Institutional History Research Articles

Examining the ‘gendered’ places and spaces of UK doctoral education using multilevel modelling

AbstractResearch on gender in higher education frequently focuses on micro‐ or macro‐scale factors—power relations and working practices, or disciplinary norms and the educational ‘pipeline’—overlooking the meso‐scale of ‘place’ embodied in departments and institutions. This study bridges that gap by applying data science and multilevel modelling within a quantitative feminist geographical framework to analyse gendered PhD completion patterns in the UK from 1990 to 2020. Using the British Library's E‐Thesis Online Service (EThOS), we identify ‘department‐like units’ as pivotal, accounting for 10.7% of the variation in the likelihood of a PhD student being female—more than any other grouping. Overall, STEM fields remain male‐skewed, while the Arts and Humanities, and Social Sciences show a female skew. Institutional histories and geography also matter: in Scottish and Northern Irish universities students are more likely to be female compared with English universities, while the likelihood in Wales is lower. The use of statistical methods through a feminist lens offers a foundation for targeted interventions: our results suggest a greater focus on departments in equality initiatives like Athena SWAN and adjustments to funding policies to enhance diversity in PhD cohorts, particularly in male‐dominated disciplines. Future work should integrate intersectional approaches to deepen understanding of these dynamics, but these findings emphasise the value of place‐based analysis in addressing gender disparities and guiding policy.

P-1990. Out-of-Hospital Care Setting in a Febrile Emergency Unit of Suspected Covid 19 Patients

Abstract Background In 2019, a new infection was reported in China. This coronavirus was named SARS-COV-2, causative of the 21st-century pandemic, COVID-19. Health systems adopted different strategies to cope with it. Objective to describe the clinical-epidemiological characteristics of COVID-19 in children seen at an Emergency Febril Unit (UFU). Demographic and epidemiological characteristics of children treated at EFU of Pedro de Elizalde Children's Hospital (n = 952) Methods Cross-sectional study in patients under 18 years of age tested for SARS-COV-2 between April 1 and June 30, 2020. All epidemiological records made at the time of consultation and the result of the Polymerase Chain Reaction (PCR) test of these patients, either by suspicion of COVID-19 or epidemiological isolation criteria, were included. Patients whose samples had been taken for SARS-COV-2 determination outside the initial time of consultation or whose epidemiological records were incomplete or did not meet the established inclusion criteria were excluded. The diagnosis of COVID-19 was made using the PCR technique for SARS-COV-2 in nasopharyngeal secretions obtained by nasopharyngeal swab or aspirate. The following variables were recorded: age, gender, place of residence, history of close contact, history of history of close contacts, travel history and comorbidities, history of institutionalization and PCR result. Presentation of symptoms: Frequency Results 1,104 patients were admitted to the UFU and tested due to suspected COVID-19. 152 patients had to be excluded due to insufficient data. Of the 952 patients tested, 22.6% had a detectable result, and 71.2% of them reported close contact with confirmed cases. The mean age was 5.9 years. The 55.4% were male and 99.3% lived in the Metropolitan Area of Buenos Aires. 72.8% of the patients tested had symptoms. The time of delay in consultation was 2.17 days. 25% of the children had comorbidities. Conclusion The availability of the UFU facilitated access and optimized the care circuit in response to demand. Children with a history of close contact and those symptomatic showed more frequently a detectable result for SARS-COV-2. Disclosures All Authors: No reported disclosures

Explaining the Success of Litigation Strategies in the Schrems Cases

This article seeks to explain the success of litigation strategies pursued by interest groups defending a public interest (hereafter public interest groups). We focus on the sub-field of data transfer between the European Union and the United States, where the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU), through rulings indirectly triggered by such groups, has invalidated a Commission’s decision relating to EU-US arrangements (Safe Harbour in 2015, then Privacy Shield in 2020). To evaluate the likelihood of litigation successes, we propose an analytical model based on five elements derived from the new institutionalist theory: actors and instruments (rational choice institutionalism), processes (historical institutionalism), context and legitimacy (sociological institutionalism). Although we cannot prove that all five elements are necessary conditions for success, we argue that litigation successes in the cases we studied (the Schrems rulings) were very likely because all five elements were combined, even if the relative weight of each element slightly varied.

Slow‐Moving Welfare State Change in Quebec and “Movements From Below”

ABSTRACTRecent discussions of policy change in political science have been heavily influenced by historical institutionalist typologies of gradual institutional change and of the ideal‐typical agents producing them. The key agents are those within the state who implement and interpret the rules, while the agency of social movements is treated as largely contextual. One way of enriching these accounts is to consider the offensive and defensive strategies of “social movements from below” contesting the dominance of the “social movement from above” over time. This is illustrated by the case of Quebec, where the shift away from a liberal welfare state in the 1990s is explained in part by the social movement project of the women's and community movement.

Chronicles From A Closed Museum

This contribution addresses the strategies of public engagement, heritage reinterpretation, and knowledge co-production recently implemented by the MAET - Museum of Anthropology and Ethnography of the University of Turin. As with many Western museums founded in 19th and 20th centuries, it must contend with a legacy tied to the racist and colonial ideologies of its past. Its ethnographic collections, particularly those from non- European contexts, highlight critical challenges such as its colonial history, ‘sensitive heritage’ and the issue of ‘archival silence’. The MAET has recently started a process of reassessing its non-European collections in an effort to deconstruct its institutional history. This paper will provide an analysis of the museum’s efforts to engage local communities – students, citizens, and migrants – through a decolonial lens, focusing on projects like Around the World in 90 Minutes – an educational workshop for primary school students – and Voices from the Forgotten Collections – conceived to promote the exhibition Africa. The forgotten collections (Royal Museum of Turin, 27th October 2023 – 25th February 2024). Although small in scale, these activities prepare for the museum’s future reopening and foster participatory museology. Keywords: Museums; Ethnographic collections; Colonial heritage; Archival silence; Decolonisation; Public Engagement.

"Preserving The Past Or The Future? Tensions Between Museums' Traditional Mandate To Preserve And Exhibit Cultural Heritage, And Their Responsibilities To The Planet And Future Generations"

This article attempts to examine the acts of civil resistance that unfolded around artworks in museum collections in 2022-2024, with the aim of stimulating a discourse on how museums have been able - and potentially could be - to respond to these actions and the underlying claims they make. It also explores more broadly the tensions eco-activist actions have highlighted between museums' traditional mandate to preserve and exhibit cultural heritage, and their responsibilities to the planet and future generations. This article examines how museums have responded to these actions and the underlying claims they make, while also considering the wider implications of this interaction between environmental activism and cultural institutions. It raises the central question of the responsibilities of museums as cultural institutions in a world facing unprecedented environmental challenges. This article finally provides some perspectives on how these historic institutions strike a balance between preserving the past and actively engaging in the struggle for the future of the planet. Keywords: Civil Resistance, Eco-Activism, Ecological Transition, Degrowth, Conservation

Preservation and path dependencies: a historical institutionalist analysis of the development of national parks in Brazil

ABSTRACT National parks and other protected areas have evolved in most nations, and often reflect idiosyncratic histories and characteristics of each nation. Adopting a historical institutionalist approach, this paper aims to understand the contextual aspects that led to the creation and development of the Brazilian national park system, focusing on political, economic, social and cultural conditions. The analysis identifies the periods of stability in national park management and the internal and external factors that led to institutional change in Brazil. The key findings highlight eight critical path dependencies that have emerged throughout the history of Brazil’s national park creation and management. The path dependencies are related to the original extractivist development model and colonial nature of the country, undefined land tenure, the preservationist perspective, the lack of a relationship between society and protected areas, limited participation, underfunding and understaffing, dependence on external funding and the new focus on concessions. We argue these key path dependencies continue to shape the management of national parks in Brazil.

A paralegal institution: tribunals and the place of law in the framework of internment during the Second World War

ABSTRACT This article examines the emergence of tribunals as a system for legalising the internment of ‘enemy aliens’ in Britain and the United States during the Second World War. Reconstructing how these emergent quasi-judicial structures classified and reclassified civilians, it uncovers the moral uncertainties, legal frameworks, and bureaucratic dynamics that shaped the internment practices of democratic states. The history of these tribunals also sheds light on the long-term attitudes towards immigration and foreign influence in Anglophone societies. Debates on belonging, citizenship, and civil liberties within democratic societies often spanned a longer time period, reaching from the anti-immigration legislation of the 1900s to the globalisation of internment in the First World War, before culminating in the emergency measures of the Second World War. The article uses a multidirectional approach at the intersection of legal studies, biography, social and institutional history. By synthesising historical records, juristic analyses, and personal narratives, it elucidates how the tribunal systems navigated the complexities of intelligence assessments and public opinion dynamics. Furthermore, the comparison between British and American tribunal systems unveils both convergences and divergences in legal approaches and administrative practices. Considered within broader historical contexts, the tribunal system sheds light on the way legal frameworks both shaped and were shaped by wartime exigencies.

The Trade Union Movement, 1850-1914

This article examines the role of trade unionism in the long nineteenth century and considers the drawbacks to standard approaches to this subject. Discussing the changed focus of much historical scholarship towards the history of trade unions, it re-examines the approach to trade union history that emphasizes the movement’s affinities with the Labour party. Moving away from a focus that stresses the institutional and hierarchical histories of individual trade unions, this article explores the new directions in trade union history, stressing the movement’s links with different political parties, recent research on strike action and the rediscovery of particular strikes and the role of transnationalism and emigration in shaping the attitudes and actions of the trade union movement more broadly. Moreover, it detects a renewed focus on the material culture and historical survivals of the trade union movement, and the role of objects like banners in preserving the memory and vigour of the movement in the nineteenth century.

O profesiune liberală sub patru dictaturi. Avocatura din România între extrema dreaptă și cea stângă

A liberal profession, lawyering was probably the most important and visible aspect of Romania's social modernization since the 19th century. Following the Western model, especially the French one, lawyers played a central role in reforming Romanian legal institutions. Modern justice placed legal counsel at the heart of the system, although it was considered more of a vocation than a constitutive part. It also presented an excellent opportunity for enrichment and, therefore, for social ascent in a predominantly oligarchic society. Initially oriented toward the free circulation of ideas, the study of law became, after World War II, increasingly attractive to political groups that openly proposed the destruction of Romania's social order. The far-right also recruited many of its followers from the Medicine and Law faculties at all Romanian universities. After 1944, the trend of restricting freedom in this profession continued. Lawyers, with their political inclinations, automatically became suspects. Many were arrested and convicted, as they were involved in political trials where defense was irrelevant. Counselors with communist sympathies left the bar to join the judiciary—due to a lack of personnel loyal to the new regime—or were recruited by the government. The present study aims to trace the phases of this institutional history.

Lessons from Holocaust Perpetration Learned by German Law Enforcement?

While right-wing extremism and related hate crimes, and anti-Semitism rise, Holocaust education for law enforcement provides crucial historical awareness and strengthens competence in decision-making and ethical judgment. In Berlin, law enforcement officers participate in Holocaust education programs at the Wannsee Conference Memorial and the Topography of Terror on the grounds of the former Reich Security Main Office (Reichsicherheitshauptamt). While the law enforcement officers participating in the programs possess basic pre-knowledge of the Holocaust and Nazi-era crimes, the programs help them deepen their understanding of Nazi history. However, they demonstrate limited awareness of perpetrator research and the role of the German Order Police (Ordnungspolizei) in the Nazi era, with little improvement in this area after the Holocaust Education programs at memorials based in Berlin. This highlights the need for more comprehensive educational efforts to address these gaps and foster a more thorough understanding of their institutional history.

The training ship Scilla. History of a venetian educational institution

This paper examines the history of the training ship Scilla, established in 1904 in Venice by professor and philanthropist David Levi Morenos, who also promoted the Consortium of Vocational Schools for Maritime Workers in 1917. The ship, serving as a training and boarding school, accommodated orphans from the age of 7, aiming to provide technical, practical, and cultural training for careers in naval professions and the lower ranks of the Merchant Navy, in both traffic and fishing sectors. Similar to other contemporary programs in Genoa, Naples, and Bari, this initiative combined vocational training for regional professions with the opportunity to educate disadvantaged minors at risk of “deviance” and social marginalization. This paper situates the initiative within the broader context of the history of public assistance and childhood education in 20th-century Italy, highlighting the new and significant focus on supporting disadvantaged children and their reintegration into civil society.

The Evolution, Logic, and Prospects of Community-Based Home Elderly Care Policies in China: An Analysis based on Historical Institutionalism

In response to the pressing issue of population aging and the increasing demand for elderly care services in China, a series of community-based home elderly care policies have been implemented. Utilizing a historical institutionalism analytical framework, this study categorizes the evolution of these policies into four distinct historical stages: emergence due to circumstances, exploratory initiation, clear acceleration, and quality enhancement. Based on structural and historical perspectives, this analysis summarizes the institutional context and policy establishment, the political variables and structural interaction, the key nodes and institutional breaks, as well as path dependence coupled with gradual transformation. Looking ahead, there is a need for community-based home elderly care policies to advance in four key areas: expanding coverage and diversifying services, enhancing informatization and intelligence, fostering marketization and socialization, and promoting integration and specialization, thereby improving institutional synergy to address the increasingly complex needs of the elderly population.

The Evolution of Government's Public Service Purchase Policy: A Historical Institutionalism Framework of Analysis

Public service innovation is the eternal theme of government management. Scientifically recognizing the change process, evolution logic and dynamic mechanism of the government's public service purchase policy is not only an important support for grasping the policy direction and optimizing the policy design, but also a realistic demand for promoting the quality and efficiency of public services and accelerating the modernization of the national governance system and governance capacity. Based on the analytical perspective of historical institutionalism, the government's purchase of public services in China has experienced three important stages: local exploration, standardized development, and deepening reform. Its historical evolution has been profoundly influenced by situational factors, institutional factors, path dependence, and key nodes. The demand for government function transformation and social governance mechanism innovation, as well as the need for service object needs change and public service supply model innovation, are the driving forces behind policy change. Looking ahead, the government's purchase of public services should focus on standardizing and adjusting the setting of guiding catalogs, improving the needs assessment of service purchase, perfecting the implementation process of service purchase, and strengthening the process supervision and evaluation of results, so as to promote the high-quality development of the government's purchase of public services.

Jelena Tomić-Bokur (1889–1961) – the First State-Appointed Woman Engineer Architect in Yugoslavia

In 2023, the author’s study «Early Engineers and Architects Born on the Territory of Present North Macedonia» was published in the RTU RCEH Scientific Journal «History of Engineering Sciences and Institutions of Higher Education» about the first engineers and architects who were born in the territory of present-day North Macedonia. This paper focuses on the life and work of the first state-appointed woman engineer architect in Yugoslavia in 1919, Jelena Tomić-Bokur (nee Tomić; 1889–1961), a graduate of the Technical Faculty of the University of Belgrade in 1913. The paper covers in brief her 24-year-long professional career between 1913 and 1937 in the Kingdom of Serbia and the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats, and Slovenes – Yugoslavia, with emphasis on her formation years in Skopje (1915–1923). This study contributes to the history of engineering and architecture in North Macedonia and wider whilst exploring the context in which the first women professionals emerged in Serbia and former Yugoslavia.

The Existential-Humanistic Institute: Formalizing Training for Hungering Professionals of Today and Tomorrow

This article describes the formation, history, and current mission of the Existential-Humanistic Institute (EHI) located in the San Francisco Bay Area. Created at the behest of pioneering existential-humanistic psychologist James F.T. Bugental to provide a “home” for trainees specializing in the existential-humanistic approach to psychotherapy, EHI is now a flagship center for that domain of practice. It was also recently granted the Karl and Charlotte Buhler Award for organizations that have made an outstanding contribution to humanistic psychology by the Society for Humanistic Psychology of the American Psychological Association, and it is a beacon for the increasing number of students and professionals who hunger for a deeper and more intimate perspective than that typically offered by conventional training institutions.

MOBILISATION AND CONSCRIPTION OF MILITARY PERSONNEL IN IVANOVO REGION IN 1943

This article examines the activities of the city military commissars of Ivanovo Region for conscription into the Red Army of reserve conscripts, women and girls to replace regular military personnel, as well as persons who had served their sentences and were subject to mobilisation by their age. Attention is also paid to the work of the city military commissars to remove draft determents from enterprises’ employees whose qualifications did not meet the requirements periodically established by the State Defence Committee. Considerable attention is paid in the article to organising registration and conscription into the Red Army of young men born in 1926. Unlike previous mobilisations, that one carried out conscription on the basis of a resolution of the State Defence Committee in compliance with the basic provisions of the USSR Law “On Universal Military Dutyˮ as of June 26, 1941. The article is based on documents from the Russian State Archive of Socio-Political History and the State Archive of Ivanovo Region, most of which have been introduced into scientific circulation for the first time. When working on them, we used hermeneutic method, which allows analysing the content of documents in terms of the time of their origin. The main result obtained during the work on this article is the establishment of the number of males and females conscripted from the territory of Ivanovo Region in 1943, as well as their employment, education, ethnicity, etc. These data allow us getting closer in order to identify the number of residents of Ivanovo Region drafted into the Red Army, and eventually understand the amount of human resources withdrawn from the region’s economy for the sake of repelling the Axis aggression. This article and its results are addressed to specialists in the field of military history, graduate students, and undergraduates of higher educational institutions.

Drivers behind conditionalities in EU cohesion policy governance

ABSTRACT The article presents the institutional development of emergence, continuity, and expansion of EU governance-related conditionalities, the term coined in the article, in EU cohesion policy as of 2013. Even though the development of the EU governance-related conditionalities correlates with the different crises, it is EU institutional drivers of the conversion effect and past policy learning experience creating environment of acceptance, and not the crises which have a decisive impact on shaping the EU governance related conditionalities. Similarly to the crisis literature, the paper adopts historical institutionalism lens by means of its two building categories, critical juncture and path dependence to examine the EU governance related conditionalities in cohesion policy. While the crisis literature offers only a limited interpretation for building EU governance emphasizing contingency, our case study of the governance-related conditionalities in EU cohesion policy shows complexity in EU institutional developments which is not contingent.

Gazza Rüştiye School

Abstract One of the modernisation movements in the 19th century of the Ottoman Empire was the setting up of rüştiye schools. The first of these was the one which was opened in Davut Pasha School in İstanbul, by Ahmet Kemal Efendi, in 1847. Following the success of this first initiative, the number of rüştiyes was increased. In 1863, there were 13 schools in Istanbul, one of which was for girls. The other 48 rüştiyes were located in the provinces, and The Maarif-i Umumiye Regulation published in 1869 was influential in this propagation. When in 1873, the number of rüştiyes had reached 307, throughout the country, and at the end of the Sultan Abdülhamid II era, this number became 619. Rüştiye school in Gaza, the subject of this article, was one of them. This study, based on the Ottoman archival documents, examines the opening of Gaza Rüştiye School, the early staff appointed there, provisions of teaching materials matching the modern standards, and rewards given to the teachers. The other point examined is to detect the academic achievements of the students via the exam tables inherited from this school. Within this context, it has been tried to present an instance of an institutional educational history study of the Gaza Rüştiye School, specific to the effort to establish a modern educational understanding in Gaza town.

Damming the river by feeling the stones: external shocks and policy adaptation in China’s Mekong hydropower policy

This article considers the puzzle of how and why given the challenge of information asymmetry between the state (the principal) and Chinese state-owned enterprises (the agents) Beijing identifies flaws in its foreign policies. We seek to explain changes in China’s foreign economic policy and Chinese SOEs’ strategic response to those changes as reflected in their business approach. Drawing on historical institutionalism, we construct an explanatory framework that we label ‘implementation, shock, learning, and adjustment (ISLA)’. We apply this framework to examine the implementation record of Chinese hydropower contracts in the Mekong region over the past two decades. This illustrates a policy adaptation process that depends heavily on the impact of ‘external shocks’ that lay bare key risks to China from the current policies guiding SOEs’ overseas activities and lead Chinese authorities to make policy changes. Our findings suggest that these policy changes emphasize greater regulatory compliance by Chinese dam-building firms while leaving Beijing’s major policy goals in place. Thus, the ‘shocks’ affecting Chinese dam-building in the Mekong have not led the Chinese leadership to reduce incentives for external business expansion. Rather, Beijing has boosted its intervention, built out its regulatory restrictions, and added security authorities’ involvement to both the hydropower and non-hydropower sectors, at home and abroad. We observe that key measures were introduced after the mid-2010s as Beijing faced growing geopolitical competition from the United States and Japan, and sought to prevent further shocks and repercussions caused by those firms’ activities in the region. China’s increasingly security-centric policy has led dam-building SOEs to alter their business approach, even though its effectiveness in overcoming information asymmetry remains unclear.