Women and the Kingdom of Ambiguity: Black Comedy in "Solistki" ("Female Soloists")

Tekstualia ◽  
2014 ◽  
Vol 4 (39) ◽  
pp. 55-66
Author(s):  
Anna Spólna
Keyword(s):  
Social Norms ◽  
Women's Poetry ◽  
The World ◽  
Postmodern Poetry ◽  
The Grotesque

The paper discusses the uses of black humour in women’s poetry after 1989, collected in the anthology Solistki (2009). The humour underlying these poems is subversive. A cruel joke may serve the purpose of individuation, provocation, or protection from suffering. Poetic narratives highlight the grotesque aspects of the world in order to uncover the stigmatising stereotypes of gender or the pressure of social norms grounded in lies. They become axiological gestures, stressing the independence of heroines. Tragicomic laughter is occasionally a form of casting a spell on reality, playing with the macabre – a protest against illness and death. A clownish mix of humour and terror consciously disrupts the logic of communication, showing the blurred limits of frank confession in postmodern poetry. Poetic works by the ‘female soloists’ are intertextual, autotelic, polystyle. They are characterised by an exaggerated creativity of imagery that refl ects a paradoxical, fl uid reality. Poetry by women moves from a poetic joke to a serious existential and philosophical statement.

The Deconstruction of Sex

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jean-Luc Nancy ◽  
Irving Goh
Keyword(s):  
Social Norms ◽  
The World ◽  
The Senses

In The Deconstruction of Sex, Jean-Luc Nancy and Irving Goh discuss how a deconstructive approach to sex helps us negotiate discourses about sex and foster a better understanding of how sex complicates our everyday existence in the age of #MeToo. Throughout their conversation, Nancy and Goh engage with topics ranging from relation, penetration, and subjection to touch, erotics, and jouissance. They show how despite its entrenchment in social norms and centrality to our being-in-the-world, sex lacks a clearly defined essence. At the same time, they point to the potentiality of literature to inscribe the senses of sex. In so doing, Nancy and Goh prompt us to reconsider our relations with ourselves and others through sex in more sensitive, respectful, and humble ways without bracketing the troubling aspects of sex.

Who Instigated Violence: A Rebelling Devil or a Vengeful God?

2015 ◽  
pp. 93-106
Author(s):  
István T. Kristó-Nagy*
Keyword(s):  
Social Norms ◽  
New Testament ◽  
Old Testament ◽  
Social Implications ◽  
The World ◽  
The New Testament ◽  
The Law ◽  
The Universe

The contrast between the attitude towards violence of the God of the Old Testament and the God of the New Testament was already explored by Marcion (d. c. 160 ad) before the advent of Islam and has been rediscovered again and again since.1 Marcion saw the former as the creator of the world and God of the law and the latter as the good God, the God of love.2 The character of the former reflects a community’s need for sanctified social norms, while the character of the latter shows the community’s and the individual’s longing for the hope of salvation.3 The God of the Qurʾān is also one of punishment and pardon. This chapter investigates the former aspect and focuses on: (1) the appearance of evil and violence in the universe as described in the Qurʾān; (2) the philosophical-theological questions revealed by this myth; and (3) its social implications.

Reflection Through Fiction

2012 ◽  
pp. 21-34
Author(s):  
Patricia Cranton
Keyword(s):  
Short Stories ◽  
Social Norms ◽  
Transformative Learning ◽  
The World ◽  
The Way

If we can learn to recognize ourselves and position ourselves in stories, we can identify beliefs, assumptions, and social norms that shape the way we see ourselves and the world around us. This has the potential for reflection and, in some cases, transformative learning. In this paper, I illustrate the process of positioning ourselves in stories using four Canadian short stories. I include the voices of participants who were engaged in a 12 week course on learning through fiction.

The Impact of World Religions on Conservatism

2020 ◽  
Vol 19 (2) ◽  
pp. 197-218
Author(s):  
Laura Swenson
Keyword(s):  
Social Norms ◽  
Financial Reporting ◽  
World Religions ◽  
Large Sample ◽  
The World ◽  
Prior Literature ◽  
Western Religion ◽  
The Impact ◽  
Jel Classifications

ABSTRACT This study examines the association between world religions and the earnings attribute of conservatism. I group the major world religions into two sub-groups, Western and Eastern. Prior literature documents that followers of Western religions have a lower preference for risk relative to followers of Eastern religions. Prior literature also finds a lower preference for risk is associated with more conservative reporting. Using a large sample of firms listed on exchanges around the world, I find earnings of firms domiciled in countries with larger Western religious presence are more conservative. The results hold after using an indicator for whether the predominant religion in the country is a Western religion, controlling for religiosity, and using a sample of U.S. foreign registrants that file a 20-F reconciliation with the SEC. My study contributes to our understanding of how social norms affect financial reporting. JEL Classifications: G14; G15; M41.

Public Health and a President’s Racism

Pained ◽  
2020 ◽  
pp. 29-30
Author(s):  
Michael D. Stein ◽  
Sandro Galea
Keyword(s):  
Public Health ◽  
Social Norms ◽  
Health Effects ◽  
Cultural Context ◽  
Minority Groups ◽  
The Public ◽  
Negative Side ◽  
Positive Side ◽  
The Social ◽  
The World

This chapter addresses how racism presents a clear threat to the health of populations. In 2018, President Donald Trump made racist comments toward countries with predominantly nonwhite populations. Why did the president’s racism matter for the health of the public? To answer this question, one needs to understand where health comes from. Health is the product of the social, economic, and cultural context in which people live. This context is also shaped by social norms that do much to determine people’s behaviors and their consequences. Changing these norms can produce both positive and negative health effects. On the positive side, changing norms can promote health, by making unacceptable unhealthy conditions and behaviors that were once common, even celebrated. On the negative side, changing norms for the worse can empower elements of hate in society. When a president promotes hate, it shifts norms, suggesting that hate does in fact have a place in the country and the world. This opens the door to more hate crimes, more exclusion of minority groups from salutary resources, and little to no effort to address racial health gaps.

The culture of childhood in (and) spaces of resistance

2020 ◽  
pp. 146394912096610
Author(s):  
Tahmina Shayan
Keyword(s):  
Pilot Study ◽  
School Culture ◽  
Cultural Values ◽  
Independent Form ◽  
Art Classroom ◽  
The World ◽  
Official Curriculum ◽  
Spaces Of Resistance ◽  
Children's Culture ◽  
The Grotesque

Providing spaces for children’s culture becomes an issue when it conflicts with or threatens to reverse the notion of ‘legitimate’ culture. Here, legitimate culture refers to the dominant values of the official curriculum and teachers’ cultural values. This article, which stems from an ethnographically oriented pilot study, explores the experience of children’s and adults’ diverse beliefs, ideologies and cultures in an art classroom that is situated in a university facility. It demonstrates how children seek spaces for their culture. Only high official culture, the school culture, and parents’ and teachers’ culture are deemed appropriate, true and good. In the world of adults, children’s culture is often seen as immature, as something to be fixed and refined. Kline suggests that humour and play might be an independent form of children’s culture. What children find funny and humorous may not be funny, or even appropriate, to adults. Bakhtin’s carnival theory demonstrates how a medieval culture used dangerous jokes at the expense of authority. Although the carnival was a temporary festival, it was the means through which the peasants’ marketplace culture was communicated to the officials, and by which they were able to demonstrate resistance – following their own rules, methods and culture. The author employs Bakhtin’s theory to help see the carnival in an art classroom, as children resist the presence of a legitimized culture by continuing to create spaces for their own cultures of pleasure, parody and even the grotesque.

scholarly journals Countering Protection Rackets Using Legal and Social Approaches: An Agent-Based Test

Complexity ◽  
2018 ◽  
Vol 2018 ◽  
pp. 1-16 ◽  
Author(s):  
Áron Székely ◽  
Luis G. Nardin ◽  
Giulia Andrighetto
Keyword(s):  
Social Norms ◽  
Social Interactions ◽  
Police Officers ◽  
Community Members ◽  
Social Approach ◽  
Agent Based ◽  
The World ◽  
Protection Rackets ◽  
Economic Perspectives ◽  
Legal Strategies

Protection rackets cause economic and social damage across the world. States typically combat protection rackets using legal strategies that target the racketeers with legislation, strong sentencing, and increasing the presence and involvement of police officers. Nongovernmental organizations, conversely, focus on the rest of the population and counter protection rackets using a social approach. These organisations attempt to change the actions and social norms of community members with education, promotional campaigns, and discussions. We use an agent-based model, which draws on established theories of protection rackets and combines features of sociological and economic perspectives to modelling social interactions, to test the effects of legal and social approaches. We find that a legal approach is a necessary component of a policy approach, that social only approaches should not be used because they lead to large increases in violence, and that a combination of the two works best, although even this must be used carefully.

Grieving Styles of Young Banso Widows

2018 ◽  
Vol 81 (3) ◽  
pp. 493-506
Author(s):  
Ruth Lange ◽  
Cass Dykeman ◽  
Catherine Beckett
Keyword(s):  
Social Norms ◽  
Social Desirability ◽  
Policy Research ◽  
The Other ◽  
Clinical Implications ◽  
Cross Sectional ◽  
The World ◽  
Cross Sectional Design

Grieving is manifested differently around the world depending on culture, social desirability, and social norms. Little is known about grieving patterns in Africa. As such, a study of the grieving patterns of young widows of the Banso tribe of the Cameroon was conducted. This examination used Doka and Martin’s model of grieving styles as the lens for this research. This model delineates a continuum of grief styles: instrumental on one end, intuitive on the other, and blended in the middle. This study used the validated Grief Pattern Inventory to determine if young Banso widows in this sample are intuitive, instrumental, or blended grievers. The study employed a cross-sectional design. The results indicated that 47% of the participants were intuitive grievers and 41% were blended grievers. Policy, research, and clinical implications emerging from the results were presented.

scholarly journals Social norms of corruption in the field: social nudges on posters can help to reduce bribery

2019 ◽  
pp. 1-28 ◽  
Author(s):  
NILS C. KÖBIS ◽  
MARLEEN TROOST ◽  
CYRIL O. BRANDT ◽  
IVAN SORAPERRA
Keyword(s):  
General Population ◽  
Collective Action ◽  
Social Norms ◽  
Field Study ◽  
South African ◽  
Descriptive Norms ◽  
The World ◽  
Societal Challenge

Abstract Corruption in the form of bribery continues to be a major societal challenge around the world. The current lab-in-the-field study tested whether dynamic descriptive norms messages on posters can help to reduce bribery. Before, during and after placing posters throughout a medium-sized South African town, incentivized measures of social norms and bribery were assessed in a mobile lab. A total of 311 participants stemming from the general population took part. In line with the pre-registered predictions, the results reveal that people: (1) perceive bribery to be less common; and (b) engage in bribery in a corruption game less frequently when the posters were displayed. The discussion outlines how social norms nudging campaigns can be leveraged to spur collective action against corruption.

PERSPECTIVES, NORMS, AND AGENCY

2017 ◽  
Vol 34 (1) ◽  
pp. 260-276 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ryan Muldoon
Keyword(s):  
Social Norms ◽  
Economic Modeling ◽  
Actor Model ◽  
Independence Assumption ◽  
Rational Agents ◽  
Core Set ◽  
The Standard Model ◽  
The World ◽  
Informal Coercion ◽  
Nuanced Understanding

Abstract:A core set of assumptions in economic modeling is that rational agents, who have a defined preference set, assess their options and determine which best satisfies their preferences. The rational actor model supposes that the world provides us with a menu of options, and we simply choose what’s best for us. Agents are independent of one another, and they can rationally assess which of their options they wish to pursue. This gives special authority to the choices that people make, since they are understood to be the outcomes of the agent’s considered judgments. However, we have come to see that the independence assumption does not always hold in the way that we may have initially thought. Social norms can govern our choices even when we disagree with them. Here we can begin to see how the standard model of choice and agency begins to weaken: no longer are my choices wholly mine, but instead there is a subset of choices that are governed by the broader culture that I live in. Social norms constrain my behavior with informal coercion — my desire to remain a community member in good standing requires me to behave in accordance with the community’s social norms. What I wish to challenge more substantively is the claim that the menu of choices agents “see” is in fact the objective set of options that is transparently provided by the world. Instead, I argue that the options that people perceive and the evidence they use to make choices are mediated by perspectives. Perspectives can importantly interact with social norms to make some norms more resilient to change, and others harder to adopt. This further shapes both our descriptive and normative understanding of agency. Our choices are not over all of the objectively available options, but over the options that we can see. The evidence we marshal to support our choices is not the full set of evidence, but the evidence that we recognize as salient. This is not to deny that individuals have agency, but rather we need a more nuanced understanding of the nature of this agency.

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