The History and Visual Culture of Mexico City’s Xochimilco Potable Water System during the Porfiriato

2016 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jeffrey M. Banister ◽  
Stacie G. Widdifield
Keyword(s):  
Visual Culture ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
Potable Water ◽  
Water System ◽  
Water Control ◽  
Water Shortages ◽  
Porfirio Diaz ◽  
The Public ◽  
History Of ◽  
Traditional Sense

Historians have extensively explored the topic of water control in Mexico City. From the relationship between political power and hydraulics to detailed studies of drainage and other large-scale infrastructure projects, the epic story of water in this megalopolis, constructed over a series of ancient lakes, continues to captivate people’s imaginations. Securing potable water for the fast-growing city is also a constant struggle, yet it has received comparatively less attention than drainage in historical research. Moreover, until quite recently scholars have not been especially concerned with water control as a process of representation—that is, a process shaped by, and shaping, visual culture. Yet, potable water brings together many stories about people and places both within and outside of the Basin of Mexico. As such, the history of potable water is communicated through a diverse array of objects and modern infrastructures not limited to the idea of waterworks in the traditional sense of the term. A more expansive view of “infrastructure” incorporates more than the commonplace objects of hydraulic management such as aqueducts, pumps, wells, and pipes: it also involves architecture, photography, and narrative history, official and unofficial. Built in the first decade of the 20th century as a response to acute water shortages, the impressively modern Xochimilco Potable Water Works exemplifies a system that delivered far more than fresh drinking water through its series of modern electric pumps and aqueduct. The system was a result of a larger modernization initiative launched by the administration of Porfirio Díaz (1876–1911). It wove together an official history of water, which included the annexation of Xochimilco’s springs, through its diverse infrastructures, including the engineering of the potable water system as well as the significance of the structures themselves in terms of locations and architectural elaboration in neo-styles (also known as historical styles) typical of the period. Demonstrably clear from the sheer investment in making the Xochimilco waterworks appealing to the public is that infrastructure can possess a rich visual culture of its own.

scholarly journals Congresses of the Moscow Rural Society: a system for the development of agrarian reforms. 19th – early 20th centuries.

2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (2) ◽  
pp. 112-127
Author(s):  
Valentina A. Nokhrina ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Large Scale ◽  
Agricultural Development ◽  
Significant Contribution ◽  
Agricultural Sector ◽  
Rural Society ◽  
The Public ◽  
Successful Solution ◽  
History Of ◽  
Economic Zones ◽  
Central Scientific

In the proposed article, on the basis of the materials of the Moscow Society of Agriculture identified in the fund of the Central Scientific Agricultural Library. With the involvement of the developments of researchers on the history of agrarian thought in Russia in the 19th and early 20th centuries, forms of communication between the scientific and professional communities are determined for the modernization of the agricultural sector of agriculture after the peasant reform of 1861 of the year. The publication highlights the main forms of communication: the publishing activity of the Society, the organization of exhibitions and congresses. To assess the large-scale activities of the Moscow Society of Agriculture for 110 years, a brief overview of its practical work is presented, and the role in the agrarian rationalization of agriculture in Russian historiography is revealed. Members of the Moscow Society have made a significant contribution to the study of the state of agriculture, ways of evolution and methods of increasing its productivity. On the example of materials from three All-Russian congresses on agronomic assistance to the population, the organizational aspects of resolving issues of agricultural management in the regions of Russia. The role and significance of the public initiative is especially valuable today, when the problems of innovative renewal and modernization of the agricultural sector are becoming a national task. For its successful solution, the documents of the congresses can be useful, since they make it possible to trace the genesis of the processes of agricultural development in various thematic areas and economic zones in historical terms and to avoid possible mistakes in decision-making.

scholarly journals Élelmiszertörténet: az 1900-1950-es évek

2020 ◽  
Vol 10 (21) ◽  
pp. 324-333
Author(s):  
Annamária Polgár ◽  
Erzsébet Mák
Keyword(s):  
Food Production ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
Industrial Revolution ◽  
Nutrient Supply ◽  
Vacuum Packaging ◽  
The Public ◽  
History Of ◽  
Agriculture And Food

For centuries, men were self-reliant and consumed typically the food produced on one’s own territory. With advancing Industrial Revolution, development started also in the agriculture and food production set on a large scale, with cheap mass products and companies could serve larger populations. Metropolitan life has adapted to cater to the growing crowds, with smaller stores slowly becoming supermarkets where everything could be found in the same place. Innovation efforts have also brought about the freezer, vacuum packaging or microwave, all of which made available to the public. Foods changed to be enriched with vitamins and minerals for a better nutrient supply, and packaging techniques followed this evolution. This study aims to look over the history of alimentation and the change of food production from the 1900s to the 1950s324including both World Wars respectively.

scholarly journals RAPID DATA COLLECTION FOR THE AUDIT OF MONUMENTS & MEMORIALS IN SOUTH AFRICA

2021 ◽  
Vol XLVI-M-1-2021 ◽  
pp. 313-320
Author(s):  
C. Jackson ◽  
M. Nkhasi-Lesaoana ◽  
L. Mofutsanyana
Keyword(s):  
South Africa ◽  
Public Space ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
National Audit ◽  
The Public ◽  
Funding Mechanism ◽  
History Of ◽  
Monuments And Memorials ◽  
The Impact ◽  
Roll Out

Abstract. The tradition of memorialising people and events through physical constructions such as statues and monuments like in many countries, has shaped the public space of a modern South Africa. Considering the colonial and apartheid history of South Africa, these physical markers, often uncontextualized, continue to maintain positions of prominence within the modern streetscape.Since the turn of the democratic era in South Africa, a pressing need has existed to assess the impact of the markers on the heritage landscape of the country. An endeavour made more difficult by a lack of a comprehensive inventory of these resources across the country.The National Audit of Monuments and Memorials (NAMM) was designed to address this gap through a full national survey of monuments and memorials, conducted under the auspices of a job creation stimulus package designed to create short term employment in the wake of the economic fallout from the Covid-19 pandemic. Undertaking this project under this funding mechanism required that all phases of the project be undertaken within a six-month period.The compressed timeframes associated with this project required an approach that could support a level of fluidity to address the challenges of undertaking a project of this nature, whilst ensuring that the data collected by field surveyors can be monitored and included in the inventory of the national estate in an effective manner.The aim of this paper is to discuss and showcase the tools and workflows used to roll out and manage the large-scale national audit of monuments and memorials across South Africa.

scholarly journals Reappraisals of the Academy Movement

2001 ◽  
Vol 41 (2) ◽  
pp. 216-224 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kim Tolley ◽  
Nancy Beadie
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Nineteenth Century ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
The United States ◽  
Public High Schools ◽  
Colonial Era ◽  
Educational Discourse ◽  
The Public ◽  
Historical Significance ◽  
History Of

The presence of academies in the United States spans roughly three centuries. Originating in the colonial era, academies spread across the country by mid-nineteenth century. Such institutions generally served students between the ages of eight and twenty-five, providing a relatively advanced form of schooling that was legally incorporated to ensure financial support beyond that available through tuition alone. According to one contemporary source, by 1850 more than 6,100 incorporated academies existed in the United States, with enrollments nine times greater than those of the nation's colleges. Nineteenth-century supporters portrayed academies as exemplars of the nation's commitment to enlightenment and learning; opponents argued that they were harmful to the public interest. Those in favor of a large-scale system of public high schools dismissed academies as irrelevant and outmoded institutions. The culmination of this controversy is well known, because it is reiterated in every secondary text on the history of American education. As a widespread system of public higher schooling supplanted the academies in the twentieth century, private and independent schools dropped out of the mainstream of American educational discourse. The following essays seek to recover something of the long history of academies in the United States and to reconsider the historical significance of these institutions in society.

scholarly journals Potential Transformative Changes in Water Provision Systems: Impact of Decentralised Water Systems on Centralised Water Supply Regime

Water ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 11 (8) ◽  
pp. 1709
Author(s):  
van Duuren ◽  
van Alphen ◽  
Koop ◽  
de Bruin
Keyword(s):  
Large Scale ◽  
Potable Water ◽  
Climate Adaptation ◽  
Water System ◽  
Future Generation ◽  
Water Systems ◽  
System Failures ◽  
Sustainable Urban Water Management ◽  
Water Provision ◽  
Systems Thinking Approach

Sustainable Urban Water Management (SUWM) is a paradigm in which decentralisation is key. There has been little work directed towards the large-scale possibilities of decentralised water systems and their implications on the functioning of the centralised (potable) water system. This study includes both a historical and future (scenario) analysis of decentralised developments. Integrated morphological socio-technical scenarios are combined with quantitative water flows for a case study (the Province of Limburg, the Netherlands) and examined by a transdisciplinary group of experts. The study shows how SUWM measures which focus on climate adaptation and circularity can have a significant impact on existing centralised potable water systems. In turn, influencing the total water and peak demands and thus resulting in different utilisation rates. This can result in more system failures (e.g., longer residence time, bacterial growth, reduced self-cleaning capacity), significant changes in the centralised infrastructure (e.g., more wells), increasing water bills (e.g., inequalities), and the preservation of aquifers for future generation. Different scenarios either have regime-reproducing or regime-diversifying impacts. SUWM measures are studied in isolation and thus externalities are not fully considered. Therefore, when planning for decentralised SUWM solutions, a systems thinking approach is recommended, which takes into account externalities.

Traditional water rights, ecology and the public trust doctrine in Hawaii

Water Policy ◽  
2013 ◽  
Vol 16 (1) ◽  
pp. 184-196
Author(s):  
C. S. Papacostas
Keyword(s):  
Water Rights ◽  
Public Trust ◽  
The State ◽  
Water Shortages ◽  
The Public ◽  
Public Trust Doctrine ◽  
Subsurface Waters ◽  
The Face ◽  
History Of

This case study discusses the implications of imposing the doctrine of public trust to ground and surface waters within the State of Hawaii and its effects on traditional rights that had previously evolved based on common law. It traces the major events of the history of water rights and practices beginning with the system devised by the indigenous Hawaiian people prior to the adoption of the doctrine of public trust to the water resources of the State of Hawaii, applied with the most expansive interpretation of the public trust doctrine, encompassing both surface and subsurface waters and a wide assortment of protected uses and purposes. The major decisions that ensued when applying the doctrine, via legal prescriptions and administrative rules, are described. The implications of the interplay between scientific enquiry and research are presented, with legal precedent in the face of potential water shortages, competing uses, sensitivities to comprehensive resource management, considerations of ecological balance and protection of the rights of indigenous people. Many of these findings are transferable to other jurisdictions contemplating the adoption of public trust doctrine principles to their surface and ground waters.

The luxury of abundance

1999 ◽  
Vol 6 (1) ◽  
pp. 55-73
Author(s):  
David Fontijn ◽  
David Van Reybrouck
Keyword(s):  
Review Essay ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
Present Review ◽  
Similar Attitude ◽  
The Public ◽  
Political Landscape ◽  
Irish Identity ◽  
History Of ◽  
Institutional Expansion ◽  
Foreign Ideas

AbstractThe last decade has witnessed a significant increase in the number of comprehensive syntheses on Irish prehistory, both in terms of academic textbooks and popular accounts. The present review essay finds that these syntheses are highly convergent in terms of theme, scope, and theoretical underpinnings. Although large-scale migrations are rejected as explanations for culture change, Ireland is still perceived as the receptacle for foreign ideas and overseas inventions, whereby imports are not just introduced but also perfected in Ireland. We argue that a similar attitude can be noted in the perception of the history of Irish prehistory. This convergence and absence of overt polemics are explained by referring to the small size of the Irish archaeological community. The increase in syntheses is accounted for by a number of empirical preconditions, the theoretical climate of opinion, the institutional expansion of the discipline, the public impact of a rapidly changing natural and political landscape and the notion of an Irish identity.

Photo Circle: A Short History of the Nepal Picture Library

2017 ◽  
pp. 56-69
Author(s):  
Alisha Sett
Keyword(s):  
Public History ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
Short History ◽  
Transformative Power ◽  
The Public ◽  
Digital Photo ◽  
History Of ◽  
Visual Resource ◽  
The Impact ◽  
Made In

This is a short history of the Nepal Picture Library (NPL), Nepal’s first large-scale digital photo archive encompassing over 50,000 photographs collected in less than a decade. It is a rare institution; a catalogued visual resource open to the public with scores of intimate family collections, the historic and the mundane captured over decades by photojournalists, and portraits made in photo studios across the country. The essay provides insight into the strength, scope and potential of this community-created archive. Founded and managed by Photo Circle, a platform for photography in Kathmandu, NPL has published books, done several exhibitions in museums and public spaces across Nepal, and exhibited their collections internationally. Tracing the origins and the impact of NPL through a series of interviews, the essays reveals not only the transformative power of their methods of public engagement but also the deep concern for visual culture fostered in their volunteers particularly among photographers serving as amateur archivists. Keywords: archive, Kathmandu, Nepal, oral history, public history

Metafiction and the Postwar Novel

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Andrew Dean
Keyword(s):  
World War Ii ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
The Novel ◽  
Philip Roth ◽  
Miguel De Cervantes ◽  
The Public ◽  
Political Debates ◽  
History Of ◽  
Janet Frame ◽  
The Relationship

This book examines the origins, poetics, and capacities of self-reflexive fiction across the globe after World War II. Focusing on three authors’ careers—J. M. Coetzee, Janet Frame, and Philip Roth—it seeks to circumvent the large-scale theoretical paradigms (such as ‘postmodernism’) that have long been deployed to describe this writing. The book does so by developing new terms for discussing the intimacies of metafictional writing, derived from the writing of Miguel de Cervantes and J. L. Borges. The ‘self of writing’ refers to the figure of the author that a writer may imagine exists independently from discourse. The ‘public author as signature’ represents the public understandings of an author that emerge from biography and the author’s corpus itself. The book shows how these figures of authorship are handled by authors, as they draw on the materials offered by their own corpora and communities of readers. Sometimes, this book shows, authors invent distinctively literary ways of adjudicating enduring political debates: the responsibility of a novelist to the political aspirations of a community, the ability of the novel to pursue justice on behalf of others, and the public good that literature serves. Yet this is not a story of unmitigated success: the book also demonstrates how metafiction can be used as a way to close down interpretive schemes and to avoid contributing to public value. Through a close focus on literary environments, the book ultimately gives a finer-grained account of the history of postwar metafiction, and offers new ways of theorizing the relationship between fiction, life-writing, and literary institutions.

"In the Nature of a Clinic": The Design of Early Public Housing in St. Louis

2011 ◽  
Vol 70 (1) ◽  
pp. 82-103 ◽  
Author(s):  
Joseph Heathcott
Keyword(s):  
World War Ii ◽  
Public Housing ◽  
Urban Form ◽  
Architectural Design ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
Public Works ◽  
World War ◽  
The Public ◽  
Home Building ◽  
History Of

Several important episodes in the early history of mass housing in America are the subject of "In the Nature of a Clinic": The Design of Early Public Housing in St. Louis. In the late 1920s housing and reform advocates coalesced out of the strong St. Louis settlement house to push for slum clearance and large-scale home building for the working class. Their first achievement, Joseph Heathcott reports, was Neighborhood Gardens, completed in 1934 with funding from the Public Works Administration. Modern in architectural design and segregated in social plan, the project established a model for the larger undertakings inspired by the landmark 1937 Housing Act. By World War II, housing advocates and officials in St. Louis had created prototypes of a new urban form that would shape postwar activities, including the notorious Pruitt-Igoe.

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