Civic Settings Research Articles

Political activation and social movements: Addressing non‐participation in Aotearoa New Zealand

AbstractThe decline of participation in traditional civic political processes, like voting in elections and writing to elected representatives, continues to deepen in contemporary liberal democracies. However, civics comprise only one avenue for political participation. Social movements also play a key role in influencing political affairs by exerting pressure on established institutions from outside rather than within. ‘Political activation’ is key to understanding and addressing non‐participation in both movement and civic settings alike, yet activation in movement settings, like non‐participation more generally, remains under‐researched. This article seeks to address this imbalance by exploring ways of using political activation theory to synthesise research on the fields of political participation and non‐participation, in both civic and social movement contexts. After reviewing the literature on activation, which favours political participation in civic settings, I then juxtapose this existing scholarship with a case study focused more on non‐participation and social movements as they are understood by movement organisers in Aotearoa New Zealand. In so doing, I demonstrate how civics, social movements, participation and non‐participation can be better understood together to advance scholarship on why people do or do not engage with politics.

Gender and Body Language in Roman Art by Glenys Davies

Reviewed by: Gender and Body Language in Roman Art by Glenys Davies J. F. D. Frakes Glenys Davies. Gender and Body Language in Roman Art. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2018. Pp. xii, 357. $120.00. ISBN 978-0-521-84273-0. Asserting that modern studies of body language offer comparative support to an understanding of ancient gestural codes, and marshaling decades of theorization of how gesture and comportment together work to establish social configurations of identity, Glenys Davies promises here an analysis of how visual art in the Roman world made use of body language to express "status, and the relationship between status and gender" (1). The introduction quickly clarifies the author's methods and assumptions: that art from all Greek and Roman periods can be lumped together as evidence for Roman visual modes (she begins the discussion with a red-figure vase from 430 bce); that literary evidence is of primary value when interpreting visual evidence (she consults Cicero, Valerius Maximus, Seneca, Quintilian, and Plutarch, among others, throughout); and that display context is irrelevant to how artworks communicated ideas of gender and status (the Barberini Faun, the Capitoline Seated Girl, some philosophers, and the Terme Ruler illustrate opening themes, with no discussion of placement and little acknowledgement of dating or replication). A case-study is then built upon Cancelleria Relief B, focusing on the gestural connections between its principal figures, that indulges in Jocelyn [End Page 364] Toynbee's reading (in The Flavian Reliefs from the Palazzo della Cancelleria in Rome [Oxford 1957]) of the scene's emotional subtext before signaling that Vespasian's gesture toward Domitian is unique and interpreting it remains problematic. What to make of this strange impasse is evidently up to each reader to decide—a difficult challenge considering there will not be any more images to consider for a good sixty pages. The first two chapters present the surviving ancient testimonies relevant to body language, each one devoted to a normative gender: first male, then female. About male comportment we read of exempla traditions, of oratorical training and performance, and of good manners. Themes include status display, imperial power, and the dangers to men of femininity. About female comportment we read of proofs of inferiority and weakness, of tendencies toward frivolity, and of matronly values and modesty. Veiling and clothing requirements follow, along with demonstrations of subordination, and some closing thoughts on the dangers to men of female masculinity, before we are promised an analysis of the representation of Roman women in art. How disappointing it was after all this to turn the page to chapter 3 (82) and discover the Vatican copy of the Aphrodite of Knidos. "The Standing Nude," so Davies argues, best illustrates the differentiated body languages of males and females on account of their opposed sexes being so visually evident, and before too many pages go by there appears the inevitable Naples Doryphoros. Although these famous statues are in fact Roman artworks, they are here treated as unproblematic exemplars of Greek Classical design, works that demonstrate (one assumes?) the timelessness of gendered gestural codes. The bibliography is thorough and responsible—one finds the support of Ridgway, Havelock, and Lefkowitz, among others—but the discussion fails to take us far beyond the luscious treatments of Andrew Stewart's Art, Desire and the Body in Ancient Greece (Cambridge 1997). Beyond their status in elite culture, how do these opera nobilia inform us on the gestural attitudes of lived experience promised earlier? I fear it was a mistake to linger so long among elite male opinion and fetishized works of Classical culture, rather than jumping straightaway into well-documented viewing contexts from the Roman period. What might be said of these as Roman works? I think of Valentina di Napoli's recent study of displays in Roman Achaea of exactly these two statue types, the Knidia installed in baths and domestic contexts in small-scale formats while the Doryphorus was placed in civic settings on scales life-size or greater ("Looking at the Classical Past: Tradition, Identity, and Copies of Nobilia Opera in Roman Greece," in S. E. Alcock, M. Egri, and J. Frakes [eds.], Beyond Boundaries: Connecting Visual Cultures in the Provinces...

From making things public to the design of creative democracy: Dewey’s democratic vision and participatory design

ABSTRACTParticipatory design’s (PD) shift from the workplace to civic settings has led to a reorientation of the field’s political bearings. Informed by science and technology studies, practice is now often framed in terms of design things, infrastructuring, and John Dewey’s concept of ‘publics’. Taking the publics concept as a starting point, the present article seeks to contribute by providing a broader outline of Dewey’s democratic vision. It is proposed that Dewey’s vision may be seen to offer a potentially useful perspective that directly relates the ‘publics’ concept to the areas of freedom, experientialism, and the institutions of government. Linking to contemporary developments in PD and beyond, the vision is seen to carry conceptual and practical implications, which, if borne out, would connect the discipline’s capacity to ‘spark’ publics into being to the processes of policy formation and institutional reform.

The Significance of Ethnography in Youth Participation Research: Active Citizenship in the UK after the Brexit Vote

In comparison to questionnaires, statistical analyses, interviews and experiments, ethnography tends to be a neglected method in youth participation research and in understanding political socialization and citizen action. This, we suggest, is very unfortunate. Where the concerns and experiences of researchers do not match those of young people, it is usually the young people’s perspectives which remain outside the frameworks and conclusions. Drawing on original data and insights from two ethnographies of youth active citizenship initiatives in the UK – My Life My Say and Momentum – collected during a politically tumultuous 8-month period in 2017, this article argues that ethnography has several advantages over other methods when it comes to understanding the depth and significance of youth civic participation and its links to peer groups and emotions. We contend that critical and reflexive ethnographies allow scholars and researchers to ask and probe young people’s perceptions, opinions, actions and behaviours through the use of open-ended questions in settings where civic action is already taking place, thus triangulating findings in natural settings and building a sense of how communities of practice and activism function. In terms of ethics, voice and power, this ethnographic research approach gives young people more control over their own narratives about participation and affiliation in specific political or civic settings than surveys tend to do.

Slow Circulation: The Ethics of Speed and Rhetorical Persistence

This essay explores “viral circulation” and “slow circulation” as two alternate ethics for rhetorical decision making in civic settings. I analyze interviews with media producers from civic organizations in central Appalachia in order to illustrate the ways community and regional-based rhetorics strive for slow circulation through strategies of “rhetorical persistence” in public discourses. I argue that framing “viral” or “slow” circulation as ethical models helps us understand speed of circulation as both an ethical and rhetorical choice. The essay concludes with a discussion of ways that slow circulation offers an ethic better suited to the circulation of civic rhetorics in some community advocacy contexts.

Advancing the validity argument for standardized writing tests using quantitative rhetorical analysis

Essay writing is a common type of constructed-response task used frequently in standardized writing assessments. However, the impromptu timed nature of the essay writing tests has drawn increasing criticism for the lack of authenticity for real-world writing in classroom and workplace settings. The goal of this paper is to contribute evidence to a validity argument for standardized writing tests. Using measurements of distances between rhetorical profiles in the corpora of interest, we examined connections between argumentative writing on standardized assessments and in external writing situations; namely, opinionated writing in academic and real-life settings. The results show that test corpora, focusing on argumentation in two standardized tests, are rhetorically similar to academic argumentative writing in a graduate-school setting, and about as similar as a corpus of civic writing in the same genre. The proximity between the test corpora and corpora representing external criteria of interest support the assessment use argument. The argumentative writing skills employed on the test are similar to the skills employed in academic and civic settings, despite the differences in the nature of the settings under which the writing samples for these different corpora are produced.

Covering the Dead

This paper explores the meeting point of photojournalism and death and maps the tensions involved. Most of the literature on news-media and death explores the problematics of covering death during wartime. Less attention has been given to violent death in civic settings (as opposed to war zones) and to mundane deaths. The civic death scenes are not subject to military or governmental censorship, and the moral and professional burden to report such events falls on the journalists' shoulders. This paper aims to fill this gap by studying the representation of death in Israeli news-media. Findings from interviews and a quantitative content analysis shed light on journalistic practices, and show how the news-media self-regulate their working practices. Lastly, the paper identifies breakdowns of this self-regulated mechanism as it points at two different approaches to presenting death images according to the national affiliation of the dead. The paper argues that these practices delineate and maintain the distinction between Israelis and “the Other”.

Productive Usability: Fostering Civic Engagement and Creating More Useful Online Spaces for Public Deliberation

This article offers productive usability as a usability approach that focuses on the usefulness of civic Web sites. Although some sites meet traditional usability standards, civic sites might fail to support technical literacy, productive inquiry, collaboration, and a multidimensional perspective—all essential ingredients for citizen-initiated change online. In this article, we map productive usability onto broader philosophies of usability and offer a framework for rethinking usability in civic settings and for teaching productive usability.

The Optimal Form: Inadequacies and Excessiveness Within the Asiallinen [Matter of Fact] Nonverbal Style in Public and Civic Settings in Finland

The Optimal Form: Inadequacies and Excessiveness Within the Asiallinen [Matter of Fact] Nonverbal Style in Public and Civic Settings in Finland

The Optimal Form: Inadequacies and Excessiveness Within the Asiallinen [Matter of Fact] Nonverbal Style in Public and Civic Settings in Finland

As persons participate in any given setting, they may designate some communicative behaviors as either inadequate or excessive for the task at hand. This standardizing process is discussed as an optimal form of communication. This article explores the asiallinen [matter of fact] nonverbal style of communication occurring in public and civic contexts in the Hame Province in Finland through the optimal form. Key optimal strategies are identified with (a) moderating behaviors that keskeyttaa [interrupt], (b) maintaining a keskittynyt [concentrated] attitude, and (c) restraining movements in the face realizing an appropriate peruslukema [straight state]. Optimizing these nonverbal strategies yields the best possible context for disseminating information on the matter at hand. The article discusses the optimal form as an interpretive tool for formulating claims about cultural communication.

Communication, Knowledge, and Memory in Early Modern Spain by Fernando Bouza (review)

REVIEWS 196 those in the lay community. In the summation of her work, Bourdua asserts that her case studies suggest fundamentally complex processes of production, and that each of the projects was the work of concerted collaboration among several groups and individuals in a given community. While there are many commonalities among the churches and their undertakings, the patterns of patronage are decidedly not standard. As the author points out, “there is a symbiosis between friars and lay people; and there are subtleties in the level of involvement” (151). This relationship fluctuated from place to place, and local craftsmen, donors, and politics certainly imparted idiosyncrasies to each particular commission. We can conclude, then, “that the mechanics of patronage in Franciscan churches followed procedures encountered in other churches and in civic settings” (154). This general theme is well supported throughout the book, and raises questions about artistic patronage in other religious orders, as well as Franciscans throughout Europe. The Franciscans and Art Patronage in Medieval Italy is a thoughtfully crafted and pointed study, effectively combining documentary evidence, Franciscan ideals, and art and architecture to support clear conclusions about the inner workings of patronage and production in the Veneto. Information on the history of the Franciscan order and aspects of the Franciscan life is smoothly integrated as necessary, and contributes significantly to the work’s relevance to medievalists across the humanities. JAMES VINCENT MAIELLO, Music, UC Santa Barbera Fernando Bouza, Communication, Knowledge, and Memory in Early Modern Spain, trans. Sonia López and Michael Agnew, foreword by Roger Chartier (Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press 2004) xvi + 108 pp. Sonia López and Michael Agnew have translated Comunicación, conocimiento y memoria en la España de los Siglos XVI y XVII, first published in 1999 by Seminario de Estudios Medievales y Renacentistas, Universidad de Salamanca. Although Fernando Bouza has written extensively on the cultural history of early modern Spain, this is his first work to be translated into English.4 Bouza examines the “history of communication during the Spanish Golden Age that would bring together speech, images and written texts, presenting them as all serving the same objective: the will to know and to create memory” (107). Bouza considers a variety of documents including fiction, poetry, personal letters, journals, devotional writings, parish documents, manuals of instruction, and accounts of public festivities. The author writes that he intends his study to be rather a succinct exploration of the social practices associated with the perpetuation of memory than a comprehensive account of the history of communication in the early modern period (4). For Bouza specific information contained 4 Other works by Fernando Bouza still to be translated include Palabra e Imagen en la Corte. Cultura oral y visual de la nobleza en el Siglo de Oro (Madrid 2003); Corre Manuscrito: una historia cultural del Siglo de Oro (Madrid 2002); Imagen y propaganda: capítulos de historia cultural del reinado de Felipe II (Madrid 1998); La corte de Felipe II (Madrid 1994); and Del escribano a la biblioteca (Madrid 1992). REVIEWS 197 in these documents reveals that the history of communication in the sixteenth and seventeenth-century Spain is one in which speech and images enjoy the same status as texts (15). That is the heart of Bouza’s account and the focus of this review. Chapter 1, “Hearing, Seeing, Reading, and Writing: The Forms and Uses of Words, Images, and Writing,” opens with a metaphor that contextualizes the mutual dependence of oral traditions, visual images, and texts in the transmission of knowledge.5 Strolling along a “gallery of illustrious men” (1), a group of aristocrats come upon the portrait of a prince whose identity is unknown to them. As a courtier comments bitterly that “the cruelty with which time consumes everything is fierce, for neither strong armor nor iron walls can sustain its blows” (1), one of the prince’s former servants identifies him, and proposes to save his memory from oblivion by means of writing: A sword made from a goose’s plume and bolstered by a paper shield against time’s cruelty I shall wield, lest of his exploits it consume one tittle on Fame’s battlefield. (3) Although the anecdote suggests...

The Industry Palace of the 1873 World’s Fair: Karl von Hasenauer, John Scott Russell, and New Technology in Nineteenth-Century Vienna

The buildings and landscaped grounds of the nineteenth-century international exhibitions were directly related to the architectural and urban design traditions of the cities in which they were built. At the same time, they possessed idealized qualities that made them innovative and distinct from other contemporary buildings. The result of collaborative planning among architects, engineers, and planning committees, the exhibitions were built to evoke ideal civic settings, their exhibition palaces, pavilions, and gardens forming exemplary complexes that synthesized both invention and tradition. The International Exhibition, the Weltausstellung, held in Vienna, Austria in 1873, was one such event (Fig. 1). Its buildings were both related to the architectural and urbanistic design traditions of nineteenth-century Vienna, and at the same time possessed idealized qualities that were inventive and progressive, marking new technological achievements.

From Athens to Detroit: Civic space and learning writing

Composition's recent turn toward cultural studies a research methodology and a pedagogy grows out of an interest in imagining the democratic potentials of rhetoric.1 James Berlin had been one of the compositionists at the forefront of theorizing composition's uses of cultural studies. In Poststructuralism, Cultural Studies, and the Composition Classroom, for example, Berlin laid out the project of a cultural studies pedagogy, stating that must come to see that the languages they are expected to speak, write, and embrace ways of thinking and acting are never disinterested, always bringing with them strictures on the existent, the good, the possible, and regimes of power (24). Yet the roadblocks to such a project in composition in particular and cultural studies in general are that recognitions of the of language can also narrow the possibilities for transformative critical engagements. In the extreme, recognizing the structural interestedness of language, its claims on who we are and what we can do, generates only resignation and indifference. As Lester Faigley writes, the profound cynicism of many students concerning public responsibilities suggests to some the possibility that as society is increasingly saturated with ever expanding quantities of information, objects, and services, the space for the autonomous subject with a capacity for critical thought collapses (213). problem confronting compositionists working with cultural studies today is thus one of actualizing democratic opportunities anticipated in the critical study of cultural sign systems. What opportunities does cultural studies provide compositionists for critically reimagining their pedagogical and research responses to the interestedness of language practices? Our response is to say that cultural studies can offer critical redirections of the ideological motivations for contemporary rhetorics when it conceptualizes those rhetorics in terms of their civic settings. Berlin had already noted the significance of place to rhetoric in an earlier article on the historiography of rhetoric, where he remarked: The ability to read, write, and speak in accordance with the code sanctioned by a culture's ruling class is the main work of education, and this is true whether we are discussing ancient Athens or modern Detroit (52). What is most interesting for our purposes about Berlin's quotation is that he suggests

Changing Gender Roles in Familial, Occupational, and Civic Settings

Changing Gender Roles in Familial, Occupational, and Civic Settings

Boniface VIII and Honorific Portraiture: Observations on the Half-Length Image in the Vatican

Pope Boniface VIII was the first pope to permit or commission a significant number of sculptured honorific portraits, both inside and outside churches. These images, both iconographically and formally, carried a message about papal power that was clear to the pope's contemporaries. The portraits in civic settings, like the two in Orvieto, looked back to both secular and sacred sources in order to assert papal dominion over temporal and spiritual matters. Arnolfo di Cambio's half-length image in Old St. Peter's, now in the Papal Apartments, carried the same message, but Arnolfo gave the work a form appropriate to its setting alongside the shrine of Boniface IV on the inner entrance wall of the church. Undoubtedly thinking of the revival of the bust portrait in the Frederician and Angevin courts of south and central Italy, Arnolfo must have also recalled half-length gesturing figures in Gothic niches found in sacred sculpture and painting at Assisi and Pisa. Yet he gave living power to the message of temporal and spiritual sovereignty by endowing his image with a convincing immediacy, most probably derived from classical Roman art. As in the case of his bronze St. Peter, Arnolfo imitated and yet transformed earlier models to make a powerful statement about the medieval papacy.