Situated Scaffolding for Sustainable Participatory Design

An extensive literature on participatory design with older adults has, thus far, little to say about the support older adults need when involved in online activities. Our research suggests that to empower older adults in participatory design, scaffolding work has to be done. Scaffolding interactions - creating temporary instructional support to help the learning of participants - is a common approach in participatory design. Yet, when applied in online participatory design with older adults, the traditional understanding of the concept does not match the way older adults' learn. Hence, we argue for a new understanding of this term, which we call situated scaffolding. We illustrate our argument with a case where older adults collaborate online as part of a participatory design project. We unpack the different dimensions of situated scaffolding and discuss how this novel understanding can be used to further inform sustainable participatory design for and with older adults.

"Ett löfte om lycka"

In this essay, I explore an innovative theme in the interfaces between theology, gender studies, aesthetic theory, and literary studies. More specifically, my aim is to shed light on fundamental theological conflicts underlying the immensely complex subject of the elevated status of "the beautiful woman" as image and idea in Western society. This will be implemented through a close reading of the influential short story of French nineteenth-century novelist Honoré de Balzac, Le Chef-d'œuvre inconnu (The Unknown Masterpiece), from 1831. By virtue of this theologically informed reading, important facets of modern Western society's fantasy of the beautiful woman come to the fore. The essay discloses how this fantasy has far-reaching tentacles and ramifications, by which the beautiful female becomes identified with beauty per se, with art, nature, the divine, and even with life itself. Balzac's short story presents the reader with a strong statement of the scopophilic tendency of Western visual arts, but in its final peripeteia it also provides us with the tools to bring forth a contrary reading, and a direct confrontation with the traditional understanding of the task of the painter.

ON THE ISSUE OF THE TRANSFORMATION OF LAW IN THE CONDITIONS OF DIGITALIZATION

The article is devoted to the analysis of changes in the traditional understanding of law under the influence of digital technologies. The individual components of law are considered in the aspect of the impact on them of modern realities. The article highlights the problems of the functioning of law and indicates the importance of their solution.

Populism in Moldova’s Informal Political System

The 2020 presidential and 2021 parliamentary elections in the Republic of Moldova saw a clear victory of the populist Party of Action and Solidarity (PAS) of the newly elected president Maia Sandu over the pro-Russian coalition led by former presidents Igor Dodon and Vladimir Voronin. These results testify the citizens’ will to change a country with an ever-widening gap between politicians and populace. Since 2015, the political debate is centred on corruption, but the cases described draw the picture of a political landscape where practices go beyond the traditional understanding of the term. In fact, their analysis demonstrates the existence of a system of Soviet political culture which relies on informal practices of the elite, arguing that some of these practices have clear Soviet roots while others are an adaptation of the Soviet mentality to the new liberal democratic setting. The paper also highlights differences between the populist parties born either as a reaction to the system or as an adaptation of the elite response to perceived expectations of the electorate. This research took place between 2020 and 2021 utilising participant observation and semi-structured interviews with Moldovan political experts. The paper concludes that future research on Moldovan politics should incorporate analysis of this informal dimension to state politics which is core to public debate on corruption and the integrity of state institutions in Moldova.

Identity Politics and International Security of the Post-Soviet European States

In the article, identity politics is understood as an intentional policy towards forcing and maintaining a macro-political identity. The authors also refer to the traditional understanding of identity politics as a political course focused on protecting the rights of oppressed (deprived) minorities. The object of the research is the European countries of the post-Soviet space. The authors emphasize the dominance of the international (European) vector of political identity, based on the position declared in official speeches and confirmed in the media and history textbooks. The authors identify several stages that determine the algorithm of identity politics in the Baltic countries, the Ukraine and Belarus. They give examples of how in modern conditions the reference to value orientations actualizes the classical understanding of identity politics, at the same time exacerbating the confrontation between the countries that have chosen the European vector and those who hesitate or do not have such a chance.

“Are you gay or do you do gay?” Subjectivities in “gay” stories on the Persian sexblog shahvani.com

The main goal of this study is to demonstrate the influence of local-traditional perceptions of sexuality in the construction of subjectivity among men involved in same-sex sexual practices in contemporary Iran. In order to do so, I shall briefly outline some essential features of the local-traditional understanding of sexuality, which I consider to be epistemologically and ontologically different from the modern concept of human sexuality. Subsequently, the continuity of the local-traditional understanding of sexuality in the identity construction of those individuals involved in same-sex sexual practices will be demonstrated through an inquiry on contemporary pornographic stories written by users of an online platform with erotic and pornographic content. I will argue that the perception of and the explanation for same-sex desire as well as the categorisations of subjects found in these stories point to the predominance of local-traditional patterns of thought in the imagination of the authors of these stories. However, it will also be demonstrated that the modern idea of sexuality is present among some other users of this platform, whose modern worldview is in conflict and competition with the local-traditional views on sexuality. This conflict is best illustrated in the commentary sections of the stories on this website, where modern-thinking users question the “truth” of the epistemology behind these local-traditional narratives. This modern users’ criticism of the local-traditional view on same-sex desire shall be addressed in the last part of the paper.

ON THE NEW MODEL OF ADAPTIVE INTELLOGENCE

В статье рассматривается традиционное понимание адаптивной функции интеллекта, обоснованное в трудах Ж.Пиаже, Г.Култона и многих других авторов. Даются исчерпываю щие представления о принципиально новых подходах к пониманию адаптивно интеллектуальной функции, разработанных в контексте общей теории психотерапии. Приводится краткое и развернутое определение новой модели адаптивного интеллекта. Обсуждаются эвристическ ие следствия данной модели в психотерапии, в частности в мета модели социальной психотерапии, в сфере деятельности научных и религиозных институтов, а также в сфере научной этики. Делаются выводы о состоятельности и перспективности использования данной мод ели в науке и практике. The article examines the traditional understanding of the adaptive function of intelligence, substantiated in the works of J. Piaget, G. Coulton and many other authors. Exhaustive ideas about fundamentally new approaches to understanding the adaptive-intellectual function, developed in the context of the general theory of psychotherapy, are given. A short and detailed definition of a new model of adaptive intelligence is given. The heuristic consequences of this model in psychotherapy, in particular in the meta-model of social psychotherapy, in the field of activities of scientific and religious institutions, as well as in the field of scientific ethics are discussed. Conclusions are made about the consistency and prospects of using this model in science and practice.

Religion and the Constitution: A Response to Luke Beck’s Safeguard against Religious Intolerance Theory of Section 116

This article critiques Luke Beck’s ‘safeguard against religious intolerance’ theory of section 116 of the Constitution. We argue that a plausible theory of section 116 must be able to account for the fact that, at Federation, Australia was an overwhelmingly Christian nation, which was opposed to the establishment of any religion but was not ‘secular’, and also for the fact that Australian society has become less religious but with many surviving remnants of the enmeshing of religion and the government. We argue that, consistent with the traditional understanding, section 116 has a federal purpose, being designed to distribute power to legislate in relation to religion throughout the Australian federation. Section 116 can also be seen as promoting religious pluralism, enabling interactions between religion and government. Beck’s theory, and its separationist implications, fails to adequately take these factors into account.

Towards a Psycho-Sociological Understanding of Allah

It is not possible to determine whether Allah is inside the universe or outside it. While the traditional understanding is that Allah is “outside” the universe; the “inside” understanding is consistent with the Qur’ān as well as the writings of Carl G. Jung, Emile Durkheim, Abraham Maslow, and Philip Goff and can explain the concept and the writ of Allah to the modern mind. We hypothesize that Allah is the name given to the consciousness of every particle in the universe fused into One and called Universal Consciousness. The consciousness is not prior- or after matter but exists in parallel. There is a 2-way give-and-take between Allah and the Universe. The believers have a more direct communication with Allah. Allah rules upon the universe and, at the same time, Allah is constituted of the Collective Consciousness of the same universe. We show this hypothesis is consistent with al-Nūr 24:35 and Sūra al-Ikhlāṣ. This approach can be the foundation on which we can build a concordance between the understandings of Qur’ānic Allah and modern science, thus explain the majesty of Allah to the science-oriented modern mind including the atheists without diluting the spiritual content of the Holy Qur’ān.