Scholarly Approaches Research Articles

Cruising Europe in World War II: Epistemological Challenges of German Vernacular Trophy Photography

The Nazi regime outfitted the Wehrmacht with the best photographic technology and its soldiers were far better equipped than their allies or nemeses. More than ten per cent of the eighteen million German combatants possessed a fast-shutter 35-mm camera. German soldier-photographers documented their wartime activities extensively, in turn leaving behind a gigantic, private and largely underexplored archive that poses multiple epistemological and ethical challenges. Military historians and Holocaust scholars approach soldierly photographs primarily as sources of information, including proof of crimes. This article shifts these lenses and argues that reading them as visual images, and not solely as historical sources and circulating artefacts, reveals a medium that equally affects its practitioners as well as the observers. Drawing upon public archives and private collections, I focus on highly performative images of victory and conquest over enemy countries and peoples and conceptualise them as ‘trophy photographs’. I examine recurrent motifs within this genre, in particular sexual encounters with enemy women and photographs of male bonding, which arguably constitute the most prevalent images snapped by soldier-photographers who ‘cruised’ Nazi-occupied Europe. Borrowing from Queer Studies, the concept of cruising allows me to probe soldiers’ mobility in semipublic spaces and also acknowledge the voyeuristic and visually alluring quality of their photographs. Seductive, exciting, these trophy photographs lure in their audience(s) with sexually charged, often (homo)erotic overtones. In turn, these images provoke diverse ways of seeing and interpreting their content: how can we best frame the soldier-photographer’s gaze and capture the polysemic quality of the images, especially when dealing with violence, racism, sexism and/or homoeroticism? What effect do trophy images of conquest potentially have on the historical actors who shot and circulated those photographs and what impact do they have on contemporary observers? Finally, acknowledging multidirectional and fractious lives of images, how do we understand the complex relationship between public history and the ethics of seeing? Because photographic images are historically contingent and open-ended, this article casts light on the complexity of mediation and competing visions between diverse publics of the past, present and future.

‘Resilient survivors’: narratives of violence against women of refugee background

ABSTRACT Scholarship on migrant deservingness explores how host society institutions require specific types of performances, particularly of vulnerability/ powerlessness and resilience/ self-sufficiency, sometimes in temporal succession. Such performances are also required of victim-survivors of violence against women, a category that overlaps considerably with refugees. This study brings together feminist literature related to violence against women with migrant deservingness literature, to observe how cultural factors interact with host society institutions. The article draws on an empirical study about narratives of violence in the lives of women of refugee background in Ireland, centring five in-depth interviews with self-identified victim-survivors, alongside six focus group discussions with women of refugee background. Using narrative analysis, I explore individual and collective identities in response to violence. Narrative identities of resilience are strongly present, while vulnerability is not. I conclude that, in line with scholarship on migrant deservingness, neoliberal institutional discourses of ‘resilient survivors’ support individual women to express agentic, albeit individualising and responsibilitising narratives, and I add that this simultaneously upholds patriarchal cultures of silence and inaction about violence. I offer conceptual thinking on ‘space for action’ as an alternative approach for scholars and practitioners to construct and consider the victim-survivor of violence against refugee women.

Economic Decisions and Cultural Trauma: A Sociological Exploration of Macro-level Policies and Societal Perceptions

The article delves into the intricate relationship between macroeconomic policies and cultural trauma. It argues that economic decisions, typically confined to corporate and legislative realms, significantly impact communities by shaping collective memories, identities, and psychological distress. The study highlights historical events like The Great Depression and the COVID-19 pandemic, underscoring their transformative impacts on societal consciousness and cultural narratives. The article emphasizes the role of macroeconomic choices, such as fiscal policies and trade agreements, in creating collective experiences that transcend economic outcomes. Using examples like trade liberalization in Brazil, it demonstrates how economic policies can lead to diverse societal perceptions and narratives. The article also examines the role of media, public discourse, and societal leaders in shaping public perceptions of these decisions. Central to the study are the contributions of cultural sociologists like Jeffrey C. Alexander, who propose that cultural trauma arises more from societal narratives around an event rather than the event itself. The study stresses the need for a comprehensive approach that integrates economic analysis with sociological insights, highlighting the importance of understanding economic decisions beyond their immediate financial implications. Conclusively, the article posits that macroeconomic decisions have profound and lasting impacts on societies, influencing collective identities and memories. It advocates for policies and scholarly approaches that acknowledge the broader societal ramifications of these decisions.

Brodsky: The mathematics of poetry

The article examines the use of mathematical terminology in J. Brodsky’s poetry and considers the genesis of geometric and arithmetic concepts in his oeuvre. The author suggests that, having dropped out of school at the age of fifteen and loathing the Soviet secondary school system, Brodsky did, however, absorb a plethora of formulae, concepts, and math-related images, which, in turn, revitalized his poetic vocabulary. Listing Brodsky’s typical ‘mathematical’ motifs and phrases, Artemiev focuses on images that often serve as clues, such as a parallel, a perpendicular, lines, angles, cones, squares, and other geometric shapes; each such item is supplied with several examples and a scholarly commentary. The author characterizes Brodsky’s relationship with mathematics as follows: Stopping short of understanding the subject properly, Brodsky used maths terminology frequently and with ease, if with a somewhat tenuous idea of its meaning, and made it part of his signature poetic style. Mathematics endowed his poetry with a vocabulary that made it truly stand out among predecessors and contemporaries alike.

The Evolution of Indian Sculptural Traditions: Interweaving Art, Culture, and Contemporary Practices

Indian sculptural art has historically been intertwined with various artistic forms, such as music, dance, and painting, creating a distinct narrative that has shaped the country's cultural identity. Among these, religious idol-making holds a significant role in reflecting societal values, spiritual beliefs, and artistic expression. Over centuries, idol-making techniques have evolved while adhering to traditional aesthetic and religious principles. This paper explores the evolving traditions of Indian sculpture, with a particular focus on Rajasthani stone sculptures, and examines how modern Indian sculptors are adapting ancient practices to contemporary sensibilities. The research adopts a qualitative approach, employing historical analysis and interpretative methods. Archival materials, such as ancient texts and scholarly commentaries, are used to trace the continuity and transformation of traditional sculptural practices. Fieldwork conducted in Rajasthan, specifically in Jaipur and Alwar, documents the current state of traditional sculpture workshops. Interviews with contemporary sculptors provide insights into the adaptation of traditional techniques to modern artistic trends, while secondary literature on art history situates these changes within a broader cultural and religious context. Results indicate that religious idol-making continues to be a central form of artistic expression in Indian culture, with Rajasthani sculptors preserving traditional methods while incorporating modern materials and techniques. Proportions, aesthetic purity, and spiritual symbolism remain key components of traditional idol-making, influencing contemporary works. However, modern sculptors are expanding their themes to include social, political, and philosophical concepts, reflecting the changing socio-political landscape of India. In conclusion, Indian sculptural traditions have shown resilience and adaptability, balancing cultural heritage with modern innovation. This study highlights the evolving nature of Indian sculpture, particularly in Rajasthan, as artists continue to redefine their craft in response to contemporary cultural shifts.

Marx on Colonization and Bonded Labor: The End of Capital and the Beginning of a Journey

The concluding chapter of Karl Marx’s Capital (volume 1) has received remarkably little scholarly commentary. This is especially surprising as Marx addresses there “the modern theory of colonization” developed by Edward Gibbon Wakefield. But rather than systematically pursue the issue of colonialism, Marx investigates Wakefield’s theory in order to illuminate the processes of primitive accumulation (or “originary dispossession”) that gave birth to capitalism in Europe. This article suggests directions in which Marx ought to have gone in order to analyze the globalization of capitalism outside of Europe by means of colonialism. In so doing, it proposes the need to recenter bondage, slavery, colonialism, and racism as constitutive elements of capitalism as a global system. JEL Classification: B51, N3, P1

Objective Approach of Muslim Scholars in the Study of Religions

An impression is given by the people of the West that the objective approach of the study of religions has not been prevalent among Muslims. On the contrary, the determination of the purpose has been done first and the research activity has been implemented later. The review of this Western claim has been presented in this paper. Two Muslim thinkers have been selected in this regard, of which Abu Al-Hasan al-Amiri (381 AH/992 AD) is related to the early ones and Al-Sheikh Ahmad Shalabi (1421 AH/2000 AD) is related to the late ones.These two Muslim thinkers have presented their explanations on comparative religions and in this paper it is clarified that in the case of Abu al-Hasan al-Amiri, the objective approach to the study of religions was prevalent among Muslims in the past. Likewise, the same critical approach is also prevalent among recent Muslims. In this paper, Abu Al-Hasan al-Amiri's "Al-Alam Bumnaqib al-Islam" and Al-Shaykh Ahmad Shalabi's "Maqaran al-Idyan" have been made the focus of study.

Testimonies of Temple Lane: memory, perjury, and the landscape in a seventeenth-century West Yorkshire dispute

ABSTRACT In the later seventeenth century, a path passing through the Temple Newsam estate in West Yorkshire became the subject of intense and prolonged litigation. The disputants contested whether the path was for the privileged use of the owners and tenants of Temple Newsam or was in fact a common highway. Using the records of this unusually well-recorded dispute, this essay explores how personal memory, exemplified by the testimony of four witnesses accused of perjury, could be used to challenge customary memory in determining the ‘truth’ of such recollections of the landscape. This analysis refines scholarly approaches to memory in legal disputes. It emphasizes the personal characteristics that could influence witness memory, such as age and time, as well as the ambiguity between misremembering and forgetting. This article further argues that long-standing but non-customary practices related to the landscape needed to be remembered and maintained as much as customary practices.

Introduction | From Chapman Rackaway

As a faculty member involved with civic engagement for twenty years, I think that academic research and the greater good are not only compatible but inseparable. I see the eJournal of Public Affairs as the locus where quality research in the civic engagement space will come from a variety of disciplinary and scholarly approaches. I’m thrilled to have the opportunity to set the tone for this new era of the eJournal and I trust you will find that the contributions we are including here will set the bar high.

Systems thinking for management practitioners and scholars: Strengthening the tools to analyze “wicked problems”

Global fragility and conflict have challenged business to identify solutions to some of the world’s most “wicked problems.” Yet corporate practitioners struggle to analyze the relationship between the firm and society in conflict-affected and fragile spaces. Systems analysis, emergent in peacebuilding, offers a compelling approach for management practitioners and scholars to better understand the role of business in complex social environments. This participatory, qualitative approach applies collaborative inquiry and causal-loop diagraming to analyze the complex dynamics that create the operational conditions and trace the impact of the firm on those conditions. This article outlines the application of this approach and argues that it fills a gap in the current tools used to understand the private sector’s role and agency in contributing positively to society. What emerges is a pathway to enhance theoretical development and practical understanding of the risks and impacts of corporate operations in the most challenging of contexts.

The case against “alt-right”: A review and typology of scholarly approaches

ABSTRACT Scholars and journalists frequently use the term “Alt-right” to encapsulate a broad collection of identities and ideologies within the political right. Although early interpretations of the “Alt-right” provide a valuable foundation for understanding the range of (far)-right ideologies that have grown in recent decades, current characterizations remain fraught in the wider literature. To sharpen understandings of the “Alt-right” in academic discourse, I offer a typology outlining five common approaches scholars use to portray it, showing how scholarship routinely lacks definitional clarity. Consequently, I argue that the continued use of the term in academic literature is ill-advised. Specifically, the term normalizes and perpetuates the white supremacist ideologies entrenched within the broader history of academia; it hinders historically and theoretically grounded examinations of (far)-right variations and their situatedness within spectrum of far-right ideologies worldwide; and it blurs crucial distinctions between them that precludes the meaningful evaluation of their extremist tendencies and material threats.

What is ‘children’s television’ in the streaming era?: Assessing content discoverability through Australian children’s streaming platform fluencies

In line with international trends, increasing numbers of children in Australia use streaming video platforms to watch television on-demand from extensive catalogues. Child viewers thus tend to negotiate platform interfaces organised by algorithmic curation to select content, rather than accessing content via scheduled linear TV. The deeper implications of this substantial shift in child audience habits around television have yet to be robustly reckoned with across scholarly and national policy approaches. Indeed, policy settings in Australia have not kept pace with these transformations, one result of which has been that 84% less Australian content was aired on free-to-air commercial broadcasters in 2022 compared to 2019. Key producer bodies fear the sector is in serious peril and may not withstand the current instability. Given that local children’s television meets Australian children’s best interests by situating them within their own socio-cultural context, the issue has become a site of significant policy, industry, and cultural concern. At this precarious time for the Australian children’s television sector, this article outlines key findings of a mixed method study with Australian children aged 7–9 ( n = 37) and their adult guardians to illustrate how children understand, identify, and discover ‘local’ and ‘children’s’ content on streaming platforms. This child audience research contributes to current policy and scholarly debates around the ‘routes to content’ audiences develop in the streaming era. A focus of our analysis is how and if children find Australian content. Our aim is to shed light on how ‘discoverability’ issues compound the current state of turmoil for the sector. We elucidate children’s digital fluencies with platform interfaces but highlight their limited cultural literacies with the content itself, which poses significant implications for industry and policy strategy around local content discoverability for child audiences on streaming platforms.

مآلات فتاوى العلامة البوطي في مواجهة الربيع العربي دراسة تحليلية في أحداث الجمهورية العربية السورية

The study aims to clarify the consequences of the fatwas of Sheikh al-Buti in the Syrian events. The researcher focused on the concept of legal consequences to highlight the extent to which fatwas and their consequences are governed by Islamic law. The researcher followed an inductive and analytical approach to examine the fatwas, collect texts, and opinions of scholars related to these fatwas from reliable sources. The study analyzed these opinions and examined their consequences from the perspective of Islamic law. The study concluded with several findings, including:Al-Buti followed the approach of early scholars in tracing the consequences of rulings.Al-Buti's stance on the uprising and rebellion against the ruler is complete rejection, adhering to the principles of Islamic law. Al-Buti believes that rebellion against the ruler is permissible if the ruler openly commits kufr (disbelief). He believes that rebellion against the ruler is not permissible when the rebels do not rely on a legitimate Islamic basis. Demonstrations and marches are forbidden because they are a path and a pretext for opening a confrontation, a path to killing and committing forbidden acts, facilitating the way for external aggression to control the country, and blocking the means is a religious obligation.

Ensuring Cross-Chain Transmission Technique Utilizing TPM and Establishing Cross-Trusted Root Security via SM Algorithm

As blockchain technology advances, cross-chain interoperability has become a crucial requirement for achieving seamless interaction among multiple chains. To solve this problem, this paper proposes a scholarly approach to the development of a cross-chain-secure transmission technique, incorporating the Trusted Platform Module (TPM) and the SM algorithm, which is based on trusted roots. This research paper elaborates on the design and implementation of the cross-chain-secure transmission technique based on TPM and the SM algorithm, emphasizing the academic rigor necessary for addressing the security requirements of cross-chain interactions. The research shows that compared with the previous method, the throughput of production capacity is not significantly different from that before and after adding the network delay, and the success rate of preventing attacks is increased by 46.9% by simulating related attacks. After multiple rounds of experiments, the effectiveness and feasibility of this technology in protecting cross-chain communication data are verified.

Beyond the Buzz: Scholarly Approaches to the Study of Work

Beyond the Buzz: Scholarly Approaches to the Study of Work

Reframing: a feminist reflection on Alan Fox

PurposeThis paper contributes to the broad aim of this special issue, reflecting on the relevance of the writing of Alan Fox to the contemporary industrial relations field. It offers an original reflection from a feminist perspective on Fox’s classic insights around frames of reference.Design/methodology/approachWe concentrate on Beyond Contract, Work, Power and Trust Relations (1974a) and Man Mismanagement (1974b, 1985) as the texts setting out Fox’s influential frames of reference theory, before moving on to subsequent literature in the field making use of Fox’s frames. In undertaking this review from a feminist perspective, we specifically look at the extent to which work considers standpoint, gender relations and political engagement. We draw further on wider feminist scholarship within industrial relations, critical race theory and intersectionality perspectives.FindingsDespite the concept of inequality forming the core of Fox’s analyses, there is a lack of attention to gender or to other diversity strands in his work and, notwithstanding the weight of feminist scholarship within the industrial relations field since, this neglect has been carried forward into subsequent use of Fox’s work. We argue there is space for the frames to be interpreted and used in ways that leave space for attention to feminist concerns and call on academics to approach their use of Fox from a more critically-informed perspective.Research limitations/implicationsThe paper’s argument has implications for the field of industrial relations in terms of conceptual understanding and methodological approaches. With space, it would have been useful to apply our revised understanding of Fox’s key concepts to empirical cases.Practical implicationsGreater clarity in what constitutes “unitary” and “pluralist” perspectives and categories will help employment relations actors.Originality/valueWe present a novel feminist re-framing of Fox’s work, providing new understandings of the strengths, weaknesses and applicability of the frames of reference within contemporary industrial relations research and practice. We advocate for methodological and scholarly approaches which advance theoretical and empirical justice in the field, moving beyond gender to draw on critical race theory and intersectionality frameworks.

George Sale and his Translation of the Qur’ān: A Study

The Holy Qur’ān is the Word of Allah, and its interpretation is divine; with this belief, Muslim scholars have approached the Qur’ānic text. Nevertheless, the translation and tafsīr (exegesis) of the Holy Qur’ān have remained a significant contribution of Muslim scholars for ages. On the other hand, Western scholars, particularly Orientalists, have also attempted to translate the Qur’ānic text into different European languages. Similarly, George Sale was the first Orientalist scholar to translate the Holy Qur’ān into English directly from Arabic. This paper attempted to evaluate, examine and analyze the translation of George Sale critically. This paper focused on the objectives of Sale’s preliminary discourse, which he has prefixed to his translation and commentary. This paper has analyzed and critically examined the aims and objectives behind the translation and Commentary of Sale and his missionary affiliations. This paper argues that Sale’s methodology in translation and tafsīr has remained far from the approach of Muslim scholars. The purpose of his translation into the English language has fulfilled the aims of the Orientalist movement. This paper is qualitative and analytical. The study recommends that George Sale’s omission, additions, interpolation, and misquotations from the sources he had claimed to use are biased on methodological principles. Finally, the results are based on the available English translations of the Muslims and the methodology of principles of tafsīr recommended by Islamic traditions.

The Creative Heritage of Maksim Grek and the Formation of Spiritually Significant Texts for the Old Believers

This article deals with the formation of the canon of sacred texts among the Old Believers, which determined their system of book authorities. The relevance of the topic is connected with the need to get a more comprehensive idea of the formation of the religious and social movement that received the name “Old Believers”. The author pays attention to an important aspect of the study of the Old Believer ideology, which was determined by the system of book authorities. The defenders of Old Belief followed the traditions of the scribes of Old Rus and maintained a special attitude to the text, bordering on its sacralisation. From the first steps of the reform, they turned to manuscripts and early printed books to find evidence of the illegality of introducing innovations into the liturgical practice of the Russian Church. The Story of How to Make the Sign of the Cross by Maksim Grek was cited by opponents of the church reform as an argument in defence of the negative view of the introduction of the three-fingered sign of the cross by Patriarch Nikon. It is shown that the Solovetsky monks largely determined the attitude to this work. They not only copied it, but also began to defend the authority of Maksim Grek when the representatives of the official Church expressed doubts about the sincerity of the author’s opinion on the twofingered sign of the cross. The next generations of the Old Believers continued to search for evidence of the veneration of this Athos monk by the Patriarchs and the Russian Church, in order to convince readers of his holiness. The analysis of the collections of the Old Believers helps get an idea of a completely scholarly approach to the search, which allowed the Old Believers already at the beginning of the eighteenth century to gain access to a fairly complete circle of sources on the life and work of Maksim Grek in Russia, even according to the ideas of researchers of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, to copy them and make them known to other Old Believers. The works of Maksim Grek were of particular importance, and their study made it possible to include them in the canon of sacred texts. It is concluded that the authors of the essays and the compilers of the collections did a lot of work to strengthen the authority of Maksim Grek among the Old Believers, and the writings of the Athos monk were included in their system of book authorities.

Outsider Art and Psychiatry in the Late Soviet Period

This article examines the discourse surrounding the Soviet Outsider Art of the 1970s–1980s. The author analyses the characteristics of scientific and scholarly approaches to, and definitions of, Soviet Оutsider Аrt, and the relationship of this phenomena to the contemporary political situation. The research methodology relies on the theory of discourse and discourse analysis, which makes it possible to examine texts and events from highly different fields as parts of an interconnected system. The innovative character of the study lies in the fact that, for the first time, the author considers the discourse of Soviet Оutsider Аrt from the perspective of Soviet policy and international affairs. The lack of specialized works that study Soviet Оutsider Аrt makes the article relevant and innovative. Researchers have not previously considered the connection between Soviet foreign policy, ideology, punitive psychiatry, and the discourse surrounding Outsider Art. In the 1970s, the creative process of the mentally ill became a topic of interest for Soviet psychiatry. The drawings of psychiatric patients were treated as vehicles of their creative impulses and utilized in psychiatric research for diagnostic purposes. Soviet psychiatrists compared the creative abilities of the mentally ill with various artistic movements, primarily surrealism; however, their vocabulary and analytic approach remained strictly psychiatric in nature. The 1980s gave rise to significant interest in this topic by a larger audience, in connection with a rethinking of artistic languages and the creative process. There was a dual attempt to dispel the reputation of “punitive psychiatry” and a growing understanding of the importance of “otherness” in art. Orienting to the discourse of key texts, this article reveals a gradual shift from the language of psychiatry to art in academic and journalistic texts devoted to Outsider Art in the 1970s–1980s.

Whitewashing American Exceptionalism: Racialized Subject-Positioning and US Foreign Policy

Abstracts American exceptionalism is enjoying a revival of scholarly interest amid new approaches to studying foreign policy narratives and unease regarding how US policymakers will manage a less unipolar international system. That revival coincides temporally, though not yet substantively, with growing attention to racialized dynamics and Eurocentrism within international relations. This article examines how core strands of American exceptionalism—the prevailing narrative framing of US foreign policy—reflect a whitewashed understanding of US foreign policy that can best be understood as the product of racialized subject-positioning that saturated its historical development. After conceptualizing American exceptionalism, it develops a theoretical framework to capture how racialized subject-positioning stratifies understandings of a nation’s role in the world. It proceeds to investigate how this process shaped the development of American exceptionalism in line with epistemologies of immanence, ignorance, and innocence, producing exceptionalist narratives that neglect non-white populations as meaningful others in the construction of US national identity and that negate US interactions with those groups as relevant evidence that might undercut its exceptionalism. These whitewashing effects remained embedded even as overtly racist discourse became delegitimized, posing enduring obstacles for US diplomacy today.