Academic literature on the topic 'Contemporary US History'

The United States has long been perceived as a land of opportunity for immigrants. Yet, both in the past and today, US natives have expressed concern that immigrants fail to integrate into US society and lower wages for existing workers. This paper reviews the literatures on historical and contemporary migrant flows, yielding new insights on migrant selection, assimilation of immigrants into US economy and society, and the effect of immigration on the labor market. (JEL J11, J15, J24, J61, N31, N32)

Abstract Contemporary physics often speaks of “multiverses” or “parallel universes,” seriously debating whether our cosmic space is only one of many2. However many such spaces there may be, for now let us limit ourselves to the space in which we find ourselves; let us focus furthermore on the planet we are on, and further still on humanity upon this planet. Let us attempt to write a short history of the culture produced by humanity on this globe. We humans possessed and indeed possess a shared space, the globe, where a physical time common to us all passes. Let us survey the history of the world’s culture within this shared context.

Abstract Notwithstanding the political origins of constitutionalism in the west and the leading role played by the United States in the creation of the new global order after WWII, this origin of the global constitutional project does not undermine the claims to universality underlying it. After laying out a basic account of some core theoretical premises guiding global constitutionalism, the article presents a series of genealogical reflections, in which the basic project of global constitutionalism is affirmed, even as some of its concrete features and their connection to great power domination - and US domination more specifically - is critically highlighted. It concludes that the core challenge that global constitutionalism faces is not the shift of power away from the west to other geographical areas, such as Asia and South America. Its core challenge are structural inadequacies that are glossed over complacently and self-interestedly by powerful actors claiming to speak in its name and discrediting its basic ideas among those who suffer as a result.

Abstract This article pursues a longue durée study of the US refugee to resettle, in necessary and generative ways, contemporary interest in the refugee as representative of a current “global crisis” and as inherently tied to the unique violence of the twentieth and twenty-first centuries. It argues that the twentieth century is not the only thinkable or relevant period for a refugee literary history. The colonial construction of “asylum,” the word we refer today as a legal source of political protection for refugees, was in earlier times intertwined with the development of an exclusionary migration regime, vestiges of which continue to govern the reception of migrants today. The very idea of asylum, despite becoming a legal fixture of human rights law in the twentieth century, was never meant to be expansive in the US. How we make sense of this disjuncture is a serious project for literary scholarship invested in refugees and migration. The limbo that many contemporary refugees find themselves in today, in detention camps and other make-shift shelters, is tied to the US’s early fictional conception of itself as a refuge for white European foreigners.

David J. Rothman's The Discovery of the Asylum, one of the first major works to critically interrogate the beginning of America's extensive reliance on institutionalization, effectively launched the contemporary field of prison history. Rothman traced the first modern prisons’ (1820s–1850s) roots to the post-Revolution social turmoil and reformers’ desire for perfectly ordered spaces. In the nearly 50 years since his pioneering work, several generations of historians, inspired by Rothman, have amassed a wealth of information about the early prisons, much of it correcting inaccuracies and blind spots in his account. This review examines the knowledge about the rise of the prison, focusing on this post-Rothman work. In particular, this review discusses this newer work organized into three categories: the claim that prisons were an invention of Jacksonian America, reformers’ other motivations for creating and supporting prisons, and the frequently gendered and racialized experiences of prisoners. The review closes by reflecting on the importance of prison history in the contemporary context and suggesting areas for future research.

Contemporary art more and more actively interacts with the nonartistic museums. For instance, biological, historical as well as anthropological museums become spaces for contemporary art exhibitions or initiate collaborative projects. This process seeks to link different types of materials to make the interaction successful. Thus, several questions appear: can we talk about interaction, if the museum becomes a place for the exhibition devoted to the topics of history, ethnography or biology? Does any appearance of contemporary art in the museum territory become a part of intercultural dialogue? And how do we assess and analyze the process of interaction between these two spheres? Among nonartistic museums working with contemporary art the museums of conscience appear to be one of the most interesting. This type of museums is quite new – it developed in 1990s when the International Coalition of Sites of Coscience was created and the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum was founded. The interaction between contemporary art and museums of conscience starts to develop in the context of changing attitudes towards historical memory as well as widening the notion of museums. In this situation museums need new instruments for educational and exhibitional work. Contemporary artists work with the past through personal memories and experience, when museums turn to documents and artifacts. So, their collaboration connects two different optics: artistic and historical. Thus, it is possible to use the Michel Foucault term dispositif to analyze the collaboration between artists and museums. Foucault defines the dispositif as a link between different elements of the system as well as optics that makes us to see and by that create the system. The term allows us to connect the questions of exhibition work with philosophical and historical issues when we analyze the projects in the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, Yad Vashem and Auschwitz-Birkenau.

Even though virginity in Turkey is commonly defined, thus gendered, as losing the hymen, in Turkish society, discourses of virginity connect to broader discussions, such as modernity, morality, social honor/shame, religion, family values, and even medicine (vaginismus and artificial hymen surgery). Previous scholarship on women’s rights in Turkey outlines how historical approaches by Kemalist secularism were not enough to diminish oppressive social norms such as virginity and how the current conservative government and elements of traditional Turkish society perpetuate virginity as an important virtue for unmarried women. This study adds seven Turkish mothers’ interpretations of what I am calling the contemporary Turkish discourse of virginity, as well as the mothers’ descriptions of their pedagogical practices on the topic of premarital sex with regard to their adult children. Here I report the semi-structured interviews I conducted with heterosexual urban Turkish mothers, 45-60 years old, college-educated, and socioeconomically privileged, living in Western Turkey, a region more closely aligned with European ideals. Participant mothers self-identify as Kemalist women, meaning secular, and use this perspective in describing virginity and its role in the contemporary Turkish society. I argue, first, that the “modern” participant mothers speak from an interstitial location, which is the result of contradictions between secular and conservative ideals in Turkey. Second, the participant mothers discuss virginity tactically from three different subjectivities: modern women who believe in women’s rights, modern mothers who respect their daughters’ choices regarding premarital sex, and caring mothers who worry about the social consequences of their daughters’ choices in a society that still stigmatizes the loss of virginity. Third, as a result of these shifting subjectivities, participant mothers observe as well as participate in a subtle social change in urban Western Turkey, which I argue is moving the politics of virginity from a social imperative toward covert practices of choice. The transcripts also show the underlying presumption of heterosexuality not only among participant mothers’ negotiations of virginity but also in the broader modern Turkish discourse of virginity. By bringing forward the voices of these participant mothers, this study aims to portray the complex structure of Turkish society and document interpretations of a discourse that oppresses Turkish women.

The United States of America was founded on imperialist ideals that favoured European protestant values and blood. Meanwhile the Native peoples of the lands on which the very country was founded were treated as a “problem”. In times of conflict children are often the most vulnerable group, suffering great trauma and distress. This paper has outlined the origins of policies that would exploit and traumatise Native American children by removing them from their families, effectively violating their rights. Evidence is presented through historical analysis that these practices are so ingrained in the American political system that is was with relative easy that contemporary policies were passed, that would violate the human rights of Indigenous blooded immigrant children by forcibly separating them from their parents and subjecting them to subhuman conditions in migrant detention centers along the US-Mexico border.

The story is now familiar. In the late 1960s humanity finally saw photographic evidence of the Earth in space for the first time. According to this narrative, the impact of such images in the consolidation of a planetary consciousness is yet to be matched. This book tells a different story. It argues that this narrative has failed to account for the vertiginous global imagination underpinning the media and film culture of the late nineteenth century and beyond. Panoramas, giant globes, world exhibitions, photography and stereography: all promoted and hinged on the idea of a world made whole and newly visible. When it emerged, cinema did not simply contribute to this effervescent globalism so much as become its most significant and enduring manifestation. Planetary Cinema proposes that an exploration of that media culture can help us understand contemporary planetary imaginaries in times of environmental collapse. Engaging with a variety of media, genres and texts, the book sits at the intersection of film/media history and theory/philosophy, and it claims that we need this combined approach and expansive textual focus in order to understand the way we see the world.

A discussion of the Zaddik/rebbe concept and description of a Hasidic court, and the history of and issues involved in succession, the role of charisma, branding, and inherited identity as well as the growing conservatism of Hasidism are discussed.

Chapter 2 establishes the urban context in which the dynamics described in subsequent chapters unfolded. The chapter begins with a description of the prevalence and quality of crime, gang activity, and violence in Rogers Park and Uptown. It then offers a historical overview of urban change from the neighborhoods’ early history through racial integration and up to the arrival of gentrification and the present moment. The chapter ends by describing the neighborhoods’ contemporary political fields, including the main actors and community organizations that formed the public safety and antigentrification camps.

This chapter discusses the history of terrorism. Terrorism, as it is understood in this chapter, is the deliberate use or threat of violence by non-state actors in order to achieve power and implement political goals. Historical studies help us to better understand the sheer complexity of terrorism from the past. The chapter looks into the gunpowder revolution in Europe. It cites David Rapoport's ‘Four Waves’ model and relates it to accounts of the historical evolution of modern anti-state terrorism since 1880. Rapoport's work has become the dominant explanation of the evolution of modern terrorism.

Chapter 1 provides a biographical sketch of the woman at the centre of this book. Starting with her childhood, it charts Mary’s domestic life. We are introduced to Mary as daughter, wife, mother, and widow. It pieces together the little we know about Mary’s childhood, considering the political and social experiences that shaped her early years. It explores Mary’s two marriages: the first to a man thirty-three years her senior, James Cecil, second Marquess of Salisbury, and the second to Edward Stanley, fifteenth Earl of Derby. It considers her experiences of motherhood and widowhood, and what her domestic family life was like. Finally, it explores contemporary impressions of Mary, which reveal much about her personality and interests.

The article considers the concept and phenomen on of happiness from the perspective of different authors. The subjective perception and interpretation of the term happiness and the vital interest in this phenomen on by such sciences as philosophy, ethics, psychology, history, medicine. The concept of happiness in a narrow (fate, talent, luck, success, joy) and broad (psycho-emotional state of complete satisfaction with life, a sense of complete joy) senses has been covered. The ratings of the countries on the level of happiness among population (WorldHappinessReport) and the «happiness index» studied by the international foundation NEF (NewEconomicsFoundation) have been analyzed, along with the position of Ukraine. The finding soft helongest-running study from Harvard University, which aimed to find out what makes people happy from adolescence to old age, have been presented. It has been found that good relationships with people make us happier and healthier. Good social connections are good for us, but loneliness shortens life. It was proved that the happiest of the participants in the experiment, even feeling physicalpain, stayed positive. In stead, un happy people feltthat the physical pain became even stronger dueto a bad emotional state. The importance of a spouse supporting, and its positive impact on such a process as memory was emphasized. Instead, it was noted that their memory did not deteriorate as rapidly as in single people. Key words: health, life satisfaction, feelings of happiness, level of happiness.

In all times of history, engineers and architects have searched for opportunities to develop adaptive structures, buildings and building parts, which are equipped for adjusting to ever-changing requirements and conditions. The reasons behind this interest relate to the growing need for functional/ spatial flexibility, sustainability and extended capabilities of structural performance. Recent advancements in construction technology, robotics, architectural computing and material science have increased the interest for these structures/ systems; and allowed us to develop examples that are more advanced. This paper aims to introduce the state of art contemporary adaptive systems in architecture and structural engineering; and presents a future perspective for these systems and their potential applications in the construction industry.

This paper considers the first stage of Nova Huta New Town built near Krakow in the 1950s. In contrast to UK and US new settlements of the post war period it is a high density apartment block development which was ignored in the literature for more than half a century because its design, based on a system of streets, is in contrast with contemporary forms of development, either low density garden city or higher density free standing apartment blocks. A discussion of its neglect and the recent rediscovery of its qualities, both in Poland and by exponents of the US New Urbanism (part of the Urban Morphology spectrum somewhat neglected by ISUF) leads to a systematic investigation of the development, its influences and how this project conceived in a radically different political and economic context, matches or departs from the tenets of the Charter for the New Urbanism. The extent to which the context has determined the differences leads to a conclusion discussing the enduring qualities and contemporary relevance of inherited urban forms. References: Biedrzycka A., Chyb A., Fryźlewicz M. (ed.) Nowa Huta - architektura i twórcy miasta idealnego. Niezrealizowane projekty, Muzeum Historyczne Miasta Krakowa, Kraków 2006. Gauthier,P. and J. Gilliland (2006), ‘Mapping urban morphology: a classification scheme for interpreting contributions to the study of urban form’, Urban Morphology 10.1, 41-50 Hatherley, O.(2015) Landscapes of Communism. A history through buildings (Allen Lane,London). Juchnowicz, S. (2005) ‘Nowa Huta-przeszłość i wizja. Z doświadczeń warsaztatu projektowego in Nowa Huta-przyszłość i wizja’. Studium muzeum rozprosznego, Biblioteka Krzysztoforska, Krakow. Lisowski, B. (1968) Modern architecture in Poland (Polonia Publishing House, Warsaw). Plater Zyberk, E. (2015) ‘Traditional urbanism: design policy and case studies’. in Jeleński et al eds. Tradition and heritage in the contemporary image of the city, Volume 1, Wyd. Politechniki Krakowskiej, Krakow. p160-171. The Congress for the New Urbanism (1999) Charter of the New Urbanism (1999) (https://www.cnu.org/who-we-are/charter-new-urbanism) accessed 4 January 2017. Wyrozumski J. (eds.) Narodziny Nowej Huty Towarzystwo Miłośników Historii i Zabytków Krakowa, Kraków, 1999.

Evaluating the socio-technical dialectic reveals much about our values as a society, as a construction industry and as individual disciplines. This paper will share an interpretive cultural history of building in order to establish a context for the emergence of integrated practice technologies such as BIM, IPD and LEED. This will provide the foundation for determining whether these technologies are serving us well in contemporary practice given our most pressing challenges and opportunities. In short the purpose of this paper is to explain the context of building as a means for making our current practices more performative, that is less abstract and autonomous, and instead more connected, meaningful and valuable to the future of both society and the building industry.

As the Industrial Revolution took place and steam driven machines emerged in the 18th century, the Industrial Age began and cities became the core of industrial and populational growth. That phenomena occurred as the job opportunities and quality of life increasingly developed away from the countryside, with the arrival of electricity and inventions such as the light bulb, thanks to important people like Sir Joseph Swan and Thomas Edison. The city, therefore, can be looked in two different ways: the urban space, occupied with tangible elements, and the social environment, filled with urban practices and cohabitation. An essential matter in many disciplines, the city is a recurrent topic for researchers who seek to understand this phenomenon of human activities. The history behind the rise of the cities show tell us about the creation of urban spaces and its manifestations, functions, transformations and the complexity inherent to the various typologies in cities all over the world. The city is a scenario full of overlapping messages that characterize the accessibility and urban communication. This is defined by Nojima (1999) as the result of the interaction between social representations and the scenario where they occur. It is through the interpretation of these messages that are manifested in the urban design accessible from cities (streets, buildings, gardens, squares, furnitures), that the individual defines the elements that identify their city. This paper discovery the concepts of city and their accessibility relationships with urban practices - design of urban activity - that directly influence the implementation of urban furniture and, above all, the importance given to them by the population, with regard to its true functions (adequacy, accessibility, ergonomics, identity and others) of their uses and appropriations. It is important for the study also understand the urban furniture relation with the project of cities - is to complement the public space or the way how interferes the urban landscape. It is need to understand how society is shown in front of herself and the world itself that surrounds and what are the affective devices that make city living when connected - through the use - therefore, this is the powerfull forces of individuals and community , space practices created by the tactics of the population to allow theirs ambiance, wellness, safety and comfort, sensations often perceived by the set of elements that constitute the urban furniture of cities.DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.4995/IFDP.2016.3291

El presente artículo se centra en la construcción de una mirada acerca de la problemática de elaborar estrategias de transformación urbana eficientes, capaces de ser sostenibles y durables en el tiempo. Esta mirada se construye sobre tres pilares fundamentales del urbanismo contemporáneo: historia, geografía y diversidad. Serán entonces estas tres variables las que nos guiarán en el análisis de la ciudad, la detección de oportunidades de actuación para finalmente poder elaborar una serie de hipótesis y estrategias de transformación. Se utiliza como caso de estudio la ciudad de Buenos Aires por ser esta, actualmente, objeto de políticas urbanas que abogan por la sostenibilidad bajo el lema "Ciudad Verde". Se hace un especial énfasis en la zona sur de la ciudad porque es allí donde se concentran la mayor cantidad de propuestas de regeneración urbana por su histórico desbalance en términos socio-económicos respecto al centro y norte de la ciudad. This article focuses on building a look on the problems of developing efficient strategies of urban transformation that are supposed to be sustainable and long-lasting. This look is built on three fundamental pillars of contemporary urbanism : history, geography and diversity. These three variables will guide us in the analysis of the city, identifying opportunities for action to finally develop a series of scenarios and strategies of transformation. It is used as a case study the city of Buenos Aires as this is currently the subject of urban policies that advocate sustainability under the motto "Green City ". A special emphasis is on the south side of town because that is where the largest number of proposals for urban regeneration are focused due to its historical imbalance in socio- economic terms from the center and north of the city.

Museums as cultural institutions certainly reflect the sociocultural transformations of the new era and are changing with the new reality. Except for that, a museum is, by definition, an institution of memory, a keeper of history, it is based on adoption: the collection, successiveness and actualisation of past experience. What is perceived as innovation by contemporary society may have historical roots and be an actualisation of innovations of a bygone era. Modern museum development recalls a global project undertaken by Russian avant-garde artists in the early 20th century, and implying the institutional modernisation of museums. This study addresses a project taken on by avant-garde artists for the modernisation of museums in the context of general cultural construction, in cooperation with the Soviet Government. The research methodology is based on a conjunction of a historical study and culturological analysis, primarily the concept of the institutional approach. The study consisted in looking through archival documents: The Fund of the People’s Commissariat for Education and its departments (declarations, provisions, resolutions, decrees, minutes of meetings, correspondence, protocols and statements of estimates, inventory books of the State Museum Fund etc.), personal funds of artists and cultural figures, their theoretical works, articles, correspondence. A holistic inter-disciplinary approach combining historical and culturological analysis with prospects for contemporary sociocultural development and the role of museums is seen as a promising novelty of the research. Russian avantgardism as an artistic and sociocultural phenomenon has remained of great interest for a century. Different studies shed light only on separate aspects of this vast topic in different scientific contexts. The examination of the museum project by avant-garde artists under this study allows us to conclude that they were the first to undertake the institutional modernisation of museums by considering them in the focus of new demands of time and society, innovative programmes as forms of personal initiatives and experiments expressed in the broad public space of artistic culture.

The article is focused on the analysis of the phenomenon of child heroism in history and today as a primary prevention of countering extremism in a child and adolescent environment in the context of security. The paper presents the results of a study of the ideas of pre-school children about heroism and the hero. Problems are identified with examples of real heroes in the preschoolers’ minds, recommendations for the use of the educational potential of heroism still poorly used in educational institutions are proposed. At the same time, it is it which can resist the negative forms of attitudes towards violence and aggressive behaviour. The heroic deeds of our today’s children are considered; the large number of them makes it possible for us to assert that heroism is not only a phenomenon of the past but is typical of the children of contemporary Russia. The work substantiates the psychological and social meanings of a child’s feat in a special paradoxical property, the strength of a child, bodily, psychological, spiritual as his/her own resource of vitality, the ability to cope with psycho-traumatic, stressful negative attacks from the outside and the ability to provide protection to himself/herself and those who need it to a certain extent. In the safe childhood development concept, the concept of ‘child strength’ refers to the category of fundamental concepts that characterise the degree of readiness of children of different ages to overcome extremal situations, including an adequate response to external threats, including in the moral sphere. The overall result of the safe development of childhood is a psychologically, spiritually and morally healthy person capable of resistance and self-defence against all sort of threats.

Towards the contemporary city. Reading method of post-unification restructuring of Trastevere in Rome Giancarlo Salamone Dipartimento di Architettura e Progetto. Università degli Studi di Roma “La Sapienza”. Roma. via Flaminia, 359. 00196 Roma. Dottorato di Ricerca in Architettura e Costruzione. Università degli Studi di Roma “La Sapienza”. Roma. via Antonio Gramsci, 53. 00197 Roma. E-mail: giancarlo.salamone@uniroma1.it Keywords (3-5): Restructuring, Rome, Trastevere, process, reading method, tools, analysis in urban morphology Conference topics and scale: Tools of analysis in urban morphology Trastevere, the only area of the historic center of Rome (together with the Vatican / Borgo complex) located on the right side of the Tiber river, shows a morphological structure that depends on the pre-existing substrate, both road that typological, which was modified during the post-unity period by the establishment of the Tiber fronts and, above all, by the opening of Viale Trastevere. In the way of thinking about urban morphology as a scalar product of the factors that influence each other, in particular building typology, local structure, overall structure and territory, and that contribute together to generate an organism, it is therefore possible to read this part of the historical center as the last product, but not definitive, of a "process". The reading method on the consolidated structure, later renovated in a post-unification era, is based on the analysis of the most abundant building typology and on the permanence and derivations of local typological processes that led to the formulation of the “line house” in nineteenth-century line, the predominant building type of roman expansion in nineteenth-twentieth century. The reading of the restructuring, understood as synchronic action on the historical center, has been implemented instead by the analysis of synchronic variations at “line house” through the research of all projects registered for the edification of each block. Thus we can see how the blocks resulting from the transformation, in the logic of a restructuring "contromaglia" like the one for the opening of Viale Trastevere, will be the result of the disconnection of the existing blocks in which the building type adopted has had to adapt to a lower return situations: a reading of a synchronic action on a diachronic process that gives us the modern morphological apparatus. References Muratori, S., Bollati, R., Bollati, S. and Marinucci, G. (1963) Studi per una operante storia urbana di Roma (Consiglio Nazionale delle ricerche, Roma). Maffei, G. L. and Caniggia, G. (1979) Lettura dell’edilizia di base (Marsilio, Venezia). Maffei, G. L. and Caniggia, G. (1984) Progetto nell’edilizia di base (Marsilio, Venezia). Vaccaro, P. and Ameri, M. (1984) Progetto e realtà nell’edilizia romana dal XVI al XIX secolo (Edizioni Calosci, Cortona). Corsini, M. G. (2001) Il tessuto e l’edilizia progettati in Italia dal 1870 al 1930. Permanenza e derivazioni dei processi tipologici locali (Edizioni Kappa, Roma). Archivio Storico Capitolino, archival sources on restructuring area of Trastevere and permanence and derivations of local typological processes.

Se propone una reflexión general sobre la necesidad de recuperar nuestras emblemáticas ciudades históricas y su arquitectura, para que sean devueltas a sus ciudadanos y usuarios. Se detecta una “museización” de dichas ciudades, en las que su carácter histórico y patrimonial parece primar sobre el derecho de libre movilidad y disfrute de las personas, minimizando la vida cotidiana urbana y transformando el entorno en puras imágenes para admirar en la distancia, en una especie de símil de patrimonio congelado en forma de gran escultura. La reflexión se basa en el estudio y resultados generados por el Programa Intensivo “LOCUS - Let‟s Open Cities for Us”, programa que, durante el transcurso de tres años consecutivos, ha afrontado la problemática de movilidad y accesibilidad en cascos históricos de fuerte carga patrimonial y de compleja y pronunciada topografía. En la mayoría de ocasiones se trata de ciudades fortificadas, protegidas por una muralla medieval en lo alto de una colina, debido a su primer origen defensivo, indispensable en la época pero en plena contraposición contemporánea: debemos, por lo tanto, replantear nuestras ciudades históricas y garantizar su franco acceso. Nuestro deber de asegurar una completa igualdad de condiciones de uso y nuestro derecho a gozar de una buena calidad de vida, nos exige investigar las herramientas adecuadas que nos permitan acceder a nuestro patrimonio de forma equitativa para todas las personas, independientemente de sus diversas necesidades especiales. Se trata de innovar en una arquitectura inteligente capaz de dar respuesta a nuestras demandas actuales, sin renunciar a la percepción de belleza y harmonía de nuestra herencia patrimonial. El objetivo es el de mejorar la relación entre arquitectura y sociedad: mediante una arquitectura accesible se garantiza un mayor confort de todos los usuarios en general y, consecuentemente, un aumento de la calidad de vida, de rentabilidad y sostenibilidad. La arquitectura sólo será sostenible cuando permita su utilización, siendo la arquitectura accesible la máxima garantía para una sociedad inclusiva. LOCUS (www.etsav.upc.edu/locus) ha sido coordinado por la Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya (UPC) y ha contado con la participación de ocho escuelas de arquitectura de universidades europeas asociadas al programa. La ponencia presentará conclusiones derivadas del estudio realizado por LOCUS en las siguientes cuatro ciudades ibéricas: Tarragona (Febrero 2008), Girona (Julio 2008), Évora (Julio 2009) e Ibiza (Abril 2010). Se destacan la diversidad de enfoques y propuestas que se generan en un estudio como éste, pudiendo ser de gran ayuda real para futuras actuaciones municipales similares. The paper addresses a general reflection upon the need of recuperating our emblematic historic cities and their architecture, in order to return it back to their citizens and users. A certain sort of “museumization” is detected in the mentioned cities, where their great heritage and historical character seems to be a priority over the right of free mobility and enjoyment of the people, minimizing the urban daily life and transforming the environment in pure images only to be admired from the distance, in a kind of simile of frozen heritage in the form of a great sculpture. This consideration comes from the study and results generated by the Intensive Program “LOCUS – Let‟s Open Cities for Us”, which has faced, during three consecutive years, the problematic of mobility and accessibility in historic city centers with strong heritage value and complex and steep topography. In most occasions these sites are fortified cities, protected by a medieval wall on the top of a hill, due to their first defensive origin, indispensable at that time but in a total contemporary contraposition: we must, therefore, rethink our historic cities and ensure their frank access. Our duty of ensuring completely equal terms of use and our right to enjoy a good quality of life, leads to the research on those adequate tools that will allow accessing the heritage in an equitable manner for all people, regardless their diverse special needs. It is about innovating an intelligent architecture able to offer an answer to our present demands, without renouncing the perception of beauty and harmony of our inheritance. The objective is to improve the relationship between architecture and society: by means of an accessible architecture we can guarantee a better comfort for all users and, consequently, and improvement of the quality of life, the profitability and the sustainability. Architecture will be only sustainable when its utilization is permitted, being an accessible architecture the maximum guarantee of an inclusive society. LOCUS (www.etsav.upc.edu/locus) has been coordinated by the Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya (UPC) and has the partnership of eight architecture schools coming from diverse European universities. The paper will present conclusions resulting from the analysis of four Iberian cities studied by LOCUS: Tarragona (February 2008), Girona (July 2008), Évora (July 2009) and Ibiza (April 2010). It is worth mentioning the diversity of approaches and solutions generated by a study like this, being a great orientation for future similar urban interventions.

This scientific article studies natural history documentaries produced by BBC and traces important stages of the development of the attitude towards such genre as natural history documentary. This research is about understanding why this kind of programmes is important, particularly for Ukrainians, and why we should study the genre thoroughly, including the BBC’s experience in the field. Accordingly, the main objectives of the study were: 1. To substantiate the necessity for Ukrainian scholars to study natural history documentaries and BBC’s experience in the field. 2. To trace back and describe the main stages of development in the sphere of producing natural history documentaries by British Broadcasting Corporation. 3. To analyze the obstacles which modern journalists, filmmakers are dealing with and to draw attention of Ukrainian specialists to those philosophical questions that modern era is searching for answers to. In the result of the research these main tasks which were outlined above were fulfilled. The author of this article concluded that natural history documentaries help to understand our place in the world we live in. In addition, through the shared environment we can feel unity with those who inhabit our region, country, inhabited it before, will inhabit in future. Documentaries help us understand who we are. And this function of identification is very important for contemporary Ukraine. To understand how to create proper natural history documentary it’s important to learn the global history of creating such programmes and especially that part which covers BBC’s achievements. The achievements of the corporation which gave birth to such prominent figure as David Attenborough. In addition to this, the article described some modern challenges which documentary makers face and those questions which contemporary society needs to have answered. Because you cannot create a proper natural history programme if you know past but do not know modern challenges. To sum up, the topic which is deeply connected with process of self-identification is very important and perspective for Ukrainian society which suffers hybrid war and endeavours of Russian Federation to assimilate Ukrainian people, Ukrainian culture.

The article is dedicated to the investigation of time-space measurements of journalistic works of Eugen Sverstiuk, a well-known Ukrainian journalist. In particular, the time-space continuum of his works is being discussed, which is characterized as comprehensive, continuous, filled with archetypical images which metaphorize the text, but at the same time structure it, and are beaded on the axis of time and documentarily located in the space. The logics of images initiated in the text is exaggerated by constant dwelling of the author in the time-space dimensions of the epoque, of which he was a contemporary, as well as precise knowledge of World and Ukrainian history and culture. Historical parallelism of journalism of E. Sverstiuk possesses double potential. On the one hand, the author provides arguments for confirmation of his own opinion, and on the other, he shows us historical collisions in the new aspect, which helps consider the past, better understand the present, and think of the future. Pages of his works is space for author’s considerations, which logics impresses by free transgression of the author in the time, and his ability to grasp the most essential, although sometimes precedent, sometimes sudden and forgotten, or even unknown historical facts in order to force them to resonate in the new historical realities, first of all to indicate the importance of national and the need for assigning to it more significance. Using retrospectives, E. Sverstiuk encourages us to return to the national sources and to seek in ourselves the reflections of nationality in order to return historical truth to our audience. This is what, according to E. Sverstiuk, was believed to be one of the most necessary conditions of existence to the independent state. Time-space continuum of E. Sverstiuk’s journalism is reproduction of comprehensive history as continuous process of the development of humanity, and of formation of comprehensive, total, and so to say epic reading and understanding of these processes via accentuation of reader’s attention on key events, phenomena, and facts.

Ours is an age of pervasive political turbulence, and the scale of the challenge requires new thinking on politics as well as public ethics for our world. In Western countries, the specter of Islamophobia, alt-right populism, along with racialized violence has shaken public confidence in long-secure assumptions rooted in democracy, diversity, and citizenship. The tragic denouement of so many of the Arab uprisings together with the ascendance of apocalyptic extremists like Daesh and Boko Haram have caused an even greater sense of alarm in large parts of the Muslim-majority world. It is against this backdrop that M.A. Muqtedar Khan has written a book of breathtaking range and ethical beauty. The author explores the history and sociology of the Muslim world, both classic and contemporary. He does so, however, not merely to chronicle the phases of its development, but to explore just why the message of compassion, mercy, and ethical beauty so prominent in the Quran and Sunna of the Prophet came over time to be displaced by a narrow legalism that emphasized jurisprudence, punishment, and social control. In the modern era, Western Orientalists and Islamists alike have pushed the juridification and interpretive reification of Islamic ethical traditions even further. Each group has asserted that the essence of Islam lies in jurisprudence (fiqh), and both have tended to imagine this legal heritage on the model of Western positive law, according to which law is authorized, codified, and enforced by a leviathan state. “Reification of Shariah and equating of Islam and Shariah has a rather emaciating effect on Islam,” Khan rightly argues. It leads its proponents to overlook “the depth and heights of Islamic faith, mysticism, philosophy or even emotions such as divine love (Muhabba)” (13). As the sociologist of Islamic law, Sami Zubaida, has similarly observed, in all these developments one sees evidence, not of a traditionalist reassertion of Muslim values, but a “triumph of Western models” of religion and state (Zubaida 2003:135). To counteract these impoverishing trends, Khan presents a far-reaching analysis that “seeks to move away from the now failed vision of Islamic states without demanding radical secularization” (2). He does so by positioning himself squarely within the ethical and mystical legacy of the Qur’an and traditions of the Prophet. As the book’s title makes clear, the key to this effort of religious recovery is “the cosmology of Ihsan and the worldview of Al-Tasawwuf, the science of Islamic mysticism” (1-2). For Islamist activists whose models of Islam have more to do with contemporary identity politics than a deep reading of Islamic traditions, Khan’s foregrounding of Ihsan may seem unfamiliar or baffling. But one of the many achievements of this book is the skill with which it plumbs the depth of scripture, classical commentaries, and tasawwuf practices to recover and confirm the ethic that lies at their heart. “The Quran promises that God is with those who do beautiful things,” the author reminds us (Khan 2019:1). The concept of Ihsan appears 191 times in 175 verses in the Quran (110). The concept is given its richest elaboration, Khan explains, in the famous hadith of the Angel Gabriel. This tradition recounts that when Gabriel appeared before the Prophet he asked, “What is Ihsan?” Both Gabriel’s question and the Prophet’s response make clear that Ihsan is an ideal at the center of the Qur’an and Sunna of the Prophet, and that it enjoins “perfection, goodness, to better, to do beautiful things and to do righteous deeds” (3). It is this cosmological ethic that Khan argues must be restored and implemented “to develop a political philosophy … that emphasizes love over law” (2). In its expansive exploration of Islamic ethics and civilization, Khan’s Islam and Good Governance will remind some readers of the late Shahab Ahmed’s remarkable book, What is Islam? The Importance of Being Islamic (Ahmed 2016). Both are works of impressive range and spiritual depth. But whereas Ahmed stood in the humanities wing of Islamic studies, Khan is an intellectual polymath who moves easily across the Islamic sciences, social theory, and comparative politics. He brings the full weight of his effort to conclusion with policy recommendations for how “to combine Sufism with political theory” (6), and to do so in a way that recommends specific “Islamic principles that encourage good governance, and politics in pursuit of goodness” (8).

Background Lung cancer is the number one cause of cancer death worldwide.(1) It is the fifth most commonly diagnosed cancer in Australia (12,741 cases diagnosed in 2018) and the leading cause of cancer death.(2) The number of years of potential life lost to lung cancer in Australia is estimated to be 58,450, similar to that of colorectal and breast cancer combined.(3) While tobacco control strategies are most effective for disease prevention in the general population, early detection via low dose computed tomography (LDCT) screening in high-risk populations is a viable option for detecting asymptomatic disease in current (13%) and former (24%) Australian smokers.(4) The purpose of this Evidence Check review is to identify and analyse existing and emerging evidence for LDCT lung cancer screening in high-risk individuals to guide future program and policy planning. Evidence Check questions This review aimed to address the following questions: 1. What is the evidence for the effectiveness of lung cancer screening for higher-risk individuals? 2. What is the evidence of potential harms from lung cancer screening for higher-risk individuals? 3. What are the main components of recent major lung cancer screening programs or trials? 4. What is the cost-effectiveness of lung cancer screening programs (include studies of cost–utility)? Summary of methods The authors searched the peer-reviewed literature across three databases (MEDLINE, PsycINFO and Embase) for existing systematic reviews and original studies published between 1 January 2009 and 8 August 2019. Fifteen systematic reviews (of which 8 were contemporary) and 64 original publications met the inclusion criteria set across the four questions. Key findings Question 1: What is the evidence for the effectiveness of lung cancer screening for higher-risk individuals? There is sufficient evidence from systematic reviews and meta-analyses of combined (pooled) data from screening trials (of high-risk individuals) to indicate that LDCT examination is clinically effective in reducing lung cancer mortality. In 2011, the landmark National Lung Cancer Screening Trial (NLST, a large-scale randomised controlled trial [RCT] conducted in the US) reported a 20% (95% CI 6.8% – 26.7%; P=0.004) relative reduction in mortality among long-term heavy smokers over three rounds of annual screening. High-risk eligibility criteria was defined as people aged 55–74 years with a smoking history of ≥30 pack-years (years in which a smoker has consumed 20-plus cigarettes each day) and, for former smokers, ≥30 pack-years and have quit within the past 15 years.(5) All-cause mortality was reduced by 6.7% (95% CI, 1.2% – 13.6%; P=0.02). Initial data from the second landmark RCT, the NEderlands-Leuvens Longkanker Screenings ONderzoek (known as the NELSON trial), have found an even greater reduction of 26% (95% CI, 9% – 41%) in lung cancer mortality, with full trial results yet to be published.(6, 7) Pooled analyses, including several smaller-scale European LDCT screening trials insufficiently powered in their own right, collectively demonstrate a statistically significant reduction in lung cancer mortality (RR 0.82, 95% CI 0.73–0.91).(8) Despite the reduction in all-cause mortality found in the NLST, pooled analyses of seven trials found no statistically significant difference in all-cause mortality (RR 0.95, 95% CI 0.90–1.00).(8) However, cancer-specific mortality is currently the most relevant outcome in cancer screening trials. These seven trials demonstrated a significantly greater proportion of early stage cancers in LDCT groups compared with controls (RR 2.08, 95% CI 1.43–3.03). Thus, when considering results across mortality outcomes and early stage cancers diagnosed, LDCT screening is considered to be clinically effective. Question 2: What is the evidence of potential harms from lung cancer screening for higher-risk individuals? The harms of LDCT lung cancer screening include false positive tests and the consequences of unnecessary invasive follow-up procedures for conditions that are eventually diagnosed as benign. While LDCT screening leads to an increased frequency of invasive procedures, it does not result in greater mortality soon after an invasive procedure (in trial settings when compared with the control arm).(8) Overdiagnosis, exposure to radiation, psychological distress and an impact on quality of life are other known harms. Systematic review evidence indicates the benefits of LDCT screening are likely to outweigh the harms. The potential harms are likely to be reduced as refinements are made to LDCT screening protocols through: i) the application of risk predication models (e.g. the PLCOm2012), which enable a more accurate selection of the high-risk population through the use of specific criteria (beyond age and smoking history); ii) the use of nodule management algorithms (e.g. Lung-RADS, PanCan), which assist in the diagnostic evaluation of screen-detected nodules and cancers (e.g. more precise volumetric assessment of nodules); and, iii) more judicious selection of patients for invasive procedures. Recent evidence suggests a positive LDCT result may transiently increase psychological distress but does not have long-term adverse effects on psychological distress or health-related quality of life (HRQoL). With regards to smoking cessation, there is no evidence to suggest screening participation invokes a false sense of assurance in smokers, nor a reduction in motivation to quit. The NELSON and Danish trials found no difference in smoking cessation rates between LDCT screening and control groups. Higher net cessation rates, compared with general population, suggest those who participate in screening trials may already be motivated to quit. Question 3: What are the main components of recent major lung cancer screening programs or trials? There are no systematic reviews that capture the main components of recent major lung cancer screening trials and programs. We extracted evidence from original studies and clinical guidance documents and organised this into key groups to form a concise set of components for potential implementation of a national lung cancer screening program in Australia: 1. Identifying the high-risk population: recruitment, eligibility, selection and referral 2. Educating the public, people at high risk and healthcare providers; this includes creating awareness of lung cancer, the benefits and harms of LDCT screening, and shared decision-making 3. Components necessary for health services to deliver a screening program: a. Planning phase: e.g. human resources to coordinate the program, electronic data systems that integrate medical records information and link to an established national registry b. Implementation phase: e.g. human and technological resources required to conduct LDCT examinations, interpretation of reports and communication of results to participants c. Monitoring and evaluation phase: e.g. monitoring outcomes across patients, radiological reporting, compliance with established standards and a quality assurance program 4. Data reporting and research, e.g. audit and feedback to multidisciplinary teams, reporting outcomes to enhance international research into LDCT screening 5. Incorporation of smoking cessation interventions, e.g. specific programs designed for LDCT screening or referral to existing community or hospital-based services that deliver cessation interventions. Most original studies are single-institution evaluations that contain descriptive data about the processes required to establish and implement a high-risk population-based screening program. Across all studies there is a consistent message as to the challenges and complexities of establishing LDCT screening programs to attract people at high risk who will receive the greatest benefits from participation. With regards to smoking cessation, evidence from one systematic review indicates the optimal strategy for incorporating smoking cessation interventions into a LDCT screening program is unclear. There is widespread agreement that LDCT screening attendance presents a ‘teachable moment’ for cessation advice, especially among those people who receive a positive scan result. Smoking cessation is an area of significant research investment; for instance, eight US-based clinical trials are now underway that aim to address how best to design and deliver cessation programs within large-scale LDCT screening programs.(9) Question 4: What is the cost-effectiveness of lung cancer screening programs (include studies of cost–utility)? Assessing the value or cost-effectiveness of LDCT screening involves a complex interplay of factors including data on effectiveness and costs, and institutional context. A key input is data about the effectiveness of potential and current screening programs with respect to case detection, and the likely outcomes of treating those cases sooner (in the presence of LDCT screening) as opposed to later (in the absence of LDCT screening). Evidence about the cost-effectiveness of LDCT screening programs has been summarised in two systematic reviews. We identified a further 13 studies—five modelling studies, one discrete choice experiment and seven articles—that used a variety of methods to assess cost-effectiveness. Three modelling studies indicated LDCT screening was cost-effective in the settings of the US and Europe. Two studies—one from Australia and one from New Zealand—reported LDCT screening would not be cost-effective using NLST-like protocols. We anticipate that, following the full publication of the NELSON trial, cost-effectiveness studies will likely be updated with new data that reduce uncertainty about factors that influence modelling outcomes, including the findings of indeterminate nodules. Gaps in the evidence There is a large and accessible body of evidence as to the effectiveness (Q1) and harms (Q2) of LDCT screening for lung cancer. Nevertheless, there are significant gaps in the evidence about the program components that are required to implement an effective LDCT screening program (Q3). Questions about LDCT screening acceptability and feasibility were not explicitly included in the scope. However, as the evidence is based primarily on US programs and UK pilot studies, the relevance to the local setting requires careful consideration. The Queensland Lung Cancer Screening Study provides feasibility data about clinical aspects of LDCT screening but little about program design. The International Lung Screening Trial is still in the recruitment phase and findings are not yet available for inclusion in this Evidence Check. The Australian Population Based Screening Framework was developed to “inform decision-makers on the key issues to be considered when assessing potential screening programs in Australia”.(10) As the Framework is specific to population-based, rather than high-risk, screening programs, there is a lack of clarity about transferability of criteria. However, the Framework criteria do stipulate that a screening program must be acceptable to “important subgroups such as target participants who are from culturally and linguistically diverse backgrounds, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people, people from disadvantaged groups and people with a disability”.(10) An extensive search of the literature highlighted that there is very little information about the acceptability of LDCT screening to these population groups in Australia. Yet they are part of the high-risk population.(10) There are also considerable gaps in the evidence about the cost-effectiveness of LDCT screening in different settings, including Australia. The evidence base in this area is rapidly evolving and is likely to include new data from the NELSON trial and incorporate data about the costs of targeted- and immuno-therapies as these treatments become more widely available in Australia.