Dramatic Social Transformations Research Articles

Decline of a national icon: Derogatory representations of the Romanian peasant in recent television programs

Intellectuals and artists have been crafting an image of the Romanian peasant as the building block of the nation since the second half of the 19th century. The process went hand in hand with the modernization of the elites, and the peasant was thus mainly ‘discovered’ within the cultural framework of Romanticism, as the ‘eternal autochthon’ (Mihăilescu,2017, p.173), creator of the specific Kultur of the Romanian people. However, dramatic social transformations such as the difficult transition period of the ʹ90s have shifted the focus from a complimentary representation of the peasant as the national foundation – and all the positive characteristics of his/her habitus in terms of material, spiritual and aesthetic values– to a rather alienated and anachronistic figure coming across as a burden that has to be carried into modernity by the enlightened social strata. This paper uses visual analysis, grounded in Barthesian semiotics, to explore the changes in modes of representation of the peasant in popular media from the depository of national values to a marginal lower class, striving to keep up with the urban lifestyle. Various portrayals of peasants in TV series and sketches, movies and memes point to the degradation of the peasant figure in the public imagination. Images of poverty, bad taste and a lack of hygiene seem to pollute the bodies, garments and home environments of the rural characters, with a toxic effect on their language and behaviour as well. Although there have always been derogatory images of the peasants in the discourse of the elites (Mihăilescu also coined the term ‘domestic primitive’ for the representation associated with the historical tendency to portray the peasants as a backward population incapable of progress), in recent times this tendency has prevailed, especially with the rural-themed successful TV series Las Fierbinți, for mainly ideological reasons which will be discussed. Thus, apart from deconstructing a national myth, I argue that the representation of contemporary peasants and their degenerating habitus also contributes to the polarization in the Romanian society.

The Lifespan of Ethnographic Reports: The Predicament of Returns to the Field

SummaryOnly a minority among our colleagues enjoy the opportunity to revisit their earlier fieldwork sites, reviewing their initial observations and research conclusions. This paper presents the researcher’s experience witnessing the dramatic social transformations that have taken place owing to internal and external processes, in three fieldwork sites over twenty to thirty years. The subjects of his ethnographic monographs: Moroccan Jewish immigrants in an Israeli farming community; Israeli emigrants in the Borough of Queens; the gay and lesbian synagogue in New York City. These evolutionary changes, unconceivable during the studied period but inevitable aftereffects of most ethnographic projects, present a reality that anthropologists rarely consider in their work and teaching. Expanding ethnographic perspective involves a more sensitive assessment of fieldwork records considering the mutability of ethnographic observations and conclusions.

Managing change: Seattle’s 21st century urban renaissance

ABSTRACTEvolution of the urban planning and historic preservation disciplines has resulted in an “uneasy alliance” in practice, one further complicated by the back-to-the-city movement and increased development pressure in older urban neighbourhoods. In Seattle, as in other U.S. cities, the pace, intensity and scale of redevelopment has caused dramatic spatial and social transformations. Although research has shown that older built fabric provides economic and social benefit for cities, neither regulations created by planners for guiding redevelopment nor strategies created by preservationists for retaining urban heritage have been successful in reconciling these different, yet interconnected, sets of values. We engage three Seattle neighbourhood case studies to clarify and evaluate policies, programs and strategies used by planners and preservationists for reimagining neighbourhood transformations. This work suggests a need for more creative, integrative collaboration between the two fields to simultaneously engage – and reconcile – social and economic tensions caused by urban redevelopment.

Navigating the past in the aftermath of dramatic social transformations: Postclassic engagement with the Classic period past in the northeast Yucatan peninsula

Dramatic social transformations are common events in world history and raise several questions. How, for example, do individuals navigate the past during these critical times? Do they emphasize their ties to the past, distance themselves from the past, alter the past, or eschew the past? An analysis of modifications to existing built environments – and particularly whether existing features are venerated, destroyed, re-contextualized, or ignored – offers one means to answer this question. Using Henri Lefebvre’s notion of relational space and Walter Benjamin’s notion of temporal constellations, this article examines Postclassic period (1100–1500 CE) engagement with the Classic period (250–1100 CE), and in some instances Late Preclassic period (400 BCE – 250 CE), past in the northeast Yucatan Peninsula. Specifically, it uses data from a variety of sources to compare Postclassic modifications to existing features at eight sites: El Meco, Xcaret, Xelha, Muyil, T’isil, El Naranjal, Punta Laguna, and Cobá. Data from these sites suggest, among other insights, that the past was indeed a critical resource at each of these communities, but that Postclassic peoples navigated the past in heterogeneous ways: They engaged in a variety of practices, each with a multiplicity of meanings. This article concludes by suggesting that the Postclassic, like other time periods, is usefully understood as a temporal constellation.

The Power of Abortion Policy: Reexamining the Effects of Young Women’s Access to Reproductive Control

I provide new evidence on the relative “powers” of contraception and abortion policy in effecting the dramatic social transformations of the 1960s and 1970s. Trends in sexual behavior suggest that young women’s increased access to the birth control pill fueled the sexual revolution, but neither these trends nor difference-in-difference estimates support the view that this also led to substantial changes in family formation. Rather, the estimates robustly suggest that it was liberalized access to abortion that allowed large numbers of women to delay marriage and motherhood.

Flocatex and the Fiscal Limits of Mass Incarceration: Toward a New Political Economy of the Postwar Carceral State

Pick up any recent textbook on modern U.S. history, turn to the last few chapters, and you will find an outline of key developments that have shaped the past four decades or so of the nation’s domestic history. Some chapter headings include “The Decline of Manufacturing,” “Retreat from Liberalism,” “The Beleaguered Social Compact,” “The Rising Tide of Conservatism,” “The Problem of Inequality,” “The End of the Long Boom,” and “Conservatism in the Courts.” Yet few of these textbooks pay attention to one of the most dramatic social transformations of this period. Only Eric Foner’s Give Me Liberty! includes as subheadings “The Spread of Imprisonment” and “The Burden of Imprisonment,” signaling to students that one of the changes that makes the world they inherit radically different from that of their parents is the huge numbers of Americans behind bars. As many scholars of crime and punishment have pointed out, only a generation ago the nation’s incarceration rate had remained steady for a century—at about 100 prisoners per 100,000 people—and many criminologists believed that prisons were obsolete and would gradually be supplanted by “community corrections,” treatment facilities, and other alternatives for all but the most incorrigible or violent offenders. Yet, contrary to those optimistic expectations, since 1970 the number of felons confined in state and federal prisons has multiplied by a factor of eight, and the overall prison incarceration rate in the United States has zoomed to nearly 500 per 100,000 people, a fivefold increase. As late as 1977 the prison population had barely surpassed 300,000; the latest Bureau of Justice Statistics figures show that in 2010 the U.S. prison population reached its historic peak of over 1.5 million inmates, after the country had embarked on “the steepest and most sustained increase in the rate of imprisonment that has been recorded since the birth of the modern prison in the nineteenth century.”1

The Internet Imaginary: Between Technology and Technique

The Internet Imaginary: Between Technology and Technique

Opportunity, Ambivalence, and Youth Perspectives on Community Change in Pennsylvania's Marcellus Shale Region

Across vast swaths of mostly rural Pennsylvania, dramatic social, economic, and environmental transformations have occurred in the last five years as these regions have experienced a new natural resource boom in the form of unconventional natural gas extraction from the Marcellus Shale formation. While Pennsylvania's former Governor, Tom Corbett, and shale industry advocates hailed these developments as an economic godsend for Pennsylvania, others have raised serious concerns about the potential social, environmental, and economic consequences. In this paper, we examine youth perspectives in shale gas communities and how young people weigh their education and future prospects in light of local economic, environmental, and community change. We find that youth career decisions are often characterized by a deep ambivalence about the gas industry, its longevity, its capacity to provide desirable and local employment, and its ultimate effects on the livability and social sustainability of Pennsylvania's shale ...

Sustainable: the urban model based on high-density, high-rise and multiple, intensive land use: the case of Hong Kong

China is going through one of the most dramatic social and cultural transformations in its
 history. In this speed change scenario, the never - questioned conventions in the western
 architecture have been betrayed. Invention, reinterpretation sometimes even revolution, never
 represent a step further as they did in the XXI century theoretical thinking.
 To engage architectural thoughts with the booming economy could contribute to the definition of
 a contemporary Chinese architecture, far from the generic city, in a society that has evolved
 from pre-modernism to post-industrialism in a short period of time.
 Through the analysis of Hong Kong, and a series of case studies, a conclusion to this scenario
 is sought. Xina està travessant una de les transformacions socials i culturals més dramàtiques de la seva història. En aquest escenari de canvi de velocitats, les convencions mai qüestionades en l'arquitectura occidental han estat traicionades. Invenció, reinterpretació, inclús a vegades revolució, no representen mai un pas endavant com ho van fer en el pensament teòric del segle XXI.
 
 Acoplar els pensaments arquitectònics amb una economia florescent podria contribuir a la definició d'una arquitectura xina contemporània, lluny de la ciutat genèrica, en una societat que ha evolucionat des de la premodernitat al postindustrialisme en un període curt de temps.
 
 A través de l'anàlisi de Hong Kong i una sèrie d'estudis de cas es busca una conclusió d'aquest escenari. China está atravesando una de las transformaciones sociales y culturales más dramáticas de su historia. En este escenario de cambio de velocidades, las convenciones nunca cuestionadas en la arquitectura occidental han sido traicionadas. Invención, reinterpretación, incluso a veces revolución, no representan nunca un paso adelante como lo hicieron en el pensamiento teórico del siglo XXI.
 
 Acoplar los pensamientos arquitectónicos con una economía floreciente podría contribuir a la definición de una arquitectura china contemporánea, lejos de la ciudad genérica, en una sociedad que ha evolucionado desde la pre modernidad al pos industrialismo en un período corto de tiempo.
 
 A través del análisis de Hong Kong y una serie de estudios de caso, se busa una conclusión de este escenario.

The Ancient Wellspring and the Source of the Future: The Creation of New Poetry and the New Man in Lu Xun’s On the Power of Mara Poetry

Focusing on literary tradition and innovation, this paper examines Lu Xun’s poetics as represented in his early treatise On the Power of Mara Poetry (Moluo shi li shuo). As a leading writer and thinker deeply engaged in the dramatic social and cultural transformations taking place in early twentiethcentury China, Lu Xun was very concerned about how to build up the New Man and new society via new literature. Advocating Maratic poets who are full of the spirit of revolt and nonconformity, Lu Xun endeavored to disturb and reinvigorate Chinese minds by bringing in foreign dynamics and energies based upon modern individualism and humanism. At the same time, Lu Xun insisted that, while moving toward a bright future, people should constantly consider China’s prosperous past. For Lu Xun, tradition was still of great relevance in creating and nurturing new poetry, new men, and a new society. To simply lump Lu Xun together with pure anti-traditionalists is problematic. Lu Xun is commonly seen as an iconoclastic pioneer in modern China; however, I argue that Lu Xun demonstrated a dialectical reflection on the relationship between tradition and modernity. Actually, Lu Xun envisioned a process by which, galvanized by imported Maratic spirit, selected cultural legacies would undergo modern reconfiguration and revitalization.

Use of Modern Contraception by the Poor Is Falling Behind

BackgroundThe widespread increase in the use of contraception, due to multiple factors including improved access to modern contraception, is one of the most dramatic social transformations of the past fifty years. This study explores whether the global progress in the use of modern contraceptives has also benefited the poorest.Methods and FindingsDemographic and Health Surveys from 55 developing countries were analyzed using wealth indices that allow the identification of the absolute poor within each country. This article explores the macro level determinants of the differences in the use of modern contraceptives between the poor and the national averages of several countries. Despite increases in national averages, use of modern contraception by the absolute poor remains low. South and Southeast Asia have relatively high rates of modern contraception in the absolute poor, on average 17% higher than in Latin America. Over time the gaps in use persist and are increasing. Latin America exhibits significantly larger gaps in use between the poor and the averages, while gaps in sub-Saharan Africa are on average smaller by 15.8% and in Southeast Asia by 11.6%.ConclusionsThe secular trend of increasing rates of modern contraceptive use has not resulted in a decrease of the gap in use for those living in absolute poverty. Countries with large economic inequalities also exhibit large inequalities in modern contraceptive use. In addition to macro level factors that influence contraceptive use, such as economic development and provision of reproductive health services, there are strong regional variations, with sub-Saharan Africa exhibiting the lowest national rates of use, South and Southeast Asia the highest use among the poor, and Latin America the largest inequalities in use.

Introduction

Introduction Amir Eshel (bio) and Todd Presner (bio) The year 1492 has often been invoked as the critical marker of the dawn of modernity. The year commemorates the beginnings of two journeys, one in which the Americas were "opened up" and the new world was discovered; the other in which a flourishing Jewish community was expelled per royal decree from Spain. Both journeys brought about multifaceted, contradictory, and unforeseeable outcomes. On the one hand, immeasurable suffering was inflicted on those who lost their freedom and livelihood through the expulsion; on the other hand, the groundwork for a new interconnected world of commerce and exchange was created. And at the same time that the Jews of Spain lost their heritage and culture, their fate gave birth to a new culture and language rooted, so to speak, in the historical experience of uprootedness. This nexus of discovery and expulsion represents a paradigmatic experience of what we—retrospectively—perceive to be the experience of modernity, particularly the dramatic social and economic transformations that we associate with the birth of the modern1: the rise of the natural sciences, the ascendancy of reason and rationality, the redefinition of the role of religion, the birth of the modern city, and the emergence of participatory systems of rule. At the same time, these phenomena were, of course, accompanied by the disenchantment of the world, the instrumentalization of reason, the loss of spirituality, the atomization and alienation of society, and the rise of totalitarianism. Modernity can hardly be seen as the marker of progress alone; it has always been accompanied by violence and suffering. Thus, it is more precise to speak about the dialectic of modernity, the hopes and catastrophes that simultaneously gave rise to its progressive and regressive strands.2 [End Page 607] Following their expulsion, European Jews no longer enjoyed the kinds of privileges and protections that were afforded them in the Middle Ages as "service nomads," to use Yuri Slezkine's helpful concept—that is, a group whose role was mainly the delivery of goods and services.3 While this role as social and economic mediators was clearly defined during the Middle Ages, the beginnings of the modern era witnessed the rise of a questioning of their function within European Society. Over the course of the centuries that followed, both Jews and non-Jews began to grapple with what it meant to belong and participate in a society. The birth of the "Jewish question" is to be found here.4 For Jews, the question entailed how to hold onto a religious tradition defined by an extraterritorial bind to written Jewish law that assured them their social function during the Middle Ages. For non-Jews, who were no longer dependent upon Jewish mediation, the Jewish question meant how to deal with a large cultural and religious minority in the face of pressures from the Church and state. As the famous debate between Moses Mendelssohn and Christian Wilhelm von Dohm brought to the fore, the Enlightenment was infused with the Jewish question, and the Jewish question was infused with the Enlightenment.5 This reciprocal interaction was crystallized following the French Revolution when citizenship was detached from religious belonging. In France, emancipation resulted in full—although admittedly short-lived—civil equality for Jews. While Jewish emancipation remained subject to contestation and debate during this period, reforms ebbed and flowed throughout the nineteenth century with regard to Jewish civic equality. With the redefinition of the role of Jews in European society and the granting of civil rights, the tension between a commitment to Jewish cultural memory and the demands of acculturation as a condition of social integration became steadily accentuated. Perhaps the best exemplar of this tension can be seen in the life and work of Heinrich Heine. Born to an acculturated German-Jewish family, Heine decided to convert to Christianity in 1825 in the hope of receiving his "ticket of admission to European society."6 Soon after, Heine realized that even baptism could not resolve the Jewish question. As he lamented to his friend Moses Moser in October 1826 while traveling to the North Sea: "It is very clear to me that I am most longingly forced...

Collaboration in Context: Rural Change and Community Forestry in the Four Corners

ABSTRACT Over the past decade, many rural communities in the western United States have experienced dramatic social and economic transformations. Concurrent with these New West changes has been the rapid proliferation of community-based collaborative approaches to resource conservation and management. Given the uneven local impacts of these transformations and the community-based nature of collaborative management, the question arises as to the role of collaborative conservation efforts in mediating the local effects of these regional changes. To address this issue, a comparative analysis of four community forestry initiatives on national forests in the Four Corners region of the southwestern United States was conducted. The results present a framework that begins to articulate the way place specific socioenvironmental contexts are reflected in the diverse form and structure of community-based forestry projects in the region.

WORK‐FAMILY ROLE SYNTHESIS: INDIVIDUAL AND ORGANIZATIONAL DETERMINANTS

In light of the dramatic social transformations occurring in the nature of family and worker demands, nearly all employees today need to make decisions on how to manage work and family roles. Drawing on role theory, we provide a summary framework for understanding individual, family, and organizational influences on the self‐management of work and family roles. Work‐family role synthesis is defined as the strategies an individual uses to manage the enactment of work and caregiving roles. It involves decision‐making choices governing boundary management and role embracement of multiple roles. We present hypotheses and a research agenda for examining antecedents and consequences of employee strategies for managing work and family roles.

Agayadan Village: Household Archaeology on Unimak, Island, Alaska

The large communal dwelling is one of the hallmarks of the culturally complex, huntergatherer societies of NW North America. Many archaeologists link the transition to multifamily dwellings in this region, ca. A.C. 500–1500, with dramatic social transformations, including the emergence of residential corporate groups and social ranking. Understanding the organization of these multi-family houses is critical to understanding the evolution of social complexity in the north Pacific. Excavations at Agayadan Village on Unimak Island, Alaska provide important new data on the organization of late prehistoric multi-family houses in the eastern Aleutian region. Analysis of the spatial distribution of fire hearths, roasting pits, storage pits, and other interior features demonstrates that some aspects of the household economy operated on a corporate, or communal level, while in other aspects the families within each house maintained their economic independence.

Donkeys and Superteachers: Structural Adjustment and Popular Education in Latin America

In the past two decades Latin American governments have carried out dramatic social and economic transformations. The application of different programs of structural adjustment and decentralization has promoted deep changes, not only in the economic and social arenas, but also within the educational systems. The dominant tendency is to look for all the answers to educational problems in the realm of the "free market". However, contrary to what this situation may suggest, practitioners of "popular education" in the region have not lost all their vitality. This paper explores the challenges and possibilities of popular education by examining the educational field after the application of structural adjustment programs, presenting a critique of Gramsci's model of the organic intellectual as understood by many within popular education, and offering the specific example of a popular education workshop in Argentina.