Ephemeral Phenomenon Research Articles

Eighteen Days in Tahrir Protests: The Perfomatives of Civic Action in Egypt’s 2011 Revolution

Abstract On January 25, 2011, a spontaneous mobilization of masses of Egyptian folks congregated in Tahrir Square calling for change in Egypt. ‘Bread, freedom and social justice’ is what Egyptian demonstrators chanted throughout their encampment in the Midan. Shortly after Tahrir Square had turned into a community of protestors congregating and setting up camp day and night in the large plaza, random protestors and performers started devising means of entertainment imbued with political satire with which to engage and incite the crowds. Songs and dances as well as lengthy dramatic monologues, verbatim testimonies, poetry recitations and various styles of storytelling emerged. Those performative acts of protest are similar in nature to renowned Egyptian dramatist Yusuf Idris’s recounting of the Egyptian village al-samir performance tradition, which was also performative and unruly in nature. This interdisciplinary study compares that indigenous dramatic art form, al-samir, with the revolutionary performatives of protest that sprang up extemporaneously in the Midan during the Egyptian revolution in 2011. The paper raises questions about the nature of protest and community formation, democracy, performativity and focuses only on the first 18 days of the January uprising, that specific historical moment only and its transformative effect on theatrical performances, performers and protestors at the time. The paper proposes that the Tahrir performatives of protest were an ephemeral phenomenon that appeared as embodiments and celebrations of political freedom in a specific time and place, and they ended when the call for democracy and the euphoria of the uprising of 2011 gradually faded away.

Is Putin an Ism?

Abstract The Putin phenomenon represents a complex and dynamic interaction between the character of the man, his policies and leadership style. After over two decades in office, we can ask whether there is such a thing as ‘Putinism’, and if so, what are its main features? What are the criteria to be considered an ‘ism’? At the minimum, it requires some sort of ‘grand strategy’ that underpins policy in domestic and foreign policy, and which unites the two. A grand strategy is defined as some deep structure in domestic and foreign policy that transcends individual leaders and which has some overarching purpose. Putinism in this paper is considered a ‘passive revolution’, allowing a profound transformation to take place in society while the polity remains relatively static. One of the main criticisms levelled against Putin is that he is brilliant at tactics, above all in factional maneuvering, but lacks an over-arching vision of where Russia should go. This paper assesses whether Putin is ultimately an ephemeral phenomenon, or whether the era with which his name is associated will endure in history as a distinctive style of rule.

Phenomenological Case Study of Spiritual Connectedness in the Academic Workplace

The field of workplace spirituality is plagued by problems of definition due to the ambiguity of the term “spirituality” from the Western perspective. As workplace spirituality is by nature an ephemeral phenomenon approachable from multiple perspectives, this study approaches this topic from the Islamic perspective. The inductive research method chosen is a combination of phenomenology and qualitative case study. Phenomenology is chosen as it describes the meaning for individuals of their lived experiences of a phenomenon. The International Islamic University of Malaysia is chosen as the case study due to its prominence as a premier global Islamic university. In-depth interviews with academics, both local and international, of the International Islamic University of Malaysia are the primary method of data collection. Thirteen academics, six males and seven females, from this university have been interviewed for this purpose. Findings suggest that spiritual connectedness is about the relationship with Allah and the relationship with human beings (habluminallah wa habluminannas), God consciousness (taqwa), sense of belonging, doing for the sake of Allah, brotherhood (ukhuwwah), inviting towards what is good and forbidding from wrong (amar ma’ruf nahi mungkar) and ihsan. The implication of these findings highlights the understanding of Muslim academics of what being spiritually connected mean to them personally. The contribution of this study is to enrich the literature on workplace spirituality by exploring the Islamic perspective of spiritual connectedness and to understand first-hand how being spiritually connected is defined by Muslim academics.

Introduction: The Counterpublics of Underground Comics

Introduction:The Counterpublics of Underground Comics Margaret Galvan (bio) and Leah Misemer (bio) THIS ISSUE urges the application of feminist praxis to how we tell the history of comics in comics studies. In feminist anthologies, introductions have traditionally provided a fertile space for highlighting the structural conditions that exclude certain populations from the historical narrative.1 Sometimes, these introductions precede retrospective recuperatory research, but often they preface work that deliberately creates space for new conversations. That is, this tactic is necessary both for looking back and for creating new paths forward. These manifestos identify practical methods that future feminists can adopt to address and incrementally improve current conditions. A practice of feminist historiography involves looking at things differently and questioning the accepted methods that reproduce the same narratives, which exclude by building a lineage through dominant forces, through straight, white, cis men rather than through another route. We suggest such an approach to comics studies through the history of underground comics provided here. These new accounts are vital because underground comics provides a foundation upon which both comics and comics studies have been built, as encapsulated in the title of Hillary Chute's recent monograph, Why Comics?: From Underground to Everywhere (2017).2 Though scholars, such as Chute and Charles Hatfield, recognize a wider expanse of the underground that includes marginalized perspectives, they identify RAW and Weirdo as torchbearers that ensure the future of the underground ethos.3 This focus centers straight white men, such as Robert Crumb and Art Spiegelman, excusing their misogyny, heterosexism, and racism by framing it as a celebration of breaking taboos as comics addressed more adult subjects. Even so, underground comics from outside this standard San Francisco-based male narrative used that new adult focus, particularly its engagement with sex, to critique the objectification that pervaded these now-canonical underground comics and dominant culture in general. When we view the comics of Crumb and his cohort in light of the critiques that emerge from the margins, they don't seem so radical, because they merely perpetuate an exaggerated version of the heterosexism of mainstream media, such as television and film. However, the broken taboos of the underground did open up new spaces where marginalized creators could explore their identities and their relationships to the mainstream media that largely excluded them. This issue as a whole argues that we should frame our narrative of underground comics through those comics [End Page 1] instead, which allows us to trace a different genealogy that centers those often relegated to the margins. We create this new frame through the lens of the counterpublic. A concept that comes out of Nancy Fraser's feminist critique of Habermas's discussion of the public sphere, a counterpublic is an open space for the marginalized to "formulate oppositional interpretations of their identities, interests, and needs."4 Robert Asen refines Fraser's definition to apply specifically to public discussions of identity that might change depending on context. In the wake of post-structuralism, identity constantly shifts, becoming a poor ground for building solidarity, and Asen's conception of counterpublics acknowledges them as "a dispersed ephemeral phenomenon" that "manifests in moments of social dialogue and discursive engagement among and across constructed boundaries of social, cultural, and political affiliation."5 This conception of the counterpublic takes into account the inter-sectional approach to identity first theorized by Kimberlé Crenshaw and promoted by women of color feminism, where a black woman might use her discussion of race to engage with one counterpublic and her gender to engage with another.6 Building on Asen's definition of counterpublics, Michael Warner applies the concept to queer culture, paying particular attention to how the distribution and circulation of print materials can foster identification with a counterpublic.7 The essays in this volume draw on the counterpublic to theorize how marginalized print spaces allowed creators and readers to speak back to the dominant discourses of mainstream media and underground comics alike. Underground culture opened a new space for marginalized creators to explore their identities in published print form. With underground comics, copyright resided with cartoonists rather than being held by publishers as was the case in commercial comics, so creators had...

Embracing uncertainty: a diffractive approach to love in the context of early childhood education and care

ABSTRACTYoung children spend an increasing amount of time in out of home care, as neuroscientific research reveals the pivotal role love and touch plays in children’s development. In response to this new knowledge, there is a growing interest in love and touch in the context of early childhood education. Sadly, cases of sexual abuse in early childhood education and care (ECEC) settings have ignited fear and uncertainty among stakeholders in regards to what kind of touch and how much love is appropriate to feel for children in ECEC. Research exploring love in early childhood education tends therefore to be concerned with creating certainty in regards to love as a safe and healthy practice. This focus, though necessary to develop knowledge about love, also silences other uncertain aspects of love in the context of early childhood education that affects early childhood educators. Drawing on Karen Barad’s diffraction methodology, this article engages a diffractive analysis and transforms educators’ solicited narratives of love in pedagogic practice into love poems. The poems attend to the overflowing quality of love as an uncertain, ephemeral phenomenon, invoking moments of pleasure and the desire to connect with children as personal matters, rather than solely professional concerns.

Southern Regional French: A Linguistic Analysis of Language and Dialect Contact by Damien Mooney

Reviewed by: Southern Regional French: A Linguistic Analysis of Language and Dialect Contact by Damien Mooney Thomas T. Field Mooney, Damien. Southern Regional French: A Linguistic Analysis of Language and Dialect Contact. Legenda, 2016. ISBN 978-1-909662-89-6. Pp. 158. Regional varieties of French in France have not received the close attention they deserve, and variationist sociolinguistics, the approach that would seem to offer the greatest potential rewards, has been relatively neglected. Mooney's book attempts to bridge this gap by tackling the linguistic situation in Béarn, where the local language is still spoken, together with a form of regional French (RF). A cursory introduction to the regional speech community and an overview of the phonologies of Béarnais and the local RF set the stage well, though a few details in these chapters might need to be qualified or corrected. The first of the book's major contributions is a pioneering attempt to discover "the exact mechanisms" (3) by which linguistic residue from a local language (Béarnais, in this case) may be preserved in RF, a problem that has nearly always been treated in very superficial ways. Mooney's results in this respect are interesting but inconclusive. His second contribution is a study of the RF of Béarn over (apparent) time, and his conclusions on this account seem both convincing and illuminating. The basic question he asks is whether the RF of Béarn is an ephemeral phenomenon destined to melt into the supralocal vernacular language that dominates across most of France. His data suggest that movement toward the broader model is [End Page 227] not leading ineluctably to convergence and that younger speakers mix local and supralocal features with innovative variants, thus allowing them to "negotiate conflicting regional and non-local identities by sounding like southerners, but modern southerners" (110). Whether this can be connected, as Mooney suggests, with a postmodern rejection of Jacobinism (118) and "an alternative future for modern France" (122) cannot be answered by the data he provides, of course. A few points in the study might have benefited from additional clarification. Mooney's treatment of the front unrounded mid vowels in the RF of Bearn is slightly puzzling. He is less than clear about the /e/~/ε/ contrast (37, 48), suggesting, based on studies by Moreux, that in word-final open syllables the contrast was meaningful in a generation older than those he is studying but not in younger speakers. Thus, when the language contact chapter focuses on the comparative acoustic profiles of /e/ and /ε/, he may actually mean the allophones [e] and [ε]. In addition, it might be easy to miss the author's warning (52) that even his "older speakers," nearly all born since 1940, learned to speak French in early childhood. This means that RF is not an L2 for them, but a second L1, almost certainly acquired before they went to school. Mooney's book is situated in the field of sociophonetics and will be rather rough going for those not familiar with variationist methodology, acoustic phonetics, and the use of statistics within sociolinguistics. Thomas T. Field University of Maryland, Baltimore County Copyright © 2018 American Association of Teachers of French

A estruturação da experiência segundo Luigi Giussani

Resumo O presente artigo apresenta a noção de experiência em sua dinâmica própria de estruturação segundo o pensamento de Luigi Giussani, apontando sua originalidade. Experiência tomada como inteligência do sentido das coisas que viabiliza o emergir do real à consciência e que é examinada em sua característica de incrementar a capacidade da pessoa de compreender e amar, bem como de abrir-se à totalidade. A originalidade da noção giussaniana de experiência é identificada na ênfase no acontecimento ao invés da característica moderna e contemporânea do sujeito subjugar o real, podendo superar as reduções da experiência a sentimento, a fenômeno subjetivo ou efêmero.

The Persistent Transience of Microcinema (in the United States and Canada)

While the film industry has standardized exhibition and consumption practices to some extent, as exemplified in the multiplex model, some diversity remains within this field of cultural production. Microcinema provides one such variation or, as many practitioners would assert, a reaction against mainstream exhibition, and to a lesser degree institutional practices. This article discusses the transient but persistent nature of micro-cinema. It also provides a much-needed historical analysis of the transition from previous alternative film exhibition venues, like the art house, to the contemporary practice of microcinema, given that film history has largely neglected and underdocumented this significant yet ephemeral phenomenon.

Transient features in a Titan sea

As northern summer solstice nears on Saturn’s moon Titan, dynamic processes on its surface are expected. Recent observations by the Cassini spacecraft reveal transient bright features in or on a Titan sea that are consistent with an ephemeral phenomenon such as waves.

The Emergence and Consolidation of the Urban‐Rural Region: Migration Patterns around Copenhagen 1986–2011

AbstractIn recent decades, urbanisation in Europe has been characterised by the development and expansion of functionally integrated urban regions. Areas around Copenhagen, Denmark, have also experienced continuous urbanisation and a considerable in‐migration, which has contributed to the development of a wider metropolitan region. Most recently, however, a shift of migration towards the urban centre has occurred. Was the emergence of the urban‐rural region just an ephemeral phenomenon? Migration patterns are used to analyse urban‐rural relationships. Generally, in‐migration was concentrated in areas located at medium to long‐distances from the city centre from 1996–2005, while in the years since 2006, this trend has been reversed. However, a differentiated view on migration shows a very diverse and non‐linear development. We focus on three migration types, Ex‐urbanisation, Displaced urbanisation and Anti‐urbanisation and compare their development since 1986 in three time periods. Each type shows a different behaviour, partially unstable over time.

On the Concept of Prototype in Songye Masquerades

In 1986 I published a book on Songye masks and figure sculpture based on fieldwork conducted in the Lomami region of the Democratic Republic of the Congo (Hersak 2007). That publication is the product of a particular interdisciplinary way of seeing and thinking about African art history prevalent in the 1970s and ‘80s in anglophone scholarship. It encapsulates a slice of time and academic gymnastics that are also proper to a particular personal experience. In this paper I intend to revisit Songye masquerades (Fig. 1), from another time zone and from the wider angle of what is currently referred to as “expressive culture.” While I have previously concentrated on both field and museum contexts, there is no doubt that I see masking now as an even broader, more dynamic, fluid phenomenon in time and space that cannot be reduced to selective or singular image/performance study. It is a cultural expression that also begs to be viewed from the perspective of multiple sense-scapes and expressive forms in addition to the visual—the auditory or olfactory, for example. Moreover, we sometimes forget that the visual, material object is not necessarily of prime significance in many cultures; it is not considered in isolation, as Zoe Strother has clearly shown with the case of Pende masking, where “the invention of a new mask centers on its dance” (1998:42). As she points out, to Westerners it is difficult to conceive that the sculptor is the “last stop” in the creative process (ibid., p. 30). Hence, static analysis of collectable objects remains the focus of “collection and exhibition” histories which nourish the desired view of the private sector and formal institutional doctrines. The latter is also a traditional Western art historical approach based on a selective construct of the “art” category, privileging so-called high art and discriminating against lowly crafts and, of course, anything coming close to tourist production. Although it is not my intent to tackle all these issues in this paper, I do wish to venture beyond at least some of the previously safe academic havens and look at Songye masking then and now in various spatio-temporal representations. The particular emphasis on the concept of the “prototype,” inspired by a conference on the topic held at the Universite Libre de Bruxelles in October 2010, provides interesting food for thought and challenging new angles of exploration.1 In taking this road, I am therefore obliged to ask different questions than those that have preoccupied me before and to accept the risk of healthy theoretical uncertainty. Such a path does not promise to be a straight one, but it can liberate and sharpen our visions, leading to potentially more sensitive and reflective interpretations. As a point of departure, I will begin simply and less tortuously by reviewing the familiar frames of the ethnographic context. The Songye masquerading practices that I had the opportunity to witness and document in the late 1970s were those of Eastern Songye (Fig. 2). It would appear that the origins of this tradition emerged in an area of admixture between Songye and Luba peoples and diffused throughout both culture areas and beyond, adapting to different needs and expressions as is the case with other masking societies (see Hersak 1993). In reality there is therefore not a singular Songye tradition; it is a dynamic, ephemeral phenomenon with variants that have come and gone and may never be known. But as Alfred Gell noted in relation to Marquesan art, “... despite [a] geographical scattering and contextual transformation [the] art retains an inner integrity of its own, as a macroscopic whole rather than as an aggregate of fragments” (1998:221). At the time of my fieldwork in DRC, folkloric masking practices had begun to make their appearance but it was the so-called traditional context of masquerades that was of particular academic interest, one in which ritual rather than theatricality was

A Constituição de 1838

The importance traditionally given to the Costa Cabral’s coup ( 27/01/1842 ) make the Constitution of 1838 an ephemeral phenomenon aimed form the outset to failure. The overvaluation of that event 's founder of cabralismo reduced it to merely a transition between two strong times : the Revolution of September 1836 and the restoration of the 1826 Constitutional Charter on 10 February 1842 . His apparent failure does not cancel its originality , nor does it imply deduct a weakness or inability to contribute to solving national problems . The fact that he sided with the losers of history does not prevent the constitutional text has its own story that can not be erased from collective memory without becoming intelligible understanding of the nineteenth century in Portugal . Enviado el / Submission Date: 30/04/2012 Aceptado el / Acceptance Date: 10/05/2012

Anti-communism in Mid-Twentieth-Century Ireland

This article investigates anticommunism in Ireland during the late 1940s and early 1950s. It focuses in particular on the campaigns waged by the right-wing Catholic organisations, Maria Duce and the Catholic Cinema and Theatre Patrons’ Association, opposing the influence of American cinema, which it was alleged was dominated by Communists. The central argument is that Ireland's ‘red scare’ was an ephemeral phenomenon, fuelled by American anticommunism, which was then at its height, and the cultural Cold War in Europe. Combined with these broader fears it reveal how anticommunism was shaped by domestic political and cultural contexts, especially concerns about the impact of external influences on Irish minds, in the omnipresent form of American cinema. Hollywood films offered visions of modernity that undermined traditional Irish nationalist values of simple living, an innate distaste of materialism, and an unflinching moral code, informed by Catholic teachings. In independent Ireland, far from the front line of confrontation with the red menace, the ideological dimensions made themselves felt, but were not perceived to be a sufficient threat as to dominate public life, as was the case in the United States.

Fine whines improve with age

Fine whines improve with age

Populism: the Bulgarian case

The paper explores various aspects of populism focusing on the Bulgarian case study since 1989 with reference to its empirical manifestations, the legitimacy crisis and political culture traits. The text focuses on parliamentary represented parties and reconstructs the evolution of populism from an ephemeral phenomenon to an integral part of the political system. Particular attention is being paid to the year 2001, when the king’s return unleashed the “populist moment” opening up the space for the massive influx of populist parties. The paper advocates the thesis that, with the exception of Ataka, populist parties generally remain within the limits set by constitutional democracy, yet at the same time, by reducing complexity to trivialized solutions they only aggravate the legitimacy crisis instead of overcoming it.

Plant invasions in temperate forests: Resistance or ephemeral phenomenon?

Invasion patterns in Europe are uneven across habitats. In particular, temperate zonal forests are relatively little affected by invasions. However, long generation periods of forest species and the rarity of disturbance events may lead to long time lags, and so, invasion resistance of temperate forests may have been overestimated. Based on the inventory of the alien vascular flora of 15 study sites in East Austrian lowland forest patches adjacent to villages, we analysed diversity and temporal trends of their alien flora and the influence of within-habitat diversity, occurrence of forest areas dominated by alien tree species and adjacent land use diversity on the level of invasion. In total, we recorded 119 alien (neophyte) species. Species introduced by horticulture are of overriding importance (86% of all aliens). Using the year of first record in Austria as a proxy for local residence time, numbers of aliens have increased linearly by five species per decade since 1800. A GLM including the study site size and ratio of forest areas dominated by alien vs. native tree species explains 64% of the variance of the number of alien species. Size was more important, but the ratio of forest areas dominated by alien trees ( Ailanthus altissima, Robinia pseudacacia) significantly increased alien species number. Our results show, that invasion of alien trees with strong impacts on ecosystem properties facilitates invasion in Central European forests, leading to “invasional meltdown”. Further, high levels of propagule pressure, created by adjacent settlements and gardens, may foster invasions. Currently observed low levels of invasion in Central European forests situated in greater distance to settlements may turn out to be an ephemeral phenomenon. Spread of alien forest plants on the landscape level may ultimately, although possibly only over long time periods, lead to increased levels of invasion.

Geographic and molecular variation in a natural plant transgene

A PCR based survey of Festuca ovina plants from populations around the southern part of the Baltic Sea demonstrates both geographic and molecular variation in the enzyme gene PgiC2, horizontally transferred from a Poa-species. Our results show that PgiC2-a natural functional nuclear transgene-is not a local ephemeral phenomenon but is present in a very large number of individuals. We find also that its frequency is geographically variable and that it appears in more than one molecular form. The chloroplast variation in the region does not indicate any distinct subdivision due to different colonization routes after the last glaciation. Our data illustrate the geographic and molecular variation that may occur in natural populations with a polymorphic, unfixed transgene affected by diverse kinds of mutational and evolutionary processes.

Quark stars: features and findings

Under extreme conditions of temperature and/or density, quarks and gluons are expected to undergo a deconfinement phase transition. While this is an ephemeral phenomenon at the ultra-relativistic heavy-ion collider (BNL-RHIC), quark matter may exist naturally in the dense interior of neutron stars. Herein, we present an appraisal of the possible phase structure of dense quark matter inside neutron stars, and the likelihood of its existence given the current status of neutron star observations. We conclude that quark matter inside neutron stars cannot be dismissed as a possibility, although recent observational evidence rules out most soft equations of state.

Geomorphic and Environmental Change Around a Large, Aging Reservoir: Lake C. W. McConaughy, Western Nebraska, USA

Lake C. W. McConaughy, a 63-year-old manmade reservoir in the North Platte Valley of western Nebraska, is the largest standing body of water in the state. From the time that Kingsley Dam was completed in 1941 until the present day (2004), many geomorphic and environmental changes have occurred along the shores and within the North Platte Valley. Erosion on the southeastern shoreline of the lake had been perceived as a problem for landowners and managers for at least three decades, but the full scale of erosion was revealed only after a cumulative 18-m drawdown in lake level: bedrock platforms, extending from cliffs on headlands, as well as minor caves, alcoves, potholes, and beach erosion scarps were revealed. Actual headland retreat since 1941 has probably been on a scale of magnitude of tens of meters. Erosional platforms, however, are as much as 266 m in length, indicating that they are, collectively, the results of a combination of pre-reservoir geomorphic conditions, erosion during reservoir filling, and wave erosion after filling. Serial observations of the shoreline made in the period 1999–2002 demonstrated that shoreline erosion continues. Depositional features such as pocket beaches and beach ridges have formed de novo in bays between headlands. Also, a delta that prograded at least 4 km from the North Platte River into the lake between 1952 and 1993 continues to grow, and major morphometric changes have occurred on the North Platte River immediately upstream since 1941 in response to the elevation of the local base level by the lake; most of the change in channel patterns in the river upstream from the delta took place in a mere 8 years from 1952 to 1960. Since 1999, some emergent beaches and areas of exposed lake floor have developed sand dunes; eolian erosion and re-deposition is widespread elsewhere in these areas during periods of high winds, which are frequent in western Nebraska. The water table beneath lands adjacent to the reservoir generally rose until 1953 as the lake was filling. The far-flung irrigation system of which Lake McConaughy is the key element has elevated water tables as far as 250 km from the lake. Since at least 2000, soil salinization (episodic thenardite accumulation) has developed in exposed lake sediments at the western end of the lake. On a smaller scale, groundwater has been discharging lakeward along shoreline beach scarps through springs and seeps while lake levels have been low. Slightly lowering the operating level of Lake McConaughy could slow some of the more dramatic effects of shoreline erosion when the lake returns to its pre-drought volume, but erosion will continue, particularly at the ends of headlands on the southeastern shore, which are exposed to strong waves driven by northerly to northwesterly winds. Eolian erosion and re-deposition will, on the other hand, continue as long as lake level remains particularly low as a result of drought and the removal of irrigation waters. Salinization can be considered an ephemeral phenomenon, dependent on future management of the lake, but it indirectly represents the potential for larger-scale changes in hydrogeologic systems. The longer-term effects of lake-related water-table changes, both near the lake and downstream in irrigated lands, as well as the ability of the lake to supply irrigation water if drought conditions continue, remain to be seen.

Cytological abnormalities in the ovaries of triploid yellowtail flounder, Limanda ferruginea (Storer)

Abnormal oocytes were detected in the ovaries of triploid yellowtail flounder of three years of age. Triploidy in these females had been induced artificially by hydrostatic pressure shock. Binucleate oocytes were found in the ovaries of six different triploid females. These cells were always small and in a primary growth stage. Cytoplasmic vacuoles, presumed to be due to nucleoplasmic extrusion, was another abnormal feature observed in two primary growth oocytes, each seen in a separate female. The appearance of binucleate oocytes in triploid females, not previously noted in diploid yellowtail flounder, is proposed to be an ephemeral phenomenon associated with the triploid condition.