Decolonial Possibilities of Reintroducing the Devil in the Public Space of Afro‐Ecuadorian Territories

The article discusses the decolonial possibilities of the collective design of a sound artwork in reimagining the role of two Afro‐Ecuadorian music and dance‐based events in the Afro‐Ecuadorian ancestral territories of North Esmeraldas and Chota‐Mira. The two events, Bomba del Chota and Marimba Esmeraldeña, emerged in the context of slavery and colonialism as a response of Afro‐Ecuadorians to the oppression and violence they endured. These two music and dance‐based events sustain a counter‐narrative of power and resistance for Afrodescendant peoples in Ecuador, weaving meaningful connections among them and other entities populating their territories, such as the “devil,” whose cohabitation with Afro‐Ecuadorians will be at the spotlight of our analysis. Based on the audio‐recorded testimonies of these connections that strongly existed until the 1970s, and of a sonic composition that was created from them, we propose a collaborative design of a sound artwork in the public spaces of the jungle in Esmeraldas and the mountain in Chota‐Mira. We discuss how a decolonial approach to the design of the artwork can serve as a dialogical space to engage inhabitants in their re‐connection to the possibilities of resistance that their ancestors nurtured in their territories through the practice of the two music and dance‐based events. Through a political reading of soundscapes, an argument is developed to show how sound constructs the public spaces that root people in their territories, connecting them with meaningful stories and practices that keep being forgotten due to the on‐going consequences of slavery and colonialism. The article contributes to the discussion about political ecologies and the collective production of public spaces as a joyful response to exclusion and oppression.

Researching ecosystems in innovation contexts

PurposeThe rapid adoption of the ecosystem concept in innovation contexts has led to a proliferation of differing uses. Scholars need to be crystal clear which concept of the ecosystem they are using to facilitate communication between scholars and allow for cumulativeness and creativity. This paper aims to introduce some clarity into the conceptual mist that surrounds the notion of “ecosystems” in innovation contexts.Design/methodology/approachA review of the extant literature on ecosystems in innovation contexts to derive an integrated approach to understanding the variety of constructs in use.FindingsThis paper introduces clarity into the conceptual mist that surrounds the term “innovation ecosystem”, showing there are three basic types of ecosystems, all of which have a common focus on the collective production of a coherent system-level output.Originality/valueContributes through a comprehensive overview of the differing ecosystem types in innovation contexts and with a heuristic to disambiguate types of innovation ecosystems.

Plural economy and solidary social economy: Discussing the concepts

This article presents this trajectory, starting from the work of Milton Santos on the circuits in the urban economics in the underdeveloped countries and their relation to the popular economy. We also discuss the solidarity economy, which originated within the framework of European associativism, and in Brazil assumes peculiar contours when focusing on self-managed collective production. Finally, we discuss how the current Latin American debate articulates the questioning of the market society and the proposition of an “other economy” focused on work and on the plurality of economic principles. In this sense, “social and solidarity economy” would be, in peripheral and in central countries, a set of initiatives oriented to an ideal economic system, to replace the “economy of capital”.

Red Sanitary Enlightenment: Medicine, Culture and Society during the 1920s

Статья посвящена специфике санитарного просвещения в 1920‑е гг. как гибридного феномена на стыке истории медицины и истории общества. Вслед за Д. Биром и Л. Энгельштайн рассматривается соединение «социально-инженерных» подходов части медицинской интеллигенции с радикальными преобразовательными планами большевиков под знаком науки о человеке и его здоровье. Особенностями нэповского общественно-медицинского дискурса были прогрессизм, борьба с религиозными суевериями, атака на социальные болезни (туберкулез, алкоголизм, венерические заболевания) и их причины. В статье рассматриваются стилистические особенности и жанровое многообразие этой пропагандистской продукции: пьесы, агитационные материалы, псевдо-фольклорные тексты (М. Утенков, С. Заяицкий и др.), а также деятельность институтов: музеев медицины и гигиены, Домов санитарного просвещения. Особенное внимание уделяется «национальным» и региональным версиям этого дискурса, его трансформации и формализации уже в 1930-е гг. The article examines the specificity of sanitary education and propaganda in the 1920s as a hybrid phenomenon between the history of medicine and the history of society. To understand the specificity, one must refer to the history of cultural ideas and of mass sentiments in the post-revolutionary times, to the study of professional examinations, scientific conventions and academic as well as literary circles. Following D. Beer and L. Engelstein, the authors consider the combination of “social engineering” approaches of a part of the medical intelligentsia with the radical transformative plans of the Bolsheviks – under the sign of the science of man and their health. The features of the NEP social medical discourse were progressivism, the fight against religious superstitions, the attack on social diseases (tuberculosis, alcoholism, venereal diseases) and their origins. The authors analyse (1) the stylistic features and genre diversity of this discourse: plays, propaganda materials, pseudo-folklore texts (M. Utenkov, S. Zayitsky, et al.); (2) the activities of institutions: museums of medicine and hygiene, houses of sanitary education; (3) the biographies of the psychiatrist Lazar Sukharebsky (1899–1986) as the editor of a catalog of educational and scientific medical films and Alexander (Aetius) Ranov (1899–1979), a prominent enthusiast of sanitary education in the Ural region and in Ukraine. In the early 1920s, at the dawn of the NEP, both Sukharebsky and Ranov belonged to a short-lived yet assertive group “Nichevoki”, which was close to the experience of European Dadaism. The recipient’s activity was stimulated in every possible way and was not limited to a simple assimilation of the finished image - the literary tradition, stage techniques and visual innovation were attracted as allies. Mass publications of sanitary education plays often included guidelines on the desirable format of the stage version, “tips” for the director, advice to avoid exaggeration and stiltedness. The authors pay particular attention to the “national” and regional versions of this discourse, its transformation and flattening already in the 1930s. After the end of the NEP, the activities of the Red Cross Societies were maximally nationalized – participation in collective production, and especially defence, rather than the fear of illnesses of a person or their family, became the engine of sanitary propaganda. “Red sanitary enlightenment” still seems to be a characteristic “hybrid” manifestation of the complex, multidimensional and instructive, though relatively short, NEP period.

Beton Ltd.: A Case Study

The paper focuses on Beton Ltd., a theatre collective comprised of three actors, Primož Bezjak, Branko Jordan and Katarina Stegnar, established in 2010. Beton Ltd. emerged on the Slovenian performing arts scene with a collective approach to theatre-making and is thus a special case as far as non-hierarchical and collective production models in Slovenia are concerned. In the last ten years, Beton Ltd. has created seven performances: So Far Away: Introduction to Ego-logy (2010); I Say What I am Told to Say (2012); Everything We’ve Lost, While We’ve Gone on Living (2013); Revolting Man (2014); Ich kann nicht anders (2016); Große Erwartungen/Great Expectations (2018) and Mahlzeit (2019). Through introspective self-analysis, the paper elaborates on the necessary preconditions for the formation of a collective, as well as the conditions necessary for effective collaboration in performance making, combining a short historical overview of the case in question, including specific collaborative strategies developed by Beton Ltd. during the past decade.

A Study on Developing Future Scenarios in Architectural Design

The 21st century is known for globalisation and rapid transformations in technology. These transformations also affect architecture and the urban environment. Developing projections for the future of architecture is becoming more critical in this era, where the opportunities to adapt to rapid transformations are scarce. This study investigates how to develop future perspectives for the 21st century. Utopian speculations in the historical process and the 20th century's Futurism movement were examined in this regard. A collective and multi-future methodology has been developed as a unique approach. In this paper, a multifuture experimental study was conducted as a daily workshop. In the workshop, seven architecture students from various universities and different architectural education years studied possible future scenarios for Beşiktaş Fish Market. Students were tasked to produce designs in compliance with the chronological timeline of the future for the possible transformation of the Beşiktaş Fish Market. The market, designed by Gökhan Avcıoğlu and GAD in 2009, was accorded the 2012 International Architecture Award and 2014 Archmarathon Crowd. In light of the outcome products obtained from the workshop, it can be stated that a multi-future way of thinking and collective production contributes to imaginative free play in the architectural design process and is a proposal to architecture as a possible preparation for the future.

Análisis con visión de género de las desventajas acumuladas de las investigadoras en los procesos de producción del conocimiento en México

This article aims to analyze under the gender lens the perception of full-time researchers who are part of the National System of Researchers (SNI by its acronym in Spanish, Sistema Nacional de Investigadores). The texts focus on the conditions that impact on the production of knowledge and academic freedom in two university contexts in Mexico, with the purpose of demonstrating the disadvantages that the sociocultural patterns of the sex-gender system imply for the work and performance of the women researchers; in addition to certify if these can be elements that avoid breaking with the glass ceiling in educational institutions, and reach the desired family conciliation. The empirical analysis results from a research entitled “Academic freedom and the conditions of collective production and mobilization of knowledge of researchers”, which involved 25 interviews in two Mexican Public Higher Education Institutions: the University of Guadalajara (U of G) and the National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM). Both are part of the rainking that evaluate the best Higher Education Institutions in Latin America.

Cinema and New Media Possibilities in the Pandemic

Cinema, which started to digitalize in the 20th century, continues to be integrated with digital publishing platforms that emerged with the development of new media technologies in the 21st century. With the coronavirus pandemic that affected the whole world in 2019, digital broadcasting platforms became popular as an alternative cinema event in the quarantine process. Various precautions have been taken around the world for the coronavirus pandemic. As a result of the quarantine precaution, the local and global cinema industry was negatively affected. Cinema industry which is a collective production and screening process, has been interrupted by the suspension of the filming and the closing of the movie theaters during the quarantine. New media created a movement area for the cinema industry in this process. In this sense, the aim of this study is examining the researches on the effect of the coronavirus pandemic on the cinema and the effect of new media tools and opportunities on the cinema sector.

Coming to voice: Community radio production as critical pedagogy

This article argues for the pedagogical possibilities of collective community radio show production for transnational students; in particular, identifying the capacities for self-representation for students from otherwise marginalised and under-represented communities. Students are tasked in this elective module to collectively produce a community-facing show for a multilingual Leicester community radio station; in emphasising collective production alongside critical unpacking of the diverse deployments of ‘community’, the module encourages reflective approaches to community and identity. Through analysing assessment parameters and examples from student-produced shows, I suggest that the theory into practice approach of teaching the value of community cultural production alongside training in production practice by community practitioners encourages student agency, within key approaches drawn on cultural studies and media studies. At the same time, I argue the module’s assemblage of informing theories and production practice comprises a worthwhile research focus for cultural studies itself, retrieving pedagogy as a critical practice historically central to cultural studies’ disciplinary preoccupations with everyday practice, identity formation and popular culture.