On the run? Growing up in modern mobile societies. John Urry interviewt von Claus J. Tully

Das hier veröffentlichte Interview wurde am Rande des 32. Kongresses der Deutschen Gesellschaft für Soziologie am 7. Oktober 2004 in München geführt. Thema des Gesprächs ist die Ausformung sozialer Bezüge unter dem Eindruck einer modernen, netzwerkmäßig organisierten mobilen und kommunikativen Gesellschaft. Im Interview wird der Frage nachgegangen, wie sich das Aufwachsen von Kindern und Jugendlichen im Kontext von Familie und lokalen Bezügen unter diesen Bedingungen verändert. In seinen Büchern "The Tourist Gaze" von 1990 und "Consuming Places" (1995) thematisiert er die gewandelte Bedeutung von Orten. 1994 expliziert er gemeinsam mit Lash in "Economies of Signs and Space" die These der generellen Mobilisierung von Symbolen und der Menschen, die der mobilen Ökonomie dienen. In "Sociology beyond Society" (1999) argumentiert John Urry im Sinne der Castells\u27schen Netzgesellschaften, dass wir soziales Leben nicht länger mit den vertrauten und letztlich statischen Kategorien beschreiben können. Auch in seinem jüngsten Buch "Global Complexity" (2004) plädiert er für eine neue Sichtweise auf Nationen, Orte, Regionen im Dienste sozialwissenschaftlicher Begriffsbildung vor dem Hintergrund globaler Verschränkung. (DIPF/Orig.

Au fait law placements:an emerged reality or a popular trend in contemporary education?

PurposeEnhancing student employability and bridging the gap between theory and practice in law education requires a more multifaceted approach than the traditional mix of lectures, tutorials and simulations. Law placements also provide an opportunity to reinforce the importance of the professional practice standards and requirements laid down by the Law Society of Scotland. The design and implementation of law placements is analysed from the point of initiation to becoming a regular practice. The emphasis is on placements embedded in the programme of study offered to Stage 3 students to facilitate their career choices prior to specialisation in the final year.Design/methodology/approachThis study utilises a longitudinal multi-method approach, allowing the analysis of various aspects the development and practical implementation of law related placements. The views of students, academic staff and representatives of local employers are gathered by in-depth interviews. A reflective workbook method is also used to analyse the ‘integration’ of learning and to support the ‘demonstration’ and assessment of personal and professional capabilities which are difficult to assess by other means.FindingsThe paper presents the challenge faced by a higher education institution in organising meaningful placements and looks at the other avenues explored, particularly in the Third Sector. There are differences in the expectations of law placement providers (law firms and Third Sector organisations) in respect of students’ skill and knowledge base. The students were explicit about the need to demystify the profession and are appreciative of experience with atypical law placement providers which expands their perceptions of the choices within a law career. Students have also indicated a positive alteration in their attitude to the role of reflective practice, which stimulated changes in their behaviour with respect to professional development.Practical implicationsThe outcomes of the initial stage of this study have implications for law departments in higher education in the context of organising law placements, evaluating their effectiveness and their impact on student employability.Originality/valueTeaching law has its specifics and already employs a number of methods: simulations, negotiation exercises, moots and debates. This paper explores ways of providing a more meaningful practical experience for undergraduate students by placing an emphasis on such elements of professional practice as drafting legal documents and preparing professional opinions, while introducing the complexity of the law profession. Solutions to the challenges faced by the institution in organising those placements are analysed. The study provides an analytical view on the effectiveness of law placements in relation to other widely used approaches to bridging the gap between the theory and practice of law

Fast Mars communication geometry program

Computer program calculates trajectories of orbiting spacecraft and lander vehicles simultaneously. Using data from both vehicles, program calculates communications geometry which consists of orbiting spacecraft cone/clock angle, lander cone/clock angle, range, range rate and acceleration, and fade, reflective, and system margins

Boundary behavior of analytic functions of two variables via generalized models

We describe a generalization of the notion of a Hilbert space model of a function in the Schur class of the bidisc. This generalization is well adapted to the investigation of boundary behavior at a mild singularity of the function on the 2-torus. We prove the existence of a generalized model with certain properties corresponding to such a singularity and use this result to solve two function-theoretic problems. The first of these is to characterise the directional derivatives of a function in the Schur class at a singular point on the torus for which the Carath\'eodory condition holds. The second is to obtain a representation theorem for functions in the two-variable Pick class analogous to the refined Nevanlinna representation of functions in the one-variable Pick class.Comment: 30 page

A Primeval Magellanic Stream and Others

The Magellanic Stream might have grown out of tidal interactions at high redshift, when the young galaxies were close together, rather than from later interactions among the Magellanic Clouds and Milky Way. This is illustrated in solutions for the orbits of Local Group galaxies under the cosmological condition of growing peculiar velocities at high redshift. Massless test particles initially near and moving with the Large Magellanic Cloud in these solutions end up with distributions in angular position and redshift similar to the Magellanic Stream, though with the usual overly prominent leading component that the Milky Way corona might have suppressed. Another possible example of the effect of conditions at high redshift is a model primeval stream around the Local Group galaxy NGC 6822. Depending on the solution for Local Group dynamics this primeval stream can end up with position angle similar to the HI around this galaxy, and a redshift gradient in the observed direction. The gradient is much smaller than observed, but might have been increased by dissipative contraction. Presented also is an even more speculative illustration of the possible effect of initial conditions, primeval stellar streams around M31.Comment: 23 pages, 7 figure

Nevanlinna representations in several variables

We generalize two integral representation formulae of Nevanlinna to functions of several variables. We show that for a large class of analytic functions that have non-negative imaginary part on the upper polyhalfplane there are representation formulae in terms of densely defined self-adjoint operators on a Hilbert space. We introduce three types of structured resolvent of a self-adjoint operator and identify four different types of representation in terms of these resolvents. We relate the types of representation that a function admits to its growth at infinity.Comment: 37 pages. In this version we have added some references and expanded the introductio