Review to “What is a Text? Explanation and Understanding” (Ricoeur, 1971)
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Review to “What is a Text? Explanation and Understanding” (Ricoeur, 1971)

The French Philosopher Paul Ricoeur examines a few important issues in his thoughtful essay regarding our everyday use of the terms, speech, language, understanding, explanation, and interpretation. This essay brings a good understanding of a text in qualitative research. In most cases in textual analysis, there is the use of texts as data for description and interpretation. Most of the textual materials are written texts of oral speaking like interviews or observations. In understanding what has been said and observed, we use text to provide evidence of people’s thinking, acting or beliefs among others.

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Intercultural Competence at the University of Cooperative Education in Saxony
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Intercultural Competence at the University of Cooperative Education in Saxony

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As part of the boundary-crossing transformations in the education sector forced by the Bologna Reform and increased needs for (re-) accreditation intercultural communication and competence has become an acute issue for the development of study programmes at the University of Cooperative Education in Saxony (Berufsakademie Sachsen). Within the tertiary education sector this academic institution awards Bachelor of Arts degrees, mainly in the field of economics, engineering and social work and with high relevance for professional practice (so-called dual training). An “Additional Qualification of Intercultural Competence” will from now on contribute to the improvement of quality in teaching and learning along with an implementation of a transferable study module at all campuses of the university. After successful evaluation at the campus Breitenbrunn the mentioned qualification will eventually be implemented at six campuses of the University of Cooperative Education.
Intercultural competence is an integral learning item and objective in the curriculum. After successful completion of the programme students are enabled to understand, reflect and analyse intercultural encounters and cultural differences in perception, thinking, feeling, judgement, action, etc. with regard to their own and other cultures. The module imparts to students not only profound knowledge of other cultures, countries and living and working conditions, but also provides training for various occupational situations, especially such of uncertainty, stress or conflict. Last but no least, students are enabled to apply cultural knowledge to complex issues in professional practice and to link such knowledge with other academic fields and disciplines.

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New book: Europe and America in the Mirror – Culture, Economy, and History
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New book: Europe and America in the Mirror – Culture, Economy, and History

This volume collects together a set of papers which stem from three preliminary activities: Firstly, the idea to create this volume was initiated by the “Identity, Migration and International Relations:…

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Acculturation of Missionaries – How Religious Orientations Affect Cultural Adjustment?
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Acculturation of Missionaries – How Religious Orientations Affect Cultural Adjustment?

Although it is evident that religiously motivated missions are part of a long historical tradition in various ‘world religions’ (e.g. Smith, 1991) in the course of which experiences of ‘cultural…

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Religious Self-Transformation and Faith Development of Protestant Missionaries
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Religious Self-Transformation and Faith Development of Protestant Missionaries

According to the “Status of Global Mission” (Bonk, 2011, p.29), widely considered as serious statistics of missionary population, in the year 2011 approximately 4,800 mission societies (“foreign-mission sending agencies”; line…

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New Book Forthcoming: Europe and America in the Mirror – Culture, Economy, and History
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New Book Forthcoming: Europe and America in the Mirror – Culture, Economy, and History

A vivid and more or less stable partnership between European and American countries is generally regarded as a key issue and particularly serious challenge in terms of cultural, economic, historical,…

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SONDERNUTZUNG – A Transdisciplinary Project Combining Art and Science to Evaluate the Meanings of Religious Diversity in Public Space
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SONDERNUTZUNG – A Transdisciplinary Project Combining Art and Science to Evaluate the Meanings of Religious Diversity in Public Space

exc-5a23fbb4343a9bd737479d96 “Imagine, exactly here would be a synagogue, a mosque, a Hindu temple, or a Buddhist stupa!” With this thought experiment passengers were confronted in the city of Essen in September…

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Mission possible? Optimization of ‘Others’ in the Context of Missionary Strategies of Persuasion
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Mission possible? Optimization of ‘Others’ in the Context of Missionary Strategies of Persuasion

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In a series of publication projects I focus on the question of how optimization and standardization of ‘others’ and foreigners takes place (or is supposed to take place) in the context of missionary strategies of religious persuasion. Missionary goals are inseparably connected to the Christian imagination of ‘the renewed man’. This concept of man can be characterized best by a range of elements – like e.g. improvisation by cultural adjustment, self-abandonment, willingness to make sacrifices under the banner of selfless service to the neighbor, directive or non-directive persuasive communication, self-alteration of the ‘others’ by assertion of one’s own ‘self’ – that are required to accomplish one’s own aspirations to change and optimize the others.The described strategies of persuasion and change are findings of an empirical study about the intercultural practice of Protestant missionaries. Missionary action represents a mode of purpose and goal-oriented, intentional and strategic action aiming at the ‘improvement’ and ‘perfection’ of others. Finally, the findings and reflections should lead to a ‘prototypical’ abstraction, so that a special type of action can be conceived which aims at optimization and standardization of the humane.
Publications:

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“From love to hate”: A story of Germania and Sam about German-American relations
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“From love to hate”: A story of Germania and Sam about German-American relations

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A so-called essay – co-authored with Przemysław Łukasik, Jagiellonian University Kraków – was presented at the workshop ‘Identity, Migration and International Relations: Diagnoses, Symptoms and Future Prospects in Europe and the U.S.’ (February 10th, 2011) in Essen at the Institut for Advanced Study in the Humanities (KWI).

Abstract: This essay is a modern narrative history, which obtains its content from fictional characters of the most famous English poet William Shakespeare. The aim of this story-based analysis is to reconsider configurations, general trends and collective aspirations in the international and transatlantic relations between two nations of Western culture, Germany and the United States. On the basis of seven picturesque characters and episodes, each representing an imagination of love and hate in transatlantic relations, were selected from his dramas and poems and interpreted against the background of cultural historical and socio-cultural developments in German-American relations: (1) The Birth of Macduff, (2) The Passionate Pilgrim, (3) The Two Noble Kinsmen, (4) Shylock and Aaron the Moor, (5) Macbeths Dream of Power, (6) The Phoenix and the Turtle and (7) Hamlets Reflections and the Self-assurance of Fortinbras. This interpretative, comparative analysis involves for each image three different levels of interpretation: On the basis of Shakespeare’s texts a description and paraphrase of some important facts in the plot and the main characters will be produced. Thereafter, in a hypothesis will be summarize what we have seen as the main point in the story (level of the meaning of the image). And finally, we will transfer these meanings, ways of Shakespeare’s reception and language games (‘Sprachspiele’; sensu Wittgenstein) to historical and socio-cultural substantiation.

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Dr. Maik Arnold is Professor for Non-Profit-Management and Vice-President for Research, Innovation and Transfer at University of Applied Science Dresden.