“Consumption” of Past to Define Ethnic Identity in Real Time and Space

Author(s):  
Nino Okrostsvaridze ◽  
Elisabed Bzhalava

This research examines the strength of the Turkish Georgians ethnic identity in Turkey and Germany, issues of socialization with German society, and perception of “home” and “consumption” of the past to define ethnic identity. Consumption is not only a way of behaving, but it is also part of a way of life, which is defined by ethnic and religious identity, which itself defines consumer behaviour. A perception of self-identification, linkage with forefathers, and a search for a long-lost past are particularly necessary in foreign countries, and different reminders regarding the past and origin are considered to be the best means. Consumption of “past” and (re)construction of memories form a tight-knit ethnic unit in a foreign country, and institutionalization of own culture is so strong that many of the ethnic participants feel as if they were living in their own country. Ethnic “retailers” (communities, membership groups) provide the “emotional glue” that sticks ethnic participants together giving them a sense of identity.

Author(s):  
R.B. Shaykhislamov ◽  
O.A. Bureeva

Over the past three decades, both in Russia as a whole and in its regions, the number of believers representing different faiths has increased. Most Russian regions are multi-confessional. Relations of mutual respect and tolerance have evolved over the centuries between the adherents of traditional religions. It should be noted that in the traditional way of life, representatives of confessional groups formed separate settlements. Today the representatives of different confessions live in the same locality urban and rural areas, often are neighbors, and colleagues. Moreover, representatives of confessional groups become distant or close relatives. In other words, there is a reduction in the social distance between representatives of different faiths. Therefore, it is essential to find ways not only of good-neighbourly coexistence, not only tolerance, but also trust and cooperation between different groups of believers at the macro-, meso- and micro levels.


Author(s):  
Alan S. Rudolph ◽  
Ronald R. Price

We have employed cryoelectron microscopy to visualize events that occur during the freeze-drying of artificial membranes by employing real time video capture techniques. Artificial membranes or liposomes which are spherical structures within internal aqueous space are stabilized by water which provides the driving force for spontaneous self-assembly of these structures. Previous assays of damage to these structures which are induced by freeze drying reveal that the two principal deleterious events that occur are 1) fusion of liposomes and 2) leakage of contents trapped within the liposome [1]. In the past the only way to access these events was to examine the liposomes following the dehydration event. This technique allows the event to be monitored in real time as the liposomes destabilize and as water is sublimed at cryo temperatures in the vacuum of the microscope. The method by which liposomes are compromised by freeze-drying are largely unknown. This technique has shown that cryo-protectants such as glycerol and carbohydrates are able to maintain liposomal structure throughout the drying process.


Author(s):  
Diane Orentlicher

The span of an international tribunal’s local impact is not the same as its operational life, as Germany’s evolved relationship with Nuremberg highlights. Recognizing that the ICTY’s impact in Bosnia and Serbia will continue to evolve after the Tribunal ends its work, this chapter considers the Tribunal’s future impact, focusing in particular on its potential to stimulate a future reckoning with Serbia’s wartime past. While recognizing myriad differences between post-Milošević Serbia and postwar Germany, this chapter explores factors behind the latter’s eventual emergence as a “model penitent” long after German society rejected the moral message the Allies hoped Nuremberg would impart. It suggests that, after an extended period of “transitional denial,” Nuremberg may have contributed to Germany’s far-reaching reckoning with the past through a process of delayed norm diffusion.


Author(s):  
Nurit Yaari

How does a theatrical tradition emerge in the fields of dramatic writing and artistic performance? Can a culture, in which theatre played no part in the past, create a theatrical tradition in real time—and how? What was the contribution of classical Greek drama to the evolution of Israeli theatre? How do political and social conditions affect the encounter between cultures—and what role do they play in creating a theatre with a distinctive identity? This book, the first of its kind, attempts to answer these and other questions, by examining the reception of classical Greek drama in the Israeli theatre over the last seventy years. It deals with dramatic and aesthetic issues while analysing translations, adaptations, new writing, mise-en-scène, and ‘post dramatic’ performances of classical Greek drama that were created and staged at key points of the development of Israeli culture amidst fateful political, social, and cultural events in the country’s history.


Author(s):  
Donald Bloxham

Against majority opinion within his profession, Donald Bloxham argues that it is legitimate, often unavoidable, and frequently important for historians to make value judgements about the past. History and Morality draws on a wide range of historical examples, and its author’s insights as a practising historian. Examining concepts like impartiality, neutrality, contextualization, and the use and abuse of the idea of the past as a foreign country, Bloxham’s book investigates how the discipline has got to the point where what is preached can be so inconsistent with what is practised. It illuminates how far tacit moral judgements infuse works of history, and how strange those histories would look if the judgements were removed. Bloxham argues that rather than trying to eradicate all judgemental elements from their work historians need to think more consistently about how, and with what justification, they make the judgements that they do. The importance of all this lies not just in the responsibilities that historians bear towards the past—responsibilities to take historical actors on those actors’ own terms and to portray the impact of those actors’ deeds—but also in the role of history as a source of identity, pride, and shame in the present. The account of moral thought in History and Morality has ramifications far beyond the activities of vocational historians.


2021 ◽  
pp. 147612702110120
Author(s):  
Siavash Alimadadi ◽  
Andrew Davies ◽  
Fredrik Tell

Research on the strategic organization of time often assumes that collective efforts are motivated by and oriented toward achieving desirable, although not necessarily well-defined, future states. In situations surrounded by uncertainty where work has to proceed urgently to avoid an impending disaster, however, temporal work is guided by engaging with both desirable and undesirable future outcomes. Drawing on a real-time, in-depth study of the inception of the Restoration and Renewal program of the Palace of Westminster, we investigate how organizational actors develop a strategy for an uncertain and highly contested future while safeguarding ongoing operations in the present and preserving the heritage of the past. Anticipation of undesirable future events played a crucial role in mobilizing collective efforts to move forward. We develop a model of future desirability in temporal work to identify how actors construct, link, and navigate interpretations of desirable and undesirable futures in their attempts to create a viable path of action. By conceptualizing temporal work based on the phenomenological quality of the future, we advance understanding of the strategic organization of time in pluralistic contexts characterized by uncertainty and urgency.


Rhizomata ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 8 (2) ◽  
pp. 183-217
Author(s):  
Matthew Sharpe

Abstract This paper examines the central criticisms that come, broadly, from the modern, ‘analytic’ tradition, of Pierre Hadot’s idea of ancient philosophy as a way of life.: Firstly, ancient philosophy just did not or could not have involved anything like the ‘spiritual practices’ or ‘technologies of the self’, aiming at curing subjects’ unnecessary desires or bettering their lives, contra Hadot and Foucault et al. Secondly, any such metaphilosophical account of putative ‘philosophy’ must unacceptably downplay the role of ‘serious philosophical reasoning’ or ‘rigorous argument’ in philosophy. Thirdly, claims that ancient philosophy aimed at securing wisdom by a variety of means including but not restricted to rational inquiry are accordingly false also as historical claims about the ancient philosophers. Fourthly, to the extent that we must (despite (3)) admit that some ancient thinkers did engage in or recommend extra-cognitive forms of transformative practice, these thinkers were not true or ‘mainline’ philosophers. I contend that the historical claims (3) and (4) are highly contestable, risking erroneously projecting a later modern conception of philosophy back onto the past. Of the theoretical or metaphilosophical claims (1) and (2), I argue that the second claim, as framed here, points to real, hard questions that surround the conception(s) of philosophy as a way of life.


Philosophy ◽  
2010 ◽  
Vol 85 (2) ◽  
pp. 225-243
Author(s):  
Tim Heysse

How should we look back on the history and the origins of our ethical outlook and our way of life? We know that in the past, strange and appalling ethical views and practices have enjoyed widespread and sincere support. Yet we do not regard our contemporary outlook – to the extent that we do, at the present, have a common outlook – as one option among many. However bemused we may feel in ethical matters, at least on some issues we claim to have reasons that are good (enough). If we do not object to the use of the predicate ‘true’ in ethics, we may say that we are confronted with the (ethical) truth of an outlook. Or, to echo a provocative expression of David Wiggins, we claim that ‘there is nothing else to think’.


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