Semantics-Based Content Extraction in Typewritten Historical Documents

This paper presents a flexible approach to extracting content from scanned historical documents using semantic information. The final electronic document is the result of a "digital historical document lifecycle" process, where the expert knowledge of the historian/archivist user is incorporated at different stages. Results show that such a conversion strategy aided by (expert) user-specified semantic information and which enables the processing of individual parts of the document in a specialised way, produces superior (in a variety of significant ways) results than document analysis and understanding techniques devised for contemporary documents

The Origin of Tomb Painting in Etruria

Tomb paintings and other artistic categories such as stone sculpture had their origin in Etruria in the second quarter of the 7th century BC, when local elites received goods and customs from several regions of the Eastern Mediterranean. Near Eastern and Greek craftsmen migrated to Etruria from at least the end of 8th century BC and influenced the style of Etruscan art, which also developed from local Iron Age roots. The earliest paintings are concentrated in Veii and Caere in Southern Etruria, where they were used to emphasize architectural elements and to depict animals, perhaps with a symbolic meaning

How European Protest Transforms Institutions of the Public Sphere - Discourse and Decision-Making in the European Social Forum Process

Against the background of the alleged democratic deficit of EU institutions, this case study explores how politicization and emerging transnational public spaces in European protest movements innovate existing practices of discursive or grassroots deliberative democracy in national social movements. I studied the European Social Forum (ESF) process, a transnational participatory democracy platform created by civil society groups and social movement organizations. I explored discourse and decision-making in the small-scale European Assemblies in which hundreds of activists have met six times a year since 2002 to organize the ESFs, and form campaigns on issues such as global and social justice, peace, climate change, migration, health, or education. Comparing activists’ democratic norms and discourse practices in these frequently occurring European Assemblies with social forum assemblies at the national level in Germany, Italy and the UK, I arrived at a surprising result: European Assemblies reflect a higher degree of discursive inclusivity, dialogue and transparency in decision-making and discussion compared to national social forum assemblies. In this paper I discuss structural, strategic and cultural changes that occur in the process of a Europeanization from below, that is, when social movement activists work together transnationally across a certain time period. I argue that European protest as a form of contentious Europeanization has developed new social practices and actors that innovate existing practices of participatory democracy at the national level, showing the relevance of social movements to democratize European integration.democracy; integration theory; democracy; European Public Sphere; Europeanization; Europeanization

Science studies. An integral part of a research based master\u27s degree curriculum

Science Studies (German: "Wissenschaftsforschung") is one of the core modules of a new master\u27s degree program "Higher Education" at the Hamburg Center for University Teaching and Learning (HUL). Subject matters of this executive program cover a broad field of higher educational issues: One of the areas of reflection dealt with in this program are the epistemological premises and the underpinning assumptions of higher educational research. This philosophy of science view on teaching and learning leads towards a confrontation with methodological questions on research designs in this area. The discussion focuses in more detail onto the role of communication in educational practice and its research ("science rhetorics"). The intention of this module is to go beyond simple answers by focusing on the reflective nature of researchers investigating their own field ("scholarship of teaching and learning"). It addresses questions of higher educational research from a higher educational research perspective and therefore may be identified with the concept of "second order research": We hence aim at providing a new way of understanding higher educational research by following a second-order cybernetics and systems theories agenda referring to von Foerster, Maturana & Varela, von Glasersfeld and Luhmann. We developed the master\u27s program by conducting a design-based research methodology. Its curriculum follows the results of this research process and its conceptual design presented in this contribution therefore is to be classified as "research-based" rather than "based on experience". (DIPF/Orig.)Wissenschaftsforschung ist eines der Kernmodule des neuen Masterstudiengangs "Higher Education" am Hamburg Center for University Teaching and Learning (HUL). Die Themen dieses Weiterbildungsprogramms decken ein breites Feld hochschulpädagogischer Fragestellungen ab: Einer der Reflexionsbereiche, die in diesem Programm behandelt werden, sind die erkenntnistheoretischen Prämissen und Grundannahmen der Hochschulbildungsforschung. Diese wissenschaftsphilosophische Sicht auf das Lehren und Lernen führt zu einer Auseinandersetzung mit methodologischen Fragen zu Forschungsdesigns in diesem Bereich. Die Diskussion konzentriert sich auf die Rolle der Kommunikation in der pädagogischen Praxis und ihrer Forschung ("Wissenschaftsrhetorik"). Die Absicht dieses Moduls ist es, über einfache Antworten hinauszugehen, indem es sich auf den reflektierenden Charakter von Forschern konzentriert, die ihr eigenes Feld untersuchen ("scholarship of teaching and learning"). Es behandelt Fragen der Hochschulforschung aus der Perspektive der Hochschulforschung und kann daher mit dem Konzept der "Forschung zweiter Ordnung" identifiziert werden: Wir zielen darauf ab, eine neue Art des Verständnisses von Hochschulforschung zu vermitteln, indem wir eine kybernetische und systemtheoretische Agenda zweiter Ordnung verfolgen, die sich auf von Foerster, Maturana & Varela, von Glasersfeld und Luhmann bezieht. Wir haben den Masterstudiengang auf der Grundlage einer designbasierten Forschungsmethodik entwickelt. Der Lehrplan folgt den Ergebnissen dieses Forschungsprozesses, und die in diesem Beitrag vorgestellte Konzeption ist daher als "forschungsbasiert" und nicht als "erfahrungsbasiert" einzustufen. (Autor