How Culture Shapes Nature: Reflections on Ecomuseum Practices

2012 ◽  
Vol 7 (1) ◽  
pp. 31-47 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nunzia Borrelli ◽  
Peter Davis

This paper describes the main characteristics of ecomuseums as a prelude to analyzing the ways in which they interpret the relationship between nature and culture. It appears that ecomuseums have the capability to interpret this relationship as a dynamic process. However, ecomuseum practices are not simply dedicated to conserving aspects of heritage, but also provide a system of norms and values that contribute to shaping habitus and where “genius loci“ or sense of place can manifest itself. If society is to contribute to the preservation and valorization of nature, then frames of reference - such as the ecomuseum - can seek to inform and change attitudes and perceptions of the nature-culture dynamic. Consequently, people, communities, and democracy lie at the heart of ecomuseum philosophy, encouraging groups and individuals to work together to contribute to improving the environment. Social actions and the negotiation of forms of capital are essential to the process.

2016 ◽  
Vol 26 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Enongene Mirabeau Sone

The main objective of this paper is to show how oral literature is engaged by Swazis with regards to environmental sustainability. It demonstrates the relationship between nature and culture as reflected in Swazi oral literature and how indigenous knowledge embedded in this literature can be used to expand the concepts of eco-literature and eco-criticism. The paper argues that the indigenous environmental expertise among the Swazi people, encapsulated in their oral literature, can serve as a critical resource base for the process of developing a healthy environment. Furthermore, the paper contends that eco-criticism, which is essentially a Western concept, can benefit by drawing inspiration from the indigenous knowledge contained in Swazi culture and expressed in their oral literature. The paper concludes by recommending the need to strengthen traditional and customary knowledge and practices by protecting and recognising the values of such systems in the conservation of biodiversity for sustainable development.


2019 ◽  
Vol 36 (7-8) ◽  
pp. 261-271
Author(s):  
Daniel McLoughlin

In this interview, Vicki Kirby discusses her research into the relationship between nature and culture, focusing in particular on her recent edited collection, What If Culture Was Nature All Along? The volume appears in the ‘New Materialisms’ series, and so the interview begins by situating the collection with respect to the recent materialist turn in social theory. Kirby discusses the influence of deconstruction on her thought, and the way that she draws upon Derrida to think through recent research in the life sciences and its implications for understanding the relationship between matter, life, and communication. She also goes into the political implications of her work and the relationship between biopolitics and biodeconstruction.


Neofilolog ◽  
2020 ◽  
pp. 11-26
Author(s):  
Jolanta Sujecka-Zając

The trend for eco-linguistics, which has been dynamically developing in the English-language literature since the 1970s, proposes a change in the perception of the relationship between language, nature, and culture, in a sense making language a link which brings together nature and culture, rather than separating them as is traditional. This approach poses important questions: How do languages ​​work in the ecosystem created by the language environment of all users of a given language context? What relationships can they enter into? How should one perceive the development of multilingualism in such an ecological approach, in which not only does "strong" affect the "weak" but “weak” reciprocates? "Weak" has an important place in the language ecosystem, which risks serious changes due to excessive weakening of one of its components. This paper aims to examine the possible inspirations that eco-linguistics offers Foreign Language Teaching (FLT), highlighting the role of each language and sensitizing the reader to the relationships that arise between languages ​​and their users in a given environment. From this perspective Claire Kramsch (2008) postulates a change in the perception of the main function of the teacher from the "teacher of a code" to the "teacher of meaning", which has specific didactic consequences in how language activities are approached. Is the school classroom a place for activities which have their origin in the trend for eco-FLT?


Author(s):  
Masoumeh Livani ◽  
Hamidreza Saremi ◽  
Mojtaba Rafieian

Abstract The aim of this study is to investigate how the city is influenced by the ritual of Muharram. The main research question is: what is the relationship between the city and the ritual of Muharram? To answer this question, we examined different intangible layers of this ritual heritage. This study is based on the three components of the sense of place. The research method is qualitative and a context-oriented approach is adopted. The context of the study is the historical texture of the city of Gorgan, Iran. The data were collected through library research and immediate observation. Next, content analysis and data coding were used to obtain a set of thematic categories. The results suggest that, as a kind of ritual-social behavior, the ritual of Muharram has had remarkable, enduring effects on the city over centuries. The non-urban-development dimension has thus allowed for the formation of sense of place in the relationship between people and the urban environment through a different process.


Author(s):  
Christopher D’Addario

In the last decade, the historicism that had become so familiar to us by the turn of the century has increasingly come under challenge, revised, reconsidered and often rejected from a number of different directions. This chapter explores recent innovations in and challenges to understanding the relationship between text and context, including the new formalism, historical phenomenology, and cognitive poetics. Of particular interest here are the innovations and difficulties that can come with attempting an historicism grounded in local affects and perceptions, with examples drawn from Thomas Browne and W. G. Sebald, among others. In the process, D’Addario considers the appeal of alternative literary histories, the difficulties of periodisation, and the legacies of New Historicism. The chapter ends with a gesture to embracing studies that admit their speculative nature, that embrace and accept their historicism as novel re-imaginings of the past.


2019 ◽  
Vol 41 (1) ◽  
pp. 52-72 ◽  
Author(s):  
Hassan Abu Bakar ◽  
Leah Omillion-Hodges

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to examine the underlying process of a relative leader–member dyadic communication behavior linking association between ethical leadership and organizational identification in Malaysia’s diverse workplace. Design/methodology/approach Based on relational dyadic communication, social comparison and social identity theories, the authors develop a mediation model. The model illustrates the link between the relative leader–member dyadic communication behavior processes, ethical leadership and organizational identification. The model was tested on a sample of 273 group members from 58 groups working in large government link corporations in Malaysia. Findings Results of hierarchical regression analysis provide support for the model. The authors found that ethical leadership was positively related to relative leader–member dyadic communication behavior based on the norms and values of budi context. Budi is a social norm in the Malaysian context that helps employees to know how they should interact with others. Budi is manifested through the use of language and should be used or present in the interactions or conversations with others. Originality/value The relative shared norms and values of budi mediate the relationship between ethical leadership and organizational identification after controlling for the perception of individual leader–member dyadic communication behavior on norms and values of budi.


Author(s):  
Azidah Abu Ziden ◽  
Muhammad Faizal Abdul Rahman ◽  
Too Woon Ching

Communication between teachers and parents is essential to foster parental involvement in school related activities. The purpose of this study is to evaluate the effectiveness of mobile instant messaging for parent-teacher communication in enhancing two-way communication between parents and teachers. In particular, the research examines the barriers on parental involvement and investigates the relationship between the use of mobile instant messaging for parent-teacher communication, as well as for families of different socio-economic and educational background. In addition, the study also evaluates parents’ attitudes and perceptions towards the use of mobile instant messaging for communication with teachers. The respondents for this study were 251 parents with different background. This study employed a mix-method research design which involved quantitative and qualitative data. The findings revealed that time constraint is the primary reason for parents to be involved in school related activities. The study results also indicated that there is no relationship between family socio-economic background and the use of mobile instant messaging for parent-teacher communication. However, the findings show a significant relationship between parents’ educational background and the use of mobile instant messaging for parents-teacher communication. Moreover, the study also found a receptive attitude among parents towards mobile based communications with teachers and school


2020 ◽  
Vol 40 (3) ◽  
pp. 415-431 ◽  
Author(s):  
Rafi M. M. I. Chowdhury

This study constitutes a theoretically grounded exploration of the factors that mediate the relationship between consumer values and ethical beliefs. An online survey of US consumers was conducted to explore potential mediators of the effects of personal values on consumers’ ethical beliefs. The results show that moral identity and dimensions of Machiavellianism (amoral manipulation, desire for control) mediate the effects of self-transcendence orientation (the importance of self-transcendence values relative to that of self-enhancement values) and conservation orientation (the importance of conservation values relative to that of openness-to-change values) on beliefs about unethical consumer actions. Furthermore, moral identity mediates the effects of self-transcendence orientation and conservation orientation on beliefs about pro-social actions. These results demonstrate that personal values, moral character, and belief systems all influence consumer ethics. Macromarketing implications for public policy, particularly education policy, are discussed.


1999 ◽  
Vol 27 (2) ◽  
pp. 443-456 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kristen Leaver

QUESTIONSABOUT THE PERFORMATIVE NATURE of Victorian culture have received extended attention in the past decade or so as critics have begun to examine the relationship between representation and subjectivity.1 By and large, such studies have fruitfully problematized our received assumptions about the private character of the Victorians. At the same time, however, they have also implicitly privileged the middle-class frames of reference that shape the distinction, for even as they complicate our understanding of performance by calling into question the distinction between public and private modes, critics who take up such issues tend not to question the stability of the categories of experience under scrutiny. As a result, while we gain important new insights into the cultural formation of identity or genre underwritten by the separation of public and private spheres, we also risk reading all Victorians as if their relationships to such ideological formations were identical with those of the emerging middle class.


Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document