Queer futuring: an approach to critical futuring strategies for adult learners

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to develop queer futuring strategies that take into consideration adult learners’ needs in support of transformational and sustainable change for social justice and equity. Design/methodology/approach This paper develops the construct of queer futuring, which engages queer theory perspectives in a critical futures framework. Adult learning theory informs queer futuring strategies to support adults and inform education to sustain transformational changes for social justice and equity. Findings With social justice in mind, queer futuring opens spaces and supports opportunities for adults to engage in learning activities that address historical and layered forms of oppression. Building on learning needs of adults to create meaning and make a difference in the world around them, queer futuring strategies provide tools for activism, advocacy and building new relationships and ways of being-with. Research limitations/implications The sustainability of our current system of growth and financial well-being has already been called into question, and the current pandemic provides tangible evidence of values for contribution, connection and concern for others, even in the midst of political strife and conspiracy theories. These shifting values and values conflict of society point to the questions of equity and narrative inclusivity, challenging and disrupting dominant paradigms and structures that have perpetuated power and authority “over” rather than social participation “with” and harmony. Queer futuring is just the beginning of a bigger conversation about transforming society. Practical implications Queering spaces from the perspective of queer futuring keeps the adult learner and queering processes in mind with an emphasis on affiliation and belonging, identity and resistance and politics and change. Social implications The authors suggest queer futuring makes room for opening spaces of creativity and insight as traditional and reified rationality is problematized, further supporting development of emergentist relationships with the future as spaces of possibility and innovation. Originality/value Queer futuring connects ethical and pragmatic approaches to futuring for creating the kinds of futures needed to decolonize, delegitimize and disrupt hegemonic and categorical thinking and social structures. It builds on queer theory’s critical perspective, engaging critical futures strategies with adult learners at the forefront.

Under The Sun’s Flag, on The Edge of Tangerang City: History of the Establishment of the College and Branch Leaders Muhammadiyah Pasar Kemis, Tangerang Regency

Muhammadiyah has been known as an organization engaged in education and social affairs. In its work, since it was founded by KH Ahmad Dahlan in 1912, Muhammadiyah has been active in both fields while spreading its wings throughout the archipelago. One of these 'wings' was developed in Pasar Kemis, a sub-district located in Tangerang Regency, Banten Province. In this sub-district, Muhammadiyah is actively expanding its work in the field of education and social activities. This paper aims to examine the role of Muhammadiyah in the Pasar Kemis District and the dynamics of its history and movement in this sub-district. Moreover, it seeks to describe the influence of the emergence of the Muhammadiyah organization in Pasar Kemis Sub-district, Tangerang Regency, Banten Province. Archives, documents, notes, photos, and various decrees from internal organizations, individuals to the Tangerang Regency Government were dissected and reviewed. The result obtained is Muhammadiyah organization has advantages that seem very difficult to imitate by other organizations, including NU. More precisely, it is about tangible evidence to the public. This is manifested in various Muhammadiyah charities such as schools, hospitals, zakat institutions (LAZIS-MU), universities to universities, and others. The business charity was established and run not for business for its members but for the community. The typical Muhammadiyah business charity is different from corporations or private foundations, which are usually owned by individuals or a handful of groups (oligarchy).

The Spread of Buddhism and Peace in Southeast Asia

Buddhism is among the oldest religious traditions of the world. It is based on the life and teachings of Siddharta Gautama. The message of world peace is the greatest contribution of Buddhism to the human civilization. This paper aims to study the spread of Buddhism in the Southeast Asian region and its relations with the ideals of peace in contemporary period. Theoretically paper relies on the post-colonial history writing tradition. It adopts descriptive and analytical method to study the subject matter. Conclusions of the paper are drawn after scrutiny of primary and secondary literatures. A thorough study reveals that Buddhism has a glorious past in the Southeast Asia. The practice of Buddhism in the region was popular even prior to the beginning of recorded history. Different monuments provide tangible evidence, and deep-rooted essence of Buddhism in the socio-cultural practices of the region are intangible testimony to this. Paper argues that inter-religious issues in the region and especially current situation of conflict between people of different faith can be resolved by following philosophy of Buddhism in true sense.

Blessed by the Lord: A Visual Portrait of a Jumli Pentecostal Congregation

Many Christian converts in the Sinja Valley of Jumla, northwest Nepal, reveal that they have been struck by the Bible because it referenced real events, especially miraculous cases of healing. These miraculous events provide tangible ‘evidence’ of God’s power that somewhat replicate the expectations that people nurture with respect to the Hindu deities. In such way, miracles play an especially crucial role in supporting the conversion of women and youngsters living in large families, who, partaking as veritable protagonists in Biblical events, are turned into the as quintessentially Christian subjects of a conversion narrative that helps substantiating their radical decision vis-à-vis the rest of their family.

The Forgotten Soundtrack of Maoriland: Imagining the Nation Through Alfred Hill’s Songs for Rewi's Last Stand

<p>Alfred Hill’s songs based on collected Māori musical materials and narrative themes are artefacts of cultural colonisation that represent individual identities and imagined communities. They are tangible evidence of the site of identity formation known as Maoriland within which Pākehā construct imaginings of ‘Māoriness’ to create their own sense of indigeneity and nationhood. Although early twentieth-century Maoriland has been discussed widely in the arts and literature, scholars have not addressed the music of Maoriland, perhaps because it is heard today as the cultural form that most clearly expresses racialised sentimentality and colonial hegemony. However, Maoriland music can tell us much about New Zealand society if it is recognised as inhabiting an ‘in-between’ place where Pākehā fascination for the racial other was often inseparable from an admiration for Māori promoted by a knowledgeable group of Māori and Pākehā cultural go-betweens. This thesis presents a critical cultural analysis of the ethnic, racial, gendered, and national identities represented in Hill’s ‘Māori’ songs, viewed through the lens of his use of these in his score for Rudall Hayward’s film Rewi’s Last Stand (1940). This analysis shows that these popular songs contributed, and continue to contribute, to the nexus of Māori, war, and music in Pākehā narrations of the nation. By applying a bicultural approach to the study of Hill’s Maoriland songs, this research also shows these ‘in-between’ songs represent individual, tribal, and national Māori identities too. While this work adds music to the discourse of Maoriland, and Maoriland to the discourse of New Zealand music and national identity, Hill’s ‘Māori’ music, early twentieth-century New Zealand music, and New Zealand film music all remain severely under-researched areas of New Zealand music studies.</p>

The Forgotten Soundtrack of Maoriland: Imagining the Nation Through Alfred Hill’s Songs for Rewi's Last Stand

<p>Alfred Hill’s songs based on collected Māori musical materials and narrative themes are artefacts of cultural colonisation that represent individual identities and imagined communities. They are tangible evidence of the site of identity formation known as Maoriland within which Pākehā construct imaginings of ‘Māoriness’ to create their own sense of indigeneity and nationhood. Although early twentieth-century Maoriland has been discussed widely in the arts and literature, scholars have not addressed the music of Maoriland, perhaps because it is heard today as the cultural form that most clearly expresses racialised sentimentality and colonial hegemony. However, Maoriland music can tell us much about New Zealand society if it is recognised as inhabiting an ‘in-between’ place where Pākehā fascination for the racial other was often inseparable from an admiration for Māori promoted by a knowledgeable group of Māori and Pākehā cultural go-betweens. This thesis presents a critical cultural analysis of the ethnic, racial, gendered, and national identities represented in Hill’s ‘Māori’ songs, viewed through the lens of his use of these in his score for Rudall Hayward’s film Rewi’s Last Stand (1940). This analysis shows that these popular songs contributed, and continue to contribute, to the nexus of Māori, war, and music in Pākehā narrations of the nation. By applying a bicultural approach to the study of Hill’s Maoriland songs, this research also shows these ‘in-between’ songs represent individual, tribal, and national Māori identities too. While this work adds music to the discourse of Maoriland, and Maoriland to the discourse of New Zealand music and national identity, Hill’s ‘Māori’ music, early twentieth-century New Zealand music, and New Zealand film music all remain severely under-researched areas of New Zealand music studies.</p>

When Job Search is Deemed Insufficient: Experiences of Unemployed People Disbarred Following Compliancy Monitoring

Job search is a central element of activation policies, which aim to transform unemployed people into active jobseekers who are subject to checks. We examine a neglected aspect of activation: sanctions. To do so we analyse, through biographical interviews with formerly-unemployed people whose benefit payments have been stopped, what it means when a job search is deemed insufficient. Although these formerly-unemployed people have failed to present enough written and tangible evidence of their job search during checks, they have pursued a different type of job search comprising more informal activities that are difficult to convert into written documents. So, we identify a twin-stranded job search – prescribed and alternative. We also point out that the gap between institutionally-framed job search and experience-based job search widens among unemployed people having low employability attributes, so that ever-stricter checks penalize those who are most vulnerable.

“Merely to see and touch it”: On Service, McCrae, and Literary Tourism in Canada

Long dismissed as a “critical error” ( Booth 2016 ) and still capable of inciting “embarrassment palpable” ( Watson 2006 ) among scholars otherwise happy to emphasize the material contexts that inform the circulation of texts, literary tourism has recently become the focus of serious academic inquiry. Recent work has begun to disaggregate the various forms of literary tourist sites ( Fawcett and Cormack 2001 ), but continues to have a methodological gap surrounding the specifically literary aspects of the practice itself, and—with the notable exception of Green Gables (Squire 1992; Devereux 2001 )—has left Canada predictably unexamined. This essay begins with a brief introduction to literary tourism in Canada before moving into a comparative analysis of two National Historic Sites associated with Canadian literary authors: the Robert Service cabin in Dawson City, Yukon, and the John McCrae House in Guelph, Ontario. The sites offer a compelling comparison as the former homes of two of the best-known Canadian poets of the early twentieth century whose works have become popularly synonymous with two of Canada’s most heavily mythologized eras. The enduring popularity of poems like “The Cremation of Sam McGee” reflect not only Service’s central role in mythologizing Canada’s north but also a strategic “cultural commoditization” of the area’s gold rush heritage ( Jarvenpa 1994 ; Grace 2001 ), while McCrae’s “In Flanders Fields” retains its status not only as the “most popular poem” of the First World War in Canada and beyond ( Fussell 2000 ), but as also as a primary example of the ideological function of Great War literature within Canada ( Holmes 2005 ; Gordon 2014 ). Although the two author houses may initially appear a study in contrasts, I draw on recent work in literary tourist studies to argue they are linked in their function as “materialized fictions” ( Hendrix 2008 ), or concrete interpretative frames that aim to offer tangible evidence of the Canadian myths their former inhabitants helped to fashion.

Illuminating Nursing’s Value: The 12 Anthroposophic Nursing Gestures

Nursing care historically has not been separated from institutional care costs. Organizations seek to quantify nursing care with no assignation of the value or uniqueness of the individual patient–nurse encounter. New models point to measuring care at this level. Nursing care encompasses tangible evidence that can be easy to quantify but, in the paradigm of healing and caring, and more specifically within the knowledge pool of holistic nursing, significant contributions are intangible and thus hard to measure. Anthroposophic nursing’s 12 nursing gestures offer an integration by making intangible nursing practice tangible. They incorporate addressing the whole person and more clearly show the caring and healing aspects of nursing care. Making such intangibles of care tangible contribute to the discussion of nursing value and how it is measured in healthcare organizations. More research is needed, however, to refine and value nursing care to more accurately reflect the connection between caring, healing, and patient outcomes.

Brass products in the coronet excavated from a M2-numbered Sui-Tang-dynasty tomb situated in Kun Lun Company in Xi'an, Shaanxi

In this study, the brass wires in the coronet excavated from M2 tomb in Xi'an, Shaanxi, dating back to Sui-Tang-dynasty were probed via portable X-ray fluorescence spectrometry (XRF) and scanning electron microscopy in combination with energy dispersive spectrometry (SEM-EDS) techniques. The wires were found to be composed of 83 wt% of copper, 12 wt% of zinc, and 3 wt% of tin. According to the metallographic analysis, the wires were formed by integral hot forging, and were then installed on the coronet after surface cold shaping, via cutting and hammering during the production of the support parts. It indicated that the composition of brass was evenly distributed without obvious composition segregation, revealing the features of the second stage of brass smelting in ancient China, which may prove brass had appeared and brass smelting technology had been mastered in the Sui-Tang-dynasty in the Central Plains of China. In addition, the use of brass in the coronet was in accorded with the hierarchical symbol given to the material by the feudal society. And the selection of brass was based on the dual combination of the excellent mechanical properties and the golden surface of brass. Thus, brass in the Sui-Tang-dynasty historical period was the tangible evidence of the development level of metallurgical technology, and also reflected the artistic and social attributes given to materials by different stages of social development.