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      • Trusted Partner
        October 2024

        Renunciation and Freedom

        Survivial in the future

        by Jean-Pierre Wils

        The situation in our society is precarious. The ecological shocks are omnipresent. The mere continuation of our lifestyles fixated on expansion and self-development has long since reached its limits. As if intoxicated by ourselves, we consume our world voraciously and without restraint. We need moderation and frugality that lead us out of the ecological and social dead ends and hold both the individual and Politics to account. We are by no means powerless and are perfectly capable of leading a life that offers prospects for a humane future. However, our idea of freedom needs urgent correction. For this endeavour to succeed, we need the courage to face reality and the willingness, in a spirit of solidarity, to say goodbye to a false life and join the alliance of renunciation and freedom. Then we will be free – differently and better.

      • Trusted Partner
        Literature & Literary Studies
        September 2023

        Romantic women's life writing

        by Susan Civale

      • Trusted Partner
        April 2021

        On the Purposes of Life and Whether They Exist

        A philosophical fitting

        by Axel Braig

        The musician, doctor and philosopher Axel Braig considers philosophy a little like the weather: he looks for the right clothes for every situation. Braig is primarily concerned with practical, effective things from the two-and-a-half millennia fund of (Western) thinking, such as helpful approaches in existential crises. In this book, he introduces us to philosophical thinkers from Plato to Montaigne to Levinas and Feyerabend. Braig not only shares his own philosophical biography, but above all encourages us to philosophise ourselves.

      • Trusted Partner
      • Trusted Partner
        The Arts
        January 2019

        The secret life of romantic comedy

        by Celestino Deleyto

        The secret life of romantic comedy offers a new approach to one of the most popular and resilient genres in the history of Hollywood. Steering away from the rigidity and ideological determinism of traditional accounts of the genre, this book advocates a more flexible theory, which allows the student to explore the presence of the genre in unexpected places, extending the concept to encompass films that are not usually considered romantic comedies. Combining theory with detailed analyses of a selection of films, including To Be or Not to Be (1942), Rear Window (1954), Kiss Me Stupid (1964), Crimes and Misdemeanors (1989) and Before Sunset (2004), the book aims to provide a practical framework for the exploration of a key area of contemporary experience - intimate matters - through one of its most powerful filmic representations: the genre of romantic comedy. Original and entertaining, The secret life of romantic comedy is perfect for students and academics of film and film genre.

      • Trusted Partner
        Biography & True Stories
        May 2026

        Punk rock ruined my life

        And other stories

        by John Robb

        The irresistible story of a one-man cultural phenomenon. Minister for the Counterculture, Mancunian mainstay and alternative national treasure John Robb has lived a life in music. In this book he charts his adventures on the cultural frontline, chronicling the making of a DIY icon. Robb's quest began in his hometown of Blackpool - where punk was a battle against the odds - and went international when he toured the world with his band. The first person to interview Nirvana, he also discovered The Stone Roses for weekly newspaper Sounds and did early interviews with The Jesus and Mary Chain and The Manics, before moving on to legends such as Mark E. Smith, Nick Cave and Patti Smith. Along the way, he became an on-screen commentator and author of bestselling books. Robb's memoir tells of deep friendships with figures from Poly Styrene to Chris Packham. Packed with riotous stories, it provides an alternative account of British musical and cultural history and a triumphant blueprint for a punk rock life.

      • Trusted Partner
        Humanities & Social Sciences
        October 2021

        Religion and life cycles in early modern England

        by Caroline Bowden, Emily Vine, Tessa Whitehouse

        Religion and life cycles in early modern England assembles scholars working in the fields of history, English literature and art history to further our understanding of the intersection between religion and the life course in the period c. 1550-1800. Featuring chapters on Catholic, Protestant and Jewish communities, it encourages cross-confessional comparison between life stages and rites of passage that were of religious significance to all faiths in early modern England. The book considers biological processes such as birth and death, aspects of the social life cycle including schooling, coming of age and marriage and understandings of religious transition points such as spiritual awakenings and conversion. Through this inclusive and interdisciplinary approach, it seeks to show that the life cycle was not something fixed or predetermined and that early modern individuals experienced multiple, overlapping life cycles.

      • Trusted Partner
        February 2024

        Why We Should Care if a Sack of RiceFalls Over in China

        The food of the future

        by Dr. Malte Rubach

        It is time to counter the numerous utopias, myths and established narratives of the future of nutrition with a fact-based scenario. This book shows where the natural limits of what is currently technologically feasible lie and how the global diversity of food cultures will ensure the survival of humanity in the future. It exposes the great promises of meat substitutes from the laboratory as well as vegan renunciation scenarios, and shows a realistic path for the future of global nutrition along the lines of the United Nations’ 17 Sustainable Development Goals.

      • Trusted Partner
        Children's & YA

        You for Future

        by Franziska Wessel/ Günther Wessel

        ‘We will not stop demonstrating,’ writes Franziska Wessel in a guest column in the Berliner Zeitung. Franziska is pursuing a goal. Decisive measures must finally be taken to protect the climate. While that is not happening she spends every Friday on the streets, gives interviews and puts pressure on politicians. But climate change isn’t the only thing threatening our future. There is so much suffering, injustice and destruction in the world. Something must be done about it. And as a climate activist, Franziska knows exactly how to be active. Together with her father, the journalist and author, Günther Wessel, she explains: How do I start a petition? How do I organise a campaign? How does lobbying work? So that everyone knows how they can make things happen.

      • Trusted Partner
        Humanities & Social Sciences
        January 2026

        Afterlives of the Troubles

        Life stories, culture and conflict transformation in Northern Ireland

        by Graham Dawson

        Focusing on experiential life stories across a range of forms and practices, this book investigates subjectivity, culture and the cultural politics of representation as a neglected dimension of conflict transformation in the Northern Irish peace process. Interdisciplinary critical perspectives from historical cultural studies, oral history and popular-memory theory inform close interpretive engagement with life stories in their cultural, historical and geographical contexts. This enables exploration of the complex temporal dynamics of 'post-conflict' subjectivities in the lengthening 'afterlife' of the Troubles, where feelings attached to conflict experiences are not 'past' but haunt the present, and memory-work carries future-oriented desires for truth, justice and reconciliation. Through case studies responding to the evolving peace process through this prism of life-storytelling, Afterlives maps a contested history of legacy policy-making and approaches to 'dealing with the past', from devolution in 2005-7 through to the Legacy and Reconciliation Act of 2023.

      • Trusted Partner
        August 2021

        Power Hour

        Wenig ändern, alles erreichen

        by Adrienne Herbert

      • Trusted Partner
        2024

        Brave new city

        Smart Cities - a survaillance-nightmare?

        by Peter Schaar

        The dream of the ideal city is as old as the city itself. Since real cities often develop chaotically, the idea of perfecting them, even tearing them down if necessary, and rebuilding them according to the prevailing patterns of thought is an obvious one. The latest manifestation of this utopia is the smart city - the intelligent city, packed with the latest technology and extensively digitised. But will air taxis and hyperloops, ubiquitous sensors, access control systems and data-driven management really make the city of the future a better place to live? Are they the answer to the enormous challenges facing today's fast-growing metropolises? Or will the supposed administrative paradise ultimately mutate into a digital juggernaut?

      • Trusted Partner
        The Arts
        February 2009

        The secret life of romantic comedy

        by Celestino Deleyto

        The secret life of romantic comedy offers a new approach to one of the most popular and resilient genres in the history of Hollywood. Steering away from the rigidity and ideological determinism of traditional accounts of the genre, this book advocates a more flexible theory, which allows the student to explore the presence of the genre in unexpected places, extending the concept to encompass films that are not usually considered romantic comedies. Combining theory with detailed analyses of a selection of films, including To Be or Not to Be (1942), Rear Window (1954), Kiss Me Stupid (1964), Crimes and Misdemeanors (1989) and Before Sunset (2004), the book aims to provide a practical framework for the exploration of a key area of contemporary experience - intimate matters - through one of its most powerful filmic representations: the genre of romantic comedy. Original and entertaining, The secret life of romantic comedy is perfect for students and academics of film and film genre. ;

      • Trusted Partner
        July 2021

        My Life with Viruses

        A researcher’s history of the fascinating world of pathogens

        by Ernst-Ludwig Winnacker in association with Jeanne Rubner

        In times of the coronavirus pandemic many people have certainly condemned them, but Professor Ernst-Ludwig Winnacker has dedicated his life to researching them and is intrigued by viruses – even if sometimes he is keenly aware of their fatal effects. To mark his 80th birthday the biochemist describes the co-evolution and co-existence as well as the eternal ‘battle’ between humans and viruses. Winnacker takes up the cause of these ‘biological elements between animate and inanimate nature’ because they play an important role in fundamental research and genetic technology, and without them human beings would not be what they are.

      • Trusted Partner
        Humanities & Social Sciences
        June 2021

        Feeling the strain

        A cultural history of stress in twentieth-century Britain

        by Jill Kirby

        Examining the popular discourse of nerves and stress, this book provides a historical account of how ordinary Britons understood, explained and coped with the pressures and strains of daily life during the twentieth century. It traces the popular, vernacular discourse of stress, illuminating not just how stress was known, but the ways in which that knowledge was produced. Taking a cultural approach, the book focuses on contemporary popular understandings, revealing continuity of ideas about work, mental health, status, gender and individual weakness, as well as the changing socio-economic contexts that enabled stress to become a ubiquitous condition of everyday life by the end of the century. With accounts from sufferers, families and colleagues it also offers insight into self-help literature, the meanings of work and changing dynamics of domestic life, delivering a complementary perspective to medical histories of stress.

      • Trusted Partner
        2019

        The Clock Can Go

        The end of the culture of obedience

        by Karlheinz A. Geißler

        For more than 500 years, the clock has dictated the rhythm of life in the Western World. Clocks were impossible to miss: they were on church towers, at railway stations and factories, they struck the hours and urged people to hurry. But these days, clocks and the punctuality they insisted upon are on the retreat. Nowadays, we are rarely asked “What is the time?” and it is no longer customary to present golden watches or clocks to commemorate important life events. Now we rely on mobile devices and displays to tell us the time, the steady stroke of the rigid clock has been replaced by a more flexible network: we stream TV programmes when we feel like it, we listen to podcasts at any time; chatting, flirting and dating no longer requires prior agreement on time and place. However, what will follow after we have freed ourselves from the chains of the clock god? Emeritus Professor of Economics and time expert Karlheinz A. Geißler shows us that when the influence of the clock disappears, liberating perspectives emerge for experiencing time in social relationships – beyond time pressure and dictates of punctuality.

      • Trusted Partner
        Humanities & Social Sciences
        May 2022

        Memory and the future of Europe

        by Peter J. Verovšek

      • Trusted Partner
        Science & Mathematics
        September 2024

        The elephant and the dragon in contemporary life sciences

        A call for decolonising global governance

        by Joy Y. Zhang, Saheli Datta Burton

        This book provides a powerful diagnosis of why the global governance of science struggles in the face of emerging powers. Through unpacking critical events in China and India over the past twenty years, it demonstrates that the 'subversiveness' assumed in the two countries' rise in the life sciences reflects many of the regulatory challenges that are shared worldwide. It points to a decolonial imperative for science governance to be responsive and effective in a cosmopolitan world. By highlighting epistemic injustice within contemporary science, the book extends theories of decolonisation.

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