Should competition policy in banking be amended during crises? Lessons from the EU

This article investigates the nexus of competition and stability in European banking. It analyzes the European legal framework for competition policy in banking and several cases that pertain to anti-cartel policy, merger policy, and state-aid control. It discusses whether and how competition policy should be amended in order to preserve the stability of the banking system during crises. The article argues for increased cooperation between prudential regulators and competition authorities, as well as an enhanced framework for bank regulation, supervision, and resolution that could mitigate the need to change competition policy in crisis times.     

Analytical Characterization of Erythritol Tetranitrate,an Improvised Explosive

Erythritol tetranitrate (ETN), an ester of nitric acid and erythritol, is a solid crystalline explosive with high explosive performance. Although it has never been used in any industrial or military application, it has become one of the most prepared and misused improvise explosives. In this study, several analytical techniques were explored to facilitate analysis in forensic laboratories. FTIR and Raman spectrometry measurements expand existing data and bring more detailed assignment of bands through the parallel study of erythritol [¹⁵N₄] tetranitrate. In the case of powder diffraction, recently published data were verified, and ¹H, ¹³C, and ¹⁵N NMR spectra are discussed in detail. The technique of electrospray ionization tandem mass spectrometry was successfully used for the analysis of ETN. Described methods allow fast, versatile, and reliable detection or analysis of samples containing erythritol tetranitrate in forensic laboratories.     

Responsible research and innovation training programmes: implementation and evaluation of the HEIRRI project

Responsible research and innovation, or RRI, is a concept that aims to bring together society and science for a better future. There are six key elements of RRI: public engagement, gender equality, science education, open access, ethics and governance. Higher Education Institutions and Responsible Research and Innovation (HEIRRI) project aimed to bring the concept of RRI into the educational system. Using state-of-the-art review of good practices, HEIRRI team developed 10 training programmes on RRI for different higher education institution educational levels, including a summer school and a massive open online course (MOOC). We conducted pilot of the trainings and evaluated participants' experiences. Satisfaction with HEIRRI training programmes on responsible research and innovation was high, both for participants and for the trainers, and trainings raised awareness of RRI. Participants' feedback was used to identify areas that need improvement and provided for recommendations for final versions of the HEIRRI training programmes. In order to equip researchers with skills to recognize and apply RRI values, RRI should be included in their education. HEIRRI training is suitable for a range of different disciplines, including forensic science, and is free to use and adjust for specific contexts (available from: https://rri-tools.eu/heirri-training-programmes).     

Comparing colonial differences: Baltic literary cultures as agencies of Europe’s internal others

ABSTRACT

The article discusses the Baltic colonial experience in historical and comparative perspective. It sketches the ways in which Baltic societies are best linked to theoretical discussions on postcolonial issues, and whether they might be looked upon in a more global context. The main question posed by the article is in what ways Baltic identity has been determined by processes of foreign settlement, occupation and colonization of the territory of each respective country and whether we can see Baltic societies as potential agencies of Europe’s internal others.     

Social Media Engagement of Berlin and Prague Museums

ABSTRACT

Attracting visitors and engaging them effectively in the highly competitive and saturated environment shaped by Web 2.0 and online social networking forces museums to creatively and purposefully examine channels for extended interaction with audiences. This exploratory and comparative research aims to compare the state of social media strategies across museums of two regions and to identify the influence of applied strategies on users’ reactions. The surveyed sample considers 296 museums from two European capitals—Berlin and Prague—whose activity has been observed during a three-month period. The findings identify the differences in the approaches of museums and suggest that the frequency and characteristics of published messages correlate to the level of fan reactions, facilitating targeted relationship-building possibilities with online audiences. They further imply that the museums can influence the engagement of visitors by focusing on the particular properties of their posts, both in the sense of post structure, media application, and underlying semantic features.     

Placing sons and daughters in the church: Strategies used by the gentry of Central Catalonia to maintain social status in the 17th and 18th centuries

This study analyses strategies for placing sons and daughters used by Notaries, Doctors of Law and Honorary Citizens of Manresa in the 17th and 18th centuries. Reconstructions of several family trees show that all of the sons, except the heir, went into the church and many of the girls remained single or went into convents. The consistency of this behaviour has led to an interpretation in terms of how these families maintained their social status, given their particular way of gaining access to resources. This study traces the way the younger generations entered the church and how they returned resources to the families they came from. Celibacy excluded many sons and daughters from inheriting the family patrimony and opened the way to combining patrimonies with other families. This happened if the heir had no children and the inheritance went to the eldest daughter married to the heir of another family. Combining patrimonies was one of the strategies used to deal with the problem of declining incomes suffered by these families.     

Building Italianità in Northern Adriatic: the case of organized migration of population from Pola/Pula

The article analyzes the process of building italianità in the case of migration of population from Pola/Pula that started as early as May 1945 and culminated in an organized process that officially began on 23 January 1947 and lasted until 20 March that same year. The article sheds light on the premises of that identity by analyzing complex activities of the Italian authorities who wanted to “defend Italianism” in Pola/Pula, as well as in other border areas of former Venezia Giulia. At the state level, they were mainly carried out by the Office for the Julian March/Ufficio per la Venezia Giulia and following reorganization beginning at the end of 1946 by the Office for Border Areas/Ufficio per le Zone di Confine, and at the local level by a network of pro-Italian organizations and groups. Analysis contributes to the understanding of the top-down and bottom-up italianità building process. On the local level, common identity was built upon the myth of the patria, reiteration of traumatic/“wounded” memories and victim presentation of the “Italian” population, fear to be separated from the patria, and unjust peace treaty propaganda. Simultaneously, the “Italian” population understood the Italian state as their defender.     

News of the association for the study of the nationalities (USSR & E.E.)

Alexandre A. Bennigsen and S. Enders Wimbush. Muslim National Communism in the Soviet Union: A Revolutionary Strategy for the Colonial World. Chicago: The University of Chicago Press, 1979, Pp. 267.

Natalia Arsiennieva. Mizh bierhami;vybar paiezzii, 1920–1970 (Between the Shores: Selected Poetry, 1920–1970) New York: Byelorussian Institute of Arts and Sciences, 1979. Pp. 350. $15.00

Osyp, Zinkewych, comp. Ukrains'kyipravozakhysnyi rukh: Dokumenty i materiialy kyivs'koi Ukrains'koi Hromads'koi Hrupy Spryiannia vykonanniu Hel'sinks'kykh Uhod. Baltimore, MD: V. Symonenko Smoloskyp Publishers, 1978. Pp. X + 477 $12.75 hardbound; $9.75 paperbound.

Harvey Fireside. Soviet Psychoprisons. Foreword by Zhores Medvedev. New York: Norton, 1979. Pp. 201. $11.95.

Alain Besançon. The Soviet Syndrome. New York: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, Inc., 1978. Pp. 103.

George M. Enteen. The Soviet Scholar‐Bureaucrat: M.N. Pokrovskii and the Society of Marxist Historians. University Park and London: The Pennsylvania State University Press, 1978. Pp. xii, 236. $15.00.

George Dana Cameron III. The Soviet Lawyer and His System: A Historical and Bibliographical Study (Michigan International Business Studies, No. 14) Ann Arbor, Michigan: Division of Research, Graduate School of Business Administration, The University of Michigan, 1978. Pp. xii, 198. $9.00.

Murray Yanowitch. Social and Economic Inequality in the Soviet Union: Six Studies. White Plains, N.Y.: M.E. Sharpe, Inc., 1977. Pp. xv, 196.

Alexander Nekrich. Nakazannye narody. New York: Khronika Press, 1978. Pp. 170. $7.00.

Norman M. Naimark. The History of the “Proletariat”: The Emergence of Marxism in the Kingdom of Poland, 1870–1887. Boulder, Colo.: East European Quarterly, 1979. Pp. xvii, 329. $18.00. Distributed by Columbia University Press.

Jan Tomasz Gross. Polish Society Under German Occupation: The Generalgouvernement, 1939–1944. Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press, 1979. Pp. xviii, 343. $20.00.

János Decsy. Prime Minister Gyula Andrássy's Influence on Habsburg Foreign Policy during the Franco‐German War of 1870–1871. Boulder, Col.: East European Quarterly, 1979. Pp. 177. Distributed by Columbia University Press.

Teresa Rakowska‐Harmstone and Andrew Gyorgy, eds., Communism in Eastern Europe. Bloomington, Indiana: Indiana University Press, 1979. Pp. viii, 338. Frantisek Silnitsky, Larisa Silnitsky, Karl Reyman, eds. Communism and Eastern Europe: A Collection of Essays. New York: Karz Publishers, 1979. Pp. xiv, 242. $6.95 paper.