Bearers Of Knowledge Research Articles

The Püsterich of Sondershausen: An Explosive Bronze Object between Art, Science and Questions of Human Nature in the 13th Century

Preserved in the Castle Museum at Sondershausen in central Germany is a bronze taking the form of a rotund, kneeling man. The object, nearly 22.5 inches tall and cast in a single piece, is known today as the ‘Püsterich’. Since its archaeological discovery in the 1540s, it has proven to be a subject of intellectual debate: numerous authors have sought to understand either its iconography or, on the basis of its hollow shape and the two openings in its head, its function. The resulting studies have been surprisingly varied in their claims. With a method of approach rooted in ‘object studies’, this article explores both of the aforementioned aspects as well as form-function relations. Starting with a basic art-historical analysis of the bronze—thus far lacking in the scholarship—the article recognizes the work as having been produced in Hildesheim between c. 1220 and 1250, a context in which it can be related closely to the philosophical concerns of the prominent theologian Albertus Magnus. In its function as a ‘sufflator’ (hearth-blower) and its depiction of a ‘pygmeus’, the ‘Püsterich’, along with seven other related figures, can be understood as a ‘Wissensobjekt’, an object or bearer of knowledge. With and through them, viewers/users negotiated complex problems about the nature of living beings; specifically, the bronze thematized the question of what distinguished human beings from animals: in Albertus’s thought, the mastering of science and art. This new understanding of the ‘Püsterich’ allows us to recognize its special position at the origins of ‘philosophical anthropology’ and the history of science.

Plants and migration

The article focuses on the ethnobotany, analysing the migration of plants that accompany Bulgarians to new destinations. The functions and meanings of these plants are outlined. Plants ‘in migration’ in this way are considered in the light of the relationship between culture and place. Some plants perceived as traditionally Bulgarian are rediscovered and transferred to the receiving country and are present in the stories, cultural practices, and everyday lives of migrants. These plants can be examined through the lens of sensory anthropology, as bearers of knowledge and emotion through perception in the form of vision, smell, touch, taste. Plants can be seen as a synecdoche of the homeland. According to the interviews, Bulgarians abroad perceive some plants as emblematic of Bulgaria. Plants transported abroad are recognised by migrants as Bulgarian cultural heritage, through which cultural values and symbols are maintained. Bulgarians take abroad plants that give them aesthetic pleasure and remind them of Bulgaria, of home, of family, of childhood. An emotional connection with the homeland is also provided by the plants, the cultivation of which in the new place is an experiment with no guarantee of success. ‘Bulgarian’ plants taken and grown abroad (flowers, fruits, vegetables, spices, herbs) offer a wealth of sensory perception and have an aroma and/or taste often defined by respondents as the “aroma and taste of Bulgaria”. Plants in migration develop versatile functionality, facilitate adaptation, and concentrate narratives.

Uplifting Community and Incorporating Reuse in Conservation Planning for the Noah Purifoy Outdoor Desert Art Museum of Assemblage Sculpture

ABSTRACT In 2023 the Noah Purifoy Foundation received a Mellon Foundation Grant to develop, with conservators, an innovative and thoughtful conservation plan for the over 100 sculptures at the Noah Purifoy Outdoor Desert Art Museum of Assemblage Sculpture. Located in the high desert of Joshua Tree, California, USA, it encompasses four hectares of rural art space where Purifoy lived and worked from 1989 until his death in 2004. Although Purifoy was a trained artist, his works also draw from his time as a US Navy Seabee and the tradition of Black self-taught artists from the American South. His artworks were never complete, but alive, and in an ongoing conversation among him, nature, and material. Amidst the physical challenges of addressing found material assemblage in a challenging landscape, the project also requires bringing stakeholders and knowledge bearers into conversation to determine an appropriate ‘patina’ of weathering for the works. To achieve this, the project involves identifying Purifoy's definition of community, reuse, and interaction with the natural landscape into the conservation plan. The project also included drone mapping as a documentation tool alongside condition surveys and photographic documentation. Being led by a group of racially diverse conservators who are centering community involvement in the work helps the team mimic Purifoy’s own commitment to community engagement. This project has the potential to act as a model for the development of conservation plans for other sites of contemporary sculpture, especially those in remote locations or those focused on African American artists.

The Politics of Transdisciplinarity

This paper aims to theorize the role of transdisciplinarity in politics. I do this by arguing for an ontological pluralism, using the ideas of Basarab Nicolescu, suggesting a political view can equate to a layer of reality. Nicolescu’s thought indicates that we should think beyond and transcend the political spectrum- a political view is not just a view but an actual part of reality. Next, I use ‘Mode 2’ Science to suggest we should adopt a distributed epistemology which sees everyone as bearers of knowledge, I suggest that politics should take this into consideration. This fits with the pluralism indicated by Nicolescu. Furthermore, I suggest ‘Mode 2’ Science also says that institutions should be permeable- the difference between state, science and society should not be seen as solid. Institutions should also be seen as transitory in nature. Next, I argue Edgar Morin’s complex thinking indicates how we should gather knowledge and how society should be governed. Particularly, it shows that governance should consist of teams, in which the state acts as a catalyst for bringing a wide group of people together. These ‘teams’ and the state can be activated or deactivated depending on the situation, therefore preventing an accumulation of power, while also allowing effective governance if required. Finally, I use complex network theory to characterize how the pertinent temporary configurations of relations would work and the factors that might affect them. Using network theory allows us to conceptualize these relations as dynamic, connected, vulnerable, clustered and yet also having a few figures (in this case the state) that can connect people. Following all of this, we come to a new pluralistic, egalitarian, transitory, but most of all transdisciplinary view of governance.

Care-fully?: The Question of “Knowledge Co-production” in Arctic Science

Understanding and redressing the climate crisis in the Arctic demands acknowledging and translating perspectives from frontline communities, environmental scientists, Indigenous knowledge bearers, and social scientists. As a first approximation to the question of how Arctic scientists conceptualize and enact “knowledge co-production,” we analyze how they write about it in their academic publications through a systematic literature review. Based on the results, we identify the lack of clear definition and practical engagement with “co-production” understood as a practice of integrating knowledges and methodological approaches from various disciplines and cultures. We raise concerns regarding researchers’ claims of co-production without understanding what it means, which is particularly harmful for Arctic communities whose knowledge practices scientists have long marginalized and exploited. In response, we argue that feminist STS scholarship provides crucial guidance on how to create and sustain meaningful relationships for knowledge co-production. These relationships can potentially subvert power inequities that have prevented many Arctic science teams from breaking out of traditional disciplinary silos to create new forms of knowledge exchange, particularly those based on notions of care for collaborators, communities, and equity.

The Image of the Ukrainian Teacher: Historical and Contemporary Aspects

The study aims to analyze the portrayal of teachers in the works of Ukrainian writers during the late 19th and early 20th centuries. The selected literary works include I. Franko's "Emerick Torchinsky", "The Education of Hrytsko", "Schon schreiben", "Father-Humorist"; B. Hrynchenko's "Exam", "Rebellious", "Brother against brother", "Stolen"; and G. Tyutyunnik's "Upon the ashes". These works condemn the use of corporal punishment, rudeness, and ignorance on the part of teachers. They also emphasize the role of teachers as bearers of knowledge, culture, and spirituality. In contemporary society, the focus is on the teacher's ability to facilitate the learning and self-improvement of students, to help develop their personalities, and instil moral ideals and spiritual values. Teachers are expected to be lifelong learners and continuously develop competencies in various areas. This includes acquiring knowledge in their subject matter, mastering pedagogical techniques, and cultivating strong interpersonal skills in order to effectively navigate relationships with their students and colleagues. (Kim & Reichmuth, 2021). Modern Ukrainian teachers need to organize themselves in a way that enables them to effectively collaborate with their students, foster engagement between educational institutions and society, and create an atmosphere of trust, transparency, and moral integrity. In order to achieve this, teachers must organize teaching and learning activities based on ethical principles and promote tolerance. Keywords: The image of the teacher, Ukrainian literature, spirituality, morality, learning, knowledge, personality.

Кажимость в структуре обыденного vs. научного знания (на материале когнитивной семантики глагольных предикатов казаться, показаться)

The кажимость in the structure of everyday vs. scientific knowledge (on the material of the cognitive semantics of verbal predicates казаться, показаться) The native speakers’ empirical experience was conceptualized in the semantics of ordinary discourse contexts. This experience can be presented by the following meta-utterances. ‘The speaker knows that it is not possible to see an object being observed properly, i.e. the first impression of it could turn out to be ‘mistaken’. The speaker also knows that it is possible to re-verify the results of perception empirically. This allows them to form a more complete idea / knowledge about the object. Subsequently, the speaker reflects on his first visual impression based on the received idea / knowledge, evaluates it as ‘true’ or ‘false’. The scientific knowledge is conceptualized in the psychology discourse contexts: there are particular circumstances under which effect the visual images of objects in the real world are distorted and the recipient receives visual illusions and allucinations. In the article a cognitive Gestalt script was formed. Based on it, all contexts with words казаться, показаться are built. Due to the dialectical combination of perceptual and epistemic modes, a single / unified Gestalt script consists of two parts. On the one hand, there is supposed to be a subject-experiencer as well as his perceptual act, the object he observes, the first, potentially erroneous / distorted image of the object. There should also be a potential opportunity to implement an act of reflexive verification of the first impression and establish the truth. On the other hand, there is supposed to be the subject as a bearer of knowledge, his knowledge of the distorted character of the subject-experiencer’s perception as well as his knowledge of the inconsistency between the subject-experiencer’s first impression and what exists in reality. In addition, there should be implicit / explicit awareness of the reasons that led to the distortion of the perception results. Attention focusing shifts, underlying constructions of various conceptualizations, were outlined in terms of ‘background – figure’, ‘focus’.

Recommendations for systemic change to support connectedness within Alaska Native child welfare

BackgroundOngoing child removal of Indigenous children within child welfare systems is problematic. Alaska Native youth are disproportionately affected by the trauma of separation from important connectedness relationships. ObjectiveTo take previous research a step further by identifying relational and systemic changes that need to happen in the Alaska child welfare system so that connectedness is supported for child and collective wellbeing. MethodsThis article summarizes connectedness concepts and directly links knowledge bearers' stories to recommended changes at the direct, agency, and governmental practice levels. ResultsChildren and youth need to build, maintain, and repair connectedness relationships, especially when child welfare is involved. Authentically engaging youth and listening to lived experience as a relational action can lead to transformational changes that benefit the children and the collective network they are connected to. ConclusionOur intention is to shift child welfare to a child wellbeing paradigm that is relationally guided by direct recipients of the system.

Creation of a techno-pedagogical model for the strengthening of the Emberá Katío language through ancestral customs at the El Rosario educational institution in Tierralta

The reduction in the number of native speakers of a language presents a significant blow to the intangible heritage of nations, territories, and regions. Its preservation and conservation hinge on a broad array of factors, with education playing an integral role. The research presented here aimed to model the strengthening of the Emberá Katío language within the El Rosario Educational Institution in Tierralta, Córdoba, from a techno-pedagogical perspective. Its primary objective was to help mitigate the loss of linguistic and cultural identity associated with this native and ancestral language. Using an action-research methodology, the study sought to lessen the impact of conventional western teaching-learning methods that harm the Emberá Katío language. The research designed alternatives for cultural preservation, employing systems within the classroom setting, with a research-focused and ethno-educational methodological approach. Fieldwork was included to facilitate student interaction with community knowledge bearers, and to collect, organize, and evaluate information. The results enabled the generation of a collaborative document that will serve as a pedagogical tool for future generations of students.

Community‐driven science and science education: Living in and navigating the edges of equity, justice, and science learning

Community‐driven science and science education: Living in and navigating the edges of equity, justice, and science learning

Using a collaborative working group model to develop an ADHD resource for school staff

AbstractInclusive education for children with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) presents challenges for school staff and professional development is lacking. Training is not always available when needed, strategies suggested by external experts can be impractical and staff lack autonomy in choosing the best way of being resourced. Additionally, the experience and knowledge of the range of school staff is not utilised. A collaborative working group of school staff and a researcher explored an alternative method of ADHD resourcing. Co‐construction of knowledge defines how the group discursively identified actionable knowledge from the different perspectives and knowledge brought by individual group members. A systemic framework was used to critically reflect on the collaboration. The framework enabled reflection on four areas to understand how and why the collaboration led to a published web‐based school staff ADHD resource. Firstly, starting conditions and assumptions were considered to identify and articulate the rationale for the resource. Secondly, the context and system dynamics enabled consideration of the socio‐cultural and political landscape of the project and the impact of COVID‐19. Thirdly, the different voices of participants and power dynamics were reflected on. Finally, emergence was a frame in which to elucidate knowledge production and changes in practice. The collaborative working group addressed the research–practice gap and the need for diversity of voices to be heard across the school. Knowledge co‐construction positions staff as knowledge bearers and, together with different forms of knowledge, they can be empowered to create new, contextualised evidence‐based knowledge.

A right to research?

A right to research?

The Cuckoo Image in the Buryats Traditional Concepts and Rituals

Purpose. The study is devoted to identifying the image of the cuckoo in the Buryats mythological ideas and traditional rituals.Results. In the first part of the work, a general description of the cuckoo image is given based on the vocabulary and small genres of the buryat folklore. It was found that the Buryats particularly noted the voice and physical dexterity of this bird from its other biological features. It was also associated with such a negative trait of a person as idle talk.The second part of the study examines the Buryats mythological ideas about the cuckoo. It was found out that the cuckoo appears in the Buryat epic as a sacred bird, a conductor of the celestials will. It has a feminine origin: women are believed to turn into this bird after death as a punishment for easy virtue and committing suicide. The cuckoo image is also associated with the motif of werewolf, ideas about the evergreen needles acquisition by larch trees and the milk wine invention. In the Buryat epic, this bird often acts as a bearer of knowledge about the past and a wealth giver. The dual nature of the magical effect of the cuckoo’s voice was revealed: on the one hand, it can be beneficial for man and nature, on the other hand, it can destroy a person. The negative features of the cuckoo image are associated with the symbolism of death, which is reflected in folk signs, in particular in the superstition about the cuckoo ability to predict a person’s life expectancy.The third part of the article highlights the cuckoo image in the Buryats shamanic ritual. It has been established that it was localized in the shamanic rite of the Aghin Buryats, probably being a relic of totemism.Conclusion. The study shows that the cuckoo image in the mythological ideas of the Buryats is very ambiguous. This bird was revered as a sacred feathered. It personified the feminine principle. The cuckoo was characterized by solar and celestial symbolism, in addition it acted as a fertility symbol, which was manifested in the correlation of the image with nature rhythms and renewal. This bird was associated with sacred trees (the shamanic Mother Tree and the World Tree). At the same time, the image of the cuckoo also had negative characteristics, primarily because it was closely associated with ideas about death.The study shows that some traditional ideas of the Buryats about this bird find parallels with the mythological concepts of other peoples of Eurasia, which is explained by their universality or typological identity and, probably, intercultural contacts that took place in the past.

Ethics and Epistemic Injustice in the Global South: A Response to Hopman’s Human Rights Exceptionalism as Justification for Covert Research

Abstract This article investigates the risk of epistemic injustice in conducting sociolegal research in Global South contexts. Diving into the ethical imperatives of honouring knowledge, agency, and voice, we challenge extractive research practices and reframe participants as active, legitimate bearers of knowledge. Covert research is a highly controversial research practice which bypasses the right to informed consent of participants. Marieke Hopman’s article titled ‘Covert Qualitative Research as a Method to Study Human Rights Under Authoritarian Regimes’ advocates for covert research in the field of human rights, provided this covert research passes her proposed ‘ethical test’. We argue that this test permits and requires practices of knowledge-making which unjustly silence, undervalue, and exclude the capacity of systematically marginalised communities to produce knowledge claims. Hopman’s ethical test requires researchers to translate participants’ testimonies and situated knowledge into a doctrinal human rights framework, which comes with certain onto-epistemological assumptions which may not be shared by participants. Her approach frustrates research participants’ agency in choosing their own epistemic projects. Finally, her test exacerbates structural inequalities between the Global North and Global South by reinforcing unequal power relations. We advocate for a situated ethics approach to mitigate epistemic injustice in socio-legal research in the Global South. Cross-cultural ethical dialogue between western and non-hegemonic ethics on a non-hierarchical and equal basis can contribute to building ‘intercultural ethics’. Reflexivity – where researchers critically examine their worldviews and social position throughout the research process – can ensure greater accountability and integrity. Reciprocity – building mutual research relationships and producing research useful to the researched – can help shift the power imbalance between the researcher and researched.

Book Review—The Right to Research: Historical Narratives by Refugee and Global South Researchers. By Kate Reed and Marcia C. Schenck, eds

The Right to Research: Historical Narratives by Refugee and Global South Researchers is essential reading. Much of the work that is being taught, cited, and used in advocacy for and on behalf of refugees are written by scholars from the Global North. Even though many migrants are racialized and from the Global South, the scholarship that receives the most attention is that of scholars who have no experience with the challenges their research subjects face. This is changing, but there is a stickiness to ideas about what is research that meets the standards of peer review and how research should be done. This book builds upon decolonizing, anti-racist, and critical feminist and race thought that has long embraced multiple and diverse forms of knowledge production. Ironically, refugee and migration studies have taken much longer to challenge norms and assumptions that underpin research in this area. Nine essays make up this collection. The authors have liminal or no legal status, some dependent on organizations or NGOs for support, have diverse educational and employment backgrounds, and were from a variety of countries. The works show less emphasis on the privileged ability to use research resources from libraries, the internet, and workshops and instead showcased conditions of production outside the traditional bounds of academia that were non-textual and focused on oral narratives. The work in this book does as it states, ‘create[s] new archives’ and ‘record[s] oral histories that can speak to processes, experiences, and subjectivities that no amount of sleuthing in colonial (or postcolonial state, or NGO) archives, however skilled, could uncover’.1 This book disturbs how refugee research thus far has been done by upturning the construction of the refugee as subject and instead allowing migrants to identify and act as researchers in their own right. As articulated, ‘the right to research is both the ability to systematically inquire into the unknown and the ability to share one’s findings and be taken seriously as a producer and bearer of knowledge—something that has historically been denied to many refugees and other people on the move’.2

Knowledge Bearers and Narrative Swayers

Euripidean tragedy and Aristophanic comedy often feature enslaved women as confidantes and messengers, though scholarship has largely overlooked the narratological importance of this group. Through an analysis of enslaved women who receive guests, serve as decoys, act as advisors, and deliver fateful news, this article explores how enslaved women in Euripides and Aristophanes hold access to or withhold critical information. I argue that these women exert a degree of control over surrounding characters and circumstances through their possession of essential knowledge, thus influencing the progression of dramatic plots.

Centering and collaborating with community knowledge systems: piloting a novel participatory modeling approach

BackgroundSystems science approaches like simulation modeling can offer an opportunity for community voice to shape policies. In the episteme of many communities there are elders, leaders, and researchers who are seen as bearers of historic knowledge and can contextualize and interpret contemporary research using knowledge systems of the community. There is a need for a systematic methodology to collaborate with community Knowledge Bearers and Knowledge Interpreters. In this paper we report the results of piloting a systematic methodology for collaborating with a community Knowledge-Bearer and Knowledge-Interpreter to develop a conceptual model revealing the local-level influences and architecture of systems shaping community realities. The use case for this pilot is ‘persistent poverty’ in the United States, specifically within the inner-city African American community in Baltimore City.MethodsThis pilot of a participatory modeling approach was conducted over a span of 7 sessions and included the following steps, each with an associated script:Step 1: Knowledge-Bearer and Knowledge-Interpreter recruitmentStep 2: Relationship buildingStep 3: Session introduction, Vignette development & enrichmentStep 4: Vignette analysis & constructing architecture of systems mapStep 5: Augmenting architecture of systems mapResultsEach step of the participatory modeling approach resulted in artifacts that were valuable for both the communities and the research effort.Vignette construction resulted in narratives representing a spectrum of lived experiences, trajectories, and outcomes within a community. The collaborative analysis of vignettes yielded the Architecture of Systemic Factors map, that revealed how factors inter-relate to form a system in which lived experience of poverty occurs. A literature search provided an opportunity for the community to contextualize existing research about them using realities of lived experience.ConclusionThis methodology showed that a community Knowledge Bearer can function as communicators and interpreters of their community’s knowledge base, can develop coherent narratives of lived experiences within which research and knowledge is contextualized, and can collaboratively construct conceptual mappings necessary for simulation modeling. This participatory modeling approach showed that even if there already exists a vast body of research about a community, collaborating with community gives context to that research and brings together disparate findings within narratives of lived experience.

NOVÉ MODELY VZDELÁVANIA

The traditional model of education is based on the assumption that the teacher is the bearer of knowledge and the students are passive receivers of this knowledge. New education models focus on the development of students´ skills and abilities. These models are based on the assumption that students are active participants in the learning process. The contribution deals with the analysis of new methods of education, individual types, advantages and disadvantages of the application of these new models. A special space is dedicated to the so-called electronic education. e-learning, which is among the most used new models applied in the educational process.

The smell of bare death: Encountering life at the graveyard of Lampedusa

What smell does border death leave to the inhabitants of borderlands? Is the encounter with the dead bodies of the migrants who perished in the Mediterranean Sea telling in how we articulate discussions around (necro)politics at the external borders of Europe? Based on one-year of fieldwork on the island of Lampedusa (Southern Italy), Door to Europe, and frontier for irregular border crossing, I argue that border death has consequences for both the migrants and the inhabitants of borderlands. The paper will trace such consequences through the testimony of Vincenzo, the old cemetery gatekeeper of Lampedusa, the witness and bearer of knowledge around the nameless bodies buried in Lampedusa's cemetery since 1996. This approach will help considering the extent to which the encounter with migrants’ dead bodies – bare life in death – allows ethnographers to speak of the inherently violent system that scholars referred to as necropolitics or thanatopolitics, and the otherwise irreducible force of life, which manifests itself beyond any possible attempt to reduce it or silence it.

Introduction: Seeds and the History of Science

As mobile and foundational entities, seeds mimic science and are an appropriate vehicle for examining its defining traits. Ubiquitous as they are, seeds come into the hands of teeming millions and are acted upon, saved, shared, and sold for profit worldwide. They throw up an unusually large cast of characters that are bearers of knowledge or knowledge makers who are located outside the confines of academic elite science. They allow us to understand and acknowledge that knowledge making could be far more deep, widespread, and pervasive than our excessive focus on academic scholar-scientists allows us to see. Seeds straddle the world of multiple historiographies around geography and identity. Overlapping with studies of sedentarism and deep agrarian societies as well as the current controversies over food sovereignty, seeds give access to a wide variety of claims and illuminate several pathways and methodologies for developing historical studies of science.