Concrete Reality Research Articles

Discourse Analysis Fiscal Stimulus Policy During the Covid-19 Pandemic: Comparatives Study of Indonesia and Japan

Objective: This study attempts to explain the fiscal stimulus policy of Indonesia and Japan in the economic recovery due to the COVID-19 pandemic from a neo-Marxist perspective.
 Theoretical Framework: Fiscal Stimulus Policy in the Health and Non-Health Sectors in Indonesia and Japan.
 
 Method: The research was conducted with a qualitative approach. This study used secondary data, including the literature of previous research results, state budget documents, policy documents, official circulars of relevant institutions, news media articles, public opinion polls, and reports published by the IMF, OECD, and ECDC. Researchers analyzed secondary data from the IMF and OECD because they are trusted and updated organizations related to data development.
 
 Results and Conclusion: The results showed that the proportion of fiscal stimulus policy between the two countries is different from the total economic recovery of GDP increase during 2020-2021 in Indonesia increased by 5.76% and Japan by 3.6%. Identifying the composition of fiscal stimulus policy shows that Indonesia's intervention level is categorized as Mixed towards Compulsory Instruments while Japan is at the Mixed Instruments level. The intervention level reflects the implicit Neo-Marxist perspective that tends to be higher in Indonesia's Keynesian fiscal stimulus than in Japan.
 
 Research Implications: This study provides an overview of the relationship between theory and concrete reality in depth to provide a contribution value to the development of government intervention theory related to the terminology of the degree/level of intervention in economic recovery when the country is at the site of a global crisis.
 Originality/value: The level of intervention of the Indonesian and Japanese governments reflects the explanation and answer from the Neo-Marxist perspective to the building elements of the Theory of Keynesian understanding. The answer to the description is mainly related to the aspects of the State's role, which are not clear and thorough, and the Keynesian Understanding synthesizes the Neo-Marxist Perspective.

Critical Thought and Social Sciences in Ecuador: Autonomy and Politicization of the Intellectual Field

This paper shows how Ecuadorian critical production can be considered a virtuous case of interaction between autonomy and politicization of the intellectual field. Proposing a reflection based on the Antología del pensamiento crítico ecuatoriano contemporáneo (Anthology of contemporary Ecuadorian critical thought), edited by Gioconda Herrera (2018) and published by the Latin American Council of Social Sciences in the context of its fiftieth anniversary, this paper shows the marked link between critical thought in Ecuador and the institutional development of the social sciences. Important levels of academic professionalization are exhibited without implying a diminishing or limitation of the field’s transformative and contesting role. At the same time, analysis shows that, despite the pluralization of thought—with a corresponding diversification of the social actors of change and themes addressed—Ecuadorian critical thought has remained anchored to debates of concrete reality over time. Thus, contrary to what might be expected, politicization does not hinder the development of the social sciences, nor does professionalization depoliticize it.

Pemahaman Hadis Tentang Mencukur Alis (studi Analisis Hadis Dalam Kitab Sunan An-Nasa’i)

This study aims to discuss eyebrow embroidery in the perspective of hadith. This research is a qualitative type by applying literature study. The results and discussion of this study include an overview of eyebrow embroidery, a review of the hadith about namaṣ (shaving or plucking the eyebrows) and the relevance of the hadiths about shaving the eyebrows in relation to today's concrete reality. This study concluded that shaving the eyebrow hair is haram if it is completely shaved or removed, eyebrow embroidery or eyebrow tattoo because it can remove the original structure of the eyebrows and have a bad impact on health. This is what is said in the hadith to change Allah's creation. This research is expected to provide benefits for a wide audience of Muslims, especially women. It is admitted that this research has limitations in presenting the hadith related to Sulam Alis. This study recommends that further research be conducted on the hadith about Sulam Alis which has a correlation with contemporary concepts.

Cultural translation activities: Ethical-methodological propositions to participatory research of occupations based on Amerindian perspectivism

ABSTRACT Participatory research is a dynamic process of social action that generates knowledge based on cycles of reflection about the concrete historical reality of individuals and collective participants. Occupation-based interventions lack studies that address in depth the epistemological, ontological, and linguistic problems present in this type of research, especially in the current pandemic context. This article describes the conditions of paradigmatic (ontological), epistemological, and methodological elaboration of a participatory approach named Cultural Translation Activity (CTA). CTA emerged from participatory research involving six social workers in a Brazilian municipality during the pandemic, over four weeks. It is based on the Amerindian translation paradigm, therefore, recognizes the difference between cultures and uses it to produce knowledge through an equivocal process. By reporting ‘how to do it’ and ‘why to do it’, the findings contribute to the qualitative validation of the approach. Furthermore, the approach is in tune with the knowledge of the South; providing insights into cultural humility applied to occupation studies and offering alternatives for action and investigation committed to critical/occupational awareness. Thus, this article brings original contributions to the theorization and systematization of participatory research from an occupational perspective.

Immersive Unit Visualization with Augmented Reality

Immersive Unit Visualization is an emergent form of visualization that arose from Immersive Analytics where, unlike traditional visualizations, each data point is represented by an individual visual mark in an immersive virtual environment. This practice has focused almost exclusively on virtual reality, excluding augmented reality (AR). This article develops and tests a prototype of an Immersive Unit Visualization (Floating Companies II) with two AR devices: head-mounted display (HMD) and hand-held display (HHD). Results from the testing sessions with 20 users were analyzed through qualitative research analysis and thematic coding indicating that, while the HHD enabled a first contact with AR visualization on a familiar device, HMD improved the perception of hybrid space by supporting greater stability of virtual content, wider field of view, improved spatial perception, increased sense of immersion, and more realistic simulation, which had an impact on information reading and sense-making. The materialization of abstract quantitative values into concrete reality through its simulation in the real environment and the ludic dimension stand out as important opportunities for this type of visualization. This paper investigates the aspects distinguishing two experiences regarding data visualization in hybrid space, and characterizes ways of seeing information with AR, identifying opportunities to advance information design research.

Which Democratic Way to Go?

There are concerns amongst researchers and the general public that social media platforms threaten democratic values. Social media corporations and their engineers have responded to these concerns with various design solutions. Though the objective of designing social media democratically sounds straightforward, the concrete reality is not. The authors discuss what a democratic design for social media platforms could look like by exploring two classical conceptions of democracy, one in the liberal tradition and the other in the deliberative tradition. In particular, they discuss three concerns: 1) mis- and disinformation; 2) hate speech; and 3) the relations between filter bubbles, echo chambers, and public debate. By describing the underlying ideals of the two traditions and translating these into design guidelines, the authors make explicit how varied and contrary the implications of different conceptions of democracy can be for addressing public concerns and designing for democratic social media. With these things in mind, this article responds to a call, which is to raise awareness among social media corporations, engineers, and policymakers about varying democratic ideals and the implications that these may have for social media.

Queer Futurity and Conflicted Feeling(s) in the Poetry of Ariadna G. García

The work of Spanish poet Ariadna G. García (Madrid, 1977) occupies an unusual place within the archive of modern queer Spanish poetry. Collections like Construyéndome en ti (1997), Napalm. Cortometraje poético (2001), La Guerra de Invierno (2013), Helio (2014), and Ciudad sumergida (2018) are the product of a changing society in which poets can engage with questions surrounding queer participation in social institutions like couples and families as a concrete reality instead of imagined and anticipated future possibilities. The past(s), present(s), and future(s) that García’s poems explore highlight the potential that both negative and positive emotions have as sources of meaning for queer subjects and vehicles through which to imagine and think through potential alternative roles, identities, and opportunities. This poetry traces how poetic subjects who seek out social benefits and strive to make the most of fleeting moments of happiness and record past and present struggles for future generations stake out a complex position between hetero- and homonormativity and look beyond what José Esteban Muñoz has termed “the quagmire of the present.” Futurity in García’s work thus builds on positive affect in the present to imagine, project and cope with future moments, in the process demonstrating that queer utopianism need not rely on a negative view of the present to imagine a more inclusive future.

The Extra Calvinisticum and the Question of Where God Is

Abstract This paper maintains that at the heart of the post-Reformation debates over the extra Calvinisticum lies the question of what it means to name God’s presence in the world – that is, to say where God is. Because the Lutheran position insists that there can be no proper identification of God’s presence in the world that does not take its bearings from talk about Jesus’ presence, it serves as a means of preventing Christian God-talk from becoming detached from the flesh-and-blood realities of human existence. In this way, the denial of the extra Calvinisticum is a corollary of a theology of the cross – that is, the principle that talk about God is normed by the concrete reality of Jesus. At the same time, the Lutheran genus maiestaticum is rejected as making just the sort of move to which Luther himself objected in the doctrine of transubstantiation: a metaphysical explanation of Jesus’ presence in the world rather than a simple appeal to miracle.

Învățământul dual. Justificare, premise juridice, precauții și limite pedagogice de concretizare

In this article, we propose an evaluation of the situation of dual education, as a way of professional-vocational training, from the perspective of legislative norms, pedagogical principles or prescriptions, but also of concrete educational realities, especially with reference to Romania and the Republic Moldova, but, of course, in direct connection with what is happening in European Union countries. We will bring to attention recent developments in this field, but we will also try to signal some doubts, limits or precautions related to the development and implementation of an authentic dual education, having as epistemological or praxeological premises the didactic, psychopedagogical, strategic principles and constraints.

‘Life is Individual’: Outline of a Cosmopolitan Civility and its Anthropology

ABSTRACT Cosmopolitanism concerns the relation between the most general and the most particular aspects of the human condition. On the one hand there is the human species, representing the universals of human life or ‘cosmos’. On the other hand, there is the human individual, embodying all that is unique in time and space: ‘polis’. To comprehend the human, according to cosmopolitanism is to see these polar realities always in relation. The human species is only and ever embodied in its individual exemplars; the human individual is to be known always by way of capabilities and liabilities that are species-wide. (Between individual and species there may exist a host of classificatory associations – societies, ethnicities, communities, nations, religions, classes – but these are symbolic constructs only, matters of rhetoric and imagination, epiphenomenal upon the concrete realities of individual and species.) What, then, is the cosmopolitan project of anthropology? I present an outline. Of key importance is validating human life as a form of movement towards the future and away from conventional cultural categories and collectivities. Futurity might be defined as an individual’s birthright: the right continually to author an identity. It is the cosmopolitan project to work out an accommodation between universal individual aspirations and local structures of hospitality and politeness.

Central Challenges Confronting the African State: Rethinking Its Role in Development

This paper focuses on the central challenges confronting the African state in the context of the neo-liberal offensive to render the continent more vulnerable. Historically the African state was a creation of the colonisers to serve their interests. In the post-colonial condition it has principally served the interests of tiny, powerful circles and their foreign backers, rather than those of the generality of the African people. Prolonged authoritarianism on the continent has been maintained principally through the state. Only through popular democratic transformation of the state will the continent march towards development. Historically development in all spheres has never been attained anywhere independent of the central role of the state. In the post-Cold War period America is on course to drag African governments, political leaders and the continent’s economic resources into another phase of imperialist domination. The terms, terrain, politics and direction of the so-called war on terror are determined without consultations with the African people. This paperfocuses on central issues of regional and continental integration, conflicts, citizenship, control and mobilisation resources, true democracy, managing pluralism, constitutionalism, participation, accountability and security. These require urgent tackling to ensure more forged unity and protection of the continent. The analysis delves into concrete realities and makes suggestions for ending the quagmire of the African state.

Enchantresses and Enchanters Through the Personalizing of “Magical Agents”: a historical, ethnographic, sociological and anthropological radiography

The personalized interdisciplinary approach to the enchantresses and enchanters as “magical agents” is intended to highlight the imagological aspects of their lives and work. Multiple stereotypes have become entrenched in society towards enchantresses and enchanters, many of them more related to people’s imaginations than to concrete historical realities. In Romania’s past, the number of enchantresses and enchanters in each locality was quite high, a fact explained by the lack of professional doctors. This gap in health care based on scientific medicine was filled by the work of “magical agents” – enchantresses and enchanters – who offered the sick both remedies of magical medicine and folk treatments, especially based on healing plants. The craft to charm was viewed with mixed appreciation, being both criticized for manipulating naive people and accepted by simple country folk for whom it had become an indispensable part of their existentialist tradition. Contrary to general perceptions, the women who were bewitched were not exclusively old women, but also young and middle-aged women. Another relevant aspect is that in the case of the Basarabian village of Cornova, in 1931, the number of charmers was quite significant, being rather an exception in the whole Romanian area.

Pré-implémentation d’indicateurs de fragilité et de complexité dans les soins à domicile : une analyse à l’aide de l’Implementation Research Logic Model

Introduction : Des indicateurs cliniques de fragilité et de complexité des situations de soins à domicile sont dérivés de l’interRAI HC, mais leur implémentation dans la pratique demande une analyse précise et préalable du contexte de soins dans lequel ils pourraient être utilisés. L’Implementation Research Logic Model (IRLM) est un cadre de référence mobilisable pour l’ensemble du processus d’implémentation notamment pour la pré-implémentation, une étape indispensable, bien que souvent négligée. Objectif : Cet article vise à présenter une démarche d’application du modèle IRLM qui précise les éléments clés (déterminants, stratégies, mécanismes et retombées) de l’étape de pré-implémentation. Démarche : L’implémentation prend place à l’institution genevoise de maintien à domicile (imad) en Suisse. Les données recueillies (ex. caractéristiques de l’institution, questionnaire auprès des infirmières) sont classées dans l’IRLM par un groupe de travail. Évaluation : L’analyse des éléments de pré-implémentation pointe les déterminants contextuels pouvant favoriser l’implémentation (ex. disponibilité des indicateurs cliniques et protocoles de prise en soins) ou la freiner (ex. multiplicité des informations). Par ailleurs, les stratégies mises en place et les retombées recueillies à ce stade (ex. intégration des indicateurs dans le dossier du patient, peu de résistance au changement) sont décrites. Discussion et conclusion : L’anticipation et l’analyse des conditions dans lesquelles prend place l’implémentation dès la phase de pré-implémentation permettent de recueillir des informations essentielles sur des recommandations d’adaptation des actions aux contextes spécifiques et aux réalités concrètes. La mise en place de stratégies étape par étape devrait contribuer à relever le défi du transfert de nouvelles connaissances à la pratique clinique contextualisée.

The Empirical Phenomenological Method: Theoretical Foundation and Research Applications

Phenomenological philosophy was developed by Husserl for the eidetic sciences, which are interested in the general essences or persistent characteristics of things. By contrast, the empirical sciences are sciences of facts, interested in the concrete, singular, contextual and accidental qualities of phenomena. We do not encounter general, pure essences in concrete reality; instead, we meet phenomena, which present themselves as the particular actualisations of the essences. For this reason, it is legitimate to distinguish between the eidetic essence, which is constituted by a set of essential predicates that necessarily belong to the thing, and the essence of the concrete, which is constituted by a set of predicates that characterises that unique and singular thing in the space and time in which it manifests itself. Starting from these considerations, this article presents an original interpretation of Husserl’s phenomenological method to develop an empirical phenomenological theory. The ‘empirical phenomenological method’ (EPM) grounded in this theory will first be described, and two examples of its application, in healthcare and educational research, will then be presented.

L’objet monétaire comme objet romanesque : le cas de Balzac

Le roman du XIXe siècle prête à l’objet monétaire une attention qui dépasse la simple évocation épisodique : conscient de la charge affective et métaphysique qu’elle véhicule, le romancier décrit la réalité concrète de l’équivalent général, il interroge ses virtualités et sa force symbolique. Dans La Comédie humaine, la monnaie métallique joue un rôle déterminant dans les transactions financières qui ont lieu entre les personnages. Mais le rôle de la monnaie fiduciaire est tout aussi significatif. La coexistence entre métal et papier véhicule l’idée d’une vitalité multiforme de la richesse et celle d’un rapport multiple à la matérialité de l’argent. Saisie dans sa masse ou dans son insignifiance apparente, la monnaie balzacienne devient élément sensoriel, fétiche qui déclenche le désir. Dissocié de sa valeur d’échange, l’objet monétaire prend vie et se mue de manière paradoxale en symbole de contestation de l’ordre économique.

Stalked by the Malignant Father's Spirit: A Case of Patricide among the Yagwoia (PNG)

ABSTRACTAmong the Yagwoia (PNG), the dynamics of fatherhood is a process of man's transmission to and incorporation of his vital substance by his progeny. In this way, the father becomes replaced principally by his son(s). This process, referred to as the incorporation and replacement of the father's ‘bone’, has multiple actualisations whose concrete reality and significance can only be adequately understood through individual‐biographical life‐situations and trajectories. Even if not expressed through overt conflict, the dynamics of the incorporation of the father's ‘bone’ is fundamentally conflictual. It is frequently experienced by man as a violent loss of and disinvestment from his generative bodily core, especially in the sphere of prestations and financial provisioning for his children. In this context, the father's handling of his son's bride‐price shells/money has central importance. However, it is the entirety of the father's comportment to his son and daughter that effectively generates this continuous and irreversible process of the self‐transmission of his vital substance. If he is greedy, selfish and ungiving, then all the same – his ‘bone’ transmission will be merely keyed in and acted out in an increasingly overt negative mode, and the son's comportment to him will be equally bad. No matter what kind of father a man may be, his son's incorporation of his father's osseous strength is unstoppable. Thus, a son not only threatens and intimidates, but also may beat up and occasionally kill his father. This paper deals with one such extreme case of son's replacement and incorporation of his father's vital core.

Perceived Achievement of Social Entrepreneurship Competency: The Influence of Age, Discipline, and Gender among Women in Higher Education

The complexity of today’s world demands a shift in education from knowledge acquisition to competency development for students to effectively address profession-related challenges. In particular, there is a need for social entrepreneurs who can act as catalysts for change in complex environments. Understanding the elements that shape students’ perception of themselves as social entrepreneurs allows us to grasp their capacity as catalysts for transformative action. The main purpose of this research is to showcase the findings of a diagnostic investigation carried out on a group of Mexican university students, assessing their perceived proficiency in social entrepreneurship and its sub-competencies. The study examined whether age or discipline influenced the perception of entrepreneurship in 328 students. The results revealed that age and study discipline played a crucial role in shaping students’ perception of their competency achievement. Younger students tended to perceive their abilities better, while advanced semester students were more cautious in assessing their entrepreneurial competencies. The trend also extended to sub-competencies, with younger students tending to perceive their social skills positively, while older students focused more on practical knowledge such as the economic and administrative aspects of entrepreneurship. Students in business also tended to view their skills more positively compared to students in other disciplines. The findings highlight the need to promote women’s social entrepreneurship and emphasize the importance of considering these relevant elements that are crucial to the concrete reality of potential female entrepreneurs. The study has significant implications for policymakers, educators, and researchers interested in promoting social entrepreneurship among women, particularly in the Latin American context.

La dialéctica de la plurinacionalidad como crítica del Estado-nación liberal

El artículo estudia la dialéctica como camino de indagación de la plurinacionalidad y su contraparte el vetusto Estado-nación monoétnico ecuatoriano. Indaga: 1) ¿cuál es el fundamento ontológico de la plurinacionalidad? y 2) ¿por qué la plurinacionalidad como planteamiento socio-político niega la homogeneidad del Estadonación liberal y su correlato el colonialismo externo-interno? Se plantea que el fundamento ontológico de la plurinacionalidad se halla en la sociedad comunitaria (o ser social) y que en su praxis socio-política niega la fetichización del Estado-nación liberal, determinado como instrumento del colonialismo externo-interno de la sociedad. La investigación concibe y aplica el análisis dialéctico de la realidad concreta y la ley de contradicción universal, como inherentes del ser social y del pensamiento que refleja dicha realidad. El estudio concluye que: 1) la dialéctica comprende la categoría de totalidad y es útil para el análisis y explicación de la sociedad en su conjunto, de las partes al todo y del todo a las partes, en mutua interrelación universal; 2) la sociedad comunitaria es una objetivación ontológica de la plurinacionalidad y se manifiesta en la diversidad étnicacultural del Ecuador, con temporalidades históricas distintas, y en contraposición a la formación económicosocial colonial y republicana; y 3) la fetichización del Estado-nación liberal como instrumento del colonialismo externo e interno de la sociedad ecuatoriana aún está vigente y continua cumpliendo esa misma función a través del procesamiento de la colonialidad del poder, la invisibilización ontológica del otro (alter) y la diferenciación colonial racista.

Joyful Defiance: Death Does Not Win the Day by Anna Madsen

Reviewed by: Joyful Defiance: Death Does Not Win the Day by Anna Madsen Phil Ruge-Jones Joyful Defiance: Death Does Not Win the Day. By Anna Madsen. Minneapolis: Fortress Press, 2022. 174 pp. This book speaks poignantly to the times we live in. Madsen offers a vision that will speak to any time, but with the Black Lives Matter protests of recent years and the effects of the pandemic, this book cries out as a voice that needs to be heard. She shows how a profound, reflective dive into what is personal can contribute to very public issues. Madsen begins by rooting her reflections in a specific moment of loss that shook her family's life at every level. In 2004, her husband was killed in an accident that also left her son with a traumatic brain injury. As she sat in the funeral service, she found herself in a community, singing familiar words that took on new depth in this crisis, "Were they to take our house, goods, honor, child, or spouse, though life be wrenched away, they cannot win the day." In the death of her beloved, Luther's words connected to a very concrete reality. The rest of the book engages in a theological quest to unpack what "win the day" meant as Madsen sought to rediscover the gift of joy. The titles of the five chapters give a good sense of the themes and flow: The Absence of Lamenting the Absence of God, Joy Comes in the Mourning, Finding Hope When You're Losing Your Grip, Justified for Joy, and Holy Saturday Living. Those familiar with Luther's theology of the cross will recognize something of the trajectory she develops. Her theology joins Luther's in naming "a truth that makes every theologian paying attention gulp" (65). [End Page 237] One of the strengths of this book is the conversation partners she has invited around the table. Many are the usual suspects for theologians of the cross: Martin Luther, Walter Brueggemann, Jürgen Moltmann, and Miroslav Volf. But others are also invited to shape the conversation: Cornel West, Soraya Chemaly, the Dalai Lama, Desmond Tutu, and Toni Morrison. Exchanges she has had with co-conspirators throughout her ministry as a public theologian enrich the dialogue. The result is deepened discourse that offers relevance, reverence, and renewal to the church and the world (the three Rs that guide her theological work at the OMG Center (https://omgcenter.com/). The final chapter witnesses to how her own journey has led her to joyful defiance in the face of real death. We see what each of the concepts she has explored more abstractly looks like as she has lived through her struggle for healing and hope. She ends in a joyful place, "But I can write, with full integrity and honesty, that I can now, almost two decades hence, declare that every moment is sacred, every moment is to be savored, every moment is a possibility to plant a tree, to plant a promise, to plant joyful defiance. … Death is real. … But life, on this eve of whatever tomorrow will bring, is real-er" (165). While her theological and cultural conversation partners add depth to her reflections, in the end the courage with which she charts her own journey makes her claims compelling. Her book is a lively testimony to Luther's great confession, "One becomes a theologian by living, by dying, and by being damned, not by understanding, reading, and speculation." Phil Ruge-Jones Grace Lutheran Church Eau Claire, Wisconsin Copyright © 2023 Johns Hopkins University Press and Lutheran Quarterly, Inc.

Ways to protect the rights of individuals in administrative proceedings: legal regulation and international experience international experience

The objective of the research was to consider the forms of protection of the rights of individuals in administrative proceedings. The methodological basis used is presented as: comparative-legal and systematic analysis, formal-legal method, hermeneutic method, as well as methods of analysis and synthesis. Everything allows to conclude that, in order to clarify the issue of compliance of methods for judicial protection of the rights of individuals, provided by the Code of Administrative Procedure of Ukraine, with the criteria of a rule of law and the needs of establishing at each moment the rule of law in concrete reality, the assessment of provisions of the legislation on administrative procedures of: Azerbaijan, Georgia, Estonia, Latvia, Poland, France and the Federal Republic of Germany. Finally, it has been established that administrative courts in Ukraine have significant human rights powers to make decisions on recovery of funds from an authority to compensate for the damage caused by its unlawful administrative act, if such a claim is filed simultaneously with the application for recognition of such act as unlawful.