Historical Perspective Research Articles

What should economists do?: A historical perspective

The purpose of this paper is to present “What Should Economists Do?”, an article written by James Buchanan and published in 1964, in an historical perspective. We put forward an important point, namely the opposition with Ludwig von Mises, and Buchanan’s attempt at differentiating his approach from Mises. Instead of in addition to Robbins, that he nominally targeted, Buchanan was actually criticizing Mises. Buchanan thus defined economics in a very specific way, as a science that studies exchange but only when it results from a desire (or a propensity) to exchange.

The significance of dentistry: a historical perspective

The significance of dentistry: a historical perspective

A Historiographical Review of the Arts and Culture of Ampa Fare -Uma Lengge Tradition of the Maria Wawo Community in Indonesia

The Ampa Fare Uma Lengge tradition of the Maria Wawo community in Indonesia is a unique cultural practice reflecting its deep connection to its agricultural heritage and environment. The tradition involves the ceremonial storage of harvested rice in a communal barn known as the 'Uma Lengge', which embodies the values of thrift, cooperation and respect for Nature. This paper examines the evolution of this tradition and its associated architectural forms from a historical perspective. It focuses on how this tradition reflects three forms of culture: ideas, activities, and artifacts in the Maria Wawo community. This study uses a qualitative approach. It collects data through interviews, field observations and literature studies. The findings show that the Ampa Fare Uma Lengge tradition not only functions as a means of food storage, but also plays an important role in strengthening the community identity and solidarity, and reflects their adaptation to the environment. The unique architectural form of Uma Lengge also demonstrates the craftsmanship and aesthetic values of the community.

Overt Scientific Bias and Clandestine Acts by Trusted Scientists: The Flawed Application of the Linear No-threshold Model.

The Health Physics Society (HPS) released a video documentary on the history of the linear no-threshold (LNT) model in April 2022. It exposed many scientific and ethical failings of many leaders, influential scientists, and organizations that have resulted in the current system of radiological protection. Since then, the society received many comments; most were supportive, while a few criticized the video documentary as delivering an anti-LNT message. Shortly thereafter, many emails discovered via an independent Freedom of Information Act request revealed multiple layers of coordination between prominent people in the field of radiation protection to coopt the leadership within the HPS and suppress information they perceived or assumed to be contrary to a pro-LNT message. Many of these emails were published by JunkScience.com, an independent organization that exposes faulty scientific data and analyses used to advance special interests and hidden agendas. This Forum article is intended to document in the peer-reviewed literature the JunkScience.com findings of clandestine acts by trusted scientists within the radiation protection community. The emails exposed strong personal biases, actions taken by leaders within the National Commission on Radiation Protection and Measurements (NCRP) to "save the Society" from its "downward spiral," and actions taken by NCRP and HPS members serving on a National Academies of Sciences committee to suppress scientific information relevant to the debate about health effects in low-dose environments. These anti-science actions harm our entire profession and the trust that Congress bestows on our scientific organizations expecting to receive objective recommendations based on sound science. It is important that these events are recorded in the scientific literature from a historical perspective. The radiation protection community will be judged not by what is revealed in this article but by what actions are taken from here.

Balancing Growth and Sustainability: Exploring the Optimal Global Population

This essay examines the implications of global population growth on sustainability and human development in the context of contemporary environmental challenges. With projections indicating a rise to 10.9 billion by 2100, concerns over resource scarcity and climate change intensify. The analysis utilizes the “IPAT” framework to explore how population size, affluence, and technology interact to shape environmental impacts. Historical perspectives, including Malthusian theory and the Green Revolution, are reviewed to assess their relevance in understanding current trends. Advances in agriculture, health sciences, and technology are highlighted as mitigating factors that challenge traditional notions of population limits. The essay concludes by discussing policy implications for achieving an “optimal” global population that balances sustainable development with improved living standards and environmental stewardship.

Historical Reasons for the Difference in Football Performance between China and Japan

The gap between China and Japan in football performance is widening, but few articles have been written on its impact on football from a historical perspective. This article hopes to bring some enlightenment and suggestions for the development direction of Chinese football in the process of studying the historical reasons of the two countries on the performance of football. This article compares the origin, folk development, representative significance, and political aspects of football in the two countries, and analyzes several factors that lead to differences in participation levels from the perspective of commercialization, official support, and historical background. It is concluded that the main impact of historical reasons on Chinese and Japanese football is the formation of a localized and mature football culture in Japan, which is not present in China. Based on this conclusion, it is concluded that the development direction of Chinese football should be aimed at developing and forming its own football culture.

Anthropology of development: historical review, problems and perspectives

Resumo O ensaio tem como objetivo introduzir o campo da antropologia do desenvolvimento, considerando suas trajetórias, assim como as complexas relações entre a antropologia e os processos de desenvolvimento. Para tal fim, busca reconstruir, sinteticamente, alguns dos episódios das relações históricas entre antropologia e desenvolvimento, atendendo a seus primeiros vínculos na forma da antropologia aplicada e posteriormente de antropologia para o desenvolvimento, até a antropologia do desenvolvimento e o campo maior dos estudos críticos do desenvolvimento. Nosso propósito também consiste em mostrar, sucintamente, as formas pelas quais a antropologia tem contribuído para a compreensão da produção do desenvolvimento, incluindo as formas de promoção de mudanças sociais e de diversos tipos de intervenções, especialmente no contexto das relações entre agências internacionais, Estados, políticas públicas e práticas sociais.

Farming as a Financial Asset: Global Finance and the Making of Institutional Landscapes : A Commentary

ABSTRACT: This book by Stefan Ouma presents a rich diversity of themes with compelling new insights into past theories, arguments, and proposals for a new conceptualization and understanding of the making of institutional landscapes. Due to this diversity—which is complicated by geographical, historical, and current contextual factors—the findings and conclusions provide new entry points to the student of radical political economy. It provides a break from the atemporal treatment of capital in agriculture in the land-grab literature by tracing the roots of capital in agriculture with a careful historical and disaggregated spatial context. The book uses Tanzania and Aotearoa New Zealand to make a case for spatial differentiation. It is a refreshing volume that disrupts old narratives on the workings of finance in agriculture by offering rich empirical material and evidence. The author argues succinctly and clearly, using refined historical, conceptual, theoretical, methodological, and empirical perspectives in showing how "finance goes farming." The data for this book emanates from serious global fieldwork across three continents with perspectives from other continents where different forms of finance operate in creating institutional landscapes. It extends our knowledge on global capital and agricultural development beyond the current the discourses. The author presents different lenses through which we can view "reality" in diverse contexts, especially through the lenses of capital itself, rather than only through the theoretical deductions and representations of affected social classes.

Discourse structuring markers in English: A historical constructionalist perspective on pragmatics by Elizabeth Closs Traugott (review)

Discourse structuring markers in English: A historical constructionalist perspective on pragmatics by Elizabeth Closs Traugott (review)

The Impact of Public Health on Health Monitoring

The relationship between public health and health monitoring has evolved significantly, shaped by historical developments, technological advancements, and changing societal needs. This paper examines the mutual influence of public health initiatives and health-monitoring systems, particularly in the context of late 20th-century England. The historical perspective highlights the role of public health efforts in establishing systematic health monitoring, which was critical for addressing widespread health issues. Key public health concepts and their implications for health monitoring are discussed, followed by an exploration of modern technological advancements, such as mobile health applications and wearable devices, which have transformed personal and population health management. Finally, the paper considers challenges and future directions, focusing on ethical concerns, the role of big data, and the need for integrated global health strategies. The paper argues that public health and health monitoring are increasingly interdependent, with advancements in health monitoring playing a vital role in shaping the future of public health. Keywords: Public health, Health monitoring, Technological advancements, Health surveillance, Wearable devices.

Ritual Child Homicides in Ghana and Kenya: A Criminological Analysis

Child homicide is a frequent occurrence in many African communities, and juju beliefs trigger a sizable proportion of this crime. Yet a systematic and critical analysis of juju’s impact on pedicides is lacking in the literature. The sparse extant studies on juju-driven homicide or ritual murder mainly offer historical perspectives rather than criminological analysis of the phenomenon. The present study explores the magnitude, characteristics, and motivations, as well as the socio-cultural and economic contexts of ritual child homicide or juju-driven pedicide (i.e., the killing of children for ritual or occult purposes) in Ghana and Kenya. This aim is achieved by conducting an in-depth analysis of ritual murder reports publicized on the websites of eight major news/media outlets between 2012 and 2021. The content analysis results are complemented by semi-structured interviews involving 28 academics and experts. The data show that ritual child homicide usually involves multiple offenders, primarily unemployed young adult males aged between 20 and 39 years. Most perpetrators are motivated by pecuniary gain and the desire to protect themselves against perceived spiritual attacks. The body parts primarily extracted from victims for rituals are the head, limbs, private parts, and blood. The major factors contributing to the persistence of ritual pedicides are obsession with juju, economic hardship, illiteracy, inefficient criminal justice system, authorities’ failure to bring juju practitioners under closer scrutiny, and the emergence of a new consumerist ethos—the unrestrained quest for luxurious effects.

The Chinese Freshwater Jellyfish Unbound

Jellyfish are commonly known as dangerous sea creatures that humans should avoid. Focusing on the newly discovered freshwater jellyfish in the late nineteenth century, this article explores a global history of Craspedacusta sowerbii, a species native to China first noted in nineteenth-century Britain but since traveling the world over. The worldwide distribution of C. sowerbii, as both polyps and medusae, made it a global subject of scientific inquiry. However, no independent study has examined the history behind the origin, circulation, and implication of the freshwater jellyfish and its relationship with marine types. The late nineteenth century was the period when our premodern knowledge of jellyfish transformed from it being purely a marine life to the modern recognition of jellyfish as both marine and freshwater organisms, triggered by the discovery and discussion of the Chinese freshwater jellyfish C. sowerbii among naturalists and philosophers. This article focuses on Arthur de Carle Sowerby’s engagement with C. sowerbii in terms of narratives of evolution, nomenclature, and bioinvasion between 1880 and 1941. I argue that jellyfish, as a lowly form of invertebrates, should be taken more seriously by historians of modern China and historians of biology who are interested in the diverse roles of animals in shaping human–animal interactions in the Anthropocene. While the scientific research of jellyfish’s global bloom abounds, the interpretation of the global rise of jellyfish could benefit from a historically and culturally bound analysis of this classical animal. This is particularly so as scientists recognized the diverse perceptions of jellyfish. The global jellyfish bloom requires historical perspectives on a topic that has hitherto received scant attention from historians of science.

52406 More Than Just a Rash: The Multifaceted Nature of Chronic Itch Through the Historical Perspective of Napoleon Bonaparte

52406 More Than Just a Rash: The Multifaceted Nature of Chronic Itch Through the Historical Perspective of Napoleon Bonaparte

Authoritarian innovations in the Polish industrial relations: From liberal to illiberal illusory corporatism?

The article addresses the problem of ‘authoritarian innovations’ in labour governance in Poland, understood as new government practices that maintain the semblance of social dialogue while limiting the influence of unions. Unlike most studies that analyse authoritarian practices since the right-wing Law and Justice Party came to power in Poland in 2015, this analysis takes a longer historical perspective. Drawing from Ost's thesis of ‘illusory corporatism’, it argues that a fundamental element of neoliberal transformation in Poland after 1989 was the introduction of weak tripartite institutions used to suppress social conflicts while complying with international standards. Based on documentary analysis and 37 expert interviews with social partners, the article shows how authoritarian innovations introduced in the 1990s have undermined worker participation and tripartite social dialogue in the context of two crises: the global financial crisis of 2008–12 and the COVID-19 pandemic of 2020–22. Comparing the role of social dialogue in shaping the responses of liberal and illiberal governments to these different external shocks, the analysis demonstrates the continuity and evolution of authoritarian innovations in labour governance in Poland and their implications for theoretical debates arounds corporatism.

The Daniel H. Wagner Prize for Excellence in the Practice of Advanced Analytics and Operations Research: Introduction to the 2023 Competition and Some History on the Prize’s 25th Anniversary

The judges for the 2023 competition selected the three finalist papers featured in this special issue of the INFORMS Journal on Applied Analytics (IJAA). The prestigious Wagner Prize—awarded for achievement in implemented operations research, management science, and advanced analytics—emphasizes the quality and originality of mathematical models along with clarity of written and oral exposition. This year’s winning submission describes the design and deployment of an approach to accommodate the assembly of semiconductor products using multidie packages, a powerful and innovative approach to manufacturing a wide range of strategically designed semiconductors. The authors refer to the problem as the sort-assemble-blend routing problem (SABR-P), and their approach to solving the SABR-P is a combination of genetic algorithms, Monte Carlo simulations, linear programming, and machine learning. The remaining papers describe an integrated approach to system-wide deployment of nurses that facilitates the movement of nurses between hospitals, and a multiple-stage process that consolidates parcels ordered by the same consumer from one or more merchants during the fulfillment process. In addition, we provide some historical perspective on the Daniel H. Wagner Prize for Excellence in the Practice of Advanced Analytics and Operations Research. We show the titles, abstracts, and names and affiliations for its recipients for each year in which the prize has been awarded. Finally, we provide links to the winning papers, which have been published by INFORMS Journal on Applied Analytics (formerly Interfaces). Supplemental Material: Full presentation videos with slides are available in the INFORMS Video Library at https://www.informs.org/Resource-Center/Video-Library and as electronic companions to the INFORMS Journal on Applied Analytics articles.

Rethinking Asian Settler Colonialism: A Historical Perspective of Hawai'i Asians on Indigenous Lands

Abstract: "Asian settler colonialism" calls attention to the simultaneous denial of Kanaka 'Ōiwi dispossession and the celebration of descendants of Asian immigrants as industrious members of Hawai'i's multicultural middle class. While we acknowledge the importance of confronting settler colonialism, we argue that Asian settler colonialism reinscribes an inaccurate understanding of Hawai'i Asians today and over time. Tracing Hawai'i history from the Kingdom era to the present, we show that Hawai'i Asians are not inherently settlers by virtue of being non-natives living and working on Indigenous land; rather, many Hawai'i Asians hold a generational responsibility and political affinity within the nation of Hawai'i. Further, as Hawai'i's hierarchies have evolved amid economic restructuring, the privilege and power held by some Asians have been incorrectly attributed to the native-settler binary of settler colonialism while overlooking the interplay of race, class, global economic shifts, and political dynamics reinforced by military action.

이스라엘-하마스 전쟁의 배경과 주요 쟁점

This study examines the background of the Israel-Hamas war, which erupted following Hamas’s unprecedented large-scale attack on Israel in October 2023, and the key issues related to the post-war political order in the Middle East. The background of the war highlights, from a historical perspective, the escalation of military tensions and conflicts between the two sides after the failure of the Oslo peace process and Hamas’s control of the Gaza Strip since 2007. It also seeks to address the impact of leadership changes, including the shift to hardliners within Hamas in 2017 and the formation of the most hardline right-wing government in Israel’s history in 2022, against the backdrop of these accumulated conflicts. The study analyzes various debates currently being discussed in the international community, focusing on scenarios for ending the conflict and the future of the Gaza Strip, the potential for the United States to maintain its hegemony in the Middle East, and the future direction of Hamas. Through this analysis, the study aims to contribute to a better understanding of the Israel-Hamas war, which has emerged as a central issue in contemporary international politics.

Capacity to Consent to Sex: A Historical Perspective

Capacity to Consent to Sex: A Historical Perspective

An Overview of the Reformation brought by Christianity: A Historical and Bibliometric Perspective

Abstract: This paper provides a comprehensive historical and bibliometric analysis of the Reformation in Christianity, emphasizing its profound influence on religious, social, and political landscapes. The Reformation, initiated by key figures such as Martin Luther, marked a pivotal shift from the doctrines of the Roman Catholic Church, leading to the establishment of various Protestant denominations and significant reforms within the Catholic Church. This study integrates historical narratives with bibliometric methodologies to identify prevailing trends, influential works, and key contributors in Reformation studies. Analysing scholarly publications from 1964 to 2024, the paper highlights the evolution of research focus, emerging areas of interest, and the broader implications of Reformation principles on contemporary issues, including human rights, environmental activism, and socio-political reforms. The findings underscore the enduring legacy of the Reformation and its relevance to modern-day religious and socio-political contexts.

‘해결’ 전야에 4·3연구가 던져야 할 질문들 - 22대 국회 4·3특별법 개정안을 사례로

Ahead of the 22nd National Assembly elections, there had been a renewed push to amend the 4.3 Special Act. Shortly after the elections, the first bill proposed by the elected representatives with ties to Jeju was adopted as an amendment of the 4.3 Special Act, and it was proposed at the start of the 22nd National Assembly. This paper generally agrees with the common evaluation and stance that continually updated legislation will promote a ‘complete resolution’ and a ‘just resolution.’ Nevertheless, the purpose of this paper is to observe the symptomatic phenomenon of ‘resolution’ and to seek out research questions. In particular, by critically examining the issues that re-emerged around the 22nd National Assembly elections, the paper seeks to identify the questions that were overlooked in the process. The heightened effort to amend Article 2 (Definition) of the 4.3 Special Act ahead of the elections primarily focuses on changing the term ‘riot’ to ‘uprising.’ However, by not including the term ‘victim,’ which was a product of a riot-oriented historical perspective, in the amendment list, the approach has the limitation of not attempting to differentiate itself from the 20th and 21st National Assembly, which did not change ‘riot’ to ‘uprising.’