VISUALIZATION OF EVERYDAY SOCIAL AND CULTURAL PRACTICES: VICTORIAN PAINTING AS A MIRROR OF THE ENGLISH TEA PARTY TRADITION

Author(s):  
Irina Rutsinskaya ◽  
Galina Smirnova

"Throughout the second half of the seventeen and the eighteenth centuries, tea remained an expensive exotic drink for Britain that “preserved” its overseas nature. It was only in the Victorian era (1837-1903) that tea became the English national drink. The process attracts the attention of academics from various humanities. Despite an impressive amount of research in the UK, in Russia for a long time (in the Soviet years) the English tradition of tea drinking was considered a philistine curiosity unworthy of academic analysis. Accordingly, the English tea party in Russia has become a leader in the number of stereotypes. The issue became important for academics only at the turn of the twentieth and twenty-first centuries. Currently, we can observe significant growth of interest in this area in Russia and an expansion of research into tea drinking with regard to the history of society, philosophy and culture. Despite this fact, there are still serious lacunas in the research of English tea parties in the Victorian era. One of them is related to the analysis of visualization of this practice in Victorian painting. It is a proven fact that tea parties are one of the most popular topics in English arts of the nineteenth and the twentieth centuries. No other art school in the world referred to the topic so frequently: painting formed the visual image of the English tea party, consolidated, propagandized and spread ideas of the national tea tradition. However, this aspect has been reflected neither in British nor Russian studies. Being descriptive and analytical, the present research refers to the principles of historicism, academic reliability and objectivity, helping to determine the principal trends and social and cultural features and models in Britain during the period. The present research is based on the analysis of more than one hundred genre paintings by British artists of the period. The paintings reflect the process of creating a special “truly English” material and visual context of tea drinking, which displaced all “oriental allusions” from this ceremony, to create a specific entourage and etiquette of tea consumption, and set nationally determined patterns of behavior at the tea table. The analysis shows the presence of English traditions of tea drinking visualization. The canvases of British artists, unlike the Russian ones, never reflect social problems: tea parties take place against the background of either well-furnished interiors or beautiful landscapes, being a visual embodiment of Great Britain as a “paradise of the prosperous bourgeoisie”, manifesting the bourgeois virtues. Special attention is paid to the role of the women in this ritual, the theme of the relationship between mothers and children. A unique English painting theme, which has not been manifested in any other art school in the world, is a children’s tea party. Victorian paintings reflect the processes of democratization of society: representatives of the lower classes appear on canvases. Paintings do not only reflect the norms and ideals that existed in the society, but also provide the set patterns for it."

1989 ◽  
Vol 3 (3) ◽  
pp. 161-166 ◽  
Author(s):  
Gavin H. Laird

It is a long time since the UK was known as the ‘workshop of the world’ and one of the major constraints we now face is that of skill shortages. Training and retraining have never been more important for the UK than they are today. The Amalgamated Engineering Union welcomes all positive training initiatives and is set to seize the opportunities that the 1990s will present.


2018 ◽  
pp. 5-29 ◽  
Author(s):  
L. M. Grigoryev ◽  
V. A. Pavlyushina

The phenomenon of economic growth is studied by economists and statisticians in various aspects for a long time. Economic theory is devoted to assessing factors of growth in the tradition of R. Solow, R. Barrow, W. Easterly and others. During the last quarter of the century, however, the institutionalists, namely D. North, D. Wallis, B. Weingast as well as D. Acemoglu and J. Robinson, have shown the complexity of the problem of development on the part of socioeconomic and political institutions. As a result, solving the problem of how economic growth affects inequality between countries has proved extremely difficult. The modern world is very diverse in terms of development level, and the article offers a new approach to the formation of the idea of stylized facts using cluster analysis. The existing statistics allows to estimate on a unified basis the level of GDP production by 174 countries of the world for 1992—2016. The article presents a structured picture of the world: the distribution of countries in seven clusters, different in levels of development. During the period under review, there was a strong per capita GDP growth in PPP in the middle of the distribution, poverty in various countries declined markedly. At the same time, in 1992—2016, the difference increased not only between rich and poor groups of countries, but also between clusters.


2019 ◽  
Vol 19 (1) ◽  
pp. 121-124
Author(s):  
Sandy Henderson ◽  
Ulrike Beland ◽  
Dimitrios Vonofakos

On or around 9 January 2019, twenty-two Listening Posts were conducted in nineteen countries: Canada, Chile, Denmark, Faroe Islands, Finland, Germany (Frankfurt and Berlin), Hungary, India, Ireland, Israel, Italy (two in Milan and one in the South), Peru, Serbia, South Africa, Spain, Sweden, Taiwan, Turkey, and the UK. This report synthesises the reports of those Listening Posts and organises the data yielded by them into common themes and patterns.


2020 ◽  
Vol 10 (2) ◽  
pp. 103-106
Author(s):  
ASTEMIR ZHURTOV ◽  

Cruel and inhumane acts that harm human life and health, as well as humiliate the dignity, are prohibited in most countries of the world, and Russia is no exception in this issue. The article presents an analysis of the institution of responsibility for torture in the Russian Federation. The author comes to the conclusion that the current criminal law of Russia superficially and fragmentally regulates liability for torture, in connection with which the author formulated the proposals to define such act as an independent crime. In the frame of modern globalization, the world community pays special attention to the protection of human rights, in connection with which large-scale international standards have been created a long time ago. The Universal Declaration of Human Rights and other international acts enshrine prohibitions of cruel and inhumane acts that harm human life and health, as well as degrade the dignity.Considering the historical experience of the past, these standards focus on the prohibition of any kind of torture, regardless of the purpose of their implementation.


Author(s):  
Maulana Akbar Shah

From an economic and strategic perspective, the Strait of Malacca is one of the most important shipping lanes in the world. It has always been a strategic maritime route that benefitted kingdoms of Tiriwizara, Majapahit, Malakka, Pagan, Hantawaddy and Konbong Kingdoms of Myanmar. Thanks to the long borderland, China and Burma have always engaged in trade and diplomatic relation. Burma, presently called Myanmar, is an important country from the perspective of geo-politics in the region, but never has the situation of 8 million Muslims in this country been worse. Muslims have been living in Myanmar for a long time. The previous Buddhist rulers of the country and the British administration that followed provided rights of citizenship to them without discrimination. In the light of these welcoming circumstances, Muslims were happy to contribute to the nation by joining the army, the police force, government institutions in areas such as health care, education, trade, business, agriculture as well as in politics and as legislators in the parliament of Myanmar. Nevertheless, their unfortunate history began when the military came into power in 1962. All the rights and responsibilities they had enjoyed over the years became restricted. Discrimination policies were applied in every segment of national institutions, thereby threatening their citizenship rights. The discrimination continued to the extent that their racial status as one of the 145 ethnic groups of Myanmar was removed. Consequently, frequent riots, afflictions, and violence against Muslim minorities became the norm, rendering peaceful coexistence between Muslim and Buddhists difficult. The objective of this paper is to research the historical existence and identification of Muslims in Myanmar. Findings of this work will touch upon a theory of peaceful coexistence between Muslims and Buddhists in Myanmar. Keywords Islam, Muslim, identity, rights, discrimination, peace, coexistence. Abstrak Dari perspektif ekonomi dan strategik, Selat Melaka adalah salah satu laluan perkapalan yang paling penting di dunia. Ia sentiasa menjadi laluan maritim strategik yang memberi manfaat kepada kerajaan-kerajaan kerajaan Tiriwizara, Majapahit, Malakka, Pagan, Hantawaddy dan Kerajaan Konbong Myanmar. Disebabkan sempadan yang panjang, China dan Burma sentiasa terlibat dalam perdagangan dan hubungan diplomatik. Burma, yang kini dipanggil Myanmar, adalah negara penting dari perspektif geo-politik di rantau ini, tetapi 8 juta umat Islam di negara ini tidak pernah mengalami keadaan yang buruk. Umat Islam telah tinggal di Myanmar sejak beberapa ribu tahun yang lalu. Para pemimpin Buddha terdahulu dan juga pentadbiran British memberi hak kewarganegaraan kepada umat Islam tanpa diskriminasi. Keadaan ini menyebabkan umat Islam dengan rela hati  tampil memberi sokongan kepada negara dengan menyertai tentera, pasukan polis, terlibat dalam institusi kerajaan dalam bidang kesihatan, pendidikan, perdagangan, perniagaan, pertanian, politik dan penggubal undang-undang dalam parlimen Myanmar. Walau bagaimanapun, sejarah buruk bermula apabila golongan tentera berkuasa pada tahun 1962. Semua hak keistimewaan yang mereka nikmati selama bertahun-tahun menjadi terhad. Dasar diskriminasi telah digunakan pada setiap segmen institusi nasional dan telah mengancam hak kewarganegaraan mereka. Diskriminasi ini berterusan sehingga status mereka sebagai salah satu daripada 145 kaum Myanmar dihapuskan. Akibatnya, kerusuhan, kesengsaraan, dan kekerasan yang sering berlaku terhadap kaum minoriti Muslim menjadi norma dimana tidak mungkin akan wujud kesefahaman antara Islam dan Buddha. Objektif makalah ini adalah untuk menyelidik kewujudan sejarah dan identifikasi umat Islam di Myanmar. Hasil kajian akan menyentuh teori kedamaian antara umat Islam dan Buddha di Myanmar. Kata Kunci: Islam, Muslim, identiti, Hak, diskriminasi, kemanan, coexisten    


Author(s):  
S. E. Sidorova ◽  

The article concentrates on the colonial and postcolonial history, architecture and topography of the southeastern areas of London, where on both banks of the River Thames in the 18th–20th centuries there were located the docks, which became an architectural and engineering response to the rapidly developing trade of England with territories in the Western and Eastern hemispheres of the world. Constructions for various purposes — pools for loading, unloading and repairing ships, piers, shipyards, office and warehouse premises, sites equipped with forges, carpenter’s workshops, shops, canteens, hotels — have radically changed the bank line of the Thames and appearance of the British capital, which has acquired the status of the center of a huge empire. Docks, which by the beginning of the 20th century, occupied an area of 21 hectares, were the seamy side of an imperial-colonial enterprise, a space of hard and routine work that had a specific architectural representation. It was a necessary part of the city intended for the exchange of goods, where the usual ideas about the beauty gave way to considerations of safety, functionality and economy. Not distinguished by architectural grace, chaotically built up, dirty, smoky and fetid, the area was one of the most significant symbols of England during the industrial revolution and colonial rule. The visual image of this greatness was strikingly different from the architectural samples of previous eras, forcing contemporaries to get used to the new industrial aesthetics. Having disappeared in the second half of the 20th century from the city map, they continue to retain a special place in the mental landscape of the city and the historical memory of the townspeople, which is reflected in the chain of museums located in this area that tell the history of English navigation, England’s participation in geographical discoveries, the stages of conquering the world, creating an empire and ways to acquire the wealth of the nation.


GEOgraphia ◽  
2009 ◽  
Vol 4 (8) ◽  
pp. 57
Author(s):  
Luiz Renato Vallejo

RESUMO A criação de unidades de conservação é considerada como principal ação de governo cujo objetivo é a preservação e conservação da biodiversidade. A delimitação de “áreas especiais” é uma prática observada desde as sociedades mais tradicionais, sendo que em muitas delas prevalecia um sentido mítico-religioso e, ao mesmo tempo, de conservação de recursos naturais. Em outras sociedades, essa ação esteve associada com a prática de esportes de caça por parte da realeza e da aristocracia rural. Os parques públicos começaram a surgir no século XIX nos Estados Unidos, numa perspectiva de preservação das belezas cênicas e proteção dos bens naturais contra a ação deletéria da sociedade. O tema em questão é discutido à luz da categoria geográfica de território e dos processos de territorialização, utilizando-se para esse fim suas múltiplas abordagens conceituais— biológica, ecológica e social. Discute-se no trabalho os problemas da desterritorialização, em ambos os sentidos (biológico e social), além da formação das redes empenhadas no processo de criação e gestão das unidades de conservação. Houve um esforço de trazer para essa discussão uma contribuição sobre o valor agregado à conservação da biodiversidade com base em princípios de uma nova disciplina - a Biologia da Conservação. O trabalho aborda ainda aspectos conceituais sobre as políticas públicas, em geral, e sobre a influência que elas têm, especificamente, sobre a problemática das unidades de conservação no Brasil.ABSTRACT The principal goal to create natural parks and biological reserves in the world is to promote the conservation of biodiversity. During long time, traditional people established “especial areas” to guarantee natural resources for the future. Others, as kings and rural aristocracy used this areas for practice sports like hunting. The first public parks were created in United States during the XIX century, to preserve the environmental features of the Yellowstone against the human explotation. In this work, I wil discuss conservation of natural areas using the territory and the territorialization concepts and their several meanings: biological/ecological and social. The biodiversity value under principles of a new discipline — Biological Conservation — is showed as contribution. Public policy is discussed at the end of work exploring some reasons of the controversy between government speech and the conservation practice in natural parks and biological reserves.


2021 ◽  
Vol 56 (1) ◽  
pp. 112-130 ◽  
Author(s):  
Haifeng Huang

AbstractFor a long time, since China’s opening to the outside world in the late 1970s, admiration for foreign socioeconomic prosperity and quality of life characterized much of the Chinese society, which contributed to dissatisfaction with the country’s development and government and a large-scale exodus of students and emigrants to foreign countries. More recently, however, overestimating China’s standing and popularity in the world has become a more conspicuous feature of Chinese public opinion and the social backdrop of the country’s overreach in global affairs in the last few years. This essay discusses the effects of these misperceptions about the world, their potential sources, and the outcomes of correcting misperceptions. It concludes that while the world should get China right and not misinterpret China’s intentions and actions, China should also get the world right and have a more balanced understanding of its relationship with the world.


2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Rohit Kundu ◽  
Hritam Basak ◽  
Pawan Kumar Singh ◽  
Ali Ahmadian ◽  
Massimiliano Ferrara ◽  
...  

AbstractCOVID-19 has crippled the world’s healthcare systems, setting back the economy and taking the lives of several people. Although potential vaccines are being tested and supplied around the world, it will take a long time to reach every human being, more so with new variants of the virus emerging, enforcing a lockdown-like situation on parts of the world. Thus, there is a dire need for early and accurate detection of COVID-19 to prevent the spread of the disease, even more. The current gold-standard RT-PCR test is only 71% sensitive and is a laborious test to perform, leading to the incapability of conducting the population-wide screening. To this end, in this paper, we propose an automated COVID-19 detection system that uses CT-scan images of the lungs for classifying the same into COVID and Non-COVID cases. The proposed method applies an ensemble strategy that generates fuzzy ranks of the base classification models using the Gompertz function and fuses the decision scores of the base models adaptively to make the final predictions on the test cases. Three transfer learning-based convolutional neural network models are used, namely VGG-11, Wide ResNet-50-2, and Inception v3, to generate the decision scores to be fused by the proposed ensemble model. The framework has been evaluated on two publicly available chest CT scan datasets achieving state-of-the-art performance, justifying the reliability of the model. The relevant source codes related to the present work is available in: GitHub.


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