CORONAVIRUS VS. REAL CAUSE OF THE EUROPEAN ECONOMIC CRISI– COMPARING SLOVAK AND GERMAN NATIONAL MODEL EXAMPLE

Concentrating upon the years between the 1924 and 1929 general elections, which separated the first and second minority Labour governments, this chapter traces the rise of a modernised, national vision of Labour politics in Scotland. It considers first the reworking of understandings of sovereignty within the Labour movement, as the autonomy enjoyed by provincial trades councils was circumscribed, and notions of Labour as a confederation of working-class bodies, which could in places include the Communist Party, were replaced by a more hierarchical, national model. The electoral consequences of this shift are then considered, as greater central control was exercised over the selection of parliamentary candidates and the conduct of election campaigns. This chapter presents a study of the changing horizons of the political left in inter-war Scotland, analysing the declining importance of locality in the construction of radical political identities.

Download Full-text

Harry Potter – National Hero and National Heroic Epic

International Research in Children s Literature ◽

10.3366/ircl.2011.0004 ◽

2011 ◽

Vol 4 (1) ◽

pp. 15-28

Author(s):

Ulrike Kristina Köhler

Keyword(s):

Harry Potter ◽

Anglo Saxon ◽

Robin Hood ◽

Feudal Society ◽

Self Image ◽

Heroic Epic ◽

National Model ◽

National Hero ◽

Norman Invasion ◽

Character Building

Joanne K. Rowling's teenage wizard has enchanted readers all over the globe and Harry Potter can truly be called an international hero. However, as I will argue, he is also very much an English national hero, complying with the national auto-image of the English gentleman as well as with the idea of Christian masculinity, another English auto-image holding that outdoor activity is more character-building than book learning. I will also show that the series can be read as a national heroic epic in two respects. First, Harry Potter, alias Robin Hood, has to fight the Norman yoke, an English myth haunting the nation since the Norman invasion in 1066. The series displays as a national model an apparently paternalistic Anglo-Saxon feudal society marked by tolerance and liberty as opposed to foreign rule. Second, by establishing parallels to events which took place in Nazi Germany, the series takes up the idea of fighting it, which is a popular topos in British (children's) literature which serves to reinforce a positive self-image.

Download Full-text

A Donor Influenced by Local Dynamics

Sociology of Development ◽

10.1525/sod.2016.2.1.51 ◽

2016 ◽

Vol 2 (1) ◽

pp. 51-69 ◽

Cited By ~ 3

Author(s):

Setsuko Matsuzawa

Keyword(s):

Poverty Alleviation ◽

Rural Poverty ◽

Unintended Consequences ◽

Local Dynamics ◽

Grant Program ◽

Local Actors ◽

Research Interviews ◽

National Model ◽

Management Project ◽

Development Discourses

This article explores the relations between a foreign aid donor and local actors in the context of the dissemination of development discourses and practices in an authoritarian context. It addresses the question “To what extent may the local dynamics alter the original goals of a donor and lead to unintended consequences?” Based on archival research, interviews, and secondary literature, this case study examines the Yunnan Uplands Management Project (YUM) in 1990–95, the Ford Foundation's first grant program on rural poverty alleviation in China. While the Foundation did not attain its main goal of making YUM a national model for poverty alleviation, the local actors were able to use YUM to develop individual capacities and to build roles for themselves as development actors in the form of associations and nongovernmental organizations, resulting in further support from the Foundation. The study contributes to our understanding of donor-local actor dynamics by highlighting the gaps between the original goals of a donor and the perspectives and motivations of local actors. The study suggests that local dynamics may influence the goals of donors and the ways they seek to disseminate development discourses and practices to local actors, despite the common conception of donors as hegemonic or culturally imperialistic.

Download Full-text