scholarly journals The role of architectural design for rheumatic patients’ wellbeing: the point of view of Environmental Psychology

Reumatismo ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 72 (1) ◽  
pp. 60-66
Author(s):  
L. Punzi ◽  
M. Chia ◽  
S. Cipolletta ◽  
C. Dolcetti ◽  
P. Galozzi ◽  
...  

Rheumatic diseases (RD) are among the most frequent disorders in the population and the major causes of chronic pain and disability. The resulting consequences are catastrophic, leading to a significant socio-economic burden, which includes significant reductions in quality of life (QoL) and limitations in regular work and daily activities of patients. In spite of this, rheumatic diseases are often misunderstood or diagnosed late, probably due to their characteristics of silent diseases, sometimes unrecognizable to unaffected or unskilled people. Actually, it is surprising that, despite their consequences on QoL and on individual impact, rheumatic diseases are underestimated by the public opinion, which is probably more attracted by other major diseases causing death. This silent perception can even be seen in some among the most recent psycho-social approaches to population needs in the fields of Health Psychology and Environmental Psychology. The latter, also known as Architectural Psychology, is a branch of Psychology that analyses the effects of the built environment on humans, including those affected by diseases. Paradoxically, in many cases, some components of the environments created to protect individuals and/or the population may represent barriers and subsequently causes of disability and suffering in patients with rheumatic diseases. In order to increase awareness about this particular aspect of social life, HEMOVE Onlus, a non-profit association, has promoted the creation of a multidisciplinary Task Group, which included mainly rheumatologists, psychologists and architects, with the aim of applying also for the benefit of rheumatic patients the most modern technical skills available in the context of Environmental Psychology, including in particular design and information technology.

2016 ◽  
Vol 24 (2) ◽  
pp. 137-147
Author(s):  
Samuel Mateus

The idea of public experience is often invoked in different social and academic contexts. However, it seldom deserved a reflection that specifically sought to deepen its meaning from the point of view of social life. In this article we contribute to the understanding of the uniqueness of the public form of experience. We believe that one of the best ways through which we can observe the public experience is by the objectification, performance and dramatization of the culture, i.e., the “expression of lived experiences”. There is, in publicity, the possibility of simultaneous allocation of individual and collective experiences, and it is in this sense that we can see how culture influences the shaping of experience itself. Public experience is characterized by the weaving and intertwining of singular experiences that are pluralized and plural lived experiences that are singularized, in a process where individual and society interpenetrate. The relationship between experience and publicity arises from this symbolic communion contained in the systems of thought and action of societies. The decisive role of the principle of publicity to experience consists, according with the hypothesis we wish to put forward, in making available and communicating the social world of symbolic (cultural) activity. Public experience is, then, envisaged as the experience of a common world where both singular and plural definitions of the individual (taken as society) converge through lived experiences and, particularly, through their expression, which can take different symbolic forms.


2020 ◽  
Vol 3 (7) ◽  
pp. 98-102
Author(s):  
M. V. DUBROVA ◽  
◽  
N. N. ZHILINA ◽  

The relevance of the article is determined by the fact that in Russia there is no effective mechanism of state support for the activities of non-profit organizations in the field of “green Finance”. The role of non-profit organizations is leveled, which can become a serious help in solving economic problems, in particular, the problems of recycling and processing of secondary raw materials, the placement of industrial waste and household garbage, and landscaping of large megacities. The main financial burden in the field of “green economy” falls on States and large enterprises. Meanwhile, we cannot ignore the important role of non-profit organizations that can not only draw attention to environmental problems to the public, but also offer their own measures to solve environmental problems. In this regard, it becomes relevant to consider the participation of non-profit organizations in the implementation of environmental projects by attracting “green Finance”.


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Meghan Joy

This dissertation examines the claim that Age Friendly Cities (AFCs) represents an effective and revolutionary policy approach to population aging. The AFC approach is a placebased policy program intended to enhance the ‘fit’ between senior citizens and their environment. Mainstream accounts of AFCs claim that the program represents a paradigmatic shift in the way we think about aging, to move away from an individual health deficit approach to one that seeks to improve local environments by empowering seniors and local policy actors. However, initial critical literature notes that while AFCs may offer the potential to expand social and physical infrastructure investments to accommodate diverse population needs, they are being popularized in a conjuncture where the public sector is being restructured through narrow projects of neoliberalism that call for limiting public redistribution. This literature calls for further empirical studies to better understand the gap between AFC claims and practice. I heed this call through a qualitative case study of AFCs in the City of Toronto; a particularly relevant case because the recent Toronto Seniors Strategy has been critiqued for being more symbolic than substantive. My research represents a critical policy study as I understand AFCs not as a technical policy tool but as a political object attractive to conflicting progressive and neoliberal projects that use rhetorical and practical strategies to ensure their actualization. My approach is normative as I seek to provide insight for a transformative ‘right to the city’ for senior citizens through the AFC approach. I use literature on citizenship to understand the multiplicity of political projects that seek to expand or narrow the relations between people, environments and institutions through the AFC program. This understanding is based on the meanings 82 different policy actors from local government, the non-profit sector, academia, and other levels of government make of their everyday work in creating age-friendly environments. The broad question I ask is: How do local policy actors understand the rhetoric and practice of AFCs in Toronto and how do these understandings illustrate particular expansive and narrow political projects that affect the development of a right to the city for senior citizens through this policy program? I begin with an initial Case Chapter that scopes age friendly policy work in Toronto from a ‘seeing like a city’ perspective that identifies the complex multi-scalar and multi-actor nature of this policy domain. The Recognizing Seniors and Role of Place Chapters then examine AFCs rhetorically with respect to how local policy actors understand the ‘person’ and the ‘environment’. The Rescaling Redistribution and Restructuring Governance Chapters explore the practice of AFCs, including how local policy actors understand their capacities to design and deliver age-friendly services and amenities and the institutional mechanisms at their disposal to action AFCs. My findings challenge the claim that the AFC policy approach is effective, let alone revolutionary. I learn from policy actors that narrow projects of restructuring work to assemble seemingly progressive rhetoric and practice around active aging and localism to reduce universal public provision, expand the role of private citizens and their families to provide care, and use local policy actors as residual providers of last resort. My research documents how more expansive understandings of senior citizens as rights bearers and the role of the public and non-profit sector to recognize and redistribute on this basis are also in operation. Understanding these political projects more deeply through the AFC policy program helps me to offer policy insight as to what is needed both rhetorically and practically to craft a more effective and revolutionary alternative AFC model based on a right to the city for senior citizens.


2021 ◽  
Vol 5 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Atanas Totlyakov ◽  
◽  
◽  

This text discusses some key points of contemporary theoretical concepts of intersubjectivity in the context of a specific group of creative practice. Emphasis is placed on the role and specificity of an area of joint attention shared between individuals, and interpersonal inclusions, which are essential for the creation and presentation to the public of objects and images. The problems of the temporary and non-permanent connection between the intentional subjects and the role of other acting forces, both quasisubjects and quasi-objects, within the framework of an art project developing in time are touched upon. The conventional contemporary critical analysis of a work of art has been replaced by ideas of visual culture and a body-oriented approach to tracing processes that are complemented from a sociological point of view.


Author(s):  
Linda McDowell

Divisions based on the assumption that men and women are different from one another permeate all areas of social life as well as varying across space and between places. In the home and in the family, in the classroom or in the labour market, in politics, and in power relations, men and women are assumed to be different, to have distinct rights and obligations that affect their daily lives and their standard of living. Thirty years ago, there were no courses about gender in British geography departments. This chapter discusses the challenges to geographical knowledge, and to the definition of knowledge more generally, that have arisen from critical debates about the meaning of difference and diversity in feminist scholarship. It examines a number of significant conceptual ideas, namely: the public and the private; sex, gender and body; difference, identity and intersectionality; knowledge; and justice. Finally, it comments on the role of feminism in the academy as a set of political practices as well as epistemological claims.


Neophilology ◽  
2019 ◽  
pp. 214-220
Author(s):  
Theodosius (Vasnev)

The Seminary influence on the governorate social life development was an integral part of social processes in the period of 1867-1884, which formed the prototype of the modern education practice. Identification of the Seminary role in the Tambov Governorate social life of the 19th century is a research component of this study, which affects the knowledge of the spiritual and moral education of society current state. Manuscript drafting source was the archival data of Tambov eparchy clergy activities of the late 19th century, the periodical press data of the same period. We interpret the obtained sources in the logic of the general civilized approach to the study of Seminary as an institution of social life characterized by regional aspects. Studies of the role of Seminary in social life have shown the sequence of its formation and development, its further socialization in the social life of the governorate. Special importance is attached to the Tambov Seminary in the years of transformations. Spiritual and moral influence of the Seminary on contemporaries, its increasingly active participation in the public life of the city, the change of its moral appearance contributed to the increase in the authority (role) of the Seminary in the social life of the Tambov Governorate.


2009 ◽  
Vol 13 (2) ◽  
pp. 401-414
Author(s):  
Elaheh Koolaee

AbstractWomen in Iran have gained unprecedented experiences in the course of their fight for democracy and human rights. In the Pahlavi era, the modernisation model was based on Western patterns. With the Islamic Revolution, a new generation of Iranian women emerged in social arenas. Ayatollah Khomeini always emphasised women's prominent and important role in social life. His views shed light on potentials for women's rights, but the obstacle of old cultural and historical attitudes have made these ideas difficult to actualise. The weakness of civil organisations, including women's political and non-political organisations, has seriously affected the outcomes. Although a reformist government and the reinforcement of governmental institutions concerned with women's affairs can play a part in improving the situation of women, women's civil society organisations can assume responsibilities at social levels in order to complement the role of the representatives. The author discusses the process of women's entrance in the public sphere and efforts by the 6th parliament to protect their rights.


2019 ◽  
Vol 86 (3) ◽  
pp. 69-79
Author(s):  
В. М. Давидюк

The legislative regulation of using confidants in Ukraine, as well as the moral aspects of confidential cooperation between individuals and law enforcement agencies have been analyzed. Some reasons that contributed to the regulation of confidential cooperation at the legislative level have been revealed in the historical retrospective; the correlation of the terms of “assistance” and “cooperation” used in the operative and search legislation has been demonstrated. It has been substantiated that in the course of studying the activities of special forces of operative and search activity it is advisable to use a narrower term of “cooperation”, which reflects the specifics of the activity of such forces. The norms of not secret normative legal acts have been outlined, which enshrined the conceptual bases of work with confidants. The emphasis has been made on the need to regulate not only the rights of the confidants, but also their obligations. A comparative analysis of the society’s attitude to confidential cooperation in different countries has been conducted. The moral and ethical grounds for involving persons into confidential cooperation have been studied. The author has outlined the essential role of the ideological component in the work of the state apparatus, which influences the attitude of society to confidential cooperation. The interdependence of moral and legal aspects of confidential cooperation has been proved. It has been established that the involvement of persons, from a moral point of view, into confidential cooperation is determined by: the voluntary nature of such involvement; public duty; perception of appropriate cooperation as the assistance to the community for its proper functioning; compulsory use of confidants for the prevention and detection of latent crimes; counteracting aggressive protection of criminal interests; guaranteeing the public interests by saving the costs for law enforcement function, since the use of confidants is more financially effective than attracting additional law enforcement forces and means.


Author(s):  
Neda Nikolić

The dichotomy between individualism and collectivism, deeply rooted in the development of social life, reflects an anthropological aspect that is also reflected in the art of music. This opposition, which is manifested through the relationship between the soloist and the orchestra within the concerto, is one of its main genre features. It survives despite all the changes that have taken place throughout history, but it is still subject to modifications. However, the role of these entities, apart from the style of the epoch, was also influenced by the composer`s personal style which must also be taken into account when considering the work from any point of view. The proposal to apply the method of Charles Peirce's “Theory of Signs” is to help to elucidate the meanings that this type of dialogue produces and which are hierarchically arranged and positioned within the pyramidal structure. Accordingly, the theme of the paper aims at showing the relationship between the soloist and the orchestra, showing what their function is within the concerto, as well as  how their roles have changed throughout the change of epochs in history and the meaning this type of dialogue conveys.


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