Area-based urban regeneration comparing Denmark and Japan

In this paper, we study the characteristics and results of two different approaches to urban regeneration which we have termed ‘Metagovernance’ and ‘Pluricentric coordination’ following. We studied this through a comparative study of area-based, participatory urban regeneration projects in Denmark and Japan, representing each one approach. The paper aims to clarify results of the two approaches in terms of five aspects of urban regeneration, relevant to the process and results: (1) strategic spatial improvement, (2) influence of the legal system and transparency of the processes, (3) empowerment of citizens and diversity of participants, (4) innovative capacity (diversity and creativity of the projects) and (5) continuity and flexibility of the projects. The paper concludes that each approach has strengths and weaknesses and that each country can learn from the other to strengthen future participatory urban regeneration.     

A new role for Low German? Language insertion as bilingual practice in the process of language shift

This article analyzes language insertion as a bilingual communicative practice, applying a functional, speaker‐focused approach to the study of sociolinguistics and language contact. The article is based on a study of contact phenomena in a formerly diglossic region in Northern Germany, where the previously spoken language – Low German – is in the process of being replaced by the dominant standard variety, German. It examines regional publications in order to establish the linguistic techniques by which Low German elements are incorporated into the Standard German texts and the communicative purposes that they serve. The paper concludes that in the process of language shift an emblematic repertoire from Low German is created which can be applied into the dominant contact language, German, for specific communicative purposes. Ausgehend von einer funktionalen, sprecherzentrierten soziolinguistischen Herangehensweise werden im folgenden Artikel bilinguale Einfügungen als Form mehrsprachiger kommunikativer Praxis untersucht. Die Studie analysiert Kontaktphänomene in einer vormals diglossischen Region Norddeutschlands, in der die gesprochene Sprache Niederdeutsch zunehmend von der dominanten Kontaktsprache Deutsch ersetzt wird. Im Artikel werden regionale Publikationen untersucht, um die sprachlichen Techniken heraus zu arbeiten, mit denen niederdeutsche Elemente in den Text integriert werden und welche kommunikativen Funktionen mit ihnen verbunden sind. Der Artikel kommt zu dem Ergebnis, dass während eines Prozesses von fortschreitendem Sprachverlust ein emblematisches niederdeutsches Repertoire geschaffen wird, das für spezifische Funktionen in die dominante Kontaktsprache Deutsch eingefügt werden kann. [Standard German] In disse Artikel geiht dat um Insprengsels van en Spraak in en anner. De Autor hett unnersöcht un lett weten, dat in Noorddüütskland as en tweetalerge Kuntrei immer mehr de sproken Spraak Nedderdüütsk van de machterge Kuntaktspraak Hoogdüütsk bisieddrückt un oflööst word. Se hett Schrifftstücken ut de Gewesten unnersöcht un deit wiesen, up wat för Maneren nedderdüütske Insprengsels in hoogdüütske Texten inbunnen worden. Daarbi kummt vandag, dat en egenaardig nedderdüütsk Weeswark upkummt, dat bi besünner Gelegenheiden in dat Hoogdüütsk sien Stee kriegen kann. [Low German]     

Measuring Human Recognition for Women in Malawi using the Alkire Foster Method of Multidimensional Poverty Counting

Social Indicators Research - Policy indicators rarely account for the contribution of societal inter- and intra-personal interactions to economic development. We propose an index of...     

The Sidewalk as a Contested Space: Women’s Negotiation of Socio-Spatial Processes of Exclusion in Public Urban Space in Saudi Arabia; The Case of Al Tahlia Street

Riyadh is one of the most gender-segregated cities in the world. However, as gender segregation is less enforced on sidewalks, it provides an optimal case study for a space where women and men may be co-present. Thus, this paper aims to increase the understanding of the relationship between sociocultural norms and spatial programming regarding spatio-temporal inclusion or exclusion in public urban spaces. The results show that women’s use and access to sidewalks are influenced by gender norms, religious values, gendered regulations, and generic spatial programming. For instance, regulations limit the use of outdoor seating to men only, thus sidewalks adjacent to, e.g., cafes function as mono-gender spaces dominated by men. However, young women negotiate spatially bounded gender norms through their presence, behaviour, and dress. Although sidewalks are conceived as men’s space, women account for nearly half of the users, but their use often goes unnoticed as women self-regulate their spatio-temporal and visible presence. The study presents six types of women’s spatio-temporal behaviours with varying degrees of visible and invisible users. Ultimately, this paper argues that planning for inclusive sidewalks cannot be addressed solely through the ‘universal’ characterization of space; it should also be supplemented by context-specific knowledge regarding the socio-spatial needs.     

Zur Fundierung einer sozialen Lerntheorie

Almost all recent works on teaching and learning ascribe to the social aspects a significant role. However, the question why learning is something social remains unanswered, if it is asked at all. For the most part, only the observation of social activities surrounding learning processes delivers the raw material for the concepts on which sociality is based, whereas the conncections between learning and the relationships between human beings remain unconsidered. The following paper therefore pursues the question, in how far sociality can be seen as a constituting factor for learning processes. On the basis of the socialisation theory of Alfred Lorenzer it will be shown that in the relation of the child to it’s primary object of relationship interaction forms related to this object are practised, although the psychological situation of the infant does not make a separation between subject and object. Lorenzer therefore speaks of individualism and socialisation as a single unit of function. For this reason the others, whether factual or virtual, dwell within every learning process, however individual or autodidactic. This knowledge is currently supported by neurobiological research which therefore is drawn upon for comparison. The meaning of the social environment is above all stressed by the research in the genetic-environment-interaction as well as the discovery of mirror neurons. The aim of this discussion is also to show that the demand for social learning is not a mode of pedagogical welfare, but rather a man-oriented structural feature and therefore takes a key position in the definition of pedagogical professionality.     

Supervision im Kontext gesellschaftlicher Wandlungsprozesse

Supervision in the context of social changes In view of institutional changes in the working areas of supervision, increased competition amongst advisory concepts, cuts in further education budgets and great efforts at laying the theoretical and conceptual foundations for professional supervision, I cannot but raise the following question anew: Which questions, goals and learning processes are involved in supervision and who introduces them in the first place? Depending on how it is envisaged, there can be fundamentally varying standards for evaluating the role or significance of supervision. It cannot be taken for granted that experts, the institutional interests of supervision cost providers and the needs of the supervised follow one and the same guiding principle or action-related maxim. Differences and common points alike have to be elicited and utilized for a well-founded, professional understanding of supervision — therein lies the object of my research project on the role of supervision in current working processes.     

Ursula Steckeisen: Die Medizin und der Tod. Über berufliche Strategien zwischen Klinik und Pathologie

Ohne Zusammenfassung