Deep Mediatization: Rethinking a Figurational Approach

The article analyzes the possibilities and limitations of the figurative approach to the deep mediatization study, developed by Andreas Hepp and Nick Couldrie. To what extent is figurative theoretical optics sensitive to the processes of social worlds and practices transformation under the media influence? What are the possible directions of revision and further development of this approach? The figurative approach to deep mediatization is a powerful theoretical tool to explore this complex, non-linear meta-process. Focusing on figurations helps to avoid media centrism and emphasize the social life procedurality. At the same time, the figurations concept (understood as collectives, organizations, and institutions) raises some questions. In particular, the thesis about special media ensembles inherent in different figurations does not always work. This is due to the emergence of multifunctional platforms that can become a single digital infrastructure for many figurations. Such platforms have the potential of the ecosystem for a mediatized social life. Further analysis of the relationship between figurations and platforms is required, which does not reduce platforms only to the technological component of figurations. Bridging the deep divide between human actors and technology would also lead to new readings of medialogics (such as human-machine logics).

The Neurocognitive Poetics Model of Literary Reading 10 Years After

The neurocognitive poetics model (NCPM) of literary reading was developed about 10 years ago as a theoretical tool for generating and guiding scientific studies of literature. It introduced testable hypotheses concerning two central phenomena of literary reading that had been so far badly neglected by research on text or discourse processing in experimental reading research, psycholinguistics, or cognitive neuroscience. These phenomena—immersion and affective-aesthetic processes—have since then been investigated in a number of studies supporting the NCPM’s main assumptions. In the article under discussion, the author explains the development of the NCPM.

The Ethical Assessment of Autonomous Systems in Practice

This paper presents the findings of a study that used applied ethics to evaluate autonomous robotic systems practically. Using a theoretical tool developed by a team of researchers in 2017, which one of the authors contributed to, we conducted a study of four existing autonomous robotic systems in July 2020. The methods used to carry out the study and the results are highlighted by examining the specific example of ANYmal, an autonomous robotic system that is one component of the CERBERUS team that won first place in DARPA’s Subterranean Challenge Systems Competition in September 2021.

“I would have to be mad to leave this bed.” A Female Heterotopia of Self-confinement in Sue Townsend’s The Woman Who Went to Bed for a Year

What happens when a woman, housewife and mother, decides to take to her room and stay in bed for a whole year? This scarcely plausible proposition opens the last published work by the late British author Sue Townsend. This paper aims to explain the main coordinates of the narrative by using Foucault’s concept of heterotopia; an effective, theoretical tool when applied to the analysis of a contained, physical space which is eventually turned into a site of contestation by means of the protagonist’s self-imposed confinement. This implies further questioning on the degree of agency she displays within her environment and, in addition, raises doubts about whether the novel responds to a feminist stance on the part of the author or to a literary depiction of her unavoidable withdrawal from the outside world due to her personal circumstances.

Navigating Contentious Times in Rural Education

In this introductory article to the special issue, the guest editors situate the articles of the issue within the current contentious climate surrounding critical race theory (CRT). They first provide a background and summary of the major tenets of CRT then apply those tenets to current legislation aimed at banning CRT in schools. They then situate the current backlash against CRT within a history of resistance to racial justice efforts in schools. The editors explain their stance on the current issue of CRT and then substantiate their position with evidence from the articles within the special issue. The conclusions they draw are that CRT is a valuable and applicable theoretical tool in schools and education research.

The Journey Within: Inner Calling as Spiritual in R. K. Narayan’s The Guide and Robin Sharma’s The Monk Who Sold His Ferrari

The Journey within begins when people start contemplating about the real purpose of their existence. The contemplation of longing to know the real purpose of life starts in the process of sitting with mindfulness – meditation which transcends the survival purpose of life. It leads to spirituality, the ability to talk to oneself or the heart - the inner calling, leads humans towards the perception of Divine within oneself, treasure within oneself and happiness within oneself. R. K. Narayan’s The Guide and Robin Sharma’s The Monk Who Sold His Ferrari carve out spiritual traces where protagonists find pleasure and happiness. In The Guide, the transformation of Raju from a tourist guide to spiritual guide for the sake of humankind and his interconnectedness with the Divine owes much to the self-realization as well as to his heart. In the same way, The Monk Who Sold His Ferrari transcends the material prosperity and reaches to the state of ecstasy as exemplified in spiritual preaching of the monk - Robin. Following the spirituality as theoretical tool, the article the central characters and explores their transformation towards spiritual awakening.

Weaponized testimonial injustice

Theoretical tools aimed at making explicit the injustices suffered by certain socially disadvantaged groups might end up serving purposes which were not foreseen when the tools were first introduced. Nothing is inherently wrong with a shift in the scope of a theoretical tool: the popularization of a concept opens up the possibility of its use for several strategic purposes. The thesis that we defend in this paper is that some public figures cultivate a public persona for whom the conditions of the notion of testimonial injustice might be taken to apply, and this situation is exploited to their advantage, as a means to advance their political agendas. More specifically, they take advantage of this to generate situations of crossed disagreements, which in turn foster polarization.

INTERSECTIONAL PREFIGURATIVE POLITICS: QUEER CABARET AS RADICAL RESISTANCE

The implementation of intersectional frameworks and political priorities have proven challenging for social movements. Drawing on a case study of queer cabaret and insights garnered through a combination of field observation, semi-structured interviews, and cultural artifacts, I introduce the concept of intersectional prefigurative politics as a theoretical tool for understanding how social movement actors build collectivity and engage in consciousness raising informed by a commitment to intersectional social justice. By distinguishing movement spaces from other social spaces, unsettling hegemonic power relations through a commitment to accessibility and care, and centering marginalized peoples, queer cabaret movement actors build collectives and raise consciousness informed by intersectional politics.