scholarly journals The Future of Electricity and Electricity as the Future: The Sociotechnical Imagination of Russian Electrical Engineers in the 19th Century

2020 ◽  
Vol 8 (2) ◽  
pp. 93-114
Author(s):  
Natalia Nikiforova ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Science Fiction ◽  
Social Order ◽  
Electrical Engineering ◽  
The State ◽  
Social Imagination ◽  
The Future ◽  
Electrical Engineers ◽  
The Russian Empire ◽  
Working Device ◽  
The 19Th Century

This article examines Russian engineers’ social imagination about the future through the professional discussions held at the electrotechnical congresses in the nineteenth century. Formulating the prospective future of the industry, the state and society was a collective endeavor, a process in which the identity and mission of engineers were crystallized. Through envisioning the future of technology and its role in the society, engineers revealed their cultural role as mediators between technological innovation, and both the wider public and the state. In order to better understand the manifestations of the shared cultural understandings of a desirable future and social order, the article resorts to Sheila Jasanoff’s concept of sociotechnical imaginaries (Jasanoff & Kim, 2015). The engineering community’s sociotechnical imagination about electricity was shaped around the transformative possibilities of this technology. It was believed that electrical engineering was able not only to accelerate industrial production, but also to solve social, medical and cultural problems, thereby uniting the Russian Empire. Descriptions of the rational, comfortable and beautiful world of the electrified future overlapped in engineering discussions, journalism and science fiction. Positive scenarios emphasized the advantages of electrical engineering and bypassed the problems associated with electrification, constructing an idea of its inevitability. The electrical engineer became a kind of a new cultural hero, who knew how to make a working device or system, and also filled the task of linking the development of technology to the development of society.

scholarly journals The regional policy of the Russian Empire in the first half of the 19th century: The Kingdom of Poland (1815–1830)

2020 ◽  
pp. 83-105
Author(s):  
Boris V. Nosov ◽  
Lyudmila P. Marney
Keyword(s):  
19Th Century ◽  
Political Development ◽  
Regional Policy ◽  
Legal Status ◽  
Russian Empire ◽  
The State ◽  
International Treaties ◽  
Russian Government ◽  
The Russian Empire ◽  
The 19Th Century

The article is devoted to the problems of the regional policy of the Russian Empire at the beginning of the 19th century discussed in the latest Russian historiography, to the peculiarities of the state-legal status and administrative practice of the Kingdom of Poland. It was the time when basic principles and a special structure of management at the outlying regions of the empire were developed, and when special (historical, national, and cultural) regions were formed on the periphery of the Empire. The policy of the Russian government in relation to the Kingdom of Poland depended both on the fundamental trends in the international relations in Central and Eastern Europe (as reflected in international treaties), as well as on the internal political development of the empire, and the peculiarities of political, legal, social, economic, cultural processes in the Kingdom and on Polish lands in Austria and Prussia. All these aspects have an impact on the debate that historians and legal experts are conducting on the state and legal status of parts of the lands of the former Principality of Warsaw that were included in the Russian Empire in 1815 by the decision of the Congress of Vienna. The fundamental political principles of the Russian Empire in the Kingdom of Poland in the first half of the 19th century were a combination of autocracy (with individual elements of enlightened absolutism), based on centralized bureaucratic control, and relatively decentralized political, administrative and estate structures, which assumed the presence of local self-government.

scholarly journals Activities of Military Topographers in Western Siberia in Foreign and Domestic Policy of the Russian Empire in 19th Century

2020 ◽  
pp. 360-374
Author(s):  
Evgeny V. Igumnov
Keyword(s):  
Western Siberia ◽  
Russian Empire ◽  
The State ◽  
River Channels ◽  
The North ◽  
Literary Sources ◽  
The Russian Empire ◽  
The 19Th Century ◽  
The Military

The activities of military topographers in Western Siberia to provide cartographic information on the foreign and domestic policies of the Russian Empire in Central Asia and Siberia in the 19th century are considered in the article. The role of information in the formation of the Russian Empire is emphasized. The contribution of the state to the organization of the study of the Asian regions of Russia and neighboring countries is noted. The establishment of the military topographic service in Western Siberia can be traced taking into account data on administrative transformations in the Siberian region, and on changes in the foreign policy of the Russian Empire. The participation of military topographers in determining and designating the state border with China is described in detail. The question of the role of military topographers in the scientific study of China and Mongolia is raised. The significance of the activities of military topographers for the policy of the Russian Empire on the socio-economic development of Siberia and the north-eastern part of the territory of modern Kazakhstan is revealed. The contribution of topographers to the construction of the Trans-Siberian railway, the design of river channels and new land routes is revealed. A large amount of literary sources, materials on the work of military topographers of Western Siberia, published in “Notes of the Military Topographic Department of the General Staff” is used in the article.

Crafting Colonial Anxieties: Silk and the Salvation Army in British India,circa1900–1920

2016 ◽  
Vol 50 (3) ◽  
pp. 765-807
Author(s):  
JAGJEET LALLY
Keyword(s):  
Twentieth Century ◽  
Public Opinion ◽  
Social Welfare ◽  
Social Order ◽  
The State ◽  
Salvation Army ◽  
British India ◽  
Public Attention ◽  
Silk Industry ◽  
The Future

AbstractIn the early twentieth century, the Salvation Army in British India transformed its public profile and standing, shifting from being an organization seen by the state as a threat to social order, to being partner to the state in the delivery of social welfare programmes. At the same time, the Army also shaped discussion and anxieties about the precarious position of India's economy and sought to intervene on behalf of the state—or to present itself as doing so—in the rescue of India's traditional industries. The Army was an important actor in debates about the future of traditional industries such as silkworm rearing and silk weaving, and was able to mobilize public opinion to press provincial governments for resources with which to try to resuscitate and rejuvenate India's silk industry. Although the Army's sericulture initiatives failed to thwart the decline of India's silk industry, they generated significant momentum, publicity, and public attention, to some extent transforming the Army's standing in British India and beyond.

scholarly journals Ecology and Science Fiction. Managing Imagination in the Age of the Anthropocene

2021 ◽  
pp. 79-97
Author(s):  
Grażyna Gajewska
Keyword(s):  
Social Science ◽  
Environmental Change ◽  
Science Fiction ◽  
Environmental Policies ◽  
The State ◽  
Human Beings ◽  
Social Imagination ◽  
State Of Affairs ◽  
Climate Crisis ◽  
Disaster Science

When formulating proecological strategies, social imagination is devoted relatively little attention. Contribution of the humanities to the management in the age of the Anthropocene is most often perceived as explaining threats that we and the future human and non-human beings will have to face as a result of irresponsible environmental policies. Hence, the presumed task of the humanities (and social science) consists primarily in analyzing and presenting the causes and the processes which culminated in the climate crisis and the decline of biodiversity. However, such an approach does not allow this knowledge to be actively engaged in constructing alternative, proecological attitudes. Consequently, I argue in this paper that in order for the state of affairs to change one requires not only new scientific tools (methodology, language), but also new sensitivity and aesthetics. The author argues that the challenges of the current times, resulting from environmental change, destruction of habitats and ecological disasters, direct our sensibilities and aesthetics ever more tangibly towards the fantastic: horror, science fiction, or fantasy. However, while ecohorror mainly exposes the negative aftermath of the Anthropocene – culminating in the inevitable disaster – science fiction offers leeway for a more speculative approach, enabling one to construct such visions of reality in which multispecies justice will be observed and cultivated. It is therefore suggested that there is much need for a science fiction aesthetic and narration that would be capable of guiding us out of the anthropocentric entanglement and the Anthropocene into the Chthulucene (as conceived by Haraway).

Arthur Prince Chattock, 1860 - 1934

1934 ◽  
Vol 1 (3) ◽  
pp. 292-298
Keyword(s):  
Electrical Engineering ◽  
Royal Institution ◽  
University College ◽  
The Future ◽  
Electrical Engineers ◽  
Electrical Apparatus

Arthur Prince Chattock died at his home in Clifton, Bristol, on July 1, 1934. He was born on August 14, 1860, at Solihull, Warwickshire, a county with which his family had been identified for many generations. He was the eldest of a family of seven, one of his brothers being R. A. Chattock, M.Sc., President of the Institution of Electrical Engineers in 1925. His schooldays were spent in London at University College School. As a boy he showed an early interest in anything mechanical. Greatly stimulated by such events as the Christmas lectures of the Royal Institution, he made his own electrical apparatus and repeated experiments he had seen. He also wrote plays, erected a stage with drop scenes and gas footlights and made all the dresses for family theatricals. At seventeen he went abroad for two years to Dunkerque and Stuttgart mainly to study languages. At this age he was imbued with the idea of taking up electrical engineering for monetary reasons, but in the hope that sooner or later he would be in a position to abandon it and devote his life to the study of the fundamental phenomena of electricity in the future importance of which he had profound faith.

tate Charters of 19th Century in the Collections of the Russian State Library

2009 ◽  
pp. 53-58
Author(s):  
Pavel G. Petin
Keyword(s):  
19Th Century ◽  
Russian Empire ◽  
The State ◽  
Russian State ◽  
The Russian Empire ◽  
State Library ◽  
The 19Th Century

The article contains information on the State deeds of the Russian Empire of the 19th century stored at the Russian State Library and considers peculiarities of that unique historic source.

Trends in standardization of toponyms ending with -ova/-ovo, -eva/-evo, -ina/-ino

Neophilology ◽  
2020 ◽  
pp. 686-698
Author(s):  
Igor A. Dambuev
Keyword(s):  
Quantitative Analysis ◽  
Research Methods ◽  
19Th Century ◽  
Quantitative Research ◽  
Russian Empire ◽  
The State ◽  
Topographic Maps ◽  
Quantitative Research Methods ◽  
The Russian Empire ◽  
The 19Th Century

We investigate the features of variable names standardization of villages ending with -ova/-ovo, -eva/-evo, -ina/-ino. The relevance of the study is to improve the standardization of geographical names in order to ensure their unified and consistent use. The novelty of the study consists in the use of quantitative research methods towards the toponymy of different time sam-ples covering the last century and a half. As a source of variable and standardized names of villages, the State catalog of geographical names, normative legal acts, reference books of administrative divisions, lists of localities of the Russian Empire, and topographic maps are used. The toponymy of the territories of the modern Moscow, Bryansk, Vologda, Kaluga, Kurgan and Sverdlovsk regions is subjected to quantitative analysis. We establish that in the second half of the 19th century the names of villages ending with -ova, -eva, -ina prevailed in a quantitative sense over the names of villages ending with -ovo, -evo, -ino. Over the next century and a half, the proportion of names ending with -ova, -eva, -ina in all the analyzed regions consistently decreased, while the proportion of names with -ovo, -evo, -ino grew. If currently in some regions the names of villages with -ova, -eva, -ina are practically absent, in others they may still prevail over names with -ovo, -evo, -ino. This fact should be considered when standardizing variable toponyms.

scholarly journals General-criminal prisons of the Russian Empire in the XIX century (on the example of the Orenburg province)

2019 ◽  
Vol 8 (1) ◽  
pp. 165-169
Author(s):  
Yulia Vladimirovna Kuznetsova
Keyword(s):  
Medical Personnel ◽  
Southern Urals ◽  
Russian Empire ◽  
The State ◽  
Educational Activity ◽  
The Southern Urals ◽  
The Government ◽  
The Russian Empire ◽  
Xix Century ◽  
The 19Th Century

The paper attempts to provide, on the basis of archival and published materials, a brief description of the state of general prisons in the Russian Empire in the 19th century on the example of the Orenburg province. In the first half of the XIX century, many prison buildings were in a dilapidated state, most of them were wooden. The prisoners suffered from overcrowding, they were not separated by sex and age, the sick were kept together with the healthy ones, they were hungry, they lived in begging. Very often the premises for prisons were private rental houses. There were no medical personnel in prisons, there were epidemics that led to a huge increase in mortality. As for the work, in the first half of the XIX century in prison locks and guards it was introduced in the rarest cases, since there were no special rooms for this. In the post-reform period, many prison premises were repaired, premises began to be rented for hospitals, the prisoners diet improved in the 1980s. The payment for arrest labor was introduced, the educational activity in prisons improved. Despite the measures taken by the government, the state of ordinary prisons in the southern Urals throughout the XIX century was still deplorable due to the fact that there was not enough money, or the local administration was not interested in improving the situation of the prisoners and the state of the prisons themselves.

scholarly journals State-legal regulation of educational activity of Old Believers of the Perm province in the XIX — early XX century

2021 ◽  
pp. 149-161
Author(s):  
E. V. Shishkina ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Legal Regulation ◽  
The State ◽  
Educational Activity ◽  
Educational Institutions ◽  
Home Education ◽  
Old Believers ◽  
The Government ◽  
The Russian Empire ◽  
State Educational ◽  
The 19Th Century

The article analyzes the measures of the state-confessional policy of the Russian Empire in relation to the education of children of Old Believers in the 19th — early 20th centuries and their implementation in the Perm province. It is concluded that the religious policy of the state in relation to the education of the children of Old Believers was inconsistent and underwent all the fluctuations of the government course: from discriminatory measures in the second quarter of the 19th century until the softening of the policy of the authorities in the second half of the century. The conclusion is made about the ineffectiveness of prohibitive measures of the state in relation to teachers and schools of Old Believers, about a certain discrepancy in legislation and its application in the Perm province. The article provides data on the number of Old Believers’ students in various schools of the Perm province at the beginning of the 20th century, which indicates that only a small number of Old Believers preferred education in state educational institutions to traditional home education.

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