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Articles 1 - 15 of 15
Full-Text Articles in Social and Behavioral Sciences
Framing Asian Atmospheres: Imperial Weather Science And The Problem Of The Local C.1880–1950, Fiona Williamson
Framing Asian Atmospheres: Imperial Weather Science And The Problem Of The Local C.1880–1950, Fiona Williamson
Research Collection School of Social Sciences
It would be of the greatest importance to meteorology’, noted the editor of the Singapore Chronicle in 1829, ‘if a set of hourly meteorological observations could be instituted at Calcutta, Bombay, Madras, Singapore, Malacca, and some station on the elevated plains of Hindostan’. 1 Of course, the author’s comments speak from a uniquely imperial perspective, whereby such observations would benefit the colonial service of – in this case – the British Empire, enabling enhanced knowledge of imperial atmospheres and the related economic and scientific benefits that this could bring. That meteorology was closely linked to empire and imperial control has …
Building A Long-Time Series For Weather And Extreme Weather In The Straits Settlements: A Multi-Disciplinary Approach To The Archives Of Societies, Fiona Williamson
Building A Long-Time Series For Weather And Extreme Weather In The Straits Settlements: A Multi-Disciplinary Approach To The Archives Of Societies, Fiona Williamson
Research Collection School of Social Sciences
In comparison to the Northern Hemisphere, especially Europe and North America, there is a scarcity of information regarding the historic weather and climate of Southeast Asia and the Southern Hemisphere in general. The reasons for this are both historic and political, yet that does not mean that such data do not exist. Much of the early instrumental weather records for Southeast Asia stem from the colonial period and, with some countries and regions changing hands between the European powers, surviving information tends to be scattered across the globe making its recovery a long and often arduous task. This paper focuses …
Guest Editorial: Disaster, State And Science: Historical Narratives Of Extreme Weather In East Asia And The Pacific, Fiona Williamson
Guest Editorial: Disaster, State And Science: Historical Narratives Of Extreme Weather In East Asia And The Pacific, Fiona Williamson
Research Collection School of Social Sciences
This curated special issue asks how history can be used as a lens into disaster and disaster management. It takes as its premise the idea that approaches from different disciplines - including the humanities and social sciences – can offer new perspectives on understanding disaster, managing disaster and disaster risk. The concept is not new, historically focussed studies have long provided meat for hazard investigations and modelling, especially those focused on geological or hydrological time-series analyses; multi-hazard interactions and identifying historical underliers for contemporary risk. It has become increasingly common, for example, to include historians in collaborative efforts to better …
A Question Of Scale: Making Meteorological Knowledge And Nation In Imperial Asia, Fiona Williamson, Vladimir Jankovic
A Question Of Scale: Making Meteorological Knowledge And Nation In Imperial Asia, Fiona Williamson, Vladimir Jankovic
Research Collection School of Social Sciences
This special issue of History of Meteorology explores processes of making, communicating, and embedding modern meteorological knowledge in late nineteenth and early twentieth century imperial Asia. Its focus is on the institutionalisation of meteorology in key nation-building activities such as developing agricultural services, synoptic mapping to predict storms, and participation in scientific organisations and initiatives. Collectively, the essays explore the intersection of local, regional, and international scales and processes in generating new forms of state-sponsored meteorological practices and institutions, though complex multi-layered networks involving different actors and modes of information flow across multiple scales. In so doing, they reveal the …
Screening Southeast Asia: Film, Politics, And The Emergence Of The Nation In Postwar Southeast Asia, Darlene Machell Espena
Screening Southeast Asia: Film, Politics, And The Emergence Of The Nation In Postwar Southeast Asia, Darlene Machell Espena
Research Collection School of Social Sciences
No abstract provided.
The Science Of Stifling Heat: Recognising Urban Climate Change In The Straits Settlements, Fiona Williamson
The Science Of Stifling Heat: Recognising Urban Climate Change In The Straits Settlements, Fiona Williamson
Research Collection School of Social Sciences
Heat is a ubiquitous part of tropical living. During the nineteenth century consumers and writers of travel literature, explorers and colonists became increasingly familiar with the endless, languid summers of tropical climates where continued, unrelenting heat and humidity created a daunting climate for the European.
‘Living In A State Of Filth And Indifference To … Their Health’: Weather, Public Health And Urban Governance In Colonial George Town, Penang, Fiona Williamson, Katrina Proust
‘Living In A State Of Filth And Indifference To … Their Health’: Weather, Public Health And Urban Governance In Colonial George Town, Penang, Fiona Williamson, Katrina Proust
Research Collection School of Social Sciences
This article explores the development of public health infrastructure in George Town, Penang, before the 1930s. It argues that the extreme weather of the tropical climate led to a unique set of health challenges for George Town’s administrators, as the town grew from a small British base to a multi-cultural and thriving port. Weather and public health were (and still are) integrally connected,although the framing of this relationship has undergone significant shifts in thinking and appearance over time. One lens into this association is the situation and expression of these elements within municipal structures.During the nineteenth century, government departments were …
Disasters And The Making Of Asian History, Chris Courtney, Fiona Williamson
Disasters And The Making Of Asian History, Chris Courtney, Fiona Williamson
Research Collection School of Social Sciences
Environmental historians have often been drawn to disasters. They have unearthed the often-forgotten stories of erupting volcanoes, raging rivers and rainless skies, and in so doing have reminded their colleagues from more anthropocentric disciplines that the societies, economies and cultures they study are part of broader physical systems. In addition to highlighting the agency of nature, however, disasters have also helped to remind us that environmental history remains at heart a humanistic discipline. It should never be simply a lament for lost natural habitats, but also a discipline which offers a unique prism through which to study people. It is …
The Politics Of Disaster: The Great Singapore Flood Of 1954, Fiona Williamson
The Politics Of Disaster: The Great Singapore Flood Of 1954, Fiona Williamson
Research Collection School of Social Sciences
Singapore in the 1950s was a deeply divided society. Struggling to recover from the hardships ofthe Second World War and fighting an internal battle that the British government termed an‘emergency’, it was a time of hardship, tension, and anxiety. In the midst of this crisis, Singapore’sinhabitants continued to manage the natural elements of their climate and environment, especiallythe dangerous combination of heavy monsoonal rains, low-lying marshland, and tidal flooding.This article examines the circumstances surrounding a particularly severe episode of flooding thatoccurred in December 1954. It explores how the flood’s impact was exacerbated by humanexigencies, especially recent government resettlement plans and …
Malaya's Greatest Menace? Slow-Onset Disaster And The Muddy Politics Of British Malaya, C. 1900–50, Fiona Williamson
Malaya's Greatest Menace? Slow-Onset Disaster And The Muddy Politics Of British Malaya, C. 1900–50, Fiona Williamson
Research Collection School of Social Sciences
In 1948, a chilling statement from British Malaya’s Director of Agriculture, F. Burnett, made headline news. According to Burnett, unchecked soil erosion across hillside Malaya would soon render the country’s precious agricultural land infertile. Erosion had worsened considerably after the 1880s due to widespread, indiscriminate agricultural and industrial clearing. By the 1920s, it had become a sizeable socioeconomic and environmental issue, thought also to contribute to the scale and intensity of flooding and the likelihood of dangerous landslips. The British Government raised a series of empire-wide inquiries across the first half of the twentieth century, tied to an emerging global …
The History Problem: The Politics Of War Commemoration In East Asia, Hiro Saito
The History Problem: The Politics Of War Commemoration In East Asia, Hiro Saito
Research Collection School of Social Sciences
This essay summarizes my argumentin The History Problem: The Politics of WarCommemoration in East Asia. The historyproblem is essentially a relational phenomenonthat arises when nations promote self-servingversions of the past by focusing on whathappened to their own citizens with littleregard for foreign others. East Asia, however,has recently also witnessed the emergence of acosmopolitan form of commemoration takinghumanity, rather than nationality, as itsprimary frame of reference. Whencosmopolitan commemoration is practiced as acollective endeavor by both perpetrators andvictims, a resolution of the history problem willfinally become possible.
The History Problem: The Politics Of War Commemoration In East Asia, Hiro Saito
The History Problem: The Politics Of War Commemoration In East Asia, Hiro Saito
Research Collection School of Social Sciences
Seventy years have passed since the end of the Asia-Pacific War, yet Japan remains embroiled in controversy with its neighbors over the war’s commemoration. Among the many points of contention between Japan, China, and South Korea are interpretations of the Tokyo War Crimes Trial, apologies and compensation for foreign victims of Japanese aggression, prime ministerial visits to the Yasukuni Shrine, and the war’s portrayal in textbooks. Collectively, these controversies have come to be called the “history problem.” But why has the problem become so intractable? Can it ever be resolved, and if so, how? To answer these questions, the author …
Recruiting The All-Female Rani Of Jhansi Regiment: Subhas Chandra Bose And Dr Lakshmi Swaminadhan, Tobias Frederik Rettig
Recruiting The All-Female Rani Of Jhansi Regiment: Subhas Chandra Bose And Dr Lakshmi Swaminadhan, Tobias Frederik Rettig
Research Collection School of Social Sciences
The recruitment of the all-female Rani of Jhansi Regiment of the Indian National Army in Japanese-controlled Singapore and Malaya, with a particular focus on the period between the first female guard of honour on 12 July 1943 through to the opening of the regiment's main camp in Singapore on 22 October 1943, has to date been insufficiently studied. Starting with the conception of the Regiment in an Axis submarine by the Indian nationalist leader Subhas CHANdra Bose (1897–1945), this paper examines the ideas and figures that inspired the regiment and the role of Bose and Dr Lakshmi Swaminadhan (1914–2012) in …
Prevented Or Missed Chinese-Indochinese Encounters During Wwi: Spatial Imperial Policing In Metropolitan France, Tobias Frederik Rettig
Prevented Or Missed Chinese-Indochinese Encounters During Wwi: Spatial Imperial Policing In Metropolitan France, Tobias Frederik Rettig
Research Collection School of Social Sciences
No abstract provided.
Reiterated Commemoration: Hiroshima As National Trauma, Hiro Saito
Reiterated Commemoration: Hiroshima As National Trauma, Hiro Saito
Research Collection School of Social Sciences
This article examines historical transformations of Japanese collective memory of the atomic bombing of Hiroshima by utilizing a theoretical framework that combines a model of reiterated problem solving and a theory of cultural trauma. I illustrate how the event of the nuclear fallout in March 1954 allowed actors to consolidate previously fragmented commemorative practices into a master frame to define the postwar Japanese identity in terms of transnational commemoration of "Hiroshima." I also show that nationalization of trauma of "Hiroshima" involved a shift from pity to sympathy in structures of feeling about the event. This historical study suggests that a …