The Teahouse under Socialism

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Di Wang
Keyword(s):  
Public Life ◽  
Economic Reforms ◽  
Public Spaces ◽  
Significant Degree ◽  
Open Market ◽  
Reform Era ◽  
Unique Type ◽  
Communist State ◽  
Political Transformations ◽  
Almost All

This book explores urban public life through the microcosm of the Chengdu teahouse. Like most public spaces, the teahouse was and still is an enduring symbol of Chinese popular culture, stemming back centuries and prevailing through political transformations, modernization, and globalization. The time period covered begins basically with the establishment of the People’s Republic in 1949-50, goes through the end of the Cultural Revolution and into the post-Mao reform era. We see clearly that the role and importance of the teahouse changed abruptly, going from severe constriction in its operations to a time when public spaces flourished unrestricted. During the Mao era, the state achieved tight control over society generally, and it was able to penetrate to the very core of society in order to control almost all its resources. Thus, the spaces usually available for sociality and for the natural development of social activities were sharply limited. The post-Mao economic reforms were a turning point in public life because everyday life was dominated by sweeping “open-market” economic reforms that were structured within a unique type of socialist political system, and to a significant degree public life moved away from state control. This book can enhance our understanding of public life and political culture in Chengdu under the Communist state, with its political needs and agendas; from there we may reflect on the situation of other Chinese cities.

The Culture Zone in Katowice and its qualities as a public space

2018 ◽  
Vol 59 (1) ◽  
pp. 27-41
Author(s):  
Paweł Pistelok
Keyword(s):  
Public Space ◽  
Empirical Research ◽  
Public Life ◽  
Public Spaces ◽  
Social Functions ◽  
Upper Silesia ◽  
Industrial Heritage ◽  
Basic Rights ◽  
Post Industrial ◽  
Right Of Access

Abstract A city’s public spaces ought to meet a number of requirements to serve their main purpose, that is to foster public life. They need, for instance, to answer people’s needs, fulfil certain social functions, and let people use their basic rights, among them the most important right of access. In Katowice, one of the most prominent examples of the regeneration of public spaces is now the Culture Zone. The aim of this paper is to discuss the development of social functions in the area mentioned, a fine example of the post-industrial heritage of Upper Silesia. Applying some of the qualities of public space identified in the theories adopted, the paper discusses how the Culture Zone [in Polish: Strefa Kultury] fulfils the above-mentioned demands and requirements. Is it accessible? Does it meet the need for comfort? Does it function as a leisure space? By referring to analyses and opinions presented in the literature and comparing them with the results of the author’s own empirical research, this article discusses the importance, opportunities, and shortcomings of the Culture Zone as a public space.

The Development of Tahfiz Qur'an Movement in the Reform Era in Indonesia

2015 ◽  
Vol 4 (1) ◽  
pp. 115-136
Author(s):  
Muhammad Sofyan
Keyword(s):  
Learning Methods ◽  
Reform Era ◽  
Creative Learning ◽  
Institutional System ◽  
Almost All

This paper is aimed to explore the development of Tahfiz Qur'an movement in the reform era in Indonesia, especially the developments emerging from 2005 until now. To view these developments, the writer will highlight the D±rul Qur'an institutions, ODOJ community (One Day One Juz), and methods of al-Qosimi and Yadain.by using obsrvation and documentery study. The study found that institutions, programs and methods of Tahfiz in that era had become transformative Tahfizul Qur'an, with modern institutional system, flexible program to reach almost all level of society, innovative and creative learning methods in accordance with the demand of today's improvement. However, these developments do not eliminate the fundamental things that have been built by the scholars of Tahfiz previously.

scholarly journals Public Space as a Venue for Peacebuilding in Lebanon? The Role of Civic Movements in Reclaiming Public Space in Beirut and Tripoli

2021 ◽  
pp. 25-46
Author(s):  
Aseel Naamani ◽  
Ruth Simpson
Keyword(s):  
Public Space ◽  
Public Life ◽  
Public Spaces ◽  
Urban Spaces ◽  
Building Relationships ◽  
The Core ◽  
The Face ◽  
History Of ◽  
Post War

The issue of public spaces is increasingly at the core of civic movements and discourse of reform in Lebanon, coming to the fore most recently in the mass protests of October 2019. Yet, these most recent movements build on years of activism and contestation, seeking to reclaim rights to access and engage with public spaces in the face of encroachments, mainly by the private sector. Urban spaces, including the country’s two biggest cities – Beirut and Tripoli – have been largely privatised and the preserve of an elite few, and post-war development has been marred with criticism of corruption and exclusivity. This article explores the history of public spaces in Beirut and Tripoli and the successive civic movements, which have sought to realise rights to public space. The article argues that reclaiming public space is central to reform and re-building relationships across divides after years of conflict. First, the article describes the evolution of Lebanon’s two main urban centres. Second, it moves to discuss the role of the consociational system in the partition and regulation of public space. Then it describes the various civic movements related to public space and examines the opportunities created by the October 2019 movement. Penultimately it interrogates the limits imposed by COVID-19 and recent crises. Lastly, it explores how placemaking and public space can contribute to peacebuilding and concludes that public spaces are essential to citizen relationships and inclusive participation in public life and affairs.

scholarly journals Lessons For Toronto From Melbourne’s City Centre Revitalization

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Brent Gilliard
Keyword(s):  
Public Space ◽  
Public Life ◽  
Public Spaces ◽  
City Centre ◽  
Physical Quality ◽  
Social Quality

Public space is important to a city’s economic and social quality. Downtown Toronto is not known for its public spaces but Melbourne is widely recognized for recently revitalizing its city centre with improved public spaces. A case study of Melbourne investigates its comparability to Toronto as well as the details of its "renaissance." It is concluded that Melbourne is, in fact, highly comparable to Toronto. Interventions in Melbourne were characterized by the principles: long-term vision, emphasizing local strengths, investment in quality, making space for people on foot, and using effective arguments and evidence. To emulate Melbourne’s city-centre revitalization, Toronto first should facilitate a civic conversation about the long-term vision for its downtown; second, it should initiate a public life survey of the downtown; third, it should invest is the physical quality of downtown public spaces; and fourth, it should begin an incremental program to reclaim roadway space from cars in locations of high pedestrian use.

Pedestrian Attribute Recognition using Gabor Wavelet Layers

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Imran N. Junejo
Keyword(s):  
Neural Network ◽  
Public Spaces ◽  
Convolution Neural Network ◽  
Gabor Wavelet ◽  
Gabor Wavelets ◽  
Age Group ◽  
Clothing Style ◽  
Public Dataset ◽  
Attribute Recognition ◽  
Almost All

We address the problem of Pedestrian Attribute Recognition (PAR) in this paper. Owing to the presence of surveillance cameras in almost all outdoor and indoor public spaces, keeping and eye on pedestrian is a sought-after task with many useful applications. The problem entails recognizing attributes such as age-group, clothing style, accessories, footwear style etc. This is a multi-label problem and challenging even for human observers. We propose using a convolution neural network (CNN) with trainable Gabor wavelets (TGW) layers. The proposed layers are learnable and adapt to the dataset for a better recognition. The proposed multi-branch neural network is a mix of TGW and convolutional layers and we show its effectiveness on a public dataset.

Intermediaries in E-Commerce

2010 ◽  
pp. 188-197
Author(s):  
Nirvikar Singh
Keyword(s):  
Transaction Costs ◽  
Value Chain ◽  
Digital Technology ◽  
Significant Degree ◽  
Economies Of Scope ◽  
Open Market ◽  
General Outcome ◽  
Use Of The Internet ◽  
Manual Tasks ◽  
Ownership Transformation

Very early in the evolution of e-commerce, predictions were made that a significant degree of disintermediation would occur, i.e., that middlemen would be eliminated from the value chain through the use of the Internet. The reasoning was as follows. The economic benefit of middlemen, or intermediaries, is that they reduce transaction costs for functions that are outside the firm (Coase, 1937). Therefore, as digital technology reduced transaction costs in the open market, the role of these middlemen would be threatened (Tapscott, 1996; Downes & Mui, 1998). However, intermediaries have proven to be remarkably robust, even as they have transformed their roles and functions. The success of e-commerce firms like Amazon, eBay, and Yahoo is a testament to the continued value of intermediation. Even in an economy reshaped by digital technology, intermediaries still add value, and find new ways of doing so. This article examines the evolution and robustness of intermediation in e-commerce, by examining the fundamental economics of intermediation in terms of economies of specialization, scale, and scope. It considers ownership, transformation, and agency as different dimensions of intermediaries. It examines various intermediary roles, and how they are combined, driven by economies of scope and strategic attempts to capture value. It discusses how the various intermediary roles are changing in e-commerce, through the impact of digital technology. The specific case of financial intermediaries, at the forefront of digital technology usage, provides several examples (Singh, 2000). The conclusion is that intermediaries are important and varied enough that they will survive and thrive in the era of ecommerce. Disintermediation will not be a general outcome. Traditional intermediaries that perform manual tasks, or are part of slow or inefficient value chains are in danger, but the economic roles that intermediation plays are unchanged by e-commerce, and will be carried out in new ways.

scholarly journals Consistency between individuals' past and current romantic partners' own reports of their personalities

2019 ◽  
Vol 116 (26) ◽  
pp. 12793-12797 ◽  
Author(s):  
Yoobin Park ◽  
Geoff MacDonald
Keyword(s):  
Longitudinal Study ◽  
Romantic Relationships ◽  
Significant Degree ◽  
Romantic Partners ◽  
Personality Profiles ◽  
Unique Type ◽  
The Social ◽  
Average Person ◽  
Partner Similarity ◽  
The Individual

Do people have a “type” when it comes to their romantic partners’ personalities? In the present research, we used data from a 9-y longitudinal study in Germany and examined the similarity between an individual’s ex- and current partners using the partners’ self-reported personality profiles. Based on the social accuracy model, our analyses distinguished similarity between partners that was attributable to similarity to an average person (normative similarity) and resemblance to the target participant himself/herself (self-partner similarity) to more precisely examine similarity from partner to partner (distinctive similarity). The results revealed a significant degree of distinctive partner similarity, suggesting that there may indeed be a unique type of person each individual ends up with. We also found that distinctive partner similarity was weaker for people high in extraversion or openness to experience, suggesting that these individuals may be less likely to be in a relationship with someone similar to their ex-partner (although the individual difference effects were not mirrored in an alternative analytic approach). These findings provide evidence for stability in distinctive partner personality and have important implications for predicting future partnering behaviors and actions in romantic relationships.

scholarly journals Russians from China: Migrations and Identity

2013 ◽  
Vol 5 (2) ◽  
pp. 143-158
Author(s):  
Mara Moustafine
Keyword(s):  
Jewish Community ◽  
20Th Century ◽  
North China ◽  
Chinese Cities ◽  
Political Transformations ◽  
Political Forces ◽  
The World ◽  
China And Japan ◽  
The Rich ◽  
Almost All

In the first half of the 20th century, sizeable Russian communities lived in a number of Chinese cities, including Harbin, Shanghai and Tientsin. The largest and most diverse of these was the community that grew up around Harbin in north China. By the mid 1920s, Harbin was home to one of the largest Russian diaspora communities in the world, with over 120,000 Russians and other nationalities from the former Tsarist Empire. Moreover, many Russians in Shanghai and Tientsin had links to Harbin, as their first place of domicile in China. By the late 1950s, political transformations in China had driven almost all these people elsewhere. But for many of them, their roots in China became a key aspect of their identity in emigration in their new diasporas. This paper explores the background to this unique community and the geo-political forces underpinning the various waves of migration of Russians into and out of Harbin. It analyses the complex issues of identity and citizenship Russians faced while living in Harbin, their fates determined at various points in time by the dominance of three powers – Russia, China and Japan. Drawing on the experience of my own family, whose life in Harbin and Manchuria spanned four generations over fifty years, it touches on the rich ethnic and cultural mix that lay beneath the surface of “Russian” Harbin, with particular reference to the Jewish community that once thrived there. Finally, it examines how the ‘Harbintsy’ perceive their identity in emigration and the recent changes in attitude towards them of the Chinese authorities.

People’s Participation in Decentralising Planning for Rural Development in the Reform Era: Opportunities and Challenges

1970 ◽  
Vol 4 (1) ◽  
pp. 4-13
Author(s):  
G. V. Joshi
Keyword(s):  
Developing Countries ◽  
Rural Development ◽  
Government Intervention ◽  
Institutional Arrangement ◽  
Economic Reforms ◽  
Reform Era ◽  
New Era ◽  
Decentralized Planning ◽  
Course Of Action

With the commencement of economic reforms, the emphasis on decentralization has increased, especially because new partners in both decentralization and development are emerging.  In this new era where scope for government intervention is reduced, more and more research is needed to examine how far and how efficiently decentralization can be used as a strategy for rural development in developing countries like India. This paper proposes to bring out the case for making a special institutional arrangement with a view to enable people to participate in decentralized planning for rural development.  It focuses attention on making such an arrangement in the reform era.  Further both the new opportunities favourable for people’s participation and challenges that confront are identified for pinpointing the needed future course of action.

scholarly journals Better places for a liveable-and lively- city. A method of Post-Occupancy Evaluation of public spaces

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Gabriela de Souza Tenorio ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Public Space ◽  
Industrial Revolution ◽  
Evaluation Method ◽  
Public Life ◽  
Public Spaces ◽  
Daily Basis ◽  
Post Occupancy Evaluation ◽  
Space Design ◽  
The World ◽  
The 1960S

Public spaces that attract and retain diverse people are crucial to foster urbanity and tolerance, and build stronger and livelier communities, especially in big cities. The simple coexistence of similarities and differences in public spaces can, to say the least, validate our own essence and offer us a possibility of growth. Sharing the same space with other people – even without interacting with them – favors social learning. Theory suggests that thought, feeling and behavior can be altered by observation. The search for public spaces that make urbanity viable is desirable in any society (especially in more unequal societies, as one can find in developing countries). However, inspired by ideas built on the critique of great urban agglomerations after the Industrial Revolution, cities around the world have undergone transformations that did exactly the opposite. As a series of lifeless places began to emerge, several researchers tried to figure out why this was happening. These researchers found that just wanting to create a lively place was not enough. It was necessary to scrutinize the behavior of people in public spaces in order to understand the relationship between their configuration and use. The knowledge they have built has been largely responsible for the increasing concern with public spaces and their relation to public life since the 1960s. Cities around the world are realizing that empty places could be full of people, and that not only a place full of people is something positive, but an empty place is not. They are learning to see underused public spaces as social, cultural, environmental, and financial waste. However, even with so much information available, it is still possible to find, in any contemporary city, public spaces that fail to support public life. Frequently, little or nothing is done to make them safer or more attractive, diverse and pleasant. It is even more worrying to realize that such places continue to be created. This is the focus of this paper. It brings together available knowledge and experiences in the area of public space design. It also complements, structures and translates such experiences and knowledge into a Public Space Post-Occupancy Evaluation Method, which stresses the importance of observing people and their activities. As a result, one can better understand, observe, assess and, thus, manipulate the main attributes of a public space that may influence its capacity to attract and retain diverse people on a daily basis. The method is offered as a tool to support those who deal with public spaces at different levels – from academic studies to municipal management. It has been used in Brasilia, Brazil, for the past 7 years, with positive results in governmental decision-making processes. A case study is briefly presented to illustrate its use.

Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document