Claims Of Authenticity Research Articles

Adorno, Gastronomic Authenticity, and the Politics of Eating Well

Recent trends like locavorism, green consumerism, and ethical consumption point to a new politics of eating, what is called in this article the new gastronomy, which centers on buying locally, humanely, and sustainably produced foods. However, rather than exemplifying a novel and contemporary turn in food politics, it is argued that the new gastronomy's faith in buying local is linked to an ancient politics of consumption that can be traced back to the Greeks and is grounded in virtue and temperance; and, furthermore, that this is most evident in the new gastronomy's emphasis on the humane treatment of animals. Additionally, the new gastronomy's claim of authenticity with regard to production, distribution, and consumption (for example, artisan, farm to table, etc.) works to veil this traditional politics of eating, lending its supporters a false sense of political progressivism or radicalism. Working from Theodor Adorno's analysis in The Jargon of Authenticity, it is demonstrated that what the local foods movement really offers is a jargon of gastronomic authenticity that claims self-transparency of action and provides a superficial escape from the exploitative reality of late capitalism. Finally, Adorno's critique of ideology and authenticity and his special attention to animals in his work are presented as potential disrupters of bourgeois identity and as a way to strip the ideological surface of this new gastronomy to reveal its complicity with exploitative systems of food production and distribution.

The aesthetic rationality of the popular expressive arts: Lifeworld communication among breast cancer survivors living with lymphedema.

The use of popular expressive arts as antidotes to the pathologies of the parallel processes of lifeworld colonization and cultural impoverishment has been under-theorized. This article enters the void with a project in which breast cancer survivors used collages and installations of everyday objects to solicit their authentic expression of the psycho-social impacts of lymphedema. The article enlists Jurgen Habermas' communicative action theory to explore the potential of these expressive arts to expand participants' meaningful engagement with their lifeworlds. The findings point to the unique non-linguistic discursivity of these non-institutional artistic forms as their liberating power to disclose silenced human needs: the images ‘spoke' for themselves for group members to recognize shared subjectivities. The authenticity claims inherent in the art forms fostered collective reflexivity and spontaneous, affective responses and compelled the group to create new collective understandings of the experience of living with lymphedema. The article contributes theoretical insights regarding the emancipatory potential of aesthetic-expressive rationality, an under-developed area of Habermasian theory of communicative action, and to the burgeoning literature on arts-based methods in social scientific research.

“It Belongs to the Internet”: Animal Images, Attribution Norms and the Politics of Amateur Media Production

“It Belongs to the Internet”: Animal Images, Attribution Norms and the Politics of Amateur Media Production

Advertising real beer: Authenticity claims beyond truth and falsity

It is a mainstay in the literature on consumer culture that the romantic, countercultural value of authenticity has become a core asset in mainstream marketing. Since there is little research on the particular ways in which commodities are endowed with auras of authenticity, this study analyses registers of authenticity in 153 beer commercials from eight countries. The content analysis distinguishes four strategies of authentication: beer is related to pre-industrial craftsmanship, naturalness, concrete locations and historical roots. Surprisingly, however, such claims are often openly exposed by the advertisers themselves as mass-produced illusions. It is concluded that the appeal of authenticity in consumer culture should not be explained by the fact that people actually believe in the ‘authenticity hoax’. Quite the contrary, the acknowledgement that narratives about a more authentic world are myths provides an alibi for consumers to fully indulge in their meaning without the risk of making naive and dupable fools of themselves.

Two Exhumations and an Attempted Theft: The Posthumous Biography of St Cuthbert in the Nineteenth Century and its Historicist Narratives

The tomb, body and relics of the Anglo-Saxon St Cuthbert (d. AD 687) are best known for their miraculous preservation and migration across North East England in flight from Viking raiders throughout the period AD 795–995, before coming to rest at Durham Cathedral (Cramp 1980; Campbell 1991, 79). Their current display emphasizes their role as ‘Treasures’ of the Cathedral and as symbols of England's conversion and early Christianity. What are not mentioned are the modern interactions with the tomb that led to the creation of their modern display as a key attraction of the World Heritage Site. As this article will argue, post-medieval examinations and uses of the tomb have also been important in attempts to control and produce very particular meanings at the site of display. I offer an examination of nineteenth-century engagements with the tomb and body of St Cuthbert, showing how the saint's remains were a locus of conflicting claims of authenticity and ownership. Through antiquarian practices of exhumation and detailed publications of their findings, curator-custodians were engaged in a distinctively local struggle to produce an authoritative narrative for the saint.

Same-sex intimacies in Syariffudin's Mairil and the queering of authenticity

ABSTRACTThe rise in LGBT-themed novels in Indonesia over the last decade demonstrates the sea-change in social attitudes and the public presence of sexual and gender minorities in Indonesia. The genre emerges from the popularity of sexually-charged novels by female authors such as Ayu Utami and Djenar Maesa Ayu. However, many novels were criticised for the supposed westernisation of Indonesian culture that threatens the national identity and moral disposition of its readers. This article explores the underlying themes of these criticisms—nationhood, cultural authenticity, and morality—and juxtaposes them with the claims of cultural authenticity and legitimacy made by gay and lesbi Indonesians. Representations of “traditional” homoeroticisms in the novel Mairil by Syarifuddin bring these lines of arguments together and synthesise a discursive space where cultural and national authenticities are “queered.” It is my contention that religious and traditional elements that foster same-sex practices offer a key to queer legitimacy for Indonesian sexual minorities.

The role of surveillance in the construction of authentic football fandom practice.

Abstract The search for the ‘authentic’ football fan has a predominant place within the sociology of football literature. This relates specifically to the scholarly conceptualisation of ‘different’ fan types as researchers have attempted to explain the evolving nature of fandom practice in light of late-modern consumer culture and perceived authenticity claims. Such conceptual approaches to football fandom are useful enough to describe alternative modes of practice and yet they do not indicate how fans interpret and monitor authenticity at a cultural level. This paper aims to address this issue by drawing on the lived experiences of football fans to uncover the importance of cultural surveillance towards perceptions of authenticity. Findings indicate that authenticity is a site of internal contestation driven by codes of expected conduct and modes of surveillance.

Authenticity as a form of worth

Scholarly engagement with authenticity has been revitalized by recent efforts to theorize the value-ladenness of authenticity claims. Yet, these approaches are restricted by the lack of available conceptual tools necessary to explain variations in the meaning of authenticity between different cultural forms and social groups. In this paper, I draw from Boltanski and Thevenot’s pragmatic hermeneutics to develop an approach to authenticity in popular culture that conceptualizes it as a form of worth. I apply this new model to an analysis of the meanings of authenticity found in the discourse of fans of indie music and country music. I find that in the indie genre, authenticity involves an inspirational form of worth; in the country genre, it involves a domestic form of worth. I trace these differences back to the matched relationship between the primary groups of fans of each genre and the genres themselves that led both sides to find an interest in these types of authenticity. I conclude by sketching the relevance of this approach for explaining overarching concerns for authenticity in late modern societies.

Chapter 9. Drug User Researchers as Autoethnographers: “Doing Reflexivity” With Women Drug Users

This article explores autoethnography, based upon transcribed, narratives, conversations, and research notes, as a useful method of creating social and cultural insights into the lives of women drug users and their particular kinds of problems and to related issues of reflexivity, reliability, and validity. A critical issue is raised by asking the question “where do we go from here?” contending that we must challenge outdated methodological traditions and canons that deny autoethnographers their voice and close the door to their claims of authenticity.

This Is Not a Plough:

This Is Not a Plough:

Irish Accents, Foreign Voices: Mediated Agency and Authenticity in In the Name of the Father and Fifty Dead Men Walking

<div class="page" title="Page 1"><div class="layoutArea"><div class="column"> <span>Given the intensity of narrative contestation over the public history of and discourse around the modern period </span><span>of Northern Irish civil conflict known locally as ‘the Troubles’, for filmmakers from outside of Northern Ireland to be seen as making a legitimate contribution to existing debates, there is a pressure for their film texts to be read as ‘authentic’. This desire for authenticity fundamentally shapes the narrative approach taken by these filmmakers. Various filmmaking strategies have been employed in the pursuit of authenticity, but both Jim Sheridan’s </span><span>In the Name of the Father </span><span>(1993) and Kari Skogland’s </span><span>Fifty Dead Men Walking </span><span>(2008) have taken a distinctly narrative approach, relying upon local written autobiographical material. However, the way in which Sheridan and Skogland have sought to deploy the authenticity embedded in locally grounded source material flirts with self-defeatism as both films problematically obscure<br /> the limitations on agency imposed by the filmmakers on the<br /> local voices upon who claims of authenticity, and thus the films’ legitimacy, depend. </span> </div></div></div>

Locating the tourist in volunteer tourism

Since the mid-2000s, volunteer tourism has been an increasingly popular topic of academic inquiry, yet most volunteer tourists are unfamiliar with the concept. Drawing on ethnographic research between 2008 and 2010 in Chiang Mai, Thailand among three non-profit, non-governmental organisations that use volunteer tourism as a social and economic development strategy, this research highlights several key points regarding the semantics of volunteer tourism and its implications for the industry. It was found that none of the 40 volunteer tourists interviewed used ‘volunteer tourism’ as a key word search, only one was familiar with the concept and most rejected the ‘tourist’ label. This research furthers our understanding of the complex nature of how volunteer tourism is defined and desired by contemporary tourists as well as how different organisations and sub-sectors may challenge tourist typologies. Additionally, this research highlights the potential implications of the increased commercialisation of volunteering in the tourism industry, as the long-term image of the industry may be threatened by for-profit, commercial enterprises. Ultimately, despite the diversification of tourist products and markets, all tourist-related typologies continue to connote a certain level of superficiality among some groups that can undermine claims of authenticity by the volunteer tourism industry.

Ghost publications in the pediatric surgery match

IntroductionPediatric surgery fellowship is considered one of the most competitive subspecialties in medicine. With fierce competition increasing the stakes, publications and first authorship are paramount to the success rate of matching. We analyzed Electronic Residency Application Service applications for verification of authorship to determine rate of misrepresentation. MethodsAfter institutional review board approval, the bibliographies of fellowship applications from 2007–2009 were reviewed to allow time for publication. Only peer-reviewed journal articles were evaluated. A Medline search was conducted for the article, by author or by title. If the article could not be found, other authors and journal were used as search parameters. If the article was still not found, the website for the journal was searched for abstract or manuscript. Finally, an experienced medical sciences librarian was consulted for remaining unidentified articles. Differences between misrepresented and accurate applications were analyzed, including: age, gender, medical and undergraduate school parameters, advanced degrees, other fellowships, number of publications, first author publications, American Board of Surgery In-Training Examination scores, and match success. ResultsThere were 147 applications reviewed. Evidence of misrepresentation was found in 17.6% of the applicants (24/136), with 34 instances in 785 manuscripts (4.3%). Manuscripts classified as published were verified 96.7% of the time, were not found in 1.4%, and had incorrect authors or journal in less than 1% each. “In press” manuscripts were verified 88.3% of the time, 6.4% could not be found, and 4.3% had an incorrect journal listing. Number of publications (P = 0.026) and first author publications (P = 0.037) correlated with misrepresentation. None of the remaining variables was significant. ConclusionsThe pediatric surgical pool has a very low incidence of suspicious citations; however, authorship claims should be verified.

Authenticity in CALL: three domains of ‘realness’

AbstractThis paper discusses the role of authenticity and authenticity claims in computer assisted language learning (CALL). It considers authenticity as the result of a social negotiation process rather than an innate feature of a text, object, person, or activity. From this basis, it argues that authenticity claims play an important role in both second language acquisition (SLA) and CALL, being utilized to support the legitimacy of an approach or discipline more generally, as well as in defending a specific didactic design, especially with regard to transfer and motivation. The paper distinguishes between three domains of authenticity claims essential to CALL contexts: authenticity through language (linguistic authenticity), authenticity through origin (cultural authenticity), and authenticity through daily life experiences (functional authenticity). It points out problematic aspects of engaging in authenticity claims and argues that a reflexive stance might be useful in questioning the role of authenticity claims in CALL theory and practice.

Was Frankenstein’s Monster Jewish?

My article examines the often-claimed links between Mary Shelley’s monster and the tale of the Jewish golem, an artifi?cial man of clay that first appeared in medieval Jewish mysticism. Given the golem tradition’s medieval origins, it has sometimes been assumed that the golem story provided the blueprint for both Goethe’s poem ‘Der Zauberlehrling’ and Shelley’s Frankenstein. Exploring the Kabbalistic tradition and the emergence of Christian and later Jewish secular narratives on the golem since the seventeenth century, as well as the possible relationship of these tales to Goethe’s and Shelley’s writings, my paper examines the very problem of the claims of ethnic and cultural authenticity that this hen-and-egg debate raises.

"These Rude Implements": Competing Claims for Authenticity in the Eolithic Controversy

The acceptance of eoliths as man-made is surprising, given that Victorian science had first dismissed the idea with respect to hand axes. I argue that scientific innovation involves an imaginative impulse that leads easily to over-optimistic interpretation, and that the eoliths were "invented" because they satisfied a requirement of a particular way of thinking. Once arguments in their favor had been accepted, the default "mindset" became one of disproving claims for human fabrication. The debate was conducted at a time when the rules of Pleistocene geology and archaeological interpretation were being established, and it determined the limit of what was scientifically credible.

Experiencing Authenticity: Organizational Production of Authenticity in Underground Supper Clubs

Authenticity is an intangible asset for many organizations. Specialist organizations that produce cultural goods, however, are especially susceptible to claims of authenticity in the marketplace. While some initial organizational research examines its benefits, few scholars question how cultural organizations produce authenticity as they engage with their audiences. This question is especially pertinent as authenticity is a form of organizational identity that is given meaning through local interaction and mutually constructed with audiences. I define authenticity broadly as purity of form that gains value in opposition to other similar organizations and their identities. In other words, for there to be an authentic there must be an inauthentic. I argue that because of its social and relational qualities authenticity is most fruitfully conveyed via an experience. I use ethnographic (interviews and participant- observation) and secondary data of underground supper clubs – temporary home restaurants – to examine this process. I find that supper clubs use three experiences to make authenticity claims: community, engagement and exclusivity. Audience members frame these experiences as authentic because they are inaccessible in established restaurants.

A spectral transfer procedure for application of a single class-model to spectra recorded by different near-infrared spectrometers for authentication of olives in brine

Analytical methods for confirmation of food authenticity claims should be rapid, economic, non-destructive and should not require highly skilled personnel for their deployment. All such conditions are satisfied by spectroscopic techniques. In order to be extensively implemented in routine controls, an ideal method should also give a response independent of the particular equipment used. In the present study, near-infrared (NIR) spectroscopy was used for verifying authenticity of commercial olives in brine of cultivar Taggiasca. Samples were analysed in two laboratories with different NIR spectrometers and a mathematical spectral transfer correction – the boxcar signal transfer (BST) – was developed, allowing to minimise the systematic differences existing between signals recorded with the two instruments. Class models for the verification of olive authenticity were built by the unequal dispersed classes (UNEQ) method, after data compression by disjoint principal component analysis (PCA). Models were validated on an external test set.

Witness or False Witness: Metrics of Authenticity, Collective I-Formations, and the Ethic of Verification in First-Person Testimony

One possible response to allegations of hoaxing that surround the contemporary traffic in witness narratives is to re-theorize issues central to testimonial narration. Rather than arguing that the truth or falsity of witness narratives can be definitively determined, we complicate the transparency of the first-person narrator in testimony and the claim of authenticity that has become the guarantor of that subject position. To do so, we explore how the effect of authenticity is produced by certain “metrics,” and how differing “I”-formations—here, composite, coalitional, translated, and negotiated—generate the aura of authenticity a text projects, as well as the imagined relation of readers to personal stories of witness. After tracking the metrics of authenticity in four exemplary texts—“Souad”’s Burned Alive , the Sangtin Collective’s Playing with Fire , Ishmael Beah’s A Long Way Gone , and Dave Eggers’s What is the What ?—we suggest an alternative reading practice to “rescue” the reading often associated with testimonial narratives.

Your Hands. Extended: Performing Embodied Knowledge in Eastern Martial Arts

Your Hands. Extended: Performing Embodied Knowledge in Eastern Martial Arts