scholarly journals Collective Identity Supporting Sustainability Transformations in Ecovillage Communities

2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (15) ◽  
pp. 8148
Author(s):  
Ciska Ulug ◽  
Lummina Horlings ◽  
Elen-Maarja Trell

Ecovillages are collective projects that attempt to integrate sustainability principles into daily community life, while also striving to be demonstration projects for mainstream society. As spaces of experimentation, they can provide valuable insights into sustainability transformations. Through shared values and interpersonal connections, ecovillages possess collective identities, which provide a platform for enacting their ideals. However, many ecovillage residents question how to best enhance their role as models, resource centers, and pieces of a greater movement toward sustainability transformations, while simultaneously preserving their unique community and identity. In relation to the above, this paper addresses the questions: What can collective identity in ecovillage communities teach us about the objective and subjective dimensions of sustainability transformations? Furthermore, how can the perspective of collective identity highlight challenges for ecovillages for initiating sustainability transformations? Sustainability transformations encompass objective (behaviors) and subjective (values) dimensions; however, the interactions between these spheres deserve more scholarly attention. Using ethnographic data and in-depth interviews from three ecovillages in the United States, this paper reveals the value in collective identity for underscoring belonging and interpersonal relationships in sustainability transformations. Furthermore, the collective identity perspective exposes paradoxes and frictions between ecovillages and the societal structures and systems they are embedded within.

2020 ◽  
Vol 96 (5) ◽  
pp. 1367-1385
Author(s):  
Ann-Kathrin Rothermel

Abstract Women's rights are a core part of a global consensus on human rights. However, we are currently experiencing an increasing popularity of anti-feminist and misogynist politics threatening to override feminist gains. In order to help explain this current revival and appeal, in this article I analyse how anti-feminist communities construct their collective identities at the intersection of local and global trends and affiliations. Through an in-depth analysis of representations in the collective identities of six popular online anti-feminist communities based in India, Russia and the United States, I shed light on how anti-feminists discursively construct their anti-feminist ‘self’ and the feminist ‘other’ between narratives of localized resistance to change and backlash against the results of broader societal developments associated with globalization. The results expose a complex set of global–local dynamics, which provide a nuanced understanding of the differences and commonalities of anti-feminist collective identity-building and mobilization processes across contexts. By explicitly focusing on the role of discursively produced locations for anti-feminist identity-building and providing new evidence on anti-feminist communities across three different continents, the article contributes to current discussions on transnational anti-feminist mobilizations in both social movement studies and feminist International Relations.


2019 ◽  
Vol 31 (5) ◽  
pp. 479-490
Author(s):  
Alexander C. Adia ◽  
Michelle J. Ng ◽  
Ma Irene Quilantang ◽  
Arjee J. Restar ◽  
Laufred I. Hernandez ◽  
...  

Contextual factors, such as cultures of collectivism versus individualism, shape HIV coping strategies; despite this, little research regarding collective coping strategies applied to HIV exists. This may be important for the growing HIV epidemic in the Philippines, which has a collectivistic culture and where men who have sex with men (MSM) account for a majority of the cases. Fifteen semistructured, in-depth interviews with HIV-positive MSM and 6 interviews with community-based organization workers were conducted between June and August 2017. Data were analyzed using thematic framework analysis. Three strategies were identified: peer support, spirituality, and support from existing relationships. Each form of collective coping had unique mechanisms and benefits for dealing with HIV. Overall, helping MSM with HIV find a collective identity after an HIV diagnosis enables management of HIV-related challenges. Policies and research interventions that improve access to collective identities for MSM with HIV may improve management of HIV-related challenges.


Author(s):  
Hannah L. Walker

Springing from decades of abuse by law enforcement and an excessive criminal justice system, members of over-policed communities lead the current movement for civil rights in the United States. Activated by injustice, individuals protested police brutality in Ferguson, campaigned to end stop-and-frisk in New York City, and advocated for restorative justice in Washington, D.C. Yet, scholars focused on the negative impact of punitive policy on material resources, and trust in government did not predict these pockets of resistance, arguing instead that marginalizing and demeaning policy teaches individuals to acquiesce and withdraw. Mobilized by Injustice excavates conditions under which, despite otherwise negative outcomes, negative criminal justice experiences catalyze political action. This book argues that when understood as resulting from a system that targets people based on race, class, or other group identifiers, contact can politically mobilize. Negative experiences with democratic institutions predicated on equality under the law, when connected to a larger, group-based struggle, can provoke action from anger. Evidence from several surveys and in-depth interviews reveals that mobilization as result of negative criminal justice experiences is broad, crosses racial boundaries, and extends to the loved ones of custodial citizens. When over half of Blacks and Latinos and a plurality of Whites know someone with personal contact, the mobilizing effect of a sense of injustice promises to have important consequences for American politics.


Author(s):  
Andrea Harris

The introduction presents the core historiographical problem that Making BalletAmerican aims to correct: the idea that George Balanchine’s neoclassical choreography represents the first successful manifestation of an “American” ballet. While this idea is pervasive in dance history, little scholarly attention has been paid to its construction. The introduction brings to light an alternative, more complex historical context for American neoclassical ballet than has been previously considered. It places Lincoln Kirstein’s 1933 trip to Paris, famous for bringing Balanchine to the United States, within a transnational and interdisciplinary backdrop of modernism, during a time when the global art world was shifting significantly in response to the international rise of fascism. This context reverberates throughout to the book’s examination of American ballet as a form that was embedded in and responsive to a changing set of social, cultural, and political conditions over the period covered, 1933–1963.


Author(s):  
Deborah Carr ◽  
Vera K. Tsenkova

The body weight of U.S. adults and children has risen markedly over the past three decades. The physical health consequences of obesity are widely documented, and emerging research from the Midlife in the United States study and other large-scale surveys reveals the harmful impact of obesity on adults’ psychosocial and interpersonal well-being. This chapter synthesizes recent research on the psychosocial implications of body weight, with attention to explanatory mechanisms and subgroup differences in these patterns. A brief statistical portrait of body weight is provided, documenting rates and correlates of obesity, with a focus on race, gender, and socioeconomic status disparities. The consequences of body weight for three main outcomes are described: institutional and everyday discrimination, interpersonal relationships, and psychological well-being. The chapter concludes with a discussion of the ways that recent integrative health research on the psychosocial consequences of overweight and obesity inform our understanding of population health.


2020 ◽  
Vol 4 (Supplement_1) ◽  
pp. 542-542
Author(s):  
Angelica Yeh ◽  
Marie Mayen-Cho

Abstract Asians and Pacific Islanders (APIs) in the United States have limited access to dementia care information that is linguistically and culturally appropriate. Alzheimer’s Los Angeles created “Faces of Caregiving”, a video project available with English/Japanese subtitles, documenting in-depth interviews with 7 Japanese/Japanese-American familial care partners of individuals living with dementia. It touched on the personal yet universal aspects of each journey embedded in a particular family context. The 5 video profiles were subsequently shown at 3 community sites to attendees comprised of mostly older-adult APIs. Among 85 attendee responses, approximately 90% stated they were more likely to seek out information on and support for Alzheimer’s disease, felt more open to talking about the disease, and were more likely to advocate and raise awareness for the disease. This program could be replicated for other API communities, allowing individuals to learn more effectively from a peer-to-peer experience in a culturally familiar setting. Part of a symposium sponsored by the Aging Among Asians Interest Group.


2021 ◽  
pp. 002214652110234
Author(s):  
Deborah Carr ◽  
Eun Ha Namkung

Adults with disability have significantly lower rates of labor force participation relative to persons without disability, although it is unclear whether this disparity extends to subjective workplace experiences. Using data from the 2004 to 2006 wave of the National Survey of Midlife Development in the United States (n =2,030), we evaluate: (1) whether U.S. workers with physical disability report higher levels of perceived job discrimination and unequal workplace opportunities and lower levels of supervisor and coworker support and (2) whether these patterns differ by sex, age, and occupation group. We find that workers with physical disability fare significantly worse on all four outcomes net of covariates. Disability takes a particularly large toll on men’s perceived workplace opportunities and white-collar employees’ relationships with coworkers. Young adult workers (ages 30–39) with disability report significantly more support from their supervisor relative to their counterparts without disability. We discuss implications for research and policy.


Author(s):  
Harris Beider ◽  
Kusminder Chahal

Widely stereotyped as anti-immigrant, against civil-rights, or supporters of Trump and the right, can the white working class of the United States really be reduced to a singular group with similar views? This book begins with an overview of how the term “white working class” became weaponized and used as a vessel to describe people who were seen to be “deplorable.” The national narrative appears to credit (or blame) white working-class mobilization across the country for the success of Donald Trump in the 2016 US elections. Those who take this position see the white working class as being problematic in different ways: grounded in norms and behaviors that seem out of step with mainstream society; at odds with the reality of increased ethnic diversity across the country and especially in cities; blaming others for their economic plight; and disengaged from politics. Challenging populist views about the white working class in the United States, the book showcases what they really think about the defining issues in today's America—from race, identity, and change to the crucial on-the-ground debates occurring at the time of the 2016 U.S. election. As the 2020 presidential elections draw near, this is an invaluable insight into the complex views on 2016 election candidates, race, identity and cross-racial connections.


2021 ◽  
Vol In Press (In Press) ◽  
Author(s):  
Fatemeh Asadollahi ◽  
Hamid Taher Neshat Doost ◽  
Mohammad Reza Abedi ◽  
Hamid Afshar Zanjani

Background: Persistent depressive disorder (PDD) is a chronic problem that is more prevalent among women than men. Various studies have revealed that these people experience many problems in their interpersonal relationships, which increase their suffering. Objectives: The present study was done to identify how people suffering from PDD experience interpersonal relationships that often seem troubled and broken. Methods: A phenomenological approach was adopted for this qualitative study. For this purpose, in-depth interviews were conducted with 21 individuals with PDD, focusing on exploring their experience and suffering in interpersonal relationships. All interviews were recorded and transcribed, and the transcripts were analyzed using Giorgi’s phenomenological descriptive method. Results: In general, five main themes and 16 sub-themes emerged. The main themes were: (1) Feeling empty of love and compassion; (2) feeling ignored; (3) ignoring others’ needs, conditions, and suffering; (4) feeling of being annoying to others; and (5) feeling confused and helpless in relationships. Conclusions: It seems that all five themes convey the message that these individuals demonstrate less skill in feeling compassion and receiving it from others. Therefore, it appears that long-term compassion-based interventions can effectively reduce the interpersonal suffering of these individuals. It should be noted that although these themes have commonalities in different cultural contexts, the culture can influence the content and intensity of these feelings.


PMLA ◽  
2011 ◽  
Vol 126 (1) ◽  
pp. 140-150 ◽  
Author(s):  
Janice Radway

The term zine is a recent variant of fanzine, a neologism coined in the 1930s to refer to magazines self-published by Aficionados of science fiction. Until zines emerged as digital forms, they were generally defined as handmade, noncommercial, irregularly issued, small-run, paper publications circulated by individuals participating in alternative, special-interest communities. Zines exploded in popularity during the 1980s when punk music fans adopted the form as part of their do-it-yourself aesthetic and as an outsider way to communicate among themselves about punk's defiant response to the commercialism of mainstream society. In 1990, only a few years after the first punk zines appeared, Mike Gunderloy made a case for the genre's significance in an article published in the Whole Earth Review, one of the few surviving organs of the 1960s alternative press in the United States. He celebrated zines' wide range of interests and the oppositional politics that generated their underground approach to publication.


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