Nationalizing Sex

Author(s):  
Richard Togman

Over the past three hundred years there have been countless attempts by governments of all types to control fertility and reproduction. Currently, more than 170 countries representing over 85 percent of humanity are actively trying to engineer how many children a person will have. Democratic, authoritarian, religious, secular, Western, Eastern, and African states have all tried with little success to control individual fertility decisions. This presents a series of interesting puzzles. Why do governments want to control childbearing decisions? What are they trying to achieve? Moreover, almost all attempts to control fertility have failed. Policies rarely, if ever, achieve government objectives. Accordingly, why do policies so routinely fail? Why do governments of all shapes and sizes continue to create policies that have a robust record of failure? What accounts for such unusual cross-national trends in government attempts to instill a sexual duty to the state? This book fills the gap by analyzing the origins, growth, and development of fertility as a national and international political issue; the rise and fall of the discourses used to ascribe meaning to natality; and the global proliferation of isomorphic policies adopted by widely dissimilar states. It proposes an explanation for the widespread failure of hundreds of years of policy.

1967 ◽  
Vol 71 (677) ◽  
pp. 342-343
Author(s):  
F. H. East

The Aviation Group of the Ministry of Technology (formerly the Ministry of Aviation) is responsible for spending a large part of the country's defence budget, both in research and development on the one hand and production or procurement on the other. In addition, it has responsibilities in many non-defence fields, mainly, but not exclusively, in aerospace.Few developments have been carried out entirely within the Ministry's own Establishments; almost all have required continuous co-operation between the Ministry and Industry. In the past the methods of management and collaboration and the relative responsibilities of the Ministry and Industry have varied with time, with the type of equipment to be developed, with the size of the development project and so on. But over the past ten years there has been a growing awareness of the need to put some system into the complex business of translating a requirement into a specification and a specification into a product within reasonable bounds of time and cost.


2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Elizabeth Buckner ◽  
You Zhang

Abstract This article analyzes cross-national trends in national student-faculty ratios (SFRs) over the past five decades. In descriptive analyses, we find that SFRs have increased globally, driven by particularly large increases in low-income countries. We analyze two cross-national datasets to examine factors associated with national SFRs. We find that national SFRs are positively associated with gross tertiary enrollment rates and particularly so in low-income countries. In contrast, both the female share of faculty and research spending are associated with having lower national SFRs. The findings shed light on how national higher education systems are responding to massification pressures and suggest that differentiating faculty roles is one way that countries curb their rising SFRs as enrollments grow.


2018 ◽  
Vol 62 (13) ◽  
pp. 1956-1971 ◽  
Author(s):  
Stefan Toepler

Reviewing information on philanthropic foundations in the United States, Germany, and 10 other countries, this article presents an overview assessment of the major similarities and difficulties involved in cross-national comparisons of this particular organizational form. Over the past two or three decades, foundations have experienced significant growth in many parts of the world, spurred by enabling policies devised by policymakers eager to generate private resources for public purposes. This article comparatively discusses relationships between foundations and other sectors, including the state; the purposes, approaches, and roles foundations pursue; and what makes these institutions distinctive. It concludes with some policy considerations.


2001 ◽  
Vol 19 (1) ◽  
pp. 63-85 ◽  
Author(s):  
ANGELA B. MCBRIDE ◽  
CHERYL PROHASKA SHORE

This chapter analyzes the literature on women as mothers; research reports published between January 1985 and December 1999 were reviewed. As in the past, almost all of the extant studies analyzed the experience of mothers in their children’s first year of life. Although therapeutic suggestions were made in many studies, relatively few interventions have been implemented and evaluated. More studies are needed that go beyond traditional family forms and that explore mothers’ role development over the full course of their children’s growth and development. Additional longitudinal research that views maternal role development as a process is indicated.


Religions ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 11 (4) ◽  
pp. 180 ◽  
Author(s):  
Aharon (roni) Kampinsky

Military rabbis in the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) are an integral part of the army and currently posted in almost all army units. The role of the military rabbi has undergone fundamental changes since the founding of the State and the IDF, most notably in the past generation. While the formal definition of the military rabbi’s role has remained relatively stable; in practice it has undergone dramatic changes on the backdrop of processes in the IDF Military Rabbinate and in the religious-Zionist sector in Israel. Whereas in the past military rabbis were viewed as religious service providers, during the term of Chief Military Rabbi Rontzky (2010–2016) they viewed themselves in the role of a “Kohen anointed for war” (Meshuach Milchama). Harking back to the biblical description of the Kohanim who strengthen the people at a time of war, this military figure is entrusted with strengthening soldiers, morally and spiritually, before they go into battle. Nonetheless, a return to the religious services provider model can be discerned in recent years, mainly in response to the contention of religionization in the military. The article focuses on the changing role of the IDF military rabbi and identifies three major explanatory factors of these changes: (a) Differences between the formative period of the IDF Military Rabbinate and later periods; (b) Demographic changes in the composition of the IDF, mainly the growing number of soldiers from the national-religious sector; (c) The changing character of the Chief Military Rabbi’s background which affected the nature of the military rabbi’s role. The article aims to show that the Military Rabbinate has not been immune to the struggle over the collective Jewish identity of the State of Israel, and its underlying processes reflect the complexity and diversity of Israeli society.


2017 ◽  
Vol 2 (4) ◽  
pp. 71
Author(s):  
Mardawig Alebouyeh

The pediatric hematology and oncology (PHO) services in Iran have steadily improved during the past 10 years.Today, we have specialized PHO services in almost all major cities throughout the country, where 43 board-certified or eligible pediatric hematologist-oncologists are currently giving care to children suffering from cancer or hematological disorders. In this paper, the state of Pediatric hematology-oncology in Iran will be presented.


2019 ◽  
Vol 8 (2S11) ◽  
pp. 3927-3929

Energy poverty was once considered as the major bottleneck for development of an economy. But now it is not scarcity which is an issue, but affluence as rightly said by Galbraith. According to him as a society becomes affluent, the problems like pollution, environmental degradation, global warming etc. takes place. Hence now the emphasis should not be on “how to overcome the problem of scarcity” but on “how to reduce the adverse effects on environment caused due to growth and development”. Therefore, it is being accepted worldwide that environmental sustainability is threatened by affluence and not by scarcity. Of all the requirements of humans today, electricity occupies a special importance, and this is the reason that the consumption of electricity is considered as an effective parameter of growth and development. The more is the consumption of power the more would be the growth taking place in the economy. In the past few decades almost all the economies whether developed, developing or underdeveloped have been working hard towards achieving self-sufficiency in power. Even in India the consumption of power has increased manifold i.e. from 734KWh in 2008-09 to 1075 KWh in 2015-16 i.e. 46% increase in 8 years (CEA). The positive outcome of this effort is the improvement in the quality of human population in the past few decades but the fact about this rise in consumption of power is it has resulted in various environmental issues in India as even today more than 70% of power needs is met from fossil fuels. The present article presents the scenario of Indian power sector since independence in section I. Relationship between CO 2 emissions, Power sector and growth using Environment Kuznets Curve (EKC) is discussed in section II and some strategic measure to take the economy from economic development to environmental sustainability is given based on findings in the final section of the article.


2013 ◽  
pp. 109-128 ◽  
Author(s):  
C. Rühl

This paper presents the highlights of the third annual edition of the BP Energy Outlook, which sets out BP’s view of the most likely developments in global energy markets to 2030, based on up-to-date analysis and taking into account developments of the past year. The Outlook’s overall expectation for growth in global energy demand is to be 36% higher in 2030 than in 2011 and almost all the growth coming from emerging economies. It also reflects shifting expectations of the pattern of supply, with unconventional sources — shale gas and tight oil together with heavy oil and biofuels — playing an increasingly important role and, in particular, transforming the energy balance of the US. While the fuel mix is evolving, fossil fuels will continue to be dominant. Oil, gas and coal are expected to converge on market shares of around 26—28% each by 2030, and non-fossil fuels — nuclear, hydro and renewables — on a share of around 6—7% each. By 2030, increasing production and moderating demand will result in the US being 99% self-sufficient in net energy. Meanwhile, with continuing steep economic growth, major emerging economies such as China and India will become increasingly reliant on energy imports. These shifts will have major impacts on trade balances.


Author(s):  
VICTOR BURLACHUK

At the end of the twentieth century, questions of a secondary nature suddenly became topical: what do we remember and who owns the memory? Memory as one of the mental characteristics of an individual’s activity is complemented by the concept of collective memory, which requires a different method of analysis than the activity of a separate individual. In the 1970s, a situation arose that gave rise to the so-called "historical politics" or "memory politics." If philosophical studies of memory problems of the 30’s and 40’s of the twentieth century were focused mainly on the peculiarities of perception of the past in the individual and collective consciousness and did not go beyond scientific discussions, then half a century later the situation has changed dramatically. The problem of memory has found its political sound: historians and sociologists, politicians and representatives of the media have entered the discourse on memory. Modern society, including all social, ethnic and family groups, has undergone a profound change in the traditional attitude towards the past, which has been associated with changes in the structure of government. In connection with the discrediting of the Soviet Union, the rapid decline of the Communist Party and its ideology, there was a collapse of Marxism, which provided for a certain model of time and history. The end of the revolutionary idea, a powerful vector that indicated the direction of historical time into the future, inevitably led to a rapid change in perception of the past. Three models of the future, which, according to Pierre Nora, defined the face of the past (the future as a restoration of the past, the future as progress and the future as a revolution) that existed until recently, have now lost their relevance. Today, absolute uncertainty hangs over the future. The inability to predict the future poses certain challenges to the present. The end of any teleology of history imposes on the present a debt of memory. Features of the life of memory, the specifics of its state and functioning directly affect the state of identity, both personal and collective. Distortion of memory, its incorrect work, and its ideological manipulation can give rise to an identity crisis. The memorial phenomenon is a certain political resource in a situation of severe socio-political breaks and changes. In the conditions of the economic crisis and in the absence of a real and clear program for future development, the state often seeks to turn memory into the main element of national consolidation.


Author(s):  
Walter Lowrie ◽  
Alastair Hannay

A small, insignificant-looking intellectual with absurdly long legs, Søren Kierkegaard (1813–1855) was a veritable Hans Christian Andersen caricature of a man. A strange combination of witty cosmopolite and melancholy introvert, he spent years writing under a series of fantastical pseudonyms, lavishing all the splendor of his mind on a seldom-appreciative world. He had a tragic love affair with a young girl, was dominated by an unforgettable Old Testament father, fought a sensational literary duel with a popular satiric magazine, and died in the midst of a violent quarrel with the state church for which he had once studied theology. Yet this iconoclast produced a number of brilliant books that have profoundly influenced modern thought. This classic biography presents a charming and warmly appreciative introduction to the life and work of the great Danish writer. It tells the story of Kierkegaard's emotionally turbulent life with a keen sense of drama and an acute understanding of how his life shaped his thought. The result is a wonderfully informative and entertaining portrait of one of the most important thinkers of the past two centuries.


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