Variational methods are applied to prove the existence of weak solutions for boundary value problems from the deformation theory of plasticity as well as for the slow, steady state flow of generalized Newtonian fluids including the Bingham and Prandtl-Eyring model. For perfect plasticity the role of the stress tensor is emphasized by studying the dual variational problem in appropriate function spaces. The main results describe the analytic properties of weak solutions, e.g. differentiability of velocity fields and continuity of stresses. The monograph addresses researchers and graduate...

This volume brings together key findings of the long-term research project ‘Religious Individualisation in Historical Perspective’ (Max Weber Centre for Advanced Cultural and Social Studies, Erfurt University). Combining a wide range of disciplinary approaches, methods and theories, the volume assembles over 50 contributions that explore and compare processes of religious individualisation in different religious environments and historical periods, in particular in Asia, the Mediterranean, and Europe from antiquity to the recent past. Contrary to standard theories of modernisation,...