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The year's report projects an increase in the growth rate of global output, with notable contributions from Sub-Saharan Africa, the developing countries of Europe and Central Asian, and East Asian countries. This report places special emphasis on the role of the "Big 5" developing and transition economies – China, India, Indonesia, Brazil, and Russia – in the future of the global economy. In addition to assessing the current state of the world economy, this report discusses the expansion of global production and the costs of making the transition to a more open economy

2023 was a year marked by devastating conflicts from Russia's ongoing invasion of Ukraine to Hamas's horrific terror attacks on Israel, from that country's indiscriminate mass slaughter in Gaza to a devastating civil war in Sudan. And there's a distinct risk of even worse to come this year. Still, there was one clear winner in this avalanche of violence, suffering, and war: the U.S. military-industrial complex.In December, President Biden signed a record authorization of $886 billion in "national defense" spending for 2024, including funds for the Pentagon proper and work on nuclear weapons at the Department of Energy. Add to that tens of billions of dollars more in likely emergency military aid for Ukraine and Israel, and such spending could well top $900 billion for the first time this year.Meanwhile, the administration's $100-billion-plus emergency military aid package that failed to pass Congress last month is likely to slip by in some form this year, while the House and Senate are almost guaranteed to add tens of billions more for "national defense" projects in specific states and districts, as happened in two of the last three years.Of course, before the money actually starts flowing, Congress needs to pass an appropriations bill for Fiscal Year 2024, clearing the way for that money to be spent. As of this writing, the House and Senate had indeed agreed to a tentative deal to sign onto the $886 billion that was authorized in December. A trillion-dollar version of such funding could be just around the corner. (If past practice is any guide, more than half of that sum could go directly to corporations, large and small.)A trillion dollars is a hard figure to process. In the 1960s, when the federal budget was a fraction of what it is now, Republican Senator Everett Dirksen allegedly said, "A billion here, a billion there, and pretty soon you're talking real money." Whether he did or not, that quote neatly captures how congressional attitudes toward federal spending have changed. After all, today, a billion dollars is less than a rounding error at the Pentagon. The department's budget is now hundreds of billions of dollars more than at the height of the Vietnam War and over twice what it was when President Eisenhower warned of the "unwarranted influence" wielded by what he called "the military-industrial complex."To offer just a few comparisons: annual spending on the costly, dysfunctional F-35 combat aircraft alone is greater than the entire budget of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. In 2020, Lockheed Martin's contracts with the Pentagon were worth more than the budgets of the State Department and the Agency for International Development combined, and its arms-related revenues continue to rival the government's entire investment in diplomacy. One $13 billion aircraft carrier costs more than the annual budget of the Environmental Protection Agency. Overall, more than half of the discretionary budget Congress approves every year — basically everything the federal government spends other than on mandatory programs like Medicare and Social Security — goes to the Pentagon.It would, I suppose, be one thing if such huge expenditures were truly needed to protect the country or make the world a safer place. However, they have more to do with pork-barrel politics and a misguided "cover the globe" military strategy than a careful consideration of what might be needed for actual "defense."Congressional FolliesThe road to an $886-billion military budget authorization began early last year with a debt-ceiling deal negotiated by President Biden and then-House Speaker Kevin McCarthy. That rolled back domestic spending levels, while preserving the administration's proposal for the Pentagon intact. McCarthy, since ousted as speaker, had been pressed by members of the right-wing "Freedom Caucus" and their fellow travelers for just such spending cuts. (He had little choice but to agree, since that group proved to be his margin of victory in a speaker's race that ran to 15 ballots.)There was a brief glimmer of hope that the budget cutters in the Freedom Caucus might also go after the bloated Pentagon budget rather than inflict all the fiscal pain on domestic programs. Prominent right-wing Republicans like Representative Jim Jordan (R-OH) pledged to put Pentagon spending reductions "on the table," but then only went after the military's alleged "woke agenda," which boiled down to cutting a few billion dollars slated for fighting racism and sexual harassment while supporting reproductive freedom within the armed forces. Oh wait, Jordan also went after spending on the development of alternative energy sources as "woke." In any case, he focused on just a minuscule share of the department's overall budget.Prominent Republicans outside Congress expressed stronger views about bringing the Pentagon to heel, but their perspectives got no traction on Capitol Hill. For instance, Kevin Roberts, the head of the Heritage Foundation, perhaps America's most influential conservative think tank, made the case for reining in the Pentagon at American Conservative magazine:"In the past, Congress accepted the D.C. canard that a bigger budget alone equals a stronger military. But now, facing down a record debt to the tune of $242,000 per household, conservatives are ready to tackle an entrenched problem and confront the political establishment, unaccountable federal bureaucrats, and well-connected defense contractors all at once in order to keep the nation both solvent and secure."Even more surprising, former Trump Secretary of Defense Christopher Miller released a memoir in which he called for a dramatic slashing of the Pentagon budget. "We could," he argued, "cut our defense budget in half and it would still be twice as big as China's."Ultimately, however, such critiques had zero influence over the Pentagon budget debate in the House, which quickly degenerated into a fight about a series of toxic amendments attacking reproductive freedom and LGTBQ and transgender rights in the military. Representative Colin Allred (D-TX) rightly denounced such amendments as a "shameful display of extremism" and across-the-board opposition by Democrats ensured that the first iteration of the National Defense Authorization Act for fiscal year 2024 would be defeated and some of the most egregious Republican proposals eliminated later in the year. In the meantime, virtually all mainstream press coverage and most congressional debate focused on those culture war battles rather than why this country was poised to shove so much money at the Pentagon in the first place.Threat Inflation and the "Arsenal of Democracy"Perhaps you won't be surprised to learn that the strategic rationales put forward for the flood of new Pentagon outlays don't faintly hold up to scrutiny. First and foremost in the Pentagon's argument for virtually unlimited access to the Treasury is the alleged military threat posed by China. But as Dan Grazier of the Project on Government Oversight has pointed out, that country's military strategy is "inherently defensive":"[T]he investments being made [by China] are not suited for foreign adventurism but are instead designed to use relatively low-cost weapons to defend against massively expensive American weapons. The nation's primary military strategy is to keep foreign powers, and especially the United States, as far away from its shores as possible in a policy the Chinese government calls 'active defense.'"The greatest point of potential conflict between the U.S. and China is, of course, Taiwan. But a war over that island would come at a staggering cost for all concerned and might even escalate into a nuclear confrontation. A series of war games conducted by the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) found that, while the United States could indeed "win" a war defending Taiwan from a Chinese amphibious assault, it would be a Pyrrhic victory. "The United States and its allies lost dozens of ships, hundreds of aircraft, and tens of thousands of servicemembers," it reported. "Taiwan saw its economy devastated. Further, the high losses damaged the U.S. global position for many years." And a nuclear confrontation between China and the United States, which CSIS didn't include in its assessment, would be a first-class catastrophe of almost unimaginable proportions.The best route to preventing a future Chinese invasion of Taiwan would be to revive Washington's "One China" policy that calls for China to commit itself to a peaceful resolution of Taiwan's status and for the U.S. to forswear support for that island's formal independence. In other words, diplomacy, rather than increasing the Pentagon budget to "win" such a war, would be the way to go.The second major driver of higher Pentagon budgets is allegedly the strain on this country's arms manufacturing base caused by supplying tens of billions of dollars of weaponry to Ukraine, including artillery shells and missiles that are running short in American stockpiles. The answer, according to the Pentagon and the arms industry, is to further supersize this country's already humongous military-industrial complex to produce enough weaponry to supply Ukraine (and now Israel, too), while acquiring sufficient weapons systems for a future war with China.There are two problems with such arguments. First, supplying Ukraine doesn't justify a permanent expansion of the U.S. arms industry. In fact, such aid to Kyiv needs to be accompanied by a now-missing diplomatic strategy designed to head off an even longer, ever more grinding war.Second, the kinds of weapons needed for a war with China would, for the most part, be different from those relevant to a land war in Ukraine, so weaponry sent to Ukraine would have little relevance to readiness for a potential war with China (which Washington should, in any case, be working to prevent, not preparing for). The Disastrous Costs of a Militarized Foreign PolicyBefore investing ever more tax dollars in building an ever-expanding garrison state, the military strategy of the United States in the current global environment should be seriously debated. Just buying ever more bombs, missiles, drones, and next-generation artificial intelligence-driven weaponry is not, in fact, a strategy, though it is a boon to the military-industrial complex and an invitation to a destabilizing new arms race.Unfortunately, neither Congress nor the Biden administration seems inclined to seriously consider an approach that would emphasize investing in diplomatic and economic tools over force or the threat of force. Given this country's staggeringly expensive failures in its wars in Iraq and Afghanistan in this century (which cost trillions of dollars), resulting in hundreds of thousands of civilian casualties, and leaving staggering numbers of American veterans with physical and psychological injuries (as extensively documented by the Costs of War Project at Brown University), you might think a different approach to the use of your tax dollars was in order, but no such luck.There are indeed a few voices in Congress advocating restraint at the Pentagon, including Representatives Mark Pocan (D-WI) and Barbara Lee (D-CA), who have proposed a $100 billion reduction in that department's budget as a first step toward a more balanced national security policy. Such efforts, however, must overcome an inhospitable political environment created by the endlessly exaggerated military threats facing this country and the political power of the arms industry, as well as its allies in Washington. Those allies, of course, include President Biden, who has labeled the U.S. an "arsenal of democracy" in his efforts to promote a new round of weapons aid to Ukraine. Not unlike his predecessor, he is touting the potential benefits of arms-production investments in companies in electoral swing states.Sadly, throwing more money at the arms industry sacrifices future needs for short-term economic gains that are modest indeed. Were that money going into producing green jobs, a more resilient infrastructure, improved scientific and technical education, and a more robust public health system, we would find ourselves in a different world. Those should be the pillars of any American economic revival rather than the all-too-modest side effects of weapons development in fueling economic growth. Despite huge increases in funding since the 1980s, actual jobs in the arms manufacturing industry have, in fact, plummeted from three million to 1.1 million — and, mind you, those figures come from the arms industry's largest trade association. The United Auto Workers, one of the unions with the most members working in the arms industry, has recognized this reality and formed a Just Transition Committee. As noted by Spencer Ackerman at the Nation, it's designed to "examine the size, scope, and impact of the U.S. military-industrial complex that employs thousands of UAW members and dominates the global arms trade." According to Brandon Mancilla, director of the UAW's Region 9A, which represents 50,000 active and retired workers in New York, New England, and Puerto Rico, the committee will "think about what it would mean to actually have a just transition, what used to be called a 'peace conversion,' of folks who work in the weapons and defense industry into something else."The UAW initiative parallels a sharp drop in unionization rates at major weapons makers (as documented by journalist Taylor Barnes). To cite two examples: in 1971, 69% of Lockheed Martin workers were unionized, while in 2022 that number was 19%; at Northrop Grumman today, a mere 4% of its employees are unionized, a dip that reflects a conscious strategy of the big weapons-making firms to outsource work to non-union subcontractors and states with anti-union "right to work" laws, while exporting tens of thousands of jobs overseas as part of multinational projects like the F-35 program. So much for the myth that defense industry jobs are more secure or have better pay and benefits than jobs in other parts of the economy.A serious national conversation is needed on what a genuine defense strategy would look like, rather than one based on fantasies of global military dominance. Otherwise, the overly militarized approach to foreign and economic policy that has become the essence of Washington budget-making could be extended endlessly and disastrously into the future, something this country literally can't afford to let happen.This story was republished, with permission, from Tom Dispatch

Inhaltsangabe: Introduction: The master thesis 'Worldwide Development of Nuclear Energy and the Strategic Deployment of German Consultancies on the Arabian Peninsula' is chiefly targeted at German consultancy companies so that they can assess their status of strategic deployment and prioritize their activities to enter a new business sector in a foreign market. This publication could also be of relevance for policy makers, investors, suppliers as well as nuclear energy and governmental agencies to identify their need for external advisers to safely operate a nuclear power program; provides a guideline for how to enter a new market. Hence this thesis should be considered as an aid to identify hurdles and obstacles that have to be foreseen and so overcome. Potential business fields are also noted as well as important factors that have to be considered to minimize the chance of failure in the new market. Nevertheless, this huge market with its continuously changing constraints and conditions could throw up a lot more obstacles than could be covered in this thesis. Also the internal organizations of individual companies may differ from the one described in the thesis. The objective of this master thesis is thus to set out a set of guidelines for possible approaches. The first two chapters present an overview of the current geographical, political, cultural and economic conditions to familiarize the reader with the background information and constraints needed for the subsequent chapters. The third chapter deals more specifically with the energy market on the Arabian Peninsula, particular in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates. This chapter provides information on types of energy, pending developments, country-specific organizations and institutions, as well as means of financing such huge projects. The fourth chapter is devoted exclusively to nuclear energy, starting with the current status and the motivation of the two countries to launch such a development. This is followed by a description of the legal requirements and other commitments as decreed by the countries' governments. These specific legal conditions do not just apply within the countries concerned, but companies which do business there are likewise obliged to follow these regulations. Challenges for countries are opportunities for consultants, and identification of these represents is the core content of this chapter. The content of the fifth chapter is the preparatory measures that are essential prior to entering a foreign market. A company's vision and mission as well as various analyses are needed to provide a sound basis for taking a decision to proceed. In this context, SWOT analysis is noted as well as an evaluation of M.E. Porter's 'Five Forces' to describe the market and internal organizations. After the preparatory measures, the implementation phase follows. This and its various stages are described in Chapter 6. It is inevitable that, to ensure success, many measures will have to implemented and subsequently adjusted. This starts with deployment and steering of business units and proceeds to overcoming difficulties with external parties. Recruitment on a permanent basis of employees is also a prerequisite for sustained business success, together with a staff feedback, incentive and salary system. Chapter 7 sets out methods for evaluating previous years' activities in the new business. The first couple of years after 'start-up' are over and the situation in which the company is now has to be assessed. It is frequently necessary to undertake organizational upgrades, that could amount to a complete reorganization of the business, aided by change management provisions. The final Chapter 8 summarizes the key information and content, and sets forth the need and reasons for strategic deployment. Changes in the market means that companies will have to re-adjust for economic survival. Because the nuclear program of the United Arab Emirates is more advanced than that of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and information is less available in the latter country, the main focus of this thesis is on the UAE. Nevertheless, the KSA is an emerging nuclear market with great ambitious for a nuclear program and so is worthy of mention when discussing constraints and conditions that these countries have in common. Other countries that are members of the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) do share an interest in nuclear energy but are not yet at the same stage of development as the UAE and KSA. These serve from time to time to support arguments and figures. A sufficient and reliable energy supply is essential for continuous economic development, contributing also to poverty reduction and health care improvement. If these developments are restricted or lacking, often the result is social conflict that could even lead to civil strife. Examples are rural arid areas in the world where there is no access to potable water. A minor local conflict affects the economic development and population of specific countries and often results in regional instability and interventions from outside. The global energy imbalance has been steadily growing over the past couple of decades. Roughly 1.6 billion people live without electricity, and almost 2.4 billion people rely on traditional biomass to cook their daily meals . Modern fuels are not available or are restricted to the upper social strata. There is an almost equal share of the world's population with no access to potable water, so in the struggle for survival the consequences will be social unrest and riots. In some poor countries of the world, the per capita electricity consumption is as low as 50 kWh per annum, compared to developed countries with 8,600 kWh. Worldwide, the provision of energy is dominated by three major challenges. 1. Energy consumption has tripled in the past half century. If this continues, humankind will consume more energy in the 21st century than in the entire past history. This represents an increase of 53% in global energy consumption by 2030. 2. The main energy resources are now scarce, so to ensure economic development, countries will compete with each other to acquire their own supplies. Each country seeks to protect its existing sources and open up new ones. This will not result in a fair distribution of resources, as poor countries are not able to compete with their developed neighbors and lose out, as has often happened in history. 3. To an increasing extent attention is focusing on environmental impacts. Because of the greenhouse effect, carbon dioxide emissions from burning fossil fuels bring about a rise in global temperatures. The consequences are long-lasting drought, sea level rise, submerging coastal regions and more destructive storms. For these reasons, many governments are reviewing their present energy mixes and are considering alternatives to avert the consequences of energy scarcity, including the renewal of interest in nuclear energy that has been noted in recent decades. Adoption or resumption of nuclear energy is at least one solution for some countries faced with a threat to the security of their energy supplies. Among others, one benefit of nuclear energy is zero emissions of greenhouse gases during their operating phase and the ability of huge plants to provide electricity reliably and on a large scale. Much engineering effort has been devoted to significantly improving nuclear plant safety in recent decades. Furthermore, although they are finite, there are ample reserves of uranium and, unlike petrochemicals, they are not put to any other use apart from as an energy source. Prospecting is under way for new deposits, as currently in Yemen. The cost of electricity generated by nuclear power is now competitive, but a major concern that has still to be resolved is final storage of down burned nuclear fuel rods. An overview of the economics is provided by a cost comparison of the various electricity generation technologies, as shown in Figure 1-1 below. This survey is ongoing in a couple of countries to seek a basis for taking decisions on their energy strategies. The quoted figures are ballpark estimates, with actual values depending very much on local conditions and the current market situation, but they do serve to provide a rough comparison. The outcome of these calculations is that electricity generation from nuclear fuel is, at 91.0 US Dollar/MWh, much more competitive than firing crude oil at 133.4 US Dollar/MWh. However, a major consideration is the distinction that has to be made between supplying base and peak/cycling load. To meet the demand for base-load electricity, large-scale power plants, like nuclear and those fired with coal and crude oil are more favorable. These need an extended start-up period – ranging from a couple of hours to two or three days – before they can feed power into the grid. Smaller scale plant, like diesel-fired simple-cycle gas turbines and solar power plants are able to rapidly ramp their power output up and down to cover daily consumption peaks. For this reason, nuclear power plants almost exclusively operate continuously at or near peak output to supply base load, together with natural gas-fired combined cycle gas turbine plants and coal-fired power plants. Diesel-fired gas turbines and solar power plants find application for peak and cycling duty. The key factors are listed in the following table, with firstly the operating parameters, which are attributes specific to the various power plant technologies that are taken as basic assumptions for the further calculations. The second sub-heading is key financial constraints, which fix the technology that is more economical. These comprise the capital cost for construction and development as well as long-term costs that are highly cyclical and cannot be so readily predicted as the other costs. The third main distinction is the direct electricity generation costs. These are running costs incurred only during power plant operation and are directly related to the rated power output in MWe. This calculation serves as well to identify companies and utility suppliers for nuclear power generation as well as to broaden the mix of energy supply technologies and reduce dependency on specific primary resources.Inhaltsverzeichnis:Table of Contents: List of Figures4 List of Abbreviations6 1.Introduction and Objective8 1.1Objective of this Master Thesis8 1.2Introduction9 2.Geographical, Political, Cultural and Economic Conditions13 2.1Geography and Culture13 2.2Economy and Politics14 2.3Political and Social Stability in the UAE18 2.4Relations between the UAE and Germany18 2.5Relationship between the KSA and Germany19 3.Energy Sectors of the Leading Countries on the Arabian Peninsula20 3.1Electricity Generation and Consumption in KSA and UAE20 3.2Water Production and Consumption in the KSA and UAE24 3.3Renewable Energy in the UAE and KSA25 3.4Pending Developments25 3.5Country-specific Organizations and Authorities26 3.6Financing of Power Projects in Arabian Countries27 3.7Summary of Chapter 327 4.Nuclear Energy on the Arabian Peninsula28 4.1Status in the UAE and KSA28 4.2Reasons for Launching a Nuclear Program29 4.3Obligations to Launch a Nuclear Program30 4.4Commitments of the UAE31 4.5Challenges and Potentials of the Nuclear Path33 4.6Global Outlook35 5.Preparations for Market Penetration37 5.1Vision and Mission38 5.2Market Analysis39 5.3Strategic SWOT Analysis41 5.3.1Strengths41 5.3.2Weaknesses45 5.3.3Opportunities46 5.3.4Threats47 5.4Five Elements of Realization Strategy49 5.4.1Arenas (market conditions and valuable segments)49 5.4.2Staging and pacing53 5.4.3Differentiators55 5.4.4Vehicles (course of action)55 5.4.5Economic logic58 5.4.6Summary and checklist of foundation59 6.Execution of the Initial Phase60 6.1Centralization versus Decentralization of Business Units60 6.2Acquisition of New Permanent Employees61 6.2.1Recruitment strategy for employees without experience61 6.2.2Recruitment strategy for experienced employees62 6.2.3Selection of potential candidates63 6.2.4Recruitment process63 6.3Internal Deployment and Organization66 6.3.1Feedback systems66 6.3.2Development of competencies66 6.3.3Incentives and salary systems68 6.3.4Difficulties with external parties69 7.Assessment of Business after 'Start-up Phase'70 7.1Reassessment of Recent Years70 7.2Organizational Improvement Measures72 7.3Change Management and the Reorganization of Business and Markets73 7.3.1Strengthen the position in the existing market74 7.3.2Entering new global markets75 8.Summary76 List of Literature78Textprobe:Text Sample: Chapter 3.3, Renewable Energy in the UAE and KSA: Utility companies in the GCC states are under enormous pressure due to the global scarcity of fossil fuels, which are running out much faster than expected, consequently they are boosting also renewable energies. Governmental agencies have been instructed to review energy consumption in the Middle East and are seeking alternatives to meet the rising demand, which is also in line with the global environmental movement to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. The long shoreline and high insolation throughout the year are optimal for generating wind, water and photovoltaic power. The following illustrate the efforts made by government agencies for the upcoming year: Abu Dhabi's Masdar City is spending US Dollar 2 billion on promoting solar technology. Saudi Arabia is looking to position itself as a centre for solar energy research and so become a net exporter of energy sourced from renewables. Abu Dhabi is to build the world's largest hydrogen power plant at a cost of US Dollar 15 billion. 'Glance over the borders": Jordan is assessing plans for constructing a wind farm while Qatar is considering solar power. 3.4, Pending Developments: Regarding upcoming developments, the two countries, UAE and KSA, have to be considered separately due to the primary resources that are available. Crude oil and natural gas reserves in Saudi Arabia will last decades more than the resources in the UAE. A further reason is that the quality and composition of the mineral resources are much less favorable in the KSA than in the UAE. This means that their firing for power generation is, for economic reasons, the only reasonable option for their exploitation. In the UAE the situation is different, as there the mineral resources are of much higher quality and are too valuable to fire in power plants. The price obtainable on the world petrochemicals market is much higher than the benefit derived from electricity generation. The UAE therefore has a greater incentive to diversify its power generation and to invest in technologies other than fossil fuels much earlier. Based on the financial and economic crisis, the 'Bundesverband der Deutschen Industrie' expects a smoother growth of GDP in 2008 and 2009. This means that ongoing projects with a total CAPEX of US Dollar 378 billion will be postponed or abandoned. Despite these figures, the UAE will remain the most important project market for German companies in the Arabian region. Over the near term, between 2009 and 2011, the UAE expects investments of about US Dollar 540 billion. Showing high potential for investments of about US Dollar 24 billion is expansion of water production and power plant capacities. To participate in this development, frequent consultations and top-level meetings are held to strengthen the relationship between German industry and local agencies like DEWA (Dubai Electrical and Water Authority) and ADWEA (Abu Dhabi Water and Electricity Authority). These authorities organize and guide all water and electricity projects, starting with planning and tendering through to commissioning. Over the past four years, energy consumption in the Emirate of Dubai has increased by around 10,000 GWh. As a consequence, the projection for 2010 is for a new electricity generation capacity of 9 GWe provided by power plants. Likewise electricity transmission has potential for growth. DEWA intends to award contracts annually for more than 6,000 km of HVDC (high voltage direct current) transmission lines. DEWA has an estimated annual budget of US Dollar 2 billion.

In der vorliegenden Arbeit sind drei Zentren der Mittleren und Späten Postklassik aus dem nördlichen Maya-Tiefland auf die Organisation ihres baulichen Raums untersucht worden. Dies galt hinsichtlich der Frage, ob Ähnlichkeiten oder Gemeinsamkeiten zwischen den Zentren vorhanden und wie diese gegebenenfalls gestaltet sind. Damit im Zusammenhang stand die Frage nach Zusammengehörigkeiten und Funktionen von baulichen Räumen. Mit diesem Themenkomplex eng verbunden war die Frage nach der Produktivität verschiedener Methoden zur Siedlungsforschung, wenn als Informationsquelle fast ausschließlich der bauliche Befund zur Verfügung steht. Nach eingehender Auseinandersetzung mit dem, was (insbesondere der bauliche) Raum ist oder sein kann, und wie er sich im Untersuchungsgebiet in seinen Besonderheiten darstellt, sind die Zentren von Mayapan, Tulum und San Gervasio auf Cozumel analysiert worden. Gleichzeitig wurden vierzehn verschiedene Vorgehensweisen zur Analyse von baulichen Räumen auf ihre Anwendbarkeit in der postklassischen Maya-Archäologie getestet. Die meisten der untersuchten Methoden können für die Forschung in postklassischen Siedlungen des nördlichen Maya-Tieflands positiv beurteilt werden, wenn auch ihre Verknüpfung untereinander angeraten ist (s. Kapitel 7.2). Durch die Methodenkombination wird eine differenzierte Sicht auf die Organisation des baulichen Raums erkennbar, die wichtige Einblicke in das Verständnis des Zentrums (und damit auch der gesamten Siedlung) liefert, selbst wenn weiterführende Informationen zur Interpretation (zum Beispiel durch Keramikanalysen) nur unzureichend vorhanden sind. Als eine der wichtigsten Methoden sei hier die Grundflächen-Höhen-Relation besonders hervorgehoben: Sie ermöglicht auch unter sehr schlechten Bedingungen und unter Mangel an Kenntnis der genauen Anordnung von baulichen Räumen innerhalb des Gebäudekomplexes aussagekräftige Ergebnisse. Die siedlungsübergreifenden Vergleiche der verschiedenen Analyseergebnisse (s. Kapitel 6 und Kapitel 7.1.2.1 - 7.1.2.11) zeigen in vielerlei Hinsicht, daß die Organisation des baulichen Raums innerhalb der Zentren nicht willkürlich gewesen ist. Es finden sich in den Zentren vielmehr zwei Formen von "Planung" ( Siehe auch Kapitel 6.5, wo in Teilen bereits angesprochen worden ist, was hier verallgemeinert werden kann. ): - Eine Planung, durch die die großräumige Verteilung bestimmter Funktionen (auch symbolischer Art) geregelt ist Sie zeigt sich insbesondere durch die Einbeziehung kosmologischer Vorstellungen, die im Zentrum baulich manifestiert wurden. Auch praktische Gründe scheinen nicht unberücksichtigt geblieben zu sein – wie dies in Tulum durch die straßenähnliche Anlage und in Mayapan aus der Verdichtung "öffentlicher", überwiegend "profaner" Funktionen im südlichen Bereich des Zentrums hervorgeht. - Eine Planung, durch die in Form von Baurichtlinien die kleinräumige Verteilung von baulichen Räumen, von Massen und Freiflächen organisiert wird Dies ist in allen drei Zentren durch die Vergesellschaftungen verschiedener Bauwerke erkennbar: In Mayapan und San Gervasio wird dies in der Gestaltung von Bauwerksgruppen sozialer Einheiten besonders deutlich, in Tulum ist vergleichbares zumindest ansatzweise erkennbar. Dennoch liegt eine wirklich bindende Planung - im Sinne einer Einengung - nicht vor: Die reine Existenz von Baurichtlinien ist nicht mit der Existenz einer strengen, von oben verordneten Planung gleichzusetzen. Zudem ist in jeder der durchgeführten Analysen erkennbar, daß manchmal ein nicht unerhebliches Maß an baulichen Freiheiten bestanden hat. Der "Planung" in den untersuchten postklassischen Siedlungszentren steht deshalb eine "Willkür" gegenüber, die jedoch kein "Chaos" bedeutet, sondern vielmehr eine Entscheidungsfreiheit darstellt, durch die es den Bauherren erlaubt scheint, die konkrete Ausgestaltung und Anordnung baulicher Räume der individuellen Situation und den persönlichen Prioritäten anzupassen. Diese Entscheidungsfreiheit scheint nicht nur für einzelne Personen oder Personengruppen zu gelten, sondern auch für die Planung des Siedlungszentrums (respektive der Siedlung) als ganzem. Dies zeigt sich deutlich in der Verbindung von baulichem Raum und kosmologischen Vorstellungen. Sie sind in den drei Siedlungszentren unterschiedlich gestaltet, aber dennoch in jedem Zentrum vorhanden. Auch scheinen bauliche Richtlinien den siedlungsspezifischen Schwerpunkten und Besonderheiten angepaßt worden zu sein. Die Berücksichtigung der kosmologischen Vorstellung bei der Gestaltung der Zentren zeigt ferner, daß die wesentlichen kosmologischen Vorstellungen der (Prä-)Klassik im nördlichen Maya-Tiefland auch zur Zeit der Mittleren und Späten Postklassik bekannt und akzeptiert waren. Sie sind zudem derart in die Lebenswelt integriert gewesen, daß sie sogar in Organisationen des baulichen Raums zum Ausdruck kommen, die über eine große zeitliche und räumliche Entfernung hinweg tradiert worden sind. Durch die unterschiedliche Art der Umsetzung der kosmologischen Vorstellungen zeigt sich jedoch auch die große Toleranzbreite, die mit der Fortführung der Traditionen verbunden ist. Schließlich wird in jedem der untersuchten Zentren erkennbar, daß ein steiles hierarchisches Gesellschaftsgefüge unwahrscheinlich gewesen ist. Eher scheinen mehrere soziale Einheiten von nicht immer vollkommen gleichem, aber doch ähnlichem hierarchischen Rang bestimmend für das Erscheinungsbild der Zentren gewesen zu sein. Dies kann mit dem als " multepal " bezeichneten Herrschaftssystem verbunden gewesen sein, weist aber zumindest darauf hin, daß - die "Elite" betreffend - etwas egalitärere soziale Strukturen das politische und gesellschaftliche Leben bestimmt haben dürften als dies in der Klassik war. Zusammenfassend läßt sich festhalten, daß die Ergebnisse aus den Untersuchungen die wesentlichen Unterschiede zwischen den einzelnen Zentren aufzeigen, zugleich auch offenbaren, daß hinter der scheinbar ungeordneten Verteilung von baulichem Raum im Zentrumsareal ein System von Ordnungsprinzipien existiert, das (a) Baurichtlinien - im großen wie im kleinen - vorgibt, gleichzeitig aber auch bauliche Freiheiten erlaubt, (b) in allen drei Zentren ähnlich ist, (c) in nicht unerheblichem Maße in der Tradition klassischer Zentrumsgestaltung steht. Dies bettet die postklassischen Zentren des nördlichen Yukatan in einen - zeitlich wie räumlich - großen kulturellen Zusammenhang ein. Aus Sicht der Organisation des baulichen Raums scheinen tiefgreifende Unterschiede (im Sinne eines "Bruchs") 557 zwischen der Klassik und der Postklassik nicht bestanden zu haben - wenn auch das äußere Erscheinungsbild der Architektur sich in den verschiedenen zeitlichen und geographischen Räumen unterschiedlich präsentiert. Der konzeptionelle Hintergrund in der baulichen Manifestation des Lebens indes ist über lange Zeit hinweg erhalten geblieben. ; The Organization of the Structural Space in Postclassic Settlement Centres of the Northern Maya Lowlands In this analysis three centres of the Middle and Late Postclassic from the northern Maya lowlands are investigated with respect to the organisation of their structural space. "Structural space" is defined by an operative surface and must be surrounded by at least the half by built-up borders. It manifests itself usually in the architecture. The investigation dealt mainly with the question of whether, despite the visual differences existing among the three centres, similar or mutual aspects in the settlement structure are present and, if appropriate, how these are formed. This was connected to the question of the relationships and functions of structural spaces. Closely related to this thematic complex was the question of the efficiency of different methods of settlement analysis, when the structural feature is available as the almost exclusive source of information. Following an in-depth discussion of what space, especially structural space is or can be, and how it is represented in its peculiarities in the area under consideration, the centres of Mayapan, Tulum and San Gervasio on Cozumel were analysed. Simultaneously, 14 different methods for analysing structural spaces were tested for their applicability to postclassic Maya archaeology. The most important aspect of the theoretical basis was understanding the relationship of a building with the platform on which it stood and the stairway leading to the platform. In this analysis these elements were regarded als inseparable and were credited to be a more important structural unit than the building alone. This unit was termed "structural complex" and formed the most important basis for the analyses. The results Most of the methods investigated can be regarded as positive for analysing postclassic settlements in the northern Maya lowlands, even though it is advisable to combine them. Through the combination of methods a differentiated view of the organisation of the structural space becomes recognisable and provides important insights into the understanding of the centre (and, therefore, of the whole settlement, too), even if further information on the interpretation (e.g. through pottery analysis) is insufficiently present. One of the most significant methods in this respect is the area-height-ratio; this allows firm results even under extremely bad conditions and when lacking the exact order of structural spaces within the building complex. The intersettlement comparisons of the various analytical results reveal in several ways that the organisation of the structural area within the centre was not arbitrary. Rather, one finds in the centres two types of "planning": 1.) Regulating the large spatial distribution of distinct functions (also of symbolical type) This exhibits itself especially by incorporating cosmological beliefs which in the centre were architecturally manifested. Practical reasons seem not to have been left unconsidered, though, as seen in the street-like construction in Tulum and in the concentration of "public", mainly "profane" functions in the southern part of the centre in Mayapan. 2.) Regulating the small spatial distribution of structural areas, from built-up and free areas (similar to building regulations) This is recognisable in all three centres in the assemblages of different buildings: In Mayapan and San Gervasio this is particularly evident in the form of groups of buildings of social uniformity, in Tulum something comparable is recognisable at least in part. However, a properly binding plan, in the sense of a restriction, does not exist; the pure existence of building regulations is not equivalent to the presence of a stringent plan prescribed from above. Moreover, in each of the analyses carried out it is recognisable that a not insignificant measure of constructional freedom sometimes existed. The "planning" in the postclassic settlement centres examined therefore stands face-to-face with an "arbitrariness", which, however, does not mean chaos, but rather represents a freedom of decision, by which the owners seem to have been permitted to adapt the precise form and position of the structural areas to their individual situation and personal priorities. This freedom of decision seems not only to have been valid for individual persons or groups of persons, but also for the planning of the settlement centre (in respect of the settlement) as a whole. This is clearly discernible in the connection between structural area and cosmological beliefs. They are arranged differently in the three settlement centres, but are still present in each centre. Building regulations even seem to have been adapted for the focal and individual needs of the specific settlements. The consideration of cosmological belief in the formation of the centres also shows that the most important cosmological beliefs of the (Pre)Classic in the northern Mayan lowlands were known and accepted during the Middle and Late Postclassic too. Moreover, they are so much integrated into the world of the living that they even appear in the organisation of the structural area, which is passed on over extensive chronological and topographical intervals. The different ways of transforming the cosmological beliefs, however, is evidence of the large extent of tolerance involved in the continuation of the traditions. Finally, in each of the centres examined it is discernible that a sharply hierarchical structure of society is improbable. Rather, it seems that several social units of not always completely equal, but certainly of similar hierarchical rank were responsible for the appearance of the centres. This could have been connected to the system of rule described as " multepal ", but indicates at least that, as far as the "élites" are concerned, somewhat more egalitarian social structures may have determined political and social life, than had been the case during the Classic period. In summary one can deduce that the results from the analyses show the salient differences between the individual centres, at the same time, however, reveal that, behind the seemingly irregular distribution of structural areas within the central area, a system of regulations existed, which (a) prescribed building regulations on a large, as well as a small scale, but simultaneously also allowed constructional freedom, (b) is similar in all three centres, (c) stands to a significant degree in the tradition of the classic organisation of the centre. This integrates the postclassic centres of the northern Yucatan both chronologically and topographically into a large cultural context. From the view of the organisation of the structural area fundamental differences (in the sense of a "break") between the Classic and the Postclassic seem not to have existed, even though the external appearance of the architecture varied in the different chronological periods and geographical regions. Nevertheless, the conceptional background in the structural manifestation of life survived over a long period of time. (Translation by Clive Bridger, Xanten) ; Organización del espacio constructivo en centros del Périodo Posclásico en las Tierras Bajas Mayas del Norte En el presente trabajo, se ha investigado la organización del espacio constructivo de tres centros del Posclásico Medio y Tardío de la zona norte de Yucatán. "Espacio Constructivo" se define aqui a partir de una extensión areal que debe cubrir al menos la mitad de límites constructivos y se manifiesta mayormente por medio de la arquitectura. La investigación trata sobre todo acerca de la pregunta, de si a pesar de las diferencias visuales que existen entre los tres centros, hay evidencia de similitudes o elementos comunes en la estructura de ocupación y si este es el caso, de como éstas se han llegado a formar. Ello está en relación con la pregunta sobre las asociaciones y funciones de los espacios constructivos. A este grupo de temas se encuentra ligada de manera muy estrecha la pregunta sobre la productividad de diferentes métodos sobre la investigación de ocupaciones, cuando se dispone casi exclusivamente de restos constructivos como fuente de información. Después de una detallada investigación sobre lo que es o podría ser espacio (especialmente, el constructivo) y de lo que representa con sus particularidades en un area de investigación, se han analizado los centros de Mayapán, Tulúm y San Gervasio. Simultáneamente se han puesto a prueba catorce procedimientos de análisis de espacios constructivos en función de ver su aplicabilidad en la arqueología posclásica maya. El aspecto más importante de los fundamentos teóricos fue el entendimiento de la asociación de un edificio con la plataforma, sobre la cual, éste se erige, y la escalera la cual conduce a la plataforma. En el presente trabajo, estos elementos son asumidos como inseparables y han regido como la unidad constructiva más importante que exclusivamente el edificio. Esta unidad se ha denominado "Complejo Constructivo" y se ha constituido en el fundamento más importante para el análisis. Sobre los Resultados. La mayoría de los métodos investigados sobre el análisis de las ocupaciones posclásicas en las Tierras Bajas del Norte pueden ser calificados como positivos, aun cuando también su vinculación inter-estratificada haya sido recomendada. A través de la combinación de métodos se hace reconocible una visión diferenciada de la organización del espacio constructivo, la cual posibilita importantes observaciones en relación al centro (y con ello también a toda la ocupación), aún cuando se hayen a disposición de manera escaza, mas informaciones relevantes para la interpretación (por ejemplo a través de análisis cerámicos). Aqui se enfatiza como uno de los métodos más importantes en especial el de la relación-altura-área: este método posibilita prometedores resultados incluso sobre la base de muy malas condiciones y falta de conocimiento de la exacta clasificación de los espacios constructivos dentro de complejos de edificios. Las resaltantes comparaciones ocupacionales de los diferentes resultados de los análisis muestran desde muchas perspectivas que la organización del espacio constructivo dentro de los centros no ha sido arbitraria. Por el contrario, hay dos formas de "planeamiento" en los centros, a saber: 1.) Para el ordenamiento de la amplia distribución de determinadas funciones (también de tipo simbólico) Este planeamiento se muestra en especial a través de la introducción de representaciones cosmológicas, las cuales se han materializado de manera constructiva en el centro. Tampoco motivos prácticos parecen haber pasado desapercibido –como lo que se observa en Tulum a través de construcciones similares a avenidas y en Mayapan a partir deñ reforzamiento de funciones "públicas" en su mayoria "profanas" en el área sur del centro. 2.) Para el ordenamiento de la restringida distribución espacios constructivos de áreas libres (similar a pautas de construcción) Esto se reconoce en los tres centros a través de las asociaciones de diferentes construcciones: En Mayapán y San Gervasio se hace especialmente evidente en la formación de unidades sociales de constructores y en Tulúm es, al menos a manera de extensión, similar. Sin embargo, no se evidencia un planeamiento fusionante –en el sentido de una cohibición-: La sola presencia de pautas de construcción no se puede equiparar con la existencia de un planeamiento ordenado desde arriba. Por eso es que se ha hecho evidente en cada uno de los análisis llevados a cabo, que a veces un area no despreciable de espacio ha estado a disposición de los espacios contructivos de areas libres. Al planeamiento de los centros ocupacionales posclásicos investigados, se opone por tanto una "arbietrariedad", la cual, no obstante, no significa ningún caos, sino más bien una libertad de elección , a través de la cual los maestros constructores parecen haber estado permitidos a adaptar la concepción concreta y ordenamiento de los espacios constructivos de las situaciones individuales y las prioridades personales. Esta libertad de elección parece no haber regido solo para personas individuales o grupos de personas, sino también para el planeamiento de los centros ocupacionales (con respecto a la propia ocupación) como complemento. Ello se muestra claramente en la conexión del espacio constructivo y representaciones cosmológicas. Ellas han sido llevadas a cabo de manera diferente en los tres centros ocupacionales, empero en cada uno de ellos existen. También parecen haber sido adaptadas pautas constructivas a las particularidades o especialidades específicas de los asentamientos. La observación de la idealización cosmológica y el papel que ella juega en la formación de los centros demuestra incluso, que las idealizaciones cosmológicas fundamentales del (Pre-) Clásico del norte de Yucatán habían sido conocidas y aceptadas en el tiempo del Posclásico Medio y Tardío. Ellas habían sido integradas al mundo viviente de forma tal, que se espresaban hasta en organizaciones del espacio constructivo que han sido trasmitidas en una gran distancia temporal y espacial. Sin embargo, a través de la diferente forma de cambio de las idealizaciones cosmológicas se evidencia la amplia tolerancia, que está ligada con el continuamiento de las tradiciones. Finalmente, se hace reconocible en cada uno de los centros investigados, que es improbable que haya existido una estructura social furtemente jerárquica. Mas bien, parecen haber existido varias unidades sociales de rango jerárquico no siempre completamente igual pero si similar destinadas a la imagen representativa de los centros. Esto puede estar en relación con el sistema de soberanía conocido como " multepal ", que no obstante indica al menos, -en lo concerniente a la " Elite "- que estructuras sociales algo más egalitarias debieron haber determinado la vida política y social, tal como lo fue en el clásico. En suma, se puede remarcar que los resultados de las investigaciones demuestran las diferencias esenciales de cada uno de los centros, pero a la vez hacen evidente, que detrás de la aparente distribución desordenada del espacio constructivo dentro del area del centro, existe un sistema de principios de orden, a saber: (a) La predeterminación de pautas constructivas –a escala mayor y menor–, empero al mismo tiempo también licencia para libertades para construcción, (b) En todos los tres centros es similar, (c) Que está en una dimensión nada despreciable en la formación del centro en la tradición clásica. Ello introduce –tanto temporal como espacialmente- a los centros posclásicos del Norte del Yucatán dentro de un gran contexto cultural. A partir de la organización del espacio constructivo parecen no haber estado presentes diferencias muy profundas (en el sentido de una "fractura") entre el Clásico y el Posclásico – cuando aún la imagen representativa externa de la arquitectura se presenta de manera diferenciada en diversos espacios temporales y geográficos. La base conceptual en la manifestación constructiva de la vida, ha permanecido conservada por mucho tiempo desde entonces. (Traducción: Elmo León, Lima)

Part one of an interview with Julia Casey. Topics include: Julia's service as a clerk stenographer in the Civil Service Commission. Family history. Her parents came from Italy; her father was from Crenna and her mother was from Milan. The arranged marriage between her parents and their immigration to the United States. Her grandfather's work at a gas company in Italy. Her relatives worked in an embroidery business in Massachusetts. What it was like for Julia to grow up in Boston. Speaking proper Italian. What their neighborhood in Boston was like. The social club nearby. The foods people cooked and ate. The Christmas traditions of her family. How to prepare and serve polenta. Celebrations for patron saints. ; 1 LINDA: Okay. JULIA: All right. LINDA: So why don't I just start by saying this is Linda Rosenlund with the Center for Italian Culture at Fitchburg State College. It's Wednesday, November 16th, 2002. We're at the home of Julia Casey at 700 Pearl Street in Fitchburg. And Julia is just filling out the biographical information sheet, but I decided to turn the recorder on because she has some interesting anecdotes while she is writing. So she was just about to fill out the work history portion, and she began telling me that she worked for the War Department Chemical Warfare Services in Washington, DC, and you started 10 days after Pearl Harbor. JULIA: Yes. I had -- after high school, I had gone—and it's not noted here—to the stenotype school in Boston. And in the course of learning, they sent us to take a Civil Service Examination since [stenotypee] is a type, is machine shorthand. And in October, I took the [unintelligible - 00:01:13] Civil Service Examination in Boston, and then when the war broke out, I received a telegram to report to Washington by the 17th of December. And so 10 days after Pearl Harbor, I found myself at the War Department for assignment in the Civil Service Commission and the War Department. They sent me there, and then they assigned me to the Chemical Warfare Service as a clerk stenographer. LINDA: Does that mean it wasn't a choice? JULIA: No. No. There was no choice. They assigned you -- thousands of girls were pouring in from all over the country to, to man the increased offices for the War Department. The war was on, and every department in the government needed extra help, and so they took Civil Service Exams all over the country and the girls that were registered were sent telegrams to come in, and then they sent you wherever they needed you. So I worked there until I think October of 1944, and then I was transferred back to the Boston Procurement Office for the Chemical Warfare Service. LINDA: -kinds of things did you learn? 2 JULIA: It was straight stenographic work—filing, clerical, and stenographic work. I worked for a number of different people who dictated letters, and we typed them up and did general office work. LINDA: Were you ever learning anything interesting? JULIA: No. No, except the names of the various gases that they were using at the time, which was still pretty much what they had from World War I—mustard gas and things like that I haven't thought about it in years—but they had arsenals of gases all over the country. And so the correspondence mainly had to do with shipments and [unintelligible - 00:03:30] get into any of the research part at all. Men from major chemical corporations around the country came in to handle the government's program. Beyond that, we have no way of knowing. Things were either stamped secret or confidential. But the correspondence was so voluminous that things that came in, the regulations from the government had to all be filed and none of us did that and read anything like that. It was secret confidential, general -- you just filed it or you did whatever clerical work was assigned. LINDA: Obviously, war is such an uneasy time anyway. It must have been… JULIA: It was very exciting because we were young, and I eventually lived with four roommates in an apartment, and we worked almost six days a week. And because of the wartime, you didn't have as many things open to you. You couldn't visit the White House. For a long time, I never even got to see the Houses of Congress. We lived a very good life. We took care of our apartment. Each of the girls that I lived with, with whom I'm still closed friends, came from the different parts of the country except one who came from my own neighborhood. She lived with us. I lived with the girl from [unintelligible - 00:05:10], Missouri and a girl from Sunnyvale, California, and a girl that had come from Minneapolis, Minnesota, and we kept house, we shopped, we did laundry and we wanted to work in a 3 different agency and went to work with public transportation. We lived in Washington, and then we lived in Arlington, Virginia in an apartment. And we all came back to Boston together. We all arranged for transfers to various agencies in Boston. LINDA: Were you ever questioned about your Italian background? JULIA: No. I never was questioned. The questioning had to do with various organizations that you might have belonged to where they found your name. I mean, I was 18 years old when I left, so… And then I continued my Federal Civil Service until about seven months after I was married. LINDA: And that was in 1951? JULIA: 1950, yes. In April, I think I left my job, and I didn't work just for Chemical Warfare Service because after the war, they had what they call Reduction in Force, RIF. In other words, all the people that had been hired for the war were then let go, but you could go to other agencies that were getting rid of all of the stuff that the government had bought during the war, and one of the agencies I went to was the War Assets Administration in Boston. I forgot the name of the original name of the agency. They are in charge of reselling all of the machine tools that had been bought for the war plants, and New England was a very heavy industrial area for machine tools and machine and all kinds of things. So I went to work for the War Assets Administration, and then I think I put in sometime with one of the Air Force for terminal agencies here at the army base in Boston. And I was pregnant almost immediately after I was married, so I left in April of 1952. My first child was born in June of '52. LINDA: Are you okay? JULIA: Excuse me. I have a dry cough. LINDA: Okay. JULIA: [Unintelligible - 00:08:17] administration. LINDA: Okay. JULIA: I'll put CWS. That's the Chemical Warfare Service. LINDA: Okay.4 JULIA: And then War Assets Administration… and the Air Force. I still have all my papers, so I can check if we have to. And then I left in April. Our church, Catholic. That's all you want, isn't it? Or do you want… LINDA: Well, why don't you tell me where you go now? JULIA: All right. LINDA: -instead of Boston. JULIA: Okay, St. Camillus. LINDA: Okay. You have lived in Fitchburg since '68? JULIA: Yes. I've lived in Fitchburg since -- we moved here because my husband obtained the position of Director of the Library at Fitchburg State College in 1967, and he commuted about a year, and it was too much for him to commute to Boston. So, we had to sell -- we decided to sell our home, and we've lived here since March of 1968. LINDA: Okay. JULIA: Okay. Social clubs, wow. All right, I was a member, and still am, actually, of the League of Women Voters. LINDA: Okay. JULIA: Boston and Fitchburg. [Unintelligible - 00:10:07] Garden Club, where I was president for about four years. It's 1963, 1993, the June of [unintelligible - 00:10:30] Club. LINDA: I'm not familiar with that. JULIA: It's a Catholic layman's organization. I was actually the first woman admitted in the Fitchburg area. Would you mind opening the door? Letting the dog… LINDA: Oh okay. The dog is going to be [unintelligible - 00:10:48] with me now? JULIA: It's cold. She might just -- come on, sweetheart. Come, darling. Come on, Sasha. What a good [unintelligible - 00:10:59]. What a lovely dog! That would be on the tape. LINDA: That's okay. JULIA: All right. Let me…5 LINDA: What's that? JULIA: It's very cold in here because I turned down the heat, and the stove is not on. Let me just turn the heat up. Okay. Hold on. LINDA: Okay. What's the… JULIA: [Unintelligible - 00:11:24]. Ooh, my kids are [unintelligible - 00:11:29]. LINDA: Say what? JULIA: My [unintelligible - 00:11:33]. LINDA: Oh, who cares about things like that? Thanks for showing me all of the photographs. Julia just showed me the photographs that had been in her family since your mother passed away, I guess. What year was that? JULIA: My mother died in 1989 in Windsor, Vermont, because my sister owns a nursing home there and my mother went to live with her. But my mother lived alone on 11 and 13th Pompeii Street in Roxbury until she was 89 years old. My father had bought a six-family house on Pompeii Street, which originally was Lansdowne Street, and she lived in that house until she was 89 years old. Then she came to live with me for a year, and my sister took her up with her right after my son Steven's funeral in August of 1985. I treasure the artifacts, the furniture, and the pictures that I have. I have a whole collection of photographs from Italy which I'm hoping to organize before I die and so that the descendants will have some idea of who they came from. LINDA: Well, tell me a little bit about your parents. Were they born…? JULIA: My father was born in Crenna, Gallarate, C-R-E-N-N-A. It's a small town or village, and it's right above the city of Gallarate, G-A-L-L-A-R-A-T-E, which is a part of the Malpensa Airport in Milan. LINDA: Okay. JULIA: They are Lombards. My mother was born -- Lombardi is the province. My mother was born in Milan on December 5th, 1893. My father was born in Crenna, Gallarate on January 30th, 1891. And the family had lived there for a number of generations, and there are records in the church in Crenna. 6 LINDA: And their last names? Your father's last name is… JULIA: [Tomasine]. LINDA: Tomasine. JULIA: Yeah. LINDA: Mother's? JULIA: Seminario, and it was an arranged marriage. LINDA: So tell me a little bit about that. Did your mother tell you that was an arranged marriage, or…? JULIA: Most Italian women had to have the approval of their families before they married. It's a little complicated. When my father was an infant, a young girl baby was… I do not know the circumstances. She was assigned, she was asked -- no, that's wrong. She was given to my grandmother in Crenna, who was at the time nursing my papa. In other words, she was a nursing mother. And oftentimes when babies were either abandoned or the mother died or was too ill to take care of them, they were given to a nursing mother, who brought that child up along with the child she was nursing. In other words, she became a wet nurse. And if she had sufficient milk—since there were no formulas or bottles at the time—then she nursed both children. And this little girl, whose name was Carolina, she was brought up with my father until she was 18 years old. And then she was given her freedom, her choice to do whatever she wished, and at that time of course, girls, they went to work or they married. And she went to Milan to work, and she met one of my mother's uncles and married him, and as a result of this marriage, the two families were connected, not by blood, but because this girl had been raised with my father. And they have a child of their own, a little girl. And when the little girl was 9 years old, when [unintelligible - 00:17:15] was 9 years old, Carolina, her mother, died. And at the funeral, 7 which was during World War I, my mother went and my father went, because they were from the two families. My father went because she was called his sister of the milk, [foreign language - 00:17:45] de latte. That means that his mother nursed the two of them together, [unintelligible - 00:17:52] de latte. It was quite common, if there was no other way for these little babies to survive. Many women didn't have enough milk to feed their children, and my mother told me that in Milan, there were professionals wet nurses, and they used to come into the city on trams from the surrounding villages, and they wore special headdresses so they were recognized as women who were going to nurse babies in private homes. And this was their profession as long as they could. They would go to the home of somebody who could afford it and nurse a child whose mother is not able to feed a child, and they were honored. They were very respected women, recognized. They used to come in on the trolley cars into the city. And so I thought that was a very interesting thing. I have never heard of it myself. But I know I had another aunt on my father's side who went to South America and who could not nurse her first child and took her to a wet nurse in the country to nurse, to be fed. So it was not an uncommon situation at all. LINDA: So now your parents got connected at the… JULIA: They're only connected -- it's not a blood relationship. LINDA: Right. JULIA: It was marriage. And… LINDA: So you were telling me that it was arranged. JULIA: Yes. When my father came, my father came to America in 1912 with two brothers, two brothers were here, but America was a very tough place to be if you didn't speak English, and he didn't have any high skills. My father was trained as an embroiderer, because that was his father's cottage 8 industry in my [unintelligible - 00:20:23] in Crenna. But he couldn't get that kind of work in America, and so he did heavy laboring, washed dishes and did anything he could. And being the oldest son, when the family in Italy needed him, he went back, but he went back unfortunately in 1914. I think he told me that he went back in April, and in August the war broke out. And his youngest brothers were taught in the Italian army, and his two brothers in America joined the American army. So there were two brothers in the Italian army in the infantry and two boys who had a wonderful time in the American army and never was sent overseas. So when his sister of the milk died, then he met my mother at that funeral, but right after the war's conditions in Italy were very bad, he came back to America in 1919. And he felt that he was then about 26, 27 years old, and he felt that it was time to settle down, and he wrote to his mother. And his mother arranged with my mother's father and asked my mother if she would like to go to America to marry her son. And my mother agreed even though she didn't know him and had only met him at that one time, and so she came to America. LINDA: Did she come by herself? JULIA: No. Italian women did not come by themselves, unlike the Irish, who did. She came with -- by this time, the two boys, Vincent and Peter Tomasine, who were in the United States, decided that they wanted their mother to come. My grandparents were separated at that time, and so they made arrangements. One son Vincent had a girlfriend in Italy that he had more or less grown up with, and he sent for her. And then my uncle Peter and -- let's see, my grandmother came. They sent for their mother and Maria [unintelligible - 00:23:12], who married Vincent, and then my grandmother brought her youngest daughter, Mary, who was not married, and she brought her son-in-law, Angelo [unintelligible - 00:23:25], who 9 was married to my father's sister and had gone back to Italy from South America during the war. And after the war, he wanted to come to America. But the men always came first. So he came with his mother-in-law, who was my grandmother. LINDA: So your father returned in 1919. How long did he take him to save enough money to send for these? JULIA: Well, he worked very hard and the passage was very cheap, and so he sent money for them and sponsored my mother. And when she came here, they were married. There wasn't any big ceremony or anything like that. They lived with his mother and Maria [unintelligible - 00:24:24], who then married my uncle Vincent, and my father's youngest sister, Mary, Maria, and his brother-in-law until they all got settled. They lived in Roxbury in a flat. And then… LINDA: And what year was this that your mother came over JULIA: It was 1920 and '21, 1921. She arrived on October 12th in New York the same day, because she always said she came the same time as Christopher Columbus, on October 12th, 1921. By the way, I have a tape here that I -- of a family history that I wrote up in 1981, and we played it at Christmastime. And the whole story is on this tape. LINDA: Oh, interesting. JULIA: As far as I can remember—and I don't vouch for extreme accuracy in anything, because by that time, my mother was pretty well along in years in the late '70s. And she was 80. My mother and I, I went to Italy for the first time when I was 50 years old in August -- September of 1973. I went back with my mother, and I was in time to meet her brother, Raymundo Clemente, her brother, Umberto. His name was Umberto Seminario, the father of the boy who was lost in the Second World War, and his wife Osana, and my mother's half sister, Anna. And I say half sister because my mother's mother died at the age of 25 from consumption, when my mother was only four years old and her brother was two. And my grandfather, Raymundo Seminario had to remarry. He married within six 10 months so that he could keep his two children. Then there were two girls born of that marriage. LINDA: Did you mention the name Clemente? JULIA: Clemente was my grandfather, Raymundo Clemente Juliano Seminario. LINDA: Okay. JULIA: Yeah, three names. And sometimes they call him Clemente. Sometimes they call him Raymundo. But I was named for him, and my brother was named for him. LINDA: Well, that brings up an interesting point. I see that your name is spelled J-U-L-I-A, and Italian… JULIA: They Americanized it. LINDA: … didn't have J. JULIA: Yes. They don't have a J. LINDA: So when did that happen? JULIA: Probably when the birth certificate was sent into city hall. I was born at home, and the doctors who came in attendance didn't speak any Italian, and so they just put down what they heard phonetically. My brother and sister, all of us were born at home. So the records at city hall were just deplorable. They're awful. Then, of course, when we were baptized, then the names were different even on those baptismal records, which I have, because then we were baptized in the Italian churches in Boston. LINDA: So let me get back to the birth certificate. It's been my experience where the birth certificate actually has the Italian name, but it's later in school. Not yours? JULIA: No. I'd have to look it up, and you know, I'd have to look it up. But I think that the birth certificate -- it might be. LINDA: Well, it's just interesting that you [unintelligible - 00:28:52] change. JULIA: I also have my mother's, her brother's, and their half sister's report cards from their Italian elementary school in Milan, Italy, all signed by their father, my grandfather. I have it right around the corner. They're in the back.11 LINDA: Very interesting. JULIA: I went to visit the schools that they attended when I went to Milan. LINDA: So now your experience seems very different from many of the Italian Americans that I have, and their family is situated [unintelligible - 00:29:33] north. JULIA: Yes. Yes. Most of the Italian immigrants were from the central and southern part of Italy. From the north, the population there was more educated, and there was more industry, so jobs were plentiful unless, like in my grandfather's case, you had an industry where he was an embroiderer at many areas that have cottage industries. He worked out of his own home, and he was not a particularly good business man. So when the wars came along and he lost a lot of money, building an apartment house, so the boys decided that they would all come to America. LINDA: But they actually left the first time before the war. JULIA: Yes. Three of them came before the war, and my father was the only one that went back because he was the oldest son, and he must received word that things were not going well at home. And so he went back to help out for a time, but then after the -- he had to go into combat. Then when he came back after the war, things were not much better, and he joined his brothers in America again. LINDA: What did your mother's people do for…? JULIA: My grandfather started at the age of eight carrying bricks. He came from a large family in [unintelligible - 00:31:20], which is in Lombardi. It's the same town where Mother Cabrini was born. She was a modern Italian saint. And because child labor was very common, he went to school to learn to read and write, but then he got a job carrying bricks to build the gas company, and I just recently found out that the gas company in Milan was built by a French firm. 12 And so after the building was built, he got a job in the company. I don't know what he was doing, but he probably started out by shoveling coal or whatever. They made gas out of burning coal. And eventually, he worked his way up in the company until at the age of 54, he was in charge of sending out the gas to the entire city of Milan. They had huge gasometers in which they stored the prepared gas, and it's very strange because when my mother and father bought their house in Roxbury right across Massachusetts Avenue, which was the main street outside—their street connected to Massachusetts Avenue—there was a huge gasometer meter that was owned by the Boston Gas Company. And so all of my early life, I saw the same huge gasometer that my grandfather was a part of in Milan. LINDA: Interesting. JULIA: Right. It's gone now, as they put in the southeast expressway. They took it away, and they have different -- now they bring the gas in by pipeline, so they don't store it. LINDA: Did you ever have any discussions with your parents about the fact that it was an arranged marriage, or was it just so common then? JULIA: It was very common. You married people that you were introduced to, or there wasn't any of this thing of going out on dates. The expression in Northern Italy for a couple who were interested in each other was [foreign language - 00:34:04], meaning they speak to each other. That was the expression. They stayed in groups. They're amongst the families, and a gentleman, once a young man was interested in a girl, his only access was through her family. LINDA: Now, what brought your father to Boston? JULIA: Because his brothers were here and he figured he could -- he was very, very nervous. After the war, he came back in a very light post -- what do they call it? LINDA: Post-traumatic syndrome? JULIA: Post-traumatic… LINDA: Syndrome, I think.13 JULIA: They didn't call it that at the time, but he couldn't stay at home. And so, he came here and he did mostly have [unintelligible - 00:35:04] for the rest of his life. LINDA: But initially, when he came in 1912 with his brothers, what brought them to Boston? JULIA: Because they -- the Italians had started coming to America around 1890, 1888-1890, and the word got back that you could earn a living, and his brothers happened to be there. They had an aunt, their father's sister, Luisa Milani, came around 1880 or 1890, and she was married to a man who was a stonecutter, and of course, marble and granite. They have quarries in Massachusetts and Vermont, and her husband was a stonecutter. In fact, he died of silicosis. And these men were skilled laborers, and they worked in -- where they made cemetery monuments and they carved, they quarried stone for buildings. So their aunt was here, and they have to have someone to sponsor them. So my first two uncles came under her sponsorship, and so did my father under her sponsorship. Then a younger brother came around 1928. He had remained in Italy after the war. He was the youngest, and he came later than they did. And he became an automobile mechanic, a very skilled one. So that's right. And then my father, he bought these two houses for $1,700 apiece, and his brother Vincent gave him a down payment to put down so he could get settled. They bought homes almost immediately after they arrived. LINDA: Is this on Lansdowne, which later became Pompeii Street? JULIA: Yes. Well, my father did, and then his two brothers bought homes in other places. And his brother Vincent started up the same family embroidery business that he was -- that was his trade the rest of his life. He had a factory in [unintelligible - 00:37:36] where he did a great deal of 14 [wobbler], the embroidered patches that they used to distinguish outfits and military units and all types of things like that. LINDA: What's the name of that company? Do you know? JULIA: It was Vincent Tomasine Embroideries. And in fact later, after the war, long after the war, he sold it to someone else. LINDA: I'm wondering why your father didn't… JULIA: He couldn't stand it. After the way, he couldn't stand indoor work. He just couldn't. He was too nervous, and the business of course was run very differently from what his father had run in Italy, a one-man shop, whereas my uncle, all of my aunts went to work for my uncle, and they would get contracts. Say, women will embroidered slips and embroidered underwear, and the manufacturers in Boston that were making rayon, nylons, shorts would send -- they would stitch up the fronts of the slips, then they would send them by the box-loads to my uncle, who would put them on frames and do the embroideries on the front, then they went back to the factories to be re-stitched, to be stitched and completed. So he did all the embroidery, work whether it was blouses, whether it was slips, whether it was anything else that had to be done. As I said, during the war, it was military patches. LINDA: Now, about your mantle, you have a beautiful piece of embroidery. Who did that? JULIA: My mother. Because her mother had died so young from consumption, my grandfather refused to allow his daughters to work in large factories, in a factory. He didn't want them to do factory work. And so at that time, clothing was made almost custom. They didn't have huge factories that churned them all by the thousands, and fine clothing for girl who was going to be married, her [foreign language - 00:40:00] was made out of fine cloth and linen. And there were many, many -- again, it's a type of cottage industry, but small shops that were girls that were hired for this skill in stitching and 15 attaching tucking, attaching waist, and my mother worked in a place where they made shirts, and all kinds of skilled work was done by hand on single machines. And then every year for the month, they were allowed to vacation. My grandfather took them to the mountains, and that's still customary today. Every summer, most of the Italians go off to the mountains of the seashore for vacation. They believe in that. Most of them can afford to do that. If they can't, then they go away for a week or two. LINDA: So let's talk more about Boston. What was it like living on Lansdowne Street? JULIA: We loved it. It was a good street, and the same people that lived there when I was a child, the girls that grew up with me, other than one or two who have died, are still my friends. I still maintain contact even though they might have been a year or two younger or older, that contact with those families have never really been broken. There were about 60 families on two streets in a very -- they were part of [war day], but they were off of Massachusetts Avenue near the south end of Boston, although it was officially Roxbury. And all of the landlords on those two streets were Italian, and they came from all parts of Italy from the Piedmont to Lombardi down to Abruzzo down to the southern part all the way to Sicily. LINDA: Yeah. JULIA: So I grew up learning many dialects, hearing many dialects, and my mother kept in touch. She wrote letters to her family and friends in Italy and relatives until she couldn't see anymore 65 years later. So I would see my mother sitting there late at night, midnight, writing to Italy, and then the letters would come back and… LINDA: Did she save those?16 JULIA: No. I did it. She didn't. I saved quite a few. I have quite a lot, and as a matter of fact, one of my mother's girlfriends, [unintelligible - 00:43:10], I think, married a man named [unintelligible - 00:43:18], and her descendants lived in a part of Milan, and our children, which would represent the fourth generation, this lady's grandfather worked with my grandfather at the Milan Gasworks. And my mother kept in touch all those years with his daughter, with her friend, because they were neighbors. LINDA: Let me just slide you hand through here. Okay. JULIA: And my daughters and my sister's daughters had gone to Italy after college and met them and stayed with them. So there were four generations whose friendship has stood the test of time. LINDA: That's remarkable. JULIA: They came to visit two years ago, and I've been there to visit twice with my mother. LINDA: So what was it like when you went back? JULIA: It was like déjà vu. I knew everyone that my mother introduced me to. I'm very fluent in the dialect, which is very seldom spoken now anymore, because after Mussolini came in, one of the ways that he tried to unify the country of Italy was to insist that they all speak proper Italian, whereas everyone who came to America during the '20s and before spoke the dialect of their own region, or their own village. In fact, many people on Pompeii Street could not understand my parents. No one could if they spoke in the Lombard dialect, because it was so different. LINDA: How did they communicate? JULIA: Because they did have a common -- they could speak in proper Italian. Many of them had gone to school. And I mean, they could -- if they went to school in Italy, then they could read Italian, but there was a common thread. It was very difficult though, because they usually never spoke in proper Italian. But the southern Italian spoke closer to the proper language.17 LINDA: The southern? JULIA: Yeah. The southern and central ones, they spoke in a manner that was a little bit closer, closer to proper Italian. And my mother wrote in proper Italian, and most of them have had elementary school educations so that they could communicate with their families in Italy. LINDA: Did your parents learn English? JULIA: Yes, they did. My father could read the American paper. They listened to the news on the radio, and of course, we grew up and went to school in America. And my mother was forced. It was very, very difficult adjustment because she frequently misunderstood what I said in English, and it made for a great deal of friction until enough years went by that my youngest sister came along 13 years after I did. By that time, my sister came to understand the Italian because in the family, my mother and father still spoke in dialect and all of my aunts and uncles, the same dialect. So we got it through hearing it. It wasn't until I went back to Italy the first time in 1973 that we went back for three or four weeks, and it was the first time that I had what you call an immersion, where everybody spoke proper Italian and I suddenly understood. Like a person who plays the piano by ear, I understood the Italian. And then, when I went back in '76 with my mother and sister, again I was exposed to about three weeks or so, or a month, of everyone speaking proper Italian, except in mountain villages, where I visited with my mother—they still spoke dialect. And of course, I was fluent, and I still am. LINDA: So let me see though. Do I understand this correctly? Your mother spoke the dialect, but she came to… JULIA: But she could read and write proper Italian. LINDA: Right. So when she returned, and people were speaking more proper…18 JULIA: Right. But we only did family visiting. LINDA: Okay. JULIA: And so everyone she could understand because she could write and she had learned proper Italian. And my mother remembered the lyrics, the words to the songs she had learned from nursery school. She was sent to nursery school. Remember, my grandfather remarried, and his second wife had two babies. And nursery school, [foreign language - 00:49:00], it was called. [Foreign language - 00:49:04] is the proper Italian word. And they had very fine nursery school for children, and so my mother and her brother and sister were sent to nursery school, and -- my mother told me a very interesting thing. Up until she was 15 years old and went to this private Catholic school that was run by the Sisters of the Sacred Heart in Milan, even then, they had a woman who was referred to as [foreign language - 00:49:43]. And I haven't exactly known how to spell it, but a woman accompanied all these children to all their homes. The school was not far from their homes, but the children were accompanied to their homes by a lady. Even when she was 15 years old, someone accompanied all these students to their homes. LINDA: So when they walked home… JULIA: Right. Unless the parents came to get them; and if they couldn't, then somebody took them home. LINDA: Wow. So getting back to Boston, do you have all of these different regions where they are different Italians… from different regions is what I mean… JULIA: And all we young girls, all of us, we would play together, and then we would compare how our mother said things, how we would, you know, be there laughing, and then we [unintelligible - 00:50:48]. My mother said it like this. My mother said it like that. And all of us learned the different dialects, or they understood them even if they didn't try to speak them. 19 We had an awful lot of fun. We played on the street. We played street games. We learned to dance on the street. Our mothers taught us to crochet and embroider. That was another way that we passed the time. And the mothers, because this was small street, when the housework was done or the middle of the day, they came out, and when they weren't arms akimbo leaning out of their windows, they were down in the doorways, and we were watched all our lives, all of those young years. Somebody was always watching and looking out on the street, so nobody got away with anything. LINDA: Now, do the mothers socialize together? JULIA: Yes, they visited each other's little lots. As I said, I think I counted one time; there might have been 60 flats. It's still in existence, that neighborhood. But it's been bought by a developer. In fact, my brother still owns my father's house. He doesn't live there, but he still owns it. LINDA: So you had all different kinds of generations… JULIA: And all different kinds of cooking and all different generations; and when they died, they were waked in the apartments. They were not waked in funeral homes. Many children were born on the street, so we saw it all. We experienced it all. And young people died. I had two friends who were wonderful, lost a sister. Both of them lost sisters at 21 years old, and the whole street was born. It was complete support from everyone, because these girls had been -- one died in childbirth at 21 years old, and the other one died from apparently a blood clot just after some surgery. And everyone went to Boston City Hospital because we were only five minutes away from it. LINDA: Were the mourning traditions different between different regions? JULIA: They wore black. Some of them never took off that black. Even in the north end, most women who lost their husbands would wear black for the rest of their lives unless they remarried. Some of them did the same thing 20 on my street; if they lost their husbands they wore black housedresses. It was just the custom. But several children died, two of them from spinal meningitis, which at that time was fatal. And I think one was nine and one was 14. And of course, women, they mourned. They wept. They cried. That was a terrible thing. It was a part of life, and they didn't try to gloss over it. They lost a child in childbirth. You could hear them sometimes screaming from the pain even though doctor might come, an intern might come from Boston City Hospital. I remember that one of my friends' mother gave birth, and she lived on the third floor across the street. It must have been an extremely painful experience. My mother was marking the floor gray-faced, remembering her own. LINDA: So there was very little privacy. JULIA: The flat was small, and there was very little privacy. We knew who got along, who didn't get along. And some of them, even though they came from the old country, if things got too bad, they will separate. But for the most -- and the women as they got older, our parents, not my mother -- my mother went to work during the Depression when my father had an accident and broke his leg. He couldn't go to work. My mother went to work at the army base stitching uniforms. But it was only for a short time. As soon as my father was well enough to go back to work, then she had to stay home. LINDA: … in that area generally help each other? JULIA: To some extent. I will say this. When the Depression came, even though we lived in an industrial neighborhood, there were many pieces of vacant land. We have no idea who belonged to them, whether they were city owned land or belong to the neighboring factories. We had two very huge laundries which are still in existence. They were linen services. They 21 serviced hotels, restaurants. They did that kind of thing, places that used a lot of uniforms. So the girls who were brought up just ahead of me, many of them went to work in the laundry. I did too for a short time, while I went to night school after high school, and then as I said, when I passed the civil service exam, then I went to Washington. And after that, I did office work. But as the women grew older and their children were out of high school, many of them went to work either in the laundry or in a box factory. But during the Depression, every family sectioned off some small piece of these vacant lots and grew gardens. That was natural for them; even my father had an enormous garden from a piece of land that was vacant near our home. And according to my sister—this was while I was in Washington—and my mother, he just grew marvelous vegetables. Everybody grew, even in their backyards. No piece of land went to waste. So I never knew anyone who went hungry during the Depression. They would find jobs for each other. You just have to let -- they worked for private contractors, and Italian contractors were making their way up succeeding the Irish. So if my father was out of a job, he would notify the Italian men in the neighborhood and somebody would find him a job. LINDA: Now, did you notice that these people from different regions, did they kind of stick together? JULIA: Yes, they did. They [unintelligible - 00:58:30] somebody bought houses close together and lived in -- and people from the Piedmont occupied apartments kind of close together. But it was a tiny street. It was very small. So you were all -- you just grew up together. And as the women, as the families lived there longer 22 and longer, they got closer to each other, so they learned to respect each other. LINDA: What do you think the unifying factor would be, would have been? JULIA: The fact that they were all immigrants, and that they were locked into these -- they were a part of this small neighborhood. So you have to get -- men played bocce at the end of the street. Then they set up a social club. A few of the men from Abruzzo belonged to the Sons of Italy. And in the summertime, they would have a bus come to the street, and all the Italians who wanted to would bring watermelons and macaroni and meatballs and Italian bread and cheese and salami. If you want to tour, you can get on the bus and they would go to public parks where the Sons of Italy would have a big day. There would be a dance pavilion. They would dance to all this Italian music and have picnics, and the young kids would let them go [unintelligible - 01:00:15]. LINDA: Now, did people growing up here, did they begin their own social clubs depending on regions? JULIA: No. There was just one, and most of them were… I think the ones that belong to it mostly were from the Abruzzo. My father belonged to it a little while, but he wasn't really active. But there were quite a few families from the Abruzzo region of Italy and they belong. And they drank wine; they made wine in the house. The grapes would come into Charlestown, Massachusetts on the trains, and every October they would go to Charlestown and they would order a truckload of grapes. Then they would borrow grinders—my father did too—and grind the grapes. They might make a [unintelligible - 01:01:08] with boxes of grapes and make wine. So whenever you went to visit then [unintelligible - 01:01:16] you were an adult, they always offer you a glass of wine. Everybody's cooking was different because they came from different regions. My mother never learned to make what we refer to at the time as pasta [foreign language -23 01:01:33]. But today it's knows as spaghetti and meatballs. My mother had to learn after she came to America. That was not part of our Italian food culture at all. My mother came -- Milan is near a rice-growing area. So in Northern Italy, you eat cornmeal, polenta, and rice were the staples, soups. But in Southern Italy, they were used to for special occasions, they would -- it was always with tomato sauce that was the standard pasta with tomato sauce. Very seldom, they eat rice. None of us ate much meat. Meat was eaten very sparingly. In the Lombard region, the main dish which is now becoming, and again, has become very, very popular is called risotto. That was one of the staples that I grew up with. And the holidays, we had -- at that time, some of the delicacies that are important today were not important. Things like [foreign language - 01:03:10] was not important, but my mother told us about the Christmas customs in her home. She always mentioned this [foreign language - 01:03:19]. Now you can buy it anywhere. They import it, because the fly it in, and we had special things that we ate on holidays. And my mother told us about the Christmas customs of her family. LINDA: So was that a strong tradition on Christmas Eve celebration? JULIA: Christmas Eve was considered even by the Church as a day of fasting and abstinence. Christmas Eve, when I was growing up, was a non-meat day, and amongst the Italians, who were not accustomed to dairy anyway, they use cheese. But on Christmas Eve, you ate neither milk products nor meat. You ate fish. Now, the southern and central Italians would celebrate. They might cook six or seven, in some families, 12 different kinds of fish dishes. In my family, we observe Christmas Eve very quietly with no kind of celebration at all. The next day on Christmas, then we would have -- we might have polenta, which I made this Christmas, by the way. 24 LINDA: Oh, you did. JULIA: Yes. LINDA: Now, how did you serve it? JULIA: I plugged in? LINDA: You are. Just having system -- hang on. Okay. JULIA: Polenta is made—and I can assure you because I still have a package of flour there. You can buy it today under the Goya brand; it's the only place I find it. But in my father's day, you went to the various Italian markets and they would have barrels of it, and you bought course ground corn flour, cornmeal, and then you just put it into -- I still have my parents' cup of polenta pot. Everybody brought their polenta pot from Italy. It was called, in the dialect, the parieu. LINDA: How do you spell it? Do you know? JULIA: Parieu, P-A-R-I-E-U. It's how you pronounced it. That's in Lombard dialect. LINDA: And that's the polenta pot. JULIA: Right. Let's see, how did they say it in Italy? Paiolo is the proper Italian word, I think, if I can find it in here. Paiolo, P-A-I-O-L-O or P-A-I-U-O-L-O; it's a boiler, a copper, a cauldron, a kettle, that they used for polenta. LINDA: So how did your family used to serve the polenta? JULIA: The polenta was made in this copper pot that had a rounded bottom designed to hang from a crane on a fireplace. Because in Italy, they didn't have stoves, not even my mother's family, who lived in an apartment in the city, had a stove; they had small gas light burners. But if you have -- we have kitchen rangers, black iron ranges, and they would remove the round top on one section of it in the front where the fire was farthest, and boil a certain amount of water when you have much water to boil. And then you very, very slowly added the cornmeal. You added salt, maybe a little piece of garlic, and you slowly add in the cornmeal. 25 Now, one person has to hold the pot so it wouldn't tip over. And my father, that was my father's job, to stir that cornmeal until it was very thick and firm, and used an old piece of broomstick to do this, a [canalla], a piece of stick, like a piece of broomstick. Then when it was very firm, they would put down a cutting board, a piece of board on the table, cover it with a flour sack that had been -- a clean dishcloth. They used to make dishcloths out of flour sacks, the women, unbleached muslin. And my father would take that big kettle of polenta and dump it over on top of this cloth and then cover it. Then they use the string to cut it. You cut it because it would slice down with the string. And I've met many people in Fitchburg who remembered that same system of cooking polenta and cutting it with the string and dumping it over onto something. And we served it with various kinds of stew. Now, the southern and central Italians would most likely serve it with a meat ragout or Italian tomato sauce that they might use for any pasta dish. We served it with a stew that was called cassoeula, very difficult to spell, C-A-S-S-O-E-U-L-A. It was made from savoy cabbage, Italian sausages, spare ribs, and cooked with carrots and onions and garlic into light -- but no tomatoes, celery, into this wonderful stew, and I made it this Christmas. So from now on, as long as I'm alive, that's what we'll have for Christmas, and that's what we ate. Or they would make a rabbit… make a stew out of rabbit or chicken. But that's how we ate it. Then my father would eat it with gorgonzola cheese. And the next day, you sliced it and cut it and fried it with eggs for lunch or supper. I had an uncle, an old uncle, who lived with me after he was widowed, and he used to slice it the next day and layer it with milk and onions and bake it. And you can use polenta like you can use potatoes or rice with anything. It's delicious. My Irish husband loves it. Right, the kids love it. And you can make it out of a Quaker oats cornmeal too, but I don't like it as well as I 26 do the coarse meal. It has become quite popular again in upscale restaurants. LINDA: Now, when your mother would serve it on the board at the table, did… JULIA: Yeah. Put your dish there, and my father would take the string and the slice would fall on to the dish, then she'd serve the stew from the bowl or the pan. LINDA: I've also heard of people in Fitchburg, their mother would lay it out on the board, and then everyone would kind of eat it… JULIA: I have all that. Now, the first one I met since I've been here that tells me that, but I have a very close friend whose parents have 13 children, and the father made a big, long table to accommodate them. They lived in my father's, one of my father's flats, and when they made the polenta and the tomato sauce, he would lay it out on this table, and every child would have, every person would have a section and would eat with his fork or spoon, then they would put the tomato sauce over it. Right. LINDA: That's interesting. JULIA: Right. LINDA: So now, living with all these different regions or people from regions, were there different patron saints or celebrations? JULIA: A lot of them had relatives in the north end, and the north end was really the center of the Italian religious community, and so some of them would visit their relatives on feast days. Some of the Sicilian women who had relatives in the north end, they would go to the north on feast days. But we didn't do that. They would celebrate the feast days now that I think of it by cooking special foods, and a lot of them have like little [plaster] saints, and they would always keep votive candles, which was strange. They were little wicks that floated, little wicks, and you lit the wick, and they'd have like some kind of maybe a little asbestos washer, some little washer. I haven't seen those for 50-60 years. I haven't seen them. But I remembered the women used to keep -- a lot of the Southern Italian 27 women would keep votive lights. They would pray for their families and pray for good health, and they were attached to devotions to these different saints, or St. Joseph or the Virgin Mary, and they would keep little votive lights. I'm trying to think what -- they didn't have racks in them, but I don't know what the liquid was in these -- I mean, they still have the same candleholders. I got them on my dining room table right there, but they didn't have -- I don't remember the candles. I remember these little wicks./AT/jf/lk/es

 David Leonhardt's pean to investment in the Sunday NY Times Magazine starts well:A cross-country trip today typically takes more time than it did in the 1970s. The same is true of many trips within a region or a metropolitan area....Door to door, cross-country journeys often last 10 or even 12 hours.Compare this stagnation with the progress of the previous century. The first transcontinental railroad was completed in 1869... revolutionizing a journey that had taken months. People could suddenly cross the country in a week. Next came commercial flight... Finally, the jet age arrived: The first regularly scheduled nonstop transcontinental flight occurred on Jan. 25, 1959, from Los Angeles to New York, on a new long-range Boeing jet, the 707....In the more than 60 years since then, there has been no progress. Instead, the scheduled flight time between Los Angeles and New York has become about 30 minutes longer.  Aviation technology has not advanced in ways that speed the trip, and the skies have become so crowded that pilots reroute planes to avoid traffic. Nearly every other part of a cross-country trip, in airports and on local roads, also lasts longer. All told, a trip across the United States can take a few more hours today than in the 1970s(If you want to skip to the snark, it's in "review" below. You may wonder why I bother fussing about a New York Times piece. I do because it starts so unusually well, but then falls apart at taking obvious inferences from useful facts. ) On the surface too, In 1969, Metroliner trains made two-and-a-half-hour nonstop trips between Washington and New York. Today, there are no nonstop trains on that route, and the fastest trip, on Acela trains, takes about 20 minutes longer than the Metroliner once did. Commuter railroads and subway lines in many places have also failed to become faster. When I ride the New York City subway, I don't go from Point A to Point B much faster than my grandparents did in the 1940s. For drivers — a majority of American travelers — trip times have increased, because traffic has worsened. In the California metropolitan area that includes Silicon Valley, a typical rush-hour drive that would have taken 45 minutes in the early 1980s took nearly 60 minutes by 2019. Why?Why has this happened? A central reason is that the United States, for all that we spend as a nation on transportation, has stopped meaningfully investing in it.... Historically, the most successful economic growth strategy has revolved around investment. It was true in ancient Rome, with its roads and aqueducts, and in 19th-century Britain, with its railroads. During the 20th century, it was true in the United States as well as Japan and Europe. The latter is not quite true. The most successful economic growth strategy is productivity, gained from new ideas embodied in new products and new companies. But it would be quite useful to get from place to place faster. Leonhardt makes a decent case for government investment in basic research and public goods: Investments are expensive for a private company, and only a fraction of the returns typically flows to the original investors and inventors. Despite patents, other people find ways to mimic the invention. Often, these imitators build on the original in ways that are perfectly legal but would not have been possible without the initial breakthrough. Johannes Gutenberg did not get rich from inventing the printing press, and neither did Tim Berners-Lee from creating the World Wide Web in 1989....The earliest stages of scientific research are difficult for the private sector to support. In these stages, the commercial possibilities are often unclear. An automobile company, for example, will struggle to justify spending money on basic engineering research that may end up being useful only to an aerospace company. Yet such basic scientific research can bring enormous benefits for a society. It can allow people to live longer and better lives and can lay the groundwork for unforeseen commercial applications that are indeed profitable.True but overstated. We might see a lot more private investment if we didn't tax its returns after all. A perfectly logical case for eliminating corporate income taxes and individual taxes on investment returns follows, but of course you won't hear it in the pages of the NYT.He goes on to laud military spending for its speeding of technical progress. A perfectly logical case for much larger military spending also follows. Yes, Without a doubt, government officials make plenty of mistakes when choosing which projects to fund. They misjudge an idea's potential or allow political considerations to influence decisions..He excuses these, a bit too quickly I think:Yet these failures tend to be cheap relative to the size of the federal budget, at least in the United States. (The risks of overinvestment are more serious in an authoritarian system like the old Soviet Union or contemporary China.) Even more important, a few big investment successes can produce returns, in economic growth and the resulting tax revenue, that cover the costs for dozens of failures. IBM and Google can pay for a lot of Solyndras.Without a Cold War it is easy to throw immense down ratholes. More on that coming. Just as important, government can reduce its involvement as an industry matures and allow the market system to take over. After the government creates the initial demand for a new product, the sprawling private sector — with its reliance on market feedback and the wisdom of crowds — often does a better job allocating resources than any bureaucratic agency.I'm grateful for the acknowledgement, but though the government can, will it do so? Car companies are headed down an infernal abyss of crony-capitalism. Energy subsides do not seem headed for free market Nirvana. Tech companies are becoming government controlled. Education also fits the definition of a program that requires spending money today mostly to improve the quality of life tomorrow. In the middle of the 20th century, education was the investment that turbocharged many other investments.Yes. An eloquent case for education follows.  And education seems the poster child for how the government can send endless money down larger and larger ratholes to no effect. The stagnation of investment does not stem only from the size of government. It also reflects the priorities of modern government, as set by both Republicans and Democrats. The federal government has grown — but not the parts oriented toward the future and economic growth. Spending has surged on health care, Social Security, antipoverty programs, police and prisons. (Military spending has declined as a share of G.D.P. in recent decades.) All these programs are important. A decent society needs to care for its vulnerable and prevent disorder. But the United States has effectively starved programs focused on the future at the expense of those focused on the present.  ...This great American stagnation has many causes, but the withering of investment is a major one.  Yes. Review:At this point, the essay could easily have segued straight in to a techno-optimist manifesto, like the eloquent one posted by Mark Andreesen. Certify supersonic planes! Hyperloop. A rapid push for self-driving cars. Repeal Davis-Bacon, and other measures that drive up costs. Reform zoning laws and environmental review. Sure, increase federal research and R&D spending, but reform it as well. Driving it all, get back to energy abundance with a vastly deregulated nuclear regulatory commission. Focus transportation on speed. (It's a tragedy that we build light rail and subway lines with no express trains, so they take longer than totally jammed freeways. Could it all be just for show?) It did not. Instead, too predictably for The New York Times, it went on to cheer "Bidenomics," President Biden has made investment the centerpiece of his economic strategy — even if that isn't always obvious to outsiders. He has signed legislation authorizing hundreds of billions of dollars to rebuild the transportation system, subsidize semiconductor manufacturing and expand clean energy. These are precisely the kinds of programs the private sector tends not to do on its own. All told, Biden has overseen the largest increase in federal investment since the Eisenhower era. Notably, the infrastructure and semiconductor bill both passed with bipartisan support, a sign that parts of the Republican Party are coming to question the neoliberal consensus. As was the case during the 1950s, the threat from a foreign rival — China, this time — is focusing some policymakers on the value of government investment.Just about every word of this epitomizes why we are in the sorry state we are. The Biden Administration's Federal Highway Administration declared (see previous blog post)  that none of the "infrastructure'' money would be used to expand road capacity, or, most scandalously, "have significant impacts to travel patterns!"  Rebuild, perhaps, but not if it solves any of the problems in the first paragraph. No, the private sector will not "subsidize semiconductor manufacturing." Wasn't that exactly the sort of activity that Leonhardt just said is best for the private sector to do? Semiconductor manufacturing is doing just fine abroad. The massive money is earmarked to bring it to the US, where we will do it more expensively. This is simple protectionism on steroids; do to chip manufacturing what the Jones Act did for the Merchant Marine and sugar subsidies do to them. "Expand clean energy" with mind-boggling subsidies and protection -- on the order of a Trillion dollars, largely for current generation battery powered electric cars, which save no carbon, and which China can also make more cheaply if you care about the environment. And most deeply, US chips and green energy subsidies don't make anything cheaper, faster, or better. They  just do what we already do in the US, at vastly greater cost, and in a different way. Even if electric cars did save carbon, they would not get you to the airport any faster. The problem with US public investment is not just lack of money. It is that the money we do spend goes down ratholes, so not spending is wise. Public teacher unions that deliver generations of children, mostly already disadvantaged, who cannot read or count. $4 billion dollar per mile subways. Leonhardt mentions other countries' success with high speed trains, without mentioning the poster child for all that is wrong with US public investment: the California railroad. 15 years and counting, $100+ billion dollars, not a mile of track laid yet. SNCF, the French state railroad company smelled so much rot it wouldn't touch the project.  If it were not so perfectly obvious to voters that money will be wasted, they might support a lot more investment. 

The formation of politology as an important academic discipline at the Law Faculty of the Ivan Franko National University of Lviv is analyzed. Emphasis is placed on the importance of studying politology by law students. Politology is considered as an important social and humanitarian science of politics, its role and functions in the life of society and the state. It is noted that this task can be accomplished by law students to a large extent by mastering the most general laws and features of politics formation, its theory; characteristics of the functions of the political system and state power; functions and nature of the state; essence, forms and methods of activity of subjects of politics and laws of development of political process; analysis of global politics issues, in particular, international relations. It is shown that the formation, development and institutionalization of political science or politology was a long, complex and multifaceted process. The formation and development of politology took place almost simultaneously on different continents. This indicates that the study and dissemination of political science was an urgent social necessity, without which it is impossible to achieve a high level of development of society and the state.In Ukraine, the emergence of political science, in particular about political and state power, the essence, patterns, trends in the functioning and development of politics, its place and role in society first took place at the Lviv University, including the Faculty of Law, established January 20, 1661. The study of political geography, which provided knowledge about the formation and development of the political sphere of society, geographical conditions and features of the political system, domestic and foreign policy of different states, international relations and conflicts, characterized a multifaceted comparison of natural history and human history. The study of political geography was based on the works of the French lawyer and philosopher Jean Bodin. At that time, the graduates of the Faculty of Law («both rights») of the Lviv University realized themselves not only in church and educational activities, but also built political careers as senators and ambassadors to the Grand Sejm, county and zemstvo sejms, held positions of judges of city and zemstvo courts and government officials of the then Commonwealth of Poland.Certain changes in the development of politology took place after the accession of Galicia to the Austrian monarchy. An important role in the training of civil servants (judges, prosecutors, lawyers, notaries) was assigned to the Law Faculty of the Lviv University. During the Austrian period, four departments were established within the Law Faculty of the Lviv University, including the Department of Politology and Austrian Legislation. The curriculum of the Law Faculty of the Lviv University provided for the study of political science in the fourth year, when the study at the faculty was to be completed. The last fourth year of study at the Faculty of Law was final, so the study of politology formed in future lawyers a deep understanding of the essence of political and state activities, the importance of responsible decision-making in the field of relations between different social groups, states and peoples as well as struggle for the acquisition or retention of state power. It was the deep mastery of political knowledge at the Law Faculty of the Lviv University that enabled many law graduates to become deputies («ambassadors») of the Austrian Parliament and the Galician Regional Sejm and worthily represent the interests of the native people in Austria and later Austria-Hungary.The annexation of the western Ukrainian lands to the Ukrainian SSR in 1939 opened a new page in the history of the Lviv University and its Faculty of Law. In 1944, the Department of Theory and History of State and Law was established at the Faculty of Law, which was one of the first to acquaint students with political knowledge at the Faculty of Law during the Soviet period. After 1956, the faculties of law introduced a new scientific and educational discipline – History of Political and Legal Doctrines, which researched and continues to study the history of the emergence and development of theoretical knowledge about politics, state, law, studies the process of human knowledge of politics, state and law at different stages of history in different nations, from early statehood and modernity. This discipline has become a separate subject in university didactics, which was taught at the Faculty of Law at the Department of Theory and History of State and Law, and since 2008 at the Department of History of State, Law and Political and Legal Teachings of the Ivan Franko National University of Lviv.In the early 1990s, there were significant changes in public relations. The economic and political situation in the Soviet Union continued to worsen, the national liberation struggle unfolded in the national regions of the Union. It was at that time that the Department of Politology at the Ivan Franko National University of Lviv was established. This formation took place in a difficult period of our history, due to the totalitarian regime in the former USSR. At that time, political science was ambiguously perceived. However, as early as 1989, some young university professors gave lectures on political science at some faculties. In 1990, the Department of Political Science was established at the University of Lviv as a general university department, since 1996 it has been part of the Faculty of Philosophy of the Ivan Franko National University of Lviv. In 1997, the specialty "politology" was opened at the Faculty of Philosophy and the department became a graduate. The expansion of the department led to its division in 2007 into the Department of Politology and the Department of Theory and History of Political Science. The Department of Political Science taught a course in political science at the Ivan Franko National University of Lviv until 2019.In 2019, by the decision of the Academic Council of the Law Faculty of the Ivan Franko National University of, the course of politology was transferred to the Department of History of State, Law and Political and Legal Teachings of the Law Faculty , which plays an important role in training highly qualified lawyers. This course is taught in the fourth year of full-time and part-time study. The study of politics in politology is interdisciplinary in nature and is reflected in its integration with other disciplines, especially law. In addition to traditional topics for politology, while teaching politology, teachers thoroughly cover the methodology of the history of doctrines about the state and law, political and legal doctrine and thought; regularities of origin and tendencies of development of world theoretical thought about the state and law, the basic political and legal doctrines of the Ancient world, the Middle Ages, New and Modern times; main directions of modern political and legal ideology, basic schools of jurisprudence and political science at the present stage, history of political and legal thought of Ukraine. The study of politology will enrich law students with knowledge about the ways and forms of people's participation in the political life of the state, give an understanding of the types of dynamics of political processes, reveal the content and ways of forming political culture, diversity of modern concepts of social development. ; Проаналізовано становлення політології як важливої навчальної дисципліни на юридичному факультеті Львівського національного університету імені Івана Франка. Акцентовано увагу на важливості вивчення політології студентами-правниками. Розглянуто політологію як важливу соціально-гуманітарну науку про політику, її роль і функції в житті суспільства і держави. Зазначено, що це завдання може бути виконано значною мірою шляхом засвоєння студентами-юристами найбільш загальних закономірностей та особли­востей формування політики, її теорії; характеристики функцій політичної системи та державної влади; функцій і характеру держави; сутність, форм та методів діяльності суб'єктів політики та закономірностей розвитку політичного процесу; аналізу проблем глобальної політики, зокрема, міжнародних відносин. Показано, що становлення, розвиток та інституалізація політичної науки чи політології ‒ це тривалий, складний і багатогранний процес. Становлення і розвиток політології відбувався майже одночасно на різних конти­нентах. Це свідчить про те, що вивчення і поширення політологічних знань було нагальною суспільною необхідністю, без цього неможливо досягнути високого рівня розвитку сус­пільства і держави.На українських землях зародження політологічних знань, зокрема про політичну та державну владу, про сутність, закономірності, тенденції функціонування і розвитку полі­тики, її місця і ролі в житті суспільства вперше відбулося у Львівському університеті, зокрема на юридичному факультеті, створеному 20 січня 1661 року. Серед навчальних дисциплін було передбачено вивчення політичної географії, яка давала знання про формування і розвиток політичної сфери життя суспільства, географічні умови та особли­вості політичного устрою, внутрішньої і зовнішньої політики різних держав, міжнародні відносини і конфлікти, характеризувала багатостороннє зіставлення історії природи та історії людства. Вивчення політичної географії ґрунтувалося на працях французького юриста та філософа Жана Бодена.У складі юридичного факультету Львівського університету в австрійський період було створено чотири кафедри, зокрема кафедру політичних учень й австрійського законо­дав­ст­ва. Навчальна програма юридичного факультету Львівського університету передбачала вивчення політичних наук на четвертому курсі, коли завершувалося навчання на факуль­теті. Останній четвертий курс навчання на юридичному факультеті був підсум­ковим, тому вивчення політичних наук формувало у майбутніх правників глибоке розуміння сутності політичної та державної діяльності, важливості прийняття відпо­відальних рішень у галузі взаємовідносин між різними суспільними групами, державами й народами, а також рішень, пов'язаних із боротьбою за здобуття або утримання державної влади. Саме глибоке оволодіння політичними знаннями на юридичному факультеті Львівського університету дало можливість багатьом випускникам правникам стати депутатами («послами») австрійського парламенту і Галицького крайового сейму та гідно представляти інтереси рідного народу в Австрії, а згодом Австро-Угорщині.Приєднання у 1939 році західноукраїнських земель до складу Української РСР відкрило нову сторінку в історії Львівського університету і його юридичного факультету. У 1944 році на юридичному факультеті було створено кафедру теорії та історії держави і права, яка одна з перших на юридичному факультеті в радянський період ознайомлювала студентів з політичними знаннями. Після 1956 року на юридичних факультетах ввели нову наукову і навчальну дисципліну ‒ «Історію політичних і правових учень», яка досліджувала і до сьогодні продовжує вивчати історію виникнення та розвитку теоретичних знань про політику, державу, право, тобто вивчає процес пізнання людьми явищ політики, держави і права на різних етапах історії у різних народів, починаючи з ранньої державності і сучасності. Ця навчальна дисципліна стала окремим предметом в університетській дидактиці, яку викладали на юридичному факультеті на кафедрі теорії та історії держави і права, а з 2008 року на кафедрі історії держави, права та політико-правових учень юридичного факультету Львівського національного університету імені Івана Франка.Упродовж 1990‒2019 років викладання курсу політології на юридичному факультеті Львівського університету забезпечувала кафедра політології.У 2019 році рішенням Вченої ради юридичного факультету Львівського національного університету імені Івана Франка курс політології передано на кафедру історії держави, права та політико-правових учень юридичного факультету, який відіграє важливу роль у підготовці юристів високої кваліфікації. Цей курс читають на четвертому курсі денної і заочної форми навчання. Вивчення політології збагатить студентів юридичного факультету знаннями про способи і форми участі народу в політичному житті держави, дасть розу­міння типів динаміки політичних процесів, розкриє зміст і шляхи формування політичної культури, різноманітність сучасних концепцій суспільного розвитку тощо.

Temporary or permanent, local or international, voluntary or forced, legal or illegal, registered or unregistered migrations of individuals, whole communities or individual groups are an important factor in constructing and modifying (modern) societies. The extent of international migrations is truly immense. At the time of the preparation of this publication more than 200 million people have been involved in migrations in a single year according to the United Nations. Furthermore, three times more wish to migrate, mostly from sub-Saharan Africa towards some of the most economically developed areas of the world according to the estimates by the Gallup Institute (Esipova, 2011). Some authors, although aware that it is not a new phenomenon, talk about the era of migration (Castles, Miller, 2009) or the globalization of migration (Friedman, 2004). The global dimensions of migration are definitely influenced also by the increasingly visible features of modern societies like constantly changing conditions, instability, fluidity, uncertainty etc. (Beck, 2009; Bauman, 2002).The extent, direction, type of migrations and their consequences are affected by many social and natural factors in the areas of emigration and immigration. In addition, researchers from many scientific disciplines who study migrations have raised a wide range of research questions (Boyle, 2009, 96), use a variety of methodological approaches and look for different interpretations in various spatial, temporal and contextual frameworks. The migrations are a complex, multi-layered, variable, contextual process that takes place at several levels. Because of this, research on migrations has become an increasingly interdisciplinary field, since the topics and problems are so complex that they cannot be grasped solely and exclusively from the perspective of a single discipline or theory. Therefore, we are witnessing a profusion of different "faces of migration", which is reflected and at the same time also contributed to by this thematic issue of the journal Ars & Humanitas.While mobility or migration are not new phenomena, as people have moved and migrated throughout the history of mankind, only recently, in the last few decades, has theoretical and research focus on them intensified considerably. In the last two decades a number of research projects, university programs and courses, research institutes, scientific conferences, seminars, magazines, books and other publications, involving research, academia as well as politics and various civil society organizations have emerged. This shows the recent exceptional interest in the issue of migration, both in terms of knowledge of the processes involved, their mapping in the history of mankind, as well as the theoretical development of migration studies and daily management of this politically sensitive issue.Migration affects many entities on many different levels: the individuals, their families and entire communities at the local level in the emigrant societies as well as in the receiving societies. The migration is changing not only the lives of individuals but whole communities and societies, as well as social relations; it is also shifting the cultural patterns and bringing important social transformations (Castles 2010). This of course raises a number of questions, problems and issues ranging from human rights violations to literary achievements. Some of these are addressed by the authors in this thematic issue.The title "Many faces of migration", connecting contributions in this special issue, is borrowed from the already mentioned Gallup Institute's report on global migration (Esipova, 2011). The guiding principle in the selection of the contributions has been their diversity, reflected also in the list of disciplines represented by the authors: sociology, geography, ethnology and cultural anthropology, history, art history, modern Mediterranean studies, gender studies and media studies. Such an approach necessarily leads not only to a diverse, but at least seemingly also incompatible, perhaps even opposing views "on a given topic. However, we did not want to silence the voices of "other" disciplines, but within the reviewing procedures actually invited scientists from the fields represented by the contributors to this volume. The wealth of the selected contributions lies therefore not only in their coherence and complementarity, but also in the diversity of views, stories and interpretations.The paper of Zora Žbontar deals with the attitudes towards foreigners in ancient Greece, where the hospitality to strangers was considered so worthy a virtue that everyone was expected to "demonstrate hospitality and protection to any foreigner who has knocked on their door". The contrast between the hospitality of ancient Greece and the modern emergence of xenophobia and ways of dealing with migration issues in economically developed countries is especially challenging. "In an open gesture of hospitality to strangers the ancient Greeks showed their civilization".Although the aforementioned research by the United Nations and Gallup Institute support some traditional stereotypes of the main global flows of migrants, and the areas about which the potential migrants "dream", Bojan Baskar stresses the coexistence of different migratory desires, migration flows and their interpretations. In his paper he specifically focuses on overcoming and relativising stereotypes as well as theories of immobile and non-enterprising (Alpine) mountain populations and migrations.The different strategies of the crossing borders adopted by migrant women are studied by Mirjana Morokvasic. She marks them as true social innovators, inventing different ways of transnational life resulting in a bottom-up contribution to the integrative processes across Europe. Some of their innovations go as far as to shift diverse real and symbolic boundaries of belonging to a nation, gender, profession.Elaine Burroughs and Zoë O'Reilly highlight the close relations between the otherwise well-established terminology used in statistics and science to label immigrants in Ireland and elsewhere in EU, and the negative representations of certain types of migrants in politics and the public. The discussion focusses particularly on asylum seekers and illegal immigrants who come from outside the EU. The use of language can quickly become a political means of exclusion, therefore the authors propose the development and use of more considerate and balanced migration terminology.Damir Josipovič proposes a change of the focal point for identifying and interpreting the well-studied migrations in the former Yugoslavia. The author suggests changing the dualistic view of these migrations to an integrated, holistic view. Instead of a simplified understanding of these migrations as either international or domestic, voluntary or forced, he proposes a concept of pseudo-voluntary migrations.Maja Korać-Sanderson's contribution highlights an interesting phenomenon in the shift in the traditional patterns of gender roles. The conclusions are derived from the study of the family life of Chinese traders in transitional Serbia. While many studies suggest that child care in recent decades in immigrant societies is generally performed by immigrants, her study reveals that in Serbia, the Chinese merchants entrust the care of their children mostly to local middle class women. The author finds this switch of roles in the "division of labour" in the child care favourable for both parties involved.Francesco Della Puppa focuses on a specific part of the mosaic of contemporary migrations in the Mediterranean: the Bangladeshi immigrant community in the highly industrialized North East of Italy. The results of his in-depth qualitative study reveal the factors that shape this segment of the Bangladeshi diaspora, the experiences of migrants and the effects of migration on their social and biographical trajectories.John A. Schembri and Maria Attard present a snippet of a more typical Mediterranean migration process - immigration to Malta. The authors highlight the reduction in migration between Malta and the United Kingdom, while there is an increase in immigration to Malta from the rest of Europe and sub-Saharan Africa. Amongst the various impacts of immigration to Malta the extraordinary concentration of immigrant populations is emphasized, since the population density of Malta far exceeds that of nearly all other European countries.Miha Kozorog studies the link between migration and constructing their places of their origin. On the basis of Ardener's theory the author expresses "remoteness" of the emigratory Slavia Friulana in terms of topology, in relation to other places, rather than in topography. "Remoteness" is formed in relation to the "outside world", to those who speak of "remote areas" from the privileged centres. The example of an artistic event, which organizers aim "to open a place like this to the outside world", "to encourage the production of more cosmopolitan place", shows only the temporary effect of such event on the reduction of the "remoteness".Jani Kozina presents a study of the basic temporal and spatial characteristics of migration "of people in creative occupations" in Slovenia. The definition of this specific segment of the population and approach to study its migrations are principally based on the work of Richard Florida. The author observes that people with creative occupations in Slovenia are very immobile and in this respect quite similar to other professional groups in Slovenia, but also to the people in creative professions in the Southern and Eastern Europe, which are considered to be among the least mobile in Europe. Detailed analyses show that the people in creative occupations from the more developed regions generally migrate more intensely and are also more willing to relocate.Mojca Pajnik and Veronika Bajt study the experiences of migrant women with the access to the labour market in Slovenia. Existing laws and policies push the migrants into a position where, if they want to get to work, have to accept less demanding work. In doing so, the migrant women are targets of stereotyped reactions and practices of discrimination on the basis of sex, age, attributed ethnic and religious affiliation, or some other circumstances, particularly the fact of being migrants. At the same time the latter results in the absence of any protection from the state.Migration studies often assume that the target countries are "modern" and countries of origin "traditional". Anıl Al- Rebholz argues that such a dichotomous conceptualization of modern and traditional further promotes stereotypical, essentialist and homogenizing images of Muslim women in the "western world". On the basis of biographical narratives of young Kurdish and Moroccan women as well as the relationships between mothers and daughters, the author illustrates a variety of strategies of empowerment of young women in the context of transnational migration.A specific face of migration is highlighted in the text of Svenka Savić, namely the face of artistic migration between Slovenia and Serbia after the Second World War. The author explains how more than thirty artists from Slovenia, with their pioneering work in three ensembles (opera, ballet and theatre), significantly contributed to the development of the performing arts in the Serbian National Theatre in Novi Sad.We believe that in the present thematic issue we have succeeded in capturing an important part of the modern European research dynamic in the field of migration. In addition to well-known scholars in this field several young authors at the beginning their research careers have been shortlisted for the publication. We are glad of their success as it bodes a vibrancy of this research area in the future. At the same time, we were pleased to receive responses to the invitation from representatives of so many disciplines, and that the number of papers received significantly exceeded the maximum volume of the journal. Recognising and understanding of the many faces of migration are important steps towards the comprehensive knowledge needed to successfully meet the challenges of migration issues today and even more so in the future. It is therefore of utmost importance that researchers find ways of transferring their academic knowledge into practice – to all levels of education, the media, the wider public and, of course, the decision makers in local, national and international institutions. The call also applies to all authors in this issue of the journal.

Temporary or permanent, local or international, voluntary or forced, legal or illegal, registered or unregistered migrations of individuals, whole communities or individual groups are an important factor in constructing and modifying (modern) societies. The extent of international migrations is truly immense. At the time of the preparation of this publication more than 200 million people have been involved in migrations in a single year according to the United Nations. Furthermore, three times more wish to migrate, mostly from sub-Saharan Africa towards some of the most economically developed areas of the world according to the estimates by the Gallup Institute (Esipova, 2011). Some authors, although aware that it is not a new phenomenon, talk about the era of migration (Castles, Miller, 2009) or the globalization of migration (Friedman, 2004). The global dimensions of migration are definitely influenced also by the increasingly visible features of modern societies like constantly changing conditions, instability, fluidity, uncertainty etc. (Beck, 2009; Bauman, 2002).The extent, direction, type of migrations and their consequences are affected by many social and natural factors in the areas of emigration and immigration. In addition, researchers from many scientific disciplines who study migrations have raised a wide range of research questions (Boyle, 2009, 96), use a variety of methodological approaches and look for different interpretations in various spatial, temporal and contextual frameworks. The migrations are a complex, multi-layered, variable, contextual process that takes place at several levels. Because of this, research on migrations has become an increasingly interdisciplinary field, since the topics and problems are so complex that they cannot be grasped solely and exclusively from the perspective of a single discipline or theory. Therefore, we are witnessing a profusion of different "faces of migration", which is reflected and at the same time also contributed to by this thematic issue of the journal Ars & Humanitas.While mobility or migration are not new phenomena, as people have moved and migrated throughout the history of mankind, only recently, in the last few decades, has theoretical and research focus on them intensified considerably. In the last two decades a number of research projects, university programs and courses, research institutes, scientific conferences, seminars, magazines, books and other publications, involving research, academia as well as politics and various civil society organizations have emerged. This shows the recent exceptional interest in the issue of migration, both in terms of knowledge of the processes involved, their mapping in the history of mankind, as well as the theoretical development of migration studies and daily management of this politically sensitive issue.Migration affects many entities on many different levels: the individuals, their families and entire communities at the local level in the emigrant societies as well as in the receiving societies. The migration is changing not only the lives of individuals but whole communities and societies, as well as social relations; it is also shifting the cultural patterns and bringing important social transformations (Castles 2010). This of course raises a number of questions, problems and issues ranging from human rights violations to literary achievements. Some of these are addressed by the authors in this thematic issue.The title "Many faces of migration", connecting contributions in this special issue, is borrowed from the already mentioned Gallup Institute's report on global migration (Esipova, 2011). The guiding principle in the selection of the contributions has been their diversity, reflected also in the list of disciplines represented by the authors: sociology, geography, ethnology and cultural anthropology, history, art history, modern Mediterranean studies, gender studies and media studies. Such an approach necessarily leads not only to a diverse, but at least seemingly also incompatible, perhaps even opposing views "on a given topic. However, we did not want to silence the voices of "other" disciplines, but within the reviewing procedures actually invited scientists from the fields represented by the contributors to this volume. The wealth of the selected contributions lies therefore not only in their coherence and complementarity, but also in the diversity of views, stories and interpretations.The paper of Zora Žbontar deals with the attitudes towards foreigners in ancient Greece, where the hospitality to strangers was considered so worthy a virtue that everyone was expected to "demonstrate hospitality and protection to any foreigner who has knocked on their door". The contrast between the hospitality of ancient Greece and the modern emergence of xenophobia and ways of dealing with migration issues in economically developed countries is especially challenging. "In an open gesture of hospitality to strangers the ancient Greeks showed their civilization".Although the aforementioned research by the United Nations and Gallup Institute support some traditional stereotypes of the main global flows of migrants, and the areas about which the potential migrants "dream", Bojan Baskar stresses the coexistence of different migratory desires, migration flows and their interpretations. In his paper he specifically focuses on overcoming and relativising stereotypes as well as theories of immobile and non-enterprising (Alpine) mountain populations and migrations.The different strategies of the crossing borders adopted by migrant women are studied by Mirjana Morokvasic. She marks them as true social innovators, inventing different ways of transnational life resulting in a bottom-up contribution to the integrative processes across Europe. Some of their innovations go as far as to shift diverse real and symbolic boundaries of belonging to a nation, gender, profession.Elaine Burroughs and Zoë O'Reilly highlight the close relations between the otherwise well-established terminology used in statistics and science to label immigrants in Ireland and elsewhere in EU, and the negative representations of certain types of migrants in politics and the public. The discussion focusses particularly on asylum seekers and illegal immigrants who come from outside the EU. The use of language can quickly become a political means of exclusion, therefore the authors propose the development and use of more considerate and balanced migration terminology.Damir Josipovič proposes a change of the focal point for identifying and interpreting the well-studied migrations in the former Yugoslavia. The author suggests changing the dualistic view of these migrations to an integrated, holistic view. Instead of a simplified understanding of these migrations as either international or domestic, voluntary or forced, he proposes a concept of pseudo-voluntary migrations.Maja Korać-Sanderson's contribution highlights an interesting phenomenon in the shift in the traditional patterns of gender roles. The conclusions are derived from the study of the family life of Chinese traders in transitional Serbia. While many studies suggest that child care in recent decades in immigrant societies is generally performed by immigrants, her study reveals that in Serbia, the Chinese merchants entrust the care of their children mostly to local middle class women. The author finds this switch of roles in the "division of labour" in the child care favourable for both parties involved.Francesco Della Puppa focuses on a specific part of the mosaic of contemporary migrations in the Mediterranean: the Bangladeshi immigrant community in the highly industrialized North East of Italy. The results of his in-depth qualitative study reveal the factors that shape this segment of the Bangladeshi diaspora, the experiences of migrants and the effects of migration on their social and biographical trajectories.John A. Schembri and Maria Attard present a snippet of a more typical Mediterranean migration process - immigration to Malta. The authors highlight the reduction in migration between Malta and the United Kingdom, while there is an increase in immigration to Malta from the rest of Europe and sub-Saharan Africa. Amongst the various impacts of immigration to Malta the extraordinary concentration of immigrant populations is emphasized, since the population density of Malta far exceeds that of nearly all other European countries.Miha Kozorog studies the link between migration and constructing their places of their origin. On the basis of Ardener's theory the author expresses "remoteness" of the emigratory Slavia Friulana in terms of topology, in relation to other places, rather than in topography. "Remoteness" is formed in relation to the "outside world", to those who speak of "remote areas" from the privileged centres. The example of an artistic event, which organizers aim "to open a place like this to the outside world", "to encourage the production of more cosmopolitan place", shows only the temporary effect of such event on the reduction of the "remoteness".Jani Kozina presents a study of the basic temporal and spatial characteristics of migration "of people in creative occupations" in Slovenia. The definition of this specific segment of the population and approach to study its migrations are principally based on the work of Richard Florida. The author observes that people with creative occupations in Slovenia are very immobile and in this respect quite similar to other professional groups in Slovenia, but also to the people in creative professions in the Southern and Eastern Europe, which are considered to be among the least mobile in Europe. Detailed analyses show that the people in creative occupations from the more developed regions generally migrate more intensely and are also more willing to relocate.Mojca Pajnik and Veronika Bajt study the experiences of migrant women with the access to the labour market in Slovenia. Existing laws and policies push the migrants into a position where, if they want to get to work, have to accept less demanding work. In doing so, the migrant women are targets of stereotyped reactions and practices of discrimination on the basis of sex, age, attributed ethnic and religious affiliation, or some other circumstances, particularly the fact of being migrants. At the same time the latter results in the absence of any protection from the state.Migration studies often assume that the target countries are "modern" and countries of origin "traditional". Anıl Al- Rebholz argues that such a dichotomous conceptualization of modern and traditional further promotes stereotypical, essentialist and homogenizing images of Muslim women in the "western world". On the basis of biographical narratives of young Kurdish and Moroccan women as well as the relationships between mothers and daughters, the author illustrates a variety of strategies of empowerment of young women in the context of transnational migration.A specific face of migration is highlighted in the text of Svenka Savić, namely the face of artistic migration between Slovenia and Serbia after the Second World War. The author explains how more than thirty artists from Slovenia, with their pioneering work in three ensembles (opera, ballet and theatre), significantly contributed to the development of the performing arts in the Serbian National Theatre in Novi Sad.We believe that in the present thematic issue we have succeeded in capturing an important part of the modern European research dynamic in the field of migration. In addition to well-known scholars in this field several young authors at the beginning their research careers have been shortlisted for the publication. We are glad of their success as it bodes a vibrancy of this research area in the future. At the same time, we were pleased to receive responses to the invitation from representatives of so many disciplines, and that the number of papers received significantly exceeded the maximum volume of the journal. Recognising and understanding of the many faces of migration are important steps towards the comprehensive knowledge needed to successfully meet the challenges of migration issues today and even more so in the future. It is therefore of utmost importance that researchers find ways of transferring their academic knowledge into practice – to all levels of education, the media, the wider public and, of course, the decision makers in local, national and international institutions. The call also applies to all authors in this issue of the journal.

This Degree to supervise doctoral researches is presented in two volumes: the first is a summary note (322 pages, with notional and proper name indexes); the second brings together various articles, book chapters, statistical data and content analysis (215 pages). The first volume is itself divided into two parts: "Of Music and Poor's: synthesis and main results (1981-2007)", from pages 8 to 168, and "Anthropology of anger: grids of analysis, prospective reflection", from pages 170 to 269. A bibliography, classified into themes, has been deliberately made dense in references. Three chapters make up the first part of volume 1: "Prehistory of research and professional career", "The observation of underground musical phenomena and Identity minorities"; "Poor, poverty and social representations". Three others structure the following one: "The theorization of becoming an active minority"; "Cultures of resentment and current forms of mysticism" and "Conclusion: representations of poverty and work". As in any exercise of this kind, this synthesis of research (part 1) has been carried out with the aim of enriching the subject matter developed in already published writings, by drawing on new reading and by adding more precise notes or analyses, both for the work on popular music and for the work on social representations. In Chapter 1, a kind of professional autobiography is presented, which is related to the psychosocial and administrative issues of legitimation in research laboratories where a professional is a representative of a minority discipline (psychosociology). Since the end of the 1980s, we have been witnessing a complete reorganisation of the modes of professional integration and recognition of researchers. The obligation to join a single team, whatever the case, leads to an asymptotic career, especially if one is the bearer of a non-compliant research problem (monographic approach on a research object considered marginal in social psychology). Moreover, when the researcher does not belong to any of the dominant research disciplines of a university, one is faced with aporias and formidable professional and intellectual difficulties. In the end, this type of researcher is forced either into intra-organisational scientific marginality, by developing an invisible college of correspondents external to his or her working institution, or into the position of leadership or manager, by joining the pedagogical, administrative or scientific boards of his or her institution.The first chapter is devoted to the consequences of these structural constraints. A synthetic approach to surveys of popular music and a critical commentary on the vogue for ethno-methodological and apologetic research on these phenomena are then proposed (Chapter 2). This is because much has been written and published, both in France and abroad, on these "objects" of work, and we now find ourselves at a point where we are commenting on monographic empirical data and distancing ourselves from the work of certain researchers, activators of a fascinated theorising of these practices. A good part of this chapter is organised around this critical questioning and in defence of the so-called "acid state" model constructed during the thesis (1980-1986). Chapter 3 presents the complete data of a work, not yet published in a reference journal, of qualitative-quantitative research on the social representations of poverty. The approach to the 'poverty' subject is based on semi-directive interviews (80 subjects).An analysis of thematic content and lexicon, generated by an associative test, is also presented. Various elements are to be noted: the cognitive monopolisation effect of the terms "hunger" and "money" by poor subjects and the upper middle classes when asked to define the term "poverty" and the construction of the central core of poverty around the prototype of the homeless person, in the Paris region (implying a reduction in so-called "social" poverty and associated with modest socio-economic categories: immigrants, workers, employees, inhabitants of sensitive neighbourhoods). In chapter 4, a common theoretical and pragmatic distinction on the forms of seeking social recognition is formulated: socialisation through "identity" and socialisation through the elaboration of a work or "vocational achievement". A study model based on this elementary distinction, aiming to make this comparison operational and referring to highly differentiated social and political movements, would make it possible to better understand the evolution of contemporary societies with regard to the problems of managing cultural identifications and therefore of social integration and the construction of individuality. A study of the emergence of a constellation of heterodox and anomic behaviours is formulated. In chapter 5, the nature and form of mystical states during this historical and contemporary, strange phase of postmodernity are questioned. Trance, rage, social representations of the self, modified states of consciousness, ritualisations and aesthetics of violence, blasphemy and protest are all keys to entry and analysis to apprehend a teeming cultural reality. We then question the meaning of the invention of polymorphic collective emotions, by taking up a classic theme of research on the consequences of moral and communicational deregulation (on the Durkheimian and Mertonian anomie) in European societies. Chapter 6, of a conclusive type, focuses on the exposition of two research perspectives: the social representations of work and those of poverty. A few final comments on the importance of user-friendly and institutionalised interdisciplinarity punctuate the book. In this volume of HDR, the aim is to propose various lines of work and directions for reflection in a research design, confronted with various organisational and contemporary demands and focused on societal and current issues. The importance of the psycho-sociological analysis of interactions and behaviours has been affirmed throughout this professional biography and this prospective synthesis. ; L'habilitation à diriger les recherches se présente en deux tomes : le premier correspond à une note de synthèse (322 pages, avec index notionnels et de noms propres) ; le second rassemble divers articles, chapitre d'ouvrages, données statistiques et d'analyse de contenu (215 pages). Le premier volume est lui-même divisé en deux parties : « De la musique et des pauvres : bilan et principaux résultats (1981-2007) », de la page 8 à 168, et « Socio-anthropologie de la rage : grilles d'analyse, réflexion prospective », de la page 170 à 269. Une bibliographie, classée en thèmes, a été volontairement rendue dense en références. Trois chapitres composent la première partie du tome 1 : « Préhistoire de la recherche et parcours professionnel », « L'observation des phénomènes musicaux underground » et « Des minorités identitaires : pauvres, pauvreté et représentations sociales ». Trois autres structurent la suivante : « La théorisation du « devenir minorité active », « Cultures du ressentiment et formes actuelles du mysticisme » et « Conclusion : représentations de la pauvreté et du travail ». Comme dans tout exercice de ce genre, cette synthèse des recherches (partie 1) a été faite avec le souci d'enrichir le propos développé dans des écrits déjà publiés, en puisant dans de nouvelles lectures et par l'ajout de notes ou d'analyses plus précises, tant pour les travaux concernant les musiques populaires que pour ceux qui ont trait aux représentations sociales. Dans le chapitre 1, on se livre à une sorte d'autobiographie professionnelle, mise en rapport avec les enjeux psychosociaux et administratifs de légitimation dans des laboratoires de recherche où un professionnel est représentant d'une discipline minoritaire (psychosociologie). On assiste, en effet, depuis la fin des années 1980 à une réorganisation complète des modes d'insertion et de reconnaissance professionnels des chercheurs. L'obligation d'intégrer une seule équipe, quel que soit le cas de figure, conduit à suivre une carrière asymptotique surtout si l'on est porteur d'une problématique de recherche non conforme (approche monographique sur un objet de recherche jugé marginal en psychologie sociale). De plus, quand le chercheur n'appartient à aucune des disciplines de recherche dominantes d'une université, on se retrouve devant des apories et des difficultés professionnelles et intellectuelles redoutables. Ce type de chercheur est, d'une certaine manière, acculé soit à la marginalité scientifique intra-organisationnelle, en développant un collège invisible de correspondants externes à son institution de travail, soit à la position de leadership ou de manager, en entrant dans les conseils d'administration pédagogiques, administratifs ou scientifiques de son établissement. C'est aux conséquences de ces contraintes structurales qu'est consacré le premier chapitre. On propose ensuite (chapitre 2) une approche synthétique des enquêtes effectuées sur les musiques populaires et un commentaire critique de la vogue des recherches ethnométhodologiques et apologétiques sur ces phénomènes. C'est parce qu'on a beaucoup écrit et publié, tant en France qu'à l'étranger, sur ces « objets » de travail et que l'on se retrouve désormais à un moment de commentaire des données empiriques monographiques et de prise de distance par rapport aux travaux de certains chercheurs, activateurs d'une théorisation fascinée de ces pratiques. Une bonne partie de ce chapitre est organisé autour de ce questionnement critique et à la défense du modèle dit de l' « état acide » construit lors de la thèse (1980-1986). Dans le chapitre 3, il s'agit de présenter les données complètes d'un travail, non encore publié dans une revue de référence, d'une recherche qualitative-quantitative sur les représentations sociales de la pauvreté. L'approche de l'objet « pauvreté » est faite par entretiens semi-directifs (80 sujets). Une analyse de contenu thématique et du lexique, généré par un test associatif, est aussi présentée. Différents éléments sont à noter : l'effet d'accaparement cognitif des termes « faim » et « argent » par les sujets pauvres et les classes moyennes supérieures quand on leur demande de définir le terme « pauvreté » et la construction du noyau central de la pauvreté autour du prototype du sans-abri, en région parisienne (impliquant une minoration de la pauvreté dite « sociale » et associées aux catégories socio-économiques modestes : immigrés, ouvriers, employés, habitants des quartiers sensibles). Dans le chapitre 4, une distinction théorique et pragmatique courante sur les formes de recherche de reconnaissance sociale est formulée : la socialisation par l'« identité » et celle par l'élaboration d'une œuvre ou d'un « accomplissement vocationnel ». Un modèle d'étude fondé sur cette distinction élémentaire, visant à rendre opérationnelle cette comparaison et renvoyant à des mouvements sociaux et politiques très différenciés, permettrait de mieux appréhender l'évolution des sociétés contemporaines quant aux problématiques de gestion des identifications culturelles et donc d'intégration sociale et de construction de l'individualité. Une problématique d'étude de l'émergence d'une constellation de conduites hétérodoxes et anomiques est formulée. Au chapitre 5, c'est la nature et la forme des états mystiques, durant cette phase historique et contemporaine, étrange de postmodernité, qui sont questionnées. Transe, rage, représentations sociales du soi, états modifiés de la conscience, ritualisations et esthétiques de la violence, des blasphèmes et de la contestation, sont autant de clés d'entrée et d'analyse pour appréhender une foisonnante réalité culturelle. On questionne alors le sens de l'invention d'émotions collectives polymorphes, en reprenant une thématique classique de recherche sur les conséquences de la dérégulation morale et communicationnelle (notamment sur l'anomie durkheimienne et mertonienne) dans les sociétés européennes. Le chapitre 6, de type conclusif, est axé sur l'exposition de deux perspectives de recherche : les représentations sociales du travail et celles de la pauvreté. Quelques commentaires finaux sur l'importance d'une interdisciplinarité conviviale et institutionnalisée ponctuent l'ouvrage. Dans ce volume d'HDR, il s'agit de proposer diverses pistes de travail et orientations de réflexion dans un design de recherche, confronté à divers exigences organisationnelles et contemporaines et centré sur des problématiques sociétales et actuelles. L'importance de l'analyse psychosociologique des interactions et des conduites a été affirmée tout au long de cette biographie professionnelle et de cet écrit de synthèse prospective.

This Degree to supervise doctoral researches is presented in two volumes: the first is a summary note (322 pages, with notional and proper name indexes); the second brings together various articles, book chapters, statistical data and content analysis (215 pages). The first volume is itself divided into two parts: "Of Music and Poor's: synthesis and main results (1981-2007)", from pages 8 to 168, and "Anthropology of anger: grids of analysis, prospective reflection", from pages 170 to 269. A bibliography, classified into themes, has been deliberately made dense in references. Three chapters make up the first part of volume 1: "Prehistory of research and professional career", "The observation of underground musical phenomena and Identity minorities"; "Poor, poverty and social representations". Three others structure the following one: "The theorization of becoming an active minority"; "Cultures of resentment and current forms of mysticism" and "Conclusion: representations of poverty and work". As in any exercise of this kind, this synthesis of research (part 1) has been carried out with the aim of enriching the subject matter developed in already published writings, by drawing on new reading and by adding more precise notes or analyses, both for the work on popular music and for the work on social representations. In Chapter 1, a kind of professional autobiography is presented, which is related to the psychosocial and administrative issues of legitimation in research laboratories where a professional is a representative of a minority discipline (psychosociology). Since the end of the 1980s, we have been witnessing a complete reorganisation of the modes of professional integration and recognition of researchers. The obligation to join a single team, whatever the case, leads to an asymptotic career, especially if one is the bearer of a non-compliant research problem (monographic approach on a research object considered marginal in social psychology). Moreover, when the researcher does not belong to any of the dominant research disciplines of a university, one is faced with aporias and formidable professional and intellectual difficulties. In the end, this type of researcher is forced either into intra-organisational scientific marginality, by developing an invisible college of correspondents external to his or her working institution, or into the position of leadership or manager, by joining the pedagogical, administrative or scientific boards of his or her institution.The first chapter is devoted to the consequences of these structural constraints. A synthetic approach to surveys of popular music and a critical commentary on the vogue for ethno-methodological and apologetic research on these phenomena are then proposed (Chapter 2). This is because much has been written and published, both in France and abroad, on these "objects" of work, and we now find ourselves at a point where we are commenting on monographic empirical data and distancing ourselves from the work of certain researchers, activators of a fascinated theorising of these practices. A good part of this chapter is organised around this critical questioning and in defence of the so-called "acid state" model constructed during the thesis (1980-1986). Chapter 3 presents the complete data of a work, not yet published in a reference journal, of qualitative-quantitative research on the social representations of poverty. The approach to the 'poverty' subject is based on semi-directive interviews (80 subjects).An analysis of thematic content and lexicon, generated by an associative test, is also presented. Various elements are to be noted: the cognitive monopolisation effect of the terms "hunger" and "money" by poor subjects and the upper middle classes when asked to define the term "poverty" and the construction of the central core of poverty around the prototype of the homeless person, in the Paris region (implying a reduction in so-called "social" poverty and associated with modest socio-economic categories: immigrants, workers, employees, inhabitants of sensitive neighbourhoods). In chapter 4, a common theoretical and pragmatic distinction on the forms of seeking social recognition is formulated: socialisation through "identity" and socialisation through the elaboration of a work or "vocational achievement". A study model based on this elementary distinction, aiming to make this comparison operational and referring to highly differentiated social and political movements, would make it possible to better understand the evolution of contemporary societies with regard to the problems of managing cultural identifications and therefore of social integration and the construction of individuality. A study of the emergence of a constellation of heterodox and anomic behaviours is formulated. In chapter 5, the nature and form of mystical states during this historical and contemporary, strange phase of postmodernity are questioned. Trance, rage, social representations of the self, modified states of consciousness, ritualisations and aesthetics of violence, blasphemy and protest are all keys to entry and analysis to apprehend a teeming cultural reality. We then question the meaning of the invention of polymorphic collective emotions, by taking up a classic theme of research on the consequences of moral and communicational deregulation (on the Durkheimian and Mertonian anomie) in European societies. Chapter 6, of a conclusive type, focuses on the exposition of two research perspectives: the social representations of work and those of poverty. A few final comments on the importance of user-friendly and institutionalised interdisciplinarity punctuate the book. In this volume of HDR, the aim is to propose various lines of work and directions for reflection in a research design, confronted with various organisational and contemporary demands and focused on societal and current issues. The importance of the psycho-sociological analysis of interactions and behaviours has been affirmed throughout this professional biography and this prospective synthesis. ; L'habilitation à diriger les recherches se présente en deux tomes : le premier correspond à une note de synthèse (322 pages, avec index notionnels et de noms propres) ; le second rassemble divers articles, chapitre d'ouvrages, données statistiques et d'analyse de contenu (215 pages). Le premier volume est lui-même divisé en deux parties : « De la musique et des pauvres : bilan et principaux résultats (1981-2007) », de la page 8 à 168, et « Socio-anthropologie de la rage : grilles d'analyse, réflexion prospective », de la page 170 à 269. Une bibliographie, classée en thèmes, a été volontairement rendue dense en références. Trois chapitres composent la première partie du tome 1 : « Préhistoire de la recherche et parcours professionnel », « L'observation des phénomènes musicaux underground » et « Des minorités identitaires : pauvres, pauvreté et représentations sociales ». Trois autres structurent la suivante : « La théorisation du « devenir minorité active », « Cultures du ressentiment et formes actuelles du mysticisme » et « Conclusion : représentations de la pauvreté et du travail ». Comme dans tout exercice de ce genre, cette synthèse des recherches (partie 1) a été faite avec le souci d'enrichir le propos développé dans des écrits déjà publiés, en puisant dans de nouvelles lectures et par l'ajout de notes ou d'analyses plus précises, tant pour les travaux concernant les musiques populaires que pour ceux qui ont trait aux représentations sociales. Dans le chapitre 1, on se livre à une sorte d'autobiographie professionnelle, mise en rapport avec les enjeux psychosociaux et administratifs de légitimation dans des laboratoires de recherche où un professionnel est représentant d'une discipline minoritaire (psychosociologie). On assiste, en effet, depuis la fin des années 1980 à une réorganisation complète des modes d'insertion et de reconnaissance professionnels des chercheurs. L'obligation d'intégrer une seule équipe, quel que soit le cas de figure, conduit à suivre une carrière asymptotique surtout si l'on est porteur d'une problématique de recherche non conforme (approche monographique sur un objet de recherche jugé marginal en psychologie sociale). De plus, quand le chercheur n'appartient à aucune des disciplines de recherche dominantes d'une université, on se retrouve devant des apories et des difficultés professionnelles et intellectuelles redoutables. Ce type de chercheur est, d'une certaine manière, acculé soit à la marginalité scientifique intra-organisationnelle, en développant un collège invisible de correspondants externes à son institution de travail, soit à la position de leadership ou de manager, en entrant dans les conseils d'administration pédagogiques, administratifs ou scientifiques de son établissement. C'est aux conséquences de ces contraintes structurales qu'est consacré le premier chapitre. On propose ensuite (chapitre 2) une approche synthétique des enquêtes effectuées sur les musiques populaires et un commentaire critique de la vogue des recherches ethnométhodologiques et apologétiques sur ces phénomènes. C'est parce qu'on a beaucoup écrit et publié, tant en France qu'à l'étranger, sur ces « objets » de travail et que l'on se retrouve désormais à un moment de commentaire des données empiriques monographiques et de prise de distance par rapport aux travaux de certains chercheurs, activateurs d'une théorisation fascinée de ces pratiques. Une bonne partie de ce chapitre est organisé autour de ce questionnement critique et à la défense du modèle dit de l' « état acide » construit lors de la thèse (1980-1986). Dans le chapitre 3, il s'agit de présenter les données complètes d'un travail, non encore publié dans une revue de référence, d'une recherche qualitative-quantitative sur les représentations sociales de la pauvreté. L'approche de l'objet « pauvreté » est faite par entretiens semi-directifs (80 sujets). Une analyse de contenu thématique et du lexique, généré par un test associatif, est aussi présentée. Différents éléments sont à noter : l'effet d'accaparement cognitif des termes « faim » et « argent » par les sujets pauvres et les classes moyennes supérieures quand on leur demande de définir le terme « pauvreté » et la construction du noyau central de la pauvreté autour du prototype du sans-abri, en région parisienne (impliquant une minoration de la pauvreté dite « sociale » et associées aux catégories socio-économiques modestes : immigrés, ouvriers, employés, habitants des quartiers sensibles). Dans le chapitre 4, une distinction théorique et pragmatique courante sur les formes de recherche de reconnaissance sociale est formulée : la socialisation par l'« identité » et celle par l'élaboration d'une œuvre ou d'un « accomplissement vocationnel ». Un modèle d'étude fondé sur cette distinction élémentaire, visant à rendre opérationnelle cette comparaison et renvoyant à des mouvements sociaux et politiques très différenciés, permettrait de mieux appréhender l'évolution des sociétés contemporaines quant aux problématiques de gestion des identifications culturelles et donc d'intégration sociale et de construction de l'individualité. Une problématique d'étude de l'émergence d'une constellation de conduites hétérodoxes et anomiques est formulée. Au chapitre 5, c'est la nature et la forme des états mystiques, durant cette phase historique et contemporaine, étrange de postmodernité, qui sont questionnées. Transe, rage, représentations sociales du soi, états modifiés de la conscience, ritualisations et esthétiques de la violence, des blasphèmes et de la contestation, sont autant de clés d'entrée et d'analyse pour appréhender une foisonnante réalité culturelle. On questionne alors le sens de l'invention d'émotions collectives polymorphes, en reprenant une thématique classique de recherche sur les conséquences de la dérégulation morale et communicationnelle (notamment sur l'anomie durkheimienne et mertonienne) dans les sociétés européennes. Le chapitre 6, de type conclusif, est axé sur l'exposition de deux perspectives de recherche : les représentations sociales du travail et celles de la pauvreté. Quelques commentaires finaux sur l'importance d'une interdisciplinarité conviviale et institutionnalisée ponctuent l'ouvrage. Dans ce volume d'HDR, il s'agit de proposer diverses pistes de travail et orientations de réflexion dans un design de recherche, confronté à divers exigences organisationnelles et contemporaines et centré sur des problématiques sociétales et actuelles. L'importance de l'analyse psychosociologique des interactions et des conduites a été affirmée tout au long de cette biographie professionnelle et de cet écrit de synthèse prospective.

Mary Elizabeth King on Civil Action for Social Change,
the Transnational Women's Movement, and the Arab Awakening







Nonviolent resistance remains by and large a marginal
topic to IR. Yet it constitutes an influential idea among idealist social
movements and non-Western populations alike, one that has moved to the center
stage in recent events in the Middle East. In this Talk, Mary King—who has spent over 40 years promoting nonviolence—elaborates
on, amongst others, the women's movement, nonviolence, and civil action more
broadly.






Print version of this Talk (pdf)






What is, according to you, the central challenge or principal debate in
International Relations? And what is your position regarding this challenge/in
this debate?



The field of International Relations is different from
Peace and Conflict Studies; it has essentially to do with relationships between
states and developed after World War I. In the 1920s, the big debates concerned
whether international cooperation was possible, and the diplomatic elite were
very different from diplomats today. The roots of Peace and Conflict Studies go
back much further. By the late 1800s peace studies already existed in the
Scandinavian countries. Studies of industrial strikes in the United States were
added by the 1930s, and the field had spread to Europe by the 1940s. Peace and
Conflict Studies had firmly cohered by the 1980s, and soon encircled the globe.
Broad in spectrum and inherently multi-disciplinary, it is not possible to walk
through one portal to enter the field.



To me it is also important that Peace and Conflict
studies is not wary of asking the bigger hypothetical questions such as 'Can we
built a better world?' 'How do we do a better job at resolving conflicts before
they become destructive?' 'How do we create more peaceable societies?' If we do
not pose these questions, we are unlikely to find the answers. Some political scientists say that they do not wish to
privilege either violence or nonviolent action. I am not in that category,
trying not to privilege violence or
nonviolent action. The field of peace and conflict studies is value-laden in
its pursuit of more peaceable societies. We need more knowledge and study of
how conflicts can be addressed without
violence, including to the eventual benefit of all the parties and the larger
society. When in 1964 Martin Luther King Jr received
the Nobel Peace Prize, his remarks in Oslo that December tied the nonviolent
struggle in the United States to the whole planet's need for disarmament. He said
that the most exceptional characteristic of the civil rights movement was the
direct participation of masses of people in it. King's remarks in Oslo were also
his toughest call for the use of nonviolent resistance on issues other than
racial injustice. International nonviolent action, he said, could be utilized
to let global leaders know that beyond racial and economic justice, individuals
across the world were concerned about world peace:



I venture to suggest [above all] . . . that . . . nonviolence become
immediately a subject for study and for serious experimentation in every field
of human conflict, by no means excluding relations between nations . . . which
[ultimately] make war. . . .



In the half century since King made his address in
Oslo, nonviolent civil resistance has not been allocated even a tiny fraction
of the resources for study that have been dedicated to the fields of
democratization, development, the environment, human rights, and aspects of
national security. Many, many questions beg for research, including intensive
interrogation of failures. Among the new global developments with which to be
reckoned is the enlarging role of non-state, non-governmental organizations as
intermediaries, leading dialogue groups comprised of adversaries discussing
disputatious issues and working 'hands-on' to intervene directly in local
disputes. The role of the churches and laity in ending Mozambique's civil war
comes to mind. One challenge within IR is how to become more flexible in
viewing the world, in which the nation state cannot control social change, and
with the widening of civil space.





How did you arrive at
where you currently are in your thinking about IR?



I
came from a family that was deeply engaged with social issues. My father was the
eighth Methodist minister in six generations from North Carolina and Virginia.
The Methodist church in both Britain and the United States has a history of
concern for social responsibility ― a topic of constant discussion in my home
as a child and young adult. When four African American students began the
southern student sit-in movement in Greensboro, North Carolina, on February 1,
1960, by sitting-in at a Woolworth's lunch counter, I was still in college.
Although I am white, I began to think about how to join the young black people
who were intentionally violating the laws of racial segregation by conducting
sit-ins at lunch counters across the South. Soon more white people, very like
me, were joining them, and the sweep of student sit-ins had become truly
inter-racial. The sit-in movement is what provided the regional base for what
would become a mass U.S. civil rights movement, with tens of thousands of
participants, defined by the necessity for fierce nonviolent discipline. So,
coming from a home where social issues were regularly discussed it was almost
natural for me to become engaged in the civil rights movement. And I have
remained engaged with such issues for the rest of my life, while widening my
aperture. Today I work on a host of questions related to conflict, building
peace, gender, the combined field of gender and peace-building, and nonviolent
or civil resistance. At a very young age, I had started thinking as a citizen
of the world and watching what was happening worldwide, rather than merely in
the United States.



Martin Luther King (to whom I am
not related) would become one of history's most
influential agents for propagating knowledge of the potential for constructive
social change without resorting to violence. He was the most significant exemplar
for what we simply called The Movement. Yet the movement had two southern
organizations: in 1957 after the success of the Montgomery bus boycott of
1955-56, he created, along with others, the Southern Christian Leadership
Conference (SCLC). The other organization was the one for which I worked for
four years: the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC, pron. snick), which initially came into being literally to coordinate
among the leaders of the student sit-in campaigns. As the sit-ins spread across
the South, 70,000 black, and, increasingly, white, students participated. By
the end of 1960, 3,600 would have been jailed.



SCLC and SNCC worked together but
had different emphases: one of our emphases in SNCC was on eliciting leadership
representing the voices of those who had been ignored in the past. We
identified many women with remarkable leadership skills and sought to
strengthen them. We wanted to build institutions that would make it easier for
poor black southern communities to become independent and move out of the
'serfdom' in which they lived. Thus we put less prominence on large
demonstrations, which SCLC often emphasized. Rather, we stressed the building
of alternative (or parallel) institutions, including voter registration,
alternative political parties, cooperatives, and credit unions.





What would a student
need (dispositions, skills) to become a specialist in IR or understand the
world in a global way?



One requirement is a subject that
has virtually disappeared from the schools in the United States: the field of
geography. It used to be taught on every level starting in kindergarten, but
has now been melded into a mélange called 'social sciences'. You would be
surprised at how much ignorance exists and how it affects effectiveness. I
served for years on the board of directors of an esteemed international
non-profit private voluntary organization and recall a secretary who thought
that Africa was a country. This is not simplistic — if you don't know the names
of continents, countries, regions, and the basic political and economic
history, it's much harder to think critically about the world. Secondly,
students need to possess an attitude of reciprocity and mutuality. No perfect
country exists; there is no nirvana without intractable problems in our world.
No society, for example, has solved the serious problems of gender inequity
that impede all spheres of life. Every society has predicaments and problems
that need to be addressed, necessitating a constant process. So we each need to
stand on a platform in which every nation can improve the preservation of the
natural environment, the way it monitors and protects human rights, transitions
to democratic systems, the priority it places on the empowerment of women, and
so on. On this platform, concepts of inferior and superior are of little value.



You also co-authored an article in 1965 about the role of women and how working in a political movement for equality
(the civil rights movement) has affected your perceptions of the relationship
between men and women. Do you believe that the involvement of women in the
Civil Rights Movement brought more gender equality in the USA and do you think
involvement in Nonviolent Resistance movements in other places in the world
could start such a process?



From within the heart of the civil
rights movement I wrote an article with Casey Hayden, with whom I worked in
Atlanta in the main office of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) and in the
Mississippi Freedom Summer of 1964. Casey
(Sandra Cason) and I were deeply engaged in a series of conversations involving
other women in SNCC about what we had been learning, the lessons from our work aiding
poor black people to organize, and asking ourselves whether our insights from
being part of SNCC could be applied to other forms of injustice, such as inequality
for women. The document reflected our growth and enlarging understanding of how
to mobilize communities, how to strategize, how to achieve lasting change, and
was a manifestation of this expanding awareness. The title was Sex and Caste – A Kind of Memo. Caste is an ancient Hindu demarcation
that not only determines an individual's social standing on the basis of
the group into which one is born, but also differentiates and assigns
occupational and economic roles. It cannot be
changed. Casey and I thought of caste as comparable to the sex of one's birth.
Women endure many forms of prejudice, bias, discrimination, and cruelty merely
because they are female. For these reasons we chose the term caste. We sent our
memorandum to forty women working in local peace and civil rights movements of
the United States. The anecdotal evidence is strong that it inspired other
women, who started coming together collectively to work on their own
self-emancipation in 'consciousness raising groups.' It had appeared in Liberation magazine of the War Resisters
League in April 1966 and was a catalyst in spurring the U.S. women's movement; indeed, the consciousness-raising
groups fuelled the women's movement in the United States during the 1970s. Historians
reflect that the article provided tinder for what is now called 'second-wave
feminism', and the 1965 original is anthologized as one of the
generative documents of twentieth-century gender studies.



We
have to remember that women's organizations are nothing new, but have been
poorly documented in history and that much information has been lost. Women
have been prime actors for nonviolent social change in many parts of the world
for a long time. New Zealand was the first country to grant women the vote, in
1893, after decades of organizing. Other countries followed: China, Iran, later
the United States and the United Kingdom. Women in Japan would not vote until
1946. IR expert
Fred Halliday contends that one of the most remarkable transnational movements
of the modern age was the women's suffrage movement. The movement to enfranchise women may have been the biggest
transnational nonviolent movement of human history. It was a significant
historical phenomenon that throws light on how it is sometimes easier to bring
about social and political change now than in the past.





Nonviolent movements seem to be growing
around the world, and not only in dictatorships but also in democracies in
Europe and the USA. How do you explain this?



I think that the sharing of
knowledge is the answer to this question. Study in the field of nonviolent
action has accelerated since the 1970s, often done by people who are both
practitioners and scholars, as am I. Organizing nonviolently for social justice
is not new, but the knowledge that has consolidated during the last 40 years
has been major. The works of Gene Sharp
have been significant, widely translated, and are accessible through the Albert EinsteinInstitution. His first major work, The Politics of Nonviolent
Action, in three volumes, came out in 1973 (Boston: Porter Sargent
Publishers). It marked the development of a new understanding of how this form
of cooperative action works, the conditions under which it can be optimized,
and the ways in which one can improve effectiveness. Sharp's works have since been
translated into more than 40 languages. Also valuable are the works and
translations of dozens of other scholars, who often stand on his shoulders.
Today there may be 200 scholar-activists in this field worldwide, with a great
deal of work now underway in related fields. Knowledge is being shared not only
through translated works, but also through organizations and their training
programs, such as the War Resisters League International and the International
Fellowship of Reconciliation, each of which came into existence in Britain around
World War I. Both are still running seminars, training programs, and
distributing books. George Lakey's Training for Change and a new database at Swarthmore College that
he has developed are sharing knowledge. So is the International Center for Nonviolent Conflict, which has built
a dramatic record in a short time, having run more than 400 seminars and
workshops in more than 139 countries. The three major films that ICNC has
produced (for example, 'Bringing Down a Dictator'), have
been translated into 20 languages and been publicly broadcast to more than 20
million viewers.



After its
success, leaders from the Serbian
youth movement Otpor! (Resistance) that in 2000 disintegrated the Slobodan Milošević dictatorship formed a network
of activists, including experienced veterans from civil-resistance struggles in
South Africa, the Philippines, Lebanon, Georgia, and Ukraine to share their
experiences with other movements. People can now more
easily find knowledge on the World Wide Web, often in their original language
or a second language, and they can find networks that share information about
their experiences, including their successes and failures.



I reject the Twitter explanation for
the increased use of nonviolent action or civil resistance, because all
nonviolent movements appropriate the most advanced technologies available. This
pattern is related to the importance of communications for their basic success.
Nonviolent mobilizations must be very shrewd in putting across their purpose,
their goals and objectives, preparing slogans, and conveying information on how
people can become involved. In order for people to join—bearing in mind that
numbers are important for success—it is critically important to make clear
what goal(s) you are seeking and why you have elected to work with civil
resistance. This decision is sometimes hard to understand for people who have
suffered great cruelty from their opponent, and who maintain 'but we are the
victims', making the sharing of the logic of the technique of civil resistance vital.





What would you say is the importance of
Nonviolent Resistance Studies in the field of International Relations and
Political Science? And how do you counter those who argue that some forms of
structural domination are only ended through violence?



In
this case we can look at the evidence and stay away from arguing beliefs or
ideology. Thanks to political scientists Erica Chenoweth and Maria J. Stephan,
who have produced a discerning work, Why Civil Resistance Works (2011), we now have
empirical evidence that removes this question from mystery. They studied 323
violent and nonviolent movements that occurred between 1900 and 2006 and found
that the nonviolent campaigns were twice as effective as violent struggles in
achieving their goals, while incurring fewer costly fatalities and producing
much greater prospects for democratic outcomes after the end of the campaign.
They found only one area in which violent movements have been more successful,
and that is in secessions. So, we don't need to dwell in the realm of opinion,
but can read their findings. Other scholars have written about the same issues
using qualitative data ― by doing interviews, developing case studies, and analytical
descriptions ― but the work of Chenoweth and Stephan is quantitative, putting
it in a different category due to its research methods.





Reading 'Why Civil Resistance Works' it
caught my eye that nonviolent campaigns seem less successful in the Middle East
and Asia than in other regions. Did you see that also in your own work? And if
so, do you have an explanation for it? In addition, do you believe that the
'Arab Awakening' is a significant turn in history, or did the name arise too
quickly and will it remain a temporary popular phrase?



What
I encountered in working in the Middle East was an expectation, notion, or hope
among people that a great leader would save them and bring them out of darkness.
This belief seems often to have kept the populace in a state of passivity.
Sometimes such pervasive theories of leadership are deeply elitist: one must be
well educated to be a leader, one must be born into that role, one must be
male, or the first son, etc. Such concepts of leadership discourage the taking
of independent civil action.



I think that the Arab Awakening has
been significant for a number of reasons. As one example, there had been a
widespread (and patronizing) assumption in the United States and the West that
the Arabs were not interested in democracy. We have heard from various sources
including Israel for decades that Arabs are not attracted to democracy. As a
matter of fact, I think that all people want a voice. All human beings
wish to be listened to and to be able to express their hopes and aspirations.
This is a fundamental basis of democracy and widely applicable, although
democracy may take different forms. The Arab Awakening rebutted this arrogant
assumption. This does not mean that the course will be easy. One of my Egyptian
colleagues said to me, 'We have had dictatorship since 1952, but after Tahir
Square you expect us to build a perfect democracy in 52 weeks! It cannot
happen!'



Among the first concessions
sought by the 2011 Arab revolts was rejection of the right of a dictator's sons
to succeed him. The passing of power from father to son has been a
characteristic of patriarchal societies, in the Arab world and elsewhere. Anthropologist John Borneman notes, 'The public renunciation of the son's claim to inherit the
father's power definitively ends the specific Arab model of succession that has
been incorporated into state dictatorships among tribal authorities'. In Tunisia to Egypt, Libya,
Syria, and Yemen (not all of which are successes), such movements have sought
to end the presumption of father-son inheritance of rule.



I believe that we are seeing the start of a broad democratization process
in the Middle East, not its end. The learning and preparation that had been occurring
in Egypt prior to Tahrir Square was extensive. Workshops had been underway for
10 to 15 years before people filled Tahrir Square. Women bloggers had for years
been monitoring torture and sharing news from outside. One woman blogger
translated a comic book into Arabic about the Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King
Jr, from the 1960s, and had it distributed all over Cairo. Labor unions had
been very active. According
to historian Joel Beinin, from 1998 to 2010 some 3 million laborers took part
in 3,500 to 4,000 strikes, sit-ins, demonstrations, and other actions,
realizing more than 600 collective labor actions per year in 2007 and 2008. In the years immediately before the revolution, these
actions became more coherent. Wael Ghonim, a 30-year-old Google executive, set
up a Facebook page and used Google technologies to share ideas and knowledge
about what ordinary people can do. The April 6 Youth Movement, set up in 2008, three years before Tahrir, sent one of
its members to Belgrade in 2009, to learn how Otpor! had galvanized the
bringing down of Milošević. He returned to Cairo with materials and films,
lessons from other nonviolent movements, and workshop materials. This all goes
back to the sharing of knowledge. Yet the Egyptians have now come to the point
where they must assume responsibility and accountability for the whole and make
difficult decisions for their society. It will be a long and difficult process.
And it raises the question of what kind of help from outside is essential.





Why do you raise this point; do you think
outside help is essential?



I know from having
studied a large number of nonviolent movements in different parts of the globe
that the sharing of lessons laterally among mobilizations and nonviolent
struggles is highly effective. African American leaders were traveling by
steamer ship from 1919 until the outbreak of World War II to the Indian
subcontinent, to learn from Gandhi and the Indian independence struggles. This
great interchange between black leaders in the United States and the Gandhian
activists, as the historian Sudarshan Kapur shows in Raising
Up A Prophet (1992), was critically significant in the
solidification of consensus in the U.S. black community on nonviolent means. I have written about how the knowledge moved from East
to West in my book Mahatma Gandhi and Martin Luther King. Scholarly exchanges and interchanges among activists
from other struggles are both potentiating and illuminating. Most
observers fail to see that nonviolent mobilizations often have very deep roots
involving the lateral sharing of experience and know-how.





You have written a book about the first
uprising, or 'intifada', in the Occupied Palestinian Territories between 1987
and 1993. The second Palestinian uprising did not contain much nonviolent
tactics though. Do you foresee another uprising soon? If not, why? If yes, do
you think that Nonviolent Actions will play again an important role in that
uprising, or is it more likely to turn violent?



Intifada is linguistically a
nonviolent word: It means shaking off and has no violent implication
whatsoever. (This word is utterly inappropriate for what happened in the
so-called Second Intifada, although it started out as a nonviolent endeavor.)
In the 1987 intifada, virtually the entire Palestinian society living under
Israel's military occupation unified itself with remarkable cohesion on the use
of nonviolent tools. The first intifada (1987-1993, especially 1987-1990)
benefited from several forces at work in the 1970s and 1980s, about which I
write in A Quiet Revolution (2007), one of which came from Palestinian activist
intellectuals working with Israeli groups, who wanted to end occupation for
their own reasons. These Israeli peace activists thought the occupation
degraded them, made them less than
human, in addition to oppressing Palestinians. The second so-called intifada
was not a 'shaking off'. For the first time, it bade attacks against the
Israeli settlements, which had not occurred before.



Let me put it this way: in virtually every situation, there is some
potential for human beings to take upon themselves their own liberation through
nonviolent action. We may expect that such potential is dormant and waiting for
enactment. Disciplined nonviolent action is underway in a number of
village-based struggles against the separation barrier in the West Bank right
now, in which Israeli allies are among the action takers. As another example,
the Freedom Theatre in Jenin is using Freedom Rides, a concept
adopted from the U.S. southern Civil Rights Movement, riding buses to the South
Hebron Hills villages and along the way using drama, music, and giant puppets
as a way of stimulating debate about Israeli occupation. Bloggers and writers
share their experiences (see e.g. this post by Nathan Schneider). For
the first time, as we speak, the Freedom Bus will travel from the West Bank to
make two performances in historic pre-1948 Palestine (Israel), in Haifa and the
Golan, in June 2013. A Palestinian 'Empty Stomach' campaign, led by Palestinian
political prisoners in Israel, has had some success in using hunger strikes to
press Israeli officials for certain demands. With the purpose of prevailing
upon Israel to conform to international resolutions pertaining to the
Palestinians and to end its military occupation, Palestinian civic
organizations in 2005 launched a Boycott, Divestment Sanctions (BDS) campaign,
drawing upon the notable example of third-party sanctions applied in the
anti-apartheid struggle in South Africa. The Palestinian Authority has called
for non-state observer status at the United Nations and supports the boycotting
of products from Israeli settlements resistance.



More and more Palestinians are now
saying, 'We must fight for our rights with nonviolent resistance'. Many
Israelis are also deeply concerned about the future of their country. I
recently got an email from an Israeli who was deeply affected by reading Quiet
Revolution and has started to reach out to
Palestinians and take actions to bring to light the injustices that he
perceives. Tremendous debate is underway about new techniques, novel processes,
and how to shift gears to more effective mutual action. The United States
government and its people continue to pay for Israel's occupation and
militarization, which has abetted the continuation of conflict, although it is
often done in the name of peace! The United States has not incentivized the
building of peace. It has done almost nothing to help the construction of
institutions that could assist coexistence.



Also,
it is very important for the entire world, including Israelis, to recognize
intentional nonviolent action when they see it. The Israeli government
persisted in denying that the 1987 Intifada was nonviolent, when the Palestinian
populace had been maintaining extraordinary nonviolent discipline for nearly
three years, despite harsh reprisals. Israeli officials continued to call it
'unending war' and 'the seventh war'. Indeed, it was not perfect nonviolent discipline,
but enough that was indicative of a change in political thinking among the
people in the Palestinian areas that could have been built upon. Although some
Israeli social scientists accurately perceived the sea change in Palestinian
political thought about what methods to use in seeking statehood and the
lifting of the military occupation, the government of Israel generally did not
seize upon such popularly enacted nonviolent discipline to push for progress.
My sources for Quiet Revolution
include interviews with Israelis, such as the former Chief Psychologist of the
Israel Defense Force and IDF spokesperson.





Your latest book is about the transitions
of the Eastern European countries from being under Soviet rule to independent
democracies. You chose to illustrate these transitions with New York Times
articles. Why did you chose this approach; do you think the NY Times was
important as a media agency in any way or is there another reason?



There
is another reason: The New York Times
and CQ Press approached me and asked if I would write a reference book on the
nonviolent revolutions of the Eastern bloc, using articles from the Times that I would choose upon which to
hang the garments of the story. The point of the work is to help particularly
young people learn that they can study history by studying newspapers. The book
gives life to the old adage that newspaper reporters write the first draft of
history. In the book's treatment of these nonviolent revolutions, I chose ten Times articles for
each of the major ten struggles that are addressed, adding my historical
analysis to complete the saga for each country. It had been difficult for Times reporters to get into Poland, for
example, in the late 1970s and the crucial year of 1980; they sometimes risked
their lives. Yet it's in the nature of journalism that their on-the-spot
reportage needed additional analysis; furthermore newspaper accounts often
stress description.



After
the 1968 Prague Spring, when the Soviet Union sent 750,000 troops and tanks
from five Warsaw Pact countries into Czechoslovakia, crushing that revolt,
across Eastern Europe a tremendous amount of fervent work got underway by small
non-official committees, often below the radar of the communist party states.
This included samizdat (Russian for
'self published'), works not published by the state publishing machinery,
underground publications that were promoting new ways of thinking about how to
address their dilemma. Poland, Czechoslovakia, and Lithuania were the most
active in the Eastern bloc with their major but covert samizdat. As it was
illegal in Czechoslovakia for a citizen to own a photocopy machine, 'books'
were published by using ten pieces of onion-skin paper interspersed with carbon
sheets, 'publishing' each page by typing it and its copies on a manual
typewriter.



The
entire phenomenon of micro-committees, flying universities, samizdat boutiques,
seminars, drama with hidden meanings, underground journals, and rock groups
transmitting messages eluded outside observers, who were not thinking about
what the people could do for themselves. The economists and Kremlinologists who
were observing the Eastern bloc did not discern what the playwrights, small
committees of activist intellectuals, local movements, labor unions,
academicians, and church groups were undertaking. They did not imagine the
scope or scale of what the people were doing for themselves with utmost
self-reliance. In essence, no one saw these nonviolent revolutions coming, with
the exception of the rare onlooker, such as the historian Timothy Garton Ash. Even today the
peaceful transitions to democracy of the Eastern bloc are sometimes explained
by saying 'Gorby did it', when Gorbachev did not come to power until 1985. Or by
attributing the alterations to Reagan's going to Berlin and telling Gorbachov
to tear down the Wall. 



By
December 1981, Poland was under martial law, which unleashed a high degree of
underground organizing, countless organizations of self-help, reimagining of
the society, and the publishing of samizdat. Still, even so, some people
believe that this sweeping political change was top-down.  It is indisputably true that nonviolent
action usually interacts with other forces and forms of power, but I would say
that we need this book for its accessible substantiation of historically
significant independent nonviolent citizen action as a critical element in the
collapse of the Soviet Union.





You also mention Al Jazeera as an
important media agency in your most recent blog post at 'Waging Nonviolence'.
You wrote that Al Jazeera has an important role in influencing global affairs.
Could you explain why? And more generally, how important is diversification of
media for international politics?



Al
Jazeera generally has not been taking the point of view of the official organs
of governments of Arab countries and has usually not reported news from
ministries of information. Additionally, it often carries reports from local
correspondents in the country at issue. If you are following a report from
Gaza, it is likely to be a Gazan journalist who is transmitting to Al Jazeera.
If it is a report from Egypt, it may well be an Egyptian correspondent. Al
Jazeera also has made a point of reporting news from Israel, and utilizing
reporters in Tel Aviv, which may be a significant development. Certainly in the
2010-2011 Arab Awakening, it made a huge difference that reports were coming
directly from the action takers rather than the official news outlets of Arab
governments.



President
George W. Bush did not want Al Jazeera to come to the United States, because he
considered it too anti-American. I remember reading at the time that the first
thing that Gen. Colin Powell said to Al Jazeera was 'can you tone it down a
little?' when asking why Al Jazeera couldn't be less anti-American in its news.
To me, either you support free speech or you do not; it's free or it's not: You
can't have a little bit of control and a little bit of freedom.



Until
recently, Al Jazeera was not easily available in the United States, except in
Brattleboro, Vermont; Washington, DC; and a few other places. It was difficult
to get it straight in the United States. I mounted a special satellite so that
I could get Al Jazeera more freely. This does not speak well for freedom of the
press in the United States. This may change with the advent of Al Jazeera
America, although we still do not know to what degree it will represent an
editorially free press.



News
agencies are important for civil-resistance movements for major reasons.
Popular mobilizations need good communications internally and externally!  People need to understand clearly what is the
purpose and strategy and to be part of the making of decisions. Learning also crucially
needs to take place inside the movement: activist intellectuals often act as
interpreters, framing issues anew, suggesting that an old grievance is now
actionable. No one expects the butcher, the baker, or the candlestick maker,
and everyone else in the movement to read history and theory.



When
news media are interested and following a popular movement of civil resistance,
they can enhance the spread of knowledge. In the U.S. civil rights movement,
the Southern white-owned newspapers considered the deaths of black persons or
atrocities against African Americans as not being newsworthy. There was
basically a 'black-out', if you want to call it that, with no pun. Yet dreadful
things were happening while we were trying to mobilize, organize, and get out the
word. So SNCC created its own media, and Julian Bond
and others and I set up nationwide alternative outlets. Eventually we had 12
photographers across the South. This is very much like what the people of the
Eastern bloc did with samizdat — sharing and disseminating papers, articles,
chapters, even whole books. The media can offer a tremendous boost, but
sometimes you have to create your own.





Last question. You combine scholarship
with activism. How do you reconcile the academic claim for 'neutrality' with
the emancipatory goals of activism?



To
be frank, I am not searching for neutrality in my research. Rather, I strive
for accuracy, careful transcription, and scrupulous gathering of evidence. I
believe that this is how we can become more effective in working for justice,
environmental protection, sustainable development, pursuing human rights, or
seeking gender equity as critical tools to build more peaceable societies.
Where possible I search for empirical data. So much has been ignored, for
example, with regards to the effects of gendered injustice. I do not seek
neutrality on this matter, but strong evidence. For example, since the 1970s, experts
have known that the education of women has profoundly beneficial and measurable
effects across entire societies, benefiting men, children, and women. Data from
Kerala, India; Sri Lanka; and elsewhere has shown that when you educate women
the entire society is uplifted and that all indicators shift positively. The
problem is that the data have for decades been ignored or trivialized. We need
much more than neutrality. We need to interpret evidence and data clearly to
make them compelling and harder to ignore. I think that we can do this with
methodologies that are uncompromisingly scrupulous.





Mary Elizabeth King is professor of peace and conflict studies at the
UN-affiliated University for Peace and and is Scholar-in-Residence in the
School of International Service, at the American University in Washington, D.C.
She is also a Distinguished Fellow of the Rothermere American Institute at the
University of Oxford, in the United Kingdom. Her most recent book is The
New York Times on Emerging Democracies in Eastern Europe (Washington, D.C.:
Times Reference and CQ Press/Sage, 2009), chronicling the nonviolent
transitions that took place in Poland,  Hungary, East Germany,
Czechoslovakia, the Baltic states, Serbia, Georgia, and Ukraine in the late
1980s and early 1990s. She is the author of the highly acclaimed A
Quiet Revolution: The First Palestinian Intifada and Nonviolent Resistance (New
York: Nation Books, 2007; London: Perseus Books, 2008), which examines crucial
aspects of the 1987 uprising overlooked or misunderstood by the media,
government officials, and academicians. 





Related links





King's personal page 
Read the book edited by
King on Peace Research for Africa
(UNU, 2007) here (pdf) 
Read the book by King Teaching Model: Nonviolent Transformation of
Conflict (UNU, 2006) here (pdf)










Print version of this Talk (pdf)





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IntroducciónEl objetivo de este trabajo es realizar una crítica metodológica al artículo "The Links between Poverty and the Environment in Urban Areas of Africa, Asia, and Latin America", del autor David Satterthwaite, publicado en la revista arbitrada Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science (1).Primero realizaremos una breve descripción del artículo, señalando el problema de investigación, la hipótesis, la metodología y las técnicas utilizadas. Luego pasaremos a realizar un análisis crítico del mismo, donde resaltaremos los aspectos tanto negativos como positivos del mismo.1. Problema de investigación y diseño metodológico1.1. El problema de investigaciónEn este artículo el autor expone la existencia de una fuerte evidencia que relaciona la degradación ambiental y la pobreza urbana. Sin embargo, el argumento de Satterthwaite es contrario a la intuición de sentido común: la que supone que la pobreza urbana podría ser una causa de la degradación ambiental. Por el contrario, la hipótesis de Satterthwaite es que la pobreza urbana es una consecuencia de los riesgos provocados por la degradación ambiental.El autor presenta los distintos riesgos ambientales resultantes de la degradación, y cómo los mismos afectan el cotidiano de las personas que se encuentran en la pobreza urbana. Analiza además el uso de los recursos no renovables, la degradación de algunos recursos renovables como el suelo y el agua potable, y el desperdicio de sustancias biodegradables o no biodegradables.Finalmente concluye que la degradación ambiental está más asociada a los patrones de consumo de las clases medias y altas, y que una mala interpretación de esta relación puede llevar a los hacedores de política ambiental a tomar decisiones erróneas, que por lo tanto fallarán al momento de solucionar el problema. Satterthwaite se plantea como problema de investigación la relación entre pobreza y degradación ambiental. Su hipótesis es que la pobreza urbana no es el principal contribuyente a la degradación ambiental, sino que es su principal víctima. El autor hace un intento de demostrar que son la urbanización y su consecuente degradación ambiental las que provocan la pobreza y no a la inversa.1.2. El diseño metodológicoLa variable independiente identificada por el autor es la degradación ambiental, mientras que la variable dependiente es la pobreza. Así, el autor deja en claro que existe una relación causal que va desde la degradación hacia la pobreza, es decir a su entender es la degradación ambiental la que causa la pobreza y no a la inversa.Para estudiar estas relaciones el autor se basa en datos secundarios, ocasionalmente utiliza datos cuantitativos. La base de información del trabajo está en documentos de investigación (de Universidades u Organismos Internacionales) que abordan temas relacionados a riesgos ambientales, política ambiental y pobreza en contextos urbanos de las tres zonas elegidas (África, América Latina y Asia).2. Crítica metodológica2.1 El problema de investigaciónVimos anteriormente que el problema que el autor plantea está centrado en la relación entre pobreza urbana y degradación ambiental, algo sobre lo cual se han expuesto numerosos trabajos desde la publicación del Informe Bruntland en 1987, de World Comission on Environment and Development. A diferencia de las corrientes inspiradas en dicho informe (que entienden a la pobreza urbana como causante de la degradación ambiental), Sutterthwaite plantea que es la creciente dimensión de consumo de las clases medias y altas la que genera la degradación ambiental.Por tanto, el rol de la pobreza urbana, según el autor, es cargar con el peso de los riesgos ambientales derivados de esa degradación. Algunos de estos riesgos causados por las fallas en la infraestructura de los servicios tanto en sus casas como en sus alrededores, estos riesgos provocan enfermedades y muertes, que son las principales causas de la pobreza urbana pero que no causan degradación ambiental.Su hipótesis entonces es que la pobreza urbana no es el principal contribuyente a la degradación ambiental, sino que es la principal "víctima". Es claramente una afirmación de tipo general. Existe en la misma una relación entre variables, condición necesaria para una buena formulación de la misma."It is often assumed that urban poverty is linked to environmental degradation or even that it is a major cause of environmental degradation. This article describes how this is not so. Indeed, the key relationship between environmental degradation and urban development is in regard to the consumption patterns of nonpoor urban groups (especially high-income groups) and the urban-based production and distribution systems that serve them" (Satterthwaite, 2003, 74).Si tomamos estrictamente las afirmaciones de Satterwaite en el párrafo precedente deberíamos hipotetizar que en los países desarrollados donde hay mayor nivel de consumo y deshechos por parte de los sectores medios debería haber mayores niveles de pobreza. Por el contrario, en los países pobres, con una clase media de menor cuantía y menor consumo en términos relativos debería haber menos pobreza urbana.Increíblemente el autor hace deducciones a partir de su hipótesis que van en el sentido contrario de las recién señaladas. Veamos:"Ironically, at a continental or global level, high levels of urban poverty in Africa, Asia, and Latin America (which also means low levels of consumption, resource use, and waste generation) have helped to keep down environmental degradation" (Satterthwaite, 2003, 74).Para el autor, entender el vínculo entre pobreza y degradación ambiental es clave para reorientar la política pública:"A more precise understanding of the links between urban poverty and the environment is needed because this can provide the basis for combining improved environmental management with poverty reduction. Faulty diagnoses of the links between poverty and environmental degradation have led to inappropriate, ineffective, and often antipoor policies. If urban poverty and, by implication, the poor are seen as the cause of environmental degradation, policies to inhibit the movement of the poor to urban areas may be seen as a logical policy response. A failure to recognize the contribution of middle- and upper-income groups to environmental degradation also implies a failure to put in place the environmental frameworks that are needed to keep down environmental degradation" (Satterthwaite, 2003, 74-75).La argumentación de Satterthwaite adolece de un problema fundamental. Hay una gran diferencia en postular que la pobreza es "consecuencia" de la degradación ambiental y postular que la pobreza es "víctima" de dicho fenómeno. Podemos afirmar que se trata de dos modalidades discursivas con lógicas muy diferentes. Por un lado, la lógica de la causalidad. No sólo es necesario poder demostrar con datos que hay una influencia que va desde la degradación ambiental hacia la generación de pobreza (así como tener una estrategia de control que permita confiar en que la relación hallada no es espúrea). También es necesario poder demostrar teóricamente cuáles son los nexos causales entre ambos fenómenos (o dicho de otra manera, es necesario teorizar acerca de cómo, a través de qué mecanismos, la degradación ambiental genera pobreza). Por otro lado, está la lógica de la denuncia social. Afirmar que la pobreza es la principal víctima de los problemas medioambientales es una manera de intervenir en el debate sobre las condiciones de vida de los pobres urbanos en las regiones más desiguales del planeta. Intervenir a favor de los pobres urbanos es una "causa social" tan legítima como cualquier otra pero que no requiere de un herramental analítico y empírico para su debida fundamentación. Es decir, no es necesario que la ciencia social demuestre que hay una relación de causalidad entre ambos fenómenos para inclinar nuestra sensibilidad a la defensa de los pobres urbanos. Basta con que nuestros valores nos indiquen que las condiciones de vida de los pobres urbanos son injustas para abogar por su mejora.La principal crítica que se puede hacer al trabajo de Satterthwaite en este sentido, es que no separa analíticamente estas dos modalidades de discurso. Por tanto, la noción de "causa" y la noción de "víctima" aparecen confundidas en su argumentación.2.2 La estrategia metodológicaA lo largo del artículo el autor intenta demostrar que:Las poblaciones pobres enfrentan riesgos ambientales y que estos riesgos tienen efectos en el mantenimiento de la situación de pobreza.Las poblaciones pobres no están involucradas en actividades que generen degradación en el medio ambiente (como por ejemplo alto consumo de combustibles fósiles).Las políticas de manejo ambiental innovadoras implementadas en los tres continentes seleccionados tienden a generar "alivio" respecto a los riesgos ambientales que enfrentan los pobres urbanos.Un repaso de los tres puntos anteriores permite ver claramente que el autor no tiene una estrategia de prueba clara acerca de la relación entre degradación ambiental y pobreza. Es decir, no refiere literatura que aborde el vínculo causal entre ambos fenómenos. En consecuencia, el artículo no presenta estrategia alguna para controlar si la supuesta relación entre degradación y pobreza es espúrea o no.Este último aspecto no es menor. La relación entre degradación ambiental y pobreza puede ser consecuencia de la existencia de una tercera variable: el estilo de desarrollo económico de los países o regiones, por ejemplo. Es sabido que ambos problemas (ambientales y asociados a distribución del ingreso) están fuertemente relacionados el desarrollo económico.También podría pensarse que la pobreza es mayor en aquellos lugares donde las políticas sociales y gubernamentales son ineficientes para abordar el problema. Sin embargo, el autor directamente no se cuestiona la existencia de otros elementos que podrían ser la verdadera razón detrás de las apariencias. Otro elemento llamativo es que el abordaje metodológico no incluye la recopilación de información relativa al impacto que el estilo de consumo de las clases medias y altas tiene sobre la degradación ambiental (pese a que esta es una de las hipótesis más fuertes del trabajo).En cuanto a la presentación de evidencia, el autor no presenta datos cuantitativos que permitan creer en sus afirmaciones. El autor simplemente menciona las variables influyentes y como es que éstas pueden estar relacionadas. Para ejemplificar, al momento de hablar de las necesidades básicas insatisfechas, la falta de agua potable, acceso a la educación, el consumo de recursos no renovables, podría haber expuesto cifras que respaldaran sus afirmaciones. Entendemos que de haber utilizado valores en profundidad sobre todas las variables enumeradas, o al menos una cantidad representativa de las mismas, el trabajo se hubiera visto muy enriquecido.Dedica segmentos importantes del paper a mostrar los problemas que enfrentan los pobres urbanos como la falta de agua por cañería, la sanidad, recolección de residuos, transporte público inadecuado, dificultades en obtener atención médica, entre otras. Sumado a esto están las consecuencias propias de la degradación ambiental como el peligro de enfermedades asociadas a una mala administración de los residuos, falta de agua potable, que aumentan el riesgo de propagación de las enfermedades, la utilización de medios precarios de calefacción que generan contaminación del aire en el hogar (indoor air pollution), así como contaminantes químicos que afectan la salud en la vida urbana, entre otros. Sin embargo, al intentar demostrar las relaciones de causalidad que refutan la idea de que la pobreza urbana es la que genera mayor degradación ambiental, omite el análisis de las causas que generan la degradación ambiental por parte de los patrones de consumo de las clases medias y altas. Plantea al inicio del trabajo una relación entre clases medias y altas y degradación, y pobreza con riesgos ambientales, sin embargo en el trabajo desarrolla solamente una de las caras del problema. No muestra cómo llega a la conclusión que las clases medias y altas son las que efectivamente causan la degradación ambiental.Por más que se enfoque en demostrar por qué la pobreza no es el principal contribuyente a la degradación ambiental, no utiliza datos numéricos que respalden sus afirmaciones. Entendemos que el trabajo se habría enriquecido mucho de haber utilizado, por ejemplo, patrones de consumo, utilización de recursos, índices de contaminación, entre otros, que permitieran contrastar los valores entre las clases socioeconómicas en cuestión.En esto podemos ver una falla en la utilización del método comparativo que le hubiera permitido reafirmar su hipótesis. Es decir, mediante la utilización de datos fidedignos podría haber hecho comparaciones que podrían haber clarificado la causalidad expuesta.2.3. La muestraSatterthwaite elige África, Asia y América Latina como su muestra, y lo justifica cuando dice que estos tres grupos tienen aproximadamente tres cuartos de la población urbana del mundo y las ciudades con mayor y más rápido crecimiento. El futuro será predominantemente urbano, y la creciente urbanización ha sido acompañada en todos los casos por un crecimiento de la pobreza. Se espera que siga creciendo en la mayoría de los países porque las inversiones suelen ser principalmente en zonas urbanas.Es una elección que identificamos dentro del concepto de muestreo completo en la investigación cualitativa de Uwe Flick. El muestreo completo es una estrategia que a partir de ciertos criterios determina la totalidad de casos posibles. "En los diseños de investigación que utiliza definiciones a priori de la estructura de la muestra las decisiones de muestreo se toman con vistas a seleccionar casos o grupos de casos" (2). El por qué de esta muestra es la relevancia de la pobreza urbana en estos continentes y más específicamente en los países que lo conforman (de ahí la distinción de América Latina en lugar de América en general). Es la pobreza urbana lo que el autor quiere analizar, y cómo la misma está relacionada a la degradación ambiental. Es por eso que elige las áreas de mayor urbanización y más creciente urbanización.Sin embargo, entendemos que otra manera de abarcarlo podría haber sido tomar los países con mayores valores en degradación ambiental, consumo de recursos no renovables y otras características que afectan a la pobreza urbana, y a partir de ello constatar efectivamente la existencia de una pobreza urbana como tal. Si son los factores ambientales los que provocan este tipo de pobreza, ¿por qué ir a donde está la pobreza y no a donde están los factores que supuestamente la generan?Es menester señalar que el autor asume las limitaciones de su muestra en la medida que reconoce que la misma cubre más de 1500 millones de personas y que no toma en cuenta la gran diversidad entre los centros urbanos. Por otro lado, afirma que en general cuando se estudia sobre la pobreza en África, Asia y América Latina, las estimaciones se centran en el nivel de ingresos, de consumo y en la línea de pobreza; sin tener en cuenta las condiciones del hogar y la falta de servicios básicos como ser el agua potable, educación, salud, transporte público y comunicaciones, factores que él introduce en su artículo.3. ConclusiónPartiendo de las críticas expuestas anteriormente, entendemos que la investigación podría haber sido encarada de otra manera a fin de tener mayor credibilidad o al menos poder exponer argumentos más confiables.En primer lugar, debemos partir de los conceptos para generar teoría, confirmar la pobreza y ver si efectivamente donde hay pobreza hay degradación ambiental. Entendemos que hubiera tenido mayor riqueza el confirmar aspectos como degradación ambiental, falta de saneamiento, emisión de carbono, entre otros, para así ver si en los momentos que todos estos factores se presentan también lo hace la pobreza.Por otro lado, hubiese sido necesario dar mayor relevancia al respaldo en datos reales para dar credibilidad a sus afirmaciones. Ejemplos podrían ser cuántas personas de la muestra acceden efectivamente a agua potable, saneamiento, transporte público o cuales son los peligros ambientales que se presentan y en qué medida. A partir de ello afirmar la existencia de una relación y en qué sentido se da la misma.Es imprescindible que la teoría sirva para algo relevante en la realidad. Se debe poder entender al objeto y corresponderlo con la realidad, de ahí la importancia de respaldar todo lo dicho manteniendo una lógica de investigación que vincule teoría y evidencia empírica.El autor realiza, en ciertas ocasiones, "recomendaciones" a los hacedores de políticas públicas encargados de subsanar los problemas derivados de la degradación ambiental así como de la pobreza. El problema con esto es que hace recomendaciones sobre la base de un trabajo empírico muy débil.(1) SATTERTHWAITE, David. The Links between Poverty and the Environment in Urban Areas of Africa, Asia, and Latin America. En Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science. Vol. 590. Nov. 2003. [Online]. Pp.73-92, noviembre 2003. [citado 13 mayo 2011]. Disponible en Internet: (2) FLICK, Uwe. Introducción a la investigación cualitativa. En: Material de la materia Métodos de Investigación 2011. *Estudiantes de la Licenciatura en Estudios InternacionalesDepto de Estudios InternacionalesFACS – Universidad ORT UruguayREFERENCIAS BIBLIOGRÁFICASKHAN, Mahmood Hasan. 2001. [online] [citado 30 junio 2011] Disponible en Internet: SATTERTHWAITE, David. The Links between Poverty and the Environment in Urban Areas of Africa, Asia, and Latin America. En Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science. Vol. 590. Nov. 2003. [Online]. Pp.73-92, noviembre 2003. [citado 13 mayo 2011]. Disponible en Internet: