The checkered rise of resilience: anticipating risks of nature in Switzerland and Germany since 1800

Both concepts, prevention and resilience, are ways of thinking and acting that are very similar at first glance. Prevention means optimising the present by anticipating the future. Crucial for the idea and practice of prevention is anticipating a risky future that should never become reality. Resilience describes a less radical manner of behaviour, which does not want to prevent risks per se. It stresses the ability to anticipate danger and to resist damage - if possible without losses. The terms "prevention" and "resilience" are still relatively young and have appeared infrequently in systems ecology, criminology and medicine since the early twentieth century. This article detaches both concepts from these fields and examines their heuristic potential with the example of natural disasters. In order to shed light on the history of prevention and resilience, the essay focuses on various agents with their specific strategies and techniques. So beside the history of hydraulic engineering, it presents other examples from weather control, scenario planning and disaster research to insurance business. It argues that latest in the second half of the twentieth century arguments for prevention lost their credibility as risks during the technological change multiplied constantly. Strategies of resilience, however, seemed far more realistic in a phase of risk pluralization and replaced the paradigm of prevention in many areas. Yet prevention did not fully disappear, but rather became a part of the much wider overall strategy of resilience. (author's abstract

Literatur-Rundschau

Günter Bentele/Hans Brosius/Otfried Jarren (Hg.): Lexikon Kommunikations- und Medienwissenschaft; Siegfried Weisehenberg/Hans J. Kleinsteuber/Bernhard Pörksen (Hg.): Handbuch Journalismus und Medien (Philomen Schönhagen)Christian Kuchler: Kirche und Kino. Katholische Filmarbeit in Bayern (1945-1965) (Nicolai Hannig)Klaus Arnold/Christoph Classen (Hg.): Zwischen Pop und Propaganda. Radio in der DDR (Verena Blaum)Birgit Weißenbach: Kirche und Konzentrationslager. Katholische Aufklärungspublizistik in der Zeit von 1945 bis 1950 (Ferdinand Oertel)Hubert Wolf: Index. Der Vatikan und die verbotenen Bücher (Heinz Niederleitner)Thomas Meyer: Die Ironie Gottes. Religiotainment, Resakralisierung und die liberale Demokratie (Ulrich Saxer)Günter Bentele/Romy Fröhlich/Peter Szyszka (Hg.): Handbuch der Public Relations (Reinhold Fuhrberg)

Jewish Women’s Organizations as Part of the European Women’s Movement

Der vorliegende Sammelband gibt einen fundierten Einblick in die unterschiedliche Entwicklung der jüdischen Frauenbewegung vom 19. bis ins 20. Jahrhundert. Im Zentrum der sechs Beiträge stehen verschiedene Frauenvereine sowie deren Zusammensetzung und Tätigkeitsfelder in Deutschland, Österreich und der Schweiz. Deutlich wird, dass vor allem Wohltätigkeit und Fürsorge wichtige Aufgabenbereiche diverser Vereine darstellten; aber auch wirtschaftliche, rechtliche und politische Emanzipation spielten eine wichtige Rolle. Abgerundet wird dieser lesenswerte Tagungsband durch einen knapp 80 Seiten starken Quellenteil.The collection at hand provides a sound look into the different developments of the Jewish women’s movement from the nineteenth and into the twentieth century. Various women’s organizations as well as their composition and areas of activity in Germany, Austria, and Switzerland are central to the six contributions. The essays clearly show that charity and aid comprise the most important activities for many of the organizations, although economic, legal, and political emancipation also play an important role. An approximately 80-page appendix of sources rounds out this collection, which is truly well worth reading

Transformationen der Öffentlichkeit

Christina von Hodenberg: Konsens und Krise. Eine Geschichte der westdeutschen Medienöffentlichkeit 1945-1973, Göttingen: Wallstein Verlag 2006 (Moderne Zeit Bd. 12), 512 S., 46,00 €

Jugend bewegt.

Detlef Siegfried: Time is on my side. Konsum und Politik in der westdeutschen Jugendkultur der 1960er Jahre, Göttingen: Wallstein-Verlag 2006, 840 S., 48,00