Zukünfte im Konjunktiv. Versuche der Antizipation und Modellierung von Kommendem im 'König Rother'

The Middle High German König Rother, written in the second half of the twelfth century, tells the story of a dangerous bridal quest that creates conflicts between the Christian West and East, touching themes of correct governance, the role of violence in ruling, as well as the stabilization of society through political interaction. One of its dominant features is the intense modelling of possible future events and the optimal reactions to them. Attempting to anticipate this dangerous future, Rother and his men are depicted in the process of detailed and risk-aware planning. In a close reading of the text, this article shows how the future is conceptualized by both extradiegetic narrator and intradiegetic characters. It traces how these efforts to model the future change in the course of the narrative – from a risk-aware avoidance of contingencies to a relaxed trust in the stability of Rother's rule and divine providence. This reading offers a new understanding of König Rother's narrative complexity beyond the questions of structure and 'Literarisierung' that have dominated criticism on the text so far

Time in the Twelfth Century

Guest editors Sarah Bowden, Lea Braun and George Younge introduce Issue No. 10 of Interfaces: A Journal of Medieval European Literatures, dedicated to the theme of 'Time in the Twelfth Century,' and offer a general overview of the matter and contents of the contributions

Abenteuer und Ewigkeit. Zur Konkurrenz der Zeitmodelle in Heinrichs von Neustadt ›Apollonius von Tyrland‹

Der Aufsatz fasst, ausgehend von Harald Haferlands Überlegungen zu modularem Erzählen, die Zeitkonzeptionen vormodernen Erzählens als nicht lediglich sekundäre Ausformungen des Plots, sondern vielmehr als grundlegenden Teil narrativer Modulbildungen. Am Beispiel des ›Apollonius von Tyrland‹ Heinrichs von Neustadt wird herausgearbeitet, wie verschiedene Zeitkonzeptionen das Erzählen unterschiedlicher Romanpassagen prägen und konzeptuell überschreiben. Diese Zeitkonzeptionen sind, wie von Haferland beschrieben, dem Erzählen kulturell vorgängig und greifen auf temporale Modelle wie âventiure, Genealogie oder Heilszeit zurück

Motivators of Knowledge Workers to Conduct Digital Detox

A great deal of time spent with information and communication technologies (ICT) makes knowledge workers especially susceptible to technostress. In this regard, the concept of digital detox has emerged to describe a strategic and periodic disengagement with ICT. Whereas extant research has put emphasis on untangling the characteristics and effects of digital detox, we do not know what motivators underly this practice other than the more general notion of technostress. Therefore, this study undertakes a qualitative approach with 10 phenomenological interviews to identify motivators of digital detox in knowledge work. The interview results culminate in a typology of individual digital detox motivators. We contribute to the theorization of digital detox by linking different types of motivators (prevention/coping/performance/physiological reboot) to digital detox and its effects on the experience of technostress. Implications for the design of digital detox policies that match with the motivations of knowledge workers can be derived

Accommodated Emoji Usage: Influence of Hierarchy on the Adaption of Pictogram Usage in Instant Messaging

Communication Accommodation Theory predicts to what extent individuals accommodate their verbal and nonverbal behaviour by converging it towards their conversation partner or diverging it away from them to gain social approval and to decrease social distance. Especially individuals in lower hierarchy positions accommodate their communication behaviour towards individuals in higher hierarchy positions. Nowadays, computer- and smartphone-mediated communication are common ways to communicate, for example via instant messaging. However, instant messenger lack in transporting nonverbal cues. To fill this gap, emoji are used increasingly. A study was conducted to examine how individuals in lower hierarchy positions converge their emoji usage towards individuals in higher hierarchy position. The results support the assumption that the higher hierarchy is perceived, the more emoji accommodation is shown

Towards More Digital Wellbeing in Knowledge Work - A Signaling Theory Perspective

Knowledge workers increasingly rely on information and communication technologies (ICT) in their work. If not managed effectively, this shift can reduce workers’ wellbeing and performance. Accordingly, research on corporate digital responsibility (CDR) urges organizations to implement digital wellbeing initiatives to protect workers. In this research, we investigate which digital wellbeing initiatives are offered by organizations, expected by knowledge workers, and whether such initiatives might provide economic returns in the form of improved organizational attractiveness. Based on signaling theory and following a multi-method approach, we identify digital wellbeing initiatives from websites and social media posts of 25 technology companies and conduct semi-structured interviews with 10 students and young professionals. We discuss the conceptualization of digital wellbeing and the role of digital wellbeing for organizational attractiveness. Our findings provide a starting point for investigating business cases for CDR and can advance understanding and implementation of digital wellbeing both in research and practice

Personality Traits to Allocate Information Systems Student Teams

Previous research on the use of social media during crises has examined Volunteered Geographic Information (VGI), which describes the intentional communication of information to organisations or individuals in an attempt to influence their convergence behaviour in order to impact the event outcome. These convergence behaviours can be categorised into archetypes which have two different role types: (1) active crisis involvement (returnees; helpers, exploiters; detectives or manipulators); or (2) passive crisis bystander (anxious; curious; fans (or supporters); and mourners). Until now, little has been known about the use of social media crisis communications to influence convergence behaviour especially that of passive crisis bystanders. To investigate this phenomenon we conducted an analysis of the 2016 Munich Shooting social media crisis communications (Twitter) by collecting 672,871 tweets in connection to the shooting. We examined 1,651 tweets containing GPS data and firstly classified their authors into convergence behaviour archetypes identified from the literature, as well as those that additionally emerged from our data analysis. We then analysed the tweet location, frequency and the subject of each tweet i.e. the tweet content, by convergence behaviour archetype. Our findings revealed that across all convergence behaviour archetypes both active and passive (apart from one i.e. the impassive) tweet volumes increased the further individuals were from the event. The close proximity of the impassive to the event, however, saw an increase in their tweet volume with a focus on personal, location and other news content. This implies that this bystander archetype may have the ability to impact and influence an event, as a passive and rational “eye-witness” by gathering and sharing information close to where the event is occurring

Aquagenic wrinkling of the palms: Morphological changes in reflectance confocal microscopy and high-definition optical coherence tomography

Aquagenic wrinkling of the palms (AWP) is a rare condition, which is characterized by appearance of whitish papules and plaques, and an excessive wrinkling and swelling of the palmar skin after exposure to water. In most cases, young women are affected, and an association of AWP with cystic fibrosis (CF) has been surmised. We report on two cases of AWP, which were not related to CF, in whom we used two innovative imaging techniques, namely high-definition optical coherence tomography and reflectance confocal microscopy, to show in vivo skin changes occurring after exposure of the skin to tap water in comparison to the findings in a healthy control person

Digital Detox – Mitigating Digital Overuse in Times of Remote Work and Social Isolation

Remote work arrangements and limited recreational options in times of social isolation increase the risk of digital overuse for individuals. Its consequences can range from impaired mental health to issues of technology addiction. A conformant countermovement has popularised “digital detoxing”, a practice that endorses to deliberately limit technology use to reduce digital involvement and physiological stress. In times of social isolation, however, digital networking may provide the principle access to social interactions. To provide empirical evidence about the sweet spot between mitigating digital overuse and perceived social connectedness, this paper proposes a mixed-methods design to scrutinise the impact of digital detox measures in a professional context. Possible results will help to better understand how digital overuse may effectively be mitigated by remote workers and what measures organisations can take to create a digital environment that supports employee satisfaction and mental health