‘… for peace comes dropping slow’

This article considers Northern Ireland’s history of conflict through a lens that emphasizes conciliation over conflict. It demonstrates how numerous state, social and economic groups actively attempted to avoid, rectify or oppose Northern Ireland’s conflict. In doing so, the article argues that long before (and after) the Good Friday Agreement of 1998 was reached subtle changes at the societal level helped both restrain and later ameliorate the conflict there. This emphasis questions the utility of more (para)militarized histories of Northern Ireland’s Troubles by seeing the peace process as the growth of conciliation rather than the attenuation of violence. Applying this to what is widely regarded as the polarization of politics in the contemporary United States, the article highlights how the emphasis on violent events in the public mind can actively obscure a more consistent, if gradual, current flowing in a different direction.

The Monastic Monolith in Operation

The general patterns established during the period 1922–67 regarding the political and administrative arrangements relating to the Irish education system began to break down after following the introduction of free second-level education in 1967 and a subsequent great increase in attendance at second-level schools. In 1965, The OECD-sponsored Investment in Education report contributed greatly to portraying the economic, social, and geographic inequalities of opportunity in Ireland at the time. In particular, it drew attention to the fact that one-third of all children left full-time education upon completion of primary schooling and only 59 per cent of all 15-year-old children were in school. What was less clear in the public mind at the time was that levels of provision had been even bleaker on the establishment of the State and had not changed substantially over the succeeding four decades. That reality constitutes the background to considerations in this chapter. It opens by elaborating on the various types of primary, second-level, and continuation schools that existed across the nation. The overall patterns of access to and attendance at secondary school are then detailed. A very general exposition of the economic and social conditions in the country that influenced the existence of these patterns follows.

ALEXANDER II MODERNIZATION AS A CIVILIZATION CHOICE OF SOCIETY

The article investigates the reforms introduced by Alexander II through the prism of a comparative analysis of western and eastern civilizations. The author maintains that, having long developed as eastern civilization, Russia is characterized by oriental despotism, absence of a constructive dialogue between government and society, paternalistic social consciousness, legal nihilism. The author assesses historical data on reforms implemented by Alexander II and comes to the conclusion that the reforms signified an attempt to converge with western civilization. Alexander II‟s reforms enhanced the importance of law, highlighted the principle of everyone‟s equality before the law, encouraged a constructive dialogue between government and society, and underlined the inadmissibility of plenipotentiary autocratic power and despotism. However, since it is not easy to change public mind, western innovations remained closely associated with oriental traditions, such as the importance of community, paternalism, and legal nihilism. The author concludes that though Alexander II‟s reforms introduced some elements of western civilization, Russian society remained essentially oriental.

The Structural Equation Model of Ecological Footprint and Inspiration of Public Mind Affecting Student’s Pro-Environmental Behaviour

The research objectives were to verify the structural equation model of Ecological Footprint (EF) and Public Mind Inspiration (PMI) affecting the Pro-environmental Behaviour (PB) of undergraduate students. The samples were 400 undergraduates of Rajabhat Mahasarakham University, collected by The MultiStage sampling technique. The research tool was a five-rating scaled questionnaire. The data was analysed by employing descriptive statistics and the factor analysis with LISREL Mplus. The results revealed that EF and PMI were able to explain the variation of PB with 72.00 percent. EF had the most direct effect on PB with an effect of 0.45, subsequently was PMI with an effect of 0.42. Moreover, EF had an effect on PMI with an effect of 0.31 and was able to predict the variation of PMI with 75.00 percent. The structural equation model of EF affecting PB through PMI verified the proposed model. It fitted with all observed variables in line with the criteria of a ChiSquare/df value less or equal to 1.929 and it was less than or equal to 5.00 ( χ /df 5.00 2  ). RMSEA (Root Mean Square Error Approximation) equalled 0.045 (RMSEA < 0.05) and RMR (Root Mean Square Residual) equalled 0.024 (RMR < 0.05) and included the index level of model congruent value of Goodness of Fit Index (GFI) equal to 0.95, and Adjust Goodness of Fit Index (AGFI) equal to 0.93, which are between 0.90-1.00.

Socioeconomic Reality in the Subjective Dimension

All social and economic aspects of human life can be described by statistical data that claims to be objective. Still, people hold a distinctive view of the world, differing widely from the official one. Statistics is the key means to make management decisions. It helps to adopt a balanced and responsible approach to determining priorities for the social development strategy. However, those steps taken by the government that do not correspond with subjective perception and expectations might be insufficient to improve the lives of the people. Individuals act and react according to their own views. Their behavior is key to understanding crucial social issues; it is also a reference point for social policies which might be more accurate than objective criteria. Discrepancies between academic and ordinary cognition are attributed to limited objective (statistical) data as well as the specific nature of individual perception of reality. In the first part of this paper, based on the findings of international research and public opinion polls (ESS, Ipsos MORI, Perils of Perception), the authors establish that perceptions dominant in the public mind are misaligned compared to conventional statistical evaluation. They also analyze the scale of misalignment variations in several countries. The second and third parts of the article examine the reasons behind these discrepancies. Having scrutinized the statistical “objectivity” of social and economic phenomena such as inflation, unemployment, migration and their reflection in the public mind, the authors conclude that objective indicators are not the ultimate truth. Their impartiality is based on data acquisition and calculations detailed in the general theory of statistics as well as generalized conventional definitions. Although subjective variables have been introduced into this field in recent times, the vast majority of statistical indices have not taken public opinion into account. The reality, however, is more complex and multifaceted, it does not fit into levelized indicators. Conversely, subjective public views do not appear out of thin air. They are largely affected by the trust in government institutions, influenced by ideologies and systems of value and cemented by the views of a reference group and media. These findings might help to fine-tune social policies and explain voting behavior.

Anthology-Making

This chapter focuses on poetry anthologies published in the 1950s and 1960s. Robert Conquest's 1956 Macmillan anthology New Lines was responsible for consolidating the arguments and personnel of the Movement in the public mind. This was achieved through his clear taste and agenda, New Lines' limited personnel of just nine poets, and the generous selections from the poets' work it contained. Another anthology published in the same year was G. S. Fraser's Poetry Now, where no less than 74 poets are represented. The contents list reveals that Fraser was acquainted with the work of many poets from all sides of the poetry world, while the introduction reveals him to be well informed on recent poetic trends. Penguin, the biggest British publisher at that time, also drew up a scheme for new poetry anthologies: a new edition of Kenneth Allott's Contemporary Verse; Poetry since the War, a book suggested by [C. B.] Cox and [A. E.] Dyson of the Critical Quarterly; and An Anthology of Twentieth Century Lyrics with an emphasis on the Georgian style and its inheritors to be edited by one John Smith.

Formation of the Image of Russian State Security Agencies in the Public Consciousness: Symbolic Potential of Memorial Objects

Introduction. The effectiveness of the work of law enforcement agencies largely depends on the support of population and the image of the agency in the public consciousness. Over the course of a century of the agency’s activities, the image of Russian special services and their leaders has been constantly transformed, that left its mark on the installation and demolition of monuments. The purpose of this article is to study the relationship between the public perception of the activities of Russian state security bodies and the image of their leaders, reflected, among other things, in memorial objects. Materials and Methods. The study is based on the principles of determinism, objectivity, historicism, consistency. The article uses an interdisciplinary approach that integrates the achievements of a number of humanities on the subject under study. The theoretical basis of the study was the issues of domestic and foreign philosophers, historians, political scientists. Important source groups were electronic media reports and opinion polls. For the interpretation of the latter, a method of secondary analysis of data from sociological studies was used. Results. The ambiguous attitude of various social forces to the activities of state security bodies finds its expression in the struggle for the existence of memorial objects in memory of their leaders. The most discussed historical figures in this context are Felix Dzerzhinsky, Lavrenti Beria and Yuri Andropov. In recent decades, there has been an increase in positive assessments of these statesmen in the public mind and scientific community. Nevertheless, the most significant initiatives in the field of commemoration of the activities of special services (in particular, the return of the Dzerzhinsky monument to Lubyanka Square) have not yet been implemented. Discussion and Conclusions. A public reminder about the heads of state security agencies stimulates a reassessment of historical events in the public mind and positively affects the image of the agency. The current moment seems to the authors favorable to perpetuate the achievements of security agencies.

Evaluating Resistance toward Muslim American Political Integration

Muslims in the United States are often constructed as anti-American and are perceived to have little engagement with politics. Moreover, Arab and Muslim identity is often conflated in the public mind. In this note, we introduce results from a randomized survey experiment conducted in three states with varying Muslim populations—Ohio, California, and Michigan—to assess how trustworthy respondents rate a local community leader calling for unity when that individual signals themselves to be an Arab, Muslim, or Arab Muslim, as opposed to when they do not signal their background. Across the board, and in each state, respondents rate the community leader as less trustworthy when he is identified as Muslim American or as Arab Muslim, but not when he is identified as Arab. These results suggest that the public does not conflate these two identities and that Muslims are evaluated more negatively than Arabs, even when hearing about their prosocial democratic behavior.