Europe and its Historians

2003 ◽  
Vol 12 (3) ◽  
pp. 323-337 ◽  
Author(s):  
STUART WOOLF
Keyword(s):  
Middle Ages ◽  
Social Relationships ◽  
Balance Of Power ◽  
Classical Antiquity ◽  
Cultural Tradition ◽  
The Enlightenment ◽  
The World ◽  
Quality Of Governance ◽  
Constituent Elements

Histories of Europe have a long genealogy, whose origins can probably be found in the defence of Christian Europe, above all in humanist circles, against the threat of Muslim Ottoman expansion. In the course of the Enlightenment and the Napoleonic years, earlier elements that were regarded as characterising all Europe crystallised into a sense common to European elites – described as ‘civilisation’ – of the distinctiveness and superiority of Europeans and Europe from all other regions of the world. If we analyse what was understood by this ‘idea of Europe’, as I have argued elsewhere, we can identify a number of constituent elements of Europe's progress that, for their authors, explain its distinctiveness, particularly when compared with the historical experiences or contemporary condition of states and societies elsewhere in the world. These elements can be summarised as: (i) a secular cultural tradition, originating in classical antiquity, that revived (after the ‘barbarian’ interlude) with the Renaissance and culminated in contemporary France; (ii) individual entrepreneurship as the motor of European economic dynamism and strength; (iii) liberty as the defining quality of governance; (iv) the balance of power between a limited number of leading states; and (v) civilised manners, or civilités, understood (in Norbert Elias's sense) as publicly accepted regulatory mechanisms of the forms of social relationships. The Restoration, as Federico Chabod has clarified, extended this corpus of values attributed to Europe through a recovery of the Middle Ages and Christianity.

Mandelstam: The Realm of Unexpectedness

2021 ◽  
Vol 64 (2) ◽  
pp. 62-83
Author(s):  
Svetlana S. Neretina
Keyword(s):  
Middle Ages ◽  
Speech Act ◽  
Classical Antiquity ◽  
Logical Framework ◽  
Creation Process ◽  
The Real ◽  
Logical Construction ◽  
The World ◽  
The Creation ◽  
The Middle Ages

In the essay “Conversation about Dante,” Mandelstam described logic, which he defined as the “realm of unexpectedness,” which is unlike any everyday logical construction. Based on the analysis of Mandelstam’s text, it is assumed that we are talking about a tropology that arose in the Middle Ages, the principles of which can be derived from studies of St. Augustine’s treatise De Dialectica and Petrus Сomestor’s Historia Scholastica. It is this triple commonwealth (Augustine – Comestor – Dante, read by Mandelstam) that creates the multilayered logical framework of the work. Augustine created a completely different dialectic than in classical antiquity. Augustine considers dialectics as an art of discussion and describes the real steps that contribute to the emergence of speech, which corresponds to Mandelstam’s concept of conversation. According to Augustine, at the basis of any speech, is a trope-turn. In the article, attention is drawn to the sound nature of creation process. This logic, used in explaining the creation of the world according to the logos/word (tropology), assumes that, at the basis of the speech act, there is no the word as a unit of speech, but the sound itself – the sound, which was considered initially equivocal (ambiguous). In the process of pronounciation, the sound could turn into its opposite and could change the meaning of speech if the context has been changed. Dante expressed the meaning of tropology in practice. Mandelstam wrote that he had chosen Dante for the conversation (between poet and poet) “because he is the greatest and indisputable master of reversible and reversing poetic substance.” Mandelstam saw Dante as the Descartes of metaphor.

Bureaucracy and the Failure of Politics: Challenges to Democratic Governance

2019 ◽  
Vol 51 (10) ◽  
pp. 1576-1605 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kenneth J. Meier ◽  
Mallory Compton ◽  
John Polga-Hecimovich ◽  
Miyeon Song ◽  
Cameron Wimpy
Keyword(s):  
Political Institutions ◽  
Democratic Governance ◽  
Policy Goals ◽  
The World ◽  
Quality Of Governance ◽  
Bureaucratic Reforms

Bureaucratic reforms worldwide seek to improve the quality of governance. In this article, we argue that the major governance failures are political, not bureaucratic, and the first step to better governance is to recognize the underlying political causes. Using illustrations from throughout the world, we contend that political institutions fail to provide clear policy goals, rarely allocate adequate resources to deal with the scope of the problems, and do not allow the bureaucracy sufficient autonomy in implementation. Rational bureaucratic responses to these problems, in turn, create additional governance problems that could have been avoided if political institutions perform their primary functions.

ANALYZING INFORMAL ENTREPRENEURSHIP: A BIBLIOMETRIC SURVEY

2017 ◽  
Vol 22 (04) ◽  
pp. 1750022
Author(s):  
EUNICE MARIA M. N. DOS SANTOS ◽  
JOÃO J. FERREIRA
Keyword(s):  
Low Income ◽  
World Economy ◽  
Thomson Reuters ◽  
The Social ◽  
The World ◽  
Scientific Outputs ◽  
Quality Of Governance ◽  
Informal Entrepreneurship ◽  
Scopus Database

This study involves the analysis of the scientific outputs on informal entrepreneurship (IE hereafter) over the period from 1990 to 2016. We deploy a combination of bibliometric techniques such as citations, bibliographic coupling as well as approaching the social networks established. We sourced the contents thus analyzed from the online Thomson/Reuters-ISI database and the online Scopus database run by the Elsevier Publishing Company, which returned a total of 44 and 95 publications for analysis, respectively. From among the 139 articles analyzed, the journals Entrepreneurship and Regional Development and Journal of Developmental Entrepreneurship stand out as the publishers of the largest number of articles. We encounter studies on IE in developing countries as a low-income activity that contributes to the economic development of the region. The motivations and the determinants of informality are common to the majority of the scientific outputs and effectively serving as the analytical basis either for arguing in favor of the formalization of the business. Another aspect present in the literature interrelates IE with the quality of governance and economic liberalization. This analysis facet ensures IE gains in scientific profile within the ongoing context of discussions over neoliberalism and its effects on the world economy.

Prodesse et delectare: The World of National Literatures and the World of Literature

2007 ◽  
Vol 15 (1) ◽  
pp. 105-114
Author(s):  
HERBERT GRABES
Keyword(s):  
Middle Ages ◽  
Literary History ◽  
Classical Antiquity ◽  
Modern Times ◽  
Early Christian ◽  
Nation States ◽  
The World ◽  
Early Modern Times ◽  
Literary Histories ◽  
The 19Th Century

In a survey of the writing of literary histories in Europe, it is first pointed out that, in classical Antiquity and in the early Christian period from the fourth to the 12th centuries, such histories were transnational. After the Middle Ages, in which we find only catalogues of particular libraries, the rise of the European nation states in early modern times motivated the writing of national literary histories. With a concentration on the development in Britain, it is then shown that this development reached its peak in the 19th century, yet is still very strong today. In comparison, some examples of histories of European literature show that such transnational histories may also be informed primarily by the principle of prodesse in presenting either written culture or only what seems favourable for the understanding of national literary history; they may, however, also give more attention to literature and the imagination than to nations or culture and in that way foster delectare.

The globalized state: Measuring and monitoring governance

2010 ◽  
Vol 13 (4) ◽  
pp. 511-530 ◽  
Author(s):  
Bogdan Buduru ◽  
Leslie A. Pal
Keyword(s):  
Public Administration ◽  
Transparency International ◽  
International Agencies ◽  
Governance Indicators ◽  
The World Bank ◽  
The World ◽  
Quality Of Governance ◽  
Powerful Mechanism ◽  
Freedom House

In the last 20 years, there has been an explosion of ‘governance indicators’ purporting to measure and track the quality of governance (especially public administration) among states. These indicators are sponsored by international agencies such as the World Bank, NGOs such as Transparency International and Freedom House, and private sector risk assessors. We argue that this web of standards marks a distinctive feature of globalized, if loose, coordination among states and an increase in monitoring and auditing functions. The article reviews the major governance indicators, their characteristics and limitations. We conclude that these indicators are a little noticed, but supremely powerful mechanism of discordant control and discipline on state systems around the world.

Father Chaucer’s Heirs

2019 ◽  
pp. 212-228
Author(s):  
Samantha Katz Seal
Keyword(s):  
Middle Ages ◽  
The Earth ◽  
The World ◽  
Knight's Tale ◽  
The Middle Ages

In conclusion to this book, Chapter 6 looks at the Middle Ages’ model of reproductive perfection—fathers producing sons—to identify how even in the most ideal of circumstances, men cannot gain a true authority upon the earth. For from the Monk’s Tale to the Knight’s Tale to the Nun’s Priest’s Tale, Chaucer makes men confront how poorly they resemble the quality of their fathers. Each generation becomes a siring of loss, a gradual descent into something worse than its progenitor. And yet, Chaucer agues, there is nothing else for men within the world. To reproduce in the pursuit of authority is a doomed quest, one that he himself will repent of in the Retractions. But there is nothing more human than the desire to create something that will last beyond one’s death, to hope in a future posterity even knowing the odds against its realization.

Cartography in Antiquity and the Middle Ages: Fresh Perspectives, New Methods. Edited by Richard J. A. Talbert and Richard W. Unger. Pictura et Scriptura: textes, images, et herméneutique des mappae mundi (XIIIe–XVIe siècles). By Margriet Hoogvliet. Maps and Monsters in Medieval England. By Asa Simon Mittman. The Cartographic Imagination in Early Modern England: Re-writing the World in Marlowe, Spenser, Raleigh and Marvell. By D. K. Smith. Novels, Maps, Modernity: The Spatial Imagination, 1850–2000. By Eric Bulson. Constructing Lithuania: Ethnic Mapping in Tsarist Russia, ca. 1800–1914. By Vytautas Petronis. Petermann's Planet: A Guide to German Handatlases and Their Siblings throughout the World, 1800–1950. Vol. 2: The Rare and Small Handatlases. By Jürgen Espenhorst. Catálogo analítico des lo atlas del Museo Naval de Madrid. By Luisa Martín-Merás. Vigilia colonial. Cartógrafos militares españoles en Marruecos (1882–1912). By Luis Urteaga. Mapping Colonial Conquest: Australia and Southern Africa. Edited by Norman Etherington. Mapping Jordan through Two Millennia. By John R. Bartlett. Chaining Oregon: Surveying the Public Lands of the Pacific Northwest, 1851–1855. By Kay Atwood. Measuring the New World: Enlightenment Science and South America. By Neil Safier. The Tropics of Empire: Why Columbus Sailed South to the Indies. By Nicolás Wey Gómez. Coastlines: How Mapmakers Frame the World and Chart Environmental Change. By Mark Monmonier. Geography and Vision: Seeing, Imagining and Representing the World. By Denis Cosgrove. Placing the Enlightenment: Thinking Geographically about the Age of Reason. By Charles W. J. Withers.

Imago Mundi ◽  
2009 ◽  
Vol 61 (2) ◽  
pp. 263-276
Author(s):  
Ronald E. Grim ◽  
Sarah Bendall ◽  
Alfred Hiatt ◽  
Naomi Kline ◽  
Margriet Hoogvliet ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Pacific Northwest ◽  
Middle Ages ◽  
The Public ◽  
Age Of Reason ◽  
The Enlightenment ◽  
The Pacific ◽  
The World ◽  
Ethnic Mapping ◽  
Spatial Imagination ◽  
The Tropics

scholarly journals Letter from the editor

2021 ◽  
Vol 17 (4) ◽  
pp. 6-8
Author(s):  
Maria A. Burganova
Keyword(s):  
Middle Ages ◽  
Late Antiquity ◽  
Fine Arts ◽  
Educational Programs ◽  
Theory And Practice ◽  
Cultural Tradition ◽  
Art And Design ◽  
Research Areas ◽  
Art Works ◽  
The World

Dear readers, We are pleased to present to you Issue 4, 2021, of the scientific and analytical journal Burganov House. The Space of Culture . Upon the recommendation of the Expert Council of the Higher Attestation Commission, the journal is included in the List of Leading Peer-reviewed Scien - tific Journals and Publications in which the main sci - entific results of theses for the academic degrees of doctor and candidate of science must be published. The journal publishes scientific articles by lead - ing specialists in various humanitarian fields, doctor - al students, and graduate students. Research areas concern topical problems in multiple areas of cul - ture, art, philology, and linguistics. This versatility of the review reveals the main specificity of the jour - nal, which represents the current state of the cul - tural space. The journal traditionally opens with the Aca - demic Interview rubric. In the issue, we present an outstanding figure of world culture — Nikolai Tsis - karidze, a Member of the Council for Culture and Art under the President of the Russian Federation, People’s Artist of Russia, Rector of the Vaganova Academy of Russian Ballet. His charismatic image personifies the Russian ballet school. The article “The Liar’s Paradox –a wild interation. Part II. Difthong “Aristotel-Anokhin” (continuation)” by E.Menshikova develops the theme of the para - doxes of the modern space of culture. The author explores such concepts as consciousness as a “res - onant system” and various types of thinking, com - paring modernity with the ancient philosophical and cultural tradition. In his article “On the Issue of Organising Space in Book Miniatures of Late Antiquity and the Early Middle Ages. 4th-7th Centuries”, M.Bankov analy - ses polychrome miniature in the context of the book creation art. The author believes that the develop - ment of spatial constructions in miniature painting is an indivisible process in which each new stage is derived from the previous one. The views of animal painters of the 19th-20th centuries on the world of wildlife, the factor of the relationship between man and nature, reflected in works of art, are considered by I.Portnova in the ar - ticle “Russian Animalistic Art of the 19th-20th Cen - turies in the Views on the World of Flora and Fauna”. The extensive correspondence of Empress Cathe - rine II with politicians, scientists and cultural figures of Europe during the period of difficult relations be - tween Russia and China is investigated by N.Suraeva in the article “The Image of China in the Corre - spondence of Catherine II”. Particular emphasis is placed on the correspondence between Catherine II and Voltaire. In the article “Architectural Space in Dance as an Artistic-figurative System”, T.Portnova considers the expressive means of dance and architecture, anal - yses the general and the specific in their artistic language, reveals the degree of interaction of ar - chitectural principles with dance drama and chore - ographic composition. In the article “Practice as Research: Creative and Research Practice in the Format of Postgraduate Ed - ucation”, the team of authors, L.Alyabyeva, I.Sakhno and T.Fadeeva, summarise the experience of Euro - pean educational programs and, after their critical understanding, create the author’s concept. The au - thors believe that practice and research have long been inseparable in educational programs in the field of contemporary art and design. In the article “Artistic Potential of Graphic Digi - tal Modelling. The Convergence of Traditional and Multimedia Exhibition Means in the Display of Dig - ital Art Works”, E.Zayeva-Burdonskaya and D.Kar - dashenko study the artistic potential of computer graphic modelling in the space of contemporary ar - tistic creation and artistic exhibition systems. The authors provide examples of contemporary exhibi - tions that implement the complex convergence of traditional and multimedia exhibition means in the display of digital art works. The publication is addressed to professionals specialising in the theory and practice of the fine arts and philology and all those interested in the arts and culture.

scholarly journals Assessment of Corruption Level as a Component of Governance Indicator: International Experience and Russian Practices

2021 ◽  
Vol 12 (4) ◽  
Author(s):  
Elena Bakhtairova ◽  
Alexandra Anganova
Keyword(s):  
World Bank ◽  
Russian Federation ◽  
National Level ◽  
Governance Indicator ◽  
The World Bank ◽  
The World ◽  
The Russian Federation ◽  
Quality Of Governance ◽  
The Government

As corruptions is one of the most important problems in most modern states, its assessment forms an important part of integral governance indicator. Worldwide Governance Indicators (WGI), a technique, worked out by The World Bank, is widely used in the international level. Since 2019 the technique “Methodology of Conducting Sociological Surveys for Corruption Assessment in the Constituent Entities of the Russian Federation” (further in the text — Methodology of the Russian Federation Government), adopted by the Government Decree of the Russian Federation, is used in the national level. The main purpose of the present research is to evaluate how the national methodology of corruption assessment reflects the quality of governance in this sphere. The research focuses on the main techniques for corruption assessment in different levels. The study analyses the main scientific statements for corruption assessment as a component of integral quality indicator of governance. Secondary data of corruption survey’s findings formed the information and empirical base of the research. The novelty of the study is in developing original author’s approach towards methodological aspects of comprehensive governance assessment. It was found that the national methodology is an alternative approach, characterizing the quality of governance in this sphere. The research revealed several drawbacks of the indicative methodology issued by the World Bank. The Methodology of the Russian Federation Government more appropriately reflects the corruption level and more accurately characterizes the governance quality in the sphere of fighting corruption in the regions of the Russian Federation.

J. S. Mill on Oriental Despotism, including its British Variant

Utilitas ◽  
1996 ◽  
Vol 8 (1) ◽  
pp. 73-87 ◽  
Author(s):  
Robert Kurfirst
Keyword(s):  
Middle Ages ◽  
European Society ◽  
First Century ◽  
Educational Institutions ◽  
Late Middle Ages ◽  
The Enlightenment ◽  
Proper Interpretation

European portraits of the great Asian states, China, India, and Persia, remained remarkably constant from the establishment of the Chinese silk trade in the first century B.C. until the religious and mercantile expeditions to the Orient prominent in the late Middle Ages. For more than a millenium, the Eastern empires had been classified by Europeans as stable despotisms – stationary societies governed by custom and tradition and devoid of economic, political, or cultural dynamism. Only during the Enlightenment did the proper interpretation of the merits of ‘Oriental despotism’ become a matter of controversy. To some Enlightenment figures, the paternalistic despotisms of Asia appeared to be superior to the nations of Europe ethically and in the quality of their political, legal, and educational institutions. Many social philosophers of the period agreed that the example afforded by Asia could contribute much to the rejuvenation of European society they hoped to effect.

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