeed, the oldest have outlived political regimes of all kinds. This stimulating historical and comparative study exemplifies the importance of in ... [more ▼]

By and large, we take our universities for granted. Indeed, the oldest have outlived political regimes of all kinds. This stimulating historical and comparative study exemplifies the importance of in-depth experience and engagement with the cultural and structural environments in which some of the world’s greatest universities have over centuries incrementally developed and been embedded. This is crucial if we hope to understand the sources of their authority and myriad contributions to scientific knowledge and human flourishing. A neo-institutionalist scholar and multicultural citizen who fruitfully contributes to dialogues exploring core institutions in education and society on both sides of the Atlantic, Heinz-Dieter Meyer is uniquely placed to grapple with the complex processes of institutional learning and design that have made the German and American universities among the globally most productive. He also shows how they have influenced each other via the complex, yet crucial flows of inspired scholars and students carrying key idea(l)s with them for interpretation and application back home. The contributions of key actors, but also the outcomes of choices at critical junctures, such as the failure to establish a national state-funded university in the United States, take center stage in this engaging account of how the leaders of American universities adapted the German model, joining diverse concepts to design what has become the greatest uni-versity system in the world, yet one that remains nearly impossible to emulate due to the unique constellation of actors and institutional environment in which it developed. In eighteen chapters in four parts, The Design of the University: German, American, and “World Class” takes us from Göttingen and Berlin to Boston and to the world level as the scientific enterprise—and competition between scientists and the most crucial organizational form in which they conduct their experiments and make their arguments, the research university—becomes ever more global. Contributing to and inviting debate, Meyer’s main argument is that the American university has suc-ceeded based upon an institutional design—or, perhaps, a non-design—that on multiple levels facil-itates self-government and the identification of a niche within an extraordinarily large and differen-tiated higher education system. This is not a full-fledged historiographic treatment of a subject fa-vored by academics (permanently searching for reputational gains) and policymakers (as they in-creasingly launch research funding programs and evaluation systems to foster competition). Rather than a full-fledged sociology of science, this book creatively sketches the trajectories of German and American university development, emphasizing affinities as well as crucial differences, to ulti-mately argue that in fact “Humboldt’s most important ideas flourished in the American atmosphere of unrestricted institutional experimentation and vigorous self-government” (xiii). Interrogating what he calls the “design thinking” of eminent thinkers Adam Smith and Wilhelm von Humboldt, among others, Meyer traces the challenging, complex, and contingent learning processes in the adaptation of the German research university model to the American context, eventually becoming the most differentiated and “world-class” higher education system in the world. Asking about the reasons for the American university’s success, especially in comparison to the recent insti-tutional crisis of the German research university, albeit still extraordinarily productive, Meyer argues that this American meritocratic success story has institutional design (of self-government) at its heart. Enjoying the patronage of not one, but three major institutions—state, church, and market—the American university attained true autonomy and global preeminence through unparalleled wealth of patronage and an intricate system of checks and balances. In this line of argument, chart-ing the ascendancy from humble origins of what can hardly be called a system due its extraordinary diversity, Meyer concurs with David Labaree (2017), who’s A Perfect Mess [1] is a highly-suitable com-panion piece grounded in the history of American higher education. Contemporary architects of higher education policy globally, driven by the fantasy of “world class” labels, Meyer warns, have completely underestimated the “institutional, social, and political prerequisites that excellence in research and teaching require” (p. 4). Meyer begins his treatise, appropriately, in Göttingen, the site of Georgia Augusta University, where many leaders of American higher education, first and foremost Boston Brahmin George Ticknor, learned by doing, ensconced in a cosmopolitan center of learning and intellectual enlightenment. The blueprint included professionalized scholarship, the unification of research and teaching in seminars and lectures, freedom to choose among academic offerings, a vast library of scientific knowledge, and academic standing based on perpetual production of cutting-edge research judged by peers (p. 19). Instead of Adam Smith’s preferred instruments of competition, choice, and tuition-dependence, Wilhelm von Humboldt’s “design revolution” proposed “three unities” whose powerful integration could surpass the utilitarian logic prevalent then and now: “teaching and research; scien-tific discovery and moral formation (Bildung); scholarly autonomy and scholarly community” (p. 40). The book’s second part, on institutional learning, charts the institutional migration of the blueprint; the contested design options of Gymnasium, college, and graduate school (the latter ultimately the key to global preeminence); the lasting influence of Protestantism (here Meyer follows the arguments of Max Weber, Robert K. Merton, and Joseph Ben-David) and extraordinary educational philanthropy; the battle between those who would centralize, by establishing a national university, and those committed to local control; and finally the contrasting answers to the eternal question of vocational-ism—e.g., how should business be treated, as a sibling to medicine and law or as their distant cousin? The more education-enamored, democratically-inclined patrician elites of the American East Coast were, Meyer argues, radically different institution-builders than German scholars, French state nobility, or even Chinese mandarins: “No other class combined their respect for, and grand vision of, the civilizing role of learning with their economic resources and the realism needed to put their plans into practice” (p. 113). Building on philosophical and historical elaboration, the book’s third part on achieving self-government discusses the six American moves leading to institutional innovation. At organizational level, the German chair and institute give way to departments and discipline, the university presi-dent is no longer figurehead but chief executive, and independent boards of trustees, not govern-ment officials, have ultimate authority. The implications for individuals and organizations of these “design shifts” cannot be overstated. Anyone seeking to understand American higher education, with its phenomenal vertical and horizontal differentiation and on-going academic drift (“a snake-like procession” as David Riesman, to whom the book is dedicated, calls it), and its self-organized autonomy—supported by many philanthropists without the limiting control of a few state bureau-crats—will find this analysis illuminating. Embedded in civil society, “vigorous self-government is the historic design contribution of the American university” (p. 209)—and an achievement that must be guarded in an era in which university autonomy is at risk. In concluding, Meyer’s American opti-mistic and laudatory tone shifts back to Germanic critique and foreboding, identifying challenges and the contemporary struggles that threaten the unintentional masterpiece of institutional learning and diversity. Such justified hopes and fears must now give way to empirical studies of the extraor-dinary outputs in terms of scientific production and societal capabilities and well-being brought about by the continuous process of university Bildung—in Germany, the United States, and around the world. [1] David Labaree (2017), A Perfect Mess: The Unlikely Ascendancy of American Higher Education. Chicago: University of Chicago Press. [less ▲]

Möglichkeiten und Grenzen der Einrichtung von Unionsagenturen von Andreas Orator

in Die Verwaltung (2018), 51

[Rezension] Hektor Haarkötter/Evelyn Runge: Motor/Reise. Basiswissen für die Medienpraxis

in MEDIENwissenschaft: Rezensionen, Reviews (2018), (2/3), 220-221

Review of Fact and Fiction in Global Energy Policy: 15 Contentious Questions

in Risk Analysis : An Official Publication of the Society for Risk Analysis (2018), In Press

In a so-called “Post-truth” era, the role of facts in society has become ever more ambiguous and contentious. Increasingly, facts are simultaneously used as a tool for risk assessment and risk management ... [more ▼]

In a so-called “Post-truth” era, the role of facts in society has become ever more ambiguous and contentious. Increasingly, facts are simultaneously used as a tool for risk assessment and risk management on the one hand, and an instrument of politicking and social polarisation on the other. That facts are subjective artefacts is not new. Pioneering sociologists like Emile Durkheim (Durkheim, 1996), Michel Foucault (Foucault, 2008, Burchell et al., 1991), and the Frankfurt School (Nicholas, 2012) (to name a few), have ruminated over the subjectivities of knowledge more than a century ago. But the difference in our current modern, hyper-globalised world is that the subjective nature of facts are increasingly both the best tool we have to deal with global risk, and a prime source of global risk at the same time. The question this raises, is how to deal with this paradox in policy? And is cooperation possible without consensus on whose facts are more true? [less ▲]

Compte-rendu du livre de Carolin Patzelt : Sprachdynamiken in modernen Migrationsgesellschaften

in Vox Romanica (2018)

Rezension zu: Krystina Solomon: Tristan-Romane: Zur spätmittelalterlichen Rezeption von Gottfrieds Tristan in den böhmischen Ländern. Göttingen: Kümmerle Verlag 2016.

in Zeitschrift für Interkulturelle Germanistik (2018), 9(1), 197-199

Compte-rendu de l’ouvrage de Vivian Pereira-Koschorreck : Kontaktanzeigen kontrastiv – Französische und deutsche Kontaktanzeigen im diachronen und sychronen Vergleich

in Frankreich-Forum (2018)

Review: Karl Pichol (2016). Geschichte(n) rund ums Papier. Ahlen: Eigenverlag

in Technikgeschichte (2018), 85(2), 136

Rezension zu Lisa Kaaren Bailey, The Religious Worlds of the Laity in Late Antique Gaul, London/New York 2016

in Historische Zeitschrift (2018)

Buchbesprechung von: Karsten Igel, Thomas Lau (dir.), Die Stadt im Raum. Vorstellungen, Entwürfe und Gestaltungen im vormodernen Europa

in Revue de l’Institut français d’histoire en Allemagne (2017), http://ifha.revues.org/8811

Rezension von: Möller, Kurt / Grote, Janne / Nolde, Kai / Schuhmacher, Nils: "Die kann ich nicht ab!" – Ablehnung, Diskriminierung und Gewalt bei Jugendlichen in der (Post-)Migrationsgesellschaft. Wiesbaden: Springer VS 2016.

in Erziehungswissenschaftliche Revue (2017), 16(3),

Review of the book by Carlo Lejeune (Hg.), Grenzerfahrungen. Eine Geschichte der Deutschsprachigen Gemeinschaft Belgiens. Bd. 2

in Hemecht : Zeitschrift für Luxemburger Geschichte = Revue d'Histoire Luxembourgeoise (2017), 69(1), 114-115

review of: Lucien Czuga, Rout Wäiss Bloen Damp. 200 Joer Lëtzebuerger Tubakswelt, Differdange: Editions Revue, 2015

in Hemecht : Zeitschrift für Luxemburger Geschichte = Revue d'Histoire Luxembourgeoise (2017), 69(1), 129-130

Review: Fondation Bassin Minier (Hg.) (2015). Mutations: Mémoires et Perspectives du Bassin Minier. Esch/Alzette: C.A. Press

in Hemecht : Zeitschrift für Luxemburger Geschichte = Revue d'Histoire Luxembourgeoise (2017), 69(3/4), 472-474

Rezension von Michael Knoll: Das Kind im Mittelpunkt. Elementarpädagogische Bezugnahmen auf gesellschaftliche Kontexte.

in Erziehungswissenschaftliche Rundschau (2017), 16(4),

Recension "Moustir Hassan, El Hani Jamal Eddine, Al-Khodja Mourad, Des Lieux de culture. Altérités croisées, mobilités et mémoires identitaires, Presses Universitaires de Laval, 2016, 241 p."

in Le français à l’université (2017)

Rezension: Christian Voß / Wolfgang Dahmen (Ed.): Babel Balkan? Politische und soziokulturelle Kontexte von Sprache in Südosteuropa (= Südosteuropa-Jahrbuch Band 40), München: Ottos Sagner (2014)

in Zeitschrift für Balkanologie (2017), 53/2

Review of 'Environmental Publics' by Sally Eden

in Local Environment (2017)

Compte-rendu de l'ouvrage de M. Gatti: European External Action Service

in Annuaire de Droit Européen (2017)

Compte rendu de l'ouvrage de J-F Delile: L’invocabilité des accords internationaux devant la Cour de justice de l’Union européenne et le Conseil d’Etat français

in Annuaire de Droit Européen (2017)

"The Politics of Suffering: Syria’s Palestinian Refugee Camps", Nell Gabiam, Bloomington, Indiana University Press, 2016

in Antipode (2017)

Compte rendu de Sebastian Bischoff/Christoph Jahr/Tatjana Mrowka/Jens Thiel (Hrsg.): Belgica terra incognita? Resultate und Perspektiven der Historischen Belgienforschung

in Journal of Belgian History = Revue Belge d'Histoire Contemporaine = Belgisch Tijdschrift voor Nieuwste Geschiedenis (2017), 48(2/3), 259-262

Book review: Bruno Touveron, Prévôt(s). Thionville en Luxembourg (XIIe-XVIIe siècles), [Thionville], [2015], 52 p. ; 10 €.

in Hemecht : Zeitschrift für Luxemburger Geschichte = Revue d'Histoire Luxembourgeoise (2017), 69(1), 123-124

Buchbesprechung von: Die Regesten des Kaiserreichs unter Rudolf, Adolf, Albrecht, Heinrich VII. 1273-1313. 4. Abteilung: Heinrich VII. 1288/1308 – 1313. 2. Lieferung: 1. September 1309 – 23. Oktober 1313 [recte: 1310]

in Hemecht : Zeitschrift für Luxemburger Geschichte = Revue d'Histoire Luxembourgeoise (2016), 68(3),

Disparaître pour résister

in Acta Fabula : Revue des Parutions en Théorie Littéraire (2016), 17(4),

„Phantasma Nation. ‚Zigeuner‘ und Juden als Grenzfiguren des ‚Deutschen‘ (1770-1920)“ von Iulia-Karin Patrut

in Jahrbuch der Raabe-Gesellschaft (2016), 57

Rezension zu: Markus Löx: Monumenta sanctorum. Rom und Mailand als Zentren des frühen Christentums. Märtyrerkult und Kirchenbau unter den Bischöfen Damasus und Ambrosius. Wiesbaden 2013.

in Bonner Jahrbücher des Rheinischen Landesmuseums in Bonn und des Vereins von Altertumsfreunden im Rheinlande (2016), 215(2015), 581-585

Fighting for a Living. A Comparative History of Military Labour 1500-2000 (ed. by Erik-Jan Zürcher)

in International Review of Social History (2016), 61

Besprechungen – Georg Kremnitz, Frankreichs Sprachen, Berlin (De Gruyter) 2015 (Romanistische Arbeitshefte 60)

in Vox Romanica (2016), 75