scholarly journals Quasi-Subject Commodities - Labour, Minimalism, and the Social Life of Things

2016 ◽  
Vol 2 (1) ◽  
pp. 70-83
Author(s):  
Paul Smith

Commodities play an integral role in the creation and maintenance of personas - to such a degree that they begin to take on characteristics of labor, provenance, and politics, such as distressed clothing or fair trade labels. This essay proposes that we have begun to freight our commodities with their own personas and imagined subjecthoods, and that this shift is foreshadowed in the transformation of artistic practices in the late twentieth century.Two theories on the status of contemporary artworks have come to recent prominence - David Joselit’s “Painting Beside Itself,” which argues that artworks need image not just their status as commodities but rather their circulation and [social] networks, and Isabelle Graw’s claim that artworks are being reconsidered as imaginary “quasi-subjects.” Thus, artworks are being equated with persons, not by their looks but by their actions. This new apprehension of objects finds its own roots in American sculptural debates of minimalism in the late 1960’s, where theorists resorted to ascribing subjectivities to objects to account for the relentless anthropomorphism of even those works which attempted to fully excise the human form.Proponents of “quasi-subjecthood” argue from two tacks: the object either is a subject of its own, or is propped on the “ghostly presence” of its maker. I believe this indicates two predominant characterizations of commodities: full subjects, or signs of an absent maker. Both arguments flirt with a fetishism that, in giving personas and personalities to objects, threatens to erase the social conditions in which each object is made. However, there may be a way in which these imaginaries can be harnessed as prosthetics for our communities. This essay explores possible avenues for artists and critics to create ethical objects for societies of art.

Author(s):  
Justin Farrell

This chapter shows how materially instrumental or utilitarian aspects of social life can acquire moral and religious meanings. It argues that the use of natural resources in Yellowstone underwent a process of “moralization” that had important institutional effects on the area (e.g., more government attention, scientific research, censuring, public sentiment, emotional disgust). The chapter documents the emergence and interaction of three “moral visions” (utilitarian, spiritual, biocentric) in Yellowstone in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, in order to explain this process of moralization. To demonstrate the effects of this process, and how the meaning of Yellowstone changed from its early years, the chapter ends with an analysis of how new moral visions were institutionalized into new laws and policies, both nationally and locally, culminating in the creation of the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem—thus creating the social conditions for eventual intractable contemporary conflict that would soon follow.


2020 ◽  
Vol 1 (3) ◽  
pp. 236-242
Author(s):  
Barnokhon Kushakova ◽  

This article discusses the conditions, reasons and factors of characterization of religious style as a functional style in the field of linguistics. In addition, religious style and its main peculiarities, its importance in the social life, and the functional features of religious style are highlighted in the article. As a result of our investigation, the following results were obtained: a) the increase in the need for the creation and significance of religious language, particularly religious texts has been scientifically proved; b) the possibility of religious texts to represent the thoughts of the people, culture and world outlook has been verified; c) the specificity of religious language, religious texts has been revealed; d) the development of religious style as a functional style has been grounded.


Social networks fundamentally shape our lives. Networks channel the ways that information, emotions, and diseases flow through populations. Networks reflect differences in power and status in settings ranging from small peer groups to international relations across the globe. Network tools even provide insights into the ways that concepts, ideas and other socially generated contents shape culture and meaning. As such, the rich and diverse field of social network analysis has emerged as a central tool across the social sciences. This Handbook provides an overview of the theory, methods, and substantive contributions of this field. The thirty-three chapters move through the basics of social network analysis aimed at those seeking an introduction to advanced and novel approaches to modeling social networks statistically. The Handbook includes chapters on data collection and visualization, theoretical innovations, links between networks and computational social science, and how social network analysis has contributed substantively across numerous fields. As networks are everywhere in social life, the field is inherently interdisciplinary and this Handbook includes contributions from leading scholars in sociology, archaeology, economics, statistics, and information science among others.


2019 ◽  
Vol 1 ◽  
pp. 1-2
Author(s):  
Clio Andris ◽  
Dipto Sarkar

<p><strong>Abstract.</strong> Interpersonal relationships are an important part of social and personal health. Studies of social capital show that individuals and communities with stronger ties are have an economic and health advantage. Yet, loneliness and isolation are becoming major public health issues. There is a pressing need to measure where relationships are strong and how accessible one’s social ties are, in order to learn how to better support face-to-face meetings and promote social health in society. However, the datasets we use to study people and human behaviour are most often mobility data and census data &amp;ndash; which tell us little about personal relationships. These data can be augmented with information about where people have ties, and how their relationships unfold over geographic space. The data we use to study the built environment include building footprints and infrastructure, and we can annotate these data by how (well) infrastructure supports different kinds of relationships, in order to ask new questions about how the landscape encourages relationships.</p><p> We suggest a list of methods for representing interpersonal relationships and social life at various socio-spatial levels of aggregation. We give an example of each, with an effort to span various use cases and spatial scales of data modelling.</p><p> <strong>Dyads (line) and Ego-based (star):</strong> This geometric model represents a relationship between two individuals (Figure 1A). The individuals can be geolocated to households, administrative units, real-time locations, etc. The tie can be given a nominal category such as family or co-worker, and edge weights that signify reported relationship strength, frequency of contact, frequency of face-to-face meeting, et cetera. Star models represent a central individual and his/her geolocated ties (that radiate from the centre). The star illustrates the theoretical concept of personal extensibility.</p><p> <strong>Points of Interest (points):</strong> Points of interest provide a place-based perspective (note that these entities can also be represented as polygons such as building footprints, or lines such as gradients of interaction on a subway). Certain places are better suited for fostering relationships than others (Figure 1B), and each can be annotated with their ability to foster: new ties (a nightclub), gender-bonding ties (bowling leagues), romantic ties (romantic restaurants), inter-generational ties (a religious facility), professional ties (conferences), et cetera.</p><p> <strong>Polygons/Administrative Units (polygons):</strong> These data are attached to administrative areal units (Census boundaries, provinces, zones, etc.). The data represent surveyed data on relationship-related variables in censuses, social surveys and social capital surveys. These surveys ask about trust, friendliness with neighbours, social life, belongingness to institutions, and more (Figure 1C), illustrating the social health of an area.</p><p> <strong>Aggregate Flows and Social Networks (lies and networks):</strong> This model illustrates the geolocated, social ties within a spatial extent, i.e. the social networks of a group of many people over a large extent (Figure 1D). Data can be sourced from social media, telecommunications patterns, and other declarations of relationships.</p><p> <strong>Regions (polygons):</strong> Regions, that may describe neighbourhoods within one city, or an agglomeration of cities, can be defined by social ties. Instead of commuting or economic ties, regions are defined by a preponderance of social ties within a given polygon, and a lack of ties between polygons (or between the polygon and any external area). Social regions represent a likeness and strong ties between the people that live within the region (Figure 1E).</p><p> Given these methods for representing social life and interpersonal relationships as GIS data, new questions may arise. At the <strong>dyadic level</strong>: how can we map the presence of a relationship between two people? At the <strong>ego-based level</strong>: how far and with what kind of diversity do people have ties? At the <strong>point of interest level</strong>: what kinds of mapable data can describe places’ ability to create new relationships and foster existing relationships? At the <strong>polygonal level</strong>: what kinds of mapable data can show where relationships are strong or weak? At the <strong>levels of flows and networks</strong>: what kinds of mapable data can describe systems of diffusion? At the <strong>regional level</strong>: what physical and administrative boundaries guide social ties?</p><p> For cartographers and geographic modellers looking to study social life, data acquisition, analysis, and mapping are challenges. The point of this extended abstract is to inventory the possibilities of mapping these data, open a dialog for experimenting with what kinds of symbologies, associated variables, classification schemes, visualization techniques and data collection opportunities are available for this purpose. We also hope to create spaces for comparative studies that describe the implications of these choices. In our search, we find that the major research challenges are the following: 1) privacy 2) geolocatable data 3) qualitative vs. quantitative data and 4) assurance statistically-significant samples sizes 5) analysis and modelling 6) visualization. Nevertheless, our goal is to make these indicators and data more GIS-friendly and available to geospatial analysts, modellers and cartographers.</p>


Author(s):  
Sefer Kalaman ◽  
Mikail Batu

Carnivalesque theory has been used as a model and a structure in the works carried out in many fields such as communication, literature, and sociology. In fact, Carnivalesque appears in many environments/areas, particularly in the social networks, which are the manifestation of social life. This chapter examines social networks in the context of carnivalesque theory to reveal facts of carnivalesque in Twitter. Content analysis technique was used in the research. Research data came from 10 Twitter accounts which have a maximum number of followers in Turkey. These data were analyzed and examined in terms of grotesque, dialogism, carnival laughter, upside-down world, marketplace, and marketplace speech belonging to the carnivalesque theory. According to the findings, the structure of Twitter, which is one of the most popular social networks in Turkey, is largely similar to the structure of the carnival and features of carnivalesque theory.


2018 ◽  
Vol 62 (3) ◽  
pp. 143-167
Author(s):  
Karol Kurnicki

Space gains significance through processes of social differentiation and bordering, and in consequence is connected with the creation and maintenance of social divisions. The author seeks confirmation of this fact at the level of everyday practices in housing settlements, tracking the mechanisms used by people in situations of contact and confrontation with others in the social space. He sets himself several aims: (1) he attempts to analyze selected spatial practices (parking within the settlement, the creation of belonging), reflecting the internal structuring strategies of housing settlements; (2) he points to the causes of that structuring, that is, the main contexts in which these practices occur and are strengthened; (3) he highlights the important role of space in processes of bordering and differentiation. Practices connected with parking and the creation of belonging, although apparently disparate and deriving from contrary spheres of social life make it possible to hypothesize that the striving for separation and the increased importance of space determine the organization of borders, divisions, and social relations in housing settlements.


2018 ◽  
Vol 7 (2) ◽  
pp. 430 ◽  
Author(s):  
Zihni Turkan ◽  
Çimen Özburak

<p><strong>ABSTRACT</strong></p><p>Selimiye Square, placed in the historical Selimiye neighborhood within the walled city of Nicosia, has become an important center, shaped with the architectural heritage of different cultures throughout the history of Cyprus.  The creation of the square began with the building of the St. Sophia Cathedral of the Lusignan Period, at the beginning of the 1200s, and it developed as a religious center with the addition of St. Nicholas Church and the Archbishopric right after.  Although not much development in the texture, a guest house built for travelers and pilgrims (The Venetian House) and the meeting place built for the priests of the cathedral (Chapter House), continued the process of creation of the square and the religious quality of the texture.  During the Ottoman Period, which was an important era for the historical urban texture of Nicosia, Turkish Architecture, a new architectural style, was added to the surroundings of Selimiye Square.  St. Sophia Cathedral was turned into a mosque with the addition of minarets, the Archbishopric and the building next to it were turned into Traditional Turkish Houses with alterations and additions, and St. Nicholas Church was turned into Bedesten (covered bazaar).  With the addition of Sultan Mahmut Library and the Big and Small Medrese (madrasah), educational and business functions were added to the religious center; thus the creation of a historical environment and the boundaries of the square became clarified.  The boundaries of the square were completed during the British Period with the construction of houses towards the west of the square and it gained the identity of a meeting place for the social activities of the city.  During this period, the square was opened for vehicle traffic, and its texture, its religious and business center character were preserved.  The periods of the Republic of Cyprus and the following Cyprus Turkish Administration years were a stagnant period for the creation and development of the square.  During this period, the square was used as a place of ceremonies with the erection of the Fighters Monument in the east of the library.  The buildings around the square underwent functional changes during the TRNC period, from 1983 to today, but the texture preserved its importance with its religious, educational, and business activities.  With the new arrangements in 2001 within the scope of the pedestrianization project, an important meeting place was created for the social activities of the city.  Thus, becoming an important center for the tourism and social life of the city with the mosque, cultural center, museum, folk arts atelier, restaurants, and bars, which all exist within this historical texture. </p><p><strong>ÖZ</strong></p><p>Lefkoşa Suriçi’nde, tarihi Selimiye Mahallesi’nde yer alan Selimiye Meydanı; Kıbrıs’ın tarihindeki farklı kültürlerin mimari mirasları ile biçimlenen önemli bir merkez olmuştur. Lüzinyanlar Dönemine ait St. Sophia Katedrali’nin, 1200’lü yılların başında burada inşa edilmesiyle başlayan meydan oluşumu, hemen sonrasında St. Nicholas Kilisesi ve Başpiskoposluk Binasının eklenmesi ile buranın bir dini merkez olarak gelişmesini yönlendirmiştir. Venedikliler Döneminde, dokuda fazla bir gelişme olmamakla birlikte, seyyahlar ve hacılar için yapılan misafirhane binası (Venedik Evi) ve katedralin rahipleri için yapılan toplantı binası (Chapter House), dokunun dini merkez niteliği ile meydanın oluşum sürecini devam ettirmiştir. Lefkoşa tarihi kent dokusunun gelişimi için önemli olduğundan, Selimiye Meydanı için de bir değişim dönemi olan Osmanlı Döneminde, Selimiye Meydanı çevresine yeni bir mimari olan Türk Mimarisi kazandırılmıştır. St. Sophia Katedrali, eklenen minarelerle camiye, Başpiskoposluk binası ve yanındaki bina, tadilât ve ilâvelerle Geleneksel Türk Evi’ne, St. Nicholas Kilisesi de Bedesten’e dönüştürülmüştür. Sultan Mahmut Kütüphanesi ile Büyük ve Küçük Medrese binalarının dokuya eklenmesiyle de dini merkeze eğitim ve ticaret işlevleri de katılımış; böylece tarihi çevre oluşumu ve meydan sınırları belirginleşmeye başlamıştır. İngiliz Döneminde, meydanın batı yönüne inşa edilen konutlarla meydan sınırları tamamlanmış ve kentin sosyal etkinlikleri için toplanma alanı kimliğini kazanmıştır. Bu dönemde meydan, araç trafiğine açılmış, çevre dokusu, dini ve eğitim merkezi özelliğini korumuştur. Kıbrıs Cumhuriyeti ve sonrasındaki Kıbrıs Türk Yönetimi Dönemleri, meydan oluşumu ve gelişimi için durgun bir dönem olmuştur. Bu dönemde, kütüphanenin doğu tarafına inşa edilen Mücahitler Anıtı ile meydan, tören alanı olarak da kullanılmıştır. 1983 yılından günümüze kadar olan KKTC Döneminde, meydan çevresindeki yapılar işlev değiştirmiş, fakat doku yine dini, ticari ve eğitim faaliyetleri ile önemini korumuştur. Yayalaştırma projesi kapsamında 2001 yılında meydanda yapılan yeni düzenleme ile kentin sosyal etkinlikleri için önemli bir buluşma alanı oluşturulmuş, tarihi dokuda yer alan cami, kültür merkezi, müze, halk sanatları atölyesi, lokanta, bar gibi işlevlerle de kentin turizmi ve sosyal yaşamı için önemli bir merkez olarak yaşam bulmuştur.</p>


2018 ◽  
Vol 10 (2) ◽  
pp. 369-385
Author(s):  
Welhendri Azwar

The system of values, norms and some stereotypes attached to women are one of the factors that giving influences on the position and relationships of women with men in the existing social structure. Each person embraces the system of values or norm which is a consensus and constructed by the community itself than from generation to generation. The emergence of social construction on the status and role of women is the result of the perspective of a community towards their biological differences between men and women. The perspective which then results in oppression, exploitation, and subordination of women in social relations are contextually strongly related to socio-cultural conditions at that time. This section will discuss how women are positioned in the social life and the perspective of the culture of its subordination. Next, it is also described how the emergence of patriarchal ideology, a system that accommodates the interests of men to dominate and control women, as a consequence of the understanding of the nature of women which biologically different to men. The hegemony of patriarchal ideology brings the social awareness for women to accept the conditions of subordination as a natural thing, which is wrapped by the products of culture and tradition. It includes how patriarchal ideology is giving the effect on the system and the tradition of marriage.


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