Books published by De Gruyter

Humans and human wellbeing depend on the natural resources provided by Planet Earth, and they depend on the solidarity between human beings. That is, on the social resources provided by society. Both types of resources are available to everyone: they are public goods. The book approaches the topic from various angles, including the often-neglected dimension of measuring. It offers a holistic conception that covers the macro- and the micro-economic, the political and the developmental aspects. It shows which range of action is available at different levels of decision-making and which outcomes these may provide. And it emphasizes that a philosophical base is needed for understanding and managing the topic, and that wellbeing can only be improved and the common good can only be maintained if the public and the private sectors cooperate. With the advent of the United Nations' sustainable development goals, this cooperation has received momentum in all its facets and for all levels - from the local to the global. The book is aimed both at scholars and students as well as practitioners in businesses and in public service. In academia, it may serve as a companion to textbooks on, e.g., public finance, sustainable development, social affairs, and public-private partnerships, both in undergraduate and graduate levels. For professionals in businesses and in public service, the book offers an insight into the topic that does not recur to an academic language. There is always a need for books that appeal both to readers who are managers as well as to scholars who wish to glance beyond their adopted profession.

Fiktionalität ist ein zentrales und vieldiskutiertes Konzept der Literaturwissenschaft, spielt aber auch in zahlreichen anderen gesellschaftlichen Diskursen und Praktiken eine Rolle, von Moraldiskussionen über Politik und Recht bis hin zu den Wissenschaften. Der Band erschließt im ersten Teil Phänomene und Begriffe von Fiktionalität aus literaturwissenschaftlicher Sicht systematisch und historisch, wobei Beiträge aus verschiedene Philologien vertreten sind.Im interdisziplinär angelegten zweiten Teil lotet er die Bedeutung von Fiktionalität in nicht-literarischen Zusammenhängen, Praktiken und Theorietraditionen aus und versammelt Artikel aus Ethnologie, Theologie, Geschichtswissenschaft, Rechtswissenschaft, Politikwissenschaft, Soziologie und Psychologie. Insgesamt rücken Aspekte der Medialität und sozialen Praktiken in den Vordergrund, und Begriffe wie 'fiktional' und 'Fiktionalität' werden in ihrer Differenz zu anderen Konzepten wie Authentizität, nicht-fiktional, real etc. verstanden.Damit verschafft das Handbuch einen Überblick über vielfältige Aspekte von Fiktionalität für ein breites Fachpublikum literaturwissenschaftlicher und anderer Disziplinen von fortgeschrittenen Studierenden bis zu Spezialisten.

While timber construction is already established in the field of architecture, there is an increasing focus on alternative construction materials such as clay, straw, cork or bamboo, along with their application features. In full alignment with sustainable construction, they make it possible to plan energy-optimised, recyclable and climate-friendly buildings for the future. The book shows how this can be achieved based on 30 projects of all sizes.

Holz ist ein äußerst vielseitiger Baustoff. Durch den gekonnten Einsatz verschiedener Holzarten in geeigneten Bauweisen lassen sich nahezu alle Bauaufgaben realisieren. Insbesondere beim Bauen im Bestand kann Holz punkten. Es ist vergleichsweise leicht und gut vorzufertigen und bietet eine positive Ökobilanz. Das Buch Holzbau im Bestand liefert das nötige Fachwissen, um alle Herausforderungen bei der nächsten Sanierungsaufgabe umzusetzen.

Contemporary Flemish architecture stands out with its creative conversions. This book documents outstanding examples of adaptive reuse across the Flanders region of northern Belgium. It presents a portrait of Flanders' amazingly vibrant adaptive architecture with 24 bold and pragmatic projects by De Vylder Vinck Taillieu, Noaa Architecten, Blaf, Korteknie Stuhlmacher, Atelier Kempe Thill, Zaha Hadid and many other architectural studios.

The eleven chapters in this international volume draw on a variety of theoretical and methodological approaches to focus our attention on medieval and early modern things (ca. 700¿1600). The range of things includes actual objects (the Altenburg Crucifixion, a copy of Hieronymus Brunschwig¿s Liber de arte distillandi, a pilgrim¿s letter), imagined objects (a prayed cloak for the Virgin Mary), and narrative objects in texts (the Alliterative Morte Arthure, the Ordene de Chevalerie, Hartmann von Aue¿s Erec, Heinrich of Neustadt¿s Apollonius of Tyre, Luís de Camões¿s Os Lusíadas, and the vita of Saint Guthlac). Each in its own way, the papers consider how things do what they do in texts and art, often foregrounding the intersection between the material and the immaterial by exploring such questions as how things act, how they express power, and how texts and images represent them. Medieval and early modern things are repeatedly shown to be more than symbolic or passive, they are agentive and determinative in both their intra- and extradiegetic worlds. The things that are addressed in this volume are varied and are embedded, or entangled, in different contexts and societies, and yet they share a concerted engagement in human life.

This volume is distinctive for its extraordinarily interdisciplinary investigations into a little discussed topic, the spatial imagination. It probes the exercise of the spatial imagination in pre-modern China across five general areas: pictorial representation, literary description, cartographic mappings, and the intertwining of heavenly and earthly space. It recommends that the spatial imagination in the pre-modern world cannot adequately be captured using a linear, militarily framed conceptualization. The scope and varying perspectives on the spatial imagination analyzed in the volume¿s essays reveal a complex range of aspects that informs how space was designed and utilized. Due to the complexity and advanced scholarly level of the papers, the primary readership will be other scholars and advanced graduate students in history, history of science, geography, art history, religious studies, literature, and, broadly, sinology.

Conciliation in the Qur¿an addresses an existing imbalanced focus in Islamic Studies on conflict in the Qur¿an, and moves beyond a restrictive approach to ¿ul¿ (reconciliation) as a mediation process in fragmented social contexts. The book offers a critical analysis of conciliation as a holistic concept in the Qur¿an, providing linguistic and structural insight based on the renowned pre-modern Arabic exegesis of Al-R¿z¿ (d. 1209) and the under-studied contemporary Urdu exegesis of I¿l¿¿¿ (d. 1997). This ambitious thematic study of the entire Qur¿an includes an innovative examination of the central ethical notion of i¿s¿n (gracious conduct), and a challenging discussion of notorious passages relating to conflict. The author offers solutions to unresolved issues such as the significance of the notion of i¿l¿¿ (order), the relationship between conciliation and justice, and the structural and thematic significance of Q.48 (S¿rat Al-Fat¿) and Q.49 (S¿rat Al-¿ujur¿t). Conciliation in the Qur¿an offers a compelling argument for the prevalence of conciliation in the Islamic scripture, and will be an essential read for practitioners in Islamic studies, community integration, conflict-resolution, interfaith dialogue and social justice.

One the most interesting debates in moral philosophy revolves around the significance of empirical moral psychology for moral philosophy. Genealogical arguments that rely on empirical findings about the origins of moral beliefs, so-called debunking arguments, take center stage in this debate. Looking at debunking arguments based on evidence from evolutionary moral psychology, experimental ethics and neuroscience, this book explores what ethicists can learn from the science of morality, and what they cannot. Among other things, the book offers a new take on the deontology/utilitarianism debate, discusses the usefulness of experiments in ethics, investigates whether morality should be thought of as a problem-solving device, shows how debunking arguments can tell us something about the structure of philosophical debate, and argues that debunking arguments lead to both moral and prudential skepticism. Presenting a new picture of the relationship between empirical moral psychology and moral philosophy, this book is essential reading for moral philosophers and moral psychologists alike.

The technological innovations that have made "learning" computers possible are being met with utopian hopes as well as apocalyptic apprehensions. Will AI research eventually lead to software systems that have consciousness and are capable of autonomous decision making? The essays challenge "strong AI" from the perspective of human agency and moral judgment, explain the categorical difference between vulnerable humans and AI devices, and discuss diverse forms of applied AI, such as prograns of natural language processing, computional creativity, neuroenhancement, and the use of AI in international healthcare. These theoretical issues are illustrated in essays that focus on the encounter with artificial beings in film, literature and theater. Examining science fiction that blurs the borderline between humans and deep-learning androids, the essays explore, and challenge, ways of questioning human exceptionalism, for instance by visualizing non-conscious cognition and sentience. The book suggests a sober distinction between well-argued achievements of digital technology and excessive, unfounded expectations.