Break In History Research Articles

Eurocommunism: The rise and fall of a hopeful project

Eurocommunism at first seemed to offer a strategy for renewal, but by the mid-1980s its momentum had dissipated. Recent renewed interest in Eurocommunism is part of a wider reflection on the crisis of communism in all its variants since the last part of the twentieth century. Its aim ‐ to forge a new strategy of democratic and peaceful conquest of political power, in keeping with the complexities of contemporary Western European societies ‐ at first seemed full of promise, but by the mid-1980s its momentum had dissipated. In spite of its aim of renewal, it was followed by the crisis and decline of the main communist parties with which it was associated, the Italian Communist Party (PCI), the French Communist Party (PCF) and the Spanish Communist Party (PCE). The actions, decisions and strategies adopted by these parties can only be understood if they are framed within the historical and geographical context of the 1970s ‐ a period of general crisis in both the capitalist and communist worlds, which ultimately consolidated a historical break between two different eras. The article discusses some of the key characteristics of the project, and the hopes and disappointments it provoked, drawing widely on the published literature. It concludes with a brief engagement with some of the reflections and assessments that have been made on the subject. B roadly speaking, in the end Eurocommunism failed to find a way of combining a reformist strategy with a revolutionary identity. It abandoned core aspects of its former strategy without finding a convincing replacement.

Data‐efficient and risk‐based pressure sensor placement optimization for water systems

AbstractDeployment of remote metering infrastructure can help utilities improve pressure management and limit pipe break impacts. Since it is cost‐infeasible to install sensors to fully cover an entire system, a risk‐based approach where devices are deployed in areas of systemic vulnerabilities will maximize the benefit of these limited resources. Previous work on sensor allocations requires well‐calibrated hydraulic models that contain a full asset inventory. This high barrier of data requirement makes it difficult to apply existing methods. In this research, we present a more efficient methodology with lower data requirements. Proxies for system vulnerabilities are generated using historic break records, and GIS inventories are used to derive candidate installation points. The problem is presented as a generalized version of the well‐studied maximal coverage location problem, where locations are selected for optimal coverage of risky areas. The workflow is demonstrated on a small suburban utility in Pennsylvania, USA.

Two-Step Medical Inflation Forecasts: Econometric Performance and Related Issues

Abstract This paper examines medical inflation forecasting based on a two-step method proposed by Gilbert (2019), whereby the medical inflation rate is forecast via the sum of two terms: a broad inflation published forecast and a historical average of the inflation gap—this being the difference between medical inflation and broad inflation. In a simple forecasting experiment, the two-step method compares favorably to the one-step method of forecasting medical inflation based on its past values alone. Stationarity tests applied to the inflation gap mostly support stationarity, with a possible historical break. The econometric results generally support the use of the two-step method, with a limited historical window for inflation gap averaging, consistent with Gilbert (2019).

Hegel and postmodernity: Towards in-finitude

The article delves into the multifaceted interplay between Hegel and postmodernity, as well as between postmodernity and the contemporary era. Both perspectives grapple with the notion of modernity, intricately tied to considerations of history, the idea of ending, and the concept of historical breaks. Deriving an analysis of the leading ideas of modernity and postmodernity, focusing especially on their relation to Hegel?s philosophy, we propose the thesis that postmodernity is not an epoch that succeeded modernity, but rather a transitional phase contributing to the decline of modernity itself. The contours of this new epoch, as yet indefinable or explicable, are revealed through significant shifts that have recently unsettled the fundamental frameworks upon which modernity was constructed. In doing so, we show that Hegel, who is certainly not a postmodernist, points to precisely the mechanism through which modernity can be transcended, which concerns human relation to substance, being, and time. Moreover, as it entails a revised human engagement with finitude and infinity, we term this relation ?In-Finitude?, or ?Un-Endlichkeit?.

Screen Media, Technological Innovation and the State in Nigeria

ABSTRACT: In this essay, I revisit the history of the emergence and evolution of the Nigerian screen media industry (Nollywood) through the prism of the concept of “infopolitics” to develop an analysis of the interaction between media technology innovation and state control in Africa. After being a key preoccupation during Cold War, the issue of the state’s capacity to control the production and flow of media content and data within its borders has become again the object of controversial debates in recent years, as shown by the multiplication of research on the issue of “digital sovereignty” and “platform capitalism.” By focusing on an African case study to reflect on issues of global relevance, this essay shows how the analysis of African realities can help us in interrogating and complementing theories formulated in relation to western case studies (and generally uncritically applied to other contexts). Combining first-hand ethnographic data to the analysis of the research results of other scholars who have investigated the emergence and growth of Nollywood over the past decades, this essay follows media producers and their relationship to technologies and the state, over a period of forty years, from the introduction of the videotape to the arrival of streaming platforms. In so doing, this research puts into perspective the “presentism” of many recent works, which tend to see the introduction of new digital technologies as the bearer of an unprecedented historical break, and makes an attempt at highlighting the links of continuity and discontinuity between recent transformations and the technological innovations which preceded them.

For conjunctural geography: From method to counter-hegemonic practice

Conjunctural analysis makes an important addition to the conceptual toolbox for understanding the contours of China's (capitalist) regional economies. In this commentary, we concur with Peck's suggestion that the conjunctural approach can animate economic geography's engagement with ‘thick’ theorization without foregoing context-rich inquiry. However, we also emphasize Stuart Hall's commitment to counter-hegemonic politics and his use of the conjunctural approach to explore – and ultimately facilitate – historical breaks in social structures of dominance. Through a brief exploration of ways of engaging the region in China area studies and Chinese geography, we discuss how the conjunctural approach can be mobilized to (re)politicize geographies of regional development.

A Critical Analysis of Urban Development Using the Application of Genealogy over Metropolitan City of Mashhad Iran

The purpose of this research is to explain how and why to use the genealogy approach in order to understand the evolution of the role of cities over time with special emphasis on the city of Mashhad. "The role of the city" and its developments can be analyzed with different approaches such as the economic approach or the urban geography approach. But in this research, Foucault's genealogy was used, and the city and its role were investigated under the influence of the power of governance and its mutual relations with space and knowledge. The basic questions are: Regardless of the initial formation and the geographical and political background of the city of Mashhad, what is the dominant role of this city now? How have these roles been formed over time and what discourses have been effective in creating these roles? Does this city have new power and capacity for development? Based on Foucault's theory of genealogy, the analysis of the development process of urban roles can be done using power-related tools and knowledge products. Based on this, the dominant role of cities has been formed during historical periods and between historical breaks, and new spatial links of manifestations of power and knowledge have been created in the urban space. The urban space of Mashhad and its historical, physical and social developments have been formed under the influence of an interconnected network of knowledge and power.

On‐Line Warning System for Pipe Burst Using Bayesian Dynamic Linear Models

AbstractPipe breaks are a recurrent problem in water distribution networks and detecting them quickly is crucial to minimize the economic and environmental costs for municipalities. This study presents a burst detection methodology applying Bayesian dynamic linear models (DLMs) on water flow time series combined with an outlier monitoring tool. The model is used to characterize the actual flow and, for each time, a one‐step ahead forecast distribution is obtained recursively before moving onto the next observation. The outlier detection method consists of comparing the main model with an alternative one wherein the mean flow is shifted to a higher value (as bursts tend to increase flow) to evaluate which model best fit the observed data. If the alternative model is favored, a burst alarm is issued. To verify the performance of this approach, the DLM and monitoring tool were applied on 2 yr of flow data from two district meter areas (DMAs) in Halifax (Canada), and a historical break data set is used to assess model accuracy. The model was able to detect up to 75% and 71.2% of the pipe breaks, with a false alarm rate of 5.15% and 12% in the first and second DMA, respectively. Finally, the proposed model allows for straightforward interpretation of model parameters, nonlinear relationship between flow and predictors of interest, naturally describes the uncertainty for future predictions, can easily accommodate missing values and can be tuned to maximize break detection or minimize false alarm rates to adapt to specific objectives of water infrastructure managers.

Art Cinema and India's Forgotten Futures: Film and History in the Postcolony by Rochona Majumdar

Reviewed by: Art Cinema and India's Forgotten Futures: Film and History in the Postcolony by Rochona Majumdar Lakshmi Padmanabhan (bio) Art Cinema and India's Forgotten Futures: Film and History in the Postcolony by Rochona Majumdar. Columbia University Press. 2021. 320 pages. $140.00 hardcover; $35.00 paperback; also available in e-book. Rochona Majumdar's Art Cinema and India's Forgotten Futures: Film and History in the Postcolony is a history of the art cinema movement in India in the immediate aftermath of decolonization and an argument for reading Indian art cinema, particularly the work of Bengali filmmakers Ritwik Ghatak, Mrinal Sen, and Satyajit Ray, as forms of historiographic thinking, which provide conceptual insights into the postcolonial present. Art Cinema and India's Forgotten Futures charts the cultural history of the art cinema movement in India, focusing on the 1950s to the 1980s, a period that saw the rise of state support for independent filmmaking fueled by an optimistic vision of the newly formed nation-state's role in cultural life and the subsequent decline of these institutions and the disillusionment that followed the intense political upheavals of the 1970s. The book, which is divided into two parts, is structured by the historical break between the optimistic political atmosphere of the early decades following Indian independence and the political disillusionment of the 1970s and after. Majumdar opens by connecting the rise of art cinema or "good films" with the pedagogical project of the newly formed nation-state to produce "good citizens."1 It is worth noting here that throughout the text, Majumdar [End Page 213] highlights the difficulty of limiting the boundary or unifying characteristics of art cinema as a category, precisely because of the ongoing disagreements about what constituted "good films" and "good citizens." Across the first section of the text, she utilizes the term interchangeably with quality films (chapter 1), new cinema (chapter 2), radical cinema (chapter 3), and several other terms emerging from the archival sources, including parallel cinema and the Indian New Wave. Rather than providing art cinema with a specific aesthetic or political approach, Majumdar isolates the aspirational quality of the category. In Majumdar's narration, art cinema emerged through the productive intersection of elite interests in advocating for cinema as a medium of art (in contrast to the commercial cinema emerging from the well-funded studios in Mumbai and Chennai, for example) and the pedagogical aim of the national bureaucracy to transcend social divisions and educate a universal Indian citizen.2 Majumdar locates the rise of the film society movement, and the investment by educated elites in fostering a popular film culture, as intellectually aligned with the broader task of educating the newly postcolonial citizen-subject, who was understood to be inexperienced in the practice of democracy. Art cinema was viewed as a pedagogical tool, one that utilized an industrial medium (which aligned it with the broader Nehruvian economic development model centered on industrialization and investment in modern technology) to foster popular sovereignty, educating the masses about their role in a secular democratic society. Between 1959 and 1964, several of the most important institutions of film education and preservation were inaugurated, including the Federation of Film Societies of India (1959), Film Finance Corporation (1960), the Film Institute of India (1960), and the National Film Archive of India (1964).3 The first section provides us with a cultural history of these institutions and examines the role of key figures such as Marie Seton, a British film critic and evangelist for independent film and art cinema. Through this section, Majumdar tracks the underlying faith that these institutions and figures cultivated in the pedagogical possibilities of art cinema as a form of aesthetic education in a country where the sheer plurality of linguistic communities and rates of illiteracy made developing a shared public sphere through written text an ongoing concern for the political elite and artists alike. Their aspiration for cinema to transcend regional and linguistic boundaries and speak in a universal humanist language was also a measure of its aesthetic value and sociological importance. As Majumdar explains, the idealistic view of art cinema's pedagogical function crumbles in the 1970s with the increasingly authoritarian...

Советский Союз как империя: к вопросу о политико-правовой природе территориального устройства СССР

Introduction: despite the fact that the modern Russian Federation is the legal successor of the USSR and historically has grown out of it, the necessary theoretical analysis of the Soviet statehood does not occur in modern social sciences. This also applies to the problem of the political and territorial structure of the Soviet Union, about the form of which there is a significant range of opinions in the literature, often diametrically opposed. The subject of the paper is to find the most accurate methods of studying the nature of the territorial organization of the Soviet state, and its purpose is to determine on this basis an adequate state form of the USSR. Methods: the methodological framework for the work is a set of methods of scientific cognition, among which the dialectical and historical-legal methods and the civilizational approach are of key importance in the systematic analysis of the basic conditions of education and trends in the evolution of the Soviet statehood. The results of the study show that when searching for the optimal model of the state form, especially in a revolutionary situation, it is impossible to dogmatically oppose democracy to dictatorship, unitarianism to federalism, centralization to autonomy, etc., which was well demonstrated by the leadership of the Bolshevik Party by creating an updated version of the giant Eurasian (Russian) continental empire of the socialist type. Conclusions: the Soviet Union possessed a sufficient set of political and legal features that allow it to be attributed to empires. Therefore, looking in many external parameters as a historical break with the St. Petersburg Empire, the Soviet state that replaced it, from the point of view of the logic of Russian history and its political and legal content, was a necessary link in the evolution of the Russian statehood, representing a completely natural phase of its development and having at its core an imperial geopolitical nature, genetically characteristic of the Russian civilization.

Period, Break, Form

Abstract This essay examines the relationship between novelistic form and a historical moment shaped by new technologies in Dave Eggers's The Circle (2013) and Kim Stanley Robinson's Red Moon (2018). In both, the novel form is itself positioned as a major counterforce against the malignant powers that are attempting to form the age. Also in both, new technologies are understood not as primary or independent shaping forces but as enabling components of a larger political and economic form, a variant of capitalism. However, the crucial difference between the two novels is in how they periodize this capitalism, an act that is inseparably bound up with their generic identity. The Circle implicitly sees the growing power of the tech giants as a historical break, a departure or step-change from previous modes of capitalism, a periodizing that anticipates Shoshana Zuboff's recent, influential definition of “surveillance capitalism.” In Red Moon the new technology is less central to the plot and is capable of working for both the good guys and the bad. This relegation of technology as period marker reflects the novel's positioning of the contemporary moment—as it blurs into the near future setting—as a continuation of a longer historical arc rather than a break from it. Periodization and genre emerge as central to how these novels relate to social forms: genres are provisional and heuristic constructions that provide a way of talking about how novels negotiate, and negotiate with, history.

Technology as ‘time saver’ and the ‘saviour’ of older adult care:

This paper analyses the political articulation and understanding of ‘technology-supported care’ for older adults in central Norwegian public policy documents. In these documents, technology is increasingly presented both as a time saver and a life saver for the welfare state. Drawing on data from document analysis of official green and white papers from the period 1973-2018, the paper describes and seeks answers to how healthcare policies have evolved towards representing a strong ‘techno-optimism’. The primary objective is to analyse how such an optimism have come about as well as understand the underlying assumptions and ideologies supporting it.
 Epistemologically, the paper leans on the French sociologist Pierre Bourdieu’s theories on policy and practice, and on how current social practices can be analysed historically. The analysis identifies ‘historical breaks’ regarding how technologies are positioned throughout the last five decades and reveal battles between orthodox and heterodox stances towards technology in care. As such, we discuss the temporal aspects of representations of technology in policies, as well as problematic aspects of what we see at the current or prevalent doxa: a strong belief in technology in care as time- and cost-saving.

Biogeographic breaks in the Atlantic Forest: evidence for Oligocene/Miocene diversification inBertolonia(Melastomataceae)

AbstractThe distribution of major clades in Bertolonia (Melastomataceae) is congruent with subareas of the Atlantic Forest, providing an opportunity to estimate ages of historical breaks in the Atlantic Forest, from its major north/south split to more restricted local radiations. The role of niche conservatism in driving diversification of Bertolonia is also analysed and discussed in the light of its historical distribution. We estimated the age of the diversification events, gathered the climatic envelopes of species and clades, generated bioregions for the Atlantic Forest and reconstructed the ancestral areas of speciation for the genus. Our analysis subdivided the Atlantic Forest in five subareas, three of them in the northern and two in the southern Atlantic Forest. We also recovered a deep north/south divergence of the Atlantic Forest in the Oligocene (c. 30 Mya) followed by subsequent local radiations in both regions and a south-eastern/southern division in the Miocene. Later diversification happened mostly from the Mid-Miocene to Pliocene/Pleistocene with several dispersal events, mostly between neighbouring areas. We corroborated this assumption demonstrating that closely related lineages tend to occur in habitats with similar climatic conditions, mainly related to temperature. Our analyses on Bertolonia effectively captured relatively old historical events in the Atlantic Forest, such as the north/south division in the Oligocene and south/south-eastern split in the Miocene, but also recent ones, such as climatic fluctuations and forest fragmentation in the Quaternary. We indicate here for the first time that, for some organisms, the well-known north/south split of the Atlantic Forest could be older than expected. Recent radiation events occurred mainly on a regional basis after this deep division of the domain and the subclades that were recovered showed a significant climatic niche conservatism.

Marital Realism: Beauty and Pettiness inMiddlemarch

Marital Realism: Beauty and Pettiness in<i>Middlemarch</i>

The Changing Kazakh Literature From the Soviet Era to the Independence Period in Kazakhstan

Literature in the Soviet Union was an instrument to embed socialism and build Soviet society. The Communist Party of the Soviet Union was the supreme authority that shaped the literary process. During the Soviet era, especially after the establishment of the Soviet Writers' Union in 1934 and the determination of socialist realism as the primary art method of Soviet literature, literature was incurred entirely under the control of the Soviet ideology. A period has begun in which the authors produced works as “directed” by orders and instructions of the Soviet administration, instead of making literary production freely. Even though there were various historical breaks and relative moderation in the Soviet administration from time to time, this situation continued until the dissolution of the Soviet Union. It is possible to entitle this period "national literature" period when looking at the ongoing process since 1991. The Kazakh literature works, which developed from 1991 to the present, dealt with Kazakh national, religious, and moral values damaged during the Soviet period and glorified those values, drew attention to them. It is seen that the issues which were impossible to mention or forbidden in the Soviet era and some historical truths were brought up. There is a permanent national rise in Kazakh literature from the first years of the independence period. It is observed that Kazakh national identity, which was repressed and tried to be erased during the Soviet era, is built upon the literature today. In this article, the literary process of Kazakh literature as experienced in the Soviet era and the Independence period has been discussed. The point where the Kazakh literature has come from the past to the present, has been put forward.

An inquiry into Kjølstad’s self-straightening orthopedics in 19th century Norway – One historical root of physiotherapy

ABSTRACT Enhancing and facilitating change or optimization of body awareness and movement behaviors have been sustained throughout history as central objectives in physiotherapy. Focus will be on the thoughts and practice of orthopedist Gunder Nielsen Kjølstad (1794–1860). He is, in a Norwegian context, one of the forefathers of physiotherapy. Kjølstad was unique for his time in the sense that he did not limit himself to medicine, but drew on vast array of disciplines, among them philosophy, geometry, physics, and dance. Fundamental to his treatment method was a pedagogy that rested on the active participation of the patient; an approach that stood in stark contrast to the established clinical practices. Through this approach, he developed a treatment for ‘crooked backs’ which constituted a historic break with the common treatment regimens of the nineteenth century.

Museo del universo: los juegos olímpicos y el movimiento estudiantil de 1968 by Ariel Rodríguez Kuri

Reviewed by: Museo del universo: los juegos olímpicos y el movimiento estudiantil de 1968 by Ariel Rodríguez Kuri Juan Alberto Salazar Rebolledo Museo del universo: los juegos olímpicos y el movimiento estudiantil de 1968. By Ariel Rodríguez Kuri. Mexico City: El Colegio de México-Centro de Estudios Históricos, 2019, p. 457, $17.00. In 2018, in the context of the burgeoning revisionism of the student movement of 1968 in Mexico on its 50th anniversary, the collective Lagartijas tiradas al sol made a video performance called The past never dies, it is not even past. The short movie began with a message aimed at the old 1968 militants: "We have tried to create social movements like yours and we did not succeed. […] We know that until the last participant of 1968 dies, we will not be free. And we are running out of patience. So, if you are not dying… We are going to kill you." Within the same revisionist atmosphere, Museo del universo, by the historian Ariel Rodríguez Kuri – who was not a direct participant of the movement, but only witnessed it as a child – presents an original interpretative reading of the Mexican 1968 by considering together the student movement and the Olympic Games of that year as part of the same process, arguing that "both constituted a revolution in the way of communicate, signify, and say in Mexico" (38). Lagartijas's message intersected with the historiographical revisionism around the Global Sixties field, and specifically on the Mexican 1968. A series of works by scholars like Eric Zolov, Vanni Pettinà, Renata Keller, Camilo Vicente, Jaime Pensado, and Rafael Rojas, among others, have recently illustrated that Mexican authoritarianism in that year contradicts the so-called exceptionalism of Mexico among the Latin American Cold War. Rodríguez Kuri definitely does not kill the last participant of the 1968, as Lagartijas threatened, but he does try to put an end to an idealistic view of the student movement as a break in history. More a "cairn" than the beginning of an era – as many of the former mobilized students have repeated in their writings until now – '68 becomes a sign in the road (412-413). This is Rodríguez Kuri's motivation to ask the question that drives his study: Who cared about what happened in Mexico City in 1968, and who still cares about it? Namely, what conditions inhabit the memories about that event, and where? These questions remain open as proposals for new ventures on the Mexican 1968 historiographical revisionism. Across an introduction, eight chapters, and a conclusion, Rodríguez Kuri presents a social reading of 1960s Mexico City. He offers a diagnosis of the thoughts and feelings of the urban middle classes, and their ups and downs among the political spectrum, configuring the public sphere according to their veering interests (16). Within the first chapter, the historian emphasizes what is political in sports, showing how the assignation of Mexico City as host for the XIX Olympic Games depended on how Mexican diplomacy drew on a "favorable international juncture" (69) related with the Third World politics that would become a Mexican trend in the next decade. This nationalistic focus was on display in the internal [End Page 572] motto among the organizers of the Mexican Olympic Games that were supposed to be "[adapted] to the city" (101), unlike the previous editions in which other countries invested huge quantities of money, as the second chapter shows. An architect, Pedro Ramírez Vázquez stars in the second chapter as the author of Mexican Olympics' identity. Incorporating cultural events along with the sportive ones, he tried to make a "visual, auditive, sensitive, and cognitive representation of the Global 1960s–a museum" (90), confronting to some extent the cultural nationalism established by the post-revolutionary Mexican regime since the 1920s, a "major rupture" (91) with the self-absorption of the previous references in the regime's cultural policies, as Rodríguez Kuri points out. The contestation between conservatism/nationalism and renovation/cosmopolitanism is also the topic of the third chapter, revolving around the intellectual debate on the reconstruction of Mexico's cathedral after a fire destroyed...

Interview with Léon Krier

The conservative weekly Berlin Newspaper Junge Freiheit was intrigued by Krier’s pun in a 1993 Die Welt article. Following the then official cancellation of the Berlin Castle reconstruction project, Krier had quipped that Germany had to continue doing architectural penance for the Nazi sins. The immense popular success of reconstructions currently being completed in Berlin, Potsdam, Dresden, Frankfurt, despite regular political and professional sabotage, mark indeed a historic break with modernist post war architectural austerity. They are clarion calls for a radical change in established architectural policies and education.

State of watermain infrastructure: a Canadian case study using historic pipe break datasets

Over the last two decades, a variety of reports have suggested that watermains in Canada are deteriorating, and break rates are increasing. However, these reports are often limited as the years of break records being utilized are brief; this paper revisits those assessments using over 45 years of break records and shows that three of the five utilities investigated are experiencing significant decreases in break rates over the past 10 years while the two other utilities are maintaining consistent break rates. These results indicate that these utilities are effectively managing their watermain infrastructure, and suggest watermain infrastructure throughout Canada may be performing better than suggested by cross-sectional survey results. Analyses indicate that on average, 22% of the watermains analyzed have exceeded the 0.125 breaks per km per year break rate threshold and may be considered for pipe replacement or rehabilitation. In particular, 50% of cast iron pipes installed post-WWII have exceeded a break rate threshold of 0.125 brks/km/year, suggesting large pipe replacement or rehabilitation of this pipe cohort is required.

Prediction of water main failures with the spatial clustering of breaks

Due to limited budgets and an aging system, infrastructure managers have increasingly sought cost-effective means to evaluate asset condition. This is a particular challenge for water distribution systems due to the vast amount of buried and unseen pipelines. A spatial clustering of pipe breaks fits well into a wider asset management framework with the aim of identifying regions with abnormally high failure rates. The information about spatial clusters identified using historical breaks, if and where they exist, can potentially improve predictions on the location of future breaks. In this research, we present three algorithms (poisson based, density based, and locally weighted density based) for scanning and clustering pipe break data and demonstrate their application on a real pipeline network. We also explore whether the use of spatial clusters as an explanatory variable can improve the accuracy of pipe break machine learning models. Empirical findings show that the locally weighted density scan provides the greatest precision for finding high breakage zones. The application of these clusters generally improves the performance of predictive models by helping them prioritize high risk pipes with greater accuracy.