Constructive Communication Research Articles

#GoodVibesOnly: Exploring social constructionism on high-level anonymous social applications: A Case of Jodel—Ghana

Several outcomes have been documented on the effect of anonymity on behaviors and norms. However, unlike similar Complete Anonymous Applications (CAPs) that have been discontinued due to their anonymous affordance and associated drawbacks, Jodel has been able to withstand the test of time since its inception. As a result, this study examines how the Jodel platform in Ghana, specifically Accra, constructs its community jointly to ensure positivity by utilizing the social construction framework. Three themes emerge from the data using iterative analysis. It was found that the community’s communal construction was primarily based on user needs, later categorized as social solidarity, which influenced the other constructions: legalism and culture. Using them as a foundation, the community upheld social order through their constructions and Jodel’s predefined affordances. Emphasizing the possibility of social order even on CAPs.

ВЕРБАЛЬНИЙ, СОЦІО- ТА БІОГЕНЕТИЧНИЙ КОДИ ЕКСТЕРІОРИЗАЦІЇ ЕМОЦІЙ: АФЕКТИВНО-ДИСКУРСИВНИЙ ПІДХІД

The article elucidates modern trends in humanities and social studies to encompass affective corporeality in the emotional conceptual sphere of the person, the structure of her social identity, and into processes of communal sense-making. But despite the prominence of the turn to affectivity which is putatively at the core of many social processes, discourse must be equally addressed to outline the epistemic role of emotional experiences. Therefore, the goal of the paper is to highlight the need for integrating the findings of both discourse and affect studies which will significantly benefit emotiology in unveiling the processes of social construction of reality. To meet the goal the following objectives are set: 1) to outline the semiotic nature and pragmatic potential of affect somatic concomitants; 2) to analyze the unity of social and biogenetic codes of affect and emotion externalization; 3) to provide an overarching classification of verbal means for affect and emotion manifestation; 4) to highlight the role of cognized corporeality of emotions; 5) to present the prospects of an integral approach to the study of affective-discursive sense-making. The methodology of the study involves general-scientific methods of analysis, synthesis, comparing, and deduction. Results. Current emotion theories in linguistics, philosophy, and psychology exhibit a general tendency towards the integration of embodied emotional and sensual experience in epistemic and sense-making practices of social interaction. An emotional pool proves indispensable from the pool of knowledge and involves shared experience of affective and emotional responses, their conventionalized and sedimented externalization, the library of verbal and nonverbal means of their manifestation, regulation, negotiation, and channeling. Consequently, the unison of scholarly claims resides in the recognition of both biological and social aspects of affectivity, verbal expression and/or representation of which elicits recognition and an embodied response in the co-emoter. The commonality of affective interaction is claimed formative in constructing worldviews and beliefs. Therefore, the pragmatic potential of verbal and nonverbal affectivediscursive practices favours efficient social affiliation and communal construction of reality simultaneously setting social boundaries within a society. Recurring and reproducing scenarios of affective interaction are based on the system of conventional behavioural and linguistic signs which foster meaning-making practices. The library of somatic signs can be accessed via biogenetic modality, modality on trigger, and modality on learning. This code is grounded in innate physiological responses and unequivocally relates to corresponding situations through stereotypical behavioral patterns. Modality on learning bridges biogenetic and alphabetic codes as the nativism of both anchors semantic correlation, with the difference that the latter system of signs is adopted only conventionally. A discursive account of emotional interaction has resulted in an integral classification of verbal means for affect and emotion externalization that equally involve verbal and nonverbal modes. Emotion triggers, emotional situations, psycho-physiological experiences, state and action tendencies are included in the comprehensive inventory of language means for emotion manifestation. Expressive and descriptive methods can also serve as means of invoking emotional response in other social members in the form of embodied simulations. This is engendered by the process of emotion knowledge acquisition which occurs both through embodiment and narrative practices. The knowledge of social and cultural aspects of one’s emotional stance involves a multilateral account of subjective experience shared by other members of a culture. Thus, emotional alignment is achieved in social acts through manifold resources of language that proves affective-discursive practices defining in sense-making and the approach seminal in further studies of social processes.

Differences in Attitudes of Operators and Managers on Risk Management of Pressure Equipment

Introduction: Previous research indicates that models for risk assessment of pressure equipment have not sufficiently nor adequately integrated indicators of human factors and organizational factors. Method: The goal of this paper is to check the differences in attitudes of operators and managers engaged in the area of pressure equipment risk management. Questionnaire was designed and then data was collected from 253 operators and managers working with the same pressure equipment in Serbia. By applying the paired t-test, differences in their attitudes were checked for the issues described by constructs communication (COM), potentially hazardous materials and equipment (PHME), process safety (PS), safety and health at work (SHW), organizational change management (OCM), maintenance/inspection (MI) procedures, human error (HE), trainings and competences of employees for crisis situations (TCECS) and conducting investigation after accidents (CIAA). Results: It is statistically evident that the coincidence of attitudes accounted for less than 20% of questions. The highest coincidence is shown for PHME and TCECS, where one half of dimensions of given constructs indicate that there are not statistically significant differences. Conclusions: Differences found could be used as an explanation of high-risk levels of pressure equipment exploitation and the manner they influence it.

Estimation of quality of surface water of Dniester river basin within Lviv and Khmelnytsk regions

The problem of deterioration of the ecological condition of river basins of Ukraine is extremely important. Particular attention is paid to transboundary rivers, which include the Dniester River. The article describes the physical and geographical conditions of the Dniester basin, analyzes the scale of water use and discharge of return water in to the surface reservoirs in the basin. The use of water resources of the basin by different sectors of the economy is studied. 50% in Lviv region and 72% in Khmelnytsk region of abstracted water is used for commercial and drinking purposes, respectively 30% and 25% - for production. The largest sources of river basin pollution within Lviv and Khmelnytsk regions are considered. The main pollutants of surface water bodies in Lviv region in terms of the amount of effluents are enterprises of housing and communal services, enterprises of heat and power, chemical and petrochemical, machine-building and food industries. Among the enterprises of Khmelnytsk region, the largest volumes of wastewater discharges are carried out by the enterprises of heat and power, housing and communal services, food and construction industries. It is established that the major factors influencing the deterioration of surface in the river basin are disposals of sewage. The ecological danger from hydrosphere pollution in the Dniester basin has been assessed on the basis of pollutant concentrations. The results of monitoring water pollution in the river Dniester basin testified that the main pollutants that exceed the level compared to the maximum permissible concentration are nitrites, and for its tributaries river Lug and river Smotrych also ammonium salt, nitrates, sulfates and phosphates. As a result of a comprehensive assessment of the water quality of the river basin, the characteristics assigned to them are weakly and moderately polluted. Except for pollution of water objects, the urgent problem demanding the solution is the acting landscape structure in the basin of river Dniester. The disturbed structure of territories is the result of excessive agricultural land use and reduction of the area of natural lands. We came up with the priority tasks are to minimize the discharges of polluted return water into the water bodies, to improve the economic mechanism of water use and implement of water protection measures, to optimize the landscape-ecological structure of the territory, in particular increase the areas of nature reserve fund.

COMPREHENSIVE DEVELOPMENT AND ARCHITECTURAL AND ARTIS¬TIC DESIGN OF IVANO-FRANKIVSK DURING “DEVELOPED SO¬CIA-LISM”

The article describes the changes that took place as a result of the socialist industrialization of the western regions of the Ukrainian SSR by the example of the Ivano-Frankivsk region and related urbanization. The architecture of the city of Ivano-Frankivsk (Stanislavov, Stanislav) has absorbed features of different historical epochs. Architectural features different from all other styles as well as the scale of development characterized the Soviet period in the history of the city. The urbanization of Ivano-Frankivsk, Ternopil, Chernivtsi, Uzhhorod, and especially Lviv, is unique in its historical experience. It was “overdue” and was preceded by a radical military and postwar change in the ethnic and social composition of the population of cities where Jews and Poles were the dominant majority. The rapid increase in urban population of the western region of the republic was at the expense of the Ukrainian rural population. Among other major Ukrainian cities, Ivano-Frankivsk was notable for being one of the few regional centers (inferior to Lviv), that was Ukrainized, and played a decisive role in the national-religious movement of the second half of the 1980s.
 The purpose of the study is to analyze in the historical context the specifics of architectural and artistic design, improvement of the city of Ivano-Frankivsk during the rule of the Soviet totalitarian system (“developed socialism”), successes and miscalculations. Objectives: 1) to prove that irreparable damage was caused to the historic part of the city as a result of Soviet reconstruction. Many old buildings could have been in operation for decades, after preventive repairs. They reiterated the fate of their former owners, who were physically destroyed; 2) to generalize the gains and disadvantages in the practice of housing, industrial and communal construction on the example of frequent cases when in the territory of the new building (quarters, neighborhoods and even entire settlements) the inhabitants were not provided with the most necessary elements of improvement. Significant disadvantages were allowed in the landscaping business.
 To develop the topic, the authors used a whole group of scientific methods: the principles of objectivity and historicism, which involve consideration of particular phenomena and processes in their development and close connection with the system of relevant social relations; historical facts are considered against the backdrop of political processes, which involves the use of a method of comparative analysis, which clarifies the essence of many significant events for Ukrainian socio-political thought. Design and construction organizations while constructing residential complexes did not always take care of the conservation of natural relief, vegetation, green space. The public carried out systematic work on the improvement of cities, towns and villages. The Party-Soviet authorities tried to chalk up all the achievements. The regional center of Ivano-Frankivsk gained the glory of a beautiful city. At one time, it won prizes in urban competitions. This glory was preserved and multiplied by the city’s inhabitants, despite the adverse political conditions of the totalitarian system through creative approach to the renewal and expansion of the city, attentive and careful attitude to the existing capital buildings and nature. 
 Keywords: architectural styles, Ivano-Frankivsk, complex development, residential areas, landscaping, planting.

Can Damascus 1840 be Re-oriented? From Shami historical memory to Sephardi and Mizrahi agency

ABSTRACT The Damascus blood libel of 1840 had a significant role in shaping modern Jewish historical memory. It generated a sense of solidarity demonstrated by Western European Jewish men of affairs (such as Moses Montefiore) with their less fortunate non-European brethren, setting the stage for the global practice of both Jewish politics and philanthropy for the betterment of the latter. Zionist historiography expanded on this theme while enhancing the gulf between Western Jewish saviours and the historical passivity of helpless Middle Eastern Jews. This essay demonstrates how the direct beneficiaries of the original event, the Shami (Syrian and specifically Damascene) Jews, while gracious to their saviours, attributed in fact no meaning to this event in their own communal construction of the past. The one native account of what happened was facilitated to begin with, and its rabbinic author largely oblivious to the significance of what had transpired. Even the presence of the Alliance Israélite Universelle in fin di siècle Damascus, a direct outcome of 1840, failed to further generate native historical consciousness. Subsequently the essay probes early Zionist efforts to codify a more regionally rooted memory of the affair for the sake of harnessing the local Jewish community to a land of Israel centred future. These efforts, however, failed to prevent Sephardi and Mizrahi Israelis from feeling sidetracked by an emerging Eurocentric Zionist foundational narrative. By revisiting the Israeli Pillar of Fire affair we conclude by identifying a specifically Syrian-Jewish predicament of being left out of this drama.

Nacionalni park Plitvička jezera – zaštita i(li) razvoj koreničkoga kraja – komunalna infrastruktura kao podloga za turistički razvoj (1949. – 1990.

Današnja turistička uspješnost najstarijega hrvatskoga nacionalnog parka rezultat je brojnih dugotrajnih gospodarskih, ekonomskih i infrastrukturnih projekata koji svoj početak imaju još u vremenu Austro-Ugarske. Važnu ulogu u nastanku i razvoju turizma na području Plitvičkih jezera imala je i lokalna zajednica, odnosno područje bivše općine Titova Korenica. Rad stoga prvenstveno prikazuje važne komunalne projekte koji su u većoj mjeri pratili znatan razvoj turizma u novoproglašenom nacionalnom parku i njegovoj bližoj okolici. Ovdje se u prvom redu misli na razdoblje nakon Drugoga svjetskog rata, odnosno socijalističku Jugoslaviju, kada je uz novu rigidnu političku paradigmu trebalo nastojati ostvarivati nove oblike gospodarskoga razvoja prateći suvremene turističke razvojne silnice.

Practices of Multicultural Education among the Faculty of Social Sciences and Humanities at University of Management and Technology Lahore

The aim of this research is to analyze practices in multicultural education among faculty of UMT, Lahore campus. To achieve the aim of study, the data was collected from 33 faculty members of the SSH department of UMT through purposive sampling. The closed-ended questionnaire with 5 Likert scale was used as an instrument to collect the data along with it a semi-structured interview was conducted to achieve the triangulation. Furthermore, the framework focuses on the different dimensions of multiethnic schooling created by Bank (2006, 2010). Data gathered through questionnaire was analyzed quantitatively while the data collected through semi-structured interview was analyzed qualitatively. The study revealed that the teachers are more focusing on content integration and equity pedagogy as compared the facts creation and prejudice reduction. As far as the empowerment of ethos and communal construction of UMT concerned with most teacher that are in favor of it.

Sarup Revisited

In the second half of the 4thmillennium BC, we see signifi cant changes in the early Neolithic culture. These take place some centuries after the initial introduction of agriculture and sees striking developments such as the apparent opening-up of the landscape, involving forest clearance, the introduction of the ard for ploughing and the construction of regular houses. The transition to a settled and sedentary farming lifestyle must also have demanded mental adaptations, whereby the farmers were required to forge new and stable alliances. These alliances appear to be forged by a series of communal works, involving monumental structures, such as the building of dolmens and passage graves as well as the extensive and land-demanding causewayed enclosures. The causewayed enclosures were essentially used for only a few days but were remembered for centuries.Since the 1970s, excavations have been undertaken in the Sarup area, on the island of Funen, Denmark, to obtain more detailed information about the activities that took place there between c. 3600 and 3000 BC. This paper presents the results of excavations and studies of two well-preserved causewayed enclosures, the Barkaer-structures and more than 30 megalithic monuments, as well as investigations of several settlements. This research has provided insight into a complex farming culture, which appears to have been firmly consolidated by major communal construction works, whereby teams and networks were created within an evolving cooperative social structure.

Reduction of heat loss of heat supply systems by optimizing their geometric models

When predicting the level of the heat supply system efficiency of the project, it is necessary to determine its basic technical and economic indicators. In order to do this, you need to analyze the entire life cycle of the system, namely: the processes of its design, installation, operation and disassembly. There are centralized heat supply systems in the largest cities of Ukraine today. The equipment and engineering networks of these systems are mostly obsolete, and some fragments require systematic repair or full replacement, depending on which of these measures is economically more justified. In any case, the restoration of the initial (or sufficient for the effective functioning of) the indicators of engineering systems requires considerable investment and labor costs for employees of their housing and communal enterprises and construction and installation organizations. Therefore, the more compact and less extended are the heat supply networks, the less is the probability of their premature failure the less is the cost of their maintenance, associated with physical wear and tear of the plots, equipment and the system as a whole. In addition, reducing the length of the pipeline system makes it possible to reduce the cost of building materials and construction and installation works. At the same time, the design cost also decreases. However, the indicators of heat losses in pipelines of the heat supply system in the process of ex-exploitation are no less important. The size of these losses largely depends on the temperature of the coolant, the method of laying the pipelines and their diameters (or other parameters of the cross-sectional shape), but more from the lengths of the corresponding sections of the system. Obviously, the length of heat networks is one of the key factors determining the overall economy of the heat supply system, but the level of its energy efficiency should be also formed taking into account the specific heat losses. This publication reveals the analysis of the factors, the general principles of optimization of the heat supply system should be formulated, and mathematical foundations for determining the geometric parameters of this system are suggested, taking into account these factors.

Everyday Imaginaries, Narratives and Strokes: An Ethnographic Exploration of Narratives among Stroke Patients and their Spouses

That a stroke is a disruptive event in many people’s lives is no secret. That it also represents challenges to the communal construction of narratives between couples is less explored, and is the subject matter of this paper. With a narrative theoretical approach to ethnographic fieldwork conducted among couples where one partner has had a stroke, this article explores how everyday imaginaries are challenged when narratives are reassessed following a stroke. The paper suggests that sometimes the communal narratives are taken over by the part not directly afflicted by the stroke. Thus, when the non-afflicted spouse is in control of the narratives, they may be utilized as a way to monitor both the relationship as well as the brain of the spouse afflicted by the stroke.

Caught in Uncertain Futures, Now: A Reflexive Moment

This reflexive vignette reveals the emotional risks of ethnographic work by a Chicano researcher, educator, and advocate doing work in the Texas‐Mexico Borderlands, caught at the intersection of vulnerable Latina/o youth and their possible futures. Data in this creative piece are derived from field notes of one classroom observation from an ethnographic case study on the communal construction and practice of a college‐going culture experienced by marginalized, middle school, Mexican‐American and Central American emergent bilinguals.

Imagining Muslims as the ‘Other’ in Muslim political films

Abstract Though secularism is an integral part of India’s democratic framework, its uses and limits have been questioned in the recent decades by scholars such as Sunil Khilnani, Gyanendra Pandey, Partha Chatterjee, Arvind Rajagopal, etc. Similar concerns have been raised by filmmakers such as Shyam Benegal, etc. According to Benegal, , while representing Muslims as a homogenous entity steeped in pre-modern sensibilities, Hindi films also contain Muslims within the dominant narrative of a normative upper-caste Hindu identity. This article explores the construction of communalism and nationalism by studying the position of Muslims in the complex representational scheme in popular Hindi films released in the 1990s and after. While analysing films such as Bombay (Ratnam, 1995), Fiza (Mohamed, 2000), Roja (Ratnam, 1992), Sarfarosh (Matthan, 1999), Mission Kashmir (Chopra, 2000), Black Friday (Kashyap, 2004), Fanaa (Kohli, 2006), Mumbai Meri Jaan (Kamath, 2008), Mission Istanbul (Lakhia, 2008), A Wednesday (Pandey, 2008), Kurbaan (D’Silva, 2009), Sikandar (Jha, 2009), New York (Khan, 2009) and The Attacks on 26/11 (Varma, 2013), this article deploys Edward Said’s notion of representation and knowledge as imbricated in issues of power, class and materiality. This paper adopts both a textual (that is, reading the films as texts) as well as a qualitative approach by way of conducting in-depth unstructured interviews with filmmakers and film-critics. This paper illustrates that popular Hindi cinema has dealt with the liminality of the Muslim ‘Other’ in the nation-space by representing Muslims either in stereotypical ways or by appropriating them into the normative Hindu self. Four key themes dominate the representational scheme in Muslim political cinema: the Muslim ‘Other’ as an enemy of the nation; an imaginary notion of monolithic ‘Hindu-ized nation’; Muslims as a source of terror within the nation-state; a conflation of Muslim-terrorist-Pakistani.

Re-interpreting the Danebury Assemblage: Houses, Households, and Community

Cunliffe's excavations at Danebury have revealed an Iron Age settlement in extraordinary detail. Its inhabitants have come to represent, in the popular literature at least, the idealised hillfort community of warriors, craftsmen, farmers, and their families in a hierarchically ordered settlement system. This model has been vigorously challenged, although largely from a theoretical perspective, and there has been little contextual re-analysis of the dataset. This paper seeks to re-examine the Danebury structural assemblage and question why Iron Age people came together in this place, and how those that did come perceived their place within wider group identities. By examining patterns of activity within the interior of Danebury this paper demonstrates that the nature of the community that resided in the hillfort changed considerably over the course of the Early and Middle Iron Age. In particular, it is argued that Danebury was occupied by a permanent population. The organisation of domestic space, however, was tightly managed. In the early period occupation was characterised by single round-houses of individual household units emphasising their distinctiveness by spatial isolation and variability in round-house design. A dramatic change in the nature and intensity of occupation came in the late period. A large number of ‘identikit’ round-houses were tightly packed into the quarry hollows in the lee of the ramparts. This probably represents households from the surrounding settlements moving into the hillfort. It is also argued that the communal construction and maintenance of Danebury's defences would have been a way for a dispersed population to have reproduced a sense of community. Participation may also have been a mechanism of maintaining networks and relationships with other households in the long term

The Foundations of Islamic Society as Expressed by the Qur'anic Term mawlā

This article posits that the Qur'anic term mawlā (pl. mawālī) is crucial for understanding the foundations of the Islamic community; the term designates those bonds of help and cooperation that united the earliest umma as a functional faith community. To demonstrate the significance of the term mawlā in the Qur'an, this article combines two distinct methodologies. First, it shows how the word mawlā relates to other variations of the Arabic root w-l-y in the Qur'an, thus situating the term into a wider semantic network. Second, it shows that attestations of the term mawlā/mawālī form a coherent discourse about communal identity construction. This discourse culminates in Q. 33:5, which declares but if you do not know their fathers, [they are] your brothers in religion and your mawālī. When read in context, this verse reveals a connection between the term mawlā and host of pivotal ideas, including the Qur'anic concept of Law, the proper use of language, and the role of genealogy in structuring the umma. Hence, this verse express some of the Qur'an's most explicit and nuanced statements about the relationship between religious bonds, genetic bonds and social bonds in the Islamic community.

What does the literature say about resilience in refugee people? Implications for practice

Refugee people experience many trials prior to arriving in Australia and face ongoing challenges associated with re-settlement. Despite facing such difficulties many refugee people demonstrate enormous strength and resilience that facilitates their re-settlement process. The authors’ experience however suggests that professionals working with refugee people tend to focus on the trauma story to the neglect of their strengths. At times this means resilience is overshadowed by a dominant Western deficits model that defines refugee people as traumatised victims. Pathologising the trauma story of refugee people may further alienate refugee people from full inclusion into Australian life by denying their inherent resilience in the face of extraordinary life experiences. This article reviews Australian and International literature to explore factors that contribute to refugee resilience such as personal qualities, support and religion. The review also identifies elements that may impede resilience including; language barriers, racism, discrimination, and labelling the trauma story. The literature suggests refugee resilience moves beyond the Western individualised notion of resilience to a more communal construction of resilience that includes refugee people’s broader social context. The literature highlights important practice implications and the authors respond to the findings by reflecting on their own practice

What does the literature say about resilience in refugee people? Implications for practice

Refugee people experience many trials prior to arriving in Australia and face ongoing challenges associated with re-settlement. Despite facing such difficulties many refugee people demonstrate enormous strength and resilience that facilitates their re-settlement process. The authors’ experience however suggests that professionals working with refugee people tend to focus on the trauma story to the neglect of their strengths. At times this means resilience is overshadowed by a dominant Western deficits model that defines refugee people as traumatised victims. Pathologising the trauma story of refugee people may further alienate refugee people from full inclusion into Australian life by denying their inherent resilience in the face of extraordinary life experiences. This article reviews Australian and International literature to explore factors that contribute to refugee resilience such as personal qualities, support and religion. The review also identifies elements that may impede resilience including; language barriers, racism, discrimination, and labelling the trauma story. The literature suggests refugee resilience moves beyond the Western individualised notion of resilience to a more communal construction of resilience that includes refugee people’s broader social context. The literature highlights important practice implications and the authors respond to the findings by reflecting on their own practice experience and considering implications for a more inclusive anti-oppressive strengths-based approach to work with refugee people.

OPEN-SOURCING HORROR

On 8 June 2009, a member of the online forum Something Awful began a new thread, challenging members to ‘create paranormal images through Photoshop’. For two days forum members created the expected fare: a variety of ghostly or generally creepy images (often adding half-seen spirits into backgrounds of real pictures). On 10 June, the tenor of the forum shifted dramatically, though, when a user posted two ‘photos’ and a news story identifying a faceless ‘Slender Man’ in a suit who stalked children. Almost immediately, an obsessive interest in the Slender Man took over the forum discussions. Near constant additions were added to the Slender Man mythos with new photographs, drawings, short fiction, and even wood cuttings showing his appearance in different times and places. Additionally, the story was made into a web show called Marble Hornets. In many ways, the development of the Slender Man character as an ‘open-sourcing’ of generic horror conventions can be understood. Within this process, the communal construction of the Slender Man sheds light on genre negotiations in online spaces. In what follows, the Open-Sourcing, creation, and negotiation of the Slender Man as an Internet-born horror villain, paying specific attention to final iterations as they have been portrayed in Marble Hornets is discussed. By exploring how specific (yet, anonymous) individuals construct, debug, and de-construct a newly forming horror monster, the ways that generic form is negotiated both through ‘social action’ and pre-established expectations are examined.

Mending the Broken Frame: Self-Narration in a Constructionist Framework

The communal construction of mental illness makes recovery a daunting challenge since society largely perceives the psychiatrically ill as ‘deficient’. Not only does one have to deal with the illness itself, one additionally has to deal with the perpetual stigma associated with the labeling, increasing the personal consequences of these illnesses. In my own journey through mental illness, I have repeatedly tried to construct for myself those structures which would help me become stable and empower me from within rather than rob me of my sense of self. This paper is a small expression of that narrative.

““A Woman on the Bimah Means Ignorant Men””: Women's Torah Reading and Modern Orthodox Identity

This article presents an analysis of three recent Orthodox responsa on the question of women’s participation in public Torah reading. Responsa are read as a model for Jewish communal identity construction. Despite differences of opinion as to the permissibility of women’s taking part in the ritual, the authors’ view of the community remains fairly constant across the responsa. Men are perceived as the law’s constituents and members of the idealized community, while women are viewed as outsiders whose concerns may be heard or dismissed depending on men’s acceptance of their validity.