Daily Lives Of Ordinary People Research Articles

Sources of Anti-Secularism in Modern Turkey: A Social History Approach

ABSTRACT The secular reforms the young Republic of Turkey launched during the interwar period were one of the most comprehensive modernization schemes in the world history. These extraordinary reforms have been considered as the sole maker of today’s Turkey. The political histories, focusing on formal politics, mostly reduced the social opposition to secularism to a few well-known hapless protests and rebellions. This article, however, argues that modern Turkey was the culmination of a more complicated process in which popular opposition to these reforms also shaped politics. It reveals that the daily life of ordinary people, particularly in rural areas, was rife with the anti-secular voices and attitudes by exploring non-elite public spheres and popular discursive strategies though which anti-secular opinions and attitudes were produced and expressed. Rather than seeing them as a result of clash between secularism and religion, it emphasizes the socio-economic reasons that lead to people’s negative response, primarily the loss of authority or economic advantages of some groups due to reforms. Finally this article offers that the roots of the Islamist politics of the following decades could be sought in this popular dissent, which subtly contested the secularism’s hegemony in daily life during the early republic.

Energy Proficient Secure Clustered Protocol in Mobile Wireless Sensor Network Utilizing Blue Brain Technology

Mobile Wireless Sensor Network (MWSN) guarantees copious applications in daily life of ordinary people, government bodies, commerce, defense and culture etc. Association along with the devices in blue brain to fetch diverse appliances in the real world is an exigent assignment. Several existed protocols proficiently indulgence both homogenous and heterogeneous devices. This research work conquers the gap between the physical wireless blue brain network surroundings and the factual heterogeneous network. This research work intention not only provide a proficient energy responsive clustering broadcasting protocol for blue brain network, excluding a real blue brain network design for probing the proposed protocol contrasted to existed tactics. Proficient cluster-head election amplifies the deployment of the blue brain nodes energy stuffing and therefore amplifies the network life-span and the packets relaying rate to the base station. Energy Proficient Secure Clustered (EPSC) exploits special weighted selection possibilities for electing a Cluster-head based on regions heterogeneity intensity. NS2 simulation demonstrates prolongs the network life-span, diminishes reclustering, enhanced security and amplifies throughput contrasted with BM-BWO. The results will be beneficial for the design process in WSN for blue brain application.

Comparison of Different Frequency Allocation Methods for Suburban Areas based on Capacity Analysis

From the first generation (1G) to the fifth generation (5G), an upward trend in demand has been witnessed as wireless technology contributes to more aspects in the daily life of ordinary people. A similar pattern is likely to be seen in the next decade as sixth generation (6G) networks are deployed. Researchers are having a stronger incentive in frequency planning in order to bring a better experience to users. Therefore, by collecting capacity data for a network of nineteen cells with an average of five users and twelve channels per cell, different frequency allocation methods from 1 decibel (dB) to 20 dB (dB) are investigated for their superiority in suburban areas based on the comparison of capacity. The experiments conducted in this paper show that cellular networks outperform Fractional Frequency Reuse (FFR) and that the more intelligent the frequency allocation method, the higher the capacity. Therefore, telecommunication providers may consider prioritizing the 19-cell Forward Looking Game (FLG) method in areas with low population density.

A View on Kracauer’s Concept of Found Story Through People on Sunday (1930)

Gerçekçi kuramcılardan Siegfried Kracauer, sinemaya toplumbilimsel açıdan yaklaşan ilk kuramcılardandır. Caligari’den Hitler’e (1947, 2011a) eserinde Weimar dönemi sinemasını incelemiş ve Nazi Partisi iktidara gelmeden önce filmlerde faşist eğilimlerin simgelerinin görülebileceğini dile getirmiştir. Sinemanın toplumu gerçekçi biçimde yansıtması gerektiğini ifade eden Kracauer, fiziksel gerçekliğin sinemada ‘bulunmuş öykü’ (found story) ile yakalanabileceğini belirtmiştir. Bulunmuş öyküde, hayatın doğal akışının yakalanması, belirsizlik gibi unsurlar önem kazanmaktadır. Bulunmuş öykü, sinemada gerçekliğe ulaşmada işlevsel bir biçim olmasına rağmen toplumun gerçekliğini yansıtmada tek başına yeterli değildir. Naziler iktidara gelmeden hemen önceki yılların Berlin’ini belgeleyen, sıradan insanların kendi gündelik yaşamlarını canlandırdığı Bir Pazar Günü (1930, R. Siodmak, E. Ulmer) filmi, Weimar dönemi sineması içerisinde çekim koşulları, belgesel ve kurmaca arasında kurduğu köprü açısından ayrıksı bir yerde dururken, filmde bulunmuş öykü yapısı görülmektedir. Aynı zamanda, Kracauer’in Caligari’den Hitler’e (2011a) kitabında eleştirdiği Weimar dönemi sinemasının ürünü olmasıyla, eleştirel bir okumaya imkân tanımaktadır. Bu çalışmada, bulunmuş öykü yapısını, sinema ve toplum ilişkisi bağlamında incelemek amacıyla Bir Pazar Günü filmi toplumbilimsel yöntemle analiz edilmiştir. Kracauer’in Caligari’den Hitler’e (2011a) kitabında eleştirdiği film, yazarın Film Teorisi (2015) kitabında ideal film biçimi olarak öne sürdüğü bulunmuş öykü yapısını taşısa da, bu yapının toplumun, dönemin gerçeklerini aktarmada tek başına yeterli olmadığı ortaya koyulmuştur.

Tarihli 2 Numaralı Kastamonu Şerʻiyye Sicili ve Şehrin İktisadi, Sosyal Yapısına Dair Bazı Tespitler

When the meaning of the word Shariyya is looked at, the rules that are in accordance with the principles of the Islamic religion and the world order commanded by this religion come to mind. The most important judicial organ of the Ottoman Empire, which adopted Islamic law as a way of life, is the Sharia courts. When the records kept in the courts are examined, it is possible to come across various kinds of documents concerning the state and society and to have information in the relevant field. Therefore, Şerʽiyye registries, which are the most basic archival documents in Ottoman provincial historiography, are among the most basic resources that those who will study in this field should apply. Everything related to the social texture, education, cultural structure or people of a region or city can be fully understood based on the Şer'iyye Registers. This is because the documents in question not only reflect the social relations of the daily lives of ordinary people who were once witnesses, but also reveal their obligations to the state and the role they played in this matter from a historical perspective. In this study, brief information about the legal system of the Ottoman provinces and the Kadılık Institution, which was the executive of this system, were given in general terms, and it was tried to be introduced by classifying them according to the subject of Kadılık Register No. 2.

How regime type and governance quality affect policy responses to COVID-19: A preliminary analysis

The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic has slowed down economies, upended societies, and tremendously affected the daily lives of ordinary people throughout the world. In the international context, various government responses have thus given rise to many political debates and discussions centered around the handling of these impacts and the novel coronavirus itself. Here, emphasis is often placed on how regime type (i.e., democratic or non-democratic) and governance quality influence policies aimed at responding to the ongoing crisis. By examining relevant scientific resources, including the COVID-19 Global Response Index (developed by FP Analytics), Worldwide Governance Indicators (WGI), and Bjørnskov-Rode regime data, this study found that regime type was indeed related to governmental policy responses to COVID-19. Results specifically showed that governance quality (especially effectiveness) had moderate impacts on how well these policies were implemented. Due to several limitations, however, these findings should be regarded as preliminary evidence.

Katolik Kilisesi ve Onun Yıkıcı Düşmanları: Rönesans, Reformasyon ve Mutlak Monarşiler

Before the modernization process, the Church had been shaping the daily life of ordinary people, intervening in important political decisions made by empires and dominating the subjects of the medieval intelligentsia, all at the same time. This article is about the transformation of this supposed “invariable” social power of the Catholic Church at the very beginning of the European modernization process. The article aims to present the transformative and staggering effects of the emergence of Renaissance, Reformation and Absolute Monarchies on the power of the Church. The qualitative study approach was adopted and the data obtained through accessing primary and secondary sources were subjected to descriptive analysis. The article reveals the followings: In the process beginning with the Renaissance, the fields of thought and culture began to distance themselves from the Church. The Church was not regarded as the sole institution for salvation and eternal happiness anymore and the concept of an intermediary institution between God and individuals became defunct for almost half of the continent. Over a period of approximately 200 years, the kings previously enthroned by the Pope either formed their own churches or declared their independence from the Papacy.

Untitled, Work by Fadi Yazigi, curated by Myriam Jackiche Atelier, Damascus, Syria, 1 January–1 December 2019

Abstract

Building a Global Feminist Alliance for Peace in East Asia

In an era of vacillations between threats of a nuclear war and promises of peace breakthroughs in East Asia, this article takes examples from public campaigns of women’s peace groups—such as Women’s Peace Walk, Women Cross DMZ (the Demilitarized Zone), Women’s Active Museum on War and Peace, and PeaceWomen Across the Globe—and argues for feminist scholarship to take an interdisciplinary approach and, in particular, to fuse peace studies with cultural studies, political economy, and global geopolitics. Doing so requires an examination of the history and the scope of the military-industrial complex, its relationship with finance capital, its bonds with governments and political parties, and its business patterns in relation to wars and conflicts all over the world. It also is crucial to sow the seeds of reconciliation and peace into the daily life of ordinary people. Thus, historians, cultural workers, educationists, writers, and scholar activists of different areas must undertake long-term sustained work for reconciliation and peace at the grassroots level as well as networking at the regional and global levels.

Жилищный вопрос в советской и постсоветской России: трансформация отношений собственности и повседневная политика

Цитирование: Рыжова Н.П., Журавская Т.Н. (2019) Жилищный вопрос в советской и постсоветской России: трансформация отношений собственности и повседневная политика // Мир России. Т. 28. № 3. С. 48–66. DOI: 10.17323/1811-038X-2019-28-3-48-66
 В статье сделана попытка применения концепций повседневной политики и рутинного сопротивления для объяснения процессов трансформации политической организации и отношений собственности на примере жилищных практик в советской и постсоветской России. Анализируется, как проводились реформы отношений собственности в советское время и как они сказывались на повседневной жизни людей. Показано, что советская политическая организация формировала идеологию, пытаясь изменить рациональность и практики повседневной жизни. В соответствии с марксистской идеологией, ментальный контроль привел к контролю над материальностью, в результате чего члены правящей партии доминировали над людьми, не обладающими формальными правами собственности. При этом производство «нового советского гражданина» осуществлялось посредством множества бессвязных, диффузных и повсеместных действий представителей партии, административных единиц и «обычных» людей. Рутинное сопротивление препятствовало полному исчезновению отношений частной собственности, поскольку, несмотря на почти полное отсутствие в формальном поле ее разрешенной формы в советское время, частная собственность все же существовала, хотя имела определенную культурную специфику (в частности, практики псевдорыночной продажи, обмена, наследования жилья). Формы рутинного сопротивления советского периода стали одним из факторов, способствовавших политической реорганизации начала 1990-х. Последующие осложнения в реализации рыночных преобразований, в свою очередь, во многом определялись сопротивлением материальной инфраструктуры, произведенной в советское время, которая продолжает влиять на формы рутинного сопротивления в настоящее время. В результате жилье как материальный объект стало одной из важных причин неудачной рыночной трансформации в России. Авторы опираются на представленные в академической литературе описания советских жилищных практик и на данные многолетних включенных наблюдений в Санкт-Петербурге, Благовещенске и в одной из деревень Амурской области.

The Socio–Economic Life around Beans in Kyrgyzstan: Practices, Discourses and Local Households

Bean production is a feature of post-independence agriculture in Kyrgyzstan, and bean production has come to play an influential role in the daily lives of ordinary people. This study aims to investigate the role of beans and bean cultivation in the agrarian villages of Talas (such as Amanbaev and Bala–Saruu) by discussing how practices, discourses and local households are shaped around bean production. Moreover, this study investigates the impact of bean cultivation on the socio-economic life of farmers by applying the concept of biocultural diversity as well as an ethnographic approach.

Paolo Virzì’s glocal comedy in English subtitles: an investigation into linguistic and cultural representation

ABSTRACTPaolo Virzì’s film production is deeply rooted in Italian (often Tuscan) contemporary society, with a focus on the daily lives of ordinary people and the difference between their true selves and their public persona. The language spoken by his colourful characters, which includes regionalisms, slang, colloquialisms and a vast array of idiosyncratic traits, is the quintessence of Virzì’s world and of his bittersweet irony. In this contribution, we aim to illustrate how these culture-specific scenarios are transposed in the English subtitled versions of three recent Virzì films, namely La prima cosa bella [The first beautiful thing] (2010), Paolo Virzì, Italy, Tutti i santi giorni [Every blessed day] (2012), Paolo Virzì, Italy, and Il capitale umano [Human capital] (2014), Paolo Virzì, Italy. We identify the indices of regional or Italian identity, linguistically or culturally expressed, in the three aforementioned films, with a view to elucidating the difficulties behind their translation in the English subtitles.

Perceptions of developmental hierarchies in Taiwan: Conceptual, substantive, and methodological insights

Motivated by a growing awareness of the penetration of developmental idealism into the daily lives of ordinary people, this paper analyzes Taiwanese college students’ perceptions of developmental hierarchies, a key element of developmental idealism. We investigate the extent to which Taiwanese students hold hierarchical views of the world, whether these views match the views of the United Nations, the stability of these views across time, and the reliability of measurement. Data for this paper come from the survey of ‘Political Values and Attitudes among University Students in Taiwan,’ a panel study conducted by the Election Study Center in Taipei, Taiwan. Our results from this panel study conducted in 2006, 2007, and 2008 show that Taiwanese students have worldviews that include developmental hierarchies that are very similar to the country development ratings of the United Nations. We show that these perceptions of developmental hierarchies can be measured reliably at both the individual and the aggregate levels and are stable across the survey years.

Guest Editorial: Anthropology and Imagination

The concept of imagination has come to play an increasingly important role in contemporary anthropological praxis.1 ‘At its core anthropology demands an imaginative leap by comparatively challenging the naturalness of one’s own cultural world,’ wrote Catherine Trundle in describing the theme of the 37th annual conference of the Association of Social Anthropologists of Aotearoa/ New Zealand (ASAA/NZ), hosted by Victoria University of Wellington’s Cultural Anthropology Programme from 8–10 December 2012 in Wellington, Aotearoa New Zealand. ‘But imagination also drives the transformation and reinvention of the discipline. Postcolonial and postmodern anthropologists, for example, sought to re-imagine anthropology, the politics of knowledge and the discipline’s place in the world.’ This project continues in the context of globalisation, and Arjun Appadurai (2000) has called on anthropology to reconfigure the research imaginary in order to capture emerging transnational flows and disjunctures. Recognising the role of imagination in both understanding and bringing about change, he argues, attends to ‘a faculty that informs the daily lives of ordinary people in myriad ways: it allows people to consider migration, resist state violence, seek social redress, and design new forms of civic association and collaboration across national boundaries’ (2000, 6). The concept of the Anthropocene (the hypothesis that a new geological era defined by evidence of anthropogenic global environmental change began with the Industrial Revolution) has also seen scholars reconsider the place of the nonhuman in the anthropological project. As Stuart McLean (2007, 5) points out, ‘imagination has been added to the lexicon of the social sciences;’ imagined communities, new social imaginaries, imaginary states, political imaginaries, the colonial imagination, and ethical, bioethical and moral imaginings are now familiar analytical terms.

Muscle Activity and Inactivity Periods during Normal Daily Life

Recent findings suggest that not only the lack of physical activity, but also prolonged times of sedentary behaviour where major locomotor muscles are inactive, significantly increase the risk of chronic diseases. The purpose of this study was to provide details of quadriceps and hamstring muscle inactivity and activity during normal daily life of ordinary people. Eighty-four volunteers (44 females, 40 males, 44.1±17.3 years, 172.3±6.1 cm, 70.1±10.2 kg) were measured during normal daily life using shorts measuring muscle electromyographic (EMG) activity (recording time 11.3±2.0 hours). EMG was normalized to isometric MVC (EMGMVC) during knee flexion and extension, and inactivity threshold of each muscle group was defined as 90% of EMG activity during standing (2.5±1.7% of EMGMVC). During normal daily life the average EMG amplitude was 4.0±2.6% and average activity burst amplitude was 5.8±3.4% of EMGMVC (mean duration of 1.4±1.4 s) which is below the EMG level required for walking (5 km/h corresponding to EMG level of about 10% of EMGMVC). Using the proposed individual inactivity threshold, thigh muscles were inactive 67.5±11.9% of the total recording time and the longest inactivity periods lasted for 13.9±7.3 min (2.5–38.3 min). Women had more activity bursts and spent more time at intensities above 40% EMGMVC than men (p<0.05). In conclusion, during normal daily life the locomotor muscles are inactive about 7.5 hours, and only a small fraction of muscle's maximal voluntary activation capacity is used averaging only 4% of the maximal recruitment of the thigh muscles. Some daily non-exercise activities such as stair climbing produce much higher muscle activity levels than brisk walking, and replacing sitting by standing can considerably increase cumulative daily muscle activity.

A Hospital in Ilkhānid Iran: Toward a Socio-economic Reconstruction of the Rab‘-i Rashīdī

In the first decade of the fourteenth century, Rashiīd al-Dīn Fazl Allāh penned a remarkable endowment deed in which he meticulously detailed his plans for the creation of a utopian community. He named it the Rab‘-i Rashīdī. In this document, he provides socio-economic data concerning the day-to-day operations of this settlement unparalleled in comparable texts. This article focuses on the hospital ward of the Rab‘-i Rashīdī, and provides a broader historical context for this medieval hospital and its personnel by examining the financial and monetary information in the endowment deed in order to piece together the inner workings of this community. In so doing, we are granted a rare opportunity to explore the daily lives of ordinary people whose endeavors, however significant, often went unnoticed.

Leonarde's Ghost: Popular Piety and "The Appearance of a Spirit" in 1628 (review)

Reviewed by: Leonarde's Ghost: Popular Piety and "The Appearance of a Spirit" in 1628 James R. Farr Leonarde's Ghost: Popular Piety and "The Appearance of a Spirit" in 1628. Translated with introduction and annotations by Kathryn A. Edwards and Susie Speakman Sutch. [Sixteenth Century Essays & Studies, 82.] (Kirksville, MO: Truman State University Press. 2008. Pp. xiii, 127. $19.95 paperback. ISBN 978-1-931-11279-6.) In 1628 a feverish and bedridden woman who had recently given birth claimed to receive numerous visitations from a spirit. At first, the ill woman (Huguette Roy, the wife of a guard in the local militia who was most likely a tradesman) could not identify the ghost, and the ghost was stubbornly unforthcoming about her identity. Eventually, however, it was revealed that it [End Page 815] was the spirit of Roy's deceased aunt, Leonarde Colin. Colin, so Roy reported to the clergymen who were notified of the visits, had been sent by God to assist Roy in her daily housekeeping duties that she could not perform herself. Eventually Colin revealed that this was penance for her earthly sins and had to be performed to release her from purgatory. Roy was the only earthly creature who ever heard or saw Colin, but the local clerical authorities, and Christophe Mercier in particular, were convinced of the reality of the ghost. Indeed, Mercier wrote "The History of the Appearance of a Spirit which Happened in the City of Dole" (1628), the text that the editors translated for this volume. The editors/translators try to preserve "the roughness, vitality, rhythms, and ambiguities of the original manuscript" (p. xiii), but they are cautious to avoid didactically telling readers how to interpret the text. They do, however, offer an extended introduction (forty-one pages) that provides a useful setting for Mercier's account. We are encouraged to see the connections between the popular piety in the daily lives of ordinary people alongside and in conjunction with the concerns and teachings of the institutional church during a period of intense Catholic reformation. A sort of skepticism was invoked by the authorities to determine the veracity of the spirit (demonic or not), but along the way, we glimpse how ordinary people like Roy understood theological teachings of purgatory and, in the demand by the spirit for pilgrimage to Marian shrines in the region, how redemption immersed itself in their own sense of salvation. Roy's religiosity comes through clearly, but, given the apparent skepticism in the gossip of townsfolk and neighbors, readers might wish for more of an interrogation of how the news of this spirit spread and might have been understood by fellow townsfolk. This modest volume could be useful as an ancillary text in an undergraduate course on early-modern religiosity. It holds few surprises for specialists in the field, but the able introduction provides useful insights into popular piety not easily gained from printed texts. If readers grant that the story is based on Roy's projection of what spirits are and can do, then they can discern from this text popular notions of the other world—how it intrudes on this one, what spirits from it can do, what the relation between the living and the dead might be, and what role these notions can fulfill in the ever-changing schemes of salvation to which early-modern folk like Roy and her neighbors were presented with, and upon which they did so earnestly seize. James R. Farr Purdue University Copyright © 2011 The Catholic University of America Press

TV could use real-world physics

I agree with James Jackson’s letter ( Physics Today, Physics Today 0031-9228 60 11 2007 14 https://doi.org/10.1063/1.2812109. November 2007, page 14 ), “Advocating Real-World Physics Classes.” I will take the discussion further and include physics TV programs, such as some shown on NOVA and the Science Channel, that are even less relevant than physics classes.Those TV shows emphasize irrelevant, unobservable, impractical, and inaccessible subjects such as mysterious dark matter, dark energy, black holes, parallel universes, and string theory—all subjects that have no relevance to the daily lives of ordinary people. Most of the programs turn people away from physics rather than draw them in.It would be far more beneficial if the preponderance of the physics TV programs described phenomena people readily observe, and described them in a manner that viewers can actually understand. Such treatment would help establish physics as a useful, practical, interesting, and worthy subject.© 2008 American Institute of Physics.

The AsiaBarometer Survey Questionnaire of 2006

The AsiaBarometer Survey questionnaire of 2006 focuses on the daily lives of ordinary people in Asia. The idea behind this project is that without knowing at least some aspects of people's daily lives, it would be less productive to register the array of social scientist's concerns about their norms, values, identities, beliefs, and their relationships to societal and political action. Furthermore, in order to carry out any comparative and cross-national analysis in Asia, the questions must be able to be answered in the first place. Such topics as economic conditions, political institutions, and public policy do not constitute the core of their life. To ordinary people, matters of daily life are more important and easier to answer than those questions that the scientists are interested in. Asia is a region of full of diversity and is changing fast. There is no other region in the world that is more diverse and fast changing. By looking at the daily lives of ordinary people we are able to perceive and assess ordinary people's concerns, including in relationship to the larger social entities such as patriotism and confidence in government performance (Inoguchi, 2004).

Preface

This issue of Japanese Journal of Political Science is devoted to the fruits of the latest AsiaBarometer Survey that was completed in 2006. The AsiaBarometer is a regional survey project that focuses explicitly on the daily lives of ordinary people in Asia. The first three waves of the survey were carried out in more than 30 countries in East, Southeast, South, and Central Asia. The wave examined here is focused on seven societies that fall into the ‘Confucian’ zone of world politics: China, Hong Kong, Japan, Singapore, South Korea, Taiwan, and Vietnam. Most of the comparative papers that constitute this journal were first presented at the AsiaBarometer Workshop and Open Symposium in Tokyo on 14 and 15 December 2006. A separate volume containing country profile chapters will appear at a later date.