The article presents the analysis of such concepts as "historical regularity", "chance" and "great personality". It is stressed that while studying epistemological problems of historical science we must focus on the system categories being used in general methodology of science, first of all on the category "scientific theory". The role and place of personality in historical and political process is reviewed. It is noted that in order to solve the urgent problems of social development, there is a need for leaders who, through their own energy, will, mind and abilities, can implement quality changes.
In Engraving Virtue, Young Kyun Oh investigates the publishing history of the Samgang Haengsil-to (Illustrated Guide to the Three Relations), a moral primer of Chos?n (1392-1910), and traces the ways in which woodblock printed books contributed to shaping premodern Korea.
Focused on the topic of political symbolism and political mythology, the purpose of this article is twofold. On the one hand, the aim consists of exploring certain essential elements of political symbolism, mainly through the appeal to the viewpoint of fundamental authors in the field such as Raoul Girardet, Gilbert Durand, and other relevant authors in the context of this study. On the other hand, the purpose refers to the scope of the application of the theoretical approach to a case study regarding the analysis of the social media discourse of three Romanian politicians on Facebook, starting from Girardet's four political myths while incorporating them into a version of content analysis suited for this type of social media symbolic content.The method of content analysis includes a wide variety of potential manners of methodological design and implementation, both from a quantitative and from a qualitative angle. The field of political symbolism in general and the analysis by means of political myths such as the ones of Raoul Girardet in particular also bear the potential for numerous versions of application when it comes to the exercise of discourse analysis, especially in the realm of the specificity of social media usages and content. Hence, what seemed to stand as a more advantageous preference in terms of the construction of the theoretical background whereon this case study was based ultimately amounted to the herein presumed endeavour of rendering several of the distinctive and potentially overlooked elements of these political myths more accessible for an adequate understanding of their manifold versions of appearance in fairly mundane circuits of political discourse such as those on social media.
The articles in this special section, by offering ethnographically grounded reflections on diverse strains of economic activism, begin to articulate a non-capitalocentric political ecology that we think can help scholaractivists politicize, reimagine, and recreate socio-ecological relations. In this introductory article, we offer a useful vision of how scholar-activists can engage with and support more just and sustainable ways of organizing human–human and human–environment relations. Specifically, we argue that engaged researchers can significantly contribute to a meaningful "ecological revolution" by (1) examining the tremendously diverse, already-existing experiments with other ways of being in the world, (2) helping to develop alternative visions, analyses, narratives, and desires that can move people to desire and adopt those ways of being, and (3) actively supporting and constructing economies and ecologies with alternative ethical orientations. Each article in this collection attempts one or more of these goals, and this introductory article provides a conceptual grounding for these ethnographic studies and a synthesis of some of their primary contributions. We begin by describing why critique is analytically and politically inadequate and explain why we think a non-capitalocentric ontology offers an essential complement for engaged scholarship. We then turn to the work of J.K. Gibson-Graham and the Community Economies Collective in order to explain how ideas of overdetermination, diverse economies, and performativity better equip the field of political ecology to contribute to alternative futures. And finally, we discuss how the articles in this volume reconceptualize values, politics, and scale in a manner that illuminates our scholarly and activist efforts.Keywords: non-capitalism, political ecology, alternative economies, capitalism, scale, values, politics, Gibson-Graham
"Behind every traditional type of cheese there is a fascinating story. By examining the role of the cheesemaker throughout world history and by understanding a few basic principles of cheese science and technology, we can see how different cheeses have been shaped by and tailored to their surrounding environment, as well as defined by their social and cultural context. Cheese and Culture endeavors to advance our appreciation of cheese origins by viewing human history through the eyes of a cheese scientist. There is also a larger story to be told, a grand narrative that binds all cheeses together into a single history that started with the discovery of cheese making and that is still unfolding to this day. This book reconstructs that 9000-year story based on the often fragmentary information that we have available. Cheese and Culture embarks on a journey that begins in the Neolithic Age and winds its way through the ensuing centuries to the present. This tour through cheese history intersects with some of the pivotal periods in human prehistory and ancient, classical, medieval, renaissance, and modern history that have shaped western civilization, for these periods also shaped the lives of cheesemakers and the diverse cheeses that they developed. The book offers a useful lens through which to view our twenty-first century attitudes toward cheese that we have inherited from our past, and our attitudes about the food system more broadly. This refreshingly original book will appeal to anyone who loves history, food, and especially good cheese"--
"This essay addresses the interpretative implications of German unification. First, the precise interaction between the international framework of détente and the internal dynamics of the democratic awakening has to be traced in order to explain the surprising overthrow of Communism and the return of a German national state. Therefore part of the history of the years 1990-2010 in Germany, sometimes referred to as the 'Berlin Republic', can be understood as working out the consequences of unification. But then it must also be realized, that a growing part is also composed of other issues such as globalization, immigration and educational reform. Hence the resumption of the national narrative is a backward-looking perspective that blocks the recognition of more recent problem areas that cannot be dealt with by telling a success story about the Federal Republic. Instead a history of the present require an engagement with new transnational issues of postmodern modernity." (author's abstract)
Political-administrative relations became an issue once politicians and administrators came to be considered as distinct actors in the public realm. This happened in the late eighteenth century, and several authors since then explored the nature of this relationship in normative and/or juridical terms. But it took almost two centuries before it became an object of systematic empirical study in a comparative perspective: Aberbach, Putnam, and Rockman (APR 1981). The APR study was the first to use survey methods and to advance empirically based theory. In this article we discuss the intellectual attention for this topic since the early nineteenth century, APR's findings and impact and-given APR's influence upon methods-some intriguing problems with the framework that they developed. Finally we list some potential new avenues of research. Adapted from the source document.
This article deals with the problem of studying the political attitudes of convicts in modern Russia, especially their formation in the private social space. The article identifies and describes the attitudes of convicts in particular in relation to political institutions, political power and political regimes.
The de-legitimisation of the Italian political system that culminated in the upheavals of the late 1980s has permitted a very public re-examination of the meaning and significance of both the Fascist regime and the Resistance to it. Although debates between historians had already begun over these issues, they have been thrust into the media spotlight now that the political consensus surrounding their interpretation has collapsed. The following two articles examine both the content and conduct of these debates, and consider the extent to which they have contributed to a reassessment of the history of these periods. Naturally the opinions expressed in these articles are solely those of the authors themselves: Contemporary European History would welcome further comments and contributions concerning this rethinking of the contemporary Italian experience.
This book includes studies of main conflict areas in modern Western societies where religion has been a central element, ranging from popular movements and narratives of opposition to challenges of religious satire and anti-clerical critique. Special attention is given to matters of politics and gender. With this theme, it provides a useful guide to conflict areas in modern European religious history.
More than a decade prior to the official dismantling of apartheid in South Africa, a number of universities launched foundation programmes to assist disadvantaged students. This article focuses on science and engineering foundation programmes, locating them within their political and institutional context and then tracing the evolution of their educational philosophy. But foundation programmes only represent one strategy for dealing with educational disadvantage. It is therefore compared to an alternative model explored in the early 1990s which emphasised the 'infusion' of academic development principles into the mainstream. This provides a backdrop for considering the educational effectiveness of the foundation programmes that have recently proliferated as a result of the Department of Education's latest funding strategy.
