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The religious tradition of male circumcision has come increasingly under attack across a number of European states. While critics of the practice argue that the problem is about children’s rights and the proper relationship between secular and religious traditions, Jews tend to see these attacks within the longer history of attempts to assimilate and remake them according to the norms of the majority. Using the 2012 German legal controversy concerning the issue as my vantage point, I explore how contemporary criticism of male circumcision remains entangled with ambivalence toward Judaism and the Jews as the “other.” Through a close reading of the arguments, I show how opponents use the seemingly neutral language of universal human rights to (re)make Jewish difference according to the norms of the majority. I conclude by arguing that such an approach to this issue runs the risk of turning Jews once again into strangers at a time when cultural anxieties are troubling European societies.

The Japanese prefabrication industry not only has automated its processes to a high extent, but it also innovates due to the fact that it delivers buildings of outstanding quality accompanied by a multitude of services. In order to explore and specify the concepts and parameters that have driven this industry, Japan's prefabrication industry, its cultural, economic and technological surrounding, as well as the applied processes, technologies and economic strategies, have to be illustrated and analysed. The purpose of this paper is to identify, describe and analyse these concepts and their related parameters, as well as to recognise the most influential drivers for the future that provide an indication into which direction the industry could evolve.

Being aware that literature does not provide relevant information and data, which would allow the authors to explore concepts and parameters explaining the success of the Japanese prefabrication industry, the authors performed field surveys, visited factories, R&D centres and sales points of all major Japanese prefabrication companies. In some cases the authors also interviewed general managers, researchers and developers, and academicians at Japanese universities. Based on an extensive literature review in the area of product development, production technology, modularisation, mass customisation, and innovation, the authors qualitatively and quantitatively analysed all major prefabrication companies according to a fixed scheme.

The concepts and parameters identified and analysed in this paper demonstrate that the Japanese prefabrication industry, which is leading in large‐scale industrialization, nowadays focuses towards services that are related to the building's utilisation phase, rather than delivering products. By involving customers it enhances the companies' customer relations, thus creating competitive advantages.

Overall the paper identifies that Japanese prefabrication industry acts rather like a “production industry” than a “construction industry”. Similar to many other high‐tech industries, Japan's prefabrication industry incorporates the latest product and process technologies and combines automation, products and services into complex value‐capturing systems.

While significant efforts have been made to study auction and logistics theories in the context of perishable supply chain trading (PSCT) over the last few years, the consensus has not yet been reached on how best to examine the impact of physical-internet-enabled auction logistics (AL) decisions and processes on dynamic perishable products transactions. The purpose of this paper is to address this gap by investigating the existing situations and identifying future opportunities for both academic and industrial communities.

The relevant literature was sort out along with three dimensions, namely auction mechanism, level of decision and coordination. The methods of field investigation and focus group discussion were also used to explore the factors influencing AL performance.

A number of key findings presented. First, there is an emerging paradigm shift from offline auction to online auction. Robust and resilient AL are needed to fulfill the massive number of orders from different channels while considering dynamic decisions. Second, three-level decisions in AL have been explicitly classified and defined. Various mathematical techniques used in literature vis-à-vis the contexts of AL were mapped. Third, a coordination mechanism that dynamically balances trade-off between logistics efficiency and transaction price was discussed. Lastly, several opportunities for future research were distinguished with coherent connection of research domains and open questions.

This paper not only summaries key themes of current research dimensions, but also indicates existing deficiencies and potential research directions. The findings can be used as the basis for future research in PSCT and related topics.