Italian-American conversations on the mafia: Danilo Dolci visits Philadelphia’s 1961 Festival of Italy

Modern Italy ◽  
2017 ◽  
Vol 22 (4) ◽  
pp. 419-433 ◽  
Author(s):  
Samantha Owen
Keyword(s):  
Leadership Positions ◽  
Criminal Organisation ◽  
Italian American ◽  
Peace Activist ◽  
Western Sicily ◽  
Development Initiatives ◽  
Post War ◽  
The City ◽  
Insight Into

In 1961 the peace activist and anti-mafia campaigner Danilo Dolci spoke at a protest event at the Italian centennial of unification celebrations hosted by the City of Philadelphia. The reactions to the talk he gave on development initiatives in Western Sicily provide some insight into the transnational discussion that was developing around the mafia, governance and leadership in the late 1950s and early 1960s. Dolci and his supporters made the suggestion that the problems encountered by the post-war governments in Italy, Sicily and Philadelphia were a result of leaderships which presented or made the appearance of change but did not fix the underlying problems. This article maps how the conversation developed, why the idea of the mafia as a ‘thing’, an operating criminal organisation with Sicilian origins, was such an important narrative, and what it meant for those trying to make a claim to leadership positions.

Turkish Muslims in a German city: Entrepreneurial and residential self-determination

2015 ◽  
Vol 12 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-12
Author(s):  
Sarah Hackett
Keyword(s):  
Residential Patterns ◽  
Academic Literature ◽  
Self Employment ◽  
German City ◽  
Post War ◽  
Oral History Interviews ◽  
The City ◽  
Insight Into ◽  
Term Objective

Drawing upon a collection of oral history interviews, this paper offers an insight into entrepreneurial and residential patterns and behaviour amongst Turkish Muslims in the German city of Bremen. The academic literature has traditionally argued that Turkish migrants in Germany have been pushed into self-employment, low-quality housing and segregated neighbourhoods as a result of discrimination, and poor employment and housing opportunities. Yet the interviews reveal the extent to which Bremen’s Turkish Muslims’ performances and experiences have overwhelmingly been the consequences of personal choices and ambitions. For many of the city’s Turkish Muslim entrepreneurs, self-employment had been a long-term objective, and they have succeeded in establishing and running their businesses in the manner they choose with regards to location and clientele, for example. Similarly, interviewees stressed the way in which they were able to shape their housing experiences by opting which districts of the city to live in and by purchasing property. On the whole, they perceive their entrepreneurial and residential practices as both consequences and mediums of success, integration and a loyalty to the city of Bremen. The findings are contextualised within the wider debate regarding the long-term legacy of Germany’s post-war guest-worker system and its position as a “country of immigration”.

scholarly journals Jordanian Jerusalem

2008 ◽  
Vol 25 (1) ◽  
pp. 110-113
Author(s):  
K. Luisa Gandolfo
Keyword(s):  
World War Ii ◽  
World War ◽  
Member States ◽  
Holy Places ◽  
Dome Of The Rock ◽  
Arab League ◽  
Post War ◽  
Visual Reminders ◽  
The City ◽  
Insight Into

For centuries, Jerusalem has been revered as the holy site of Judaism, Christianity,and Islam; strategically coveted as a means to consolidate territorialgains; and conquered thirty-seven times between its foundation and thesequestering of its ancient hub by Israeli forces during the Six-Day War. Asthe region underwent significant change after World War II, the Holy Cityincreasingly became contested. While the Palestinians nurtured concernsregarding land sales and the escalating influx of Jewish settlers, their apprehension became lost amidst the tussle for authority between Transjordan,which sought to affirm its role as custodian of the holy places, and the nascentstate of Israel, which strove to strengthen its presence in the city. Chartingthe endeavors of KingAbdullah and KingHussein to assert Transjordan’sauthority over Jerusalemdespite international and Israeli rivalry, Katz affordsa unique insight into the multifarious means used to court its residentsthrough events, banknotes, and stamps between 1948 and 1967.Over the course of seven chapters, the author imbues the text with illuminatingfigures and maps. Most notable is the 1946 “Palestinian Aid”stamp series initiated during the Bludan Conference in June 1946, duringwhich Abdullah directed member states of the Arab League “to issue aPalestinian stamp whose revenue would be earmarked for Palestine” (p. 56).Yet Abdullah’s pro-active stance – the Jordanian Parliament implementedthe Arab League resolution on 22 July 1946, followed by the “AdditionalStamps Law” Temporary Law 20 of the same year – was ultimately marredby his series of surreptitious meetings with the JewishAgency. Despite thisduplicity, the merit of stamps in preserving stable relations with thePalestinians is adeptly demonstrated throughout the chapter. Similarly, thepolitical nuances behind postcards depicting King Hussein and GamalAbdul Nasser affectionately united over the Dome of the Rock, as well as anadditional series of stamps celebrating Pope Paul VI’s pilgrimage to theHoly Land in 1964, serve as visual reminders of Jordan’s tentative grip onauthority during the post-war period and the ever-present desire to retainamicable relations with neighboring leaders ...

Introduction

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Aled Davies
Keyword(s):  
Industrial Development ◽  
The Political ◽  
Social Democratic ◽  
Financial Centre ◽  
Conservative Government ◽  
The Social ◽  
Post War ◽  
City Of London ◽  
The Relationship ◽  
The City

This book is a study of the political economy of Britain’s chief financial centre, the City of London, in the two decades prior to the election of Margaret Thatcher’s first Conservative government in 1979. The primary purpose of the book is to evaluate the relationship between the financial sector based in the City, and the economic strategy of social democracy in post-war Britain. In particular, it focuses on how the financial system related to the social democratic pursuit of national industrial development and modernization, and on how the norms of social democratic economic policy were challenged by a variety of fundamental changes to the City that took place during the period....

Conclusion

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Aled Davies
Keyword(s):  
International Monetary System ◽  
The State ◽  
Real Economy ◽  
Social Democratic ◽  
Monetary System ◽  
1960S And 1970S ◽  
Post War ◽  
The 1960S ◽  
City Of London ◽  
The City

The aim of this book has been to evaluate the relationship between Britain’s financial sector, based in the City of London, and the social democratic economic strategy of post-war Britain. The central argument presented in the book was that changes to the City during the 1960s and 1970s undermined a number of the key post-war social democratic techniques designed to sustain and develop a modern industrial economy. Financial institutionalization weakened the state’s ability to influence investment, and the labour movement was unable successfully to integrate the institutionalized funds within a renewed social democratic economic agenda. The post-war settlement in banking came under strain in the 1960s as new banking and credit institutions developed that the state struggled to manage. This was exacerbated by the decision to introduce competition among the clearing banks in 1971, which further weakened the state’s capacity to control the provision and allocation of credit to the real economy. The resurrection of an unregulated global capital market, centred on London, overwhelmed the capacity of the state to pursue domestic-focused macroeconomic policies—a problem worsened by the concurrent collapse of the Bretton Woods international monetary system. Against this background, the fundamental social democratic assumption that national prosperity could be achieved only through industry-led growth and modernization was undermined by an effective campaign to reconceptualize Britain as a fundamentally financial and commercial nation with the City of London at its heart....

Food and Religious Identities in the Venetian Inquisition, ca. 1560–ca. 1640

2021 ◽  
Vol 74 (1) ◽  
pp. 181-214
Author(s):  
Eleanor Barnett
Keyword(s):  
Identity Construction ◽  
Religious Identity ◽  
Lived Religion ◽  
Ordinary People ◽  
Religious Identities ◽  
Access Points ◽  
Counter Reformation ◽  
Eating Practices ◽  
The City ◽  
Insight Into

Through Venetian Inquisition trials relating to Protestantism, witchcraft, and Judaism, this article illuminates the centrality of food and eating practices to religious identity construction. The Holy Office used food to assert its model of post-Tridentine piety and the boundaries between Catholics and the non-Catholic populations in the city. These trial records concurrently act as access points to the experiences and beliefs—to the lived religion—of ordinary people living and working in Venice from 1560 to 1640. The article therefore offers new insight into the workings and impacts of the Counter-Reformation.

scholarly journals The European Green Capital Award—Is It a Dream or Reality for Belgrade (Serbia)?

2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (11) ◽  
pp. 6182
Author(s):  
Marijana Pantić ◽  
Saša Milijić
Keyword(s):  
Urban Transformation ◽  
The Other ◽  
Transmission Of Knowledge ◽  
Current State ◽  
Transitional Countries ◽  
Great Hope ◽  
Environmentally Responsible ◽  
Potential Benefits ◽  
The City ◽  
Insight Into

An agreement of cooperation and transmission of knowledge regarding the nomination for the European Green Capital Award (EGCA) was signed between the mayors of Belgrade and Ljubljana (EGCA 2016 winner) in September 2018. The candidacy of Belgrade was finally realized in October 2019. Great hope was placed in this endeavour because internationally recognized awards, such as the EGCA, represent enormous capital for both the city and the state. The EGCA requires serious preparation and significant fulfilment of preconditions. Many economically strong and environmentally responsible cities competed for the award, but did not win. On the other hand, the capital of Serbia does not appear to be an obvious winning candidate, especially as it is differentiated from the previous winners by being a non-EU city and by the fact that it is still undergoing an intense urban transformation, characteristic of transitional countries. Therefore, the main aim of this article is to present a review of the current state of Belgrade’s environmental qualities and its comparison with the EGCA criteria and with Grenoble as one of the winning competitors. The article gives a full overview of the EGCA requirements with certain details on required indicators, gives relevant insight into the procedure, which could be of use for any future candidacy, and discusses potential benefits for winners, losers and repeat candidacies.

Loyalist, Dissenter and Cosmopolite: The Sociocultural Origins of a Counter-public Sphere in Colonial Hong Kong

2021 ◽  
pp. 1-26
Author(s):  
Edmund W. Cheng
Keyword(s):  
Hong Kong ◽  
Public Sphere ◽  
Sense Of Belonging ◽  
Social Activism ◽  
Left Wing ◽  
Hybrid Identity ◽  
Post War ◽  
City State ◽  
The City ◽  
And Diffusion

Abstract This paper surveys the process of discursive contestation by intellectual agents in Hong Kong that fostered a counter-public sphere in China's offshore. In the post-war era, Chinese exiled intellectuals leveraged the colony's geopolitical ambiguity and created a displaced community of loyalists/dissenters that supported independent publishing venues and engaged in the cultural front. By the 1970s, homegrown and left-wing intellectuals had constructed a hybrid identity to articulate their physical proximity to, yet social distance from, the Chinese nation-state, as well as to appropriate their sense of belonging to the city-state, through confronting social injustice. In examining periodicals and interviewing public intellectuals, I propose that this counter-public sphere was defined first by its alternative voice, which contested various official discourses, second by its multifaceted inclusiveness, which accommodated diverse worldviews and subjectivities, and third by its critical platform, which nurtured social activism in undemocratic Chinese societies. I differentiate the permissive conditions that loosened constraints on intellectual agencies from the productive conditions that account for their penetration and diffusion. Habermas's idealized public sphere framework is revisited by bringing in ideational contestation, social configuration and cultural identity.

scholarly journals Land financialisation, planning informalisation and gentrification as statecraft in Antwerp

Urban Studies ◽  
2021 ◽  
pp. 004209802110282
Author(s):  
Callum Ward
Keyword(s):  
Free Market ◽  
Planning System ◽  
Informal Governance ◽  
Value Capture ◽  
Role Of The State ◽  
Recent Trends ◽  
The City ◽  
Insight Into ◽  
Roll Out

This article offers insight into the role of the state in land financialisation through a reading of urban hegemony. This offers the basis for a conjunctural analysis of the politics of planning within a context in which authoritarian neoliberalism is ascendant across Europe. I explore this through the case of Antwerp as it underwent a hegemonic shift in which the nationalist neoliberal party the New Flemish Alliance (Nieuw-Vlaamse Alliantie; N-VA) ended 70 years of Socialist Party rule and deregulated the city’s technocratic planning system. However, this unbridling of the free market has led to the creation of high-margin investment products rather than suitable housing for the middle classes, raising concerns about the city’s gentrification strategy. The consequent, politicisation of the city’s planning system led to controversy over clientelism which threatened to undermine the N-VA’s wider hegemonic project. In response, the city has sought to roll out a more formalised system of negotiated developer obligations, so embedding transactional, market-oriented informal governance networks at the centre of the planning system. This article highlights how the literature on land financialisation may incorporate conjunctural analysis, in the process situating recent trends towards the use of land value capture mechanisms within the contradictions and statecraft of contemporary neoliberal urbanism.

scholarly journals Mapping Buildings’ Energy-Related Features at Urban Level toward Energy Planning

Buildings ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (8) ◽  
pp. 322
Author(s):  
Simone Ferrari ◽  
Federica Zagarella ◽  
Paola Caputo ◽  
Giuliano Dall’O’
Keyword(s):  
Energy Demand ◽  
National Level ◽  
Energy Planning ◽  
Urban Context ◽  
Existing Building ◽  
Urban Buildings ◽  
Usage Patterns ◽  
Urban Level ◽  
The City ◽  
Insight Into

To boost energy efficiency in the building sector at urban and district scales, the use of a Geographic Information System (GIS) for data collection and energy spatial analysis is relevant. As highlighted in many studies on this topic reported in literature, the correlation among available databases is complex due to the different levels of information. As the first part of a wide research aimed at estimating the energy demand of urban buildings, we present in this article a focus on the details of the GIS-based procedure developed to assess the main energy-related features of existing building stocks. The procedure is based on the elaboration of data from the Italian Topographic Databases, under provision at the national level according to the INSPIRE European Directive and the national General Census of Population and Houses. It enables one to calculate and map the urban built volume characterized by mostly diffuse use categories in an urban context (residential and offices), to which different equipment and building usage patterns can be associated, and by construction periods, featuring different technological solutions. The method has been applied to the city of Milan (Italy). An insight into the outcomes from the overall method of the wider research is also reported.

“Satisfied with the Ruins of Berlin”: The German Capital’s Image in Soviet Graphics of 1945

2021 ◽  
Vol 17 (6) ◽  
pp. 564-575
Author(s):  
Irina I. Rutsinskaya
Keyword(s):  
Visual Art ◽  
Visual Image ◽  
Point Of View ◽  
The Public ◽  
Historical Justice ◽  
Public Consciousness ◽  
Post War ◽  
The One ◽  
First Time ◽  
The City

An artist who finds themselves in the last days of a war in the enemy’s defeated capital may not just fix its objects dispassionately. Many factors influence the selection and depicturing manner of the objects. One of the factors is satisfaction from the accomplished retribution, awareness of the historical justice triumph. Researchers think such reactions are inevitable. The article offers to consider from this point of view the drawings created by Soviet artists in Berlin in the spring and summer of 1945. Such an analysis of the German capital’s visual image is conducted for the first time. It shows that the above reactions were not the only ones. The graphics of the first post-war days no less clearly and consistently express other feelings and intentions of their authors: the desire to accurately document and fix the image of the city and some of its structures in history, the happiness from the silence of peace, and the simple interest in the monuments of European art.The article examines Berlin scenes as evidences of the transition from front-line graphics focused on the visual recording of the war traces to peacetime graphics; from documentary — to artistry; from the worldview of a person at war — to the one of a person who lived to victory. In this approach, it has been important to consider the graphic images of Berlin in unity with the diary and memoir texts belonging to both artists and ordinary soldiers who participated in the storming of Berlin. The combination of verbal and visual sources helps to present the German capital’s image that existed in the public consciousness, as well as the specificity of its representation by means of visual art.

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