Critical Contextualization Research Articles

Political Critiques and Power Dynamics within Pakistani Society: A Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA) of Pakistani Drama "Ishq Murshid"

This research paper proposes examining postmodern political power in the Pakistani Urdu television drama “Ishq Murshid” (2023), employing Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA) as its theoretical framework that is utilized to examine how the drama reflects, reinforces, and critiques political matters and power dynamics within Pakistani society. The study's main objective is to analyze how the selected drama portrays political power, ideology, and resistance and examine the implications of political narratives and political realities in Pakistani discourse. This study is based on the qualitative method and systematically identifies and interprets political discourse within the political narrative, exploring the themes of authority, power, corruption, and social injustices represented in all the episodes of “Ishq Murshid.”. This study uses the tools and techniques for analysis including thematic coding, discourse markers identification, and critical contextualization of dialogues and narrative structures. The study aims to contribute to understanding the media's role in shaping and reflecting political discourse in South Asia, mainly through the lens of popular Urdu drama. The findings of the study of “Ishq-e-Murshid” critique Pakistan's political and social structures, highlighting corruption, moral resistance, and power dynamics. It critiques stereotypes, societal mistrust, and the role of family and legacy.

‘It’s One Rule for Them and One for Us’: Occupational Classification, Gender and Worktime Domestic Labour

In this article, we focus on gender and class to investigate worktime domestic labour. Methodologically, we extend a novel, comparative critical realist method in which occupation-based and gendered positions in productive and reproductive labour are foregrounded. By building theoretical connections between labour process conditions and collective rule-following practices, we illustrate how inequalities are inscribed organisationally. Our analysis provides a more critical contextualisation of technological affordances to develop the literature on how technology is implicated in the reproduction of social inequality. Moreover, our analysis identifies multi-level causal processes, which combine to explain the presence and actualisation of worktime domestic labour or its absence, which is due, principally, to fear of sanction. For realist researchers interested in diversity-based challenges, absences are important because they can point towards specific discriminatory mechanisms. Our investigation thus revealed a surprising level of class-related in-work inequality within the gendered dynamics of domestic work.

Fostering responsible innovation with critical design methods

ABSTRACT In light of increasingly harmful social, psychological, and environmental impacts stemming from the tech industry, this article contributes to ongoing conversations regarding the need for more rigorous ethical deliberation in the engineering design workflow. We present two examples of pedagogical interventions dedicated to injecting critical design methods into the education of future tech developers to help foster responsible innovation: 1) a cross-disciplinary curricular intervention with English and Systems Design Engineering students; 2) a series of Responsible Innovation workshops conducted with students. Critical design, an arts-based research practice that resists unreflective technological progress, is uniquely situated to enhance current approaches in engineering ethics curricula by creating space for reflection about and design-based responses to the impacts of tech innovation. We argue that methods and expertise from the arts and humanities – disciplines that excel in the critical contextualization of technological progress – can help foster an ethos of responsible innovation in engineering education.

Experience implementing curricular activities in physics to familiarize students with SDGs 5 and 7

This paper presents an experience of implementing curricular activities that aim to familiarise students with the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), thus promoting sustainability and the critical contextualisation of knowledge and highlighting the scientific contributions of women. The pedagogical experience was carried out in the Physics subject of the Chemical Engineering degree at the University of Santiago de Compostela (USC). First, a questionnaire was administered to assess students’ prior knowledge of these goals, especially SDG 5: «Achieve gender equality and empower all women and girls» and SDG 7: «Affordable and clean energy», in the first-year Physics subjects of the Chemical Engineering and Biotechnology degrees of the USC to determine the influence of the degree. The results showed that students in both degrees knew the SDGs but had difficulties identifying SDG 7. Similarly, male students of Chemical Engineering had more difficulty in identifying SDG 5. Subsequently, the classes, academic content and activities of the Physics subject of the Chemical Engineering degree were planned to raise awareness among students about the current climate, energy and social emergency in which we find ourselves, as well as the gender inequalities that persist in society. In this way, the aim was for students to acquire critical thinking skills to avoid gender blindness and to face a future with fewer and fewer mineral and energy resources. The experience was satisfactory for the students, demonstrating the importance of teaching this content in scientific subjects because they enabled reflection and critical capacity, which are essential for understanding and dealing with reality.

The Victoria Spivey Collection

This "From the Archives" essay offers a critical contextualisation of the IJS's Victoria Spivey Collection, together with a supplementary bibliography of the singer's jazz criticism in the magazine Record Research and other jazz journals.

Paul Hiebert and Critical Contextualization

Paul G. Hiebert's contribution to the discussion of contextualization has been both wide and lasting. His ideas continue to influence missiologists and missionaries. This article investigates how Hiebert developed those ideas and aims to help readers better understand how to implement Hiebert's ideas into the missionary task.

The Metaverse as a Digital Missionary Site

The metaverse attracts considerable attention in politics, economy, society and culture. Unfortunately, seminaries and churches are still in their early stages of missiological research and understanding the metaverse. If we understand the metaverse as a digital mission field, research on the missiological approach is required. We should pay attention to the infinitely expanding and integrating metaverse. Overseas, there is already a history of experimental challenges and settlements from decades ago on the potential for churches in virtual spaces. While online churches are famous in Korea, there is insufficient understanding of ways to meet the younger generation of non-believers in the metaverse. Since online churches are analogue enterprises, there is a massive gap between them and the digital younger generation. Paul Hiebert’s critical contextualization is still valid in approaching the metaverse as a digital mission field. Heidi Campbell’s study of the relationship between media and religions, “religious-social shaping approach to technology” reminds Korean churches of the value of the metaverse as a new media. Both theories show Korean churches need dialogue and patience when approaching the metaverse to contact non-believers. Missiological discussions on the metaverse should promote a holistic understanding in which the two worlds closely relate rather than a dualistic understanding. The digital living spaceof the MZ generation that emerged with the development of new technology does not conflict with the nature of the Christian Church. Therefore, Korean churches need to understand the metaverse as a space of mission and coexistence.

An Investigation into the Perspectives of Elementary Pre-Service Teachers on Sustainable Development

Teachers in elementary schools play a crucial role in educating children about sustainable development. Therefore, the concept of sustainable development is essential for elementary pre-service teachers to be ready for their future careers. This study used the sequential mixed methods design to investigate the relationship between the sustainable development perspectives of elementary pre-service teachers in Southern Vietnam and the current teacher training curriculum. The EDINSOST sustainability questionnaire was distributed to 392 participants in order to measure four dimensions of sustainable development: critical contextualization of knowledge, sustainable use of resources, participation in community processes, and ethics. A set of six interview questions was conducted with eight participants, focused on their understandings of sustainable development and the evaluation of the curriculum on sustainable development. Quantitative findings revealed that elementary pre-service teachers rate moderately on all dimensions; however, the knowledge is slightly higher than the behavior. Moreover, there were variations in perspectives based on pre-service teachers’ grade level and gender. Qualitative findings suggested the lack of sustainable development perspectives amongst pre-service teachers and the gaps in the teacher training curriculums regarding sustainable development. Finally, detailed discussions regarding the implementation of sustainable development in the training curriculum were provided.

Coworking spaces and collaborative practices

Collaborative practices underlie the creation of innovation yet how and when these practices emerge is not well understood, particularly given the presence of flexible and open workspaces. Based on seven case studies of entrepreneurial Tech/FinTech firms in London, we explore how collaborative spaces lead to collaborative practices, when they do. Our findings suggest the enabling and inhibiting role of interstitial spaces (e.g. informality and spatiality) and identify catalysts in the emergence of collaborative practices in a coworking space. A theoretical and critical contextualisation advances our understanding of how collaborative practices emerge and articulates the conditionality of openness in the form of underlying mechanisms for collaboration and, subsequently (open) innovation outcomes. We discuss implications for future research and management of coworking spaces.

Meningsfull tro i sosiokulturell kontekst. En undersøkelse av forholdet mellom gudsåpenbaring og kultur

This article contributes towards developing a “theology of culture”. It explores and strengthens our understanding of the role of culture in God’s administration and communication with humankind. Contextualization is not simply a “good strategy” but is god-intended and therefore inherent to any and all aspects of Christian mission. Cultural preconceptions inevitably activate syncretic adaptations in processes of conversion. Instead of trying to avoid syncretism, a culturally conscious Christian ministry needs to engage syncretic evolvements with empathy and sensitivity. Hiebert’s model of critical contextualization, coupled with a Lutheran understanding of the function of culture, enhances our commitment to take peoples’ lives seriously.

Tools for Embedding and Assessing Sustainable Development Goals in Engineering Education

This paper presents three tools developed within the framework of the project EDINSOST2-SDG, aimed at embedding and assessing the Education for Sustainable Development (ESD) in Engineering curricula. ESD is promoted through the introduction into engineering curricula of learning outcomes related to sustainability and, specifically, to the Sustainable Development Goals (SDG). The first tool, the “Engineering Sustainability Map”, contains ESD-related learning outcomes that any engineering student should have acquired upon completion of their studies. These learning outcomes are described according to four sustainability competencies: (1) Critical contextualization of knowledge, (2) Sustainable use of resources, (3) Participation in community processes, and (4) Application of ethical principles. The second tool, the “Sustainability Presence Map” of a degree, shows the percentage of the presence in the curriculum of each sustainability competency. The calculation of the presence of each competency is based on the effective integration of the related learning outcomes into a specific curriculum. Respective data are provided by teachers responsible for the coordination of the different subjects of the degree, collected by means of a questionnaire. The third tool presented is a questionnaire aimed at measuring the level of ESD that students perceive they have acquired through each competency. The comparison of data resulting from the Sustainability Presence Map with the data from the student questionnaire is the first step that allows the effectiveness of embedding ESD in a degree to be determined, a proper learning assessment will confirm such effectiveness. The three tools presented in this work have undergone a validation process and are currently being used in a set of engineering degrees related to the EDINSOST2-SDG project. The results of the application of these tools are part of the future research work of the authors.

The ramifications of missionary proselytisation on Tiv culture: Lessons for contemporary critical biblical contextualisation

Christianity, from its inception, has always demonstrated a conscious effort to communicate the gospel in ways that engender transformation. Yet the undying presence of African indigenous religious practices amongst evangelised African communities continues to be a worrisome enigma. The goal of this article is to examine the contextualisation practices, successes and failures of early western missionaries, using literary critical analysis of contemporary literature and cultural phenomenological analysis, and to propose approaches to a biblical inculturation of Christianity in contemporary indigenous societies. We focus on the over 100 years of Christianity in northern Nigeria, with particular emphasis on the Tiv of central Nigeria. The author’s research has shown that the relatively long presence of Christian mission work in Nigeria (especially amongst the Tiv) has not significantly altered the world view of the professed adherents of Christian faith, as it remains largely traditional rather than biblical. Consequently, we proposed the adoption of ethno-hermeneutic and community theologising to make for critical contextualisation of Christianity amongst indigenous people. The proposed critical contextualisation, is essential for rooting Christianity in native populations without uprooting them from their cultures, and for ensuring neither the gospel truth claims nor the Christian world view is surrendered to native cultures in the process of indigenising the gospel.Intradisciplinary and/or interdisciplinary implications: This article highlights the importance of a holistic interdisciplinary approach to evangelisation, requiring the interplay of anthropology, missiology, hermeneutics, and dogmatic and exegetical theology.

Family Ministry: Past, Present, Future

Within the family ministry movement, various philosophies, curriculum, conferences, and ministry models have been historically developed for the Christian discipleship of families. These resources and models have become an integral part of the local church’s ministry to families within the church, the home, and the community. However, as sociocultural shifts occur in our contemporary context, these changes may necessitate future reconceptualization and a critical contextualization approach to family ministry.

Lee Nukpe’s Nubile: A Carving With A Shadow

The Ghanaian sculptor Lee Nukpe belongs to the post-Independence or post-World War II generation of visual artists in Ghana whose bodies of work have not had due critical assessment, contextualization and review. The paper reviews Nukpe’s late-career work, Nubile, a bas relief representation of a bare-breasted young woman arrayed in Ghanaian nubility rites insignia. The authors identify carryovers from Ghana’s colonial and post-Independence generations such as the predominantly social realist aesthetic and veiled conservative sex and gender motifs. However, the authors also point out how the cut-and-dry cultural and formal motifs in Nubile are also undermined by Nukpe’s ostensible double-coding. This spectral feature of Nubile presents it as a “text with a shadow”. The authors argue that to a large extent, Nubile lends itself to ambivalent readings which could challenge Ghana’s patriarchal definitions of woman and nubility.

Are We Training in Sustainability in Higher Education? Case Study: Education Degrees at the University of Salamanca

In this work, we analyzed the progress made in learning sustainability competencies by students belonging to the four Bachelor Education degrees at the University of Salamanca: Early Childhood Education Teacher, Primary Education Teacher, Pedagogy, and Social Education. To assess this progress, the instrument we used was the student questionnaire designed by the EDINSOST project. The questionnaire consisted of 18 questions related to the four sustainability competencies defined in 2011 by the Conference of Rectors of Spanish Universities: (1) critical contextualization of knowledge, (2) sustainable use of resources, (3) participation in community processes, and (4) application of ethical principles. The students answered the questions using a four-point Likert scale. The analysis of the answers determined the students’ perception of their own learning related to sustainability competencies. A total of 230 first-year and 96 fourth-year students responded to the questionnaire. The comparison between the first- and fourth-year students’ answers to each question enabled an evaluation of the improvement perceived by the students in their sustainability competencies. We analyzed the results by using the Mann–Whitney and Kruskal–Wallis U tests. The results show that the students of the Bachelor Degree in Pedagogy are the only ones who achieve a significant improvement in their sustainability competencies. Bachelor Degree in Social Education and Bachelor Degree in Early Childhood Education Teacher students achieve an improvement, but it is not significant. Finally, Bachelor Degree in Primary Education Teacher students do not seem to achieve any improvement. From these data, it appears that the model used to introduce sustainability competencies in the Bachelor Degree in Pedagogy is the only one that achieves good results.

네팔 힌두교의 고유특징에 따른 선교적 제언

The main purpose of this article is to bring a missiological understanding of Nepali Hinduism which is essential for the growth and development of Nepal Mission and to suggest some strategies based on the findings. Nepal Hinduism incorporates the elements of indigenous beliefs and practices and Buddhism, and it has developed into a ritual-centered practice and has become the foundation of politics of Nepal. Nepali Christian mission is about demonstrating the love of God through Christian living rather than confronting Nepali people with the doctrine of monotheism. It should be done by dealing Hinduism with the critical contextualization method, and help Nepali Christians to be part of the larger Nepal society. The ritual centered religiosity should be transformed and utilized to strengthen Nepali Christians’ commitment to the Gospel. Therefore, the study of Nepali Hinduism becomes the foremost strategy of Nepali mission.

Ingenious Citizenship: Recrafting Democracy for Social Change by Charles Lee

Reviewed by: Ingenious Citizenship: Recrafting Democracy for Social Change by Charles Lee Elias Rodriques Lee, Charles. 2016. Ingenious Citizenship: Recrafting Democracy for Social Change. Durham, NC: Duke University Press. $25.95 sc. 298 pp. Charles Lee's Ingenious Citizenship: Recrafting Democracy for Social Change is a well-researched book that will prove important for theorists of social change, political agency, and social movements. Lee begins by critiquing the premises that undergird the common conception of political agency as "a capacity to act politically in ways that are public and collective" (3). Whereas most scholars associate democratic agency with liberalist thought, Lee contends that radical political thinkers conceive of political agency in the same way. According to Lee, the liberal and radical assumption that political agency is democratic agency becomes the assumption that political agency ought to be democratic agency. This slide from descriptive to normative, and the consequential valorization of democratic agency, ultimately denigrates other kinds of political action and agency, retracts the horizon of what we conceive of as political, and obscures potential models for radical transformation. To critique the valorization of democratic agency, Lee studies the political actions of marginalized subjects who exercise "political agency" through "deliberate subjection" to the state as a means of gaining their ends (5–6). Analyzing these subjections as exemplary of new routes for political change, Lee critiques the traditional model [End Page 751] of social justice and transformation, which describes both as "critical of and oppositional to . . . the structural conditions of injustice" (8). Against this model's depiction of social justice movements as transcendent, Lee foregrounds these marginalized actors' subjection as a means of insisting that social justice movements are immanent to the conditions of injustice which they seek to change. Change, Lee argues, is always already immanent to liberal modernity and the capitalist world system. This is, according to Lee, a secret abject subjects already know and a premise from which those subjects work. To understand how the strategies of abject subjects are significant to radical visions of change, Lee develops a method he terms "critical contextualization," which uses interdisciplinary methods to center the everyday actions of abject subjects, interpret them from the perspective of the abject subject, and expand our conception of political agency. Lee's method, which borrows heavily from anthropology, aims to expand our understanding of the potential means for producing change within liberal capitalist modernity. In particular, Lee focuses on political agency as gained or enacted through modes of citizenship. For Lee, citizenship is not a static object but a "cultural script" produced by "liberal sovereignty to govern and regulate how citizen-subjects should conduct themselves in different realms of social life" (26). The importance of defining citizenship as a cultural script arises when abject-subjects denied the benefits of citizenship act with the titular "ingenious citizenship" and find means of writing themselves "into the script" to acquire their desired ends (27). In so doing, they deliberately subject themselves to the state's citizen-forming processes to find means of surviving. Lee's examples are migrant domestic workers, sex workers, trans people, and suicide bombers. His analyses of ethnographies of domestic workers are especially illuminative. For instance, he writes of a domestic servant who cut and refused to bandage her finger while ironing. Fearing further bloodstains on their clothes, the employer eased the domestic servant's workload that day. In this and other instances, ingenious agency provides "a contingent and momentary change—if not a shift of power, at least some breathing room—in their immediate confinement" (64). In his chapter on sex workers, Lee analyzes an episode of the internet show The Skyy John Show, interpreting one sex worker who works indoors denigrating those who work "on the streets" as abjecting one kind of sex worker's [End Page 752] work in order to credit her own. In so doing, she foregrounds "that the cultural script of liberal economic citizenship is not totally fixed but contains gaps that allow it to be reshaped" (106). Lee insists that moments like these harbor the potential for rewriting relations amongst people and changing liberal capitalism. Lee's chapter on trans people further grounds his analysis within two traditional domains...

FACTORS INFLUENCING THE KIPSIGIS' PERCEPTIONS OF CHILDLESSNESS: NARRATIVE ANALYSIS

Infertility is a significant problem that affects people of all cultures in the world. However, an increasing number of couples suffering due to childlessness is observed among the Kipsigis community in Fort-Ternan, Kericho County. Hence, the need to understand the reasons behind the changing trend as well as the Kipsigis perceptions of infertility. This study sought to answer the research questions: How does Kipsigis society perceive childlessness? What factors influence this perception? A qualitative study using an open ended interview and focus group discussion are employed in gathering information for this study. Heibert’s critical contextualization model is adopted in scrutinizing the Kipsigis perceptions. The narrative analysis revealed five issues: social, cultural, family, religion and economic factors as great influencers to the Kipsigis perceptions. The results suggested that child-bearing is perceived inevitable. Children are crucial in holding the marriage together without which; the union is not fully established. Children play important roles including formation of the family, expansion of the family lineage and they are the future legacy. It is therefore recommended for the Kipsigis Christians to understand the implications of childlessness in biblical perspective and to acknowledge an alternative view in light of God’s purposes in the world and to offer biblical, cultural and missiological guidance for the Kipsigis churches and the Kipsigis society. Article visualizations:

Building Missionlogical Bridges in Japan

Although the first Japanese contact with Christianity happened in the 8th century, this country still figures as one of the biggest missiological challenges. In 2018 the Seventh-day Adventist Church has elected Japan as one of its primary missionary contexts. Based on the understanding about the importance of critical contextualization for mission, this study intends to suggest elements to build missiological bridges between Christianity and Shintoism, the Japanese cultural religion. Shintoism, a syncretistic religion, has shaped the Japanese culture and worldview. The aim is to study the values of the Japanese culture connected with Shintoism and develop channels, so Christians can reveal the gospel in a contextual way. Cultural Anthropology provides tools that are especially relevant to develop the process of critical contextualization.

Online hate, digital discourse and critique: Exploring digitally-mediated discursive practices of gender-based hostility

AbstractThe communicative affordances of the participatory web have opened up new and multifarious channels for the proliferation of hate. In particular, women navigating the cybersphere seem to be the target of a disproportionate amount of hostility. This paper explores the contexts, approaches and conceptual synergies around research on online misogyny within the new communicative paradigm of social media communication (KhosraviNik 2017a: 582). The paper builds on the core principle that online misogyny is demonstrably and inherently a discourse; therefore, the field is envisaged at the intersection of digital media scholarship, discourse theorization and critical feminist explications. As an ever-burgeoning phenomenon, online hate has been approached from a range of disciplinary perspectives but has only been partially mapped at the interface of meaning making contents/processes and new mediation technologies. The paper aims to advance the state of the art by investigating online hate in general, and misogyny in particular, from the vantage point of Social Media Critical Discourse Studies (SM-CDS); an emerging model of theorization and operationalization of research combining tenets from Critical Discourse Studies with scholarship in digital media and technology research (KhosraviNik 2014, 2017a, 2018). Our SM-CDS approach to online misogyny demarcates itself from insinuation whereby the phenomenon is reduced to digital communicative affordancesper seand argues in favor of a double critical contextualization of research findings at both digital participatory as well as social and cultural levels.