Post-war Society Research Articles

The Place-ness of the DMZ

During the last decade, the DMZ (demilitarized zone) has emerged as one of the most popular tourist attractions for both domestic and international travelers—despite continued conflicts over nuclear weapons under Jungun Kim’s administration as well as ongoing landmine problems. Inspired by Marc Augé’s theory of non-place, this essay critically examines the policy to create an eco-friendly image of the DMZ that became prevalent among public art projects such as Dreaming of Earth, proposed by sculptor Jaeeun Choi and renowned Japanese architect Shigeru Ban, and the construction of the Pyungwha Nuri Gil (Spread Peace Trail). The essay further analyzes the key examples from the 2015 Real DMZ Project, the annual art event, started in 2012, on the site of Cheorwon, that serve as alternatives to public art projects for domestic visitors and international travelers. I argue that Hayoun Kwon’s 489 Years, Jisun Shin’s Contemplating Landscape, and Youngjoo Cho’s DMG_Demilitarized Goddesses (all of the 2015 Real DMZ Project) challenge the DMZ’s allegedly safe and benign image. More important, Minouk Lim’s Monument 300 (2014) evolves from the audience’s process of finding imaginary traces left by the historical massacre inside the DMZ. The participatory nature of Lim’s Monument 300: Chasing Watermarks calls our attention not only to the forgotten history of the area but also to the changing and unsettled meanings of the site. Therefore, the essay treats the DMZ as a symbolic site through which one can explore how the historical and political significance of the Korean War and its ideological tensions have been consistently forged within postwar South Korean society, particularly for the last two decades.

Broadcasting inclusion and advocacy: a history of female activism and cross-cultural partnership at the post-war ABC

During the first decade of television in Australia, a cohort of female broadcasters used their hard-won positions at the Australian Broadcasting Commission (ABC) to challenge the social and cultural complacencies of post-war society. Counteracting the assumption that women were largely absent in post-war broadcasting, this research discusses how two of these producers used their roles as public broadcasters to enact their own version of feminism, a social and cultural activism framed through active citizenship. Critiquing race, gender and national identity in their programmes, they partnered with Indigenous Australian activists and worked to amplify the voices of minorities. Referring to documentaries produced in Australian television’s formative years, this article describes how ABC producers Therése Denny and Joyce Belfrage worked to disrupt programming cultures that privileged homogeneous Anglo-Australian perspectives. As a consequence, documentaries like A Changing Race (1964) presented empathetic and evocative content that challenged xenophobic stereotypes and encouraged cross-cultural understandings.

Delusions of Immortality in a Post-War Society: The Albanian Case.

The Albanian society suffered deep changes and restructuring immediately following WWII. And as if it were not enough, the society was shaken up for decades thereafter. The population was forced to live in a constant collective psychosis of war, with an imaginary ‘enemy’ continuously at the gate, apart from multiple everyday restrictions and an almost complete isolation from the neighboring countries (1, 2). The Second World War (WWII) in the form it affected Albania, with subsequent invasions of fascist Italians and Nazi Germans, was almost simultaneously tinged with the colors of a civil war. Border skirmishes with Yugoslav partisans took place in the northern areas, sometimes corresponding with the crimes perpetrated from communist Albanians themselves. These factors, along with the Italian–Greek war whose hostilities happened partially on Albanian soil, have obviously rendered the theme of war, martyrs, heroes, and survivors, a highly popular one as part of the public political discourse (2, 3). The moment when communists started ruling Albania might appear to coincide historically with the end of the Second World War; instead the psychological state of war induced by the regime was obviously not over. The psychosis of the war kept on looming with ebbs and tides for more than forty years (1945–1990), and has almost always been present in the psychological and physical environment, and unrelentingly broadcasted by official mass media (4). The psychiatric and mental consequences in individuals following war, post-war, chronic exposure to hostilities, ill-treatment, and torture related to belligerencies, have been studied among Holocaust survivors (5). Other authors have enlarged their scope of study, and even of the diagnostic notions depicting war-related disorders (6, 7). However, large-scale studies on war impact are usually limited to a simple PTSD model of impact, without consideration of the complex impact of an imaginary of impending war, leading to continuous fear, avoidance behavior, and maladaptive coping styles that will potentially affect generations of a post-war society, even when there is overlapping symptomatology between PTSD and this complex changes in the large group's members (8).

An Overview of Public History in Italy: No Longer A Field Without a Name

AbstractThis article traces the origins and development of public history in Italy, a field not anymore without this name today. Public history in Italy has its roots in historical institutions born in the nineteenth century and in the post WW2 first Italian Republic. The concept of “public use of history” (1993), the important role played by memory issues in post-war society, local and national identity issues, the birth of public archaeology (2015) before public history, the emergence of history festivals in the new millennium are all important moments shaping the history of the field and described in this essay. The foundation of the “Italian Association of Public History” (AIPH) in 2016/2017, and the promotion of an Italian Public History Manifesto (2018) together with the creation of Public History masters in universities, are all concrete signs of a vital development of the field in the Peninsula.

Can land title reduce low-intensity interhousehold conflict incidences and associated damages in eastern DRC?

Abstract The broad aim of this study is to evaluate the effectiveness of land reform policy as a sustainable tool for averting low-intensity local conflict and protecting vulnerable households in conflict and post-conflict societies from adverse consequences of conflict. Empirical studies on micro-level conflict have been limited on two fronts - the difficulty of collecting survey data from conflict prone societies, and a general lack of attention to the consequences of low-intensity local conflict. This paper attempts to address both these limitations. Using a survey on violent and non-violent conflict experiences of 1582 farming households from the postwar society of North Kivu, in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), I explore whether land title can i) lower the probability of low-intensity conflict between households; and ii) lower the damages for households in the event of a conflict. To address concerns of potential selection bias, I employ the quasi-experimental estimation technique of propensity score matching (PSM). A rigorous set of tests and sensitivity analyses ensures both the quality of matching and reliability of estimates. These findings show that land title reduces a household’s probability of experiencing low-intensity interhousehold conflict roughly between 10 and 18 percentage points. However, I find no evidence that households with land title are subject to lower damages in the event of a conflict. These findings suggest that in vulnerable societies with high exposure to conflict, land reform programs that just grant title to households may reduce conflict to some extent but will not necessarily reduce the adverse consequences associated with conflict. Thus, land title is not a panacea for all conflict related adversities and cannot serve as a stand-alone tool for reducing adversities associated with conflict. Further research is required on whether supplementing land reform programs with policies such as promoting good governance and strengthening local institutions can sustainably promote peaceful societies.

»Entartete Genialität« Guernica im geteilten Deutschland

Abstract When in 1955/1956, for the first time in divided postwar Germany, a major Picasso exhibition took place in Munich, Cologne, and Hamburg, it came to be a cultural event that reached and emotionalized the German audience, media, and sciences to an unprecedented extent. The exhibition Picasso 1900 – 1955 contributed significantly to the popularization of Picasso at all levels of society and gave the German people access to modern art on a much wider scale than the first documenta held concurrently in Kassel. The undisputed eye-catcher of that spectacular exhibit was Guernica, on display in Germany for the first and only time. Its controversial reception reveals that at that time there was no intention to see the work in Germany in a memorial relationship with Germany’s own historical responsibility. Thus it virtually functioned as a symbol for a collective amnesia of the West German postwar society, whereas the socialist East of the Republic stylized the painting into an anti-fascist icon.

Caught between empire and occupation: censorship, deimperialization, and Koreans in postwar Japan

ABSTRACTThe collapse of the Japanese Empire in 1945 plunged East Asia into a state of flux and upheaval, making necessary the redrawing of geopolitical borders and the redefining the “boundaries” of nationality, language, and legal status. As part of this broader process, Koreans in occupied postwar Japan, via the platform of the magazine Democratic Korea (Minshu Chōsen), advocated for a joint process of decolonization and deimperialization whereby both Koreans and Japanese could construct a society free of imperial hierarchies. U.S. Military Occupation policy and censorship, however, thwarted these efforts and disallowed the possibility for the inclusion of a Korean subjectivity within the space of the Japanese nation. Facing intense political pressure, Koreans in Japan started to shift toward a “non-national” Zainichi Korean subjectivity distinct from the two Korean-nation states established in 1948. Further, through analyzing the case of Koreans in occupied Japan, this article sheds light on the broader impact of occupation censorship on postwar Japanese society and how the post-imperial transition to a nation-state model was a tumultuous one.

Вплив поколіннєвого фактору на діяльність “Групи 47”

A literary process in Germany after the World War II was reviewed. In particular, a generational worldview change in the writers association “Group47”was traced. Considering the group's activity as an example a writers’ “birth” in German post-war society was demonstrated when the young people without professional education and literary experience (this was the 1945th year generation or the generation of “private soldiers”) managed to enter on the world scene within relatively short time. The “brand new” writers repudiated any abstractions, opposed the idealization of the past, present or future, focused on a comprehension and reflection of a real life “here and now” experiences. An attention to the lack of an unanimous opinion of literary critics regarding the functioning of the “Group47”was drawn. In particular, examples of critical statements about the association activities were given. Arising from such very different and violent reactions a rethinking of the World War II tragedies and its consequences took place. It has been shown as during few decades of the hot debates between different generations of writers the new sparks were flashed, which ignited entirely different centers, where according to the researchers in the 70's a new pop culture emerged, whose representatives were entirely new faces and unknown names.

After Filumena: Illegitimacy and Paternity in 1950s’ Italian Women’s Theatre

ABSTRACTThe issue of illegitimacy was relevant enough to Italian society to appear in a number of plays staged and/or published even after Eduardo de Filippo’s 1946 landmark work Filumena Marturano. This article addresses plays written by Italian women between 1950 and 1960, and treating conflicts arising from the birth of children out of wedlock or suspected to be the product of an extramarital affair. The discussion of the corpus develops with reference to debates regarding the place of illegitimate children in post-war Italian society. Analysis is provided of two plays that present the case of children conceived by unmarried women and a further two treating children who were born to (supposedly) adulterous wives. Through this review of the landscape of post-war drama and society, I isolate the aspects of illegitimacy that come to light in Italian women’s theatre of the 1950s and provide new insights specific to the female-authored corpus.

VIII: POSTMASTER GENERAL: 1945

I think we were all astonished by the result of the election in the autumn of 1945. Never before had the Labour Party won a clear majority of seats in the House of Commons. Churchill had gone to the electorate as the victorious war leader, far superior to a mere Party Leader, to whom the people of Britain owed more than to anyone else in the competing political parties. But the war had held up the progress of social reform and economic advance, and the men coming home from the front were looking for a new deal. This had been forecast in the vision of the future adumbrated by Sir William Beveridge in his famous Report on post-war society.

The Age of “Amok”

The proliferation of mass-shootings in the United States since the 1960s has produced a character profile of largely unremarkable, middleclass male culprits who transform particular places of civil peace – schools, universities, shopping malls – into landscapes of war. On the one hand, the lack of clear motives has led mystified psychiatric experts to draw correlations between such events and “running amok” – the phenomenon of sudden outbursts of homicidal violence observed since early modernity in Southeast Asia. On the other hand, the details of how such acts are carried out as well as the notes of some perpetrators suggest that mass-shootings could also be understood as “interpretations” of American postwar society: from the “lonely crowd” of suburbia via “Reaganomics” to the present politics of fear and resentment to a society of preemptive control.

The relational spatiality of the postwar condition: A study of the city of Mitrovica

The postwar condition – the period where war is over yet the socio-political ordering of any given postwar entity remains contested and an unchallenged peace has still to be reached – is inherently spatial. This spatiality, however, has yet be fully addressed in theoretical and analytical terms, meaning that we neither understand it in its entirety nor have the tools with which to explore it thoroughly. This gap in existing research – found in both peace research and political geography – is the focus of this paper as I ask: how can the spatiality of the postwar condition be understood and studied? Using the concept of ‘relational space’ (Massey 2005, p. 61), I argue that the postwar condition is relational in its spatiality and that it should be studied through its material, perceived, and lived dimensions. The relational spatiality of the postwar condition means that the postwar society both produces and is produced by the postwar spaces in which it happens, in a ‘socio-spatial dialectic’ where the two are mutually constitutive (Soja 2010, p. 4). This paper thereby contributes to the “spatial turn” in peace research by theorising more thoroughly the postwar condition as relational in its spatiality as well as by developing an analytical framework able to explore this spatiality. It also brings the “peace turn” in political geography closer to peace research by suggesting how it can advance the research front on the spatiality of the postwar condition. It finally generates much needed insights on space in the postwar city of Mitrovica (Kosovo).

Public Health in a Radioactive Age: Environmental Pollution, Popular Therapies, and Narratives of Danger in the Federal Republic of Germany, 1949–1970

AbstractIn the 1950s and 1960s, West German citizens found themselves living in a “radioactive age.” The public learned that radiation exposure pervaded postwar society, not only from atomic testing but also from medical treatment, workplace exposures, and radium consumer goods. By 1970, West Germans—ranging from farmers and housewives, to physicians, scientists, and bureaucrats—had recast nuclear radiation from a technological wonder or health aid into a public health hazard. This article illustrates that anxieties about uncontrollable technology, ineffective institutions, disingenuous political leaders, and volatile citizens persisted from the 1950s to the 1970s, coexisting with optimism and progress, without truly subsiding in the 1960s, as historians often suggest. Further, it advocates taking those fears seriously, showing that they played a critical—and lasting—role in shaping public policy and state-society relations in the early Federal Republic.

“Do not Disturb the Peace!” Identities, Livelihoods and the Politics of Post-War Discontent in Sierra Leone

Although the collective memory of war is frequently invoked in post-war societies, who chooses to invoke it and to what effect has been less studied relative to other aspects of such societies. In this article we employ a case study of Sierra Leone to address this deficit in the post-conflict scholarship by illustrating how the collective memory of that country’s civil war is appropriated by diverse actors in the post-war society. Drawing from field interviews, we present evidence showing how, and why, several societal groups constituted as distinct post-war identities such as victims-rights groups, former defenders of the state, or perpetrators of the violence during the Sierra Leone civil war articulate dissatisfactions with their livelihoods and the reactions of state officials to their demands. The article explains why, and how, successive governments have selectively suppressed the discontent of some groups over livelihood insecurities that are construed as threats to public order while ignoring violent protests from other groups over similar issues, in spite of a 1965 public order act restricting protests. Thus, the article argues that state officials in Sierra Leone have not demonstrated superior commitment to peacebuilding than societal groups that make demands on the state.

The Smithsonian at war

Abstract This article describes the Smithsonian Institution’s involvement in World War ii. For a brief (but active) period the Smithsonian assisted the Army, Navy, and other war agencies. Museum staff eagerly shared ideas and information they had spent generations gathering; they were also willing to embrace the war effort as an opportunity to expand collections. While many museum contributions to the war effort were not made public, a book series on natural history and culture published by museum experts came to be known as the War Background Studies. Examining the Smithsonian’s response to ‘total war’, this article argues that the transformations experienced by the museum were largely temporary, with uneven levels of impact; it also explores how numerous significant intellectuals debated the museum’s future role in post-war society.

“Nought Noone Nowhere Ne'er!”: Postwar Germany, Arno Schmidt, and the Representation of Complicit Noncomplicity

Abstract After 1945, German politicians and writers proclaimed a new beginning. The attempt to extricate itself quickly and completely from the crimes of the NS-Regime led to a never-ending series of embarrassing revelations about mainstream representatives and their most vocal critics. Their shared silence about past complicities produced another culture of complicity after 1945. In recent years, Arno Schmidt has been presented as the exceptional figure in postwar German literature. He never joined a literary network, was publically ridiculed for his linguistic experimentations, and was brought to court for blasphemy and pornography. The protagonists of his novels provide trenchant and brutally funny critiques of Germany's remilitarization and failing denazification. Because of their radical proclamations, they (and their author) have been considered as figures of radical noncomplicity. In my reading of B/Moondocks (1960), the culmination of Schmidt's literary postwar experimentation, I argue that his novels offer something more rare and instructive. They examine from within postwar society how the unacknowledged consequences of past complicity gave rise to the projects of a radically noncomplicit politics and literature, but simultaneously demonstrate how these projects remained unattainable in postwar society, even for the author himself.

Razvoj školstva i pedagogije u Srbiji u prvoj polovini XX veka - najznačajniji naučni i društveni uticaji

The main objective of this paper was to analyse the development of the school system and the science of education in the first half of the 20th century. Different societal circumstances were taken into consideration, including political, economic, and cultural, as well as pedagogical trends that dominated the educational scene at that time. In order to follow those influences more easily, we analysed the development of schools and pedagogical science through two periods that could easily be distinguished. The first period begins at the end of the 19th century and last until the beginning of the World War I. During this period we can witness the rapid development of the school system. The other period is embedded between two world wars and is marked by the advancement of theory and development of different pedagogical approaches. The first of the periods mentioned was marked by economic development, openness for European influences, and development of benevolent circumstances for cultural, scientific, and pedagogical growth. It brought order in the educational legislative and establishment of the institutions that could further promote development of the school and educational system. Some of those institutions were Teachers' Association, Pedagogy department at the Faculty of Philosophy in Belgrade, and Belgrade University. The development of elementary and secondary educational systems also went through rapid changes. Theoretical support for those processes came from the German speaking area and meant gradual introduction of Pestalozzian and Herbartian ideas in Serbian pedagogy. Curricula were mainly based on Pestalozzian ideas (Ilić, 2005, p. 124) while Herbartian method of formal steps dominated in the articulation of teaching. Credits for bringing herbartianism in Serbia, and its implementation in teaching academies' laboratories and classrooms across Serbia go to Professor Vojislav Bakić. One of his contemporaries, Sreten Adžić, also a lecturer at the teaching academy, on the other hand, opened the way for using manual labour in schools and the pedagogy of The Work School. In this brief period, Serbian schools and pedagogy went through Pestalozzian ideas, herbartianism, and the Work School, from establishing its bases to its reformation. German influences were strong due to geographical closeness. Furthermore, their school systems were elaborate and compatible with the centralized Serbian system. The period between two wars was marked by stagnation and very poor organization of the educational and school system. It suffered all the drawbacks of the post-war society, such as increased poverty and damage from the further political conflicts. Unlike the previous period when school was expected to play an important role in raising the educational and cultural standards of population, school was expected to serve the political idea of Yugoslavinisation in this period. Still, many young Serbian pedagogues fought for the development of the science of education and managed to introduce valuable theoretical and practical achievements to the pedagogical scene in Serbia. Milan Šević and Miloš Milošević introduced Serbian pedagogues to Cultural and Social Pedagogy. Vićentije Rakić offered very authentic views of the New Education Movement, while Vojislav Maladenović brought elements of Pragmatism to Serbian pedagogy. This rich and prolific activity was interrupted by the World War II and the resulting social and political circumstances promoted the new direction of Serbian pedagogy.

Play Sculptures and Picturebooks: Utopian Visions of Modern Existence

This article examines ideas surrounding abstract, modernist art for children during the post-war era by analyzing play sculptures and picturebooks created by Egon Moller-Nielsen, a Danish-Swedish sculptor and artist. His monumental sculptures for children received international attention during the 1950s, and became influential and representative for progressive ideas about art and children in both the United States and in Europe. How, then, is the notion of art articulated and expressed in this context? And how are these ideas connected to the ideological position that children have in the rebuilding of the post-war society in Europe? Egon Moller-Nielsen described his play sculpture as a “lekmaskin” (play machine), paraphrasing Le Corbusier’s famous modernist term for a house, “machine a habiter” (a machine for living in). This kind of use of terminology demonstrates how play sculpture is situated at the core of notions concerning public art, architecture and sculpture in post-war Europe. It also encapsulates ideas of children as the future citizens of the welfare state, and thus, ideas about how these new citizens could be created and formed. Modernist play sculptures and experimental books for children can be seen as a means of equipping children with knowledge of art, thereby creating better adult consumers of art, which identifies children as both an integral part of the utopian vision of modern existence and as future consumers. The play sculpture is thus based on the idea of a new citizen who is also a new kind of art consumer, and can thus be seen as a sculptural embodiment of an idea of the modern child.

Le miroir brisé: Reassessing the Occupation (1940-44) in Novels by Modiano, Assouline and Rozier.

Within French post-war society, the reassessment of the Second World War and the French collaboration with the national socialist occupants started comparatively late. According to French historiographer Henry Rousso, France suffered from ‘Vichy-Syndrome’ until the 1970s, when the suppressed past surged and brought about an obsessive focus on the period of the Occupation, that France hasn’t overcome until this day (Rousso/Conan 2013). Since the mid-1970s, the period of the Occupation has also increasingly been made a topic of fictional literature. Especially around the turn of the millennium is when many novels are published that discuss the time of the German occupation in France (1940-44). This article analyzes three novels that deconstruct the Gaullist myth of the France resistante and turn against the metaphor of the annees noires. The novels Dora Bruder (Patrick Modiano, 1997), La cliente (Pierre Assouline, 1998) and Un amour sans resistance (Gilles Rozier, 2003) make the gaps in the official discourse of memory visible and highlight the shades of gray that lie between resistance and collaboration.

Picturing Preservation and Renewal: Photographs as Planning Knowledge in Society Hill, Philadelphia

This history of postwar Society Hill, Philadelphia illuminates the role of photographs as planning knowledge and the relationship between historic preservation and urban renewal practice. Photographs both reflect and shape shifting values, preferences, and power dynamics among stakeholders in the built environment. Four photographic categories make this clear: “before images” selectively sample pre-renewal wrongs; “counter-images” picture planning alternatives; “process images” show the messy nature of renewal in progress; and “after images” document the completed neighborhood, while obscuring the destructive character of even preservation-oriented renewal. This case illustrates the significance of culturally constructed qualitative data to both past and present planning practice.