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Revisiting supposed opposites: activity is not always effective – and passivity does not necessarily mean idleness. If the goal-keeper stays in the middle of goal during a penalty kick, psychology or sports science sometimes perceive their apparently passive behavior as a superior strategy. The fact that there is a many-faceted field of tension between the paired concepts ACTIVE & PASSIVE is clear from the latest edition of RUPERTO CAROLA, the research magazine published by Heidelberg University. The current magazine comprises 16 articles in which 28 academics from different disciplines weigh up this focal theme and invite the reader to change perspective.
Press Release
Heidelberg, 25 July 2025
Minnesang and Rat Race – Doing and Suffering
The new edition of the research magazine RUPERTO CAROLA is devoted to the paired concepts ACTIVE & PASSIVE
Revisiting supposed opposites: activity is not always effective – and passivity does not necessarily mean idleness. If the goal-keeper stays in the middle of goal during a penalty kick, psychology or sports science sometimes perceive their apparently passive behavior as a superior strategy. And when climate research is keen to translate knowledge into action it also inquires what societal processes encourage or hinder activity. The fact that there is a many-faceted field of tension between the paired concepts ACTIVE & PASSIVE is clear from the latest edition of RUPERTO CAROLA, the research magazine published by Heidelberg University. The current magazine comprises 16 articles in which 28 academics from different disciplines weigh up this focal theme and invite the reader to change perspective.
The articles range from linguistics to biophysics to neuroimmunology. They deal with migration and the active or passive handling of the linguistic legacy of the country of origin, the “physics of active matter” or the focused activating of the body’s own defenses, which may open up new paths in combating brain tumors. The concepts ACTIVE & PASSIVE inform aging processes, participatory educational approaches, political movements, civic engagement and individual lifestyle. The new edition of the research magazine RUPERTO CAROLA also outlines limits to our capacity of control. The negative assessment of passivity and the wrong idea that we can achieve everything we want with targeted activities are the topic of the introductory conversation between experts, psychologist Prof. Dr Beate Ditzen and Germanist Prof. Dr Ludger Lieb, entitled “Minnesang and Rat Race – Doing and Suffering”.
The research magazine RUPERTO CAROLA appears twice a year, mainly in German with English abstracts, and addresses all members of the university, its partners in academia, politics, business and society, and, in particular, alumni, friends and an interested public in Germany and abroad. The magazine is available from the Communications and Marketing department of Heidelberg University (Old University, Grabengasse 1, phone +49 6221 / 54-2311). All editions are also accessible online via the open-access publisher Heidelberg University Publishing (heiUP).
Contact:
Communications and Marketing
Press Office
Phone +49 6221 54-2311
presse@rektorat.uni-heidelberg.de
https://www.uni-heidelberg.de/en/press-media/publications/research-magazine
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Journalists, all interested persons
interdisciplinary
transregional, national
Research results, Transfer of Science or Research
English
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