Deconstruction Research Articles

Princess Mandalika of Lombok: A Gender Equality Hero Defying Power Structures in Folklore

This study aims to reveal a new understanding of Mandalika folklore through Derrida's deconstruction. The goal is to demonstrate that Derrida's approach uncovers objective meanings and offers a theoretical alternative to traditional interpretations. By contextualizing new meanings through deconstruction, the study provides varied insights without relying solely on the author's intended meaning. The research employs Derrida's deconstruction through textual and in-depth analysis, exploring the concept of difference to identify binary contexts in the narrative structure. It includes case studies, comparisons of folkloric versions, interdisciplinary approaches for a comprehensive view, and critical analysis. The process begins with a synopsis representing the entire Mandalika folklore text. Findings indicate that Mandalika folklore’s meanings extend beyond conventional understandings, emerging from dynamic interactions between textual and non-textual elements. These new meanings challenge previous interpretations shaped by authorial authority. The study highlights how Mandalika folklore reflects the patriarchal Sasak society, revealing tragic choices born from social disharmony. It emphasizes the need for the Sasak community to use the Mandalika narrative for reflection and reevaluation of gender relations. The folklore advocates for gender equality, depicting Mandalika as both a hero and a victim of patriarchal norms. This new understanding calls for a reassessment of gender roles and societal expectations.

Making profit from energy transition. Political struggles and accumulation strategies in Guadeloupe

ABSTRACT The electricity industry in Guadeloupe has undergone a rapid transition. In this paper we analyse how this energy transition concretely occurred and what are the implications for industrial players and their accumulation strategies? Energy transition policies are configured by political struggles involving power producers (both incumbents and challengers) to ensure their profitability. We focus specifically on financial relationships and circuits underlying the Guadeloupean electricity industry, arguing that the political (de)construction of these circuits by (public and private) actors is key to better understand the transition process and/or its path-dependence. We identify three different and successive sequences of energy transition, from 2000 to 2023, characterized by different financial circuit architectures and distributive outcomes.

Accumulating delay: Filipino Time, COVID-19 and experiences of male returnees in Cebu

Unique to this paper is a gendered examination of return migration from the point of view of male return migrants. I analyze the perspectives of repatriated male migrant workers during their return migration in the time of the COVID-19 pandemic. Through a discussion of time as “accumulated delay,” I suggest that the (de)constructions of masculinity concerning overseas Filipino workers’ (OFWs) experiences of waiting and delay under repatriation and quarantine can be understood through the theoretical lens of immobility in migration research. I suggest that systemic delays in the circulation of global capital, necessitated by the global health pandemic, challenged migrant men’s cohesive narrative of migrant productivity.

Musings and Meditations on the Edginess and Hatred of Forgiveness

Heeding Frantz Fanon's thoughts on colonialism and forgiveness alongside his call for us to “turn over a new leaf . . . work out new concepts, and try to set afoot a new man,” this text-mediated meditation on the hatred of forgiveness contends with the question/quest of forgiveness and its relevance to our idea of Africa today. To attend to these ethical questions, the author assembles a textual montage by juxtaposing Wole Soyinka's The Burden of Memory, the Muse of Forgiveness lecture series (1997), with some reflections on for/giving from Nathalie Etoke's Melancholia Africana (2019), Jacques Derrida's deconstruction of forgiveness, and Pumla Gobodo-Madikizela's (2004) attempt to imagine and inhabit a postapartheid South Africa where forgiveness acts as an infinite responsibility to the other. As such, this text-mediated meditation engages the newness, closure, eruption or interruption of violence, and forgiveness characteristic of the African present alongside discourses on African memories of grievances and speculations about the Africa that is yet-to-come.

A critical deconstruction of the predominant evaluative culture for the development of a formative and descriptive evaluation

A critical deconstruction of the predominant evaluative culture for the development of a formative and descriptive evaluation

Performative place branding and Brazilian smart cities: the strategic character of smart city positioning

Purpose This paper aims to address what it means to brand a city as “smart”. In other words, what ideas, understandings and actions are mobilized by the discourse of smart cities in a particular context. Design/methodology/approach Taking a brand interpretive approach, this paper uses deconstructive criticism to understand the performativity of smart cities within the Brazilian Charter for Smart Cities and to expose hegemonic power structures and the various colonizations that disenfranchise consumers and citizens of the Global South. Findings This paper finds that the branding of smart cities within the Brazilian Charter for Smart Cities is largely performative and rhetorical in nature. The authors identify those dimensions of the smart city that are materialized by this branding performance. For example, the authors identify how the Charter calls forth issues around technological solutionism, sustainability and social inclusion. At the same time, the analysis draws attention to the dimensions of smart cities that are disguised by such performances. Research limitations/implications The implications of the work suggest that the authors need to understand the designation “smart city” as a branding performance. More research is required in context to determine in exactly what ways smart city projects are being implemented. Practical implications Rather than adhering only to the rhetoric of smartness, cities have to work hard to make smartness a reality – a smartness constructed not just on technical solutions but also on human solutions. That is, the complexity of urban issues that are apparently addressed in the move to smartness demand more than a technological fix. Originality/value The research offers a novel lens through which to view smart cities.

Circular (de)construction matchmaking: A matter of space and time

AbstractIndustrial symbiosis (IS) facilitates the transition toward a circular built environment. Following IS principles, multiple buildings can be symbiotically linked via closed‐loop material flows beyond the boundaries of individual projects. However, there are few IS matchmaking methods that support the identification of IS opportunities among multiple deconstruction and construction projects. This research develops an agent‐based model to fill this gap. The agent architecture is designed based on the concept of shearing layers. Circularity hubs are proposed to support IS matchmaking by allowing larger transportation ranges and keeping IS requests active for longer periods. The model's applicability is demonstrated through an industrial–urban symbiosis case in Enschede, the Netherlands. The model simulates the spatial–temporal dynamics of IS matchmaking as an emergent phenomenon under future scenarios. The results show operational evidence of IS matchmaking via the strategic implementation of circularity hubs. Overall, this research provides a new methodological perspective to explore the circularity in the built environment at scale.

Kathryn Lasky, “Women’s Voice Counts”

The American women did not await the 21st century to express their disapproval of matters of general interest. At every stage of human history, they always assert their presence as agents of social development and promoters of liberties; they prove their ability to serve humanity. In all parts of the world, despite the deliberate ideological restrictions inflicted upon them, they show integrity, decency, and honesty; their pragmatism, literacy, actions, and ideas serve as bow. Those qualities enable them to free themselves from all forms of ostracism and subjugation. Along the march of history, when defending their common cause, some of them sometimes lose their lives, others are incarcerated, but the survivors remain committed and hopeful. They continually fight to climb the social ladder. In socio-professional and political sectors where men are hostile, they demonstrate absolute resilience. A retrospective glance at the US history helps to revivify the American women’s involvement. Labeled as vulnerable and passive beings, they embark on a timeless struggle whose purpose is to restore their tarnished image and dignity. Better still, their awareness enables them to eradicate the prejudices, social inequalities, and barriers, which disadvantage and devalue them. Like other Western countries, the United States has a long tradition of marginalizing women. Its excluding policy is narrowly connected with patriarchal tradition; a practice, which emerges not only in the family sphere, but also on the political stage, where women are deprived of their suffrage. In such circumstances, they suffer from male domination with impunity. That burning social injustice is pictured by writers, such as Kathryn Lasky whose literary works pay tribute to the American suffragists for their boldness and great sense of duty in the construction of democracy in America. As a field par excellence for the symbolization of social facts, literature appears as a location where the American women’s bravery and ingenuity are realistically expressed. Therefore, the study of Laskian female characters’ trajectories through the textual prism is advantageous. For that purpose, the use of Derridean deconstruction as a methodological tool will be helpful. This will scrutinize the political scope of Laskian female characters’ struggle for suffrage through two axes: “A masculinized political system” and “women’s awareness and US democracy.”

African American English: Perspectivas potencializadoras de identidades negras em aulas de língua Inglesa

This qualitative research, developed through a bibliographical study, aims at investigating African American English as an artifact to promote decolonial praxis of English language teaching, enhancing black identities. Put into practice, this means offering a theoretical and practical input so that black educators, who teach the English language, recognize how the target language may be taught and learned, valuing black identities, understanding and resisting the colonial ties which tend to make these bodies invisible throughout the process. Thus, the tensions among language, race and power and their influence on the emergence and resistance of African American English will be considered, focusing on some of its characteristics. From this, the pedagogical benefits which black epistemes can bring to English classes are taken as scope, considering their outcomes to promote a socioculturally significant teaching and learning process to black students, as well as the (de)construction and strengthening of diasporic black identities including the Brazilian context and its specificities underpinned by Amefrican perspective.

The Text beyond Itself: Romani Social Construction in Romanian Secret Police Files

Romanian State Secret Police (Securitate) files produced before 1989 can be accessed today through a lengthy process that requires official research authorization through a government office, the National Council for the Study of the Securitate Archives (Consiliul Național pentru Studierea Arhivelor Securității - CNSAS). The CNSAS General Document Fund includes large issue-related files under the umbrella of “The Gypsy Problem,” with thousands of pages of both national and county-level reports and recommendations. This paper teases out the granular documentary clues (spie, as Italian historian Carlo Ginzburg describes them) in some of the Securitate files to explore the way in which a pattern of documentary communication is built to frame Romani identity as idiosyncratically marginal, oriental, and parasitic. A particularly interesting aspect of the knowledge production imposed through these files is reflected by anecdotes that purportedly illustrate the character of the Roma. This study analyzes the relations of power built through hermeneutic devices and language choices which build “truth formulae” (Weir) that reify a particular view of Romani ethnicity, class, and gender. This archival (de)construction has implications for a long view of policy, political memory, and exclusionary societal attitudes today and in the future.

Correction to: ‘We Never Talked About It at Home’: Diethylstilbestrol, Impacted Families and the (De)construction of Ignorance from Below (Belgium, 1970s–Present)

Correction to: ‘We Never Talked About It at Home’: Diethylstilbestrol, Impacted Families and the (De)construction of Ignorance from Below (Belgium, 1970s–Present)

Analysing the Correlation between Derridian Deconstruction and Absurdist Philosophy through 'Being and Nothingness' by Jean Paul Sartre, 'The Trial' by Franz Kafka, and 'Insects are Just Like You and Me Except Some of Them Have Wings' by Kuzhali Manickavel

This paper expands upon the interconnectedness between the theory of Deconstruction and the philosophy of Absurdism, in corroboration with 'Being and Nothingness' by Jean Paul Sartre, 'Insects are just like you and I except some of them have wings' by Kuzhali Manickavel and 'The Trial' by Franz Kafka; elaborating upon how one is in congruence to the other and how both schools of thought can be applied to social, political and personal spheres.

Pentecostalism and the (de)construction of ‘Otherness’: Experiences of black African students at a South African University

AbstractDrawing on fieldwork conducted at a South African University, this qualitative study examines the lived experiences of black foreign students studying and living in South Africa. The study sought to understand the role that Pentecostalism plays in mediating the everyday experiences of black foreign students within and beyond the university campus spaces. A total of 30 student patrons from two Pentecostal churches were purposively sampled for the study. Data were collected using qualitative methods, including in‐depth interviews, participant observation, and informal conversations. Data were recorded, transcribed, and thematically analysed. The study findings revealed that for many African foreign students in South Africa, Pentecostalism mediated their sense of being on campus and allowed them to deal with the real and perceived social disarticulation fashioned by xenophobic terrains and attendant socio‐material anxieties. I assert that Pentecostal communities helped African foreign students to embed themselves and adjust to life on campus. These communities allowed them to forge convivial relationships and mutuality with fellow students and other Church members. Building on extant scholarly arguments and debates on Pentecostalism and student mobilities, I argue that Pentecostalism play(ed) a central role in the (de)construction of a sense of ‘Otherness’ through socio‐spiritual rituals including, sermons (the word), proselytisation and other social practices, albeit with varying degrees of success. Although Pentecostal networks strongly mediated black African foreign students' everyday navigation in precarious social spaces, the anxiety and the feeling of otherness are not completely removed.

Individuals in Securitization: Explaining US Presidents’ Choice to (De)Securitize North Korea

Abstract Securitization and desecuritization demonstrate how threat (de)constructions can lead to conflictual or cooperative foreign policies. However, due to its focus on collectivities, securitization theory cannot tell us why leaders choose either securitization or desecuritization. Understanding this choice is crucial because (de)securitization processes can prescribe possible foreign policy options and thus affect the likelihood of conflict and cooperation. To account for leaders’ choices, I draw on political psychology and demonstrate the utility of my approach through an explanation of two US presidents’ preferences for (de)securitizing North Korea. Using leadership trait and operational code analysis, I show that psychological variables shaped Bill Clinton’s and George W. Bush’s preferences because they affected their threat perception and inclination toward conflictual or cooperative actions. These preferences had substantial consequences: While Clinton’s desecuritization attempt led to improvements in US–North Korean relations, Bush’s effort to resecuritize North Korea effectively reversed this progress.

Anak-anak yang Terpinggirkan: Pembacaan Dekonstruksi terhadap Fabel Aesop The Ant and The Grasshopper

Fabel is one genre in children literature that is utilized to teach moral values to children. Animals in fable are metaphors of the value in society so that they can internalize the value and identify themselves with the ideal value or the logos one. This research is qualitative research. Source of data is from a children fable entitled The Ant and the Grasshopper that is retold by Jan Payne. The data is collected using literature review method. The data are analyzed descriptive-interpretatively using Derrida deconstruction reading. Derrida’s deconstruction reading uncovers the instability of meaning in the fable which ends up marginalizing children. The binary opposition is used in the fable to maintain the stability of logos meaning, namely the importance of diligence and hard work. Meanwhile, the other part of the binary opposition is laziness which is used as the marginalized part. This part is used to assert the logos. Apart from that, other meanings that disturb the instability of meaning are marginalized, one of which is the gray area. This fable shows that there is a possible gray area that is an alternative between working hard and being lazy at work or spending time relaxing. However, to emphasize the center, this gray area is also marginalized. As a result, voiceless children have no choice but to identify themselves with the discourse expressed in the fable. Thus, this logos construction can be said to impose values on children. On the other hand, children themselves do not have the capacity and power to provide counternarratives because cognitively they have not yet developed and they do not have a voice to deliver their concern because the narration is dominated by adult writer.

A Deconstructive Analysis of Edwin Robinson’s Richard Cory

This literary research focused on the deconstructive analysis of the poem of Edwin Arlington Robinson’s Richard Cory. This theory claims that language is everything and that language never leaves us with the reality of the referent. The Deconstruction criticism of the text in this paper followed three stages: Verbal, Textual, and Linguistic. “Richard Cory” is one of the poems written by Edwin Arlington Robinson. The poem talks about people's high and low social status in a particular community, physical appearance, and the reality of life. From the title to the poem's content, the readers can have different interpretations and meanings of it. Results have shown that Richard Cory's poem has gotten new meanings and interpretations based on the researchers' ideologies and subjectivities. This study concludes that the newly discovered and given meanings of “Richard Cory” can still have another alternative meaning based on another reader’s or person’s point of view.

Active methodologies in textbooks for teaching the mother language

This research aims at undertaking a discursive-interpretive analysis of the way in which language teaching textbooks give visibility to methodologies, in order to track possible signs of active methodologies. The theoretical-methodological framework of this research is the discursive-deconstructive perspective (CORACINI, 2011; DIAS, 2016), guided by discourse theories (mainly based on Foucault), Derridean deconstruction, and Lacanian psychoanalysis. With the problematization being engendered, we expect critical-reflexive stances to be taken by users of language teaching textbooks, academic researchers and the scientific community, so that they can question and relativize what seems to be established as naturalized truth.

‘We Never Talked About It at Home’: Diethylstilbestrol, Impacted Families and the (De)construction of Ignorance from Below (Belgium, 1970s–Present)

Summary Drawing on oral history, this article analyses how Belgian families affected by diethylstilbestrol (DES) both constructed and deconstructed ignorance of the transgenerational side effects of this hormone from the 1970s onwards. It is the first historical study on the (lack of) knowledge production about DES in Belgium, where until today research has been left to investigative journalists who have pointed to the possibility of a cover-up. This article takes a different approach, producing a multifaceted long-term analysis that also looks at other factors that might have led to ignorance, wilful or otherwise. The emphasis here is on how impacted families themselves maintained or broke silences about DES across generations and over time. By focussing on women’s experiences, this article contributes a bottom-up perspective to existing studies of ignorance production relating to the side effects of hormones, which tend to focus on governments, medical communities and pharmaceutical industries.

The Impact of Instability of Gossip’s Meaning to The characterizations in Julia Quinn’s Bridgerton: The Duke and I Novel: A Derridean Deconstruction Perspectives

This research explored characterizations instabilities towards impacts of gossip in Julia Quinn’s Bridgerton: The Duke and I novel. The impacts of gossip portrayed significantly towards the characterization of the main characters and the society in the novel. The gossip, for instance became contemplating materials, livelihood, and entertainment in the society, thus the characterizations in the novel became unstable and dinamic due to the attachment between gossip and society. This researh applied Derrida’s Deconstruction as theory and method. The results of this research indicated the impact of gossips to the characterization in the novel resemblanced the undecidability of text. The text is independent and fluid, thus the impact of text characteristics could be represented by the undecidablity of characterization—based on the conflict embedded to the characters. Thus, the conclusions in this research show that the meaning of gossip in the novel is undecidable and the characterization continues to move and develop as the conflict in the novel develops which is caused by the movement of the meaning of gossip.

Enseignant·es mexicain·es de FLE ou acteur·rice·s glottopolitiques pour la diversité linguistique ?

This contribution presents the results of a study carried out among Mexican teachers of French as a foreign language as part of a doctoral research project currently being finalized. Through comprehensive semi-structured interviews, this article explores how the participants in this survey appropriate and invest in French, examining in particular their positioning with regard to linguistic diversity in the Mexican context and the persistence of linguistic inequalities.We illustrate how sociolinguistic appropriation among four teachers contributes significantly to the (de)construction of linguistic ideologies, leading to the development of various glottopolitical stances and identities. We examine how these actors in Mexican education and the promotion of French represent their trajectories, their plurilingual imaginaries and their professional practices within a glottopolitical perspective in favor of linguistic plurality.