@phdthesis{Schmitz2023,
  author    = {Schmitz, Se{\´a}n},
  title     = {Using low-cost sensors to gather high resolution measurements of air quality in urban environments and inform mobility policy},
  doi       = {10.25932/publishup-60105},
  url       = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:kobv:517-opus4-601053},
  school      = {Universit{\"a}t Potsdam},
  pages     = {180},
  year      = {2023},
  abstract  = {Air pollution has been a persistent global problem in the past several hundred years. While some industrialized nations have shown improvements in their air quality through stricter regulation, others have experienced declines as they rapidly industrialize. The WHO's 2021 update of their recommended air pollution limit values reflects the substantial impacts on human health of pollutants such as NO2 and O3, as recent epidemiological evidence suggests substantial long-term health impacts of air pollution even at low concentrations. Alongside developments in our understanding of air pollution's health impacts, the new technology of low-cost sensors (LCS) has been taken up by both academia and industry as a new method for measuring air pollution. Due primarily to their lower cost and smaller size, they can be used in a variety of different applications, including in the development of higher resolution measurement networks, in source identification, and in measurements of air pollution exposure. While significant efforts have been made to accurately calibrate LCS with reference instrumentation and various statistical models, accuracy and precision remain limited by variable sensor sensitivity. Furthermore, standard procedures for calibration still do not exist and most proprietary calibration algorithms are black-box, inaccessible to the public. This work seeks to expand the knowledge base on LCS in several different ways: 1) by developing an open-source calibration methodology; 2) by deploying LCS at high spatial resolution in urban environments to test their capability in measuring microscale changes in urban air pollution; 3) by connecting LCS deployments with the implementation of local mobility policies to provide policy advice on resultant changes in air quality. In a first step, it was found that LCS can be consistently calibrated with good performance against reference instrumentation using seven general steps: 1) assessing raw data distribution, 2) cleaning data, 3) flagging data, 4) model selection and tuning, 5) model validation, 6) exporting final predictions, and 7) calculating associated uncertainty. By emphasizing the need for consistent reporting of details at each step, most crucially on model selection, validation, and performance, this work pushed forward with the effort towards standardization of calibration methodologies. In addition, with the open-source publication of code and data for the seven-step methodology, advances were made towards reforming the largely black-box nature of LCS calibrations. With a transparent and reliable calibration methodology established, LCS were then deployed in various street canyons between 2017 and 2020. Using two types of LCS, metal oxide (MOS) and electrochemical (EC), their performance in capturing expected patterns of urban NO2 and O3 pollution was evaluated. Results showed that calibrated concentrations from MOS and EC sensors matched general diurnal patterns in NO2 and O3 pollution measured using reference instruments. While MOS proved to be unreliable for discerning differences among measured locations within the urban environment, the concentrations measured with calibrated EC sensors matched expectations from modelling studies on NO2 and O3 pollution distribution in street canyons. As such, it was concluded that LCS are appropriate for measuring urban air quality, including for assisting urban-scale air pollution model development, and can reveal new insights into air pollution in urban environments. To achieve the last goal of this work, two measurement campaigns were conducted in connection with the implementation of three mobility policies in Berlin. The first involved the construction of a pop-up bike lane on Kottbusser Damm in response to the COVID-19 pandemic, the second surrounded the temporary implementation of a community space on B{\"o}ckhstrasse, and the last was focused on the closure of a portion of Friedrichstrasse to all motorized traffic. In all cases, measurements of NO2 were collected before and after the measure was implemented to assess changes in air quality resultant from these policies. Results from the Kottbusser Damm experiment showed that the bike-lane reduced NO2 concentrations that cyclists were exposed to by 22 ± 19\%. On Friedrichstrasse, the street closure reduced NO2 concentrations to the level of the urban background without worsening the air quality on side streets. These valuable results were communicated swiftly to partners in the city administration responsible for evaluating the policies' success and future, highlighting the ability of LCS to provide policy-relevant results. As a new technology, much is still to be learned about LCS and their value to academic research in the atmospheric sciences. Nevertheless, this work has advanced the state of the art in several ways. First, it contributed a novel open-source calibration methodology that can be used by a LCS end-users for various air pollutants. Second, it strengthened the evidence base on the reliability of LCS for measuring urban air quality, finding through novel deployments in street canyons that LCS can be used at high spatial resolution to understand microscale air pollution dynamics. Last, it is the first of its kind to connect LCS measurements directly with mobility policies to understand their influences on local air quality, resulting in policy-relevant findings valuable for decisionmakers. It serves as an example of the potential for LCS to expand our understanding of air pollution at various scales, as well as their ability to serve as valuable tools in transdisciplinary research.},
  language  = {en}
}
@phdthesis{Heihsel2021,
  author    = {Heihsel, Marlene},
  title     = {Funktionen, {\"A}mter, Netzwerke: Liberaldemokraten vor Ort},
  doi       = {10.25932/publishup-50928},
  url       = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:kobv:517-opus4-509284},
  school      = {Universit{\"a}t Potsdam},
  pages     = {VIII, 336},
  year      = {2021},
  abstract  = {Die Dissertation geht der grundlegenden Forschungsfrage nach, wie die Liberal-Demokratische Partei Deutschlands (LDPD) auf lokaler Ebene die ihr zugeschriebene Rolle im politischen Alltag ausf{\"u}llte, in welchem Verh{\"a}ltnis sie zum System der DDR stand sowie welche Handlungsspielr{\"a}ume bestanden und genutzt wurden. Ihre Parteiarbeit vor Ort vom Mauerbau bis in die 1980er Jahre hinein blieb von der Forschung bisher weitgehend unbeobachtet, da das Interesse verst{\"a}rkt der herrschenden SED oder den rebellischen Ans{\"a}tzen der LDPD in den 1940er und sp{\"a}ten 1980er Jahren galt. Die vorliegende Arbeit hat einen ersten Schritt unternommen, die liberale Partei auf Kreis- und Ortsebene zu untersuchen, und tr{\"a}gt dazu bei, diese L{\"u}cken zu schließen. Anhand der Fallbeispiele Gotha, Erfurt-Stadt und Eisenach beleuchtet die Dissertation die interne Parteiorganisation, Verhalten und Motivationen der Mitglieder sowie unter Ber{\"u}cksichtigung netzwerktheoretischer Ans{\"a}tze die Verflechtungen der lokalen Parteifunktionstr{\"a}ger, die sich in die kommunale Arbeit vor Ort einmischten. Informations- und Situationsberichte sowie Korrespondenzen und Organisationsunterlagen gaben Auskunft {\"u}ber Selbstbilder, Aktivit{\"a}t, Themen und Kommunikationsaspekte. Deutlich werden die strengen Kontrollmechanismen innerhalb der Partei sowie das Spannungsfeld zwischen einer klaren Unterst{\"u}tzung der SED-Politik und individuell eigen-sinnigem Verhalten. Durch die Analysekategorie des „Eigen-Sinns" als Form der vielschichtigen Aneig- nung von Herrschaftsstrukturen in Abgrenzung zu den Begriffen Opposition und Widerstand wird gezeigt, dass die LDPD-Mitglieder in den untersuchten Kreisen sich zwar Freiheiten der Kritik{\"a}ußerung nahmen sowie weitgehend selbstst{\"a}ndig den Grad ihrer Aktivit{\"a}t bestimmten, dabei die grundlegenden Systemfragen jedoch nicht ber{\"u}hrten. Es existierten viele unterschiedliche Lebenswelten der Akteure, abh{\"a}ngig von T{\"a}tigkeitsfeld, Motivation und Umfeld, die zu verschiedenen Taktiken und Auspr{\"a}gungen des Eigen-Sinns bei einfachen Mitgliedern und den lokalen Funktionstr{\"a}gern f{\"u}hrten. Durch ihre kommunale Mitarbeit jedoch k{\"u}mmerten sich die Liberaldemokraten in den Gemeinden um die dr{\"a}ngendsten Versorgungsprobleme und sorgten mit der aktiven Rekrutierung ihrer Mitglieder f{\"u}r Arbeitsprogramme und Wettbewerbe f{\"u}r eine Beteiligung der LDPD an der Beseitigung der schlimmsten M{\"a}ngel im {\"o}ffentlichen Raum. Damit leisteten sie einen Beitrag zur D{\"a}mpfung der allgemeinen Unzufriedenheit und st{\"a}rkten mittelbar das DDR-System. Im Gegenzug erhielten sie daf{\"u}r von der SED eingeschr{\"a}nkte und klar definierte Handlungsspielr{\"a}ume. Mittels der beruflichen Verankerung der meisten aktiven Liberaldemokraten im {\"o}konomischen Bereich konnte viel Praxiswissen herausgebildet werden, mit dem sich die untersuchten LDPD-Verb{\"a}nde im Rahmen der gew{\"a}hrten Gestaltungsfreiheit durchaus selbstbewusst in kommunale Prozesse einmischten. F{\"u}r die Stabilisierung des Systems {\"u}ber die lange Zeit zwischen Mauerbau und Mauerfall spielten sie damit eine wichtige Rolle. Die Vermischung von Distanzierung, Akzeptanz, Widerspruch und Gehorsam machen die Parteibasis und auch die aktiven Parteifunktionstr{\"a}ger auf der unteren Ebene zu einem sehr spannenden Untersuchungsfeld, das auch noch l{\"a}ngst nicht ausgesch{\"o}pft ist.},
  language  = {de}
}
@phdthesis{Lazaridou2021,
  author    = {Lazaridou, Konstantina},
  title     = {Revealing hidden patterns in political news and social media with machine learning},
  doi       = {10.25932/publishup-50273},
  url       = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:kobv:517-opus4-502734},
  school      = {Universit{\"a}t Potsdam},
  pages     = {xv, 140},
  year      = {2021},
  abstract  = {As part of our everyday life we consume breaking news and interpret it based on our own viewpoints and beliefs. We have easy access to online social networking platforms and news media websites, where we inform ourselves about current affairs and often post about our own views, such as in news comments or social media posts. The media ecosystem enables opinions and facts to travel from news sources to news readers, from news article commenters to other readers, from social network users to their followers, etc. The views of the world many of us have depend on the information we receive via online news and social media. Hence, it is essential to maintain accurate, reliable and objective online content to ensure democracy and verity on the Web. To this end, we contribute to a trustworthy media ecosystem by analyzing news and social media in the context of politics to ensure that media serves the public interest. In this thesis, we use text mining, natural language processing and machine learning techniques to reveal underlying patterns in political news articles and political discourse in social networks. Mainstream news sources typically cover a great amount of the same news stories every day, but they often place them in a different context or report them from different perspectives. In this thesis, we are interested in how distinct and predictable newspaper journalists are, in the way they report the news, as a means to understand and identify their different political beliefs. To this end, we propose two models that classify text from news articles to their respective original news source, i.e., reported speech and also news comments. Our goal is to capture systematic quoting and commenting patterns by journalists and news commenters respectively, which can lead us to the newspaper where the quotes and comments are originally published. Predicting news sources can help us understand the potential subjective nature behind news storytelling and the magnitude of this phenomenon. Revealing this hidden knowledge can restore our trust in media by advancing transparency and diversity in the news. Media bias can be expressed in various subtle ways in the text and it is often challenging to identify these bias manifestations correctly, even for humans. However, media experts, e.g., journalists, are a powerful resource that can help us overcome the vague definition of political media bias and they can also assist automatic learners to find the hidden bias in the text. Due to the enormous technological advances in artificial intelligence, we hypothesize that identifying political bias in the news could be achieved through the combination of sophisticated deep learning modelsxi and domain expertise. Therefore, our second contribution is a high-quality and reliable news dataset annotated by journalists for political bias and a state-of-the-art solution for this task based on curriculum learning. Our aim is to discover whether domain expertise is necessary for this task and to provide an automatic solution for this traditionally manually-solved problem. User generated content is fundamentally different from news articles, e.g., messages are shorter, they are often personal and opinionated, they refer to specific topics and persons, etc. Regarding political and socio-economic news, individuals in online communities make use of social networks to keep their peers up-to-date and to share their own views on ongoing affairs. We believe that social media is also an as powerful instrument for information flow as the news sources are, and we use its unique characteristic of rapid news coverage for two applications. We analyze Twitter messages and debate transcripts during live political presidential debates to automatically predict the topics that Twitter users discuss. Our goal is to discover the favoured topics in online communities on the dates of political events as a way to understand the political subjects of public interest. With the up-to-dateness of microblogs, an additional opportunity emerges, namely to use social media posts and leverage the real-time verity about discussed individuals to find their locations. That is, given a person of interest that is mentioned in online discussions, we use the wisdom of the crowd to automatically track her physical locations over time. We evaluate our approach in the context of politics, i.e., we predict the locations of US politicians as a proof of concept for important use cases, such as to track people that are national risks, e.g., warlords and wanted criminals.},
  language  = {en}
}
@phdthesis{Schmider2021,
  author    = {Schmider, Stephan},
  title     = {Was ist HipHop?},
  doi       = {10.25932/publishup-52375},
  url       = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:kobv:517-opus4-523759},
  school      = {Universit{\"a}t Potsdam},
  pages     = {225},
  year      = {2021},
  abstract  = {Es handelt sich bei der vorliegenden Dissertation um eine investigative Forschungsarbeit, die sich mit dem dynamisch wandelnden HipHop-Ph{\"a}nomen befasst. Der Autor erl{\"a}utert hierbei die anhaltende Attraktivit{\"a}t des kulturellen Ph{\"a}nomens HipHop und versucht die Tatsache der stetigen Reproduzierbarkeit des HipHops genauer zu erkl{\"a}ren. Daher beginnt er mit einer historischen Diskursanalyse der HipHop-Kultur. Er analysiert hierf{\"u}r die Formen, die Protagonisten und die Diskurse des HipHops, um diesen besser verstehen zu k{\"o}nnen. Durch die Herausarbeitung der genuinen Eigenschaft der Mehrfachkodierbarkeit des HipHops werden g{\"a}ngige Erkl{\"a}rungsmuster aus Wissenschaft und Medien relativiert und kritisiert. Der Autor kombiniert in seiner Studie kultur- und erziehungswissenschaftliche Literatur mit diversen aktuellen und historischen Darstellungen und Bildern. Es werden vor allem bildbasierte Selbstinszenierungen von HipHoppern und Selbstzeugnisse aus narrativen Interviews, die er selbst mit verschiedenen HipHoppern in Deutschland gef{\"u}hrt hat, ausgewertet. Neben den narrativen Interviews dient vor allem die Bildinterpretation nach Bohnsack als Quelle zur Bildung der These der Mehrfachkodierbarkeit. Hierbei werden zwei Bilder der HipHopper Lady Bitch Ray und Kollegah nach Bohnsack (2014) interpretiert und gezeigt wie HipHop neben der lyrischen und der klanglichen Komponente auch visuell inszeniert und produziert wird. Hieraus wird geschlussfolgert, dass es im HipHop m{\"o}glich ist kontr{\"a}re Sichtweisen bei gleichzeitiger Anwendung von typischen Kulturpraktiken wie zum Beispiel dem Boasting darzustellen und zu vermitteln. Die stetige Offenheit des HipHops wird durch Praktiken wie dem Sampling oder dem Battle deutlich und der Autor erkl{\"a}rt, dass durch diese Techniken die generative Eigenschaft der Mehrfachkodierbarkeit hergestellt wird. Damit vertritt er eine Art Baukasten-Theorie, die besagt, dass sich prinzipiell jeder aus dem Baukasten HipHop, je nach Vorliebe, Interesse und Affinit{\"a}t, bedienen kann. Durch die Vielfalt an Meinungen zu HipHop, die der Autor durch die Kodierung der gef{\"u}hrten narrativen Interviews erh{\"a}lt, wird diese These verdeutlicht und es wird klar, dass es sich bei HipHop um mehr als nur eine Mode handelt. HipHop besitzt die prinzipielle M{\"o}glichkeit durch die Offenheit, die er in sich tr{\"a}gt, sich stetig neu zu wandeln und damit an Beliebtheit und Popularit{\"a}t zuzunehmen. Die vorliegende Arbeit erweitert damit die immer gr{\"o}ßer werdende Forschung in den HipHop-Studies und setzt wichtige Akzente um weiter zu forschen und HipHop besser verst{\"a}ndlich zu machen.},
  language  = {de}
}
@phdthesis{Maerz2020,
  author    = {M{\"a}rz, Moses},
  title     = {{\´E}douard Glissant's politics of relation},
  doi       = {10.25932/publishup-50948},
  url       = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:kobv:517-opus4-509486},
  school      = {Universit{\"a}t Potsdam},
  pages     = {xv, 530},
  year      = {2020},
  abstract  = {The political legacy of the Martinican poet, novelist and philosopher {\´E}douard Glissant (1928-2011) is the subject of an ongoing debate among postcolonial literary scholars. Responding to an influential view shaping this debate, that Glissant's work can be categorised into an early political and late apolitical phase, this dissertation claims that this division is based on a narrow conception of 'engaged political writing' that prevents a more comprehensive view of the changing political strategies Glissant pursued throughout his life from emerging. Proceeding from this conceptual basis, the dissertation is concerned with re-reading the dimensions of Glissant's work that have hitherto been relegated as apolitical, literary or poetic, with the aim of conceptualising the politics of relation as an integral part of his overall poetic project. In methodological terms, the dissertation therefore proposes a relational reading of Glissant's life-work across literary genres, epochs, as well as the conventional divisions between political thought, writing and activism. This perspective is informed by Glissant's philosophy of relation, and draws on a conception of political practice that includes both explicit engagements with established political systems and institutions, as well as literary and cultural interventions geared towards their transformation and the creation of alternatives to them. Theoretically the work thus combines a poststructuralist lens on the conceptual difference between 'politics' and 'the political' with arguments for an inherent political quality of literature, and perspectives from the Afro-Caribbean radical tradition, in which writers and intellectuals have historically sought to combine discursive interventions with organisational actions. Applying this theoretical angle to the analysis of Glissant's politics of relation results in an interdisciplinary research framework designed to explore the synergies between postcolonial political and literary studies. In order to comprehensively describe Glissant's politics of relation without recourse to evolutionary or digressive models, the concept of an intellectual marronage is proposed as a framework to map the strategies making up Glissant's political archive. Drawing on a variety of historic, political theoretical and literary sources, intellectual marronage is understood as a mode of radical resistance to the neocolonial subjugation for which the plantation system stands historically and metaphorically, as an inherently innovative political practice invested in the creation of communities marked by relational ontologies, and as a commitment to fostering an imagination of the world and the human that differs fundamentally from the Enlightenment paradigm. This specific conception of intellectual marronage forms the basis on which three key strategies that consistently shape Glissant's political practice are identified and mapped. They revolve around Glissant's engagement with history (chapter 2), his commitment to fostering an imagination of the Tout-Monde (whole-world) as a political point of reference (chapter 3), and the continuous exploration of alternative forms of community on the levels of the island, the archipelago and the Tout-Monde (chapter 4). Together these strategies constitute Glissant's personal politics of relation. Its abstract characteristics can be put in a productive conversation with related theoretical traditions invested in exploring the political potentials of fugitivity (chapters 5), as well as with the work of other postcolonial actors whose holistic practice warrants to be described as a politics of relation (chapter 6).},
  language  = {en}
}
@phdthesis{Heess2017,
  author    = {Heeß, Katja},
  title     = {Einschr{\"a}nkung der Mehrheitsdemokratie?},
  series = {Comparative politics ; 9},
  journal   = {Comparative politics ; 9},
  publisher = {Nomos},
  address   = {Baden-Baden},
  isbn      = {978-3-8487-3834-2},
  pages     = {487},
  year      = {2017},
  abstract  = {Das Buch bietet eine systematische Erkl{\"a}rung der bisher wenig beachteten Ph{\"a}nomene von Wandel und Stabilit{\"a}t legislativer Vetopunkte (VP) in parlamentarischen Demokratien. Theoretisch erm{\"o}glichen die gemeinsame Betrachtung der Akteursstrategien auf Gesetzgebungs- und Reformebene und deren gegenseitige Beeinflussung die Identifikation institutioneller Gleichgewichte. Die Erkl{\"a}rung der Autorin betont die Bedeutung der Mehrheiten beschr{\"a}nkenden Wirkung von Vetoinstitutionen f{\"u}r die Reformpr{\"a}ferenzen der Akteure. Im Reformprozess wird die Legitimit{\"a}t der Vetopunkte als wesentlicher Faktor angenommen. Sie beeinflusst Kosten und Nutzen der Akteure durch eine potenzielle elektorale Bestrafung von Versuchen, legitime Vetopunkte zu schw{\"a}chen bzw. illegitime Vetopunkte zu bewahren. Empirisch wird die Erkl{\"a}rung mittels einer QCA-Analyse f{\"u}r 38 etablierte parlamentarische Demokratien sowie anhand vertiefender Fallstudien zur Entwicklung der Vetoinstitutionen in f{\"u}nf L{\"a}ndern {\"u}berpr{\"u}ft.},
  language  = {de}
}
@phdthesis{Zantke2017,
  author    = {Zantke, Michael},
  title     = {Bewaffnete Intellektuelle},
  series = {dis(s)kurs ; 2},
  journal   = {dis(s)kurs ; 2},
  publisher = {WeltTrends},
  address   = {Potsdam},
  isbn      = {978-3-945878-47-7},
  school      = {Universit{\"a}t Potsdam},
  pages     = {361},
  year      = {2017},
  abstract  = {Auf der Suche nach der geheimen Herrschaftslehre der Nazis begibt sich Michael Zantke in eine tiefe und umfassende Auseinandersetzung mit den geistigen Wurzeln des Nationalsozialismus. Er beleuchtet die Diskussionen in Deutschland um Machiavelli und {\"u}berpr{\"u}ft die Texte auf ihren Bezug zur Gegenwart des Nationalsozialismus. Dabei gelingt es ihm, die politische Rolle der Intellektuellen im „Dritten Reich" und die Unterschiede zwischen Nationalsozialismus, Faschismus und Konservativer Revolution herauszuarbeiten. Diese Nuancen sind nicht nur historisch bedeutungsvoll, sie sind auch f{\"u}r die heutige Diskussion {\"u}ber Rechtsnationalismus, Rechtsradikalismus und die Neue Rechte von Nutzen.},
  language  = {de}
}
@phdthesis{Hirschmann2016,
  author    = {Hirschmann, Nathalie},
  title     = {Sicherheit als professionelle Dienstleistung und Mythos},
  publisher = {Springer},
  address   = {Wiesbaden},
  isbn      = {978-3-658-13111-1},
  school      = {Universit{\"a}t Potsdam},
  pages     = {286},
  year      = {2016},
  abstract  = {Nathalie Hirschmann geht der Frage nach, auf welche Weise sich die Sicherheitswirtschaft im System der Sicherheit zu etablieren sucht und wie erfolgreich ihr dies gelingt. Ihre Analyse verdeutlicht, wie Schmuddelimage und begrenzte Kompetenzzuschreibung der Branche einerseits erschweren, neben der Polizei als institutionelle Tr{\"a}gerin der {\"o}ffentlichen Sicherheit zu bestehen, und andererseits, gegen{\"u}ber dem Kunden bzw. Auftraggeber in ein professionelleres Gef{\"u}ge zu treten. Einen inhaltsanalytisch theoriegeleiteten, soziologisch-konzeptionellen Blick einnehmend wird deutlich, welche Ausbaubestrebungen kognitiver und sozialer Art die Sicherheitswirtschaft vorgenommen hat und wo diese an ihre Grenzen stoßen.},
  language  = {de}
}