scholarly journals Narrating family histories: Negotiating identity and belonging through tropes of nostalgia and authenticity

2015 ◽  
Vol 66 (3) ◽  
pp. 449-465 ◽  
Author(s):  
Julia Bennett
Keyword(s):  
Everyday Life ◽  
Social Life ◽  
Material Objects ◽  
Ontological Security ◽  
Personal Stories ◽  
Family Histories ◽  
The Family ◽  
Family Resemblances ◽  
The World ◽  
Over Time

Studying change is at the heart of any investigation into social life, whilst continuity is seen as central to a stable identity over time. Change is an unsettling, but inevitable, part of everyday life; continuity speaks of repetition over time, unity and the comfort of belonging. This article examines how themes of nostalgia and authenticity are evoked in telling family histories in order to negotiate change and create a continuous story of belonging. Three family histories demonstrate how material objects, places and claims of family resemblances are used to create both authentic identities and authentic selves belonging to the wider community. Where there is a break in the family story and the ‘world of restorable reach’ is no longer available nostalgia creeps in to replace personal stories with communal ones. Through using both nostalgia, to inform a sense of loss and sometimes a shared past, and authenticity, to create a sense of continuity within an overall arc of change, this article shows how family histories can work to maintain identities over time, retaining a sense of ontological security and belonging in place.

African Indigenous Religions

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Walter E.A. van Beek
Keyword(s):  
Everyday Life ◽  
The Other ◽  
Social Structures ◽  
Indigenous Religion ◽  
The Social ◽  
The Family ◽  
The World ◽  
Other World ◽  
Indigenous Religions ◽  
The Village

There is not one African indigenous religion (AIR); rather, there are many, and they diverge widely. As a group, AIRs are quite different from the scriptural religions the world is more familiar with, since what is central to AIRs is neither belief nor faith, but ritual. Exemplifying an “imagistic” form of religiosity, these religions have no sacred books or writings and are learned by doing, by participation and experience, rather than by instruction and teaching. Belonging to specific local ethnic groups, they are deeply embedded in and informed by the various ecologies of foragers, pastoralists, and horticulturalists—as they are also by the social structures of these societies: they “dwell” in their cultures. These are religions of the living, not so much preparing for afterlife as geared toward meeting the challenges of everyday life, illness and misfortune, mourning and comforting—but also toward feasting, life, fertility, and togetherness, even in death. Quiet rituals of the family contrast with exuberant public celebrations when new adults re-enter the village after an arduous initiation; intricate ritual attention to the all-important crops may include tense rites to procure much needed rains. The range of rituals is wide and all-encompassing. In AIRs, the dead and the living are close, either as ancestors or as other representatives of the other world. Accompanied by spirits of all kinds, both good and bad, harmful and nurturing, existence is full of ambivalence. Various channels are open for communication with the invisible world, from prayer to trance, and from dreams to revelations, but throughout it is divination in its manifold forms that offers a window on the deeper layers of reality. Stories about the other world abound, and many myths and legends are never far removed from basic folktales. These stories do not so much explain the world as they entertainingly teach about the deep humanity that AIRs share and cherish.

scholarly journals Women on the Path of the Goddess: Sacred Technologies of the Everyday

2020 ◽  
pp. 1-18
Author(s):  
Åsa Trulsson
Keyword(s):  
Everyday Life ◽  
Social Consequences ◽  
The Body ◽  
Material Objects ◽  
Peak Experiences ◽  
Everyday Activities ◽  
The Everyday ◽  
The World ◽  
Everyday World ◽  
Truth Claims

Contemporary spiritualties are often portrayed as a turn to a subjective and individualized form of religion, consisting of individually held truth claims or private peak experiences that are generated sporadically at retreats and workshops. The portrayal is ultimately related to a perception of everyday life in contemporary Euro-America as mundane, rationalized, and secular, but also the exclusion of practices centered on the body, the home and the everyday from what is deemed properly religious. This article explores the sacred technologies of the everyday among women in England who identify as Goddess worshippers. The purpose is to further the understanding of religion and the everyday, as well as the conceptualization of contemporary Goddess-worship as lived religion. Through examining narratives on the intersection between religion and everyday activities, the technologies of imbuing everyday life with a sacred dimension become visible. The sacred technologies imply skills that enable both imagining and relating to the sacred. The women consciously and diligently work to cultivate skills that would allow them to sense and make sense of the sacred, in other words, to foster a sense of withness through the means of a host of practices. I argue that the women actively endeavor to establish an everyday world that is experienced as inherently different from the secular and religious fields in their surroundings; hence it is not from disenchantment or an endeavor with no social consequences. The women’s everyday is indeed infused with different strategies where the body, different practices, and material objects are central in cultivating a specific religious disposition that ultimately will change the way the women engage with and orient themselves in the world.

7. Institutions and States

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Peter Ferdinand
Keyword(s):  
Social Life ◽  
The State ◽  
Social Classes ◽  
Modern State ◽  
Weak States ◽  
Political Behaviour ◽  
The Family ◽  
The World ◽  
History Of ◽  
Regular Patterns

This chapter deals with institutions and states. Institutions are essentially regular patterns of behaviour that provide stability and predictability to social life. Some institutions are informal, with no formally laid down rules such as the family, social classes, and kinship groups. Others are more formalized, having codified rules and organization. Examples include governments, parties, bureaucracies, legislatures, constitutions, and law courts. The state is defined as sovereign, with institutions that are public. After discussing the concept of institutions and the range of factors that structure political behaviour, the chapter considers the multi-faceted concept of the state. It then looks at the history of how the European type of state and the European state system spread around the world between the seventeenth and twentieth centuries. It also examines the modern state and some of the differences between strong states, weak states, and democratic states.

A century of Procedural Due Process Guarantees in Constitutions Worldwide

1993 ◽  
Vol 14 (2) ◽  
pp. 3-52
Author(s):  
Alex Inkeles ◽  
Jon C. Hooper
Keyword(s):  
Content Analysis ◽  
Due Process ◽  
Family Education ◽  
Nation States ◽  
Procedural Due Process ◽  
Institutional Structures ◽  
The Family ◽  
The World ◽  
Due Process Rights ◽  
Over Time

We here report the results of a content analysis focussed on the due process rights or guarantees which were provided to citizens under all the national constitutions extant in the world at 20 year intervals during the period from 1870 to 1970. Our study had three objectives. First, we sought to test the assumption that the granting of procedural guarantees by national constitutions was. over time, both being expanded within countries and being diffused worldwide across all countries, thus providing additional examples of the tendency for institutional forms to diffuse around the world and consequently for nation states to converge in their institutional structures and practices, tendencies already observed and documented in other realms such as the family, education, and retirement.

8. Institutions and States

2020 ◽  
pp. 162-184
Author(s):  
Peter Ferdinand
Keyword(s):  
Social Life ◽  
The State ◽  
State System ◽  
Modern State ◽  
Weak States ◽  
Political Behaviour ◽  
The Family ◽  
The World ◽  
History Of ◽  
Regular Patterns

This chapter deals with institutions and states. Institutions are essentially regular patterns of behaviour that provide stability and predictability to social life. Some institutions are informal, with no formally laid down rules such as the family, social classes, and kinship groups. Others are more formalized, having codified rules and organization. Examples include governments, parties, bureaucracies, legislatures, constitutions, and law courts. The state is defined as sovereign, with institutions that are public. After discussing the concept of institutions and the range of factors that structure political behaviour, the chapter considers the multi-faceted concept of the state. It then looks at the history of how the European type of state and the European state system spread around the world between the seventeenth and twentieth centuries. It also examines the modern state and some of the differences between strong states, weak states, and democratic states.

A family with a chronically ill child – an example of narrative analysis

2018 ◽  
Vol LXXIX (2) ◽  
pp. 114-123
Author(s):  
Iwona Myśliwczyk
Keyword(s):  
Everyday Life ◽  
Narrative Analysis ◽  
Positive Emotions ◽  
Chronically Ill ◽  
Disabled Children ◽  
Family Experiences ◽  
The Family ◽  
The World ◽  
Everyday Problems ◽  
Interpretative Research

Parents of disabled children not only deal with raising a child but also with their disability. The whole family experiences various implications as their lives are strongly affected by the disability. Undeniably, the whole life depends on a disability, which forces parents to redefine the family life and give it a new meaning. The conducted research was located in the stream of constructivist and interpretative research. The attempt of meeting and understanding the world the parents preserve in their memories allowed togain ‘genuine’ knowledge about a family with a chronically ill child. Told narrations present difficult parenthood and everyday problems that a family must deal with. Parents’ biographies concern not only weaknesses which they have to face fighting for normal life for their children but also show determination in their constant struggle in everyday life. Everyday life is very complex for them. Thus, the reality that the separents create is full of both negative and positive emotions, moments of happiness, love and mutual respect.

scholarly journals Kuliner Sebagai Identitas Budaya: Perspektif Komunikasi Lintas Budaya

2018 ◽  
Vol 8 (2) ◽  
pp. 36-44
Author(s):  
Sri Utami
Keyword(s):  
Cultural Identity ◽  
Social Life ◽  
Cross Cultural ◽  
National Character ◽  
Cultural Communication ◽  
Cross Cultural Communication ◽  
Cultural Connotation ◽  
Effective Form ◽  
The World ◽  
Over Time

The word "culinary" is defined as something related to,  or connected with, cooking. Cooking  transforms food from nature to culture. Food sustains life. At the same time, it symbolizes social life and cultural identity for various groups of people throughout the world. Indeed, every nation has its own culinary  which has been gradually accepted and becomes a taken-for-granted culinary ideology. Culinary  is also an indicator of how these develop and alter over time and space.  With this in mind, this paper will explore how  culinary represents cultural identity in cross-cultural communication  in various ways. Within these relationships, culinary  is recognized as a source of power. Culinary  is both a relevant source of signification and an effective form of communication of  distinctive culture, with strong national character and diversity of features.  Understanding culinary of the differences  and  its profound cultural connotation, explore their cultural heritage, and promote further exchanges of culturre.

scholarly journals The Violence Against Women During the COVID-19 Pandemics

2020 ◽  
Vol 10 (3) ◽  
pp. 277-291
Author(s):  
Diana Stoica
Keyword(s):  
Everyday Life ◽  
Violence Against Women ◽  
Modern World ◽  
The Family ◽  
The World ◽  
The Impact ◽  
Area Of Study

One of the biggest crises of the modern world – the COVID-19 pandemic – brought with itself new measures to be implemented all around the world. The lockdowns imposed to prevent the spread of the virus affected terribly numerous aspects of everyday life but mainly created a hidden pandemic indoors. The purpose of this paper is to underline the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic in what concerns the violence against women (VAW). Although it might seem early for estimating the damages produced in this area of study, there can be envisaged many statistics, a lot of system weaknesses, and possible solutions to help the victims. This article aims to resume the whole chaos installed on the Globe behind the closed doors, in the family - the most intimate place, where the joy and the love should dominate.

The Politics of Aspiration

2020 ◽  
Vol 64 (4) ◽  
pp. 759-769
Author(s):  
Martha Finnemore ◽  
Michelle Jurkovich
Keyword(s):  
International Relations ◽  
Social Action ◽  
Social Life ◽  
Social Activism ◽  
Dark Side ◽  
Essential Work ◽  
Political Actors ◽  
The World ◽  
Over Time ◽  
Core Features

Abstract Aspiration is an essential component of politics. It articulates goals, affirms identities and values, and structures action at all levels of social life. Yet political scientists have spent little time theorizing aspiration—what it is, how it relates to other concepts, and the kinds of effects it creates. In this article, we develop the concept theoretically and argue that aspiration creates a distinct “aspirational politics” that differs from our international relations models of both norm-driven social activism and interest-driven rational choice. We identify three core features of aspiration that undergird its theoretical utility: lofty goals, change over time, and transformation through imagination. In the hands of skilled political actors, aspiration does essential work in both facilitating agreement and mobilizing social action that create change in the world. However, aspiration also has a dark side and can be manipulated to dodge accountability, postpone action, and serve private, rather than public, goals.

scholarly journals Family Planning Performance in 113 Countries Using a New Composite Performance Index

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Aalok Ranjan Chaurasia
Keyword(s):  
Family Planning ◽  
Performance Index ◽  
Sustainable Development Goals ◽  
The Sustainable Development ◽  
The Family ◽  
The World ◽  
Development Goals ◽  
Target Set ◽  
Very High ◽  
Over Time

AbstractIn this paper we measure family planning performance in 113 countries of the world using a composite performance index that takes into account both the met demand for family planning and the composition of the met demand. The composite performance index used in the present paper is an improvement over the existing approaches of measuring family planning performance. The analysis reveals that family planning performance varies widely across countries and it remains either poor or very poor in more than 40 per cent countries. There is no country where the performance is very high. Moreover, there are many countries where the family planning performance appears to have deteriorated over time. There are only a few countries where family planning performance has improved in recent years. The analysis calls for increased investment in family planning to meet the target set under the Sustainable Development Goals.

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