Between the Politics of Difference and the Poetics of Similarity

2017 ◽  
Vol 6 (2) ◽  
pp. 198-215 ◽  
Author(s):  
Marios Chatziprokopiou ◽  
Panos Hatziprokopiou
Keyword(s):  
Financial Crisis ◽  
Cultural Context ◽  
Blood Donation ◽  
Participant Observation ◽  
Religious Practices ◽  
Far Right ◽  
Politics Of Difference ◽  
Political Implications ◽  
Greek Art ◽  
The Way

Abstract This paper studies the ritual of Ashura as performed by a group of Shia Pakistani migrants in Piraeus, Greece, inscribed in the context of the financial crisis that is currently shaking the country and its socio-political implications, notably the rise of the far-right. Based on participant observation, we start by unfolding the discourses through which our interlocutors attempt to legitimise their religious practices, by connecting the Karbala narrative with the current political oppression of Shiite minorities, but also by articulating a poetics of similarity with equivalent acts of faith from the Greek cultural context, rather than arguments on multiculturalist difference. We then turn our attention to the way Ashura is portrayed by Greek art and media, and we unpack how the poetics of similarity and the politics of difference are presented from different viewpoints. Finally, we study how the interrelations between this migrant Shiite community and ideas regarding the “national self” are manifested in symbolic uses of blood—from murderous threats received by Neo-Nazi groups, to their rejected proposal for a blood-donation campaign parallel to the Ashura.

Corporate Reorganization Law and Forces of Change

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sarah Paterson
Keyword(s):  
Financial Crisis ◽  
Conceptual Framework ◽  
Conceptual Frameworks ◽  
Corporate Reorganization ◽  
Process Of Change ◽  
The Past ◽  
To Come ◽  
The Way

This book is concerned with the way in which forces of change, from the fields of finance and non-financial corporates, cause participants in the corporate reorganization process to adapt the ways in which they mobilize corporate reorganization law. It argues that scholars, practitioners, judges, and the legislature must all take care to connect their conceptual frameworks to the specific adaptations which emerge from this process of change. It further argues that this need to connect theoretical and policy concepts with practical adaptations has posed particular challenges when US corporate reorganization law has been under examination in the decade since the financial crisis. At the same time, the book suggests that English scholars, practitioners, judges, and the legislature have been more successful, over the course of the past ten years, in choosing concepts to frame their analysis which are sensitive to the ways in which corporate reorganization law is currently used. Nonetheless, it suggests that new problems may be on the horizon for English corporate reorganization lawyers in adapting their conceptual framework in the decades to come.

Interview with Vicki Kirby

2019 ◽  
Vol 36 (7-8) ◽  
pp. 261-271
Author(s):  
Daniel McLoughlin
Keyword(s):  
Social Theory ◽  
Life Sciences ◽  
The Political ◽  
Nature And Culture ◽  
Political Implications ◽  
New Materialisms ◽  
The Relationship ◽  
The Way

In this interview, Vicki Kirby discusses her research into the relationship between nature and culture, focusing in particular on her recent edited collection, What If Culture Was Nature All Along? The volume appears in the ‘New Materialisms’ series, and so the interview begins by situating the collection with respect to the recent materialist turn in social theory. Kirby discusses the influence of deconstruction on her thought, and the way that she draws upon Derrida to think through recent research in the life sciences and its implications for understanding the relationship between matter, life, and communication. She also goes into the political implications of her work and the relationship between biopolitics and biodeconstruction.

Seeing Justice

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mary Angela Bock
Keyword(s):  
Criminal Justice ◽  
Public Sphere ◽  
Criminal Justice System ◽  
Critical Discourse Analysis ◽  
Justice System ◽  
Participant Observation ◽  
The United States ◽  
Detailed Examination ◽  
Visual Media ◽  
The Way

Seeing Justice examines the way criminal justice in the United States is presented in visual media by focusing on the grounded practices of visual journalists in relationship with law enforcement. The book extends the concept of embodied gatekeeping, the corporeal and discursive practices connected to controlling visual media production and the complex ways social actors struggle over the construction of visual messages. Based on research that includes participant observation, extended interviews, and critical discourse analysis, the book provides a detailed examination of the way these practices shape media constructions and the way digitization is altering the relationships between media, citizens, and the criminal justice system. The project looks at contemporary cases that made the headlines through a theoretical lens based on the work of Michel Foucault, Walter Fisher, Stuart Hall, Nicholas Mirzoeff, Nick Couldry, and Roland Barthes. Its cases reveal the way powerful interests are able to shape representations of justice in ways that serve their purposes, occasionally at the expense of marginalized groups. Based on cases ranging from the last US public hanging to the proliferation of “Karen-shaming” videos, this monograph offers three observations. First, visual journalism’s physicality increases its reliance on those in power, making it easy for officials in the criminal justice system to shape its image. Second, image indexicality, even while it is subject to narrative negation, remains an essential affordance in the public sphere. Finally, participation in this visual public sphere must be considered as an essential human capability if not a human right.

Language as Symbol System: Islam, Javanese Muslem and Cultural Diplomacy

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mochammad Arief Wicaksono ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Cultural Context ◽  
Cultural Diplomacy ◽  
Participant Observation ◽  
Research Participant ◽  
Symbol System ◽  
Symbolic System ◽  
The Past ◽  
Nahdlatul Ulama ◽  
Great Tradition ◽  
Linguistic Aspect

Islamic diaspora throughout the world has its own characteristics depending on cultural context in each region. Observing the characteristics of the entry process and the rise of Islam in Java in the past, Indonesia can be viewed significantly through a linguistic perspective. By focusing on the narratives of how Islam was constructed in Java by kiai, we will be able to understand that the pattern of the entry process and the rise of Islam in Java emerged through“language diplomacy.” There are various symbols which later became the symbol system in Islamic languages that were contextualized to Javanese language and knowledge systems. In other words, I see that language in this context is a symbol system. These symbols are a strategy of how Islam was “planted” and developed in Java. I will compare the symbol system of the language in the Quran as the Great Tradition of Islam with a symbol system on the narratives that a kiai expressed in Javanese society as the Little Tradition. By taking some narratives that the kiai gave to the Javanese Moslems in East Java region, this paper argues that the linguistic aspect in some narratives and Quran recitation which has the symbolic system of the language have an important role in planting and developing Islam in Java. This paper is based on ethnographic research-participant observation among Nahdlatul Ulama Muslim society in East Java, Indonesia and reviews Islamic narratives in society as an important unit of analysis.

scholarly journals Learning from health care in other countries: the prospect of comparative research

2015 ◽  
Vol 14 (1) ◽  
pp. 8-12 ◽  
Author(s):  
Edwin Van Teijlingen ◽  
Cecilia Benoit ◽  
Ivy Bourgeault ◽  
Raymond DeVries ◽  
Jane Sandall ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Public Health ◽  
Health Care ◽  
Comparative Research ◽  
Cultural Context ◽  
Health Care Systems ◽  
Cultural Factors ◽  
Reproductive Health Care ◽  
Care Systems ◽  
Cross National ◽  
The Way

It is widely accepted that policy-makers (in Nepal and elsewhere) can learn valuable lessons from the way other countries run their health and social services. We highlight some of the specific contributions the discipline of sociology can make to cross-national comparative research in the public health field. Sociologists call attention to often unnoticed social and cultural factors that influence the way national reproductive health care systems are created and operated. In this paper we address questions such as: ‘Why do these health services appear to be operating successfully in one country, but not another?’; ‘What is it in one country that makes a particular public health intervention successful and how is the cultural context different in a neighbouring country?’ The key examples in this paper focus on maternity care and sex education in the Netherlands and the UK, as examples to highlight the power of cross-national research. Our key messages are: a) Cross-national comparative research can help us to understand the design and running of health services in one country, say Nepal, by learning from a comparison with other countries, for example Sri Lanka or India. b) Cultural factors unique to a country affect the way that reproductive health care systems operate. c) Therefore,we need to understand why and how services work in a certain cultural context before we start trying to implement them in another cultural context.

scholarly journals Universal corporate governance standards: recommendations following the global financial crisis

2014 ◽  
Vol 11 (3) ◽  
pp. 438-446
Author(s):  
Ronald Henry Mynhardt
Keyword(s):  
Corporate Governance ◽  
Financial Crisis ◽  
Global Financial Crisis ◽  
The Global Financial Crisis ◽  
A Company ◽  
The Way

Corporate governance can be defined as: the set of processes, customs, policies, laws and institutions affecting the way a company is directed, administered or controlled. Suggestions were investigated that the global financial crisis revealed severe shortcomings in corporate governance. Research was conducted to establish whether these suggestions are accurate. The study found that it appeared that corporate governance has failed and action needs to be taken. The study recommends that a world supervisory body on corporate governance be established. It also proposes that a summit be called to discuss and create such an authority. In addition, the formulation of a set of universal corporate governance standards for implementation by the members was suggested

scholarly journals Hedonism and Culture: Impact on Shopping Behaviour A Research Agenda

2007 ◽  
Vol 32 (3) ◽  
pp. 81-90 ◽  
Author(s):  
Subhashini Kaul
Keyword(s):  
Cultural Context ◽  
Research Agenda ◽  
Cultural Influences ◽  
Holistic View ◽  
Hedonic Value ◽  
Indian Context ◽  
Shopping Behaviour ◽  
Shopping Experience ◽  
Key Dimensions ◽  
The Way

Increasingly consumer shopping behaviour is being seen from the holistic perspective of the entire shopping experience. The holistic view requires a retailer to focus on the shopper experience with the store. Thus the retailer focus is not on the store itself but what the store means to the shoppers. This implies that a retailer needs to understand the ‘way in which’ different shoppers perceive the same store. This paper refers to three key dimensions that influence the ‘way in which’ consumers look at a retail store: Shopping environment Socio-cultural context Individual roles, motivations, and behaviour. These dimensions take into account not just the differences between shoppers in terms of their individual motivations, but also try to model the variations caused in shoppers due to cultural influences. One key theme of this paper is the variation caused in the perceived hedonic value of shoppers. Hedonic value refers to the ‘sense of pleasure’ associated with shopping. In the Indian context especially, several retailers have referred to cultural differences and the resultant differences in shopper hedonic orientations. However, there are a few existing frameworks available that enable assessing the association between hedonism and culture in the Indian shopping behavioural context. This paper provides a theoretical framework and a robust research agenda that will help researchers and retailers alike address this need.

British Banks and Their Aesop’s Fables

2021 ◽  
pp. 184-206
Author(s):  
Victoria Barnes ◽  
Lucy Newton
Keyword(s):  
Financial Crisis ◽  
Active Learning ◽  
Visual Cues ◽  
Past Performance ◽  
General Managers ◽  
The Way

Using the framework developed by Scranton and Fridenson, this chapter explores the way British banks invested in their active learning memory, focusing on the visual cues used to remember stories about managerial behaviour and the narrative surrounding images of individual bankers, in particular, general managers of joint stock banks. What do artefacts tell us about the way banks remembered their past and the lessons of past crises? What stories are told through them about the person and the bank’s past performance, failure, and financial crisis? What morals or lessons about governance can be found in them? We draw upon the printed and archival literature to reveal the nature of the exchanges that were had over these objects and about these characters. We examine two key individuals and how they were remembered, in particular their role in steering their respective organizations through crisis.

Epilogue

2019 ◽  
pp. 188-192
Author(s):  
Justine Buck Quijada
Keyword(s):  
Religious Practice ◽  
Religious Practices ◽  
Comparative Approach ◽  
Productive Capacity ◽  
Time And Space ◽  
The Way

The epilogue re-caps the arguments presented in the previous chapters, and revisits Bakhtin’s idea of the chronotope as an analytic terminology for an anthropology of history. The epilogue argues that a comparative approach to indigenous revitalization projects in post-Soviet secular Buryatia reveals the contingent and creative nature of human conceptions of time and space, and the productive capacity of ritual. The chronotopes indexed in rituals exist as negotiated, contingent, performative evocations of pasts that continuously produce Buryats as subjects in the present. The epilogue also reminds readers that all the previous chapters are linked by the way in which contemporary Buryats emphasize materiality as proof for belief, and argues that this is a secular conception that undergirds contemporary Siberian religious practices. The materiality of ritual appears to participants to exceed its explanations, grounding revived post-Soviet religious practice in a secular discourse of evidentiary proof.

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