No description available.

<p> A century ago, foreign governments and their actions were essentially beyond U.S. judicial reach. In the 1950s, however, U.S. courts began to govern more and more activities of foreign governments leading to a transformation in the modality of U.S. power directed abroad. Legal historians describe this as a transition from an &ldquo;absolute&rdquo; to a &ldquo;restrictive&rdquo; practice of sovereign immunity, and one dominant narrative explains the transition as a pragmatic move away from an obsolete model of &ldquo;territorial sovereignty&rdquo; to a more flexible, &ldquo;de-territorialized&rdquo; or even &ldquo;de-spatialized&rdquo; sovereignty better suited for a globalized economy. Through tracing key U.S. legal changes involving foreign sovereign governments from 1898 to 2014, with a focus on sovereign debt law, I argue that transnational sovereign economic activity in fact remains dependent as ever on national borders &mdash; albeit borders that are continually reconfigured through minute changes in U.S. common law. </p><p> Far from representing a homogeneous de-territorialization of the contemporary international legal order, I show that there has been an uneven re-territorialization that reduces the authority of most countries over their own economic decisions while expanding the judicial reach of a few &mdash; primarily the United States &mdash; and that New York state law has been especially important in this process. This has resulted not in a general restriction of state sovereignty in the face of &ldquo;globalization,&rdquo; but in a differential displacement of economic sovereignty from post-colonial, poor and indebted states to rich, industrialized ones. The legal structures developed since the 1960s have aimed at entrenching and extending U.S. dominance over the global capitalist order and presently function to perpetuate exploitative relations between sovereign debtors and private creditors. </p><p> U.S. judicial power has been a crucial and largely overlooked pillar of post-war U.S hegemony. I show how judicial transformations of the past half-century have occurred in relation to changing economic conditions, including threats to U.S. property posed by Third World nationalizations in the 1950s to the 1970s, rising indebtedness since the 1970s, and an ongoing overaccumulation crisis. The expansion of U.S. judicial power has simultaneously been driven at every step by U.S. geopolitical interests, including, importantly, the desire to contain Communism and maintain the colonial status quo in the context of the Cold War, widespread de-colonization and Third Worldist movements, and the reconstruction of U.S. dollar hegemony in the 1980s. </p><p> I argue that the expansion of U.S. judicial power in the past half-century should be understood as territorial insofar as it has defined the space over which the state (in the form of courts) may exercise authority. Through a critical analysis of this legal history I show how the reconceptualization of key legal dichotomies &mdash; most importantly, foreign/domestic, public/private, and political/legal &mdash; has been a fundamental spatial mechanism through which these legal territories are produced and contested. Since the 1960s, U.S. &mdash; especially New York &mdash; courts have increasingly reclassified foreign sovereign transnational activities as &ldquo;private&rdquo; (rather than &ldquo;public&rdquo; or &ldquo;sovereign&rdquo;) and therefore as properly within the scope of U.S. judicial (&ldquo;legal&rdquo;) rather than executive (&ldquo;political&rdquo;) authority. Foreign sovereign activities have also increasingly been reclassified from &ldquo;foreign&rdquo; (meaning outside the United States) to &ldquo;domestic&rdquo; (meaning inside the United States). Together, these interlinked changes have been used to bring activity that would previously have been considered beyond the authority of U.S. courts within U.S. judicial reach. This has expanded U.S. authority as a whole through the modality of judicial power, while simultaneously de-politicizing important social questions and removing them from even the possibility of democratic debate. (Abstract shortened by ProQuest.)</p><p>

No description available.

Thesis (Maste). / Includes bibliographical references.

<p> Pompeii suffered a famous volcanic disaster in 79 AD. This led to a tremendous loss of life. This thesis examines that loss of life and the geography of death left behind by the eruption. Where did the citizens of Pompeii die, and how could they have avoided their fate? These are issues that are examined through geographic methodologies and the use of GIS. The results indicate a people that could have been spared with proper hazards management, and one that shows through mapping the large loss of life that accompanied one of history's most famous volcanic eruptions.</p>

This thesis draws upon the literatures of historical geography, book history, and archival theory to investigate the production of travel narratives by the London publisher John Murray during the second half of the nineteenth century. It traces the processes by which in-the-field experiences of explorers and travellers were translated into a textual and physical object: the published book. By interrogating the practicalities and technicalities of geographical publishing, particularly in relation to travellers’ paratexts, the thesis draws attention to the need for geographers to consider the literary commercialisation of geographical knowledge. The John Murray Archive provides an unusual opportunity to examine geographical publishing across 33 years, 138 titles, and 102 authors. Murray’s extensive correspondence and detailed financial records provide source material for the first comparative study of these books. The structure of the thesis follows Murray’s publication process, from accepting or rejecting manuscripts to textual editing, the shaping of paratexts, production of illustrations, and, ultimately, sales, translations, and further editions of later nineteenth-century books of travel. It places remarkable works of travel Murray published in the later nineteenth century — books by authors including David Livingstone, Paul Du Chaillu, Heinrich Schliemann, and Isabella Bird — in the context of the unexceptional. In conclusion, this thesis furthers academic understanding of a nationally important archival resource, demonstrating the value of a longitudinal survey which accounts for economic as well as epistemic influences upon geographical publishing.

This thesis explores how the art world negotiates what contemporary African art means, in the context of the international contemporary art system and in relation to the histories of Western perspectives on Africa. Using conceptual and methodological approaches drawn from cultural geography, it examines the field of contemporary African art, foregrounding the terms of negotiation framing contested geographical imaginations and ideas of Africa. The research considers curatorial practices, exhibitions, art institutions, networks and the wider art infrastructure as an arena in which geographical concepts and categories are formulated, debated and contested in relation to contemporary African art. It draws on interviews with artists, curators, gallerists, collectors and scholars, as well as ethnographic fieldwork conducted in institutions and at art events, to unpick the idea of 'contemporary African art' as a working category and conceptual frame. It reveals tensions running through the field hinging on questions of categorisation, scale and location, the geographical dimensions and implications of which are currently under-explored. The conclusions argue for the importance of geographical awareness in debates around contemporary art from Africa and its shifting position internationally, particularly in the context of globalising trends in the art world and beyond, which engender complex geographies of mobility, identity, belonging and opportunity. The thesis also highlights the relevance of debates around contemporary African art for geographers, proposing new directions in research on art within cultural geography.

Im Januar 2008 wäre Simone de Beauvoir, die wohl bedeutendste und gleichermaßen umstrittenste französische Schriftstellerin und Philosophin des 20. Jahrhunderts, einhundert Jahre alt geworden. Ihre wissenschaftlichen wie literarischen Arbeiten waren getragen vom Geist der Freiheit und Gleichheit aller Individuen. Besonders Beauvoirs tiefgreifende Analyse der geschlechtlichen Rollenverteilung in der Gesellschaft und ihre radikale Forderung nach Gleichstellung der Geschlechter bewegten zutiefst die Gemüter. Das traf auch auf ihre gelebte Rebellion für weibliche Autonomie als Part der Selbstbestimmung der Menschen zu. Der Beitrag begibt sich anhand des von Simone de Beauvoir selbst gezeichneten Entwicklungsweges auf Spurensuche nach Besonderheiten, die sie zu diesen tiefgreifenden emanzipatorischen Vorstellungen ebenso wie zu ihrem weltweiten politischen Engagement veranlassten.

Die vorliegende Studie geht der Frage nach, wie im Reichsstift Quedlinburg während der wettinischen Schutzherrschaft (1477/79–1698) die Herrschaft zwischen den fürstlichen Äbtissinnen, dem Stiftskapitel und den Schutzherren bzw. Erbvögten verteilt und organisiert war. Sie fragt danach, wie das Stift verfaßt war. Es wurde versucht, soweit es möglich ist, das Reichsstift Quedlinburg innerhalb eines Zeitraumes von gut 200 Jahren als politisches System zu analysieren. Um diese Frage beantworten zu können, werden in der Hauptsache zwei symbolische Handlungen untersucht: Introduktion und Huldigung. Im ersten Hauptteil werden die Herrschaftsrechte und -grundlagen aufgezeigt, um dann im folgenden Hauptteil Herrschaftsanspruch und -wirklichkeit dieser drei Herrschaftsträger anhand des Zeremonielles zu überprüfen. Zudem interessieren die Fragen, ob es im Untersuchungszeitraum zu Veränderungen der Stiftsverfassung kam, wenn ja, worin diese bestanden, von wem sie ausgegangen und wer davon wie betroffen war. Von Interesse ist ebenso der Zugriff der untersuchten Akteure auf die Stiftsuntertanen, deren Wahrnehmung von Herrschaft und wie sich diese ihnen präsentierte. / The thesis deals with the Imperial Abbey of Quedlinburg (Holy Roman Empire) during the protection of the dukes and electors of Saxony (1477–1698). Its constitution and political system are at the centre of attention: how was rulership split up among the Imperial abbess, the chapter and the Saxonian protectors? In order to answer that question two symbolic acts are analyzed: the introduction of a new abbess and the homage to her and her protector. Moreover it is of interest whether the abbey contitution was ever changend and if so, why. How did each of the rulers (abbes, chapter, protector) present power to their subjects? How did theese subjects perceive rulership?

Die Arbeit beleuchtet die Beziehungen zwischen der DDR und der Volksrepublik China in den Jahren 1978 bis 1990. Dabei werden sowohl die innen-, wie auch die außenpolitischen Bedingungen dieser Beziehungen in der DDR und China beleuchtet. Besonderes Augenmerk wird auch auf die Sowjetunion gelegt. Die Beziehungen Moskaus gegenüber Beijing und Ostberlin werden dargestellt und mit den daraus resultierenden Folgen für die DDR-Führung in Bezug gesetzt. / The paper gives attention to the relationship between the German Democratic Republic and the People's Republic of China between 1978 and 1990. Central points are the domestic policies and foreign affairs of both countries. Besides the scripture attend to the relationship of the GDR and the PRC with the Soviet Union.