Originally published in English in 1984, this collection of essays documents a dialogue between phenomenology and Marxism, with the contributors representing a cross-section from the two traditions. The theoretical and historical presuppositions of the phenomenology inaugurated by Husserl are very different from those of the much older Marxist tradition, yet, as these essays show, there are definite points of contact, communication and exchange between the two traditions.

Originally published in English in 1984, this collection of essays documents a dialogue between phenomenology and Marxism, with the contributors representing a cross-section from the two traditions. The theoretical and historical presuppositions of the phenomenology inaugurated by Husserl are very different from those of the much older Marxist tradition, yet, as these essays show, there are definite points of contact, communication and exchange between the two traditions.

Roland Fischer (*1958) is a conceptual photo artist who works in series and is active internationally. With his series of large-format works, he has been part of the photographic avant-garde since the 1980s. In his oeuvre, Fischer concentrates on two complexes of works: people and architecture. All of the conceptual series on these two themes are presented in the catalogue. Matter-of-fact, very precisely exposed faces are central to series such as Nuns and Monks, Los Angeles Portraits, and Chinese Pool Portraits. The artist deals with architecture amongst other topics in the work series Cathedrals, Alhambra, and New Architectures. What interests Roland Fischer, therefore, is not the documentary character of photography. His concentrated photo works of famous buildings and façades are pictorial creations with an autonomous character. Text in English and German.

Tanja Stahler and Alexander Kozin's elegant translation of Bernhard Waldenfels's Phenomenology of the Alien (Grundmotive einer Phanomenologie des Fremden) introduces the English readership to the philosophy of alien-experience, a multifaceted and multidimensional phenomenon that permeates our everyday experiences of the life-world with immediate implications for the ways we conduct our social, political, and ethical affairs.
With impressive erudition Waldenfels weaves in xenological themes from classical philosophy, contemporary phenomenology, literature, linguistics, sociology, and anthropology to address the boundaries of experience that unite and separate human beings, their collectives, their perceptions, and aspirations. While the debate has long raged in German-speaking circles, Waldenfels's work is largely unavailable to the English-speaking audience, with the only other translation being The Order in the Twilight (1996). Phenomenology of the Alien is a superb introduction to both xenological phenomenology, and the the question of the alien as it has been unfolding in contemporary thought. Bernhard Waldenfels is Professor Emeritus at

Roland Fischer was inspired by the current political and social events relating t o the topic of refugees to create a collective portrait consisting of over 1,000 separate photographs. Central questions about identity and solidarity, which are the subject of discussion in the socio - political debate, are raised and treated in an artistic manner. The term "refugees" is removed from its abstract context and real people appear in the viewer's field of vision, complete with name. As regards motif and topic, a collective portrait like this one, for which the artist mounted 1,000 individual por traits, hovers between the individual and the collective. While refugees and migrants are perceived primarily as an abstract collective and an indeterminate mass, especially as a result of the reporting in the media, Roland Fischer and his art project poin t out that this collective is comprised of many individuals with personal, individual fates.

In this seminal work, acclaimed philosopher Bernhard Waldenfels deals with the problem of the nature of order after the “shattering of the world,” and the loss of the idea of a universal or fundamental order. Order in the Twilight unites phenomenological methodology with recent work on the theory of order, normativity, and dialogue, as well as structuralism and Gestalt theory. Philosophically stringent, it expresses a more optimistic attitude than much modern philosophy, especially deconstruction. Waldenfels passes the question of order through numerous defining aspects, and concludes that there is not one global order, but rather various conflicting domains of order. Whenever the boundary of a vital or experiential domain is crossed, a discourse speaks at the boundary, not about it, and across a threshold without abolishing it. The rest is rationalization, i.e., an attempt to find a place in the respective order for what is to-be-ordered. But why, the author concludes, should a theory be more unambiguous than reality? Order in the Twilight is an important book at this time, because it may help lift the humanities out of the skeptical, relativistic disarray in which they have been embroiled in recent decades. Waldenfels does not attempt to dictate what reality should be; rather, he is open to any valid evidences. His book offers a solid footing to the human and social sciences as they seek to escape from deconstructive irrationalism.

Between Urban Topographies and Political Spaces: Threshold Experiences uses the term "threshold" as a means to understand the relationship between Self and Other, as well as relationships between different cultures. The concept of "threshold" defines the relationship between inside and outside not in oppositional terms, but as complementaries. This book discusses the cultural and social "border areas" of modernity, which are to be understood not as "zones" in a territorial sense, but as "spaces in between" in which different languages and cultures operate. The essays in Between Urban Topographies and Political Spaces identify the dimension in urban topographies and political spaces where we are able to locate paradigmatic experiences of thresholds. Because these spaces are characterized by contradictions, conflicts, and aporias, we propose to rethink those hermeneutic categories that imply a sharp opposition between inside and outside. This means that the theoretical definition of threshold put forward in these essays-whether applied to history, philosophy, law, art, or cultural studies-embodies new juridical and political stances.