Civilians in Wars

2019 ◽  
pp. 1-21
Author(s):  
Mila Dragojević

This introductory chapter presents the book's argument that collective crimes, or targeted violence against civilians in times of war, are acts with a political goal. But why does targeted violence against civilians occur in some communities and not in others in time of war? This is because the process of ethnicization was triggered there first by two related mechanisms: the exclusion of moderates and the production of borders. Ethnicization can be defined as the fusing of a political goal with ethnicity in order to secure political support. As a result, the range of political options becomes more limited, ambiguity of identification is artificially reduced, and defection from in-group is prevented. Even before the war had started, some communities had already transformed into amoral communities. In these communities, individuals were stripped of the freedom to express themselves or act on the basis of their personal views if those views did not align with one of the dominant and accepted political views. In those communities, eventually, the very definition of crime became altered by the wartime conditions described in the discourse of the local political leaders as the “state of exception,” under which violence against civilians defined as the “enemy” on the other side of the newly drawn border was seen as a form of justified and preemptive self-defense against perceived threats. The chapter then provides a historical context of the first political crises and instances of violence in the territory of Croatia.

Author(s):  
Mila Dragojević

This book examines how conditions conducive to atrocities against civilians are created during wartime in some communities. It identifies the exclusion of moderates and the production of borders as the main processes. In these places, political and ethnic identities become linked and targeted violence against civilians becomes both tolerated and justified by the respective authorities as a necessary sacrifice for a greater political goal. The book augments the literature on genocide and civil wars by demonstrating how violence can be used as a political strategy, and how communities, as well as individuals, remember episodes of violence against civilians. It focuses on Croatia in the 1990s, and Uganda and Guatemala in the 1980s. In each case, it is considered how people who have lived peacefully as neighbors for many years are suddenly transformed into enemies, yet intracommunal violence is not ubiquitous throughout the conflict zone; rather, it is specific to particular regions or villages within those zones. As the book describes, the exclusion of moderates and the production of borders limit individuals' freedom to express their views, work to prevent the possible defection of members of an in-group, and facilitate identification of individuals who are purportedly a threat. Even before mass killings begin, the book finds, these and similar changes will have transformed particular villages or regions into amoral communities, places where the definition of crime changes and violence is justified as a form of self-defense by perpetrators.


2019 ◽  
pp. 117-141
Author(s):  
Mila Dragojević

This chapter demonstrates how targeted violence against civilians in amoral communities should be understood first and foremost as a political strategy. It then distinguishes between a political strategy and a military strategy while recognizing that the two may be complementary and used simultaneously by warring armies, political leaders, and the populations these leaders claim to represent. The main distinguishing feature is that a political strategy is characterized by the targeting of individuals who are defined by their political ethnicity and excluded from the envisioned nation-state or nation-body. Violence used as a political strategy may include individualized tactics, such as the torture, rape, harassment, and arrest of civilians in territory that was already conquered, as well as targeted massacres, looting, the burning of property, the destruction of cultural symbols, and the destruction of infrastructure. From the perspective of military strategy, some of these actions may be considered irrational, unnecessary, and ultimately destructive; however, when analyzed from the perspective of political strategy, a consistent pattern can be seen in the acts that target individuals who are perceived by the perpetrators as “political enemies” based on not only their ethnicity but also their political views.


Author(s):  
Peter Cheyne

This introductory chapter commences with a definition of contemplation as the sustained attention to the ideas of reason, which are not merely concepts in the mind, but real, external powers that constitute and order being and value, and therefore excite reverence or admiration. A contemplative, Coleridgean position is outlined as a defence in the crisis of the humanities, arguing that if Coleridge is right in asserting that ideas ‘in fact constitute … humanity’, then they must be the proper or ultimate studies of the disciplines that comprise the humanities. This focus on contemplation as the access to essential ideas explains why Coleridge progressed from, without ever abandoning, imagination to reason as his thought evolved during his lifetime. A section on ‘Contemplation: How to Get There from Here’, is followed by a descriptive bibliography of Coleridge as discussed by philosophers, intellectual historians, theologians, and philosophically minded literary scholars.


2021 ◽  
Vol 7 (2) ◽  
pp. 194-212

Subhash Chandra Bose was one of India’s greatest freedom fighter. He revived the Indian National Army, popularly known as ‘Azad Hind Fauj’ in 1943 which was initially formed in 1942 by Rash Behari Bose. He provided an influential leadership and kept the spirit of nationalism burning during the slack period of national movement in India. Netaji was a patriot to the last drop of his blood. In his passionate love for the motherland, he was prepared to do anything for the sake of liberating his country. Subhash Chandra Bose is a legendary figure in Indian history. His contribution to the freedom struggle made him a brave hero of India. However, there has been controversial debates about Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose’s political views in his struggle for India’s freedom till date. This paper studies about 1. Controversy on Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose’s political views; 2. Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose’s relation with Japan from contemporary perspectives; and 3. Subhash Chandra Bose’s relation with Japan in comparison with that of Phan Boi Chau in Vietnam. Received 9th December 2020; Revised 2nd March 2021; Accepted 20th March 2021


Author(s):  
Mike Goode

Romantic Capabilities argues that popular new media uses of literary texts often activate and make visible ways the texts were already about their relationship to medium. Devising and modelling a methodology that bridges historicist literary criticism and reception studies with media studies and formalism, it contends that how a literary text behaves when it encounters new media reveals capabilities in media that can transform how we understand the text’s significance for the original historical context in which it was created. Following an introductory chapter that explains and justifies its approach to the archive, the book analyses significant popular “media behaviors” exhibited by three major Romantic British literary corpuses: the viral circulation of William Blake’s pictures and proverbs across contemporary media, the gravitation of Victorian panorama painters and stereoscopic photographers to Walter Scott’s historical fictions, and the ongoing popular practice of writing fanfiction set in the worlds of Jane Austen’s novels and their imaginary country estates. Blake emerges from the study as an important theorist of how viral media can be used to undermine law, someone whose art deregulates through the medium of its audiences’ heterogeneous tastes and conflicting demands for wisdom. Scott’s novels are shown to have fostered a new experience of vision and understanding of frame that helped launch modern immersive media. Finally, Austenian realism is revealed as a mode of ecological design whose project fanfiction grasps and extends.


2017 ◽  
Vol 20 (6) ◽  
pp. 157-169
Author(s):  
Damian Szymczak

On the threshold of the 21st century, the problem of poverty remains unresolved. Many still suffer from hunger, and many more have no access to running water, or education. This raises a fundamental question that has bothered economy researchers for centuries: What determines the wealth of some countries, and the poverty of others? One of the contemporary researchers analysing the causes of poverty and development barriers is Indian economist Amartya Kumar Sen. Referring to the socio-economic theory of Sen, the author indicates that modernity implies the need for reflection on the definition of poverty. The author attempts to justify the thesis which focuses on the discord between the evaluation concepts of good and evil with objective economic factors defining poverty. The author suggests that the definition of poverty should be grounded in considerations concerning good and evil in a specific time, as well as cultural and historical context.


Author(s):  
Fátima Maria BaBaptista Valentim Dias Cardoso ◽  
Maria do Carmo Martins Pires e Sousa

ResumoO contributo de diferentes ramos da ciência no desenvolvimento do conhecimento e no seu ensino em múltiplas áreas disciplinares é incontestável. No caso da Enfermagem de Saúde Infantil e Pediátrica, numa lógica de similitude, associamo-la à medicina, particularmente ao ramo da Pediatria. Cedo percebemos que essa associação é reducionista. A história mostra-nos que o seu desenvolvimento também se deve a ciências como biologia, antropologia, filosofia, psicologia, sociologia e ciências da educação entre outras. Este entendimento conduz-nos ao conhecimento do contexto histórico da definição de infância e adolescência, dois conceitos indissociáveis da necessidade de se ensinar enfermagem e medicina específicas para estes grupos etários. Até ao século XII era desconhecida a representação de crianças em obras de arte e segundo Aries (1981)1 tal deve-se à pouca importância dada a estes seres. Nos séculos seguintes operaram-se modificações. As mais consistentes datam dos séculos XVII e XVIII. É inegável o contributo de Rousseau (1762)2 com Émile não só pelo impacto cultural, mas pelas consequências daí resultantes quando explorados os aspetos filosóficos e pedagógicos da obra. Com a Revolução Industrial tiveram início medidas de proteção da criança contra trabalhos insalubres e para satisfazer as suas necessidades de saúde. Em França surgiram os primeiros conceitos e trabalhos sobre puericultura que se expandiram a outros países da Europa. Querendo aprofundar o conhecimento, através de análise bibliográfica, sobre a evolução do ensino de Enfermagem de Saúde Infantil e Pediátrica e das implicações de diferentes ramos da ciência na mesma, procurámos refletir sobre o contributo que, ao longo dos anos, as diferentes áreas científicas deram para esta área disciplinar. Palavras chave: Ensino; Enfermagem pediátrica. Abstract The contribution of different branches of science to the development of knowledge and its teaching in multiple subject areas is undeniable. In the case of Infant Health and Pediatric Nursing, in a logic of similarity, we associate it with medicine, particularly the branch of Pediatrics. We soon realize that this is a reductionist association. History shows us that its development is also due to sciences such as biology, anthropology, philosophy, psychology, sociology and the educational sciences, among others. This understanding leads us to the knowledge of the historical context of the definition of childhood and adolescence, two concepts inseparable from the need to teach nursing and medicine specific to these age groups. Until the 12th century the representation of children was unknown in works of art and according to Aries (1981)3 this is due to the little importance given to these beings. In the following centuries modifications took place. The most consistent date from the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. Rousseau's (1762)4 contribution with Émile is undeniable, not only for its cultural impact, but also for the consequences resulting from the examination of the work’s philosophical and pedagogical aspects. With the Industrial Revolution, measures began to protect children against unhealthy work and to meet their health needs. In France came the first concepts and works on childcare that expanded to other countries in Europe. Wanting to increase knowledge, through literature review, about the evolution of the Infant Health and Pediatric Nursing teaching and the implications of different branches of science in it, we tried to reflect on the contribution that these have made to this subject area over the years. Keywords: Teaching; Pediatric nursing


Author(s):  
Wenzhong Shi ◽  
Michael F. Goodchild ◽  
Michael Batty ◽  
Mei-Po Kwan ◽  
Anshu Zhang

AbstractUrban informatics is an interdisciplinary approach to understanding, managing, and designing the city using systematic theories and methods based on new information technologies. Integrating urban science, geomatics, and informatics, urban informatics is a particularly timely way of fusing many interdisciplinary perspectives in studying city systems. This edited book aims to meet the urgent need for works that systematically introduce the principles and technologies of urban informatics. The book gathers over 40 world-leading research teams from a wide range of disciplines, who provide comprehensive reviews of the state of the art and the latest research achievements in their various areas of urban informatics. The book is organized into six parts, respectively covering the conceptual and theoretical basis of urban informatics, urban systems and applications, urban sensing, urban big data infrastructure, urban computing, and prospects for the future of urban informatics. This introductory chapter provides a definition of urban informatics and an outline of the book’s structure and scope.


Author(s):  
Joseph E. Davis

The Introduction sets out the major themes of the book. These include medicine’s role in the moral and cultural agendas of contemporary society, challenges to the biomedical model represented by new regimes of disease and disorder, and the limitations of principlist bioethics for moving in a more holistic direction. In the working definition of the book, “reductionism” suggests a mechanistic and narrowly somatic understanding of disease, monocausal theories of disease, and an exclusive preoccupation with cure to the neglect of prevention. Meanwhile, “holism” refers to a contextual understanding of disease causation, intervention, or practice. A systemic concern with the whole organism, a focus on the interconnected effects of the larger environment, and ethical concerns with the clinical encounter, can all be characterized as holistic. The Introduction situates the struggle between these perspectives in historical context, and calls for a renewed focus on the social determinants of health and a more holistic ethical perspective.


Author(s):  
Jed Z. Buchwald ◽  
Mordechai Feingold

This introductory chapter discusses Isaac Newton’s immersion in ancient prophecies, Church history, and alchemy. These investigations raise several questions: what links his interest in such matters to his investigations in optics, mechanics, and mathematics? Was Newton in his alchemical laboratory the same Newton who analyzed the passage of light through a prism and who measured the behavior of bodies falling through fluid media? What did the Newton who interpreted the Book of Revelation have to do with the man who wrote the Principia Mathematica? And how does the Newton who pored over ancient texts square with the author of the Opticks? The Newton that is the subject of this book differs in striking ways from any scientist of the twenty-first century. But he differed as well from his contemporary natural philosophers, theologians, and chronologers. The book investigates the origin of this difference and then uses it to produce a new understanding of Newton’s worldview and its historical context.


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