Dialectical Tension Research Articles

The Midrash: A Model for God's Voice in a Secular Society

The challenges of faith moved from battling scientific perceptions to struggling with post-modern despair, rooted in a pessimistic reduction of humanity to power structures. Midrash, as a mode of charitable reading of scriptures, offers a model for wider commitment to charitable conversation with the other. Applying a Midrashic approach towards both texts and people means seeking good intentions and ethical potential in the words, deeds and thoughts of the other. Thus, trust and commitment to Midrashic dialogue is the leap of faith, arching over the seemingly forced understanding of humanity as mainly concerned with the construction of power structures. Noting that committed adherents of a religion are nurtured with the will and capacity to perform charitable reading of scriptures, but at the same time are exposed to the danger of being trapped in their distinct semantic networks, this article offers a continuous dialectic tension, moving back and forth between committed charitable reading and self-criticism.

Behavioral Assessment in DBT: Commentary on the Special Series

Behavioral assessment is woven into the fabric of DBT. The articles of this special series beautifully illustrate this point by describing the relevance and application of behavioral assessment principles in several DBT contexts: creating a case formulation; assessing suicidal behavior; client use of DBT skills; and within family or couple interventions. This commentary highlights themes common to the papers and discusses assessment as it relates to several core concepts in DBT: behaviorism, acceptance, dialectics, and the assumptions about treatment. We identify several dialectical tensions that practitioners must balance when using behavioral assessment strategies. Suggestions for clinical practice are provided.

Between Mainstream and Marginality: The Case of Men and Women of Mixed-Orientation Relationships

ABSTRACT The literature regarding mixed-orientation relationships (MORs) focuses on individual and relationship aspects. Our study, informed by the social construction of reality theory, illuminates social aspects by examining social attitudes toward MORs as they are experienced and perceived by individuals of MOR. Within the scope of this study, we focused on self-identified non-straight men (gays, bisexuals, or men who have sex with men) who are in a relationship with self-identified straight women. Based on the phenomenological paradigm, we conducted 38 interviews with men and eight with women currently in MOR. The findings show that individuals of MOR primarily encounter negative attitudes from people in society regarding themselves and the nature of their relationship. Participants perceived that others viewed their relationships in terms of conflict, impossibility, or transitional stage. Social attitudes individuals of MOR encounter affect the degree of closeness of these couples to others in their social environment, resulting in constant tension between the participants’ desire to be open to and close to others and the need to conceal and keep a distance. We argue that the dialectical tensions between disclosure-concealment and autonomy-closeness are related to the marginalization of these couples as a social category.

Synthesizers: an exploration into the iconicity of marketplace icons

ABSTRACT As the preeminent musical invention of the twentieth century, the synthesizer has become a ubiquitous device that not only informs the soundscapes of our lives, but one that also shapes what we consider to be music. At the heart of this unquestioned, though often polarizing, marketplace icon is a paradox between the synthesizer’s limitless power of sound design that appeals to musicians and the limiting power of culture that circumscribes the instrument’s potential in order to make it appealing to mass consumers. To understand how the synthesizer became a marketplace icon, we examine it in relation to the synthetic nature of icons (i.e. the dialectical tension at the heart of icons), the web of iconicity (i.e. the cultural associations necessary to elevate a product to iconic status), and the process of cultural appropriation of disruptive innovations (i.e. the necessity to tame, but seemingly promote, the iconoclastic nature of marketplace icons).

COVID-19, ENTRE LO COTIDIANO Y EL ACONTECIMIENTO: UNA INTERPRETACIÓN DESDE LA FILOSOFÍA DE ZIZEK.

The text is rooted in the decomposition of the expression “everyday life” into factors through the different analyses carried out. The result is that behind the term “everyday life” there is a dialectic tension between “the everyday” and “the event”. The Covid-19 epidemic can be classified as an event and has meant the irruption of “The Real” into the symbolic coordinates of our Western and European society. This eruption has caused a trauma that forces us to wait for the consequence of the reinvention of the past and the reinterpretation of everyday life.

Las redes y el écart: reflexiones a en torno a “El Estado de derecho y la Unión Europea”

espanolEn el periodo actual caracterizado por las fuertes tensiones entre un paradigma nacionalista e iliberal y la propia idea de “Union mediante el Derecho” asume una dimension central el principio del Estado de Derecho. Para configurarse como norma de convivencia de la sociedad europea este principio ha de ser reelaborado en la doble direccion de tension dialectica con las normas democraticas, por un lado, y de comparacion dialectica con las “tradiciones constitucionales comunes”, por el otro. El presente ensayo pretende analizar tales cuestiones identitarias mediante la nueva metodologia del ecart. francaisDans la periode actuelle caracterisee par les fortes tensions entre un paradigme nationaliste et intolerant et l’idee meme de « l’Union par le droit » prend une dimension centrale le principe de l’Etat de droit. Pour etre configure comme une regle de coexistence de la societe europeenne, ce principe doit etre retravaille dans la double direction de la tension dialectique avec les normes democratiques, d’une part, et de la comparaison dialectique avec les «traditions constitutionnelles communes», d’autre part. Cet essai vise a analyser ces questions d’identite a l’aide de la nouvelle methodologie de l’«ecart ». EnglishIn the current period of strong tensions between a nationalist and illiberal paradigm and the very idea of Union by the principle of the rule of law assumes a central dimension. In order to be configured as a rule of European society’s cohabitation, this principle has to be reworked in the dual direction of dialectical tension with democratic norms, on the one hand, and of dialectical comparison with common constitutional traditions, on the other. This essay aims to analyse these identity issues using the new ecart methodology.

Linguística, educação e política: para além da academia

Este ensaio tem as relações entre Política, Linguística e Educação em Língua Portuguesa como tema, delimitando-se no questionamento acerca de em quê/como/de que modo os estudos linguísticos têm ou não contribuído para qualificar a abordagem escolar da linguagem em nível nacional. O conteúdo ocupa-se de problematizar questões como “O que os estudos linguísticos têm efetivamente feito em favor da qualificação do ensino e da aprendizagem de Língua Portuguesa nos estratos mais pobres da população brasileira? Em quê/como avanços nessa área do conhecimento reverberaram nacionalmente na educação em linguagem? E por que deveriam fazê-lo?” e inquietudes afins. Objetiva-se (i) argumentar contrariamente à denegação da abordagem epistêmica que se compreende ter tomado conta do campo da linguagem, e (ii) defender que o tensionamento dialético entre usos da língua e metacognição é condição para que a escola efetivamente contribua em um processo de formação dos estudantes que esteja comprometido com a emancipação humana, o que ganha especial sentido em um país com a forte conformação de fragilidades sociais como o Brasil.

ЛЕКЦИИ В СОВРЕМЕННОМ ВУЗЕ: ИНТЕРАКТИВНЫЙ ПОДХОД

Statement of the problem and the purpose of the article. The article contributes to scholarly understanding of lecture-based courses at the higher education of today. The primary attention is focused on the place of lecture in the process of teaching given the mass implementation of active and interactive methods. The research methodology consists in the analysis of research works of international and Russian university teachers and scholars recognized by scientific community. The article presents the result of scholarly analysis of 146 research works, including 89 papers in English. Research results. No significant differences have been found among three widespread teaching approaches (lecture-based, active, and flipped learning) for learning efficiency. Lecture and active learning are not mutually exclusive teaching methods, they form a dialectical tension that can be resolved by shifting to an interactive lecture. Conclusion. In conclusion, lecture is assumed to be not an outdated teaching method but rather a great potential asset that can be achieved by implementing the elements of both, active and interactive learning. Active and interactive elements of a modern lecture allow to optimize the student-centered teaching and to provide the visual methods usage (which is necessary due to psychological and cognitive features of contemporary students).

Digital inspirational economy: the dialectics of design

ABSTRACT With the rise in design-centric social media platforms, blogs, and inspiration aggregators, ‘inspiration’ has become an increasingly popular term for designers’ creative digital work. Technology developers have leveraged this language of inspiration to describe how these platforms and applications could fit within, perpetuate, and ultimately direct design labor practice among and within these sites. This empirical study examines the continual shaping and reshaping of the digital inspirational economy, where one designer’s creative content becomes another’s inspiration. Drawing on interviews with 45 graphic designers, participant observations, and industry texts, I analyze the digital work of designers as they manage dialectical tensions between inspiration and imitation across a design-centric social media landscape. I highlight four key practices designers employed as a part of their shaping and negotiation of the digital inspirational economy including (1) continual investment, (2) ensuring novelty, (3) compulsory comparability, and (4) prioritizing connections. Each of these inspiration practices reveal a unique dialectical tension that designers negotiated as an emerging part of the ‘work of inspiration’. The platforms and practices used by enterprising designers illuminate the contours of evolving work practices and the ways in which designers are continually challenged to assert their economic value in the creative economy. As such, analyzing the practice of inspiration illuminates larger issues concerning attribution, diffusion of visual information, and the politics of creative economies. I conclude by addressing the work and self-presentation implications for freelance and independent creative professionals whose work processes are increasingly entangled with digital platforms.

Inter-organisational knowledge networks: synthesising dialectic tensions of university-industry knowledge discovery

PurposeDespite growth in use of inter-organisational relationships for knowledge co-creation, many collaborations struggle to realise the synergistic benefits of these networks. This paper aims to explore the evolving dialectic tensions evident within an inter-organisational relationship and the governance consideration to optimise the knowledge process.Design/methodology/approachA longitudinal case of a university-industry knowledge network is selected for study. The single case analysis aligns with the dialectical epistemology, which dismisses the expectation of homogeny or constancy across network cases.FindingsThe research highlights the circular condition between dialectic tensions evident within inter-organisational relations and the governance mechanisms developed to synthesis the network knowledge discovery capability. The research shows that these tensions are a natural part of the network existence and often advantageous to knowledge creation. The research also highlights that governance is required at multiple levels within the network entity to optimise knowledge exchange and discovery.Originality/valueThe research adds to the limited application of dialectical thinking to inter-organisational networks. It highlights the structural and relational governance mechanisms that interplay to optimise their knowledge process capability. The research also highlights the multiple levels within networks at which tensions can originate, requiring knowledge governance at the micro, meso and macro level to address the complexity of the inter-organisational relationship. This research provides a better understanding of how knowledge within inter-organisational relations can be managed for mutual benefit and value creation.

Representation of the Self and Disease: Writing, Photography and Video in Hervé Guibert

Hervé Guibert (1955–1991), a French writer and photographer, began developing a double artistic practice in 1977. In 1988, he discovers he has HIV and his literary and photographic works begin to reflect each other in an attempt to tell the story of a disease whose progression proves uncontrollable and ultimately fatal. Hervé Guibert then undertakes an intensive self-examination of his body and of the changes imposed on it by the disease, using both writing and images (photography and video). At the same time, he carries out a theoretical reflection on the limits of the image and on the limits of writing, both complementing each other in an attempt to convey the experience of disease. His work thus offers a valuable ground for exploring the relationship between literature, photography and the story of disease and, most of all, the need to resort to these two modes of expression in order to communicate the intimate experience of illness. In Hervé Guibert, this experience can be understood through the tension between unveiling and exposing oneself. While the former is creative, the latter seems to be the result of the illness loss of control. This article aims to analyze this dialectical tension in light of three artistic mediums used by Guibert.

The Experiences of Parents of Children Undergoing Surgery for Congenital Heart Defects: A Holistic Model of Care.

The present article is based on a qualitative study focusing on parents of children born with congenital heart defects (CHDs) and hospitalized in the children’s intensive care unit post-surgery. Our aim was to explore parents’ subjective experiences as primary caregivers. Ten semi-structured interviews were conducted and analyzed using interpretative phenomenological analysis according to the instructions of Smith and Osborn. Our analysis yielded eight categories which were grouped into four themes and two main superordinate themes: (1) dialectical tension between positive and negative experiences; and (2) fluctuations between the inner and the outer world. The two superordinate themes intersect such that parents report positive as well as negative experiences within both their inner and outer worlds. Based on our analysis, we found that the experience of having a child undergo surgery for a CHD can be regarded as a chaotic period characterized by uncertainty, confusion, and helplessness. It is therefore no surprise that many parents display negative psychological outcomes which extend beyond the period of hospitalization and may also affect their future parenting and coping. However, within this chaotic and stressful situation, parents had occasional supportive experiences which decreased their emotional distress and isolation and helped them throughout this difficult period. We thus conclude that the support offered to parents during the hospitalization period should be increased by trying to minimize their negative experiences and strengthen their inner coping abilities. These changes cannot be implemented without also addressing the needs of the medical staff in their role as caregivers. Therefore, we propose a holistic model of care which supports both parents as caregivers of children undergoing surgery for CHD and the medical staff involved in their care.

El turista y «el que aguarda». El tiempo doble de la fotografía moderna

To consider photographs as historical objects is necessarily to rediscover them in one of those bifurcations where, as Walter Benjamin proposes, the conscious and the unconscious—lived and unlived—come face to face. In convolute D of The Arcades Project, the chronological milestones the philosopher assigns to the triumphal entry of boredom into culture coincide with the invention of photography. In contrast to boredom and monotony, however, the predominant topic in convolute D is not leisure or entertainment but rather “waiting.” Based upon this premise, the paper suggests that it is in this bifurcation, where modern photography is born, that we find, in dialectical tension, the viewfinder that frames the world and the shutter that interrupts the temporal flow, the “tourist” and “the one who waits.”

Sur la Zone: A Critical Sociology of the Parisian Dangerous Classes (1871–1973)

This article contributes to the sociology of urban marginality and of the Lumpenproletariat and makes a rare attempt to describe la Zone, a territory on the edge of Paris that was occupied by the “dangerous classes” for over a century. The study takes an inductive approach fueling critical analysis with material drawn in part from social surveys and in part from literature and popular culture. It identifies a dialectical tension in the various descriptions of la Zone, which, despite strong social and political contrasts, converge in their shared distrust or even open suspicion of these Parisian margins. This discursive structure, made up of oppositions and combinations of contraries, also recalls the forms of social control to which the classes viewed as dangerous can be subjected, within this case study and beyond.

Managing the Second “A” in Alcoholics Anonymous

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to provide a better understanding of how hidden organizations like Alcoholics Anonymous (AA) manages the dialectical tension between concealment and revelation. Despite research on AA’s successes and failures across disciplines, scholars have not thoroughly uncovered how AA communicates internally and externally to maintain the desired level of the organizational visibility. AA’s visibility management is critical in terms of achieving the organizational goals of AA. Design/methodology/approach To capture how AA communicatively manages the visibility of the organization, the author attended and observed the World Meeting of AA. As a participant-observer, the author did ethnographic fieldwork at the World Meeting. Findings During the convention, various types of communication strategies AA used to maintain the dialectical tension of concealment/revelation as well as celebrate its international convention became apparent. In particular, AA responded the tension strategically by choosing segmentation, denial and education at the World Meeting. Originality/value The author’s observation was suitable to describe AA’s anonymous communication practices. Its empirical finding was valuable for future research.

Contextual, embodied and clinical joy

ABSTRACTThe task of this short response is to interact with the article in this volume by Johnson and in so doing, advance a definition of joy. To that end, this article will focus on three elements, (a) contextualization/tradition, (b) human cognition as embodied, embedded, enacted and extended, and (c) clinical implications of the pursuit of joy. Contextualization will be explored through the specificity of culture and theological tradition. Embodiment, embeddedness, enactment and extension will be explored as an alternative to western anthropology which tends toward inwardness and individualism. Finally, clinical implications of joy will be explored in terms of the dialectical tension of balancing positive and negative realities of life.

Strawberries and Cream: On Esfir Shub and the Revolutionary Object

Abstract Avant-garde filmmakers in the Soviet Union argued over the merits of the played film and the documentary film. They argued about the duration of shots, long or short. They questioned what constituted filmic material, camera subjectivity, the objective fact and whether film extended the eyes, and the capacity to see, or whether it wielded a fist, augmenting or bashing feelings. Shub contributed to these discussions, not least through her own film work, produced out of a combination of commitment and necessity. This paper traces these discussions and Shub’s role within them through a focus on two objects and the way in which they come to appear in film and film-discourse: strawberries and cream. The strawberries are drawn initially from Shklovsky’s comments on the inequities of US agriculture in his Journey to the Land of Movies (1926) and the cream stems from Eisenstein’s mechanical separator in The Old and the New (1929). Shub’s particular take on the object in her film work will emerge through the dialectical tensions of two objects.

Written in Sand

Abstract This article reinterprets the Algerian writer Mohammed Dib’s 1992 novel Le désert sans détour through the analysis of its reference to Samuel Beckett’s En attendant Godot. I argue that for Dib, Beckett offers an important model for a post-revolutionary politics that expresses extreme skepticism over clichéd notions of historical progress and universal humanism. Recuperating this ignored Beckettian strand in Dib’s novel, I revise the critical reception that has read the text as apolitical and focused on spirituality. I offer a better understanding of Dib’s aesthetic as one emerging out of a dialectical tension between discourses of Sufi illumination and a Beckettian politics radically enmeshed in the world.

Santri, Misi Politik dan Perumusan Kebijakan Publik di Kabupaten Jember

<p>This article aims to describe some questioned points of political roles of santris seem like; the understanding of social transformation and its regulatory process inside government, how they articulated, participated, and sounded their ambitions become a regulation, then the last is how they build the dialog beyond political and social interests between both process. This research took places in Jember Region. One of small-town in East Java which Santri and Nahdlatul Ulama’ had significant roles, weather in social and political conducts. In the end, this article conclude that; first there are tree missions how santri articulate their understanding of Islamic point of view to become substance regulation aspect, in term; conservatism, progressivism, and moderate. Second, modes of participations are based on <em>al Maslahah al Ummah </em>(common good) as main orientation, were not just becoming intellectual mouth-pieces of government. Third, ideologically, the relation and dialectical tension beyond santri and government were criticism. It means santris were becoming the critical partner of government to formulate the public policy.</p>

Orwell’s Homage to Catalonia in Catalan and Spanish translation

ABSTRACT This article examines the Catalan and Spanish translations of George Orwell’s Homage to Catalonia published by Ariel in 1969 and 1970 (respectively) from two perspectives: that of the censorship files preserved at the Archivo General de la Administración in Alcalá de Henares, and that of the published translations. First, relevant information is provided on the setting in which those translations were published, as regards institutionalised censorship and the reception of Orwell’s work under Franco. This is followed by analysis of data from the files and from the texts. Such an analysis allows us to determine in the present case that, whereas the censor’s injunctions were mostly followed by the publisher, advantage was also taken of the censor’s hesitations to preserve as much of the source text’s memorial content as possible in the translations. Results of the analysis are finally linked with general concepts at the interface of translation and memory studies. If translators and publishers are seen as secondary witnesses in accounts of traumatic events, then censors may be regarded as tertiary witnesses, and censored texts as sites of dialectic tension between memory and forgetting.