Living Myths in a Living World

2022 ◽  
pp. 145-163
Author(s):  
Amber Lehning
Keyword(s):  
Environmental Values ◽  
Environmental Activism ◽  
Fan Studies ◽  
Living World ◽  
Green Approach ◽  
A Value ◽  
Value Shift ◽  
Mythological Studies

This chapter considers fan studies in a mythological studies context and examines how green studies might use a similar approach to tap into the cultural and mythic power of modern fandoms. The first part defines the components of myth, considers existing fandom studies theories related to those components, and discusses on how fandom studies could impact the larger mythological studies debate. The second part describes the mythological roots of today's environmental crises and discusses the influence of specific fandoms on environmental activism. The chapter closes with some thoughts on how a mythological and green approach to fandom could provide further cultural impetus to positive environmental values much as feminist, ethnic, and queer perspectives on fandom have highlighted and supported a value shift in society as a whole.

Living Myths in a Living World

2020 ◽  
pp. 1-19
Author(s):  
Amber Lehning
Keyword(s):  
Environmental Values ◽  
Environmental Activism ◽  
Fan Studies ◽  
Living World ◽  
Green Approach ◽  
A Value ◽  
Value Shift ◽  
Mythological Studies

This chapter considers fan studies in a mythological studies context and examines how green studies might use a similar approach to tap into the cultural and mythic power of modern fandoms. The first part defines the components of myth, considers existing fandom studies theories related to those components, and discusses on how fandom studies could impact the larger mythological studies debate. The second part describes the mythological roots of today's environmental crises and discusses the influence of specific fandoms on environmental activism. The chapter closes with some thoughts on how a mythological and green approach to fandom could provide further cultural impetus to positive environmental values much as feminist, ethnic, and queer perspectives on fandom have highlighted and supported a value shift in society as a whole.

scholarly journals Creative Activism: a pedagogical and research tool

2007 ◽  
Vol 4 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Ruth Morrow
Keyword(s):  
Applied Research ◽  
Environmental Activism ◽  
Architectural Education ◽  
Research Projects ◽  
Creative Processes ◽  
Learning And Teaching ◽  
A Value ◽  
External Threat ◽  
Outreach Programme ◽  
Activist Groups

Environmental activism has a long history in protest, addressing issues of degradation and segregation that threaten existing ecologies, social and built fabrics. Environmental activism is traditionally understood as a reaction, chiefly by groups of people, against a perceived external threat. In the 60’s and 70’s, an activist stance began to emerge in the work of some artists and architects, who used creative methods such as performances, happenings, temporary spatial interventions etc to convey their political/aesthetic messages. Some of this work engaged directly with communities but predominantly it was the production of one individual working ‘outside’ society. However such actions demonstrated not only the power of the visual in conveying a political message but also the potential of conceptual creative approaches to reveal alternative values and hidden potentials. This marked a shift from activism as protestation towards an activism of reconceptualisation. Recently, activist groups have developed a more politically informed process. Whilst their ‘tools’ may resemble work from the 60’s and 70’s, their methodologies are nontraditional, ’rhizomatic’, pedagogical and fluid; working alongside, rather than against, the established power and funding structures. Such creative processes build new, often unexpected, stakeholder networks; offer neutral spaces in which contentious issues can be faced; and create better understanding of values and identities. They can also lead to permanent improvements and development in the physical fabric. This paper will discuss a pedagogical example of activism in architectural education. The event (www.fourdaysontheoutside.com) is in its fifth year of existence and as such has revealed a value and impulse beyond its learning and teaching value. The paper will discuss how the event contributes to the university’s outreach programme and how its structure acts as a seedbed for potential research projects and partnerships. UK Universities talk extensively about applied research but have few actual strategies by which to generate it. Fourdaysontheoutside offers some potential ways forward.

Liberal Protestantism: End of the Road?

1985 ◽  
Vol 480 (1) ◽  
pp. 39-52
Author(s):  
BENTON JOHNSON
Keyword(s):  
Reinhold Niebuhr ◽  
Popular Piety ◽  
The Road ◽  
A Value ◽  
Religious Liberalism ◽  
Value Shift ◽  
Liberal Christianity ◽  
The 1960S ◽  
Protestant Denominations ◽  
College Educated

The liberal Protestant denominations, long the most influential of America's mainline religious bodies, have suffered serious membership losses since the late 1960s. The principal sources of the losses are in the failure of the children of members to remain affiliated; this failure has been traced to a value shift that began among college-educated youth in the 1960s. Although this shift caught the liberal churches by surprise, their leaders contributed to the intellectual climate that made it possible. This climate was created in the 1930s by Reinhold Niebuhr in his critique of the optimistic religious liberalism of his day as the self-serving ideology of the bourgeoisie. As an alternative he urged theology to recover a sense of the sinful and tragic side of life and urged Christians to support the struggles of oppressed peoples. Although these themes profoundly affected liberal Protestant leaders, they failed to attract most lay people. In the 1950s Protestant intellectuals began mounting a frontal assault on the popular piety of the laity. This assault, which eventually extended even to theistic belief itself, was thematically similar to secular intellectuals' critiques of American culture and institutions, which were later embodied in an exaggerated form in the youth rebellions of the 1960s. If the liberal churches are to recover their strength and cultural influence they will have to make liberal Christianity more relevant and compelling to its own constituency.

The Varieties of Ecological Piety

1997 ◽  
Vol 1 (1) ◽  
pp. 37-55 ◽  
Author(s):  
Bronislaw SZERSZYNSKI
Keyword(s):  
Everyday Life ◽  
Human Nature ◽  
Environmental Values ◽  
Deep Ecology ◽  
A Value ◽  
Abstract Ideas ◽  
Gaia Theory ◽  
The Universe ◽  
The Way

AbstractThe idea of nature's sacrality, contrasting starkly with industrial modernity's overwhelmingly instrumental valuation of non-human nature, visibly inform philosophical positions such as deep ecology and Gaia theory. But at a more unspoken level they can also be seen as suffusing a wider societal sensibility, evident not least in popular values regarding nature. But, granted that many people would ascribe such a value to nature, how are such beliefs embodied in their lives? An attention to the theological or cosmological level can only take us so far in understanding the dynamics of culture; we need also to attend to questions of practice, ritual, community and relationship, for it is through such elements that more abstract ideas about humanity's place in the universe are given both support and expression. It is in this spirit of inquiry that this paper proceeds, arguing that religious forms of action and corporateness characteristic of monastic, sectarian, churchly, and folk religiosity have shaped the way that contemporary environmental values are embodied in the practices and experience of everyday life.

Metaphor and Metonymy in Language and Art

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Antonio Barcelona
Keyword(s):  
Speech Acts ◽  
Literal Meaning ◽  
Religious Community ◽  
Phase Model ◽  
Two Phase ◽  
Religious Perspective ◽  
Literal Sense ◽  
Early Christian ◽  
A Value ◽  
Value Shift

Interpreting sacred notions of the Hebrew Bible in a non-literal sense was part of the hermeneutical manoeuvres of Early Christian writers. They proceeded by deliteralization and metaphorization, meta-linguistic speech acts by which a word usually understood in its literal sense receives a non-literal meaning. The author develops a two-phase model of Paul’s notion of the ‘circumcision of the heart.’ First the initial values (Jewishness and ritual circumcision) are projected upon a newly created target, inwardness. Then the original value is abolished. This process can be termed a value-shift, versus similar instances which should be seen as value-extensions, the source value being preserved and extended to other realms. Corollaries of value-shift and value-extension are duty-shift and duty-extension. From a socio-religious perspective, metaphorization accompanies a widening of the religious community; it reveals itself to be a moment in the genesis of new philosophical concepts, such as inwardness as the locus of redemption.

How Green is Judaism? Exploring Jewish Environmental Ethics

2001 ◽  
Vol 11 (2) ◽  
pp. 349-363 ◽  
Author(s):  
David Vogel
Keyword(s):  
Environmental Ethics ◽  
Physical Environment ◽  
Social Values ◽  
Human Life ◽  
Environmental Values ◽  
Moral Values ◽  
Green Is ◽  
Jewish Thought ◽  
A Value

Abstract:This article draws on ancient and medieval Jewish texts to explore the role of the physical environment in Jewish thought. It situates Jewish teachings in the context of the debate between anthropocentrism and ecocentrism, discusses the Jewish view of nature, and reviews various interpretations of an important Biblical precept of environmental ethics. It argues that while Jewish thought contains many “green” elements, it also contains a number of beliefs that challenge some contemporary environmental values.The key to the Jewish contribution to environmental ethics lies in the concept of balance—balance between the values and needs of humans and the claims of nature, and between viewing nature as a source of life and moral values and as a threat to human life and social values. The teachings of Judaism challenge both those who would place too low a value on nature as well as those who would place too high a value on it.

Metaphor in Religious Transformation

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ralph Bisschops
Keyword(s):  
Religious Community ◽  
Phase Model ◽  
Jewish Law ◽  
Two Phase ◽  
Religious Perspective ◽  
Religious Transformation ◽  
Early Christian ◽  
Initial Values ◽  
A Value ◽  
Value Shift

Interpreting sacred notions of the Hebrew Bible in a figurative sense was part of the hermeneutical manoeuvres of Early Christian writers. They proceeded by deliteralisation and metaphorisation. Paul’s notion of the ‘circumcision of the heart’, which is intimately linked to that of the ‘inner Jew’, was an attempt to internalise Jewish law-abidingness whilst abolishing its initial dignity. The chapter develops a two-phase model behind Paul’s metaphorisations. First the initial values (Jewishness and ritual circumcision) are projected onto a newly created target, namely inwardness. Subsequently, the original value is abolished. This process can be termed a value-shift, in contradistinction to similar instances which should be seen as value-extensions the source value being preserved and merely extended. . Corollaries of value-shift and value-extension are duty-shift and duty-extension. From a socio-religious perspective, metaphorisation goes along with a widening of the religious community. In the last resort, however, it reveals itself to be a moment in the genesis of new theological and even philosophical concepts such as inwardness as the locus of redemption.

African Environmental Ethics and the Poverty of Eco-Activism in Nigeria

Matatu ◽  
2016 ◽  
Vol 48 (2) ◽  
pp. 363-388 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ademola Kazeem Fayemi
Keyword(s):  
Environmental Management ◽  
Environmental Ethics ◽  
Environmental Values ◽  
Environmental Activism ◽  
African Studies ◽  
Present Essay ◽  
Ethical Thinking ◽  
Environmental Theory ◽  
Match Theory

Discourse on the possibility and necessity of an African environmental ethics is widespread in contemporary African studies, albeit with new dimensions and emphasis. With the growing work of such scholars as S. Ogungbemi, A. Fadahunsi, G. Tangwa, P. Ojomo, C.J. Ekwealo, and W. Kelbessa, among others exploring (in different ways) the thesis of indigenous African environmental values and principles which are considered sacrosanct in the restoration of humans and the environment in Africa, it is less controversial whether or not there is awareness of environmental ethical thinking among Africans. Beyond this theoretical polemic, the present essay observes the paucity of environmental activism and movements in Nigeria, whose underlying principles and tenets are seen to be incongruent with the ostensible African environmental ethics and values. This lacuna, it is here argued, aligns with the failure to match theory with praxis in many African states—the problem of wrong prioritizing and a conceptually deficient framework for action. This essay accordingly questions some previous outlines of African ethical environmental theory, with a view to establishing a cogent hermeneutico-reconstructive theory of African environmental management, one that gives prominence to ethical theorizing without neglecting activism.

Observations of the Thermal Decomposition of Brucite

1968 ◽  
Vol 26 ◽  
pp. 446-447
Author(s):  
P. L. Burnett ◽  
W. R. Mitchell ◽  
C. L. Houck
Keyword(s):  
Thermal Decomposition ◽  
Magnesium Oxide ◽  
Basal Plane ◽  
Magnesium Ions ◽  
A Value ◽  
Reaction Proceeds

Natural Brucite (Mg(OH)2) decomposes on heating to form magnesium oxide (MgO) having its cubic ﹛110﹜ and ﹛111﹜ planes respectively parallel to the prism and basal planes of the hexagonal brucite lattice. Although the crystal-lographic relation between the parent brucite crystal and the resulting mag-nesium oxide crystallites is well known, the exact mechanism by which the reaction proceeds is still a matter of controversy. Goodman described the decomposition as an initial shrinkage in the brucite basal plane allowing magnesium ions to shift their original sites to the required magnesium oxide positions followed by a collapse of the planes along the original <0001> direction of the brucite crystal. He noted that the (110) diffraction spots of brucite immediately shifted to the positions required for the (220) reflections of magnesium oxide. Gordon observed separate diffraction spots for the (110) brucite and (220) magnesium oxide planes. The positions of the (110) and (100) brucite never changed but only diminished in intensity while the (220) planes of magnesium shifted from a value larger than the listed ASTM d spacing to the predicted value as the decomposition progressed.

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