Life History’s Second Life

2018 ◽  
Vol 25 (5) ◽  
pp. 464-470 ◽  
Author(s):  
Yvonna Lincoln ◽  
Michael Lanford

New and revisited insights, theoretical developments, and the emanation of a new political landscape—coupled with the influence of new technologies and social media—suggest that life histories might be considerably more complicated to conduct today than a short generation ago. For example, at least three developments—the rise of a neoliberal, ultra-capitalist, political-economic environment; new technologies, particularly the rise of social media and the shifting social relationships such technologies have engendered; and the Enlightenment counter in posthumanism—have given rise to a postmodern “saturated self.” This “saturated self” is both more situated in the new era and, at the same time, less intimately connected with a surrounding community. This article will explore the critical junctures and concussions of life history with new theoretical, political, and social pressures on the individual and on the practice of creating biography from life history.

Author(s):  
Ken H. Andersen

This chapter develops descriptions of how individuals grow and reproduce. More specifically, the chapter seeks to determine the growth and reproduction rates from the consumption rate, by developing an energy budget of the individual as a function of size. To that end, the chapter addresses the question of how an individual makes use of the energy acquired from consumption. It sets up the energy budgets of individuals by formulating the growth model using so-called life-history invariants, which are parameters that do not vary systematically between species. While the formulation of the growth model in terms of life-history invariants is largely successful, there is in particular one parameter that is not invariant between life histories: the asymptotic size (maximum size) of individuals in the population. This parameter plays the role of a master trait that characterizes most of the variation between life histories.


Author(s):  
Joseph A. Veech

Species vary tremendously in their life histories and behavior. The particular life history traits and behavior of the focal species must be considered when designing a study to examine habitat associations. For some species, individuals use different areas (of the landscape or territory) for breeding and foraging. As such, the important characteristics for the foraging and breeding habitats may be different. The dramatically different life stages of some organisms (e.g., amphibians and some insects) often correspond to equally dramatic differences in habitat use between juveniles and adults. For some species, habitat use differs among seasons. Species that are highly mobile and have individuals that move around substantially on a daily or weekly basis are particularly challenging for a habitat analysis. For these species, the most efficient and appropriate study design may be one that tracks individuals (through radio-telemetry or GPS) and analyzes the environmental or habitat characteristics at locations where the individual has stopped, rather than trying to survey for the species in pre-established and insufficiently small survey plots. In addition, individual movement and the issues mentioned above may necessitate that environmental variables are measured and analyzed at multiple spatial scales.


This chapter offers a fourth example model, with the objective of (1) illustrating the application of state- and prediction-based theory (SPT) to a new kind of decision—a life history decision—in a case where dynamic state variable modeling (DSVM) has been applied successfully; and (2) describing the unique ability of models utilizing SPT to address population-level questions of particular interest to conservationists and managers. In this case, SPT produced individual-level decisions similar to those of DSVM, but including them in a population-level model led to quite different conclusions than those implied by the individual-level DSVM analysis. Salmonid fishes exhibit amazing life history diversity. One fundamental distinction among salmonid life histories is whether or not individuals migrate to the ocean. In general, facultative anadromy can be seen as an adaptive behavior that trades off the fitness benefits of going to the ocean versus those of remaining resident. The anadromy versus residency decision is important to fish conservation and resource management.


2019 ◽  
Vol 17 (4) ◽  
pp. 279-293
Author(s):  
Charlotte Estella Jones ◽  
Carol Aubrey

Many surveys and interviews have elicited male practitioners’ views about gender balance in the early childhood education and care workforce, and few have explored in depth the context to such work choices, whether economic, cultural, social or personal. A life history approach was employed to provide a retrospective account by six early childhood education and care professionals of their lives and some of the influences on these. They varied in job role, in organisation that employed them and in their ages ranging from 20 to 60 years. Being at different stages of their life course, some had lived through considerable societal change in education, job choice, attitudes and values. The life history approach also offered a means to explore broader questions about their professional development, links between life and work that rose above the individual voice to represent the profession that participants had chosen.


Author(s):  
Yuliia Pavlenko

The article presents a study of the everyday life discourse in writing about the Self of a fictional subject. It seems obvious that involvement of self-writing in everyday practice calls into question the power of self-writing in the context of everyday life for the self-knowledge of the individual. The purpose of this scientific research is to debunk this illusion and explain the connection between the everyday life and self-writing. It transforms the practice of incorporating one’s own «I» in writing into the dimension of constructing the subject’s identity. There are no works on this topic in modern literary criticism and this fact also indicates the relevance and novelty of the research that is unfolding in the following article. Nowadays, the history of everyday life is booming. It is evidenced by a whole array of scientific papers on this issue. The study of self-writing in the dimension of everyday life appeals to the semiotic approach of Y.M. Lotman and G. Knabe for the analysis of the sign-symbolic nature of everyday life, to the sociological studies of A. Schutz, P. Berger and T. Lukman to identify the ways of constructing everyday life as reality or as a «life world», to the works of V.D.Leleko in the field of aesthetics and culturology of everyday life. The works of the philosophical and anthropological school serve the basis for the research. Particular attention is given to the text-letter of the Enlightenment. The protagonists of the Enlightenment Age invest the issues of everyday life in the work of writing that is a daily practice in the XVIII century. Due to its characteristics, the sphere of everyday life is a measure of self-knowledge and self-affirmation of the individual that was first artistically embodied by enlightened characters. The study shows that everyday life asa strong ground for self-affirmation of the subject was discovered with the help of the personal writing in the novel of the XVIII century, but this discovery became a lost testament to the text-writing of the Enlightenment. Changing the picture of everyday life under the influence of new technologies does not interfere with the text-writing. In the dynamic picture of everyday life offered to us by the 21st century, writing about the Self of a fictional subject opens up new facets of the power of everyday life discourse for the anthropological laboratory of literature. The study is illustrated by thesuch texts as: «Robinson Crusoe» by D.Defoe, «Nun» by D. Diderot, «Memoirs of two young wives» by O. de Balzac, «Poison of Love» by E.-E. Schmitt, «Self-portrait of the radiator» by K. Boben.


2019 ◽  
Vol 4 (57) ◽  
pp. 165
Author(s):  
Márcio Túlio VIANA ◽  
Maria Cecília Máximo TEODORO ◽  
Karin Bhering ANDRADE

ABSTRACT Objectives: The human being is living in times when extreme individuality and self feelings are overvalued and praised. Each day self promotion is increasingly sought by the individual. Through Instagram, for example, pictures are posted in order to achieve a greater number of likes. Through the social media, love, desire, happiness and individual feelings are publicly shown. In the new capitalistic wealth accumulation logic, corporations like Facebook, Google, among others, are constantly capturing such individual moments to be traded off for profits, and no one is noticing, or if someone is noticing, is not aware that is all constantly watched. This article intends to review how these new controlling technologies can be prejudicial to workers. Methodology: The methodology used is dialogical deductive, through bibliographic research for construction and development of research, having as main thinkers Michel Focault, Zygmunt Bauman and Jeremy Bentham. Results: One of the conclusions of the author is that in a surveillance environment by the employer, there will only be a power relation, when the employee is able to act as an active person – both in accepting and subverting his role – before such surveillance. In the contrary, it will not be a power relation but rather a mere coercion relation. And if there is not a power exercise, there is not an exercise of liberty either. Contributions: The article seeks the reader's attention on the extraction of surplus value, which today seems not only to be the surplus of the workforce, but also the happiness and subjectivity of the worker. As a contribution, the author highlights the new invasive surveillance of the employer as well as the shadow side of the marketing and unnecessary consumption to enrich companies to the detriment of individuals. The employer, seeking greater productivity and profit and due to the advancement of new technologies, controls his worker, either inside or outside the workplace. The worker, therefore, without the right to disconnect, is constantly monitored during the workday and also in his moments of rest.KEYWORDS: Controlling of the work force; discipline; social media; private lives; The Bentham system; Labor law. RESUMO Objetivos: Vivem-se tempos de valorização da subjetividade do eu. Cada dia mais busca-se uma autoafirmação. Por meio do Instagram, por exemplo, fotos são postadas com a pretensão de ganhar os famosos likes. Através das redes sociais, demonstram-se afetos, desejos, prazeres, felicidades, subjetividades. Paralelamente, na nova lógica de acumulação capitalista, empresas como Instagram, Facebook, Google, entre outras, estão constantemente capturando essas subjetividades em troca de lucro e não se percebe, ou se percebe e não se toma consciência, que todos são constantemente vigiados. Este artigo pretende analisar como esse controle acentuado por essa nova lógica de acumulação pode prejudicar o trabalhador. Metodologia: A metodologia utilizada é dedutiva dialógica, por meio de pesquisa bibliográfica para construção e desenvolvimento da pesquisa, tomando-se como principais pensadores Michel Focault, Zygmunt Bauman e Jeremy Bentham. Resultados: Uma das conclusões do autor é que, em um ambiente de vigilância por parte do empregador, haverá apenas uma relação de poder, quando o empregado puder atuar como uma pessoa ativa - tanto na aceitação quanto na subversão de seu papel - antes dessa vigilância. Pelo contrário, não será uma relação de poder, mas uma mera relação de coerção. E se não há um exercício de poder, também não há um exercício de liberdade. Contribuições: O artigo busca a atenção do leitor sobre a extração da mais valia, que, hoje, não parecer ser apenas o excedente da força de trabalho, mas também a felicidade e a subjetividade do trabalhador. Como contribuição, o autor destaca a nova vigilância invasiva do empregador, bem como o lado sombrio do marketing e do consumo desnecessário para enriquecer as empresas em detrimento das pessoas. O empregador, buscando maior produtividade e lucro e devido ao avanço das novas tecnologias, controla seu trabalhador, seja dentro do trabalho ou fora dele. O trabalhador, portanto, sem direito à desconexão, encontra-se constantemente monitorado durante a jornada de trabalho e também em seus momentos de descanso. PALAVRAS-CHAVE: Vigilância; controle; disciplina; redes sociais; vida privada; Panóptico de Bentham; Direito do Trabalho.


Author(s):  
Dragana Deh ◽  
Danica Glođović

The construction of personality and its development through time is influenced by many factors, and as particularly important from the aspect of this essay, we would stress the social factor as well as the influence of digital space and existence: the participation of the individual in the digital world. The emergence of new technologies and the acceleration of the pace of life significantly contributes to the construction of identities in digital space, based on a number of influences, such as: the possibility of a ‘second life’, i.e. different presentation of oneself (of life) at the virtual level, an increase of social desirability, changing the perception of oneself and access to new acquaintances and experiences, and knowledge and information and selection of personal data. Digital identity opens the possibility of abuse and consequences. These include the circumstances of insufficient protection of privacy, discovery and illegal use of permanently memorized data in meta-media society and digital space, especially on social networks, and the possibility of manipulating and controlling the identity of another as well as the possibility of placement multiple identities, which brings questions the legitimacy of data. In addition to the fact that digital space has opened up possibilities for changing the way of life in all spheres, it seems that the most pronounced influence (both at the level of quality and quantity) is particularly visible on the changes in the design of the personal identity of the individual. Article received: March 23, 2018; Article accepted: April 10, 2018; Published online: September 15, 2018; Preliminary report – Short CommunicationsHow to cite this article: Deg, Dragana, Danica Glođović. "The Construction of Identity in Digital Space." AM Journal of Art and Media Studies 16 (2018): 101−111. doi: 10.25038/am.v0i16.257


Author(s):  
Jaco Beyers

Paradigms determine relationships. During the Enlightenment period Emile Durkheim proposed a relationship between the sacred and the profane. Religion, which is concerned with the sacred, was defined in terms of being different from the profane. The profane came to denote the secular. The organic character of religion caused some scholars to predict the end of the church at the hand of modernisation and rationalisation. Some scholars instead envisaged a new form and function of the church. Some scholars anticipated the growth of Christianity. Reality shows that Christianity has not died out but seems to be growing. The new era we are currently in (identified as the postmodern) has been described as the post-secular age where a process of re-sacralisation takes place. How will the post-secular influence the church? What will the relationship between the church and the secular be like under a new paradigm? This article suggests that within a postmodern paradigm, the post-secular will emphasise the place of the individual in the church. Fragmentation of society will also be the result of the post-secular. Religiosity in future will have to contend with fundamentalism and civil religion.


2018 ◽  
Vol 25 (5) ◽  
pp. 513-522
Author(s):  
Marc Spooner

Diverse in nature, style, and approach, life histories enjoy a rich and established position within the broader narrative and qualitative research traditions. Nevertheless, such a position may be rendered considerably more complicated given new technologies and post-humanist developments. Rather than shy away from such new complexities, the life history field, it is argued, should embrace these developments and explore the fertile ground that might well lie at the intersections of the postqualitative, Indigenous, and place-based turns. What happens when “place” becomes the central character—the complex, entangled protagonist—of a life history focus? Exploring just such a re-imagining, this article examines the potential for creating fecund new ground for a life history of place. As a concrete example—although perhaps an unlikely source for inspiration—Phil Jenkins’s An Acre of Time: The Enduring Value of Place will be offered as a potential prototype.


2008 ◽  
Vol 37 (4) ◽  
pp. 559-578 ◽  
Author(s):  
DAVID LEWIS

AbstractThe life-history method is a valuable tool for social policy research. Taking an anthropological approach to studying policy, the article analyses the usefulness of the method using data drawn from a set of recently collected life-work histories from the UK. These life-work histories document the experiences of individuals who have crossed over between the public sector and the ‘third sector’ during their careers. The article first briefly reviews the strengths and weaknesses of the life-history method, then goes on to analyse selected issues and themes that emerge from the data at both the contextual and the individual levels. The article concludes that life-history work adds to our knowledge of the relationship between these two sectors, and of the processes through which ideas about ‘sector’ and policy are constructed and enacted.


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