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This paper addresses a central issue linked to research conducted on an eclectic conglomeration of people connected in various ways to the principal European site of the Japanese new religion of Tenrikyō. Although the center itself is in a Parisian suburb and the majority of its key actors are Japanese, the people connected to this center and its associated social world span beyond the Paris region and include various nationalities, countries of residence, and even religious identities. Moreover, the people connected to this center and the presence of the Tenrikyō religion in Europe are largely one and the same, but not entirely. A question commonly posed to the researcher by "outsiders" is how many Tenrikyō "members" there are in Paris, France, and/or Europe, and if they are Japanese or the nationality of the local country (French, German, etc.) The complexities of answering such questions are the focus of this discussion. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Since 2008, a negative image of China has prevailed in Europe, leading to the country's image crisis in the region. The state has implemented several policies to improve such a perception. This paper aims to examine the major tools of China's attempts at influence in Europe, targeting the media and public opinion. Applying the concept of soft power and public diplomacy, we analyse the tools China uses to modify and shape public opinion about itself in Europe. The research framework comprises secondary resources on China's foreign policy, soft power, public diplomacy and media strategy in Europe. We distinguish four primary influence tools: China buys European media outlets to prevent negative information about itself; it pays for inserts in leading European newspapers; it signs cooperation agreements with media organisations and holds media forums; and it limits access to its market to affect media, film and academic content. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

While our modern world is today unimaginable without space, the space landscape is changing fast. For long near space has been a vast resource to exploit with few limits. This situation is however changing since in reality orbital resources are scarce and are threatened by the growth of the space debris population. Space debris is one of the human-made problems along the climate crisis, air pollution or ocean plastic pollution among other environmental issues that keep growing despite the awareness of their dangers to societies and our economies. The debris population has been growing drastically over the years due to the increase of rockets and satellites launches, accidental collisions of space objects, as well as deliberate Anti-Satellite Tests (ASAT s). Addressing appropriately the space debris issues is today an unescapable necessity to allow realising the deployments of the planned space constellations in a responsible manner. This would also provide stability and continuity to space activities so that the public and commercial sectors can continue to innovate and invest in new ventures that continue building a robust space economy. This paper discusses the direct and collateral challenges of space debris on the space economy and presents technological and political actions needed to face this growing problem for the present and future generations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In La Agonia de Europa , María Zambrano writes: "Europe is not dead, Europe cannot die completely; it agonizes. For Europe is perhaps the only thing—in history—that cannot die; it is the only thing capable of resurrection." How to understand this provocative statement? What must Europe be for it not being able to completely die, but only to agonize? How to understand the mode of being Europe as one of continuous agonization? What kind of resurrection does European life refer to, and what is its significance in the context of Zambrano's heretical Christianity? These are among the questions raised in the paper. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Tibetan medicines are key material objects for medical treatment and have become part of a global trend of 'pharmaceuticalisation', playing increasingly important political and socio-economic roles in an 'alternative modernity'. As I argue in this paper, they also have become key 'sites of contestation' between different epistemic values and styles of practice related to efficacy and safety that are reproduced in and through specific formulation regimes. Based on my multisited ethnography of production, prescription, and use practices of Tibetan medicines in China and Europe, this paper conceptualises three distinct formulation regimes, offering a heuristic model for transnational comparison—a classical, an industrialised or reformulated, and a polyherbal regime. The first two are the major orientations while the polyherbal is a conjoint hybrid with either the classical or the industrialised formulation regime. Globalised national drug safety regulations legalise and confer legitimacy to industrialised Tibetan formulas that follow biomedically defined efficacy, safety, and disease categories, while classical formulas produced by private physicians or small-scale cottage pharmacies are increasingly marginalised as producing 'unsafe' and at times illegal medicines, and need to find new ways for adapting and circulating their formulas. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The story of European integration has been transformed by recent scholarship, from a heroic and progressive narrative towards a more nuanced version emphasising interaction between individuals, institutions and Member States - with no pre-defined trajectory. This article reviews the key works which have reshaped the historiography of European integration. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article discusses the prospects of a comparative approach within the field of the dissemination of European popular print. Currently, it is still hard to find studies that address distribution of popular print with a Europe-wide scope. After an introduction about the main concepts, models and approaches, the article discusses some topic related issues, questions, approaches and sources. Social and professional categorisations are explored, as well as the differences between urban and rural distribution, the impact of regional and international networks, the effects of trade regulations and the collaborative features of distribution practices. What became clear is that a wide-ranging study that includes all European countries is urgently needed but not within reach soon, due to a lack of fundamental research and assessible sources. We should therefore first start to collect data systematically and conduct a series of comparative case studies in which we explore important questions and approaches. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The last species list of the European herpetofauna was published by Speybroeck, Beukema and Crochet (2010). In the meantime, ongoing research led to numerous taxonomic changes, including the discovery of new species-level lineages as well as reclassifications at genus level, requiring significant changes to this list. As of 2019, a new Taxonomic Committee was established as an official entity within the European Herpetological Society, Societas Europaea Herpetologica (SEH). Twelve members from nine European countries reviewed, discussed and voted on recent taxonomic research on a case-by-case basis. Accepted changes led to critical compilation of a new species list, which is hereby presented and discussed. According to our list, 301 species (95 amphibians, 15 chelonians, including six species of sea turtles, and 191 squamates) occur within our expanded geographical definition of Europe. The list includes 14 non-native species (three amphibians, one chelonian, and ten squamates). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Focusing on Europe, this article aims to disentangle the patterns of cultural clustering and to throw more light on concepts such as 'civilizations' and 'cultural zones.' Cross- cultural analyses unanimously find that various historical background and socioeconomic indicators are strongly correlated to societal values, however, a systematic investigation on what makes societal cultures similar and different hasn't been conducted. The author first outlines the factors and mechanisms that may explain value similarities, then the author tests their importance using dyadic data on 40 countries from the WVS. Multiple factors are associated to the cultural similarities: the historical background - i.e. countries' political-institutional traditions, religion, language, and imperial legacies - and also socio-economic development, geographical distance, European integration, and climatic differences. The substantial overlap among them, however, diminishes the absolute importance of any of the explanatory factors. The multiple determinants of value differences speak against a classification of national cultures into cultural zones based on single formative factors. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Over the past thirty years or so the regulation of business cartels in an international context has provided an interesting site for the application of legal sanctions--both criminal law and otherwise, both penal and otherwise--in a way which is wideranging and with some impressive accumulation in quantity, although without much systematic and considered reflection on the theoretical basis or practical impact of this practice. From the point of view of both policy and justice, the calculation and critical assessment of such sanction accumulation might appear to be an important and worthwhile exercise. Yet the theory and the methodology of such an assessment appears to be insufficiently considered and worked out. It will be argued here that this is a matter which deserves some reflection and clarification, with some endeavour to work out principle and method for the purpose of calculating sanction accumulation and the matching of the latter with victimhood in this context. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this article we present the results of a Big Five personality test among 59 religious entrepreneurs (church planters) in Europe, and we compare these results with (a) a general database, and (b) existing research among secular entrepreneurs. Our study concludes that church planters are significantly more extravert and significantly less neurotic than the general population. Although our research also indicates that church planters are more agreeable and more conscientious than the general population, differences on these items were not significant. As to openness to experience, there was no difference between church planters and the general population. Comparison with research among secular entrepreneurs leads to rather ambiguous results. The only shared trait that can be established with some reliability is that both church planters and secular entrepreneurs are less neurotic than other people. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Public events by immigrant religious organisations are a fairly new phenomenon in European societies. This article analyses and compares two such events: Diwali Mela, the Hindu festival of lights, and the Open Mosque Day organised by Muslim umbrella organisations. Using basic concepts of new institutional theory, we will show how immigrant religious organisations adopt established event formats and translate them into their own context. Interestingly, different factors influence the way they present themselves and their religious tradition at the public event. Three of these factors are of major impact: the secular image of the role of religion in society, the discourse about Islam and Hinduism, and finally the organisations’ own religious concepts. We argue that the action generated out of this leads to the masking of two major aspects of religion: the rites and the believers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article examines the categorization of social space in five European countries, Germany, Belgium, Spain, France and Poland. It draws on analysis of reactions to the European Socio-economic Classification (ESeC) prototype designed by social science researchers for Eurostat. Looking beyond the logic underpinning the prototype, our work investigates how "ordinary" people understand the structuring of social space in different national contexts. By studying how respondents react to ESeC categories, we were able to address how they develop their own categories that guide them in social space. Through an experimental survey based on a list of occupations, classified according to the ESeC categories, we tested the self-consistency of the prototype by submitting it to ordinary individuals. Our results demonstrate that the respondents found it difficult to understand the main organizational principles of ESeC. We conclude by questioning the ability of the European classification system in question to take into account the diverse national socio-economic realities that still characterize the European Union. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In 2010, the Eurozone became the epicentre of the world crisis. The vulnerability of Europe appears to be linked to the specific institutional arrangement which organises monetary, financial and budgetary policies within the Eurozone. This article tries to understand the evolution of the EU during a short but decisive historical sequence (2007–12) in a theoretical framework that puts elements of Gramsci's reflections on the theme of crisis, and especially his notion of ‘Caesarism', at its centre. It addresses the current debate concerning the relationships between democratic politics and neoliberalism, while focusing on how the radicalisation of the crisis put at stake the co-construction of capitalism and representative democracy in the Western world since WWII. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

World Christianity entails a multi-centric Christianity, and mission from anywhere to anywhere. Today, any place can be a mission base and a mission field at the same time. According to Andrew Walls this may lead to a new "Ephesian moment" in Christianity. To what extent this is happening can only be found out, however, by doing actual research into local encounters of different Christianities. In this article three post-War missionary movements to Europe are subjected to scrutiny: American evangelicals, who came to Europe after the Second World War; African immigrants, who started to plant churches in the 1980s; and Australian neo-Pentecostals, who have recently extended their missionary efforts to European cities. Especially, attention is paid to their views of Europe and European churches, their methods of mission, and how they are received by Europeans. This analysis forms the basis of several missiological reflections regarding mission in secularized (Western) Europe, with a view to the realization of "Ephesian moments". It is demonstrated that the late modern missionary movement to Europe is determined to a large extent by globalizing tendencies, which threaten local expressions of Christianity. Also, some stereotypical pictures of Europe, as they are held by missionaries, are challenged. Different approaches are suggested in order to have a genuine encounter between different kinds of Christianity on the European mission field. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]