scholarly journals The identity process in times of rupture: Narratives from the Egyptian revolution

2016 ◽  
Vol 4 (1) ◽  
pp. 128-141 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sarah Hassan Awad
Keyword(s):  
Social Relations ◽  
Adaptive Learning ◽  
Social Representations ◽  
Social Contexts ◽  
Sense Making ◽  
Egyptian Revolution ◽  
Positive Identity ◽  
New Meanings ◽  
Prefigurative Politics ◽  
Shed Light

This is a longitudinal study of the identity process through times of dramatic social change. Using a narrative psychological approach this research follows the life stories of five Egyptian bloggers as they write their stories on online blogs over the course of the three years following the 2011 revolution, at which time Egypt has witnessed major social and political changes. The aim is to understand the identity process of individuals as they develop and adapt through changing social contexts and how they create alternative social relations as they engage in prefigurative politics. The findings shed light on how ruptures trigger a process of reflexivity, adaptive learning, and sense-making that facilitates coping and the reconstruction of a positive identity after ruptures. It also suggests that the narration of the experience of rupture through storytelling creates a heightened sense of agency in individuals’ ability to create new meanings of their world in spite of the socio-cultural and political constraints. This study presents narratives as an informing methodological resource that connects identity process with social representations and emphasizes the value of storytelling as an integral part of the adaptation process.

The Dynamic and Theatrical Worlds of the ‘Midan’

2016 ◽  
Vol 9 (1) ◽  
pp. 49-61
Author(s):  
Amina ElHalawani
Keyword(s):  
Social Interaction ◽  
Social Contexts ◽  
The Political ◽  
Egyptian Revolution ◽  
The Real ◽  
Creative Power ◽  
Everyday Practices ◽  
Arabic Word ◽  
The Aesthetic ◽  
Shed Light

‘All the world’s a stage …’ tells us the Bard of Avon. Goffman’s application of Shakespeare’s age-old metaphor to our everyday practices helps us understand the complexity of social interaction. His dramaturgical sociology allows us to engage better with the frames of repeated behaviors that we ‘perform’ in social contexts. However, emphasizing the theatricality of action and interaction, especially for problems at the macro-level like acts of revolution, is crucial to make sense of the form of spectacle that results in popular demonstrations, sit-ins etc., in which everyone contributes as actors/spectators to imagine and/or negotiate a different way of being or governance. This paper aims to study the active dynamics of turning an everyday locale such as Midan al-Tahrir into a liminal space in which staged performances on political and artistic levels take place in an attempt to shed light on the inseparability of the political and the aesthetic, the event and the performance. The Egyptian revolution of 2011 highlights the public’s awareness of the symbolic and performative importance of occupying a space, and the creative power that both nurtures and feeds on this liminal experience. In this very example, the Arabic word midan is helpful because of its dynamic connotations as opposed to the static English ‘square’, as this paper examines the experience of Tahrir as a ‘Midan’ where the real, the ritualistic and the playful actively coexist.

Utopia, Labor, and Informational Capitalism

2015 ◽  
pp. 49-68
Author(s):  
Marco Briziarelli
Keyword(s):  
Social Media ◽  
Social Change ◽  
Social Relations ◽  
Social Contexts ◽  
User Generated Content ◽  
Economic Approach ◽  
Informational Capitalism ◽  
The Social ◽  
Liberal Ideology ◽  
Political Economic

Through the lens of a political economic approach, I consider the question whether or not social media can promote social change. I claim that whereas media have consistently channeled technological utopia/dystopia, thus be constantly linked to aspirations and fear of social change, the answer to that question does not depend on their specific nature but on historically specific social relations in which media operate. In the case here considered, it requires examining the social relations re-producing and produced by informational capitalism. More specifically, I examine how the productive relations that support user generated content practices of Facebook users affect social media in their capability to reproduce and transform existing social contexts. Drawing on Fuchs and Sevignani's (2013) distinction between “work” and “labor” I claim that social media reflect the ambivalent nature of current capitalist mode of production: a contest in which exploitative/emancipatory as well as reproductive/transformative aspects are articulated by liberal ideology.

Mediating Social Media's Ambivalences in the Context of Informational Capitalism

2016 ◽  
Vol 3 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-22 ◽  
Author(s):  
Marco Briziarelli ◽  
Eric Karikari
Keyword(s):  
Social Media ◽  
Social Relations ◽  
Social Contexts ◽  
User Generated Content ◽  
Economic Perspective ◽  
Informational Capitalism ◽  
Liberal Ideology ◽  
Transformative Function ◽  
Political Economic ◽  
Mode Of Production

This essay explores the dialectics of media, by considering the socially reproductive and transformative function of social media from a political economic perspective. The authors claim that while media have consistently generated aspirations and fear of social change, their powerful capability of shaping societies depend on the historically specific social relations in which media operate. They engage such an argument by examining how the productive relations that support user generated content practices such as the ones of Facebook users affect social media in their capability to reproduce and transform existing social contexts. In the end, the authors maintain that the most prominent mediation of social media consists of the ambivalent nature of current capitalist mode of production: a contest in which exploitative/emancipatory as well as reproductive/transformative aspects are articulated by liberal ideology.

Mediating Social Media's Ambivalences in the Context of Informational Capitalism

2020 ◽  
pp. 1-24
Author(s):  
Marco Briziarelli ◽  
Eric Karikari
Keyword(s):  
Social Media ◽  
Social Change ◽  
Social Relations ◽  
Social Contexts ◽  
User Generated Content ◽  
Capitalist Mode ◽  
Informational Capitalism ◽  
Liberal Ideology ◽  
Transformative Function ◽  
Political Economic

This essay explores the dialectics of media, by considering the socially reproductive and transformative function of social media from a political economic perspective. The authors claim that while media have consistently generated aspirations and fear of social change, their powerful capability of shaping societies depend on the historically specific social relations in which media operate. They engage such an argument by examining how the productive relations that support user generated content practices such as the ones of Facebook users affect social media in their capability to reproduce and transform existing social contexts. In the end, the authors maintain that the most prominent mediation of social media consists of the ambivalent nature of current capitalist mode of production: a contest in which exploitative/emancipatory as well as reproductive/transformative aspects are articulated by liberal ideology.

Locating the locale of local food: The importance of context, space and social relations

2014 ◽  
Vol 30 (6) ◽  
pp. 563-576 ◽  
Author(s):  
Brídín E. Carroll ◽  
Frances Fahy
Keyword(s):  
Social Relations ◽  
Rural Areas ◽  
Urban Areas ◽  
Food System ◽  
Local Food ◽  
Social Contexts ◽  
Spatial Proximity ◽  
Future Research ◽  
Structured Interviews ◽  
Urban And Rural Areas

AbstractLocalization is one process/outcome that is proffered as key to the ‘grand challenges’ that currently face the food system. Consumers are attributed much agency in this potential transformation, being encouraged from all levels of society to exert their consumer muscle by buying local food. However, due to the social construction of scale it cannot be said that ‘local food’ is a definite entity and consumers understand the term ‘local food’ differently depending on their geographic and social context. As such, the research upon which this paper is based aimed to provide a nuanced understanding of how consumers in the particular spatial and social contexts of urban and rural Ireland understood the concept of ‘local food’. A specific objective was to test the theory that these consumers may have fallen into the ‘local trap’ by unquestioningly associating food from a spatially proximate place with positive characteristics. A three-phase mixed methodology was undertaken with a sample of consumers dwelling in urban and rural areas in both Dublin and Galway, Ireland: 1000 householders were surveyed; 6 focus group discussions took place; and 28 semi-structured interviews were carried out. The results presented in this paper indicate that for most participants in this study, spatial proximity is the main parameter against which the ‘localness’ of food is measured. Also, it was found that participants held multiple meanings of local food and there was a degree of fluidity in their understandings of the term. The results from the case study regions highlight how participants’ understandings of local food changed depending on the food in question and its availability. However, the paper also indicates that as consumers move from one place to another, the meaning of local food becomes highly elastic. The meaning is stretched or contracted according to the perceived availability of food, greater or lesser connections to the local producer community and the relative geographic size of participants’ locations. Our analysis of findings from all three phases of this research revealed a difference in understandings of local food among participants resident in urban and rural areas: participants dwelling in rural areas were more likely than those in urban areas to define local food according to narrower spatial limits. The paper concludes with an overview of the practical and theoretical significance of these results in addressing the current dearth of research exploring the meaning of local food for consumers and suggests avenues for future research.

scholarly journals SKIPPING YEARS AND SCRIBAL ERRORS

2002 ◽  
Vol 13 (1) ◽  
pp. 65-76
Author(s):  
Timothy J. Smith
Keyword(s):  
Social Relations ◽  
Documentation System ◽  
Kaqchikel Maya ◽  
Shed Light

Adrián Recinos's correlation of Kaqchikel Maya and Spanish dates in the Annals of the Kaqchikels contains numerous errors, and there are several scribal and calculation errors in how both the 260-day and 400-day Kaqchikel Maya calendars were used within the manuscript. These are dating problems that stem from errors by the scribes in their attempt to adapt to a European counting and documentation system and their inexperience with the Kaqchikel Maya calendars. In addition, unique citation marks and two scribal errors shed light on the existence of earlier documents and subsequent effects on the later time counts of the Kaqchikel Maya calendar system. This paper adjusts the previous correlation by Recinos and extends it from 1570 until 1603. Moreover, by highlighting and correcting the internal errors, this paper offers a caveat to scholars when reconstructing the histories, events, and social relations of past Mesoamerican peoples and scripts without regard for internal errors.

scholarly journals I judge you by your profit: Judgments of effort exerted by self and others are influenced by received rewards

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Max Rollwage ◽  
Franziska Pannach ◽  
Caedyn Stinson ◽  
Ulf Toelch ◽  
Igor Kagan ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Decision Making ◽  
Adaptive Learning ◽  
Major Part ◽  
Information Sources ◽  
Computational Modelling ◽  
Cost Benefit ◽  
Social Contexts ◽  
The Other ◽  
Reward Information ◽  
Effort Rating

AbstractEffort constitutes a major part of cost-benefit calculations underlying decision making. Therefore, estimating the effort someone has spent on a task is a core dimension for evaluating own and others’ actions. It has been previously shown that self-judgments of effort are influenced by the magnitude of obtained rewards. It is unclear, however, whether the influence of reward on effort estimations is limited to self-judgments or whether reward incorporation represents a general computational principle when judging effort. Here we show that people also integrate reward magnitude when judging the effort exerted by others. Participants (N=48) performed an effortful sensorimotor task interleaved with a partner, while rating either their own or the other person’s effort. After each trial but before the effort rating, both participants were informed about the obtained reward. We found that higher rewards led to higher estimations of exerted effort, in self-as well as other-judgments, and this effect was more pronounced for other-judgments. In both types of judgment, computational modelling revealed that reward information and the perceived level of exertion were combined in a Bayes optimal manner to form effort estimates. Remarkably, the extent to which rewards influenced effort judgments was positively correlated with conservative world-views, indicating that the basic computations underlying this behavioural phenomenon might be related to more general beliefs about the association between effort and reward in the society. The integration of reward information into retrospective effort judgments underscores the convergence of multiple information sources that supports adaptive learning and decision making in social contexts.

Functional Approaches

2019 ◽  
pp. 179-200
Author(s):  
J. Lachlan Mackenzie
Keyword(s):  
Social Relations ◽  
Information Structure ◽  
Social Contexts ◽  
Hierarchical Organization ◽  
Language Typology ◽  
English Grammar ◽  
Grammatical Analysis ◽  
The Social ◽  
State Of Mind ◽  
Spatio Temporal

All functional approaches share the conviction that the structure of languages and their historical development are strongly impacted by the cognitive properties of language users, the social relations between them, and the spatio-temporal and socio-cultural contexts in which they operate. This chapter describes how functionalism has impinged on the study of English grammar and covers the interrelations of discourse and grammar, various corpus- and usage-based approaches, the influence of processing considerations, the hierarchical organization of the clause, information structure, the noun phrase, and the contributions of language typology. The grammatical analysis of English has been enriched by the insight that its structures are bound up with our ability to participate in dialogues, to construct written texts, to surmize the state of mind of our conversational partner, to modulate our formulations to maximize politeness, and to use different registers or dialects in different social contexts.

scholarly journals GENDER VIOLENCE: SOCIAL REPRESENTATIONS OF RELATIVES

2016 ◽  
Vol 25 (4) ◽  
Author(s):  
Vanda Palmarella Rodrigues ◽  
Juliana Costa Machado ◽  
Washington da Silva Santos ◽  
Maria de Fátima de Souza Santos ◽  
Normélia Maria Freire Diniz
Keyword(s):  
Social Relations ◽  
Word Association ◽  
Social Representations ◽  
Family Health ◽  
Healthcare Services ◽  
Gender Violence ◽  
Word Association Test ◽  
Sexist Attitudes ◽  
The Social

ABSTRACT This study aimed at analyzing the social representations of gender violence by family members. A qualitative study based upon the Theory of Social Representations. The free word association test was undertaken by 81 relatives of women who suffered gender violence registered in Family Health Units of Jequié, Bahia. The data were submitted to correspondence factorial analysis in the Tri-deux-mots software. The relatives' representation of gender violence is rooted in unequal gender relations observed in the hierarchy of social relations between the man and the women, which legitimizes gender violence. Younger relatives highlighted the sexist attitudes while those aged 40 years and older highlighted the role of women as caregivers. Evangelical relatives emphasized the subordination of women while relatives who follow other religions emphasized the suffering. We emphasize the need to implement actions to address violence considering these representations in the healthcare services.

scholarly journals When language mixing is the norm: documenting post-muda language choice in a state school in Barcelona

2019 ◽  
Vol 2019 (257) ◽  
pp. 109-135
Author(s):  
Adriana Patiño-Santos
Keyword(s):  
Secondary School ◽  
Working Class ◽  
Social Relations ◽  
Language Choice ◽  
Language Of Instruction ◽  
Academic Task ◽  
Language Mixing ◽  
Language Alternation ◽  
New Speakers ◽  
Shed Light

Abstract This article studies the language uses of a group of new speakers of Catalan at a secondary school in a metropolitan working class area of Barcelona, who have experienced their linguistic mudes as a consequence of having being schooled in the Catalan education system from an early age. As shown in previous research on children of economic migrants in Catalonia, these students internalize and reproduce the language distribution of Catalan and Spanish that they are exposed to in their immediate environment. This will vary according to the locality in which they find themselves, in our case, a working class neighborhood in which Catalan is reserved as the vehicular language of instruction, while Spanish dominates as the language of social relations. The article adopts a language socialization perspective to give account of the linguistic competences these multilinguals display when carrying out an academic task. Translanguaging, in the form of language alternation and language mixing from the various repertoires that these students have at their disposal, emerges as the norm among them and their teachers in this school. This article embraces the idea that documenting the linguistic practices of new speakers can shed light on actual linguistic uses and trajectories after the linguistic muda takes place.

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