Council Archives Research Articles

Oops, I Did It Again! The Humour of Incongruity, Risk-Taking and Creativity in Art Practice and Everyday Life

This article explores the incongruous results of creativity and risk-taking within art practice and everyday life as encountered through the photographic image. The impetus for this study was a humorous experience that took place during health and safety training that raised questions about the role of humour within everyday life. Research was conducted into two forms of visual media, including pamphlets and guides from the British Safety Council (BSC) archives and viral images that demonstrate accidents (tagged with an ‘epic fail’ hashtag). This led to a practice-based approach to research involving the production of photographic works for an exhibition that tested the role of risk-taking and improvisation within the creative process. This article uses humour theory including superiority, incongruity and relief theory in relation to Louise Peacock’s model for the analysis of slapstick, to analyse these different types of photographs and draws comparisons between the risk-taking creative behaviours of both employees and artists. These creative approaches are considered in relation to Michel de Certeau’s notion of tactics within everyday life. Ordinary thinking and improvisational tactics are present within both art and work, and improvisation heightens the potential for risk-taking. This may lead to incongruities represented through a photograph which can impact the viewer’s engagement through humour, fascination or self-reflexivity. It is proposed that the viewer response to images containing risk is made up of a balance between an embodied understanding of the dangers and an awareness of the artifice, which can shift depending on the conditions of the photograph’s production and display. The peculiarities of the photograph are seen as conducive to a humour response because of the photograph’s ambiguous relationship with the reality that it represents.

‘Lewd, pornographic filth’: Managing Culture through Local Film Censorship in Britain, 1948–1968

Film censorship in the UK is predicated on a two-tier system whereby the British Board of Film Classification (formerly British Board of Film Censorship Censorship) (BBFC) recommends a classification for a film and this classification is then implemented by local authorities. In cases where local authorities disagree with a BBFC decision they can change the classification or ban the film entirely. Conversely, they can also screen a film which has no BBFC certificate. This local decision-making is permitted under the powers granted to local authorities to oversee cinema exhibition and licensing. Using The Snake Pit, Rock around the Clock and Ulysses, and offering a broad historical and geographic sweep, this article explores local council archives and local press reporting to map local censorship across the UK, drawing attention to inconsistencies in different areas and how councils justified the decisions they took on specific films.

Cultural diplomacy in times of crisis: the British Council’s departure from Burma during the military dictatorship (1962-1966)

ABSTRACT In 1948, when Burma became independent, the British colonial administration left the country and was replaced by a British embassy and a British Council centre, in order to establish new diplomatic relations. Cultural diplomacy appeared as a good, informal way of furthering the embassy’s initial goal of promoting peaceful and preferential diplomatic relations between Burma and Britain after the colonial era. Throughout the 1950s and early 1960s, the British Council offered English classes to the Burmese public and encouraged the development of academic partnerships between the two countries. Yet in 1962, a military coup led by General Ne Win overthrew Prime Minister U Nu’s democratically elected government and disrupted Anglo-Burmese relations. In the name of strict neutrality in foreign affairs, Ne Win’s Revolutionary Council restricted all foreign cultural missions’ actions in Burma, notably their ability to teach foreign languages to Burmese students, until the British Council was eventually forced to close down and transfer some of its remaining missions to the British embassy in 1967. Based on British Council archives gathered at the National Archives in London, this article examines a forced ‘diplomatic departure’, by focusing on the impact of the Burmese internal political crisis on Anglo-Burmese diplomatic and cultural relations.

Raising Militias in 1806–1812 in the Context of Social Relationships (St Petersburg and Moscow Provinces)

The subject of this study is the social contradictions in meshchane communes in district capitals in the early nineteenth century which transpired when recruiting men for military service. The object of the study is the appointment of militiamen during 1806–1807 and 1812, when far more men were recruited than during regular recruit levies. The author examines the communes of three district centres, i. e. Serpukhov, Novaya Ladoga, and Gdov. The article considers practices and motivations adopted by families, communes, town councils, and governors. The article refers to previously unpublished documents from council archives (communes’ verdicts, minutes of town councils, correspondence with governors). The author identifies two major issues: accusations of dissolute behaviour; and 2) conflicts between big and small households aggravated during mass recruiting to the militia in 1807. During the first militia, the traditional system of supplying recruits by commune proved insufficient to meet the needs of mass war. The author examines recruits’ age, marital status, family size, and reasons for being nominated. A suggestion is made that meshchane were more inclined to nominate older men than peasant communes: the role of nomination as a means of social cleansing seems to have been more significant in towns. The article considers the reaction of the government to delays and problems that arose during raising militia in identifying two response measures: the nomination of the dissolute was revised in 1808–1809 as a direct reaction to massive abuse recorded during the first militia – and the establishment of the official system of family recruit groups under the recruitment manual of 1810. Referring to the militia levy of 1812 and recruit levies of the 1810s, the article demonstrates that the new rules reduced conflict and delay in communes. During the Patriotic War of 1812, the nomination and dispatch of militiamen went considerably faster than in 1807. Additionally, the author supposes that with changes in legislation in 1808–1810, mass recruitment in the early nineteenth century, which made the position of small families more secured, could be a factor that encouraged the transition to the nuclear family in towns.

The Council of Social Work Education in Aotearoa New Zealand

INTRODUCTION: Despite tertiary social work education commencing in Aotearoa New Zealand by 1950, it was not until the mid-1990s that social work educators established a unifying body (the Council). The Council aimed to promote teaching and research in social work within Te Tiriti o Waitangi obligations, and enhance relationships and collaboration within the sector. METHODS: A qualitative, critical realist research methodology has been utilised, analysing interviews with eight people who have served as president of the Council or chair of the field education sub-committee since the Council’s inception. Data were augmented with Council archives, including minutes and reports. FINDINGS: Themes of registration, relationships, resourcing and bicultural commitments were identified. These provide an overview of key issues that have impacted on social work education in Aotearoa over the past 25 years and record the rich stories of some of the key people involved. CONCLUSIONS: Social work educators established a forum to unify their voices and enhance standards in social work education. Ongoing professionalisation and developing regulation of social workers became a Council focus. Future challenges for the Council include ensuring its viability and operation, responding to bicultural responsibilities and strengthening the voice of social work educators in a state-regulated environment.

La documentación archivística en la obra de D. Agustín Millares Carlo

Within the poligraphic dedication of Agustín Millares Carlo, we are going to deal this time with the description of bis works about archivistic sciences especially those dealing with the stock ketp in Spanish, Mexican and Venezolan archives, aboye all with protocols. Also bis important publications for the bibliographic consultation referring to spanish and hispanoamerican archives, particularly the council archives

Staatlichen Zölle - Portorium und Lizent - in den Städten den schwedischen Ostseeprovinzen

State Duties - Portorium and Licence - in the Towns of the Swedish Baltic ProvincesThe early modern mercantilist state focused on developing and exercising control over industrial and agricultural production as well as engaging in economic activities involving internal and external trade while collecting taxes and customs duties in order to fill the treasury. In the 16th-17th centuries, rapidly developing Sweden was no exception. It was in constant need of funds to support its growing bureaucratic apparatus and its army. From 1561, additional funds had to be allocated to retain and govern its expanding overseas territories. Trade and agriculture were Sweden’s principal source of income from its Baltic provinces. Therefore, it was deemed important to create an environment conducive to trade in order to generate greater tax and custom s revenues for the state. The customs tariffs of the Baltic Sea towns as well as the common customs system in Tallinn, Narva and Nyen arose from the state’s interest in bringing Western European andRussian trade back to the Baltic Sea.The aim of the article is to look rnore closely at the state duties - portorium and licence fees, plus oktroy and Anlage duties in Riga - levied on goods in the ports of the Baltic provinces of the Swedish realm, mainly Estonia, Livonia and Ösel (Saaremaa). The archival sources used in this study are the published and unpublished laws of the Swedish central authorities and the customs and account books which survive from the 17th Century. Of these, the most important ones were special customs and license ledgers from Estonia, Livonia, Ingria and Ösel in which the state receipts for licence duties and portorium from Riga, Tallinn, Narva, Nyen, Pärnu, Haapsalu and Kuressaare were registered. Separate Anlage duty records were kept in Riga. From the early 1630s, the account books of the governorates (ledgers, verifications and journals) also included state customs receipts, but each province was considered as a whole, without distinguishing separate towns. Data on portorium receipts can also be found in the town council archives, as the state ceded a third or even half of the customs receipts to the local town councils.Customs duties constituted one-third of the state’s revenues in the province of Estonia and one half or more in Livonia. The most important state customs were the portorium and licence duty (and the Anlage duty in Riga). While portorium was gencrally divided equally with the town where it was collected, licence duty was retained by the state in its entirety. Lesser duties were collected under the name Ungelder, and theamount and volume o f these increased over time. Generally, portorium duty brought in less revenue than licence duty. Sea customs tariffs, whichoften differed from town to town, formed a complex System. From 1648, only Tallinn, Narva and Nyen constituted a common customs region with lower customs tariffs than in Riga and Pärnu.

A policy mixes approach to conceptualizing and measuring climate change adaptation policy

Comparative research on climate change adaptation policy struggles with robust conceptualization and measurement of adaptation policy. Using a policy mixes approach to address this challenge, we characterize adaptation policy based on a general model of how governments govern issues of societal interest. We argue that this approach allows for context-sensitive measurement of adaptation policy, while being both comparable and parsimonious. This approach is tested in a study of adaptation policies adopted by 125 local governments located in Canada, France, Germany, the Netherlands, and the UK. Using a systematic data collection protocol, a total of 3328 adaptation policies were identified from local council archives between the periods of January 2010 and May 2017. Results of this analysis suggest that there is structured variation emerging in how local governments govern climate change adaptation, which justifies calls for comparative adaptation research to use measurements that capture the totality of adaptation policies being adopted by governments rather than focusing on specific types of adaptation policy. We conclude with a discussion of key issues for further developing of this approach.

El lenguaje político de la virtud y los conductores del pueblo (Cali, 1945-1950)

Este trabajo analiza una de las estrategias que las élites políticas de Cali agenciaron a mediados de siglo XX para mantener y redefinir su lugar privilegiado en la sociedad. Indaga por cuáles eran las condiciones de posibilidad para la construcción de un vocabulario político en torno a la moral y la virtud. Partiendo de la problemática definición formal del pueblo, como soberano de la democracia y delegatario de la soberanía y la legitimidad política, se plantea que las peculiaridades del sistema político colombiano pueden comprenderse mejor con perspectivas historiográficas que recuperen la historicidad del lenguaje. Tras la revisión de los periódicos locales, los archivos del concejo municipal y otras fuentes impresas pudo observarse la configuración de un lenguaje moral, a través del cual los políticos locales legitimaron su posición privilegiada frente a los nuevos sectores sociales y a las prácticas políticas emergentes. La identidad del pueblo, sujeto y actor problemático, era definida desde una retórica muy elaborada que acudía a elementos diversos de la cotidianidad y que se configuró en variopintos registros documentales. Las referencias morales del personal político estudiado configuraron un lenguaje particular, que a su vez redefinió los espacios ocupados por otros grupos sociales. Esta identificación y análisis de un vocabulario político específico en los años de 1940 permite revisar las tradicionales periodizaciones de la historia política colombiana del siglo XX, así como cuestionar las divisiones partidistas (liberales-conservadoras) como elementos centrales en la consideración de las transformaciones culturales y políticas de mediados del siglo pasado —y que desde cierta historiografía han sido las temáticas dominantes—, a la vez que nos lleva a pensar otros problemas más universales, que acercan el mundo de lo político a la historia intelectual.

“Selling” Europe on free enterprise

Purpose – A number of scholars have explored the US Government’s postwar efforts, often in collaboration with the business community, to “sell America” to Americans themselves; others have documented the means through which such information was aimed at audiences behind the Iron Curtain. Few scholars have explored the use of the US “propaganda” to secure political loyalty and financial markets among Western allies, and fewer still have studied the government’s use of commercial marketing methods for this purpose. Attempting to fill a void, this paper aims to explore the US State Department’s postwar collaboration with the Advertising Council, a non-profit organization funded and organized by American business, to “sell” the 16 countries that were receiving aid under the Marshall Plan on “the American way of life”. Design/methodology/approach – Drawing primarily from archival sources, the underlying research here is heavily based on various State Department collections housed at the National Archives in Washington, DC, and College Park, Maryland, as well as documents from the Harry S. Truman Library in Independence, Missouri, and the Advertising Council Archives at the University of Illinois. Findings – In contrast to its many successes during the Second World War, the Advertising Council’s first international project was plagued by erroneous assumptions and unforeseen problems, making the “Overseas Information” campaign far less successful than its previous projects. Thus, the case study holds lessons for the US Government in any future attempts to use the assistance of commercial advertisers in attaining its “soft power” objectives. Research limitations/implications – The study explores the “Overseas Information” campaign from an institutional perspective only. Future research should focus on public perceptions of the campaign and possibly a rhetorical analysis of the actual advertisements. Practical implications – The case study holds lessons for the US Government in any future attempts to use the assistance of commercial advertisers in attaining its “soft power” objectives. Social implications – The study reveals interesting, and heretofore, unrevealed information about collaborations between the government and US business in the postwar era. Originality/value – Up till this point, the Advertising Council’s “Overseas Information” has received very scant scholarly attention and few, if any, have recognized its importance in the ongoing quest for government “soft power” in the postwar era.

Bonny Ibhawoh. Imperial Justice: Africans in Empire's Court.

Administrators of the British Empire lived with a tension between racial distinctions and the universalist premises of British ideals. Nowhere was this tension more persistent than in the empire's courts of law. Imperial law was continually pulled between a localism, whose flexibility gave room for tolerance of native culture and, also, European racism, and a universalism which conversely constrained both. Bonny Ibhawoh has written a most valuable study of how such tensions expressed themselves in the twentieth century through the workings of the two appeals courts for colonial Africa and the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council (JCPC). The JCPC has been neglected by historians, in part because of the difficulty of using its archives, until very recently inconveniently housed in the basement of the former home of the JCPC at Number 9 Downing Street. Yet as the empire's highest “court,” it played a key role in shaping imperial justice. Closely examining the Privy Council's archives along with those of the East African and West African Courts of Appeal, Ibhawoh describes how some nonwhite subjects were able to use these courts to challenge imperial inequities, and how the legal universalism represented by the JCPC conflicted with both the pragmatism and the racism of local magistrates and other Europeans. A single legal universe for all the king's subjects or a flexible legal “multiverse,” adapted to local circumstances and racial hierarchies? This question, never resolved, underlay much activity in these courts.

Not just a soccer game: colonialism and conflict among Palestinians in Israel

On April 11, 1981, two neighboring Palestinian Arab towns competed in a soccer match. Kafr Yassif had a predominantly Christian population, and Julis was a predominantly Druze town. When a fight broke out between fans, the violence quickly escalated, leaving a teenager from each town dead. In the days that followed the game, a group from Julis retaliated with attacks on the residents of Kafr Yassif. Shihade experienced that soccer match and the ensuing violence firsthand, leaving him plagued by questions about why the Israeli authorities did not do more to stop the violence and what led to the conflict between these two neighboring Arab towns. Drawing on interviews, council archives, and media reports, Shihade explores the incident and subsequent attack on Kafr Yassif in the context of prevailing theories of ethnic and communal conflict. He also discusses the policies of the Israeli state toward its Arab citizens. Countering Orientalist emphases on Arab and Islamic cultures as inherently unruly and sectarian, Shihade challenges existing theories of communal violence, highlighting the significance of colonialism's legacy, modernity, and state structures. In addition, he breaks new ground by documenting and analyzing the use of a traditional Arab conflict resolution method, sulha, which has received little sustained attention from scholars in the West. Shihade opens the toolkits of anthropology, history, political science, and studies of ethnic and communal conflict with the goals of exposing the impact of state policies on minority groups and encouraging humane remedial principles regarding states and society.

What will survive of us are manuscripts: Collecting the papers of living British writers

This article looks at the policies of, and politics surrounding, the collecting of the literary manuscripts and archives of living and contemporary British writers. The changing institutional attitudes towards the idea of such a collection are charted - from the indifference of the early-twentieth century, to today's seemingly frenzied collecting - and consideration is also given to legislative solutions now being proposed to encourage writers to deposit their papers within the UK. The post-war efforts of figures such as Philip Larkin are crucial to an understanding of evolving attitudes in Britain towards collecting this material, and recently opened files from the Arts Council archives afford an understanding of the steps taken by Larkin and British Museum curators to build, and to define collecting criteria for, their unprecedented (in Britain) new collection.

La beneficencia municipal en la capital hispalense (1850-1900): la beneficencia domiciliaria, el asilo de mendicidad y las casas de socorro

In spite of the abundant bibliography that now exists, covering the theme of charity, we still have little knowledge with respect to some important questions that would allow us to describe charity in Seville. The object of this study is precisely to try to address the roll played by municipal charities in the provincial capital during the second half of the nineteenth century. Who helped the poor in their housing, what functions were played by charitable establishments, how were they financed and under what legislation attempt was made to regulate them, during the different political epochs. Amongst the sources of information used two mainstays must be cited as covering the basic remit of our study; The Archivo Municipal (the council archives) and the Hemeroteca de la ciudad de Sevilla (the Seville newspaper and periodicals library).

The Origins of the Joint University Council and the Background to Public Policy and Administration

This article is the result of research into public records in The National Archives; the Royal Institute of Public Administration archives in the University of Birmingham; the Joint University Council archives in the University of Warwick; and (with the kind assistance of Adrian Allan, Archivist, University of Liverpool) the papers of Professor Lord Simey of Toxteth. Its main purpose is to contribute to the history of the applied social sciences through tracing the background and development of Public Policy and Administration. Constraints of length and problems associated with the largely uncatalogued archives of the Joint University Council and the incomplete records of the Royal Institute of Public Administration prevent a full and comprehensive history of the topics covered, so it has to be selective (hence ‘an interpretation’), and the intention therefore has been to focus on the prehistory and history of influences contributing to the development of the Joint University Council, its Public Administration Committee and, especially, the journal Public Policy and Administration.

Improving the roads and bridges of the Stirling area c 1660-1706

The later 17th century saw a marked improvement in the public road system of the Stirling area, with new bridges, better road surfaces and probably some straightening and widening of the roads. In Stirlingshire this work was co-ordinated by the Justices of the Peace, whilst in Clackmannanshire the Justices joined in a more general committee for administering the sheriffdom. They used a combination of statute labour, taxes, fines and charitable donations to finance the work, which was sufficiently effective to make a recognizable contribution to the local economy. It is likely that similar improvements were taking place in other areas, at least in southern and central Scotland, during the same period. An alphabetical Appendix of the bridges recorded in this paper, giving further details of dating, work undertaken etc will be deposited with the National Monuments Record of Scotland and with Stirling Council Archives.

New Light on Vatican Council II

NEW LIGHT ON VATICAN COUNCIL II Il concilio inedito. Fontl del Vaticano II. Edited by Massimo Faggioli and Giovanni Turbanti. [Istituto per le scienze religiose-Bologna, Testi e ricerche di scienze religiose, Serie Fonti e strumenti di ricerca, 1.] (Bologna: II Mulino. 2001. Pp. 164. euro12.91 paperback.) Breve storia del Concilio Vaticano II. By Giuseppe Alberigo. [Universale Paperbacks II Mulino, 488.] (Bologna: II Mulino. 2005. Pp. 201. euro10.50 paperback.). A Brief History of Vatican II. By Giuseppe Alberigo. Translated by Matthew Sherry. (Maryknoll, New York: Orbis Books. 2006. Pp. xiv, 141. $20.00 paperback). La fatica della liberta. L'elaborazione della dichiarazione Dignitatis humanae sulla liberta religiosa del Vaticano II. By Silvia Scatena. [Istituto per le scienze religiose-Bologna, Testi e ricerche di scienze religiose, nuova serie, 31.] (Bologna: Il Mulino. 2003. Pp. 601. euro38.00 paperback.) Recent Vatican II Studies Readers will be aware of the History of Vatican II, published by an international team of scholars co-ordinated by Giuseppe Alberigo of Bologna, of which the English version, supervised by Joseph Komonchak, reached completion with the publication of Volume 5 by Orbis Books in late April 2006. To prepare the five-volume History, scholarly conferences were held over the span of the last dozen years of the twentieth century, which allowed the contributors to exchange insights from their findings and discuss their interpretations, based on the Acta of the Council and many archives of its participants.1 This new research is possible and necessary, first, because of the now completed publication of the Acta of Vatican II in two sections. First came the materials from the 1959-1962 preparation of the Council, the Acta et Documenta which gave, in Series I (Antepraeparatoria; 14 vols), thousands of official proposals made by the future Fathers, by pontifical university faculties, and by the congregations of the Roman Curia in 1959-1960 for discussion and decision at Vatican II. Then, Series II (Praeparatorta; 13 vols., completed 1995) of the Acta et Documenta is the record of the work of the Central Preparatory Commission, which in 1961-1962 evaluated the draft documents produced by the particular preparatory commissions. Then foEowed the Acta Synodalta, a record first of what was said in the AuIa during the four periods 1962-1965 and then in seven additional tomes (published 1989-1999) a record of meetings of the Council leadership (Board of Presidents, Moderators) and of the official correspondence during Vatican II of the General Secretary, Msgr. Pericle Felici.2 A second enabling condition of new Vatican II research is the organization and opening of many archives of the Council, a development of major importance for historical understanding both of the Council's drama and of its final documents. The primary archive is the special section, Fondo Concilium Vaticanum II, of the Archivio segreto Vaticano, made up of some two thousand boxes of Council papers, which may be consulted with the ordinary permission of the Prefect, under the ruling of Pope Paul VI in favor of early study of these sources.3 This Vatican archive gives unique support to systematic study of the Vatican II commissions, both those that worked during the preparatory period 1959-1962 and the conciliar commissions of 1962-1965, since the published Acta give only the final versions of the texts and relattones produced by the commissions. Around the world, many other archives are now accessible, which preserve, with different degrees of organization, the papers of the Council Fathers, the official observers, and the many assistingperiti of Vatican II. The first book reviewed below is an initial survey of such archival troves of Vatican II documentation. On this broad basis of sources, several Vatican II documents have recently been studied comprehensively in their genesis and development, spanning the years from initial proposals made by the future Council Fathers in 1959-60, through the stages of redaction, aula discussion, revision, further discussion, voting with submitted modi, and final emendation before the definitive approval and promulgation. …

Trends in undergraduate medical education in the United Kingdom

No Abstract. Keywords: undergraduate medical education, United Kingdom, tomorrow\'s doctors, graduate medical council Archives of Ibadan Medicine 2005, Vol. 6(1): 9-10

Playing cowboys and Africans: Hollywood and the cultural politics of African identity

In his introduction to Africans on African-Americans, Yekutiel Gershoni relates a discussion he once had with the African historian L.H. Gann. The most popular films among African miners in Norther...

The Unnetie Digitisation Project: Enthusiasm and Persistence Master Limited Resources

In this paper, a practice-based project which resulted in a new library resource is described. The UK North Yorkshire County Council Libraries, Archives and Arts had possessed a valuable and unique photographic archive for a considerable period of time. Digitisation appeared to offer a route to wider exploitation of this resource, but the Library Service lacked expertise in the process of digitisation and in acquiring project funding. The experience described in this paper demonstrates how practitioners who find themselves in this situation can still overcome the barriers they face, can access and utilise research and development knowledge from the wider profession, and can in so doing learn new skills and acquire knowledge which are capable of being applied more widely. The project thus provides a case study of practitioner based research and development.