Research program of the Research Center (SFB) 700

The governance problematique constitutes a central research focus in contemporary social sciences. Yet, the debate remains centered on an „ideal type“ of the modern nation-state – with full sovereignty and a legitimate monopoly over the use of force. From a global as well as a historical perspective, however, the Western modern nation-state is an exception rather than the rule. Outside the developed world, we fi nd areas of “limited statehood”, from developing and transition countries to „failing“ and „failed states“ in today’s confl ict zones and – historically – in colonial societies. Our Research Center focuses on these areas of limited statehood which lack the capacity to implement and enforce central decisions or even lack the monopoly over the means of violence. We ask: How can eff ective and legitimate governance be sustained in areas of limited statehood? Which problems emerge under these conditions? We assume that “multi-level governance” is the rule in areas of limited statehood, linking the local with the national, regional, and global levels. We also assume that governance in areas of limited statehood involves a variety of public and private actors, such as states, international organizations, fi rms, and civil society. Governance entails negotiations, bargaining, and arguing among these actors rather than hierarchical „command and control“

Das Forschungsprogramm des Sonderforschungsbereichs 700 (SFB 700)

Governance ist zu einem zentralen Thema sozialwissenschaftlicher Forschung geworden. Dabei besteht Übereinstimmung, dass politische Gemeinwesen bestimmte Leistungen in den Bereichen Herrschaft, Sicherheit und Wohlfahrt erbringen sollen. In den Debatten wird aber oft „effektive Gebietsherrschaft“ als Kernelement moderner Staatlichkeit stillschweigend vorausgesetzt, und die Forschung konzentriert sich auf die OECD-Welt. In globaler sowie historischer Perspektive sind autoritative Entscheidungskompetenz und Gewaltmonopol des Staates jedoch die Ausnahme, nicht die Regel. Ein Blick auf die Länder des Südens, „zerfallen(d)e Staaten“ in den Krisenregionen der Welt oder ehemalige Kolonien bestätigt dies. Hier wird politisch gesteuert, ohne dass die vielfältigen Verfahren demokratischer und rechtsstaatlich organisierter Wohlfahrtsstaaten verfügbar wären. Der SFB 700 fragt daher nach den Bedingungen von Governance in diesen Räumen begrenzter Staatlichkeit: Wie und unter welchen Bedingungen werden Governance-Leistungen in den Bereichen Herrschaft, Sicherheit und Wohlfahrt in Räumen begrenzter Staatlichkeit erbracht, und welche Probleme entstehen dabei? Die SFB-Teilprojekte untersuchen, wie dort regiert wird und welche Probleme dabei entstehen. Dabei gehen wir davon aus, dass sich in Räumen begrenzter Staatlichkeit „neue“ Formen des Regierens herausbilden, die vorwiegend „weiche“ Steuerungsformen nutzen, auf vielfältigen Kooperationsformen zwischen staatlichen und nicht- staatlichen Akteuren basieren und durch eine Verschränkung von globalen, nationalen und lokalen Ebenen charakterisiert sind

Preamplification techniques for real-time RT-PCR analyses of endomyocardial biopsies

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Due to the limited RNA amounts from endomyocardial biopsies (EMBs) and low expression levels of certain genes, gene expression analyses by conventional real-time RT-PCR are restrained in EMBs. We applied two preamplification techniques, the TaqMan^®PreAmp Master Mix (T-PreAmp) and a multiplex preamplification following a sequence specific reverse transcription (SSRT-PreAmp).</p> <p>Results</p> <p>T-PreAmp encompassing 92 gene assays with 14 cycles resulted in a mean improvement of 7.24 ± 0.33 Ct values. The coefficients for inter- (1.89 ± 0.48%) and intra-assay variation (0.85 ± 0.45%) were low for all gene assays tested (<4%). The PreAmp uniformity values related to the reference gene CDKN1B for 91 of the investigated gene assays (except for CD56) were -0.38 ± 0.33, without significant differences between self-designed and ABI inventoried Taqman^®gene assays. Only two of the tested Taqman^®ABI inventoried gene assays (HPRT-ABI and CD56) did not maintain PreAmp uniformity levels between -1.5 and +1.5. In comparison, the SSRT-PreAmp tested on 8 self-designed gene assays yielded higher Ct improvement (9.76 ± 2.45), however was not as robust regarding the maintenance of PreAmp uniformity related to HPRT-CCM (-3.29 ± 2.40; p < 0.0001), and demonstrated comparable intra-assay CVs (1.47 ± 0.74), albeit higher inter-assay CVs (5.38 ± 2.06; p = 0.01). Comparing EMBs from each 10 patients with dilated cardiomyopathy (DCM) and inflammatory cardiomyopathy (DCMi), T-PreAmp real-time RT-PCR analyses revealed differential regulation regarding 27 (30%) of the investigated 90 genes related to both HPRT-CCM and CDKN1B. Ct values of HPRT and CDKN1B did not differ in equal RNA amounts from explanted DCM and donor hearts.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>In comparison to the SSRT-PreAmp, T-PreAmp enables a relatively simple workflow, and results in a robust PreAmp of multiple target genes (at least 92 gene assays as tested here) by a mean Ct improvement around 7 cycles, and in a lower inter-assay variance in RNA derived from EMBs. Preliminary analyses comparing EMBs from DCM and DCMi patients, revealing differential regulation regarding 30% of the investigated genes, confirm that T-PreAmp is a suitable tool to perform gene expression analyses in EMBs, expanding gene expression investigations with the limited RNA/cDNA amounts derived from EMBs. CDKN1B, in addition to its function as a reference gene for the calculation of PreAmp uniformity, might serve as a suitable housekeeping gene for real-time RT-PCR analyses of myocardial tissues.</p

JOHANN HEINRICH CARL – THE REVOLUTIONARY: THE HISTORY AND COLLECTIVE MEMORY OF A GERMAN-AMERICAN FAMILY, 1852-2004

In 2004 the North America Letter Collection (Nordamerika-Briefsammlung) received an extraordinary letter series consisting of 202 letters written by 19 different authors, all members of a large transatlantic family network (Bohn family). They wrote to each other beginning in the mid-19th century after four out of five children had immigrated to the United States. Letters were written to family members in Germany and between family members in the United States settling in different places. Drawing on this unique collection as well as on two volume family history written by the American amateur historian in 1982 and interviews with family members conducted in 2004 and 2006, the paper reconstructs the memory of transatlantic family, spanning the life experience of seven generations. The analysis sheds light on how history and memory are intertwined. It also demonstrates that Bohm family’s history and identity is the outcome of the interplay of the social construction of individual memories and its continuous reproduction in the form of stories told and histories written as a means of creating family cohesiveness in a very diverse and spatially scattered and thus separated social environment

Ein Kristallpalast für New York

On July 14, 1853 the second World Exhibition opened its gates in New York. Regarding architecture and themes a simple transfer of the London concept was intended. The shift from London to New York was based on a series of more or less successful translations and transfer-processes. The concept of World Exhibition had to be adapted according to organisation, administration, town planning and in general according to the social, economic and cultural settings of the young republic of the USA. The essay analyzes how processes of adaptation worked, which essential changes they produced and how successful they were in the end. Therefore it works out the specific example of a European-American transfer-process in the 19th century and intends to underline the inherent laws and specific paths of development of such processes

READING IMMIGRANT LETTERS AND BRIDGING THE MICRO-MACRO DIVIDE

The early 1980s were characterized by a paradigm change in history. The premises, research methods and research goals of the dominant paradigm of "social and structural history" were challenged by the “subjective turn” in history contesting the logocentrist and linear way of historical thinking, the established techniques of history writing and the systems of historical knowledge production. The emerging new fields of research and research approaches – oral history, life histories, historical anthropology and history and memory – were closely interconnected, methodologically and with regard to their theoretical foundations. Going back to some of the arguments put forward in the discussion about the linguistic turn in the 1980s, I will argue that in order to be able to "read" and understand immigrant letters historians have to approach them as "texts" and not just as illustrative historical source material. It is necessary to not only look at content but also at the way the content is presented, i.e. the narration and the narrative structure of the letters. In order to elucidate the methodological bridging function of these two approaches and their contribution to overcome the micro-macro divide, I will in a first step contextualize the specific theoretical value of life history research by putting it in the context of arguments developed by historical anthropology. In a second step, I will apply the developed research framework to reconstruct the structural properties and historical sequences of life course processes as represented by the narratives of the letters of Ernst and Marie Kuchenbecker written between 1891 and 1932