Academic literature on the topic 'Postal service – History'
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Journal articles on the topic "Postal service – History"
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Linnarsson, Magnus. "Postal Service on a Lease Contract: the privatization and outsourcing of the Swedish postal service, 1662–1668." Scandinavian Journal of History 37, no. 3 (July 2012): 296–316. http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/03468755.2012.680811.
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Segal, Zef. "Communication and State Construction: The Postal Service in German States, 1815–1866." Journal of Interdisciplinary History 44, no. 4 (February 2014): 453–73. http://dx.doi.org/10.1162/jinh_a_00610.
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A comparison between five nineteenth-century German states demonstrates the importance of postal systems for nation-building and nationalism. Prior to the formal unification of Germany under Emperor Wilhelm of Prussia in 1871, the various German states evinced scant political, administrative, social, or geographical cohesion until their postal systems created a communications infrastructure that gradually eroded traditional barriers.
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Bladh, Mats. "The Political Economy and the Natural Monopoly of the Postal Service: the Swedish case." Journal of Interdisciplinary Economics 12, no. 3 (April 2001): 229–48. http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/02601079x01001200303.
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The postal service is a neglected business in academic historiography. Today’s postal service confronts two challenges: information technology and deregulation. This study deals mostly with deregulatory issues in a historical perspective. Comparisons between different periods in Swedish postal history in regard to competition, cross-subsidisation and bases for a natural monopoly is presented, and also the long-term development of mail volume. It will be argued that there has been quite different attitudes towards competition; that different forms of cross-subsidisation has existed; that the postal service has been a natural monopoly, but for reasons related to change; that mail composition has been transformed from correspondence to mass mail; and that mail volume has increased despite the rise of new modes of communication.
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Remijsen, Sofie. "The Postal Service and the Hour as a Unit of Time in Antiquity." Historia 56, no. 2 (2007): 127–40. http://dx.doi.org/10.25162/historia-2007-0011.
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Kielbowicz, Richard B. "Origins of the Junk-Mail Controversy: A Media Battle over Advertising and Postal Policy." Journal of Policy History 5, no. 2 (April 1993): 248–72. http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/s0898030600006734.
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On 30 June 1971, the tradition-bound U.S. Post Office, long steeped in politics, ceased operating as a cabinet-level department. The next day marked the birth of the U.S. Postal Service, a government corporation. This transformation, arguably the most fundamental restructuring of a major federal agency in American history, ended 180 years of congressional postal ratemaking. By ceding ratemaking authority to a commission, Congress hoped to elevate sound pricing principles and scrupulous administrative procedures over the impressionistic claims and political influences that had characterized the legislative process. Yet the 1970 Postal Reorganization Act could not wipe away two centuries of history. Ratemakers—whether legislators before 1971 or administrators thereafter—frequently found themselves confronted with mailers invoking tradition, history, and social values to bolster their arguments. Nowhere was this more apparent than in the struggle to find junk mail's proper place in postal policy.
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Wetherell, Donald G. "Country Post: Rural Postal Service in Canada, 1880–1945." Agricultural History 80, no. 1 (January 1, 2006): 140–41. http://dx.doi.org/10.1215/00021482-80.1.140.
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Shelton, Jon. "Undelivered: From the Great Postal Strike of 1970 to the Manufactured Crisis of the U.S. Postal Service." Labor 18, no. 4 (December 1, 2021): 150–52. http://dx.doi.org/10.1215/15476715-9361639.
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Howard, Allen M., and P. O. Beale. "The Postal Service of Sierra Leone. Its History, Stamps, and Stationery until 1961." International Journal of African Historical Studies 23, no. 3 (1990): 585. http://dx.doi.org/10.2307/219650.
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Ploeckl, Florian. "Uniform Service, Uniform Productivity? Regional Efficiency of the Imperial German Postal, Telegraph, and Telephone Service." Australian Economic History Review 56, no. 2 (June 20, 2016): 221–43. http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/aehr.12099.
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Menger, Andrew, and Robert M. Stein. "Choosing the Less Convenient Way to Vote: An Anomaly in Vote by Mail Elections." Political Research Quarterly 73, no. 1 (December 6, 2019): 196–207. http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/1065912919890009.
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Nearly two-thirds of persons who receive an unsolicited ballot in the mail before Election Day choose to return their ballot in person, rather than through the less costly and more convenient U.S. Postal Service. Why? How and when voters choose to return their mail ballot is consequential to the administration of elections and the confidence voters have in the outcome of elections. We offer and test four explanations for how vote by mail voters choose to return their ballot, including the social rewards of voting, the costs of voting, trust in U.S. Postal Service and a preference to cast a ballot after campaigning ends. We find supporting evidence for each explanation conditioned by prior history of voting.
Dissertations / Theses on the topic "Postal service – History"
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Le, Jan Morgane. "Le service public postal face au droit de l’Union européenne : histoire d’un compromis (1957-2012)." Thesis, Paris 2, 2016. http://www.theses.fr/2016PA020044.
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En 1957, l’État est l’organisateur du service public postal en France à travers son administration centrale. Cette même année est signé un traité à Rome entre six États européens autour de l’idée de marché commun avec délégation de souveraineté.Le service public postal et l’Europe du traité de Rome vont, tout d’abord, évoluer parallèlement. Mais, au début des années 1980, le contexte politique, économique et technologique change et l’Europe se saisit de la question postale ; d’une phase d’ignorance, on entre alors dans une phase de confrontation : l’Europe soumet le service postal au droit commun de la concurrence et remet en cause le monopole, organisation traditionnelle du service postal. Par ailleurs, le service public postal organique est transformé : La Poste, exploitant public doté de la personnalité juridique est née. Progressivement, la logique de confrontation laisse place à une phase de concertation entre l’Europe du traité de Rome et les États membres qui donne naissance à plusieurs directives. Ces dernières placent en leur cœur le service universel postal. En 2012, la libéralisation du service postal devient totale : il n’existe plus de monopole légal.Cette ouverture du marché est concomitante avec la révolution numérique. Ainsi, dans ce contexte de bouleversements idéologiques, technologiques et économiques, le service public postal connaît des évolutions significatives tant dans sa forme – La Poste devient une société anonyme – que dans sa mission : pour répondre aux nouveaux besoins d’intérêt général, raison d’être du service public, le service public postal est reconfiguréIn 1957, the State is the organiser of the public postal service in France through its central administration. That same year, a treaty was signed in Rome between six European States around the idea of a common market with a delegation of sovereignty. At first, the public postal service and the Europe of the Treaty of Rome develop separately. But in the early 1980s, the political, economic and technological context evolves and Europe decides to take an active interest in the matter of the postal service. After a phase of disinterest in postal matters, we enter in a phase of confrontation; Europe submits the postal service to the competition law: monopoly, the traditional organisation of the postal service, is challenged. Moreover, the French public postal service is transformed: La Poste, independent public operator is born. Following the period of confrontation, a period of dialogue follows, bringing together the Europe of the Treaty of Rome and the States members to write the postal law. Several guidelines are adopted, focused in particular on the universal postal service. By 2012, the process of liberalisation of the postal service is complete: there is no legal monopoly in Europe. This new openness is concomitant with the digital era. The postal service must now continue to adapt to this new ideological, technological and economical context: in its form – La Poste becomes a public limited company – as well as in its mission to serve the public interest, the raison d’être of the public service, so the public postal service is reconfigured
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Vezinat, Nadège. "Une professionnalisation inachevée : socio-histoire des tensions vécues par le groupe professionnel des conseillers financiers de la Poste (1953-2010)." Paris, EHESS, 2010. http://www.theses.fr/2010EHES0056.
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Cette thèse retrace la genèse de l'activité de conseil financier à la Poste. Elle analyse l'émergence d’une fonction commerciale au sein d'une administration d'Etat en transformation rapide. La Poste est devenue Société Anonyme en 2010 et, de manière symbolique, la Banque Postale a été autorisée au même moment à distribuer des crédits à la consommation. Cette dernière doit néanmoins encore assurer un certain nombre de missions de service public et faire coexister des tensions organisationnelles anciennes mais non résolues qui se reportent au quotidien sur ses agents. Le but de la professionnalisation analysée dans cette recherche n'est cependant pas de transformer le groupe professionnel en une profession. Elle peut donc être en partie considérée comme atypique. Même si elle réunit les traits fonctionnalistes de la « profession » anglo-saxonne (Wilensky, 1964), elle vise en fait à agir sur le personnel et constitue davantage une stratégie de contournement des résistances par la régulation du groupe professionnel qu'une autonomisation de ce dernier (Boussard, Demazière, Milbum, 2010). Or cette professionnalisation par le haut vise à résoudre les tensions vécues par le personnel soumis à des impératifs, que nous nommerons « prescrits », contradictoires. Cette résolution s'obtient par les changements organisationnels et la «soumission » du personnel postal permis grâce au processus de « professionnalisation par le haut » (professionnalisme from above, Evetts, 2003). Pour étayer cette thèse, la démarche de recherche a reposé sur une articulation de méthodes qualitatives, quantitatives, ethnographiques et archivistiques. Ces différents matériaux ont été rassemblés dans la perspective d’une sociologie des groupes professionnels visant à analyser ce qui se passe au niveau du groupe sans perdre de vue en quoi consiste l'activité de travail et en y intégrant les spécificités liées au contenu du travail (Demazière, Gadéa, 2009)This thesis retraces the origin of the financial advisor position at La Poste. It analyses the emergence of a commercial position within a rapidly changing State administration. La Poste became a public limited company in 2010; symbolically, La Banque Postale was authorised at the same time to provide credit to consumers. However, it was also required to guarantee a certain number of public service missions and to settle previous, unresolved administrative tensions that were affecting its staff on a daily basis. The aim of the professionalisation process analysed in this research was not, however, to transform the professional group into a profession. Ln that sense it may partly be considered atypical. Even though it brought together the functionalist charaeteristics of the Anglo-Saxon "profession" (Wilensky 1964), it did, in fact, aim to impact on staff, thereby constituting more of a strategy for avoiding resistance through regulating the professional group than an empowerment of that group (Boussard, Demazière, Milbum, 20 10). Yet this professionalism from above was intended to ease the tension experienced by staff that were given orders, which we shall labei "prescribèd" and contradictory. The issue was settled by means of organisational changes and the postal staffs "submission", which took place because of the process of professionalism from above (Evetts, 2003). To support this theory, I have based my research approach on qualitative, quantitative, ethnographic and archival methods that are interconnected. These different types of material have been drawn together in the context of a sociology of professional groups, with the aim of analysing the occurrences that take place at group level without losing sight of what is involved in work activity, while bearing in mind the particularities involved in carrying out that work (Demazière, Gadéa, 2009)
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Bensacq-Tixier, Nicole. "Histoire des diplomates et consuls français en Chine (1840-1911) : histoire des relations avec le gouvernement impérial et les puissances présentes en Chine : évolution des postes, des carrières et des conditions de vie." Paris : Indes Savantes, 2008. http://bvbr.bib-bvb.de:8991/F?func=service&doc_library=BVB01&doc_number=016969973&line_number=0001&func_code=DB_RECORDS&service_type=MEDIA.
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"漢代居延肩水地區烽隧分布及郵路考述." 2009. http://library.cuhk.edu.hk/record=b5894230.
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曹玉騫."2009年8月".
"2009 nian 8 yue".
Thesis (M.Phil.)--Chinese University of Hong Kong, 2009.
Includes bibliographical references (leaves 128-133).
Abstracts in Chinese and English.
Cao Yuqian.
引言 --- p.1
Chapter 第一章 --- 河西地區出土簡牘硏究回顧 --- p.3
附：河西四郡建置過程及兩關位置考述 --- p.17
Chapter 第一節 --- 四郡的建置年代 --- p.18
Chapter 第二節 --- 兩關位置考述 --- p.25
Chapter 第二章 --- 居延都尉下轄殄北候官、甲渠候官之烽隧及分布狀況 --- p.30
Chapter 第一節 --- 殄北候官烽隧建置 --- p.31
Chapter 第二節 --- 甲渠候官烽隧建置及方位分布 --- p.37
Chapter 第三章 --- 居延都尉下轄卅井候官之烽隧及分布狀況 --- p.51
Chapter 第四章 --- 肩水都尉下轄各候官之烽隧及邊塞分布狀況 --- p.66
Chapter 第一節 --- 廣地候官烽隧建置 --- p.66
Chapter 第二節 --- 橐他候官烽隧建置 --- p.68
Chapter 第三節 --- 肩水候官烽隧建置 --- p.70
Chapter 第四節 --- 肩水都尉轄區其它候官 --- p.83
Chapter 第五章 --- 居延、肩水地區郵路走向考述 --- p.85
Chapter 第一節 --- 居延都尉轄區郵驛里程考析 --- p.85
Chapter 第二節 --- 肩水都尉轄區郵驛里程考析 --- p.98
Chapter 第六章 --- 居延、肩水地區的烽隧及郵路建設與漢代邊防的關係 --- p.106
總結 --- p.119
附圖一今日甘肅省與漢代涼州剌史部所轄區域之比較 --- p.123
附圖二漢代河西地區塹壕、塞墙分布與郵路走向 --- p.123
附圖三張掖郡居延都尉轄區烽隧分布圖 --- p.124
附圖四張掖郡肩水都尉轄區烽隧分布圖 --- p.125
附圖五張掖郡居延、肩水兩都尉轄區烽隧分布全圖 --- p.126
附圖六張掖郡居延一一肩水地區郵路走向圖 --- p.127
參考書目 --- p.128
Books on the topic "Postal service – History"
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Pearson, Patrick. Postal history of Iraq. Heathfield, East Sussex: Proud-Bailey, 1996.
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Fielder, Dorothy Scott. Otsego County postal history. [Walton, NY: Reporter Co., 1994.
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1929-, Ranjan T. C., ed. Ajmer postal history, 1820-1947. Jaipur: J.M. Dhor & T.C. Ranjan, 1989.
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Sweeting, Charles H. Oswego County, NY postal history. [Ballston Spa, N.Y.]: Empire State Postal History Society, 2001.
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Sanders, Obré J. Ceylon postal history, 1857-1902. [Oxford, England]: Helen Zao and Marc Zao-Sanders, 1999.
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Kurchan, Mario D. Historia postal marítima Argentina =: Argentine maritime postal history. Buenos Aires: Impreso en All Graf S.R.L., 1994.
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McNulty, W. Richmond's postal history. [Richmond, B.C.]: City of Richmond Archives, 2007.
Find full textBook chapters on the topic "Postal service – History"
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Frazão, Patrícia Franco, Sandra Domingues, Jorge Rocha, and José Paulo Berger. "The Postal Service of the Portuguese Expeditionary Corps (1917–1919): A Time-Step Analysis Using Historical Data Integration in a GIS Environment." In History of Military Cartography, 25–38. Cham: Springer International Publishing, 2016. http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-25244-5_2.
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Beale, Philip. "The Organisation of a National Postal Service." In A History of the Post in England from the Romans to the Stuarts, 207–31. Routledge, 2019. http://dx.doi.org/10.4324/9780429027666-12.
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"The Organisation of a National Postal Service." In A History of the Post in England from the Romans to the Stuarts, 227–51. Routledge, 2017. http://dx.doi.org/10.4324/9781315263892-22.
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Radner, Karen. "6. Assyrian world domination: pathfinder empire." In Ancient Assyria: A Very Short Introduction, 95–112. Oxford University Press, 2015. http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/actrade/9780198715900.003.0006.
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‘Assyrian world domination: pathfinder empire’ considers the key aspects of governance and ideology that contributed to the Assyrian Empire’s control over its holdings for three centuries. Warfare is prominently reviewed in sources such as the Assyrian palace art, royal inscriptions, and the Bible. The ideology of absolute kingship, the innovative long-distance relay postal service, and the empire-wide resettlement programme provided powerful tools for the empire’s cohesion, and provided the basis and templates for successor states including the Persian and Roman Empires. The royal library that the Assyrian kings assembled and maintained since the 14th century bc has contributed much to our knowledge of Assyria’s cultural history.
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Rickman, Wendy, and Cheryl Wiedmaier. "A History of Distance Education." In Cases on Building Quality Distance Delivery Programs, 1–12. IGI Global, 2011. http://dx.doi.org/10.4018/978-1-60960-111-9.ch001.
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Flash-forward to today’s world of instant-access in a technology driven society, where distance education has grown in viability and become a business. Whether provided via a traditional, land-based university or college to earn a formal degree, to complete professional development, or to seek additional certification, or by a for-profit organization or corporation to train their employees and advance their workers’ skills, people can access a well-developed range of educational services through distance education to better their lives and livelihoods regardless of the physical separation between themselves and the sponsoring institution. The main difference between distance education’s beginnings and today’s educational services is the medium used to conduct learning. The postal services may still be used as a secondary mode of communication and print is still a constant technologic tool, but the expanding success of distance education can be attributed to providing education that 1) spans great distances between citizens and educational institutions, both geographically and socio-economically; 2) quenches the thirst for education; and 3) utilizes the rapid advancement of technology (Casey, 2008).
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"History at the Service of the Nation-State." In Post-Colonial National Identity in the Philippines, 47–68. Routledge, 2017. http://dx.doi.org/10.4324/9781315188102-9.
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Roy, Tirthankar. "Infrastructure." In The Economic History of India, 1857-2010, 212–40. Oxford University Press, 2020. http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/oso/9780190128296.003.0008.
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At independence in 1947, the visible legacy of colonial rule in South Asia was the modern infrastructure that the regime had left behind, the ports, canals, the telegraph, sanitation, medical care, urban waterworks, universities, postal system, courts of law, railways, meteorological office, statistical systems, and scientific research laboratories. All of it involved British knowhow, adapted to the Indian environment with Indian help, and assisted governance directly or indirectly. But once built, such assets did not serve only the empire but also helped private enterprise and ordinary people lead better lives. Chapter 8 shows the motivations that drove these projects and the effects they produced.
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Elias, Jamal J. "Toy Guns and the Real Dead in Iran." In Alef Is for Allah. University of California Press, 2018. http://dx.doi.org/10.1525/california/9780520290075.003.0007.
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This chapter follows the pattern of the previous two: it begins with a brief history of education and religion in modern Iran in order to situate the discussion of representations of childhood in the society. It brings together poster arts and children’s books that are each the focus of the two previous chapters, and adds other visual materials, especially postage stamps. In the case of Iran, the focus is on materials produced by official and parastatal entities as part of a conscious policy of opinion molding and propaganda. Visual materials commemorating the Iranian Revolution, the Iran-Iraq War, and the Basij volunteer soldiers serve as subjects to advanced theories presented in the previous chapters. In particular, this chapter moves forward the discussion of gender and sacrifice, demonstrating how male and female opportunities for offering the gift of sacrifice occur in different forms and at different ages.
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Hochschild, Jennifer L. "Commentary on “Bordering by Law” by Judith Resnik." In Immigration, Emigration, and Migration. NYU Press, 2017. http://dx.doi.org/10.18574/nyu/9781479860951.003.0006.
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Judith Resnik’s “Bordering by Law” has three major themes. First, the United States is strongly and increasingly criminalizing immigration and stigmatizing immigrants, to the detriment of everyone. Second, the United States is engaging in more and more harmful surveillance of migrants as well as citizens. Third, the history of the Universal Postal Union provides a model for how to overcome nationalist solipsism, as well as a warning that the virtues of public governance are threatened by privatized services. This commentary focuses mostly on the first theme, disagreeing to some extent with Resnik’s characterization of the trajectory of policies surrounding immigration and immigrants, and aiming to substitute a more complicated and multifaceted characterization. Her final theme provokes several larger questions, which are explored but not answered. The overall message is that we need more political analysis to fully understand the United States’ ambivalent treatment of migration and migrants.
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Génin, Christophe. "In-Flight Entertainment or the Emptying Process of Art in the Air." In Post-cinema. Nieuwe Prinsengracht 89 1018 VR Amsterdam Nederland: Amsterdam University Press, 2020. http://dx.doi.org/10.5117/9789463727235_ch08.
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Despite a series of material changes to the medium throughout its history, cinema has remained a “common immersive experience” insofar as it was based on the illusion of reality. However, the most important change is that this is no longer true: post-cinema, writes Christophe Génin, can be considered a defection of the original experience of watching movies. This situation has to do with social and economic transformations, implying the conversion of cultural industry to service to the person and a deep variation in the aesthetic experience, which Génin proposes to understand through an analysis of the experience of individual screens in aircraft. A confined space such as an aircraft seat isolates the individual to whom it is offered in a moment of “solipsism of caprice.”
Conference papers on the topic "Postal service – History"
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Musso, Alexandre Amaral, Maria Rufina Barros, and Ryann Pancieri Paseto. "Chronic Inflammatory Demyelinating Polyradiculoneuropathy (CIDP) as a presentation of Familial Amyloid Polyneuropathy (FAP): diagnostic error or overlap?" In XIII Congresso Paulista de Neurologia. Zeppelini Editorial e Comunicação, 2021. http://dx.doi.org/10.5327/1516-3180.640.
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Case report: Male, 72 years old, with progressive tetraparesis, paraesthesia and burning pain with distal predominance. Electroneuromyography (ENMG) showed findings suggestive of sensory-motor axonal polyneuropathy and signs of active and chronic denervation in the L5 and S1 territory. Underwent lumbar arthrodesis and during surgery, presented symptomatic bradycardia requiring a pacemaker. He reported partial pain improvement, but had bilateral foot drop and bladder retention. New ENMG demonstrated findings, now suggestive of CIDP. Underwent intravenous corticosteroid therapy without improvement. In 2019, he presented dysphagia for solids, weight loss, erectile dysfunction, postural hypotension and sensory-motor worsening. Underwent Human Immunoglobulin for 6 months. As there was no improvement, he was referred to our service. Best analysis in history revealed heart disease in 3 siblings. Genetic sequencing was performed for FAP that demonstrated a VAL50MET mutation. Context: FAP is an autosomal dominant inherited disease, caused by mutations in the transthyretin (TTR) gene that determine the accumulation of abnormal protein aggregates. Peripheral neuropathy differs from classic CIDP pattern by the distribution of weakness, important impairment of fine fibers and refractoriness to immunosuppressive treatment. Conclusions: FAP is a serious and treatable condition. Early diagnosis has a huge impact on life quality. Although confusion with CIDP is frequent, it is possible through history to differentiate these conditions.
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Vicini, Fabio. "GÜLEN’S RETHINKING OF ISLAMIC PATTERN AND ITS SOCIO-POLITICAL EFFECTS." In Muslim World in Transition: Contributions of the Gülen Movement. Leeds Metropolitan University Press, 2007. http://dx.doi.org/10.55207/gbfn9600.
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Over recent decades Islamic traditions have emerged in new forms in different parts of the Muslim world, interacting differently with secular and neo-liberal patterns of thought and action. In Turkey Fethullah Gülen’s community has been a powerful player in the national debate about the place of Islam in individual and collective life. Through emphasis on the im- portance of ‘secular education’ and a commitment to the defence of both democratic princi- ples and international human rights, Gülen has diffused a new and appealing version of how a ‘good Muslim’ should act in contemporary society. In particular he has defended the role of Islam in the formation of individuals as ethically-responsible moral subjects, a project that overlaps significantly with the ‘secular’ one of forming responsible citizens. Concomitantly, he has shifted the Sufi emphasis on self-discipline/self-denial towards an active, socially- oriented service of others – a form of religious effort that implies a strongly ‘secular’ faith in the human ability to make this world better. This paper looks at the lives of some members of the community to show how this pattern of conduct has affected them. They say that teaching and learning ‘secular’ scientific subjects, combined with total dedication to the project of the movement, constitute, for them, ways to accomplish Islamic deeds and come closer to God. This leads to a consideration of how such a rethinking of Islamic activism has influenced po- litical and sociological transition in Turkey, and a discussion of the potential contribution of the movement towards the development of a more human society in contemporary Europe. From the 1920s onwards, in the context offered by the decline and collapse of the Ottoman Empire, Islamic thinkers, associations and social movements have proliferated their efforts in order to suggest ways to live a good “Muslim life” under newly emerging conditions. Prior to this period, different generations of Muslim Reformers had already argued the compat- ibility of Islam with reason and “modernity”, claiming for the need to renew Islamic tradition recurring to ijtihad. Yet until the end of the XIX century, traditional educational systems, public forms of Islam and models of government had not been dismissed. Only with the dismantlement of the Empire and the constitution of national governments in its different regions, Islamic intellectuals had to face the problem of arranging new patterns of action for Muslim people. With the establishment of multiple nation-states in the so-called Middle East, Islamic intel- lectuals had to cope with secular conceptions about the subject and its place and space for action in society. They had to come to terms with the definitive affirmation of secularism and the consequent process of reconfiguration of local sensibilities, forms of social organisation, and modes of action. As a consequence of these processes, Islamic thinkers started to place emphasis over believers’ individual choice and responsibility both in maintaining an Islamic conduct daily and in realising the values of Islamic society. While under the Ottoman rule to be part of the Islamic ummah was considered an implicit consequence of being a subject of the empire. Not many scientific works have looked at contemporary forms of Islam from this perspective. Usually Islamic instances are considered the outcome of an enduring and unchanging tradition, which try to reproduce itself in opposition to outer-imposed secular practices. Rarely present-day forms of Islamic reasoning and practice have been considered as the result of a process of adjustment to new styles of governance under the modern state. Instead, I argue that new Islamic patterns of action depend on a history of practical and conceptual revision they undertake under different and locally specific versions of secularism. From this perspective I will deal with the specific case of Fethullah Gülen, the head of one of the most famous and influent “renewalist” Islamic movements of contemporary Turkey. From the 1980s this Islamic leader has been able to weave a powerful network of invisible social ties from which he gets both economic and cultural capital. Yet what interests me most in this paper, is that with his open-minded and moderate arguments, Gülen has inspired many people in Turkey to live Islam in a new way. Recurring to ijtihad and drawing from secular epistemology specific ideas about moral agency, he has proposed to a wide public a very at- tractive path for being “good Muslims” in their daily conduct. After an introductive explanation of the movement’s project and of the ideas on which it is based, my aim will be to focus on such a pattern of action. Particular attention will be dedi- cated to Gülen’s conception of a “good Muslim” as a morally-guided agent, because such a conception reveals underneath secular ideas on both responsibility and moral agency. These considerations will constitute the basis from which we can look at the transformation of Islam – and more generally of “the religion” – in the contemporary world. Then a part will be dedicated to defining the specificity of Gülen’s proposal, which will be compared with that of other Islamic revivalist movements in other contexts. Some common point between them will merge from this comparison. Both indeed use the concept of respon- sibility in order to push subjects to actively engage in reviving Islam. Yet, on the other hand, I will show how Gülen’s followers distinguish themselves by the fact their commitment pos- sesses a socially-oriented and reformist character. Finally I will consider the proximity of Gülen’s conceptualisation of moral agency with that the modern state has organised around the idea of “civic virtues”. I argue Gülen’s recall for taking responsibility of social moral decline is a way of charging his followers with a similar burden the modern state has charged its citizens. Thus I suggest the Islamic leader’s pro- posal can be seen as the tentative of supporting the modernity project by defining a new and specific space to Islam and religion into it. This proposal opens the possibility of new and interesting forms of interconnection between secular ideas of modernity and the so-called “Islamic” ones. At the same time I think it sheds a new light over contemporary “renewalist” movements, which can be considered a concrete proposal about how to realise, in a different background, modern forms of governance by reconsidering their moral basis.
Reports on the topic "Postal service – History"
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Lazonick, William, Philip Moss, and Joshua Weitz. The Unmaking of the Black Blue-Collar Middle Class. Institute for New Economic Thinking Working Paper Series, May 2021. http://dx.doi.org/10.36687/inetwp159.
Full textAbstract:
In the decade after the Civil Rights Act of 1964, African Americans made historic gains in accessing employment opportunities in racially integrated workplaces in U.S. business firms and government agencies. In the previous working papers in this series, we have shown that in the 1960s and 1970s, Blacks without college degrees were gaining access to the American middle class by moving into well-paid unionized jobs in capital-intensive mass production industries. At that time, major U.S. companies paid these blue-collar workers middle-class wages, offered stable employment, and provided employees with health and retirement benefits. Of particular importance to Blacks was the opening up to them of unionized semiskilled operative and skilled craft jobs, for which in a number of industries, and particularly those in the automobile and electronic manufacturing sectors, there was strong demand. In addition, by the end of the 1970s, buoyed by affirmative action and the growth of public-service employment, Blacks were experiencing upward mobility through employment in government agencies at local, state, and federal levels as well as in civil-society organizations, largely funded by government, to operate social and community development programs aimed at urban areas where Blacks lived. By the end of the 1970s, there was an emergent blue-collar Black middle class in the United States. Most of these workers had no more than high-school educations but had sufficient earnings and benefits to provide their families with economic security, including realistic expectations that their children would have the opportunity to move up the economic ladder to join the ranks of the college-educated white-collar middle class. That is what had happened for whites in the post-World War II decades, and given the momentum provided by the dominant position of the United States in global manufacturing and the nation’s equal employment opportunity legislation, there was every reason to believe that Blacks would experience intergenerational upward mobility along a similar education-and-employment career path. That did not happen. Overall, the 1980s and 1990s were decades of economic growth in the United States. For the emerging blue-collar Black middle class, however, the experience was of job loss, economic insecurity, and downward mobility. As the twentieth century ended and the twenty-first century began, moreover, it became apparent that this downward spiral was not confined to Blacks. Whites with only high-school educations also saw their blue-collar employment opportunities disappear, accompanied by lower wages, fewer benefits, and less security for those who continued to find employment in these jobs. The distress experienced by white Americans with the decline of the blue-collar middle class follows the downward trajectory that has adversely affected the socioeconomic positions of the much more vulnerable blue-collar Black middle class from the early 1980s. In this paper, we document when, how, and why the unmaking of the blue-collar Black middle class occurred and intergenerational upward mobility of Blacks to the college-educated middle class was stifled. We focus on blue-collar layoffs and manufacturing-plant closings in an important sector for Black employment, the automobile industry from the early 1980s. We then document the adverse impact on Blacks that has occurred in government-sector employment in a financialized economy in which the dominant ideology is that concentration of income among the richest households promotes productive investment, with government spending only impeding that objective. Reduction of taxes primarily on the wealthy and the corporate sector, the ascendancy of political and economic beliefs that celebrate the efficiency and dynamism of “free market” business enterprise, and the denigration of the idea that government can solve social problems all combined to shrink government budgets, diminish regulatory enforcement, and scuttle initiatives that previously provided greater opportunity for African Americans in the government and civil-society sectors.
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Investing in youth: Testing community-based approaches for improving adolescent sexual and reproductive health. Population Council, 1999. http://dx.doi.org/10.31899/rh1999.1019.
Full textAbstract:
The world is now sustaining the largest number of youth in human history; today there are nearly 900 million 10–19-year-olds and their health and livelihood issues are becoming increasingly important to policymakers worldwide. In Zambia, as in many other countries, young people face severe problems, including limited access to jobs, secondary education, and health care. The social, economic, and peer pressures that youth face often lead to high levels of sexual activity, often with subsequent negative impacts on their sexual and reproductive health. In spite of the magnitude of the reproductive health problems facing youth, they still have limited access to effective programs and services to address these problems. In an effort to address this need, CARE Zambia, in collaboration with the Planned Parenthood Association of Zambia and Makeni Ecumenical Center, with technical assistance and funding from the Population Council’s Africa Operations Research and Technical Assistance Project II, have conducted a study to test community-based approaches for improving adolescent sexual and reproductive health. As noted in this report, the study followed a pre-post test design to assess the impact of the interventions and to make comparisons between the different interventions.