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Australia is a multicultural society in which over 300 different indigenous and migrant languages are spoken. While its cultural diversity is often celebrated, Australia's linguistic diversity is still at risk due to the inherent monolingual mindset (cf. Clyne 2005) of its population. In this paper, we use a cross-disciplinary approach, drawing on both historical and sociolinguistic sources, to investigate some of the major causes of language shift among first- and subsequent generations of post-war German-speaking migrants in Australia. While historical and societal changes have provided greater opportunities for German to be maintained as a heritage language in Australia, these developments may have come too late or have not been effective in the face of English as the dominant language in Australia and as a global language. Our investigation indicates that Australians with German as a heritage language, like many other migrant groups, are still at a high risk of shift to English, despite recent opportunities for language maintenance provided by modern society. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of ÖZP - Österreichische Zeitschrift für Politikwissenschaft is the property of Oesterreichische Zeitschrift fur Politikwissenschaft and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Copyright of Julius-Kühn-Archiv is the property of Julius Kuehn Institut and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Copyright of ÖZP - Österreichische Zeitschrift für Politikwissenschaft is the property of Oesterreichische Zeitschrift fur Politikwissenschaft and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

The issue of contingency in narratives has long been of interest to the disciplines of philosophy, theoretical history and literary sciences. More recently, the question of how societies conceptualize and try to come to grips with the occurrence of the "expected unexpected" has gained an increasing importance both in anthropology and cultural studies generally. Built around a narrative--a more or less "classic" example of a "fighting story", well known in Northern Aboriginal Australia--the article demonstrates how the off-repeated tale reflects not only an experience of the social but also a (desired) potential for transformation. Using insights drawn from theories that emphasize the presentational (as opposed to the representational) qualities of the symbolic, the paper shows how the immanent capacity for conflict is thematized in an "olden time story". The narrative may not resolve the problems it addresses; however, through its symbolic presentations it nevertheless serves as a multi-faceted means to confront and even to make sense--if only temporarily--of the incongruities and the paradoxes of daily life. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article reports on the conference "Der Kult des großen Plans um 1910: Gestaltung von Metropolen in historischer Perspektive," held on November 25-26, 2010, at the Technical University of Berlin, Germany. The conference discussed philosophies and standards of urban planning in the early 20th century in cross-cultural perspective, with papers focusing on various cities, including Chicago, Illinois, Vienna, Austria, and Canberra, Australia.

The article reports on the panel "Grenzmissverständnisse in der Globalgeschichtsschreibung (ca. 1500-1900)" at the Deutscher Historikertag (Annual Meeting of the Verband der Historiker und Historikerinnen Deutschlands [VDH, German Historians' Association]), from September 28 to October 1, 2010, in Berlin. Several papers on the concepts of borders and frontiers in European imperialism and colonialism in Asia, Africa, and Australia, from the perspective of global history, were presented.

Presents an interpretation of Johann Nestroy's play "Der Zerissene," focusing on his style of ripping. Influences of Nestroy's imprisonment in a Vienna cell in 1836 on his plays. How confinement produces communications and how a hindrance to communication could possibly be held in reserve in communication; Characteristics of the play that show Nestroy's ripping; View that a Nestroyan Posse is a tragedy of speech in disintegration.