scholarly journals The Poetics of Life

Author(s):  
Víctor Manuel Rubio Carrillo

The conditions generated by the COVID-19 global pandemic led our Musical Learning Community to improvise and face challenging social circumstances. We aimed at maintaining intact our long-term vision to create alternative cultural practices away from neoliberal subjugation. By exploring the lived experiences of musicians, dancers, artists, educators, and community members in North America, South America, and Asia, we learned how imagination became an imperative in the quest to create alternatives. Liberation, while confined, was carried out through artistic practices. However, neoliberal economic policies maintain a stronghold at the social level. Despite that, rural experiences showed different responses to the pandemic. While in urban centers, confinement and curfews were normative; in rural communities, artistic performances and togetherness were common. While in cities distancing was advised, in rural communities, proximity was embraced. We further reflect on how the current circumstances allowed us to improvise the birth of our action research community, which we propose as a humble grassroots alternative to neoliberal knowledge construction.

2018 ◽  
Vol 33 (1) ◽  
pp. 218-237 ◽  
Author(s):  
Karolina Koziura

This article is part of the special cluster titled Bukovina and Bukovinians after the Second World War: (Re)shaping and (re)thinking a region after genocide and ‘ethnic unmixing’, guest edited by Gaëlle Fisher and Maren Röger. This article explores ways in which Habsburg nostalgia has become an important factor in contemporary place-making strategies in the city of Chernivtsi, Western Ukraine. Through the analysis of diasporic homecomings, city center revitalization, and nationalist rhetoric surrounding the politics of monuments, I explore hybrid and diverse ways in which Habsburg nostalgia operates in a given setting. Rather than a static and homogenous form of place attachment, in Chernivtsi different cultural practices associated with Habsburg nostalgia coexist with each other and depending on the political context as well as the social position of the “nostalgic agents” manifest themselves differently. Drawing from my long-term ethnographic fieldwork, I argue that in order to fully understand individuals’ attachment to space, it is necessary to grasp both the subtle emotional ways in which the city is experienced by individuals as well as problematize the role of the built environment in the visualization of collective memory and emotions of particular groups. The focus on changing manifestations of the Habsburg nostalgia can bring then a better understanding of the range and scope of the city’s symbolic resources that might be mobilized for various purposes.


2016 ◽  
Vol 60 (1) ◽  
pp. 61-73 ◽  
Author(s):  
Julie Lynne Drolet ◽  
Tiffany Sampson

Climate change is having a very real impact, affecting not only ecosystems but also the socio-economic systems of small cities and rural communities. Globally, climate change is a consequential concern, since it is contributing to an increase in global temperatures, changing precipitation patterns, raising sea levels, and natural hazards. Locally, the effects of climate change vary, depending upon the region, with communities experiencing the impacts of climate change differently and at various degrees. This article presents research findings from a study on climate change, disasters, and sustainable development that provide insight into the diverse perspectives of community members on climate change in six communities in the Interior and Northern regions of British Columbia, Western Canada. A common denominator between these six communities is how social development is being applied to address climate change. The concept of social development encompasses social and economic well-being. The social development approach involves processes, activities, and institutions working together to develop the social and economic capacities of individuals and communities. In particular, for social workers working with individuals, families, and communities impacted by climate change, the social development approach is effective in addressing social and economic needs. This article will examine the differing perspectives and attitudes of affected community members and the role of social development with respect to climate change adaptation and response. It will also provide suggestions on how social workers can support and apply the social development approach in communities experiencing the impacts of climate change.


2018 ◽  
Vol 676 (1) ◽  
pp. 194-211 ◽  
Author(s):  
Victoria Stone-Cadena ◽  
Soledad Álvarez Velasco

Based on ethnographic research in the Ecuadorian Highlands, this article puts the mobility, migration, and smuggling practices of Ecuador’s indigenous people in historical and contemporary context. The people of Ecuador’s Southern Highlands have been on the move for generations, and migration is deeply embedded in the social and cultural landscape. In the rural communities of Cañar, indigenous coyotes are more than facilitators of migration: they are community members operating amid broader structural constraints, which have led to the emergence of specific trends in the facilitation of irregularized migration, yet they are expected to adhere to communal principles of reciprocity and trust. We place indigenous migrant narratives of mobility and identity at the center of our analysis of human smuggling, articulating a counternarrative to that of criminalization prevalent in transnational debates of irregularized migration, national security, and border control.


2021 ◽  
Vol 18 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Sonia Hakizimana ◽  
Emmanuel Nene Odjidja

Abstract Background With a fertility rate of 5.4 children per woman, Burundi ranked as seventh country with the highest fertility rate in the world. Family planning is an effective way of achieving desirable family size, appropriate birth spacing and significant reduction in unintended pregnancies. Furthermore, family planning has been linked to improvements in maternal health outcomes. Yet, in spite of the overwhelming evidence on the benefits of family planning and despite high knowledge and free services, utilisation is low especially in rural communities with conservative people. Employing a mixed methods approach, this study first quantifies contraceptive prevalence and second, explores the contextual multilevel factors associated with low family planning utilisation among community members. Methods An explanatory sequential mixed study was conducted. Five hundred and thirty women in union were interviewed using structured and pre-tested questionnaire. Next, 11 focus group discussions were held with community members composed of married men and women, administrative and religious leaders (n = 132). The study was conducted in eighteen collines of two health districts of Vyanda and Rumonge in Bururi and Rumonge provinces in Burundi. Quantitative data was analysed with SPSS and qualitative data was coded and deductive thematic methods were applied to find themes and codes. Results The overall contraceptive prevalence was 22.6%. From logistic modelling analysis, it was found that women aged 25 to 29 (aOR 5.04 (95% CI 2.09–10.27 p = 0.038), those that have completed secondary school and having four or less children were significantly associated with use of family planning (aOR 1.72 (95%1.35–2.01) p = 0.002). Among factors why family planning was unused included experience with side effects and costs associated with its management in the health system. Religious conceptualisation and ancestral negative beliefs of family planning had also shaped how people perceived it. Furthermore, at the household level, gender imbalances between spouses had resulted in break in communication, also serving as a factor for non-use of family planning. Conclusion Given that use of family planning is rooted in negative beliefs emanating mainly from religious and cultural practices, engaging local religious leaders and community actors may trigger positive behaviours change needed to increase its use.


2016 ◽  
Vol 17 (2) ◽  
pp. 153-173
Author(s):  
Nawawi Nawawi

Abstract: Unggahan tradition in a ritual that is unique and full of magical feel. Unggahan conducted at sites considered sacred and trusted local people can get closer to the Almighty. This ritual in understood as a form of preservation of cultural heritage. In the social and cultural context, unggahan can be used as a vehicle for social cohesion, a means of togetherness of community members. In a unggahan ritual procession, community members gathered togheter without any barriers in the class and social status. Unggahan centred in rural communities Bonokeling Pekuncen Jatilawang District of Banyumas. All members of the community, including “child putu” of the various regions, both in the district of the Banyumas, Cilacap, Banjarnegara, even in far away arears come together in Pekuncen. Unggahan also become a means of gathering the family and as well as a social, cultural, and religious transformation. Unggahan is an expression of piety society where a sense of mutual assistance, solidarity and togetherness become main patterns of this tradition. Keyword: Unggahan, Transformation, Religion, Social, Culture.


2020 ◽  
Vol 12 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-30
Author(s):  
Antonia Miserka

AbstractThe shrinking of Japan’s rural areas, caused partly by continuous out-migration of younger people to the major cities, is an amply discussed topic in Japanese society and popular media. Even though a certain trend of counter-urbanisation exists despite larger depopulation patterns, many of these migrants do not stay permanently and therefore cannot contribute to sustaining rural areas in the long term. Previous studies argue that considering each community’s characteristics is important in order to find possible ways to sustain rural areas and attract new residents. Therefore, this study focuses on the case of Aso City, aiming to clarify the criteria that makes migration to Aso City appealing or unappealing, and to identify the factors responsible for enabling (or complicating) the act of permanently settling there. In order to do so, the author conducted a survey in Aso City using semi-structured interviews. While the beauty of the natural surroundings, quality of life, and social connectedness are the main positive qualities of Aso City, its infrastructure, demographic development, and economic situation are assessed more negatively by its residents. Further, this study shows that the better a person’s local social connections upon arrival, the more likely they are to find a place to live and work, and stay on a long-term basis. In order to attract new residents to rural areas and support their permanent settlement, it is important to help them obtain the resources necessary for settling and assist their transition into the social structure of the community.


GeoTextos ◽  
2008 ◽  
Vol 2 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Jussara Rego

O ponto de partida deste artigo foi a compreensão de que os processos de territorialização, desterritorialização e reterritorialização sofridos pelos Terreiros de Candomblé de Salvador são recorrentes ao longo da sua existência, notadamente com relação à sua espacialização na cidade. A origem dessa religião brasileira, criada a partir de uma agregação de diversas estruturas litúrgicas africanas, é fruto de uma estratégia de sobrevivência bem sucedida dos negros africanos desterritorializados, trazidos para o Brasil na condição de escravos. O culto, de identidade própria, se distribui pela cidade sob a forma de Terreiros - sua forma de assentamento característica - e apresenta domínios territoriais demarcados através de simbolismos territoriais. Apresenta variações no espaço urbano, visíveis em temporalidades determinadas por relações sociais, e é constantemente submetido a processos de segregação que caracterizam a cidade. Dessa forma, a pesquisa buscou, como objetivo principal, analisar a situação dos terreiros na cidade, na condição de produtores do espaço, evidenciando os continuados processos de desterritorialização de sua espacialização e funcionamento; esclarecer sua condição de territórios contínuos; e indicar a existência e a necessidade, para a manutenção do culto, dos territórios descontínuos - matas, lagoas, manguezais e áreas naturais, de uma forma geral, que se apresentam cada dia mais escassos na cidade. Para tanto, após o levantamento de dados em pesquisa bibliográfica, utilizou-se, como recursos metodológicos, o preenchimento de um banco com dados primários sobre as casas, a partir da aplicação de questionários a membros qualificados das comunidades, seguida de realização de entrevistas com a finalidade de obtenção de dados esclarecedores da situação das casas de candomblé na cidade. Tal análise indicou uma projeção de que essa forma de assentamento vem sofrendo, em Salvador, uma visível transformação do modelo originalmente implantado na cidade, conciliando a dinâmica de reprodução inerente ao culto com a possibilidade de reprodução dentro dos grandes centros urbanos, incluindo as relações econômicas e sociais envolvidas, que influem decisivamente nessas novas territorialidades. Abstract This paper shows that the territorialization, deterritorialization and reterritorialization experienced by the Terreiros de Candomblé (Areas of Worship) are recurrent, especially when their spacialization within the city is taken in consideration. This Brazilian religion, which aggregates several African liturgical structures, is the result of a successful strategy of survival of the African blacks, who had gone through deterritorialization and were brought to Brazil as slaves. The cult, with its own identity, was scattered all over the city under the form of Terreiros, its characteristic of settlement, whose territorial domains were delimited by territorial symbolism. Its urban dimension presents variations, whose visible temporalities were determined by the social relationships that were constantly submitted to the segregation processes that characterize the city. Thus, the aim of this research is to analyze the situation of the Terreiros in the city, focusing on their status of dimension producers, showing the ongoing processes of deterritorialization of their space and operation. It also intends to call attention to the importance of the discontinuous territories for the cult preservation, namely woods, lagoons mangroves and natural areas, which are becoming scarcer all over the city. To carry out the research, after the data survey based on a bibliography research were collected, the methodological resource used was to fill out a database with primary data on the candomblé houses, based on questionnaires answered by the qualified community members, followed by interviews to obtain data to visualize the situation of the candomblé houses in the city. This analysis showed the projection that this form of settlement peculiar to the region being studied has gone through in the city of Salvador a visible transformation of its model that was originally implemented in the city. A model that conciliates the dynamics of reproduction inherent to the cult with the possibility of reproduction within the major urban centers, including the economic and social relationships involved, which have a strong influence on the new territorialization.


2021 ◽  
pp. 135918352110397
Author(s):  
Analyn Salvador-Amores

What are the social dimensions involved in the technology of traditional tattooing among the Igorots of north Luzon, the Philippines? Based on a long-term anthropological fieldwork among the Igorots, an examination of the varying traditional tattooing practices of these ethnic groups demonstrates that the significance of batok (traditional tattoos) does not only lie in their symbolic and aesthetic qualities, but also in the rituals performed, the taboos observed, and the technology employed in the production of tattoos. The tattoo's appearance on skin is also dependent on the method or technique employed in the production of designs; the varying pigments used to produce a blackish, greenish, or bluish color in tattoos that mark the identity of a group; and the symmetry and arrangement of tattoos. More importantly, this paper explores the social and cultural practices involved in the production of batok for these to achieve the efficacy of purpose and function . This paper examines how the technology of tattoos, along with rituals and their associated taboos, contributes to the production of what is classified among the Butbut of Kalinga as: whayyu or maphod (“beautiful”), rather than lagwing (“unpleasant”); unfinished versus finished; and “thin or thick” tattoos. Traditional tattooing was formerly practiced in the confines of collective and place-based rituals among the people of the Philippine Cordillera. However, the rarity, rawness, and the particularity of the technology used in the production of these tattoos render them more “authentic,” as such, traditional tattooing has entered contemporary tattoo practices in the Philippines as a form of revival.


2007 ◽  
Vol 66 (4) ◽  
pp. 993-1027 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sun Joo Kim

This paper examines the causes and processes of a popular tax-resistance movement by adopting a multidimensional approach that considers dynamic rural power relations, popular responses to social and economic changes, and cultural practices that both united and divided rural communities. Popular rebellions in 1862 reflected not only the social and economic distress that the peasantry experienced in everyday life but also the inability of the dynastic structure to accommodate the social, political, and economic changes that were occurring in the nineteenth century. This work pays close attention to the particular historical and cultural context of 1862 Korea, such as various rural conditions and the workings of dynastic institutions at the local level, and discovers that different patterns of popular protest grew out of the competition, division, and conflict that had developed along class, social status, village community, and political lines.


2020 ◽  
Vol 2 (2) ◽  
pp. 57
Author(s):  
Abd. Rasyid Syamsuri ◽  
Julianto Hutasuhut

The Enhancement of Village Owned Business Agencies Capacity for Community Welfare Badan Usaha Milik Desa (BUMDes) aims to make village development innovations, especially improving the village economy and rural communities' welfare. BUMDes is a village business institution managed by the community and village government to strengthen the economy and is formed based on its needs and potential. Community service in Janji Village, Bilah Barat District, Labuhanbatu Regency was started by identifying the need for socialization: providing knowledge and understanding of the role of BUMDes and conducting focus group discussions based on interest groups in the village. The purpose of this program was to bring changes in the social-economic of the community. Based on the observations, partners' problems are: 1) The establishment of BUMDes in Janji Village has not fully formed all types of businesses in the area but has only formed one type of business, 2) There are objections from community members who already own home industry. As one of the economic institutions operating in rural areas, BUMDes must have differences from the general economic institutions so that the existence and performance of BUMDes can make a significant contribution in improving community welfare through socialization, education, and training to improve people's living standards in Janji Village.


Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document