Construction Of Self Research Articles

Polyphony and polarization in public discourses: hegemony and dissent in a Slovene policy debate

ABSTRACT Contemporary public discourses are, despite the growing array of technologies and spaces for participation, becoming increasingly characterized by polarization – the formation of two distinct and relatively homogeneous ‘sides’. However, while such polarization may be commonplace, it is not an inherent property of discourse but rather a result of strategic polarizing actions taken by specific actors in order to establish control over the debate. In order to describe the process of polarization in a public discourse about language policy in Slovenia, this paper presents a theoretical framework based on Bakhtin’s concepts of heteroglossia (diversity of voices), polyphony (diversity of ideology) and dialogicality (relatedness of voices and ideologies) and on the central concepts of critical discourse studies (CDS). The case study is based on a qualitative analysis of a sample of 48 newspaper articles reporting on the language policy debate, collected from two major Slovene newspapers during 2016. Additionally, the case study also relies on field notes and transcripts obtained from a public hearing held in the Slovene parliament. The analysis of these two data sources uncovers a debate which was heavily polarized due to both ideological difference as well as continuous reinforcement of the Manichean dichotomy. In particular, the paper shows that this polarization was strengthened by explicit practices of identity construction and suppression of dissent which allowed the construction of a homogeneous Self and Other in discourse.

Adrian Piper's aesthetic agency: Photography as catalysis for resisting neo-liberal competitive paradigms

Abstract Contemporary neo-liberal society is ruled by the market. Davies, Chen and Lentin and Titley show that its objectification and categorization founds a competitive notion of agency that disables subjective construction of self and intersubjective understanding of the world. As the market's rules and norms are set by white patriarchy, its competitive paradigm structurally disadvantages others. Art too is objectified and categorized by neo-liberal institutions, equally embedded in white patriarchal market structures and severely limiting democratic public access to a diverse artistic field, argue hooks, Mercer and Piper. Yet, Piper's artwork shows, art holds emancipatory potential. Defined as transforming experience, its ambiguity provides a structure for constituting agentic subjectivity and intersubjective signification processes, defying objective/objectifying market workings. Photography's specific qualities allow Piper to democratize access to the paradigm she proposes. Her artistic choices may thus found the potential to publicly construct a notion of aesthetic agency as resistance to the neo-liberal market.

Selfhood and ‘Nostalgia’: Sensory and Material Memories of the Childhood Home in Late Georgian Britain

AbstractFocusing on autobiographies written from the 1790s to the 1820s, this article demonstrates that material, emotional and sensory memories of the childhood house and its location were integral to constructions of self. First, it traces the interplay between prevailing cultural forms, family memory and identity, and proposes that these changed over time, shaped by cultural, social and economic factors. Second, in analysing these personal memories, it contributes to the debates around the meanings of the ‘emotional disposition’ of nostalgia, arguing that it was central to the formation of both national culture and individual selfhood.

Asking for it: BDSM sexual practice and the trouble of consent

This article explores issues of consent in the context of BDSM. I argue that consent is a complex expression which must be thought beyond the ‘yes means yes, no means no’ that proliferates mainstream debates around consent education. This article draws on qualitative interview data to examine how BDSM practitioners talk about consent and consent violations. It examines how these discussions about consent within a BDSM context interact with non-BDSM discussions and how they do, or do not, inform each other. Though consent is centralized in BDSM as a practice of community-building, sometimes consent violations are ignored or dismissed because this community-building also relies on neoliberal constructions of the autonomous self and heteronormative accounts of desire to explain them. These findings have serious implications for better understanding not only of consent within this subcultural practice, but how heteronormative values saturate contexts where unequal power relations or hierarchies manifest themselves outside of this. By insisting on this nuanced understanding of sexual consent, this article transforms existing debates about consensual sexual practice by exploring consent as a grey area, and where violations are experienced as abusive and where they are not. It also offers pertinent insights into how mobilizing an ethical consent praxis might better attend to questions of consent.

Beefing-up, slimming-down and the somatic self of Japanese men in time of metabolic syndrome

ABSTRACTBased on a set of two, semi-structured, individual interviews with 21 Japanese men aged between 25 and 57, from Tokyo and Osaka, this paper explores the rationale underneath their eating habits and engagement in physical exercise. Ten and 11 of the men identified themselves as ‘beefy’ and ‘slim-muscular man’, respectively. The analysis of interview is grounded in symbolic interactionism and the construct of the somatic self. ‘Biopedagogy’, gender and emotion are three axes to grasp the participants’ embodied experiences [Harwood, V. (2009). Theorizing biopedagogies. In J. Wright & V. Harwood (Eds.), Biopolitics and the ‘obesity epidemic’: Governing bodies (pp. 15–30). London: Routledge]. Biopedagogy is underpinned by the concepts of Body Fat Index and ‘healthism’, as well as the viewpoint that dieting + exercise = bodyweight control [Crawford, R. (1980). Healthism and the medicalization of everyday life. International Journal of Health Services, 10(3), 365–388]. The men champion the understanding of ‘full-fledge man’ to convey a form of ‘hegemonic masculinity’ [Connell, R. W. (1995). Masculinities. Berkeley: University of California Press]. Embodied emotionality for these men could be referred to by the construct of the ‘male looking glass body’ which mostly entails homosocial synergy at a ‘bodybuilding habitus’ [Monaghan, L. F. (2001). Bodybuilding, drugs and risk. London: Taylor and Francis].

Forms of vitality revisited: The construction of an affective bodily self

This article outlines a socio-constructivist view of the ontogeny of an early form of psychological self-consciousness: an affective bodily self-consciousness. In so doing, it aims at contributing to a larger anti-Cartesian agenda, which rejects the claim of the primary nature of the knowledge of one’s own mental states. This will be pursued by seeking a synthesis of what may at first appear as a motley assortment of materials: the social biofeedback theory of parental affect-mirroring proposed by György Gergely and John S. Watson, Daniel Stern’s notion of forms of vitality, and Antonio Damasio’s concept of background feelings.

Battlefield situation awareness and networking based on agent distributed computing

The battlefield environment is complex and changeable, and there are complex terrain features and bad electromagnetic communication environment. At the present stage, the battlefield reconnaissance and communication network mainly depends on the cooperation of soldiers. With the development of unmanned aerial vehicle and pilotless technology, in the background of information warfare, the use of mobile agents to complete the formation of battlefield communication networks and the battlefield situation awareness has become a new trend. The Unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) technology is becoming more and more mature, and its distribution, synergy, parallelism, robustness and intelligence provide the basic conditions for the construction of a battlefield self organizing network. In this paper, we use UAVs and unmanned combat vehicles to build a mobile ad hoc network that meets the conditions of the battlefield. The network can solve the problem of slow convergence or non convergence of the traditional self-organizing network without relying on the fixed basic network facilities, which has the characteristics of rapid expansion, strong destruction resistance and no centrality. So it can meet the needs of communication in the battlefield. In this process, we combine the A star algorithm with the ant colony algorithm to realize the real-time path planning in combination with the edge computing power of the agent and the battlefield situation collected by the sensor, and the battlefield aggregation and search task can be completed quickly. And according to the planned route, the route forwarding strategy under known path is used to complete the information transmission.

Repackaging national identity: Cool Japan and the resilience of Japanese identity narratives

ABSTRACT‘Cool Japan’ is an instance of Japanese government's nation branding exercise as part of its soft power projection in which the unique selling point is identified as Japanese national identity. In this paper, I examine the relationship between Cool Japan and Japanese national identity and highlight a tension in the construction. Cool Japan is about emphasizing Japan's attractiveness for public diplomacy, while the top-down nature of the branding undermines the imagery that the branding is designed to convey. I show that policy elites resolve this tension by invoking the traditional Japanese identity narratives that construct Japan into both a non-Western and an un-Asian entity, reproducing the myth of Japanese uniqueness. I argue that the elite narratives surrounding Cool Japan readily replicate the language reminiscent of prewar identity construction. Despite the contemporary popularity of manga and anime, the purported ‘coolness’ of these products are framed within older constructions of Japanese Self that can trace their pedigree back to the nineteenth century. Using the minutes of committee meetings, policy documents, as well as media interviews given by policy- and business elites, I show that Cool Japan is effectively a twenty first century rendition of the familiar Japanese identity construction.

Radical Resistance: Constructions of a Transnational Self in Angela Davis's and Cynthia McKinney’s Memoirs

Author(s): Linke, Gabriele | Abstract: To achieve a better understanding of the dynamic transnationalism at work in African American politics since the 1960s, this study compares the life narratives by Angela Davis and Cynthia McKinney, two transnationally active radical Black intellectuals known for their fierce opposition to mainstream US politics. Davis’s An Autobiography was first published in 1974, McKinney’s memoir Ain’t Nothing Like Freedom in 2013, which means that the texts were conceived at different points in African American, US and world history. Despite the temporal distance between the two autobiographical texts, they show some fundamental similarities in the construction of the self as both authors on the one hand evoke the history of slavery and slave resistance as their political ‘pedigree’ while on the other hand they emphasize their transnational perspective. They foreground political struggle and intellectual analysis rather than elaborating the details of personal life. Major differences arise from their different positions with regard to the political establishment. While Davis presents her life story as representative of the fight for Black liberation and Civil Rights, former Congresswoman McKinney describes herself as an uncompromising outsider and lone voice of resistance to mainstream US politics. As she targets government lies, she supports the credibility of her own stories by the excessive use of documents from photographs through hate mails to Congressional records, making her own activism transparent. Her outlook with regard to peace, justice, and the role of the Unites States in the world is, however, less optimistic than Angela Davis’s after her release from prison in 1974.

Por uma anatomia do gesto literário: design de si e exercício crítico em Laura Erber

Resumo “É tão perigoso falar do que desata?”, questiona Laura Erber no texto (poema?) “A retornada”, que encerra o livro homônimo lançado pela Relicário Edições em 2017. A escrita que parece conjugar aspectos biográficos da autora e elementos que fogem à especulação autoficcional organiza-se em torno de um binômio: o questionamento de uma presença de autor que remeteria ao design de si e à forma e o exercício crítico empreendido por toda a obra. Em primeiro lugar, o conforto da presença de um eu-lírico, que indicaria certa adequação à forma, esvai-se diante do sentimento confesso da autora a respeito da imprecisão classificatória de todo o livro. Abstraindo as etiquetas de gênero do texto de Laura Erber e em certa medida relativizando a noção de autonomia do literário, interessa-nos explorar a construção de um design de si (Groys, 2016) e o exercício crítico (Laddaga, 2013) da autora, ambos ligados à forma em que vários índices textuais procuram orientar a recepção, ainda que fazendo implodir o horizonte de expectativas de seus leitores (Jauss, 1994).

A Qualitative Research of the Inter-relationship between Travel and Fashion Consumption in the Self-Construction Process : Focused on the Role of Liminoid in the Rites of Passage

A Qualitative Research of the Inter-relationship between Travel and Fashion Consumption in the Self-Construction Process : Focused on the Role of Liminoid in the Rites of Passage

Visitors in immersive museum spaces and Instagram: self, place-making, and play

Visitors to museums are increasingly drawn to posting images online that document and reflect their experience. Instagram, as a social media platform, has a proliferating presence in this context. Do different kinds of public spaces within the museum motivate people to share particular types of posts? What kind of posts do visitors generate from digitally immersive spaces with an interactive focus? These questions were unpacked through an exploration of data generated from a digitally immersive, interactive public space – the Immersion Room at the Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum in New York. Findings indicate that constructs of self, place-making, and play constitute critical components of what occurs, and these aspects are amplified in immersive spaces leaving digital traces within social media. I argue that the intersection of immersive digital environments and visual social media platforms such as Instagram offer a moment to play with and subtlety reconstruct the self with place being a significant contextual frame for this activity. Implications extend and challenge perceptions and the role of both museums as public spaces and the ways in which visual forms of social media intersect with spaces and the people who use them.

Diaspora digital literature: role reversal and the construction of self in selected Ikheloa’s autobiographies

The digital space serves, for the diaspora Nigerians, as a creative platform for identity and cultural preservation: a way through which they maintain connection with their homeland. This notion is evidently articulated in their creative writings on the digital space through where they imaginatively explore diverse social realities and personal experiences. This paper sets out to examine diaspora digital literature: role reversal and the construction self in selected Ikheloa’s Autobiographies. It interrogates memories of the home concept and the lamentation of the self as a social construct. The mechanism adopted by Ikheloa in trying to manage the other (new personality) while struggling to reconcile the memory of gender roles in Nigeria. Memory is an anchor and a strategy for survival for most diaspora writers. Memory of home is emphasized in the narrator’s autobiographies and a desire of home as representation of freedom and authority. But the price for a better life for his children seems to hold him captive and as such, he practices ‘fatherhood’. However, this practice is with an endless wish of returning home as a means of preserving his mind while carrying out his new gender roles in America. Psychoanalytic is adopted as premise for the analyses of the texts.

The Extent of self-efficacy of The students at English Department (University of Diyala) in their abilities in translation

الكفاءة الذاتية هي عبارة عن تركيب وجد ليؤثر على اداء الافراد ومواجهة قدراتهم وتعزيز الدافعية لديهم وتسهيل الاهداف الموضوعة واتخاذ القرارات والاصرار الناجح في مواجهة الصعوبة . الكفاءة الذاتية اكتسبت اهتماماً بالغاً أذ اكدت الدراسات على وجود علاقة ايجابية بين الكفاءة الذاتية والترجمة ، وبالتالي فان الطلبة الذين يتمتعون بثقة عالية بقدراتهم على الترجمة هم قادرون على انجاز مهامهم بنجاح ، والطلبة الذين يظهرون ثقة أقل فانهم يفشلون احياناً قبل البدء بالترجمة .
 تهدف هذه الدراسة إلى :-
 معرفة مدى الكفاءة الذاتية لطلبة قسم اللغة الانكليزية في قدرتهم في الترجمة .
 وفرضية البحث هي :-
 طلبة قسم اللغة الانكليزية لديهم ثقة في قدرتهم في الترجمة لغرض تحقيق هدف البحث واثبات الفرضية ، تم اختيار (50) طالباً من طلبة المرحلة الرابعة ، كلية التربية الاساسية، جامعة ديالى كعينة للبحث ، وباستعمال الوسائل الاحصائية المناسبة ، تم التوصل للنتائج التالية:
 متوسط درجة حدة فقرات المقياس المعتمد بلغت (3.288) وهي اكبر من درجة حدة المقياس الفرضية والبالغة (2,5) درجة . كما تبين ان الوسط المرجح للفقرات بلغ (164.4) وهو اكبر من الوسط الفرضي البالغ (125) درجة . الأمر الذي يقتضي قبول فرضية البحث بهذا الخصوص والتي مؤداها ((طلبة قسم اللغة الانكليزية لديهم ثقة في قدرتهم في الترجمة)) .
 هذا ومما تجدر الاشارة اليه ان مثل هذه النتيجة التي تم التوصل اليها تكون احياناً مضلله وليست ذات دلالة معنوية الامر الذي يقتضي الوسيلة الاحصائية المعروفة بـ ((t–test)) لمعالجة الامر ، حيث تبين ان القيمة التائية المحسوبة بلغت (43.06) وهي اكبر من القيمة الجدولية البالغة (1.671) لدرجة حريه (49) ومستوى دلالة (0.05) وبما يدعونا لقبول فرضية البحث المتضمنة :- طلبة قسم اللغة الانكليزية لديهم ثقة في قدرتهم في الترجمة .

Silence, Dissent, and Affective Relations in the Juvenile Diaries of Eva Knatchbull-Hugessen (1861–1895)

This article will explore the extraordinary juvenile archive of Eva Knatchbull-Hugessen. It will consider how young people could be active participants in the shaping of family archives, leading to the curation of more dissonant histories. In Eva’s case this involved writing in tandem with, but also in counterpoint to, the journals of her father, Edward. The survival of contemporaneous diaries from daughter and father enables micro-comparisons of daily entries to interrogate the diverse and multilayered strategies of evasion, obliqueness, and self-censorship they deployed in the intricate and fluctuating construction of authorial selves. Edward’s journals reveal his intimate friendships with a number of young men and reference his wife’s distressed response. The article considers how far it is possible to trace the implications of hidden queer histories through the study of a juvenile archive. In so doing it delineates how, despite a loving relationship between father and daughter, Eva’s diaries quietly identified many facets of Edward’s patriarchal masculinity. She also deployed comic ‘entertainment narratives’ to record awkward family moments, but used silence to register dissent from other aspects of her father’s behaviour. Exploring juvenile life writing, it will be suggested, requires a new archival hermeneutics in which the meanings of archives and their construction can reveal hidden dynamics as well as pointing to the cultural agency of young diarists.

POLÍTICA HABITACIONAL RURAL E MORADIA CAMPONESA NO MARANHÃO

Este texto analisa as limitacoes e consequencias de politicas publicas locais quando se utilizam de programas nacionais pensados a partir de outras realidades socioespaciais. Tal analise parte de pesquisa da recente politica habitacional rural do Governo do Maranhao, que, inspirada no Plano Nacional de Habitacao Rural (PNHR), integra o plano estadual de desenvolvimento de municipios com baixo indice de desenvolvimento humano (IDH), buscando enfrentar o grave quadro das moradias precarias do Estado. Sob a otica da divisao social do trabalho e da lei do desenvolvimento desigual e combinado, a primeira secao analisa os dispares resultados regionais do PNHR para, em seguida, contextualizar a realidade do campones maranhense, que, vivendo a margem do sistema economico, pratica o extrativismo e tem a moradia como forma de sobrevivencia. Com base nas especificidades do deficit habitacional rural do estado e fundamentada em pesquisa nos povoados selecionados pelo programa, a terceira secao avalia os processos de producao e apropriacao da moradia pelas familias contempladas, constatando o nao atendimento das metas fisicas e sociais da proposta. Conclui que incompativel com os modos de vida e praticas tradicionais de autoconstrucao, o programa contraria metas de desenvolvimento local e nao contribui para a afirmacao cultural de grupos sociais marginalizados, grande presenca populacional no Estado. Palavras Chave: Politica habitacional rural; moradia camponesa; Maranhao/Brasil

Young people’s investments in sexual relationships: A different prioritization of self in the negotiation of safe sex practices in South Africa

In the South African context of high HIV prevalence, sexual relationships are entwined with risk. This qualitative study in a rural context examined how young people negotiate sexual practices and engage with this risk. Data was gathered from men and women (aged 15 to 33) in eight focus groups and 11 individual interviews. Abdication of self-care and deprioritization of self in the negotiation of safe sexual practices are reformulated into an understanding of the varied investments that young people make in particular kinds of sexual relationships. Sexual activity was found to underpin social reputation and identity production. In the trade-off between health protection and group membership, identity was related to investments in relationships that secured status for both genders. Future health-related interventions would need to work with other constructions of self in sexual relationships.

Where Do I Belong? Narratives of Rodina among Russian-speaking Youth in Kazakhstan

This essay engages critically with the personal narratives of rodina (home, motherland) among Russian-speaking youth in post-Soviet Kazakhstan. It is argued that the concept of rodina as an important locus of belonging cannot be imbued with a single meaning; instead, it is characterised by internal conflicts and variations. Supported by empirical material, the essay moves beyond the confines of ‘nation’ and ‘nationality’ to illustrate the different ways in which Russian speakers frame their perception of rodina, and how such narratives can influence the construction of self- and community-identification.

Ethnicity: Constructions of Self and Other in Ancient Egypt

Abstract The construction of ethnic self and other played a central role in ancient Egyptian ideology as well as at a more quotidian level. Ethnic groups are usually seen as self-defined, distinctive entities, often corresponding neatly to political or cultural units, but in reality, expressions of ethnic identity are mutable and socially contingent. Adopting a multi-scalar approach informed by practice theory, this paper examines ancient Egyptian constructions of ethnicity, taking into account ideological and elite expressions of ethnic identity from art and texts and everyday practices revealed by archaeology. A carefully contextualized analysis shows how pejorative constructions of an ethnic other by the state contrast with more positive interactions and patterns of mutual influence at a more individual level.

The ‘Greek crisis’ as a middle-class morality tale: frames of ridicule, pity and resentment in the German and the Danish press

ABSTRACTThe hegemonic framing of the ‘Greek crisis’, launched by leading liberal and conservative politicians in the European Union (EU) and elsewhere and followed by mass media, reflected deep Western racial prejudices towards the periphery, and stressed typical bourgeois values affirming hard work, while publicly asserting regimes of entitlement to citizenship, welfare and consumption. The article presents a class-oriented analysis of the ‘Greek crisis’ discursive construction in North-Western European media, by studying articles published between 2010 and 2015 in four newspapers from Germany and Denmark. The analysis shows that, along with cultural ones, upper/middle-class biases are publicly expressed through articulations of ridicule, contempt and resentment, three interrelated ‘affective modalities’ connected to essentialist binary constructions of the (Western/European) self and the (non-Western/European) Other. Thus, the bourgeois ideology is crucial in reproducing depoliticized frames of economic crisis, to pursue neoliberal crisis-reforms (such as various regimes of austerity and labour deregulation). The production and affirmation of middle-class subjectivities, is crucial for the organic advance of neoliberal reforms in society, while denying the advancing of working – class identifications and solidarities in the highly uncertain times of today.