Modernisation Agenda Research Articles

The social psychologist as planner: the pioneering work of Oscar Oeser in urban and rural communities in mid-twentieth century Australia

ABSTRACT Oscar Oeser was a polymath import to the Antipodes, primarily known as a social psychologist and as the founding Professor of Psychology at the University of Melbourne. But he was also a very effective network builder, and an important conduit for overseas ideas – not least with respect to urban and rural planning. With interest in urban planning surging in the immediate post-Second World War period, Oeser undertook a joint project with the Head of Architecture at Melbourne, Brian Lewis, along with a number of other notable figures. The project involved surveying and re-imagining the down-at-heel suburb of Prahran. It was ambitious in its empirical scope, and it showcased Oeser's sensitivity to the ‘human elements’ in planning that prefigured current participatory models. Nonetheless, the Prahran project's impact was muted and ambiguous, its data selectively co-opted by local politicians and public servants to serve a pragmatic modernist agenda. Oeser's subsequent planning work featured innovative approaches to designing remote rural communities and indigenous housing. Oeser's overall legacy in planning was thus a historically contingent one: it tells us something about what might have been as much as what was.

“Content Is Meaningless, and Structure Is All-Important”: Defining the Nature of Computer Science in the Age of High Modernism, c. 1950–c. 1965

The purpose of this article is to historize the definition of computer science, particularly the characteristic ambiguity of the discipline towards the computer. This ambiguity is foundational to computer science and has its roots in the response of university computer centers to the commercialization of computing in the mid-1950s. University computing experts developed an understanding of the activity of computing disentangled from the computer itself, a conceptual shift that went together with a parallel process of dematerialization of the notion of computer. These transformations were facilitated by the ascendance of a high modernist agenda in the sciences in the United States. University computing experts embraced the high modernist agenda and developed analogies across programs, notations, and a notion of the computer now understood as a model of computation. This immaterial conflation of notations, programs, and representations of the machine, would become one of the core tenets of computer science.

The Absence of Smart Technology as One of The Key Factors of Transportation in Modular Construction: A Case Study in Malaysia

Modular construction is a new method introduced to meet the modernisation agenda in the Malaysian construction industry. It provides various benefits to the construction industry, such as speedier construction, quality improvement, waste minimisation, and sustainability. Despite all the promoted benefits, it still needs to be widely implemented in the Malaysian construction industry due to a need for knowledge and readiness towards modular construction. The construction industry player needed to be more sceptical about applying this new construction method in their project. Further, the application’s success in modular construction is highly associated with good transportation management; however, achieving good transportation management may be challenging because it depends on the manufacturer's understanding of designing and allocating the module. Understanding modular construction is essential to select the suitable modular type because it affects the whole process and transportation. This research aims to investigate the essential factors to be considered in the transportation of modular construction. The data collected is by interviewing modular construction companies in Malaysia. The study reveals that transportation should be taken as early as the design stage. Under the transportation process, among the factors that need to be considered are the size of the module, types of trailers, road or highway regulations, suitable route, time for transport and technologies. It is concluded in this paper that contractors managing modular transportation still have to take smart technology factors into account. Therefore, the findings of this study are hoped to be a reference for modular construction companies and other construction industry players in terms of modular construction transportation considerations.

Towards a posthumanistic knowledge production. Multimedia artistic research during the rise of neoliberalism in Mexico

ABSTRACT Although for the government officials who inaugurated the state-run Centro Multimedia (CMM) in 1994 in Mexico City it had less to do with artistic experimentation than with the promotion of a neoliberal agenda of national modernization and competitiveness, CMM has come to embody a reformulation in artistic research and education via new media. Focusing on one specific form of knowledge production that CMM promoted – the Biomediations Festival and its proposal of an open-ended Living Book – this article will conceptually frame CMM as a space of artistic research that appropriated and circulated academic knowledge. It will also argue that the way in which it translated that knowledge has strengthened the path towards what shall be termed posthumanistic knowledge circulation. CMM’s paradoxical relationship with the neoliberal agenda in which it originated made room for a posthumanistic ethos that has challenged acquired notions of author, knowledge, and ownership that are the backbone of the hegemonic global copyright laws prevailing since the rise of neoliberalism during the 1990s.

Blasphemy and Violence during the Russian Revolution and the Early Years of the Soviet Union

This article analyzes incidents of blasphemy that occurred both during and in the period immediately following the Russian Revolution. The debate on blasphemy in revolutionary Russia was initially tied to the political system and ecclesiastical structure of the Romanov Empire. One possible explanation for this anomaly is the political discourse of a “victorious revolution”, according to which revolutionary turmoil had birthed a modern, progressive and secular society. A reconstruction of debates on blasphemy, and of sacrilege too, do not fit this narrative. The Soviet state used a rhetoric that would historically have been seen as blasphemous as well as actions that would have been dubbed sacrilegious to push its agenda for modernization, for the redistribution of material resources, the de-legitimization of imperial institutions and the neutralization of political opponents. Violence was a steady companion here. It could take the form of repression by removing relics and liturgical vessels that were venerated by individual believers. It could be cleansing whereby the relic of a saint would be destroyed. Violence also emerged in the physical exchanges between State officials and believers resisting the unsealing of relics and usage of liturgical vessels outside of worship or mass as well as countering the expulsion of church valuables. Finally, a form of symbolic violence could be found in the way in which the faithful were forced to attend the display of relics in public exhibition hall or in the photographic coverage of sacrilegious acts. This was a deliberate move to confront and hurt the feelings of individual believers. This was a deliberate move to confront and hurt the feelings of individual believers.

From social bonds to cultural identity. Changing meanings of Na dances in tourism context and heritage-making

This paper examines a situation of tourism development and heritage narratives in southwest China as it unfolds among the Na people, known for their matrilineal and matrilocal system. To investigate sociocultural changes, I compare festivities and dance performances of two villages, one visited by tourists and the other not. I ask to what extent the dynamics of tourism have reshaped the meanings and values underlying dance gatherings and what heritage processes suggest about these transformations. By outlining the contradictory understandings of tradition and culture by locals with heritage narratives, the article emphasises the agency of Na inhabitants. Largely left out of the processes of heritagisation but negotiating ethnic representations and new livelihood opportunities through tourism, the Na attempt to carve out a place for themselves in the state’s modernist agenda by showcasing dances.

ПРИОРИТЕТЫ СТРАТЕГИИ МОЛОДЕЖНОЙ ПОЛИТИКИ В СОВРЕМЕННОЙ ПОВЕСТКЕ ДНЯ

Priorities of youth policy on the modern agenda are analyzed. The empirical basis of the study was the materials of the meeting of the State Council of the Russian Federation on December 22, 2022. It is proved that the paradigm shift of relationships in the chain “state – civil society – youth” from symbolism to partnership forms a modern format of the youth infrastructure ecosystem.

ПСИХОЛОГИЧЕСКАЯ СЛУЖБА ТРАНСПОРТНОГО ВУЗА: ИЗ ОПЫТА РАБОТЫ ПСИХОЛОГИЧЕСКОГО ЦЕНТРА ДАЛЬНЕВОСТОЧНОГО ГОСУДАРСТВЕННОГО УНИВЕРСИТЕТА ПУТЕЙ СООБЩЕНИЯ

The article presents a theoretical substantiation of the activities of the services of psychological support of the educational process in the system of higher education in general, as well as in the system of transport education in particular. The creation of psychologi-cal services in Russian universities is being updated in the context of the modern state agenda. The practical experience of the Psy-chological Center of the Federal State Budgetary Educational Institution of Higher Education "FESTU" is considered: integration into the management system and organizational structure of the university, the content of psychological support for participants in the educational process, the content and main areas of activity in working with students (diagnostics, counseling, correctional, work, education, prevention, crisis direction). The issues of interdepartmental interaction are covered on the example of work with healthcare organizations, transport, public organizations, etc.

In the Web of Arguments and Interests: Debate in Vienna on the Introduction of the Subject Teacher System

The paper discusses the history of Vienna’s first attempt to introduce a subject teacher system. The last half of the eighteenth century saw the emergence of a lively debate over educational policy at the heart of the Habsburg Empire, driven by the secularisation and modernisation agenda of Enlightenment absolutism. Educational issues were at the centre of the monarch’s power and political aspirations vis-à-vis the Church, since it was in this area that the secular influence of the Church was hoped to be limited as quickly as possible. While the Court achieved significant and lasting partial successes in lower and higher education, the reform of grammar schools and need to rid them of ecclesiastical influence were almost completely neglected. The most important endeavour of those pushing for modernisation was the introduction of a subject teacher system. There were good reasons for doing so, since this could have paved the way for transforming, at a stroke, a curriculum which still reflected the centuries-old Jesuit tradition, removing monk teachers and guaranteeing the prevalence of secular viewpoints through state teacher training in the long term. The experiment, which can be divided into two intensive phases, had failed completely by the end of the 1810s but provided important lessons for both contemporaries and succeeding generations. Those involved with the struggles were able to observe the internal divisions within the Catholic Church and the strength of the reform Catholic group, while a few decades later, with the introduction of Entwurf, the first attempt at introducing the subject teacher system served as an applicable historical precedent for future generations to copy.

Farmer Cooperatives and the Limits of Agricultural Reform in Rural Hubei

There has been remarkable growth in the number of cooperatives in China in the past decade. This article asks: what role are cooperatives playing in driving China’s ambitious agricultural reforms? The scholarly literature describes farmer cooperatives as either an important entity for progressing China’s rural modernization agenda, a vehicle of exploitation and dispossession of smallholder farmers, or evidence of broader commitment to grassroots solidarity. Despite the rapid expansion of farmer cooperatives, the role that they play in the livelihoods of smallholder farmers in places where agriculture remains central and out-migration is low is poorly understood. To explore this, in 2019 we conducted a survey of 266 households in the mountains of Hubei Province. To illuminate the politics and dynamics on the ground, we followed up by conducting in-depth interviews with agribusinesses, cooperatives, households, and local government officials. Our findings suggest that although cooperatives are attempting to engage with smallholders, they are neither integrating nor exploiting them. While seemingly innocuous to the livelihoods of smallholder farmers, these entities serve a mostly political function, and it is in these dynamics that we observe the limits of agricultural reform. Where smallholder production is lucrative, land is valuable, and out-migration is minimal, local government appears to be “performing” reform, without forcing it on smallholders and thereby harming the local economy or risking social unrest.

Peculiarities of Virtual Internationalzation of Novosibirsk Region Higher Education Institutions in the Context of Modern Agenda

The article foregrounds the issue of the development of virtual internationalization on the example of universities in Novosibirsk region. The article focuses on the key trends in the export of Russian higher education. The purpose of the article is to analyze the websites of the universities in Novosibirsk region as a key mechanism for recruiting international students and to develop recommendations for their modernization. Methodology. The study was conducted on the basis of the methodology of the RIAC report “Digital Internationalization: English-language Internet Resources of Russian Universities” (2015), which implies the identification of 10 target groups of potential audience of a university website and 16 semantic blocks filled with specific questions which allow to assess the degree of virtual internationalization. The binary evaluation system (yes/no) enables the formation of a cumulative score and conducting a comparative analysis of universities in the region both in terms of the overall rating and within the semantic blocks. The result of the implementation of this methodology is an analytical report on the features of the virtual internationalization of universities in modern conditions on the example of the Novosibirsk region. The developed recommendations are useful both for the international departments of universities and their administration, and for the regional ministries of education, since they might serve as a basis for developing a strategy for improving the websites of universities and thus favoring the export of higher education in the Russian Federation coming not only from capital universities, but also in the regions. In conclusion, it is admitted that self-positioning of a university in a virtual environment in the context of education export cannot be overestimated, since today the success in increasing the international students’ inflow to the regions of the Russian Federation depends on the virtual internationalization.

Protestant Social Theological Thinking in Indonesia during the Era of Soeharto’s New Order

This article aims to discover and outline the social-theological thought of Protestant Christians during Soeharto’s New Order era. According to the findings of this study, Indonesian Protestants’ social-theological thinking developed into three paradigmatic types over thirty years (1967/68-1998). First, there is the paradigm of modernism, which is in line with Soeharto’s New Order agenda of political modernization and holds that the gospel of the kingdom of God could be consistent with the goals of Indonesia’s modernization agenda, which was seen as an implementation of the Pancasila’s ideology. Second, the type of liberation-related theological thinking that holds that the gospel of the kingdom of God as proclaimed by Jesus of Nazareth is a liberating power that frees real people from the political hegemony of Indonesia’s modernization agenda. Third, pluralist theological thinking holds that Christianity is not the exclusive agent of God’s liberating work in the context of Indonesia’s pluralistic culture.

Learning based on co-creation processes: a glimpse of the (Demola) Pedagogical Innovation Training course at IPV

The development of technologies, services and products in our increasingly global, interconnected, and digital world implies the training of future professionals capable of solving challenges, embracing diversity, and co-constructing innovative and disruptive scenarios. Higher Education (HE) has been adapting to these times of change and, consequently, the academy has started to open doors to partnerships with local organisations, in synergies that go beyond internships to include research and a modernisation agenda, with clear benefits for all the stakeholders and with positive effects on the national economy. Thus, pedagogical practices need to be updated, and Demola model aims at contributing to innovation processes by fostering academia-industry collaboration. In this study, we will focus on the first edition (January-June 2021) of the project entitled “Learning based on co-creation processes,” funded by POCH, developed in a partnership with Demola Global, and in close connection to another project, Link Me Up, integrated in a consortium of 13 Polytechnic Institutes, including the Polytechnic Institute of Viseu (IPV). Specifically, we will focus on 1) the Demola methodology and tools used by the participants in the Pedagogical Innovation Training course at IPV, Viseu, Portugal; 2) the questionnaires applied to the team of IPV trainees/facilitators; and 3) the reports they wrote at the end of the process to a) analyse the profile of the teaching staff seeking alternatives to improve their teaching practice; b) assess their perception of the Demola pedagogical innovation course, and c) the implications on their future practices. Our findings reveal that this project that offers pedagogical innovation is highly valued by the participants at IPV, as they feel they are more open: to collaboration within and outside the academia; to use innovative tools and platforms; to acknowledge the need to accept and manage uncertainty and to facilitate societal challenges in multidisciplinary teams of (inter/)national students.

PRODUCTION AND PHYSIO-CHEMICAL CHARACTERIZATION OF BIOCHAR OBTAINED FROM COFFEE PROCESSING WASTES AND CROP RESIDUES OF COFFEE PLANTATION

Biochar is a pyrogenous organic material obtained mostly from various plant based waste biomass through pyrolysis process. The production of biochar from various plant based waste biomass is a part of the modern agenda to recycle bio-wastes and its application in agriculture is reported to improve the soil health in several ways. The other potential benefit of biochar include pollution remediation due to its high cation exchange capacity and specific surface area. In the present study, production and physico-chemical characterization of biochars obtained from coffee processing waste biomass (cherry husk and parchment husk) and crop residues from coffee plantation (diseased uprooted coffee stem and pepper stem waste) were attempted following standard methodologies. The statistical analysis of the data on biochar yield and physico-chemical parameters (moisture, pH, fixed carbon level, ash and volatile matter) of the biochar produced in the present study indicated that among the four waste biomass studied, significantly (p=0.05) highest biochar yield (40.53%) and fixed carbon level (54.53%) were recorded in cherry husk waste biomass. While, biochar obtained from pepper stem waste showed significantly (p=0.05) highest pH level (10.85%) and lowest moisture level (3.59%). Significantly (p=0.05) highest volatile matter (66.3%) and ash (18.13%) contents were observed in the biochars obtained from pepper stem waste and cherry husk, respectively. These data indicated that biochar yield and physico-chemical parameters of the biochar primarily depends on the chemical nature of waste biomass or crop residues. Therefore, screening of biochar obtained from various waste biomass or crop residues is pre-requisite for assessing its agronomical and environmental potentials. The results of the present study has provided baseline information of biochars obtained from various coffee processing waste biomass as well as crop residues from coffee plantation.

Modernizing Royals and Capitalists of Kumase

Abstract British imperialism bequeathed sports to former colonies. In the immediate postwar period, colonial bureaucrats intensified the modernization agenda in many of their colonial territories. The institution of horse racing was associated with the upper echelons of society in many colonies. In colonial Asante, the royals and capitalists of Kumase established the Ashanti Turf Club as the first public limited liability company in the history of horse racing in Ghana. Horse racing in Kumase started with the active encouragement and patronage of the king of Asante (Asantehene). The Kumase royals and capitalists embraced the middle-class culture and bought shares in the Turf Club. The practice of betting linked the working-class to racing. Horse racing played a significant social role in Asante society by keeping residents entertained at the weekends. This article examines the Ashanti Turf Club Limited within the context of the modernization of postwar Asante. It shows how the history of horse racing in Kumase provides a lens to understand how Africans embraced middle-class culture and colonial modernity.

Man and His Health

The article discusses the problem of health, little studied in philosophical discourse, but which is of key importance in the modern agenda. Insisting on the interdisciplinary nature of the topic and the special role of medicine, the authors emphasize the decisive role of the metaphysical, humanitarian approach. Health is, first of all, a philosophical category and should be studied in the context of metaphysical universals God - man - soul - body - life - death. Spiritual health is the first and unconditional prerequisite for physical health. Harmony with the surrounding world, with society, with humanity and the harmony of soul and body are created by communion with the spiritual Primary Source. The article provides a historical and philosophical reconstruction of the concepts of health in the teachings of Eastern and Western thinkers, and, at the same time, healers of society, nature and man. This is Hippocrates, "the father of medicine", the founder of scientific medicine and the author of the famous aphorism "the best doctor is also a philosopher"; his Roman follower, surgeon, doctor of emperors and gladiators, who brought the thesis of Hippocrates to life, Claudius Galen. And of course, in the ancient area, the authors refer to the judgments about the health problem of the "divine" Plato with his teacher Socrates, as well as to the encyclopedist, Plato's student Aristotle. A special page is the Islamic civilization with faith in a single Creator who created the world and man according to his magnificent plan. Here appear the titans of thought and action - the famous philosopher, scientist, mathematician, logician, astronomer and healer Abu Nasr al-Farabi and his student, whose works determined the paths of philosophy and medicine for many centuries – Abu Ali Ibn-Sina. In the Western world, the concepts of health were substantiated in the German classics: Immanuel Kant approved the need for a philosophical attitude to health, and Hegel, insisting on the spiritual content of the category, emphasized the spirituality of the human body. The article also analyzes discussions on the problem of health in modern philosophy. A position is distinguished, according to which the philosophical, value discourse becomes the leader, and health fits into a number of unusual categories. Instead of a list of "malaise, illness, medicine, doctor, pills, surgery", etc. a list of "culture, values, creativity, life world, activity, communication" appears. In a pandemic situation, philosophical research on health issues is of particular importance.

Tom Stoppard: A Life

Tom Stoppard: A Life

Jalal Al-e Ahmad’s Gharbzadegi and the Spirit of Bandung: A Decolonial Reimagination of Development in Mid-Twentieth Century Iran

Sixty years after the original publication of Gharbzadegi (1962) by dissident Iranian writer Jalal Al-e Ahmad, the controversial book remains an important marker in the formation of the mid- and late-twentieth century perceptions of Iranian intellectuals about the relationship between their country’s past, present, and future. Building on the recent scholarship which considers Gharbzadegi as an alternative vision of the future rather than a nostalgic call for a return to the past, this article situates the book’s piercing critique of the Pahlavi state’s modernization and development agenda in a decolonial register. This is done through a reading of Gharbzadegi against the background, on the one hand, of the 1955 Bandung Conference at which representatives from various Asian and African nations gathered to discuss the futures of their countries after colonialism, and on the other hand, of the local experiences of semi-coloniality and dependent development. This reading helps to foreground an alternative conception of modernity in Gharbzadegi, and a decolonial vision in the book of development through delinking from Eurocentric designs. Reading it against the background of the Bandung Conference further helps to situate Gharbzadegi’s engagements with the Islamic tradition in the wider context of a postcolonial turn to religion. The article thus argues that Al-e Ahmad’s turn to Islam reflects a postcolonial sentiment that in developing alternatives to Europe’s colonial modernity the peoples of the Third World ought to reengage with the ways of life and modes of knowledge and norm production which were dismissed and suppressed by the dominating colonial structures and knowledge systems.

Doc Savage Saves the World: A Pop Culture Origin Story for US Modernization and Development, 1933–1949

This article contends that important scripts for US-led modernization were trademarked not by political and academic elites of the Cold War era, but rather by low-brow cultural producers of the New Deal period. It pinpoints key characterizations, motivations, plotlines, and settings associated with international development in the long-running pulp magazine series starring “Doc Savage” (1933–1949). Through historical analysis and close readings, the article offers a fresh account of how US audiences came to imagine technical assistance as a proper course for American power while also revealing paradoxes underpinning the modernization agenda's overt commitments to race neutrality and self-determination.

Building a Nation, Building a Modern Capital City: A Comparative Study of Ankara’s and Tirana’s First Master Plans

Two capital cities, Tirana and Ankara, once united under the Ottoman banner, shared a similar urban development process ideologically and physically as they were designated the new capital cities under disparate national banners in 1920 and 1923 respectively. After the disintegration of the Ottoman Empire, both cities witnessed a non-negligible transformation. Their urban development occurred in a congruent fashion including urban components and settlement patterns with a strong foreign influence, i.e., paid foreign technocrats for the case of Ankara, and the foreign fascist rulers for the case of Tirana. This article provided a comparative analysis of these two cities and their ideological and physical transformations via evaluation of their first urban development plans, i.e., Ankara’s by Carl Christoph Lörcher and Tirana’s by Gherardo Bosio, and ideological charges behind their implementations. The rise of new nationalist regimes employed urban planning as a tool to implement ideological modernization and nation-building agendas. The focus of the text was to correlate how the two modernist plans oscillated between a tabula-rasa approach and conservation and/or neglect of the existing Ottoman built environment.