‘A blow to the men in Pink’: The Royal Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals and Opposition to Hunting in the Twentieth Century

Rural History ◽  
2011 ◽  
Vol 22 (1) ◽  
pp. 89-113 ◽  
Author(s):  
MICHAEL TICHELAR
Keyword(s):  
Twentieth Century ◽  
Public Opinion ◽  
Royal Society ◽  
Essential Feature ◽  
Public Attitudes ◽  
Rural Society ◽  
Pressure Groups ◽  
History Of ◽  
Cruelty To Animals

AbstractIn 1976 the RSPCA finally adopted a policy of opposition to fox hunting and the shooting of birds for sport after a long history of highly controversial internal debate and external lobbying by pressure groups. This article explores the possible long-term historical reasons behind the change of policy. It seeks to begin to fill a gap in the historical literature and explain the changes in public opinion towards hunting that occurred during the course of the twentieth century by looking at key episodes in the history of the RSPCA up to the 1970s. It shows there was a decline in aristocratic dominance on the ruling council of the RSPCA after the 1920s, but other reasons for the change in policy included the increasing influence of an urban/metropolitan view of the countryside after the 1950s; changing public attitudes towards farmers, who had been traditional supporters of hunting; and the increasing importance of environmentalism and ecology after 1960. By the end of the twentieth century it was no longer possible to argue that hunting was an essential feature of rural society and culture, despite the continuing popularity and survival of fox hunting with hounds.

The Modern City

2009 ◽  
Author(s):  
DIANE E. DAVIS
Keyword(s):  
Twentieth Century ◽  
Mexico City ◽  
Political Alliances ◽  
The Social ◽  
Shifting Balance ◽  
History Of ◽  
The Rich ◽  
The City ◽  
Rich History

What constitutes modern Mexico? Is there a clear distinction between the historic and modern Mexico City? And if there are, does this distinctions hold up throughout the twentieth century, when what is apparent is a mix of legacies coexisting overtime? This chapter discusses the semiotics of history and modernity. It discusses the struggle of the Mexico City to find its own image including its struggle to preserve historic buildings amidst the differing political alliances that either promote change or preserve the past. However, past is not a single entity, hence if the preservation of the rich history of Mexico is pursued, the question arises as to what periods of history represented in the city are to be favoured in its future development. In this chapter, the focus is on the paradoxes of the Torre Bicentenario and on the pressures to preserve Mexico’s past, the ways they have been juxtaposed against the plans for its future and how the balance of these views has shifted over time. It determines the key actors and the institutions who have embraced history as opposed to progress, identifies the set of forces that dominated in the city’s twentieth-century history, and assesses the long-term implications of the shifting balance for the social, spatial and built environmental character of the city. The chapter ends with a discussion on the current role played by the cultural and historical authorities in determining the fate of the city.

11. The United Kingdom: Towards a Parting of the Ways

2020 ◽  
pp. 257-279
Author(s):  
Anand Menon ◽  
Luigi Scazzieri
Keyword(s):  
European Union ◽  
Public Opinion ◽  
Institutional Development ◽  
The European Union ◽  
Integration Process ◽  
The United Kingdom ◽  
History Of ◽  
Long Term Trends ◽  
The Uk

This chapter examines the history of the United Kingdom’s relationship with the European integration process. The chapter dissects the long-term trends in public opinion and the more contingent, short-term factors that led to the referendum vote to leave the European Union. The UK was a late joiner and therefore unable to shape the early institutional development of the EEC. British political parties and public opinion were always ambiguous about membership and increasingly Eurosceptic from the early 1990s. Yet the UK had a significant impact on the EU’s development, in the development of the single market programme and eastward enlargement. If Brexit goes through, Britain will nevertheless maintain relations with the EU in all policy areas from agriculture to energy and foreign policy. Europeanization will remain a useful theoretical tool to analyse EU–UK relations even if the UK leaves the Union.

The limits of comparison: institutional mortality rates, long-term confinement and causes of death during the early twentieth century

2012 ◽  
Vol 23 (4) ◽  
pp. 404-418 ◽  
Author(s):  
Waltraud Ernst
Keyword(s):  
Twentieth Century ◽  
Causes Of Death ◽  
Modern World ◽  
British India ◽  
Psychiatric Institution ◽  
Early Twentieth Century ◽  
The Status ◽  
History Of ◽  
New Material

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.

On fragile democracy: Contemporary and historical perspectives—Introduction

2019 ◽  
Vol 17 (4) ◽  
pp. 422-431
Author(s):  
Martin Conway
Keyword(s):  
Twentieth Century ◽  
Special Issue ◽  
Historical Perspectives ◽  
Alternative Means ◽  
History Of ◽  
Long Term Trends

The concept of fragility provides an alternative means of approaching the history of democracy, which has often been seen as the ineluctable consequence of Europe’s social and political modernisation. This is especially so in Scandinavia, as well as in Finland, where the emergence of a particular Nordic model of democracy from the early decades of the twentieth century onwards has often been explained with reference to embedded traditions of local self-government and long-term trends towards social egalitarianism. In contrast, this article emphasises the tensions present within the practices and understandings of democracy in the principal states of Scandinavia during the twentieth century. In doing so, it provides an introduction to the articles that compose this Special Issue, as well as contributing to the wider literature on the fragility of present-day structures of democracy.

scholarly journals Responsibilization and Sexual Stigma Under Austerity: Surveying Public Support for Government-Funded PrEP in England

2019 ◽  
Vol 17 (4) ◽  
pp. 643-653
Author(s):  
Timothy Hildebrandt ◽  
Leticia Bode ◽  
Jessica S. C. Ng
Keyword(s):  
Public Opinion ◽  
Public Attitudes ◽  
Public Support ◽  
Policy Implications ◽  
The Public ◽  
Sexual Stigma ◽  
The Government ◽  
Original Survey ◽  
Media Narratives

Abstract Introduction Under austerity, governments shift responsibilities for social welfare to individuals. Such responsibilization can be intertwined with pre-existing social stigmas, with sexually stigmatized individuals blamed more for health problems due to “irresponsible” sexual behavior. To understand how sexual stigma affects attitudes on government healthcare expenditures, we examine public support for government-provisioned PrEP in England at a time when media narratives cast the drug as an expensive benefit for a small, irresponsible social group and the National Health Service’s long-term sustainability was in doubt. Methods This paper uses data from an original survey (N = 738) conducted in September 2016, when public opinion should be most sensitive to sexual stigma. A survey experiment tests how the way beneficiaries of PrEP were described affected support for NHS provision of it. Contrary to expectations, we found that support was high (mean = 3.86 on a scale of 1 to 5) irrespective of language used or beneficiary group mentioned. Differences between conditions were negligible. Discussion Sexual stigma does not diminish support for government-funded PrEP, which may be due to reverence for the NHS; resistance to responsibilization generally; or just to HIV, with the public influenced by sympathy and counter-messaging. Social policy implications Having misjudged public attitudes, it may be difficult for the government to continue to justify not funding PrEP; the political rationale for contracting out its provision is unnecessary and flawed. With public opinion resilient to responsibilization narratives and sexual stigma even under austerity, welfare retrenchment may be more difficult than social policymakers presume.

A History for Falun Gong: Popular Religion and the Chinese State Since the Ming Dynasty

2003 ◽  
Vol 6 (2) ◽  
pp. 223-243 ◽  
Author(s):  
David Ownby
Keyword(s):  
Twentieth Century ◽  
Ming Dynasty ◽  
Popular Religion ◽  
Falun Gong ◽  
Religious Traditions ◽  
History Of ◽  
Chinese State ◽  
Ultimate Objective ◽  
Historical Antecedents

This article seeks to place Falun Gong - and the larger qigong movement from which it emerged - into the long-term context of the history of Chinese popular religion from the midMing (1368-1644) to the present. The argument developed is that Falun Gong and qigong are twentieth-century elaborations of a set of historical popular religious traditions generally labeled by scholars as "White Lotus Sectarianism." This article attempts both to look forward at the Falun Gong from a perspective informed by an understanding of its historical antecedents, and to look backward at the historical traditions on the basis of what we know about Falun Gong and qigong. The ultimate objective is to arrive at a recharacterization of a popular religious phenomenon which has been incompletely understood.

Royal Society expeditions in the second half of the twentieth century

2010 ◽  
Vol 64 (suppl_1) ◽  
Author(s):  
George E. Hemmen
Keyword(s):  
Twentieth Century ◽  
Royal Society ◽  
Scientific Institutions ◽  
The World ◽  
Different Parts

During the second half of the twentieth century, the Royal Society mounted a number of scientific expeditions to different parts of the world. These expeditions varied considerably in their objectives, size, complexity and duration. Brief outlines of the main Royal Society expeditions of this period and their origins are given, together with mention of resulting Royal Society Discussion Meetings. Reference is also made to some long-term investigations involving the Society in collaboration with other countries' scientific institutions.

The Spanish Armed Forces

2020 ◽  
pp. 275-296
Author(s):  
Rafael Martínez
Keyword(s):  
Twentieth Century ◽  
Public Opinion ◽  
National Security ◽  
Armed Forces ◽  
Second Best ◽  
Military Administration ◽  
History Of ◽  
Main Activity ◽  
The Military ◽  
Coups D'etat

At the end of the twentieth century (after a long history of coups d’état, a military uprising, a civil war, and a four-decade dictatorship), the Spanish public had serious doubts about the democratic nature of the armed forces. In contrast, in 2015 they were the second-best valued institution in the country. This is not just the result of a reform in the military administration. Both have changed: society and the military. To try to understand this change we will analyse the evolution of Spanish public opinion about the armed forces and national security since the end of the twentieth century and the perception of the Spanish military after undertaking international missions, its main activity.

Modern Isolation

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Guenter B. Risse
Keyword(s):  
Twentieth Century ◽  
Public Opinion ◽  
Public Attitudes ◽  
Contagious Diseases

This chapter describes a shift in public attitudes toward those suffering from loathsome diseases, as the old pesthouse regime has given way for the innovations of the twentieth century. In 1912, the isolation hospital became part of the city's public charity bureau, a bureaucratic move emblematic of post-earthquake San Francisco's political shifts. At the same time, the stigma of loathsomeness attached to contagious diseases seemed in decline. Alongside the improved public opinion toward the institutionalized, the chapter also details further shifts and demographics in San Francisco's ecology of disease. It goes further on into the twentieth century, recounting a possible resurgence of the old pesthouse regime in the advent of AIDs in the 1980s.

Identities and roles

2016 ◽  
Author(s):  
Beverley Hooper
Keyword(s):  
Public Opinion ◽  
Short Term ◽  
The West ◽  
Integral Role ◽  
History Of

As representatives of the West in China, to use Isabel Crook’s words, the long-term residents were active participants in the PRC’s ‘people-to-people diplomacy’ (or ‘friendship diplomacy’) which, like its Soviet counterpart, was directed towards influencing foreign public opinion, especially in the West. In her book A History of China’s Foreign Propaganda 1949–1966, PRC journalist and author Xi Shaoying saw the long-term residents, along with short-term invited ‘friends of China’, as playing an integral role in the government’s ‘foreign propaganda work’. In the West, the long-termers’ most contentious activity was their support for the PRC against their own governments.

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