Japanese Historical Writing

Author(s):  
Sebastian Conrad

This chapter shows how in Japan, the year 1945 represented a change of a very different kind. Japanese historians now repudiated the ultranationalist historiography of the 1930s and early 1940s, and turned in significant numbers towards Marxism, which rapidly achieved a kind of hegemony. They criticized the master narrative of the post-Meiji past, centered on the Tennō (emperor), and identified it with Fascism as a failed experiment in modernity. In the 1960s, however, this Marxist historiographical dominance was gradually supplanted by a pluralism of competing approaches. Modernization theory, social science methodologies, and ‘history from below’ coexisted, and historians, inspired by the Japanese economic miracle, tried to come to terms with the fact that Japan’s traditions, long perceived as an obstacle to modernization, actually seemed to foster it.

2012 ◽  
Vol 11 (2) ◽  
pp. 179-201 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ian Roxborough

Abstract This article discusses the development of social science and policy thinking about “nation-building” and state-building from the 1960s to the present. It examines in detail the recommendations of the recent Army field manual, FM 3–07 “Stability Operations”, demonstrating that the manual offers very little in the way of concrete guidance for policy-makers. This article argues that the shift from “modernization” theory to “globalization” theories did not lead to substantive re-thinking of the processes and difficulties of state-building. Various social science approaches to state-building are discussed and compared with the analysis of FM 3–07. The article argues that what is required for effective policy is detailed local knowledge linked to an appreciation of the larger historical processes of state-building. The notion of development and conflict “traps” and “humps” is suggested as a promising way to analyze state-building.


Author(s):  
Marc J. Stern

Social science theory for environmental sustainability: A practical guide makes social science theory accessible and usable to anyone interested in working toward environmental sustainability at any scale. Environmental problems are, first and foremost, people problems. Without better understandings of the people involved, solutions are often hard to come by. This book answers calls for demonstrating the value of theories from the social sciences for solving these types of problems and provides strategies to facilitate their use. It contains concise summaries of over thirty social science theories and demonstrates how to use them in diverse contexts associated with environmental conflict, conservation, natural resource management, and other environmental sustainability challenges. The practical applications of the theories include persuasive communication, conflict resolution, collaboration, negotiation, enhancing organizational effectiveness, working across cultures, generating collective impact, and building more resilient governance of social-ecological systems. Examples throughout the book and detailed vignettes illustrate how to combine multiple social science theories to develop effective strategies for environmental problem solving. The final chapter draws out key principles for enhancing these efforts. The book will serve as a key reference for environmental professionals, business people, students, scientists, public officials, government employees, aid workers, or any concerned citizen who wants to be better equipped to navigate the social complexities of environmental challenges and make a meaningful impact on any environmental issue.


Author(s):  
Andrew Gelman ◽  
Deborah Nolan

This chapter covers multiple regression and links statistical inference to general topics such as lurking variables that arose earlier. Many examples can be used to illustrate multiple regression, but we have found it useful to come to class prepared with a specific example, with computer output (since our students learn to run the regressions on the computer). We have found it is a good strategy to simply use a regression analysis from some published source (e.g., a social science journal) and go through the model and its interpretation with the class, asking students how the regression results would have to differ in order for the study’s conclusions to change. The chapter includes examples that revisit the simple linear model of height and income, involve the class in models of exam scores, and fit a nonlinear model (for more advanced classes) for golf putting.


2021 ◽  
Vol 30 (1) ◽  
pp. 119-141
Author(s):  
Ian Randall

Summary The East African Revival was a major spiritual movement which started in the 1930s. Joe Church, a medical doctor who had been at Cambridge University, was a central figure and gathered a very large amount of material about the Revival. The connection of the Revival with Switzerland, which has not previously been studied, is the subject of this article, which draws from the Joe Church archive. The connection came about through Berthe Ryf (1900-1989), a missionary nurse in what was then Ruanda-Urundi who on returning to her native Switzerland in 1939 spoke in Swiss churches over a period of five years about the powerful experiences in East Africa. As a result, there were invitations for teams of Europeans and Africans to come to Switzerland. From 1947 onwards many meetings were held, addressed by those who had participated in the Revival. This article explores developments from the 1930s to the 1960s.ZusammenfassungDie ostafrikanische Erweckung war eine größere geistliche Bewegung, die in den Jahren nach 1930 begann. Der Arzt Joe Church, der von der Universität Cambridge kam, war eine führende Figur; er trug eine beträchtliche Menge an Material über die Erweckung zusammen. Die Verbindung dieser Erweckung mit der Schweiz war zuvor noch nicht untersucht worden und stellt das Thema dieses Artikels dar, der mit Material aus dem Joe Church Archiv arbeitet. Diese Beziehung kam zustande durch Berthe Ryf (1900-1989), eine Krankenschwester und Missionarin in dem damals sogenannten Ruanda-Urundi; sie sprach nach ihrer Rückkehr fünf Jahre lang über die kraftvollen Erfahrungen, die sie in Ostafrika gemacht hatte. Infolge dessen gingen Einladungen an Teams von Europäern und Afrikanern, in die Schweiz zu kommen. Von 1947 an gab es viele Veranstaltungen, von jenen gehalten, welche an der Erweckung teilgenommen hatten. Der vorliegende Artikel erforscht die Entwicklungen in den Jahren um 1930 bis um 1960 herum.RésuméLe Réveil en Afrique orientale (East African Revival) est un mouvement spirituel majeur qui débuta dans les années trente. Joe Church, un médecin formé à l’Université de Cambridge, en fut un personnage clé. On lui doit d’avoir collecté un très grand nombre de documents sur ce Réveil. Le sujet de cet article est le rapport entre le Réveil et la Suisse, un thème étudié ici pour la première fois sur la base des archives de Joe Church. Ce lien a été établi grâce à Berthe Ryf (1900-1989), une infirmière missionnaire dans ce pays appelé alors Ruanda-Urundi, qui, après son retour en Suisse, en 1939, fit pendant cinq ans le tour des Églises pour témoigner des expériences bouleversantes que vivait l’Afrique orientale. Le résultat fut que des équipes d’Européens et d’Africains furent invitées à venir en Suisse. À partir de 1947, de nombreuses réunions furent organisées dans lesquelles prenaient la parole ceux qui avaient participé au Réveil. Cet article explore les développements observés des années trente aux années soixante.


2004 ◽  
Vol 23 (2) ◽  
pp. 31-38 ◽  
Author(s):  
Elizabeth Reedy

Nearly 50 years after it was thought to be conquered, retinopathy of prematurity (ROP) continues to cause vision disturbances and blindness among prematurely born infants. During the 1940s and early 1950s, researchers and caregivers first identified and struggled to eliminate this problem, which seemed to come from nowhere and was concentrated among the most advanced premature nurseries in the U.S. Research studies initially identified many potential causes, none of which could be proved conclusively. By the mid-1950s, oxygen was identified as the culprit, and its use was immediately restricted. The rate of blindness among premature infants decreased significantly. ROP was not cured, however. By the 1960s, it had reappeared. The history of ROP serves to remind us that, despite our best intentions, the care and treatment of premature newborns will always carry with it the possibility of iatrogenic disease. This caution is worth remembering as we work to expand the quality and quantity of clinical research.


2000 ◽  
Vol 7 (1) ◽  
pp. 24-39
Author(s):  
Frederick A. Hale

AbstractFor many years scholars of African religion have appreciated the potential insights that imaginative literature can provide into religious beliefs and practices in rapidly transforming societies, not least with regard to the confrontation of indigenous religions and missionary Christianity. Generally ignored, however, has been the fiction of Onuora Nzekwu, a talented Ibo novelist who during the 1960s was hailed as one founder of Nigerian letters but who stood in the shadow of Chinua Achebe and a handful of other contemporary literary giants. The present article is a study of enduring commitment to Ibo spiritual and marital traditions and the critique of Roman Catholic missionary endeavours in Nzekwu's first novel, Wand of Noble Wood (1961). It is argued that in this pioneering treatment of these recurrent themes in African literature of that decade, Nzekwu vividly highlighted the quandary in which quasi-Westernised Nigerians found themselves as they sought to come to grips with the confluence of colonial and indigenous values and folkways on the eve of national independence in 1960. Nzekwu did not speak for all Ibo intellectuals of his generation; his portrayal of the weakness of Ibo commitment to the Roman Catholic Church is squarely contradicted by other literary observers, such as T Obinkaram Echewa.


2019 ◽  
pp. 244-271
Author(s):  
Martin Pugh

This chapter discusses how, misled by Islamophobic propaganda, Britain and America were unable to come to terms with what they called ‘Islamism’. The origins of what is variously known as Islamism, Islamic fundamentalism, and radical Islamism lie in the 1960s, in the ideas of a handful of Muslims in Pakistan, Egypt, and Iran who believed that Muslims had been led astray from their religion by nationalist movements. Although some Muslims were critical of Western morality and politics, Islamism was not primarily anti-Western: it was essentially a reaction against what were widely seen as the corrupt, authoritarian, and secular regimes that controlled much of the Muslim world. The aim was to evict them, return to a purer form of Islam and re-create an Islamic state. In view of the exaggerated reputation it enjoys in the West, it is worth remembering that this movement has largely been a failure. Yet while fundamentalism appeals to only a small minority, it is also the case that large numbers of Muslims have become aggrieved by the policies of the Western powers. The explanation for this can be found in long-term frustration with the consistently pro-Israeli policy of Britain and the United States over Palestine, in addition to the proximate causes in the shape of two Afghan wars, the genocide in Bosnia, the Rushdie affair, and the first Gulf War in 1990, which made many Muslims see themselves as the victims of Western aggression and interventionism.


Sociology ◽  
2017 ◽  
Vol 52 (6) ◽  
pp. 1217-1236 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ursula Henz ◽  
Colin Mills

This article examines trends in assortative mating in Britain over the last 60 years. Assortative mating is the tendency for like to form a conjugal partnership with like. Our focus is on the association between the social class origins of the partners. The propensity towards assortative mating is taken as an index of the openness of society which we regard as a macro level aspect of social inequality. There is some evidence that the propensity for partners to come from similar class backgrounds declined during the 1960s. Thereafter, there was a period of 40 years of remarkable stability during which the propensity towards assortative mating fluctuated trendlessly within quite narrow limits. This picture of stability over time in social openness parallels the well-established facts about intergenerational social class mobility in Britain.


Author(s):  
Vernon Bogdanor

This concluding chapter sums up the key findings of this study on the history of the British constitution in the twentieth century. The findings reveal that while there was widespread confidence in the virtues of the constitution at the beginning of the twentieth century, that confidence seemed to have evaporated. This loss of confidence coincided with a collapse of national self-confidence that had begun in the 1960s when British political and intellectual elites began to come to terms with the fact that Great Britain was falling economically behind her continental competitors.


Author(s):  
Michael C. Desch

This concluding chapter evaluates the increasing tendency of many social scientists to embrace methods and models for their own sake rather than because they can help people answer substantively important questions. This inclination is in part the result of the otherwise normal and productive workings of science but is also reinforced by less positive factors such as organizational self-interest and intellectual culture. As a result of the latter, many political scientists have committed themselves to particular social science methods not so much because they believe they will illuminate real-world policy problems but because they serve a vested interest in disciplinary autonomy and dovetail with a particular image of what a “science” of politics should look like. In other words, the professionalization of social science is the root of the enduring relevance question. The chapter then offers some concrete suggestions for how to reestablish the balance between rigor and relevance in the years to come.


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