“This Other Method”

2017 ◽  
Vol 47 (3) ◽  
pp. 389-422 ◽  
Author(s):  
Carsten Reinhardt
Keyword(s):  
New Technology ◽  
The United States ◽  
Social Processes ◽  
Special Issue ◽  
Success Story ◽  
X Ray ◽  
X Ray Crystallography ◽  
History Of ◽  
Reductionist Approach

Nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) spectroscopy has been and continues to be one of the most widely spread research techniques in the physical and life sciences, including medicine, since the technique’s invention in 1945. There is no basis, however, to account for a linear success story. Although NMR was used for decades in biochemistry and molecular biology, it had not contributed substantially to solving the big scientific problems in these areas. The goal set by its early proponents—to find out about the dynamics and functions of large biomolecules—was not successfully tackled until the 1980s, when new technology became available. Much of the pre-1980s history of NMR is arguably a history of the dependence of NMR on a rival method, x-ray crystallography. In this paper I will discuss the epistemic and social processes that made the continuation of NMR as a dependent research method possible, perhaps even inevitable. Following a comparison of x-ray crystallography and NMR in the structural elucidation of large biomolecules, the paper analyzes three examples of the practices of biochemical and biomedical research using NMR from the 1950s to the 1970s in the United States: first is a fundamental, almost reductionist approach with a basis in physics and goals in technology; second, a pragmatic one with a strong bent toward biological problems; and third, a methods-oriented program, involving issues of the former two and proving the most fruitful in the long term. This essay is part of a special issue entitled THE BONDS OF HISTORY edited by Anita Guerrini.

Precarious Labor, South and North: An Introduction

2016 ◽  
Vol 89 ◽  
pp. 5-19 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sarah Mosoetsa ◽  
Joel Stillerman ◽  
Chris Tilly
Keyword(s):  
The United States ◽  
Global Perspective ◽  
Special Issue ◽  
Citizenship Status ◽  
Precarious Work ◽  
History Of ◽  
Global North ◽  
Precarious Labor ◽  
North And South

AbstractThis special issue on precarious labor in global perspective includes analyses of precarious work in South Africa, Mexico, the United States, China and India. The key strengths of the contributions to this issue are that they demonstrate precarious workers’ capacity for collective action, the hidden forms of work that are not tracked by states, long-term historical continuities of precarious work, and differences between precarious work in the Global North and South. This introduction explores the challenges of conceptualizing precarious work; the history of precarious labor; its variations in the Global North and South; possible differences across sectors of precarious work; and the intersections between precarious work and categories of gender, race, and citizenship status. We conclude with a summary of the articles included in the issue.

NFL Football

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Richard C. Crepeau
Keyword(s):  
Early Retirement ◽  
National Football League ◽  
First Century ◽  
Collective Bargaining Agreement ◽  
Success Story ◽  
New Era ◽  
Drug Policies ◽  
History Of ◽  
American Society

A multibillion-dollar entertainment empire, the National Football League is a coast-to-coast obsession that borders on religion and dominates our sports-mad culture. But today's NFL also provides a stage for playing out important issues roiling American society. This updated and expanded edition of NFL Football observes the league's centennial by following the NFL into the twenty-first century, where off-the-field concerns compete with touchdowns and goal line stands for headlines. Richard C. Crepeau delves into the history of the league and breaks down the new era with an in-depth look at the controversies and dramas swirling around pro football today:  Tensions between players and Commissioner Roger Goodell over collusion, drug policies, and revenue, including analysis of the 2020 collective bargaining agreement  The firestorm surrounding Colin Kaepernick and protests of police violence and inequality  Andrew Luck and others choosing early retirement over the threat to their long-term health  Paul Tagliabue's role in covering up information on concussions  The Super Bowl's evolution into a national holiday Authoritative and up to the minute, NFL Football continues the epic American success story.

The National Data Center and the Rise of the Data Double

2018 ◽  
Vol 48 (5) ◽  
pp. 627-636
Author(s):  
Dan Bouk
Keyword(s):  
Life Insurance ◽  
Data Center ◽  
Turning Point ◽  
Personal Data ◽  
The United States ◽  
Special Issue ◽  
National Data ◽  
The Social ◽  
History Of ◽  
American Economy

A mid-1960s proposal to create a National Data Center has long been recognized as a turning point in the history of privacy and surveillance. This article shows that the story of the center also demonstrates how bureaucrats and researchers interested in managing the American economy came to value personal data stored as “data doubles,” especially the cards and files generated to represent individuals within the Social Security bureaucracy. The article argues that the United States welfare state, modeled after corporate life insurance, created vast databanks of data doubles that later became attractive to economic researchers and government planners. This story can be understood as helping to usher in our present age of personal data, one in which data doubles have become not only commodities, but the basis for a new capitalism. This essay is part of a special issue entitled Histories of Data and the Database edited by Soraya de Chadarevian and Theodore M. Porter.

On fragile democracy: Contemporary and historical perspectives—Introduction

2019 ◽  
Vol 17 (4) ◽  
pp. 422-431
Author(s):  
Martin Conway
Keyword(s):  
Twentieth Century ◽  
Special Issue ◽  
Historical Perspectives ◽  
Alternative Means ◽  
History Of ◽  
Long Term Trends

The concept of fragility provides an alternative means of approaching the history of democracy, which has often been seen as the ineluctable consequence of Europe’s social and political modernisation. This is especially so in Scandinavia, as well as in Finland, where the emergence of a particular Nordic model of democracy from the early decades of the twentieth century onwards has often been explained with reference to embedded traditions of local self-government and long-term trends towards social egalitarianism. In contrast, this article emphasises the tensions present within the practices and understandings of democracy in the principal states of Scandinavia during the twentieth century. In doing so, it provides an introduction to the articles that compose this Special Issue, as well as contributing to the wider literature on the fragility of present-day structures of democracy.

scholarly journals An Introduction to Nicos Hadjinicolaou's “Art Centers and Peripheral Art” (1982)

ARTMargins ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 9 (2) ◽  
pp. 112-118
Author(s):  
Terry Smith
Keyword(s):  
The United States ◽  
Political Art ◽  
Book Art ◽  
Hard Edge ◽  
War Of Independence ◽  
History Of ◽  
The 1960S ◽  
The Impact ◽  
First Time

Change in the history of art has many causes, but one often overlooked by art historical institutions is the complex, unequal set of relationships that subsist between art centers and peripheries. These take many forms, from powerful penetration of peripheral art by the subjects, styles and modes of the relevant center, through accommodation to this penetration to various degrees and kinds of resistance to it. Mapping these relationships should be a major task for art historians, especially those committed to tracing the reception of works of art and the dissemination of ideas about art. This lecture, delivered by Nicos Hadjinicolaou in 1982, outlines a “political art geography” approach to these challenges, and demonstrates it by exploring four settings: the commissioning of paintings commemorating key battles during the Greek War of Independence; the changes in Diego Rivera's style on his return to Mexico from Paris in the 1920s; the impact on certain Mexican artists in the 1960s of “hard edge” painting from the United States; and the differences between Socialist Realism in Moscow and in the Soviet Republics of Asia during the mid-twentieth century. The lecture is here translated into English for the first time and is introduced by Terry Smith, who relates it to its author's long-term art historical quest, as previously pursued in his book Art History and Class Struggle (1973).

scholarly journals Cultural implications of late Holocene climate change in the Cuenca Oriental, Mexico

2015 ◽  
Vol 112 (6) ◽  
pp. 1693-1698 ◽  
Author(s):  
Tripti Bhattacharya ◽  
Roger Byrne ◽  
Harald Böhnel ◽  
Kurt Wogau ◽  
Ulrike Kienel ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Regional Climate ◽  
Political Factors ◽  
X Ray ◽  
Cultural Implications ◽  
Monsoonal Precipitation ◽  
History Of ◽  
Drying Trend ◽  
Maar Lake

There is currently no consensus on the importance of climate change in Mesoamerican prehistory. Some invoke drought as a causal factor in major cultural transitions, including the abandonment of many sites at 900 CE, while others conclude that cultural factors were more important. This lack of agreement reflects the fact that the history of climate change in many regions of Mesoamerica is poorly understood. We present paleolimnological evidence suggesting that climate change was important in the abandonment of Cantona between 900 CE and 1050 CE. At its peak, Cantona was one of the largest cities in pre-Columbian Mesoamerica, with a population of 90,000 inhabitants. The site is located in the Cuenca Oriental, a semiarid basin east of Mexico City. We developed a subcentennial reconstruction of regional climate from a nearby maar lake, Aljojuca. The modern climatology of the region suggests that sediments record changes in summer monsoonal precipitation. Elemental geochemistry (X-ray fluorescence) and δ18O from authigenic calcite indicate a centennial-scale arid interval between 500 CE and 1150 CE, overlaid on a long-term drying trend. Comparison of this record to Cantona’s chronology suggests that both the city’s peak population and its abandonment occurred during this arid period. The human response to climate change most likely resulted from the interplay of environmental and political factors. During earlier periods of Cantona’s history, increasing aridity and political unrest may have actually increased the city’s importance. However, by 1050 CE, this extended arid period, possibly combined with regional political change, contributed to the city’s abandonment.

scholarly journals Advancing the long view of ecological change in tundra systems

2013 ◽  
Vol 368 (1624) ◽  
pp. 20120477 ◽  
Author(s):  
Eric Post ◽  
Toke T. Høye
Keyword(s):  
Species Interactions ◽  
Community Dynamics ◽  
Ecological Change ◽  
Special Issue ◽  
Research Personnel ◽  
Ecological Responses ◽  
History Of ◽  
Population And Community Dynamics ◽  
Long Term Studies

Despite uncertainties related to sustained funding, ideological rivalries and the turnover of research personnel, long-term studies and studies espousing a long-term perspective in ecology have a history of contributing landmark insights into fundamental topics, such as population- and community dynamics, species interactions and ecosystem function. They also have the potential to reveal surprises related to unforeseen events and non-stationary dynamics that unfold over the course of ongoing observation and experimentation. The unprecedented rate and magnitude of current and expected abiotic changes in tundra environments calls for a synthetic overview of the scope of ecological responses these changes have elicited. In this special issue, we present a series of contributions that advance the long view of ecological change in tundra systems, either through sustained long-term research, or through retrospective or prospective modelling. Beyond highlighting the value of long-term research in tundra systems, the insights derived herein should also find application to the study of ecological responses to environmental change in other biomes as well.

Social Security

2012 ◽  
Author(s):  
Larry DeWitt ◽  
Edward D. Berkowitz
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Social Security ◽  
Older People ◽  
Age Groups ◽  
The United States ◽  
Critical Question ◽  
Term Survival ◽  
History Of ◽  
Government Benefits

This chapter considers the history of Social Security, arguing that the 1950 amendments represented the fundamental adjustment that allowed the program’s long-term survival. It analyzes current issues in Social Security related to gender, race, and the program’s long-term solvency. It concludes that Social Security has legitimized the receipt of government benefits among many Americans and changed the nature of old age in the United States by providing older people with a guaranteed means of support. A large and costly program, Social Security has evolved into the United States’ major antipoverty program. Nonetheless it faces the criticism of those who argue that it favors older people over other age groups and that it represents an inefficient form of government coercion. Whether the program will be sustained in the future or modified in a significant way remains a critical question.

Editorial

1957 ◽  
Vol 16 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-1
Keyword(s):  
Food Production ◽  
Social Situation ◽  
The United States ◽  
Applied Anthropology ◽  
Special Issue ◽  
Success Story ◽  
Theoretical Terms ◽  
Theoretical Statement ◽  
The World ◽  
Human Problem

What is the meaning of the word "applied" in our pages? It seems to us that most of our articles fall in one of the following four categories: 1) The description and analysis of some social situation in largely theoretical terms. The case may be from the United States or from some other part of the world. It may deal with a group or a community or an organization. If it is a good study, it at least has implications for action. And, if it is a good study, we will be happy to publish it, but we will be even happier to publish a good theoretical statement that fits into one of the categories below. 2) The failure story. Here the researcher describes how a practitioner handled a problem and got it badly bungled up because he failed to act in terms of the principles of applied anthropology which the author points out. We will continue to print good articles along this line, yet with diminishing enthusiasm. When the mistakes have been committed, it is all too easy to recognize them, but let's not make life too easy for ourselves. (Maybe someday a practitioner will write an article for us on "Blunders I Have Seen Researchers Make.") 3) The success story. Here the author reports how the practitioner handled a human problem successfully—and analyzes the factors underlying this success. Excellent examples of this type can be found in F. L. W. Richardson's special issue on "Five Case Studies of Successful Experiments In Increasing Food Production" published in far-off 1943.

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