scholarly journals Shadows of the Plantation? A Social History of Suriname’s Bauxite Town Moengo

2011 ◽  
Vol 85 (3-4) ◽  
pp. 215-246 ◽  
Author(s):  
Anouk de Koning

This article explores the social history of Suriname’s first bauxite town, Moengo, founded in the late 1910s. It recounts the rise of a new industry that drew workers away from the plantations and urban artisanal occupations to work in a massive, highly organized and orchestrated organization-cum-social community. Using oral narratives about life in Moengo, as well as census and other statistical data, this contribution asks whether everyday life in the mining enclave echoed features of the plantation.

Author(s):  
Miguel Alarcão

Textualizing the memory(ies) of physical and cultural encounter(s) between Self and Other, travel literature/writing often combines subjectivity with documental information which may prove relevant to better assess mentalities, everyday life and the social history of any given ‘timeplace’. That is the case with Growing up English. Memories of Portugal 1907-1930, by D. J. Baylis (née Bucknall), prefaced by Peter Mollet as “(…) a remarkably vivid and well written observation of the times expressed with humour and not little ‘carinho’. In all they make excellent reading especially for those of us interested in the recent past.” (Baylis: 2)


2008 ◽  
Vol 34-35 (1-2) ◽  
pp. 185-218 ◽  
Author(s):  
Péter Apor

In the last two decades, historians have faced difficult methodological challenges in exploring former party archives in East Central Europe and in reconstructing the political history of communist regimes. A remarkable answer to this challenge has been provided by a new generation of historians who turned their attention to the social history of socialist dictatorships in East Central Europe, and took a peculiar interest in the “small,” the “mundane” and the “insignificant” of everyday life under communism. Their laborious research has focused not on high politics, but on local communities. Their works deconstructed the life-styles, living conditions, fashion and dressing, leisure, tourism and consumption, sexual habits and childcare of ordinary people. The current study provides a historiographic overview of the major thematic and methodological orientations of the history of the everyday life in socialist dictatorships. It focuses on two distinct but overlapping directions of research: the analysis of the daily habitual organization of communist societies; and the communist authorities’ attempt at a micro-politics of everyday life. The study argues that, while the new social history of the socialist dictatorships has greatly added to our understanding of significant aspects of the social and political structure of these countries, it has also constructed a representation of everyday life as essentially impertinent to power. In doing so, it ignored the capacity of habitual social and cultural behavior in producing techniques of control and discipline.


2021 ◽  
pp. 21-31
Author(s):  
С.А. АЙЛАРОВА

Статья посвящена одному из аспектов истории образования в Осетии конца XIX – начала XX в. – самосознанию социопрофессиональной группы – осетинского учительства. Формирование профессиональных групп было выражением модернизации социальной структуры пореформенного осетинского общества. Ввиду особенностей истории образования в Осетии главным представителем этой группы являлись учителя церковно-приходских школ – основного типа начальной школы в крае. Осознание профессиональных интересов, общественного статуса и материального положения народного учителя было проявлением оформления этого социального сообщества. В центре внимания педагогической публицистики – учительская повседневность, размеры жалования, проблема пенсий, жилье, питание, взаимоотношения учителя с школьной и сельской администрацией, представителями сельского общества, статус и перспективы педагогического труда. Обсуждение многих проблем носило полемический характер; участники дискуссии высказывали противоположные суждения о материальной обеспеченности народного учителя, качестве жилья, возможности подсобного хозяйства, будущего образования детей учителя. Освещалась запутанность ситуации с учительскими пенсиями, которые в реальности не выплачивались. В актуальной публицистике освещены не все проблемы учительской повседневности, а только социально значимые, волновавшие демократическую интеллигенцию. Изучение субкультуры и самосознания осетинского учительства актуально в русле методологических поисков отечественной «новой социальной истории», а также «историко-антропологического» подхода, дающих возможность реконструкции поведенческих стратегий этой группы интеллигенции. «Интеллектуальная история» Осетии дореволюционного периода формировалась во многом представителями этой образовательной общности, развивавшей общественную мысль на протяжении десятилетий. Публицистическая подборка, составившая основу статьи, информативна и свидетельствует о перспективности изучения такой социопрофессиональной и культурной группы, как осетинское учительство. The article considers one of the aspects of the history of education in Ossetia in the end of XIX – early XX century – the self-awareness of the Ossetian teachers as socio-professional group. The formation of professional groups was an expression of the modernization of the social structure of the post-reform Ossetian society. In view of the peculiarities of the history of education in Ossetia, the main representative of this group was the teachers of parish schools, the main type of elementary school in the region. Awareness of the professional interests, social status and material situation of the people's teacher was a manifestation of the formation of this social community. The focus of pedagogical journalism is on teachers' everyday life, salaries, the problem of pensions, housing, food, the teacher's relationship with the school and rural administration, representatives of rural society, the status and prospects of pedagogical work. Discussion of many problems was polemical in nature; the participants in the discussion expressed opposite opinions about the material security of a people's teacher, the quality of housing, the possibility of subsidiary farming, and the future education of the teacher's children. The confusion of the situation with teachers' pensions, which in reality were not paid, was highlighted. In actual journalism, not all problems of teachers' everyday life are highlighted, but only socially significant ones that worried the democratic intelligentsia. The study of the subculture and self-consciousness of the Ossetian teachers is relevant in line with the methodological searches of the national “new social history”, as well as the “historical-anthropological” approach, which makes it possible to reconstruct the behavioral strategies of this group of intelligentsia. The "intellectual history" of Ossetia in the pre-revolutionary period was formed in many respects by representatives of this educational community, which had been developing public thought for decades. This journalistic selection is informative and testifies to the prospects of studying such a socio-professional and cultural group as the Ossetian teachers.


Author(s):  
Władysław Bartoszewski

This chapter assesses Polish–Jewish relations. The Poles and Jews shared the same lands within the same country for hundreds of years. The overwhelming majority of the Jews of Poland rejected assimilationist tendencies, steadfastly maintaining the primary value of their separate identity, and a significant number of Orthodox Jews preferred actual isolation from the non-Jewish environment. The Poles too, having numerous links with the Jews arising from the practicalities of everyday life, were not overly eager to break down barriers dividing them. Each side also displayed tendencies of superiority towards the other. Ultimately, the hundreds of years of Polish Jewry demand historical remembrance. Despite the unfavourable environment in Poland, serious interest has developed in the social history of Jews in Poland, in the religion, customs, and culture of people who are no longer there.


2018 ◽  
Vol 7 (4) ◽  
pp. 263-270
Author(s):  
Alexey Vladimirovich Zakharchenko ◽  
Maksim Sergeevich Kirdyashev ◽  
Ksenia Viktorovna Pankeeva

This paper deals with 1990-1991 as a turning point, which marked the collapse of the policy of perestroika, the communist institutions of power became a relic of the past, metamorphoses took place in the social structure of the Soviet society. The focus of everyday life history is the reality in the interpretation of its immediate participants, who were witnesses of the events of those years. Such events can relate to different spheres of life, and participants in these events can be people of different social strata. Newspapers and magazines are considered to be an irreplaceable source of information for studying the relationship between government and society in this chronological period. Letters and appeals of citizens from the regional newspaper Volzhskaya Kommuna were taken into consideration. There were rubrics expressing public opinion about the dynamics of the perestroika policy. The emotional reaction reflected in the letters is of great interest. The sources clearly record the main tendencies and stages of the public mood that prevailed in that period, thereby transfer the political apathy that spread in the society. The information received from the sources makes a definite contribution to the study of the everyday life history and can serve as a basis for research and reveal new aspects in social history.


2014 ◽  
Vol 4 (2) ◽  
pp. 50-52
Author(s):  
Ema Miljković ◽  

The aim of this paper is to point out to the immense value of the social history of the Serbian people under the Ottoman rule, since it is the only way to come to some conclusions about less-known issues, such as everyday life and family life.


2020 ◽  
Vol 13 (2) ◽  
pp. 330-348
Author(s):  
M. A. Safarov ◽  
E. M. Seitov

Studying the everyday life of the religious and understanding the relations between the USSR government and the religion requires insertion of new sources of information. Fragments of the materials by G.P. Snesarev devoted to the existence of Islam among Kasimov Tatars fi rst published in this paper makes it possible to fi nd out the key junctures in the history of the religion. Dated by the end of 1943 this report demonstrates the realities of the new Soviet policy towards the religion. Detailed information about the spreading of ritual practices, about the processes of secularization, describing the «life without a mosque» and the status of women of the period expands our knowledge of the social history and the situation with Islam in the USSR.


This collection of essays, drawn from a three-year AHRC research project, provides a detailed context for the history of early cinema in Scotland from its inception in 1896 till the arrival of sound in the early 1930s. It details the movement from travelling fairground shows to the establishment of permanent cinemas, and from variety and live entertainment to the dominance of the feature film. It addresses the promotion of cinema as a socially ‘useful’ entertainment, and, distinctively, it considers the early development of cinema in small towns as well as in larger cities. Using local newspapers and other archive sources, it details the evolution and the diversity of the social experience of cinema, both for picture goers and for cinema staff. In production, it examines the early attempts to establish a feature film production sector, with a detailed production history of Rob Roy (United Films, 1911), and it records the importance, both for exhibition and for social history, of ‘local topicals’. It considers the popularity of Scotland as an imaginary location for European and American films, drawing their popularity from the international audience for writers such as Walter Scott and J.M. Barrie and the ubiquity of Scottish popular song. The book concludes with a consideration of the arrival of sound in Scittish cinemas. As an afterpiece, it offers an annotated filmography of Scottish-themed feature films from 1896 to 1927, drawing evidence from synopses and reviews in contemporary trade journals.


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