Bücher von Christoph Rosenthal

Essay from the year 2013 in the subject Psychology - Social Psychology, grade: Distinction, London School of Economics, language: English, abstract: On February 26, 2012 neighbourhood watch volunteer G. Zimmerman from Sanford, FL fatally shot unarmed Trayvon Martin, a 17-year old black teenager. The eventual acquittal of Zimmerman sparked fundamental debates about racial profiling and civil rights, polarizing nations and different interest groups in an argument about the possibility of a racialized shooter bias. A similar case in the US from 2001 revolved around the killing of West-African immigrant Amadiou Diallo, who had been shot 41 times by police after reaching for an object which turned out to be his wallet instead of a gun. Whereas prosecutors and spectators in favour of the victims claimed racism to be the root of such tragedies, the opposing camp argued that prosecuting the shooters would have been a travesty, absurdly and falsely representing self-defence. Though most common in judicial situations, such as the shootings of Trayvon and Amadiou, racial profiling can be defined as encompassing any form of discrimination based on stereotypes, ethnic bias or prejudice about race and skin colour. Racial bias manifests in negative repercussions for black individuals in a variety of ways, for example in education, recruiting and the workplace, health care, court room decisions and the promulgation of the death penalty. Omnipresent and deeply entrenched in historical, ideological and socio-political contexts, racial prejudice, ethnic bias and socially created stigma of belonging to an ethnic minority comprise social phenomena whose thematisation and understanding are of paramount importance.After providing a comprehensively integrated and analytical discussion of social representations theory, attitudes research and social identity in terms of race and prejudice, I will draw on a 45-minute open personal interview with a 22-year old American woman of Nigerian background to analyse some real-life experiences that exemplify the still occurring empiric manifestations of racism and prejudice. Arguing that these phenomena are fundamentally social, this essay achieves to tackle the societally relevant challenge of forging a better understanding of racial prejudice and ethnic bias towards black minorities by employing a

Anders als das gängige Weltgeschichts-Bild meint, sind die kulturellen Entwicklungen, die am Ende der Eiszeit vor ca. 13.000 Jahren aufkommen, nicht der Beginn der Entwicklung von Kultur. Diese ist vielmehr der Inhalt der Humanevolution, als deren Resultat unsere Art Homo sapiens entstand. Wir könnten nicht genetisch ein kulturales Wesen sein, wäre dem nicht so. Die Entwicklungen am Ende der Eiszeit stehen mit Notstandsproblemen aufgrund gigantischer Naturkatastrophen in Verbindung (heftige Klimaumbrüche, der sintflutartige Anstieg des Meeresspiegels um ca. 120 m usw.). Wohl gelang es, durch neue Techniken viele entstandene Probleme zu lösen, und dies begründete in der weiteren historischen Entwicklung eine Menge an Fortschritt. Doch entstanden durch sie aufgrund ungelöster Probleme auch eskalative Entwicklungen, die sich mangels Verstehen und Aufarbeitung bis heute fortsetzen. Die vor ca. 13.000 Jahren aufkommenden gesellschaftlichen Entwicklungen zeigen von Anfang an einen ambivalenten Charakter, der sich von diesen Naturkatastrophen her erklärt. Diese und weitere humanwissenschaftliche Einsichten bedeuten in ihrer Konsequenz eine wahrhaft kopernikanische Wende bzgl. unserer Weltgeschichts-Karte. Wenn sich dabei die Lösungen als nicht so simpel andeuten wie in dem alten Geschichts-Modell gedacht, so verweist die neue Weltgeschichts-Karte auf Wege dorthin. Die Große Transformation ist möglich. Dieses Buch konzentriert sich auf neue Erkenntnisse bzgl. der Prozesse am Ende der Eiszeit, die die weitere Entwicklung bis heute bestimmte.

Essay from the year 2011 in the subject Sociology - Work, Profession, Education, Organisation, grade: 9.0/10, Erasmus University Rotterdam, language: English, abstract: Leadbeater¿s (2000) metaphor of ¿a new economy living on thin air¿ gives a good idea of how to conceive of the knowledge economy. Creativity is an essential feature of the knowledge economy and has transferred from being characteristic for particular niche industries to an overarching, critical, and peculiar feature of various sectors (Pratt & Jeffcutt, 2009). Organizations have been trying to find management solutions and entrepreneurial approaches to fruitfully implement creativity and balance the innate tensions between creativity, control, and organizational structure. The essay at hand provides solutions to this dilemma and identifies starting points for implementing key characteristics and management strategies of creative organizations into creatively managing non-creative organizations. The subject matter will be discussed along the lines of the following set of interrelated questions.¿ What exactly is creativity, where does it come from and what is its significance in an organizational management context?¿ What constitutes creative organizations and where does innovation fit in? ¿ To what extend has creativity forged new forms of organizations or has been beneficially implemented by technically non-creative organizations?¿ What are some innovative and collaborative approaches by organizations to take advantage of the collective nature of the knowledge economy?

Essay from the year 2013 in the subject Sociology - Relationships and Family, London School of Economics, language: English, abstract: Where the popular meets culture, a rich repository of oppositional voices versus hegemonic narratives evolves through representations, images and media discourses. Embedded in commercial networks of cultural production and distribution, popular culture is indicative of societal macro spheres and therefore resembles a fruitful realm for studying the construction and contestation of identities. The omnipresence of (sexual) identity conflicts in popular culture, such as Bollywood movies, can be interpreted as a manifestation of identity crises in postmodern society. These crises reflect wider societal processes of change and progress that can give individuals the feeling of being thrown out of joint. Minority groups, such as homosexuals, are especially exposed, which is why it is crucially important to further advance related knowledge and inform associated current debates around the question: What is popular culture and how does it serve as a site of struggle around the construction and contestation around sexual identity? In an attempt to shed light on these highly relevant and prevailing questions, the present essay is structured in the following way.After untangling the complexities of how popular culture serves as a representational, mediated space where identities are constructed, contested and negotiated, Bollywood cinema will be availed for a comprehensive case study of how different homosexual identity disputes are situated within cinematographic representations. Comparing national and diasporic audiences shows that culture is a powerful mediator exerting influence over how certain media texts are negotiated. The main argumentative conclusions propose that the construction and contestation of sexual identities is an individually unique, culture-specific and constantly evolving process unfolding at the intersection of macro and micro levels.