Dialectical Tension Research Articles

Dementia Caregiving and Dialectical Tensions During the Early Days of the COVID-19 Pandemic

Caregiving for a loved one with Alzheimer's disease or related dementia presents significant challenges which were amplified throughout the COVID-19 pandemic. During this time, care partners were forced to navigate uncertain terrain as well as new and challenging relational tensions. This study investigated the experiences of dementia care partners and the relational tensions present as they managed the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic using Relational Dialectics Theory framework. By analyzing recorded support groups from the early days of the pandemic (April through June, 2020), we identified two chief tensions expressed by participants throughout their support groups: connection—independence and gratitude—frustration. Participants experienced these tensions in different ways, and they engaged in four tension management strategies ( selection, minimization, reframing, and venting and comradery) through the support group. As the pandemic progressed, participants’ tension management evolved, highlighting the complexity inherent in caring for a person with dementia during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Metaphors of Colonial Trauma in Abdulrazak Gurnah's By the Sea

By the Sea is one of the masterpieces of Tanzanian writer Abdulrazak Gurnah, winner of the 2021 Nobel Prize for Literature. Gurnah tells the story of past events from the standpoint of Saleh Omar and Latif Mahmud respectively, methodically advancing the story as if it were a jigsaw puzzle gradually assembling a complete truth. The novel uses a large number of metaphors in its implicit narrative, and through the dialectical tension between characters, events and objects with symbolic metaphorical meanings, it accurately grasps the destructive impact of colonialism on the colonized people and the plight of the refugee community after fleeing from their own country, triggering thoughts on post-colonialism, and calling attention to the colonial issue as well as to the colonial trauma of the alienated community.

Dialectic tension: music education majors’ lived experience in an international choir trip

ABSTRACT The purpose of this phenomenological case study was to examine music education majors' lived experience of negotiating cultural differences in an international choral trip from the US to China. Eight music education majors from a music college in the eastern U.S. participated in this study. I collected three types of data describing their cultural exchange experience: participants' daily journals, and the research assistant's observation notes during the trip, and a series of focus group interviews after the trip. Through the process of epoché, phenomenological reduction, horizontalization, and structural synthesis, four themes emerged: (a) Explicit knowledge acceptance by superficial cultural engagement, (b) Elatedness over common musical characteristics, (c) Implicit othering attitude, and (d) Moments of self-reflexivity. In the essence of their cultural interactions, participants experienced dialectic tension between musical similarities and differences, surficial and deep cultural engagement, universal and non-universal consideration, and their centrality toward self and others.

Im-possible moorings and mobilities: the story of Jules’ Undersea Lodge, the world’s only fully submerged hotel

This paper shows how and why it is ‘im-possible’—i.e. simultaneously possible and impossible—for humans to travel and stay underwater by narrating the story of how Jules’ Undersea Lodge was designed and how its guests can remain there for relatively long periods of time. Drawing from interviews with its designer, Ian Koblick, reflexive ethnographic material collected at Key Largo’s (Florida) Jules’ Undersea Lodge in the early spring of 2024, and an interview with Joseph Dituri—who in 2023 set a world record for the longest time spent in an underwater habitat – we conceptualize im-possibility as a dialectical tension between possibility and impossibility.

Landscape between Representation and Performativity

This article explores the concept of landscape through the lens of performativity, challenging the traditional visual-centric understanding rooted in Western art and culture but without denying the visual and representational character of landscape. It examines the evolution of landscape representation, from its origins in linear perspective and Cartesian dualism to contemporary approaches that integrate performative practices. The analysis highlights the dialectical tension between visual representation and immersive, multisensory experiences, arguing for a more integrated view that acknowledges the performative aspects of the visual. By re-evaluating the role of distance, vision, and representation, the article advocates for a nuanced understanding of landscape that balances the visual with embodied practices, ultimately proposing that landscape should be seen as a dynamic interplay between seeing and performing.

Territorialising the cloud or clouding the territory? Volumetric vulnerabilities and the militarised conjunctures of Singapore’s smart city-state

This article explores how the volumetric characteristics of cloud computing can create new expressions of territoriality, which in turn can reveal new axes of vulnerability and threat. Whilst recent work in political geography has sought to “locate” the cloud through analyses of data centre geographies and data-driven processes of smart urbanism, we look beyond the material plane and consider the amorphous territorialities of voluminous data instead. As much as these data are acted on by the legal-regulatory mechanics of the state in a bid to territorialise them, so too do these data volumes serve to cloud, and thus obscure, territory. Processes of territorialising and clouding exist in a state of dialectical tension with each other, and reveal the volumetric vulnerabilities of cloud computing. We validate these theoretical claims through an analysis of in-depth interviews with senior stakeholders in Singapore's Smart Nation initiative. In Singapore, defending the city is equivalent to defending the nation, which causes the military to play an outsized role in securing the city-state. We consider how the attack surface of the city becomes a more voluminous construct with cloud computing, how strategies of geofencing attempt to secure the cloud, and how these processes reveal the increasingly militarised conjunctures of everyday life. Overall, these insights reveal a need for political geography to continually evolve its theoretical premises in line with the rapid digitalisation of the world.

“I’m Spoon-Feeding Him My Trauma”: An Analysis of Sexual Assault Survivors’ Ongoing Privacy Management in Romantic Relationships

ABSTRACT For survivors of sexual assault, navigating privacy boundaries can be challenging. Communication privacy management theory posits privacy and disclosure as a dialectical tension. As boundaries are negotiated, breached, and renegotiated, people are faced with examining the roles ownership, control, and turbulence play when regulating their private information, particularly around the highly sensitive topic of sexual assault in a romantic relationship where the relational risk is high. Through qualitative, semi-structured interviews (n = 21) and a phronetic iterative approach to data analysis, we examined the ongoing privacy management of survivors of sexual assault in romantic relationships. The results of this study offer insight into the ways participants controlled their personal information through the privacy management process and the effects of incongruent privacy management on participants, their partners, and the relationship.

Dialectics of cinematic co-production: ambivalent Korean fantasy romance in Ultimate Oppa

ABSTRACT Foregrounding the Korean Wave in storylines, there have been notable co-productions that have cinematically addressed the Southeast Asian fan of “K-Dramas” and her travels to South Korea. By analyzing Ultimate Oppa (2022), I align with a decolonial impulse to study a regional Asian co-production that excludes the usual analysis of the dominant European-U.S. film axis. I argue that intra-Asian co-productions produce ideological asymmetries in these arrangements. In Ultimate Oppa, the relationship between the Philippines and Korea is set against the macro-level influences of unequal “soft power” between Korean and Philippine media, producing visible dialectical tensions. As such, this essay argues that Ultimate Oppa ambivalently presents a cross-national romantic fantasy that reifies regional hierarchies, which are made more palatable through ideological dialectics.

Transforming relationships. Pedagogical tact as a utopian figure of mediation

ABSTRACT The article discusses the figure of pedagogical tact in its cultural and social entanglements and transformations. Tact is reconstructed from a dialectical-relational perspective as a utopian figure which arises both within pedagogical relationships and from the relationships to the respective cultural and social conditions – more precisely: from a criticism of them. In this dialectical tension, it is argued that relationships are both transformative and, in turn, require transformations in order to enable tactful pedagogical action.

The Camino de Santiago as a 'Spiritual Journey': A Contemporary Challenge to Religion?

According to many surveys, the pilgrimage along the Way of St James (Camino de. Santiago) can lead to spiritual benefits, but there is some disagreement about this because these benefits can be associated with the pilgrim's motivation. This article presents a conceptual framework for understanding the phenomenon of pilgrimages to Compostela and their impact on human spiritual well-being. Many diaries mention various positive psychological effects from these trips, but they are presented in religious/spiritual dialectical tension. The article presents the classical concept of spirituality as related to the ability to transcend, and then classifies what is spiritual in the writings of some Polish pilgrims. In this way, conceptual precision will be offered, which is important for understanding the positive impact of pilgrimages on well-being and empowerment.

Politicizzare la cura per curare la democrazia

“Taking care” involves a politics of relationships. Care has both a subjective and a relational dimension: starting from subjectivity, everyone opens up to vulnerability, dependence, fragility. Care is above all a practical path of spillage from the self and return to the self, enriched by the experience of the other. This paper proposes a reflection that starts from the founding myth of the essentiality of care and crosses the feminist critique of essentialism and the dialectical tension between mysticism and de-valuation. Focusing on the analysis provided by the so-called second school of ethics of care, it wants to reflect on the current possibility of making care a political paradigm for change and democratization of relationships and society.

SCHILLER’S MOTIFS IN THE IMAGE OF LENSKY IN A.S. PUSHKIN’S NOVEL EUGENE ONEGIN

When creating the image of Lensky, Pushkin combined two concepts of how Schiller was perceived in Russian culture of the 1820s: “sublime”, freedomloving, idealistic (as a figure of Sturm und Drang) and “pseudo-romantic”, elegiac, dating back to translations of Schiller’s elegies and ballads by Zhukovsky. At the same time, Pushkin himself in Eugene Onegin, obviously, does not completely separate them and does not oppose them, updating one or the other if necessary. The projection of both in the novel ranges from ironic reduction to sympathetic acceptance, which, along with their latent conflict with each other, creates a dialectical tension of Lensky’s image. It is Schiller’s motifs that give this image depth. In the draft versions, the exposition of Lensky’s image, the expressiveness and passion of his nature, rebellion and political engagement of the poet are much more strongly emphasized. But the author, while working on the text, “shifts” the image of Lensky towards a dreamy elegiac, while maintaining a recognizable Schiller appearance. The description of Lensky’s ideals moves entirely along the lines of Schiller’s philosophy and creativity. In this regard, the article for the first time examines possible reminiscences to the image of Lensky from Schiller’s poems “Die Hoffnung”, “Die Ideale”, “Die Freundschaft”, “Der Triumph der Liebe”, “Das Geheimnis der Reminiszenz. An Laura”, “Die Künstler”, “Das Glück”, “Das Ideal und das Leben”, “Der Flüchtling”. Having parodied the tradition of “dull” elegy on the example of Lensky’s dying poems, the author unexpectedly places two similar elegies as lyrical digressions. Despite the predominance of the Byron ideological and artistic context in the novel and Pushkin’s apparent irony in relation to the Schiller tradition, it represented for him a possible reference point for the development of Russian literature.

Integrating dialectical tensions in mindfulness‐informed counseling

AbstractThis article explores integrating mindfulness within psychotherapy through dialectical humanism. The author integrates Buddhist, Jewish, and contemporary psychology perspectives to explore three dialectical tensions in psychotherapy: striving versus acceptance, becoming versus being, and relevancy versus regularity. The author offers integrative mindfulness techniques for counselors to use with clients.

Critical conscious leadership for decolonisation: a Black consciousness perspective of authentically transforming leadership

PurposeThis paper draws on African anti-colonial thought and Black consciousness to propose critical conscious leadership (CCL) as a decolonising leadership approach appropriate for pursuing emancipation, social justice and innovation in a new African university.Design/methodology/approachI utilised the method of critical discourse analysis to study Ihron Rensburg’s language as he reflected on his leadership at the University of Johannesburg (UJ). The study engaged with Rensburg’s writings and texts on his account of leading the merger and transformation of UJ. The primary text draws from his book “Serving Higher Purposes” (2020).FindingsThrough the construction of CCL, the paper proposes alternative tenets for leading transformation towards a new African university. CCL grounds a decolonised and pluriversal new African university’s character premised on a consciously revitalised alternative thinking that will carry the communitarian spirit of Africa in knowledge production, dissemination and consumption in humanising all and serving the greater good. And it operates within the dialectical tensions of the social and economic purpose of higher education (HE), African and global relevance, African and Western paradigms, excellent performance and attainment of social justice.Originality/valueThe proposed CCL offers an alternative leadership approach that responds to the call to “Dethrone the Empire” by centring Blackness in HE leadership, which is crucial for authentic transformation and decolonisation.

On the Dialectical Dialogue in Supervision

AbstractWhereas the therapeutic action centres on emotional participation and containment of the patient's intolerable experiences, the supervisory action centres on interpreting the reconstructed therapeutic reality. Since the emergent interpretation is subjective and contextual, it requires processing in a dialogue between the supervisor and the supervisee. However, their existential need to define and assert themselves as professionals often urges them to highlight the differences between their perceptions and beliefs and keenly convince each other. Uncontained, this dialectical tension might disrupt the supervisory process and the participants' well‐being. Despite the existential urges, when the supervisor and the supervisee recognize and validate each other as independent and autonomous professionals, they can restrain their competitiveness, maintain a productive dialectical dialogue, achieve creative and integrated understandings of the therapeutic process and consolidate their professional identities. Moreover, despite the hierarchical supervisory relationship, acknowledging their vulnerability helps supervisors recognize and validate their supervisees and facilitate the dialectical supervisory dialogue.

Where Does Hope Lie? The Dialectical Tensions Between Hopes and Expectations of Vocational Transition Planning from the Perspectives of Autistic Young Adults, Parents, and Practitioners.

The post-secondary transition for autistic youth is a complex process, with hopes and expectations serving as malleable mediators often overlooked in research and practice. Career awareness, exploration, and counseling services play a critical role in facilitating vocational transition, but the vocational hopes and expectations of autistic youth and their parents are often disregarded. This study aims to explore these aspirations and their impact on the vocational transition process, seeking to harmonize elements to better align with the needs of autistic youth and their families. This study used a focus group design involving group interviews with three participant groups: autistic transition-aged youth, parents, and practitioners. The findings reveal five key themes: 1) Accepting Disability or Constrained by Ableism: Resisting Marginalization, 2) Finding the Sweet Spot: Are Parents and Youth's Expectations Too High or Too Low, 3) Market Forces at Work-Finding a Meaningful Vocational Path in a Capitalist Society, 4) Despite Meticulous Planning, there is a Disconnect Between Needs and Resources, and 5) The Hills and Valleys of Finding Resilience. Navigating the multifaceted landscape of vocational transition planning for autistic youth necessitates a collaborative and flexible approach. Identified tensions serve as opportunities for growth and transformation. Recognizing and addressing system shortcomings is crucial for informed decision-making. Challenges extend beyond individual circumstances, reflecting broader systemic issues, and identifying these gaps allows for a comprehensive understanding of available resources, cultivating a basis of hope as uncertainties are addressed.

Still-existing utopian pedagogy: Architecture, curriculum, and the revolutionary imaginary

While the manifestation of a revival of a collective revolutionary imaginary is more pronounced in social movements, we see it evidenced in a renewed interested in utopian curriculum and pedagogy. This article advances this trend by following José Esteban Muñoz’s methodology, returning an early Paulo Freire formulation of utopian pedagogy as a dialectic of denouncing and announcing, and building on Darren Webb’s project of reasserting the centrality of direction in utopian imaginations. Contending that our inability to imagine a radically different world results from the dominant temporality in our conjuncture, we mine cartographic processes as both archaeological and architectural to disrupt the perceptual and ideological restraints that muzzle our ability to not only image and sense alternative possibilities but to organize for the power required for their actualization. We thread this through a concrete example of an architectural utopian curriculum that demonstrates how archaeology and architecture can be blocked together or held in dialectical tension, which entails emphasizing that utopian pedagogy emerges from and as part of concrete struggles. We look at the Warsaw Palace, a still-existing socialist utopian architectural project, that can serve as a cartographic node in combining the openings of utopian longings with the political direction needed for their realization.

Genealogy of Species as a Limit-Concept

Abstract: This essay problematizes "species" at a moment when this concept has become ubiquitous in and indispensable to ecological thought. Through a reading of Dipesh Chakrabarty and Alexandre Kojève—who, I argue, is a key precursor of Chakrabarty's thought—I show how "species" sits in dialectical tension with the category of the "human," and argue that while the latter has been thoroughly problematized across fields, its dialectical relation to "species" has not. I thus attend to "species" as an anthropological "limit-concept," illuminating how this term has been constructed as an antithesis to the historical human that is itself constitutively without history and without speech. I not only question this assumption, but, via genealogy, also trace it back to a colonial matrix that makes clear the ways in which anti-Blackness modulates this dialectic between "human" and "species," consigning Black subjects to the position of the specimen. In genealogical perspective, moreover, one sees that the "species" limit-concept also includes a decolonial counter-analytic, which I locate in the work of Frantz Fanon and Sylvia Wynter. Both thinkers trouble "species" as a category of racialized experience, proposing, in turn, that those forced to inhabit "species" might also interrupt its production of the human as Man. When the movement of the anthropological dialectic is stalled, I claim, it appears now as a material image, an insurgent visuality. Ultimately, then, I contend that critical attention to the history of the (de-historicized and de-historicizing) concept of "species" and to the role of race within it enables us to see our ecological conjuncture otherwise. Deepening our engagement with this history can help us understand what this category has done to the myriad others-to-Man to whom it is addressed, and what they have done in response.

Utilizing Social Media in Communicating in English as a Second Language

Social media is a powerful tool in communicating in English as a second language, its utilization affecting students in meaningful ways. The purpose of this study was to ponder issues and nuances in utilizing social media in second-language communication. Data constituted memoirs and introspections, drawn heavily from personal experiences of the author-participant in an online learning course at an open university, highlighting the use of the English language in virtual meetings with classmates, the teacher, and friends, utilizing synchronous and asynchronous modes. Dialectical tensions emanating from the narratives indicate that social media utilization offers learning facilitation in mediated communication. However, technology creates learning difficulties such as chunking sentences into small words and phrases, replacing words with acronyms, giving rise to incorrect spelling and grammar usage, which lead to faulty sentence construction. These are juxtaposed with social media’s capacity to broaden learning opportunities due to the high presence of the English language in social media networks, maximize technological capacity to auto-correct spelling errors, provide suggestions for proper phrasing and sentence construction, and broaden cross-cultural communication because of foreign language appropriation in different communication contexts. The study’s implications centered around personal and cultural nuances of second-language communication bordering on a self-driven desire to improve English communication using creative methods, while bridging cultural divides through decolonization as a democratic process, exemplifying openness and interconnectedness of foreign language in the global front.

Crafting Climate Solutions for Nature-Dependent Subsistence Communities: A Dignity-Centric View

Globally, more than 1.2 billion people depend directly on nature for their basic needs. These nature-dependent subsistence communities (NDSCs) bear the brunt of environmental disruptions caused by climate change. Prevailing climate solutions crafted by external “experts” often pursue narrow technocratic objectives that erode the dignity of NDSCs. In this paper, we conduct ethnographic research in a subsistence fishing community to develop a dignity-centric framework for crafting climate solutions for subsistence communities. We center the voices of community members in deriving our framework, which is a departure from prior approaches rooted in normative ethical frameworks. A unique feature of our framework is the dual focus on deontological (process-based) and teleological (outcome-based) dignity considerations. Furthermore, taking a dialectical approach to dignity outcomes, our framework reveals that climate solutions must account for three important dialectical tensions playing out within communities: cultural continuity versus cultural adaptation, place rootedness versus spatial mobility, and consumption adequacy versus aspirational consumption.