Beautiful Melodies Telling Me Terrible Things

2015 ◽  
Vol 661 (1) ◽  
pp. 238-258 ◽  
Author(s):  
Matthew W. Hughey ◽  
W. Carson Byrd
Keyword(s):  
Science And Technology Studies ◽  
Federal Agencies ◽  
Paradigm Shifts ◽  
Scientific Racism ◽  
Policy Makers ◽  
The Public ◽  
Scientific Revolutions ◽  
Funding Model ◽  
History Of ◽  
American Society

To conclude this volume, we first engage in a brief history of scientific racism and the extent to which it resonates with the public. We then attempt to explain why American society and culture continue to fall prey to the seduction of biological determinism and racial essentialism: (1) the DNA mystique, (2) scientific revolutions and paradigm shifts, (3) the ethno-politics of genetics, (4) dismissals of social science as “soft,” (5) the defense of biology against reactionary dismissals, and (6) the aura of “objectivity” surrounding genetics. Last, we point to a way forward that may help scholars and the public avoid a return to old and debunked theories: (1) engagement with interdisciplinary fields and science and technology studies, (2) involvement of knowledgeable scholars and policy experts in government and higher education, (3) revision of the current additive funding model used by federal agencies, and (4) evolution in the training of future and current scholars and policy-makers toward mitigating inequality.

Not as Ugly as Stonehenge: Architecture and History in the First Lists of Historic Buildings

2009 ◽  
Vol 52 ◽  
pp. 1-29 ◽  
Author(s):  
Frank Kelsall
Keyword(s):  
Great Britain ◽  
New England ◽  
National Parks ◽  
Architectural History ◽  
Historic Buildings ◽  
Small Contribution ◽  
The Public ◽  
History Of ◽  
American Society ◽  
Building Conservation

Four years ago Peter Draper, as your recently retired president, described his lecture as valedictory and therefore self-indulgent in its choice of topic. What a useful precedent. I hope I am not over self-indulgent to the extent of being too autobiographical, but the subject does relate to my personal experience of the practice of architectural history in the conservation of historic buildings. The history of building conservation is now developing its own quite substantial literature to which this is a small contribution. To some extent this lecture is as much about bureaucracy as about architecture, for much of my life has been spent as an official in the public service. But, so that the lecture is properly historical, most of what I will talk about happened before I was involved.One major difference between the British and American Societies of Architectural Historians is that the American Society has always involved itself in building preservation issues, whereas the Society of Architectural Historians of Great Britain does not. This recognizes the different circumstances in each country. In Great Britain we have many amenity societies directed to conservation matters; most of us will belong to one or more of them and they are centres of quite extraordinary expertise. But in view of what I will say later, it is notable that in an account of a meeting in March 1941 in Washington, reported in the first volume of the American Society’s journal, Henry-Russell Hitchcock commented on the merits of the Historic American Buildings Survey, but added that selections by local groups often lacked historical perspective and ignored anything later than the Greek Revival; that there was excessive preservation of seventeenth- and eighteenth-century houses in New England without regard to architectural merit; and that primary monuments of modern architectural history were wantonly destroyed. As concerns the latter, he cited, among others, Richardson’s Marshall Field Warehouse, and a threat to Wright’s Robie House. The representative of the National Parks Service said that 1870 was about the date limit for a building to be regarded as of interest, though the Vanderbilt House of 1895 had recently been acquired, and that attention was also being paid to groups of buildings.

The technology foresight system of the Russian Federation: a systemic view

foresight ◽  
2017 ◽  
Vol 19 (3) ◽  
pp. 291-305 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ilya F. Kuzminov ◽  
Thomas Thurner ◽  
Alexander Chulok
Keyword(s):  
Strategic Planning ◽  
Planning System ◽  
Technology Foresight ◽  
Policy Makers ◽  
Content Type ◽  
The Public ◽  
History Of ◽  
The Russian Federation ◽  
Do So ◽  
Systemic View

Purpose This paper aims to describe and discuss the architecture of Russia’s Technology Foresight System (TFS). This paper introduces the reader to the integration of the TFS into the public administration system and, specifically, into the national strategic planning system. Design/methodology/approach To do so, the authors fall back on more than 10 years of experience in performing foresight exercises for Russian policy makers of their institution. Findings Thereby, the paper highlights the implications arising from the interaction between sectoral and national components of TFS and on application of the results of foresight studies (implemented within the framework of TFS) for the strategic planning. Originality/value Russia has a long history of technological planning and forecasting and engages regularly in extensive foresight activities of both national and sectoral relevance. Also, Russia’s leadership repeatedly stresses the importance of such foresight activities which are outlined by a national law since 2014.

Paroxysms of Choice

2001 ◽  
Vol 1 (3) ◽  
pp. 320-337
Author(s):  
Howard Gardner
Keyword(s):  
Charter School ◽  
Recent Book ◽  
School Vouchers ◽  
Supporting Evidence ◽  
Policy Makers ◽  
The Public ◽  
Educational Pathways ◽  
History Of ◽  
Charter School Movement ◽  
School Movement

In this essay Gardner reviews five recently published books that deal with the charter school movement and/or initiatives to provide school vouchers. He begins the review by summarizing the views of selected critics of education. He then moves on to provide a brief history of the charter school and voucher movements pointing out why these movements are seen as attractive by some educational policy makers, politicians and segments of the public at large. To this he adds his own critical review of the supporting and non-supporting evidence for these movements. The essay ends with Gardner’s own suggestions for educational reform. Chief among these is moving toward “educational pathways,” detailed in his recent book The Disciplined Mind, where diversity within public education is obtained through a variety of schools with differing philosophies and educational emphases. (Abstract by Jerry S. Carlson)

Slouching Toward Managed Care Liability: Reflections on Doctrinal Boundaries, Paradigm Shifts, and Incremental Reform

2001 ◽  
Vol 29 (3-4) ◽  
pp. 253-277 ◽  
Author(s):  
Wendy K. Mariner
Keyword(s):  
Health Care ◽  
Managed Care ◽  
Health Care System ◽  
Legal Profession ◽  
Paradigm Shifts ◽  
The Public ◽  
History Of ◽  
Things Fall Apart ◽  
Care System ◽  
Second Coming

Following the seemingly endless debate over managed care liability, I cannot suppress thoughts of Yeats’s poem, “The Second Coming.” It is not the wellknown phrase, “Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold,” that comes to mind; although that could describe the feeling of a health-care system unraveling. The poem’s depiction of lost innocence — “The best lack all conviction, while the worst/Are full of passionate intensity” — does not allude to the legislature, the industry, the public, or the medical or legal profession. What resonates is the poem’s evocation of humanity’s cyclical history of expectation and disappointment, with ideas as grand as justice and occupations as pedestrian as managed care. Writing in 1919, Yeats described the end of an era with images of war’s destructive forces. The poem expresses a universal desire for some miraculous rebirth or resolution of all problems: “Surely some revelation is at hand.” But instead, the brutish Sphinx-like creature emerges, possibly the Antichrist. New gods displace old gods in the cycle of civilization, and man must muddle on.

Resolution of Investor-State Controversies in Developing Countries

2012 ◽  
Vol 5 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
David A. Gantz
Keyword(s):  
Government Officials ◽  
Policy Makers ◽  
The Public ◽  
Annual Budget ◽  
The World ◽  
History Of ◽  
Process Factors ◽  
Effective Use ◽  
Legal Expertise ◽  
Selection Of

AbstractThe large volume of literature and commentary on resolution of investor-state disputes tends to focus primarily on the rights of the foreign investor and the process through which the investor may protect her interest through investor-state arbitration, either at the World Bank’s ICSID or in some other forum. Where issues relating to governments-as-respondents have been addressed, the emphasis has often been on nations such as the three NAFTA Parties and other relatively large and affluent nations such as Argentina. Until relatively recently, much less attention has been paid to challenges facing small developing respondents, such as the member nations of CAFTA-DR, Chile, Colombia or Ecuador. How, for example, should such governments respond to and manage claims, some of which in magnitude may represent a significant portion of the annual budget of the respondent government, when there is relatively limited in-house legal expertise and experience in such dispute resolution? Fortunately, UNCTAD and others have begun to take such challenges into account and to provide training for respondent government officials. Still, further actions are needed, including educating policy makers and the public as to the risks that arise in the investor-state dispute context and how best to address them. Changes in BITs and FTA investment provisions are also warranted. This article identifies the nature of the challenges presented to such governments and suggests practical means of dealing with them more effectively. It addresses, inter alia, coordination issues for the national administering authority; means of identifying and resolving such disputes before they reach the arbitration stage; effective use of outside legal advisers at various stages of the process; factors relating to the selection of arbitrators; administration of the arbitral process; and making current and future bilateral investment treaties more responsive to the procedural needs of respondent government. The article also draws on the history of a number of nations with experience in responding to and/or litigating investor state disputes.

How the Past Shapes the Present: Five Ways in Which History Affects China's Contemporary Foreign Relations

2009 ◽  
Vol 16 (1-2) ◽  
pp. 119-134 ◽  
Author(s):  
Harry Harding
Keyword(s):  
International Relations ◽  
Foreign Relations ◽  
Special Issue ◽  
Policy Makers ◽  
The Public ◽  
The Past ◽  
The World ◽  
History Of ◽  
Controversial Topic

AbstractThe history of China's foreign relations is an interesting and controversial topic in its own right, as the essays in this special issue so amply demonstrate. But it is also central to an understanding of China's contemporary international relations. The history of China's foreign relations is not just a chronicle of the past, but also a set of facts and ideas and images that are alive in the minds of policy-makers and the public today, thereby shaping the present and future of China's relationship with the rest of the world.

scholarly journals Children and Financial Education: Challenges for Developing Financial Capability in the Classroom

2012 ◽  
Vol 12 (4) ◽  
pp. 507-520 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lindsey Appleyard ◽  
Karen Rowlingson
Keyword(s):  
Primary Schools ◽  
National Curriculum ◽  
Financial Education ◽  
Policy Makers ◽  
Financial Responsibility ◽  
The Public ◽  
History Of ◽  
Training And Support ◽  
Financial Issues

Financial education is viewed by both policy makers and the public as an increasingly important tool for developing financially capable citizens in an era of increasing individual financial responsibility. This paper considers the recent history of school involvement in teaching financial education. It then draws on research undertaken in summer 2010 at two Birmingham primary schools to explore children's understandings of key financial issues. The paper concludes that there appears to be a groundswell of momentum behind making financial education a compulsory part of the National Curriculum, but, even if this happens, there will be challenges in delivering such education in practice. For example, the role of values in financial education makes it a contested subject and teachers will need training and support to deal with this. They will also need to be supported to deliver financial education in a way which recognises diversity and sensitivity issues in the classroom.

The Legal and Political History of Italian Immigrants in the United States before 1941

2017 ◽  
pp. 12-40
Author(s):  
Mary Elizabeth ◽  
Basile Chopas
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
World War Ii ◽  
Public Perception ◽  
Economic Status ◽  
The United States ◽  
The Public ◽  
War Department ◽  
History Of ◽  
American Society

Chapter 1 traces the evolution in Italians’ social, political, and economic status in the United States, beginning with the effects of early twentieth-century immigration law, and conveys how their integration into American society influenced wartime policies. This chapter argues that Italians’ progression in the labor market coincided with their changing racial identity and white consciousness, but that political involvement was more instrumental in raising the public perception of Italians. This chapter also explains how the FBI built a domestic intelligence program through the collection of information about subversive individuals or organizations several years before U.S. involvement in World War II. A joint agreement in July 1941 between the War Department and the Justice Department established policy for handling suspicious persons of enemy nations residing in the United States.

Comparative Perspectives

2014 ◽  
Author(s):  
Terri E. Givens
Keyword(s):  
Public Policy ◽  
Race Relations ◽  
Policy Implications ◽  
Racial Equality ◽  
European Politics ◽  
Policy Makers ◽  
The Public ◽  
History Of ◽  
Antidiscrimination Policy

Despite a long history of colonialism, slavery, immigration, and ethnic conflict in Europe, issues of racism and discrimination have only recently gained the attention of policy makers in many European countries. In this chapter, I will examine how the issue of race has been dealt with in the literature related to European politics and discuss the development of “race relations” or antidiscrimination policy, particularly the situation in France, Britain, and Germany. I will focus on the development of antidiscrimination prior to harmonization under the EU’s racial equality directive (RED) as an example of the public policy implications of immigration and race in Europe.

scholarly journals The Impact of Immigrant Religions on the Nature of Religious Pluralism in the USA and Western Europe

2019 ◽  
Vol 25 (2) ◽  
pp. 8-32
Author(s):  
Elena D. Rutkevich
Keyword(s):  
Western Europe ◽  
Religious Pluralism ◽  
Immigrant Incorporation ◽  
The Public ◽  
The Usa ◽  
History Of ◽  
American Society ◽  
Private Domain ◽  
The Impact ◽  
Private Religiosity

Some of the most significant consequences of transnational immigration is growing religious diversity and finding a way to manage it. This article considers the concept of pluralism, the differences in religious pluralism between America and Western Europe occurring due to immigration, as well as the roles and possibilities of immigrant religions in the process of adapting to the host society. The history of immigration, models of immigrant incorporation and adaption, patterns of religious pluralism and types of secularism strongly vary in the aforementioned regions. Religion in America is a positive resource and a basis for incorporating immigrants into American society, their recognition in public life, assimilation and construction of an American identity. By contrast, in Western Europe immigrant religions, particularly Islam, are perceived primarily as an obstacle to incorporating immigrants into European societies and their recognition in the public domain. This is explained mainly by the secularist mindset of European people in general, their uncertain “private” religiosity in the context of “Euro-secularity”, the European concept of religion’s place in the “private domain”, as well as types of state-religion relations and institutional patterns of recognition which differ from America.

Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document