THE ECONOMICS OF THE MANUSCRIPT AND RARE BOOK TRADE, ca. 1890–1939

The market for rare books has been characterized as unpredictable, and driven by the whims of a small number of rich individuals. Yet behind the headlines announcing new auction records, a range of sources make it possible to analyze the market as a whole. This book introduces the economics of the trade in manuscripts and rare books during the turbulent period ca. 1890–1939. It demonstrates how surviving sources, even when incomplete and inconsistent, can be used to tackle questions about the operation of the rare book trade, including how books were priced, profit margins, accounting practices, and books as investments, from the perspectives of both dealers and collectors

Access to mental health services in Eritrea, Sudan, Ethiopia, Somalia and the Greater Horn of Africa region

Over the past ten years, Eritrea, Sudan, Ethiopia, and Somalia have consistently featured among the top twenty nationalities applying for asylum in the United Kingdom. People across the Greater Horn of Africa region face significant challenges in accessing mental health services, compounded by widespread stigma and cultural barriers that deter individuals from seeking help. Mental health services in the region suffer from limited resources and lack of funding, a shortage of trained professionals, and a lack of supportive national policies and legislation. There is a pressing need for basic psychosocial support, counselling, substance abuse services, and greater integration and prioritisation of mental health within broader health and social care systems. Recognising mental health as an essential part of the right to health for both citizens and refugees is crucial. Governments and international actors must invest in developing healthcare systems that can meet these needs, mobilising political will and funding to alleviate the substantial yet often invisible burden of psychological suffering among displaced populations. Achieving the goal of “no health without mental health” remains a distant but necessary aspiration

The Pre-Modern Manuscript Trade and its Consequences, ca. 1890-1945

This collection brings together current research into the development of the market for pre-modern manuscripts. Between 1890 and 1945 thousands of manuscripts made in Europe before 1600 appeared on the market. Many entered the collections in which they have remained, shaping where and how we encounter the books today. These collections included libraries that bear their founders’ names, as well as national and regional public libraries. The choices of the super-rich shaped their collections and determined what was available to those with fewer resources. In addition, wealthy collectors sponsored scholarship on their manuscripts and participated in exhibitions, raising the profile of some books. The volume examines the collectors, dealers, and scholars who engaged with pre-modern books, and the cultural context of the manuscript trade in this era

Protection for Venezuelans in the spirit of Cartagena? An analysis of the spirit of Cartagena and how the protection policies for displaced Venezuelans in Brazil, Colombia and Peru held up to the standard of the spirit of Cartagena

In the midst of the largest exodus in Latin America and months before the fortieth anniversary of the 1984 Cartagena Declaration on Refugees, a discussion of the Latin American regional refugee regime is timely. This study reviews the protection policies of three receiving countries in Latin America during the Venezuelan displacement crisis for the period of 2015-2021. It begins with an over-arching discussion of the role and importance of regional refugee regimes. It continues with a narrowed focus on the Latin American regional refugee regime, centred around the 1984 Cartagena Declaration on Refugees. Then, it seeks to close a knowledge gap by defining and attributing elements to the ‘spirit of Cartagena’, an emerging concept stemming from the Cartagena regime. This broader discussion is put into perspective with a case study on the Latin American response to the Venezuelan displacement. The case study focuses on the forms of protection offered to displaced Venezuelans in Brazil, Colombia, and Peru. Then, an analysis is conducted on whether, and in what ways, the varying policies acted in the ‘spirit of Cartagena’. The analysis uses the defining elements of the ‘spirit of Cartagena’ as a measuring stick against themes of the discussed protection policies. The aim is to evaluate some of the region’s responses to the Venezuelan displacement crisis in the context of the notion of the ‘spirit of Cartagena.’ The conclusion is that a harmonised response within the regional refugee regime was ideal, however the policies were generally ad hoc, complementary, and temporary. Despite this, the pragmatism of the protection measures still reflected some aspects of the ‘spirit of Cartagena’

Concepts

Concepts are recombinable elements of deliberate conscious thoughts. When I think birds fly, I use my concept of birds and my concept of flying. We think about the world by categorizing things under concepts. This allows us to use existing knowledge (the bird may well fly off). And when we learn something new (birds have feathers), concepts store that information systematically. As studied in cognitive science, concepts are mental representations: physical particulars (in the brain, and perhaps body, of the thinker) that refer to things in the world. A prominent version of the representational approach argues that concepts combine and behave like words of natural language—that we think in a language of thought. As information floods in from the world, concepts are a key way we make sense of what we perceive. They play a central role in thought, language, communication, and learning. They are powerful tools for organizing information, making inferences, and planning for the future

Historical Responsibility and the Mediation of Difficult Pasts

Mediating Memories and Responsibility brings together leading scholars and new voices in the interdisciplinary fields of memory studies, history, and cultural studies to explore the ways culture, and cultural representations, have been at the forefront of bringing the memory of past injustices to the attention of audiences for many years. Engaging with the darkest pages of twentieth-century European history, dealing with the legacy of colonialism, war crimes, genocides, dictatorships, and racism, the authors of this collection of critical essays address Europe’s ‘difficult pasts’ through the study of cultural products, examining historical narratives, literary texts, films, documentaries, theatre, poetry, graphic novels, visual artworks, material heritage, and the cultural and political reception of official government reports. Adopting an intermedial approach to the study of European history, the book probes the relationship between memory and responsibility, investigating what it means to take responsibility for the past and showing how cultural products are fundamentally entangled in this process

Quality space computations for consciousness

The quality space hypothesis about conscious experience proposes that conscious sensory states are experienced in relation to other possible sensory states. For instance, the colour red is experienced as being more like orange, and less like green or blue. Recent empirical findings suggest that subjective similarity space can be explained in terms of similarities in neural activation patterns. Here, we consider how localist, workspace, and higher-order theories of consciousness can accommodate claims about the qualitative character of experience and functionally support a quality space. We review existing empirical evidence for each of these positions, and highlight novel experimental tools, such as altering local activation spaces via brain stimulation or behavioural training, that can distinguish these accounts

Governance of Migration by Decree: Legal Life of Afghan Migrants in Iran

This working paper provides an overview of governance of Afghan migration in Iran. It argues that governance of Afghan migration is conducted mainly through rule by decree. Such decrees are not preceded by a consultative process and are declared ad hoc. As a result, there is a lack of legal certainty and migrants cannot really anticipate which protection they will get and until when. To make this argument, sources of laws regulating Afghans’ legal and formal life in Iran, including their rights and entitlements based on their documentation status, and impact of these laws in terms of certainty and predictability are studied. This working paper is based on desk research as well as qualitative interviews, the latter being the main source for untangling the governance regime due to scarcity of written sources of law

Review of Alexander Samuel Wilkinson, ed., Illustration and Ornamentation in the Iberian Book World, 1450–1800

Elizabeth Savage, review of Alexander Samuel Wilkinson, ed., Illustration and Ornamentation in the Iberian Book World, 1450–1800, in Jahrbuch für Kommunikationsgeschichte 25 (2024): 186–

The Role of ‘Unity’ in Refugee Communities: A Case Study of Integration Mechanisms in Leeds (UK)

From anecdotal discussions with members of refugee communities in Leeds, this research has developed the hypothesis of a refugee-made integration mechanism called ‘unity’ helping to support and further integrate these communities through the facilitation of social networks and accumulation of social capital. As such, this paper is an experiment assessing the positive impact on integration that ‘unity’ has for the communities who practice it. Thus, this study examines the role of ‘unity’ as a mechanism facilitating the creation and maintenance of social networks in refugee community organisations (RCOs) in Leeds. In order to test the hypothesis, this research evidence-checks the role of ‘unity’ comparing it to established literature on integration mechanisms and social capital theories, additionally bringing case studies and evidence from interviews conducted with eight refugee leaders of the communities. The key findings of this study confirmed that ‘unity’ plays two roles simultaneously as a mechanism for integration by acting as an ignition for new organisations and networks, but also by being the glue maintaining the community together and continuously offering support towards integration. ‘Unity’ operates within the ‘shared values’ of the communities and turns these values into sustained and valuable networks. The networks then become eased pathways to achieving ‘marks and means’, which is the last stage of a successful integration within frameworks used by research and policies in the global north