Book review: Nietzsche and the Antichrist: Religion, Politics, and Culture in Late Modernity

This volume makes a valuable contribution to Nietzsche scholarship by providing a single volume on one of Nietzsche’s texts, The Antichrist, with pieces from an array of prominent scholars. It calls attention to the importance of a work less often systematically treated in the scholarship than some others. The contributors to the volume represent a wide array of philosophical approaches to Nietzsche’s thought and offer a good sampling of the perspectives in Nietzsche scholarship. Conway has assembled an especially strong group of scholars who approach Nietzsche’s thought via political theory and those who have advanced our insight on Nietzsche’s political thought. This link among many of the essays helps to unify the volume and call attention to the political themes and long range aims of Nietzsche’s Antichrist.

The Effect of Training Status on Adaptations to 11 Weeks of Block Periodization Training

Some controversy exists as to the most efficacious method of training to achieve enhanced levels of sport performance. Controversy concerning the efficacy of periodization and especially block periodization (BP) likely stems from the use of poorly or untrained subjects versus trained who may differ in their responses to a stimulus. The purpose of this study was to investigate the effect of training status on performance outcomes resulting from 11 weeks of BP training. Fifteen males were recruited for this study and placed into strong (age = 24.3 ± 1.9 years., body mass (BM) = 87.7 ± 8.7 kg, squat: body mass = 1.96 ± 0.16), moderate (age = 25.3 ± 2.7 years., body mass = 100.2 ± 15.5 kg, squat: body mass = 1.46 ± 0.14), or weak (age = 23.2 ± 3.9 yrs., body mass = 83.5 ± 17.1 kg, squat: body mass = 1.17 ± 0.07) groups based on relative strength. Testing was completed at baseline, and after each block which consisted of 1 repetition maximum (1RM) squat, 0 kg static jump (SJ), 0 kg countermovement jump (CMJ), 20 kg SJ, and 20 kg CMJ. Absolute and relative strength were strongly correlated with rates of improvement for absolute strength, relative strength, 0 kg, and 20 kg vertical jumps. All subjects substantially improved back squat (p < 0.001), relative back squat (p < 0.001) with large–very large effect sizes between groups for percent change favoring the weak group over the moderate and strong group for all performance variables. All subjects showed statistically significant improvements in 0 kg SJ (p < 0.001), 0 kg CMJ (p < 0.001), 20 kg SJ (p = 0.002), and 20 kg CMJ (p < 0.001). Statistically significant between group differences were noted for both 20 kg SJ (p = 0.01) and 20 kg CMJ (p = 0.043) with the strong group statistically greater jump heights than the weak group. The results of this study indicate BP training is effective in improving strength and explosive ability. Additionally, training status may substantially alter the response to a resistance training program.

Is Job Involvement Enough for Achieving Job Satisfaction? The Role of Skills Use and Group Identification

The main objective of this research is to evaluate the influence of job involvement over job satisfaction mediated through the professional skill use and moderated by group identification. The sample of the current research was composed of 420 subjects. The main results showed that job involvement was strongly related to skill use and group identification. Moreover, the interaction of job involvement and group identification is negatively related with skill use. Our results show that there is no statistically significant relationship between job involvement and job satisfaction. Furthermore, the use of skills is strongly related to job satisfaction. Lastly, we found that a strong group identification tends to harm job satisfaction values.

Proses Interaksi Simbolik Dalam Budaya Organisasi Pembentukan Grup (Studi Etnografi JKT48)

In 2011 JKT48 was present in the entertainment world in Indonesia and debuted as a singing group with JPop (Japan Pop) music, and successfully loved the existence of boyband and girlband that did not last long. Having not a few group members with many differences from each other, JKT48 has been able to be a strong group to date. This research aims to deepen and understand how the symbolic interaction process in organizational culture forms a JKT48 group, so that the JKT48 group is strong and survives to the present. In this study using qualitative methodology. The results of the study said that JKT48 has three stages of forming JKT48 members, including audition and quarantine, trainees or academics, and team members. At this stage of course the things in it found the process of symbolic interaction in organizational culture. Pada tahun 2011 JKT48 hadir di dunia hiburan di Indonesia dan memulai debutnya sebagai grup penyanyi beraliran musik JPop (Japan Pop), dan sukses menyaingi eksistensi boyband dan girlband yang tidak bertahan lama. Kelompok ini memiliki anggota grup dalam jumlah besar yang memiliki perbedaan satu sama lain, JKT48 mampu menjadi grup yang kuat hingga saat ini. Penelitian ini memiliki tujuan untuk memperdalam dan memahami terkait bagaimana proses interaksi simbolik dalam budaya organisasi terbentuknya sebuah grup JKT48 sehingga tetap bertahan hingga saat ini. Penelitian ini menggunakan metodologi kualitatif. Hasil dari penelitian mengatakan bahwa JKT48 memiliki tiga tahapan pembentukan anggota yaitu audisi dan karantina, trainee atau academy, serta anggota tim. Pada tahapan tersebut ditemukan proses interaksi simbolik dalam budaya organisasi.

Collective action problems in offensive and defensive warfare

A collective action problem exists not only in offensive warfare, but also in defensive situations. The collective action problem is dealt with in the same way in offensive and defensive warfare: by strong leadership, discipline, rewards and punishments, strong group identification, strict religiosity, and intolerance of deviants. This behavior is explained in terms of evolutionary psychology.

Social Presence in Massive Open Online Courses

The capacity to foster interpersonal interactions in massive open online courses (MOOCs) has frequently been contested, particularly when learner interactions are limited to MOOC forums. The establishment of social presence—a perceived sense of somebody being present and “real”—is among the strategies to tackle the challenges of online learning and could be applied in MOOCs. Thus far, social presence in MOOCs has been under-researched. Studies that previously examined social presence in MOOCs did not account for the peculiar nature of open online learning. In contrast to the existing work, this study seeks to understand how learners perceive social presence, and the different nuances of social presence in diverse MOOC populations. In particular, we compare perceptions of social presence across the groups of learners with different patterns of forum participation in three edX MOOCs. The findings reveal substantial differences in how learners with varying forum activity perceive social presence. Perceptions of social presence also differed in courses with the varying volume of forum interaction and duration. Finally, learners with sustained forum activity generally reported higher social presence scores that included low affectivity and strong group cohesion perceptions. With this in mind, this study is significant because of the insights into brings to the current body of knowledge around social presence in MOOCs. The study’s findings also raise questions about the effectiveness of transferring existing socio-constructivist constructs into the MOOC contexts.

Carceral Violence Inside and On the Outs

This chapter explores how the carceral social order structures criminalized residents’ experiences with violence, both inside and outside the punitive facility. The need for strong group identities controls some forms of gang and interpersonal violence in the institution, but it also dictates when violence is appropriate or even demanded. The socialized perception that racialized groups are threats to one another compels participants to use violence to themselves police the social order that the institution established—lashing out when group boundaries are threatened or forcing authorities to relocate them when they feel outnumbered. This chapter also examines how penal violence spreads into the neighborhood through secondary prisonization and institutional reproduction of the carceral social order, influencing the local conflicts that young residents must learn to navigate. Finally, I discuss how the expansion of carceral affiliations into local spaces shapes young peoples’ exposure to police violence carried out in the name of gang suppression.