Brigid Brophy's Ethical Aestheticism: Form, Empathy, Reciprocity

11 - Libraries, learning, and porous boundaries: Reimagining the library landscape and its inhabitants

This non-traditional research paper explores the role of photojournalism and documentary photography in shifting the power dynamic inherent in photographing refugee migrants in Australia—the refugee as an object of photographic scrutiny. It draws on visual politics literature which argues refugees have been subjected to a particular ‘gaze’, where their migration narratives are mediated, mediatised, dissected and weaponised against them in the name of journalistic public accountability in and for the Global North. This photo-documentary praxis project subverts this ‘gaze’ of the Global North and decolonises the power dynamics of the visual politics of refugee migration by turning the lens on middle Australia. Instead of questioning refugees, this project asks what is our moral responsibility to support them? These images are drawn from three years of photographically documenting the Meanjin (Brisbane) community that rallied around and eventually triggered the release of about 120 medevaced refugee men locked up in an urban motel in Brisbane for more than a year in 2020-21. In these images taken outside the detention centre, community members go ‘on the record’ to articulate their motivations for taking a stand—an enduring Fourth Estate record of their social and political stance as active participants within the mediated democratic process of holding power accountable in the refugee migration space. The refugees central to this project have now been released into the community but as they continue to languish in an immigration purgatory, the project is ongoing and continues to manifest through an activist journalism framework, drawing on human rights-based photojournalism practice.

In this article we review the Draft Inclusive Teaching Practice Guidance (ITPG) from the Teaching Council (2025a). This is the Council’s third guidance book, after providing Tātaiako for Māori learners, and Tapasā for learners from the Pacific. The main focus of the ITPG for registered kaiako/teachers is strengthening their inclusive practice, and while it is very much about disabled learners, it also views inclusion in the broadest sense. We review the ITPG against the opportunities for supporting active participation of all learners, and where it sits alongside the revised Standards for the Teaching Profession released in 2025. The ITPG does not take an explicit rights oriented approach like many previous inclusive practice frameworks, but instead works to provide an interpretation of the Standards for kaiako working in Aotearoa New Zealand to use. However because of this lack of an explicit rights orientation, there is a very real danger that kaiako will view embedding the ITPG in practice as something they can opt in or out of doing as they feel fit, rather than this being an important professional obligation grounded in the inalienable right that all tamariki and rangatahi possess to an equitable and inclusive education. Without this obligation, it is possible for teaching practice to be overwhelmed by other institutional and policy drivers of practice. Thus in a more rights focused, mana enhancing political context, the ITPG could become a critical means for transforming inclusive practice. However, so too could it easily be made irrelevant by marginalising, discriminatory, exclusionary policy and power dynamics in play within Aotearoa New Zealand’s education system, such as we collectively find ourselves navigating at the moment.

In its broadest sense, interracialism in American Christianity refers to constructive social interactions and collaboration across racial and ethnic boundaries—existential engagement inspired by religious ideals and religious teachings—in the interest of undercutting sanctioned divisions. Terms such as “racial interchange,” “desegregation,” “integration,” and “cross-racial” also refer to the broader ideas contained in the term “interracial.” To single out Christianity as a subject of interracial dynamics in American religious history does not deny the existence of cross-racial experiences in other religious traditions such as Buddhism, or even in the various groups within new religious movements. Rather, it reflects the largest range of documented experiences on this subject and synthesizes the major scholarship on this topic. The existence of interracialism in American religion also assumes the entanglement of race and religion. As social constructs, religious ideas and teachings contributed to conceptions of race and its lived realities, while notions of race shaped the development of religious practices, religious institutions, and scriptural interpretations. Interracialism in American religion is a concept that portends the possibility of political, social, or intellectual unity; in practice it wrestles with power dynamics where factors such as class or gender, as much as race, shapes social relations. In other words, interracialism in American religion has been a transgressive, disruptive presence that defies structures of power; at the very same time, it has exhibited social and expressive habits that reinforce existing arrangements of exploitation and division. Interracialism in American religion has existed in the course of everyday, ordinary human interaction through the spoken and written word, friendship, or sexual relations, for example. Simultaneously, interracialism in American religion has been the programmatic focus of institutional programs or initiatives, carried out by religious leaders and organizations, or supported through denominational efforts. The history of interracialism in American Christianity registers potential for unity or collaboration, while it is always subject to the pitfalls of power relations that subvert the vitality and beauty that are possible through shared experience. Protestant and Catholic Christianity have manifested the most extensive expressions of interracialism in American religion. Interracialism in American religion is in one sense as old as American religious history itself; however, given the racial discrimination written into the nation’s legal code, political system, and economic practice, interracial engagement most especially dawned at the beginning of the 20th century followed by century-long developments that continued into the first decade of the 2000s. Interracialism in American religion is a subject with longitudinal dimensions and contemporary resonance. Enduring and timely, its scholarly provenance spans across many disciplines including the fields of history, theology, literature, and social science. As the scholarship on the subject demonstrates, interracialism and racial interchange rarely produced racial harmony and did not necessarily lead to integration or desegregation; however, these impulses created specific moments of humane recognition that collectively contributed to substantive changes in the direction of racial and social justice.

This chapter discusses relationships among stakeholders in development aid by expanding on the concepts of power, actors, and the types of relationships formed between them. It suggests the presence of conventional and alternative perspectives on power in the literature and provides an analytical framework intended to examine interdependence, the changing nature of power, and stakeholders’ roles in development assistance. This framework commences with a reflection on the meaning of power, its types, and the terms associated with it. Building on the features of the agent-structure approach, the following step discusses the possibilities for stakeholder analysis and outlines the structures pertinent to aid relationships. The third step introduces a project-level analysis as essential to understanding stakeholders’ roles in different phases of aid and examining their potential interdependence as well as the changing nature of power. The final step overviews Haugaard’s (European Journal of Social Theory, 6, 87–113, 2003) seven ways of creating power and how this approach, in combination with the first three steps, may help understand the power dynamics in individual projects. By presenting the types of aid relationships defined by the author of this book, the final step also links the discussion of power dynamics to understanding aid relationships in a broader sense.

The Shape of Desire

This conclusion summarizes key insights from the former chapters, and highlights political dimensions of media use in digital everyday life. I particularly underline how our more digital everyday lives intensify communicative dilemmas, in which individuals in everyday settings negotiate with societal norms and power structures through their uses of media technologies. I also discuss how everyday media use connects us to different societal spheres and issues, also pointing to global challenges such as the pandemic and the climate crisis, arguing that everyday media use is key to our understandings of society. I discuss how to analyze this in media use research, emphasizing attention to processes of change and disruption.

Carlos Lacerda: The Rise and Fall of a Middle-Class Populist in 1950s Brazil

Communicating Across the LTC Continuum

The article aims to highlight the political dimension –in a broad sense– of confession and the inquisition in their emergence as procedures to sentence hidden sin. It does so by inserting both in the dual forms, pastoral and juridical, that the plenomedieval ecclesiastical government develops for the condemnation of the disobedience to the new Roman orthodoxy and orthopraxis. In this respect, the confe-sional and inquisitorial devices are understood in relation to the emergence of the heretical as a stubborn challenge to the Roman government - in the tension between the government of oneself and of others

Development is a multidimensional concept incorporating diverse social, economic, cultural and political dimensions and economic growth, though necessary, is not sufficient in itself to bring about development in this broad sense. According to Nobel Prize Laureate Amartya Sen (for example, Sen, 1985, 1999), the basic purpose of development is to enlarge people's choices so that they can lead the life they want to. In this approach, the choices are termed 'capabilities' and the actual levels of achievement attained in the various dimensions are called 'functionings'. Thus human development is the enhancement of the set of choices or capabilities of individuals whereas functionings are a set of 'beings' and 'doings' which are the results of a given choice. The concept of human development proposed by Mahbub ul Haq, in the first Human Development Report in 1990 (see UNDP, 1990), largely inspired by Sen's various works, represents a major step ahead in the concretization of this extended meaning of development and in the effort to bring people's lives to the centre of thinking and analysis. Since then, human development and human deprivation have been the object of extensive theoretical and empirical research. They have been studied from various angles: conceptual, methodological, operational and policy making. As it is not possible to directly observe and measure human development in its broad sense or the lack of it, they are generally constructed as composite indices based on several variables (indicators).

This paper examines the feminist perspectives in the works of Anita Desai and Mahasweta Devi, analyzing their portrayal of gender and power dynamics in Indian society. Through a comparative study of their major works, the research highlights the authors' distinct approaches to addressing women's experiences and struggles. Desai's narratives focus on the psychological landscape of middle-class women, exploring subtle forms of patriarchal oppression and resistance within domestic spheres. In contrast, Devi's writing adopts an overtly political stance, centering on marginalized communities and employing an intersectional approach to gender issues. Despite their differing styles and focuses, both authors significantly contribute to the feminist discourse in Indian literature. Their works collectively offer a comprehensive critique of gender norms and power structures, paving the way for future generations of feminist writers in India. This study demonstrates the crucial role of literature in illuminating and challenging social realities.

Leadership dynamics is a process of change in the relationship between leaders and followers in achieving organizational goals. Influenced by factors such as human relations, leadership styles, and organizational change, these dynamics involve interactions within leadership roles. Closely related to leadership, the leader's power is used to achieve organizational goals, with the distribution of power being a key element. Legitimacy in power is important, and leaders must have a basis of widespread acceptance. In the distribution of power, leaders have a significant role, influencing whether power is centralized or evenly distributed. Leadership style, as a leader's pattern of action, influences leadership and power dynamics. Leadership style reflects the combination of philosophy, skills, traits, and attitudes that underlie behavior, and influences the extent to which power is used and recognized by group members. Overall, the complex relationship between leadership style and power dynamics has significant implications for social and political developments, especially in Indonesia. Choosing a leadership style that suits the values and needs of society is the key to advancing sustainable and inclusive development. Understanding these relationships helps develop balanced and effective leadership and power structures in accordance with the values held by the organization or society.

Text as Art Japan is an interesting comparative point in the broader history of modes of reading and literary/artistic composition, and in understanding the role of performance in literary culture, although it has rarely been brought into the discourse on "oral traditions."2 One reason for this is that it has a relatively long tradition of literary production in both popular and elite genres. The creation and survival of literary texts in manuscript and in woodblock print (commercial woodblock printing from the early 1600s to the 1870s) is also considerable, and the many types of extant literary texts—illustrated scrolls, poetry sheets, manuscripts, woodblock printed book genres—have been treasured as precious objects. Court culture, from as early as the seventh century, demanded high literacy (including the skill of composing poetry) from those who participated in the aristocracy and government. Reading and literary composition (including in Chinese) has continually been a prized skill among the elite (courtiers, clergy, samurai, or merchants). As a consequence literacy rates have also been relatively high, particularly from the early modern Tokugawa period (1600-1868), and especially in the cities and towns. Along with this long history of the creation and preservation of literary texts as art objects, often with illustrations, we also see a culture that has consistently encouraged active participation in the arts, not only from the elites, but also at the popular level. [End Page 188] This tendency to cherish physical texts as art objects (perhaps bolstered by the strong East Asian tradition of the high status of calligraphy as art), however, has not meant a diminishment of the importance of oral performance in literature. Ironically, the opposite seems to have been the case. "Orality" has remained central in Japanese literary culture even at the most highly literate levels. This has usually meant participation in a group activity, a performance of some kind, in which the individual takes a turn at being the reader/interpreter (audience) and at being the creator (performer).3 As a consequence, performance has been a key element in the process of both literary composition and literary reception, whether in poetic, narrative, or theatrical genres. Performance has also been an important stimulant for the visual arts. The relationship between a performance (using the term in its broadest sense) and its physical representation is an essential aspect of literary cultures throughout the world. In this essay, I will make a case that performance in Japan has been a catalyst for the artistic production of physical objects, both visual and literary texts. Furthermore, I shall argue that it is more useful to consider such physical texts not simply as representations of performance. They, of course, may have been created directly in response to a performance (or in anticipation of a performance), but as physical objects they became something entirely distinct and of a different genre. Such objects (texts) existed on their own and usually served various functions, one of the most important of which was to stimulate new performances. Performance as Text Another fundamental premise of this essay is that a performance should also be viewed as a "text," one that has a physical existence in sound and movement, but which dissipates as it passes through time, continuing to exist only in the memory of the participants. Work on oral poetry4 has helped us to understand how an oral poem or story can be perceived as a text, and Haruo Shirane (1998) makes the point that most performances are repeated, thus creating forms that are held in the communal memory. These points may seem to be but truisms to readers of Oral Tradition. We need to [End Page 189] be continually reminded of it, nevertheless, because the physical object (text) sits in a privileged position within the modern academy (and the modern world of print) in relation to performance, which cannot...

This study explores the impact of irritability in managerial contexts, a state of heightened sensitivity associated with increased feelings of anger and frustration on human relationships in organizations. The research also investigates how gender and knowledge influence the relationship between irritability and human relations. The study reveals significant consequences of irritability on effective management and group dynamics, necessitating the development of strategic interventions that enhance human relations and minimize the negative effects of irritability on managers. To gather information on the issue of irritability, the study employed a systematic review of relevant academic literature from reputable databases. The objective was to determine how gendered factors and knowledge acquisition affect the occurrence and regulation of irritability, as well as their strategic implications for human relationships and organizations. The review identified the influence of gender-related factors on the perception and expression of irritability among managers, specifically societal expectations, gender roles, and power dynamics. Furthermore, the research showed that knowledge acquisition, sharing, and utilization are critical factors for managing irritability and improving managerial effectiveness in human relations. The implications of the study highlight the need for organizations to foster gender diversity, create inclusive work environments, and adopt knowledge-based interventions to mitigate the impact of irritability on managerial relationships and team dynamics. The study emphasizes the importance of addressing irritability in managerial training and development programs, as well as cultivating an organizational culture that supports emotional intelligence and knowledge sharing. Further research should explore specific strategies and interventions that organizations can use to cope with irritability in different managerial contexts.