Historical Context

2021 ◽  
pp. 40-62
Author(s):  
Gustavo S.J. Morello
Keyword(s):  
Latin American ◽  
Historical Context ◽  
The United States ◽  
Religious History ◽  
American Religious History ◽  
Religious Traditions ◽  
The Public ◽  
The United Kingdom ◽  
The People ◽  
The Public Sphere

This chapter presents a historical account that helps us to understand Latin America’s religious present. Latin American religious history gives us a better understanding of the Latin American cultural background. Western religious traditions (Catholicism, Protestantism, secularism, evangelism) came to Latin American with different colonial powers: Spain, Portugal, the United Kingdom, France, and the United States. However, Latin America’s religious history also shows the agency of Latin American peoples, the ability to create and recreate practices and locations for religion in the public sphere, as we can find Native and Afro traditions like Umbanda and Santería. The agency of the people, and the influence of religious figures in the public realm, have been part of the Latin American religious experience.

Epilogue

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Katrina Dyonne Thompson
Keyword(s):  
Popular Culture ◽  
Public Sphere ◽  
Historical Context ◽  
The United States ◽  
Racial Stereotypes ◽  
Folk Culture ◽  
The Public ◽  
Black Stereotypes ◽  
The Public Sphere ◽  
Entertainment Culture

This book has explored the foundation and infiltration of racial stereotypes into the American entertainment culture. It has rejected the notion that African Americans should be used as scapegoats for the continuance of black stereotypes in popular culture, arguing that entertainment culture in the United States was largely founded and developed on negative racial imagery created and inserted into the public sphere by whites. While acknowledging that the African American community holds some responsibility for the continual proliferation of racist and sexist stereotypes in the mass media, the book contends that accountability must be placed within a larger cultural and historical context. This epilogue reflects on the continued proliferation of black stereotypes in popular culture, suggesting that it simply represents a continuation of an entertainment tradition that was created intentionally to express the antiblack, prowhite ideology of America's culture. Furthermore, the perceived inferiority of blackness was actively promoted through society's folk culture.

scholarly journals The Embodied Testimony of Domitila Chungara in The Courage of the People (Jorge Sanjinés, 1971)

2017 ◽  
Vol 22 (1) ◽  
pp. 180
Author(s):  
Isabel Seguí
Keyword(s):  
Political Culture ◽  
Latin American ◽  
Life Stories ◽  
Community Members ◽  
The Public ◽  
Political Cinema ◽  
The People ◽  
Mise En Scene ◽  
The Public Sphere ◽  
Siglo Xx

Abstract. Awarded in Europe but censored in Bolivia during thirteen years, The Courage of the People (Jorge Sanjinés, Bolivia, 1971) is an outstanding example of Latin American collaborative political cinema. The film is an account of the massacre of St John’s eve in the Bolivian mining settlement of Siglo XX in 1967. But it also situates its background, through the mise-en-scène of representative community members’ life stories. Domitila Chungara was one of the characters selected to represent the collective; in her case, the organized housewives.This article analyses the range of testimonial bodily expressions captured in Domitila Chungara’s participation in the film: her fighting, maternal and suffering bodies. This performance constitutes her first public testimony that, remarkably, is a play-acting testimonio as opposed to the more common transcribed oral accounts that constitute this genre. The self-representation of Chungara and her comrades in the film breaks down the wall of silence that surrounded women’s body-based political practices in the public sphere and gives value to their body-based political culture, instrumental in understanding Bolivian politics in the last century.

scholarly journals The Contribution of Religiosity to Ideology: Empirical Evidences From Five Continents

2018 ◽  
Vol 52 (5) ◽  
pp. 524-541 ◽  
Author(s):  
Gian Vittorio Caprara ◽  
Michele Vecchione ◽  
Shalom H. Schwartz ◽  
Harald Schoen ◽  
Paul G. Bain ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
United Kingdom ◽  
Public Sphere ◽  
The United States ◽  
The Other ◽  
Unique Contribution ◽  
The Public ◽  
The United Kingdom ◽  
The Public Sphere ◽  
Basic Personal Values

The current study examines the extent to which religiosity account for ideological orientations in 16 countries from five continents (Australia, Brazil, Chile, Germany, Greece, Finland, Israel, Italy, Japan, Poland, Slovakia, Spain, Turkey, Ukraine, the United Kingdom, and the United States). Results showed that religiosity was consistently related to right and conservative ideologies in all countries, except Australia. This relation held across different religions, and did not vary across participant’s demographic conditions (i.e., gender, age, income, and education). After controlling for basic personal values, the contribution of religiosity on ideology was still significant. However, the effect was substantial only in countries where religion has played a prominent role in the public sphere, such as Spain, Poland, Greece, Italy, Slovakia, and Turkey. In the other countries, the unique contribution of religiosity was marginal or small.

Sex in the City that Peter Built: The Demimonde and Sociability in Mid-Eighteenth Century St. Petersburg

Slavic Review ◽  
2017 ◽  
Vol 76 (4) ◽  
pp. 907-930
Author(s):  
Igor Fedyukin
Keyword(s):  
Eighteenth Century ◽  
Public Sphere ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
Historical Context ◽  
Reading Public ◽  
Associational Life ◽  
The Public ◽  
The World ◽  
The Public Sphere ◽  
The City

This article uses the materials of the Drezdensha affair, a large-scale investigation of “indecency” in St. Petersburg in 1750, to explore unofficial sociability among the Imperial elite, and to map out the institutional, social, and economic dimensions of the post-Petrine “sexual underworld.” Sociability and, ultimately, the public sphere in eighteenth century Russia are usually associated with loftier practices, with joining the ranks of the reading public, reflecting on the public good, and generally, becoming more civil and polite. Yet, it is the privately-run, commercially-oriented, and sexually-charged “parties” at the focus of this article that arguably served as a “training ground” for developing the habits of sociability. The world of these “parties” provides a missing link between the debauchery and carousing of Peter I's era and the more polite formats of associational life in the late eighteenth century, as well as the historical context for reflections on morality, sexual licentiousness, foppery, and the excesses of “westernization.”

scholarly journals Latinas for Trump Analysis of Processes of Identification and the Use of Narratives to Construct Subject-Positions

2018 ◽  
Vol 6 (2) ◽  
pp. 197-214
Author(s):  
Mayela Zambrano
Keyword(s):  
Latin American ◽  
Presidential Election ◽  
The United States ◽  
Apparent Contradiction ◽  
Negative Stereotypes ◽  
Political Preference ◽  
Subject Positions ◽  
The Public ◽  
Latino Community ◽  
The U.S

AbstractThe public and commercial spheres constantly address the largest ethnic minority in the United States, people with ancestry or from a Latin American country, as a homogenous group under the ethnopolitical terms “Latinos,” “Hispanics,” and even “Mexicans.” This panethnic view, and the negative stereotypes associated with it, was especially visible during the 2016 presidential election. While the majority of Latinos found Donald Trump’s remarks on “Mexicans” offensive to the Latin community as a whole, a large number of people still supported his opinions, even those belonging to the “Latino” community. Even more so, women of Latino heritage still supported a nominee that went against their own advance in society given his constant misogynistic comments. In this essay, I analyze the groundings for this apparent contradiction in the preference for said candidate. I argue that these women’s political preference is a tool with which they build their identity in the U.S. Besides, I explore the ways in which individuals linguistically construct their own identity in three ways (i) by actively doing the identification instead of merely receiving it by an unknown agent; (ii) by choosing the self-representation of their preference, and (iii) by finding commonalities and bonding with other individuals they deem part of their group. Through this approach, I analyze semiotic processes, such as intertextuality, use of pronouns, and discourse alignment, that are used to construct identifications of the self that go beyond imposed categories, such as gender and ethnicity.

Joint Plan of Action on Iran’s Nuclear Program

2014 ◽  
Vol 53 (4) ◽  
pp. 732-738 ◽  
Author(s):  
Hirad Abtahi
Keyword(s):  
Historical Context ◽  
The United States ◽  
United Nations Security Council ◽  
Islamic Republic ◽  
Nuclear Program ◽  
Republic Of China ◽  
The United Kingdom ◽  
Islamic Republic Of Iran ◽  
The Russian Federation ◽  
Joint Plan

On November 24, 2013, the Islamic Republic of Iran, together with the E3/EU–comprised of France, Germany, the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland (UK)–as well as the People’s Republic of China (China), the Russian Federation (Russia), and the United States of America (US) agreed to the Joint Plan of Action on Iran’s nuclear program (Joint Plan of Action). The Joint Plan of Action aims at ensuring the Islamic Republic of Iran’s exclusive peaceful nuclear program through mutually-agreed steps between the so-called E3/EU+3 and the Islamic Republic of Iran. Though much has been said about the Joint Plan of Action since its adoption, not enough attention has been paid to its historical context; such neglect risks the Joint Plan of Action being, at best, viewed in isolation. This note bridges that gap by providing an overview of the events that led the Islamic Republic of Iran, the five permanent members of the United Nations Security Council (UNSC), and Germany (P5+1) to agree on the Joint Plan of Action.

scholarly journals Bella Abzug, queer rights, and disrupting the status quo

2015 ◽  
Vol 7 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Trevor G Gates ◽  
Margery C Saunders
Keyword(s):  
Civil Rights ◽  
Social Action ◽  
Public Discourse ◽  
Historical Context ◽  
The United States ◽  
Status Quo ◽  
Working Environment ◽  
Field Analysis ◽  
The Public ◽  
The Status

Workers who are lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer (LGBTQ)-identified have always been a part of the workplace in the United States, yet there has been a lack of awareness about how to advocate for the needs of these people. This lack of awareness was challenged by Congresswoman Bella Abzug. Abzug’s campaign for creating an equal working environment for sexual minorities initiated gradual changes in the public discourse concerning workplace and other broad equality measures for these communities. To frame these gradual transformations within a historical context, we use Lewin’s force field analysis framework to examine the change efforts of Abzug. Abzug had beginning success in thawing the status quo yet her visions for equality for LGBTQ people have yet to be realized. Using Abzug’s social action as an example, this article concludes that allies must continue to challenge societal oppression, power, and privilege and to demand civil rights protections for LGBTQ individuals.

Shaping Digital Democracy in the United States

2014 ◽  
pp. 213-231
Author(s):  
Rachel Baarda ◽  
Rocci Luppicini
Keyword(s):  
Public Sphere ◽  
Participatory Democracy ◽  
The United States ◽  
Social Networking Site ◽  
Ethical Challenges ◽  
The Public ◽  
Ethical Implications ◽  
Theoretical Perspectives ◽  
The Public Sphere

Ethical challenges that technology poses to the different spheres of society are a core focus within the field of technoethics. Over the last few years, scholars have begun to explore the ethical implications of new digital technologies and social media, particularly in the realms of society and politics. A qualitative case study was conducted on Barack Obama's campaign social networking site, my.barackobama.com, in order to investigate the ways in which the website uses or misuses digital technology to create a healthy participatory democracy. For an analysis of ethical and non-ethical ways to promote participatory democracy online, the study included theoretical perspectives such as the role of the public sphere in a participatory democracy and the effects of political marketing on the public sphere. The case study included a content analysis of the website and interviews with members of groups on the site. The study's results are explored in this chapter.

Palm Fronds in the Public Square

2020 ◽  
pp. 1-28
Author(s):  
Méadhbh McIvor
Keyword(s):  
Civil Liberty ◽  
The United States ◽  
Human Right ◽  
The Public ◽  
Public Square ◽  
The United Kingdom ◽  
Protestant Christianity ◽  
National Life ◽  
Political Dispute ◽  
Palm Fronds

This introductory chapter provides an overview of Christian legal activism. In a rapidly changing religious landscape, Protestant Christianity — although it remains both legally and culturally established — has become relativised. This relativisation is, in many ways, the product of centuries' worth of political dispute and interreligious negotiation, as the legal privileges associated with established religion have been diluted. Yet it has taken on a particular salience in recent years, one which can be dated to a seismic shift in England's regulation of religion: English law's transition from viewing 'religious freedom' as a negative civil liberty to ensuring it as a positive human right. While many English Christians have responded to these changes with resignation, some have embraced modes of legal and political engagement born of very different church–state paradigms, including a litigiousness more often associated with the United States. Armed with law degrees, evangelical conviction, and 'a passion to see the United Kingdom return to the Christian faith', these activists lobby and litigate to contest what they see as Christianity's ousting from the public square. This book argues that a willingness to take on legal challenges to protect Christian values risks those same values' marginalisation, as moralities previously woven into the fabric of national life are filtered out from their quotidian context and rebranded as 'religion' or 'religiously motivated'.

Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document