Social Reorganization Research Articles

Understanding puberty and its measurement: Ideas for a maturing field

Puberty is a complex developmental process involving neuroendocrine changes (e.g., hormones, brain development), physical maturity (e.g., breast development, facial hair growth), and social reorganization (e.g., new social roles and relationships). Despite robust literature on the psychological correlates of pubertal development, research is limited by (1) a narrow conceptualization of puberty, (2) a focus on single pubertal markers (e.g., onset), and (3) invasive clinical exams that may limit access to representative samples. Indeed, many aspects of pubertal development - when it begins, how quickly or slowly youth progress through puberty, and how one’s maturity is viewed by others - are central to young people’s development and their future health and wellbeing. Further, while pubertal measures can reflect many different aspects of puberty, each telling a distinct story about development, they are frequently used and understood in similar ways, often privileging the experiences of White youth (and especially, girls) over those with marginalized social identities.The goals of this symposium are to bring together three researchers who will discuss the conceptualization and measurement of puberty as well as the implications of different measurement approaches for understanding youth’s current and future health and wellbeing. In the first presentation, Niamh MacSweeney will present data from the Adolescent Brain Cognitive Development (ABCD) Study demonstrating the sex-specific association of adrenal and gonadal pubertal timing with brain development and subsequently, depression over four years. In the second presentation, Natasha Chaku will use data from the Study of Early Childcare and Youth Development (SECCYD) to explore how different measures (i.e., Tanner stages vs. parent reports) and analytic approaches (i.e., latent growth curves vs. sex and age-related residuals) for understanding pubertal timing can impact inferences related to adolescent mental health. In the final presentation, Anne-Lise Goddings will review the state of current pubertal assessment measures, discussing limitations identified from youth, clinicians, and researchers and the development of a novel digital tool, co-developed with young people. The discussant, Lindsay Till Hoyt, will integrate the findings, highlighting the importance of considering the accuracy and meaning of different pubertal measures and how they relate to the biopsychosocial experiences of diverse youth.

Everyday adaptations to flooding at the micro-levels of low-income communities and macro levels of authorities in the megacity of Lagos, Nigeria

The contextual nature of adaptation demands insights into the effects of actors' actions, decisions, and negotiations at different levels in the adaptation process to facilitate harmonizing and targeting actions. However, researchers who examine these activities at the micro level of communities and macro level of authorities in Sub-Saharan Africa are sparse. Consequently, using a qualitative approach and the Asset Adaptation Framework, we explored the everyday adaptations to flooding at the micro-levels of households/communities and the macro levels of governments before, during, and after flooding events in two low-income communities in Lagos, Nigeria. At the macro levels of governments, adaptation strategies centered on social reorganization and welfare, i.e., disaster reduction/management, in the temporal dimensions, situating adaptation in the adjustment/transitional flux. At the micro level, the strategies before flooding problematized the categorization of autonomous adaptation as unplanned. During flooding events, there was a difference in assets mobilized at the two levels, while macro-level actors mobilized financial assets for welfare, micro-level actors focused on social assets. After flooding, the positive psychology of self-conscientiousness in human assets aided the emergence of shadow networks that challenged the status quo and shaped each community's adaptation pathway/outcome. Furthermore, the human assets of faith/fate, place attachment, and autochthony used for building long-term resilience and entitlement claims aided a reposition of responsibility on the people's lifestyle by the authorities and supported a stance on adaptation as persistence/transitional. The stance on persistence/transitional pattern at the macro level notwithstanding, the shadow network in one of the communities utilized invited spaces of negotiation for entitlement claims that shifted the status quo and aided a transformational pattern. The highlighted shift in adaptation underlines the need to understand adaptation activities in the different spheres to guide policies, align actions, and facilitate a harmonized and sustainable adaptation.

The dik-diks of Guli Waabayo: Late Pleistocene net-hunting and forager sociality in eastern Africa

Net-hunting is closely linked to organized labor and hunter-gatherer cooperation in many world regions. At the Rifle Range Site (RRS) in southern Somalia, scholars have argued that Later Stone Age (LSA) foragers developed specialized dwarf antelope hunting strategies—possibly using communal net-drives—to facilitate developing concepts of territoriality around resource-rich inselberg environments during a wet period in the early and middle Holocene. Unfortunately, a lack of radiocarbon dates and faunal data limited detailed zooarchaeological perspectives on changing hunting patterns at the site. The large and well-dated dwarf antelope bone assemblage (1263 specimens) from nearby Guli Waabayo (GW) rock shelter, on the other hand, provides an opportunity to explore proposed relationships between net-hunting and LSA social and economic reorganization in southern Somalia ~ 26–6 thousand years ago (ka). Consistently high dik-dik frequencies (55.2–71.9%) and mortality profiles comprised of individuals from all age groups throughout the sequence do not support previous arguments associating specialized dwarf antelope hunting with territoriality and Holocene climatic amelioration at RRS. Instead, they suggest that LSA foraging groups regularly hunted dik-dik (genus Madoqua) using nets over a ~ 20,000-year period beginning as far back as the arid Marine Isotope Stage 2, 29–14.5 ka. Findings from this study complement recent arguments for greater economic variability in Late Pleistocene eastern Africa and push discussions of forager social change further back in time than previously considered.

The Construction Mechanism and Practice of Characteristic Industrial Villages from the Perspective of the “Society–Space” Relationship, Taking Zhuma Township, Jinhua City, Zhejiang Province, as an Example

Zhuma Township, which is located in Jinhua City, Zhejiang Province, has a long history of camellia cultivation, holds the title of “the hometown of camellia in China”, and is an agricultural town with a strong history characterized by its camellia industry. This paper first overviews the development and application of the theory of “socio-spatial” relationships and then formulates a theoretical framework for analyzing characteristic industrial villages according to this theory. Following the study of Zhuma Township, the process of local, industry-driven rural development is divided into three periods: slow growth, rapid expansion, and orderly transition. Then, we summarize the construction mechanism of characteristic industrial villages from the four levels of social relationship reorganization, industrial value increase, local culture reshaping, and spatial order reconstruction. Finally, we present a guide to the practice of rural construction. This paper aims to provide a useful reference for the construction of characteristic industrial villages on both theoretical and practical levels.

Phonological emergence and social reorganization: Developing a nasal /æ/ system in Lansing, Michigan

AbstractPhonological rule innovation is thought to come about via reanalysis of some phonetic variation (e.g., Bermúdez-Otero, 2007; Hyman, 1975; Ohala, 1981; Pierrehumbert, 2001). Yet, empirical evidence suggests instead that the role of phonetic variation during phonological rule innovation is minor (Fruehwald, 2013, 2016). This paper adds to this ongoing debate an empirical analysis of an emergent allophonic contrast—an “/æ/ nasal system”—in White Michigan English. Analyses of speaker-level acoustic data from a sociolinguistic corpus (n = 36) and a subphonemic judgment task (n = 107) suggest that Lansing exhibits gradual phonological rule emergence. Social conditioning appears to act as the catalyst of phonological rule formation and its spread. The mechanism of actuation was thus “the chance alignment of social and phonetic variability” (Baker, Archangeli, & Mielke, 2011), suggesting that social conditioning on phonetic variability must play a major role in phonological emergence.

К вопросу о развитии промышленности в России и об особенностях личности предпринимателя

It is showed the relevance and debatability of the issue of the formation of a set of professional competencies of the individual, spiritual and moral qualities, and creativity. An interdisciplinary approach to the history of entrepreneurship is used. The authors explore the totality of the processes of development of the administrative and economic territory, the structural and functional characteristics of the national economy, culture, as well as the biography and deeds of a particular person who takes on industrial and commercial risks, has competencies. The reasons and prerequisites for the development of entrepreneurship in the chemical industry are considered. It is shown that entrepreneurial activity in Russia in the second half of the XIX century proceeded on the one hand against the background of the development of science and industry, and on the other – against the background of the social reorganization of society. The significance of the founding of the chemical Plant by Filosofov and OK, as well as the entrepreneurial and social activities of the founder of the plant, are assessed. The results of an interdisciplinary study of various aspects of the development of entrepreneurial activity in Russia in the 19th century, as well as the characteristics of the personality of an entrepreneur, his education, and publicistic activity, form the basis for the conclusion about high multipotentiality, which served as the basis for the successful organization and management of entrepreneurial activity in the last quarter of the 19th century.

Leadership in the Emergent Baekje State: State Formation in Central-Western Korea (ca. 200–400 CE)

Abstract The process of state formation is a social phenomenon closely connected with a polity’s external relationships. During peer–polity interactions, polities undergo social reorganization as they mutually influence each other. This study examines this process and argues that in central-western Korea, around 200–400 CE, hostile interactions among multiple polities weakened the power of ingroup members to level social differences and increased social complexity. When confronted with unfriendly outgroups, potential rulers could assume different social roles (e.g., diplomat, war leader, or trader) and utilize new social threats to demand and legitimize higher social status. Archaeological data from central-western Korea illustrate the community’s efforts to build a defense system and prepare for war. Autonomous agricultural communities rapidly realigned into a state system in response to external threats, presumably from historically documented hostile groups such as the Lelang commandery and Goguryeo. The decision to oppose neighboring polities likely enhanced the leaders’ ability to consolidate power, while the rulers of the Baekje (also spelled “Paekche”) state could employ various other means for self-aggrandizement throughout its history.

Imperial Zions: Religion, Race, and Family in the American West and the Pacific. By Amanda Hendrix-Komoto

Imperial Zions portrays the complex human landscape of the nineteenth-century Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS) as racially and ethnically diverse, with porous geographic and cultural boundaries. The Church’s history has been frequently framed around an early Anglo-American core of converts and leaders whose migration to Utah and surrounding territories was fortified by later waves of Euro-American immigrants. In contrast, Hendrix-Komoto is especially interested in Indigenous North American and Pacific peoples who joined themselves to the faith. Her story builds outward from White families’ experiences in the LDS community of 1840s Nauvoo, Illinois, an era of theological creativity and social reorganization for the church. Female converts often experienced financial precarity and sexual vulnerability, developing alternative kinship networks and new socialities when men in their families departed on long overseas missions. Church teachings about Native Americans being the surviving remnants of an ancient Israelite migration—and thus key to the collective salvation of humankind and the nation—deeply informed Mormon missions to convert and “civilize” Indian communities on the American frontier and in the Pacific. Such efforts were largely unsuccessful in the 1830s and 1840s, though the few Native American converts who did join in those years, like Lewis Dale (Oneida), “became important symbols” within the faith (p. 77).

Гуманизация преемственности социального переустройства современного общества на основе идеи воссоздания СССР в представлениях студенчества

Introduction. The relevance of the problem of humanizing the continuity of the social reorganization of modern society on the basis of the idea of recreating the USSR in students' mind is due to rapid changes in the political climate and many challenges of our time that require prompt and immediate solutions. Theoretical analysis. The purpose of the article is to reveal the process of updating the worldview of students on the basis of humanistic identification in the process of interaction of the social progress and regression. Destructive factors of development and radical and palliative mechanisms of successive identification are highlighted. The lines of social progress are analyzed on the basis of the identification methodology. Empirical analysis made it possible to confirm the theoretical provisions obtained during the survey. Conclusion. Multicultural orientation of vocational education requires humanization of the principles of social reorganization of modern Russia. This process can be used most effectively through the reconstruction of the USSR image in the views of students in modern forms and establishment of a successive connection with the past. At the same time, the development of social progress is carried out in the space of a new freedom, the restriction of which is a mechanism for the revival of accountability in the course of a return to genuine historical memory and modernization of society.

Considerations in designing trauma-focused interventions for displaced Afghan women.

In light of the 2021 United States military withdrawal from Afghanistan, as well as the humanitarian crises of mass displacement and subsequent health system strain that have ensued, practitioners worldwide will need to develop a more nuanced understanding of the adverse life experiences that women from Afghanistan frequently endorse. As they bear a disproportionate impact of constraints within Afghan society, and as patriarchal systems affect most of their life domains, women from Afghanistan may present with high levels of baseline trauma upon resettlement, and health systems may seek to attenuate this distress; However, the nature of these traumatogenic events may shape women's receptivity to psychosocial interventions, particularly those which are at least partially rooted in Western modalities. In the absence of sufficient literature on evidence-based interventions for this population, a diversity of ethnographic and clinical literature is synthesized, including literature on interventions alleged to be compatible with Afghan norms. As it will be essential to support Afghan women's mental health following social reorganization on a massive scale, considerations arising from the interdisciplinary literature are offered so that they may inform the development of structured, trauma-focused interventions and so that the health systems with which they interface may be better prepared to serve them.

:Towards A Social Bioarchaeology of the Mycenaean Period: A Biocultural Analysis of Human Remains from the Voudeni Cemetery, Achaea, Greece

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Создатель Товарищества пролетарского искусства в Берлине Фридрих Вильгельм Брасс: первый опыт биографии

The purpose of this article is to study the life and activity of Friedrich Wilhelm Brass, founder of Genossenschaft for Proletarian Art in Berlin (1920). Friedrich Wilhelm Brass (1873–1931) throughout his life sought to combine the commercial interests of a contemporary art dealer with the ideas of the social reorganization of the world. One of the first to call himself a communist in Germany, he created in 1920 in Berlin the Genossenschaft for Proletarian Art, the collection of which became the first contemporary western art brought to Soviet Russia. On the basis of this collection kept in the Hermitage and the Russian Academy of Arts, archival materials and work in museum collections in Germany, the history of the emergence of the Genossenschaft in Berlin in 1920, the composition of the participants and the biography of its creator are reconstructed. The relevance and novelty of the article is due to the lack of scientific research on this issue discovered by the author in his works. The life path of F.W. Brass is consistently considered. Trained as a craftsman in Krefeld, Brass made several attempts to establish an art trade there, primarily aimed at the workers’ milieu. A member of the Social Democratic Party of Germany, he tried to interest the party in the prospect of such educational and agitational work. These initiatives proved to be financially untenable. Brass later worked at the German Workshops Hellerau, where the manufacturer Karl Schmidt implemented a project for the mass production of furniture designed by leading European designers and oriented to the widest and most democratic market. During the First World War, Brass was mobilized and spent several years in captivity in Russia, where he met the revolution and returned to Germany in 1919 as a convinced supporter of the communist reorganization of the world. After the November Revolution, several artistic organizations arose in Berlin, whose activities were directed towards the proletariat (the Workers’ Council for Art, the Association of Socialist Artists, the Union for Proletarian Culture, the Proletarian Theatre of Erwin Piscator, etc.). Among them was the Genossenschaft for Proletarian Art of the communist Brass, who collected the works of left-wing artists, mainly expressionists of the first and second generation. Like most of these artistic initiatives, the Brass Genossenschaft could not survive the economic crisis. The unique collection of the Genossenschaft was acquired during a trip to Germany by Comintern Chairman G. Zinoviev in October 1920 and brought to Soviet Russia. Later, during the years of the Weimar Republic, Brass no longer undertook such ambitious projects, continuing to trade in the works of left-wing artists. He worked in Hagen and Düsseldorf, where he died in 1931. The author comes to the conclusion that the figure of Brass represents a new type of entrepreneur for the art market of the 20th century, focused primarily on the promotion of the latest art among the workers, agitation for a new life in the language of art.

Revolution qua Restoration

Abstract Revolution and restoration are usually understood as opposite terms. This article aims to disarticulate this binary. Suppose the modern concept of revolution can be defined as a project of social reorganization led by the state or by a constituent power that aims to become the state. In that case, the restoration is a defense of society, institutions, traditions, and customs from the state. However, restoration is also an expression of a different political orientation of the revolutionary trajectory. The temporality of revolution is mainly future oriented, whereas the restorative temporality implies continuity, the reactivation of institutions from the past, and their experimentation in everyday life. These two temporal dimensions are intertwined. They can either combine in new political configurations or oppose each other in progress and regress, forward and backward. This article examines the Zapatista insurgency in Chiapas as an example that combines the two temporal dimensions.

Ecclesiastical Pressures and Language Politics: The Boundary Work of Albanian Language in the 17th-18th Centuries

AbstractIn this article, I examine early religious literature in the Albanian language in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, which, in combination with ecclesiastical rivalries and a differential opposition to Ottoman rule, must have promoted an inherent cultural process of differentiation, especially between Greek-speaking and Albanian-speaking Orthodox Christians. In particular, I argue that the contradicting motivations of political contradistinction, Enlightenment propagation, Orthodox evangelism, ecclesiastical confrontation, and missionary counteraction lead inadvertently to a boundary work of the social reorganization of linguistic and cultural difference.

Influence of Land Tenure on Agroforestry Parkland Phyto-Diversity and Stand Structure in Sudanian Zone of Burkina Faso, West Africa

Savanna Zone of Burkina Faso is characterized by the increasing population growth due to human migration from the north and central regions of the country for cultivating agricultural land and pastures. This situation induced land-use changes, and social reorganization has led to new approaches to natural resources management. Tenure issues in natural resources management limit the adoption of agroforestry systems and effective land use scale. This paper describes the species composition, structure, and diversity of woody species on agroforestry parklands at Tiogo under two types of land tenures. Ecological and structural characteristics of vegetation patches were computed to characterize the species composition. A variety of diversity measures were calculated to determine the heterogeneity for each type of land tenure. A total of 49 woody species belonging to 19 families and 38 genera were identified, of which 44 and 48 species were recorded in non-landowners’ farms and landowners' farms, respectively. Leguminosae, Combretaceae and Anacardiaceae were the most abundant families. The dominant species in agroforestry parklands were Vitellaria paradoxa, Parkia biglobosa, Lannea microcarpa, Piliostigma reticulatum and Piliostigma thonningii. Analyses of variance of the entire woody vegetation of agroforestry parklands revealed no significant differences in terms of all computed indexes but showed that the landowners’ farms were the most diverse than non-landowners farms. The density of stems ≥5 cm dbh and the basal area were higher in landowner’s farms than in non-landowners farms. In both types of farms, the size class distributions of the vegetation produced a reverse J-shaped curve, supporting that agroforestry parkland in Tiogo is dominated by young individuals. The spatial distribution of the seedling was mainly clumped, reflecting the dominance of clonal propagation. Security of land and tree tenure is a necessary condition for any land-based investment (planting and protection of preferred species and soil amendment). The challenge to maintain parklands’ tree biodiversity in “good” condition also needs to consider the flexibility of land tenure and equitability sharing of the benefits from trees.

The impact of COVID-19 on the retina: clinical features and management considerations

ABSTRACT Introduction The SARS-CoV-2 pandemic had a tremendous impact both on infected people as a disease and on noninfected subjects due to the social restrictions and healthcare facilities reorganization imposed by authorities to contain the contagion and treat patients. The scientific world was also shocked, with journals being overwhelmed with manuscripts describing COVID-19, the systemic condition caused by the virus. Areas covered This review will discuss the evidence of SARS-CoV-2 direct infection of the retina and the retinal alterations secondary to COVID-19. In addition, the impact of the pandemic on the management of retinal diseases and the possible retinal side-effects of the vaccination will be considered. Literature reviewed: PubMed, inclusive dates: 15 October 2019–15 October 2021. Expert opinion The retina is not the primary target of SARS-CoV-2, but the retinal vasculature often shows alterations in COVID-19, some of which can be sight threatening. The pandemic forced a redirection of most healthcare system resources to allow for COVID-19 patients management with an inevitable negative effect on the follow-up and treatment of chronic retinal diseases. New strategies are emerging to manage patients with retinal diseases in the “COVID-19 era,” while future studies will allow understanding the long-term impact of COVID-19 on the retina.

THE MODEL OF DIGITAL TRANSFORMATION OF THE ECONOMY AS A FACTOR OF SUSTAINABLE, EQUITABLE AND INCLUSIVE DEVELOPMENT

The article investigates the model of digital transformation of the economy as a factor of sustainable development and efficiency, which is of great importance for increasing the indices of digital development and competitiveness of countries. Digital transformation is a new stage of deep economic and social reorganization, which began several decades ago in many countries under the influence of information and communication technologies. The impact of digitalization is becoming truly transversal, as changes affect the economy, services, construction, agriculture, as well as access to knowledge, cultural expression or health. A study by Roland Berger, supported by Cap Digital and Google, found that more advanced use of digital technologies can double the growth rate of companies. The object of the study is the phenomenon of economic transformation as a factor of sustainable development and efficiency. The subject of research is the formation of a economic transformation model as a factor of sustainable development and efficiency. Purpose – theoretical and practical principles of forming a model of economic digital transformation as a factor of sustainable development and efficiency. The analysis methodology is based on system, structural-functional, phenomenological, Agile-methodology (flexibility, adaptability), which made it possible to bring everything into a holistic system. The result of the study. The programs of governments to master and implement digital strategy are investigated. The structural components of the model of digital transformation of the economy as a factor of sustainable development and efficiency are formed. The directions of information and communication technologies (ICT) development as a factor of digitalization are revealed. The possibilities of environmental policy as a factor in improving the model of eco-digital order are determined. The “smart data economy” as a factor of intellectual digital development is investigated. The priorities of digital business transformation are clarified. The accelerated rates of change caused by the digital transformation of production, economy, environment and society have a significant impact on the achievement of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and the SDGs. As a people-led development, digital transformation has the potential to shape sustainable development to promote resilience for the benefit of all society.

The undead new world: Zombie epidemics’ apocalyptic surroundings and social relations

The narratives of zombie films articulate social relations in the context of an apocalyic social environment, indicating unstoppable processes of disease spreading through the omnipresence of zombies as the primary infection carriers, emphasizing discourses of biological catastrophe, that is, epidemics of infectious diseases as a potential means of the end of a modern civilization. As portrayed in movies about zombies, epidemics could be observed as a type of imagined future of the virus, that is, as an advanced stage in infectious disease evolution, which leads to the deconstruction and complete collapse of the existing social system, and then to apocalyptic consequences and the forming of a new social order. An epidemic creates conditions in which previously known institutional organization ceases to exist and shapes individual behaviors that transform social environments to meet the demands of new social and biological discourses. Due to such circumstances, social surroundings are significantly changed, and disease establishes itself as a signifier of social strategies, relationships towards the infected, and the area for the redistribution of social power and livelihood. The aim of this paper is to reveal the ways of social reorganization and social disruption caused by the zombie epidemic, emphasizing the role of the disease in reshaping social groups and relationships, with the purpose of analyzing the ways in which movie narratives metaphorize the efficiency of infectious diseases.

Japan, 1972: Visions of Masculinity in an Age of Mass Consumerism by Yoshikuni Igarashi

Reviewed by: Japan, 1972: Visions of Masculinity in an Age of Mass Consumerism by Yoshikuni Igarashi Michele M. Mason Japan, 1972: Visions of Masculinity in an Age of Mass Consumerism. By Yoshikuni Igarashi. Columbia University Press, 2021. 384 pages. ISBN: 9780231195546 (hardcover; also available as softcover and e-book). Yoshikuni Igarashi's Japan, 1972: Visions of Masculinity in an Age of Mass Consumerism is a fascinating read that offers textured analysis of a watershed moment in Japanese history. Igarashi makes a strong and nuanced argument for identifying 1972 as the year that marks a pivotal moment between "two Japans—the one before the high economic growth from the late 1950s to the early 1970s and the one borne of those years" (p. 3). Highlighting the multiple effects of and tensions in Japan's economic miracle and subsequent embrace of mass consumerism, his work presents readers with a cultural history anchored in the dizzying transformations after the Occupation of Japan as viewed by male artists and activists unsettled by changing norms and expectations. The rapid and radical economic, political, and social shifts described therein rival the Meiji-era projects of nation-state creation, industrialization, and homogenization of the Japanese populace. With his trenchant readings of political discourse, media messages, and popular culture, Igarashi contributes a new [End Page 369] and significant portrait of a transformative phase that lasted just over a decade while illuminating a fragile masculinity attempting to negotiate the changes. Japan, 1972 is organized into a stand-alone introduction and three thematic parts—"Television," "Travel," and "Violence." The chapters, which move chronologically through the time period under study, divide broadly into two sets: the first two chapters, which comprise part 1, draw on a wide variety of media-related examples and critiques to explicate the production and normalization of the postwar consuming subject, while the rest, which make up the following two parts, advance close critical readings of specific films, manga, and journalistic writings and, in the final case, the implosion of the radical leftist United Red Army. In every chapter, Igarashi leverages a fascinating array of cultural-historical details, resulting in a meticulously sourced volume that traces the changes in and challenges to this interstitial moment in Japanese history—a snapshot of a multifaceted contestation of radical social reorganization. The introduction sketches the entanglements that linked the high-growth economy, dominance of television, and homogenization of the postwar Japanese population. New modes of seeing and being gradually enmeshed individuals, families, homes, neighborhoods, schools, and national identity in a vision dominated by the logic of mass consumption. Television would play a central role in what Igarashi terms "metavision," specifically, a "new way of seeing: thanks largely to television, individuals gained an outside perspective from which to view themselves critically" (p. 5). No one was immune, but Igarashi focuses on men in particular. Conditioned by a social model that assigned productivity to men and consumption to women, the feverish adoption and glorification of consumerism by the Japanese public was interpreted by some as a domestication/feminization of the nation and the foreclosure of an "outside" from which to formulate and enact oppositional politics. This outside was generally understood to comprise men on the economic and/or nationally geographic margins, and critics of this paradigmatic shift "yearned for narratives that would better realize their free and independent agency" (p. 5). Seeking out new ways to parse and resist the assumed pacification of men's traditional powers, male artists and leftist activists questioned, critiqued, and envisioned rebellions against the pervasive "feminizing" power of material comfort and consumer culture. To that end, Igarashi argues, they attempted to "reconstitute Japanese manhood through imaginary heroes' struggles" (p. 6). From here this well-paced and well-organized volume progresses to part 1 and its two chapters on television, "Reflections on the Consuming Subject: The High-Growth Economy and Emergence of a New National Character" and "Circular Vision: The Metavisuality of Television." Igarashi deploys statistics, essays by cultural critics and Marxist scholars, vacuum-cleaner ads, coverage of the imperial family, and more to detail the crucial links between the high-growth economy and the emergence and domestication of television. He emphasizes that this new medium played an...

Bessarion on Economics and Geopolitics

This paper deals with those aspects of Byzantine intellectual heritage, which belong to the Bessarion’s thought and writing. Bessarion, Cardinal of the Roman-Catholic Church, proposed specific, systematic and analytical measures for a re-organization and recovery of the Despotate of Mistra, while, as it is known, he lived there from the end of 1431 until the end of 1436. Then Вessarion, in his capacity as cardinal, showed his continual and undiminished interest to the advancement of Greek nation, as proven by three famous memoranda of scholar. These are appeals to Constantine Palaiologos, Despot of Mistra, as well as to the doge of Venice. Dated July 13, 1453 the letter to the doge informed him on the Fall of Constantinople and the sufferings of Greek nation! Especially noteworthy is the third (and only surviving) letter of Вessarion, addressed to his friend, Despot Constantine Palaiologos in the spring of 1444. Here Вessarion proposes a specific, specialized program for the economic restructure, social reorganization and military strengthening of the Despotate. The intellectual associates education with economy. Sharing the economic philosophy of ancient Greeks on self-sufficiency and utilization of local means, Вessarion became a forerunner of mercantilism, while also acknowledging the productive contribution of education. The proposal of Вessarion for the transfer of the Despotate’s capital closer to the Isthmus was of great geopolitical importance since, when the guarding of the Hexamilion Wall would be reconstructed and constant and properly updated. These proposals, having been so important for the evolution of Byzantine economic thought, took an appropriate place in its development.