‘Hooray! Hooray! The End of the World has been Postponed!’ Politics of Peace in the Adventures of Tintin?

Tintin is a cultural icon whose popularity has led to critical assessments accusing the comic of perpetuating orientalist and racist images. This article presents a different reading of Tintin by asking a more fundamental question: what understanding of the political is manifested in Tintin's Adventures? I argue that Tintin creates a political sphere that fosters an image of peace which does not eradicate conflicts, but facilitates them. Bildung, spatio-temporal conditionality of knowledge, spheres of elasticity, and power ensure that they do not turn into violence. All these are characteristics of the comic and create a powerful visualisation of the human condition of politics. </jats:p

Unlearning modernity: A realist method for critical international relations?

Recent re-readings of classical realism in International Relations have demonstrated that in their critique of modernity, mid-twentieth century realists put their focus on the development of a (self)critical and sceptical epistemology, a focus that often has been of little concern to other International Relations theories. So far, however, this debate on classical realism has not further elaborated realist methodologies, although this has the potential to make the current theoretical debate more accessible for empirical investigations. To this end, this article argues that mid-twentieth century realists pursued a method of unlearning. Unlearning is being understood as the critique and moving beyond the modern imaginary which preconditions everyday knowledge and intellectual thought in a dehumanizing way through a learning process based upon the study of classical texts. Examining the work of Hans Morgenthau, and the evocative if generally under-appreciated writings of the Japanese thinker Maruyama Masao, the article argues that unlearning is an important part of critical realist thinking. </jats:p

Hans J. Morgenthau, the "marginal man" in international relations : a "Weltanschauungsanalyse"

This thesis about the German-American political scientist Hans J. Morgenthau investigates in the development of his Weltanschauung. It grew out of a discomfort with structuralist and post-structuralist interpretations of Morgenthau’s thought which are distorted, curtate, and/or selective. This Weltanschauungsanalyse contributes to the understanding of Morgenthau and his oeuvre in three distinctive ways and negotiates hitherto existing shortcomings. First, it provides a panoptic rather than selective reading by considering all of Morgenthau’s major published and unpublished writings. It is, second, unifying rather than segregative in the sense that it reflects all aspects of Morgenthau’s thought and sets it into relation with each other. Finally, it is inclusive rather than exclusive meaning that the contexts in which Morgenthau developed his Weltanschauung are considered. This Weltanschauungsanalyse accentuates three dimensions in Morgenthau’s thought which are of relevance for contemporary theorising in International Relations. First, Morgenthau promoted a normative concept of power which is not to be confounded with violence, but to be considered as a group-dynamic element enabling to actively create a socio-political life world. Second, Morgenthau was one of the first IR-scholars to emphasise the conditionality of knowledge and political order, which makes his Weltanschauung a rich source for arguing that socio-political life is constructed and reason is limited as it enables to question “grand theories”. Finally, studying Morgenthau’s Weltanschauung concedes an important societal role to scholarship in the sense of dissidence. It is a sceptical appraisal of the socio-political status quo while being committed to a humanist normativity. To achieve this contribution to the current discourse on Morgenthau and elucidate his relevance for contemporary International Relations, this thesis applies Pierre Bourdieu’s concepts of field and habitus. It proceeds by, first, elaborating the field of Continental iv European intellectuals of the late 19th and early 20th centuries in which Morgenthau’s thought was formed. Based upon its findings it is possible to dissect Morgenthau’s Weltanschauung into its constitutive parts: ontology, epistemology, and political agency. Material for this analysis was procured in the Library of Congress, the Bodleian Library, the Hoover Institution, the Bibliothèque Sainte-Geneviève, and the Archive for Christian-Democratic Policy of the Konrad-Adenauer-Stiftung.EThOS - Electronic Theses Online ServiceJapan Society for the Promotion of Science (JSPS)GBUnited Kingdo

Resolving the SLOSS dilemma for biodiversity conservation: a research agenda

The legacy of the ‘SL > SS principle’, that a single or a few large habitat patches (SL) conserve more species than several small patches (SS), is evident in decisions to protect large patches while down-weighting small ones. However, empirical support for this principle is lacking, and most studies find either no difference or the opposite pattern (SS > SL). To resolve this dilemma, we propose a research agenda by asking, ‘are there consistent, empirically demonstrated conditions leading to SL > SS?’ We first review and summarize ‘single large or several small’ (SLOSS) theory and predictions. We found that most predictions of SL > SS assume that between-patch variation in extinction rate dominates the outcome of the extinction–colonization dynamic. This is predicted to occur when populations in separate patches are largely independent of each other due to low between-patch movements, and when species differ in minimum patch size requirements, leading to strong nestedness in species composition along the patch size gradient. However, even when between-patch variation in extinction rate dominates the outcome of the extinction–colonization dynamic, theory can predict SS > SL. This occurs if extinctions are caused by antagonistic species interactions or disturbances, leading to spreading-of-risk of landscape-scale extinction across SS. SS > SL is also predicted when variation in colonization dominates the outcome of the extinction–colonization dynamic, due to higher immigration rates for SS than SL, and larger species pools in proximity to SS than SL. Theory that considers change in species composition among patches also predicts SS > SL because of higher beta diversity across SS than SL. This results mainly from greater environmental heterogeneity in SS due to greater variation in micro-habitats within and across SS habitat patches (‘across-habitat heterogeneity’), and/or more heterogeneous successional trajectories across SS than SL. Based on our review of the relevant theory, we develop the ‘SLOSS cube hypothesis’, where the combination of three variables – between-patch movement, the role of spreading-of-risk in landscape-scale population persistence, and across-habitat heterogeneity – predict the SLOSS outcome. We use the SLOSS cube hypothesis and existing SLOSS empirical evidence, to predict SL > SS only when all of the following are true: low between-patch movement, low importance of spreading-of-risk for landscape-scale population persistence, and low across-habitat heterogeneity. Testing this prediction will be challenging, as it will require many studies of species groups and regions where these conditions hold. Each such study would compare gamma diversity across multiple landscapes varying in number and sizes of patches. If the prediction is not generally supported across such tests, then the mechanisms leading to SL > SS are extremely rare in nature and the SL > SS principle should be abandoned

Historical Spruce Abundance in Central Europe: A Combined Dendrochronological and Palynological Approach

Spruce is the most cultivated tree species in modern forestry in Central Europe, since it has the ability to grow on many soil types with profitable biomass accumulation. However, even-aged and uniform spruce forests are affected by recurring droughts and associated biotic stressors leading to large-scale diebacks across Central Europe causing controversies among foresters and nature conservationists. We investigate the role of spruce in historical woodlands by using 15666 spruce timbers from historical buildings and on the basis of pollen-based land cover estimates using the REVEALS model from 157 pollen sites in southern Central Europe. Start and end dates of the spruce timber samples and their dendrological characteristics (age, growth rates and stem diameters) were used to obtain information on past forest structures. Tree rings and REVEALS estimates are combined at a spatial scale of 1° × 1° resolution, grouped in four sub-regions, and a temporal resolution of 100-year time windows starting from 1150 to 1850 CE. We found that spruce dominates the species assemblage of construction timber with almost 41% and that the harvest age varies little through time, whereas a declining trend in growth rates and stem diameters are observed toward times before modern forestry. Temporal and regional differences in spruce abundance and building activity were found highlighting periods of (i) land abandonment and forest expansion in the 14th century, (ii) increased wood consumption during the 16th century due to population increase and beginning industrial developments, (iii) a forest recovery during and after the Thirty years' war, and (iv) afforestation efforts from the 1650s onwards. Furthermore, this study shows that spruce was constantly present in the study area in most studied sub-regions for the last 800 years. We demonstrate the need of combining tree-ring and pollen data to identify spatiotemporal patterns in spruce abundance and utilization.publishedVersio

Auchenorrhyncha and Psylloidea collected during the 25th Central European Auchenorrhyncha meeting, Arnhem, The Netherlands (Hemiptera: Auchenorrhyncha and Psylloidea)

Die 25. Mitteleuropäische Zikadentagung fand vom 14.-17. September 2018 in Arnheim in den Niederlanden statt. Da es die erste Tagung in den Niederlanden war, wurden Sammelexkursionen in fünf typische niederländische Landschaften unternommen. Drei der Exkursionsziele befanden sich in neu geschaffenen Schutzgebieten, die sich auf ehemals landwirtschaftlich genutzten Flächen befinden. Die beiden weiteren Exkursionsziele waren alte, geschützte Heideflächen. Insgesamt konnten 117 Zikadenarten und 6 Psylloidea-Arten nachgewiesen werden. Drei Arten waren neu für die Niederlande: Macrosteles spinosus (in dieser Publikation vorgestellt), Kybos abstrusus (monophag an Populus nigra) und Macrosteles sardus (an Epilobium hirsutum). Für einige seltene Arten konnten neue Fundpunkte ermittelt werden: Kelisia monoceros, Aphrophora major, Stroggylocephalus agrestis, Edwardsiana diversa, E.&nbsp;tersa, Fruticidia bisignata, Ophiola russeola und Psammotettix pallidinervis. Durch die drei Neufunde erhöht sich die Anzahl der bislang in den Niederlanden nachgewiesenen Zikadenarten auf 421. Diese Arbeit zeigt zudem, dass selbst in erst seit kurzem bestehenden Schutzgebieten seltene und interessante Arten nachgewiesen werden können.&nbsp;The 25th Central European Auchenorrhyncha meeting took place in Arnhem, The Netherlands on 14-17 September 2018. It was the first time the meeting was held in The Netherlands, and for this reason, excursions were undertaken to five typical Dutch landscapes. Three of the excursions involved newly created nature reserves, located on former agricultural land. The other two were old, protected heathlands. In total, 115 Auchenorrhyncha species, and 6 Psylloidea species were collected. Three species were new for the Netherlands: Macrosteles spinosus (presented in this paper), Kybos abstrusus (monophagous on Populus nigra) and Macrosteles sardus (Epilobium hirsutum). For a number of rare species new occurrences were reported: Kelisia monoceros, Aphrophora major, Stroggylocephalus agrestis, Edwardsiana diversa, E. tersa, Fruticidia bisignata, Ophiola russeola and Psammotettix pallidinervis. Our results show that also in young, newly created nature reserves interesting species can be found.&nbsp