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Modernity and Self-Identity: Self and Society in the Late Modern Age.
... Thus, in a "post-traditional world" subjected to processes of individualization (Beck, 1992;Giddens, 1991), or in "post-industrial" and "information" societies (e.g., Gershuny, 2003;Van Dijk, 2005), class divides would no longer structure the consumption of allegedly massified consumer goods and would vanish or shift toward flourishing areas of consumption such as services or information, rendering the appropriation of the material content of consumption increasingly fluid. However, such presumed changes in material consumption have not been submitted to a systematic empirical analysis. ...
... In the 1960s, the notion of embourgeoisement (Zweig, 1961) described this alleged phenomenon of progressive homogenization of lifestyles and values, and of assimilation of former members of the working class into a large middle class. While rapidly criticized (Goldthorpe et al., 1971), the idea of a progressive flattening of class-structured inequalities in consumption kept flourishing, as in Peter Saunders (1986) sociology of consumption or in sociological accounts of the presumed transition of our affluent Western societies from modernity to post-(or late) modernity (Beck, 1992;Featherstone, 2007;Giddens, 1991;Lash & Urry, 1987). In the latter theories, this alleged transition generates increasing fluidity of consumption patterns and the individualization of lifestyles through an "aestheticization of everyday life" (Featherstone, 2007), which materialize the narratives that help individuals to define themselves (Giddens, 1991). ...
... While rapidly criticized (Goldthorpe et al., 1971), the idea of a progressive flattening of class-structured inequalities in consumption kept flourishing, as in Peter Saunders (1986) sociology of consumption or in sociological accounts of the presumed transition of our affluent Western societies from modernity to post-(or late) modernity (Beck, 1992;Featherstone, 2007;Giddens, 1991;Lash & Urry, 1987). In the latter theories, this alleged transition generates increasing fluidity of consumption patterns and the individualization of lifestyles through an "aestheticization of everyday life" (Featherstone, 2007), which materialize the narratives that help individuals to define themselves (Giddens, 1991). ...
The alleged homogenization of material consumption patterns in Western societies in the end of the twentieth century has been a central argument of scholars who predicted a general flattening of class inequalities. However, divisions in material consumption practices and their evolution have largely been neglected in studies of the social stratification of lifestyles. Drawing on six waves of the French Households Budget Surveys from 1985 to 2017 and Geometric Data Analysis, this article shows that the two main structuring oppositions in the French space of material consumption remained unchanged over 32 years. Those two divides are strongly but not exclusively associated with social class. The first persistently opposes integration with and exclusion from mass consumption. The second opposes connected and autonomous consumption styles. However, between 1989 and 2011, the practices associated with these divides have changed and households have experienced a major shift in their position toward the most integrated and connected poles. This study paves the way for comparisons to assess the permanence of those two polarities in material consumption—not only across periods, but also in different countries.
... Sociological understandings of the home see it as an often a physical space offering privacy (Allan and Crow, 1989). In often (but not always) 2 providing security, understandings of the home have been associated with Giddens' (1991) concept of 'ontological security' -a confidence or trust in a sense of 'fixed place' and control over one's own environment (Heath, 2019: 139), with the ability to seclude and protect from intrusion or unwanted attention (King, 2004). Home can be a space where privacy and intimacies typically remain with family members who have 'bodily license' (Morgan, 1996: 134). ...
... They note that bags are not typically carried at home, for they belong to 'public' space and the management of bodily boundaries within (Buse and Twigg, 2014;Hagerty, 2002;Henderson, 1975). Within their argument is Giddens' (1991) 'ontological security'the idea that security or sense of self is afforded by a constancy in social and material environments and a 'reliability of persons and things' (p.92). The items carried (or close by) for those with IBS are significant in providing embodied comfort and reassurance when public landscapes are uncertain and symptoms potentially unpredictable (White, 2021a). ...
... Woodward (2015) suggests that objects lie dormant because they hold within them past experiences or anticipated futures. In the case of items carried for those with IBS, there is not only the practical utility and corporeal necessity, but an 'ontological security' (Giddens, 1991) and comfort of having them to hand. The ...
Securing, and negotiating, privacy with intimate bodily needs is an ordinary but often hidden feature of our personal lives. Drawing upon a UK based qualitative study that utilised diaries and follow-up interviews to explore everyday life with the health condition irritable bowel syndrome (IBS), this paper explores the navigations of privacy when anticipating or experiencing symptoms. Building upon sociological understandings of privacy and personal life, this paper maps the intimate and mobile ways in which privacy is sought out - disrupted or achieved - in domestic, material and public realms. It does so by following the paths to privacy and the personal belongings carried as they move through personal life and into public space. The paper demonstrates how privacy is embodied and spatially, temporally, relationally and materially shaped. In doing so, the paper argues that privacy comes to shift through everyday contexts and social relations with intimate materialities in mind.
... We suggest that people's perceptions of rural areas as "idyllic" are not only important in defining rurality, but they may also be responsible for misconceptions of rural areas as static, innocuous places, incapable of generating critical conditions for crime. This can be particularly problematic because it, first, rejects the existence of agency in rural areas and denies people's daily practices in local cultures with a variety of actors, interests, and actions interlinked in complex ways (Giddens 1991). Second, it overlooks the local and global socioeconomic and technological interlinkages found in areas on the rural-urban continuum which, currently, are better references for redefining the complexities of rurality in a globalized world (Castells 1996(Castells , 2015 and are, we argue, essential to the process of pursuing social sustainability in rural contexts. ...
... However, safety perceptions reflect unbalanced levels of victimization, such that the poor are overrepresented among crime victims (Brå 2014;Nilsson and Estrada 2006;Tseloni et al. 2010). Some of these feelings relate to an individual's lack of sense of order and continuity with regard to one's experiences in life (Giddens 1991). Research also shows that safety perceptions reflect people's sense of place, where "place" refers to the immediate settings and conditions of daily life, but also the sense of one's place in a larger societal context (Hope and Sparks 2000). ...
... For instance, in Sweden, half of the respondents to the Swedish Crime Survey who live in larger municipalities expressed a greater worry about crime than those living in more rural municipalities . Nowadays, with access to the internet and social media, overall anxieties are also said to be generated by the individual's lack of embedded biography with a plurality of social worlds (Giddens 1991), beliefs and the diversification of lifestyles. Victimization becomes less dependent on location or proximity, and with that the fear of being a victim of crime may be fed by boundary-less "glocal" forces. ...
... Rules and resources, which Garfinkel (1967) would associate with ethnomethods, tend to be tacitly known by agents, which is why the latter can be identified as competent actors. When these rules and resources are called into question (like in Garfinkel's famous breach experiments), the agents' ontological security appears threatened, that is, the sense of orderliness and continuousness that they usually rely on with regard to their experiences and activities seems to be called into question (Giddens, 1991). ...
... One could, however, point out that James R. Taylor (1995) never hesitates to acknowledge the key role Maturana andVarela's (1980, 1992) ideas play in the elaboration of his theory, which shows that both Luhmannians and Montreal School representatives share at least an interest in the self-organizing properties of communication. Similarly, Taylor and Van Every (2000) definitely side with Giddens's (1984Giddens's ( , 1991 structuration theory when time comes to critique both functionalist/ structuralist and hermeneutic/ interpretive perspectives. Quoting the British sociologist, they point out that "[f] unctionalism proposes 'an imperialism of the social object' [while] interpretivism is founded, by contrast, on an 'imperialism of the subject' " (Taylor and Van Every, 2000, p. 150). ...
In this chapter, we present the various theories that have influenced or even defined the three schools of CCO thinking for the past 30 years. Regarding the four-flows model, proposed by Robert McPhee and Pamela Zaug, we describe the key role Anthony Giddens’s Structuration Theory has played since its inception. Regarding the roots of the system of self-referential communication systems proposed by Niklas Luhmann, we highlight the role of Edmund Husserl’s phenomenology, Maturana and Varela’s theory of self-referential systems and George Spencer-Brown’s observation theory. Finally, the theoretical roots of the Montreal school, initiated by James R. Taylor’s text/conversation model, are introduced through the presentation of some key authors’ works, namely pragmatists such as John Dewey and Charles Sanders Peirce, but also John Langshaw Austin, Harold Garfinkel, Algirdas Julien Greimas, and Bruno Latour. Beyond their differences, we also insist on what unifies the theoretical foundations of these three respective schools of thought.
... Van Raaij, 1993;Elliott, 1994;Baudrillard, 2004) or a late modern society (e.g. Jameson, 1994;Featherstone, 1996;Giddens, 1991), which is distinct in quality from former structure of society which is identified as modern, set consumption as a main aspects of such a society. These discussions state that consumption and culture based on consumption are the basic characters of postmodernism rather than production. ...
... This last sentence intends the crucial characteristic of contemporary consumption practices. Relevant to this, concerned to consumption is nowadays the identification that the consumer does not make consumption decision merely from products' features but from also from their symbolic meanings (Douglas, 1982;McCracken, 1988;Giddens, 1991;Dittmar, 1992;Gabriel and Lang, 1995). As consumption constitutes a key role in providing values and meanings for the creation of the consumer's personal and social world, so all the promotional activities are identified as one of the prominent sources of these symbolic values and meanings (Elliott, 1997). ...
... The interlinked nature of mental health issues and violence exposure has been widely identified across different settings (Pierre et al., 2020;Tol, 2020). However, little attention has been given to understanding them as components that inhibit the formulation of a fundamental existential security system (Giddens, 1984), elaborated since early childhood and consolidated during adolescence, and to the societal mechanisms that contribute to the consolidation of secure platforms for identity development and selfactualisation (Giddens, 1997;Laing, 1990). Structuration theory emphasises that social agents elaborate this security system through a psychic investment in reproducing ordered attributes of social life, suggesting that this investment responds to a need for ontological security, an existential drive to experience the societal world as relatively safe, reliable, predictable, and intelligible (Giddens, 1991). ...
... However, little attention has been given to understanding them as components that inhibit the formulation of a fundamental existential security system (Giddens, 1984), elaborated since early childhood and consolidated during adolescence, and to the societal mechanisms that contribute to the consolidation of secure platforms for identity development and selfactualisation (Giddens, 1997;Laing, 1990). Structuration theory emphasises that social agents elaborate this security system through a psychic investment in reproducing ordered attributes of social life, suggesting that this investment responds to a need for ontological security, an existential drive to experience the societal world as relatively safe, reliable, predictable, and intelligible (Giddens, 1991). ...
Ontological security is the personal need to build fundamental certainty about the continuity of life events. It is central to long-term human development, particularly among adolescents in highly vulnerable communities in South Africa. We examined the cumulative effects of eight hypothesised provisions (development accelerators) in reducing the risks of ontological insecurity outcomes aligned with Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) targets. Three waves of survey data from adolescents living in high HIV prevalence areas in South Africa were analysed. We used standardised tools to measure twelve outcomes linked to two dimensions of ontological security: mental health and violence. Sustained receipt (at baseline and follow-ups) of eight hypothesised accelerators were examined: emotional and social support, parental/caregiver monitoring, food sufficiency, accessible health care, government cash transfers to households, basic economic security, positive parenting/caregiving, and participation in extramural activities. Associations of all accelerators with outcomes were evaluated using multivariable regressions controlling for age, sex, orphanhood and HIV status, rural/urban location, and informal housing. Cumulative effects were tested using marginal effects modelling. Of 1,519 adolescents interviewed at baseline, 1,353 (89%) completed the interviews at two follow-ups. Mean age was 13.8 at baseline; 56.6% were female. Four provisions were associated with reductions in twelve outcomes. Combinations of accelerators resulted in a percentage reduction risk in individual indicators up to 18.3%. Emotional and social support, parental/caregiver monitoring, food sufficiency and accessible health care by themselves and in combination showed cumulative reductions across twelve outcomes. These results deepen an essential understanding of the long-term effects of consistent exposure to accelerators on multi-dimensional human development. They could be directly implemented by existing evidence-based interventions such as peer-based psychosocial support, parenting programmes, adolescent-responsive healthcare and food support, providing safer and healthier environments for South African adolescents to thrive.
... Agglomeration economies affect spatial proximity patterns in many ways. The first way that agglomeration economies affect spatial proximity patterns is through social advancements (Giddens, 1987(Giddens, , 1990(Giddens, , 1991(Giddens, , 2000(Giddens, , 2001(Giddens, , 2003(Giddens, , 2006. ...
... Technological advancements have supported social agglomeration economies. Through different technological advancements people have become closer than ever (Giddens, 1971(Giddens, , 1974(Giddens, , 1985(Giddens, , 1987(Giddens, , 1990(Giddens, , 1991(Giddens, , 2000(Giddens, , 2001. When I wake up in the morning, I have many snapchat messages on my phone. ...
... As an analytical concept, political intelligence can therefore be understood as a relational concept that combines mental and affective processes of self-orientation over time (temporal relationality) with processes of self-orientation towards others (social relationality), especially in social groups and political communities. Steadiness towards oneself, i.e. ontological security (Giddens, 1991), and external reliability, i.e. reputation (Mercer, 2010), form important individual and social resources for the self-determined choice of politically relevant goals and strategies that can be attributed as authentic by other actors. Without empathy, the form of social relationality that attempts to anticipate the interests and wishes of others through identification with them, the consequences of one's own actions cannot be measured (Pedwell, 2014). ...
... According to the post-structuralist view, identity is dynamic and relational, and is 'an element situated in the flow of time' (Wodak et al., 2009: 11). Its formation and reformation is a dynamic process, framed by choices one makes in words and actions (Baxter, 2016), and 'emerging from one's relationships with others' (Giddens, 1991; also see Jaworski and Coupland, 2014: 332). That means identities are construed and performed through language and other semiotic resources, and the understanding of specific identities can be approached from a discursive perspective. ...
Influenced by the global neoliberalization of higher education, academic entrepreneurialism has become a new paradigm of university development and has brought about profound changes in various types of university discourse. Against this backdrop, this study investigates the transformations in the visual depiction of academics in the annual reports of six major universities in Hong Kong during the past two decades. Drawing on critical visual analysis, the study shows that the communicative purposes of the images have shifted from reporting the research process to promoting research outcomes. The visual identities of academics have shown clear transformations of becoming increasingly individualized, entrepreneurial and self-promotional. With a higher degree of social interaction and closer social distance with viewers, they are playing an increasingly important role in building public relations. The study enriches the social analysis of neoliberalization as a process through the quantitative and diachronic lens. It demonstrates how a visual analytical method applied to the critical analysis of identity construction and university discourse can provide an explicit understanding of the visual manifestations of neoliberal-ism in higher education and its diachronic change. K e Y W O r D S annual report • content analysis • higher education • Hong Kong • neoliberal discourse • visual identity 1102180V CJ Visual CommunicationDeng and Feng: From researchers to academic entrepreneurs
... Del mismo modo, ambas de las lecturas de estos autores sobre tales reconfiguraciones suponen una visión implícita acerca de los cambios registrados a nivel de la experiencia individual y social en las sociedades occidentales modernas. Será justamente esta dimensión experiencial la que permite adquirir una comprensión más 1 Pueden citarse, en este sentido, los trabajos de Relph (1976), Meyrowitz (1986), Giddens (1990) o Thompson (1995). Otros autores como Auge (1992) o Harvey (1990) asignan una misma importancia a la relación entre modernidad y reconfiguración de la experiencia espacial, aunque acuñan, en su lectura, otros conceptos de importancia como "sobremodernidad" o "postmodernidad" respectivamente. ...
Resumen: El trabajo analiza algunas de las dimensiones centrales del proceso de reconfiguración de la experiencia del espacio impulsada por los mass media a fin de poner-las en diálogo con las reflexiones sobre la espacialidad del Dasein desarrolladas por Heidegger en Ser y tiempo. A tal efecto, considera en primer lugar los análisis de Anthony Giddens y John B. Thompson sobre la transformación que el progresivo desarrollo de la comunicación de masas su-puso para múltiples prácticas sociales anteriormente definidas por la presencialidad y la localidad. En segundo lugar, y de la mano de autoras como Panayiota Tsatsou o Terhi Rantanen, se revisa la tesis de que las nuevas condiciones de la comunicación masiva no disuelven sino que reformulan el sentido de "localización" y la experiencia espacio-temporal del "lugar". Finalmente, estas reflexiones previas son puestas en diálogo con algunas de las nociones fundamentales desplegadas por Heidegger en Ser y tiempo a la hora de considerar la espacialidad del mundo y del Dasein.
Abstract: The paper considers some of the central dimensions of the process of reconfiguration of the experience of space promoted by the mass media in dialogue with the contributions developed by Heidegger in Being and Time on the spatiality of Dasein. For this, we first consider the analysis of Anthony Giddens and John B. Thompson on the way in which the progressive development of mass communication has transformed the social practices previously defined by presence and locality. In the second instance, authors such as Panayiota Tsatsou or Terhi Rantanen help us to review the way in which the new conditions of mass communication do not dissolve but rather reformulate the sense of "location" and the spatio-temporal experience of "place". Finally, the article puts the previous reflections in conversation with some of the fundamental notions deployed by Heidegger in Being and Time when considering the spatiality of the world and of Dasein.
... Hay aproximaciones con énfasis en conocimientos técnicos relacionados a la dinámica de diferentes eventos geofísicos, con un apoyo importante de disciplinas como la Climatología, Geomorfología, Hidrología, adoptando una mirada naturalista y, en ocasiones reduccionista, que contribuyen a caracterizar amenazas; otras aproximaciones se centran en aspectos sociales, incorporando el análisis de la vulnerabilidad con sus múltiples dimensiones y considerando los significados e identidades de los lugares, con especial importancia en aspectos subjetivos del riesgo a nivel individual o grupal. Se basan en teorías sociológicas del riesgo (Beck, 1998(Beck, , 2008Giddens, 1991) que lo consideran una construcción social; y finalmente otros aportes incorporan un abordaje sistémico buscando la comprensión y explicación de las temáticas de riesgos a nivel espacial a partir de un análisis que integre el sistema físico-natural y el sistema humano, como parte de una realidad compleja y donde el análisis espacial presenta gran potencialidad de aplicación. ...
Con el cambio de siglo, la temática de riesgos adquirió relevancia en la agenda política internacional y nacional al momento de planificar y gestionar el territorio con miras a mejorar las condiciones de vida de la población. El enfoque geográfico en el análisis de riesgos evidencia las desigualdades socioespaciales y presenta herramientas teórico-metodológicas para su abordaje, que permiten comprender los fenómenos de origen natural y antropogénico y, al mismo tiempo, presenta utilidad empírica para enfrentar consecuencias adversas. El trabajo se focaliza en el estudio de la dimensión espacial del riesgo a inundaciones en la ciudad de Luján (Buenos Aires, Argentina), en cuanto a su situación actual y perspectivas futuras, a través del análisis espacial con Sistemas de Información Geográfica. Se presenta como resultado una cartografía de riesgo, que permite identificar de forma concreta cuatro áreas prioritarias de planificación urbana, con los niveles de riesgo más elevados y una tendencia a expandirse sobre áreas con amenaza de inundación. Los resultados obtenidos se convierten en una herramienta fundamental en apoyo para la toma de decisiones espaciales en sectores específicos del área de estudio.
... However, abstract understandings of 'vulnerability' as synchronous with 'risk' do not tell us anything yet about care providers' understandings of vulnerability and the strategies they use to identify vulnerability in their pregnant clients. There is a growing body of literature that analyses how professionals engage in 'risk work': a microlevel approach to empirically study people's everyday practices in what has been termed the 'risk society' (Giddens, 1991;Beck, 1992). The risk society thesis holds that although social life has not become 'riskier' in itself, risk has become less tolerated and risk avoidance is now fundamental to the way social actors organise the world. ...
Maternity care increasingly focuses on evaluating psychosocial vulnerability during pregnancy. Research and nationwide (public health) programs, both in the USA and Europe, led to the development of new protocols and screening instruments for care providers to systematically screen for psychosocial vulnerability in pregnant women. However, standardised screening for vulnerability is complex since it requires discussion of sensitive issues. Women may fear stigmatisation and may have limited trust in their care providers or the health system. Our study contributes to the growing field of client-facing risk work by exploring care providers' interpretations and evaluation of psychosocial vulnerability in pregnant women. Drawing on semi-structured interviews with Dutch maternity care providers, we explore how they conceptualise risk and vulnerability and identify ‘vulnerable pregnant women’ in their practices. We find that care providers conceptualise ‘vulnerability’ as primarily based on risk, which contributes to an imbalanced focus on individual mothers, rather than on both parents and the social context. Our findings highlight care providers' concerns around ‘care avoidance’, seen as a risk factor affecting ‘vulnerability’ during pregnancy and as a possible consequence of risk screening. The care providers we interviewed employ “in between-strategies” based on intuition, emotion, and trust to skillfully attend to the risk that comes with risk work, in terms of its potential impact on relationships of trust and open communication. We conclude that ‘vulnerability’ should be understood as a multi-layered, situated and relational concept rather than simply as an epidemiological category. Since a trusting relationship between pregnant women and care providers is crucial for the evaluation of vulnerability, we reflect critically on the risk of standardised perinatal psychosocial risk evaluations. Policy should recognise providers' “in between-strategies” to embed epidemiological understandings of risk in the context of everyday risk work.
... In forming self-identity, a person integrates the meaning and expectations associated with the relevant classification into the self, so as to form a set of identity standards to guide identity-relevant behaviours (Rise, Sheeran, & Hukkelberg, 2010). Thus, self-identity can be constructed and reconstructed as an ongoing project of the self (Giddens, 1991), building a framework for social negotiation through depicting the sameness and difference (Jenkins, 1996). ...
Isolation and anomie caused by the modern life has created multiple identity threats. Tourists’ destination experience has long been considered as a unique way of identity construction. However, little research has investigated whether and how environmental restoration qualities in the tourism context can possibly reinforce self-identity and counteract the effect of identity confusion. Guided by the Attention Restoration Theory, this study aims to develop and test a model to examine the relationships between the dimensions of perceived destination restorative qualities (PDRQs) and tourist self-identity with two tourist samples in China collected in two distinctive destinations (Sample 1, n = 361; Sample 2, n = 323). Results show that in both samples, the PDRQs dimensions of compatibility and mentally-away positively contributed to self-identity, while the dimension of physically-away had no significant effect on self-identity. In addition, the dimensions of extent and fascination had differentiated effects on self-identity across the two samples. This study provides empirical evidence to show that destinations have the potential to promote tourist identity reconstruction.
... Such sociological perspective, therefore, focuses on everydayness of identity, and considers it as an ordinary performance produced by individuals' self-making processes alongside their positions in the social systems (Goffman, 1969). Parallel to this, Giddens (1991) coined the term 'identity project' to suggest that identity is not static, but it is a development process and a movement towards, rather than a conceived destination. It is through this view that Giddens thought of the complexity of identity whereas the more resources available for construction of the self, the more aspects of identities we weave around our 'selves'. ...
Constituting more than one-third of the country's population, young generation in Iran are also a subnational group who have their own unique experiences of living in Iran and distinct way of defining themselves as Iranian. This has given rise to Iranian youth's identity politics, evinced by nationwide student-led uprisings and social movements throughout the past decade. Identity politics in this sense is specified as the ways in which the young Iranians reflect on their everyday experiences in order to make sense of their belongingness to the nation. The aim of this study, however, is to elucidate the ambiguities surrounding the youth's identities through conducting a series of focus group discussions with the most mature segment of this age group who were selected from middle-class residents of Tehran. The findings ultimately unravelled cosmopolitan aspirations, self-reproach and some other identity-making aspects of these young people's lives.
... While Giddens (1991) and Beck (1992) portrayed the self as decoupled from culture and tradition, many scholars argue that such perspectives ignore critical aspects of the experiences of the self, which are embedded in sociocultural traditions and contexts, entangled in emotions, and ambiguous, complex, and even contradictory (Adams, 2007;Cooley, 1964;Gergen, 1991). As such, creating, revising, and maintaining identity must be viewed as an ongoing and dynamic process (Caza et al., 2018) at the intersection between the individual and the external environment (Adams, 2007;Burkitt, 2008;Lucas, 2011). ...
Diversification into tourism is often suggested as a potential solution for the increasing concerns over globally declining fishing opportunities, particularly for small-scale fishers. Through the lens of psychosocial identity, qualitative data analysis from interviews with current and previous fishers in Cornwall shows how people are deconstructing and reconstructing their identities in the transition from fishing to tourism work, and that experiences of marine tourism diversification are dynamic, multifaceted, and embedded in social encounters. This article expands current discussions on work transitions by giving insight into the lived experiences of marine tourism operators from a psychosocial perspective, to go beyond the dominant economic narrative of diversification and social change, which has implications on how transitions into tourism work are facilitated.
... This worldview, I do not know … Maybe, it is such short-term thinking, ignorance to what you leave behind. (Interview 23) In pro-environmental discussions and activity, young people not only ask themselves 'What kind of person am I?' but also 'What kind of environment do I want to see around me?' Here we recognize the paradigm of the actor in modernity, who works on the 'self as a reflexive project' (Giddens 1991). In personal ecological actions, which are elementary yet meaningful, actors constitute the 'self', approaching the desired ideal of a modern person and citizen, and define who they are for themselves and others. ...
The Ambivalence of Power in the Twenty-First Century Economy contributes to the understanding of the ambivalent nature of power, oscillating between conflict and cooperation, public and private, global and local, formal and informal, and does so from an empirical perspective. It offers a collection of country-based cases, as well as critically assesses the existing conceptions of power from a cross-disciplinary perspective. The diverse analyses of power at the macro, meso or micro levels allow the volume to highlight the complexity of political economy in the twenty-first century. Each chapter addresses key elements of that political economy (from the ambivalence of the cases of former communist countries that do not conform with the grand narratives about democracy and markets, to the dual utility of new technologies such as face-recognition), thus providing mounting evidence for the centrality of an understanding of ambivalence in the analysis of power, especially in the modern state power-driven capitalism. Anchored in economic sociology and political economy, this volume aims to make ‘visible’ the dimensions of power embedded in economic practices. The chapters are predominantly based on post-communist practices, but this divergent experience is relevant to comparative studies of how power and economy are interrelated.
... But this is understandable given the fuzzy nature of the concept based on different disciplinary viewpoints. For example, Giddens' definition was influenced by the focus of his writing-Modernity and Self-Identity-which was centred on external lifestyle choices of an individual, choices influenced by the external environment or society (Gluck, 1993). In contemporary times, however, globalization is often associated with economic diffusion whereby industrial production, goods and services, technical know-how, and technological advances spread easily across the globe. ...
... Finally, it might not be secularism or Christianity, but rather the national identity, or even citizens' ontological security (the perception of continuity of one's Self, see Giddens, 1991) that is perceived to be under attack by a religious Other (Croft, 2012). Regardless of the emphasis that one chooses, within this latter approachwhich takes religion as a threat instead of being threatenedthe focus appears to generally be on Islam. ...
What exactly the place of religion, language and culture should be in pluralist societies such as the Netherlands, has been a widely discussed topic for years. In the past decades, the Dutch debate has focused itself primarily on Salafism, an orthodox strand of Islam that has frequently made headlines. Some argue that ‘Salafism has many beautiful things to offer’ (Van Lansschot, 2016); that it is a natural phenomenon in ‘healthy’ societies (Smit, 2016); and that inhibiting it would infringe on our constitutional freedom of religion, creating an ‘Iran-like caliphate’ (Van Der Horst, 2018). Others, however, claim that Salafism is ‘a bomb under our open society’ of which the effects should not be downplayed (Pattiphilohy & Cousijn, 2019). Further, Salafism has been linked to the creation of foreign terrorist fighters and the stimulation of jihadist ideologies; a breakdown of liberal democratic values and the rule of law; and the promotion of social polarization, exclusion and intolerance (Ellian, 2016; Graaf, 2013; De Koning, 2011a; Verhofstadt, 2016).
This Masters' thesis discusses the ways in which Dutch security actors have securitised and (de)securitised Salafism throughout the years.
... These risks transcend national boundaries and do not differentiate between races, nations, social classes, social groups, gender, religion or religious affiliation (8,9) because they become latent in the circumstances of the COVID-19 pandemic. The student generation (youth) in modern Western societies is vulnerable and enabled to reach individual maturity points fluidly and uncoordinated in time, to delay growing up and/or not be forced into certain adulthood patterns (10,11) in postmodern society. Hence the new circumstances caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, the presence of "liquid life" in "liquid modernity" that affects rapid changes in habits and routines that have little chance of consolidating and settling and becoming a pattern, have fuelled uncertainty, insecurity and fear. ...
The first wave of the COVID-19 pandemic has led to extreme global consequences. In this paper, changes in the basic segments of students' everyday life and their subjective perception are investigated. The research was conducted in Croatia, Serbia and Slovenia. The application of the mixed method was performed to provide breadth and depth of understanding of students' responses to lifestyle changes. The research was conducted in two phases: a quantitative, using an online survey ( N = 1,053), from April 15th to April 28th 2020, and a qualitative, using semi-structured interviews ( N = 30), from June 10th to July 27th 2020. Students showed similar responses to the measures, but it turned out that the response in that population was different when their gender and study program were taken into account. The results suggest that students of study programs that are not “health-related” were more sensitive to change in habits than students of “health-related” study programs, but generally changes are visible in sleep patterns (going to bed late and waking up 60 to 80 min earlier). At the same time, the time spent in front of screens increased, from M = 4.49 (SD = 2.72) hours to M= 8.27 (SD = 3.44) hours during Covid-19, not only due to the transition to e-learning, but also due to a “stay at home” measure. Furthermore, students were less physically active, there was a decrease in exercise by 20 min (SD = 86.52) and a decrease in walking (M = 54 min, SD = 103.62) per day, and what is positive is that they were able to maintain the recommended amount of physical activity. The research contributes to the understanding of social consequences of extraordinary measures in students as young, healthy and highly educated social actors, as well as deeper insight into everyday strategies they undertake to counter or adapt to the new situation.
... Utilizing the similar approach of Stone and Sharpley (2008), this study aims to base its theory related to the intersection between dark cinematography and sociology of death on Giddens ' (1990; 1991) works. According to Giddens (1991), the individuation process by breaking away from the society led to the formation of individual's own value judgments by which the attribution of the symbols and meanings is shifted from public domain to individual domain. When meanings attributed to death were handed down to the individuals from society, this situation triggered existential (ontological) security problems because death, the most important element that threatens human existence, comes to surface. ...
Changes in the value systems of contemporary societies resulted in new interpretations and the redefinition of the values, norms, and traditions. These changes made various impacts on personal meaningfulness and people became more vulnerable to death after attributions of the meanings to death, as many other things, had been removed from the social domain to the individual domain. In the context of this study, a new term called dark cinematography has been coined. This study aims to understand the motives behind the consumption of the dark products of cinema industry and seeks the postmodern extensions of the sociology of death in the cinema industry. Dark cinematography is defined as the supply and consumption of the movies in the cinema industry in which elements related to real or commodified death, suffering, and macabre events are made visible from an artistic perspective based on a plot and presented for the interests of the (dark) audience. Dark cinematography is a postmodern tool to cope with death and provides individuals a unique chance for the reconceptualization, neutralization, and control of it.
... Some theories claimed tendencies toward an anti-institutional "believing without belonging" (Davie, 1994), and/or a movement toward a more privatized, selective, religious behavior (Giddens, 1991). Others labeled the multitude of expressions of the religious and/or spiritual as a general shift toward a 'bloom' of spiritual interest, the "spiritual revolution" (Heelas & Woodhead, 2005); a symbol of an underlying social or cultural fluidity (Bauman, 1999); or even a consumer society inspired religious or spiritual "shopping mall" (Lyon, 2000). ...
In Denmark, religious behavior is usually very private. Little is known of religious and spiritual needs of patients and family during critical illness and hospitalization. We aimed to explore contemporary thoughts and prayers related to critical illness and hospitalization expressed in hospital chapel Guest Books. Qualitative content analysis of written texts was performed on Guest Books completed from 2005–2019. We identified the main themes of health and illness, life and death, and science and religion. Visitors welcomed the Guest Books as a place to express religious and spiritual thought, even in a nominally nonreligious society.
The Mekong region presents a record incidence of cholangiocarcinoma (bile duct cancer). Scientists identify correlations between the development of this aggressive disease and the consumption of raw fish in local dishes. While made aware of these correlations by comprehensive health campaigns, some villagers in Thailand’s notoriously neglected Northeast refuse to cook the fish before consumption: a phenomenon that puzzles medical experts and policy makers. Based on ethnographic data, this paper suggests that practices surrounding the consumption of raw food in the area have become taboo. Rather than disappearing, they now play a key role in bonding rituals where rural masculinities are expressed via spectacles of risk taking that transgress normative ideals of manhood as epitomised by urban men and Buddhist monks.
This article attempts to answer the question of why Iran is reluctant to discuss its missile program. Unlike other studies that focus on the importance of Iran’s missile program in providing deterrence for the country and establishing a balance of military power in the region, or that view the missile program as one of dozens of post-revolutionary contentious issues between Iran and the United States, this article looks into Iran’s ontological security. The paper primarily argues that the missile program has become a source of pride for Iranians, inextricably linked to their identity. As a result, the Iranian authorities face two challenges when it comes to sitting at the negotiation table with their Western counterparts: deep mistrust of the West, and the ensuing sense of shame over any deal on the missile issue. Thus, Iranian officials opted to preserve the identity components of the program, return to normal and daily routines of life, insist on the missile program’s continuation despite sanctions and threats, and emphasize the dignity and honor of having a missile program. The article empirically demonstrates how states can overcome feelings of shame and mistrust. It also theoretically proves that when physical security conflicts with ontological security, governments prefer the former over the latter, based on the history of Iran’s nuclear negotiations. They appeal to create new narratives to justify changing their previous policies.
The development of generic skills and competences has become a central component of contemporary engineering education due to increased societal and occupational complexity. Problem- and project-based learning (PBL) has been highlighted as one of the pedagogical approaches fostering generic skills and competences that are transferable between various contexts. However, the arguments linking PBL and generic competences have mostly been theoretically grounded or based on singular cases of teaching experience. The purpose of this literature review is therefore to present a comprehensive overview of the different types of generic competences documented in a PBL environment. The review includes 28 peer-reviewed articles that have documented engineering students’ perceptions of generic skill and competence development. The results reveal either an emphasis in the studies on teamwork, typically combined with a couple of other types of generic competences, or, in a few cases, a narrow focus on problem-solving. The synthesis of generic competences perceived by engineering students in PBL environments furthermore unfolds a landscape of generic competences, which provides a frame of reference to discuss strategies to foster the broad set of generic competences needed for future engineers to deal with the complex societal challenges of our time.
Available as open access here: https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/03043797.2022.2074819?src=
This research aims to explore and analyse the narratives that people form for their motivations for moving to an eco-community, in particular looking at how they present and interconnect their life circumstances, motivations and values, and how this informs a sense of identity. Currently, no other research contextualises perceived motivations for moving to an eco-community into a holistic narrative, so this dissertation offers a novel contribution to the body of research on eco-communities. This research adopts an interpretative, qualitative and narrative approach. Using purposive and convenience sampling, 23 participants from three eco-communities took part in face-to-face semi-structured interviews. Data was transcribed and then analysed using a mixture of content and thematic analysis. It was found that, although participants' life experiences were diverse, there were clear commonalities which formed a fairly consistent narrative. Participants framed their lives prior to living in an eco-community as "alternative", picking out the following as significant biographical details: unusual upbringings or lifestyles, travel, and a childhood in close contact with nature, or within a community which grew food. Participants identified mainstream society as deeply flawed, and in contrast depicted eco-communities as spaces which offered a remedy to those flaws. Their perceived motivations for moving to an eco-community were varied, but centred around a desire to connect with other people through community living, and a desire to feel a greater connection with the land. Perceived motivations, values and life stories were linked together to form a coherent narrative. Within this narrative, participants constructed a sense of identity through how they related to the eco-community environment, their work there, their placement within the social landscape, and through the narrative itself.
The authors examined how the joint effect of brand experience type (ordinary vs. extraordinary) and COVID‐19 threat on consumer happiness changed at different stages of the COVID‐19 pandemic. The findings from five studies, with the COVID‐19 threat and lockdown status measured as well as manipulated, suggest that COVID‐19 threat exerts converse moderating influences on the extraordinariness–happiness relationship under no lockdown and lockdown. Under lockdown, threat attenuates the effect of brand extraordinariness on happiness; extraordinary brand experiences bring more happiness than ordinary brand experiences when the perceived threat of COVID‐19 is low, but consumers derive comparable happiness from extraordinary and ordinary experiences when perceived threat is high. Under no lockdown, threat amplifies the positive effect of extraordinariness on happiness. Consumers rarely experience a large‐scale lockdown due to a pandemic, and this research advances understanding of how consumer happiness from a brand experience changes with the trajectory of a pandemic.
Health geography provides a relational approach to understanding elders’ wellbeing experience in relation to place. That the migrating grandparents move between their home and their adult children’s home to support their children’s life in the migrating city provides a particular pattern to supplement the place-based wellbeing literature. How they negotiate their wellbeing remains to be observed in the daily home-making practices related to their two homes. This study conducted in-depth interviews with 35 migrating grandparents and nine of their adult children and conducted extensive field notes in Shanghai from 2020 to 2022. Through thematic analysis, it finds that the migrating grandparents met a series of differences, challenges and tensions in the material, social and emotional home-making practices brought by the separation and rotation between their own and their children’s homes. It weakens their physical, social and mental wellbeing. However, they take some initiatives to overcome and relieve these tensions. Therefore, accompanied by sacrifices and negotiations, they also obtain sustained material, social and spiritual–emotional values to negotiate a suboptimal experience of wellbeing. This study contributes to the intersection of elderly wellbeing and home-making studies by revealing the complex and ongoing inter-relationships between migrating grandparents and home in the rotating lifestyle.
The concepts of ‘self’ and ‘identity’ are often implicitly conflated in constructivist research, limiting our understanding of important theoretical issues. The Ontological Security Sstudies (OSS) literature provides one example of this, often reducing a concern with ‘security of the self’ to a matter of identity, thereby limiting OSS’ analytical reach. This article draws from the writings of Laing and Giddens to make the case for keeping ‘self’ and ‘identity’ analytically distinct. Understanding ontological security as a multidimensional framework meant to affirm the self’s existence, it proposes to see ‘identity’ as just one dimension of ontological security, and to conceptualize ‘self’ in terms of personhood. Such a reading allows us to grasp the discursive and ritualistic institution of sovereignty as an existential framework on which the personhood, and therefore ontological security, of all states depends. Thus, OSS would benefit from considering ontological security beyond identity. Beyond this, the article shows that distinguishing more clearly between ‘self’ and ‘identity’ illuminates the debate on state personhood in IR, indicating that paying more attention to these key concepts would be helpful for constructivist research more generally.
Highlights
• In digital media stakeholders' emotions in forest conflict were analyzed.
• Emotions empowered stakeholders to defend their own values and challenge others.
• Forest conflicts are saturated with emotions and historical contradictories.
• Emotions clarify stakeholders' motives and values in forest conflict.
• Emotions need to be scrutinized in conflict transformation and resolution.
Ontological (in)security concept has been recently introduced to the security studies and qained popularity. Individuals and states instinctively pursue their physical security, but they never feel completely safe in an environment which stability and security of self’s existence cannot be guaranteed. They’re in a search for attaining ontological security through narratives, habits, and routines to generate a sense of trust in an uncertainty environment. In this regard, this article tries to answer a key question: how ongoing Cyprus conflict be explained through ontological (in)security considering the EU’s failure to unravel security dilemmas between Turkish and Greek communities on the island? The findings of the article will contribute to the existing literature and open up new debates concerning the role of ontological (in)security in ongoing conflicts
In this field study of the labor process of food delivery workers, we examine the new rules of time and new forms of labor time control in the food delivery industry. Food delivery platforms attract laborers with the flexibility of working time and place but simultaneously strictly surveil the labor process of delivery workers, thus establishing a multidimensional body of control consisting of the platform and customers. At the same time, platform mechanisms of “grab the order” and “wait for the order” help platforms subtly control delivery workers’ experience, thoughts, and emotions. These mechanisms create a sense of time characterized by “punctuality” and “speed,” making delivery workers “all-day workers.” Delivery workers come to delivery platforms in search of work freedom, but in the end, they become constrained by platforms. Helpless, they voluntarily subject themselves to the time control of the platform, while the latter obtains profit under the guise of freedom.
In this paper, I draw upon the empirical literatures on arranged marriages among South Asian Muslim immigrants in the U.S. and U.K. in order to (a) provide a multidimensional model of the marital formation process that challenges the binary between arranged and love marriage and to (b) propose how trust operates as a general mechanism to explain both micro‐level personal, interpersonal, and institutional motivations and negotiations around different marriage models as well as macro‐level shifts in marital practices over time.
Due to its geographical characteristics such as proximity to the Bay of Bengal and low-lying riverine landscape, Bangladesh is highly susceptible to climate change. The southwestern region of the country is particularly vulnerable to the impacts of various forms of disasters including floods, cyclones, tidal surges, river erosion, and climate change. A growing body of research has examined the impacts of climate change including increasing water salinity, land degradation, low agricultural productivity, and dislocation. However, no research to date has examined the consequences of climate change for interpersonal and intergroup relationships from a sociological perspective in Bangladesh. To address this gap in the literature, a qualitative study was designed to examine the effects of climate change for intergroup, intragroup, and social relationships in the context of climate change in southwestern Bangladesh. Local people’s accounts were captured by applying a combination of qualitative instruments including 12 in-depth interviews (IDI), four focus group discussions (FGD) in which a total of 27 community people participated, and four key informant interviews (KII). Two southwestern unions Kamarkhola and Suterkhali under the Dacope subdistrict located in the Khulna district of Bangladesh were purposively selected as study sites. Analysis reveals that climate change has at least indirectly influenced both intergroup, intragroup, and social relationships. It generated intergroup conflicts and livelihood vulnerabilities, which coupled with other factors such as land degradation, poverty, social marginalization, low agricultural productivity, unemployment, and water salinity, often led to the dislocation of some vulnerable groups. Findings suggest that relationships with neighbors, friends, and relatives deteriorated as the impacts of climate change, in conjunction with other factors, contributed to various forms of social conflict and antisocial behaviors. For instance, the elderly claimed that the younger generation showed less respect to them as the social fabric weakened. On occasion, people reported being less likely to cooperate in a strongly collectivist, kinship-based, and family-oriented Bangladesh society. Taken together, the findings demonstrate that climate change may affect intergroup, intragroup, and social relationships at various levels, disproportionately affecting marginalized groups. This raises questions about environmental justice. Building intergroup solidarity and promoting prosocial behaviors are essential for addressing the impacts of climate change. Therefore, climate mitigation and adaptation strategies need to consider the impacts of climate change on social relationships.
p>'Shamanism' is an anthropologically constructed concept to explain a socio-religious phenomenon in many non-Western societies that enables community healing via interactions with spirits. In this thesis I explore archaeological and anthropological perspectives on, and more importantly, attitudes towards, 'Neo-shamanism'. I use such theoretical and methodological approaches as alternative archaeology and experiential anthropology, which coalesce, into what I call an 'Autoarchaeology': to understand the past it is imperative we explicitly consider, and take into account, our own sociopolitical locations and motivations. An archaeology of shamanism therefore begins not with shamanism in the past, but with neo-shamanism in the present.
In presenting an ethnography of neo-shamanism, I first discuss how our perceptions of shamanism are heavily influenced by neo-shamanism. I scrutinise main figures in neo-shamanism and specific examples of neo-shamanic practice, on the basis of their universalising, psychologising and romanticising of shamanism. I then critically compare a neo-shamanic case example of Celtic neo-shamanism with Heathen neo-shamanism, two traditions that reconstruct and revive ancient north European pagan religions. I assess these practices in terms of their authenticity and value to archaeologists and historians. Neo-shamanic interactions with archaeological sites, particularly Stonehenge and Avebury are also discussed. The preservation ethic of the heritage industry is contrasted with the neo-shamanic view that perceives ancient monuments to be spiritually alive. Finally, I examine neo-shamanic appropriations of indigenous shamanisms, particularly with regard to Native America. Chaco Canyon in New Mexico is used as a case example of a disputed archaeological site.
Critics perceive neo-shamanism in stereotypical ways; it is seen as a monolithic entity and dismissed. In contrast, I point to great diversity in neo-shamanism and argue that exploring this variety reveals both positive and negative aspects. A more contextualised approach that is socially and politically sensitive, is essential. In conclusion, I suggest strategies looking towards reciprocal benefit, such as forums for meeting and negotiating where communication and education are otherwise lacking. Despite the extremely sensitive and intrinsically political nature of the issues, they must not be left untouched. On the contrary, if the socio-political issues arising from this discussion are not addressed by the interest groups concerned, a contemporary neo-shamanic agenda for the archaeological past and ethnographic present will compromise all voices into increasingly difficult positions.
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p>The thesis examines the processes by which certain sets of ideas about Muslim women's rights become dominant in particular localities, and questions the specificity accorded to Muslim women in both global human rights talk and transnational Islamic narratives. In order to do so, the thesis is therefore presented in two parts; the first provides the general arguments and theoretical positions in the debate, while the second contextualises and particularises these in the form of three case studies. The first section considers the interaction between social forces, ideas and agency at global and national levels in Muslim women's rights debates. The research consequently examines the relationship between power and ideology in the construction of understandings of Muslim women's rights. As a result it does not uncritically accept the claims made by those seeking to define Muslim women's empowerment or their rights. Additionally, the thesis considers the agency of Muslim women in particular contexts in order to assess the impact of Islamic discourses on the realisation of women's rights in Muslim communities. In order to do this without essentialising, or stereotyping, Muslim women, or Islam, the second part of the thesis examines three countries as case studies: Malaysia, Egypt and Great Britain. In each of the case studies the national context is elaborated and five key rights are examined. This enables comparison while maintaining the particularities of women's rights talk in each of the cases. The main conclusion of the thesis is that Islam alone cannot explain the strategies, negotiations and women's rights claims made in Muslim communities. Rather, these are embedded in a dynamic array of social, economic and ideological relations. Attempts at understanding the conceptualisation of women's rights in Muslim communities must therefore be a holistic analysis which resists essentialising and imposing predetermined interests on actors.</p
p>An examination of the relationship between the disenchantment of the world and democracy is necessary in order to appreciate the source and scope of the contemporary challenge of pluralism. In the absence of indisputable markers of certainty and authority, the possibility of justice and social integration is predicted upon a form of public reasoning that enable citizens to work out the terms of their political association together. However, I argue that the dominant conceptions of public practical reasoning (John Rawl’s notion of public reason and Jürgen Habermas’ discourse ethics) end up imposing unjustified limits on the activity of exchanging public reasons. This has the effect of undermining public reason’s community-sustaining role. I suggest that a less constraining and more agnostic conception of public reason in terms of a focus on the activity of citizenship in which struggles within and over the terms of citizenship are taken to be a central feature of constitutional democratic political identity. In doing so, I seek to problematize the picture of social harmony prevailing in contemporary political philosophy. I then try to illustrate and to enrich this argument through a discussion of current debates around multiculturalism and the struggles for recognition of cultural minorities. Aboriginal politics in Canada is used as a case-study. The importance of the practice of citizenship, as opposed to the end-results, is stressed throughout the thesis.</p
This paper presents the results of a theoretical-methodological analysis of the post-war anomie phenomenon in management leadership. The main features of post-war anomie are shown. The paper investigates this topic in the following logical sequence: in a post-war society, where almost all areas of public life marginalize rapidly, a marginal type of manager becomes dominant. It is a kind of hybrid type of management, which occupies an intermediate position between the traditional (pre-war) and new (post-war) types. In a post-war society, a sense of security and confidence in the future is replaced by uncertainty. At every step, a contradictory situation arises, social tensions grow, and competition and interpersonal and intergroup conflicts become more widespread. The consequences of the war are felt more strongly, and the living conditions of people are deteriorating, which causes panic, shocks, stress, and psycho-physiological disorders. People do not even have a vague idea of where society is moving, their role in this process, and where their place is − all this gives rise to uncertainty in the future. It becomes difficult for many to adapt to new conditions psychologically. For the individual, the social world is collapsing in the truest sense. Traditional stereotypes of adaptation and rationalization are being destroyed − people do not understand what is happening in their environment. The research theoretically proves that specific models aim to overcome anomie in a post-war society. Overcoming anomie also suggests a strong influence, sometimes needed to move towards the chosen direction. The problem is that very often, strong effects can develop into distress, and accordingly, the formation of new social norms will suffer, possibly leading to a dysfunctional company. The results of the research can be helpful for the specialists in the fields of business ethics and leadership, contemporary approaches, and socio-psychological issues of human behavior in a post-war society.
Users of smartphones are finding new ways to shift between the online and the physical world, due to increases in the number of people who go online while ‘out and about’. This study focuses on youths’ lived experiences of using and managing their smartphones and how they navigate their shifts between face to face and digital interactions. Semi-structured interviews with seven smartphone users were analysed using Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis. The overarching theme was how participants establish and experience presence through their shifts between face to face and digital interactions. Three themes were developed; constant availability vs be present with me; projection and protection of self; dystopian world: disconnection and separation. The study’s findings highlight that to be ‘present’ while physically with others is socially desirable. Participants depicted a dystopian world when others fail to manage their phone use. The study also highlights the complex identity work that participants engaged in as they navigate social norms around presence. © 2022 The Author(s). Published by Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group.
This article argues that Muslims have created a specific Muslim Instagram that sustains youthfulness and cultivates their deen (religion). Instagram as a social has become a space for Muslim youth all over the world to share images. These images, being circulated over Instagram across localities, create visual representations for other users. For this research, over 500 images with the hashtags #muslim and #islam were analysed to understand how Muslims represent themselves and their religion online. A two-step methodological procedure involved the adaption of iconographical and iconological techniques of visual art interpretation to the images collected. The concept of youthfulness and the Islamic concept of deen will be discussed in relation to the analysed images to demonstrate the emergence of a Muslim Instagram. Muslim Instagram is a translocal space that enables Muslims to simultaneously act eternally youthful and cultivate their deen. By playing with notions of youthfulness, Muslims recontextualise their faith and practice online to cultivate their deen. They thereby embed Islam and subsume Islamic concepts and practices into modern global lifestyle patterns of consumption.
Objective
Rheumatoid arthritis (RA) is an autoimmune, inflammatory, systemic condition that requires specific drug treatment to suppress disease activity and prevent joint deformity. To manage the ongoing symptoms of joint pain and fatigue patients are encouraged to engage in self-management activities. People with RA have an increased incidence of serious illness and mortality, with the potential to impact on quality of life. This study explored patients’ experiences of living with RA on physical, psychological and social well-being as well as their ability to employ self-management skills during the coronavirus pandemic.
Design
Qualitative, longitudinal (baseline, 16 September to 23 November 2020 and after 2–4 months, 11 January to the 17 January 2021), semistructured telephone interviews.
Setting
A rheumatology service based in a community hospital.
Participants
15 adults with RA.
Main outcomes
Data were analysed using interpretative phenomenological analysis.
Results
Five themes were identified that related to impact on (1) fear: the dominant emotion, (2) social connections and work practices, (3) physical health, (4) identity and (5) self-management as a coping mechanism. The overriding emotion was one of fear, which remained high throughout both interviews. The negative impact on social well-being increased as the pandemic progressed. Conversely, physical health was not affected at either time point, although participants reported difficulty in interpreting whether physical symptoms were attributable to their RA or COVID-19. Recognition of increased vulnerability led to a reassessment of self-identity; however, respondents reported using previously learnt self-management techniques to cope in the context of the pandemic.
Conclusions
The main impact was on emotional and social well-being. Levels of fear and vulnerability which affected self-identity remained high throughout the pandemic and the impact on social well-being increased over time. Physical health remained largely unaffected. Self-management skills were used to maintain a sense of well-being.
This thesis focuses on the concept of organizational identity, applied to humanitarian organizations. The actual international context is forcing these organizations to review some of their core values and procedures. Consequently, their teams on the field are confronted with more and more conflicts and complex situations where the organisation’s identity is at stake. The aim of this research is to produce a better understanding of the work that employees of Doctors Without Borders (MSF) do on the field during a mission, especially when they have to justify and negotiate the presence of their organisation with the local populations and authorities. Based on Karl E. Weick’s concept of sensemaking, we present a narrative analysis of fieldwork stories we collected by conducting interviews with five MSF employees. Not only does this analysis help us understand the roles employees have to play on the field, but it also provides insight into the different situations when organizational identity is being negotiated.
Time is a problem that war photography has to solve. Photojournalists have to be ‘in the right place and at the right time’ if they want to capture military action. Yet the speed and the surprise built into the core of such events means that war is mostly documented post factum. Instead of picturing dramatic action, most photographs show how effectively time deletes the damage of war, how quickly the drama disperses in everyday life. The temporal parallax inherent in the medium is explored by many photographers focusing on substantial traces of war left in architecture built to last in time. The chapter discusses how the elided trauma of the Second World War, especially the one prolonged by the subsequent Soviet occupation in Lithuania, an Eastern European country, can be detected from the architecture of war presented in photographs.
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