Futuribles: Origins, Philosophy, and Practices—Anticipation for Action

2018 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
pp. 8-18
Author(s):  
Hugues de Jouvenel
Keyword(s):  
World War Ii ◽  
Public Intellectual ◽  
World War ◽  
International Regulation ◽  
Corporate World ◽  
French Writer ◽  
The Future ◽  
Informed Citizenry ◽  
Almost All

Interest in the future blossomed on both sides of the Atlantic after World War II (WWII). Formalized methods were developed in the defense sector but swiftly spread to the corporate world. Various groups, public, private, and governmental, became enthusiastic about reflecting on the future. The American and European approaches to reflecting on the future, to applying foresight and la prospective varied; however, there was cooperation. A chronological overview, this article follows the philosophical gaze of Bertrand de Jouvenel, the French writer and futurist who coined the term futuribles and founded a center that would become Futuribles International. Its current president, his son, Hugues de Jouvenel, outlines the background of this Paris-based center for foresight thinking and studies, which aims to integrate a sense of the long term into decision making and action. To this end, Futuribles performs various scanning functions, publishes reports plus a specialized journal, and trains a diverse clientele in foresight methodology. Moreover, Futuribles International honors the tradition of public intellectual discussions (roundtable series) in the spirit of serving an informed citizenry. The author reminds readers of the necessity of foresight today when unelected multinationals play an unprecedented role yet fall through the cracks of almost all national and international regulation.

Intercultural Experience, the Anglo-American Occupation and UNESCO in Germany 1945–1949

2016 ◽  
Vol 13 (2) ◽  
pp. 193-213 ◽  
Author(s):  
Elaine Morley
Keyword(s):  
World War Ii ◽  
United Nations ◽  
Cultural Diplomacy ◽  
Scientific Organization ◽  
World War ◽  
United Nations Educational ◽  
Intercultural Experience ◽  
Anglo American ◽  
Negative Sense

Independent of each other, though contemporaneous, the Anglo-American occupiers of Germany and the newly founded United Nations Educational, Cultural and Scientific Organization employed culture to foster greater intercultural and international understanding in 1945. Both enterprises separately saw culture as offering a means of securing the peace in the long term. This article compares the stated intentions and activities of the Anglo-American occupiers and UNESCO vis-à-vis transforming morals and public opinion in Germany for the better after World War II. It reconceptualizes the mobilization of culture to transform Germany through engaging theories of cultural diplomacy and propaganda. It argues that rather than merely engaging in propaganda in the negative sense, elements of these efforts can also be viewed as propaganda in the earlier, morally neutral sense of the term, despite the fact that clear geopolitical aims lay at the heart of the cultural activities of both the occupiers and UNESCO.

The Future of Global Great Power Competition after the Coronavirus

2020 ◽  
pp. 79-92
Author(s):  
Burhanettin Duran
Keyword(s):  
World War Ii ◽  
International System ◽  
Radical Change ◽  
Economic Effects ◽  
World War ◽  
Health Security ◽  
Self Sufficiency ◽  
The Future ◽  
Policy Agendas ◽  
The U.S

Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the domestic and foreign policy agendas of all countries have been turned upside down. The pandemic has brought new problems and competition areas to states and to the international system. While the pandemic politically calls to mind the post-World War II era, it can also be compared with the 2008 crisis due to its economic effects such as unemployment and the disruption of global supply chains. A debate immediately began for a new international system; however, it seems that the current international system will be affected, but will not experience a radical change. That is, a new international order is not expected, while disorder is most likely in the post-pandemic period. In an atmosphere of global instability where debates on the U.S.-led international system have been worn for a while, in the post-pandemic period states will invest in self-sufficiency and redefine their strategic areas, especially in health security. The decline of U.S. leadership, the challenging policies of China, the effects of Chinese policies on the U.S.-China relations and the EU’s deepening crisis are going to be the main discussion topics that will determine the future of the international system.

Indifferent Sanctuary: German-Speaking Refugees and Exiles in Argentina, 1933-1945

1982 ◽  
Vol 24 (4) ◽  
pp. 395-420 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ronald C. Newton
Keyword(s):  
World War Ii ◽  
Total Population ◽  
World War ◽  
European Origin ◽  
World Crisis ◽  
Jewish Refugees ◽  
The World ◽  
German Speaking ◽  
Per Capita ◽  
Almost All

Between 1933 and the end of World War II, Argentina became the home of some 43,000 Jewish refugees from Nazism, almost all of them of German, Austrian, or West European origin. Measured against the country's total population, 13 million in 1931, 16 million according to the 1947 census, Argentina received more Jewish refugees per capita than any other country in the world except Palestine (Wasserstein, 1979: 7,45). This did not occur by design of the Argentine government; on the contrary, its immigration policies became interestingly restrictive as the years of the world crisis wore on.In practice, however, Argentina was unable to patrol effectively its long borders with the neighboring republics of Chile, Bolivia, Paraguay, Brazil, and Uruguay. The overseas consuls of these nations, especially the first three, did a brisk and lucrative trade in visas and entry permits for persons desperate to escape the Nazi terror.

The German Problem: 1945–1950

1968 ◽  
Vol 20 (2) ◽  
pp. 279-300 ◽  
Author(s):  
Klaus Epstein
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
World War Ii ◽  
Prior Knowledge ◽  
Good Deal ◽  
The United States ◽  
Political Orientation ◽  
World War ◽  
Narrative History ◽  
German Question ◽  
The Future

Schwarz's study Vom Reich zur Bundesrepublik is, in the opinion of this reviewer, the single most important book on the occupation studyperiod in Germany after World War II that has yet appeared. It is not an ordinary narrative history—indeed, it presupposes a good deal of prior knowledge—but is rather a topical analysis of the following problems: the various possible solutions to the German question in the years after 1945; the policies toward Germany of the four victorious powers—Russia, France, Britain, and the United States; the development of German attitudes on the future political orientation of one or two Germanies; and finally, the factors that led to the voluntary acceptance of Western integration by most West Germans even though this integration meant the partition of Germany.

United Front: Partisans of the Leningrad Region and their connections with the Central Asian Soviet Republics

2021 ◽  
Vol 2021 (02) ◽  
pp. 214-225
Author(s):  
Sergey Kulik ◽  
Аnatoliy Kashevarov ◽  
Zamira Ishankhodjaeva
Keyword(s):  
World War Ii ◽  
Weather Conditions ◽  
Leningrad Region ◽  
World War ◽  
North West ◽  
The North ◽  
Occupied Territory ◽  
Central Asian ◽  
The Difference ◽  
Almost All

During World War II, representatives of almost all the Soviet Republics fought in partisan detachments in the occupied territory of the Leningrad Region. Among them were many representatives of the Central Asian republics: Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan and Uzbekistan. Many Leningrad citizens, including relatives of partisans, had been evacuated to Central Asia by that time. However, representatives of Asian workers’ collectives came to meet with the partisans. The huge distance, the difference in cultures and even completely different weather conditions did not become an obstacle to those patriots-Turkestanis who joined the resistance forces in the North-West of Russia.

“To Maintain the Biological Substance of the Polish Nation” : Reproductive Rights as an Area of Conflict in Poland

2021 ◽  
Vol 10 (2) ◽  
pp. 357-381
Author(s):  
Michael Zok
Keyword(s):  
World War I ◽  
Reproductive Rights ◽  
World War ◽  
Discursive Strategies ◽  
Polish Society ◽  
Constitutional Tribunal ◽  
Biological Substance ◽  
The Law ◽  
Almost All

On October 22, 2020, the long-term dispute about reproductive rights in Polish society had a comeback. The Constitutional Tribunal declared the embryo-pathological indication of abortions guaranteed by the law of 1993 to be unconstitutional. The tribunal’s ruling was met with widespread protests, as it effectively forbade almost all reasons for terminations of pregnancies. While members of the Church’s hierarchy and pro-life activists celebrated, politicians began once again to discuss the law, and different suggestions were made (including a draft law similar to laws in effect in other European countries like Germany, and a law which would allow the termination of a pregnancy if the fetus were likely to die, or a law forbidding them in the case that the fetus had been diagnosed as having down’s syndrome). The debates are hardly new to Polish society and history. On the contrary, they date back to the recreation of the Polish state after World War I. This article concentrates on the developments in the Communist People’s Republic that led to the legislation of 1993, which is commonly referred to as a “compromise.” It focuses on the main actors in this dispute and the policymakers and their arguments. It also contextualizes these discursive strategies in a long-term perspective and highlights continuities and ruptures.

LONG-TERM TRENDS IN MARITAL STATUS MORTALITY DIFFERENCES IN THE NETHERLANDS 1850–1970

2001 ◽  
Vol 33 (2) ◽  
pp. 279-303 ◽  
Author(s):  
FRANS VAN POPPEL ◽  
INEZ JOUNG
Keyword(s):  
World War Ii ◽  
The Netherlands ◽  
Marital Status ◽  
Cause Of Death ◽  
Relative Increase ◽  
World War ◽  
Men And Women ◽  
Married Men ◽  
Long Term Trends

This article describes the long-term trends in marital status mortality differences in the Netherlands using a unique dataset relating to the period 1850–1970. Poisson regression analysis was applied to calculate relative mortality risks by marital status. For two periods, cause-of-death by marital status could be used. Clear differences in mortality by marital status were observed, with strongly increasing advantages for married men and women and a relative increase in the mortality of widowed compared with non-married people. Excess mortality among single and formerly married men and women was visible in many cause-of-death categories, and this became more widespread during the last decades of the nineteenth century. Hypotheses are formulated that might explain why married men and women underwent a stronger decrease in mortality up until the end of World War II.

Economic Factors and the Rates of Suicide in Germany between 1881 and 1989

1995 ◽  
Vol 76 (3_suppl) ◽  
pp. 1331-1341 ◽  
Author(s):  
Siegfried Weyerer ◽  
Andreas Wiedenmann
Keyword(s):  
World War Ii ◽  
Medical Sociology ◽  
Real Income ◽  
Economic Stress ◽  
Economic Factors ◽  
Federal Republic Of Germany ◽  
Potential Consequence ◽  
World War ◽  
Social Disintegration

The potential consequence of economic stress most frequently cited in the literature of medical sociology is the increase in the rate of suicide, it probably being the most valid and reliable indicator of collective mental health. To assess the probability of such being the consequence of current economic realignment in the Federal Republic of Germany, we deemed it promising to evaluate the extent to and manner in which economic factors have to date affected the frequency of suicide in Germany. The current study analyzed the effects of four economic variables (growth of the economy, average real income, unemployment and frequency of bankruptcy) on the rates of suicide in Germany from 1881 to 1989. We set the commencement date of the period analyzed as early as possible to include long-term developments as well as the effects of different moderator variables. The annual fluctuations of all four variables, in conformity with our hypothesis, correlated both in the period preceding World War II as well as in the postwar period with those in the rates of suicide. The strongest correlations held for the rate of unemployment and for the frequency of bankruptcy in times of obvious social disintegration coupled with diminished state safeguards against unemployment. Our hypothesis that the effects of economic factors would more strongly influence the rates of suicide by men as opposed to women could not be corroborated.

scholarly journals Towards a Poetics of Strangeness: Experiments in Classifying Language of Technological Novelty

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Michael Simeone ◽  
Advaith Gundavajhala Venkata Koundinya ◽  
Anandh Ravi Kumar ◽  
Ed Finn
Keyword(s):  
World War Ii ◽  
Science Fiction ◽  
Virtual Worlds ◽  
Golden Age ◽  
Margaret Atwood ◽  
Special Relationship ◽  
William Gibson ◽  
World War ◽  
The Future ◽  
Bruce Sterling

The trajectory of science fiction since World War II has been defined by its relationship with technoscientific imaginaries. In the Golden Age of the 1930s and 1940s, writers like Isaac Asimov and Robert Heinlein dreamed of the robots and rocket ships that would preoccupy thousands of engineers a few decades later. In 1980s cyberpunk, Vernor Vinge, William Gibson, and Bruce Sterling imagined virtual worlds that informed generations of technology entrepreneurs. When Margaret Atwood was asked what draws her to dystopian visions of the future, she responded, "I read the newspaper." This is not just a reiteration of the truism that science fiction is always about the present as well as the future. In fact, we will argue, science fiction is a genre defined by its special relationship with what we might term "scientific reality," or the set of paradigms, aspirations, and discourses associated with technoscientific research.

scholarly journals Jesse Shera, The Wars and The Pietá

2017 ◽  
Vol 11 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Rodrigo Porto Bozzetti ◽  
Gustavo Saldanha
Keyword(s):  
World War Ii ◽  
Social Epistemology ◽  
Information Science ◽  
World War ◽  
Social Approach ◽  
Theoretical Formulation ◽  
Social Nature ◽  
The Future ◽  
Before And After ◽  
The Subject

The purpose of this paper, considering the relevance of Shera thoughts and its repercussions, is to reposition, in epistemological-historical terms, Jesse Shera’s approaches and their impacts according to a relation between life and work of the epistemologist. Without the intention of an exhaustive discussion, the purpose is to understand some unequivocal relations between the Shera critique for the context of its theoretical formulation and the consequences of this approach contrary to some tendencies originating from the technical and bureaucratic roots of the field (before and after World War II). It is deduced that Shera, rather than observing the sociopolitical reality and technical partner in which the texture of alibrary-based thought (but visualized by him as documentaryinformational), establishes, in his own praxis, social epistemology as a sort of "critique of the future," that is, as a praxis of the reflexive activity of the subject inserted in this episteme. In our discussion, the epistemological-social approach represents a vanguard for the context of its affirmation, a reassessment for the immediate decades to its presentation(years 1960 and 1970) and a critique for the future of what was consolidated under the notion of information Science, anticipating affirmations of "social nature" of the 1980s and 1990s in the field of information.

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