Social Dynamics and Liminal Spaces

2016 ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Social Dynamics ◽  
Liminal Space ◽  
Power Struggles ◽  
Liminal Spaces ◽  
The Face

This chapter focuses on those liminal spaces that highlight the power struggles of the series' main characters. Spartacus, the titular character of the series and the face of the struggle to escape Roman servitude, exists in a liminal space for the duration of the series, since he is always shown to be in-between worlds. Hence, this chapter examines the obvious liminality of concrete physical thresholds, such as cliffs and balconies, and then moves on to spaces that function as gateways to change while being physically more self-enclosed. These spaces in-between and at the margins, as this chapter shows, reveal and facilitate acts of transgression, transformation, and resistance. Such liminal spaces ultimately reflect Spartacus' own journey, as he finds himself in spaces of transition and transformation, with each place presenting special challenges.

scholarly journals Preference Falsification Revisited: How Psychological Science Can Offer Insight into Motivated Belief Misrepresentation and Collective Misunderstanding

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jacob Elder ◽  
Yrian Derreumaux;Derreumaux ◽  
Brent Hughes
Keyword(s):  
Social Dynamics ◽  
Theoretical Framework ◽  
Political Polarization ◽  
Social Connections ◽  
Future Research ◽  
Group Norms ◽  
Political Climate ◽  
Psychological Science ◽  
The Face ◽  
Insight Into

Throughout life, people sometimes lie to curry favor or mitigate disharmony with others, a tendency that may be exacerbated under moments of elevated tension. This phenomenon is captured by the economic theoretical framework of Preference Falsification, which describes why people misrepresent their beliefs in the face of social pressures, and how misrepresentation accumulates to broader misunderstandings that can fuel political polarization. We describe why the current political climate may foster motivations to misrepresent beliefs, as individuals are increasingly siloed into like-minded communities with strong pressures to conform to group norms. Next, we adopt a psychological lens to understand and integrate three motivations that underlie individual misrepresentation – relating to an individual’s intrinsic preference, their reputational concern, and their desire for expression – and describe how individual acts of misrepresentation can propagate across social connections to establish misrepresented beliefs as public consensus. Finally, we outline inroads for examining Preference Falsification using psychological methods that may be uniquely suited to elucidate the different social dynamics and issues that elicit this behavior, with the goal of spurring future research. Ultimately, we argue that fostering a more ideologically pluralistic and socially interconnected society may offer one route to reducing misrepresentation and collective misunderstanding, and thereby attenuate polarization and intergroup antipathy.

The Role of Resources in the Success or Failure of Diverse Teams: Resource Scarcity Activates Negative Performance-Detracting Resource Dynamics in Social Category Diverse Teams

2022 ◽  
Author(s):  
Siyu Yu ◽  
Lindred L. Greer
Keyword(s):  
Team Performance ◽  
Work Teams ◽  
Explanatory Power ◽  
Resource Scarcity ◽  
Social Category ◽  
Power Struggles ◽  
The Social ◽  
The Face ◽  
Resource Dynamics ◽  
And Behaviors

Increasing the social category diversity of work teams is top of mind for many organizations. However, such efforts may not always be sufficiently resourced, given the numerous resource demands facing organizations. In this paper, we offer a novel take on the relationship between social category diversity and team performance, seeking to understand the role resources may play in both altering and explaining the performance dynamics of diverse teams. Specifically, our resource framework explains how the effects of social category diversity on team performance can be explained by intrateam resource cognitions and behaviors and are dependent on team resource availability. We propose that in the face of scarcity in a focal resource (i.e., budget), diverse (but not homogenous) teams generalize this scarcity perception to fear that all resources (i.e., staff, time, etc.) are scarce, prompting performance-detracting power struggles over resources within the team. We find support for our model in three multimethod team-level studies, including two laboratory studies of interacting teams and a field study of work teams in research and development firms. Our resource framework provides a new lens to study the success or failure of diverse teams by illuminating a previously overlooked danger in diverse teams (negative resource cognitions (scarcity spillover bias) and behaviors (intrateam power struggles)), which offers enhanced explanatory power over prior explanations. This resource framework for the study of team diversity also yields insight into how to remove the roadblocks that may occur in diverse teams, highlighting the necessity of resource sufficiency for the success of diverse teams.

On the Beach

2021 ◽  
Vol 17 (1) ◽  
pp. 135-144
Author(s):  
John Beck
Keyword(s):  
Cultural Politics ◽  
The Novel ◽  
Liminal Space ◽  
The Face ◽  
Meaning And Purpose ◽  
The Waves ◽  
Existential Issues

Abstract The phrase “on the beach” originates as naval slang for being between assignments or unemployed and was used as the title for Nevil Shute's bestselling novel of 1957 about the last remaining survivors of a global nuclear conflict as they await their inevitable demise. The novel is about a certain kind of anxious passivity in the face of incomprehensible catastrophe, but it is also a narrative about work and idleness. As such, the idea of being “on the beach” invites consideration of the shore as a liminal space where often conflicting social and existential issues of meaning and purpose are played out. The waves of so-called beach shaming that occurred during the early months of the global coronavirus pandemic have located, yet again, the beach as a key battleground in contemporary cultural politics.

Digitalization efforts in liminal space – inter-organizational challenges

2020 ◽  
Vol 35 (1) ◽  
pp. 150-158 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jens Eklinder Frick ◽  
Vincent Hocine Jean Fremont ◽  
Lars-Johan Åge ◽  
Aihie Osarenkhoe
Keyword(s):  
Liminal Space ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Organizational Challenges ◽  
Liminal Spaces ◽  
Qualitative Research Design ◽  
Organizational Perspective ◽  
Separation Phase ◽  
Using Data ◽  
The Individual ◽  
The Right

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to analyze the benefits and drawbacks that strategically imposed liminality inflicts upon inter-organizational digitalization efforts within the different phases of its utilization. Design/methodology/approach This study empirically examines digitalization in a large multinational manufacturing company, Sandvik Machining Solutions, using data that were collected through interviews and a qualitative research design. Findings This study shows that a liminal space separated from the structures in which one is supposed to inflict changes increases the risk of developing an incompatible system that will be rejected in the incorporation phase. An inter-organizational perspective on liminality thus contributes to our understanding of the benefits and drawbacks that liminal space can pose for the organizations involved. Practical implications The study suggests that, in the separation phase, driving change processes by creating liminal spaces could be a way to loosen up rigid resource structures and circumvent network over-embeddedness. Finding the right amount of freedom, ambiguity and community within the liminal space is, however, essential for the transition of information as well as the incorporation of the imposed changes. Originality/value Introducing an inter-organizational perspective on liminality contributes to our understanding of the stress that liminal space can place on individuals as well as the individual organization.

The Pedagogy of Social Development in Online Learning

2011 ◽  
pp. 1620-1627
Author(s):  
Robert H. Woods ◽  
Jason D. Baker
Keyword(s):  
Online Learning ◽  
Learning Community ◽  
Social Dynamics ◽  
Online Courses ◽  
Affective Learning ◽  
Optimal Learning ◽  
Pedagogical Strategies ◽  
Face To Face ◽  
Educational Environments ◽  
The Face

Optimal learning outcomes, whether in face-to-face or online settings, are inextricably intertwined with the establishment of social networks among participants engaged in a collaborative enterprise. Students who feel socially connected to other students and faculty are more likely to persist in coursework and report higher levels of learning than those who report being less connected (McDonald, 2002; Rovai, 2002; Tinto, 1987; Wegerif, 1998). But in the online setting, creating and maintaining a learning community is somewhat more challenging than in the face-to-face-setting. For despite advances in audio and video streaming technologies, online learning remains primarily a largely textual and asynchronous environment. The challenge in this setting might be stated as follows: “How do we adapt a series of threaded texts to make them build a socially interactive, diverse network of learners who experience a positive sense of community?” There are numerous pedagogical strategies that may be used to build highly interactive and socially rich educational environments. In this article, the researchers propose a model of “communal scaffolding,” which serves as a framework for a variety of online and off-line activities that can positively enhance the social dynamics on online courses toward the goal of increased cognitive and affective learning.

Occupation Regimes and Civil–Military Encounters at the Western Front

2020 ◽  
pp. 93-124
Author(s):  
Alex Dowdall
Keyword(s):  
Urban Communities ◽  
Social Dynamics ◽  
Urban Life ◽  
Military Occupation ◽  
Civilian Life ◽  
Allied Occupation ◽  
Western Front ◽  
Military Presence ◽  
The Face ◽  
The Military

Chapter 3 uncovers the dynamics of the military occupation regimes put in place on both sides of the lines during the First World War, and demonstrates how they impacted civilian life in the front-line towns. It provides the first comparative analysis of military occupation on both sides of the Western Front, and argues that although some of the methods employed differed from one side of the lines to the other, the main objectives were fundamentally the same. In all cases civilian freedoms were curtailed on the basis of military necessity. It describes the German and Allied occupation regimes side by side, before moving on to a discussion of the face-to-face encounters and relationships that developed between individual civilians and soldiers. It demonstrates that three types of encounter between civilians and soldiers had particularly strong impacts on the social dynamics of urban communities on both sides of the Western Front. They arose from military indiscipline, platonic relationships, and sexual encounters. The chapter argues that although the German occupation regime was notably harsher than that on the Allied side, and forced civilians to navigate complex issues of resistance and collaboration, in both cases urban life near the front was profoundly shaped by the military presence.

Projecting Power: Cathedral Chapters and Public Rituals in Portugal, 1564–1650

2016 ◽  
Vol 69 (4) ◽  
pp. 1369-1400 ◽  
Author(s):  
Hugo Ribeiro da Silva
Keyword(s):  
Early Modern ◽  
Social Dynamics ◽  
Modern State ◽  
Power Struggles ◽  
City Councils ◽  
Secular Institutions

AbstractIn the post-Tridentine period, conflicts in cathedrals revealed social dynamics that extended beyond the cathedral walls. Cathedral chapters had to deal with the competition of ecclesiastic as well as secular institutions, involving bishops, Inquisition officials, monks, and members of lay confraternities and city councils. All of them competed to preserve or advance their privileged place in a society of orders, and these rivalries often emerged in public ceremonies. Rituals thus provided a promising setting for power struggles. More than merely local episodes, these conflicts illustrate the rebalance of power in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries that characterized the early modern state.

scholarly journals 'Ek is besig om iemand heeltemal anders te word ...': die ontginning van liminaliteit in Vaselinetjie deur Anoeschka von Meck

Literator ◽  
2006 ◽  
Vol 27 (1) ◽  
pp. 39-56 ◽  
Author(s):  
D. Van Zyl
Keyword(s):  
The Other ◽  
The Novel ◽  
Time And Space ◽  
Liminal Space ◽  
Pure Possibility ◽  
Liminal Spaces ◽  
Construction Of Identity ◽  
Other Hand ◽  
Children's Home ◽  
The One

'I am becoming someone completely different …': the utilisation of liminality in Vaselinetjie (Little Vaseline) by Anoeschka von Meck The concepts of liminality, transition and borders are utilised extensively in “Vaselinetjie” by Anoeschka von Meck (2004). This is especially the case regarding her use of characterisation, focalisation, time and space (including place and landscape) in the construction of identity. As a liminal character, Vaseline finds herself in different kinds of liminal spaces on a regular basis, like the children’s home, which is foregrounded in the novel, as well as in consecutive preliminal, liminal and postliminal phases. The children’s home is an essentially liminal space, but from the perspective of Vaseline it is firstly gradually transformed into a place to which meaning is attached, and secondly to a landscape of belonging, as she expresses her solidarity with the scorned group of children in the home. On the one hand the children’s home is characterised by a certain liminal essence, but on the other hand it can be regarded as “a realm of pure possibility” (Turner, 1967:97).

Minorities and Foreigners in a Provincial Iranian City: Bahāʾis in the Russian Consulate of Isfahan in 1903

2016 ◽  
Vol 9 (1) ◽  
pp. 107-132
Author(s):  
Saghar Sadeghian
Keyword(s):  
Social Dynamics ◽  
Power Struggles ◽  
The Social ◽  
Iranian History ◽  
Local Actors ◽  
The City ◽  
Previous Scholarship

This article is about the struggles of a persecuted confessional minority in Qajar Iran. It shows that the massacre of the Bahāʾis in Isfahan in 1903 was representative of the ongoing power struggles in the city. Previous scholarship that has briefly explored these events has relied primarily on a handful of British diplomatic sources. Drawing on unexplored documents in British and Iranian archives, this article provides crucial details about the social dynamics on the ground and stresses the role of key actors involved in this episode in Iranian history. In the process, the article puts together the socio-economic contexts of the events in Isfahan, explains why the Bahāʾis sought foreign protection, and analyzes the attitudes of powerful local actors such as Zell al-Soltān and Āqā Najafi.

Performing Spaces: Street Music and Public Territory

2007 ◽  
Vol 3 (1) ◽  
pp. 97-120 ◽  
Author(s):  
MICHAEL BYWATER
Keyword(s):  
Twentieth Century ◽  
Public Space ◽  
Music Performance ◽  
Liminal Space ◽  
Performance History ◽  
Historical Scholarship ◽  
Liminal Spaces ◽  
Ambient Music ◽  
Street Performance ◽  
Public Territory

AbstractThe interaction between ‘marginal’ music performance (whether socially or musically marginal, e.g. busking, ambient music, etc.) and ‘liminal’ spaces is at first sight a characteristically twentieth-century phenomenon. However, performance history as revealed not only through historical scholarship but through contemporary anecdotal or fictional writings can contextualize these current uses of music in negotiating public space, while revealing some of our assumptions about performance in general. I argue that much of liminal performance is concerned with the appropriation and retention of spaces in which to perform, and that this is no new thing but was, until relatively recently, the norm. I look at some aspects of performance history in the light of contemporary thinking about liminality, and consider how buskers, particularly in Bath (where I lived for several years) contend for temporary possession of public space as a prerequisite of their performances. I conclude by suggesting that the defining of liminal space might be usefully extended, in thinking about street performance, into the notion of ‘liminal spacetime’.

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