Authentic Life Research Articles

Visual arts and drawings to communicate and explore authentic life situations, a data collection method in caring science - a hermeneutic perspective.

This methodological article aims to describe three methodological strategies for using drawings as a part of qualitative data collection methods in caring research based on hermeneutics. In some research interview situations, participants may have difficulties to express their experiences and feelings in words. The consequences may be that the descriptions in research reports will become superficial and not authentic, meaning, "telling it as it is". Drawn pictures may facilitate and support reflection related to the deepening of experiences and thoughts, and communicate and express more than words can do. It may also reveal thoughts and feelings the person drawing the picture was not aware of. Three methodological strategies are described: (1) Drawing a picture as an introduction or starting point for an interview, (2) During an ongoing interview, encouraging the participant to draw a picture when further explanation or description is needed for deepening the communication and (3) Drawing something in a pre-existing picture. The theoretical foundation of Gadamer's hermeneutic philosophy is discussed in relation to what a drawing is representing and presents. The interpretation of the drawn picture depends primarily on the creator of the picture, but at the same time the interpretation and understanding is a movement between the interviewer's and the participant's horizons, and thus is open for preunderstanding and new understanding. In contrast to an ordinary interview between two parties, an interview involving a drawing adds something specific to the conversation as it becomes a "trialogue" and not only a dialog. The drawn picture stands on its own. Using the participant's drawing can, therefore, be understood as an ongoing process with three parties involved: (1) the participant, (2) the researcher and (3) the drawing.

Family relationships and polar opposition: Being equal while remaining different

On the fifth anniversary of Amoris Laetitia, this article focuses on the importance of family relationships in our globalized world. The family allows everyone to feel equal while remaining different. In tune with Romano Guardini, Pope Francis uses the dialectic of polar opposition to describe the unity in diversity typical of authentic family life (part 1). He notes, however, that the technocratic paradigm, homogeneous and one-dimensional, cancels out this dynamic, thus opening the way to globalized indifference and the throwaway culture (part 2). Therefore, the Pope invites us to rebuild family relationships and preserve polar opposition at our four fundamental levels: spiritual, personal, social and natural (part 3).

Engaging with Dewey’s Valuation in Religious Education to Enhance Children’s Spirituality for Democratic Life

In this paper, we want to address how the educative growth of children’s spirituality within religious education can be better understood through Dewey’s theory of valuation. We would like to draw attention to the link between an education for authentic spirituality and the pursuit of a genuine democratic life, because education, even religious education, is always political. In doing so, we point to the urgency and importance of fostering spiritual education for children in the face of the current rise of authoritarianism throughout the world and the demise of authentic democratic life. In order for genuine democracies to survive and thrive, their citizens must be educated. Unlike indoctrination and propaganda, which control populations through manufacturing public opinion by which individuals are compelled to comply to an officially approved consensus, education is emancipatory by offering opportunity for dissensus. Emancipatory education enables individual citizens to initiate and participate in activities at the grass-roots level that pursue public and global goods, without waiting to be led by various authorities. Such an educated way of being, which is essential for democratic life, requires young people to be educated spiritually so that they are able to transcend the pressures to conform to public consensus and the will of authoritarianism, and instead to actively live their spirituality by undertaking activities that pursue the good, even when such activities are deemed to dissent from public opinion.

“The Fighting Made Me Feel Alive”: Women’s Motivations for Engaging in Left-wing Terrorism: A Thematic Analysis

ABSTRACT Even though it is well documented that women have had, and continue to have, much more prominent positions and stronger participation in violent left-wing extremism and terrorism compared to other forms of political violence, the literature on their motivations to join militant left-wing milieus and groups is under-developed. Compared to female members of violent extreme right, jihadist, or ethno-separatist groups, little is known about the drivers involved in motivating women to join the violent far left. My study examines thirteen autobiographies of German and American women who were active in various forms of left-wing terrorism to shed light on their motivational themes for joining those militant groups. The analysis identified four key motivational themes across the autobiographical materials: living a completely authentic life as political warriors (consequentialism), being part of a global rebellion (internationalism), moral superiority of the cause, and responding to intolerable prison conditions caused by illegitimate governmental force or police brutality. The findings highlight the importance of understanding women’s involvement in terrorism through their own complex decisions and agency.

The Making of Nordic Monasticism, c. 1076–c. 1350

The introduction of regular religious life in the Nordic region is less well-documented than in the neighbouring kingdoms of northern Europe. In the absence of well-preserved manuscript and material remains, unfounded and sometimes distorting suppositions have been made about the timeline of monastic settlement and the character of the conventual life it brought. Recent archival and archaeological research can offer fresh insights into these questions. The arrival of authentic regular life may have been as early as the second quarter of the eleventh century in Denmark and Iceland, but there was no secure or stable community in any part of Scandinavia until the turn of the next century. A settled monastic network arose from a compact between the leadership of the secular church and the ruling elite, a partnership motivated as much by the shared pursuit of political, social and economic power as by any personal piety. Yet, the force of this patronal programme did not inhibit the development of monastic cultures reflected in books, original writings, church and conventual buildings, which bear comparison with the European mainstream.

Face the waves of emotion in the sea of the unconscious: Focusing on the symbolism of the sea and the waves

The purpose of this study was to examine the symbolism of the sea and waves, focusing on these symbols in the dreams and sand trays during the female client’s sandplay therapy. The client had dreamt about the sea repeatedly since childhood, so her repetitive dreams about the sea were analyzed during the sandplay sessions. She realized that the deep abyss of the sea was linked to her unconsciousness. Through the dynamic fluctuation of the waves, the emotions that she had suppressed became shaken, and it brought out her anger. As becoming aware of her suppressed emotions, she was able to heal herself. The repeated appearance of the sea in the sand trays connected her to the unconscious and led her to integration and wholeness. She made the choice of recharging her energy for love in the sea and returning to her life. The researcher could understand that it was the message of the sea to love herself and her life and live an authentic life of self-care proudly.

Authenticity vs. Inauthenticity in Oscar Wilde’s The Importance of Being Earnest

Unlike other living creatures, human being requires an authentic life to reflect the true self and independence. Due to the limitations and complicacies of life, either personal or from the surroundings, people sometimes play inauthentic roles and express inconsistent statements. Wilde’s play ‘The Importance of Being Earnest’ represents the same situation where two protagonists Jack Worthing and Algernon Moncireff frequently change their valid identity and address for abundant freedom and worldly pleasure. Considering two fundamental existentialistic concerns such as authenticity and inauthenticity along with qualitative and descriptive analysis method, the study evaluates how authentic or inauthentic decisions Algernon and Jack have made to transform their long carried name, definite identity and diversified location. It highlights how Wilde’s major characters are intertwined with complicated relationships affecting self-motivated decision, choice and freedom. Nevertheless, the study takes into account all the self-contradictory commitments of both Algernon and Jack Worthing and their ridiculous attitude towards religious perception. Finally, it inspects the authenticity of the name “Earnest” for what both Cecily Cardew and Gwendolen Fairfax always feel an inexorable urge and fervor.

INTEGRASI STRUKTUR DAN FUNGSI BAGIAN TUMBUHAN DENGAN BAYANI, BURHANI, ‘IRFANI DI SDIT BUNAYYA

AbstractPlants are living things that do not experience the activity of moving like humans and animals, but they can reproduce in their own way. The parts that are in plants are always different from one another, this is influenced by climatic factors and geographic areas. Areas that have lots of sunlight will be different from plants that live in areas with cool weather or below 20 degrees Celsius. Based on the issues that have developed in education during this decade, this paper will try to develop science material on "Structure and Function of Plant Parts" in SDIT Bunayya students. If the main source (origin) of science in the Bayani approach is text (revelation), then in the 'irfani approach the main source is experience (experience), which is an authentic life experience, and is actually an invaluable lesson. Inner experiences that are very deep, authentic, innate, and almost unspeakable by logic and cannot be expressed by language. This is what is called direct experience, and is called hudhri science in the isyraqiyyah tradition. All these authentic experiences can be felt directly without having to say it first through the expression of "language" or "logic". Keywords: integration; plants; bayani; burhani; and 'irfani.

Smart fuzzy graph

In recent times, the internet of things has gained more popularity. The internet of things connects people, objects and machines apart from distance through cloud based internet. In this paper, we have introduced the smart fuzzy graph along with some basic properties and related concepts. The aim of this paper is to solve some authentic real life problems using smart fuzzy graph.

A World of Defamiliar Realities: The Chairs, Endgame and No Exit

This paper suggests that the three playwrights, Eugene Ionesco, Samuel Beckett, and Jean-Paul Sartre in their plays The Chairs, Endgame, and No Exit, respectively, create a defamiliar reality that gives authenticity and new meaning to life. It puts forward the view that these playwrights use different modern techniques to achieve their purpose; they experiment with stage techniques by using the technique of defamiliarization and surrealism. The paper presents a summary of the views of different critics about the content and form of these plays and contests their views by suggesting that the plays are not meaningless or absurd but only different. It proposes that the audience or readers do not see that which they often see in traditional theatre. The plays, rather, lay bare the possibilities of a more meaningful and authentic life by detaching the readers’ minds from the automated, habitual, and monotonous world they live in.

Postcolonial Islam in My Son the Fanatic: From Deobandi Revivalism to the Secular Transposition of the Sufi Imaginary

Set in the early 1990s, Hanif Kureishi’s short story “My Son the Fanatic” (1997) dramatizes tensions between Parvez, a lapsed Pakistani Muslim migrant to postcolonial England, and his son Ali, who rejects the western secularity of his father and reverts to a strict form of fundamentalist Islam. If these tensions remain unresolved in the story, Kureishi’s film adaptation elaborates them. In so doing, though, My Son the Fanatic (dir. Udayan Prasad 1997) presents a very different picture. Renamed Farid, the film’s eponymous youth breaks off engagement to the daughter of the local chief of police and challenges his father: “Can you put keema [minced meat] with strawberries?” Metaphorically, this question articulates the deeper concern underlying the story: How might migrants in diaspora live an authentic Muslim life in the secular environment of the predominantly non-Muslim United Kingdom? A close reading of My Son the Fanatic reveals vying answers. Farid and Parvez both invoke the Qur’an, ultimate arbiter of value, meaning and truth in Islam, but thence their paths diverge widely. On the one hand, the film depicts the revivalist maslak of Deobandi Islam, though such missionary fervour may lead all too easily to the violent militancy of Farid and his cohort. On the other hand, My Son the Fanatic suggests conditions of possibility for a Muslim life of sacralised secularity by developing the love between Parvez and Sandra in terms of tropes and themes transposed from the Sufi imaginary to the postcolonial United Kingdom, most notably an ethos of iḥsān, that is, the cultivation of what is beautiful and good.

Integrating entrepreneurial working life skills with foreign language teaching – two cases from the University of Oulu

Abstract This activity report describes two cases of Language teaching for degree students in the University of Oulu with new pedagogical approaches aiming towards authentic working life skills. Co-creation, collaborative learning and cooperation across borders are the building blocks for these innovative language teaching projects. Case 1 describes Entrepreneurial Language Studies in English and Swedish courses, co-created with the Ministry of Culture and Education Key Projects, which aim for fostering entrepreneurial culture and creating entrepreneurial learning environments at universities. Case 2 is about Teaching English and Course Cooperation in English language between the students of Information Processing Science in Finland and Russia. In both of these cases, students have been challenging themselves with new ways to learn the language and at the same time acquire important skills for working life, virtual learning, presentations, communication, problem solving and business idea creation. What unites these cases is the emphasis on authentic language learning, creativity and self-efficacy. Because career paths today are increasingly complex, multidisciplinary and diverse, the ability to adapt, innovate and be flexible is vital in evolving and collaborative working environments.

A Critical Presentation of the Three Kierkegaardian Spheres of Human Existence

It is an apparent danger in the existence of the modern man that abstraction is substituted for reality. The truth of the uniqueness of each man and the various situations of life where one cannot but make a personal choice and decision, compel man the need to authenticate his being. It is then pertinent at this time, when there is not only a loss of personal identity but more still a total flaw of existence in our modern society, to pinpoint what authentic life should be. Hence, a Danish philosopher Søren Kierkegaard has done a masterly work of authenticating one's existence, becoming an individual instead of being swallowed up in the appraisal of untrue crowd. Precisely, the researcher will apply in this work the philosophical method of critical reflection of Kierkegaardian three spheres of human existence to arrive at the best manner of approach to examine one's life as to live an authentic existence.

Towards a Post Covid-19 Digital Authentic Assessment Practice: When Radical Changes Enhance the Student Experience

In 2020, the Higher Education sector, in the UK and internationally, had to move to online assessment because of the Covid-19 pandemic, at a speed and scale which might have been unimaginable under normal circumstances. By upscaling and accelerating the adoption of digital assessment practices in distance and online education across the world, educators had to rethink assessment processes to make sure they were an integral part of the authentic digital life experience for students and staff. As these changes appear to be far from temporary, they have accelerated the transition to a “new normal” regime of assessing students online for the foreseeable future. The priority in the sector is that fundamental principles of assessment including integrity and authenticity are supported in the design and implementation of assessments. In addition ensuring that no student is disadvantaged in accessing digital learning opportunities, when they are assessed. The paper discusses a project that collected data about three final assessment routes students have taken. The aim was to generate understanding of this transition to online assessment, primarily from the perspective of the experience of the students who have been affected. Our findings explore student agreement with this transition to online assessment and provide an opportunity to understand student approaches to assessment and what they would like to see in future assessments. Finally we explore the implications for practice in distance learning and campus based environments and for the sector.

DIGITAL DETOX CAMP: VALUES AND MOTIVATIONS FOR ENGAGING IN DIGITAL DISCONNECT

Media users increasingly express ambivalence about their own media consumption, often related to ubiquitous media technology such as the smartphone and social media. In order to understand the growing trend of disconnection as a cultural and social phenomenon, we conducted an analysis of the digital detox inspired camp for grownups, Underleir, which has been arranged in Norway annually since 2014. The main empirical material stems from a field study of the camp Underleir in 2019 where we conducted participatory observation on a four-day field trip. Online material about the camp from the inception in 2014 to the sixth installment in 2019 was also included. The framework for this analysis is media domestication theory with special attention to the concept reverse domestication. In contrast to the domestication process where new media technology is "tamed", reverse domestication implies cognitive processes and practical strategies involved when distancing from media technology. Underleir illustrates how practical, social, and normative aspects may be interwoven when media use is reversed or altered. Normatively speaking, the digital detox experience was tied to broader sets of values, including an aim for a more creative, authentic life and a quest for mental wellbeing and the ability to focus. Many participants stated that the opportunity to engage in creative activities, and to be social in a friendly setting, was just as important as the absence of media.

Existential advertising in late modernity: Meaningful work in higher education advertisements

The ongoing massification of higher education has entailed a changing relationship between higher education providers and students. While scholars have been quick to identify the political implications of the quasi-market model for the student-customer, there has been significantly less focus on the role that advertising plays in facilitating a student-consumer culture. This article uses an analysis of advertisements directed towards potential domestic university students in Australia to explore how the idea of a university ‘experience’ and meaningful work are discursively constructed within late modernity. Many advertisements draw on existential themes of living a meaningful, authentic or exceptional life and finding a fulfilling career, mythologising the role of the university within an idealised social order. This study highlights the need to understand the economic value of higher education as embedded in cultural economy, as well as the value of this framework for researching student experiences and marketing.

Gerry O'Hanlon , SJ, The Quiet Revolution of Pope Francis. A Synodal Catholic Church in Ireland? (review)

his faith, refusing to affiliate with mockers, dissenters, or pagans. As Pierce points out, the Portrait presents Stephen’s short-lived but intense period of post-retreat devotion with ‘honesty and sensitivity’ (74). Readers can only speculate where Stephen’s journey would take him, but Pierce sees the mature Joyce ‘inside the albeit outer orbit of the Church…with goodwill in his heart’(103). Or, as he says at the book’s close, ‘We [readers] are reminded of Shakespeare’s “dual residence”, only in Joyce’s case he is both inside and outside the faith of his fathers’ (187). His treatment of Joyce’s Jesuit affiliation is less precise. He finds Joyce’s famous distinction between his Catholicism and his Jesuitness to be ‘arcane’ (71), but I think it has substance. The two intersect, of course, but I see Joyce associating the Jesuits more with his education than his faith. Pierce rightly points out that Stephen conceives of Catholicism as ‘his mother’s religion’ (99); yet the Portrait repeatedly links the Jesuits with his father. His teachers share many of Simon Dedalus’s virtues and vices, and in Joyce’s life they followed the same relationship arc: youthful separation, later appreciation, and a lifelong connection that ebbed and flowed, but was never broken. Pierce makes one small mistake in referring to St Aloysius Gonzaga, whose name Joyce took at confirmation, as a Jesuit priest (71): he was an unordained scholastic, whose youth is significant since it makes him one of the order’s ‘boy saints’, with whom schoolboys like Joyce could identify. On the same subject, I would suggest St Aloysius and St Patrick as worthier candidates for Joyce’s ‘favourite saint’ than Pierce’s choice of St Thomas Aquinas. The latter might have been Stephen’s patron, but not his creator’s, at least according to Joyce’s friend in Paris, Jacques Mercanton. Finally, when Pierce considers the Portrait as ‘profoundly inner-directed’, he credits George Moore’s The Lake for inspiring Joyce. But surely its author’s twelve years of Jesuit education also had much to do with the Portrait’s deeply introspective nature, and its testing of all public values ‘in the only crucible of authentic life’ it recognises, ‘namely the privacy of conscience’ (81). These are small matters, however. I very much benefited from reading Pierce’s book and I would have no hesitation including it in a university class or recommending it to those wanting to understand and appreciate the Portrait more deeply. James Pribek SJ is Associate Professor at Creighton University, Omaha, Nebraska. Studies • volume 109 • number 435 346 Autumn 2020: Book Reviews Gerry O’Hanlon, SJ, The Quiet Revolution of Pope Francis. A Synodal Catholic Church in Ireland? (Dublin: Messenger Publications; revised edition, 2019), 168 pages. Motivated by commitment to the Gospel and possessed of both scholarship and literary skill, Gerry O’ Hanlon, former provincial of the Irish Jesuits, sets out to give life to the reform agenda of Pope Francis. He has written a book which could prove to be a catalyst for the renewal of the Church in Ireland. In an Address given in October 2015, commemorating the fiftieth anniversary of the establishment of the Synod of Bishops, Pope Francis said that what is appropriate in the third millennium is a ‘synodal Church’ which requires decentralisation, open debate and consultation. Collegiality needs to be present at all levels of the Church which means more authority for national and regional conferences with some share in local Church governance given to the baptised laity – the ‘voice of the faithful’. The Quiet Revolution was first published just before the visit of Pope Francis to Ireland in September 2018. This revised edition was published one year later. The book is divided into four parts. First, the current problems in the Church, including the reality of post-Catholic Ireland are presented. Next the vision of Pope Francis to rebuild the Church – his ‘quiet revolution’ – is outlined. Thirdly, emerging issues of teaching and governance, including the role of the laity, are examined. Finally, the question of how we in Ireland might respond is discussed. A gradual centralisation of the Church has taken place over centuries, but especially...

Different urban settings affect multi-dimensional tourist-resident interactions

City centre areas of many tourism destinations are increasingly overcrowding but two tourism development trends are to some extent counterbalancing the crowding phenomenon. Firstly, the decentralisation of tourists aiming to avoid large crowds and product standardisation and, therefore, visiting sites away from the city centre, including suburban areas. Secondly, the rise of ‘new urban tourism’ which means that tourists seek to experience authentic city life in local neighbourhoods. However, systematic examination and comparison of the frequency, intensity and quality of tourist-resident interactions in different urban settings is lacking. This paper does so for tourist-resident interactions in Central (as city centre area), Sha Tin (as suburban area) and Mong Kok (as new urban tourism area) in Hong Kong. The results from the tourist perspective are mostly in line with expectations, only co-presence appeared not to take place relatively less in Sha Tin and focussed interaction not relatively more in Mong Kok. From the perspective of residents, as expected, Sha Tin stands out as a place with less co-presence and less focussed interaction with tourists, and a higher quality of interaction. However, the expectation that Mong Kok as a new urban tourism area would involve both more co-presence and focussed interaction and a lower quality of interaction is not substantiated through our study. Overall, tourists experience a higher quality of interactions than residents, but the asymmetry is smaller in the suburban setting.

‘Body techniques’ as expressive means in the formation of film language in early Soviet cinema

ABSTRACTVisual anthropology has opened up new avenues for the analysis of early Soviet cinema (1918–1930s), and Marcel Mauss’s theory of ‘body techniques’ serves to highlight methods for the professional actor’s body work and body techniques in cinema, revealing the performative functions of art and life. The philosophy of the new Soviet body is analysed through examples of the professor and mechanic in Congestion (1918); of the child in Wake Up Lenochka (1934); of the old man in The Baltic Deputy (1936); and of the worker in Counterplan (1932). These images lean on archetypal models of corporeal displays and lay the foundation for the perception of a new God-Man (theanthropos). A key aspect in the manipulation of the collective unconscious is the creation of a screen image by actors and non-actors. There is a collision of the psychological way of creating a role in terms of Stanislavsky’s school and techniques of extra-ordinary behaviour, which are often shown in the scores of movement of non-actors, while the subtlety of psychological nuances emerges in professional acting. Artificially created, played roles appear more convincing and more life-like than the authentic life of a human body recorded on film.

Broken Glass: Sylvia Gellburg's Mirror Stage

Abstract This article explores Sylvia Gellburg's awakening at the end of Arthur Miller's Broken Glass through the lens of “méconnaissance” (misrecognition), a term coined by Lacan and applied by feminine theorist Kathleen Woodward to a second “mirror stage” of aging. Lacan's mirror stage describes how a human infant creates a fixed sense of an ideal self, an integrated “whole” albeit illusionary, toward which the individual strives his or her entire life. Woodward writes that many postmenopausal women experience a “misrecognition” of their aging selves in the mirror or in photographs. While this is often a traumatic experience, she argues that it opens the possibility for a second mirror stage, where the individual can reimagine the self. The death of the illusion of the ideal allows for greater self-awareness and a more authentic life. I argue that Sylvia's gradual awakening in the play can be viewed through the lens of a second mirror stage and also is linked to Phillip's self-realization.