CULTIVATED ALBANIAN MUSIC FOR FLUTE, TRENDS AND APPROACHES IN CONTEMPORARY GLOBAL INSTRUMENTAL MUSIC

“My Favorite Book!”: Voicing Mary Douglas for Twenty‐First‐Century Conversations

This paper examines the worldview of Tanzanian poetry in English. It focuses on selected poems of Mabala (1980) entitled Summons: Poems from Tanzania. The study places the poems under Lucien Goldmann’s genetic structuralism approach and argues against the historical context and discourse of Tanzania between 1960s and 1980’s. Specifically, the study analyses the author’s social and historical conditions influenced the production of the Summons poetry and showcases how the author’s worldview in particular poems in general are creatively explored in the social realities. The exploration of worldview in selected poems congruence the social and historical realities and the Socialism ideology [society’s worldview or global structure]. In other words, the exploration of the worldview in the selected poems confirms the homology of the global structure. The poems construct the ideal values of socialist state that seemed relevant in the post-independence Tanzania. They, in one or another provide the historical account for the building of Socialism ideology. They are about and against the ideology which confuse the vision people have of themselves and of their lives and the friction that failed the implementation of Socialism ideology. The study appropriates dialectic method to achieve the coherence of meaning of the text as a whole (poem structure and global structure).

With Hegel Beyond Hegel Slavoj Žižek (bio) The Hegel Variations: "On the Phenomenology of the Spirit" by Fredric Jameson. London: Verso, 2010. pp. 144. $24.95 cloth. The essayistic nature of Fredric Jameson's short new book on G. W. F. Hegel's Phenomenology of Spirit should not blind us to the fact that the book offers a systematic interpretation of the entire inner structure of Hegel's first masterpiece. Although The Hegel Variations comes from someone for whom reading Hegel is like eating daily bread, the book is readable as an introduction to Hegel while simultaneously providing precise interpretive hints worthy of the greatest Hegel specialists. In this review, I limit myself to four variations of my own, to four interventions into the book's key topics: Hegel and the critique of capitalism, the circle of positing presuppositions, Understanding and Reason, and the eventual limits of Hegel. Of course, the critical nature of some of my remarks is based on my great admiration of Jameson's work and on a shared solidarity in our struggle for the Hegelian legacy in Marxism. One should remember here the proverb that says only the highest peaks are struck by lightning. I Jameson is right to draw attention to the fact that, "despite his familiarity with Adam Smith and emergent economic doctrine, Hegel's conception of work and labor—I have specifically characterized it as a handicraft ideology—betrays [End Page 295] no anticipation of the originalities of industrial production or the factory system"—in short, Hegel's analyses of work and production cannot be "transferred to the new industrial situation" (68). There is a series of interconnected reasons for this limitation, all grounded in the constraints of historical experience at Hegel's disposal. First, Hegel's notion of industrial revolution was the Adam Smith-type manufacture where the work process is still that of combined individuals using tools, and not yet the factory in which the machinery sets the rhythm and individual workers are reduced de facto to organs serving the machinery, to its appendices. Second, Hegel could not yet imagine the way abstraction rules in developed capitalism: when Karl Marx describes the mad self-enhancing circulation of capital, whose solipsistic path of self-fecundation reaches its apogee in today's metareflexive speculations on futures, it is far too simplistic to claim that the specter of this self-engendering monster that pursues its path disregarding any human or environmental concern is an ideological abstraction, and that one should never forget that, behind this abstraction, are real people and natural objects on whose productive capacities and resources capital's circulation is based and on which it feeds like a gigantic parasite. The problem is that this "abstraction" is not only in our (financial speculator's) misperception of social reality, but that it is "real" in the precise sense of determining the structure of the very material social processes: the fate of whole strata of population and sometimes of entire countries can be decided by the solipsistic speculative dance of capital, which pursues its goal of profitability in a blessed indifference with regard to how its movement will affect social reality. Therein resides the fundamental systemic violence of capitalism, much more uncanny than the direct precapitalist socio-ideological violence: this violence is no longer attributable to concrete individuals and their "evil" intentions, but is purely "objective," systemic, anonymous. Here we encounter the Lacanian difference between reality and the Real: reality is the social reality of the actual people involved in interaction and in the productive processes, whereas the Real is the inexorable "abstract" spectral logic of capital that determines what occurs in social reality. This gap is palpable in the way the economic situation of a country is considered to be good and stable by the international financial experts even when the large majority of people are living worse than before. Reality doesn't matter; what matters is the situation of capital. . . . And, again, is this not more true today than ever? Do phenomena usually designated as those of virtual capitalism (future trades and similar abstract financial speculations) not point toward the reign [End Page 296] of real abstraction at its purest and...

African literature reflects the continent’s rich tapestry of ethnic groups, languages, and cultures while offering complex perspectives on social realities including war, oppression, and discrimination. Literary sociology provides a valuable framework for comparative studies, revealing how different works represent these pressing social issues. This study examines how the poems “Huwa Summu” by Afnan Samir and the poem “Sa’anhadlu” by Noémia de Sousa represent both objective and subjective forms of social reality. The article explores and compares the social realities depicted in these two African poets’ works. Using a qualitative approach, the study draws on primary data from internet sources and secondary data from relevant journals and books. Data collection involved library research employing three primary techniques: reading, translation, and note-taking. The findings reveal that Afnan Samir’s “Huwa Summu” portrays objective social realities of oppression and religious themes while expressing subjective realities of sadness, confusion, lamentation, weakness, and disappointment. Noémia de Sousa’s “Sa’anhadlu” presents a contrasting, more optimistic perspective that emphasizes resistance, courage, and self-confidence despite addressing colonial oppression. This study contributes to scholarship through its comparative analysis of two Arabic-language African poems from different geographical, historical, and gender perspectives—an approach rarely explored in Indonesian literary studies. Future research should adopt an interdisciplinary approach, including deeper exploration of local political, cultural, and historical contexts.

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In this short article I will try to outline the problematic use of the concepts of “realism“ and “modernism“ in Bulgaria during the twentieth century, and especially in two concrete moments – in the 1930s and in the 1960s. The main example is the artist Ivan Nenov (1902–1997) – one of those names that are associated with modernism in the canonical narrative of Bulgarian art from XX century. In the late 1920’s, when Nenov appeared on the art scene, the peak of the Native Art Movement had already passed. The return to the picture in the early 1930’s in Bulgaria was related to the association of the New Artists, to retrospective interest in Cézanne and introduction of the concept of “New Realism”. Nenov was one of the protagonists of this movement. In the same decade, in 1932–1933 and 1936–1937, he stayed in Italy – in Turin and Albisola Marina – with his friend, the artist Nicolay Diulgheroff. Diulgheroff was part of the second Italian Futurism and introduced Nenov to these circles. In Nenov’s works from that time – paintings, drawings, and sculptures – we recognize his enthusiasm for Fillia, Carlo Carrà, Enrico Prampolini, and Diulgheroff himself. After World War II, under the Communist rule in Bulgaria, Nenov initially found a “refuge“ in the field of ceramics. In 1950 he was forced to leave his teaching post at the Academy of Arts. Later, his work, along with the work of other central artistic figures from the 1930s, was appropriated by the invented genealogy of (Socialist) Realism in a broader, liberal understanding. Nenov himself wrote in support of figurative art. Thus, in the case of the artist Ivan Nenov, the concepts of futurism, valori plastici, new realism in the 1930s – at one moment of his career, and socialist realism, realism, figural art – during the Communist rule, paradoxically intertwine with each other and hold relation to phenomena elsewhere in Europe.

This article, set against the backdrop of the development of social design in China, explores its uniqueness within the Chinese cultural context and related theoretical issues. As reforms in design disciplines progress, the interdisciplinary nature, humanistic connotations, and positioning of social design need further clarification, forming the practical background of this study. The central question focuses on the cultural imagery and inherited moral connotations of social design within China's historical context. This is particularly significant because Chinese and Western design traditions differ in how moral driving forces are integrated into design, with China facing a host of complex contradictions. Methodologically, the article traces the evolution of moral considerations in design, using "redemptive" characteristics as a guiding thread. It examines the integration of Western moral ideas into China through historical events such as the Vienna Secession movement, the Bauhaus movement, the arrival of missionaries, and the Soviet revolution. It further discusses their influence on Chinese social design, exemplified by the emergence of styles such as " West sea " " socialist realism" ], and " communitarian aesthetics The conclusion highlights that social design in China embodies cultural imagery distinct from that of the West, reflecting the necessity of incorporating the Chinese context into moral-driven design research. The development of Chinese design studies should pay closer attention to how morality deconstructs the subjectivity of design. Chinese design grapples with contradictions such as elitism versus populism, pluralistic narratives versus communitarian narratives, and the tensions between traditional Chinese thought and Western influences. Research on the cultural imagery of social design reveals the issues that must be addressed in light of moral driving forces, providing crucial insights into the historical trajectory of Chinese design theory and clarifying its developmental direction. In the era of globalization, greater emphasis should be placed on integrating Chinese and Western contexts. Taking the moral redemptive characteristics as an example of how moral visions have historically influenced design, the study connects diverse paths for forming design concepts with the development of humanistic characteristics in design. This approach facilitates a deeper understanding and advancement of social design in a global context. It also promotes the further development of design theory, contributing to unique research methodologies within the discipline of design and fostering a global consensus on pluralistic design.

Socialist realism has a bad press in the West. Even Marxist critics are generally dismissive. Eagleton, for example, describes socialist realism as 'one of the most devastating assaults on artistic culture ever witnessed in modern history', and refers to its principal Soviet advocate, Zhdanov, as 'Stalin's cultural thug'.1 However, like all else, hostile value-judgements such as these assume significance only when placed within a clearly articulated historical context. The extremism of the antagonistic, Western, post-Stalinist critic is mirrored in the extremism of the sycophantic Stalinist party apparatchik. To make sense of these conflicting assessments of socialist realism, each phase of its development must be assessed with reference to the specific set of social determinants which shaped its emergence. This general methodological point needs to be made forcefully at the outset since assessments of socialist realism tend to be somewhat peremptory and superficial through lack of a clearly articulated historical and theoretical view of the subject itself. There is a recurrent failure not only to ground the subject fully in its historical context, but also to propose an adequate theoretical model by means of which to assess socialist realist literature. The result is a predictably idealistic criticism which at one level contents itself with rapid reference to formalistic definitions, and at another assesses the products of socialist realism with imprecise criteria culled generally from a liberal bourgeois critical tradition.

Ethnography, we think, is well suited for process studies, as ethnographers draw close enough to observe the precariousness of organizational processes, stay long enough to see change occurring, and are contextually sensitive enough to understand the twists and turns that are part of organizational life. In presenting ethnography as a crucial method for studying organizational processes, this chapter discusses what we see as the central aspects of ethnography – fieldwork, sensework, and textwork – and their ability to elucidate such processes. The chapter illustrates how organizational ethnography – through the researcher's immersion in, and analysis of, the field setting – is able to capture the unfolding of organizational life and its dynamism in two different ways: taking ‘long shots’ by following developments over an extended period of time (long-term dynamics), and making ‘close-ups’ of the micro-dynamics of day-to-day organizational life (short-term dynamics). Finally, it reflects on how organizational ethnography itself might gain from adopting a more explicitly processual approach.

In addition to their manifest function of explaining the assumed or real deterioration of organized religion in our society, secularization theories have the latent function of tra cing new forms of religion. For sociologists of religion this seemed to be the way to overcome their identity crisis resulting from this assumed deterioration. Many sociologists of religion have made the secularization theories their new frame of refe rence. This has incited us to critically examine the validity of these theories. In the first part of this article, three types of secularization theories are discussed, viz. those emphazing pluralization (W. Herberg and M. Yinger), individualization (Th. Luckmann and P. Berger), and rationalization (M. Weber and B. Wil son). In the second part it is shown that all these theories-are based on two historically developed social theses. First, it is assumed that a distinction can be made between the« essence » of religion and its « accidental » historical form ; secondly, it is assumed that the religious can be separated from the non- religious. Both these assumptions have originated among cer tain positions in a certain historical context, and are still held and defended by certain positions. These secularization theories thus have an ideological basis. In the third part, the dialectical relationship between ideolo gy and social reality is discussed : secularization not only is an ideology without engagement, it is also a program of social action and as such may become social reality. This dialectic between ideology about. religion and reality of religion holds enough opportunities for research by sociologists of religion so that it is not necessary to promote these ideologies to frames of reference.

Naguib Mahfouz’s Al-Ḥubb Taḥt al-Maṭar (Love Under the Rain) exemplifies his mastery of social realism, depicting the socio-political and psychological struggles of mid-20th-century Egypt. This study explores how Mahfouz interweaves personal narratives with broader societal issues, reflecting the anxieties of a generation facing political instability, shifting moral values, and economic challenges. The novel’s characters grapple with existential dilemmas, illustrating the conflict between tradition and modernity. Mahfouz employs symbolic imagery, introspective monologues, and a realistic portrayal of love and relationships to critique societal constraints. Through his characters, he highlights themes of disillusionment, alienation, and the fragility of human aspirations amid an evolving social landscape. The novel serves as a microcosm of Egyptian society, portraying the struggles of individuals seeking meaning and stability in an uncertain world. This research examines how Al-Ḥubb Taḥt al-Maṭar embodies Mahfouz’s signature social realism, portraying the intersection of personal and collective experiences. By analyzing the novel’s themes, narrative techniques, and character development, the study underscores Mahfouz’s ability to offer a profound critique of social realities while maintaining a deeply humanistic perspective. His exploration of love, identity, and societal expectations remains relevant beyond its historical context, reinforcing his legacy as a literary chronicler of Egypt’s evolving social fabric. Keywords: Social Realism, Naguib Mahfouz, Egyptian Society, Political Instability, Alienation, Tradition and Modernity

Au début des années 1970, en France, la sociologie de l'éducation a été marquée par les théories (souvent qualifiées de structuro-fonctionnalistes) de la reproduction. Analyses macro-sociologiques recourant essentiellement aux méthodes statistiques, elles tentent de rendre compte des inégalités scolaires par la position des familles des élèves dans les rapports de production économique ou dans la structure de la distribution du capital culturel (et, en particulier, linguistique). L'institution scolaire se présente alors comme une boîte noire traversée par des flux statistiques d'entrées et de sorties. Elle est un lieu de partage, de division ou encore un lieu de retraduction-reproduction des rapports de force entre groupes ou classes de la formation sociale.

Conflicten over Haagse Stadsbeelden : Van Willemspark tot Spuiforum

This study critically examines two foundational approaches in social science: positivism and Ibn Khaldun's theoretical framework. Through comprehensive library research analyzing primary and secondary sources, we explore the ontological, epistemological, and axiological dimensions of both paradigms. Positivism, approaches social phenomena through rigid scientific methodologies, emphasizing empirical observation and quantitative measurement while pursuing objective, universal social laws. This perspective, while influential in modern social science development, often reduces complex social realities to measurable variables, neglecting subjective dimensions like values, culture, and historical contexts. In contrast, Ibn Khaldun's 14th-century framework, particularly his concept of asabiyyah (group solidarity), offers a more dynamic understanding of social phenomena by integrating empirical observation with philosophical reflection and historical context. This research demonstrates how Ibn Khaldun's approach acknowledges the multidimensional nature of social reality, including moral, spiritual, and cultural factors that remain influential in social development cycles. The comparative analysis reveals that while positivism provides methodological rigor, Ibn Khaldun's holistic perspective better captures the complexity and fluidity of social dynamics, making it particularly relevant for contemporary social analysis seeking to transcend mechanistic explanations. This study contributes to ongoing discourse about developing more integrative approaches in social science that balance empirical observation with contextual understanding.

Conflicten over Haagse stadsbeelden