scholarly journals Decline and Fall, Growth and Spread, or Resilience? Approaches to Studying How and Why Societies Change

2022 ◽  
Author(s):  
Daniel Hoyer
Keyword(s):  
Review Essay ◽  
Growth And Development ◽  
The Other ◽  
Change Over Time ◽  
Approaches To Studying ◽  
Key Technology ◽  
The Face ◽  
The Rich ◽  
Precocious Development ◽  
Over Time

An avid reader of history will be quite familiar with the rich, emotive narratives detailing the tragic decline and ultimate fall of once mighty civilizations; Rome succumbing to barbarian hordes, Alexander of Macedon’s and Chinggis Khan’s spear-won empires splitting into warring factions, and the demise of the great Inca or Maya civilizations are just a few such examples. On the other side of the stacks, similarly grandiose narratives document some group’s incredible growth and spread taking over vast territories and populations. These tell typically of societies coming to dominate a region, often in the face of overwhelming odds and tribulation or through some precocious development of a key technology or strategy that later becomes widespread. Here, I take stock of previous approaches to studying function – from growth and development to crisis and collapse to resilience – and ask what is the most fruitful lens with which to view fluctuations in how societies function and change over time, as this review essay attempts to accomplish.

Commons Governance, Normative Pluralism and the Enduring Role of Custom

2018 ◽  
pp. 15-37
Author(s):  
Christopher Rodgers
Keyword(s):  
The Other ◽  
Time And Space ◽  
Change Over Time ◽  
England And Wales ◽  
Legal Norms ◽  
The Commons ◽  
Normative Pluralism ◽  
Over Time ◽  
Legal Pluralist

The governance of common land in England and Wales is shaped by a mixture of customary and legal norms that can shift and change. Notwithstanding the introduction of legislation for the registration of common land and common rights, custom retains an important role in the governance of common land. This chapter situates custom alongside the other normative rules used to structure the governance of common land. It considers reforms introduced by the Commons Act 2006, including provision for the formation of self-regulating commons councils. It concludes that a legal pluralist analysis that focuses on the functionality of differing customary and legal norms, but which is also sensitive to the sources from which rules derive normativity, is essential if we are to position custom in the hierarchy of norms relevant to the governance of common land, to understand their respective roles and how these can change over time and space, and to appraise their effectiveness.

Electoral Systems in Context

2017 ◽  
pp. 920-942 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nathan Allen
Keyword(s):  
Political Parties ◽  
Party System ◽  
Institutional Design ◽  
Electoral Systems ◽  
Electoral System ◽  
The Other ◽  
Electoral Rules ◽  
Political Outcomes ◽  
The Face ◽  
Over Time

This chapter examines the evolution of the Indonesian electoral system and its effects on political outcomes. Although Indonesia has repeatedly chosen to conduct elections using proportional representation, electoral rules have changed considerably over time. The chapter traces two trajectories of reform in the post-Suharto era: one restricting opportunities for small parties and the other restricting the power of party leadership. Efforts to shape party system outcomes using electoral rules have succeeded in some areas, particularly in preventing the formation of regional partisan cleavages. Yet the proliferation of political parties in the face of reforms meant to consolidate the party system underline the limits of institutional design.

Adam Smith: egalitarian or anti-egalitarian?

2016 ◽  
Vol 43 (9) ◽  
pp. 888-903 ◽  
Author(s):  
Satoshi Niimura
Keyword(s):  
Design Methodology ◽  
Adam Smith ◽  
Initial Response ◽  
The Other ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Primitive Society ◽  
The Rich ◽  
Wealth Of Nations ◽  
Civilized Society ◽  
Over Time

Purpose There has been controversy about whether Adam Smith is an economic egalitarian because he expresses at least four distinct views on equality, in two of which, he approves of inequality, and in the other two, he claims otherwise. The purpose of this paper is to isolate and consider these four views carefully to understand Smith’s complete position on equality. Design/methodology/approach The paper examines Smith’s apparently contradictory views on equality as his evolving response to Hume and Rousseau’s critiques of inequality. Findings Hume and Rousseau criticize any income inequality that is disproportionate to industry between the rich and poor. Smith’s response to their critiques evolves over time. In his initial response in early writings, he defends inequality in a civilized society by comparing it with a poor primitive society. However, in his later response in The Wealth of Nations, he eventually accepts Hume and Rousseau’s critiques of inequality. According to Smith, an equal and opulent society will evolve. A primitive society is equal but poor. In contrast, an existing civilized society is opulent but unequal. In each society, equality and opulence are incompatible. However, Smith believes that a future civilized society will fully achieve both equality and opulence. Originality/value The paper analyses both historically and theoretically the comprehensive structure of Smith’s egalitarian views.

scholarly journals SUBPRIME MORTGAGES AND LENDING BUBBLES

2018 ◽  
Vol 21 (2) ◽  
pp. 203-228
Author(s):  
Ali Yavuz Polat
Keyword(s):  
Asset Prices ◽  
The Other ◽  
Initial Endowment ◽  
Subprime Mortgages ◽  
The Poor ◽  
Poor Area ◽  
Housing Bubbles ◽  
The Rich ◽  
Over Time

We consider a model with two types of households; the poor with no initial endowment and the rich with positive endowment; and two types of assets; properties in a poor area and properties in a rich area. In the model, poor agents need credit to buy an asset whereas the rich can draw from their endowment. We show that credit-fuelled housing bubbles sometimes may improve welfare, making the poorer individuals better-off. More precisely, there exist two types of equilibria in both markets: One is a bubble equilibrium, and the other is an equilibrium where asset prices are stable over time. While the poor always obtain a positive surplus in the bubble equilibrium, this is not necessarily true for the rich. Our results suggest that there may be scope for market interventions aimed at sustaining the value of assets held by credit-constrained agents after the burst of a credit bubble.

Quality of Clinical Trials — A Concern of Three Decades

1982 ◽  
Vol 21 (02) ◽  
pp. 81-85 ◽  
Author(s):  
Elina Hemminki
Keyword(s):  
Clinical Trials ◽  
The Other ◽  
Controlled Trials ◽  
Change Over Time ◽  
Over Time

The purpose of this article is to summarize reviews on the quality of clinical trials. Altogether 29 reviews were found. Most clinical trials were judged to be uncontrolled or poorly controlled and/or otherwise poor. To study any change over time, reviews based on reports published 1943—1959, 1960—67, and 1968—77 were considered. The proportion of controlled trials was higher in 1943—59 than in 1968—77. The proportion of trials defined as »good« was lowest in the period 1960—1967. Since the material and definitions varied from one review to the other, the results should be interpreted to reflect the reviewers’ concern about quality rather than the actual quality of the trials themselves. In fact, in most reviews, in which the criteria and material used over time were comparable, the quality of trials had improved. But various factors guarantee that worries about the quality of clinical trials will continue.

scholarly journals Introduction

Focaal ◽  
2017 ◽  
Vol 2017 (79) ◽  
pp. 1-5 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ida Susser
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Social Movements ◽  
Theoretical Perspective ◽  
The United States ◽  
Change Over Time ◽  
Grassroots Movements ◽  
The Face ◽  
The Right ◽  
Urban Commons ◽  
Over Time

It seems crucial to research the transformative aspects of progressive grassroots movements in the face of the troubling turn to the right in elections in the United States and parts of Europe. This theme section considers “commoning” as one way to understand the emergence of social movements in Europe and the United States. The articles analyze different protests from housing movements, to anti-antiblack insurgency, redefinitions of the tax code, and the squares movement. The articles consider how movements around the urban commons change over time, differ from more traditional social movements, and address or emerge from the specifics of contemporary regimes. The aim is to develop a theoretical perspective on commoning, which will provide a framework for comparison across societies at this juncture.

scholarly journals The Salaries of Teachers in English Canada, 1900-1940: A Reappraisal

2010 ◽  
Author(s):  
R. D. Gidney ◽  
W. P.J. Millar
Keyword(s):  
Twentieth Century ◽  
Extended Period ◽  
The Other ◽  
English Canada ◽  
Change Over Time ◽  
Canadian Education ◽  
Nous Croyons ◽  
Per Se ◽  
Over Time ◽  
Educational Enterprise

Any student of Canadian education during the first half of the twentieth century has encountered the belief, common among those engaged in the educational enterprise and sometimes shared by others, that teachers were badly paid for their work. Though not a universal assessment, a similar view has also dominated the historiography. This interpretation, we think, is overdue for revision. In this article we address two central questions. One focuses more narrowly on teachers' salaries per se: how much, on average, did teachers earn, and how did this change over time? The other asks, just how good or bad were their salaries compared to those of other people in the Canadian workforce? We tackle these questions on a Canada-wide basis, excluding only the province of Quebec, and over an extended period, covering the first four decades of the century. -- Parmi les chercheurs et les étudiants intéressés par l’histoire de l’éducation canadienne pour la première moitié du vingtième siècle, un lieu commun persiste, à savoir, que les enseignants étaient très mal payés pour leur travail. Bien que cette assertion ne soit pas partagée par tous, ce point de vue domine dans l’historiographie de cette période. Nous croyons qu’il est temps de repenser cette interprétation. Dans cet article, nous nous intéressons à deux questions fondamentales. La première porte spécifiquement sur la rémunération des enseignants: combien gagnaient-ils en moyenne et comment leurs salaires ont-ils évolué dans le temps? La deuxième compare les salaires des enseignants à ceux versés aux autres travailleurs canadiens: étaient-ils pires ou meilleurs? Notre étude s’intéresse aux enseignants canadiens, à l’exception de ceux du Québec, et couvre les quatre premières décennies du vingtième siècle.

Unlearning in Free Learning as a Function of Context Change and Retention Interval

1969 ◽  
Vol 24 (3) ◽  
pp. 943-946 ◽  
Author(s):  
John C. Abra ◽  
Patricia S. Belton
Keyword(s):  
Retention Interval ◽  
The Other ◽  
Context Change ◽  
Change Over Time ◽  
The Third ◽  
Group Control ◽  
Learning Trials ◽  
Over Time ◽  
Better Than

A list of 20 words was presented 4 times to 3 groups of Ss. After each presentation, Ss attempted to recall as many of the words as possible, in any order they wished. Two experimental groups then learned a second unrelated list for 6 such free-learning trials, while the third group (control) did not. One of the experimental groups had a changed environment for List-2 learning, while the other group was unchanged. Retention of both lists (MMFR) was tested either after List-2 learning or 24 hr. later. The control recalled List 1 better than the two experimental groups, which did not differ from each other. List-1 recall in the experimental groups did not change over time.

Gratitude as a Performative

2021 ◽  
pp. 000332862110238
Author(s):  
Armand E Larive
Keyword(s):  
General Theory ◽  
Emmanuel Levinas ◽  
Speech Act ◽  
Paul Ricoeur ◽  
Judith Butler ◽  
The Other ◽  
Face To Face ◽  
The Face ◽  
The Subject ◽  
Over Time

Rather than a general theory of gratitude, the paper focuses on gratitude as a human dynamic in appreciative recognition of others. The phenomenology of Emmanuel Levinas’ face-to-face ethics is discussed as the subject’s call to responsibility for an Other. Following Jacques Derrida’s criticism of how this responsibility binds the subject into a hostage position regarding the Other, Paul Ricoeur repairs the working value of Levinas’ ethics by loosening the face-to-face obligation of the Other into one of reconnaissance, or thankful recognition. Without losing the face-to-face dynamic, the expression of reconnaissance is then investigated through J. L. Austin’s theory of performatives where gratitude is expressed as a speech act, or with the help of Judith Butler, where performativity is an activity expressing a reconnaissance between people over time. Three examples are given at the end.

Social Values Enabled Change

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kevin G. Barnhurst
Keyword(s):  
Social Values ◽  
The Other ◽  
Change Over Time ◽  
The Past ◽  
The Future ◽  
Over Time

This chapter considers changes in U.S. news over the last century. It shows that reports grew longer in mainstream news, but few seemed to notice. The “who,” “what,” or “where” all declined in different ways. But the other two Ws, the “when” and “why,” did expand the connotative, modern dimension. While references to the present remained fairly constant in stories, the past grew more important along with the future and change over time. The pattern of explaining how and why events happened also expanded but shifted in particular ways that opened space within news for opinions and judgments, especially in broadcast and online.

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