Topic
Historical dynamics
About: Historical dynamics is a research topic. Over the lifetime, 66 publications have been published within this topic receiving 1732 citations.
Papers published on a yearly basis
Papers
TL;DR: In this article, a comparative and historical study of Western welfare states is presented, covering a time span from the initiation of modern national social policies at the end of the nineteenth century to the present.
Abstract: This volume seeks to contribute to an interdisci-plinary, comparative, and historical study of Western welfare states. It attempts to link their historical dynamics and contemporary problems in an international perspective. Building on collaboration between European-and American-based research groups, the editors have coordinated contributions by economists, political scientists, sociologists, and historians. The developments they analyze cover a time span from the initiation of modern national social policies at the end of the nineteenth century to the present. The experiences of all the presently existing Western European systems except Spain and Por-tugal are systematically encompassed, with com-parisons developed selectively with the experi-ences of the United States and Canada. The devel-opment of the social security systems, of public expenditures!and taxation, of public education and educational opportunities, and of income inequal-ity are described, compared, and analyzed for varying groupings of the Western European and North American nations. This volume addresses itself mainly to two audi-ences. The first includes all students of policy problems of the welfare states who seek to gain a comparative perspective and historical under-standing. A second group may be more interested in the theory and empirical analysis of long-term societal developments. In this context, the growth of the welfare states ranges as a major departure, along with the development of national states and capitalist economies. The welfare state is interpreted as a general phenomenon of modernization, as a product of the increasing differentiation and the growing size of societies on the one hand, and of processes of social and political mobilization on the other. It is an important element of the structural convergence of modern societies -- by its mere weight in all countries -- and at the same time a source of divergence by the variations within its institutional structure.
814 citations
18 Nov 2021
TL;DR: This article analyzed the historical dynamics of 11 social indicators and 6 biophysical indicators across more than 140 countries from 1992 to 2015 and found that countries tend to transgress biophysical boundaries faster than they achieve social thresholds.
Abstract: Previous research has shown that no country currently meets the basic needs of its residents at a level of resource use that could be sustainably extended to all people globally. Using the doughnut-shaped ‘safe and just space’ framework, we analyse the historical dynamics of 11 social indicators and 6 biophysical indicators across more than 140 countries from 1992 to 2015. We find that countries tend to transgress biophysical boundaries faster than they achieve social thresholds. The number of countries overshooting biophysical boundaries increased over the period from 32–55% to 50–66%, depending on the indicator. At the same time, the number of countries achieving social thresholds increased for five social indicators (in particular life expectancy and educational enrolment), decreased for two indicators (social support and equality) and showed little change for the remaining four indicators. We also calculate ‘business-as-usual’ projections to 2050, which suggest deep transformations are needed to safeguard human and planetary health. Current trends will only deepen the ecological crisis while failing to eliminate social shortfalls. Historical dynamics show that no country has achieved minimum social thresholds within biophysical boundaries between 1992 and 2015, and a projection indicates that no country is on the path to achieve them.
226 citations
Book•
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1 Jan 1993
TL;DR: Brennan as mentioned in this paper argues that an understanding of historical dynamics is essential if we are to make the connections between the outstanding facts of modernity - ethnocentrism, the relationship between the sexes and ecological catastrophe.
Abstract: Lacan was not an ahistorical post-structuralist. Starting from this controversial premiss, Teresa Brennan tells the story of a social psychosis. She begins by recovering Lacan's neglected theory of history which argued that we are in the grip of a psychotic's era which began in the seventeenth century and climaxes in the present. By extending and elaborating Lacan's theory, Brennan develops a general theory of modernity. Contrary to postmodern assumptions, she argues, we need general historical explanation. An understanding of historical dynamics is essential if we are to make the connections between the outstanding facts of modernity - ethnocentrism, the relationship between the sexes and ecological catastrophe.
134 citations
Book•
1 Jan 1975
TL;DR: In this article, the authors define a mode of production as an economic formation of society, and define a periodization of history as a device of classification whereby acts and events are grouped together for a purpose, whether stated or unstated or unconscious.
Abstract: A mode of production is defined as an economic formation of society.1 As such it is a twofold classification device; first, it is a means whereby the social whole is related to its economic basis, and therewith, the superstructure to the basis; second, it is the means for the periodization of history. In relating the social whole to the economic basis of the society, one element of the basis is selected out over all the others; this element is the process of social production; the elements of the economy that are set aside for these purposes are the relations of exchange, distribution, and consumption. The reason for the choice of the process of social production as the significant device for relating the whole, the basis and the superstructure, is to be found in the historical dynamics of economic and social development; this has been formulated in connection with the question of periodization. Periodization of history is a device of classification whereby acts and events are grouped together for a purpose, whether stated or unstated, conscious or unconscious. In the theory of the modes of production, the index of the transformation of one historical period into another is given by the changes in the relations of social production in a given epoch; these relations characterize the economic formation of the society as a whole. The mode of production itself is constituted as the system of the forces of production; the forces
87 citations
TL;DR: In this paper, a model of rural-urban relations that does not privilege either a community or the state as the principle of society and history is proposed, which may overcome the separate disciplinary biases of anthropology, history and political science.
Abstract: James Scott’s notion of Zomia proposes a new look at historical and social dynamics in a vast area of the Asian hinterlands, in terms of deliberate state‐avoidance that came to an end through the nation state’s superior techniques of control. Zomia is a concept metaphor that defines the social reality it purportedly only describes. My examination points to a pervasive problem with the historicization of highland regions in Europe as much as in Asia. Juxtaposing Scott’s case with two other definitions of Zomia, I call attention to the way concept metaphors define social landscapes and historical dynamics. Drawing on the work of several Europeanists, I suggest a model of rural–urban relations that does not privilege either a community or the state as the principle of society and history, which may overcome the separate disciplinary biases of anthropology, history and political science.
48 citations
Related Topics (5)
Performance Metrics
| Year | Papers |
|---|---|
| 2021 | 3 |
| 2020 | 5 |
| 2019 | 5 |
| 2018 | 2 |
| 2017 | 5 |
| 2016 | 3 |