Alien Policy in Belgium, 1840-1940
Alien Policy in Belgium, 1840-1940

Author: Frank Caestecker

Publisher: Berghahn Books

Published: 2000

Total Pages: 362

ISBN-13: 9781571819864

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Belgium has a unique place in the history of migration in that it was the first among industrialized nations in Continental Europe to develop into an immigrant society. In the nineteenth century Italians, Jews, Poles, Czechs, and North Africans settled in Belgium to work in industry and commerce. They were followed by Russians in the 1920s and Germans in the 1930s who were seeking a safe haven from persecution by totalitarian regimes. In the nineteenth century immigrants were to a larger extent integrated into Belgian society: they were denied political rights but participated on equal terms with Belgians in social life. This changed radically in the twentieth century; by 1940 the rights of aliens were severely curtailed, while those of Belgian citizens, in particular in the social domain, were extended. While the state evolved into a "welfare state" for its citizens it became more of a police state for immigrants. The state only tolerated immigrants who were prepared to carry out those jobs that were shunned by the Belgians. Under the pressure of public opinion, an exception was made in the cases of thousands of Jewish refugees that had fled from Nazi Germany. However, other immigrants were subjected to harsh regulations and in fact became the outcasts of twentieth-century Belgian liberal society. This remarkable study examines in depth and over a long time span how (anti-) alien policies were transformed, resulting in an illiberal exclusion of foreigners at the same time as democratization and the welfare state expanded. In this respect Belgium is certainly not unique but offers an interesting case study of developments that are characteristic for Europe as a whole.

The Palace Complex
The Palace Complex

Author: Michal Murawski

Publisher: Indiana University Press

Published: 2019-03-22

Total Pages: 366

ISBN-13: 0253039991

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An exploration of the history and significance of the Palace of Culture and Science in Warsaw, Poland. The Palace of Culture and Science is a massive Stalinist skyscraper that was “gifted” to Warsaw by the Soviet Union in 1955. Framing the Palace’s visual, symbolic, and functional prominence in the everyday life of the Polish capital as a sort of obsession, locals joke that their city suffers from a “Palace of Culture complex.” Despite attempts to privatize it, the Palace remains municipally owned, and continues to play host to a variety of public institutions and services. The Parade Square, which surrounds the building, has resisted attempts to convert it into a money-making commercial center. Author Michal Murawski traces the skyscraper’s powerful impact on twenty-first century Warsaw; on its architectural and urban landscape; on its political, ideological, and cultural lives; and on the bodies and minds of its inhabitants. The Palace Complex explores the many factors that allow Warsaw’s Palace to endure as a still-socialist building in a post-socialist city. “The most brilliant book on a building in many years, making a case for Warsaw’s once-loathed Palace of Culture and Science as the most enduring and successful legacy of Polish state socialism.” —Owen Hatherley, The New Statesman’s“Books of the Year” list (UK) “An ambitious anthropological biography of Poland’s tallest and most infamous building, the Palace of Culture and Science in Warsaw. . . . It is a truly fascinating story that challenges a tenacious stereotype, and Murawski tells it brilliantly, judiciously layering literatures from multiple disciplines, his own ethnographic work, and personal anecdotes.” —Patryk Babiracki, H-Net History

Multi-Objective Optimization using Evolutionary Algorithms
Multi-Objective Optimization using Evolutionary Algorithms

Author: Kalyanmoy Deb

Publisher: John Wiley & Sons

Published: 2001-07-05

Total Pages: 540

ISBN-13: 9780471873396

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Optimierung mit mehreren Zielen, evolutionäre Algorithmen: Dieses Buch wendet sich vorrangig an Einsteiger, denn es werden kaum Vorkenntnisse vorausgesetzt. Geboten werden alle notwendigen Grundlagen, um die Theorie auf Probleme der Ingenieurtechnik, der Vorhersage und der Planung anzuwenden. Der Autor gibt auch einen Ausblick auf Forschungsaufgaben der Zukunft.