Performe Emotionalität!« Emotion und/als (geschlechtsspezifische) Arbeit in Inscourcing des Zuhause. Menschen in Scheiss-Hotels (2001) und SEX nach Mae West (2002) von René Pollesch

Als ein Exempel zeitgenössischer Auseinandersetzung mit Emotionen auf der Bühne wird in diesem Artikel der Autor-Regisseur René Pollesch herangezogen werden, der ausgesprochen energetische Theaterproduktionen realisiert (hat), wie nicht nur der Schrei (überwiegend) in seinen frühen Inszenierungen, die rhythmisch-melodische Ausrichtung schnell geäußerter Textfluten oder etwa das komische Potential und der Unterhaltungscharakter der Stücke verdeutlichen. Pollesch erinnert bei seiner praktischen Annäherung an das Thema der Emotionen an Bertolt Brechts Episches Theater sowie dessen Diktum der Rücknahme gefühlsmäßiger Darstellung zum Zweck der Tilgung illusionistischer Verklärung. Mit diesem Vorgehen versucht Pollesch auch, einer universalistischen »Repräsentationsfalle« zu entkommen, in der er eines seiner großen Feindbilder, das Hollywood-Kino, sieht. Die dort präsentierten Liebesgeschichten oder »Schnulzen« werden bei Pollesch auf deren geschlechtsspezifische Verabredungen hin geprüft, da sie meist Heterosexualität normalisieren, Sexismen oder auch rassistische Konnotationen (re)produzieren. Bei Pollesch lässt sich dagegen beobachten, wie diese Heteronormativität als eigentliches soziales Problem (auch im Rahmen theatraler Darstellungsweisen) exponiert und diskursiv verhandelt wird

A principal-agent model of corruption

One of the new avenues in the study of political corruption is that of neo-institutional economics, of which the principal-agent theory is a part. In this article a principal-agent model of corruption is presented, in which there are two principals (one of which is corrupting), and one agent (who is corrupted). The behaviour of these principals and agent is analysed in terms of the costs and benefits associated with different actions. The model is applied to political corruption in representative democracies, showing that, contrary to common belief, the use of principal-agent models is not limited to bureaucratic corruption

Clubs within clubs: The Council of the Baltic Sea States (CBSS) and the Benelux as Macro-regions within the EU

This paper deals with two examples of macro-regions in the EU: the Benelux and the Council of the Baltic Sea States (CBSS). Building on the distinction between “old” and “new” regionalism, it discusses some characteristics of regions in general, and of sub-integration schemes within the EU in particular. These characteristics are applied to the two regions at hand. From this application it follows that the CBSS can be regarded as a “new” region, whereas the Benelux is an “old” region with some elements from new regionalism.\ud The paper subsequently discusses some explanations for the emergence of macro-regions in the EU as well as the implications of this phenomenon for research on European integration

Operator space structure on Feichtinger's Segal algebra

We extend the definition, from the class of abelian groups to a general locally compact group G, of Feichtinger's remarkable Segal algebra S_0(G). In order to obtain functorial properties for non-abelain groups, in particular a tensor product formula, we endow S_0(G) with an operator space structure. With this structure S_0(G) is simultaneously an operator Segal algebra of the Fourier algebra A(G), and of the group algebra L^1(G). We show that this operator space structure is consistent with the major functorial properties: (i) S_0(G)\hat{\otimes}S_0(H)=S_0(G\times H) completely isomorphically (operator projective tensor product), if H is another locally compact group; (ii) the restriction map u\mapsto u|_H:S_0(G)\to S_0(H) is completely surjective, if H is a closed subgroup; and (iii) T_N:S_0(G)\to S_0(G/N) is completely surjective, where N is a normal subgroup and T_N u(sN)=\int_N u(sn)dn. We also show that S_0(G) is an invariant for G when it is treated simultaneously as a pointwise algebra and a convolutive algebra.Comment: 25 pages. Proof of Theorem 3.1 repaired. DOI include

EU and OECD benchmarking and peer review compared

Benchmarking and peer review are essential elements of the so-called EU open method of coordination (OMC) which has been contested in the literature for lack of effectiveness. In this paper we compare benchmarking and peer review procedures as used by the EU with those used by the OECD. Different types of benchmarking and peer review are distinguished and pitfalls for (international) benchmarking are discussed. We find that the OECD has a clear single objective for its benchmarking and peer review activities (i.e. horizontal policy transfers) whereas the EU suffers from a mix of objectives (a. horizontal policy learning; b. EU wide vertical policy coordination and c. multilateral monitoring and surveillance under the shadow of hierarchy). Whereas the OECD is able to skirt around most of the benchmarking pitfalls, this is not the case for the EU. It is argued that, rather than continue working with the panacea OMC benchmarking and peer review currently represents, EU benchmarking should take a number of more distinct shapes in order to improve effectiveness. Moreover, in some areas benchmarking and peer review are not sufficient coordination tools, and are at best additional to those means of coordination that include enforceable sanctions

Enhanced Cooperation under the Lisbon Treaty

Enhanced cooperation is often regarded as being a way out of EU decision-making deadlock and as a major possibility of proceeding with European integration in selected areas. Although the mechanism has been in place since the Treaty of Amsterdam, enhanced cooperation has only recently become a reality, in two policy fields: divorce law and the single EU patent. Using these two cases, in this paper the pros and cons of enhanced cooperation (as compared to unitary integration and alternative integration) are analyzed. The paper concludes by pointing out some possible weaknesses of the enhanced cooperation mechanism

Extending Modular Semantics for Bipolar Weighted Argumentation (Technical Report)

Weighted bipolar argumentation frameworks offer a tool for decision support and social media analysis. Arguments are evaluated by an iterative procedure that takes initial weights and attack and support relations into account. Until recently, convergence of these iterative procedures was not very well understood in cyclic graphs. Mossakowski and Neuhaus recently introduced a unification of different approaches and proved first convergence and divergence results. We build up on this work, simplify and generalize convergence results and complement them with runtime guarantees. As it turns out, there is a tradeoff between semantics' convergence guarantees and their ability to move strength values away from the initial weights. We demonstrate that divergence problems can be avoided without this tradeoff by continuizing semantics. Semantically, we extend the framework with a Duality property that assures a symmetric impact of attack and support relations. We also present a Java implementation of modular semantics and explain the practical usefulness of the theoretical ideas