Krieger revisits the ideas of his now infamous article of some thirty years ago in "Science" magazine. His aim is to give an account of design, one that experienced designers will say, 'Yes, That's just what it is like ' At the same time, Krieger offers an analysis of the tensions that design operates within; between perfection and contingency, between wholes and parts, between the talk we make about the world and the world itself.

Krieger takes design--in architecture, landscape, interiors, engineering, and in systems and computer science--to be modeled by traditional theological and artistic problems. And here, he claims, design has traditionally been a redesign of nature. For nature is, as Durkheim would describe it, a totem. Our collective ritual devotion to it allows us to enliven or animate it, and so it may animate us as well. Curiously, much of design and discourse about it now takes place in the computer software engineering world, especially among those concerned with patterns and object- oriented programming. In developing a notion of plastic trees, Krieger probes just what could be wrong with such artifices. As he illustrates, what we call nature is almost always a product of deliberate design. It is as if people make discoveries in exploration, discoveries of places already occupied aboriginally. In essence, he asserts what we actually have is a virtual authenticity, more real than any original could possibly be--since the original was never meant to be sacralized or featured in our lives. A provocative analysis that scholars and students of architecture and planning, environmental studies, engineering and computer science will find stimulating.

In March 1807, Nathaniel Wallich, a young Danish surgeon left his home in Copenhagen towards India. During the troubles of the Napoleonic Wars, it was not possible to foresee, that he was to emerge as one of the most prominent nineteenth century botanists. Wallich spent most of his adulthood in India and, as the long-time superintendent of the Calcutta Botanic Garden, gained extensive expertise on Indian flora. A truly global communication network emerged from his desk facing the River Hooghly, reaching out to eminent specialists as well as amateur researchers long forgotten today. He conducted research trips to Nepal, as well as to South East Asia and may be perceived as one of the founding fathers of tea production in Assam. This book is based on the enormous correspondence of Wallich, preserved in libraries across Calcutta, London, Copenhagen, Hamburg, Munich and many other places. It aims to approach a long career marked by biographical ruptures and contradictions, but at the same time by continuity. It furthermore explains the tight links between supposedly neutral botanical studies and the emergence of British colonial power in India.

Schwede, Amerikaner oder Schwedisch-Amerikaner? Diese Frage stellten sich viele schwedische Einwanderer in Bezug auf ihre kulturelle Identitat in Seattle/Washington State ab 1890. Die Autorin befasst sich zum einen mit den Konflikten und Problemen schwedischer Einwanderer im Zuge ihres Akkulturationsprozesses. Zum anderen richtet sie ihren Blick auf die Versuche der Einwanderer, ihre schwedische kulturelle Identitat im Schmelztiegel der amerikanischen Gesellschaft zu bewahren (cultural maintenance). Ausserdem zeigt sie anhand von Fallbeispielen auf, wie die schwedische Gemeinde sich und ihr kulturelles Erbe ihren amerikanischen Mitmenschen prasentierte.