post-WWII Period Research Articles

Among Prestigious Edifices – on Ceramic Decorations and Mosaics in Poland Post-WWII

Ceramic materials may have multifarious applications, the visual arts being one of them. Furthermore, they have been often used in architecture for decorative purposes. In Poland, the application of ceramics in architecture reached its peak of popularity in the post-WWII period. It was used in mosaics, reliefs, architectural and sculptural details, as well as combined with other materials, like glass or stone. Ceramics was applied for creating various small decorative forms but also large compositions that covered even several dozen or several hundred square metres, in buildings that served various functions, and were situated either indoors or on their external facades. Amongst these, there are buildings which were both important for local communities and became landmarks for particular sites, like modern hotels, railway stations, theatres, museums or academies. The paper is focused on compositions executed for such prestigious edifices.

The Symbolic Realm of Italian Migrants’ POST-WWII HOUSES in Australia

The Post-WWII period witnessed a large immigration flow of Italians towards Australia. This was facilitated by the assisted passage scheme funded by the Italian and Australian governments. Italian migrants, as well as diverse migrant groups, brought with them cultural practices and a way of life, which are nowadays part of the multicultural Australian society. Namely, it is argued that first-generation Italian migrants’ houses are embedded by cultural meanings. Therefore, this research study investigates the symbolic realm of Post-WWII domestic dwellings built by Italian migrants in Brisbane, that is, the various meanings they associated with their homes. The data was collected from focus group discussion and in-depth interviews held at the Italian Club in Newmarket and at the residences of forty Veneto first generation migrants, who migrated to Australia in the Post-WWII period. The collected data has been subjected to thematic and to hermeneutic analysis. This procedure generated a list of various meanings embedded onto migrants’ houses in Brisbane. The revealed findings contribute (1) to explore a historically significant process of Australian domestic architectural development and (2) to expose the symbolic realm preserved into the built environment, which represent the national cultural heritage of Australia.

一九五〇年代における京都府大江地方の文集活動 : 戦後生活綴方実践史研究( 国語教育史研究の課題)

一九五〇年代における京都府大江地方の文集活動 : 戦後生活綴方実践史研究( 国語教育史研究の課題)

Etno-nacionální emancipace sandžackých muslimů v pozdně osmanském a jugoslávském období

The Ethno-National Emancipation of the Sandžak Muslims in the Late Ottoman and Yugoslav Periods The Sandžak, or Sanjak of Novi Pazar, is a strategically important region situated between modern-day Serbia, Montenegro, Bosnia, and Kosovo. It is well known for its great cultural, religious, and ethnic diversity. As such, the area represents an interesting field for research of inter-ethnic and interconfessional relations. The article traces the ethno-national emancipation of the local Slavic Muslim community since the early nineteenth century until the late 1980s and its confrontation with the nationalisms and expansionisms of the nascent Christian nations and states in the Balkans. It argues that the identity of the Sandžak Muslims transformed from a predominantly religious identity to a national one no earlier than during the socialist modernization in Yugoslavia in the post-WWII period. Keywords: Sandžak; Bosniaks; Muslims; nation-building; Ottoman Empire; Yugoslavia DOI: 10.14712/23363231.2017.1

Hollywood Zen: A Historical Analysis of Oshima Nagisa’s Unfinished Film

In this essay, I consider Oshima Nagisa’s unmade film, Hollywood Zen, to be his historical project. Throughout his career as a filmmaker, Oshima kept questioning the modernized feudal patriarchy of the emperor system after the Meiji Restoration that led to the devastation of World War II, oppression toward women and minority groups, and the immorality of the Meiji generation for its subjugation to ultranationalism and fascism during wartime as well as its instant switch to American-style democracy during the post-WWII occupational period. Closely examining the screenplay of Hollywood Zen, which Oshima wrote with Paul Mayersberg, in conjunction with articles written in the 1910s-20s in both American and Japanese trade presses and film magazines, I discuss the politics of representation of race as well as the politics of gender embodied by the stardom of Sessue Hayakawa in the 1910s in different national contexts. I will clarify how the “New Wave” filmmaker who started his career in postwar Japan critically tried to represent the beginning of the star system in Hollywood.

A New Test of Ricardian Equivalence Using the Narrative Record on Tax Changes

This paper empirically tests the Ricardian equivalence hypothesis with a narrative measure of tax shocks developed in a widely cited paper by Romer and Romer (2010). In addition, the paper also assesses the robustness of the size of the tax multiplier in the post-WWII period. The present value, at the time of legislation, of tax increases motivated solely by concerns for improving the fiscal health of the government is used for the tests. These tax news represent a switch from debt to tax financing that should have no effects on the economy if Ricardian equivalence holds as a good approximation. For the post-1980:IV period, I find evidence for fiscal anticipation as many of the tax increases are implemented with substantial delays and distortionary taxes increase economic activity before taxes go up, which is caused by intertemporal substitution. Therefore, Ricardian equivalence is rejected. Also, the tax multiplier crucially depends on the sample period and on fiscal anticipation. The analysis in this paper stays within the econometric framework of Romer and Romer (2010) in order to make the results directly comparable.

CULTURAL MEANINGS EMBEDDED IN THE FAÇADE OF ITALIAN MIGRANTS’ HOUSES IN BRISBANE, AUSTRALIA

In the Post-WWII period, while industrial production in Italy had diminished and millions of people were unemployed, Australia was facing the opposite problem of shortage of labour, due to a rapid agricultural and industrial development. By virtue of the immigration policy adopted by the Australian government in the 1950s, assistance with the cost of migration to Australia was provided to those Italians willing to migrate to Australia. Italian migrants, as well as diverse migrant groups, brought with them cultural practices and a way of life, which are nowadays part of the multicultural Australian built environment and society. This research study focuses on the domestic dwellings built in the late 1980s and early 1990s in Brisbane by the Italian migrants. Namely, it is argued that the façade of migrants’ houses is embedded by cultural meanings. The study is of qualitative nature and as primary sources of data uses (1) semi-structured interviews, (2) photo-elicitation interviews and (3) focus group discussion, which were conducted both in Australia with twenty first-generation Italian migrants, and in Italy with ten informants, indigenous to the Veneto region, where they built their homes. Visual data about the houses was collected with (4) photographs and drawings. The findings reveal that Italian houses are concurrently a physical structure and a set of meanings based on culture: these two components are tied together rather than being separate and distinct. Namely, the Veneto migrants chose two models for the construction of their houses in Brisbane: (1) the rural houses built in the 1970s and 1980s by their ancestors (2) and the villas designed by Andrea Palladio in the 15th century in the Veneto region for noble families.

Late Reading: Erich Auerbach and the Spätboot of Comparative Literature

Focusing in particular on Erich Auerbach's seminal essay ‘Philology of World Literature’ (1952), this essay proposes to re-examine the conceptualization of comparative literature in the post-WWII period not only from the perspective of its philological, but also from that of its historical self-understanding. Its principal concern will be to consider what it means to view this comparative philology as historical, which is to say in the context of how it emerges from the particular ‘historical perspectivism’ of the immediate post-war period. The category that best characterizes this philology, it will be argued, is that of late reading, a term that the essay coins as the hermeneutic counterpart to the artistic concept of late style. Characterized by its consciousness of coming at the end of the tradition of European high culture, late reading – at least in Auerbach's understanding of it – makes its very lateness a constituent element of its hermeneutics. Out of this sense of lateness emerges, the essay will argue, a view of comparative literature as defined by its distance from the normative maturity of classical European culture – by what one might term, in Frank Kermode's phrase, its ‘sense of an ending’. Auerbach's conception of world philology does not ignore the increasing obsolescence of the Eurocentric perspective, but rather makes this obsolescence the basis of its synoptic purview. As such, it continues to offer a model for how comparative literature may engage with the legacy of high European culture whilst acknowledging the limitations of its perspective.

The Expansive (Dis)Integration of Electrical Engineering Education

This paper examines the history of electrical engineering education, leveraging the concept of “expansive (dis)integration” to frame a number of key trends and challenges in the field. Our account is organized historically, starting with the origins and early development of electrical engineering education beginning in the late 1800s, and then tracing out the rise of new subfields and specialties during the inter-war and post-WWII periods. The development of computer engineering as a field is given special attention as a case study in disciplinary (dis)integration, while setting the stage for a discussion of broader trends associated with the rising influence of digital techniques and technologies across electrical engineering. The final sections of this paper report on some contemporary challenges and opportunities that may further transform the field in upcoming years and decades, with particular emphasis on issues of demographic diversity and perceptions of broader relevance and impact. The approach of this paper is largely historical, drawing on a wide variety of primary and secondary source materials. It is expected that this paper will be of interest to anyone who would like to know more about the historical development of electrical engineering education, including in relation to more contemporary currents in the field.

THE TOPOLOGICAL RELATIONS OF CORNER BUILDINGS AT STREET JUNCTIONS

As in furniture and product design, the handling of features such as junctions of street facades is a matter worthy of consideration. The article considers the role of the corner and corner buildings in the architectural relations of the street. It examines the role of corners in the urban structure and the reasons why they are no longer much used. A typology of corner building arrangements is proposed. Referring to affordance, legibility and Weber᾽s (1995) psychological approach to perceived architectural space, the paper discusses the value of clearly articulated corner constructions using selected examples. The dominant modes of building in the post-WWII period tend towards two extremes: high rise/high density and low rise/low density, both often characterised by disconnected building masses. Both modes reject the well-developed formats generally used up to the 1920s. These relied on moderate density, moderate height and conjoined buildings to create clearly defined, legible streets characteristic of an integrated urban fabric. This paper argues that certain morphologies make for better corner designs leading to more understandable street layouts. It also argues that quantitative recommendations in planning guidance are insufficient to ensure desirable outcomes in street design.

The Showman and the Ukrainian Cause: Folk Dance, Film, and the Life of Vasile Avramenko by Orest T. Martynowych

The Showman and Ukrainian Cause: Folk Dance, Film, and Life of Vasile Avramenko, by Orest T. Martynowych. Winnipeg, University of Manitoba Press, 2014. xi, 219 pp. $27.95 Cdn (paper). The book under review is a well-written, carefully researched, and sensibly critical biography of an outstanding showman, dance master, filmmaker, cultural activist, and extraordinary individual, Vasile Avramenko (1895-1981), who made a name for himself in Ukrainian communities of Canada and United States during interwar and post-WWII period. While praised for his creative accomplishments, such as institutionalization and promotion of Ukrainian folk dancing, and production of two Ukrainian feature films, Avramenko also suffered from many flaws, including narcissism, disregard of commitment, and financial manipulations, which turned him into a fugitive in 1940s. Orest T. Martynowych is careful in building a comprehensive portrayal of Avramenko, and through it, he shows Avramenko's extraordinary devotion to Ukrainian cause, despite his means. Avramenko's determination to draw attention of world to the Ukrainian people and their struggle for independence by showcasing their folk (150-1) did much for preservation of Ukrainian culture among emigres and laid groundwork for establishment of powerful and organized Ukrainian diasporas, especially in Canada. Therefore, this well-thought-out portrayal of Avramenko is very timely. Martynowych's book is of a rare quality, which turns this researched biography into creative non-fiction while preserving its academic qualities. Its engaging narrative flow focuses on Avramenko but also presents turbulent history of twentieth century that shaped him. That epoch saw devastating World Wars; concept and realization of Ukrainian statehood; growth of Ukrainian diaspora and its prominent members; as well as Hollywood's Golden Age, which featured pioneering of B and ethnic movies, and appearance of a group of actors of Ukrainian descent, whom Avramenko tried to recruit for his cinematic projects. The way it is written, The Showman and Ukrainian Cause is as much a tribute to that age as it is to Avramenko. Thanks to Martynowych's careful study of Avramenko's extensive archives, book also features a number of key photographs that provide a visual accompaniment to his portrayal of this enigmatic and Gatsbyesque Ukrainian and those who surrounded him. It was during 1917-1921 civil war that unfolded on territory of present-day Ukraine that Avramenko found his calling and first used his creative talents as a propaganda tool under patronage of Symon Petliura, head of short-lived Directory of Ukrainian National Republic in 1919-23. …

Biopolitics and Population Aesthetics

This essay employs the concept of population to articulate the logic of a dominant style of contemporary thought, practice, and affect. This style, which underwrites cultural productions as diverse as reality TV, para-scholarly endeavors such as Wikipedia, and biomedical initiatives such as personalized medicine, hinges upon locating individual idiosyncrasies within large populations. The essay's first two sections draw on Michel Foucault's account of the historical emergence of biopolitics to illuminate the metaphysical assumptions that underwrite the modern concept of population. The third section proposes that these assumptions allow us to see the concept of population as an implicit media theory (i.e., populations are media that capture individual variations) and provides as an early twentieth-century example Leland Stanford's interest in applying horse trotter breeding techniques to human populations. Sections four and five sketch the expansion of population logic in the post-WWII period in areas such as the US higher educational system, personalized health, and the neoliberal concept of “the market.” The sixth section proposes that these developments eventuate in “population aesthetics,” as the logic of population becomes the enabling frame for judgments concerning what is beautiful and ugly, as well as for our intuitive sense of the relationships between individuals and collectives.

The Aging of the Baby Boomers: Demographics and Propagation of Tax Shocks

We investigate the consequences of demographic change for the effects of tax cuts in the United States over the post-WWII period. Using narratively identified tax changes as proxies for structural shocks, we establish that the responsiveness of unemployment rates to tax changes largely varies across age groups: the unemployment rate response of the young is nearly twice as large as that of prime-age workers. Such heterogeneity is the channel through which shifts in the age composition of the labor force impact the response of the aggregate U.S. unemployment rate to tax cuts. We find that the aging of the Baby Boomers reduces the effects of tax cuts on aggregate unemployment by nearly fifty percent.

Razvoj područja Delte i Brajdice u Rijeci nakon Drugog svetskog rata - između vizije i stvarnosti

The municipal amalgamation of Rijeka and Sušak in the post-WWII period opened the question of the spatial and functional integration of the two previously independent towns. The Delta and Brajdica areas, reclaimed from the sea in the mid-1800s to accommodate harbour and railway facilities, were regarded as valuable spatial resources for locating the administrative, cultural, recreational and commercial services befitting the new metropolis. The article will present the urban planning documents and the (un)realized projects designed for the transformation of the Delta and Brajdica areas during the 1940s and 1950s that revealed the growing gap between the urban planners' aspirations and the realities of those times.

The Rise and Fall of a New “Cultural Big Power” and an International Organization: The Two Chinese Regimes and UNESCO during the Early Post-WWII Period

The Rise and Fall of a New “Cultural Big Power” and an International Organization: The Two Chinese Regimes and UNESCO during the Early Post-WWII Period

Uncertainty and Contradiction: An Essay on the Business Cycle

The paper develops a model of economic fluctuations in the medium run and their relation with the short-run macroeconomic equilibrium. The business cycle is the result of two separate forces. On the one hand, there is Harrodian instability. On the other hand, this instability is contained by the inherent contradictions of capitalism. I focus on two of these contradictions: the profit-squeeze that results from the tightening of the labor market as employment and utilization increase, and the financial instability hypothesis as formulated by Hyman Minsky. With the inclusion of overhead labor, the model can explain the U-shaped behavior of the wage share along the business cycle (wage share decreases for low levels of utilization and increases for higher levels) that prevailed in most of the post-WWII period, as well as the decrease in the wage share as utilization increases that has been observed in the most recent cycles.

The Greek public debt problem

Abstract: The present paper examines the issue of the Greek public debt. After providing a historical discussion, we show that the austerity of the last six years has been unsuccessful in stabilizing the debt while,at the same time,ithas takena heavy toll on the economy and society. The recent experience shows that the public debt is unsustainable and therefore a restructuring is needed. An insistence on the current policies is not justifiable either on pragmatic or on moral or any other grounds.The experience of Germany in the early post-WWII period provides some useful hints for the way forward. A solution to the public debt problem is a necessary but not sufficient condition for the solution of the Greek and European crisis. A wider agenda that deals with the malaises of the Greek economy and the structural imbalances of the Eurozone is of vital importance.

Italo-Australian Transnational Houses: Critical Review of a Qualitative Research Study

The research study aimed to understand how first generation Italian migrants in Brisbane have influenced the form of a specific typology of dwelling, the archetypal ‘house on a quarter-acre block’, in the post WWII period. In order to understand the forces behind and outcomes of migrants’ influence on the form of their Italo-Australian transnational houses, qualitative data collected from the testimonies of Italian migrants in conjunction with evidence left from four houses were analyzed. The findings revealed that the architectural form of the house was influenced by architectural traditions, sociocultural factors and urbanization patterns. It was shown that the form of the transnational house mirrored the cultures derived from the ways of life belonging to two societies. Therefore, the form of houses built by Italian migrants in post WWII Brisbane is the manifestation of the Italian and the Australian cultures. The purpose of this paper is to discuss and critically review the qualitative methodology adopted for the study, the limitations of the study and the recommendations for further exploration and development of both theoretical and applied areas of research.

International business–government relations research 1945–2015: Concepts, typologies, theories and methodologies

Seventy years after its postwar inception, the field of international business–government relations (IBGR) is rich in new concepts, typologies, theories and methodologies that have broadly reflected the three post-WWII periods of Confrontation, Accommodation and Competition. This analysis discusses the correspondence between these “new terms” and IBGR practice during each one of these periods which have continuously brought up new actors, issues and ideologies whose study keeps growing in quantity if not always in quality. It concludes with what can be anticipated regarding the international relations between business and governments in a future marked by much greater political disorder and less economic multilateralism as well as by nonmarket strategies that may remain localized.

Cancer on Trial: Oncology as a New Style of Practice

At the beginning of Cancer on Trial, the authors remark that rather than providing a global picture of clinical trials, they have “sought more modestly to describe the evolving configurations of institutional, organizational, conceptual, human, and material resources that, through a remarkably dense network, have produced the now-taken-for-granted pillars of modern oncology: cancer clinical trials, treatment protocols, and the like” (9). This book is anything but a modest production—rather it covers the above issues and much more through a detailed rendering of the changing character of clinical trials from the early post-WWII period to the present. Peter Keating and Alberto Cambrosio have produced a major, demanding, and well-written piece of scholarship that traces the changing practices and ideologies of post-war clinical trials. Cancer on Trial is divided into three major sections. The first addresses the emergence of clinical trials from the mid-1950s through the mid-1960s; the second covers the epistemology and practice of large-scale, multi-center cooperative clinical trials through the late 1980s; the third looks at the important role of molecular biology and the emergence of targeted therapy trials from the early 1990s onwards. Each section begins with a detailed discussion of an iconic clinical trial. In addition, there are two interludes: the first contains a brief overview of clinical trial statistics and the second covers the basics of molecular biology and oncogenes.