scholarly journals Franciscan Tradition in Management and Leadership Thinking Today

Religions ◽  
2018 ◽  
Vol 9 (12) ◽  
pp. 376
Author(s):  
Markus Warode ◽  
Mareike Gerundt

What can we learn from the Franciscan Tradition for the management world today? This research question has lead the research at the Philosophical-Theological College of the German Capuchins for many years. In this paper we focus on the 800-year history of the Franciscan family as a learning organization in order to explore the question of transformation as a key concept of Franciscan life resp. Franciscan leadership. To do so we look at the founder of the Order, Francis of Assisi (1181–1226) first. Francis himself stands for a personal, continuous process of transformation in which he chooses the Gospel as a basic orientation for his life. He completely changed his life goals and defines the identity of the entire Franciscan organization. In this context, the core values of the Franciscans, such as evangelical poverty, serving character, and the aspect of brotherhood will be discussed. The Franciscan Community serves as a perfect field of practice for bringing together attitude and action. Finally, practical experiences from the Franciscan tradition, like developing of structural elements (e.g., the annual chapters) are related to the management context. By focusing on the practice and the focus on transformation, the Franciscan example can inspire modern organizations.

2012 ◽  
Vol 114 (5) ◽  
pp. 1-49
Author(s):  
Russell Skiba

Background/Context Research in the latter half of the 20th century purporting to show significant racial differences in intelligence and social behavior appears to pit civil rights concerns against the freedom of scientific inquiry. The core hypotheses and presumptions of recent research on racial difference are not new, however, but spring from a two-century-old program of research that has sought to demonstrate racial differences in socially valued traits. Purpose/Objective/Research Question/Focus of Study The purpose of this review was to explore the history of racial difference research in order to (1) elucidate the central themes of that research and (2) explore the reasons for the persistence of those themes into modern racial difference research. Research Design The investigation is a historical analysis of research on racial differences from the late 18th century to the present. Conclusions/Recommendations Both the methodologies and the willingness to express the core hypotheses of a fixed differential between races on socially important characteristics have changed over time, yet adherence to a set of core research questions has remained relatively unchanged across generations of researchers. Although the consistent conflation of its political and scientific aims has, to some extent, compromised the scientific status of racial difference research, consistent links to social and economic policy have also ensured its intergenerational reproduction. Convergent shifts across a number of disciplines suggest that a Kuhnian-type paradigm shift may be under way that will redefine both the strategies and the types of questions that may characterize future research in the areas of race, ethnicity, and culture.


2018 ◽  
Vol 7 (3) ◽  
pp. 277 ◽  
Author(s):  
Maria Del Mar Ramis Salas

The present article discusses how Paulo Freire was ahead of his time with his theoretical contributions by reflecting on the author’s groundbreaking insights, particularly those developed in his Pedagogy of the oppressed. To do so, the paper first introduces his Theory of Dialogical Action and the premises that explain how it established the theoretical grounds for some of the most relevant theoretical works in the Social Sciences such as Habermas’ Theory of the Communicative Action developed more than a decade after Freire’s work. The second part of the paper further explores the influence of the premises of the Dialogic Education, by reviewing the theoretical foundations of other major theoretical works and practical experiences that building on Freire’s work and the centrality of dialogue in the educational process continue enabling the creation of future through transformative educational experiences. In so doing, the impact that the legacy of one of the most relevant authors in the history of education has had upon most relevant theoretical conceptualisations as well as a successful practical key experiences is further explained.


Tempo Social ◽  
2018 ◽  
Vol 30 (3) ◽  
pp. 67-84
Author(s):  
Stefan Klein ◽  
Ricardo Pagliuso Regatieri

In the early 1940s, critical theory borrowed the term racket from the urban crime underworld and applied it to criticize monopoly capitalism, which was regarded as a constellation ruled in a mafia-like manner. Decades later, after the experiences of the welfare state in the core counties and catch-up modernizations in the periphery, concepts such as cronyism and mafioso state were proposed. What these three approaches have in common is the fact that they highlight the mafia-like nature of capitalism and do so for different social and historical contexts. This article suggests that rackets, cronies or mafias have more recently, and increasingly, become structural elements of capitalism, as was first envisaged by critical theory during World War ii. We combine theoretical critique and insights with references to empirical expressions of this phenomenon to shed light on this development.


Africa ◽  
1995 ◽  
Vol 65 (4) ◽  
pp. 545-564 ◽  
Author(s):  
Hugh Macmillan

AbstractThis article seeks to explain why social anthropologists working in southern Africa in the 1930s were so ill equipped to distinguish between real and invented traditions or old and revived customs. The core of the article is a contemporary account of the history of an aspect of custom. The custom in question relates to the control within the age grade or regimental system of the age at marriage of men in Swazi society. The article examines the motives of the Swazi authorities, under the leadership of the Paramount Chief, Sobhuza II, in attempting to revive in the late 1920s and early 1930s the custom of fining men who married before their regiment, or age grade, had been given permission for them to do so. It also considers the attitude of members of the colonial administration towards the revival of this custom and the part played by members of the administration, especially A. G. Marwick, in the formulation of the ‘traditionalist’ agenda. It also examines the way in which social anthropologists, including Winifred Hoernlé, Isaac Schapera, Bronislaw Malinowski and Hilda Kuper, were recruited in support of Sobhuza II's ‘traditionalist’ programme. It notes the failure of these anthropologists to comment on the fact that custom was being revived and seeks to explain their emphasis on continuity. It seeks, in essence, to show what it was in the environment of Swaziland in the 1930s which led so many intelligent observers either to describe what they did not see or not to describe what they did see. It suggests some links between the ideas of administrators, anthropologists and ‘traditionalists’.


2020 ◽  
Vol 9 (1) ◽  
pp. 374-395
Author(s):  
Rafael Ignacio Estrada Mejia ◽  
Carla Guerrón Guerron Montero

This article aims to decrease the cultural invisibility of the wealthy by exploring the Brazilian emergent elites and their preferred living arrangement: elitist closed condominiums (BECCs) from a micropolitical perspective.  We answer the question: What is the relationship between intimacy and subjectivity that is produced in the collective mode of existence of BECCs? To do so, we trace the history of the elite home, from the master’s house (casa grande) to contemporary closed condominiums. Following, we discuss the features of closed condominiums as spaces of segregation, fragmentation and social distinction, characterized by minimal public life and an internalized sociability. Finally, based on ethnographic research conducted in the mid-size city of Londrina (state of Paraná) between 2015 and 2017, we concentrate on four members of the emergent elite who live in BECCs, addressing their collective production of subjectivity. 


Author(s):  
Elena N. NARKHOVA ◽  
Dmitry Yu. NARKHOV

This article analyzes the degree of demand for works of art (films and television films and series, literary and musical works, works of monumental art) associated with the history of the Great Patriotic War among contemporary students. This research is based on the combination of two theories, which study the dynamics and statics of culture in the society — the theory of the nucleus and periphery by Yu. M. Lotman and the theory of actual culture by L. N. Kogan. The four waves of research (2005, 2010, 2015, 2020) by the Russian Society of Socio¬logists (ROS) have revealed a series of works in various genres on this topic in the core structure and on the periphery of the current student culture; this has also allowed tracing the dynamics of demand and the “movement” of these works in the sociocultural space. The authors introduce the concept of the archetype of the echo of war. The high student recognition of works of all historical periods (from wartime to the present day) is shown. A significant complex of works has been identified, forming two contours of the periphery. Attention is drawn to the artistic work of contemporary students as a way to preserve the historical memory of the Great Patriotic War. This article explains the necessity of preserving the layer of national culture in order to reproduce the national identity in the conditions of informational and ideological pluralism of the post-Soviet period. The authors note the differentiation of youth due to the conditions and specifics of socialization in the polysemantic sociocultural space.


2008 ◽  
Vol 67 (2) ◽  
pp. 99-114
Author(s):  
Pieter-Jan Van Bosstraeten

Op 11 oktober 1978 splitste de Belgische Socialistische Partij zich als laatste van de drie unitaire partijen op in twee autonome partijen. Langs Franstalige zijde werd éénzijdig de Parti Socialiste opgericht, twee jaar later volgde de Socialistische Partij. De splitsing vormde het eindpunt van een lange en bewogen geschiedenis van de socialistische eenheidspartij.Ondanks het feit dat heel wat auteurs reeds een licht hebben geworpen op de belangrijkste gebeurtenis uit de na-oorlogse geschiedenis van de BSP, is het antwoord op de vraag naar de oorzaken van de splitsing vrij eenduidig. Overwegend wordt aangenomen dat de splitsing van de BSP het gevolg is van een moeilijke samenwerking in het kader van het communautaire dossier. Andere oorzaken worden amper aangehaald, of onvoldoende verduidelijkt. Tevens wordt slechts het politiek-tactische aspect van het communautaire dossier uitvoerig besproken. In de bestaande literatuur wordt zo goed als nergens dieper ingegaan op de inhoudelijke elementen die binnen de partij problemen teweegbrachten.Onderzoek van twee cruciale documenten heeft de mogelijkheid geboden het verhaal van de splitsing beter te reconstrueren. Daarbij is gebleken dat de splitsing van de partij in een ruimer kader dient te worden geïnterpreteerd dan het communautaire dossier. Aan de splitsing van de partij ging een lang proces van autonomisering en vleugelvorming vooraf. Bovendien werd aangetoond dat de problematiek inzake het Egmont-Stuyvenbergpact niet de enige directe oorzaak vormde voor de splitsing van de partij, in de periode 1977-1978. Enkele andere oorzaken hebben daartoe eveneens bijgedragen.________The division of the Belgian Socialist Party. Two explanatory documentsOn 11 October 1978 the Belgian Socialist Party divided into two autonomous parties, the last of the three unitary parties to do so. First the French speaking section unilaterally founded the ‘Parti Socialiste’, two years later the ‘Socialistische Partij’ followed. The division constituted the termination of the long and eventful history of the socialist unitary party.In spite of the fact that many authors have already shed light on the most important event from the post-war history of the BSP, the answer to the question about the causes for the division are fairly unequivocal. The majority of opinions favour the view that the division of the BSP was the consequence of the difficulty of collaborating within the framework of the community dossier. Other causes are hardly cited, or insufficiently elucidated. Moreover only the politico-tactical aspect of the community dossier is discussed in detail. The existing literature hardly ever carries out a more thorough examination of the intrinsic elements that caused problems within the party.The investigation of the two crucial documents has offered the opportunity to provide a better reconstruction of the division. This showed that the division of the party should be interpreted within a larger framework than the community dossier alone. A long process of autonomisation and the formation of political wings preceded the division of the party. It also demonstrated that the issues concerning the Egmont-Stuyvenberg pact were not the only direct cause for the division of the party, during the period 1977-1978. There were several other causes that also contributed to this division.


Author(s):  
Hideko Abe

This article discusses how the intersection of grammatical gender and social gender, entwined in the core structure of language, can be analyzed to understand the dynamic status of selfhood. After reviewing a history of scholarship that demonstrates this claim, the discussion analyzes the language practices of transgender individuals in Japan, where transgender identity is currently understood in terms of sei-dōitsusei-shōgai (gender identity disorder). Based on fieldwork conducted between 2011 and 2017, the analysis reveals how individuals identifying with sei-dōitsusei-shōgai negotiate subject positions by manipulating the specific indexical meanings attached to grammatical structures.


2021 ◽  
Vol 10 (8) ◽  
pp. 294
Author(s):  
Laura Cervi ◽  
Fernando García ◽  
Carles Marín Lladó

During a global pandemic, the great impact of populist discourse on the construction of social reality is undeniable. This study analyzes the fantasmatic dimension of political discourse from Donald Trump’s and Jair Bolsonaro’s Twitter accounts between 1 March and 31 May. To do so, it applies a Clause-Based Semantic Text Analysis (CBSTA) methodology that categorizes speech in Subject-Verb-Object (SVO) triplets. The study findings show that in spite of the Coronavirus pandemic, the main beatific and horrific subjects remain the core populist signifiers: the people and the elite. While Bolsonaro’s narrative was predominantly beatific, centered on the government, Trump’s was mostly horrific, centered on the elite. Trump signified the pandemic as a subject and an enemy to be defeated, whereas Bolsonaro portrayed it as a circumstance. Finally, both leaders defined the people as working people, therefore their concerns about the pandemic were focused on the people’s ability to work.


Author(s):  
Mandi Astola

AbstractStudies in collective intelligence have shown that suboptimal cognitive traits of individuals can lead a group to succeed in a collective cognitive task, in recent literature this is called mandevillian intelligence. Analogically, as Mandeville has suggested, the moral vices of individuals can sometimes also lead to collective good. I suggest that this mandevillian morality can happen in many ways in collaborative activities. Mandevillian morality presents a challenge for normative virtue theories in ethics. The core of the problem is that mandevillian morality implies that individual vice is, in some cases, valuable. However, normative virtue theories generally see vice as disvaluable. A consequence of this is that virtue theories struggle to account for the good that can emerge in a collective. I argue that normative virtue theories can in fact accommodate for mandevillian emergent good. I put forward three distinctive features that allow a virtue theory to do so: a distinction between individual and group virtues, a distinction between motivational and teleological virtues, and an acknowledgement of the normativity of “vicious” roles in groups.


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