This article confronts two films about the request for a European passport by a Latin American citizen: Um Passaporte Húngaro (A Hungarian Passport, 2001) and El abrazo partido (Lost Embrace, 2003). Both films deal with memory of the Jewish-Latin American migration that took place within the context of the Holocaust, and both gear this problematic towards other, more contemporary, stories of displacement. It is argued that this multidirectional quality operates in two ways in relation to the concept of nationality: whereas one film puts it to work in order to critique and deconstruct the nation (centrifugal logic), the other uses it to opposite effect: to reaffirm and rebuild it (centripetal logic).

After a brief introduction to the basic concepts including some questions of language, the first part of this paper provides a brief survey of the historical development of laws and models in Chemistry, in particular atomic and molecular models. In the second part this paper deals with the fundamental role of the observation of symmetry violations in physics and chemistry in understanding the most ‘fundamental laws’ and current efforts towards such studies by means of high resolution spectroscopy of molecules. We conclude with a brief discussion of the implications for current unsolved problems in astrophysics and biology.

Progress is hardly a given in the humanities or the suspect sciences. In many ways we are not quite as astute as our grandparents, and they not as much as theirs, and so forth in an infinite entropic regress. Would I trade Montaigne or Stendhal's psychological acumen for even the best work that comes from social psychology departments? In this short essay I want to show just how good some medieval people, medieval Icelanders to be exact, were at understanding the mental and emotional states of others, and if of others then presumably, though not necessarily, also of themselves. And I hope to show in some ways they were rather more sophisticated than we are.

This essay considers Heidegger’s 1933–34 seminar ‘On the Essence and Concept of Nature, History, and State’ as an attempt to develop an anti-nihilist political philosophy based on human finitude and qualitative difference. I examine Heidegger’s views on the relation between people and state, the role of a leader, and the nature of political space. Heidegger distinguishes human existence from the natural world and argues that a people can attain its full, distinctively human Being only through its state, which is to be ruled absolutely by the soaring will of a born leader. He also offers an account of political space that distinguishes between the local homeland and the ‘interaction’ that connects it to a broader territory. I relate these ideas to some other texts by Heidegger and sketch an Arendtian critique of them.

For a period of 75 years after 1918 the territories of the present-day Czech Republic and Slovakia were part of one country, and therefore it was inevitable that very close relations between them would develop and which that could not suddenly be broken. Today, more than 20 years since the dissolution of Czechoslovakia, both of the newly formed countries are slowly reaching ‘adulthood’, and both the social situation and the development of mutual relations have been gradually stabilised. This contribution compares and evaluates the development of selected mutual relations between the Czech Republic and Slovakia. It is supported by a brief comparison of some basic features of the development of both countries, which is the information on which this study is based. The key part of the article comprises an analysis of the development of mutual relations and cooperation on a nationwide level. The trade and migration relations (labour and study migration) of both republics, especially after 1993, fall within the scope of the analysis. A separate section is devoted to the common borderland and the development and spatial differentiation of cross-border relations and cooperation.

The sea presented an important economic opportunity in the Middle Ages. The unpredictable risks of sea transport, the incalculability of time and distances opened a chance to those that were able to bridge the sea constantly and regularly and who were able to reduce the transaction costs most efficiently: the merchants of the late medieval ‘German Hansa’. The article will give a short introduction to the mechanisms and principles of international hanseatic trade in the Middle Ages.

This paper analyses testimonies of survivors of the detention camps operated by the last military dictatorship in Argentina, with special attention to the functions served by the referencing of testimonies of the Shoah (above all in Ese infierno, a collective testimony by five women in dialogue form). The intertextuality herein assumes different functions in the shaping of discourses and representations, whether in the form of a quotation, an epigraph, a metaphor, an endeavour to legitimise what is being said, a comparison, or an effort to incorporate one’s own experience into a narrative of the catastrophe already so well known in human history.

In the context of an ongoing Kosovo Government agenda promoting European Union accession, this paper examines the impact of two transitions – the post-conflict period and the current EU dialogue and negotiations – on the country’s Roma, Ashkali and Egyptian communities. The paper discusses the social and political dynamics of these two transitions and how they affect the status of the minority communities. It examines the role of intergovernmental and non-profit organizations in advancing protection measures (e.g. by pressing for the elimination of school segregation) and accelerating implementation of important infrastructure projects (as a prelude to national scale up). The paper compares the standards invoked by the Kosovar Government to those used by other European countries in the prelude to accession. It considers whether the Roma, Ashkali and Egyptian political leadership are effectively leveraging the political momentum attached to the protection of minority rights, given that this is a central precondition for EU accession. The paper concludes that the current moment offers a unique window of opportunity to the minority communities, but one that will be squandered if minority community divisions and sectional interests continue, as at present, to compound EU policy implementation failures and thereby impede the path towards a multicultural Kosovo. By contrast, the minority community leadership could take advantage of the Kosovar Government’s interest in demonstrating its future membership bona fides by making a determined and joint effort to press for substantive minority rights protections through a unified platform. The paper suggests examples for development of such a platform.

Although the notion of God as the legislator of nature was already known in the Jewish-Christian tradition, the modern concept of laws of nature was established only in the seventeenth-century mechanical philosophy of nature, particularly by Descartes and Newton, and remained largely confined to that tradition before it became seriously questioned in quantum mechanics. After a brief historical survey, I first discuss various examples of so-called laws of nature in chemistry and physical chemistry proposed in the nineteenth century to conclude that none of them really correspond to the original concept, but that they rather comprise a variety of epistemologically different statements. More recent philosophical approaches to extend the concept of laws, so as to cover chemical cases, all result in inacceptable consequences. The deeper reason of the comparatively little importance of natural laws, I finally argue, is that chemistry as the original epitome of the experimental or Baconian science has largely followed methodological pluralism in which a variety of models to be chosen from for pragmatic reasons are preferred over universal laws of nature as in mathematical physics.

This article deals with the figure of Julius Evola, philosopher and well-known freelance political commentator both during and after Italy’s Fascist dictatorship. My analysis of his intellectual production and political role in the 1930s, 1940s and 1950s is a case study that focuses on both continuity and discontinuity of ideological issues in the crucial historical period between the Fascist regime and the establishment of neo-fascism in post-war Italy. Special attention will be paid to unchanging elements in Evola’s philosophy, such as criticism of modern society, rejection of faith in progress, reference to traditional values as reaction to nihilism and belief in the existence of a spiritual hierarchy. A central issue is the ideological influence that Evola exercised on a young generation of neo-fascists in Italy after the Second World War, based on the intention of offering them new rules of conduct in a post-nihilist world. It is exactly this phenomenon that enables us to put in question the declared apolitìa of Evola.

The new research field of synthetic biology is emerging from molecular biology, chemistry, biotechnology, information technology and engineering. This paper describes synthetic biology as a ‘Science of the Artificial’ and identifies structural features of engineering sciences that can be applied to this new kind of biology as opposed to traditional biology. The search for laws already in traditional biology has been difficult. In Synthetic Biology, action and application stand in the foreground and laws increasingly lose ground as a meaningful concept.

Using the most recent wave of European Values Survey (EVS) data, this study explores the correlates of generalized trust by comparing Turkish and Greek communities living on the island of Cyprus. The results suggest that, besides confidence in institutions, there are different determinants of trust for each Cypriot community. In comparing Greek and Turkish Cypriots, the results suggest that being married, being older, having an urban residence, being in better health, and participating more in voluntary organizations are correlated with higher levels of generalized trust among Turkish Cypriots, whereas Greek Cypriots who are natives and who have more life satisfaction have higher levels of generalized trust. This study makes a significant contribution by being the first empirical study to test generalized trust among both communities living in the island of Cyprus.

Theses about globalised, cosmopolitan, transnational or multilateral memories have received wide circulation over the past few decades. However, their reception in – and pertinence to – Latin America has up to now received little attention within the international debate. This article aims to contribute to this debate by focusing on the particular field of memorialisation discourses and practices. The text posits the existence of a certain global memorialising language, characterised by particular aesthetic and architectonic features. These traits are placed in contrast and in dialogue with the rich memorial tradition that has developed in Argentina since the 1970s, led by the human rights movement and its supporters.

The last few decades have seen a significant growth of economists’ interest in studying institutions. They are generally preoccupied with explaining institutions using instruments that are specific for an economist, and especially with discerning the significance of institutions for both economic development and development economics. Therefore, the integration of institutions into economic theory is an essential step in our continuous attempt to refine and improve scientific explanations. The neoclassical theory of economic growth only identifies the conditions needed for material production growth, such as capital accumulation and technical progress. In order to explain ‘why’ people save, invest, learn and seek useful knowledge, special attention must also be paid to institutional and value systems.

This article examines the figure of the desaparecido as a transnational symbol, focusing on the ‘success’ this figure has had in the contemporary debate about memory in Spain. Taken from the repressive context of the dictatorships of the 1970s in South America, the disappeared have travelled to the Spain of the twenty-first century, where they are progressively replacing the former ‘fusilados y paseados’ of the Franco Regime. After charting the ways in which the term has been used in the public debate, we analyse the figure of the disappeared in the novel, El vano ayer, by the Spanish writer Isaac Rosa.

The current financial crisis in the Eurozone has put the debate on EU integration back on the table. Yet, how does the debate on EU integration, particularly the arguments and ideals used in it, actually influence the process of EU integration? This article wishes to provide some food for thought by arguing the debate’s irrelevance in furthering or hindering the EU integration process. It does so by discussing the role of the debate’s arguments in shaping EU integration and by comparing the EU debate with the one had by the founding fathers of the US. The article shows the debate is beside the point largely because most steps in EU integration are driven by circumstances, events, or national interests, that even when one argument seems decisive it is likely to be elevated over others by circumstances, and that none of the debate’s arguments hold an intrinsic value over others.

The development of energy use in Northern Europe is investigated, with an emphasis on the region that some 13–1400 years ago became Denmark, and by using evidence from archaeological finds, climate science and written documents from more recent periods. The role of energy technology in permitting changes in society and – together with changes in food provision technologies – in allowing sustainable living for an increasing population, is demonstrated, with possible lessons relevant for the present debate on handling the required energy, economy and environmental management transitions. The author's recent book A History of Energy (Routledge, Cambridge 2011) is used as a reference.

The large number of discoveries in the last few decades has caused a scientific crisis that is characterised by overspecialisation and compartmentalisation. To deal with this crisis, scientists look for integrating approaches, such as general laws and unifying theories. Representing what can be considered a general form law, the operator hierarchy is used here as a bridge between existing integrating approaches, including: a cosmic timeline, hierarchy and ontology, a periodic table of periodic tables, the unification of evolutionary processes, a general evolution concept, and general aspects of thermodynamics. At the end of the paper an inventory of unifying concepts is presented in the form of a cross table. The study ends with a discussion of major integrating principles in science.