University of Bamberg Press

In this article, we present a critical discussion of complexity theory. We ask: what does it really offer policy studies? We suggest that its stated advantages-- interdisciplinarity, theoretical novelty, and empirical advance--are generally exaggerated and based more on hope than experience. In that context, we identify a cautiously positive role for complexity theory, primarily as a way to bridge academic and policymaker discussions by identifying the role of pragmatic responses to complexity in policymaking.

A Community of Practice Knowledge Exchange (CPKE) comprising of practitioners and academics with an interest in complexity theory was formed. The central activity of the CPKE was an agreement that each would develop a case study that integrated complexity theory and challenges in practice. In the first phase, members agreed definitions of core concepts and used them to describe the systems they were working in. Frequent contact was via a virtual learning environment. This activity was supplemented with face-to-face contact, in the form of half-day workshops. After several months, the CPKE agreed two core pieces of reading to provide a theoretical basis. These were popular because of their applied focus. The CPKE evolved to a second phase. Diverse case studies of practice-based challenges were used to share experiences of complex systems. A key event was the presentation of case studies as complex systems using a shared conceptual language generated by earlier learning. In the final phase, the CPKE considered interventions into the case studies and created and applied a management toolkit to develop approaches to possible management interventions. Through the development of the toolkit, the CPKE became interested in the role of values in a complexity-based practice and how coherent and shared values could aid more informed interventions. The use of complexity theory changed the ontology of management practice by facilitating an understanding and acceptance of uncertainty and that optimal approaches often required a relational and cooperative approach built on shared values, rather than an instrumental and singular management orthodoxy.

The chapter analyses the practice of puberty rites in Southern Malawi and the response of the Catholic Church to the practice.The chapter notes that although the church response to puberty initiation rites is negative and also at most prohibitive, the practice continues among its congregants.The chapter concludes by arguing that the theology and the evangelisation strategy of the Church ought not to be one bent on destroying traditional African religion but fulfilling it and bringing all times and all religions to experience the unity of the saving act of God.

The greatest honour that would please Nyambura J. Njoroge (and other Champions of Long term Hope against AIDS like her) is seeing the 'End of AIDS' by the year 2030, contributed to by untiring labours of love, unwavering faith and resilient hope from African theologians, ethicists, activists and ecumenists.This essay seeks to highlight how that kind of 'untiring love, unwavering faith and resilient hope' movement is unfolding in Uganda and the kinds of contributions that will be required from all those Champions of Long-term Hope who seek for effective approaches to achieving social justice, holistic salvation and sustained freedom from AIDS in Eastern Africa; and to see how these can evolve and be strengthened through affordable youth education, integrated skills training and holistic empowerment.

In the quest for an eco-justice reading, this article invites readers/listeners to theater, where the drama of creation is staged.God enters the stage where the Earth is formless, dark and void, but covered by the Spirit of God.God begins to call various members of the Earth community into being through God's own word over six days.They each come marching onto the stage.God views each created member and pronounces them good, and finally pronounces all members to be very good.God gives the sun and the moon the power to rule the Earth.During the creation drama, God invites the Earth to the stage to give forth vegetation, water creatures and animals.The Earth, thus, does not only host all members of the Earth community, but also becomes the co-creator with God, who ensures continuity of creation.On the sixth day, the Earth is no longer dark, void or formless, for there is the light, atmosphere, sun, moon, stars, dry ground, seas, vegetation and living creatures of all sorts on the stage.God Looks at them and says, "Let us make an earthling in our image, in our likeness."And thus a human being comes into being as a child of the Earth and was told to keep the Earth Community just as good as God created it.Nonetheless, today's reader/listener cannot watch the biblical drama of creation with innocence, given the fact that Earth is facing environmental crisis from human exploitation.The article thus seeks to give an Earth-centered reading that does not entertain anthropocentric perspectives.

El poeta Francisco Botelho de Moraes e Vasconcelos encarna con su vida y obra el ideal de hombre de letras ibérico que, a caballo entre los siglos XVII y XVIII, vivió entre Portugal y España, recorrió tierras de Francia e Italia y escribió versos y prosa en castellano y portugués, y también en latín. Publicó, entre otras obras, dos poemas épicos en castellano, «El nuevo mundo» y «El Alphonso», una curiosa miscelánea burlesca titulada «Las cuevas de Salamanca», sus «Satyrae» en hexámetros latinos y, ya póstumo y en portugués, su «Discurso político, histórico e crítico». Otros textos jalonan su producción literaria. Tres fueron, pues, sus idiomas; los tres ibéricos, pues negar en la península ibérica dicho carácter al idioma originado en el Lacio sería desconocer los luengos siglos de agitada historia en los que convivió con los diferentes romances peninsulares, según iban surgiendo, amén de con el hebreo y el árabe. Así, Botelho de Moraes e Vasconcelos vivió entre el portugués y el castellano (y el latín), en constante viaje lingüístico y geográfico de ida y vuelta y en el marco de una políglota y policéntrica cultura ibérica que todavía tenía como referente una poética clasicista anclada, «grosso modo», en la autoridad emanada de los textos de la Antigüedad clásica. Leerlo como autor ibérico es, pues, un buen arranque para interpretar sus textos. [...] Ya para concluir, es un hecho que un libro puede empezar a leerse de formas muy variadas, incluso por cualquiera de sus páginas, según el cervantino libre albedrío del lector. Aconsejo vivamente que el estudioso comience por recorrer las páginas de la introducción, para apreciar y valorar en su justa medida la calidad del trabajo filológico de Porcar Bataller. Asimismo, cualquiera que sea el interés predominante del desocupado lector (erudición o fruición) que ahora se acerca a estas páginas, le recomiendo encarecidamente la lectura de los hexámetros latinos de Botelho de Moraes e Vasconcelos, en el original o en la sabia traducción castellana de Porcar Bataller, para su solaz, divertimento y eventual instrucción. Vale.

The First World War with all its unimaginable horrors had an unprecedented impact on British society.Both at home and abroad, during and after the war, (gender) roles had to be redefined, renegotiated, and rediscovered.The negotiation of these changing and often conflicting gender expectations happened quietly, subtly, and away from the public eye to keep the 'stiff upper lip' the British were so famous for.Nevertheless, popular literature such as detective fiction -which is already walking the tightrope between what is right and what is wrong, what is normative and what is deviant -gave these negotiations room and agency, if only at a second, deeper glance.In this chapter, two short stories, "His Last Bow" (1917) by Arthur Conan Doyle and "The Secret of Headlam Height" (1925) by Ernest Bramah, are examined with regard to these negotiations and how they could be represented to the readership.The focus here lies particularly on the sidekick characters, an aspect of detective fiction largely neglected in scholarly research so far, and the two female aides in the stories.The characters of John Watson and Parkinson, as well as housekeeper Martha and "professional lady cryptologer" Clifton Baker, manage to show through their actions and absences, as well as their words and silences, the multi-faceted and contradictory gender identities and expectations which resulted from the societal discourse at the time, and provided members of both sexes with extraordinary challenges in these tumultuous times.In particular, the sidekick character showcases these contradictions and how they were dealt with in a fascinating way -despite the predefined role(s) and audience expectations, it needed to adhere to while also having to fit the mould the generic conventions had shaped for it.

Violent ethnic conflicts have devastating consequences on individuals, families, and communities.The physical, emotional, and psychological trauma that survivors of such conflicts experience can leave lasting scars that would affect their ability to lead healthy and productive lives.However, the community's psychosocial support can play a crucial role in the healing journey of survivors, particularly when provided from a religious perspective.Recent studies show that religion and spirituality help improve health indicators in patients, although this improvement may vary across illnesses and patients.From evidence of field work done between 2018-2020 on the Catholic Church's role in Peacebuilding, this chapter explores the way in which Church's community engagement, contribute towards psychological and/or trauma healing, for survivors of violent ethnic conflicts in Kenya's North Rift.The chapter uses a number of narratives from emergent themes from field data, as well as literature review.Data was gathered through focus group discussions, observation, and in-depth oral interviews.The arguments centre on the relevance of religious activities, and importance of community support systems in providing a sense of safety, belonging, and empowerment to survivors of violence.The support systems are in the form of support groups and therapy spaces, which are largely hinged on the theory of social capital, and the theory of contact.Ultimately, the chapter shows that a holistic approach to healing integrates psychosocial, religious/spiritual, and communal dimensions to provide a viable framework for supporting survivors of violent ethnic conflicts.

This chapter traces the rites of passage depicted in Peter May's 2009 novel The Blackhouse and analyzes how these rites, involuntarily undergone by the male characters, often fail, resulting in the construction of various adult/masculine identities.For the descriptions and theories of rites of passage, the chapter relies on the work of anthropologist Arnold van Gennep and Ronald L. Grimes, founder of the interdisciplinary field of ritual studies.The aim of this chapter is to observe the negative impacts of poorly organized rites of passage in the novel and relate them to Carole Jones's observations on the changes in the depiction of masculinities in Scottish fiction during the last forty years as outlined in her Disappearing Men (2009) and later works.

Female characters demonstrate new forms of agency in domestic noir as it is exhibited in S.J. Watson's novel as well as in its film adaptation: in middle-class homes of the twenty-first century, housewives are active participants of their own lives and ably interpret their victimisation against which they fight with alternative strategies in the hope of making a change.This chapter relies on Carisa R. Showden's hypothesis which holds that female agency can develop in situations where it is the least accounted for, such as in abusive relationships.Both texts give special attention to the relationship between female agency and victimisation, although the two texts apply different strategies to illustrate how the amnesiac protagonist, Christine Lucas, fights for the (re-)construction of a conscious and independent self.While the book is rather backward-looking in the treatment of the female experience, the movie takes a much broader view in opening up a dialogue with the technological challenges of everyday life.In domestic noir, instead of a reassuring ending where the victim becomes a hero, the aim is more to demonstrate the recognition of victimhood and the emergence of agency in tension.

BackgroundAfrican women are the backbone of the family; they are the ones who give birth, raise and care for the children when sick and in some cases, they are the sole providers.There is truth in the Shona saying; "Musha mukadzi," (home is wife!), for without her there is no future for the family.However, central as they are, women are usually relegated to the margins when it comes to decision making.It is here that the family now belongs to men.The justification for women's subjugated position is often sought in the Bible and within 'culture'.Women are thus, dispossessed of their worth by these two forces against the reality that they literally run the family.It is from this context that this chapter investigates the impact of the Bible and culture in the industry of impoverishment of women in the African Apostolic Church of Johane Marange (AACJM), not only in real economic terms, but also in decision making.I argue that their deprivation of voice in many spheres, including marriage, sex and in the general running of the family, contributes to poverty, and puts the girl child at great risk of HIV because she is usually deprived of formal education and, as per church tradition with 'biblical and cultural' blessings, is married off at an early age.Thus, I argue that unless we target the African woman for empowerment through suggesting a biblical reading of the Queen Mother motif, not as a source of evil, but of life, the future of Africa is in limbo.

In 1927, Dorothy L. Sayers published, without attracting any unfavourable attention, a novel entitled Unnatural Death, in which most of the main characters are single women and some are obviously lesbians.Later, in both Strong Poison and Five Red Herrings, she depicted independent, artistic women who live either completely or partially together.In these cases, the women's sexuality is not even mentioned, and it is up to the reader to follow the clues and decide if they are lesbians or not.In the context of the suspenseful detective plot, the women's private affairs, and in particular those of the happy couples who live uneventful lives, remain almost unnoticed.Fifty years later, the BBC adaptations of the novels chose different options: one miniseries preserving the ambiguity of the novel while the other depicts an obvious, stereotypical lesbian couple.This chapter examines the author Dorothy L. Sayers's attitude to female homosexuality and how she managed to include clearly or potentially lesbian characters in her fiction without shocking her contemporaries.

Une version française de cet article est disponible dans ce volume de la revue RcAE.

This chapter examines the role of the body, and its possible uses, in two recent techno thrillers by German author Tom Hillenbrand: Hologrammatica (2018) and Qube (2020).It explores the boundaries between humans and machines in a futurist/dystopian scenario that allows people to replace their organic brain with a digital "cogit" (a small quantum computer) and switch bodies at will.Theories of posthumanism and transhumanism serve as a backdrop to analyze relevant aspects of the novels and to consider ramifications of technologies that might be possible in the not so far future.It questions the role of artificial enhancements to bodies, of the connection between bodies and brains, and of fundamental concepts like identity, body, and humanity.A particular emphasis of the chapter will be placed on the role of gender.The interchangeability of bodies (i.e.vessels) in Hillenbrand's techno thrillers invalidates clear gender distinctions, along with other physical characteristics.While moving beyond human limitations allows for a certain playfulness in transgressing boundaries, Hillenbrand's novels fail to live up to the full spectrum of their possibilities.They do, however, allow readers to envision future constellations of non-binary ways of being, and of forming relationships that transcend traditional ideas.Lastly, the chapter examines the novels' setting in a world that has been altered by severe environmental threats, and it investigates how the mind-body split impacts issues regarding crime, detection, and identity.The cautionary function of Hillenbrand's texts thus urges us to consider future ramifications of current developments in regard to technology, culture, and environment.

Amidst the worst ongoing drought that parts of South Africa have experienced in decades, the reality of dependence on clean, running water has come to the fore anew.In a country where the gap between rich and poor is exceptionally high, with unacceptably high levels of poverty and unemployment, and innumerable instances of gender-based violence, this situation has impacted most severely those already most vulnerable: poor, black women.In dialogue with this South African context of racialised and gendered poverty, further aggravated by the toxicity of gender-based violence as well as the suffering of Mother Earth, the narrative of John 4:5-42 will be read: a narrative in which Jesus, a Jewish man, meets a Samaritan woman at a well and reveals Himself in ecological terms -as the One who provides Living Water.Such reading takes as a point of departure the contours of ecotheology, ecofeminism and gender criticism, and attempts to recognise the multiple binary categories which are represented in this narrative.Measured against the patriarchal prescriptions and expectations of the ancient narrative context, I suggest that there are particular 1 This chapter is devoted to Mercy Amba Oduyoye, the founding member of the Circle of Concerned African Women Theologians.It is through her courage in transgressing patriarchal protocol that the Circle of Concerned African Women Theologians was founded in 1989, and that a profound legacy of 30 years of transformation in African theological scholarship could take place. 2

The following paper examines the theme of institutional violence in contemporary Argentine crime fiction by focusing on the analyses of fictional individual instances of violence in Claudia Piñeiro's 2020 novel Catedrales.Set against a contrasting backdrop of post-dictatorship (1976-1983) and present-day Argentina, the novel spans a thirty-year period, centring around the death and dismemberment of an adolescent, Ana.As the story unfolds, we discover Ana's death to be a direct result of a clandestine abortion, and her mutilation being an attempt at its concealment.Through Ana's experience, Piñeiro demonstrates how restrictive laws and enforced social norms around abortion, sex, and family structure, which in the case of the novel are propagated by religious fanaticism, can drive individuals to engage in unregulated illegal activities and unimaginable acts of violence.The purpose of this chapter is to examine Piñeiro's portrayal of past instances of violence, arising as a direct consequence of restrictions imposed on individuals by the state, religion, and society.Consequently, the paper focuses on exploring these three elements by addressing the issues of illegal abortion and legislative overreach, social pressure as well as religious fanaticism.Moreover, the lingering effects of the Argentine 1976-1983 military dictatorship are addressed due to their influence on the fictional instances of violence.In this context, the paper aims to illustrate the ongoing institutional violence in contemporary Argentina while simultaneously highlighting the legacy of the military regime.

Walter Mosley's Devil in a Blue Dress (1990) revises the traditional hard-boiled genre according to a societal system based on racial inequity in the United States.African American hard-boiled authors present African American communities amid a continuous sociocultural and political divide underscored by systemic racism perpetuated by institutional powers.Resulting in Du Boisian double consciousness and internalization, the narrative comments on these internal and external behavioral factors as it follows Daphne Monet, a passing femme fatale.This chapter casts Daphne in the role of a woman trickster, a rare sight in patriarchal mythologies, and comments on the African American hard-boiled decision of writing back to African folklore and African American ancestral heritage dating back to times of enslavement of African peoples in the Americas.The essay implements Umberto Eco's theory of interpretation to emphasize various roles of and the relationship between the sender and receiver of a literary text and discusses the woman trickster's adapted qualities to fit the twentieth-century hard-boiled narrative.

Over the years, the study of religion has undergone a significant transformation.For a long time, religion, mainly African Traditional Religions, were studied as independent phenomena, unconnected to other social reality.However, today, there is increasing recognition of the intricate relationship between religious practices and other social phenomena and the corresponding need to undertake the study of ATRs within the larger context of other societal factors.This chapter introduces the dynamics of the study of ATRs, the possible methodologies that can be employed to analyse this great religion, and how the motif of continuity and change is captured across the length of the volume.Introduction One of the recurring issues in the contemporary study of religion is the question of continuity and change.It is taken apriori in religious studies that intrinsic to religious traditions are elements that remain constant, which by implication represent the core elements of the religions, and those aspects of the religions which are subject to change.It is also axiomatic that ATRs are intrinsically tied to what it means to be African.While the essence of what it means to be African remains constant, the African experience, which constitutes Africa's interaction with itself and other external forces, has been subject to many forces and consequent changes.ATRs, as integral aspects of the African experience, have also been subject to forces that either tested their resilience or, in some cases, threatened to tear them apart.The influence of these contradicting forces result in significant changes in the understanding and practice of some of their unique elements.This chapter discusses dimensions of continuity and discontiunity in ATRs and the methodological approaches used in the study of ATRs.The central argument in the chapter, which is picked up later in the rest of the chapters, is that, like any other religion, ATRs have remained resilient even in the context of social change.Yet, this resilience partly comes from the religion's ability to adapt and change.The chapter, then analyses the operational term of ATRs used in the present volume,

BackgroundThe global HIV & AIDS epidemic has been a context of great suffering: stigmatization, death, grief, orphaned children and impoverishment.It is an attack on life and its quality.Moreover, the most marginalised groups such as women, homosexuals, youth, blacks and the poor have been at the centre of the storm of the epidemic.With millions death, and other millions living with HIV, and with millions of orphaned children globally, the epidemic has been an apocalyptic event that raises significant theological questions.Who is God?Where is God?Does God care?The same questions are asked about Christ by communities and individuals who are living with HIV & AIDS.How then should we read the Bible in such a global context?This chapter will share the imperative to read the Bible in the context of HIV&AIDS, which calls for frameworks of reading for the affirmation of life, justice, the body, sexuality and compassion among others."There will be no end of AIDS without ensuring respect and dignity of all people, equity in access to health services and social justice," Prof Fran-

This article is a social biographical approach in its intent.The chapter ex plores the intersection of boundarycrossing, homelessness, alienation and inbetween spaces with race, gender and religion as I have experi enced it both in my adopted home in Botswana and my home of birth, which is South Africa.I met my husband at the Federal theological Sem inary in 1989.Our meeting was fateful because it led to our marriage.In our youth we did not see any potential hurdles on the way ahead.All we saw was hope, blissful love and a coming together of two different cul tures.However, this meeting led to cultural and spiritual turbulences which this article reflects on.The people I have been married into became my people.Yet at the same time I have always been aware of othering innuendos.The article focuses on belonging yet feeling a sense of being in a 'strange land.'By the same token the article reflects on the strange ness of being home.Being away from family and the community in which I (Cheryl) was hewn, has had its cultural disconnect.Returning home to the socalled coloured community always brought contradictions in my life.I would always be looking forward to returning to my folks in Port Elizabeth, South Africa.Yet for some reason after a couple of days there, I would want to return to my adopted homeBotswana.In this chapter, I explore the persistence of feeling like a stranger in both homes/coun tries-the sense of alienation and living in between spaces and belonging nowhere.Utilizing the gender category, I explore how marriage is an act of selflimitation for the woman, for it is them who must be uprooted and transported to a new culture, and sometimes a new country.It is the woman who should learn the new culture, who should say 'your people will be my people and your God will be my God.'.