Micropolitics of archives: Tehran's cinematic depictions of the (urban) self

Reviews 621 orthodoxy that governs so much academic research and writing. Nonetheless, the book as a whole bears out beautifully one of the axioms with which it begins: "whatever else she may represent, she always represents lack" (xxix). That Royal Representations reconstitutes that "lack" as plenty is chief among its virtues. Mary Jean Corbett Rodger M. Payne. The Self and the Sacred: Conversion and Autobiography in Early American Protestantism. Rnoxville: U of Tennessee P, 1998.123 pp. ISBN 1-57233-015-5, $27.00. Payne attempts to tackle a very difficult problem—an explanation of the relationships among the Enlightenment conception of the autonomous self, the evangelical Christian conception of self, the experience of the individual's conversion to such a self, the language of the convert's autobiography, and the converted self's subsequently changed perception of its relation to its community. The primary evidence for Payne's investigation comes from American nineteenth-century evangelical spiritual autobiographies, and his main claim is that the discourse in which these authors wrote descriptions of their conversion experiences did not merely "demonstrate a degree of correspondence between their experiences and a preordained morphology of conversion" (91) or "replicate the pietistic formula of despair, conviction, and conversion (86), but rather, these "texts of conversion (as opposed to texts about conversion ) served to constitute self, experience, and community for early American evangelicals" (2). In other words, such descriptions of conversion could not and did not represent an experience of something existing prior to and independently of the discourse that claims to report it, but, as with any other experience of "fictional realities" (my words, not Payne's), the experience of conversion is an experience of an entanglement in signs whose only referents are other signs. Payne draws theoretical support for his thesis that conversion rhetoric does not merely represent but constitutes evangelical religious experience from a number of twentieth-century poststructuralists and social constructionists, such as Clifford Geertz, Hay den White, Stephen Greenblatt, and Michel Foucault, for whom all the objects of human experience, and indeed the very human self, are unfounded cultural products, the result of the mediating force of systems of conventions and discursive formations. According to these theories, no element within a system can make sense except in relation to the whole system, and thus change must always be explained as a series of ruptures. Such historical 622 Biography 22.4 (Fall 1999) discontinuity Ferdinand de Saussure first institutionalized with his distinction between diachronic and synchronic linguistics, but the notion that history is thus discontinuous permeates all structural and poststructural thought. As Payne notes of Foucault's explanation of the rise of new "discursive formations," "The individual elements of any discourse may have been present for years, even centuries, within a culture but may not have functioned as discourse until the formation of a specific historical context that sanctions the combination of these elements into a meaningful form with paradigmatic value." Accordingly, "new discursive formations may arise quite suddenly and almost immediately attain the status of 'truth' as they become the basis for analyzing and explaining the human condition" (5). Payne argues that conversion discourse emerged in precisely this way, starting in the seventeenth century, as "changes in the theoretical and political life transformed Western culture, creating a correlative sense of confusion and disorder" (7). Most disruptive, in Payne's view, was the conception of the autonomous self, a self that could use the new science and technology to create choices and change its way of life, so that by the mid-eighteenth century "even grace itself had become a matter of choice to be accepted or rejected by human beings" (7). In order to salvage the Protestant tradition, which had relied heavily upon the doctrines of providence and predestination, a whole new discourse of conversion was required that could both "affirm the traditional Protestant values of personal humility and human inability" and also "embrace and secularize the concept of the autonomous self" (8). This salvaging effort's result was that conversion came to be described (unconsciously) as the consequence of what might be termed a cultural/linguistic immersion. Through such immersion (again, this is my analogy, not Payne's), one...

This paper critically addresses the coherence, reception, and dissemination of “situated learning theory” (Lave and Wenger 1991). Situated learning theory commends a conceptualization of the process of learning that, in offering an alternative to cognitive theories, departs radically from the received body of knowledge on learning in organizations. The paper shows how elements of situated learning theory have been selectively adopted to fertilize or extend the established terrain of organizational learning. In this process, we argue, Lave and Wenger's embryonic appreciation of power relations as media of learning is displaced by a managerial preoccupation with harnessing (reified) “communities of practice” to the fulfillment of (reified) corporate objectives. We illustrate our argument by reference to Orr's (1990, 1996) study of photocopier technicians, which is very widely cited as an example of the “new,” situated conceptualization of learning in communities of practice. We commend a revitalization of situated learning theory in which learning practices are understood to be enabled and constrained by their embeddedness in relations of power; and, more specifically, by the unstable institutionalization of power relations within capitalist work organizations.

Ibsen, Power and the Self: Postsocialist Chinese Experimentations in Stage Performance and Film

Although appearing initially as disparate phenomena, this chapter illustrates that the concept of the body and self developed by the Theosophical Society in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries provided the foundation for the development of a specific type of Modernist non-objective aesthetics and the concept of the self that underpins many contemporary alternative health therapies. All these cultural beliefs, products, and practices are based on a energetic concept of the self that extends beyond the corporeal and presupposes capacities for very particular perceptual sensitivities. Theories of emotion, shape, and colour played a central role in the communication of this concept of self, spirit, and world. Keywords:cultural beliefs; health therapies; theories of colour; theories of emotion; theories of shape; Theosophical Society

This essay addresses the emergence of theories of “identity” in twentieth-century politics, aesthetics, and philosophy by considering Theodor Adorno's understanding of “negative identity” as a form of coercive categorization that nevertheless contains social knowledge. A historical account of the Frankfurt school's relation to questions of race, anti-Semitism, and the idea of culture, the essay analyzes Adorno's infamous jazz articles in light of the transatlantic history of Marxian political theory and its understanding of racism, subject–object relations, and models of cultural production. The result is an investigation of the history of the concept of identity, its emergence alongside the rise of cultural studies, and its relation to international cultural–aesthetic formations such as jazz. The article concludes with an examination of Adorno's critique of idealism, cultural identity, and nationalism in light of the “wounded” political subjectivity of the modern era.

This study advances a critical re-conceptualization of ‘diversity’ through class. Drawing on the case of CarCo, the Belgian branch of a North American automobile company, I show how the discursive constructions of various socio-demographic identities reflect underlying class relations between labour and capital and are, in turn, implicated in their reproduction. Reflecting the instrumental conceptualization of labour as the source of economic value in the capitalist mode of production, female, older and disabled workers were discursively constructed as unable or unwilling to perform as expected within the factory lean production system. These negative identities in turn legitimized the elimination of ‘different’ workers in the company restructuring and the outsourcing of the phases of the production process that could be carried out by them, materially reproducing class relations. The analysis unveils the ‘dark’ business case against diversity at CarCo, a company which was renowned as a ‘best’ case for diversity in Belgium. I argue that the re-conceptualization of diversity through class offers a powerful analytical tool to better understand how unequal power relations are played out in contemporary organizations.

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to expand on the entrepreneurial learning literature and situated learning theory to explore how students with different educational backgrounds learn to recognise opportunities at the periphery of an entrepreneurial practice. The authors theoretically outline factors that may influence students’ entrepreneurial learning, including co-participation and roles at the periphery, power relations in communities of practice (CoP), and emotional exposure. The authors make use of the concept legitimate peripheral participation and Politis’ entrepreneurial learning framework to explore empirically students’ entrepreneurial learning transformations and entrepreneurial learning outcomes.Design/methodology/approachThe authors adopted a qualitative approach in research, used the focus group methodology and the critical incident technique in interviewing. The research investigated two groups of Norwegian master students that differed in educational background aiming to explore their experience with entrepreneurial learning in a three months long internship in American start-ups representing emerging CoPs.FindingsThe research identified important factors influencing students’ entry transitions into an entrepreneurial practice, highlighting the complexity in peripheral participation. By acknowledging and exploring the social dimensions in students’ learning, the authors demonstrate and exemplify how these influence students’ entrepreneurial learning trajectories, learning outcomes and ultimately their influence in students’ contributions to the practice community.Originality/valueThe research integrates the existing entrepreneurial learning literature and situated learning theory to identify various factors influencing entrepreneurial learning, contributing with novel insights about the role of peripherality in students’ entrepreneurial learning in situated practice.

Contents: Preface. Introduction. Part I: Excellence: The Practitioner's Responsibility. L. Hon, How Public Relations Knowledge Has Entered Public Relations Practice. Part II: Advances in Understanding Excellence and Communication. C.H. Spicer, Collaborative Advocacy and the Creation of Trust: Toward an Understanding of Stakeholder Claims and Risks. R.L. Heath, Management Through Advocacy: Reflection Rather Than Domination. D.W. Stacks, M.L. Watson, Two-Way Communication Based on Quantitative Research and Measurement. K.D. Plowman, Public Relations, Conflict Resolution, and Mediation. Y. Rhee, Interpersonal Communication as an Element of Symmetrical Public Relations: A Case Study. P. Murphy, Coping With an Uncertain World: The Relationship Between Excellence and Complexity Theories. Part III: Advances in Understanding Excellence and Management. B. Steyn, Contribution of Public Relations to Organizational Strategy Formulation. M. Sung, Toward a Model of Scenario Building From a Public Relations Perspective. U. Stroh, An Alternative Postmodern Approach to Corporate Communication Strategy. B.K. Berger, Public Relations and Organizational Power. Y-H. Huang, A Revisit of Symmetrical Communication From an International Perspective: Status, Effect, and Future Research Directions. J. Scott, Relationship Measures Applied to Practice. S.A. Bowen, The Extent of Ethics. K. Hallahan, Integrated Communication: Implications for Public Relations Beyond Excellence. Part IV: Advances in Program Planning and Its Evolutions in the New Century. L. Aldoory, B-L. Sha, The Situational Theory of Publics: Practical Applications, Methodological Challenges, and Theoretical Horizons. D.R. Holtzhausen, Activism. B-L. Sha, R.L. Ford, Redefining Requisite Variety: The Challenge of Multiple Diversities for the Future of Public Relations Excellence. L. Aldoory, Reconceiving Gender for an Excellent Future in Public Relations Scholarship. L.M. Hagan, For Reputation's Sake: Managing Crisis Communication. Part V: Conditions for Global Excellence in Public Relations and Communication Management. C-J.F. Hung, Toward the Theory of Relationship Management in Public Relations: How to Cultivate Quality Relationships? Y-R.R. Chen, Effective Government Affairs in China: Antecedents, Strategies, and Outcomes of Government Affairs. K. Sriramesh, The Relationship Between Culture and Public Relations. A. Tkalac, The Application of Situational Theory in Croatia. R.I. Wakefield, A Retrospective on World Class: The Excellence Theory Goes International. Part VI: Challenges to Educators. D.K. Wright, J.V.S. Turk, Public Relations Knowledge and Professionalism: Challenges to Educators and Practitioners. M.P. Russell, An Education Model to Prepare for Excellence in Public Relations: A Case Study of the Syracuse University Limited Residency/Distance Learning Master's Program in Communications Management.

Power and influence are fundamental human phenomena that are deeply ingrained on the psyche and conscious personality of individuals. The difference between proper and improper use of power is the difference between success and failure, high and low productivity, motivation and disillusionment. This paper includes a review and analysis of the classical concepts of power in management literature, a description of power styles, and classical research findings on the optimum use of power. In it I describe power bases and cover the relationship of power with project uncertainty, organizational climate, situational leadership, productivity, and individual independence. Links are made to leadership styles, and references are made to negative uses of power. Overall, the concept of power is placed in perspective as it relates to management needs, and ideas are discussed for managing and controlling power for the benefit of organizations. The immense advantages of expert power and personal influence (reference pow...

The article reveals the elitological aspects and constitutional factors of political leadership, analyzes the phenomenon of leadership in the current socio-political context, examines various models of inter–elite communication and features of interaction in the chain of leader–followers–constituents from a constitutional perspective. It is noted that situational leadership and vertical management models characteristic of traditional leadership have a limited scope of application. For effectiveness, the leader must necessarily provide horizontal and feedback links between the elite, followers and constituents at all levels of power relations. Consolidation of the leader and the elite, the elite and society should take place on the basis of common strategic goals and values.

This article involves several layers of investigation meant to be mutually illuminating. At the core of my discussion is an ethnographic analysis of beliefs about the self (which I define for these purposes as the perceived locus of identity and experience) among Gurungs in Nepal, framed by a discussion of local interpretations of Buddhism and the ways in which these impinge on concepts of self. Surrounding this analysis is an examination of the shared tenets of the philosophic system of Buddhism expressed in many varied locales and a consideration of the implications of Buddhist philosophy for debates about the contingency of knowledge and the apprehension of truth, especially in relation to questions of representation and understandings of self. The acknowledgment or even valorization of contingency in Buddhist contexts has powerful implications for the experience of self and constructions of relationship. Giving Buddhist psychology the dignity it is due as an intellectual system commensurate in sophistication with psychological paradigms in the West, I compare Buddhist conceptions of self and other with ideas expressed in object-relations theory in psychoanalysis.' Both Buddhist and object-relations theories of the psyche take a highly contextualized approach to the self and demonstrate the complexity and ambiguity of self-other boundaries, though they diverge in their ultimate aims. Their contrasts and their areas of convergence offer insights into the deep interrelationship between subjective experience, social forms, and relations of power that should be of value and interest to anthropologists.

From knowing to doing: Reflexivity, leadership and public relations

This thesis explores an area of entrenched inequality in India: caste, caste-based inequalities, ideologies, and power relations. It explores how mainstream print media in India, contributes to these inequalities. Through an explicit examination, I demonstrate how Dalit communities, their identities and their experiences of discrimination are framed in print media. Precisely, through the use of comparative analysis along with the consolidation of social and media theory this thesis explores that Indian print media, in a constitutionally casteless society, frames caste ideologies and legitimises primordial social dominance structure and power to shape and define caste discrimination, anti-Dalit prejudice and a negative stereotypical Dalit identity.

Many literature professors in the U.S. strive to foster skills of critical self-reflection: we ask students to be responsible to textual evidence, historical context, and the implications of the interpreter's acts. Recent teaching also stresses the transnational contexts for literary expression and interpretation. But what happens when these pedagogical practices are transported to classrooms abroad? This essay addresses this broad question through the problem of developing an American Studies curriculum in Turkey. The authors outline the conceptual genealogy of departments of "American Culture and Literature" in Turkey and then relate it to narratives of emergence for American Studies in the U.S. and other countries. The authors then discuss the evolution of the curriculum they revised. They conclude by assessing the outcome, especially noting the difficulty of cultivating critical self-reflection in a social and institutional setting that has few of the safeguards for freedom of expression found in the U.S.

ideas, then at least as embodied in cultural products such as books and periodicals, pictures, music, methods of political control and business management, forms of religious belief and ecclesiastical organization. The concept of value owes its impregnable position in human psychology to an elementary, undeniable fact-the fact that when a human being obtains satisfaction from the use and possession of a certain object, this object acquires an appeal as a possible source of future satisfaction, and his activity is thereafter directed upon this object as a goal. For purposes of the present discussion it will be sufficient to define value as that property inherent in some objects of promising and furnishing satisfaction to the human organism-or, in brief, as an objective source of satisfaction. If, proceeding with the subject, one undertakes to say what kinds and classes of objects possess value for the human being, he is baffled by the complexity of the human situation and by the multitude of factors which engage to determine the value judgments and choices of the average individual. It will help to give this question of the classes and kinds of value its requisite biosocial setting if we remind ourselves of these various factors as brought to light by psychological investigation. The following list is well authenticated but makes no pretension to completeness: (i) The constitutional urges and drives of the This content downloaded from 157.55.39.211 on Mon, 08 Aug 2016 04:41:46 UTC All use subject to http://about.jstor.org/terms THE VALUES OF PERSONAL ASSOCIATION 449 human organism, which are much the same in all individuals. To these may be added a characteristic emotional trend or temperament in which individuals differ and which may perhaps depend on endocrine organization. (2) Native intelligence, in its distinguishable forms or expressions, such as verbal-conceptual, mechanical, social, and aesthetic. Innate differences in intellectual ability seem to be well established. It is also a fact that individuals are born with special intellectual tastes and aptitudes, e.g., for mathematics, music, machinery, executive leadership, etc. (3) The idea of the self, of one's own abilities, desires, and worth. (4) The social culture pattern, along with the notion of what is admirable in individual character and conduct. (5) The direct contacts of early life, in the family and in the local neighborhood. (6) Formal education and technical training. (7) Occupational opportunity and incentive as offered by the existing economic and political order. All these diverse factors affect the values which men attach to objects, not of course by separate action, but by continuous interplay along countless lines. Thus the social culture pattern and the concept of the self, organic drive and intelligent foresight, early training and occupational opportunity, work in closest functional interdependence. This variety of interlocking factors has suggested different points of view from which values may be described and classified. One thinks, for example, of the appetites of the id, the prudential ambitions of the ego, and the ideals and standards of the superego. Or of objects as serving the interests of the self as an individual organism, of other individuals directly associated with the self, and of the larger inclusive social whole. Final authority can be claimed for no one classification; the right classification is the one which best serves the investigation under way. Thus the classification or grouping here to be proposed has the advantage of emphasizing one point of difference between valued objects which has cardinal importance in explaining what is distinctive about the values of personal association. No other merit is claimed for it-not even This content downloaded from 157.55.39.211 on Mon, 08 Aug 2016 04:41:46 UTC All use subject to http://about.jstor.org/terms