‘War against the mosquito’: Allies,Italians and malaria during the occupation of Puglia, 1943–1946

War and healthcare are inextricably linked. In fact, the prevalence of disease in the armed forces can inflict more damage than the enemy. The case of endemic malaria during the Italian campaign of 1943–1945 in the Second World War is an excellent example. The region of Puglia was one of the most malarial regions in Italy and provides a noteworthy case of Anglo-American endeavours to eliminate the mosquito during the Second World War. The high prevalence of endemic malaria in the area represented a substantial threat to the health of Allied forces and as a result to the Allied war effort. This article explores Allied efforts to protect both Italian civilians and Allied troops from malaria, in order to demonstrate how Allied health policies affected the Allied–Italian relationship.     

The Neolithic site of Maddalena di Muccia (Umbria–Marche Apennine,Italy): a tip to reconstruct the geomorphological evolution and human occupation during the Late Pleistocene and the Holocene

The geomorphological evolution of the upper Chienti river basin, during the late Pleistocene and the Holocene, was characterized mainly by numerous landslides, strongly affecting the river dynamics, that produced falls, deviations and in some cases total obstructions with the formation of lakes sometimes extending for some kilometres. Moreover, particularly during the Holocene, phytoclastic and phytohermal travertine deposits were deposited in correspondence of steps along the river bed; one of these deposits, by means of radiocarbon dating, has been dated between 8260 ± 100 yr BP and 7740 ± 80 yr BP. Stromatolithic travertine is also present at the base of Holocene channels, slightly incised on the top of the upper Pleistocene alluvial plain.     

The industrial district: A stage of a diffuse industrialization process—the case of Roanne

The industrial district is an important element of the theoretical debates concerning the appearance of original features of regional development in Europe. Issuing from Marshallion theory, this concept was ‘reinvented’ in the late 1970s in order to interpret a series of ‘regional success stories’ of industrial development that occurred in middle Italy. Thus, for some economists and geographers, the industrial district has become a new ‘standard’ of regional development, appearing as an autonomous integrated system, whose functions are based on the principle of ‘automation’. This system represents an optimal structure in terms of economic efficiency and resource allocation, and owns its proper mechanisms of reproduction related to specific territorial regulations. A crisis for such a system can only be related to exogenous factors. Rejecting this static vision of economic structures, which reintroduces the ‘growth/crisis’ divide in the analysis of economic development, it seems necessary to promote a more dynamic approach in terms of ‘change through continuity’. This approach was initially developed by some Italian authors who tried to analyze the original features of regional development in the Third Italy in terms of ‘industrialization without fracture’. This approach does not deny the existence of industrial districts, but refuses to accept that they are static: districts can evolve, change, develop . . . Thus, they appear as a particular stage of development in a diffuse industrialization process. Their evolution is no longer simply related to exogenous variables but also to endogenous ones; and this evolution does not necessarily lead to an implosion or a complete transformation of space but can also lead, through the continuity of the industrial district's mechanisms, to a post‐district organizational configuration.     

Iran and the emergence of information and communications technology: the evolution of revolution?

This study examines the emergence of information and communications technology (ICT) in facilitating political protest in the Middle East, with a focus on the Iranian experience. With the rise of ‘emancipating technology’ to mobilise popular support, many had hoped that the incumbent regime in Iran would be steered towards a more democratic and less authoritarian path. At the same time, the Iranian regime itself has shown an increasingly sophisticated technical nous, constructing a centralised censorship network and using available technology to proliferate propaganda and control and subdue cyber-protest. As such, ICT has acted as a complex dual-edged sword in both mutually supporting and suppressing political activism in modern-day Iran.     

Epistemic Ignorance and the Indonesian Killings of 1965–1966: Righting the Wrongs of the Past and the Role of Faith Community

ABSTRACT

This study demonstrates how ignorance works in the Indonesian massacres of 1965–1966. This atrocity, which claimed roughly five hundred thousand lives, is one of the most forgotten human tragedies of the twentieth century. For many years, the massacres were hidden from public view. Ignorance was reinforced by the New Order under the presidency of Suharto. Drawing on contemporary political philosophers’ studies on the epistemology of ignorance, I contend that ignorance, like knowledge, has structures, criteria, and practices. Ignorance, thus, is not merely a “lack of knowledge” or a state of not knowing, but epistemic and political. By appropriating the epistemology of ignorance, I seek to show how the Indonesian people remember the historical wrongs and how Christian theology provides resources for right remembrance. To confront the epistemic ignorance of the Indonesian mass killings, I argue that the churches must assert their identity as the community of memory and lament.     

Between Social Reformism and Conservatism: Soviet women under the Finnish occupation regime, 1941–1944

The article deals with the Finnish gender policies during the occupation of Soviet Karelia in 1941–1944. It explores the wartime occupation of Soviet Karelia as a clash of Bolshevik and Finnish visions of the woman's position in society, including the level of visual propaganda. Based on oral history interviews and former Soviet archival materials, it also demonstrates how the local population reacted to social visions imposed from above, thus combining the approaches from ‘above’ and from ‘below’.     

Abolish the army? The ideal of democracy and the transformation of the Czechoslovak military after 1918 and 1989

This article deals with the relationship between the democratic transformations in Czechoslovakia after 1918 and 1989 and the armed forces. The democratic ideal of transformation seemed to be alien to the military institution, which upheld the old regime and paradigmatically represented undemocratic patterns of governance. In order to accommodate the popular demand to ‘abolish’ the army, the new political elite strived to initiate an institutional transformation that would re-legitimize the armed forces. Whereas after 1918 the military improved its reputation by changing into a ‘school of nation’, after 1989 the military, expected to become fully professional, went through a period in which its inner organisational culture was liberalized and personal freedoms of the soldiers were strengthened. The decline of previous authorities and the rise of civic self-confidence connected to the process of democratisation also led to the demoralisation of the soldiers. The liminal phase of military transformation was marked by the experience of the first ‘post-war war’, the Czechoslovak-Hungarian War in 1919 and the Gulf War in 1991, which indicated the needs of the new security environment and gave the idealistic thinking about the democratic military a touch of reality.     

Taking center stage: Early modern women’s tragedies on the contemporary stage

Abstract

From wife murder to cloak-and-dagger plays, female bodies, minds, and financial status are, for the most part, disempowered and abused by male protagonists with societal compliance. Since the 2000s, coinciding with the approval of the Ley Integral contra la Violencia de Género (2004), a wave of stage adaptations emerged in Spain that questioned the marginalization of women characters in the comedia. I claim that this trend in performance has become a sociocultural phenomenon that uses the symbolic capital of the comedia to raise awareness of women’s misrepresentation and gender violence and inequality.     

LGBTTs of Turkey between the east and the west – the city and the world through their eyes in the case of Izmir

The profession of city planning in Turkey does not consider groups such as LGBTTs (Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, Transvestite (Cross-dressing)). This study aimed to draw attention to the need for Turkish city planning to consider LGBTT people by presenting the results of a survey conducted in Izmir, one of the leading cities in Turkey. The study examines the reasons that LGBTTs, as ordinary individuals in society, become closeted in the urban sphere and how city planning can overcome this challenging problem of a Muslim country that is between the East and the West and is a European Union (EU) nominee. To examine this delicate issue that has not previously been considered in urban/rural planning studies in Turkey, the main discussion first elaborates the nationwide conception of and attitude towards LGBTTs and a wide range of social and economic variables to assess the quality of LGBTTs’ urban living. Then, based on results of the survey, this study attempts to formulate how an inclusive city can be planned for all groups, including LGBTTs. The scope of this study covers the legal and social status of LGBTTs in Turkey, the overall profile of LGBTT survey respondents, these respondents’ place in Izmir and the specific characteristics of an LGBTT-inclusive city. The unique contribution of this study is that it is the first to examine LGBTT individuals’ demands from the city on the basis of their different socioeconomic profiles.     

The Eighteenth-Century ‘Restoration’ of the West Portals of Saint-Denis and the Problem of the Lintels

Abstract

The west portals of Saint-Denis are believed to have incorporated lintels which would have been engaged with the doorposts below impost level. The lintels are presumed to have been removed in 1771 when various damaging work was carried out on the doorways. Irregularities in the upper courses of the doorposts appear to confirm this theory and many scholars have speculated upon the form of the lost lintels. It can be demonstrated, however, that the narrow nineteenth-century lintels in situ above impost level follow the original twelfth-century design: substantial lintels were at no time engaged with the doorposts. The disorder of the upper doorposts can nevertheless be attributed to the 1771 campaign. At that time the doorposts were dismantled and reassembled carelessly, without leaving enough room for the reinsertion of the upper courses: those of the central portal were merely trimmed while those of the lateral portals were replaced.     

The Austrian ‘occupation’ of Ferrara in 1847: its legal aspect between myth and reality

The so-called occupation of the papal town of Ferrara by Austrian troops in the late summer of 1847 became an important chapter in the history of the Risorgimento. It provoked strong anti-Austrian resentment in Italy, where Austria’s conduct was generally regarded as aggressive and illegal. As this article attempts to prove from an investigation of the legal aspect of the affair, the accusation that the Austrians had violated international law with their actions in Ferrara is nothing but another Risorgimento myth. The same accusation was also a way for the papal government to attempt to denigrate Austria, although the question of legality actually meant little for the pope who used the affair to increase his popularity among Italians. Consequently, Austria’s determined effort to settle the affair on a legal basis was anachronistic vis-à-vis the new political situation that arose in Italy and was thus doomed to failure in advance.