This paper deals with the reversal of the hierarchy between text and performance, which can be traced back to the turn of the 20th century. In particular, two possibilities of how to redefine the relationship between text and performance are explored and discussed. Both these possibilities have played a prominent role in German theatre since the 1970s and are modelled after distinct cultural paradigms, namely the paradigm of sacrificial ritual and the paradigm of play/game. The leading questions of the investigation are: what purpose does it serve to take recourse to these paradigms and how has it affected the performance as well as writing for the theatre?

Genetic interventions will improve the genome, but they will never make a human being out of the human animal

Using research on the ageing mind, support is offered for the concept of bio-cultural sciences. The bio-cultural sciences highlight the notion that human behaviour is the joint and co-constructive expression of biological–genetic and cultural–societal processes and conditions. The genome determines the ontogeny of the brain; however, so does the cultural–social environment and individual behaviour. The study of the ageing mind illustrates this principle of bio-cultural co-construction. One fertile theory distinguishes between the declining biology-driven cognitive mechanics and the maintained or even increasing culture-driven cognitive pragmatics. Beginning in early adulthood, the plasticity of the cognitive mechanics decreases with advancing age, but the cognitive pragmatics exploit the opportunities of culture and the experiential and interpersonal contexts in which people develop and, therefore, they can exhibit lifelong positive expressions. Professional expertise, artistic competence, social–emotional intelligence and wisdom are examples of late-life potentials in the cognitive pragmatics. This view does not exclude the fact that, in the oldest (Fourth Age), ageing losses become more prominent and affect the cognitive pragmatics as well. A general developmental theory is presented that illustrates how, within the limits offered by biological- and culture-based plasticity, successful ageing is accomplished by the orchestration of three behavioural processes: selection, optimization, and compensation.

The prospects for the spread of democracy around the world in the 21st century appear to be bright, but there are also important reasons for pessimism. One is that politicians and constitution-writers in the democracies are not aware of, or choose to ignore, compelling social science evidence concerning the superiority of parliamentary systems of government and proportional representation (in contrast to presidential government and majoritarian electoral systems). The older democracies are not in danger of failing, but they are losing much of their democratic vitality, as seen in the decline of people's interest in politics, decreasing voter participation, and the serious weakening of political parties. For these problems, too, parliamentarism and proportional representation are at least partial remedies, but stronger measures (such as compulsory voting) also deserve to be considered seriously

The Dead Sea area is unique in the sense that it is a natural laboratory in which key topics in several scientific disciplines can be studied in situ. Processes that take place during continental break-up, geochemistry and dynamics of the hypersaline Dead Sea water, paleoclimate and paleoseismic records in sediments and the survival mechanisms of halophilic micro-organisms are among the topics being studied there. Active tectonic processes control all aspects of the Dead Sea and have created an environment that has also influenced the course of human history.

If we want things to stay as they are, thing will have to change

Guiseppe di Lampedusa, The Leopard

Medical and technical knowledge in medicine has increased more in the last 50 years than in the previous five centuries. Many factors have contributed to this dramatic change, including developments in pathophysiology, genetics, molecular biology and basic science. There is no reason to fear that this daunting progress will be halted in the third millennium. The practice of medicine in the present and next decades will also change rapidly because of new perceptions and demands of the patients, and evolution in society. In this article, some factors affecting medicine and the drivers of change in health are discussed. Expenditure for health cure and care is increasing faster than the financial income. On which criteria should one re-allocate resources and decide between difficult choices? Medical doctors, sociologists, philosophers, economists, politicians all have different views of needs in a world of uncontrolled rather than controlled liberalism. Some issues are identified here, but no solutions or recommendations are offered.

In the 20th century, European countries had marked declines in mortality rates, initially at younger ages, and subsequently at older ages. This resulted in ‘rectangularization’ of the survival curve: large proportions of the population surviving to older ages, at which point mortality rates increase sharply. The extent to which this will be accompanied by increases in the proportions of older people suffering morbidity has been debated. There are marked differences in life expectancy at older ages among European countries. France, Italy, Spain, and Sweden have better than average life expectancy at age 65. Denmark, Germany, the UK and the Netherlands have lower. Within countries, there are marked socio-economic differences in morbidity and mortality at older ages. The impact of illness is also likely to differ according to an individual's social circumstances. It is essential to have longitudinal studies examining the determinants and impact of health and well-being in ageing populations. Ideally, these should be carried out in a way that facilitates international comparisons

The Irish literary revival at the beginning of the last century established the concept of ‘house’ as a symbol of ‘nation’ in dramatic writing. Strangers to the house thus took on the mantle of imperialist forces whose colonial project, practices and values had to be resisted and expelled. The allegorical situations of houses and strangers in theatre foreshadowed revolution and eventual independence for the country decades later. Contemporary Irish playwrights continue to use the house/stranger, familiar/foreign dichotomies as templates for their exploration of the current state of the ‘nation’, but they are also beginning to explore the idea that ‘strangeness’ might be a condition that should be embraced to ensure the future health of that nation.

In the 1996 US Presidential elections, new information and communication technologies (ICTs), particularly the Internet and World Wide Web (Web), began to play a visible role in US campaigns and elections, and its role has expanded to shape the political process more generally. Case studies have shown how the Web, for example, can facilitate the rapid exchange of information that is essential to coordinating political activity. By virtue of reducing the costs of communication, it has become accessible to grassroots organisations without the resources to mount more traditional media campaigns. This study looks in-depth at one campaign – Stop the Overlay – which employed the Internet and Web to effect public policy and regulatory change locally, but with implications for California and the US. Our study led us to employ the framework of an ecology of games to discuss the interplay among the separate but interdependent decisions and games that shaped the campaign. The case shows how this Web-orchestrated campaign was one element that reconfigured the ecology of games in ways that influenced policy decisions. It accomplished this not only by altering the costs of communication, but by reshaping access and thereby changing the networks of communication among political actors.

First, this paper sketches the development of labour history as a historical subdiscipline up to the 1970s and 1980s when it became a booming field, an area of great excitement and high productivity. Why this should have been the case is an interesting question to ask in hindsight. Secondly, I discuss certain trends in the last 10–15 years that are related to a decline in this field, not in terms of sophistication, but certainly with regard to the field's popularity among historians, students and the public. Dealing with this rather dramatic change might tell us something about the way my discipline – modern history with a stress on social history – works, where it gets its vitality from, its conjunctures and fashions. Thirdly, I present some personal ideas about how one could, and perhaps should, deal with the present situation, its problems and its opportunities. I am presently working on the third volume of a history of labour in 19th century Germany – a project to which I have returned after many years. Some of the general problems I have encountered in this project will also be dealt with, indirectly, in this paper.

An individual's personal sense of well-being (SWB) is an indicator of psychological adjustment and successful ageing. Health and functional capacity are viewed as important sources of life quality in old age but very little is known about their effects on SWB over time. Can older individuals maintain SWB despite declining health? Longitudinal data from the Berlin Aging Study, a locally representative sample of men and women aged 70 to 100+, indicate that cumulative health-related chronic life strains that characterize the Fourth Age set a constraint on the potential of the older individual to experience the positive side of life.

In the summer of 1910 the Paris weekly L'Opinion published a series of articles that severely criticized the University of Paris. This was the beginning of an intense debate on the nature and goals of university education. The meaning and limits of scientific knowledge and research were also discussed. There was a nationalistic side to the argument as well, as the Sorbonne was attacked for following the German model. The debate is still interesting, because it raises various issues of the relationship between university and society.

The Israeli theatre has frequently employed the Hebrew Bible as a source for theatrical performances. Analysing three such performances, this article shows that the Bible, with its charged ideological implications for the establishment of the state of Israel, has perhaps somewhat unexpectedly inspired avant-garde productions that have frequently criticized the accepted ideological and aesthetic norms. The first of the three performances analysed is Hanoch Levin's play based on the book of Job called ‘The Torments of Job’ (Yisorei Iov), which Levin directed at the Cameri theatre in 1981. The second is the play ‘Jehu’ by Gilead Evron, directed by Hanan Snir at the Habima National Theatre in 1992, and the third is the ‘Bible Project’ directed by Rina Yerushalmi, which consists of two independent, but interrelated productions: ‘And He Said And He Was Walking’ (Va Yomer Va Yelech), which premiered in 1996, and ‘And They Bowed. And He Feared’ (Va Yishtachu. Va Yerra) which premiered in 1998.

Sju tre (1999) is the most controversial theatre production in Sweden in modern times. Lars Norén, a well-known playwright and director, staged a dialogue involving three real convicts, of whom two were outspoken Nazis. Shortly after the last performance, the latter two men were involved in a bank robbery in which two policemen were killed. These scandalous events are discussed from three different perspectives, all, however, revolving around the uncertain boundaries between aesthetic, ethical, and political issues. By virtue of its performative impact, the theatrical event proved to be directly linked with critical questions of democracy, although conceivably at the expense of the artistic integrity of the director and the theatre as creator of public opinion.

What is the cyberworld and what is it for? Until now, most virtual worlds have shown interplanetary worlds where aliens or exotic animals live. In the future, virtual worlds will be populated by virtual actors and these actors will act in different situations. For example, in medical simulation, where they will be used as models for surgery, or where such virtual actors will play our roles in telecommunications processes or in entertainment, where we could join a virtual ballet or concert and be, as a virtual self, part of the virtual world. We will also be able, as a virtual human, to interact with virtual actors and explain all kinds of situations. The virtual actors will embody intelligent agents and give a human touch to the interaction with the computer. It will be as if we could deal with kind, affordable and smart humans who will be at our disposal at any time, with a lot of knowledge, and who will help us to understand, to learn and to experience situations that would be impossible without them. The door is then open to an enormous amount of new experience coming from the virtual world.

The interconversion of military and civilian scientific research has been discussed in various contexts. Fritz Haber was concerned with the military application of poison gas research in the First World War. It is less well known that, simultaneously, he also initiated modern pest control by toxic substances, thus taking advantage of the military development for civilian purposes. However, the case of Haber shows that, in the Age of Mass Extermination, such conversion cannot be easily kept under control.

Studies of self-reported health on large cohorts in Sweden indicate that men and women in lower social classes in this country report considerably worse health than men and women in the upper classes. This is in line with many other research findings in many countries. What is interesting in Swedish data, however, is that self-reported health improved during the ten-year period after retirement. This was particularly pronounced during the years of financial crisis during the 1990s. Low decision latitude at work seems to account for part of the poor health in the lower social classes. An important task in future research will be to tie the epidemiological findings on ageing to endocrine factors strongly correlated with ageing, such as female and male sex hormones as well as their precursor, DHEA.

What is the ‘virtual’ and what types of phenomena can be so described? This article tries to establish the context within which this unclear and ideological term can be constructive. Phrases such as ‘virtual community’ are paradoxical and weak, but ‘virtual’ applied cognitively to simulated phenomena, such as virtual worlds or computer games, has validity and represents an alternative discourse mode to narratives and storytelling in conveying experience and knowledge.

This paper highlights the role of chronic psychosocial stress in accelerated ageing and age-associated degenerative diseases, referring to the free radical theory of ageing. Chronic work stress in midlife provides an illustrative case to explore these associations, with an emphasis on cardiovascular disease and its subclinical precursors. It is argued that lack of control at work and the experience of an imbalance between efforts spent and rewards received at work trigger continued stress reactions with adverse long term effects on health. These conditions impair the working person's successful self-regulation in a core social role in adult life – the work role. Self-efficacy and self-esteem, two important psychological components of well-being and health, are compromised if personal control and social reward are lacking. Selected empirical results derived from epidemiological and experimental investigations are reported to illustrate this argument. In particular, otherwise healthy middle-aged employees suffering from stress at work are twice as likely to report a new cardiovascular disease in a five year period compared with their less stressed colleagues. In another study, an increase in average ambulatory systolic blood pressure and heart rate is observed in a group of workers characterized by an imbalance between effort and reward at work. The implications of this research for improved quality of life and healthy ageing in early old age concern the provision of adequate social roles, which offer opportunities for experiencing continued personal control and social reward. At the socio-political level, new forms of social productivity in economic and non-monetarized sectors need to be developed.

The aim of the paper is to show the impact contemporary drama has had on Polish theatre during the last 50 years. In this period, there were two innovative phases in Polish drama, both having a different impact on the theatre. After 1956, political changes allowed for noticeable transformations in the dramatic and stage conventions, which up to then were dominated by socialist realism. After 1989, political changes brought a few promising debuts, as well as new topics and means of expression, which had been almost completely absent from the Polish stage. At the same time, this paper tries to show in which respect Polish dramaturgy maintained its national uniqueness, while being influenced by world drama.