Modern Culture Research Articles

Laughing at Hypocrisy: The Turncoats (1711), Visual Culture and Dissent in Early Eighteenth-Century England

This article considers The Turncoats (1711), an anti-Dissent graphic satire published after the Tory victory in the 1710 General Election. The print ridiculed the hypocrisy of those Dissenters who abandoned their principles and conformed to the Church of England after that election, and pointed to the pervasiveness of religious hypocrisy in early eighteenth-century England more generally. This article contextualizes the print within the tense religious and political rivalries that developed after the 1688 Revolution and the trial of Henry Sacheverell. The Turncoats’ ridicule resonated because it built on older traditions of stereotypes in anti-popery and anti-puritanism, which used mockery to attack those perceived to be hypocrites. Mockery is analyzed by considering how early modern culture understood laughter. It is argued that ridicule in The Turncoats expressed superiority over hypocrites by subjecting them to contempt and provided relief from anxieties about the prevalence of hypocrisy during the rage of parties.

Analysis of Trends in Contemporary Female Body Aesthetics

In today's society, perceptions of women's body aesthetics are changing positively. Traditional perceptions of the standard image of beauty are being replaced by increasingly diverse and inclusive definitions. A diverse body image not only encourages women to embrace their unique physical characteristics, but also promotes physical fitness and self-confidence. With the evolution of social media and the entertainment industry, women have more choices in how they present themselves and are able to project a more authentic and positive body image. However, despite the progress made, there is still a spread of stereotypes and inaccurate standards of women's bodies that challenge the quest for diversity and inclusion. Therefore, through education, advocacy and positive media guidance, we can work together to create a more diverse, healthy and confident female body beauty. This paper looks into how women's body aesthetics are seen and how to promote a diversified, healthy, and self-assured body image. Using a combination of research from the fields of psychology, sociology, and media studies, it looks at the cultural reflections, psychological ramifications, and societal impacts related to beauty standards. Prioritizing physical health, emotional well-being, and self-acceptance, the study promotes a holistic approach that highlights the significance of questioning impractical goals and embracing variety. It highlights the need for a paradigm change toward more inclusive and empowering depictions of women's bodies in modern culture through an examination of real research findings.

Die Anfänge der ›jüdischen Moderne‹ in der Aufklärungszeit. Zum Diskurs zwischen Moses Mendelssohn und Christian Wilhelm Dohm

Abstract This contribution locates the beginnings of emancipation of Central-European Jews with the development of social and cultural modernisation. In order to explain this, I will show facts and conditions of the discourse between on the one hand Christian Wilhelm Dohm, as an enlightened Prussian public official and on the other hand philosopher Moses Mendelsohn. I will place this discourse in the centre of my treatise and I will ask in how far it effected a breakthrough of modernisation. My subject will in particular be the coming into view and including of the public; and also, the cameralistic ideas of the benefit of marginalised parts of the population. In addition, the impetus for the debate deriving from conditions in Alsace. And finally, the question in what way the ideas of Dohm and Mendelsohn, although not identical, make a distinction from former ideas of Jewish equality. Even though complete legal emancipation of Jews was another century in coming this initial trigger resulted in decisive criteria and keywords for the oncoming debate.

A brand’s Initiation and Promotion in Relation to Modern Culture Wars

Nowadays, there is a tense geopolitical situation because of the advance of NATO to Russian borders, the threat of violation of its sovereignty. The collective West aims to dismantle Russian statehood and undermine social cohesion, law and order, national values, and socio-cultural values. They fixate on restoring neocolonialism and imposing global dominance on sovereign states. The paper focuses on the aggression of the collective West towards Russia’s cultural values, posing a threat to its national historical code. The subject of the study is the actions of cultural wars between brands and countries, which caused adopting anti-crisis measures. The purpose of the study is to analyze and provide possible strategies and models of brand behavior during crisis situations caused by culture wars. The research deals with the following issues: the modern phenomenon of culture wars; the role of the cultural brand in relation to culture wars; the possibility of using commercial brands as a tool of soft power; the influence of brands on the formation and changes of cultural, national and traditional values; the phenomena of culture shock and brand cancellation culture, as well as methods of countering crisis situations.

External characteristics of cardio-strength load based on local exercises and heart rate response during its performance

In modern health-enhancing physical culture the use of complex training sessions with successive tasks solving is mainly provided and almost no attention to complex training sessions with parallel task solving. In this regard, it is important to find out the possibility of building training sessions that would allow influencing the cardio respiratory system through the use of strength exercises. The purpose of the study is to explore the characteristics of the load and heart rate changing in complex cardio-strength training sessions with parallel task solving. Experimental total training sessions included a warm-up (10-12 min) and 6 local strength exercises divided into three pairs (biceps - triceps, deltoid - latissimus dorsi, rhomboid - pectoral muscles) performed as circuit training. The duration of cardio- strength sessions – 30 min., intensity – 12 RM, repetition – 4, rest – changing exercises. A 62 years old man with high physical fitness for this age took place in a research. The heart rate study was carried out by the POLAR cardio-tracker. The sound recording of the exercise commentary was simultaneously activated with the heart rate sensor. This made it possible to study the duration of exercises, rests and heart rate during each exercise. Research has shown it is possible to ensure a cardiovascular reaction appropriate for cardio training by using strength exercises. But it requires certain resistance, repetition and rest between exercises at the training session. It is advisable to call such loads as cardio-strength loads. A person is able to provide the necessary duration of exercises and rests in such training sessions without a clock or sound leader. The current heart rate during certain cardio-strength exercise is determined by the complex, ambiguous interaction of several factors. For loads of 1/3 of 12 RM (4 repetitions per set) the most impotent is the initial position. In the initial position the most influential is the body position while performing exercises (lying, sitting, bending over and standing); the activity of the synergist muscles is also important here. In addition, the heart rate reaction depends on a resistance, the preliminary exercise and the activity during the changing exercises.

A falsehood that has been repeated many times becomes true, the origin of the diabesity pandemic, the most lethal of the 21st century?

The malnutrition pandemic has reached alarming proportions in the 21st century, with nearly 860 million people suffering from obesity, almost 1.8 billion overweight, and around 900 million experiencing malnutrition due to macronutrient and micronutrient deficiencies worldwide. This issue affects over 40% of the global population, highlighting a concerning prevalence of malnutrition worldwide and its close association with chronic diseases. With eight out of 10 leading causes of global mortality being non-communicable diseases, predominantly of cardiometabolic origin, the malnutrition pandemic has become a serious threat to global health. This phenomenon has been exacerbated by the parallel increase in Type 2 Diabetes Mellitus, leading to the coining of the term "diabesity" to describe the interaction between diabetes and obesity, considered the deadliest of the 21st century. Despite nutritional interventions implemented 70 years ago, such as the Food Pyramid and the promotion of healthy lifestyles, there has been an exponential increase in interrelated cardiometabolic conditions, including cardiovascular diseases, diabetes, and cancer, dementia, and neurodegenerative diseases. This raises questions about the effectiveness of research-based recommendations over the decades, which may have been potentially flawed and deeply influenced modern life and culture, fueling sugar addiction and the pleasure of eating, and capitalizing extensively on the market economy. It is essential to make structural decisions to dismantle particularly erroneous modifications, whether nutritional or otherwise, and educate both new generations and healthcare professionals about a new paradigm of healthier and more flexible lifestyles. This scientific essay focuses on critically reviewing the most prominent evidence supporting modern dietary and lifestyle modifications, and analyzing the historical behavior of clinical conditions that these interventions sought to modify. This allows for inferences about the potential error of research and decisions made, and sowing a new founded theory that promotes paradigm shift after rigorous research in this regard. In the context of the pandemic, these new investigations acquire even greater relevance and urgency to address the global crisis of malnutrition and diabetes.

Creating Patterns for Handicrafts and Embroidery

In this era of design and fashion , matching technology with aesthetics , selecting colors plays a major role in enhancing the beauty of designs .colors are a vital part of design artists to realm the designs , emotions , and make the paintings appear real .The color combination generator in this abstract deals with the enhancing of colors with the computational algorithms and make it simple for artisans compute the color for their use . The colors they use play a vital role in developing paintings and all other delusions such as combinations of arts , and creativity.This paper deals with the enhancing of handicrafts with the modern cultures trends such as coding , developing codes for several patterns in handicrafts to reduce the efforts of craftsmen engaged in the crafting , and framing of crafts such as ceramic crafts , pottery crafts , textile crafts , decorative and jewelry crafts.

An analysis of the development path of ethnic villages under the protection of traditional Jiarong culture

Most of the villages in the north-west ethnic areas of Sichuan are located within a culturally rich zone. However, during the process of village modernization, the protection and inheritance of traditional culture are often overlooked. This study has investigated the construction techniques and spatial components of traditional villages in Lixian, Sichuan Province, from the perspective of cultural inheritance. It analyzes and synthesizes representative design language and proposes a design concept that combines spatial perspective and cultural inheritance to conduct research on design paths aimed at strengthening functional positioning, optimizing spatial layout, improving village style, and improving infrastructure. The objective is to establish a research path to maintain the village-style during post-disaster process reconstruction and village development, thus protecting the unique local architectural culture and achieving comprehensive village development. In addition, we explored issues such as the lack of architectural style and the lagging development of human settlements, aiming to promote rural revitalization and integrated urban-rural development in this area.

A Comprehensive Analysis of Socialisation in the Knowledge Society

This paper addresses socialisation in the knowledge society, focusing on the usefulness of socialisation for the knowledge society. In the educational knowledge society, the processes of socialisation are increasingly understood as the accumulation of social and cultural capital, related to the functions of educational development. The aim of the research is to critically perform a comprehensive analysis of socialisation in the knowledge society by carefully examining socialisation, knowledge, knowledge society, knowledge economy, education and social studies. The features, types and stages of socialisation, the concept of knowledge and its types, the consequences of knowledge society, knowledge society as academic concept and stage of development as well as the analysis of socialisation for the knowledge society were thoroughly discussed in this study. The conceptualization of the knowledge society, which emerged between 1940 and 1960, is examined in this paper along with its significance. The knowledge of society's cognitive role structure and the spiritual qualities that influence creativity are discussed as essential components of socialisation. Under the broad technological field, and circumstances of modern knowledge culture, the potential of early socialisation is described by the dynamics of the professional maturation period. In order to understand the substance of modern education in accordance with its cultural mission, the study develops the theoretical groundwork and offers practical justification for socialisation as a concept, which is vital to the growth of the knowledge society. Based on the findings of this study, it is recommended that the governments, political and economic elites, as well as businesses, civil society, news media, and academic communities should embrace the usefulness of socialisation in the knowledge society.

Being Nowhere

Concepts of distraction developed in nineteenth century research associate it with transformed urban landscapes in nineteenth century modern cultures. But from the 1930s to 50s Britain, it becomes associated with disorders of domestic spatiality, and a disregard of those design principles of order and hygiene, purpose and function, which were understood to define ‘problem families’. Researchers drew on psychological models of character to propose that these environments produced affective disorders – or defects of sentiment formation – through which adolescent working girls, whose distinctive susceptibilities were formed from the wartime disruptions to familiar landscapes, became predisposed to the lures of distraction. As a disjunctive perceptual disorder associated with transformations in urban spatiality, then, ‘distractibility’ became a symptom of a disruption of the cognitive function associated with that lack of purposiveness, the inability to cultivate ‘homely sentiments’, and the failure of order and demeanour which characterised the environment provided by the problem family. Affective disorders generative of modern forms of female adolescent distraction are seen to bring about a disturbance of perceptual modes that result in psychosis, as the breakdown of consciousness and meaning. As the girls’ immersion in the sensory realm situates them in terms of a ‘dispersal’ across urban landscapes, their attachment to contingent and capricious stimuli is understood to result in a degenerative progression towards the emotional immobility characteristic of the schizophrenic. Within the coordinates of psychological models of distractibility, they become located nowhere.

The synergy of skin and science – A comprehensive review of artificial intelligence’s impact on dermatology

Artificial intelligence (AI) has become an omnipresent area in modern culture. Every industry in the world has been greatly impacted by the development of technology, which has improved people’s quality of life. With the advent of AI, even 10 years old can now use smartphones to conquer the world by simplifying complex jobs. AI has made a substantial contribution to the health-care industry as well, sparking debates about whether robots may or may not eventually replace doctors in the medical field. Interestingly, AI additionally has made important advances in the field of dermatology. Through its discovery of applications that can predict a person’s skin type and the products they should use to achieve “perfect skin,” AI has greatly targeted its audience in the esthetics space, where people are most concerned with the health of their bodies and hair. AI has also developed strong relationships with these people and provided excellent advice for skin-related concerns. However, the question of whether individuals are mistreating their skin or relying too much on AI to address their skin troubles remains. Certain applications use the beauty calculator based on face symmetry, which can have a drastic impact on one’s self-confidence. These commercials may also instill false hope, and they may even be an advertising strategy used by the gods of the metaverse. Applications that give predictions regarding skin health can also create a state of anxiety in people who use them. This article examines whether AI has had a discernible effect on skin health, how it may influence cosmetic dermatology in the future, how accurate AI is in diagnosing conditions and recommending treatments, and whether we should rely on AI in the future for dermatological issues.

The place of mirrors in the domestic culture of sixteenth-century Bruges

ABSTRACT The sixteenth century saw an exponential increase in the number and the diversity of objects people surrounded themselves with. Some objects have already been widely discussed, while others, like mirrors, remain hidden from scholarly view. The mirror was widely popular in the more wealthy households of cities like Bruges, but it was also frequently discussed and used in moralistic writings and paintings as a metaphor for a wide range of very different symbolic meanings. According to literature, however, a transition took place during this period from the mirror being a tool for contemplation and private devotion, to the mirror being used as a luxury item. Moreover, the literature argues, this transition also reflected a large-scale social and cultural change towards secularisation, humanism and emerging subjectivity. In this article, however, I argue that, especially in the Bruges context, reality - as is often the case – was much more layered than that. Indeed, their increasing popularity in the sixteenth century should be explained both by a changing consumer culture, and by the mirror's continued connection with spirituality and private devotion. The resulting new insights are of great importance for our understanding of early modern daily life and material culture.

Fundamental theoretical conflicts in the science of critical thinking

Introduction. The article explores the reasons for the lack of scientific consensus on critical thinking. Despite the fact that this concept has become one of the key ones for modern culture, it has not been properly defined, and organizational decisions remain controversial. In this article, we propose to focus not on the gaps in our knowledge of critical thinking, but on finding the reasons for what exactly prevents consensus on these issues. The purpose of the article is to establish fundamental uncertainties and theoretical conflicts in the science of critical thinking that prevent the solution of terminological and organizational aspects of the problem. Materials and Methods. The study is theoretical in nature and is based on an agnological approach to the analysis of expert ignorance (R. Proctor, S. Feirstein, etc.). This approach combines traditional methods of logical and philosophical analysis, but is used when the purpose of the study is not to fill the gap in knowledge, but to find explanations why exactly we do not know what we do not know. In order to achieve this goal, the subjects of scholarly debates regarding critical thinking were identified and the prerequisites on which conflicting concepts are based were analyzed. Results. The study found that the existing organizational debates about how critical thinking should be taught in educational institutions are derived from discussions at a fundamental level. The authors conclude that modern research on critical thinking, despite its apparent thematic proximity to each other, actually reflects different, yet incompatible approaches to nature, psychological mechanisms and standards of critical thinking. Conclusions. The research led to the conclusion that reaching consensus on practical issues, such as the way to organize critical thinking training, requires prior resolution of fundamental theoretical conflicts about the nature, psychological mechanisms and socio-cultural standards of critical thinking.

6-Alkyl Substituted Triazine-based Organic Molecules for Energy Harvesting Application

During the past 20 years, fluorescent materials have had a significant impact on modern cultures' technological advancements. Utilizing the advantageous qualities of these materials, a wide range of applications have been created, from organic photovoltaic to OLED TVs, from extremely sensitive early disease detection techniques to the sensing of environmental contaminants. For energy harvesting applications, the most crucial characteristic of organic molecules is their band gap. Differentially, we produced 4,4'-((6-alkyl-1,3,5-triazine-2,4-diyl)bis(azanediyl)) diphenol based organic molecule in this research. This molecule may be employed in organic electronics, such as solar cells and OLEDs, after further processing. UV-Visible spectroscopy was used to determine the energy gap of the synthesized new analogue.

Research on the Integration of Xiangxi Miao Butterfly Patterns and Modern Cultural and Creative Designs

The Miao people's traditional dress designs in western Hunan strongly reflect their distinct cultural qualities as well as the local community's lifestyle. These patterns are both aesthetically pleasing and culturally significant. As the cultural and creative industries have grown, an increasing number of designers have begun to incorporate these historic motifs into modern cultural and creative items in order to promote and conserve national culture. This research will look at the butterfly pattern of Xiangxi Miao, a representative ornamental feature, and how it might be used to contemporary cultural and creative design. The essay will go into detail on how traditional themes can be blended with modern design aspects, and how this fusion improves the cultural worth and market attractiveness of the items.

Where's the beef? The feminisation of weight‐loss dieting in Britain and Scandinavia c.1890–1925

AbstractRepresentations of the slim body have traditionally been at the centre of scholarly interest in dieting culture, whereas food often remains a shadowy presence compared with more persistent themes of body discipline, slenderness and anti‐fat messages. This article offers a different perspective on weight‐loss dieting, placing food at the very centre of the analysis. By examining different diets in British and Scandinavian ladies’ magazines from the 1890s to the 1920s, I argue that the gendering of different foods was central to the changes that weight‐loss diets went through at the turn of the twentieth century, when the meat‐heavy diets associated with male dieting were gradually transformed. That this process was initiated within the feminine beauty culture promoted by ladies’ magazines is reinforced by the fact that weight‐loss diets changed well before mainstream nutritional advice did. The empirical analysis shows that this process of feminisation tied weight‐loss diets to existing, vegetarian beauty routines for a good complexion, suggesting that modern dieting culture is not only about slimming, but can be seen as a variation of a theme within beauty culture that centres around the imagined impact of different foods on the gendered body.

Jesuit Astrology: Prognostication and Science in Early Modern Culture, written by Luís Campos Ribeiro

Jesuit Astrology: Prognostication and Science in Early Modern Culture, written by Luís Campos Ribeiro

Dialectical thinking in contemporary spirituality: Reconciling contradictory beliefs through metamodern oscillations between two ways of thinking

Psychologists are paying increasing attention to a distinction between two ways of thinking. Cognitive psychologists discern between non-reflective “intuitive” and critical reflective “analytic” thinking. Cultural psychologists discern between context-focused “holistic” and object-focused “analytic” thinking. Both find the former strongly correlated with religious beliefs and Asian cultures, the latter with secular beliefs and Euro-American cultures. Yet, recent studies convincingly suggest: first, that analytic thinking does not just relate to secular beliefs but also to alternative beliefs that straddle the boundaries between secular and religious worldviews; second, that critical reflective thinking includes both the holistic context-focus of Asian religions and the analytic object-focus of European philosophies and sciences. This article supports these recent studies in the psychology of religion based on recent studies from the history and sociology of religion and a discourse analysis of interviews with members of a small-scale twenty-first-century spiritual group, as an example. We show that people who identify as spiritual in a metamodern context use both holistic and analytic thinking in creating alternative worldviews, which dialectically reconcile beliefs that many within modern western cultures would consider contradictory. We conclude that this both/and logic challenges theories and stereotypes about “secular versus religious” and “eastern versus western” thinking.

Суверенитет культуры как императив цифрового общества

The present study is devoted to the consideration of possible mechanisms for preserving the sovereignty of national culture in the conditions of digital existence of society. In this regard, the content of the concept of “cultural sovereignty” is disclosed, its disposition in the terminological field of this field of research is determined. Cultural spheres in which the digitalization program has been implemented and where there are threats of substitution of the value-normative base of Russian culture by various globalization modifications are observed are considered. The analysis of the socio-cultural sphere for the reconstruction of cultural sovereignty is carried out and recommendations are given to eliminate possible risks hindering the dynamic development of cultural identity. The following methods were used: comparative, systemic and logical. The aim of the study is to identify and describe the tools for achieving sustainable sovereignty of modern culture in the digital society, their purpose and ways of implementation in modern practice.

Beyond Words

Beyond Words