Innocence and Childhood

2015 ◽  
Author(s):  
Doris Bühler-Niederberger
Keyword(s):  
Interest Groups ◽  
Research Area ◽  
Value Assessment ◽  
Moral Panics ◽  
Early 21St Century ◽  
Research Fields ◽  
Children And Childhood ◽  
Children’S Sexuality ◽  
The 19Th Century ◽  
Do So

The notion of innocence refers to children’s simplicity, their lack of knowledge, and their purity not yet spoiled by mundane affairs. Such innocence is taken as the promise of a renewal of the world by the children. Innocence has been attributed to children and childhood by adults at all times, but content and social function of such glorifying assessments show considerable variation over time and context, and the valuation is never unanimous among contemporaries. Innocence used to be a religious notion in earlier times. With the Enlightenment and success of Rousseau’s Émile, nature becomes a new point of reference. From the 19th century onward, the idea of children’s innocence is strongly interrelated with children’s sexuality. Innocence is then emphasized to defend the assumption of an absence of sexuality in children and the demand for such absence. Innocence is not a scientific term; therefore, the numerous studies concerning processes, seminal ideas, and functions of the value assessment of children and childhood do not constitute a unified research area. Researchers deal with questions of children’s innocence often rather implicitly. They do so while analyzing the social construction and reconstruction of childhood at different times and in different historical and contemporary contexts. They do so as well in the interpretation of classic pedagogy, as innocence is a conceptual element in the writings of several pedagogues. Last but not least, we find references to notions of innocence in studies on discourses and political programs concerning children’s sexuality and in the scientific reconstruction of moral enterprises called “moral panics”: public outcries concerning improper childhoods. Put together, these studies, which are scattered over multiple research fields, support the following conclusions: (1) various value assessments of children and childhood may be found at all times, and the notion of innocence is never uncontested; (2) historical notions of innocence are complex and may as well recognize children’s agency; (3) the attribution of innocence to children is often functionalized by interest groups to support their claims and to devaluate rival or marginal groups; it may therefore be a value assessment of minor profit for the children, but of high profit for interest groups; (4) while the attribution of innocence has had a clear reference to religion and nature implicating far-reaching assumptions concerning humankind, it is almost completely narrowed down to debates on children’s sexuality and sexual endangerment in the early 21st century.

scholarly journals Diasporic Foreign Policy Interest Groups in the United States: Democracy, Conflict, and Political Entrepreneurship

2021 ◽  
pp. 1-18
Author(s):  
Shubha Kamala Prasad ◽  
Filip Savatic
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Foreign Policy ◽  
Interest Groups ◽  
The United States ◽  
Democratic Governance ◽  
Indian American ◽  
Two Factors ◽  
Political Entrepreneurs ◽  
Do So ◽  
Policy Interest

Why do some immigrant diasporas in the United States (U.S.) establish foreign policy interest groups while others do not? While scholars have demonstrated that diasporic interest groups often successfully influence U.S. foreign policy, we take a step back to ask why only certain diasporas attempt to do so in the first place. We argue that two factors increase the likelihood of diaspora mobilization: a community’s experience with democratic governance and conflict in its country of origin. We posit that these conditions make it more likely that political entrepreneurs emerge to serve as catalysts for top-down mobilization. To test our hypotheses, we collect and analyze novel data on diasporic interest groups as well as the characteristics of their respective countries of origin. In turn, we conduct the first in-depth case studies of the historical and contemporary Indian-American lobbies, using original archival and interview evidence.

A double omission

1977 ◽  
Vol 3 (3) ◽  
pp. 286-307 ◽  
Author(s):  
V. Kubálková ◽  
A. A. Cruickshank
Keyword(s):  
International Relations ◽  
International Relations Theory ◽  
Research Area ◽  
Major Work ◽  
Sole Purpose ◽  
Limited Scope ◽  
Do So

The title of the article is intended to focus the attention of Western writers on international relations theory upon two aspects of this rapidly growing research area. Rather than meeting with an incomprehensible neglect it is our argument that the aspects referred to might well be accorded one of the key places. Failure to do so, it our contention, when transferred from considerations of theoretical efficiency into the no less precarious realm of practical policy, might well have proportionately hazardous implications. We would beg forbearance, however, if within the necessarily limited scope of this article only a very perfunctory and sketchy outline of the meaning and implications of the omissions can be given. The sole purpose of this article is to provoke interest in these particular areas rather than to supply the deficiencies – a task which clearly could only be undertaken in the expanded context of a major work.

THE FORMATION OF THE HISTORICAL AND LITURGICAL RESEARCH AREA IN RUSSIAN ACADEMIC SCHOLARSHIP IN THE LATE 19TH – EARLY 20TH CENTURY. A COMPARATIVE ANALYSIS OF METHODOLOGICAL APPROACHES OF N.V. POKROVSKY AND I.A. KARABINOV

2021 ◽  
pp. 30-49
Author(s):  
Zoya M. Dashevskaya ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Research Methodology ◽  
Research Area ◽  
Academic Science ◽  
Scientific School ◽  
Academic Scholarship ◽  
Academic Courses ◽  
History Of ◽  
Christian Worship ◽  
The Subject ◽  
The 19Th Century

n the second half of the 19th century – especially in the period following the introduction of the Academic Constitution of 1869, and in the 1880s and continuing until the forced closure of Theological Academies after the Revolutionary coup – the historical and liturgical research area in Russian academic science experienced a period of its formation and flourishing. The subject of the article is a comparison of approaches to the study of the worship service history and analysis of the formation of the research methodology for teaching Liturgics by professors N.V. Pokrovsky and I.A. Karabinov of the St. Petersburg Theological Academy, where they taught the history of Christian worship from the 1880’s until its forced closure in 1918. Analysis and juxtapos- ing of academic courses in Liturgics allows defining the boundaries and content of the discipline in the period of its formation as well as considering the evolu- tion in research methodology and, more broadly, the formation of the Russian historical and liturgical scientific school. A comparison of the courses reveals the authors attitudes towards histori- cal sources material and its studies. Their own ideas about the provenance of various rites used in church worship characterize their views on the develop- ment of the liturgical tradition, expressing their approaches to its study and thereby form our picture of the establishment of historical Liturgics as a field of researchable knowledge.

The Horn of the Unicorn

Antiquity ◽  
1953 ◽  
Vol 27 (105) ◽  
pp. 15-19 ◽  
Author(s):  
Humphrey Humphreys
Keyword(s):  
19Th Century ◽  
Middle Ages ◽  
Old Testament ◽  
The 19Th Century ◽  
Do So ◽  
The Middle Ages

Though everyone now agrees that the unicorn never existed, this unanimity is quite recent. All through the 19th century there were periodic reports of its presence in darkest Africa or on the Asiatic steppes, and hopes that it would turn out to be a reality died hard. But if there never was such a creature why did the men of the Middle Ages believe in it so firmly and depict it so often? As Christians it was incumbent on them to do so, for it was mentioned in the Old Testament and, therefore, must be real. Its presence there was due to the authors of the Septuagint, the Hellenised Jews who, at Alexandria, in the centuries between the city's foundation and the Christian era, translated their sacred books from Hebrew into Greek and on seven occasions used the word μονόκερως (Greek for unicorn).

scholarly journals Intergenerational and Marriage Mobility of University Professors in the Netherlands During the 19th Century

2021 ◽  
Vol 10 ◽  
pp. 167-171
Author(s):  
Ineke Maas ◽  
Marco H. D. Van Leeuwen ◽  
Antonie Knigge
Keyword(s):  
Cultural Capital ◽  
19Th Century ◽  
Occupational Group ◽  
Contemporary Society ◽  
University Professors ◽  
Capital Theory ◽  
Civil Marriage ◽  
Cultural Capital Theory ◽  
The 19Th Century ◽  
Do So

In this study we ask the question to what extent 19th-century university professors were a closed occupational group in the sense that they had little intergenerational and marriage mobility. We do so in honor of Kees Mandemakers, who is about to retire as a professor, but whose younger family members may follow in his footsteps. We derive competing hypotheses from cultural capital theory and the meritocracy thesis and test them using civil marriage records for the period 1813–1922 in six Dutch provinces (N = 1,180,976 marriages). Although only 4.4% of all university professors had a father in the same occupation, the odds ratio of 331 shows that this is much more likely than to be expected under independence. Similarly, professors were much more likely to marry the daughter of a professor. Compared to other elite occupations the intergenerational immobility of professors was not especially high, but their marriage immobility was exceptional. Cultural capital theory receives more support than the meritocracy thesis. We hope that Mandemakers, Mandemakers and Mandemakers will accept the challenge and investigate whether these findings can be generalized to contemporary society.

scholarly journals If, Why, and When Subjective Well-Being Influences Health, and Future Needed Research

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Edward Francis Diener
Keyword(s):  
Well Being ◽  
Research Area ◽  
Cross Cultural ◽  
Subjective Well Being ◽  
Research Issues ◽  
Area Of Interest ◽  
Methodological Approaches ◽  
Open Question ◽  
Do So

We review evidence on whether subjective well-being (SWB) can influence health, why it might do so, and what we know about the conditions where this is more or less likely to occur. This review also explores how various methodological approaches inform the study of the connections between subjective well-being and health and longevity outcomes. Our review of this growing literature indicates areas where data are substantial and where much more research is needed. We conclude that SWB can sometimes influence health, and review a number of reasons why it does so. A key open question is when it does and does not do so – in terms of populations likely to be affected, types of SWB that are most influential (including which might be harmful), and types of health and illnesses that are most likely to be affected. We also describe additional types of research that are now much needed in this burgeoning area of interest, for example, cross-cultural studies, animal research, and experimental interventions designed to raise long-term SWB and assess the effects on physical health. This research area is characterized both by potentially extremely important findings, and also by pivotal research issues and questions.

scholarly journals Cannabis, Moral Entrepreneurship, and Stigma: Conflicting Narratives on the 26 May 2016 Toronto Police Raid on Cannabis Shops

2019 ◽  
Vol 15 (2) ◽  
pp. 148-171
Author(s):  
Thaddeus Müller
Keyword(s):  
Media Coverage ◽  
Moral Panic ◽  
Historical Context ◽  
Social World ◽  
State Agencies ◽  
Social Constructions ◽  
Moral Panics ◽  
The Media ◽  
Police Raid ◽  
Do So

On May 26, 2016, the police raided 43 cannabis dispensaries in Toronto, Canada, making 90 arrests. This article aims to describe the narrative of the responsible state agencies concerning the police raid and compare it to the narrative of those who opposed it, such as activists, as well as consumers and sellers of cannabis. While such concepts as moral entrepreneur, moral panic, and moral crusade have traditionally been used to study those in power, I will employ them to explore both the state narrative and ways in which counterclaims-makers resisted it. In order to do so, I will further develop the concept of moral entrepreneurship and its characteristics by relating it to studies of moral panics and social problems. This article will be guided by the following question: How did each party socially construct its cannabis narrative, and in what way can we use the concept of moral entrepreneurship to describe and analyze these narratives as social constructions? I have investigated the media coverage of the raid and ethnographically studied shops in Toronto in order to study the narratives. My findings show that both parties used a factual neutral style, as well as a dramatizing style. The later includes such typical crusading strategies as constructing victims and villains and presenting the image of a dystopian social world. In order to explain the use of these strategies, we will relate them to the shifting wider social and historical context and to the symbolic connotation of cannabis shops in Toronto in particular and in Canada as a whole.

Spain: The Long Road from an Interventionist Army to Democratic and Modern Armed Forces

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Rafa Martínez ◽  
Fernando J. Padilla Angulo
Keyword(s):  
19Th Century ◽  
21St Century ◽  
Good Deal ◽  
Armed Forces ◽  
Active Role ◽  
Missed Opportunities ◽  
Western Sahara ◽  
Early 21St Century ◽  
The 19Th Century ◽  
The Military

During the transition from ancien régime to liberalism that took place in Spain during the first third of the 19th century, the military became a prominent political actor. Many soldiers were members of the country’s first liberal parliament, which in 1812 passed one of the world’s oldest liberal charters, the so-called Constitution of Cádiz. Furthermore, the armed forces fought against the Napoleonic Army’s occupation and, once the Bourbon monarchy was restored, often took arms against the established power. Nineteenth-century Spain was prey to instability due to the struggle between conservative, progressive, liberal, monarchical, and republican factions. It was also a century full of missed opportunities by governments, constitutions, and political regimes, in which the military always played an active role, often a paramount one. Army and navy officers became ministers and heads of government during the central decades of the 19th century, often after a coup. This changed with the establishment of a parliamentary monarchy based on a bipartisan system known as the Restoration (1874–1923). The armed forces were kept away from politics. They focused on their professional activities, thus developing a corporate attitude and an ideological cohesion around a predominantly conservative political stance. Ruling the empire gave the armed forces a huge sphere of influence. Only chief officers were appointed as governors of the Spanish territories in America, Africa, and Asia throughout the 19th and 20th centuries. This went unchanged until 1976, when Spain withdrew from Western Sahara, deemed the country’s last colony. The power accumulated in the overseas territories was often used by the governors to build a political career in metropolitan Spain. Following the end of the Restoration in 1923, the armed forces engaged with the political struggle in full again. After a military-led dictatorship, a frustrated republic, and a fratricidal civil war, a dictatorship was established in 1939 that lasted for almost 40 years: the Francoist regime. Francisco Franco leaned on the military as a repressive force and a legitimacy source for a regime established as a result of a war. After the dictator passed away in 1975, Spain underwent a transition to democracy which was accepted by the armed forces somehow reluctantly, as the coup attempt of 1981 made clear. At that time, the military was the institution that Spanish society trusted the least. It was considered a poorly trained and equipped force. Even its troops’ volume and budget were regarded as excessive. However, the armed forces have undergone an intense process of modernization since the end of 1980s. They have become fully professional, their budget and numbers have been reduced, and they have successfully taken part in European Union (EU), North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), and United Nations (UN)-led international missions. In the early 21st century, the armed forces are Spain’s second-best valued institution. Far from its formerly interventionist role throughout the 19th century and a good deal of the 20th, Spain’s armed forces in the 21st century have become a state tool and a public administration controlled by democratically elected governments.

An Open Innovation Lens on the Digital Transformation Frontiers

2020 ◽  
pp. 83-104
Author(s):  
Maryia Zaitsava ◽  
Elona Marku ◽  
Manuel Castriotta
Keyword(s):  
Open Innovation ◽  
Digital Technologies ◽  
Research Area ◽  
Digital Transformation ◽  
Intellectual Structure ◽  
Comprehensive Overview ◽  
Main Research ◽  
Research Fields ◽  
Digital Era ◽  
Research Findings

The aim of the present study is to explore Digital Transformation frontiers using the lens of Open Innovation. By implementing bibliographic coupling method, the authors bring together segmental publications from different research fields and provide a comprehensive overview of the combined Open Innovation and Digital Transformation field's intellectual structure, revealing the different groups of thoughts, influential authors, and pressing topics. The research findings illustrate, the research area has polycentric composition with absence of overlaps between articles. Five main research groups are identified: Co-evolution of Digital Technologies and Open Innovation; Digital Peer-communities; Digital Ecosystems; Knowledge Management in the Open and Digital Era; and Open Innovation, Digital Technologies, and Businesses Performance. The current research contributes both Open Innovation and Digital Transformation fields by cross-exploring each phenomenon and revealing how Digital Transformation shapes the nature of innovation as a collaborative activity as part of an independent research area.

The Chinese Exclusion Act and Early Asian American Literature

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ben Railton
Keyword(s):  
American Literature ◽  
Asian American ◽  
Chinese American ◽  
Early 21St Century ◽  
Chinese Exclusion ◽  
Yellow Peril ◽  
Laws And Policies ◽  
Immigration Station ◽  
The 19Th Century ◽  
Exclusion Act

The 19th century featured two opposed yet interconnected historical trends: the growth of a multigenerational and deeply rooted Chinese American community; and the development of the cultural prejudices and fears comprised by the Yellow Peril narrative. Those xenophobic fears produced violence, social and political movements, and legal exclusions, culminating in the 1882 Chinese Exclusion Act and its many follow-up laws and policies, all designed as much to destroy the existing Chinese American community as to restrict future immigration. But out of that period of exclusion and oppression came some of the first Chinese American literary and cultural works published in both Mandarin/Cantonese and English: the personal and collective poems carved into the walls of the Angel Island Immigration Station by detainees; auto-ethnographic memoirs of Chinese American life and community such as Yung Wing’s My Life in China and America (1909); and the journalistic, autobiographical, and fictional works of Edith Maude Eaton/Sui Sin Far, the first Chinese American professional creative writer. These works both reflect and transcend the realities of the Exclusion era, helping contemporary audiences understand those histories, connect them to later Chinese American writers, and analyze the exclusionary debates and proposals of the early 21st century.

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