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Women’s protection has been largely discussed in conflict and gender scholarship and promoted as a key priority for governments, NGOs and international community. However, when critically analysed, the meaning of protection in conflict settings and the understanding of who should provide protection in emergencies, conflict and complex humanitarian crisis remain ambiguous. In long-term conflict settings for example, it is unclear whose role it is to protect civilians...
This is the seventh article in our series on refugees. This article deals with the accommodation of Syrian refugees living in Germany. Based on my personal experience living in a refugee camp („Heim“) in the city of Cologne (Köln), and based on relevant literature, the article will, firstly, address the different types of temporary residences for refugees in Germany, and, secondly, the process through which refugees pass while looking for a permanent accommodation. Thirdly, and most importantly, the article discusses the ongoing shift within Köln’s urban and social structure in the light of the emerging resettlement of refugees. Although the urban structure of Köln, like many other German cities, has a certain level of urban segregation manifested in the settlement of immigrant communities (Friedrichs 1998, p.1), I argue that, on the contrary, the resettlement of Syrian refugees shows coherence and dispersion. The article is accompanied by a mapping survey that investigates on the spatial aspect of the accommodation distribution...
The text reframes the current debate about refugees in Germany by contrasting Germany’s recent history of racist violence and limitations of asylum laws with the resistance and agency of refugee movements across Germany. Both provide an important lens to re-examine the simultaneous heralding of „welcome culture“, a sharp rise in arson attacks on asylum centres and the current legislative roll-back of refugee rights in Germany.
The Crusade movement is one of the most important occurrences of medieval history. It took place throughout two centuries in the Levant and affected both Muslims and Crusaders and in turn changed the way in which West and East related to one another. When the Crusaders took control of the Holy Land and many Islamic cities in the Levant, they transferred their feudal European system there. They established four main fiefdoms or lordships, Jerusalem, Edessa, Antioch and Tripoli. In addition, there were another twelve secondary fiefdoms, of which Tibnīn was one. Tibnīn was called “Toron” by the Crusaders. Once the Crusaders had captured Tibnīn, they began building its fortified castle, from which the fief of Tibnīn gained its importance throughout the period of the Crusades.
This paper traces the military role of Tibnīn and its rulers in the Latin East against the Muslims until 1187/ 583. Tibnīn played a key role in overcoming the Muslims in Tyre and controlled it in 1124. It also played a vital role in the conflict between Damascus and the Kingdom of Jerusalem. Tibnīn participated in defending Antioch, Banyas, Hebron and Transjordan several times. Furthermore, its soldiers and Knights joined the army of the Kingdom of Jerusalem to capture Ascalon in 1153, and joined the campaigns of Amaury I, King of Jerusalem, against Egypt from 1164 to1169. The military situation of Tibnīn under the rule of the royal house until its fall to the Muslims in 1187/ 583 will be studied as well.
We determine optimal monetary policy under commitment in a forwardlooking New Keynesian model when nominal interest rates are bounded below by zero. The lower bound represents an occasionally binding constraint that causes the model and optimal policy to be nonlinear. A calibration to the U.S. economy suggests that policy should reduce nominal interest rates more aggressively than suggested by a model without lower bound. Rational agents anticipate the possibility of reaching the lower bound in the future and this amplifies the effects of adverse shocks well before the bound is reached. While the empirical magnitude of U.S. mark-up shocks seems too small to entail zero nominal interest rates, shocks affecting the natural real interest rate plausibly lead to a binding lower bound. Under optimal policy, however, this occurs quite infrequently and does not imply positive average inflation rates in equilibrium. Interestingly, the presence of binding real rate shocks alters the policy response to (non-binding) mark-up shocks.
We analytically show that a common across rich/poor individuals Stone-Geary utility function with subsistence consumption in the context of a simple two-asset portfolio-choice model is capable of qualitatively explaining: (i) the higher saving rates of the rich, (ii) the higher fraction of personal wealth held in stocks by the rich, and (iii) the higher volatility of consumption of the wealthier. On the contrary, time-variant "keeping-up with the Joneses" weighted average consumption playing the role of moving benchmark subsistence consumption gives the same portfolio composition and saving rates across the rich and the poor, failing to reconcile the model with what micro data say.
The paper introduces the socio-anthropological concept of international representations to examine the relationship between a civilizational rhetoric, the West European and the international politics of otherization and containment of Southeast Europe, and an essentialist and timeless bias in international relations theory, including both radical and constructivist trends...
In April 2002 the European Central Bank (ECB) and the Center for Financial Studies (CFS) launched the ECB-CFS Research Network to promote research on “Capital Markets and Financial Integration in Europe”. The ECB-CFS research network aims at stimulating top-level and policy-relevant research, significantly contributing to the understanding of the current and future structure and integration of the financial system in Europe and its international linkages with the United States and Japan. This report summarises the work done under the network after two years. Over time the network formed a coherent and growing group of researchers interested in the integration of European financial markets, while using light organisational structures and budgets. The members of this evolving group met repeatedly at the events organised by the network to present the latest results of their research and to share views on policy options. In this sense, the “network of people” intended at the start was created. Overall, the network aroused great interest, as leading academic researchers, researchers from the main policy institutions and high-level policy makers participated actively in it by presenting research results, through speeches and in policy panels. It also stimulated a new research field on securities settlement systems, an area of high policy relevance and interest to the ECB that had not attracted much interest in the research community beforehand. Also, the network seems to have triggered several related outside initiatives by international institutions, such as the IMF or the OECD. During its first two years the network was organised around three workshops and a final symposium on 10-11 May 2004. To focus research resources and to ensure medium-term policy relevance, a limited number of areas have been given top priority: bank competition and the geographical scope of banking; international portfolio choices and asset market linkages between Europe, the United States and Japan; European bond markets; European securities settlement systems; and the emergence and evolution of new markets in Europe (in particular start-up financing markets). In order to stimulate further research focused on the priority fields of the network, the ECB Lamfalussy research fellowships were established. These fellowships sponsor projects proposed by young researchers, both a dvanced doctoral students and younger professors. Five Lamfalussy fellowships were granted in 2003 and five more in 2004. The first papers from this program have already been issued in the ECB working paper series or are forthcoming. One of them won the prize for the best paper written by a Ph.D. student at the 2004 European Finance Association Meetings in Maastricht. Results of the network in the five top priority areas can be summarised as follows: Bank competition and the geographical scope of banking. First, integration does not appear to be very advanced in many retail banking markets. Second, some of the inherent characteristics of traditional loan and deposit business constrain the cross-border expansion of commercial banking, even in a common currency area. Hence, the implementation of some policies to foster cross-border integration in retail banking may be ineffective. Third, theoretical research suggests that supervisory structures may not be neutral towards further European banking integration. Finally, a stronger role of area-wide competition policies could be beneficial for further banking integration. This would also stimulate economic growth, as more competition in the banking sector induces financially dependent firms to grow more. European bond markets. While the government bond market has integrated rapidly with the EMU convergence process, its full integration has not yet been achieved. The introduction of a common electronic trading platform reduced transaction costs substantially, but yield spreads of long-term sovereign bonds of the euro area are still heterogeneous. This is largely explained by different sensitivities to an international risk factor, whereas liquidity differentials only play a role in conjunction with this latter factor. Somewhat surprisingly in this context, the dynamically developing corporate bond market exhibits a relatively high level of integration. There is also increasing evidence that the introduction of the euro has contributed to a reduction in the cost of capital in the euro area, in particular through the reduction of corporate bond underwriting fees. As a result, firms may wish to increase bond financing relative to equity financing. The development of a larger corporate bond market is also important for monetary policy. For example, US evidence suggests that the rating of corporate bonds may contribute to the persistence of recessions, as rating agencies´ policies affect firms asymmetrically in their access to the bond market over the business cycle. US evidence also suggests that liquidity conditions in stock and bond markets tend to be positively correlated. European securities settlement systems. European securities settlement infrastructures are highly fragmented and further integration and/or consolidation would exploit economies of scale that could greatly benefit investors. It is not clear, however, whether direct public intervention in favour of consolidation would lead to the highest level of efficiency, for example because of the existence of strong vertical integration between trading and securities platforms (“silos”). In contrast, promoting open access to clearing and settlement systems could lead to consolidation and the highest level of efficiency. Finally, regarding concerns about unfair practices by Central Securities Depositories (CSDs) toward custodian banks, regulatory interventions favouring custodian banks should be discouraged, as long as CSDs are not allowed to price discriminate between custodian banks and investor banks. The emergence and evolution of new markets in Europe (in particular start-up financing markets). While fairly well integrated, “new markets” and start-up financing are less developed and integrated in Europe than in the United States. However, new markets and venture capitalists are the most important intermediaries for the financing of projects with high risk but with potentially very high return. The analysis carried out within the network reveals that European start-up financiers are mostly institutional investors, while US venture capitalists are mostly rich individuals. Also, new markets are essential for the development of start-up finance in Europe, as they provide an exit strategy for start-up financiers who can then sell new successful projects using initial public offerings. Finally, the legal framework affects the development of venture capital firms. For example, very strict personal bankruptcy laws constrain early stage entrepreneurs, reducing demand for venture capital finance. International portfolio choices and asset market linkages between Europe, the United States and Japan. At a global scale, asset market linkages have increased recently. For example, major economies such as the United States and the euro area have become more financially interdependent. This phenomenon can be observed in stock and bond markets as well as in money markets, where the main direction of spillovers has recently been from the US to the euro area. Country-specific shocks now play a smaller role in explaining stock return variations of firms whose sales are internationally diversified. Increases in firmby-firm market linkages are a global phenomenon, but they are stronger within the euro area than in the rest of the world. Various other phenomena also increase market linkages and therefore the likelihood that financial shocks spread across countries. One example is the use of global bonds. Finally, the nowadays more direct access of unsophisticated investors to financial markets may increase volatility. Other areas. Financial integration affects financial structures, but it does not need to lead to their convergence across countries. Financial structures matter for growth, as market-oriented financial systems benefit all sectors and firms, whereas bank-based systems primarily benefit younger firms that depend on external finance. Moreover, good corporate governance increases firms’ value. In particular, the dual board system, where the monitoring and advising roles of the board of directors are separated, is found to dominate the single board structure. Therefore, the further development of the European single market should strongly require good corporate governance. In general, well designed institutions foster entrepreneurial activity, partly by relaxing capital constraints. The results of the network clearly illustrated the substantial effects the introduction of the euro had on euro area financial markets. In addition to the effects on bond markets, stock markets and the cost of capital summarised above, research produced showed that the single currency had its strongest effects on money markets, whose unsecured segment is now completely integrated. Without any doubt the euro generally enhanced the liquidity and efficiency of euro area financial markets, and ongoing initiatives such as the European Union’s Financial Services Action Plan will help to continue this process. In sum, in the first two years the network has established itself as the hub for the research debate on European financial integration. Some of the best papers produced by the network, leading to the conclusions mentioned above, are currently being considered for publication in two special issues of academic journals. An issue of the Oxford Review of Economic Policy on “European financial integration” is published contemporaneously with this report, and an issue of the Review of Finance is planned for next year. The current policy context, the gradual progress of integration as well as the creation of other related non-ECB or non-CFS initiatives on financial integration suggest that this topic will remain high on the agendas of policy makers and academics for the years to come. Therefore, the ECB Executive Board and the CFS decided to continue the network, refocusing its priorities. Three priority areas have been added: 1) The relationship between financial integration and financial stability, 2) EU accession, financial development and financial integration, and 3) financial system modernisation and economic growth in Europe. These three areas have become particularly important at the current juncture, but have not received particularly strong attention in the first two years of the network. For example, the area of financial stability research was highlighted by the ECB research evaluators as an area deserving further development. Moreover, despite the results found in the first two years of the network, new developments remain to be further explored in the earlier priority areas. A three-year extension is envisaged, running from after the May 2004 symposium until 2007, with two events to be held per year. The threeyear period is long enough to consider the first effects of the Financial Services Action Plan. It also constitutes a realistic horizon for the ambitious agenda implied by the three new priorities. The generally light organisational structure and working of the network will not be changed. In addition, given the value of the Lamfalussy fellowship research program in inducing further research in the areas of the network, the program has also been extended for all the research topics in the area of the network.
This report arises from research carried out in Iganga and Namutumba districts in late 2006/early 2007 by the Cultural Research Centre (CRC), based in Jinja. Our research focus was to gauge the impact of using Lusoga as a medium of instruction (since 2005 in "pilot" lower primary classes) within and outside the classroom. This initiative was in response to a new set of circumstances in the education sector in Uganda, especially the introduction by Government of teaching in local languages in lower primary countrywide from February 2007. This followed an experimental period, in selected pilot districts, including Iganga, where fifteen pilot schools had been chosen: all these became part of this study.
In Lango, Northern Uganda, 20 years of war, cattle rustling and HIV/AIDS have resulted in widespread loss of life, population displacement, and loss of property. In spite of this turmoil, some traditional cultural practices, such as widow inheritance, early child marriage, and widow cleansing continued, although they were increasingly seen to conflict with ‘modern’ development thinking, especially when infringing women and children’s rights. External development actors first tried to address this situation by ‘sensitising’ communities, but with limited success. It however soon became evident that clan leaders were instrumental in perpetuating cultural practices: in the early 2000’s, they became increasingly identified as key actors to address harmful traditions and to resolve conflicts. With the many trials faced by local communities, women’s roles in supporting the family institution and upholding cultural values had however expanded too. Several development organisations were established to address the challenges related to these changes and one was the Lango Female Clan Leaders’ Association, with a focus on promoting girls’ education and access to justice for women. This case study examines the role that these female clan leaders have successfully played in tackling current gender- related challenges. It explores the interface between traditional and modern gender concepts and the value of working with cultural resource persons to address cultural challenges. The study involved desk research, field based semistructure interviews, focus group discussions with 30 respondents and key informants, and a validation write-shop, all held in the course of 2008.
In late 2006/early 2007, the Cultural Research Centre (CRC), with financial and technical support from the Cross-Cultural Foundation of Uganda, carried out research in Iganga and Namutumba districts to gauge the impact of the introduction of the local language as a medium of instruction in ‘pilot’ lower primary school classes. Our research was in response to new circumstances in Uganda’s education sector, with Government introducing teaching in local languages in lower primary classes from February 2007. This was accompanied by a “thematic curriculum”, to develop early childhood skills that are fundamental to continuing educational performance in numeracy, literacy and life skills. This was a departure from the earlier emphasis on the acquisition of facts in various subjects in primary schools, mostly focusing on recall, and mostly taught in English. This nationwide policy followed a pilot initiative in four districts, including Iganga (later split into Iganga and parts of Namutumba districts), where 15 pilot schools had been chosen. Instruction in Lusoga in Primary 1 to 3 classes started there in 2005, following a period of teacher training. From the outset however, parents, teachers, pupils and others raised questions: was teaching in the local language possible, and would it make a positive difference to learning?
The “Diversity Concept of the Goethe University Frankfurt am Main 2011–2014” is based on the goals as laid down in the University Development Plan 2011. The Goethe University combined various instruments for working out the concept, not least in order to ensure adequate participation: on the one hand, guided interviews were conducted, for example, with employees in advisory functions, members of the AStA (General Students’ Commit-tee), etc. On the other hand, Internet research, an open space workshop, as well as four strategy and awareness-raising workshops on various topics were organized.
The concept was developed in close cooperation with the vice president responsible for gender and diversity, Prof. Dr. Roser Valenti, the Senate Commission “Advancement of Women, Equal Opportunity, and Diversity”, the “Project Supervision Group Diversity Poli-cies”, and the Equal Opportunities Office.
The Goethe University already has various concepts and target agreements on gender equal-ity and family support. The Diversity Concept therefore includes no measures on these top-ics. With the expiry of the Plan for the Advancement of Women in 2014, all of the other reports and measures related to equal opportunity and diversity will be consolidated in a central “Gender Equality & Diversity Action Plan of the Goethe University Frankfurt am Main” (GEDAP) and updated every four years.
In a recently published study on mineral waters from various manufacturers, scientists at Johann Wolfgang Goethe University Frankfurt established that some of the samples exam-ined in an in vitro test system revealed the presence of not otherwise specified substances with hormone-like activity. The scientists noted that this effect was determined more particu-larly in samples taken from mineral water in bottles made of the plastic, PET. Amongst the public at large this prompted questions about the potential health impact of drinking mineral water from PET bottles. The Federal Institute for Risk Assessment (BfR) has undertaken an initial, provisional assessment of the study findings.
The impacts of climate and environmental changes on migration have gained increasing attention in recent years. Yet the role and significance of the climate as an influencing factor for migratory processes is still poorly understood. Case studies are required which consider the specific historical, socio-cultural and environmental context. The micle project examined the interactions between climate change, land degradation and migration in selected regions in the Sahelian countries Mali and Senegal.
This year’s conference of the AFK (German Association for Peace and Conflict Studies) and the European Peace Research Association (EuPRA) is on "Peace and Conflict Studies from the Margins to the Centre; Rethinking Europe in an Unequal World" (16 – 18 March 2017 in Schwerte (nearby Dortmund), Germany).
The virtual realm of the internet is often seen as an egalitarian world where differences such as those between young and established researchers do not seem so significant. While we do not fully agree with this thesis, we want to use this blog to make a model attempt at providing a platform in which those participating in the conference and others can enter discussion with young students, established researchers, and peace activists.
To make this possible, we started a project in cooperation with the Bretterblog – a young team of researchers who established this blog some years ago. Here we will discuss the topics of the conference and will inform a broader audience about the newest results in peace and conflict research from different countries.