Data

Introduction of the book Online Virality. Spread and Influence (edited by Schafer and Pailler)

For several years now, images generated by artificial intelligence (AI)-based systems such as midjourney, DALL·E or StableDiffusion, to give just a few examples, have become commonplace. Like text-generating systems such as GPT, LLAMA or BLOOM, they are based on interaction with users, which notably results in the writing of prompts. The aim of our current research is to examine the various means at our disposal for transforming not only generated images and texts but also prompts into primary sources for historians.

From the ‘Dancing baby’, ‘All your base are belong to us’ and the ‘Hampster dance’ in the second half of the 1990s to Bernie’s mittens at the US presidential inauguration, through to ‘Disaster girl’ and ‘Distracted boyfriend’, among others, memes have become an important part of our (visual) digital culture over the last 20 years. This article demonstrates why memes should be considered a critical part of our born-digital heritage, by examining their connections to digital histories and trajectories, as well as their role in pop, visual and digital culture.

Geographic Information Systems (GIS) are a powerful tool for spatial analysis. In historical research GIS are used for mapping, georeferencing, and data analysis. Layering information offers new ways to evaluate historical data and construct arguments. But GIS offer a myriad of choices for data modeling and visualization, so users should remain critical and conscious of their entire workflow processes. In the following, I employ the SWOT (Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, Threats) analysis framework to systematically evaluate the implications of using GIS in historical research.

The book Online Virality, edited by Valérie Schafer and Fred Pailler (C2DH, University of Luxembourg), aims to provide a comprehensive examination of online virality. It explores the many ways we can think about this modern phenomenon and analyse the circulation, reception, and evolution of viral born-digital content. Virality and content sharing always intertwine material, infrastructural, visual and discursive elements. This involves various platforms, stakeholders, intermediaries, social groups and communities that are constantly (re)defining themselves.

The interconnections of the environment and human beings have been largely researched by scientists. This chapter provides an overview of different concepts and theories on environmental science, happiness and wellbeing as well as their interconnections; looking at past, present and potential future development. The past section covers the evolution of the concepts: ‘environment’ and ‘environmental sciences’, and the development of the disciplines in relation to happiness and wellbeing.

The middle classes have had more internal clashes than external. A plethora of intermediary categories is necessary to understand this historical period. And these go beyond the “black and white”nobility/middle-class and the rest. Everywhere the slightest division of the intermediary layers could pave the way to new social discriminations. What did this vast middle-class have in common? Despite their differences, industrialists, merchants, rentiers, high school teachers, higher civil servants what united them?

On the occasion of the 150th anniversary of the birth of Luigi Einaudi, this event will reflect on his legacy for Europe today. As Prof. Giovanni Farese stated in his research paper dedicated to this outstanding Italian intellectual '' Economist, professor and senator before the Second World War governor of the Bank of Italy (1945-1948) and minister of the budget (1947-1948), after the war Einaudi was also the first president of the Italian Republic (1948-1955). In these capacities he was a strong advocate of European integration: he even imagined a common currency and a central bank.

The "Personenstandsaufnahme" of 10 October 1941, a census conducted by the German occupier in Luxembourg with additional questions on nationality, mother tongue and ethnicity, is one of the best-known historical events in Luxembourg's contemporary history. Together with the strike against forced recruitment in August/September 1942, it remains an integral part of the culture of remembrance and historiography to this day.

This PhD project explores the ways in which public urban green spaces (PUGS) shaped an urban citizenry. As mirrors of societal relations, PUGS reflect the relationship between government officials, city planners and urban citizens, labor and recreation. Set in the aftermath of WWII and continuing until the First Oil Shock in 1973 this study captures a time of urban restructuring and rebuilding in Western Europe. The focus lies on public parks around the port areas of Hamburg and Marseille. Both cities are marked by the specific labor/lifestyle related to port cities: People are in flux.

Socio-spatial divisions between districts in the North and South have marked the port-city of Marseille since the post-World War II urban reconstruction period. This article analyses the decades spanning the 1940s to the 1960s Vieux Port area as well as the HLM (Habitation à Loyer Modéré, or rent controlled properties) building projects in the North of the city. This reveals a dual strategy deployed by urban planners as well as municipal and national government officials in response to an increasing immigrant workforce involving relocation into HLMs and (re-)designing public spaces.

This session will delve into the politics of digitisation and its relevance to the field of public history. What does the digitisation of cultural heritage offer historians and the public, and what do the politics of digital cultural heritage look like? We will first delve into different forms of cultural heritage digitization, from bottom-up community archiving to mass digitization and state-funded efforts.

Decolonization is the subject of an abundant literature, both as a historical event and as a contemporary process. In relations with the past, debates have risen about issues such as colonial monuments, museum collections, and repatriation. Rather than dealing with a specific type of space, institution, or material, this special issue in International Public History offers a discussion on the many links between decolonization and public history.

This chapter focuses on the dynamic nature of detail as an esthetic category and the hypothesis that interpretation in the digital medium encompasses a certain degree of modeling, understood in its double sense of building representations of objects and shaping figures in a plastic material.

The "Personenstandsaufnahme" of 10 October 1941, a census conducted by the German occupier in Luxembourg with additional questions on nationality, mother tongue and ethnicity, is one of the best-known historical events in Luxembourg's contemporary history. Together with the strike against forced recruitment in August/September 1942, it remains an integral part of the culture of remembrance and historiography to this day.

The C²DH is delighted to share with you its 2023 Annual Report, which looks back on a memorable year of pioneering research in digital and public history.

"Élections européennes: Enjeux, résultats, regards d’avenir" - conférence-débat avec Martine Reicherts (Présidente du FNR Luxembourg), Jim Cloos (Secrétaire général TEPSA), Anne Calteux (Représentante de la Commission européenne au Luxembourg)