scholarly journals Trust, Risk and Public History: A View from the United States

2010 ◽  
Vol 17 ◽  
pp. 52-61 ◽  
Author(s):  
James B. Gardner

In the public history and museum communities today there is much difference of opinion over the concept of ‘radical trust,’ which basically argues for us to give up control and trust the public to develop content for our websites and exhibitions and provide direction for our work. Most public historians and curators are happy to share authority with the public, but are we now expected to yield all authority? Are we now taking historian Carl Becker’s well-known phrase ‘everyman his own historian’ and updating it to ‘every person his or her own curator’? What is the role of historical knowledge in a world of opinion? Unfortunately, at the same time that many of us are embracing risk online, in a world we have little control or even influence over, we seem to be stepping back from risk taking in our museums, on our own turf. We’ve become risk averse—afraid to make mistakes, afraid of trying new approaches and tackling the historically controversial or the ambiguous. Rather than the ‘safe place for unsafe ideas’ that Elaine Gurian proposed, we have become no more than safe places for safe ideas. We need to push back on both fronts. Public historians should be thought leaders, not followers—not wait to see what the future holds for us but rather try to shape that future.

2018 ◽  
Vol 21 (3) ◽  
pp. 74-102
Author(s):  
Nicole Karapanagiotis

This article is a theoretical and ethnographic investigation of the role of marketing and branding within the contemporary ISKCON movement in the United States. In it, I examine the digital marketing enterprises of two prominent ISKCON temples: ISKCON of New Jersey and ISKCON of D.C. I argue that by attending to the vastly different ways in which these temples present and portray ISKCON online—including the markedly different media imagery by which they aim to draw the attention of the public—we can learn about an ideological divide concerning marketing within American ISKCON. This divide, I argue, highlights different ideas regarding how potential newcomers become attracted to ISKCON. It also illuminates an unexplored facet of the heterogeneity of American ISKCON, principally in terms of the movement’s public face.


Author(s):  
Pierre Rosanvallon

This chapter turns to the increasingly active role of constitutional courts. These courts have established themselves—not without reservations and challenges—as an essential vector of the push for greater reflexivity. For a long time the United States, India, and the German Federal Republic stood out as exceptions because of their traditional emphasis on judicial review. Now, however, constitutional courts of one sort or another are at the heart of democratic government everywhere. Indeed, some scholars go so far as to discern a veritable “resurrection” of constitutional thought. It is noteworthy that these new constitutional courts on the whole receive strong support from the public, as numerous comparative surveys have shown, and they count among the most legitimate of democratic institutions.


2021 ◽  
pp. 121-137
Author(s):  
Sandro Galea

This chapter evaluates the central role of compassion in preventing the contagion next time. During COVID-19, compassion revealed just how many people in the United States are deeply vulnerable to poor health. This vulnerability was often a product of underlying health conditions. There are many health challenges in the United States which annually generate a level of mortality comparable to that of COVID-19, challenges like obesity and addiction. However, America have not addressed these challenges with anywhere near the level of urgency they brought to bear in addressing COVID-19. A key reason why is, arguably, because these challenges are not infectious, making it possible for the public at large to escape the visceral feeling of vulnerability to a disease which transmits through the air and can strike anybody. Instead, they see these challenges somehow as niche issues, the niche being the lives of the marginalized and disadvantaged groups. This outlook allows them to evade the feeling of common humanity which gives rise to compassion. Compassion, then, depends on the understanding of the true nature of health and of the shared vulnerability to disease.


2011 ◽  
Vol 18 ◽  
pp. 1-11 ◽  
Author(s):  
Hilda Kean

This issue of Public History Review discusses aspects of the distinctive role of public historians that goes beyond an approach simply aimed at bringing in people to exhibitions or making historical knowledge ‘accessible’. As James Gardner argued in the last issue of Public History Review, ‘We are often our own worst enemy, failing to share what we do. If we want the public to value what we do, we need to share the process of history’. Opening up the premises underpinning different forms of historical representation can assist in widening the historical process and facilitate a way of understanding and making meaning.


1975 ◽  
Vol 4 (2) ◽  
pp. 132-142
Author(s):  
Robert G. Craig ◽  
Harry P. Mapp

“There is more than enough evidence to show that the states and localities, far from being weak sisters, have actually been carrying the brunt of domestic governmental progress in the United States ever since the end of World War II … Moreover, they have been largely responsible for undertaking the truly revolutionary change in the role of government in the United States that has occurred over the past decade.”–Daniel J. Elazar, The Public Interest


1991 ◽  
Vol 20 (4) ◽  
pp. 429-439 ◽  
Author(s):  
Perry Moore

This paper compares the level of benefits offered to state and local employees in the United States with those provided to private employees of medium and large firms. The public employees enjoy more paid leaves, less expensive health benefits and better pensions. The conclusion points to the additional public personnel costs created by these advantages and addresses the role of benefits in the total compensation package. It also urges that total compensation comparability (pay and benefits) be more widely practiced by public jurisdictions.


Author(s):  
Wang ◽  
Xia ◽  
Li ◽  
Wang

With the characteristics of low cost and open call, crowdsourcing has been widely adopted in many fields, particularly to support the use of surveys, data processing, and the monitoring of public health. The objective of the current study is to analyze the applications, hotspots, and emerging trends of crowdsourcing in the field of public health. Using CiteSpace for the visualization of scientific maps, this study explores the analysis of time-scope, countries and institutions, authors, published journals, keywords, co-references, and citation clusters. The results show that the United States is the country with the most publications regarding crowdsourcing applications for public health. Howe and Brabham are the two leading authors in this field. Further, most of the articles published in this field are found in medical and comprehensive journals. Crowdsourcing in public health is increasing and diversifying. The results of this study will enable and support the analysis of the specific role of crowdsourcing in the public health ecosystem.


2010 ◽  
Vol 100 (1) ◽  
pp. 628-633 ◽  
Author(s):  
Gary E Bolton ◽  
Axel Ockenfels

In a series of binary choice problems, we investigate how a chooser's risk taking changes when others share in their personal risk, either equally or unequally. We find that when the safe option yields inequality, the risky option is taken significantly more often. On the other hand, the inequality resulting from the risky choice does not affect risk taking. We also find that choosers tend to be less risk-averse in a one-person context compared to when the risk also affects the payoff of another. (C72, D81, Z13)


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