A County Town in Ruins: Memories, Emotions, and Sense of Place in Post-Earthquake Beichuan, China

Ruins serve as symbolic sites at which to re-examine people’s relationships with the past and bonds with places. In the context of the ruination caused by earthquakes and the displacement and resettlement of local residents post-disaster, this paper explores vernacular (residents’ and survivors’) memories, emotions, and senses of place triggered by the ruins of Beichuan county town, China. Results show vernacular memories of specific ruins were highly fragmented and multi-temporal. Interwoven before- and after-quake memories gave rise to complex emotions, mainly including traumatic feeling of sadness, fear, and painful nostalgia. The study further identifies people’s sense of place towards the ruined county town and finds that locals’ sense of place was not accompanied by the loss of physical dependence to the negative side; locals still expressed high levels of place identity (physical uniqueness, self-esteem, and meanings), place attachment (rootedness and emotional attachment), and positive consequences of place behaviours (protection intention and revisiting) post-earthquake. Moreover, it found that sociodemographic variables of age and length of residence in Beichuan and the variables of disaster loss had significant effect on people’s sense of place. This study balances the overriding focus on visual and representational concerns common in ruin scholarship and further reveals the complex psychological processes impacting on sense of place after large-scale disasters. The findings reflect on the relief practices of post-disaster planning and can serve to guide ruin preservation.

Cholera as a present-day concern in perception of the dwellers of the county town of Tsaritsyn (based on the materials of the newspaper “Volzhsko-Donskoy Listok”)

The object of this research is the regional press as a source on the history of cholera epidemics of the late XIX century. The subject is the public moods and behavioral practices of the dwellers of the county town of Saratov governorate – Tsaritsyn, which was affected by cholera epidemic of 1892, in coverage of the regional press. The historiographical framework consists on the versatile and unique materials of the municipal newspaper "Volzhsko-Donskoy Listok", which are introduced into the scientific discourse for the first time. A detailed analysis of the annual publications of local press allowed tracing the chronology of the traditional approach towards perception of the poorly studied in literature cholera epidemics of 1892 in Tsaritsyn in the context of studying the history of everyday life. The author reveals this topic up until September 1893. Special attention is turned to examination of different stereotypical models of behavior that appeared to be widespread among the population, and became a somewhat response to the emerged situation of biological and social nature. The research is based on the interdisciplinary approach that implies comprehensive examination of the problem, involving the achievements in the history of medicine, historiography, psychology, sociology, etc. This article is the first attempt within the regional historiography to holistically examine the cholera epidemic of 1892 in Tsaritsyn. The conducted analysis of the newspaper “Volzhsko-Donskoy Listok” allowed to highly rate the informative capabilities of the regional press for studying cholera epidemics and their impact on life of the population in the post-reform period. The author offers the original classification of the whole variety of materials on the topic, as well as outlines the ways for their further usage.

Ural Officials in the District Town of the First Half of the 1870s (Diary of a Servant of the Ural Landowners Golubtsov)

The features of the formation of the appearance of a provincial district society are analyzed on the example of the Ural district town of Krasnoufimsk, Perm province. The factors that influenced the changes taking place in the bureaucratic environment in the first half of the 1870s are considered, the composition of Krasnoufimsk district officials is presented. The study was carried out on the basis of data recorded by the former serf of the Perm landowners Golubtsovs Matvey Andreev in the published Diary. Through the eyes of a representative of a different class, some aspects of the relationship between the Krasnoufimsk bureaucratic district society and the representative of the upper noble class V. P. Golubtsov (1832—1887) are shown. It is indicated that the information contained in the Diary testifies to the changes taking place in society associated with the erosion of its composition and the weakening of the influence of officials in the space of the county town, when the content component of the previously formed traditions changes by introducing new models of behavior by representatives of other classes. The relevance of the study is seen in the importance of studying the socio-cultural space of the provincial city in general and the Ural in particular, which had its own specific features that influenced the formation of urban society. It is concluded that although only some socio-cultural aspects of the life of a provincial society are shown, their identification and study will help to better understand what important processes took place in society during the post-reform period.

Oxford—Its regional, economic and climatic setting

This chapter provides a brief introduction to the City of Oxford, its location, topography, climate and history. It provides a context for the weather observations presented in the rest of the book. Oxford, the county town of Oxfordshire, is located in the south Midlands of England. It lies just under 100 km west-north-west of London and 40 km north-west of Reading. The Radcliffe Observatory was built on the northern edge of the city in the 1770s. Since then, there has been extensive suburban development to the north. The city stands on a low-lying river terrace of the Thames, close to the present floodplain; this will influence certain aspects of the microclimate such as the incidence of fog.

Urzędnicy najemni i służba w miastach Wołynia w drugiej połowie XVI – pierwszej połowie XVII wieku

Officials and Servants in Towns and Cities of Volhynia in the Second Half of 16th and the First Half of the 17th CenturyThe article looks into activity of officials and servants hired in the Volhynian towns and cities. Among them scribes played a particularly important role. In smaller towns there was only one scribe, but in larger towns, primarily of the county town status , there were two scribes – one for the council and one for the vogt. In private towns scribes were mostly noblemen, but in royal cities burghers prevailed in the post. Some scribes worked also as lawyers as their side job. Municipal finances were managed by “shafars” and interests of the burghers were secured by the “instigator”. The vogt and municipal servants carried out the instructions and orders of the city council and the court. The announcements in the cities were made by the herald. In emergency cases church bells were used to alert the citizens. Public order in the city was maintained by day and night guards. Punishment in the cities was carried out by the executioner. The articles also makes a mention of lower-ranking city servants , such as: canons, locksmiths, shepherds, and trumpeters.

Location of cooperative bank and its impact on financial results

The research aim was to examine the impact of location of cooperative bank on its financial results. The study was based on financial statements of BPS Group Banks which from period 2013-2015 and included the following issues: distance from county town to bank headquarter, level of return on equity, return on assets, net financial result and capital adequacy ratio. The data analysis showed that distance from nearest bigger town was positively correlated with ROE, ROA and CAR, but also was negatively correlated with net financial result.