Inhaltsangabe:Abstract: Research on electronic democracy is still limited to a number of institutions, researchers and academics. Nevertheless, interest in the topic grows and new trends and best practices arise. The aim of this thesis was to elaborate on the founding principles of eDemocracy, to build a model for designing eDemocracy initiatives and to examine the current status quo of eDemocracy projects within the European Commission. This thesis is divided into two parts: a theoretical part and an empirical part. In order to build a solid foundation of the core principles of eDemocracy the thesis links reform mechanisms, which were developed under the New Public Management efforts, to economical and institutional theories that scientifically support the necessity for new ways of governance. It becomes clear that the evolution of eDemocracy is an outcome of diverse political and economical influences and that eDemocracy can substantiate efforts to re-invent governmental work processes. The first part of this thesis is based on an extensive literature research from various academic disciplines, including Economics, Institutional Theory, Information Technology and Political Studies. Sources for the theoretical part come from academic literature, academic journals and documents retrieved from the World Wide Web. The theories examined and the conclusions drawn upon these theories serve the purpose to gain a deeper understanding for the need to reform the public sector and to improve its outcomes. Further, those findings allow us to incorporate eDemocracy into the eGovernment and eGovernance efforts, which are aimed to digitize governmental work processes. The model developed in part one acts as a benchmark for the examination of current public online engagement efforts on a European-wide level. The European Commission s web site, http://europa.eu.int, is scrutinized, in order to examine the current level of design and operability of the Commission s efforts in engaging the public in decision- and policy-making. For the evaluation of the success of these efforts, insights gathered from a personal interview with officials from the Interactive Policy Making team of the European Commission are incorporated. Additionally, online documents on the European Commission s official web site are examined that substantiate the Commission s intent to promote eDemocracy efforts and to make online engagement tools more accessible and more effective in the [...]

Jeff Koons (born 1955) is probably the most famous artist of the 1980s, and certainly one of the most notorious and controversial. In the summer of 2012, the Liebieghaus Skulpturensammlung and the Schirn Kunsthalle Frankfurt are collaborating on a bold and unprecedented simultaneous overview of Koons' sculptural and painterly oeuvre. The Liebieghaus show, titled Jeff Koons: The Sculptor, creates a dialogue between Koons' sculptures (both world-renowned and recent works) and the nineteenth-century villa whose collection spans 5,000 years of sculpture, from Ancient Egypt to the present. The artist fell in love with the Liebieghaus after visiting the city on his way to the German company Arnold, which produced his oversize works in polished steel, such as the Balloon Flower sculptures of the 1990s. The Schirn's exhibit, Jeff Koons: The Painter, focuses on the artist's monumental paintings, whose motifs draw upon the most varied sources of high and popular culture, from Manet to Popeye. In recent years, following the success of his flower and balloon dogs, Koons has revisited his painting practice, declaring, "I like the sense of warmth that comes from an actual painting and that's why I returned to making paintings." Boasting 270 color reproductions from the breadth of the artist's 30-year career, this publication is comprised of two volumes--one devoted to the sculptures, the other to the paintings--that together constitute a marvelous and ambitious Koons overview.

Berlin-based sculptor and installation artist Michael Sailsdorfer, whose work was shown in 2008 at New York's P.S.1, here presents new work: a popcorn machine, a film with its projector, a neon sign, a set of little bus shelters outfitted with amenities for living, a motorized revolving tire installed off the wall.

"It is in a Sicilian daily newspaper, where Aleksandra Mir's project Triumph had its start-in the form of a want ad run by the artist herself. She was interested in the trophy, an object whose history reaches back to our distant cultural past and which today, awarded chiefly at sporting events, is among the everyday items of our society. More than 2500 trophies were collected. Although the trophies are contemporary mass-produced articles, each one is individualized by means of an engraving and tells a personal story. Triumph, Alexandra Mir's first solo exhibition in Germany, presents this collection, and has thus become an archive of popular culture and part of contemporary history." --Book Jacket.

Edited by Matthias Ulrich, Max Hollein. Text by Mercedes Bunz, Jens Hoffmann, Georg Seblen, Niels Werber.