Contemporary Community Research Articles

The Role of Book Production and Libraries in Shaping Reading Attitudes from the Renaissance to the Enlightenment: The Birth of Recreational Reader

The following paper presents an exploration of the history of books and libraries in conjunction with the development of historical reading practices, focusing on the culturally rich periods spanning from the Renaissance to the Enlightenment. The study combines literary theory and learning theories with a historical survey of the social and cultural milieu during the Renaissance and Enlightenment eras, which influenced the reader's perception of engagement with books and reading. More specifically, the article delves into: a) the interplay between publishing output, library functions, and reader-text dynamics, b) the impact of mass information dissemination on the reading skills prevalent in each era, using specific historical periods as case studies and c) the role of literary salons and the circulation of journals during the Enlightenment era in shaping the archetype of the recreational reader, as observed in contemporary reading communities, library environments and educational settings.

Playing up Difference

How do groups reckon with differences in members’ identities and beliefs? A tension exists between groups, whose identities are singular and stably positioned, and their members, whose identities are intertwined and constituted in interaction. Existing work shows how this tension is addressed through downplaying difference, but we know less about how differences are played up in group life. Drawing on two years of ethnographic fieldwork and 56 interviews with a racially and politically diverse religious group, I examine how members play up identities and beliefs that are not shared by all and how comembers respond. This analysis reveals two pathways that playing up difference takes: an engagement pathway and an avoidance pathway. The engagement pathway depends on the activation of shared structural, relational, and epistemic foundations. I conclude with a broader consideration of how playing up difference relates to the pursuit of plurality and wholeness in contemporary organizations and communities.

Evolutionary history and environmental variability structure contemporary tropical vertebrate communities

AbstractAimTropical regions harbour over half of the world's mammals and birds, but how their communities have assembled over evolutionary timescales remains unclear. To compare eco‐evolutionary assembly processes between tropical mammals and birds, we tested how hypotheses concerning niche conservatism, environmental stability, environmental heterogeneity and time‐for‐speciation relate to tropical vertebrate community phylogenetic and functional structure.LocationTropical rainforests worldwide.Time periodPresent.Major taxa studiedGround‐dwelling and ground‐visiting mammals and birds.MethodsWe used in situ observations of species identified from systematic camera trap sampling as realized communities from 15 protected tropical rainforests in four tropical regions worldwide. We quantified standardized phylogenetic and functional structure for each community and estimated the multi‐trait phylogenetic signal (PS) in ecological strategies for the four regional species pools of mammals and birds. Using linear regression models, we test three non‐mutually exclusive hypotheses by comparing the relative importance of colonization time, palaeo‐environmental changes in temperature and land cover since 3.3 Mya, contemporary seasonality in temperature and productivity and environmental heterogeneity for predicting community phylogenetic and functional structure.ResultsPhylogenetic and functional structure showed non‐significant yet varying tendencies towards clustering or dispersion in all communities. Mammals had stronger multi‐trait PS in ecological strategies than birds (mean PS: mammal = 0.62, bird = 0.43). Distinct dominant processes were identified for mammal and bird communities. For mammals, colonization time and elevation range significantly predicted phylogenetic clustering and functional dispersion tendencies respectively. For birds, elevation range and contemporary temperature seasonality significantly predicted phylogenetic and functional clustering tendencies, respectively, while habitat diversity significantly predicted functional dispersion tendencies.Main conclusionsOur results reveal different eco‐evolutionary assembly processes structuring contemporary tropical mammal and bird communities over evolutionary timescales that have shaped tropical diversity. Our study identified marked differences among taxonomic groups in the relative importance of historical colonization and sensitivity to environmental change.

The neighbor spectrum in community housing: Pro-social, anti-social and asocial neighboring in Vancouver

ABSTRACT This article presents focus group research with community housing residents in Vancouver, Canada, investigating the role, activities, and importance of neighboring to these individuals living in vulnerable situations. Neighborly relationships play a key role in connecting the private home with the larger urban community through processes of home-making, social inclusion and integration, but an increasing share of urbanites are excluded from the structural and social expectations of good neighboring. Although neighbors constitute weaker and different ties than friends and family, and although contemporary urban community housing situations present barriers to good neighboring, neighboring is nonetheless essential to urban quality of life. We propose a conceptual frame of a spectrum of neighboring and find that pro-social neighboring, anti-social neighboring, and a middle zone of asocial neighboring, all are important aspects of life in community housing that are also defined in a context-specific way by community housing residents. The outcomes of this research highlight the need for urban social and housing policy that addresses neighboring across the spectrum as an important part of social inclusion and well-being efforts in cities contending with increasing density, diversity, and vulnerability.

A Critical Analyses on the History of Indigenous Resistance Movements: Lessons for Contemporary Struggles

The research paper, " A Critical Analyses on the History of Indigenous Resistance Movements: Lessons for Contemporary Struggles," comprehensively examines Indigenous resistance movements globally. The primary objectives of this study are to unearth historical narratives of Indigenous resistance, analyse their characteristics, and extract lessons applicable to contemporary struggles for Indigenous rights and social justice. The research employs a multi-faceted methodology to achieve these objectives, encompassing extensive literature review, archival research, and qualitative analysis of selected case studies. Ethical considerations in Indigenous research guide our data collection and analysis process. The key findings of this research illuminate a rich tapestry of Indigenous resistance movements spanning diverse regions and periods. These movements exhibit remarkable resilience, adaptability, and a commitment to cultural preservation in the face of colonial oppression. The study identifies commonalities in their strategies, including grassroots organising, cultural revitalisation, and alliances with sympathetic non-Indigenous groups. The implications of our research are profound. By revisiting the history of Indigenous resistance, we provide contemporary Indigenous communities and activists with valuable insights and inspiration. These historical lessons can inform present-day strategies, contribute to preserving Indigenous cultures, and bolster the pursuit of justice, equity, and self-determination for Indigenous peoples globally. In conclusion, this research underscores the enduring legacy of Indigenous resistance movements and their relevance in addressing the pressing challenges Indigenous communities face today. By mapping this history and distilling its lessons, we aim to promote a deeper understanding of Indigenous struggles and foster solidarity in pursuing a more just and inclusive world.

AMCFCN: attentive multi-view contrastive fusion clustering net

Advances in deep learning have propelled the evolution of multi-view clustering techniques, which strive to obtain a view-common representation from multi-view datasets. However, the contemporary multi-view clustering community confronts two prominent challenges. One is that view-specific representations lack guarantees to reduce noise introduction, and another is that the fusion process compromises view-specific representations, resulting in the inability to capture efficient information from multi-view data. This may negatively affect the accuracy of the clustering results. In this article, we introduce a novel technique named the “contrastive attentive strategy” to address the above problems. Our approach effectively extracts robust view-specific representations from multi-view data with reduced noise while preserving view completeness. This results in the extraction of consistent representations from multi-view data while preserving the features of view-specific representations. We integrate view-specific encoders, a hybrid attentive module, a fusion module, and deep clustering into a unified framework called AMCFCN. Experimental results on four multi-view datasets demonstrate that our method, AMCFCN, outperforms seven competitive multi-view clustering methods. Our source code is available at https://github.com/xiaohuarun/AMCFCN.

Philip Huynh’s The Forbidden Purple City: New Canadian Refugee Narratives and the Borders of the Socio-Political Community

This paper examines Philip Huynh’s short story collection The Forbidden Purple City in relation to its engagement with the nativity–territory–citizenship triad on which Western socio-political communities found the principles of affiliation of their members. First, the Canadian reaffirmation of a discourse of national benevolence is contextualised to later draw on how the collection is nurtured by boundary-crossing ethics that interrogates any sequential relation between past and present, Vietnam and Canada, which usually structures refugee narratives. It is argued then that disruptive and productive time/space interconnections delegitimate any simplistic representations of easily assimilated grateful refugees, fracturing the convenient narration of Canada as a benefactor concerned with old and new international humanitarian causes. The newness of Huynh’s stories relies on their mobilisation of the discourse of state citizenship through exceptional migrancy and its disruptive border nature. In contrast to premises of birth and geographical territory, which lose ground as backbones of any affiliation, citizenship appears incomplete and processual. The stories use the precarious performativity of collective homogeneity expected of a former settler colony, like Canada, to launch agency and resistance to state homogenisation, and de-institutionalise the refugee subject to critically intervene sovereignty and political subjectivity. Finally, the stories evince that Canada’s social spectrum is ideal to explore the threshold opened by the adjacency of sameness and otherness embodied by Huynh’s protagonists. Their condition as diasporic refugee subjects augments the transformative potential of new refugee narratives, in which literal and metaphorical polymorphous borders unveil the bases of the contemporary Canadian socio-political community.

Social conflict in Pati: Identifying causes and analyzing dynamics

This section discusses a social conflict that emerged in Pati, Central Java, Indonesia, sparked by the expansion plans of cement factories in the region. The conflict revolved around contrasting perspectives on environmental preservation, social harmony, economic interests, and sustainability. The clash of values led to protests, legal battles, and a deep-rooted conflict that persisted for years. The analysis explores the factors contributing to the conflict, the roles of social institutions in conflict resolution, and the broader implications for sustainable development and community engagement. The section also emphasizes the importance of understanding and addressing social conflicts in the context of contemporary state concepts and community dynamics.

Tendencies of Contemporary European National Communities’ Development in Context of Fourth Industrial Revolution and Globalization Processes

The article is dedicated to the issue of the development of national communities in Europe in the context of the influence of the Fourth Industrial Revolution and globalization, which mutually influence each other. The impact of these phenomena on the national communities of unified Europe has diverse consequences. In the context of globalization closely linked to Industry 4.0, as well as the phenomena of antiglobalism and Euroscepticism as reactions to it, the trends in the development of national communities in modern European states are highlighted. In Western European countries, the predominant process observed is the fragmentation of national communities. In Central and Eastern European countries that were under the influence of the USSR and became members of the EU and NATO at the turn of the 20th and 21st centuries, the reaction to globalization and Euro integration processes resulted in the rise of Eurosceptic and anti-globalist nationalism. In Ukraine, facing aggression from Russia and considering EU and NATO countries as allies, insufficient integration into the processes of globalization and the Fourth Industrial Revolution leads to predominantly Euro-optimistic tendencies in the trends toward national revival, without fostering skepticism towards globalization. It is demonstrated that the Fourth Industrial Revolution and globalization, mutually influencing each other, create conditions for weakening the role of national states both on the international stage and in the sphere of domestic political development. Social changes resulting from these processes have given rise to antiglobalism and Euroscepticism in EU countries, acting as corrective factors for globalization processes. Alongside regional separatism, political communities in Western Europe seeking separation remain within global and supranational structures. Desiring national revival through distancing from the past and integration with advanced countries of the Fourth Industrial Revolution, Ukraine maintains an open, inclusive character, supporting European and Euro-Atlantic integration.

The formation and problems of translation of environmental terms in the Kazakh language lexical system

Relevance. Nowadays social, economic and political systems are taking place in our world. It leads to the emergence of new terms and concepts. New professions also appear. The professions like consecutive interpretation, written translation, simultaneous interpretation demands high competence not only in native language, but also in mastering the foreign language. Good interpreters should have a wide lexicon, not only in the foreign language but also in their mother tongue. Purpose. Aims and tasks of such type of discourse is conditioned by the desire for accuracy an unambiguous interpretation of the text, which is realized through use of terms. Methodology. This article deals with issues concerning ecological discourse phenomenon and its features in the linguistic and translation aspect. Results. Environment becomes very important part of contemporary world community. Ecological problem permeates into communicative activity of society and influences its discursive space. Ecological issues are of the utmost importance in our century. It is due to need to protect the environment from destructive consequences of technological progress. Conclusions. Scientists outlined a special type of discourse – ecological discourse. Scientific ecological discourse has the same features as scientific discourse. Many researches should be done in this sphere, but unfortunately, in Kazakhstan scientists don’t pay enough attention to this problem.

Catastrophic impact of 1947 partition of India on people's health.

The partition of India on the dissolution of British Raj into two dominions is known to have been violent, polarizing and caused large-scale loss of life (about two million) and an unprecedented migration of 14 million people between the two dominions, India and Pakistan. It is not known how well the then scientific community covered this man-made disaster, and the response of the international community with aid. A systematic review was conducted using different electronic databases of PubMed, Econlit, United Nations resolutions, Government of India websites, and Google Scholar for the period January 1947 to December 1951 on the impact of the partition of the Indian sub-continent, and to identify the international response toward this humanitarian crisis. We could locate only twenty-four publications. Partition not only caused monumental humanitarian suffering, but also contributed to food deficits, adverse impact on trade and industries, national income and harmed public health. In contrast, no significant attention was expressed by the international scientific community or the United Nations, or aid provided during this catastrophic event. The review demonstrates the apathy by the contemporary international scientific research community on the social as well as economic damage caused by the partition of India. We suggest that the international scientific and research community should play the role of vigilante and fact finder to unearth the facets of mass human tragedy and its long-term consequences so that global consciousness is awakened, and help and aid flows when it is most needed.

The Relevance of Sectoral Clustering in Corporate Debt Policy: The Case Study of Slovak Enterprises

The processing and transformation of natural resources into completed and semi-finished products is the primary function of industry in each nation’s economy. There is no denying the significance of industry and sectoral classification of the economy, but the slow development and extension of one industry could have resulted in the advancement of other sectors that are now a part of contemporary communities. Since there are statistically significant differences between various industries, numerous authors are currently investigating the impact of the industry on the financial structure of firms, revealing the industry as a crucial determinant of corporate indebtedness. Thus, the main aim of this study is to determine the debt level of a sample of 4237 enterprises operating in the market in the period of 2018–2021 from various sectors using eight debt indicators, as well as to identify relationships between them, which may help to reveal sectors with homogeneous patterns of indebtedness (using the cluster analysis) and thus understand which sectors are the most stable and independent. The Kruskal–Wallis test is then used to determine if there are statistically significant differences between the calculated ratios related to the economic sector. Based on the results, it can be concluded that the choice of financial structure is significantly influenced by the industry. Financial performance and indebtedness indicators are quantitative statistics used to assess, monitor, and forecast company or sectoral financial health. They act as instruments for business insiders and outsiders to assess a company’s performance, particularly in comparison to competitors, and to pinpoint its strengths and weaknesses, making the outputs of this study important for all types of stakeholders.

Preservation or Revitalization? Examining the Conservation Status and Destructive Mechanisms of Tulou Heritage in Raoping, Chaozhou, China

ABSTRACT Tulou is an ancient and remarkable residential heritage that has garnered global attention for their distinctive form and spatial layout that serves both defensive and settlement purposes. This paper provides a comprehensive analysis of the current preservation status of tulou, based on a field investigation of 83 officially recognized cultural relic protection units and immovable cultural relic tulou in Raoping County, Chaozhou City, Guangdong Province. This study focuses on primary damage conditions such as adding doors and windows on external rammed earth walls, replacing roofing materials, additional construction and overall reconstruction, while also revealing the mechanism of hollowing destruction. The study proposes utilizing the “Rural Revitalization” initiative, which is currently being vigorously advocated by the government, as an opportunity to introduce diversified functions into the protection and revitalization of tulou buildings. This will ensure that the tulou are preserved to their fullest extent while also allowing them to continue serving contemporary community life and establishing a new spiritual connection with modern-day villagers. This study offers realistic and comprehensive insights into the current state of tulou heritage preservation, as well as active and effective guidance for preserving and renovating not only tulou but also other residential architectural heritage around the world.

КОНЦЕПЦІЯ СТРАТЕГІЇ ЄВРОПЕЙСЬКОГО СОЮЗУ І США У ВІДНОСИНАХ ІЗ РОСІЙСЬКОЮ ФЕДЕРАЦІЄЮ (КІН. ХХ – ПОЧ. ХХІ СТОЛІТТЯ)

This research is devoted to identifying the causes of the crisis in the global security system, triggered by the large-scale invasion of Ukraine by the Russian Federation in February 2022. The foundational concept underlying the strategy of the European Union and the United States in developing relations with the Russian Federation post-Cold War is analyzed in the article. Specifically, contemporary approaches of the EU and the US towards Russia bear the hallmarks of the concept known as Wilsonianism, which became the bedrock of the foreign policy strategy of the US and European countries towards post-Soviet states. The study presents a critique of this concept and analyzes its weaknesses. It also attempts to explain the logic behind the decisions of Western politicians regarding Russia from the end of the Cold War to its large-scale invasion of Ukraine. Through historical examples, the author demonstrates why it is currently impossible to apply the principles of Wilsonianism in developing a strategy for relations with the Russian Federation. Specifically, this is related to the lack of a common value foundation on which this concept is based. At the same time, the feasibility and appropriateness of the United States and European Union countries returning to the so-called principle of Realpolitik in relations with the Russian Federation is analyzed, as such proposals are also being discussed in the contemporary Western intellectual community. According to the author, this concept is also incapable of ensuring lasting peace and stability in Europe, as demonstrated by the historical example of its dominance in the strategies of Old-World states in the second half of the 19th and early 20th centuries. Accordingly, its application under current conditions also does not seem beneficial for restoring stability in the international system. The research analyzes the most effective systems of international relations that have prevailed in the world over the last 200 years and explains why, under current conditions of a global security crisis, only one strategic concept of containment appears most attractive in terms of maintaining peace and stability.

Scientific Community

This article problematizes the state of the contemporary scientific community, which fluctuates between the desire for autonomy and creative freedom, on the one hand, and responsibility to social challenges, on the other. In this context, the social meaning of Paul Feyerabend’s epistemological anarchism is reconstructed, revealing not only critical but also positive significance for contemporary science. Answering the two-sided question, “What kind of society does science need, and what kind of science does society need?”, Feyerabend gives a disappointing diagnosis of both society and science. The political desire for ideological monism and totalitarianism is supported by science, which is sometimes a form of ideology – a militant rationalism that excludes alternative points of view – and in turn parasitizes society. This circle can only be broken in a regime of genuine pluralist democracy, which will lead to a change in the understanding of science and its role in society. The ability to “defamiliarize” (B. Brecht), to take the position of the “other”, to refuse to gain intellectual power – these are the key characteristics of free reason, as Feyerabend understood it. If we try to reconstruct a social group that possesses such a mind, then in the social projection it will include marginal people, dilettantes, scientists whose activities diverge from the disciplinary paradigm and norms of the standard scientific ethos. A precarian is such a subject of science that breaks the monopoly on the truth and contributes to changing the understanding of science. The question is raised about the productivity and effectiveness of the scientific precariat in relation to the concept of science in a free society, as well as to the positioning of this phenomenon in the context of current discussions about expert knowledge, citizen science and pseudoscience.

Sustaining forest biodiversity: Exploring the effect of long-term natural disturbance dynamics on contemporary lichen communities in primary forest ecosystems

In this era of biodiversity loss and climate change, quantifying the impacts of natural disturbance on forest communities is imperative to improve biodiversity conservation efforts. Epiphytic and epixylic lichens are effective forest quality bioindicators, as they are generally long-lived organisms supported by continuity of specific forest structures and their associated microclimatic features. However, how lichen communities respond to the effects of fluctuating historical disturbances remains unclear. Using a dendrochronological approach, this study investigates how natural disturbance dynamics indirectly influence various lichen community metrics in some of Europe's best-preserved primary mixed-beech forests. Mixed modelling revealed that natural historical disturbance processes have decades-long effects on forest structural attributes, which had both congruent and divergent impacts on lichen community richness and composition. Total species richness indirectly benefited from both historical and recent higher-severity disturbances via increased standing dead tree basal area and canopy openness respectively - likely through the presence of both pioneer and late-successional species associated with these conditions. Red-listed species richness showed a dependence on habitat continuity (old trees), and increased with disturbance-related structures (standing dead trees) whilst simultaneously benefiting from periods without severe disturbance events (old trees and reduced deadwood volume). However, if the disturbance occurred over a century in the past, no substantial effect on forest structure was detected. Therefore, while disturbance-mediated forest structures can promote overall richness, threatened species appear vulnerable to more severe disturbance events – a concern, as disturbances are predicted to intensify with climate change. Additionally, the high number of threatened species found reinforce the critical role of primary forest structural attributes for biodiversity maintenance. Hence, we recommend a landscape-scale conservation approach encompassing forest patches in different successional stages to support diverse lichen communities, and the consideration of long-term disturbance dynamics in forest conservation efforts, as they provide critical insights for safeguarding biodiversity in our changing world.

Long Histories of Mediated Community

Reem Hilu interviews Wendy Hui Kyong Chun, Simon Fraser University’s Canada 150 Research Chair in New Media in the School of Communication, professor of Communication, and director of the Digital Democracies Institute. Chun discusses her work that historicizes the utopian and dystopian framings of digital media and network technologies, focusing on the nature of community, or its absence, online. Throughout the conversation, Hilu and Chun sought to maintain a dialogue between interpretations of contemporary mediated communities online and longer histories through which media have worked to organize connections and associations.

ИНФОРМАЦИОННО-ИССЛЕДОВАТЕЛЬСКИЙ ЦЕНТР «ТАНЦСОЮЗ» КАК ПРИМЕР ЦИФРОВИЗАЦИИ РОССИЙСКОГО СОВРЕМЕННОГО ТАНЦА

The aim of the article is to cover the activities of the first state digital archive of Russian contemporary dance, the Information and Research Centre “Dance Union”. The article describes the tasks, goals, and specifics of the modern digital archive, and gives a brief historical overview of it as a place where a society’s memory of its past is formed. IRC “Dance Union” collects, processes, stores and distributes information about the groups participating in the “Dance Union” festival, which is held at the Innovation Cultural Center of Kaluga since 2023, as well as about all Russian groups and dance projects that have submitted information about themselves to the IRC “Dance Union”. The IRC provides bibliographic, information, methodological services and carries out research, cultural and educational activities. Its permanent task is to collect, process, distribute, research and store information about Russian modern dance in the professional and media field. Its goal is to systematically work with the target audience of the Russian contemporary dance community, to observe the dynamics of the creative growth of the groups’ choreographers, and to create an archive of media data. <br> The article gives an example of the dance laboratory “Soviet Gesture” (1915 – present) as a project for the creation of new artistic practices based on the archives of the choreographic laboratory of the State Academy of Art Sciences (1921–1931), stored in the Russian State Archive of Literature and Art.

Finite Jest: Irony and Healing in There There

Abstract: Critical responses to Tommy Orange's There There have largely focused on its relationship to other Native American works published over the last few decades. However, a juxtaposition of the novel with an Anglo-American counterpart, David Foster Wallace's Infinite Jest , can prove particularly illuminating for exploring Orange's distinctiveness, along with the contemporary status of two fundamental concepts—irony and healing—in the broader Native American literary canon. For Orange, the wellspring of restorative belief can be found in an attenuated but still potent and promising form of a traditional Indigenous worldview—namely, an ideal of personal autonomy framed by the divine and emphasizing the self's subordination to and emancipation within a vivifying network of interdependent presences, both human and nonhuman. There There diagnoses pathologies afflicting contemporary Native communities with a keenly ironic eye, but it preserves, against corrosive skepticism, a robust confidence in possibilities for personal and collective recovery. What we ultimately discover in juxtaposing this work with Infinite Jest is a dramatic contrast between one tradition's lingering morbidity in the contemporary moment, and another's enduring vitality.

The experience of foreignness in The Double Book by Dimitris Hatzis

Dimitris Hatzis’ novel, The Double Book (1976), a work of migrant literature, is an interweave of paradigmatic stories of Greeks who emigrate and reshape their identity, after leaving behind their life in their native land. The experience of foreignness is experienced both by characters in the book who consciously choose to uproot themselves from their homeland and struggle to adapt to the unfamiliar cultural environments of foreign lands, while battling against nostalgia, alienation and loneliness, and also by others who are forced to leave their provincial birthplace and end up feeling alien to themselves. The present study attempts to view these stories as the axes of a modern narrative about the “romeiko” and its lost generations, which presents different but equally painful experiences of expatriation and the aspects of the hard struggle for survival in an unwelcoming land. Taking into account postmodern theoretical approaches to migrant writing which describe it as “writing between the two” (“écriture de l’entre-deux”), it examines both the nostalgic recollections of a fragmented individual and collective memory of the recent or distant past, linked to the longing to return, and the ideological and ontological problems created by experiencing “déterritorialisation” and a sense of not belonging (“désappartenance”). The study also contemplates the marginal psychological states that arise during the process of acculturation, which are caused by difficulties in communication or by the subjective and national identity crisis of the immigrants. Nevertheless, hope of an interdependent multi-ethnic world emerges at the end of the novel, and gives rise to a humanist reflection on the need to form intercultural consciences and open “rhizomatic identities” (“identités rhizomatiques”) in contemporary multicultural communities.