scholarly journals Reading hegemonic masculinities in 2 Samuel 11 in the South African contexts

2020 ◽  
Vol 5 (3) ◽  
Author(s):  
Madipoane Masenya
Keyword(s):  
South African ◽  
Focal Point ◽  
Final Analysis ◽  
Abuse Of Power ◽  
Majority World ◽  
The Social ◽  
Contemporary Perspective ◽  
Study Perspective ◽  
Point Of Departure ◽  
2 Samuel

The present essay will engage the concepts of (hegemonic) masculinities as depicted in the actions of David and Uriah in 2 Samuel 11. It is argued that although Uriah’s character in the preceding text occupies a place on the hegemonic masculinities ladder, his masculinity (which is much akin to that of the majority of men in the two thirds majority world context) is subordinated to those of a more powerful man. Given the social location of the present author (and the scant research from a masculinity study perspective on his character), Uriah’s character will be the focal point of attention in this essay. From a contemporary perspective, it is argued that men in our two thirds majority world context (including African-South African men), who like Uriah, sit at the relatively lower rung of the hegemonic masculinities ladder, and subordinated to more powerful men, still have a sense of agency. Thus, such men are not completely powerless. As a point of departure, I will engage David’s masculinity, basically foregrounding his abuse of power. This will be followed by an elaborate discussion on Uriah’s masculinities and some sections on the agency of subordinated men. In the final analysis, concluding remarks will be made.

Policy Design for Non-anthropocentric Pathways to Protect Biodiversity and Re-generate the Land

2018 ◽  
Vol 4 ◽  
Author(s):  
Janet Judy McIntyre-Mills
Keyword(s):  
South African ◽  
Policy Design ◽  
Ways Of Knowing ◽  
Vocational Education And Training ◽  
African Renaissance ◽  
The Social ◽  
Policy Suggestions ◽  
Sentient Beings ◽  
Political Economic ◽  
And Training

This article is a thinking exercise to re-imagine some of the principles of a transformational vocational education and training (VET) approach underpinned by participatory democracy and governance, and is drawn from a longer work on an ABC of the principles that could be considered when discussing ways to transform VET for South African learners and teachers. The purpose of this article is to scope out the social, cultural, political, economic and environmental context of VET and to suggest some of the possible ingredients to inspire co-created design. Thus the article is just a set of ideas for possible consideration and as such it makes policy suggestions based on many ways of knowing rooted in a respect for self, others (including sentient beings) and the environment on which we depend. The notion of African Renaissance characterises the mission of a VET approach in South Africa that is accountable to this generation of living systems and the next.

scholarly journals The Social Construction of Internet Addiction in China: Youth between Reality and Temporal Autonomy in the Documentary Web Junkie

2021 ◽  
Vol 50 (1) ◽  
pp. 86-105
Author(s):  
Annika Pissin
Keyword(s):  
Social Construction ◽  
Internet Addiction ◽  
Documentary Film ◽  
Main Body ◽  
Critical Thought ◽  
The Core ◽  
Critical Realist ◽  
The Social ◽  
China Today ◽  
Point Of Departure

This article addresses issues surrounding the social construction of internet addiction, focusing on conceptualisations of reality, escape, hope, and time. Drawing on a critical realist account of semiosis, the framing of internet addiction in China is analysed using the documentary film Web Junkie as an empirical pivot and point of departure. A contextual overview of relations, interests, and tensions surrounding youth and the internet in China is provided, and the film Web Junkie is briefly presented. The main body of the article consists of a critical analysis of conceptualisations of “reality” and “escape.” The core tension focused on in the analysis is the struggle over time, necessitating engagement with critical thought on hope and utopia. The analysis concludes that struggles over temporal autonomy underlie conflicting claims about “reality” and “escape” that are central to “internet addiction” and its treatment in China today.

scholarly journals Realizing the Social Dimension of EU Coastal Water Management

2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (4) ◽  
pp. 2261
Author(s):  
David Langlet ◽  
Aron Westholm
Keyword(s):  
Coastal Waters ◽  
Spatial Planning ◽  
Focal Point ◽  
Current System ◽  
Social Systems ◽  
Ecological Systems ◽  
Social Dimension ◽  
Eu Directive ◽  
The Social ◽  
The Eu

In the last 20 years, the EU has adopted some rather ambitious pieces of legislation with the aim to achieve a good environmental status in freshwater and marine ecosystems. Both the Water Framework Directive (WFD) and the Marine Strategy Framework Directive (MSFD) have a strong focus on the natural environment and biological criteria for assessing the status of the relevant ecosystems. In the same time period, much research on environmental governance has focused on the interconnectedness of social systems and ecosystems, so-called social-ecological systems (SES). While having high aspirations, the legal frameworks underpinning current EU water and marine management do not necessarily reflect the advances of contemporary science relating to SES. Using the geographical intersection of the two directives, i.e., coastal waters as a focal point, the paper explores the inchoate integration of social and ecological perspectives in the EU marine governance. What are the main challenges for the current EU legal regimes for managing coastal waters in a way that builds on the understanding of social and ecological systems as interconnected? Having explored the two directives, the paper introduces the possibility of using marine spatial planning (MSP), and the EU directive establishing a framework for maritime spatial planning (MSPD) as a bridge between the social and ecological dimensions and discusses what implications this would have for the current system for governing coastal waters in Europe.

scholarly journals Calcium isotopic patterns in enamel reflect different nursing behaviors among South African early hominins

2019 ◽  
Vol 5 (8) ◽  
pp. eaax3250 ◽  
Author(s):  
Théo Tacail ◽  
Jeremy E. Martin ◽  
Florent Arnaud-Godet ◽  
J. Francis Thackeray ◽  
Thure E. Cerling ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Breast Milk ◽  
South African ◽  
Early Life ◽  
Tooth Enamel ◽  
Biological Evolution ◽  
Milk Consumption ◽  
Interbirth Interval ◽  
Australopithecus Africanus ◽  
The Social ◽  
Life Behavior

Nursing is pivotal in the social and biological evolution of hominins, but to date, early-life behavior among hominin lineages is a matter of debate. The calcium isotopic compositions (δ44/42Ca) of tooth enamel can provide dietary information on this period. Here, we measure the δ44/42Ca values in spatially located microsized regions in tooth enamel of 37 South African hominins to reconstruct early-life dietary-specific variability in Australopithecus africanus, Paranthropus robustus, and early Homo. Very low δ44/42Ca values (<−1.4‰), indicative of milk consumption, are measured in early Homo but not in A. africanus and P. robustus. In these latter taxa, transitional or adult nonmilk foods must have been provided in substantial quantities relative to breast milk rapidly after birth. The results suggest that early Homo have continued a predominantly breast milk–based nursing period for longer than A. africanus and P. robustus and have consequently more prolonged interbirth interval.

scholarly journals Is and Ought? How the (Social) Ontological Circumscribes the Normative

2020 ◽  
Vol 24 (4) ◽  
pp. 509-525
Author(s):  
Dorothea Gädeke
Keyword(s):  
Well Being ◽  
Normative Theory ◽  
Normative Values ◽  
Relational Ontology ◽  
Individual Values ◽  
The Social ◽  
Argument Proceeds ◽  
Ontological Position ◽  
Point Of Departure ◽  
Normative Content

Abstract Is normative theory grounded in ontology and if so, how? Taking a debate between Kwame Gyekye and Thaddeus Metz as my point of departure, my aim in this article is to show that something normative does indeed follow from ontological views: The social ontological, I maintain, circumscribes the normative without, however, fully determining its content. My argument proceeds in two steps: First, I argue that our social ontological position constrains what kind of normative theory we may plausibly defend. A relational ontology as defended by Gyekye entails a relational normative theory, whereas an atomist ontology calls for an individualist normative approach and a collectivist ontology for a strong communitarian one. Second, this link between the ontological and the normative has substantive implications for how to interpret the normative content of a theory; it entails interpreting normative values in light of the appropriate kind of normative thought. I illustrate the importance of this implication by showing that it suggests a decidedly relational reading of the core value of well-being in Gyekye’s moderate communitarianism, that resolves the alleged tension between communal and individual values in his account.

MARCEL PAGNOL'S THE BAKER'S WIFE, A CINEMATIC CHARIVARI IN POPULAR FRONT FRANCE

2005 ◽  
Vol 48 (2) ◽  
pp. 437-469 ◽  
Author(s):  
BRETT BOWLES
Keyword(s):  
Middle Ages ◽  
Focal Point ◽  
Public Support ◽  
Popular Front ◽  
Partisan Politics ◽  
National Union ◽  
Late Middle Ages ◽  
The Social ◽  
Definition Of

Taking an anthropological approach, this article interprets Pagnol's critically acknowledged classic as a reinvention of a carnivalesque ritual practised in France from the late middle ages through the late 1930s, when ethnographers observed its last vestiges. By linking La Femme du boulanger (The baker's wife, 1938) to contemporaneous debates over gender, national decadence, and the definition of French cultural identity, I argue that the film recycles the charivari's long-standing function as a tool of popular protest against social and political practices regarded as detrimental to the welfare of the nation. In the context of the Popular Front, Pagnol's charivari ridiculed divisive partisan politics pitting Left against Right, symbolically purged class conflict from the social body, and created a new form of folklore that served as a focal point for the communitarian ritual of movie-going among the urban working and middle classes. In so doing, the film promoted the ongoing shift in public support away from the Popular Front in favour of a conservative ‘National Union’ government under Prime Minister Edouard Daladier, who in 1938–9 assumed the role of France's newest political patriarch.

The Social Dangers Of The Crime Of Abuse Of Power Or Position: Problems Of Theory And Practice

2021 ◽  
Vol 03 (02) ◽  
pp. 72-12
Author(s):  
Shukhrat Khodjievich Alirizaev ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Criminal Law ◽  
Public Life ◽  
Criminal Code ◽  
Theory And Practice ◽  
Abuse Of Power ◽  
Official Position ◽  
The Social ◽  
Position Article

The article deals with the theoretical problems of social danger of the crime of abuse of power or official position (Article 205 of the Criminal Code), its place in criminal law, its connection with other official crimes. It also analyzes the increase in this crime in public life, corruption offenses and the origin of crimes. Signs of these and other official crimes are highlighted. Qualification issues in the competition of general and special official crimes are analyzed.

The Everyday in a Time of Transformation: Exploring a Single South African Lifeworld after 20 Years of Democracy

2017 ◽  
Vol 13 (1) ◽  
pp. 32-54
Author(s):  
P. Conrad Kotze ◽  
Jan K. Coetzee
Keyword(s):  
Social Sciences ◽  
South Africa ◽  
South African ◽  
Sociological Research ◽  
Contemporary Debate ◽  
The Social ◽  
The Everyday ◽  
Ontological Turn ◽  
The Individual ◽  
Epistemological Framework

Transformation has come to be a defining characteristic of contemporary societies, while it has rarely been studied in a way that gives acknowledgement to both its societal effects and the experience thereof by the individual. This article discusses a recent study that attempts to do just that. The everyday life of a South African is explored within the context of changes that can be linked, more or less directly, to those that have characterized South Africa as a state since the end of apartheid in 1994. The study strives to avoid the pitfalls associated with either an empirical or solely constructivist appreciation of this phenomenon, but rather represents an integral onto-epistemological framework for the practice of sociological research. The illustrated framework is argued to facilitate an analysis of social reality that encompasses all aspects thereof, from the objectively given to the intersubjectively constructed and subjectively constituted. While not requiring extensive development on the theoretical or methodological level, the possibility of carrying out such an integral study is highlighted as being comfortably within the capabilities of sociology as a discipline. While the article sheds light on the experience of transformation, it is also intended to contribute to the contemporary debate surrounding the current “ontological turn” within the social sciences.

Folklorisation and the Emergent Moral Degeneration: A Functionalist Approach

2021 ◽  
Vol 30 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Siziwe Mandubu
Keyword(s):  
Young People ◽  
South African ◽  
Moral Judgments ◽  
Behavioral Norms ◽  
South African Society ◽  
Moral Principles ◽  
Societal Norms ◽  
Moral Standards ◽  
The Social ◽  
Functionalist Approach

Living in an egalitarian society has resulted in the corrosion of the moral base among certain sectors in the community. Some people misconstrue egalitarianism as an authorisation to act as they see fit. Young people, in particular, are gradually losing touch with reality in relation to acceptable behavioral norms in the South African society. Based on the functionalist theory of balancing the social equilibrium among people, the article delineates moral standards as the most fundamental and general principles of behaviour and reflects on how the society expects one to act in certain situations. The article, therefore, explores the primary concepts within functionalism and attempts to outline that the society is a system of interconnected parts that work together in harmony to maintain a state of stability and social cohesion. The article will use the folktale “uDyakalashe noMvolofu” (“The Jackal and the Wolf”) to reflect on the expected societal norms. It demonstrates that folktales, which used to transfer values, morals and shape the conduct of people in the olden days are still appropriate in reshaping the outlook and perceptions of today’s generation. As such, the shrewd nature of folklore in the moral regeneration of the current generation of young people is exposed. While there are many folktales in this category, “uDyakalashe noMvolofu” (“The Jackal and the Wolf”) provides the theme relevant for the analysis of the topic to highlight that moral standards generate moral principles and moral judgments.

Investigation of Facilities Management Implementation Process for Malaysian State Mosque

2021 ◽  
Vol 15 (2) ◽  
pp. 103-113
Author(s):  
Zafirah Ab. Muin ◽  
Maimunah Sapri ◽  
Ibrahim Sipan ◽  
Hariati Abdullah Hashim
Keyword(s):  
Questionnaire Survey ◽  
Process Model ◽  
Focal Point ◽  
Action Plan ◽  
Implementation Process ◽  
Peninsular Malaysia ◽  
Facilities Management ◽  
Management Level ◽  
The Social ◽  
Monitoring Service

The mosque has been a focal point of Islam since its inception, serving as a place of worship, a centre of education, economic pursuits, communal services, and spirituality. However, due to a variety of causes, the scope of mosque functions has been constrained as the world has developed rapidly. In summary, congregational capacity and facilities relating to hygiene, safety, and space utilisation are among the problems being closely examined in Malaysia. Based on the problems, the subject of mosque management's competencies that need to be improved in order to become more professional arises. Reviews of literature suggested that facilities management (FM) approach has the potential to be incorporated in the management of mosque. The purpose of this study is to examine the implementation of FM process in mosque in supporting the achievement of mosque’s functions. A quantitative approach was adopted in this study. The implementation of FM process from 12 state mosques in Peninsular Malaysia were investigated using questionnaire survey which distributed among the mosque management that manage mosque facilities. Descriptive statistics were used to analyse the questionnaire survey data with Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS) software. Results from the questionnaire survey revealed that, 50 per cent of the mosque has implemented most of the FM process model elements whereas other mosque still need further improvement to ensure the standards of FM process model is achieved. The results indicated that there is potential for improvement in mosque that possesses low position in implementing elements of FM process model that includes FM formulation strategy, requirement analysis of services, FM solutions development, FM solutions implementation and monitoring service provision. The finding could assist the top management level of the mosque in strategising the implementation action plan of mosque facilities management.

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