Baptising Pandita Ramabai: Faith and religiosity in the nineteenth-century social reform movements of colonial India

2021 ◽  
pp. 001946462110203
Author(s):  
Dikshit Sarma Bhagabati ◽  
Prithvi Sinha ◽  
Sneha Garg
Keyword(s):  
Social Work ◽  
Religious Identity ◽  
Annual Reports ◽  
Colonial State ◽  
Colonial India ◽  
The Public ◽  
The Social ◽  
Private And Public ◽  
Pandita Ramabai ◽  
Role Of Religion

This essay aims to understand the role of religion in the social work of Pandita Ramabai (1858-1922). By focusing on a twenty-five-year period commencing with her conversion to Christianity in 1883, we argue that religion constructed a political framework for her work in Sharada Sadan and Mukti Mission. There is a lacuna in the conventional scholarship that underplays the nuances of religion in Ramabai’s reform efforts, which we try to fill by conceptualising faith and religiosity as two distinct signifiers of her private and public religious presentations respectively. Drawing on her published letters, the annual reports of the Ramabai Association in America, and a number of evangelical periodicals published during her lifetime, we analyse how she explored Christianity not just as a personal faith but also as a conduit for funds. The conversion enabled her access to American supporters, concomitantly consolidating their claim over her social work. Her peculiar religious identity—a conflation of Hinduism and Christianity—provoked strong protests from the Hindu orthodoxy while leading to a fall-out with the evangelists at the same time. Ramabai shaped the public portrayal of her religiosity to maximise support from American patrons, the colonial state, and liberal Indians, resisting the orthodoxy’s oppositions with these material exploits. Rather than surrendering to patriarchal cynicism, she capitalised on the socio-political volatilities of colonial India to further the nascent women’s movement.

The Languages of Petitioning in Early Colonial India

2019 ◽  
Vol 43 (3) ◽  
pp. 581-597 ◽  
Author(s):  
James A. Jaffe
Keyword(s):  
Nineteenth Century ◽  
Western India ◽  
Rhetorical Strategies ◽  
Early Nineteenth Century ◽  
Colonial India ◽  
The Public ◽  
The People ◽  
Early Colonial ◽  
The Social ◽  
Different Levels

With relatively few exceptions, personal petitions from individuals have received much less attention from historians than those from groups in the public political sphere. In one sense, personal petitions adopted many of the same rhetorical strategies as those delivered by a group. However, they also offer unique insights into the quotidian relationship between the people and their rulers. This article examines surviving personal petitions to various administrators at different levels of government in western India during the decades surrounding the East India Company’s conquests. The analysis of these petitions helps to refine our understanding of the place of the new judicial system in the social world of early-nineteenth-century India, especially by illuminating the discourse of justice that petitioners brought to the presentation of their cases to their new governors. The conclusion of this article seeks to place the rhetoric of personal petitioning within the larger context of mass political petitioning in India during the early nineteenth century.

Social Work and Public Social Services Practice: A Status Report

1996 ◽  
Vol 77 (2) ◽  
pp. 117-124 ◽  
Author(s):  
Margaret Gibelman ◽  
Philip H. Schervish
Keyword(s):  
Social Work ◽  
Labor Force ◽  
Social Workers ◽  
Social Services ◽  
Additional Data ◽  
Current Status ◽  
Status Report ◽  
The Public ◽  
Education Experience ◽  
The Social

The authors review the current status of the social work labor force within the public sector by means of an analysis of the National Association of Social Workers member data base for 1988 and 1991, with additional data drawn from a 1993 member survey. Changes in the proportion and composition of the public social services labor force are documented, including education, experience, gender, and ethnicity. The decreasing professional social work labor force within public social services is discussed within the context of the realities of public social services practice and social work's historic place within this sector. The authors encourage debate about the implications of these trends, focusing on whether social work should influence labor-force trends or be influenced by them.

scholarly journals @Indonesiatanpafeminis.id as a Challenge of Feminist Movement in Virtual Space

2021 ◽  
Vol 6 ◽  
Author(s):  
Eni Maryani ◽  
Preciosa Alnashava Janitra ◽  
Reksa Anggia Ratmita
Keyword(s):  
Social Media ◽  
Public Space ◽  
Religious Identity ◽  
Virtual Space ◽  
Literature Study ◽  
The Public ◽  
The Social ◽  
Nahdlatul Ulama ◽  
Media Platform ◽  
Dynamic Relationships

The fast-growing social media in Indonesia has opened up opportunities for spreading feminist ideas to a wider and more diverse audience. Various social media accounts especially Instagram that focus on gender advocacy and feminism such as @indonesiafeminis, @lawanpatriarki, and @feminismanis have developed in Indonesia. However, the development of the social media platform also presents groups that oppose feminists. One of the accounts of women’s groups that oppose feminists is @indonesiatanpafeminis.id (@indonesiawithoutfeminist.id). The research objectives are namely to analyze the diversity of issues and reveal the discourse contestation that developed in the @indonesiatanpafeminis.id, and dynamic relationships on the online and offline spaces between groups of feminists and anti-feminists or the other interest. This research employed the digital ethnography method that utilized observation, interview, and literature study as data collection techniques. This study found that the online conversations at @indonesiatanpafeminis.id revealed misconceptions on feminism from a group of women with a religious identity. Furthermore, the conversation also tends to strengthen patriarchal values with religious arguments that are gender-biased. However, the @indonesiatanpafeminis.id serves as a public space for open debates and education on feminist issues. The anti-feminist group behind the @indonesiatanpafeminis.id are women who identify themselves in a certain Muslim circle that has political, cultural, and religious agendas. One of the agendas is to influence the public to reject the Sexual Violence Eradication Bill. This study also noted the Muslim supporters of anti-feminism in Indonesia are less popular compared to progressive religious-based Muslim women organizations such as Aisyiyah (Muhammadiyah), Muslimat NU (Nahdlatul Ulama), and Rahima (Center for Education and Information on Islam and Women’s Rights). The study also evokes discussion on how the feminist and anti-feminist discourses can be utilized to criticize and develop the women’s movement or feminism in a multicultural context.

scholarly journals Ayo Menikah (Muda)! : Mediatisasi Ajaran Islam di Media Sosial

2018 ◽  
Vol 2 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Izmy Khumairoh
Keyword(s):  
Social Media ◽  
Everyday Life ◽  
The Public ◽  
The Social ◽  
Close Relationship ◽  
Traditional Institutions ◽  
The Public Sphere ◽  
Use Of Social Media ◽  
Role Of Religion

Abstract This article analyzes the close relationship between religion (i.e. religious discourses in the context of everyday life) and modernization (i.e. the intensive and excessive use of social media in society). This article is based on literature and social media review—in particular it reviews on how the role of religion changed drastically due to mediatization process that occurs in the public sphere; as well as how the social media plays a dynamic role in society. This article concludes that the new image of religion as shown in mass media and social media demonstrates its shifting power from traditional institutions to mass and social media. Religious value immerses into every aspect of the everyday life and the religious aura; and this phenomenon neglects the secularization theory. Keywords: anthropology, social media, marriage, Islam  Abstrak Artikel ini menganalisis hubungan erat antara agama (yaitu wacana keagamaan dalam konteks kehidupan sehari-hari) dan modernisasi (yaitu penggunaan media sosial yang intensif dan eksesif dalam masyarakat). Analisis berdasar pada studi literatur dan observasi di dunia maya - termasuk beberapa akun media sosial dan interaksi antara netizen - terutama bahasan mengenai perubahan peran agama yang drastis akibat proses mediatisasi yang di ranah publik; sebagaimana media memainkan peran dinamis dalam masyarakat. Artikel ini menyimpulkan bahwa citra baru agama, yang terpampang di media massa dan media sosial, mencerminkan pergeseran kekuasaan agama dari institusi tradisional ke media. Nilai-nilai agama terus menemukan celah untuk memasuki setiap aspek kehidupan dan mencakup aspek aura agama sehingga fenomena ini tidak sesuai dengan teori sekulerisasi. Kata kunci: antropologi, media sosial, pernikahan, Islam

scholarly journals Regulation, Registration and Social Work: An International Comparison

2019 ◽  
Vol 50 (2) ◽  
pp. 308-325 ◽  
Author(s):  
Aidan Worsley ◽  
Liz Beddoe ◽  
Ken McLaughlin ◽  
Barbra Teater
Keyword(s):  
New York ◽  
Social Work ◽  
Case Studies ◽  
Primary Objective ◽  
The Public ◽  
The Social ◽  
The Usa ◽  
Definition Of ◽  
And Function ◽  
Role And Function

Abstract The anticipated change of social work regulator in England from the Health and Care Professions Council to Social Work England in 2019 will herald the third, national regulator in seven years for the social work profession. Social Work England will be a new, bespoke, professionally specific regulator established as a non-departmental public body with a primary objective to protect the public. Looking globally, we can observe different approaches to the regulation of the social work profession—and many different stages of the profession’s regulatory journey between countries. Using a comparative policy analysis approach and case studies, this article looks more closely at three countries’ arrangements and attempts to understand why regulation might take the shape it does in each country. The case studies examine England, the USA (as this has a state approach, we focus on New York) and New Zealand, with contributions from qualified social work authors located within each country. We consider that there are three key elements to apply to analysis: definition of role and function, the construction of the public interest and the attitude to risk.

scholarly journals Urban Connective Syntax: Re-Imagining the Connective Relationshops of Social Space in Toronto’s Downtown Core

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Derek Smart
Keyword(s):  
Social Space ◽  
Public And Private ◽  
City Life ◽  
The Public ◽  
City Community ◽  
The Social ◽  
Private And Public ◽  
City Core ◽  
The City

Urban metropolitan city-centers offer the most complex, socially connective environments in the built world. The social structures fundamentally embedded in city life are, however increasingly being overshadowed by an isolating system of city densification. The City of Toronto, as a territory of exploration, is one of many cities that are evolving a dense array of restrictive boundaries that increasingly challenge human connectivity, and the deep-rooted ability of these environments to establish vibrant city life. It is the role of architecture to mediate the relationships between the public and private territories and to understand how these environments are utilized and engaged by the surrounding context. This thesis has extracted critical environmental components exemplified in city, community, and building territories, and has re-integrated these defining characteristics into an alternative design strategy that establishes a balanced symbiotic relationship between the private and public realms of Toronto’s future City Core.

scholarly journals Facebook

1969 ◽  
Vol 4 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Zaynab Ali
Keyword(s):  
Social Network ◽  
Michel Foucault ◽  
Jeremy Bentham ◽  
Social Network Site ◽  
The Public ◽  
Network Site ◽  
Private Lives ◽  
The Social ◽  
The World ◽  
Private And Public

Facebook keeps a keen eye on the inhabitants of the world by tracking users’ lives as they create profiles, connect with friends, and share pictures, videos, and statuses. Drawing from the work of Michel Foucault, Jeremy Bentham, David Miller, and Michael Welch, in this article I consider how Facebook exists in the world of technology as a modern day panopticon and argue that, by creating a platform on which users can instantly post and share their private lives with the public, Facebook blurs the lines between the private and public domains. Through a review of the workings and features of Facebook, I argue that the social network site is a virtual rendition of the penitentiary.

scholarly journals In Waze We Trust: Algorithmic Governance of the Public Sphere

2018 ◽  
Vol 6 (4) ◽  
pp. 153-162 ◽  
Author(s):  
Shenja Van der Graaf
Keyword(s):  
Urban Ecosystem ◽  
Market Structures ◽  
The Public ◽  
The Social ◽  
Private And Public ◽  
The Public Sphere ◽  
Public Organisations ◽  
Dynamic Domain ◽  
Point Of Departure ◽  
Public Oversight

This article explores the current ‘place’ of e-government in realizing public value in the context of what seems to be an emerging platform urbanism. It highlights a complex platform-based urban ecosystem encompassing private and public organisations and citizens. This ‘mainstreaming’ of e-government practices puts demands on cities and governments to reconsider their own role in ‘city making’ so as to achieve meaningful public oversight. The point of departure is the operationalization of this ‘place’ by conceptualizing participation and (multi-sided) platformisation as a framework to draw attention to the dynamic domain of e-governance where shifts can be seen in market structures, infrastructures, and changing forms of governance, and which may challenge the public interest. This is illustrated by an exploration of the social traffic and navigation application Waze.

Hannah Arendt and social work: A critical commentary

2019 ◽  
Vol 19 (1) ◽  
pp. 38-55
Author(s):  
Paul Michael Garrett
Keyword(s):  
Social Work ◽  
Work Engagement ◽  
Hannah Arendt ◽  
The Public ◽  
Critical Commentary ◽  
The Social ◽  
The Times

Although social work engagement with Hannah Arendt (1906–1975) has been meagre, it has been recently suggested that her conceptualisations are significant for the profession. This article seeks to problematise the presentation of Arendt to a social work readership, highlighting the failure to adequately historicise her work. In terms of her ideas, there is much to gain in examining this intellectual’s prolific and often controversial contributions, and seven dimensions are identified as significant for the times in which we live. Nevertheless, there are still major criticisms which can be levelled at her core conceptualisations. The article dwells on Arendt’s theorisation of the ‘private’, the ‘public’ and the ‘social’, and it is suggested that she is unaligned with sociologically informed theorisation underpinning critical and radical social work.

Social work, participation, and poverty

2018 ◽  
Vol 19 (3) ◽  
pp. 309-326 ◽  
Author(s):  
Katrien Boone ◽  
Griet Roets ◽  
Rudi Roose
Keyword(s):  
Social Justice ◽  
Social Work ◽  
Structural Change ◽  
Social Inequalities ◽  
Work Participation ◽  
Structured Interviews ◽  
The Public ◽  
The Social ◽  
Nancy Fraser ◽  
Shed Light

Summary Although participatory social work approaches have been considered as a fruitful strategy, critical questions are raised in relation to the social justice aspirations of participatory social work with people in poverty. Inspired by the work of Nancy Fraser, we provide an in-depth insight in the complexities of supporting participatory parity in ‘Associations where People in Poverty Raise their Voice’. Combining semi-structured interviews and focus groups with practitioners in these organisations, we shed light on the complexities of the ‘how’, the ‘who’, and the ‘what’ of social justice that arise in such participatory practice. Findings Our findings suggest that even in practices that situate the principle of participatory parity at the heart of their fight for social justice, power asymmetries and social inequalities require attention. Exclusionary mechanisms become apparent in how practitioners try to support participatory parity of people in poverty in the different components in the organisation. When practitioners try to overcome these exclusionary effects, a sheer complexity and inescapable power struggles become visible. Moreover, the ambiguity of how practitioners attempt to empower people in poverty and enhance structural change leads to tensions between affirmative and transformative strategies in the fight against poverty. Applications Practitioners should be aware that they will never be able to resolve or escape inherent complexities in their attempts to work on a par with people in poverty. Nevertheless, it remains valuable to make continuous efforts to inform the public debate about the socially unjust nature of poverty and social inequality in our societies.

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