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"As early as in the mid-1930s, the world went towards eliminating the foundations of the classical doctrine of ius ad bellum and enforcing legal norms to restrain the violence of war. However, at the same time the world experiences the release of unbounded violence, epitomized by the rise of total war in the 20th century. Total war does not know any difference between combatants and non-combatants. Atrocities and war crimes are not just rare exceptions. How was it possible that in the modern age we are confronted with such an irreconcilable opposition between the morals and norms of war and the practice of war? The article will deal with this question by way of reconstructing essential elements of the discursive conditions of the 'dissociation mentality' (Bernd Hüppauf). This way of asking assumes that discourses on war, that is organized knowledge structures gained from texts, myths, images and collective symbols dealing with the experience of violence in the context of war, considerably influence the views, mentalities, moral orientations and behaviour of humans. In the article, the analysis will be restricted to one certain discourse which developed in Germany in the interwar period. The thesis is that the 'discourse of martial society' must be counted among the institutional preconditions of unbounded violence in World War II, because it was systematically severing the commitment to civilized norms. The discourse comprised a fundamental criticism of those barriers to violence as gained by civilization, which becomes particularly obvious by a criticism of the political philosophy of the Romantic period and Western civilization. It aimed at heroic individualization, the modernization of social structures according to military patterns and at total mobilization. And not the least, it led into an apology of violence." (author's abstract)

At the beginning of the XXI century, human societies are entering a period of "late modernity" characterized by new forms of trust and risk, untransparent social situations and economic, political and cultural globalization. These processes are associated with the presence of abstract systems that surround people and which require support of people with expertise in the fields which include transport, telecommunications, finance, security, media, energy. At the same time, it is noted that the expertise cult is born and specialists not only meet the identified needs, but also produce new, thus contributing to the development of a culture of narcissism. Article aims to explain the characteristics of expert systems and cultural narcissism, experts role as a participant in social change, model types and kinds of experts with their arcane in to ontological and epistemological structures of the social world. I also highlight the problems associated with the suppression of restrictions in to the access of expertise knowledge.

Draws on historical data for northwestern Portugal to explore links between child survival & family circumstances during the 19th & early 20th centuries. A review of past health statistics reveals the importance of familial circumstances. Survival rates are analyzed across 10-year cohorts, 1830-1959, for children born to married couples & unwed mothers or abandoned in foundling homes. It is shown that children born to unwed mothers more often died in the first year of life than those born to married couples. However, children born to unwed mothers who kept them had higher survival rates than those left at institutions. Findings are consistent with those from studies of historical populations in other parts of Europe. Examination of the impact of socioeconomic conditions not only highlights the greater health problems associated with poverty, but suggests that marginal children are more likely to receive inferior care because they are considered dispensable. Issues of sex selection are discussed, along with implications for child survival in contemporary societies. 5 Tables, 68 References. J. Lindroth

This Chpt (originally published as "Interrogating Official History" in Indigenous Movements and Their Critics: Pan-Maya Activism in Guatemala [Princeton U Press, 1998]) examines Mayan multiculturalism & the violence of memories to show how Mayan intellectuals have dismantled the authoritativeness of accounts of 16th-century chronicles recording the initial contacts with indigenous people in the New World, which were traditionally viewed as neutral windows to the national past. Reading these texts "against the grain," Mayan Enrique Sam Colop has constructed a new account of the past in which the reverberation of terror throughout the centuries can be mastered & molded. Connective flashes attuned to the reverberations of torture, confession, & punishment from the 16th to the 20th centuries are not one-way temporal insights. Rather, such flashes represent the reflection of contemporary violence & racism in a past that encompasses the present. 41 References. A. Funderburg

"Dan Smith gives an overview of the current findings on the causes of armed conflict at the end of the 20th and the beginning of the 21th century. Emphasis is placed upon where to look for signs of potential escalation when analysing conflicts, as well as where to seek opportunities for preventing violent escalation. The author then discusses the state of theoretical knowledge in this area, before proceeding to outline methodology, moving away from a theoretical and towards an applied approach for the study and analysis of armed conflict. Emphasis is placed upon the interplay between background and foreground causes. Injustice and mobilisation turn out to be key concepts for interpreting the causes of armed conflicts. To illustrate this the author gives an example: the significance of perceived injustice and identity as objects for political mobilisation towards conflict during the decay of the former Yugoslavia." (author's abstract)

In the social sciences, teaching methods, approaches and tools have advanced over the past decades. This progress, however, has mostly taken place on a theoretical level. Very few of the ideas and findings were implemented in class. A typical class in the social sciences remains in a lecture format with hardly any technology besides slides. There are several reasons why courses like Political Science, International Relations and others have not implemented more of the methodological and technological progress that has taken place in the 20th and 21st century so far. While the COVID19 pandemic that started in 2020 has caused a major step forward towards acceptance of technologies in the social sciences there are more tools and devices that will bring further experiences to the discipline in the near future. One of the technologies that is entering higher education now is Virtual Reality (VR). This chapter will explore VR as a technology, discuss its application in higher education and analyse its contemporary and future role in the social sciences.

Der Aufsatz diskutiert den Film "Chile – La memoria obstinada" (Chile – Widerspenstige Erinnerungen) von Patricio Guzmán und "Calle Santa Fe" (Calle Santa Fe – Erinnerung an eine revolutionäre Zeit) von Carmen Castillo. In beiden Filmen dokumentieren die chilenischen FilmemacherInnen ihre Rückkehr aus dem Exil nach Chile. Mit den Mitteln des Films untersuchen sie die Spuren der Vergangenheit im Chile nach der Diktatur und leisten einen Beitrag zur Erarbeitung einer Geschichte des sozialen Aufbruchs in der Zeit der Unidad Popular, Anfang der 1970er Jahre, des Militärputsches von 1973 und der folgenden Militärdiktatur. Anhand einer dichten Beschreibung von zentralen Sequenzen beider Filme arbeitet der Aufsatz die unterschiedlichen Positionierungen und damit verbundenen Fragestellungen und Methoden der beiden RegisseurInnen heraus. In der Auseinandersetzung mit den beiden Filmen werden auch grundsätzliche Fragen der Geschichtsforschung im Medium Film diskutiert.