U Press – förlag

Investigating Danish students in a global perspective pinpoints a range of pressing dilemmas: To what degree do students conceive school as a place of democracy or authority, do they see classrooms as open or closed, do they recognise themselves as active or passive students? Questions of this kind challenge citizenship education across countries and regions. The democratic commitment of young people is difficult to measure, but many key figures appear in the International Civic and Citizenship Education Study. Reflections on this study are used in this book to describe young people as contemporary citizens. Rather than discussing the basic principles of democracy or citizenship in abstract terms, the intention is to analyse and evaluate the political education of young people (students in year eight), their acquaintance with democracy in school, and the context and democratic ethos their experiences seem to reflect. By doing so, the book also gives indications of how the lives of young people are changing in globalised democracies across the world, thereby challenging citizenship education.

It has been said that 'the discovery of the Na, K-ATPase by J. C. Skou in 1957 must rank as one of the most influential contributions to Bioenergetics and Cell Physiology.' The ion-transporting enzyme has since been acknowledged as a vital 'pump' in all cells. Skou's memoirs tell the story of a Nobel Prize-winning breakthrough in biochemistry. But during his voyage of discovery he also repeatedly finds occasion to speak out in defence of the basic principles of scientific research. 'We would', as Skou says in one of his speeches, 'do well to promote science by encouraging young people to engage with their profoundly human capacity for astonishment, and wonder'. The ion-transporting pump continues to surprise. Its involvement in genetic disease is the latest addition to our understanding of this fascinating mechanism, and there will likely be much more to learn in the future.

Prepare for the battle for talent! Access to skilled competences is a key challenge for economic development and growth. This book is pioneering the field of innovating talent attraction. It is the first practitioner's guide on how to form a strategy and develop operational activities in order to attract and retain international competences. How do you get the world's brightest minds? With models and cases from Austin, Berlin, Copenhagen, Eindhoven, Singapore, Toronto, and more, this book will assist every project manager, politician, marketing or brand specialist who is aiming for their region and city to move ahead in the competition for the world's brightest minds. "Bringing people together with diverse backgrounds results in different questions being asked and different solutions being considered. It increases our ability to create truly innovative solutions. This can only be achieved with an international team." -- Charlotte Mark, Microsoft Development Center, from one of the seven interviews in the book

This book addresses the dynamic interplay between creativity and continuity in communication. Though conventionalisation is essential to any understanding of the foundation of interaction and language, thus far it has not been the subject of any substantial collective effort. New research presented here seeks to redress this. An introductory chapter critically reviews the theoretical assumptions and pitfalls of twentieth-century approaches to communication and conventionalisation. The successive chapters are by scholars from different theoretical backgrounds within language and literature. They study the processes of conventionalisation from the complementary perspectives of linguistic and literary research traditions and cover a diverse field of cognitive, social, and historical aspects of language. The target readership of the book is scholars and students of language and communication -- including literacy and literary studies and philosophy of language -- who are interested in foundational issues and their profound implications for empirical analysis.

Why was Humphrey Bogart's screen presence and persona so vital a factor for American morale during World War II? How did Casablanca unintentionally mislead American audiences regarding U.S. policy toward the pro-German Vichy regime, and the Free French who continued the fight against the Nazis? Why was Alain Resnais reluctant to make his documentary film Night and Fog and why did he ultimately decide to overcome that reluctance? (Answered here in his own words, with the decisive interview published in English for the first time.) How did overcoming her anti-German feelings make it imperative for the Jewish performer Barbara to write the haunting song Göttingen? What did a spin-doctor in New York have to do with the story of the Danish king wearing a Star of David during the German occupation? These are just a few of the questions dealt with in this book, which should interest anyone who remains fascinated by films, songs, photos and other representations of the Second World War. The studies assembled here focus whenever possible on meaningful, purposive choices designed to make things happen, to change the course of events or to enable a character or creative artist to shape more fully his or her own story.

Beowulf takes place in Denmark! Beowulf may be the most important work in Old English literature, but the poem takes place in Denmark and southern Sweden. And it is Denmark where the poem was first published, and where some of the earliest literary criticism of the work saw the light of day. Amalgamation of pagan and Christian thinking Beowulf is an archetypal Germanic hero who, though redeemed by the Christian author to a godly life, insists on being buried in a pagan burial mound. Depicted as a glorious hero, he carries with him a childhood trauma -- a result of the humiliation inflicted on him by the warriors of the great hall -- that he seeks to compensate for by steadily enhancing his heroic reputation. The tragic element of Beowulf's life story is twofold: the golden treasure he wins by risking his life battling a dragon is of no use to anyone when it is buried with him; and upon his death he has neither queen nor heir, leaving his land open to enemies.