scholarly journals The Politicised Child During the Seventeenth-Century British Civil Wars: An Historical Perspective on Representations of Children and Trauma During Conflict

Author(s):  
Ismini Pells

AbstractThe seventeenth-century British Civil Wars had a scale and impact to rival modern conflicts and its effects extended to children as well as adults. What might be today termed “child soldiers” were found in the armies in combat and supporting roles. Many more were witnesses to the conflict or had their lives changed by its consequences. This article is an historical case study of socio-cultural constructions of children, childhood and warfare. It aims to highlight the diverse nature of both historic and modern child experiences of warfare, and the plethora of ways that these experiences were and are understood and represented by adults. It argues that the evidence from the Civil Wars supports the scholarship of child psychologists such as Derek Summerfield that children in conflict should not always be regarded as victims but could display agency, whilst also acknowledging social, cultural, economic and political pressures. Although children in the Civil Wars may have experienced trauma, the evidence is insufficient to prove this and evidence for a contemporary concept of the psychologically damaged child as a result of conflict is ambiguous. However, what the evidence does uncover is the ways in which adults used representations of children to express their own anxieties about the Civil Wars.

2015 ◽  
Vol 7 (4) ◽  
pp. 115-135 ◽  
Author(s):  
Andrea Sangiacomo

Today’s debates present ‘occasionalism’ as the position that any satisfying account of divine action must avoid. In this paper I discuss how a leading Cartesian author of the end of the seventeenth century, Pierre-Sylvain Régis, attempted to avoid occasionalism. Régis’s case is illuminating because it stresses both the difficulties connected with the traditional alternatives to occasionalism (so-called ‘concurrentism’ and ‘mere-conservationism’) and also those aspects embedded in the occasionalist position that should be taken into due account. The paper focuses on Régis’s own account of secondary causation in order to show how the challenge of avoiding occasionalism can lead to the development of new accounts of divine action.


Leadership ◽  
2017 ◽  
Vol 14 (4) ◽  
pp. 435-459 ◽  
Author(s):  
Gazi Islam ◽  
Macabe Keliher

Ritual performance is well understood in organizational maintenance. Its role in leadership and processes of change, however, remains understudied. We argue that ritual addresses key challenges in institutionalizing leadership, particularly in fixing the relation between a charismatic leader and formal governance structures. Through a historical case study of the institutionalization of the emperor in Qing China (1636–1912), we argue that the shaping of collective understandings of the new emperor involved structural aspects of ritual that worked through analogical reasoning to internalize the figure of the leader through focusing attention, fixing memory, and emotionally investing members in the leader. We argue that data from the Qing dynasty Board of Rites show that ritual was explicitly designed to model the new institutional order, which Qing state-makers used to establish collective adherence to the emperorship. We further discuss the implications of this case for understanding the symbolic and performative nature of leadership as an institutional process.


2013 ◽  
Vol 38 (4) ◽  
pp. 58-69
Author(s):  
Yasser Elsheshtawy

This paper in its first part aims at contextualizing Abu Dhabi's urban development and understanding the factors that have governed its urban growth through a historical case study approach. Relying on archival records and primary sources five stages of urban growth are identified. Data mining of media archives allows for a first hand account of developments taking place thus grounding the depictions. The second part contextualizes this review through a case study of the Central Market project — also known as Abu Dhabi's World Trade Center. The paper concludes by elaborating on the significance of such a historical analysis as it shifts the discourse away from a focus on the ‘artificiality’ of cities in the Gulf to one that is based on a recognition about the historicity of its urban centers, however recent it may be. Additionally the pertinence of such an analysis for cities worldwide is discussed as well.


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
◽  
Alexander Gordon

<p>Through a specific historical case study, Another Elderly Lady to be Knocked Down applies discourse theory and the Authorised Heritage Discourse (AHD) to the context of urban built heritage in Aotearoa New Zealand. Previously, only limited work had been done in this area. By examining an underexplored event this dissertation fills two gaps in present literature: the history of the event itself and identification of the heritage discourses in the country at the time. Examination of these discourses in context also allows conclusions about the use of the AHD in similar studies to be critically examined.  In 1986 the Missions to Seamen building in Wellington, New Zealand, was threatened with demolition by its government owners. In a remarkable display of popular sentiment, individuals, organisations, the Wellington City Council (WCC) and the New Zealand Historic Places Trust (NZHPT) worked together to oppose this unpopular decision. This protest was a seminal event in the history of heritage in New Zealand.  This study relies upon documentary sources, especially the archival records of the Historic Places Trust and the State Services Commission, who owned the building, to provide the history of this watershed moment in New Zealand’s preservation movement. The prevalent attitudes of different groups in Wellington are examined through the letters of protest they wrote at the time. When analysed in context, these discourses reveal the ways in which heritage was articulated and constructed.  The course of this dissertation has revealed the difficulty of identifying an AHD in this context. The level of collaboration between ‘official’ and ‘unofficial’ heritage perspectives, and the extent to which they shaped each other’s language, creates considerable difficulty in distinguishing between discreet discourses. To better explore the ways that heritage meaning is constructed and articulated, heritage must be recognised as a complex dynamic process.</p>


Author(s):  
James Rempel ◽  
Amy Von Heyking

Historians have suggested that Alberta’s child-centred curriculum known as the “Enterprise curriculum,” which was introduced in 1936, was not fully implemented because teachers struggled with assessment of students’ learning. This historical case study reveals that the program included a theory of assessment consisting of four major principles, consistent with a child-centred vision of curriculum and pedagogy. Moreover, it directed teachers towards resources and strategies that might have assisted them in shifting their assessment practices. In 1943, the Department of Education began to compromise this vision, resulting in revisions to the program that defined a role for traditional testing and grading practices within a pedagogically progressive paradigm. RésuméLes historiens ont postulé que le programme d’étude albertain centré sur l’enfant introduit en 1936 et connu sous le nom de « Enterprise curriculum » n’a pas été entièrement mis en œuvre parce que les enseignants ont eu du mal à évaluer l’apprentissage des élèves. La présente étude de cas révèle que le programme comprenait une théorie d’évaluation reposant sur quatre grands principes en accord avec une pédagogie et une approche centrée sur l’enfant. De plus, cette théorie a orienté les enseignants vers des ressources et des stratégies susceptibles de les aider à changer leurs pratiques d’évaluation. En 1943, le département de l’Éducation a toutefois commencé à compromettre cette approche, ce qui a ouvert la porte à des pratiques traditionnelles d’évaluation et de classement dans un paradigme pédagogique progressif.


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
◽  
Jo Birks

<p>The extent and research potential of provenance evidence in rare books in Special Collections at the University of Auckland General Library is largely uncharted territory. This project helps fill that gap by examining the provenance evidence, such as inscriptions, bookplates and stamps, in some of those rare books to identify any networks or patterns in their ownership history and distribution. A purposive sample of 291 pre-1851 volumes on New Zealand and Pacific-related travel and exploration was examined for provenance evidence within a qualitative framework and an historical case study design. Taking a subset of those books, which were bequeathed to the Library by Alfred Kidd (1851-1917), the project then examined other works from his bequest to further explore the scope of provenance evidence.  The project demonstrated the value of treating books as artefacts, exposing a wealth of provenance evidence and providing snapshots of the ownership and distribution histories of some volumes. Overall, 71 percent of the sample contained evidence for identifiable agents: 88 former owners, 14 booksellers, one auction house and nine book binders. The project also discussed lesser-known New Zealand book collectors who merit further study, including Alfred Kidd, Sir George Fowlds, Arthur Chappell and Allan North. Further provenance research into this collection and the provenance-related cataloguing practices in New Zealand libraries would generate additional useful insights.</p>


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