‘I’m Talking But No One Is Listening’

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Claire Gray
Keyword(s):  
Working Class ◽  
Social Life ◽  
Prime Minister ◽  
Sound Studies ◽  
British Politics ◽  
The Past ◽  
The Future ◽  
Ken Loach

Even though Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher’s term ended in 1990, the reverberations of her policies have lingered on in British politics, culture and social life. This paper discusses the legacy of Thatcher within the soundscapes present in the 2016 social realist film I, Daniel Blake (dir. Ken Loach). By looking at the effects of Thatcher’s policies and how they are made audible in working class communities, this paper ultimately questions whether her presence has truly disappeared. In employing the fields of hauntology and sound studies as an approach to Thatcherism, this study sonifies the voices of the past, and questions how they will echo in the future.

Remembering the Past/Anticipating the Future: A Professor From the White Working Class Talks With a Survivor of the Holocaust About Our Troubled World

2017 ◽  
Vol 24 (5) ◽  
pp. 323-337 ◽  
Author(s):  
Carolyn Ellis ◽  
Jerry Rawicki
Keyword(s):  
Working Class ◽  
Collaborative Writing ◽  
Political Climate ◽  
Donald Trump ◽  
The Past ◽  
The Holocaust ◽  
The Future ◽  
White Working Class ◽  
Shed Light

This article extends the research of Jerry Rawicki and Carolyn Ellis who have collaborated for more than eight years on memories and consequences of the Holocaust. Focusing on Jerry’s memories of his experience during the Holocaust, they present dialogues that took place during five recorded interviews and follow-up conversations that reflect on the similarity of Hitler’s seizing of power in the 1930s to the meteoric rise of Donald Trump. Noting how issues of class and race were taking an increasingly prominent role in their conversations and collaborative writing, they also begin to examine discontent in the rural, White working class and Carolyn’s socialization within that community. These dialogues and reflections seek to shed light on the current political climate in America as Carolyn and Jerry struggle to cope with their fears and envision a hopeful path forward for their country.

Writing Władysław Gomułka’s Life: Historiography of Władysław Gomułka’s Biographies

2021 ◽  
pp. 088832542110187
Author(s):  
Anna Müller
Keyword(s):  
Communist Party ◽  
Prime Minister ◽  
Multiple Roles ◽  
The Past ◽  
Deputy Prime Minister ◽  
Historical Figure ◽  
The Future ◽  
Potential Benefits ◽  
Council Of State ◽  
Contemporary Approach

This article looks at a select number of biographies of Władysław Gomułka—an important postwar Polish politician, who because of his long presence in politics is often perceived as the de facto Polish postwar leader. He served in multiple roles: parliamentary deputy, deputy prime minister, minister, member of the Council of State, and the First Secretary of the communist party. I argue that for historians who take up the task of writing his biography, Gomułka is more than a historical figure, and that writing about him allows them to ponder the question of agency and historical contingencies, as well as the meaning of the past for the present. Not surprisingly, Gomułka’s biography serves as a form of a meta-commentary on contemporary approach to the Communist history and its place in Polish history. The existing biographies contain reflections, even if indirectly, on the nature of Communism in Poland, not as elements of the past but as aspects of the present that loom over the future. By the same token, the lack of interest in Gomułka at certain important historical junctures, or a rather selective interest, indicates not as much a lack of interest in an important politician, but rather a certain skewed interest in Communism—not just its shortcomings, but also its potential benefits. The silence gives a certain perception of Communism as something pushed to the margins.

A dog’s breakfast Brexit, 2016-18

2019 ◽  
pp. 201-224
Author(s):  
Sally Tomlinson
Keyword(s):  
Higher Education ◽  
European Union ◽  
Education System ◽  
Prime Minister ◽  
British Politics ◽  
Positive Interventions ◽  
The Past ◽  
The World ◽  
Minority Writers

The final chapter covers a turbulent period in British politics as Parties and politicians fought to present their version of a Brexit to the British public, which remained divided by nation, class, race, age, gender and geography. Civil servants joked about the creation of an Empire 2.00, and in July 2018 Prime Minister May produced a ‘Chequers Plan’ for a ‘soft Brexit’ which caused the resignation of several ministers, who were determined on a ‘hard Brexit’ which would decisively cut the country off from a European Union. Black and other minorities had made advances in plural coexistence in a reluctant society and many younger people were learning to live together. But there were few signs that the those in charge of education were willing or able to think what a system for a more equal, globally oriented, socially and racially just education system and curriculum would look like. There is little evidence that schools or higher education have come to terms with a post-imperial role and Britain’s changed position in the world, despite positive interventions by black and minority writers, academics and students. The consequences of xenophobic and racist understandings of past decades will not be changed by teaching questionable ‘British Values’ and continuing to blame migrants and minorities for the consequences of austerity programmes. Ignorance of the past and presentation of a future where Britain is ‘Great’ again is more likely to lead to hostile nationalist sentiments and continued blaming of migrants and minorities as the country comes to terms with its waning influence on world affairs.

scholarly journals Predicting the Future: Art and Algorithms

2020 ◽  
Vol 18 (3) ◽  
pp. 893-911
Author(s):  
Akos Rona-Tas
Keyword(s):  
Social Life ◽  
Consumer Credit ◽  
Social Contexts ◽  
Individual Level ◽  
The Past ◽  
Predictive Algorithms ◽  
The Future ◽  
The Usa ◽  
The Individual ◽  
Political Governance

Abstract Predictive algorithms are replacing the art of human judgement in rapidly growing areas of social life. By offering pattern recognition as forecast, predictive algorithms mechanically project the past onto the future, embracing a peculiar notion of time where the future is different in no radical way from the past and present, and a peculiar world where human agency is absent. Yet, prediction is about agency, we predict the future to change it. At the individual level, the psychological literature has concluded that in the realm of predictions, human judgement is inferior to algorithmic methods. At the sociological level, however, human judgement is often preferred over algorthms. We show how human and algorithmic predictions work in three social contexts—consumer credit, college admissions and criminal justice—and why people have good reasons to rely on human judgement. We argue that mechanical and overly successful local predictions can result in self-fulfilling prophecies and, eventually, global polarization and chaos. Finally, we look at algorithmic prediction as a form of societal and political governance and discuss how it is currently being constructed as a wide net of control by market processes in the USA and by government fiat in China.

Prospectus for International Colloquium on Tradition and the Working Class

1992 ◽  
Vol 42 ◽  
pp. 1-4 ◽  
Author(s):  
Louise Tilly ◽  
Noëlle Gérôme
Keyword(s):  
Working Class ◽  
Historical Study ◽  
Time And Space ◽  
International Colloquium ◽  
The Past ◽  
The Future ◽  
Social Tradition ◽  
Cultural Discontinuities ◽  
Influence Behavior

Tradition is understood as a subset of a central historical concern: social and cultural discontinuities in time and space. The historical study of social tradition is an important contribution to knowledge; it seeks to understand the ways in which groups (states, classes, communities, families) formalize, symbolize, and interpret the past—and how such visions shape the ways in which people interpret, accept, or resist present conditions and influence behavior in the future.

The Condition and Progress of German Life Insurance Companies in the Year 1873

1875 ◽  
Vol 19 (1) ◽  
pp. 42-55
Author(s):  
A. Emminghaus ◽  
D. A. Bumsted
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Great Britain ◽  
Life Insurance ◽  
Social Life ◽  
The United States ◽  
Insurance Companies ◽  
General State ◽  
The Past ◽  
Recent Outbreak ◽  
The Future

The progress of life insurance in Germany in the year 1873 was far greater than could have been anticipated from the course of events during the year. For at a time of violent reaction, such as Germany and Austria experienced in the past year, succeeding a period during which mercantile speculations had been engaged in with such frantic eagerness by all classes of the community, we should not have expected to find men either willing or able to give that calm and self-denying consideration to the future, upon which life insurance depends. With the necessaries of life at exorbitant prices, it was natural to suppose that there would be a considerable diminution in the number of those who, after meeting the claims of the day, would be able to provide for the future. While the general state of society thus led to the conclusion that there would be a diminution in the number of insurances, there was also reason to fear that the mortality would be greatly increased through the recent outbreak of cholera, which extended over a large district, and held its ground very firmly for some time. In both respects, the returns for 1873 were more favourable than we expected; and this furnishes another proof of the fact that, in those parts of central Europe from which our returns are derived, life insurance has not yet become so general, that all the occurrences of domestic and social life, or even events involving important changes, have any distinct influence upon its development. It cannot be denied that in Germany, Austria, and Switzerland, life insurance is not nearly so well understood as in Great Britain and the United States.

Trump’s All Too Familiar Strategy and Its Future in the GOP

The Forum ◽  
2016 ◽  
Vol 14 (3) ◽  
Author(s):  
Zoltan Hajnal ◽  
Marisa Abrajano
Keyword(s):  
Working Class ◽  
Party Politics ◽  
Electoral Success ◽  
Half Century ◽  
The Past ◽  
Past Half Century ◽  
White Voters ◽  
The Future ◽  
Past Half

AbstractAlthough many observers have been surprised both by the racial explicit nature of Donald Trump’s campaign and the subsequent success of that campaign, we contend that Trump’s tactics and their success are far from new. We describe how for the past half century Republicans have used race and increasingly immigration to attract white voters – especially working class whites. All of this has led to an increasingly racially polarized polity and for the most part Republican electoral success. We conclude with some expectations about the future of race, immigration, and party politics.

scholarly journals The Dynamics of Time and Space in Sociological Theory

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
patrick john burnett
Keyword(s):  
Social Organization ◽  
Social Life ◽  
Sociological Theory ◽  
Time And Space ◽  
The Past ◽  
Time Horizons ◽  
Sociological Inquiry ◽  
The Future ◽  
The Status ◽  
The Mind

To date, there has been much emphasis on, and critical inquiry into, the variety of ways sociological theories examine social life, social organization, and human conduct within and between the past and present time horizons. Under the auspice that no authentic anticipation of what we may 'have to be' (future) is possible without borrowing from the resources of what we already 'have been' (past) and 'currently are' (present), sociological inquiry has been primarily focused on the relationship of an experiencing person (or persons) within the complexities of past events and present circumstances as a means to reveal insights toward the future of social organization. The reasons for this focus on investigations into past and present time horizons are because they are facilitated by the presence of an observable and material reality consisting of identifiable documents and tangible objects that can be identified, observed, interpreted and measured. Whereas, investigations into the future are working within a different reality status all together, one that does not contain identifiable material and empirically accessible facts, thus making it much more difficult to study in that it is focused on a reality that does not yet exist. Given that only materialized processes of the past and present have the status of factual reality (what is real is observable), conclusions and predictions about future events, which are essentially beyond the realm of the material and observable, remain at the level of the senses, as an aspect of the mind, and are seen as belonging to the realm of the 'ideal' and the 'not the real'. This paper walks through these considerations in detail and examines how a focus on time and space can help us better understand the ways in which social beings act.

Small States and a New League—From the Viewpoint of Norway

1943 ◽  
Vol 37 (5) ◽  
pp. 903-909 ◽  
Author(s):  
Edvard Hambro
Keyword(s):  
United Nations ◽  
Prime Minister ◽  
League Of Nations ◽  
Small States ◽  
The Past ◽  
The Future ◽  
The Subject ◽  
The United Nations ◽  
Post War ◽  
Great Scope

It is right that post-war planning should be made the subject of popular discussion. It is, on the whole, a healthy sign that so many books and articles are devoted to the winning of the peace, although some of them indubitably create a smoke screen of confusion. The same applies to committees and other organizations for the same purpose. These committees and their statements have two things in common: innumerable and inconclusive quotations from democratic leaders and illustrations drawn from the “success” of, or “failure” of, the League of Nations.The “Four Freedoms,” the “Atlantic Charter,” the “Declaration of the United Nations,” as well as other speeches, articles, and statements of all sorts are vague and all-comprising. They give ample scope for divergent interpretations. It should also be remembered that President Roosevelt and Prime Minister Churchill, important though their utterances are, speak for themselves. They cannot bind Congress or Parliament, although it is true that the British Parliament feels a strong loyalty to the leader of the nation.These two characteristics of the declarations of program give great scope to the professors, diplomats, politicians, journalists, and other prophets who dream of the future. Those of the soberer cast of mind try not to indulge in the luxury of day dreams. They realize that the future must be built on the experience of the past. They ask searching questions about the League.

King Carson: an essay on the invention of leadership

1996 ◽  
Vol 30 (117) ◽  
pp. 66-87 ◽  
Author(s):  
Andrew Gailey
Keyword(s):  
Northern Ireland ◽  
Prime Minister ◽  
Great War ◽  
British Politics ◽  
Home Rule ◽  
English History ◽  
The Past ◽  
Promised Land ◽  
The Great War

For Ulster Protestants, riven by division since the fall of Terence O’Neill as prime minister of Northern Ireland in 1969, the recent troubles have seen their future steadily being conceded by default. Where there was certainty, there is now confusion; where there was once leadership, there are now only leaders. Not surprisingly, there have been wistful glances back to the mythical heroes of the past, in particular to Sir Edward Carson, who had steered them through the home rule crisis of 1912–14 to the promised land of Northern Ireland. Carson not only mobilised all Ulster Protestants, but also organised a largely successful rebellion and in time squared the circle to become one of the few rebels in English history to go on to be a law lord. Moreover, he was also a British leader, being four times in office, twice in the cabinet, and for twenty years one of the dominating figures in Tory politics. It is this duality that made Carson’s position exceptional in Anglo-Irish relations and contributed to the immense authority he periodically enjoyed. Indeed, in Ulster before the Great War his sway assumed near-charismatic proportions. Viewed as a case study in leadership, therefore, his career was, in terms of British politics, unique.

Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document