Period Of Capitalism Research Articles

Romanian Mining - Past, Present and a Possible Future

Abstract The paper follows the unfolding of the history of Romanian mining in its several major stages: the beginnings until the conquest of Dacia by the Romans, mining in Dacia during the Roman rule, mining activity after the Romans left Dacia until the 10th century, mining activity during the Middle Ages, mining during the capitalist period, Romanian mining during 1948–1990, Romanian mining after 1990, a possible future of Romanian mining and ends with some considerations regarding mining and the environment.

Administrative Aspects Regarding the Valorisation of Geothermal Waters for Balneological Purposes in Bihor County, Romania

This study aims to analyse the development of the balneological phenomenon in Bihor County generated by its administration, consequent of which, a classification of rural settlements and new tourist resorts has been made. The objective is to identify the current trend in the exploitation of the balneological potential of the localities in Bihor County. A comparative analysis has also been carried out between the influence of the political regimes on the exploitation of geothermal water sources at the level of rural settlements and new tourist resorts during the last five decades. The comparative analysis has revealed that the development of the balneological phenomenon has been carried out sequentially. This sequence has been influenced by the political environment and the administrative factor from the period before and after the Revolution. In the period before the Revolution, all balneological sources were managed by the public administrative factor; they were maintained and kept functional, until the Revolution of 1989, against the background of a stable political environment. In the post-Revolution period, when the decision and involvement was sometimes undertaken on a small scale (private administration), and where the interest in development was focused exclusively on the valorisation of the balneological resources, it can be said that capitalist policy favourably influenced the evolution of the balneological phenomenon at the level of rural settlements and new tourist resorts. We have concluded that the capitalist period has been favourable because, when the thermal baths were found to be unanimously managed by the public administration, they were functional in greater numbers at the rural level as compared to the post-revolutionary period. We have not analysed any “policy” documents in order to make this statement.

Seeing empathy as resistance: a conjunctural photovoice study of women and mining in Indonesia

Mining is increasingly under the scholarly microscope for its social and environmental impacts, including its uneven gender impacts. To study resistance of women across two communities affected by a long-established nickel mining and smelting operation in Indonesia, we paired photovoice with a discussion on conjunctures in the photo-stories. Photovoice is a visual ethnographic method that combines photography and storytelling to explore answers to research questions centered on how research participants make sense of their social worlds. By adding a discussion of conjunctures found in the photo-stories, we noted the combined methods facilitated empathetic responses and cross-community solidarity, a powerful antidote to the hyper-individualism and social discord fostered by mining interests in the neoliberal capitalist period. As Indonesia plans to open dozens more nickel mines and smelters, like the one in our study, in the rush to supply nickel for electric vehicle batteries, our study challenges scholars to look for empathy and solidarity. Seeing and exercising empathy and solidarity are important as extractive interests are expected to continue divide and conquer tactics to secure land and resources for exploitation.

Evolyuciya koncepcii grazhdanskogo obshchestva i harakteristika sootvetstvuyushchih issledovanij v Kitae

In this article, from the perspective and by mean of Marxist historical materialism, analysis of the different concepts of “civil society” at different times and their evolution was made in sequence as follows, Aristotle's concept of “city-state” in Ancient Greek period, Cicero’s concept of “state”, divine theory of state and society in Middle Ages, Ferguson's concept of “civilized society” and Hegel's concept of “civil society” in capitalist period and Marx's concept of civil society.

Polanyi and the Peasant Question in China: State, Peasant, and Land Relations in China, 1949–Present

This article applies Karl Polanyi’s concept of a double movement to the trajectory of rural state policies in China since 1949. It argues that Chinese socialism created a contradictory social contract that has fueled an ongoing struggle between state and peasantry over the surplus generated from rural land. This struggle has shaped a historical oscillation between state policies that facilitate extraction of agricultural surpluses and policies that introduce social protections in the form of household farming and revitalized collective ownership. Based on secondary sources, this article compares the arc of rural policies during the Mao era and in the transition to and during the current state capitalist period. Then, based on original interview-based and ethnographic fieldwork undertaken in rural Sichuan Province, it analyzes the current introduction of urban and agrarian capital into the rural economy, revealing dynamics of a current countermovement from state-led extraction to compromise.

Оценка уровня развития финансового рынка России на этапах экономического роста

The article examines the development of the Russian economy in its modern capitalist period. The authors emphasize that when analyzing the dynamics of GDP, there are five stages that have significant differences: growth rates, models that stimulate growth, sources of financing for economic growth, and other reasons, the totality of which determines the ‘face’ of each of the selected stages. The authors substantiate the necessity and possibility of using the potential of the financial market to stimulate economic growth. At the same time, considerable attention is paid to the justification of the impact of indicators that characterize the financial market within the framework of the institutional (financial institutions) and instrumental (financial instrument markets) approaches. The authors highlight five stages of Russia’s economic growth: economic (transformational) decline (1991–1998), rapid recovery economic growth (1999–2007), decaying recovery economic growth (2008–2012), stagnant economic growth (2013–2019). The article shows the importance of the financial market for the implementation of the main tasks at each stage from the standpoint of expert assessment of indicators of the development level of the financial market: depth (the importance of institutions and financial market instruments relative to macroeconomic indicators), availability of services provided by institutions and financial instrument markets, stability (the ability of financial institutions to continue providing services in the event of force majeure and financial market volatility), efficiency (the attractiveness of the market for business). The authors of the article believe that in 2020, a new fifth stage of Russia’s economic growth began, the potential of which can be revealed through the use of financial boost tools. At present, Russia is in a unique situation of a combination of a crisis based on both a demand model and a supply model. The authors propose specific measures to use the potential of these models. The combination of the measures used will reveal new opportunities for the development of the economy and society. These opportunities can be obtained by using the ideology of the strategy of accelerated financial development of the economy – financial boost.

Beyond the decay? Positive patterns in the development of a large housing estate: the case of Olechów-Janów district in Łódź, Poland

ABSTRACT A lot of attention in the academic and policy debate has been given to the process of transformation of large housing estates in Central and Eastern Europe post 1989. This included debate about their decreasing socio-economic status and the gradual deterioration of housing structures. Nevertheless, the transformation processes in various estates have not necessarily followed the same pattern and some districts, instead of decaying, have continued to grow during the capitalist period. This article discusses the case of one such estate in the city of Łódź in Poland, documents the ‘alternative’ format of transformation and discusses its implications for policymaking.

How to apply Uno theory to contemporary capitalism in multiple crises

Starting with characterization of Uno theory, this article reviews representative works to apply Uno's theory of economic crises based on Marx to contemporary capitalism after World War I in three distinctive periods: first, the 30 years of interwar period including the worldwide Great Depression after 1929; second, the post-World War II period of high economic growth continuing until the beginning of the 1970s without serious economic crisis; and, third, the inflationary crisis of 1973–1975, and repetitive financial collapses in the neoliberal capitalist period since the 1980s, including the subprime world economic crisis in 2007–2008. Historical meaning and limitations of neoliberal capitalism are thus reconsidered from a theoretical view on fundamental contradictions immanent in capitalist market economy.

CONCEPT OF PRESERVING ARCHITECTURAL HERITAGE OF BAKU, BUILD AT THE END OF 19TH AND BEGINNING OF THE 20TH CENTURIES

The architectural heritage of Baku in the period under study is in dire need of protection today. Urgent study of the supporting structures of the monuments for their preservation, strengthening, replacement, etc. is necessary. At the present stage there is an urgent need for the conservation of individual monuments of architecture, creation of conditions for their correct use and exposure, measures for the regeneration of the historic environment.The aim of this study is to develop the concept of preservation of the architectural heritage of Baku, relating to the late 19th – early 20th century on the basis of identifying their condition. The research methodology is based on a systematic approach, which includes the analysis of literary and archive materials, full-scale studies of architectural monuments and surrounding buildings, typological classification of architectural heritage by type, chronology of construction and development of the concept of the historical heritage preservation of Baku of the period under study. The study of the general condition of the buildings considered in this work allows us to conclude that they are in a relatively satisfactory condition. Some of them have recently been restored. øt is necessary to carry out restoration and rehabilitation works in others. The considered buildings are the most striking architectural monuments of the capitalist period of Baku. Their rehabilitation requires a correct approach, taking into account all aspects of the modern preservation of historical buildings. For the first time, the main directions of the concept of preserving the architectural heritage of Baku of the period under study have been developed. The main concept proposed by R.Mustafayeva is based on the preservation of their historical authenticity, without changing the original idea of the authors of the project. The main proposals and conclusions presented in this paper can be successfully applied in the projects of rehabilitation of historical buildings in Baku. In this article sections 1,2,3,4 were made by Z.Mammadova. Sections 6.7, 8.9 were elaborated by R.Mustafayeva. Section 5 was developed jointly by both authors.

The impact of political, socio-economic and cultural factors on implementing environment friendly techniques for sustainable land management and climate change mitigation in Romania

Throughout the history of Romania, political decisions, socio-economic measures, and cultural (traditional) characters have affected the implementation of environment friendly techniques (EFTs) policies. In the context of this paper, EFTs can be defined as solutions for the use of land resources aiming the increasing of goods for meeting the changing human needs and with neutral or positive environmental impact. Changes in the political regime have always had a visible impact on the EFTs issue in Romania. EFTs has gone through several major phases. The political impact on EFTs implementation mainly affected sustainable land management (SLM) and to a small extent, at the end of the communist era and partly during the capitalist period, climate change mitigation. Throughout history, the political factor has dominated and influenced the capacity of the EFTs implementation process in responding to socio-economic stimuli. In addition, quality of life, rural-urban and urban-rural migrations, poverty, education level, and climate change adaptation have had impacts on the status of EFTs according to governance and political reflections. The agrarian reforms from the last two centuries, based on socio-economic demands, have strongly influenced the capacity to implement EFTs both positively and negatively. However, the cultural factor was least affected by political and socio-economic changes as a stability factor in ensuring continued implementation of the EFTs. Currently, there is a strong need to reconsider EFTs as sustainability tools for Romanian agriculture that can cope with climate change and sustainable land management (SLM) demands. This paper presents a brief history of EFTs in Romania and their benefits in achieving SLM equilibrium, describing the impacts of political decisions, socio-economic measures, and cultural features on implementing ETFs policies.

The Path to Socialism: The Program for Fostering Cooperatives and Socializing Public System

The paper by Jan Wolski — a Polish theoretician and cooperative activist — constitutes the third section of the book Spółdzielczy samorząd pracy [Cooperative Labour Self-Management], which he wrote over the years of 1943-1956, but which was never published as a whole. The manuscript, from the author’s family archives, includes the information that this piece was ―written in 1943 for the Inter-union Cooperative Committee (functioning underground in Warsaw during II World War) and the Socialist Planning Commission‖. Entitled Cooperative Labour Self-Management, this section of the planned book was published in the monthly magazine Więź [Bond], issue no. 2 of 1972, and in 2011 on the website Lewicowo.pl. It contains Wolski’s deliberations regarding the functioning of cooperative labour self-management under the conditions of a social and economic transformation heading towards a classless society. Wolski believed a universal labour-based political system to be one of the essential conditions of socialism, supplanting the old organisational forms originating from the capitalist period. As such, universal labour self-management together with other forms of popular self-government, and particularly user self-government, constitutes a transmission belt between the populace’s grassroots activity and top-down political organisation. Mindful of Edward Abramowski’s teachings, Wolski considered that only having the state based on self-governing cooperative institutions consisted the true realisation of universal will, and thereby the realisation of socialist ideals.

A mudança estrutural na Guiné-Bissau

A Guiné-Bissau conquistou a sua independência em 1973 e adotou o modelo econômico de planificação centralizado, baseado no ideal socialista. Porém, meado da década de oitenta marcou a transição para o capitalismo de mercado. O objetivo é discutir a mudança estrutural do socialismo para o capitalismo ocorrida no país, tendo como referencial teórico a corrente institucionalista vebleniana e os fundamentos do estruturalismo econômico. A partir da discussão feita, sustenta-se que, no período socialista, coordenar centralizadamente diferentes políticas visando o objetivo comum era uma tarefa difícil. Já para o período capitalista, conclui-se que as políticas criadas têm pouca sintonia com as instituições informais enraizadas no sistema econômico guineense, e pouco contribuem para o desenvolvimento nacional.

ASSEMBLING THE POST-SOCIALIST MARKETPLACE: TRANSITIONS AND REGENERATION PROJECTS AT THE CENTRAL PAZAR OF SOFIA

Drawing on a historical-ethnographic approach that binds the socialist, the early post-socialist and the contemporary consumer capitalist period in Bulgaria I will analyse transitions at a single urban site. Jenski Pazar, the central marketplace of Sofia, is a landmark of a century-long existence, where activities in the 1990s boomed with the collapse of socialist economy. Today, with the further globalization of trade and the rise of a Bulgarian middle class, it is the last place that caters for those groups that were left out – pensioners, minorities, immigrants, unemployed – providing a variety of unique for the city economic and social functions. However, the needs and perceptions of the society at large have also been changing, calling for policies for its transformation to a middle class consumption zone. In this paper I analyze through ethnographic study the contradictions borne by the market – between imagined futures, between cohabiting social groups, between needs and renewal policies, between recent past, present and future.

PROPERTY AND SOCIAL DIFFERENTIATION OF TRANSBAIKAL PEASANTRY IN LATTER HALF OF THE XIXth – EARLY XXth CENTURIES

The article focuses on one of the major issues of regional agrarian history for the capitalist period – the period of material and social stratification of Transbaikal peasantry. The paper aims at analyzing the degree of class divisions among rural population of Transbaikal region. The absence of serfdom in the region and abundance of indigenous population resulted in a peculiar process of peasants’ disintegration are a key area of interest. Thereby the issue of Siberian peasants’ disintegration is not dealt by historians conclusively and still under debate. By addressing broadranging resources and published literature, the author accurately and conclusively shows the process of forming new social groups in the countryside – rural bourgeoisie (middle class) and rural proletariat. The materials concerning land lease, peasants’ seasonal work and the reasons for pushing these processes are of great interest. The information about the influence of Trans-Siberian railway on farm business in Transbaikalia and the entire regional economy is of great concern. The author concludes about the degree of Russian and Buryat peasants’ disintegration and the degree of Cossacks’ class stratification in Transbaikal region. The article’s novelty aims at addressing the archival material some parts of which are firstly introduced for scientific use.

Rome: Postmodern Narratives of a Cityscape ed. by Dom Holdaway, Filippo Trentin

BOOK REVIEWS WARW I K c iu i:s 1N ·1 H E I lvMANJTJ ES Rome, Postmodern Narratives of a Cityscape Edited by Dom Holdaway and Filippo Trentin Number 2 Dom Holdaway and Filippo Trentin, eds. Rome: Postmodern Narratives ofa Cityscape. London: Pickering and Chatto, 2013, hardcover, 256 pages, black-and-white illustrations,£60.00/$99.00, ISBN 978-1-848-93349-1. The Rome of popular imagination, the "Caput Mundi,'' the "Eternal City," the "Divine City" of the Catholic West or the "City of Ruins" of the Grand Tour, does not represent the Rome of today and perhaps not even the Rome of history. The essays presented in this volume recognize that the conceptualization of Rome as a palimpsest has long served the agendas of the historian and the tour guide, but that this characterization of the city denies both the reality of its untamed, peripheral ARRIS 76 § Volume 24 § 201 3 growth and the possibility to fully engage with the historical city. Rather than attempting to project a singular identity onto the contemporary metropolis, the essays examine the city as a complex, pluralistic entity and "aim to problematize the universal idea of Rome," offering a challenge to "both the grand narratives of Rome as 'Eternal City,' and Rome as a modern hell" (p. 3). In their introduction, Holdaway and Trentin attempt to frame the essays within a historicomaterialist postmodern perspective, which they define as a cultural reaction to the late capitalist period of the 1950s. This framework allows for the contradictions that inevitably arise when examining such an iconic, multifaceted city. In particular, the explorations of the relationship between Rome's cinematic image and the reality of the built environment reveal the fragmentary and fleeting nature of subjective perceptions. These individual moments become iconographic, which at once allows the city to be recognized through a single image but also allows the greater city to escape a total "knowability ." In this way, the editors show that Rome has the potential to always grow and to always deflect an objectively conclusive definition. The authors examine a Rome which is incomplete, unknowable, and alive-in a true historical sense-because of its capacity to escape potential petrification from its own history. The editors organized this collection of essays as a tripartite discourse with Rome's traditions and histories, and each essay acknowledges the osmotic nature of the postmodern city. The first grouping, entitled "Knowing Rome," grounds the book within an alternate historical narrative, tracing the formal development of the city from a concentrated historic center to a fragmented, modern metropolis. These essays disregard the archetypal reading of Rome as a palimpsest, as they describe an evolution of the city which was never linear and teleological; rather, the city has evolved in a variety of trajectories. which have created the fluid, de-centered contemporary condition. In the first essay, Marco Cavietti considers Rome's urban growth through an investigation of the Aurelian Walls. He proposes that this physical delineation of the traditional historic center, rather than simply separating the city from the periphery, is most useful in conceptualizing contemporary Rome as a threshold. Cavietti notes that Rome's explosive peripheral growth occurs only after the Italian Army broke through the Porta Pia in 1871, which broke down the walls' symbolic boundary. This dematerialization of the threshold resonates with the essays of Fabio Benincasa and Lesley Caldwell, whose writings on Italian film reveal the erosion of the distinction between physical space and cinematic representations. Benincasa's essay on the influence of Italian cinema on contemporary perceptions and representations of Rome traces the role of the fragmentary monument as a means for mapping the city. He finds a strong conceptual link between the Mirabilia Urbis Romae's emphasis on individual monuments as a means of orientation and Federico Fellini's presentation of the city in film, as both present Rome as a collage of fragmentary experiences. For Benincasa, Rome's postmodernity is most evident in the city's refusal to be easily defined; rather, he argues for the recognition of Rome as an infinite system ofcenters and experiences. Caldwell's essay surveys the cinematic representation of a few of these possible trajectories within...

Evolution of Human Rights Development in Romania

In this work we will try to present the evolution of regulations concerning the main human rights, at constitutional level, during the socialist and capitalist period respectively, after 1990. We will also analyse the implications that the ratification of the European Convention on Human Rights had since 1994 and also the accession of Romania to the European Union in 2007. We will debate here the issues raised by the means that the individual can use in order to acquire knowledge concerning this fundamental domain, in permanent expansion. Interdisciplinarity in the human rights education will allow the individual interaction with the philosophy of human rights within the school. In this sense, we will also mention here the existence of programs intended to create trainers in education for democracy.

A Bodily Sign of “Doing Nothing”: Loitering or the Silence before the Storm

A Bodily Sign of “Doing Nothing”: Loitering or the Silence before the Storm

The North American Free Trade Agreement and Women

This article discusses some of the effects of NAFTA on women workers in Canada and Mexico. The main purpose is to show that NAFTA represents a continuation of the capitalist dynamic, which is characterized by the enormous mobility of capital across countries and regions, and which privileges the search for profit. Through an analysis of the labour conditions in Canadian and Mexican manufacturing, the article reveals how this new capitalist period has produced de-industrialization in developed countries while depressing labour conditions in both developed and developing countries. The study indicates that women workers most affected in this process are those working in industries (especially the clothing industry) that seek to reduce their costs of production in order to remain competitive in national and international markets. In addition, those working in regions important to transnational industries, such as the Mexican Free Zones where maquiladoras abound are also seriously affected.

Differenciation of the Demographic and Socioeconomic Development of Districts in Czechoslovak Socialist Republic

In the first introductory part of the contribution the main attention is paid to the importance and changes of territorial differences during the post-war period. The initial major differences (inherited from the capitalist period and existing especially between the western and eastern parts of Czechoslovakia) have already been satisfactorily solved. However new differences are gradually arising. New territorial differences have indeed a different character - they are no more essential and relate mostly to small regions only. In the second part the author illustrates the contemporary territorial differentiation in the district scale on the example of the development and the present situation of population and its economic activity.

Discourse and power: On the limits of ethnographic texts

"language is . .. the institutionalization of subjectivity" An interest in the making of ethnographic texts the rhetorical conventions of how anthropologists convey their material and establish their authority ? has become a thriving cottage industry in certain quarters of anthropology in recent years [1]. These attempts have varied from unpretentious and highly successful attempts at integrating other voices, photographs and a certain ethnographic humility into a basically stan? dard ethnographic presentation [2], to more ambitious programmatic calls, heavily influ? enced by deconstructive practices, which seek (or so they proclaim) truly radical recasting of ethnographic writing. We already have several influential overviews of this material [3]. What I intend to do here, is to begin from the given (although hardly widely recognized) that ethnographic texts are in? deed texts, and to question some of the critical claims made for this insight. Barthes asks: Who speaks? Who writes? To answer this question adequately we would need a sociology of language. Barthes gives us only a semiotics. But semiotics provides us with commonplaces and commonplaces, as any student of rhetoric who has read her Cicerco knows, are necessary to advance any and all arguments. During the sixteenth to the nineteenth century (Barthes calls this the "entire classical, capitalist period", dem? onstrating his disinterest in sociology) the person who wrote was the author. The liter? ary profession (with its rigid rules of use, genre and composition) sanctioned, protected and surveilled by state institutions, was charg? ed with the production of language. The writer, Barthes tells us, emerged during the time of the Revolution, when language was seized, and used for political ends. Barthes should have added that the Academie Fran caise has always used language for political ends [4]. Perhaps Barthes means by polit? ical the self-conscious use of language in ex? plicitly instrumental ways. The replacement of the "author" by the "writer" was a slow process. Although the revolutionaries began the process of turning language into a trans? parent instrumentality, revolutionary orators still employed the Classical rhetorical embel? lishments and perorations. Only with the emergence of modern intellectuals, during the Zola affair, did this historical transition finally establish a new place and a new use for language. "The writer ... is a transitive man, he posits a goal (to give evidence, to explain, to instruct), of which language is only a means; for him language supports a praxis, it does not constitute one. Thus lan? guage is restored to the nature of an instru? ment .of communication, a vehicle of "thought." Even if the writer pays some at Paul Rabinow is Professor of Anthropology at the University of California, Berkeley.