Imperial Legacy Research Articles

Inclusive Heritage: Implications for the Church of England

The Church of England’s historic buildings represent the single largest group of heritage sites in the UK, playing a key public-facing role in the church’s ‘cultural witness’. However, they are complex historic environments implicated in the recent focus on ‘contested heritage’ and imperial legacies. The wider heritage sector’s answer to the adversarial nature of this debate has been to turn contested histories into dialogical opportunities; participatory and collaborative approaches to interpretation and curation have become an important feature of much recent secular heritage work. Yet, the CofE has not yet articulated or embraced the value of similar initiatives for its own collections, with guidance at the institutional level aimed primarily at conservation and protection. This paper initiates a discussion about how engagement with sensitive memories enhances the importance of CofE’s cultural heritage. It offers a preliminary report of a research project led by the author titled ‘Inclusive Interpretations of Christian Heritage’, carried out between 2021 and 2022 at iconic churches in central London. After discussing the theoretical context, project rationale, and method, the paper discusses the connections which Christians from ethnic minority or immigrant backgrounds have to ecclesiastical spaces usually associated with national history. The perspectives of previously unrepresented groups can supplement expert assessments concerning a site’s significance, revealing important areas in which the CofE’s cultural assets hold meaning beyond national or aesthetic importance. The paper argues that widening community engagement represents a crucial task for accentuating the social and civic importance of the CofE’s cultural heritage.

The Imperial Legacy of Nader in Transoxiana (Turan) as Reflected in Early Manghit Chronicles

ABSTRACT In 1740, Nader Shah (r. 1736–1747) conquered the Central Asian Khanate of Bokhara. He gave de facto control of the Bokharan polity to a vassal clan, the Manghits, who established their own dynasty after the collapse of Nader’s empire. This article examines the imperial legacy of Nader as reflected in the two chronicles of Manghit history from the eighteenth century, the Tohfeh-ye Khani by Karminagi, and the Taj al-Tavarikh by Mohammad-Sharif. The major themes of Nader’s conquest, his relationship to the Manghits, and his legitimacy as an imperial overlord, are examined from the perspective of these two chronicles. These themes are then put in context by discussing the political, religious, and rhetorical assumptions and precedents with which Manghit historiographers produced their work. This allows for a nuanced understanding of how Manghit historiography revisited, and leveraged, Nader’s imperial legacy in the region in order to establish a legitimate mandate for the new reigning dynasty.

From Religious to Ethnic Minorities: The Cultural and Social Integration of Pomaks into Post-Ottoman Turkey

This article traces the cultural and social integration of Pomaks into post-Ottoman Turkey and the controversy over their ‘Turkishness’. Current scholarship on early republican nationalism is particularly interested in the importance of the imperial legacy in nation-building in the early republic period. Scholars discuss that the Ottoman legacy of the millet system was vital to the formation of Turkish identity because the republican elites continued to accept Muslim immigrants from the Balkans due to their Islamic background. A closer analysis of primary sources with a focus on Pomak-speaking immigrants, however, reveals not only the challenges that their cultural assimilation posed for the government but also competing versions of Turkishness within intellectual and political circles. This article argues for a complex understanding of relations between immigration and nationalism, which shows that the public acceptance of Pomaks as Turks depended on domestic factors, such as linguistic nationalism and security concerns.

Colonial Encounter and Imperial Legacy in Paul Scott’s The Jewel in the Crown

The article explores the issues of colonial encounter as well as imperial legacy on the basis of Paul Scott’s The Jewel in the Crown novel from 1966. The imperial project was heavily promoted by the authorities in the 19th century, but the dissolution of the Empire between the 1940s and the 1960s led to the emergence of a critical type of historical fiction crafted by British writers who experienced the imperial system at first hand. The Jewel in the Crown exemplifies complex attitudes as well as archetypal patterns among the colonisers and the natives in British India. The analysis shows that the coloniser is a failed figure who is unable to understand and co-exist with the colonised.

Re-thinking Colonialism and Social Policy: With the Logic of Imperialism

This article explores the relationship between colonialism, imperialism, and social policy. Drawing on critical theories of colonialism and imperialism and the role of science and race in the bourgeois ‘imperialist project, we argue that social policy cannot be fully understood without considering the ways in which colonialism and imperialism's thought and practice shaped the historical development of social policy. The article examines key concepts such as hegemony, power, race and ‘science’ and demonstrates how they can be used to analyze the impact of colonialism and imperialism on social policy. By rethinking the relationship between colonialism, imperialism, and social policy, we propose a new framework for understanding the role of social policy in the reproduction of global inequalities. Social policies on welfare, informed by the imperialist logic of race and science, were all ingrained in the practice of colonial authorities and the colonial state as rationales for maintaining the empire. Ultimately, the article suggests that a critical approach to understanding colonial social policy, which considers race, is necessary to analyze the origin of social policy and the legacies of colonialism and imperialism in contemporary society.

In the Ruins of the Japanese Empire: Imperial Violence, State Destruction, and the Reordering of Modern East Asia ed. by Barak Kushner and Andrew Levidis

Reviewed by: In the Ruins of the Japanese Empire: Imperial Violence, State Destruction, and the Reordering of Modern East Asia ed. by Barak Kushner and Andrew Levidis Kelly Anne Hammond (bio) In the Ruins of the Japanese Empire: Imperial Violence, State Destruction, and the Reordering of Modern East Asia. Edited by Barak Kushner and Andrew Levidis. Hong Kong University Press, 2020. vi, 246 pages. $65.00, cloth; $40.00, E-book. Edited collections can be tricky. They often lack cohesion and feel like they are strung together by a theme that is either too broad or too narrow, or the quality of the chapters varies widely. Luckily, this is not the case with Barak Kushner and Andrew Levidis's edited volume, In the Ruins of the Japanese Empire: Imperial Violence, State Destruction, and the Reordering of Modern East Asia . The book presents cutting edge scholarship on many different facets of the underacknowledged and underrepresented continuities between the Japanese imperial project and the postimperial reconstruction throughout East Asia. Essentially, the book is a smorgasbord of postimperial history: there is something for everyone who is interested in the legacies of Japanese imperialism throughout East Asia. Although I do not have the space to review all the chapters, I hope that readers will be prompted by my review to check out the book and see what suits their own interests. This volume examines how political systems and society were rebuilt in the postwar period while simultaneously considering how the collapse of the Japanese empire impacted East Asia (p. 2). The postwar experiences of those living scattered throughout the remains of the defunct empire were varied, as were the processes of "deimperialization" (pp. 3–4). At its core, the edited volume examines the ways that the violence inflicted by imperial Japan informed both the tangible (political and military, especially) legacies as well as the postwar memories of people living throughout East Asia (p. 11). The book coalesces around two central themes. All the chapters address how "newly independent entities, or states reclaiming independence" successfully or unsuccessfully came to terms with Japan's imperial programs in their territories. The collection also investigates how postimperial Japan "worked to reframe" these new political, military, and civilian relationships within the new cold war geopolitics in East Asia (p. 15). For the authors, the "indelible mark" of the Japanese empire is all over East Asia, although it is not fully recognized, nor is it fully reconciled (p. 23). The chapters are divided into three thematic sections: "Collaboration and Dilemmas of Deimperialization" (four chapters); "Negotiating Past and Present in the Military and Political Realms" (three chapters); and "Returning to the Continent, Japan's Relations with New China" (two chapters). [End Page 247] When I started my PhD in 2008, Tim Brook had only recently published Collaboration: Japanese Agents and Local Elites in Wartime China (Harvard University Press, 2007). Although there is a cottage industry in French studies about Vichy and French collaboration with the Nazis, Brook's work was really the first monograph in English to deal with collaboration with the Japanese empire. Such studies have become more frequent and nuanced (see, for example: Jeremy Yellen, The Greater East Asia Co-Prosperity Sphere: Where Total Empire Met Total War [Cornell University Press, 2020]; and A. Carly Buxton, Unthinking Collaboration: American Nisei in Transwar Japan [University of Hawai'i Press, 2022]). Yet, there is still a lot of work to do on the postwar legacies of these collaborators. Many of the chapters in this book (including Levidis's chapter on Kishi Nobusuke and the wartime antecedents of the Liberal Democratic Party [LDP]) are a step in this direction. Beyond the volume, Ernest Leung's recent article in Palladium (August 2021), "The School That Built Asia," echoes many of the points the authors in this section make about the legacies of wartime collaborators in postwar East Asian politics. In section 1, the authors are attempting to "[b]ring attention to spaces where imperial control ceased but was not really replaced" (p. 18). There were often conflicts about how to handle collaborators in postwar East Asia. The Tokyo War Crimes Trials were so different from Nuremburg (see Tim Brook's article "The Tokyo...

The Worlds of UCL: teaching, learning and institutional histories

This article discusses an undergraduate module which introduces students to the study of the history of education through the lens of our own institutions – UCL (University College London, UK), founded in 1826, and the IOE (Institute of Education, UCL’s Faculty of Education and Society), founded in 1902. The module critically examines the close, but often hidden, connections between British education and empire, asking what impact these imperial legacies have today. After outlining the module’s origins and relationship with the history of UCL and the IOE, the article sets its creation in the wider context of initiatives that seek to critique and reimagine institutional histories within higher education for a variety of purposes. The article also explores the developing role of the IOE Archives team in teaching, and explores how academics and archivists work together to teach institutional histories, and how this work can prompt change.

“Lenin and the Bolsheviks Were All Kurds”: Folklore and Politics in the Soviet Kurdish Culture of the 1920–1930s

To overcome imperial legacy, the Soviet policy after 1917 set itself new guidelines in the field of foreign and domestic policy. Among the policies of the Soviet government in the first decades of its existence was the systematic intensive development of the modern national identity of the non-Russian peoples of the USSR. This included, inter alia, training national specialists and developing a modern educational and cultural infrastructure, but also providing each of the ethnic groups of the USSR with a certain set of modern cultural institutions and products. This canon also included literary works related to Soviet politics which glorified the leaders of the party and the government. All these measures urgently required experts which can provide expertise for efficient implementation of these policies, and therefore contributed to greater flexibility in treating the scholars. Focusing on the cases of N. Ya. Marr and his students O. L. Vilchevsky and A. Sh. Shamilov, this article examines the implementation of the Soviet policy towards the Kurds, including various linguistic and ethnographic projects. Special emphasis is placed on the history of the appearance of Kurdish-language works about Soviet leaders. The work is based on previously unused archival material.

Building Strategic Agility to Balance What Is Desirable with What Is Possible

Leaders across the nation are eager to embed diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) into their recruitment and retainment processes, curriculum development, teaching pedagogy, and institutional operations as well as into the very fabric of their identity. However, in a historically traditional industry, many institutions struggle with managing DEI change. The concepts of evolution versus radical revolution provide a useful lens through which stakeholders may balance what is desirable with what is possible in the context of their unique organization. At ACAD's seventy-eighth annual meeting, keynote speaker Marjorie Haas, president of the Council of Independent Colleges, posed the general question, “Evolution versus radical revolution?” We think this is an excellent lens through which to contemplate higher education DEI endeavors. In this context, we see evolution as a process of gradual, progressive change that builds on what already exists, whereas radical revolution is a sudden fundamental change in thinking or doing. Both concepts may have their place in DEI strategy, and serious analysis is required by governing boards, administrators, faculty, staff, students, alumni, and other critical stakeholders to ascertain the practical implications of each before committing to one or the other. In table 1, we have categorized our perception of common characteristics of evolution and radical revolution that represent poles along a continuum. We want to be clear: it is less important to agree with our characterizations of evolution versus radical revolution than it is to contemplate the idea; reach intentional consensus about what the concepts mean in the context of each institution; decide which general concept is best given institutional capacity, culture, and history with DEI; and create appropriate goals and change management plans accordingly. (Takes time and presents the danger of waning support. Initiatives must be paced for timely, visible gains.) (Everything may be disrupted or broken and replacement systems must be ready, otherwise institutional capacity to achieve goals will be compromised.) Urgency is balanced with systematic implementation for sustainable progress. Urgency can supersede everything else. Inclusive syllabus—random college website: “As research has shown, diversity is a critical component to educational excellence. When students are able to see themselves represented in course content and discussion, it signals to them that their identities … are valued and respected in the classroom. Instructors can access students’ lived experiences and cultural backgrounds as part of their curriculum to enhance student learning.” Decolonize the syllabus—random college website: “We understand decolonization as the identification, interrogation, and dismantling of power structures that carry legacies of racism, imperialism, and colonialism in the production of knowledge. By decolonizing our syllabi, we make a conscious effort to change the way we understand how and where knowledge is produced. Our program contests the assumption that white, Western intellectual traditions are superior, or yet universal.” Assesses current organizational capacity and systematically prioritizes, plans, and monitors interventions. Change by any means necessary. More likely change that completely interrupts operations. We believe that DEI change in higher education is necessary and timely. Not all academic leaders or faculty members may be accustomed to the minutiae of practical day-to-day change management, but the complexity of modern organizations and the nature, pace, and scope of change demand such focus. Each institution has a unique relationship with DEI and a current capacity for sustainable change. It is essential to assess whether the right strategy for the organization's current state is being employed and whether the institution has the strategic agility to balance what is desirable with what is possible to meet the needs of all students. Donna M. Buchanan is president of Crucial Shift Consulting for Higher Education Change Management. Gail Evans Grayson is associate professor and executive vice dean (Pomona) and director of diversity, equity, and inclusion in the College of Health Sciences at Western University of Health Sciences. Email: drb@crucialshiftconsulting.com, gevans@westernu.edu

Representing the Silk Road: Literature and Images between China and Japan during the Cold War

The essay focused on the TV documentary series The Silk Road and discussed the significance of this co-production between China and Japan. Two television stations, NHK and CCTV, provided each other with technical support to create a new image of the Silk Road in 1980. They attempted to rediscover the cultural relationship in Asia. Japanese Oriental studies were either the base for this co-production or the source of trouble. CCTV needed to utilize and overcome Japanese technology and the resources from Oriental studies, to represent national culture and identity through images. On the other hand, Japan once again sought ways to represent the Asian “others.” However, the challenge was making it relative to Orientalism and imperialism. This essay also compares the two versions and suggests that both ancient Asian cultural histories that they represented through images reflected the contemporaneous political situation of the Cold War. In CCTV’s version, the images of the Silk Road became a symbol of the re-establishment of China’s national identity, including the imagination of a “multi-ethnic state” and a “community of cultural memory that unites East and West”. Furthermore, this version also represented the trade with neighboring states. Each of these elements had a realistic role in the political environment of 1980. On the other hand, NHK’s version contains a narrative to prove Japan is the last stop on the Silk Road. Moreover, before this documentary, Japanese literature had long sought the “unknown” of the Silk Road and became a strong intellectual foundation for The Silk Road. The narrative of Japan “being a part of the Silk Road, but unlike in colonialism, as a traveler” is what Yasushi Inoue repeatedly expressed in his literary works and appeared to have been passed on through the images of the documentary. Carrying the negative legacy of Japanese imperialism, then being caught between the United States and the Socialist bloc, and having a difficult choice of political identity, Japanese intellectuals refrained from expressing their political positions and chose to describe cultural history from the “traveler’s” perspective. This essay suggests this is an attempt to redefine Japan on the cultural map of Asia and indirectly to break through the polarization of capitalism and socialism in the Cold War.

Of Heat & Arctic Blasts - The Risks to Human Health

The run-up to the FIFIA World Cup football tournament in Qatar and the significant rise in fuel costs has focussed the world’s attention on the environmental impact of climate change on human health. While it is true that the health impact of working outdoors in extreme heat is indeed harmful to human health and leads in increase mortality, what has been less in the news is (1) that the impact of even moderately cold environmental temperatures is by far much larger (9:1) on environmental determinants of mortality for vulnerable sections of the population, even in high-income countries such as UK or USA, and (2) that multi-factorial deprivation, fuelled by a legacy of imperialism, racism, oppression of migrants and socio-cultural exclusion in all societies vastly amplifies the adverse impact on health.
 Considerable attention has focused on institutional racism but less on how the intersection of cultural values, frameworks, and meanings shapes institutional policies and practices. [1] This article explores the impact of environmental temperatures on human health, the influence of socio-cultural inequalities, the current interventions and the case for a policy approach that includes the voice of professional and voluntary groups representing minority groups.

Introduction: Finland in Imperial Context

Abstract “Imperial Era,” this special issue of the Journal of Finnish Studies, presents a selection of articles that describe Finland in the context of the Russian Empire. In this introductory article, “Finland in Imperial Context,” the authors sketch the historical background for the specialized articles. They present key features in the history of the Grand Duchy of Finland during its period of Russian rule (1809–1917), that is, after the Napoleonic Wars and before the Russian Revolution, after Swedish rule and before independence. The importance of understanding Finland in imperial context—as a part of the wider context of the Russian Empire—is highlighted. It is contrasted with a narrower national context. The complexities of studying this era and other aspects of Finnish-Russian history include the need for scholars to be multilingual and grapple with the legacy of Russian imperialism—which still burdens the world today. Multi- and translingual considerations are described, orienting the reader to standardizations employed by the authors for maximum accessibility and comprehensibility of the issue's articles, which are each introduced in summary.

Histories of empire and histories of education

ABSTRACT The past few years have seen a vigorous resurgence of public and academic debate and controversy regarding the British Empire, its place within Britain’s own history and the legacies of British colonial practices. In spite of this reinvigorated discussion of empire, education and schooling seem to have been an area largely overlooked within the field of new imperial history. Nonetheless, histories of education have increasingly been shaped by theoretical shifts in the imperial histories. This article discusses some recent literature concerning the British Empire, and suggests how these could prove useful for future studies of empire and education. First, it surveys a selection of key literature and developments in histories of empire and education. Then, it suggests three areas for future exploration by historians of education with interests in colonialism or empire: non-traditional sources, studies of and by indigenous and non-elite people, and research into the educational legacies of imperialism.

The dead wait: Material afterlives in sepulchral spaces

This essay examines the heterotopic and heterochronic material afterlives of cemeteries through a comparative focus on two cities of the dead: Zagreb's Mirogoj Cemetery, which was established during the late 19th century, and Thessaloniki's Zeitenlik World War I Military Cemetery, which entombs Allied victims from the Salonika Front. My principal aim is to highlight the contrasts and contradictions between nationalized collective memories and unsettling imperial legacies that define the material afterlives of each of these cemeteries. In Mirogoj, material afterlives take shape as a palimpsest of eras, only some of which are monumentalized as collective memories. In Zeitenlik, the material afterlife of a single event of death-dealing, the Great War, constitutes an archive of bygone imperial socialities that defy the homogenizing logics of national identity in the present.

The ‘Turkish-Type’ Presidential System: an Imperial Civilisational Restoration?

Abstract This article analyses the ideological background on which the Justice and Development Party’s (akp) policy rested for the adoption of the presidential system in Turkey. It examines the presidential system as an akp claim aiming at the resolution of Turkey’s ‘basic historical contradiction’ through the effort to restore the Ottoman imperial legacy. In the same context, the analysis extends to the ideological content of ‘New Turkey’, which focuses on the adoption of a ‘Turkish-type’ presidential system. At this level the importance of the identification of a powerful state with the centralisation of executive power is emphasised as a natural result of the restoration of the Ottoman imperial legacy. Finally, the article presents specific problematic aspects arising from the social and ideological polarisation accompanying the transition of Turkey to the presidential system.

A New Age of Empires?

Claims that countries like China, Russia, Turkey, and Iran are driven by imperial legacies to engage in aggressive foreign policies may oversell the influence of bygone empires and uniquely Eurasian mentalities on present-day geopolitics.

The Historical Heritage оf Portugal as a Factor of Division and Consolidation оf Society

The problem of divided societies and divisions in societies acquires special significance against the background of growing socio-political tensions in the internal and external political dimensions around the world. The West is ceasing to be an area of predominant tranquility and wellbeing. In recent years, in European societies a trend of increasing divisions has also emerged. The article analyzes old and new socio-political divisions (cleavages) within the Portuguese society. The choice of Portugal as a case study is due to the combination of several factors: the memory of the Carnation Revolution, the attitude towards the European project, the imperial past, Catholicism/secularism, and the historical legacy of the Salazar dictatorship. The theoretical and methodological framework of the study is based on the use of the concept of divided societies and constructivism as the main epistemological tools, while the country studies analysis is also applied. The authors attempt not only to identify the basic socio-cultural divisions in the contemporary Portuguese society, but also answer the question of whether it is possible to speak of a divided society in relation to the Portuguese case. The emphasis is placed on the peculiarities of Portugal’s historical path as a post-imperial state whose specificity is largely due, first, to the heritage of the Portuguese maritime empire, and, second, to the legacy of the 1974 Carnation Revolution. The key cleavages that are at the center of the analysis are the legacy of the Carnation Revolution, the European project, the imperial legacy, the religious configuration, and the Salazar heritage. The conclusion is that the Portuguese society has managed to avoid the most negative scenario of the development of the situation and has a chance of consolidation.

Legacies of British Imperialism in the Contemporary UK Asylum–Welfare Nexus

This article traces the imperial roots of the contemporary asylum–welfare nexus. It explores how English colonial governance exported Poor Law legislation firstly to colonial America (USA) and secondly to British North America (Canada). It argues that these three countries are an Anglophone shared moral space of law and governance, revealing the common unresolved contradictions underpinning contemporary debates about who ‘deserves’ entry, under what conditions, and why. Historical perspectives unsettle assumptions about the primacy of national geopolitical borders and the exceptionalism of contemporary migration. This article uses historical sociology to trace why and how national sovereignty took primacy over municipalities in controlling the mobility of people and the concomitant moral underpinnings. It then draws on new empirical research in three pioneering ‘sanctuary cities’ to explore how cities contest the entwining of welfare and migration governance. However, the article explores how these initiatives often reproduce justifications based on ‘deservingness’ and ‘contribution’. Through tracing the common threads that led to these forms of governance, we can understand they are not self-evident. A historical perspective allows us to ask different questions and open realms of alternative possibilities.

‘It’s like crossing a border everyday’: Police-migrant encounters in a postcolonial city

ABSTRACT How are migrant communities policed in cities of the Global South where racially securitized discourses and colonial institutional legacies shape contemporary police practice? Critical criminologists advise that postcolonial perspectives offer valuable insights on imperial legacies, while allowing us to expand conceptual and empirical analyses of crime, policing, justice, and social order. Building on this agenda, this paper explores the intersection of postcolonial policing and immigration enforcement in the context of urban encounters between police officers and Afghan and Bengali migrants in urban Pakistan. It considers how the securitization of migration and migrants impacts their routine interactions with street-level enforcement officers. Based on ethnographic findings from Karachi, this paper argues that migrant encounters with urban policing can be captured by what I call the “postcolonial condition of policing” wherein prejudiced security policies enable expansions in police power without addressing structural inequalities within the police, facilitating reliance upon informal procedures and practices.

Teorizando o Caribe a contrapelo. Como cientistas sociais do Caribe anglófono estabeleceram o Caribe como espaço de produção de conhecimento nos anos 1950

Abstract This paper examines the foundational and formative period of interdisciplinary social thought in the anglophone Caribbean to critically engage with hypothesis of academic dependency and shed further light on how West Indian scholars in the 1950s resisted institutional and epistemic structures of dominance. Manifold contributions outline the colonial and imperial legacy and entanglement of social sciences knowledge production, however often focus on macro-historical and epistemic discussions. To enhance these, I argue, concrete empirical case studies of social knowledge production in the Global South can be productive to elaborate and learn from non-hegemonic traditions of theorising and researching. Conducting a reconstruction of the institutional context of knowledge production and its interaction with each other, it will be shown that West Indian social scientists represent an inspiring example of how social theorising was practiced against the grain of centre-periphery relations.