A Short History of Well-Being in Interiors

Although well-being studies started in the psychological field (1961) when well-being was discussed in terms of “the good life,” the concept dates back to ancient times from Aristotle's idea of eudaimonia to the human-centered understanding of the Renaissance. During the last decades, different studies focused on social, physiological, and psychological impacts of the dwelling and the neighborhood, and some even applied neurosciences to architecture. The contribution of studies carried in healthcare contexts has been crucial, as well as experimental results in workplaces, but also biologists, psychologists, and sociologists supported theory and practice, starting from the 1960s. Nevertheless, the specific role of architecture and interior space has been quite under-evaluated. This chapter aims to discuss the foundations of the concept of living well evaluating the understanding of “space for human well-being” in different cultural contexts at different times.

Author(s):  
Timur Gimadeev

The article deals with the history of celebrating the Liberation Day in Czechoslovakia organised by the state. Various aspects of the history of the holiday have been considered with the extensive use of audiovisual documents (materials from Czechoslovak newsreels and TV archives), which allowed for a detailed analysis of the propaganda representation of the holiday. As a result, it has been possible to identify the main stages of the historical evolution of the celebrations of Liberation Day, to discover the close interdependence between these stages and the country’s political development. The establishment of the holiday itself — its concept and the military parade as the main ritual — took place in the first post-war years, simultaneously with the consolidation of the Communist regime in Czechoslovakia. Later, until the end of the 1960s, the celebrations gradually evolved along the political regime, acquiring new ritual forms (ceremonial meetings, and “guards of memory”). In 1968, at the same time as there was an attempt to rethink the entire socialist regime and the historical experience connected with it, an attempt was made to reconstruct Liberation Day. However, political “normalisation” led to the normalisation of the celebration itself, which played an important role in legitimising the Soviet presence in the country. At this stage, the role of ceremonial meetings and “guards of memory” increased, while inventions released in time for 9 May appeared and “May TV” was specially produced. The fall of the Communist regime in 1989 led to the fall of the concept of Liberation Day on 9 May, resulting in changes of the title, date and paradigm of the holiday, which became Victory Day and has been since celebrated on 8 May.


2019 ◽  
Vol 12 (2) ◽  
pp. 205979911986328
Author(s):  
Hester Nienaber

Management theory and practice are characterised by the ‘theory–practice gap’. A way of addressing this divide is to engage in reflective practice, in this instance, a creative auto/biography. This different way of presenting an old issue demonstrates how the original teachings of the management pioneers remain relevant today. The central issues are the purpose of the organisation and the role of both leadership and employees in unlocking human competence in pursuit of organisational performance. The concepts ‘autonomy’ and ‘control’ transpired as crucial, which could easily be misunderstood or misapplied. This personal reflection presents evidence on which to base change, enhancing the well-being of employees, societies and the profit of organisations. This article contributes to knowledge by making inaccessible knowledge, accessible and inclusive, and the expectation that the meaning emanating from this reflection will result in the management audience to reconsider management, advancing management science and benefitting society at large.


2004 ◽  
Vol 23 (2) ◽  
pp. 31-38 ◽  
Author(s):  
Elizabeth Reedy

Nearly 50 years after it was thought to be conquered, retinopathy of prematurity (ROP) continues to cause vision disturbances and blindness among prematurely born infants. During the 1940s and early 1950s, researchers and caregivers first identified and struggled to eliminate this problem, which seemed to come from nowhere and was concentrated among the most advanced premature nurseries in the U.S. Research studies initially identified many potential causes, none of which could be proved conclusively. By the mid-1950s, oxygen was identified as the culprit, and its use was immediately restricted. The rate of blindness among premature infants decreased significantly. ROP was not cured, however. By the 1960s, it had reappeared. The history of ROP serves to remind us that, despite our best intentions, the care and treatment of premature newborns will always carry with it the possibility of iatrogenic disease. This caution is worth remembering as we work to expand the quality and quantity of clinical research.


Author(s):  
Andrea Giardina

Marxism has slowly declined in recent literature on the economic and social history of the ancient world. If one happens to run into the name of Marx or the term Marxism, it is generally within the context of polemical remark. In spite of recurrent attempts to resuscitate it as an ideal foil for anti-Communist polemic, Marxism made its final exit from the field of ancient historical studies in the 1960s, when new Marxist and Marxist-inspired historiography came to the fore. This chapter discusses the changing role of Marxism in Italian history-writing. It focuses on the historians who claim themselves as Marxists, and those who employ Marxist categories and draw on Marxist theory yet refuse to be defined as Marxists. The chapter examines the debates of the different groups on the historiographic phase marked by the circulation of Marxist concepts, analytical tools, and models outside the strictly Marxist milieu. One of the most striking aspects of this phase is the existence of a trend for the formation of research groups that shared not only an affinity or ideological adherence to Marxism, but also an interest in historical theory and a similar orientation in cultural politics. These interdisciplinary approaches stimulated the confluence of individual competences in group projects aimed at singling out new topics and developing investigational strategies. This historiographic phase also reflected a sense of community, a refusal of traditional academic hierarchies, a wish to keep individualism in check, and the rejection of erudite isolation. In Italy, these forms of association served as a means for ethical and political self-representation of cultural hegemony.


2019 ◽  
pp. 61-87
Author(s):  
Kate Bedford

Using legislation, case law, and official records (including Hansard), Chapter 2 outlines the early history of state intervention into bingo in England and Wales. The chapter traces the gradual liberalization of restrictions on small-scale gambling, and the subsequent backlash against bingo in the 1960s. It also tells a new story about gambling regulation and political economy. In particular, it excavates the key role of mutual aid to elite debates about the proper place of gambling in national life. Although many authors have argued that disavowal of gambling helped legitimize the forms of collective insurance developed by early friendly societies and similar associations, the chapter shows that gambling played a key role—as entertainment and mutual aid—within working men’s clubs, and that it was promoted by the state. This mutual aid dimension of gambling was heavily conflicted in gendered terms. Lawmakers were lobbied by bingo-organizing men, with women’s interests at least one step removed from Hansard. Unequal gender roles were hereby woven into dominant understandings of small-scale gambling.


2001 ◽  
Vol 95 (1) ◽  
pp. 241-242
Author(s):  
Ronald H. Chilcote

In both these short volumes, Ruth Lane assumes an optimis- tic stance, generally within the mainstream of political sci- ence, and attempts to synthesize past and present trends in an effort to show progress. She argues in The Art of Comparative Politics that, despite the disparate approaches, real advances have occurred within the field. Her interpretative essay focuses on the recent history of the field, with an assessment of the behavioral movement during the 1960s and subsequent emphases on development, state, grassroots and peasant politics, and the new institutionalism. In Political Science in Theory and Practice she affirms that a core consensus has appeared in the independent investigations of prominent political scientists. Thus, a coherent working model of polit- ical behavior guides political scientists to understand political realities. She argues that this concrete model coincides with scientific realism and the current understanding of a philos- ophy of science.


Author(s):  
Eugene Judson ◽  
Daiyo Sawada

Surprising to many is the knowledge that audience response systems have been in use since the 1960s. Reviewing the history of their use from the early hardwired systems to today’s computer-integrated systems provides the necessary scope to reflect on how they can best be used. Research shows that the systems have had consistent effects on motivation, and varying effects on student achievement over the years. The intent of this chapter is to consider lessons learned, consider the relation of technology and pedagogy, and to highlight elements of effective use. This chapter emphasizes the crucial role of pedagogy in determining whether audience response systems can lead to greater student achievement.


2019 ◽  
Vol 16 (1) ◽  
pp. 141-155
Author(s):  
SIMON FRITH

AbstractThis article considers the role of Marxism in the history of popular music studies. Its approach combines the sociology of knowledge with a personal memoir and its argument is that in becoming a field of scholarly interest popular music studies drew from both Marxist theoretical arguments about cultural ideology in the 1950s and 1960s and from rock writers’ arguments about the role of music in shaping socialist bohemianism in the 1960s and 1970s. To take popular music seriously academically meant taking it seriously politically. Once established as an academic subject, however, popular music studies were absorbed into both established music departments and vocational, commercial music courses. Marxist ideas and ideologues were largely irrelevant to the subsequent development of popular music studies as a scholarly field.


2018 ◽  
Vol 4 (1) ◽  
pp. 161-186
Author(s):  
Franca Iacovetta

The article explores immigrant children’s health in Toronto, Canada, during mass migration by analysing a 1960s women-led project involving southern Europeans launched by the International Institute of Metropolitan Toronto, the city’s leading immigrant agency and part of a long-standing North American pluralist movement. Focused on the immigrant female fieldworkers tasked with convincing parents known for their ‘reticence’ in dealing with ‘outsiders’ to access resources to ensure their children’s well-being, it assesses their role as interpreters for the public health nurses investigating the Italian and Portuguese children who increasingly dominated their referrals from Toronto’s downtown schools. Without exaggerating their success, it documents the women’s capacity for persuasion, and notes the value of community-based pluralist strategies in which women with links to those being served play active roles as front-line intermediaries. The article highlights the history of women’s grassroots multiculturalism and the need to consider pluralism’s possibilities as well as its limits.


2019 ◽  
pp. 104225871989099 ◽  
Author(s):  
Yuval Engel ◽  
Stephany Noordijk ◽  
Afra Spoelder ◽  
Marco van Gelderen

Entrepreneurial fear of failure is a ubiquitous yet aversive experience with critical implications for entrepreneurial action and well-being. To understand how entrepreneurs can effectively cope with fear-inducing obstacles, we hypothesize and experimentally test the extent to which self-compassion, cultivated through Loving-Kindness Meditation (LKM), counteracts entrepreneurs’ fear of failure when facing a threatening venture obstacle. Compared to an active control group, entrepreneurs exposed to a brief guided LKM showed higher self-compassion, which, in turn, was associated with lower fear reactivity. We offer novel contributions to entrepreneurship theory and practice by highlighting the role of meditation and self-compassion in building entrepreneurial resilience.


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