30 research outputs found
A broken silence? Mass Observation, Armistice Day and âeveryday lifeâ in Britain 1937â1941
Between 1937 and 1941 the social survey organization Mass Observation collected material on the ways that the British people experienced and thought about the commemorative practices that marked the anniversary of the Armistice of 1918. What they found was that while people were largely united in their observation of the rituals of remembrance, their thoughts and feelings about these practices were diverse. For some, the acts of commemoration were a fitting way to pay tribute to both the dead and the bereaved. For others, these acts were hypocritical in a nation preparing for war. This article draws on the Mass Observation material to trace some of the diverse ways that remembrance was embodied in everyday life, practised, experienced and understood by the British people as the nation moved once again from peace to war, arguing that studies of the practices of remembrance alone tell us little about how they have been understood by participants
Be prepared: communism and the politics of scouting in 1950s Britain
This article examines the exposure, and in some cases dismissal, of Boy Scouts who belonged or sympathised with the Young Communist League in Britain during the early 1950s. A focus on the rationale and repercussions of the organisation's approach and attitudes towards âRed Scoutsâ found within their âranksâ extends our understanding of youth movements and their often complex and conflicting ideological foundations. In particular, the post-World War Two period presented significant challenges to these spaces of youth work in terms of broader social and political change in Britain. An analysis of the politics of scouting in relation to Red Scouts questions not only the assertion that British McCarthyism was âsilentâ, but also brings young people firmly into focus as part of a more everyday politics of communism in British society
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Understanding non-governmental organizations in world politics: the promise and pitfalls of the early âscience of internationalismâ
The years immediately preceding the First World War witnessed the development of a significant body of literature claiming to establish a âscience of internationalismâ. This article draws attention to the importance of this literature, especially in relation to understanding the roles of non-governmental organizations in world politics. It elaborates the ways in which this literature sheds light on issues that have become central to twenty-first century debates, including the characteristics, influence, and legitimacy of non-governmental organizations in international relations. Amongst the principal authors discussed in the article are Paul Otlet, Henri La Fontaine and Alfred Fried, whose role in the development of international theory has previously received insufficient attention. The article concludes with evaluation of potential lessons to be drawn from the experience of the early twentieth century âscience of internationalismâ
The return of the 'Conchie': newspaper representations of conscientious objectors and pacifists in World War II
This chapter will consider the ways in which British regional and national newspapers represented conscientious objectors in the early stages of World War 11
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Social Movements and International Relations: A Relational Framework
Social movements are increasingly recognized as significant features of contemporary world politics, yet to date their treatment in international relations theory has tended to obfuscate the considerable diversity of these social formations, and the variegated interactions they may establish with state actors and different structures of world order. Highlighting the difficulties conventional liberal and critical approaches have in transcending conceptions of movements as moral entities, the article draws from two under-exploited literatures in the study of social movements in international relations, the English School and Social Systems Theory, to specify a wider range of analytical interactions between different categories of social movements and of world political structures. Moreover, by casting social movement phenomena as communications, the article opens international relations to consideration of the increasingly diverse trajectories and second-order effects produced by social movements as they interact with states, intergovernmental institutions, and transnational actors
The London Peace Society and absolutistâreformist relations within the peace movement, 1816â1939
This article revisits the author's pioneering archival work on the world's leading peace association of the nineteenth century, the London Peace Society (LPS), to focus on its distinctive strategy for dealing with the fact that from the outset, the peace movement had two distinct wings, absolutist (the small core of pacifists) and reformist (the rather larger penumbra of pacificists). Unlike other early such associations, which adopted different membership strategies, the LPS catered to both wings but in a twoâtier hierarchy: Its top tier, the national committee that determined its policy, was strictly pacifist and rejected even defensive war, but no such stringency of belief was required of the bottom tier of ordinary members, which therefore contained many pacificists. Topâtier pacifism served the LPS well for half a century, in particular enabling it to outperform its American counterpart, but for the next halfâcentury caused it to fall between two stools by disappointing absolutists as well as reformists. It was tacitly abandoned as the LPS plunged into steep decline on passing its centenary and was repudiated on the eve of the Second World War
The London Peace Society and Absolutist-Reformist Relations within the Peace Movement, 1816-1939
This article revisits the author's pioneering archival work on the world's leading peace association of the nineteenth century, the London Peace Society (LPS), to focus on its distinctive strategy for dealing with the fact that from the outset, the peace movement had two distinct wings, absolutist (the small core of pacifists) and reformist (the rather larger penumbra of pacificists). Unlike other early such associations, which adopted different membership strategies, the LPS catered to both wings but in a twoâtier hierarchy: Its top tier, the national committee that determined its policy, was strictly pacifist and rejected even defensive war, but no such stringency of belief was required of the bottom tier of ordinary members, which therefore contained many pacificists. Topâtier pacifism served the LPS well for half a century, in particular enabling it to outperform its American counterpart, but for the next halfâcentury caused it to fall between two stools by disappointing absolutists as well as reformists. It was tacitly abandoned as the LPS plunged into steep decline on passing its centenary and was repudiated on the eve of the Second World War
Why people disagree about war prevention
1.25; Lecture delivered 26 Apr 1989SIGLEAvailable from British Library Document Supply Centre- DSC:6272.528(OPPS-P--20) / BLDSC - British Library Document Supply CentreGBUnited Kingdo