Japanese Bronze Bells in Switzerland

Western museums hold numerous Japanese objects, typically gathered by collectors during travels in Japan and then donated to local institutions. This simple scenario is by no means always the case, as can be seen with the numerous Japanese bronze bells in Swiss museum collections. The story of how the bells changed from holding significant functions within Japanese monastic and secular communities to being sold for their materiality and sheer weight as they travel across the globe tells a complex story of how objects change in meaning as they travel. As the bells were eventually relegated to museum archives, their stories help to shed light on global transfers, interculturality, and cultural misunderstandings, as they narrowly escape destruction. Their stories show the futility of claiming global understanding of art when, despite globalization, we are in the end products of our own localized traditions and understandings.

“Very old Chinese bells, a large number of which were melted down”

In the second half of the 19th century, Buddhist bells from Japan began to arrive in Switzerland. The fact that these were objects listed in the so-called ethnographic collections is not surprising and the history of collecting has been a subject of postcolonial research. However, remarkably, the travel route of these bells, some of which weighed over a ton, could not be documented. Until now, the way how the bells were imported into Switzerland as unknown, and the problem of their provenance unsolved. This article argues that a global history approach provides new insights in two respects: The consideration of materiality allows a new nderstanding of the objects, while the activities of local collectors, seen from a micro-global point of view, reveal the local imprints of the global. Within this rationale, a history of individual bells in the possession of individual art lovers and museums translates into a history of scrap metal trade, allows to consider the disposal of disliked objects at their place of origin, and opens up a global framing of local history. Using global history as a concept, the historicity of the global gains visibility as we look at the intersection of materiality and the local involvement of global networks. Ultimately, as we follow the journey of the bells, reinterpreting scrap metal into art has formed a striking way in which local history assimilates the global.

Introduction

Introduction to «Forgotten Icons of Global Transition: Erasmus of Rotterdam and the Buddhist Bell Trade»

Mr Kateki and Love

This article examines a figure of transcultural misunderstandings: Katekisama. A statue of this name is owned by a Japanese Buddhist monastery and kept as national heritage in the national Museum in Tokyo – but this figure is none other than Erasmus of Rotterdam. Coming to Japan as a ship figure more than 400 years ago, it has shifted, accumulated, and merged identities for centuries.

Soft Law in EU Migration Cooperation with Associated Countries – A Comparative Perspective

The war in Syria transformed the temporary stay of refugees in Turkey, Jordan and Lebanon into a protracted situation. These countries represent strategic partners to the EU in the governance of transit migration. The EU adopted three non-binding bilateral arrangements: The Turkey Statement, the Jordan Compact and the Lebanon Compact. This thesis pursued the following research question: What are the legal effects of the Turkey Statement, the Jordan Compact and the Lebanon Compact on the relations between the EU and these three associated countries in terms of migration and how do they impact the situation of Syrian refugees hosted in these countries? The Compacts had facilitating and strengthening legal effects on the association links with the EU. In contrast, the Turkey Statement had transformative and multilevel legal effects that contributed to an informalization of relations. This study provided one approach to the lack of legal research on the external dimension of EU governance.

Zwischen „fremden Händeln“ und der „Weltpolizei“. Der Diskurs um die Beteiligung der Schweiz an friedenserhaltenden Operationen nach 1945

After initially supporting selected peacekeeping missions as a means of distancing itself from the UN as an institution, Switzerland slowly adopted a more progressive position during the Cold War, which led to an increase in participation in the 1990s. The source material – parliamentary protocols since 1945 – shows that among the political parties in Switzerland, the political right was oftentimes the lone opponent to more involvement in such missions, as there was relatively little other opposition to an intensification of traditional peacekeeping activities. However, attempts to relativize national neutrality concepts met broad resistance, as did attempts by the government to take too many (or too large) steps at once. The examined parliamentary discussions focus on obligations under international law, national legal provisions and political priorities – and the famous Swiss neutrality is used in both political and judicial terms as an argument by all sides.

A Legal Conquest of the Arctic? China, the European Nordic Countries and Multilateralism

China published its first White Paper on the Arctic region in 2018, announcing its vision of integrating it as a Polar Silk Road under its Belt and Road Initiative framework. This marked the beginning of an increasingly assertive Chinese presence in the Arctic and indicated that the region has gained strategic significance in Beijing’s foreign policy agenda. This master’s thesis examined whether the inclusion of the Arctic in the framework of China’s Belt and Road Initiative has influenced the Chinese foreign policy approach towards the Arctic countries. If the inclusion of the Arctic did indeed have an impact, this could help to assess the overall influence of the Belt and Road Initiative on China’s foreign policy and gain a better understanding of how China operates in its context.

Atsushi Shibasaki: A Conversation with Antonio Negri: Empire Before and After, Multitude, Passion and Emotion, Bob Dylan and Michael Moore, and More.

This is a conversation between Antonio Negri, one of the most preeminent political philosophers, and Professor Atsushi Shibasaki, who was a guest professor at the Institute for European Global Studies during 2017/2018, with a translation by Professor Teresa Pullano. Their talk, which was based on a letter by Professor Shibasaki, deals with a range of issues, from Negri’s academic background and his forthcoming book to his view on music and films. In particular, their dialogue extends to reaching a comparison between Negri and Makoto Oda and Yusuke Maki, who are less well-known in Europe but have much in common with Negri’s theory and philosophy. Thus, the interview reveals many significant but somewhat overlooked theoretical and philosophical possibilities of cross-cultural interaction between Negri and non-European thinkers.

Mitwirkungsrechte der Arbeitnehmenden im schweizerischen Arbeitsrecht – Einfluss des Arbeitsvölkerrechts und des EU-Arbeitsrechts

Demokratie spielt im schweizerischen Selbstverständnis eine zentrale Rolle. In einem scharfen Kontrast zu den weitreichenden politischen Mitbestimmungsrechten stehen in der Schweiz die rechtlichen Möglichkeiten der Mitbestimmung am Arbeitsplatz und im Unternehmen. Vorschläge für eine stärkere Verankerung der Partizipationsrechte der Arbeitnehmenden hatten politisch keine Chance. Es bedurfte vielmehr einen Anstoss von Aussen – der geplante EWR-Beitritt –, damit die heute geltende minimale Mitwirkungsregelung Eingang in schweizerisches Recht fanden.So deckt sich heute das schweizerische Recht der Mitwirkung der Arbeitnehmenden mit den Anforderungen, die sich aus dem Arbeitsvölkerrecht und aus dem EU-Recht ergeben. Die geltenden Mitwirkungsregelungen werden durch die Veränderungen der Arbeitswelt im Zuge der Digitalisierung herausgefordert. Gefordert sind von den Sozialpartnern, aber auch dem Gesetzgeber, den Gerichten und der Arbeitsrechtswissenschaft, Ideen und Konzepte, wie Mitsprache und Mitbestimmung der Beschäftigten in neuen hybriden Arbeitsformen möglich ist.

A Discussion on “European Global Studies”

Responding to transformations often described by the shorthand expression “globalization,” the Europainstitut changed its English name in 2013 to Institute for European Global Studies. Five years later, members of the Institute came together to discuss their different views and assess the aims of European Global Studies. Among the points touched upon are the importance of different disciplinary backgrounds in this endeavor, the question of interdisciplinarity and/or transdisciplinarity, as well as the perceived challenges and promises with regard to the future of European Global Studies.The latest issue of the E-Journal «Global Europe» contains a transcript of parts of this discussion, edited and framed with introductory paragraphs in order to increase readability and facilitate comprehension. The purpose of publishing this discussion on European Global Studies is to clarify the current agenda of the Institute, to showcase the plurality of approaches pursued under its roof, and also to outline its innovative potential for the Social Sciences and the Humanities in the 21st century.