Swinging Statistics

2018 ◽  
Vol 9 ◽  
pp. 111-138 ◽  
Author(s):  
Corina Doboș ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Knowledge Production ◽  
National Commission ◽  
Demographic Research ◽  
Institutional Settings ◽  
Archival Documents ◽  
Central Commission ◽  
History Of ◽  
Post War ◽  
Context Specific

The present article proposes an examination of the disciplinary evolution of demographic research in Communist Romania, as a case study of the mutually constitutive, multifaceted relationship between science, politics, ideology and memory. My research tries to compensate for the lack of access to the archives of the central institutions for population research during Communism (the National Institute of Statistics and the National Commission of Demography), by combining published sources (mainly scientific works, but also histories of demography and personal memoirs), with different archival documents, mainly coming from personal funds of two population researchers (Sabin Manuilă and Ștefan Milcu), from the fund of the Central Commission for Planning, of the Chancellery of the Romanian Communist Party and from diplomatic archives. I pay attention to the side of the story offered by the actors themselves, focusing on the way in which the legacy of interwar demography was assumed and invoked in different post-war accounts regarding the history of demographic discipline in Romania. By doing so, I seek to contribute to writing a history of science as a product of complex entanglements between the different factors that circumscribe the process of knowledge production within a larger social and political context: specific professional interests and institutional settings, subjective interpretations, ideological pressures and attempts of political control.

scholarly journals The Lviv Train Station Restaurant as a Soviet Enterprise, 1944-1980

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Andriy Zayarnyuk
Keyword(s):  
World War Ii ◽  
Economic System ◽  
System Organization ◽  
Organization Structure ◽  
World War ◽  
Train Station ◽  
Western Ukraine ◽  
History Of ◽  
Post War

This article is a micro-history of a restaurant in post- World War II Lviv, the largest city of Western Ukraine. Offering a case study of one public dining enterprise this paper explores changes in the post-war Soviet public dining; demonstrates how that enterprise’s institutional structure mediated economic demands, ideological directives, and social conflicts. It argues that the Soviet enterprise should be seen as a nexus between economic system, organization structure of the Soviet state, and everyday lives of Soviet people. The article helps to understand Soviet consumerist practices in the sphere of public dining by looking into complex, hierarchical organizations enabling them.

scholarly journals Crises of the communist and neoliberal orders 30 years later: A structural comparison between 1975 and 2019 Poland

2020 ◽  
Vol 59 (3) ◽  
pp. 484-504
Author(s):  
Tomasz Zarycki
Keyword(s):  
Comparative Approach ◽  
Structural Comparison ◽  
Critical Sociology ◽  
Central European ◽  
The Social ◽  
The World ◽  
History Of ◽  
Post War ◽  
Critical Case Study

This article proposes to look at the current moment in the recent history of the so-called Central-European countries, with Poland as a critical case study, through a structural comparison with an earlier historical cycle, that is one of the first three decades of the communist rule in the region. Thus, I propose to compare the social and economic situation in Poland of circa 1975 with that of 2019, so 30 years after the establishment of a new given political order (30 years after 1945 and 1989 respectively). The paper will offer a general overview of the trajectory of Poland in the post-war era, based primarily on the perspective of the world-system theory and that of the critical sociology of elites, one which will also point to the essential structural contexts of the post-communist dynamics of society. This paper will be based on a basic observation: even if both the 1970s and late 2010s can be considered as periods of relative political stabilization and economic growth for the region as such, and Poland in particular, these countries are, at the same time, subjected to a considerable and even increasing economic dependence on the Western core. In the conclusions, it is argued that the proposed comparative approach, taking into account both an earlier historical cycle and the broader structural dependency of the region, may allow to cast a new light on the nature of current dynamics in Polish politics as well as on the possible future trajectories of the country.

‘One Can’t Help Shuddering at the Sight of the Ruin of This Thriving Town’: The Great Fire in Yeniseisk and Its Consequences. 1869-1870

2018 ◽  
pp. 483-494
Author(s):  
Natalia V. Gonina ◽  
◽  
Anna P. Dvoretskaya ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Social History ◽  
Local Community ◽  
Point Of View ◽  
Krasnoyarsk Krai ◽  
External Resources ◽  
Irkutsk Region ◽  
Archival Documents ◽  
History Of ◽  
The Town

This archive draws on archival sources to study the Great Fire in Yeniseysk in 1869 and its consequences for development of this northern provincial town. The research derives its novelty from the first publication of documents of the State Archive of the Krasnoyarsk Krai and that of the Irkutsk Region, which describe measures of fire response and name benefactors. Historical approach allows to place specific patterns of local community in the context of social history of the 20th century. Anthropological approach allows to identify means and modes of surviving in a natural disaster. The fire clamed about 200 lives, destroyed all wooden buildings in the town, and disrupted daily activities of more than 7 thousand Yeniseysk citizens. At present, such disasters are considered as more than just local disasters. From the religious point of view, such natural disasters disrupt the balance and harmony of the God's world and require worldwide effort to set it to rights. The case-study of the Yeniseysk community concludes that actions of a person within the fire storm were determined not just by self-preservation, but also by responsibility for the lives of those around them. People appealed to church for help. Many Yeniseysk priests rose to the occasion as their vocation demanded. The archival documents show how rapidly the nation responded to the disaster. The case-study of Yeniseysk in 1869-1871 demonstrates an array of measures aiming to attract external resources. The activities were based on Christian principles of communal spirit and charity, community help and civic cooperation in joined efforts of state and public institutions, private and corporate donors. The article concludes that effective moneyed assistance and social support significantly decreased the severity of losses.

Scylla et Glaucus: A case study

1992 ◽  
Vol 4 (3) ◽  
pp. 199-228
Author(s):  
Neal Zaslaw
Keyword(s):  
The State ◽  
Louis Xiv ◽  
French Opera ◽  
Archival Documents ◽  
History Of

The policies of centralisation pursued by Louis XIV and his ministers affected most aspects of French life and culture. From 1645 opera had been imported from Italy by Louis' minister Cardinal Mazarin, originally out of political motives. When it had become ‘naturalised’, assuming its characteristic French guise under the despotic direction of Lully's Académie Royale de Musique, it continued to serve political purposes. In return for a monopoly on theatre music, Lully saw to it that opera served not only as entertainment for the nobility and bourgeoisie, but also as propaganda for the state and for the divine right of the King. An incidental effect of these policies was that the number of French operas produced was small compared to the number in Italy. This was due to the monopoly; to the centralisation, which meant that with few exceptions ‘French’ opera really meant ‘Parisian’ opera; and to the lavishness of the productions, which made frequent changes of repertory impractical even with subsidies. Each première was an event of note, chronicled in official and unofficial sources – the archival documents, mémoires, correspondence, periodicals, pamphlets and books of the day. This profusion of documentation frequently makes possible a degree of precision about the history of early French opera that can rarely be attained for other national schools.

scholarly journals Sverdlovsk Art and Cultural Patronage of the Red Army: Prehistory of Relations and the Process in the Post-War Period (1946–1952)

2021 ◽  
pp. 386-405
Author(s):  
A.S. Aynutdinov ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Military Personnel ◽  
Armed Forces ◽  
Scientific Work ◽  
Soviet Art ◽  
Great Patriotic War ◽  
Archival Documents ◽  
Domestic Art ◽  
Red Army ◽  
History Of ◽  
Post War

The topic of interaction between artists and the armed forces of the USSR before the Great Patriotic War and after it is a subject of study for historians, cultural scientists, philologists, theater critics, film critics, art historians. Nevertheless, the visual art of Sverdlovsk in the aspect of analysis and description of cultural and patronage relations of artists with the Red Army has never been the object of special study. The proposed article is, in fact, one of the first, if not the only scientific work to date, based on the introduction to the practice of domestic art studies, the history of Soviet art, information and data on the emergence and development of contacts between artists of Sverdlovsk and military personnel in the framework of patronage of the creative intelligentsia of the Red Army in 1946–1952. The period of the 1920–1930s is considered also on the basis of archival documents, making outlines of the more accurate data on patronage ties between RABIS, the Organizing Committee of the Union of Artists Sverdlovsk branch and the Soviet military personnel in the Ural military district.

scholarly journals Reviewing the Department of Manpower and Immigration collection: a case study on item-level descriptions of immigrants in government archives, MRP

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Deanna Manolakos
Keyword(s):  
Immigrant Integration ◽  
Power Relationships ◽  
Archival Theory ◽  
Government Documents ◽  
Item Level ◽  
Library And Archives Canada ◽  
History Of ◽  
Post War

This MRP explores the need for item-level descriptions for a collection of twelve photographs of Yugoslavian immigrants held in the Department of Manpower and Immigration Collection, government documents section, Library and Archives Canada. Drawing on archival theory and the history of governmental photography in Canada, it argues that such descriptions help to properly contextualize the photographs as performative, visual records of immigrants and thus help situate photography’s role in Canadian immigrant history. Exploring the history of the collection to which the images belong, the MRP shows how images produced to promote successful immigrant integration into post-War Canada, can be understood as a more historically nuanced and valuable collection. Focusing on power relationships formed during accession practices within archival spaces, it also addresses the unintentional information provided by the prints and how it has been ignored during record creation to describe the departmental function of the photographs.

scholarly journals Reviewing the Department of Manpower and Immigration collection: a case study on item-level descriptions of immigrants in government archives, MRP

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Deanna Manolakos
Keyword(s):  
Immigrant Integration ◽  
Power Relationships ◽  
Archival Theory ◽  
Government Documents ◽  
Item Level ◽  
Library And Archives Canada ◽  
History Of ◽  
Post War

This MRP explores the need for item-level descriptions for a collection of twelve photographs of Yugoslavian immigrants held in the Department of Manpower and Immigration Collection, government documents section, Library and Archives Canada. Drawing on archival theory and the history of governmental photography in Canada, it argues that such descriptions help to properly contextualize the photographs as performative, visual records of immigrants and thus help situate photography’s role in Canadian immigrant history. Exploring the history of the collection to which the images belong, the MRP shows how images produced to promote successful immigrant integration into post-War Canada, can be understood as a more historically nuanced and valuable collection. Focusing on power relationships formed during accession practices within archival spaces, it also addresses the unintentional information provided by the prints and how it has been ignored during record creation to describe the departmental function of the photographs.

Resource Flows and Economic Development

2002 ◽  
pp. 62-62
Author(s):  
Gordon Boyce
Keyword(s):  
Economic Development ◽  
Shipping Industry ◽  
Fishing Rights ◽  
Rural South ◽  
Resource Flows ◽  
The North ◽  
History Of ◽  
The North Sea ◽  
Post War

This section explores the flow of resources and the economic development of the international shipping industry through analysis of three separate components. The first sub-section provides a thorough history of Danish maritime resources and infrastructures in relation to both shipping and fishing in the Danish coastal zone between 1500 and 2000, charting in particular the activity and economy of coastal dwelling communities. The second sub-section explores the resources and infrastructures in the maritime economy of rural south-west Scotland between 1750 and 1850, with particular emphasis on local economic revival and expansion efforts. It determines that entrepreneurship and expertise were vital to the success of a port, and intrinsically linked to local needs and culture. The final sub-section explores the fishing industry in relation to fishing rights in the postwar period. It uses the North Sea herring industry as a case study to demonstrate that post-war fishing developments centred on political exclusions and a shift from international to national fishing boundaries.

Archival Documents on the European Prisoners of World War I in the Semirechye Oblast of the Turkestan General Governorship: A Case Study

2018 ◽  
pp. 996-1008
Author(s):  
Gulnara M. Mendikulova ◽  
◽  
Yevgeniya A. Nadezhuk ◽  
Keyword(s):  
World War I ◽  
Local Population ◽  
Prisoners Of War ◽  
World War ◽  
Central State ◽  
Archival Documents ◽  
Full Picture ◽  
History Of ◽  
The Republic

The article uses the method of case study and draws on documents discovered by the authors in the fonds of the Central State Archive of the Republic of Kazakhstan (TsSA RK) to reconstruct the captivity in Semirechye of a party of prisoners of war from German and Austro-Hungarian armies. The purpose of this work is to study microhistory and history of the everyday life of the European prisoners of World War I in Kazakhstan: their welfare and economic conditions, social and ethno-confessional relations in their world, their interactions with local population, material evidence of their activity, which is still partially preserved in present-day Almaty. The authors have drawn on the following types of sources: archival documents and photographs from the fonds of the TsSA RK (some of them are introduced into scientific use for the first time); materials of periodicals of the studied period; statistical data, etc. Analysis of these sources allows to reconstruct the full picture of captivity of a group of European POWs in the Semirechye Oblast of the Turkestan General Governorship. The POWs participated in road laying and road repair in Verny and in the Pishpek uezd. Their living conditions, although comfortless, little differed from those of the local population. When at work, the POWs were provided with hot meals, which were even modified according to their national tastes. Medical services were elementary and fell almost completely to the POWs themselves. Their treatment by locals was ambiguous, but not hostile. There seemed to be no ideological tinting to their interactions with building authorities or locals. In the authors’ opinion, to reconstruct a more complete and detailed picture of interactions and mutual influences of different races, every one which had their own influence on the course of the Kazakhstan history, further research is necessary.

scholarly journals Sources and Resources‘The NHS … Should not be Condemned to the History Books’: Public Engagement as a Method in Social Histories of Medicine

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jennifer Crane
Keyword(s):  
Cultural History ◽  
Public Engagement ◽  
Academic Research ◽  
Professional Boundaries ◽  
The Public ◽  
Critical Methodology ◽  
Archival Documents ◽  
History Of ◽  
Post War ◽  
The University

Summary This article explores the public engagement work of the Cultural History of the National Health Service (NHS) project, conducted at the University of Warwick between 2016 and 2019 and aiming to explore the meanings attached to Britain’s NHS over its 70-year history. The article situates public engagement as a critical methodology for social historians of medicine, exploring how events deepened this project’s understandings of post-war welfare, childhood treatments and activist cultures. Through reflection on these themes, the article emphasises that public engagement can generate rich new forms of qualitative testimony, complementing archival documents; point us towards ‘hidden archives’; and challenge cultural visions of historical research as ‘condemning’ or ‘celebrating’ its subjects. Finally, the article provides critical reflection on the challenges of such work and argues that engagement around health makes visible the broader research challenges of emotional intensity, personal and professional boundaries, and the hierarchies ingrained in academic research.

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