This volume contains the revised texts of talks and posters given at the Nordic Prosody X conference, held at the University of Helsinki, in August 2008. The contributions by Scandinavian and other researchers cover a wide range of prosody-related topics from various theoretical and methodological points of view. Although the history of the conference series is Nordic and Scandinavian, the current volume presents studies that are of mainly Baltic origin in the sense that of the eight languages presented in the proceedings only English is not natively spoken around the Baltic Sea. Research...

The first graduate conference of the Young Scholars Network of the Association for Canadian Studies in German-speaking countries took place in Berlin in 2004. The conference has been an integral part of the academic year in Canadian Studies ever since. It offers an opportunity for young scholars to present their B.A., M.A. and Ph.D. projects and receive feedback and helpful suggestions from peers and experts. This type of academic exchange is particularly important in Canadian Studies as they often occupy a marginal position at universities. Beside graduate students from Canada, Germany and...

The contemporary internet focuses on user experiences of more recent developments on the internet, specifically with the spread of broadband, the audio-visual applications it has enabled, Web2.0 uptake more generally and the growth of eGovernment. The Contemporary Internet is comparative in two senses. The first is at the cross-national level, examining factors affecting different countries experiences of the internet, with a particular, but not a sole, interest in what may be termed cultural influences on perceptions, adoption and use . Second, the book is comparative within countries,...

To speak of participation today raises a series of questions on how the presence and use of new media affect modes of social participation. From a variety of theoretical, empirical and methodological perspectives, the contributions in this volume explore participation in different social realms from everyday life, interpersonal relationships, work and leisure activities to collective and political action. This collection demonstrates that participation is a localised notion, assuming a multitude of shapes under a variety of technological, political, socio-economic, linguistic and cultural...

The two manuscripts of the early Middle English chronicle La?amon's Brut, British Library MS Cotton Caligula A ix and British Library MS Cotton Otho C xiii, display marked differences in their use of vocabulary. Whereas the vocabulary of the Caligula manuscript is consciously archaising, the lexicon of the Otho text is more modern. This study of the lexical fields 'hero', 'warrior' and 'knight' in the Brut chronicle investigates both the backward orientation of the Caligula Brut towards Anglo-Saxon heroic poetry and the supposed orientation of the Otho Brut towards...

This volume presents the articles published 2008 in the online periodical Mikroglottika An International Journal of Minority Language Philologies. Its purpose is to provide philologies of minority languages with a platform of discussion. The range of topics dealt with in this book may have to do with the linguistic or philological description of a minority language in relation to any parameter (phonology, morphology, syntax, lexicon etc., the discussion being synchronic or diachronic), or they may imply the sociolinguistic description of a particular situation in which one or several...

How and why did the rural emerge as a medico-political problem, and how was this issue addressed in different parts of Europe? This book investigates how rural environments became associated with particularised concepts of sickness and health, and how such views changed over time. Responses, in the form of successful and failed attempts to make a new countryside, are analysed at local, regional and national levels to some extent also involving international dimensions covering sanitary and social campaigns, legislation and regulation, as well as the establishment and functioning of health...

This book is an anthology that focuses on topics of Intercultural Philosophy. Its main goal is to offer new impulses and important contributions to all discourses, discussions and researches on (other) cultures. The importance of Intercultural Philosophy seems to be obvious in a globalized world. Eleven authors participated in such a common research on cultural differences and peculiarities. Together they discuss four topics: concepts of a general approach of Intercultural Philosophy, the relationship of universalism and cultural differences, different methods, and certain cultural...

Georgia is a small country located in the Caucasus, which gained independence in April 1991 after several decades of socialistic structures of the Soviet Union. Like all other post Soviet countries, Georgia had to face the challenges of the transition process towards democracy and market economy. Today, more than 15 years after the beginning of the transition process, a lot has changed. This book portrays the development of Georgia in this difficult period. It gives an overview of the experiences Georgia has gone through during transition. The first part of this book deals with the...

The 1980s saw the emergence of cyberpunk, that third wave in science fiction, and of radical constructivism. This interdisciplinary approach provides a sophisticated terminology for discussing our everyday constructions of reality in general (fiction in reality) and the parallel worlds of cyberspace in particular (reality in fiction). Phenomenological issues such as the invisible and the blind spots of perception are explored. The reader s prominent role in reception theory is developed further, showing his emancipation as observer and user of literature. Based on recent findings in the...