The Environmental Legacy of Imperial China

1998 ◽  
Vol 156 ◽  
pp. 733-756 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mark Elvin

China's long-term history – social, economic, political, and intellectual – has been interwoven from the start with its environment. In counterposed fashion, the history of the Chinese environment has been entwined with that of anthropogenic forces. The Chinese landscape was one of the most transformed in the pre-modern world as the result of its reshaping for cereal cultivation, re-engineering by hydraulic works for drainage, irrigation and flood-defence, and deforestation for the purposes of clearance and the harvesting of wood for fuel and construction.

2012 ◽  
Vol 23 (4) ◽  
pp. 404-418 ◽  
Author(s):  
Waltraud Ernst

This article presents a case study of institutional trends in a psychiatric institution in British India during the early twentieth century. It focuses on mortality statistics and long-term confinement rates as well as causes of death. The intention is two-fold: first, to provide new material that potentially lends itself to comparison with the few existing institutional case studies that have explored this particular period; second, to highlight some of the problems inherent in the status of the statistics and the conceptual categories used, and to consider the challenges these pose for any intended comparative and transnational assessment. Furthermore, it is suggested that historians working on the history of western institutions ought to look beyond the confining rim of Eurocentric self-containment and relate their research to other institutions around the world. It is important for social historians to abstain from uncritically reproducing hegemonic histories of the modern world in which western cultures and nations are posited by default as the centre or metropolis and the rest as peripheries whose social and scientific developments may be seen to be of exotic interest, but merely derivative and peripheral.


2009 ◽  
pp. 20-39 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mauro Di Meglio ◽  
Enrico Gargiulo

This chapter offers a long-term perspective on citizenship, questioning one of the basic assumptions of most of the literature on this topic, that is, the nation-state as unit of analysis. Through the adoption of a world-systemic perspective, two basic aspects of the history of citizenship stand out. Firstly, the fundamentally exclusive nature of this category, as it emerged and developed over the history of the modern world-system, since at least the “long 16th Century”. And, secondly, that well before the so-called “information revolution” of the last decades, “technology” has shaped the Western social imagination, acting, in various and changing historical forms, as an effective instrument of control and supremacy, producing asymmetric and inegalitarian effects, and providing a yardstick of the different “levels of development” of Western and non-Western peoples. In this view, the most recent phase of the history of citizenship, his e-form, seems to replicate, in new ways, the explanations of the gap existing both between and within countrie—now conceptualized as “digital divide”—and, at the same time, the illusory universalistic promise of an expansion of the citizenship and the rights associated to it.


2020 ◽  
Vol 196 (2) ◽  
pp. 308-319
Author(s):  
Marian Kopczewski ◽  
Jacek Narloch

Peace missions in the modern world are inextricably linked to the political and social processes taking place in specific regions of the globe. When looking closer to the more than fifty-year history of international peacekeeping operations, it should be noted that as time passes, they undergo constant transformations. Their types, goals, and ways of implementation are changing. That is because the environment in which such operations are carried out is changing. They are also transforming the goals and priorities of local and international communities. Permanent modification is also subject to threats in the modern world. Peace missions are conducted under ever-changing social, economic, and political conditions. They must be flexible so that they can adapt to new challenges. Success is never guaranteed because the tasks related to maintaining peace are carried out in challenging conditions. The success of the peace mission depends on many factors, such as the composition of the peacekeeping mission (military personnel, police, civilian employees), logistical support, entrusted tasks and the environment in which the peace mission operates.


2020 ◽  
Vol 32 (3) ◽  
pp. 115-122
Author(s):  
Attila Rácz

The 20th century has entered the history of Europe as a constant era of wars, crises and dictatorships. This century also marked a series of trials for Hungary. The imprint and long-term effects of the historical events of the period can be well traced with the help of statistical data, therefore the aim of our study is to show how serious and difficult to remedy social, economic and demographic problems can be when people attack people, either with weapons or by another method. In the present study, we analyze the effects of World War I on marriages between 1914 and 1918.


Humanities ◽  
2018 ◽  
Vol 7 (4) ◽  
pp. 127
Author(s):  
Albrecht Classen

This paper offers an analysis of a number of the fascinating, thought-provoking, and yet often deeply puzzling epigrams by the German Baroque poet Johann Scheffler (Angelus Silesius), and illustrates how his enigmatic mystical concepts were influenced, to some extent, by the philosophical thoughts offered by the late antique statesman and thinker Boethius (d. 525). While recent research has already reached new insights into the long-term reception history of Boethius’s De consolatione philosophiae well into the modern age, including by Scheffler, we still face the critical desideratum to determine the meaning of Scheffler’s spiritual insights in direct correlation with Boethius’s fundamental teachings, and hence, to answer the intriguing and challenging question of why Scheffler, along with Boethius, continues to speak to us today, and this perhaps more than ever before. Even though Scheffler pursued deeply religious questions typical of his time, he obviously greatly profited from Boethius’s musings about the meaning of the absolute Goodness, the vagaries of fortune, and the instability of all material existence in the quest for happiness. Many times we observe that Scheffler offers paradoxical and also apophatic statements, but those make surprisingly astounding sense if we read them, especially in light of Boethius’s teachings, as perceived in the seventeenth century. The epigrams thus prove to be the prolific outcome of universal cross-fertilizations and demonstrate the continued impact of antiquity on the modern world and the growing need today to accept the notion of “world literature” not only in a contemporary, transcultural perspectives, but also in terms of universal interactions throughout time.


2020 ◽  
Vol 7 (3) ◽  
pp. 147-152
Author(s):  
Salman Ghaffari ◽  
◽  
Mehran Razavipour ◽  
Parastoo Mohammad Amini ◽  
◽  
...  

McCune-Albright Syndrome (MAS) is characterized by endocrinopathies, café-au-lait spots, and fibrous dysplasia. Bisphosphonates are the most prescribed treatment for reducing the pain but their long-term use has been associated with atypical fractures of cortical bones like femur in patients. We present a 23-year-old girl diagnosed with MAS. She had an atypical mid-shaft left femoral fracture that happened during simple walking. She also had a history of long-term use of alendronate. Because of the narrow medullary canal, we used 14 holes hybrid locking plate for the lateral aspect of the thigh to fix the fracture and 5 holes dynamic compression plate (instead of the intramedullary nail) in the anterior surface to double fix it, reducing the probability of device failure. With double plate fixation and discontinuation of alendronate, the complete union was achieved five months after surgery


2018 ◽  
pp. 125-141 ◽  
Author(s):  
S. M. Drobyshevsky ◽  
P. V. Trunin ◽  
A. V. Bozhechkova

The paper studies the factors of secular stagnation. Key factors of long-term slowdown in economic growth include the slowdown of technological development, aging population, human capital accumulation limits, high public debt, creative destruction process violation etc. The authors analyze key theoretical aspects of long-term stagnation and study the impact of these factors on Japanies economy. The authors conclude that most of the factors have significant influence on the Japanese economy for recent decades, but they cannot explain all dynamics. For Russia, on the contrary, we do not see any grounds for considering the decline in the economy since 2013 as an episode of secular stagnation.


Author(s):  
Johann P. Arnason

Different understandings of European integration, its background and present problems are represented in this book, but they share an emphasis on historical processes, geopolitical dynamics and regional diversity. The introduction surveys approaches to the question of European continuities and discontinuities, before going on to an overview of chapters. The following three contributions deal with long-term perspectives, including the question of Europe as a civilisational entity, the civilisational crisis of the twentieth century, marked by wars and totalitarian regimes, and a comparison of the European Union with the Habsburg Empire, with particular emphasis on similar crisis symptoms. The next three chapters discuss various aspects and contexts of the present crisis. Reflections on the Brexit controversy throw light on a longer history of intra-Union rivalry, enduring disputes and changing external conditions. An analysis of efforts to strengthen the EU’s legal and constitutional framework, and of resistances to them, highlights the unfinished agenda of integration. A closer look at the much-disputed Islamic presence in Europe suggests that an interdependent radicalization of Islamism and the European extreme right is a major factor in current political developments. Three concluding chapters adopt specific regional perspectives. Central and Eastern European countries, especially Poland, are following a path that leads to conflicts with dominant orientations of the EU, but this also raises questions about Europe’s future. The record of Scandinavian policies in relation to Europe exemplifies more general problems faced by peripheral regions. Finally, growing dissonances and divergences within the EU may strengthen the case for Eurasian perspectives.


2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ayesha Shaikh ◽  
Natasha Shrikrishnapalasuriyar ◽  
Giselle Sharaf ◽  
David Price ◽  
Maneesh Udiawar ◽  
...  

Diabetes ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 69 (Supplement 1) ◽  
pp. 1386-P
Author(s):  
SYLVIA E. BADON ◽  
FEI XU ◽  
CHARLES QUESENBERRY ◽  
ASSIAMIRA FERRARA ◽  
MONIQUE M. HEDDERSON

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