Power through Intersubjectivity: Representing the Resilient Child in Urban Survival Narratives

2009 ◽  
Vol 2 (1) ◽  
pp. 65-80
Author(s):  
Yvonne Hammer
Keyword(s):  
Social Discourse ◽  
Individual Agency ◽  
Liminal Spaces ◽  
Young Readers ◽  
Problematic Relationship ◽  
Narrative Representations ◽  
Spark Gap ◽  
Urban Survival ◽  
Resilient Child

The problematic relationship between urban dislocation, the proscribed spaces of urban childhood, child marginnalisation and the societal invisibility of under-age citizens is widely thematised in contemporary children's literature. This article examines how childhood agency, as a form of power, becomes aligned with resilience through intersubjectivity in the narrative representations of marginalised child subjects in Virginia Hamilton's The Planet of Junior Brown (1987) and Julie Bertagna's The Spark Gap ( 1996 ). Depictions of child homelessness, which construct resilience in the determination to survive experiences of marginalisation, dislocation and loss, offer an opportunity to examine representations of child subjectivity. This discussion centres on the role of intersubjectivity as an alternative construction to some humanistic frames that privilege the notion of an individual agency divested of childhood's limitations. It identifies the experiential codes which more accurately reflect the choices available to young readers, where liminal spaces of homelessness that first establish social and cultural dependencies are re-interpreted through depictions of relational connection among displaced child subjects. The discussion suggests that these multifocal novels construct dialogic representations of social discourse that affirm intersubjectivity as a form of agency.

Chronic Pain: Fundamental Scientific Considerations, Specifically for Legal Claims

2013 ◽  
Vol 18 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-18 ◽  
Author(s):  
Robert J. Barth
Keyword(s):  
Health Outcomes ◽  
Pain Perception ◽  
Driving Forces ◽  
Psychological Treatment ◽  
Dominant Role ◽  
Meta Analysis ◽  
General Medicine ◽  
Pain Syndrome ◽  
Problematic Relationship

Abstract Scientific findings have indicated that psychological and social factors are the driving forces behind most chronic benign pain presentations, especially in a claim context, and are relevant to at least three of the AMA Guides publications: AMA Guides to Evaluation of Disease and Injury Causation, AMA Guides to Work Ability and Return to Work, and AMA Guides to the Evaluation of Permanent Impairment. The author reviews and summarizes studies that have identified the dominant role of financial, psychological, and other non–general medicine factors in patients who report low back pain. For example, one meta-analysis found that compensation results in an increase in pain perception and a reduction in the ability to benefit from medical and psychological treatment. Other studies have found a correlation between the level of compensation and health outcomes (greater compensation is associated with worse outcomes), and legal systems that discourage compensation for pain produce better health outcomes. One study found that, among persons with carpal tunnel syndrome, claimants had worse outcomes than nonclaimants despite receiving more treatment; another examined the problematic relationship between complex regional pain syndrome (CRPS) and compensation and found that cases of CRPS are dominated by legal claims, a disparity that highlights the dominant role of compensation. Workers’ compensation claimants are almost never evaluated for personality disorders or mental illness. The article concludes with recommendations that evaluators can consider in individual cases.

scholarly journals Problematizing leadership learning facilitation through a trickster archetype: An investigation into power and identity in liminal spaces

Leadership ◽  
2021 ◽  
pp. 174271502199822
Author(s):  
Gareth Edwards ◽  
Beverley Hawkins ◽  
Neil Sutherland
Keyword(s):  
Leadership Development ◽  
Power Relations ◽  
Theory And Practice ◽  
Liminal Spaces ◽  
Learning Facilitation ◽  
Reflective Conversations ◽  
Permanent Resident ◽  
Shadow Side ◽  
Learning Development

This study uses the archetype of a ‘trickster’ to reflect back on, and hence problematize, the role of the educator/facilitator identity in leadership learning. This is based on the view that a trickster is a permanent resident in liminal spaces and that these liminal spaces play an important role in leadership learning. Our approach was based on the reading of the trickster literature alongside reflective conversations on our own experiences of facilitation of leadership learning, development and education. We suggest that paying attention to the trickster tale draws attention to the romanticization of leadership development and its facilitation as based on a response to crisis that leads to a further enhancement of the leader as a hero. Hence, it also offers ways to problematize leadership learning by uncovering the shadow side of facilitation and underlying power relations. We therefore contribute by showing how, as facilitators, we can use the trickster archetype to think more critically, reflectively and reflexively about our role and practices as educators, in particular, the ethical and power-related issues. In our conclusions, we make recommendations for research, theory and practice and invite other facilitators to share with us their trickster tales.

scholarly journals On the Ethics of Interpretation: are Young Readers to Blame?

2018 ◽  
Vol 22 (2) ◽  
pp. 264
Author(s):  
Indrė Žakevičienė
Keyword(s):  
Ethical Issues ◽  
Literary Texts ◽  
Original Form ◽  
Young Readers ◽  
Literary Ethics ◽  
Mental Spaces

The author of the article will discuss the problem of validity thinking about the basic statements of Literary Ethics. Though the problems Literary Ethics emphasizes are global and at the same time rather abstract, the efforts of literary researchers to educate readers with the help of novels are understandable but seem ineffectual. Young readers are not capable of understanding complicated texts of the previous century because of the different contents of their mental spaces or the different schemes of thinking. Literary Ethics speaks about the importance of the role of emotions while reading novels, but the spectrum of primary emotions young readers experience while reading complicated literary texts blocks all the ways to deeper understanding and the ability to analyze specific ethical issues encoded in the novels. The theory of emotions explains the situation and in a way rehabilitates young readers. Nevertheless, particular transformations of genres or of the original form of literary texts could evoke the readers’ interest and make them think deeper or extend the realm of interpretations by relating particular “genre markers” and rethinking their codes.

scholarly journals The Foregrounding Function of Praesens Historicum in Russian Translated Adventure Narratives (20th Century)

Slovene ◽  
2016 ◽  
Vol 5 (1) ◽  
pp. 226-248 ◽  
Author(s):  
Anastasia V. Urzha
Keyword(s):  
Discourse Analysis ◽  
English Language ◽  
The Novel ◽  
Functional Grammar ◽  
Young Readers ◽  
Translation Strategy ◽  
Common Basis ◽  
Narrative Forms

This research focuses on the functioning of praesens historicum forms which Russian translators use to substitute for English narrative forms referring to past events. The study applies the Theory of Grounding and Russian Communicative Functional Grammar to the comparative discourse analysis of English-language adventure stories and novels created in the 19th and 20th centuries and their Russian translations. The Theory of Grounding is still not widely used in Russian translation studies, nor have its concepts and fruitful ideas been related to the achievements of Russian Narratology and Functional Grammar. This article presents an attempt to find a common basis in these academic traditions as they relate to discourse analysis and to describe the role of praesens historicum forms in Russian translated adventure narratives. The corpus includes 22 original texts and 72 Russian translations, and the case study involves six Russian translations of The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, focusing on the translation made by Korney Chukovsky, who employed historic present more often than in other translations of the novel. It is shown that the translation strategy of substituting the original English-language past forms with Russian present forms is realized in foregrounded and focalized segments of the text, giving them additional saliency. This strategy relates the use of historic present to the functions of deictic words and words denoting visual or audial perception, locating the deictic center of the narrative in the spacetime of the events and allowing the reader to join the focalizing WHO (a narrator or a hero). Translations that regularly mark the foreground through the use of the historic present and accompanying lexical-grammatical means are often addressed to young readers.

Billionaires in World Politics

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Peter Hägel
Keyword(s):  
Social Entrepreneurship ◽  
Fossil Fuels ◽  
Structural Changes ◽  
International System ◽  
World Politics ◽  
Political Field ◽  
Individual Agency ◽  
Bill Gates ◽  
Change Mitigation

This book shows how the privatization of politics assumes a new dimension when billionaires wield power in world politics, which requires a re-thinking of individual agency in International Relations. Structural changes (globalization, neoliberalism, competition states, and global governance) have generated new opportunities for individuals to become extremely rich and to engage in politics across borders. The political agency of billionaires is being conceptualized in terms of capacities, goals, and power, which is contingent upon the specific political field a billionaire is trying to enter. Six case studies explore the power of billionaires in their pursuit of security, wealth, and esteem. The chapter on security analyzes Raj Rajaratnam’s relationship to the Tamil cause in Sri Lanka, and Sheldon Adelson's transnational electioneering in the Israel-Palestine conflict. Regarding the economy, the book studies how the Koch brothers' political protection of fossil fuels is affecting climate change mitigation, and how Rupert Murdoch's opinion-shaping is valorizing conservatism across borders. The chapter on social entrepreneurship and esteem examines the role of Bill Gates in the governance of global health and George Soros's attempts to build open societies as a 'stateless statesman'. An analytical conclusion evaluates the prior findings in order to address three major questions: Is it more appropriate to see billionaires as 'super-actors', or as a global 'super-class'? What is the relative power of billionaires within the international system? What does the power of billionaires mean for the liberal norms of legitimate political order?

Crkvene institucije u srednjovjekovnoj praksi

2021 ◽  
Vol 45 (88) ◽  
pp. 21-46
Author(s):  
Ante Bećir
Keyword(s):  
Primary Sources ◽  
Political Agency ◽  
Individual Agency ◽  
Material Resources ◽  
Political Conflicts ◽  
Political Networks ◽  
The Social ◽  
The Status ◽  
Definition Of

The article sought to put the social and political agency of the Trogir Canons in the period from 1300 to 1360 into the wider context of political conflicts that took place between opposing noble factions within the Trogir commune in the 14th century. However, before commencing with the analysis, the author gives a basic insight into the status and infrastructure of the Trogir ecclesiastical organization, situated in its respective Dalmatian- Croatian and Hungarian context. Starting with the normative definition of a Cathedral Chapter, which exists to assist the Bishop and engage in the pastoral care of its human flock, the article compares the idea with the practical dealings of the Trogir Canons. It is highlighted that their dealings were almost primarily concerned with these-worldly matters. On the other hand, and on the basis of tracking several Trogir Canons, namely Jacob son of Peter (Vitturi), John son of Peter (Castrafoci), Stephan son of Michael (Cega), Lampredius son of Jacob (Vitturi), Kazarica son of Martin (Kazarice), Albert son of Marinus (Andreis) and some others, which are heavily exposed in the primary sources, it is argued that the Trogir Cathedral Chapter was not functioning in practice as an independent church corporation, rather than the Canons were in one way or another involved in the factional strifes. More precisely, the considered canons were deeply connected with the noble families, from which practically all of them originated, and sequentially with the informal factions. Therefore, the Canons exploited the existing institutional (corporate) framework and material resources of the Cathedral Chapter in the pursuit of their own individual or factional goals. In that respect, the Cathedral Chapter cannot be considered as an entity separate from the activities of the city lay authorities, regardless of the actual distinction in political and judicial jurisdiction between ecclesiastical and secular institutions. The Case of Trogir provided very fruitful material, which allowed the unraveling of social and political networks and the role of individual participants in the collective (political) agency. In other words, the paper put the focus more on individual agency, and less to structures, bearing in mind that individual agency is exactly that which shapes the institutions in the end.

scholarly journals Remembrance, Retrospection, and the Women’s Land Army in World War I Britain

2012 ◽  
Vol 22 (2) ◽  
pp. 162-194 ◽  
Author(s):  
Bonnie J. White
Keyword(s):  
World War I ◽  
Lived Experience ◽  
Personal Experience ◽  
World War ◽  
History And Memory ◽  
Secondary Sources ◽  
Problematic Relationship ◽  
The First World War ◽  
First World

This paper explores the methodological challenges posed by interviews with former members of the Women’s Land Army held in Britain’s Imperial War Museum. These interviews were conducted approximately 60 years after the First World War as part of the Women’s War Work Collection that was created in an effort to capture the role of women in the wars of the twentieth century. These documents are certainly of value to the historian, although the decades that passed between event and recollection highlight the problematic relationship between history and memory. The author argues that due to this temporal gap and the continuation of lived experience that shaped both identity and memory in the intervening years, the interviews lose their evidentiary primacy and must be approached as secondary sources, albeit ones grounded in personal experience. This challenge is exacerbated by problems with the interview process itself that guided how the Land Girls’ narratives were reconstructed by the interviewees. This paper works toward a re-evaluation of the usefulness of these oral interviews.

Cultural Variations and Relevance to Etiology

2016 ◽  
pp. 90-110
Author(s):  
Jorge Delva ◽  
Sandra L. Momper ◽  
Claudette L. Grinnel-Davis ◽  
Mark B. Padilla
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Substance Use ◽  
Substance Use Disorders ◽  
Minority Groups ◽  
The United States ◽  
Cultural Variations ◽  
Individual Agency ◽  
Structural Forces ◽  
Multiple Dimensions

This chapter begins with a description of the role of culture on the etiology of substance use, misuse, and disorders among youth in the United States. This is followed by a discussion of how present constructions of majority-minority groups oversimplify the tremendous diversity individuals experience and how they tend to negate individual agency and fail to critique the structural forces that impact individuals’ drug-using behaviors. The chapter concludes with the thesis that a critical intersectionality framework is necessary to understand how substance use disorders vary as a function of individuals’ multiple dimensions, including how these are manifested and impacted by societies’ social and structural forces.

Corruption: ‘Culture’ in the Dock

2017 ◽  
Vol 23 (1) ◽  
pp. 21-26 ◽  
Author(s):  
Vineet Sahu
Keyword(s):  
Decision Making ◽  
Public Life ◽  
Careful Consideration ◽  
Individual Agent ◽  
Individual Agency ◽  
Holistic Perspective ◽  
Cultural Milieu ◽  
The Individual

Corruption in public life1 needs to be examined in greater detail as not only an individual lapse but also a feature of the collective that either does or does not put pressure on the individual to lapse. This paper takes a methodological holistic perspective exceeding the methodological individualistic perspective in understanding corruption. The claim is that the locus of responsibility cannot be restricted to the individual alone and the collective (if there be such an entity) be left scot-free. This claim is premised on the conception that an individual’s act which is in deviation of expected and established norms cannot be faulted only at the level of the individual, and careful consideration needs to be made to assess the role of the collective in precipitating the lapse(s) in the actions of the individual. This paper argues for sharing the liability of corruption in public life between the legally responsible individual as agent and the cultural milieu in which the agent operates. At a foundational level this paper calls for a reconceptualization of individual agency and decision making from being isolated and discrete, to being construed by the collective that the individual agent is a part of.

Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document