Imagination in people and societies on the move: A sociocultural psychology perspective

2020 ◽  
Vol 26 (4) ◽  
pp. 654-675 ◽  
Author(s):  
Tania Zittoun

This paper proposes a sociocultural psychology approach to mobility. It distinguishes geographical mobility, drawing on mobility studies, from symbolic mobility, that can be achieved through imagination. After the presentation of a theoretical framework, it examines the possible interplay between geographical and symbolic mobility through three case studies: that of people moving to a retirement home, that of a young woman’s trajectory through the Second World War in the UK, and that of families in repeated geographical mobility. The paper thus shows that imagination may expand or guide geographic mobility, but also, in some case, create some stability when geographic mobility becomes excessive. More importantly, it shows that over time, people engage in trajectories of imagination: their various geographical and symbolic mobilities can eventually transform their very mode of imagining.

Author(s):  
Eric Golson

ABSTRACTIn September 1939, Portugal made a realist strategic choice to preserve the Portuguese Empire maintaining by its neutrality and also remaining an ally of Great Britain. While the Portuguese could rely largely on their colonies for raw materials to sustain the mainland, the country had long depended on British transportation for these goods and the Portuguese military. With the British priority now given to war transportation, Portugal's economy and Empire were particularly vulnerable. The Portuguese dictator Antonio Salazar sought to mitigate this damage by maintaining particularly friendly financial relations with the British government, including increased exports of Portuguese merchandise and services and permission to accumulate credits in Sterling to cover deficits in the balance of payments. This paper gives an improved set of comprehensive statistics for the Anglo-Portuguese and German–Portuguese relationships, reported in Pounds and according to international standards. The reported statistics include the trade in merchandise, services, capital flows, loans and third-party transfers of funds in favour of the British account. When compared with the German statistics, the Anglo-Portuguese figures show the Portuguese government favoured the British in financial relations, an active choice by Salazar to maintain the Portuguese Empire.


2021 ◽  
Vol 30 (2) ◽  
pp. 265-283
Author(s):  
Alice Byrne

This article explores the UK government's first foray into cultural diplomacy by focusing on the activities of the British Council's Students Committee in the run-up to the Second World War. Students were placed at the heart of British cultural diplomacy, which drew on foreign models as well as the experience of intra-empire exchanges. While employing cultural internationalist discourse, the drive to attract more overseas students to the United Kingdom was intended to bring economic and political advantages to the host country. The British Council pursued its policy in cooperation with non-state actors but ultimately was guided by the Foreign Office, which led it to target key strategic regions, principally in Europe and the Mediterranean Basin.


Author(s):  
E. V. Khakhalkina

The “Diary” of the Soviet diplomat I. M. Maisky, who worked in London for more than ten years first as a messenger, then as the Soviet ambassador to the UK, is one of the valuable sources for the interwar period and the Second World War. The “Diary” contains records of Maisky’s conversations with the leading British politicians and public figures and his own thoughts on a wide range of issues, including the problems of the British Empire. The author of the paper analyzes the views of the Tories on the prospects for the British Empire and the Commonwealth of the postwar period and reveals the plans for the reconstruction of the Empire and its transformation while maintaining the dominant position of Britain in the format of a new relationship with the dominions and colonies. The paper shows that within the British political establishment there was no consensus on the future of the empire and, as the materials of the “Diary of diplomat” evidence, the problem of the evolution of the Empire had a close relationship with other areas of foreign and domestic policy.


Author(s):  
John Lucas

In chapter three, John Lucas describes the UK jazz scene following the Second World War. Lucas describes the free and unlimited qualities of jazz and makes comparative reference to Fisher’s own personal interest in the genre. The chapter goes on to state that Fisher’s writing style can arguably be linked to the many styles of jazz piano, in that the two both adhere to imaginative thought and liberation from formal constraints. As well as music, the chapter also focuses on the significance and impact of the themes of location and belonging found in Fisher’s poetry.


2020 ◽  
pp. 249-266
Author(s):  
Brian Cantor

Most materials fracture suddenly because they contain small internal and surface cracks, which propagate under an applied stress. Griffith’s equation shows how fracture strength depends inversely on the square root of the size of the largest crack. It was developed by Alan Griffith, while he was working as an engineer at Royal Aircraft Establishment Farnborough just after the First World War. This chapter examines brittle and ductile fracture, the concepts of fracture toughness, stress intensity factor and stBiographical Memoirs of Fellows ofrain energy release rate, the different fracture modes, and the use of fractography to understand the causes of fracture in broken components. The importance of fracture mechanics was recognised after the Second World War, following the disastrous failures of the Liberty ships from weld cracks, and the Comet airplanes from sharp window corner cracks. Griffith’s father was a larger-than-life buccaneering explorer, poet, journalist and science fiction writer, and Griffith lived an unconventional, peripatetic and impoverished early life. He became a senior engineer working for the UK Ministry of Defence and then Rolls-Royce Aeroengines, famously turning down Whittle’s first proposed jet engine just before the Second World War as unworkable because the engine material would melt, then playing a major role in jet engine development after the war, including engines for the first vertical take-off planes.


2014 ◽  
Vol 30 (2) ◽  
pp. 14-17

Purpose – This paper aims to review the latest management developments across the globe and pinpoint practical implications from cutting-edge research and case studies. Design/methodology/approach – This briefing is prepared by an independent writer who adds their own impartial comments and places the articles in context. Findings – Owner-managed businesses were once the backbone of successful industry in the UK. However in the post-Second World War decades “big business” became the preferred model, with industries developing around new technologies. Today, as large industry is increasingly moving to countries with lower human-resource costs, the small to medium-sized enterprise (SME) is becoming the business model of choice for UK entrepreneurs. Understanding what makes a SME succeed or fail can provide guidance to both individual business owners and government agencies tasked with promoting economic growth. Practical implications – The paper provides strategic insights and practical thinking that have influenced some of the world's leading organizations. Originality/value – The briefing saves busy executives and researchers hours of reading time by selecting only the very best, most pertinent information and presenting it in a condensed and easy-to-digest format.


2008 ◽  
Vol 90 (5) ◽  
pp. 164-165
Author(s):  
Matthew Worrall

Every College fellow or member will have vivid memories of when and where he or she trained to be a surgeon but few can have had as dramatic a route as Nowell Peach (pictured, top of article) who spoke to the Bulletin to mark the exhibition of the first edition of Gray's Anatomy in the College library. Gray's holds a very special place in the professional and personal life of Mr Peach as it is a copy of the tome, passed to him by a commanding officer, from which he studied during three long years in a Japanese prisoner of war camp during the second world war and it enabled him to pass his primary surgical examinations upon his return to the UK in 1946.


2017 ◽  
Vol 14 (1) ◽  
pp. 98-115
Author(s):  
Paul Frith

Existing research on British cinema during the 1940s has often assumed an opposition between realism and fantasy or, as it is also known, ‘realism and tinsel’. However, through an analysis of contemporary critical reception and censorship discourses, it becomes apparent that this division was nowhere near as clearly defined as is often argued. While the ‘quality’ realist film of the 1940s demonstrates a concern with verisimilitude and the reproduction of the surface appearances of reality, when confronting the darker aspects of reality, realism was deemed to be far more closely associated with the horrific. Following a number of decisions made by the British Board of Film Censors (BBFC) which were heavily criticised by the local authorities and the press, the Board became increasingly wary of these horrific confrontations with the everyday. The release of The Snake Pit (1948) in the UK sparked a series of debates in the press, with one side questioning the suitability of a film dealing with the particularly sensitive subject matter of mental illness for the purpose of shocking and horrifying audiences, and the other side championing the maturity shown by Hollywood when dealing with an important social issue. This article therefore looks beyond traditional perceptions of 1940s British cinema in order to demonstrate a shift in the role played by both realism and horror in the post-war period.


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