scholarly journals Exploring the Transformative Power of Play in African Children’s Games

2021 ◽  
Vol 84 ◽  
pp. 167-182
Author(s):  
Kennedy C. Chinyowa ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Social Change ◽  
Rites Of Passage ◽  
Formal Education ◽  
Cultural Performance ◽  
Growing Up ◽  
Transformative Power ◽  
Performance Traditions ◽  
Cash Economy ◽  
Scientific Technology

The transformative power of indigenous African children’s games can be demonstrated by how they were framed by the aesthetics of play such as imitation, imagination, make-believe, repetition, spontaneity, and improvisation. Such games could be regarded as ‘rites of passage’ for children’s initiation into adulthood as they occupied a crucial phase in the process of growing up. Using the illustrative paradigm of indigenous children’s games from the Shona-speaking peoples of Zimbabwe, this paper explores the transformative power of play as a means by which children engaged with reality. The paper proceeds to argue that the advent of modern agents of social change such as Christianity, formal education, urbanization, industrialization, scientific technology, and the cash economy not only created a fragmentation of African people’s cultural past but also threatened the survival of African cultural performance traditions. Although indigenous African children’s games were disrupted by modernity, they have managed to survive in a modified form.

scholarly journals Norwidowski dramat „transfiguracji społecznych”

2021 ◽  
Vol 39 Specjalny ◽  
pp. 71-91
Author(s):  
Agnieszka Ziołowicz
Keyword(s):  
Social Change ◽  
Social Life ◽  
Rites Of Passage ◽  
Social Practices ◽  
Cultural Performance ◽  
Social Anthropology ◽  
Dramatic Works ◽  
Historical Changes ◽  
Artistic Representation ◽  
Close Relationship

The article discusses Norwid’s concept of drama and theatre; notably, he assumes their close relationship with social life and its historical changes. Basing on analyses of meta-dramatic and meta-theatrical statements made by the poet, contained primarily in the essays “Widowiska w ogóle uważane” and “Białe kwiaty” [Performances considered in general; White flowers], in passages from lectures on Słowacki (O Juliuszu Słowackim), and in the introduction to Pierścień Wielkiej-Damy [The Ring of a Great Lady], it is possible to formulate the thesis that Norwid intentionally developed a vision of drama based on the idea of “social transfigurations.”What is more, the character of his dramatic works enables one to interpret his particular theatrical pieces in the light of anthropological and sociological categories of social drama and cultural performance. After all, most of Norwid’s dramatic works depict situations of social change in terms of rites of passage and theatricalized social practices, e.g. social ceremonies or ritualized interactions. As a result, Norwidian drama becomes an artistic representation of forces shaping collective life, a lens facilitating their understanding in the spirit of social anthropology, and an important factor in the formation of man.

Performance and Cross-Racial Storytelling in Post-Katrina New Orleans: Interviews with John O'Neal, Carol Bebelle, and Nicholas Slie

2013 ◽  
Vol 57 (1) ◽  
pp. 48-69 ◽  
Author(s):  
Catherine Michna
Keyword(s):  
African American ◽  
Social Change ◽  
Hurricane Katrina ◽  
New Orleans ◽  
Cultural Performance ◽  
Performance Traditions

Interviews with three leading community-engaged theatre makers in New Orleans underscore why practices of public storytelling became crucial to the work of artists in New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina. Connecting their work to New Orleans' heritage of African American neighborhood-based cultural performance traditions, O'Neal, Bebelle, and Slie emphasize the importance of cross-racial and cross-generational collaboration for generating theatre practices that are part of a collective struggle for pluralistic, democratic social change.

Building hydrosocialism in Czechoslovakia

2020 ◽  
Vol 13 (3) ◽  
pp. 610-633
Author(s):  
Jiří Janáč
Keyword(s):  
Water Management ◽  
Social Change ◽  
Natural Resource ◽  
Environmental Issues ◽  
State Socialism ◽  
Communist Society ◽  
The West ◽  
Transformative Power ◽  
Reflexive Modernity ◽  
The 1960S

Throughout the period of state socialism, water was viewed as an instrument of immense transformative power and water experts were seen as guardians of such transformation, a transformation for which we coin the term 'hydrosocialism'. A reconfiguration of water, a scarce and vital natural resource, was to a great extent identified with social change and envisioned transition to socialist and eventually communist society. While in the West, hydraulic experts (hydrocrats) and the vision of a 'civilising mission' of water management (hydraulic mission) gradually faded away with the arrival of reflexive modernity from the 1960s, in socialist Czechoslovakia the situation was different. Despite the fact they faced analogous challenges (environmental issues, economisation), the technocratic character of state socialism enabled socialist hydraulic engineers to secure their position and belief in transformative powers of water.

Practitioner perspectives on learning for social change through non-formal global citizenship education

2017 ◽  
Vol 13 (1) ◽  
pp. 81-97 ◽  
Author(s):  
Eleanor J Brown
Keyword(s):  
Social Justice ◽  
Social Change ◽  
Transformative Learning ◽  
Citizenship Education ◽  
Critical Reflection ◽  
Formal Education ◽  
Global Citizenship ◽  
Small Individual ◽  
Global Citizenship Education ◽  
The Social

This article engages with debates about transformative learning and social change, exploring practitioner perspectives on non-formal education activities run by non-governmental organisations. The research looked at how global citizenship education practitioners met their organisation’s goals of change for social justice through educational activities. This education is sometimes criticised for promoting small individual changes in behaviour, which do not ultimately lead to the social justice to which it pertains to aim. Findings suggest that this non-formal education aims to provide information from different perspectives and generate critical reflection, often resulting in shifts in attitudes and behaviour. While the focus is often on small actions, non-formal spaces opened up by such education allow for networks to develop, which are key for more collective action and making links to social movements. Although this was rarely the focus of these organisations, it was these steps, often resulting from reflection as a group on personal actions, which carried potentially for social change.

Depicting the Vhavenda Women Initiation Schools and Their Cultural Practices in Limpopo Province

2022 ◽  
pp. 341-364
Author(s):  
Rendani Tshifhumulo
Keyword(s):  
Human Physiology ◽  
Life Skills ◽  
Rites Of Passage ◽  
Cultural Practices ◽  
Limpopo Province ◽  
Growing Up ◽  
Community Members ◽  
Girl Child ◽  
Social Challenges ◽  
Knowledge Preservation

Growing up for many African people has been marked by rites of passage. Vhavenda girls attend various initiation schools that served as rites of passage from one stage to another. The purpose of this study was to explore the initiation schools attended by Vhavenda girls for knowledge preservation. The study is qualitative where data was collected from 15 traditional knowledge holders purposefully using interviews as a tool to collect data. The study revealed that girls attended different schools at various stages from Musevhetho, followed by Vhusha then Domba, which is divided into Tshikanda, Ludodo, and Tshilalandoima. All these schools served a critical purpose on the development of a girl child through to adulthood stage. Knowledge shared in the school covered mostly life skills and human physiology. With the introduction of formal schools, the former was discarded and labeled barbaric leaving a void and opening a door to many social challenges faced by girl children within the Vhavenda community members.

scholarly journals Roads to Change: Livelihoods, Land Disputes, and Anticipation of Future Developments in Rural Kenya

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Clemens Greiner ◽  
David Greven ◽  
Britta Klagge
Keyword(s):  
Social Change ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
Formal Education ◽  
Economic Status ◽  
Rural Roads ◽  
Future Developments ◽  
Land Disputes ◽  
The Face ◽  
Rural Kenya ◽  
Direct Use

AbstractThis article examines how rural roads relate to differences in livelihood patterns, attitudes toward social change, and land disputes in Baringo, Kenya. Although their direct use is limited for many residents, roads have a highly differentiating impact. While some households orientate themselves toward roads, those relying more on (agro-)pastoralist livelihoods avoid their proximity. Our findings suggest that better-off households are not the only ones that tend to live closer to roads, but that poorer households do as well. Rather than by socio-economic status, households living closer to roads can be characterized by higher degrees of formal education and also appear to be more open to economic and social change. Our data also highlight dynamics of land disputes in the face of ongoing large-scale infrastructural investments in Kenya’s previously marginal northern drylands.

scholarly journals TRANSMISI PENDIDIKAN KEAGAMAAN TERHADAP KEBUDAYAAN MASYARAKAT DEMAK PERSPEKTIF ANTROPOLOGI

2016 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Thoifuri Thoifuri
Keyword(s):  
Social Change ◽  
Religious Education ◽  
Cultural Transmission ◽  
Formal Education ◽  
Inductive Method ◽  
Religious Institutions ◽  
Community Needs ◽  
Learning School ◽  
Culture Education

<p>Penelitian ini memiliki tujuan untuk mengetahui proses transmisi pendidikan keagamaan dan kebudayaan dalam  masyarakat Demak  dalam konteks  antropologis dengan  jenis  historis- naturalistik.   Penelitian   ini  menggunakan metode kualitatif dengan metode induktif sebagai analisis data. Hasil dari penelitian ini berupa transmisi pendidikan keagamaan dan kebudayaan di masyarakat Demak dalam Pendidikan Keagamaan Pesantren. Dalam prosesnya menekankan belajar usia sekolah 7- 24 tahun, melengkapi sarana pendidikan dan memacu masyarakat dalam pendidikan non-formal (pesantren), memacu minat baca dan tulis masyarakat Demak yang dibungkus dengan semangat kehidupan religius, menerapkan sistem keyakinan, memelihara sistem ritus dan upacara, dst. Implikasinya terhadap kebudayaan masyarakat Demak berupa kualitas Sumber Daya Manusia,  toleransi kehidupan beragama,  tumbuh  suburnya lembaga keagamaan sebagai  <em>agent </em><em>of social change</em>. Implikasi  ini dengan menerapkan kurikulum yang bercorak Islami,  ketaatan pada Allahs  sesuai kebutuhan masyarakat, menghindari kontradiksi, memperhatikan perkembangan psikologis, dan penggunaan metode pembelajaran yang fleksibel.</p><p><strong>Kata Kunci: Transmisi, Kebudayaan, Pendidikan, Agama.</strong></p><p><em>The purpose of this study was to determine the transmission of </em><em>r</em><em>e</em><em>l</em><em>i</em><em>g</em><em>io</em><em>us </em><em>educat</em><em>ion </em><em>a</em><em>n</em><em>d culture in Demak society in the context of historical anthropological types-naturalistic. This study uses qualitative  methods with inductive method for the data analysis. The results of this study in the form of religious education and cultural transmission in Demak society in Religious Education Pesantren. In the process emphasizes learning school aged 7- 24 years, completing facilities and spur public education  in non-formal  education  (schools), stimulate interest in reading and writing Demak  society wrapped in a spirit of religious life, implemented  a system of beliefs, rites and ceremonies maintain systems, ff. Implications Demak  cultural community  in the form of quality of Human Resources, religious tolerance, the  flourishing  of religious institutions  as an agent of social change. The implications of this by applying a patterned Islamic curriculum, obedience to God according to community needs, avoid contradictions, pay attention to psychological development, and the use of flexible learning methods.</em></p><p><strong><strong><em>Keywords</em></strong>:  <em>Transmission, Culture, Education, </em><em>Religion</em><br /></strong></p>

scholarly journals Theatre as a means of countering resurgent nationalism and racism in the 21st century: Seth Baumrin’s work in Europe

2018 ◽  
pp. 69-86
Author(s):  
Ewelina Topolska
Keyword(s):  
Social Change ◽  
21St Century ◽  
Primary Sources ◽  
Large Share ◽  
Transformative Power ◽  
European Public ◽  
Theatre Studies ◽  
The Subject ◽  
European Theatre ◽  
The Individual

The paper describes how two European theatre groups, Subpoetics and Gershom, led by an American director, Seth Baumrin, use artistic tools to bring about political and social change. Their creative projects are aimed at combating nationalism and racism, while building a more open and more humane society, based on the dignity and self-respect of the individual, which are considered a necessary precondition of respect for others. The article testifies to the transformative power of the workshops and performances that Baumrin and his associates offer the European public, and the author supports her observations with well-established theories from the area of theatre studies and psychology. As up until now no other academic papers have been published on the subject, a large share of the information included in this article comes from primary sources such as interviews, informal conversations and direct observation.

Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document