Within written history, Europe is rich in post-imperial situations. In the twentieth century the dwindling empires of this century, born during European colonial expansion after Columbus, gave rise to new post-imperial conditions with a global impact. Europe is no exception. On other continents, empires have also emerged and faded away: Latin-America with the Mayas and the Aztecs, and, notably, Asia where the Chinese Empire has disappeared and re-emerged at different historical junctures. On their way down, European empires have produced what could be labelled a post-imperial stress syndrome, very much like a PTSD, producing certain defensive ideological configurations of parochialism, xenophobia and nostalgic illusions, binding them to a past they have left, but are still chained to, mentally and ideologically. The fall or fading away of an empire is not just an event with a precise date, but a process, which, inevitably, shows cracks before it actually happens. Such frictions anticipating a future reality can only be caught by imagination. This article will concentrate on two such imaginative post-imperial prefigurations before the fact is generally recognized, both concerning the dissolution of the British Empire. It can be argued that, with Brexit, Britain is still trying to come to terms with its post-imperial reality. One such prefiguration will be seen through the eyes of the centre, J.M. Forster’s A Passage to India (1924), the other from the periphery, Chinua Achebe’s Things Fall Apart (1958).

Approaching the 21st century, humankind faces a paradox: the ocean covers more than two-thirds of the Earth's surface and has a core role in providing living and non-living resources for the world's population, but it is much less understood than the terrestrial part of our planet.

Archaeological sites can be excellent alternative museums. They need appropriate enclosures and an imaginative arrangement of archaeological objects or replicas.

In recent years large global programmes on the environment have been developed in which geography provides an essential component. This article outlines the main programmes in progress.

The decolonization of Indonesia is far from being a peripheral issue for Dutch national identity. Since the 1970s, but especially in 1995, public debate has erupted in an attempt to come to terms with this part of national history. The protestant ethic is still so strong that discussions revolve in particular around morality and a final verdict. Opinion leaders and historians have, however, not been able to solve the issue, so that the way in which the Netherlands lost their Southeast-Asian colony continues to trouble the Dutch self-image.

The article gives, first of all, a general presentation of the European Space Agency (ESA), followed by a more detailed outline of the ESA's Science Programme, its content, resources, organization, advisory structure and decision procedures. The various types of missions and the place they occupy in the programme are described. From a scientific point of view, these missions fit into four main themes of research, which are also potential ‘roadmaps’ for international collaboration. In the second part of the article, an outline is given of most of the projects that have been already undertaken, are in process or are being planned at the present time.

This paper discusses the explanations for the causes and features of earthquakes in the works of philosopher and scientist Avicenna (980–1037) and in the theologian Fakhr al-Dīn al-Rāzī (1149–1209), who was deeply familiar with the work of Avicenna and who criticized him sharply on many occasions. The aim of this paper is to check the well-known hypothesis according to which Muslim theologians sometimes set out doctrines that were much more innovative from a scientific point of view than those of philosophers, strictly linked to Aristotle. This paper thus contributes to the history of Graeco-Arabic translations and the history of science. Avicenna's and Fakhr al-Dīn al-Rāzī's doctrines are compared with Aristotle and the Arabic tradition of the Meteorologica.

I discuss the Dutch maritime and colonial empire in South East Asia (1600–1950) and its literature. Focusing in particular on its absence from most postcolonial debate today, my aim here is to explore why and how this missing Dutch empire and its literature matter to postcolonial theory. I will consider a range of recent reactions to the 19th-century Dutch author Multatuli and his classic novel Max Havelaar or the Coffee Auctions of the Dutch Trading Company (1860). The Indonesian writer Pramoedya Ananta Toer, for example, has expressed the view that it was this novel that ‘put an end to colonialism”. I will also try and assess the continuing relevance of Multatuli's Max Havelaar, considering in particular the issues of justice and humanity raised by this novel about the human cost of coffee production.

The definition of the term culture has become so vague as to be almost synonymous with human life; as an analytic term it has become nearly valueless. Of course, it can be used as a description of artistic activity, but this also becomes dubious when applied to popular mass culture. Culture often carries a sense of superior ethical values, but this too declines into confusion when multiculturism is opposed to culture as a whole.

The studies of human behaviour that foreground the explanatory role of exogenously given incentives and constraints give short shrift to the role of agency, or the behaviour(s) of actors, in attempting to shed light on both policy and behaviour. This article reverses the emphasis – with the example of ethnic politics in the southern Austrian province of Carinthia with respect to the preservation and/or erection of German-language and Slovenian-language inscriptions – by arguing that the behavioural strategies of vulnerable or disadvantaged groups, such as national minorities, can carry significant political consequences – and thus are worthy of study. Specifically, the article looks into a politics of consensus and a politics of (political) realism, as the latter are advocated by Carinthian Slovenes in Austria. The findings serve as a wake-up call for West European states in particular, which, arguably, have grown complacent about their own minority rights records.

In this paper we propose a methodological critique of the History of Early Modern Journalism. Our proposal recommends a review of the ‘micro’ concept applied to research in The History of Early Modern Journalism. The current study on the Gazeta de Roma in Valencia (1618–1620) is a sample of this microscopic procedure, and is an important and revealing example that enables us to reinterpret the concept of periodicity. We will discuss the value of periodicity as a demarcation. The contemporaries of the first European newspapers applied characteristics and criteria other than periodicity: a ‘newspaper’ was then a serial document that informed progressively about the news from a certain area at that time, the continuity of which was recognizable thanks to certain typographical resources, in the absence of the header concept.

The aim of this article is to analyse the TV series Black Sun/Shadows over the Balkans (Senke nad Balkanom, 2017, Dragan Bjelogrlić), understood as a reflection of the ways in which diverse imperial legacies, persisting differences and contrasting pasts shaped the (ambivalent) post-imperial traumatic history of the newly formed Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes in 1918. The burden of imperial legacy – mostly manifested in ethnic, political, cultural and economic tensions among diverse nations in the new multi-ethnic state – kept brewing under the surface and came to represent a constant threat of balkanization i.e. further fragmentation of the multicultural kingdom. In this article I claim that the same danger of balkanization – traced back to the years after the Great War – continued to haunt all successor states of the Kingdom of Yugoslavia (and Yugoslavias ensuing from 1943 until 1992) eventually resulting in the break-up of the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia (SFRY) in 1992. The irreconcilable differences and competing ambitions of different national, social and geopolitical identities define the structure, characters and their relations in the TV narrative, and are also reflected in the cityscape of Belgrade – the capital of the Kingdom and paradigmatic Balkan metropolis – in the late 1920s. The series is read against the theories of Dominique Moisi’s Geopolitics of Emotions (2010) and La géopolitique des séries/Geopolitics of TV Series (2016), and his assertion that TV series have become crucial in understanding our world in its many aspects – from domestic politics to geopolitics. The story of Belgrade between the two World Wars reveals the traumatic imperial legacy as determining the emergence of a ‘culture of fear, hope and humiliation’, tensions of balkanization and search for identity in the city suspended between an Ottoman casaba and a European metropolis. On the other side – in terms of narrative, genre, and visual style – the series itself is seen as the acculturated version of both the novel Der nasse Fisch (Volker Kutscher, 2007) and the TV series Babylon Berlin (2017), illustrating the rise of cultural imperialism in post-imperial times.

The introduction of the euro has led to three dominant currencies in the financial markets, namely the euro, dollar and yen. The use of the euro as the single currency is a key element for economic and political unification in the EU (European Union). While some of the criteria for achieving monetary integration between the European Monetary Union (EMU) member countries in the euro area have been satisfied, some problems still remain. As the euro is not the currency of a single country like the dollar, the dollar still retains its dominant position in the international markets. After the Brexit referendum, apprehension regarding the collapse of the EU has reached a peak. Originally introduced in 12 EU member countries, and since extended to 19, the euro may potentially embrace 27 member countries. In this study, the economic impacts of the euro on the per capita income, inflation rate and foreign direct investment are analysed. The analysis will be performed on three countries participating in the EMU, namely, Germany, France and Italy.

Memories are stored in the brain in the form of changes in synaptic connectivity brought about through a cascade of molecular processes. Transient synaptic changes result in alterations in gene expression and, ultimately, the synthesis of a family of cell adhesion molecules which are responsible for holding the synapse in a new configuration. However, memory remains a dynamic property of the brain system as a whole, rather than ‘residing’ in any particular small region.

The various meanings of the terms ‘postmodernism’ and ‘postmodernity’ are traced; in various European languages these mean different things. Postmodernist discussion in the various arts is not synchronous. Postmodernism can be seen as the cultural expression of the times we supposedly live in, but are the achievements of modernity gone for ever?

In the first years after World War I there was a strong reaction against science and technology in Germany that was backed by the Lebensphilosophie and Anthroposophie movements. This sudden change in public opinion was not the result of new concepts and convictions that did not exist before; rather, the spectrum of opinions in the Weimar Republic continued those of the Wilhelminian period. However, the strength of critical voices was increased substantially as a result of the defeat in the war and its consequences. It may be that the enfranchisement of women in Germany in 1918 at least indirectly influenced the substantial shift in opinion after 1918. The continuity of a critical attitude towards science and technology from 1870 to 1933 seems deeply rooted in the German educational system and among the leaders of society, stemming from the so-called Bildungsbürgertum.

New Technology may have unintended and even negative impacts. This article explores some new approaches in policy analysis of socio-technical networks aimed at improving foresight for technological advances.

The paper deals with the role of Latin and the whole Latin tradition (Latinitas) in East and Central Europe. The main thesis is that, when viewed from various perspectives, this tradition proves to be an integrating as well as a disintegrating factor in the cultural community of the region. Concluding remarks concern the relevance of the Latin heritage for preservation of the cultural identity in East-Central Europe.

Amongst the most significant extreme meteorological phenomena are the Sand and Dust Storms (SDS). Owing to significant amounts of airborne mineral dust particles generated during these events, SDS have impacts on climate, the environment, human health, and many socio-economic sectors (e.g. aviation, solar energy management). Many studies and reports have underlined that the society has to understand, manage and mitigate the risks and effects of SDS on life, health, property, the environment and the economy in a more unified way. The EU-funded European Cooperation in Science and Technology (COST) Action ‘InDust: International network to encourage the use of monitoring and forecasting Dust products’ has an overall objective to establish a network involving research institutions, service providers and potential end users on airborne dust information. We are a multidisciplinary group of international experts on aerosol measurements, aerosol modelling, stakeholders and social scientists working together, exchanging ideas to better coordinate and harmonize the process of transferring dust observation and prediction data to users, as well as to assist the diverse socio-economic sectors affected by the presence of high concentrations of airborne mineral dust. This article highlights the importance of being actively engaged in research networking activities, supported by EU and COST actions since common efforts help not only each scientist by shaping their expertise and strengthening their position, but also all communities.

Although tracing its origins back to antiquity, a distinctly new kind of alchemy emerged in mid-16th-century Europe. This new tradition developed out of the teachings of Paracelsus (1493–1541), a German medical practitioner who challenged the authority of university-trained physicians. He sought to establish a reformed kind of medicine based on first-hand experience of the natural world rather than dry scholastic texts. Alchemy was at the heart of this new medicine, a body of experimental practice and theory that not only held out the promise of improving the health of individuals but could also be applied to wider sicknesses of society.