Everyday Reality Research Articles

Юзовка – Сталино – Донецк: политизация национального вопроса в прозе о Донбассе советских писателей 1930–1980-х гг.

Donetsk is a young industrial city. This is captured in the history of its naming, reflective of the transformations of the politics of the two empires: Yuzovka – Stalino – Donetsk. There are few fictional works devoted to Donetsk in Soviet literature. It is local, regional literature, created by natives of the region from the 1930s to the 1980s. Donetsk’s art-journalistic metatext was formed along with the city transforming itself from a worker’s settlement into the capital of industrial Donbass. After October 1917 the city and metatext of Donetsk consistently “did not remember”, “did not see” its origins – Yuzovka – but was concentrated on the Soviet present of the region. The historically conditioned multinational of Yuzovka, under the pressure of Soviet policy and ideology, was transformed into an internationality based on the dominance of the Soviet (essentially Russian) man and his local kind: the Donbasovets. The aspirations to level out the national diversity of the region, to obscure the role of people with Ukrainian roots, and to replace it with the politicised internationalization in the fabric of the works have found their semantic and ideological limit. This limit intensified when the depersonalisation of national-cultural features of the city, region was artificially imposed and it manifested in speech, everyday realities, and the memorial culture of the common people.

A Change of Heart: What It’s Like to Live in Tolstoy’s The Death of Ivan Ilyich

Abstract: Michael W. Clune argues in A Defense of Judgment that aesthetic education can unleash our capacity to critique our values and transform our preferences and desires. Works of art hold the possibility of self-transcendence and unselfing; expertise in aesthetic judgment enables us to enter into this possibility. But how do we come to want to change what we want within a culture that conceals the value of this practice? Tolstoy’s The Death of Ivan Ilyich (1886) stages how a change of heart in the midst of everyday reality can reorient us to the possibility of a new life.

‘Money anxiety’: Understanding HE students' experiences of the cost‐of‐living crisis

AbstractThe ongoing cost‐of‐living crisis is causing immense stress and hardship for families, individuals and communities, with increases in utility bills, food prices and transport costs. Actors from civil society, politicians and academics have demonstrated concern as to the effect this is having at local and national levels, specifically the disproportionate impact on already marginalised and vulnerable groups. One demographic particularly affected is higher education students, however, due to the lack of support measures being aimed at this cohort, they are at significant risk of becoming overlooked and forgotten. While recent survey data has acknowledged the negative experiences of this group, there is a lack of understanding of their everyday lived realities. To address this gap, this article draws on empirical research conducted with HE students in the North‐West of England between 2022 and 2023. The study explores the diverse ways in which students navigate the crisis and the impact this has on their health and well‐being. It concludes with a call for urgent action and policy response to elevate unprecedented and devastating student hardship triggered by the cost‐of‐living crisis.

A moral economy of care: How clinical discourses perpetuate Indigenous-specific discrimination and racism in western Canadian emergency departments.

Recent research has unveiled the pervasiveness with which Indigenous patients are subjected to racialized stereotypes within the Canadian health system. Because discrimination in health care is associated with poor health outcomes and undertreated illness, there is a need to better understand how racism is perpetuated systemically in order to rectify the policies, practices, and attitudes that enable it. This article outlines a moral economy of care in emergency departments in western Canada by exploring the discourses that medical professionals employ when discussing cases of medical racism. While these discourses respond to the everyday realities of working in hospitals, they are also rooted in the colonial genealogy of health care in Canada and perpetuated by neoliberal shifts in health care services. By exploring the moral economy of care, this article sheds light on the way pervasive discourses contribute to reproducing and circulating Indigenous-specific racism and its role in decision-making.

Does Digital Intergroup Contact Reduce Prejudice? A Meta-Analysis.

With the ubiquity of technology in the modern life, contact between different social groups via different digital means is an everyday reality. Can such a digital intergroup contact reduce prejudice, or does it exacerbate it? In this study, we summarize the present evidence on the links between intergroup digital contact and prejudice in a variety of intergroup contexts. We meta-analyzed experimental and correlational evidence from 88 independent samples (n = 9,385). Digital intergroup contact showed a small but significant effect consistent with prejudice reduction (g = 0.25). Direct digital contact showed larger effect than indirect forms of contact, and contact via computer-mediated communication showed larger effects than contact achieved via other activities such as interacting with nonplayable characters or embodiment. The effects were similar regardless of the type of out-group targeted by prejudice. Overall, meta-analytical results suggest that digital intergroup contact may reduce prejudice.

SOCIAL POLICY: THEORY, METHODOLOGY AND PRACTICAL ASPECTS OF TEACHING AND IMPLEMENTATION IN THE PROFESSIONAL ACTIVITY OF SOCIAL WORKERS

The scientific article represented an analysis of theoretical and methodological approaches to the study and teaching of social policy. The concept of "Social policy" is defined as a synthesis of theoretical and methodological approaches, as an educational discipline for students - future social workers, and as a practical activity aimed at reducing social tension in society and a tool of social justice. The author of the article analyzes the key problems of studying the problems of social policy and methods of teaching the discipline "Social Policy" in the period of a full-scale invasion. The main accents of the scientific publication are the principles, values, and effective tools of the state's social policy. Innovative teaching methods can help students - future social workers to understand the main problems of socio-economic inequality, gender aspects of social policy, methods, and directions of social protection of vulnerable categories of the population. Discussion of the results of sociological research, publications, and development of own projects made a great contribution to the development of critical thinking. The connection of the main directions and methods of social policy with the functioning and development of leading social institutions will help the practical implementation of knowledge in the everyday reality of social workers. Examples of discussions and realization of practical cases during the teaching of Social Policy as an educational discipline are offered for the analysis of social initiatives and programs in the context of various models of social policy. The active using of practical experience in the implementation of social programs and initiatives is proposed in the scientific article

Development of a glove controller for upper limb motor rehabilitation using virtual reality

Problem statement. Modern digital technologies make it possible to immerse a person in virtual reality, indistinguishable from everyday reality. Virtual reality is widely used in medical applications, in the tasks of training specialists and the prevention of mental disorders. However, the use of virtual reality in the rehabilitation of the upper extremities has certain limitations. Existing virtual reality controllers that simulate the work of hands are not able to reliably transmit sensations from the artificial to the real world and in most cases do not have a feedback system, which is so important for monitoring the dynamics of human rehabilitation. Medical developments in the form of exoskeletons for the hands, aimed at rehabilitating patients after strokes with lost hand motility, allow for deeper interaction with the limb, but in most cases do not support connection to a PC. The solution to the problem. The creation of a glove controller for interacting with virtual reality ensures constant communication with the user through his reactions to various physiological stimuli. Goal. Development of a glove controller for the rehabilitation of upper limb motility using biofeedback technology in the system. Results. The analysis of existing controllers for interaction with virtual reality is carried out. A new technical solution has been proposed for the implementation of a biofeedback controller. Practical significance. An experimental model of a biofeedback controller implemented on electromechanical drives is presented. The advantages and disadvantages of this technical solution are revealed. A variant of the implementation of biofeedback using an electronically controlled pneumatic system is proposed.

Application of binary lessons in mathematics as a factor of achieving the requirements of the updated Federal State Standards of basic general education

As part of the introduction of the updated Federal State Educational Standard for basic general education, the school is required to pay special attention not only to meeting the requirements for subject learning outcomes, but also to the development of functional literacy and soft skills. As part of the implementation of this direction, special attention is paid to increasing the level of mathematical literacy of students as an integral element of functional literacy. The key subjects in secondary schools that contribute to this process are mathematics, physics and computer science. Since the potential of meta-subjectivity and interdisciplinary communication of the subject of mathematics directly depends on its potential as a teaching and educational system, the article makes a critical assessment of the content of training and introduces proposals for its optimization in terms of focus on both the formation of mathematical literacy and the development of the mind and thinking of students, the formation of their mathematical culture and metamathematical knowledge. Paying attention to the mathematical component, the article notes that currently, as part of the implementation of the basic general education program, the emphasis is shifting to the area of the possibility of applying mathematical knowledge, skills and abilities to the problems of everyday reality. Thus, to increase the level of mathematical literacy as an integral element of functional literacy, an interdisciplinary consideration of the mathematics course and a search for ways to implement interdisciplinary connections are required. From this point of view, as an example for such an implementation, the issue of compiling and solving educational problems that can be used when conducting binary or integrated lessons in mathematics and physics was considered. The integrative nature of the content of binary lessons in mathematics and physics means the need for a synthesis of knowledge and methods of activity for students to implement it, which allows students to better assimilate the material, since they can see the connection between different subjects

The Work of Art as a Fictionalized Duplicate of Life: Boris Lehman's Babel film project in the Light of Marcel Proust's In Search of Lost Time

Belgian filmmaker Boris Lehman has created what is surely the most ambitious film diary in the history of cinema, Babel, a twenty-four-hour film divided into nine parts and several appendices, which traces a sort of sublimated filmic duplicate of the author's life between 1983 and 2020. In Babel, Lehman painstakingly records the daily activities of his life: eating breakfast, walking, talking with friends, traveling, playing the piano, being evicted, looking for a job or paying his taxes. Despite the appearance of a realistic duplicate, the filmmaker claims for his film the denomination of "autobiographical fiction". How can we understand this mismatch between the everyday reality suggested by the film and the fictional will that the author proposes as a key to reading it? This article proposes to consider this fictional quality of Lehman's autobiographical project in the light of the aesthetic proposal crystallized in Marcel Proust's novel In Search of Lost Time, which Gérard Genette proposed to call "autofiction".

“The texture of et cetera” — Synchronizing with the Blurry Real in 21st Century Artists’ Novels (Sheila Heti, Ben Lerner, Kate Zambreno)

Whether it is in the wake of a “Return to the Real” in visual arts” (Foster 1996), of “Reality Hunger” (Shields 2010), a number of novelists of the third millennium have shown an ever growing interest in accommodating the forms of the real into their fictions. For a certain category of novels, the fascination for the real translates into considerable changes brought to the novel’s inherent relation with time. As shown by Peter Boxall, the speed and instantaneity that are specific to our 21st century seems to be counterbalanced in a certain number of novels by an infinite attention to the slow passing moments of our everyday reality (2013, 1–18). This article focuses on three novels that revisit the forms of the Künstlerroman in the 21st century (Ben Lerner, Leaving the Atocha Station, 2011; Sheila Heti, How Should a Person Be? A Novel from Life, 2012; Kate Zambreno, Drifts, 2020) and looks at the strategies used by their narrators to grasp the elusive nature of the transient real while in the process redefining the novel as a site where to explore formal possibilities rather than as a set of generic constraints.

‘We are waiting for the end’: ageing and (im)mobility in the tourist city

Many tourist cities rely on walking as form of slow travel to take in the destination. Venice, the case study for this paper, is a distinct ‘walking city’, scripted into its cultural landscape along with its visitor crowds. As in other historical cities, however, crowding compromises residents’ walking mobility. This particularly affects groups that rely on proximate mobility such as older residents. This paper delves into the effects of tourism on everyday mobilities and realities of coping with change in the tourist city. It thus uncovers repercussions on ‘those remaining’ and highlights how the privilege of slowness may become a condition of disadvantage. It engages with long-term biographies, walking experiences, and the ageing process itself during an empirical study consisting of walking interviews. The findings show how tourist mobilities collide with access to spaces of social activity, essential services, and neighbourhood life. More importantly, they bring to surface how residents negotiate these hindrances and seek opportunities for mobility and wellbeing, despite older age-related challenges arising from the exclusive uptake of slow mobilities. Eventually, this paper forms a critique that discloses the collateral nature of tourism impacts on ageing in place, stuck between global mobility flows and local tourism management choices.

Tearing through the screen: diegetic credits, dialogic media, and fictional reality in Kon Satoshi’s Paprika

This article offers an examination of Japanese anime director Kon Satoshi’s artistic style, with a particular focus on his presentation of the title credits, by tracing his career as an internationally acclaimed auteur. It argues that Kon’s last film Paprika (2006) can be read as a bold experiment that collapses the distinction between physical existence and media representation, which is manifested at two levels: visually, by the translucent projections of the credits and narratively, by the recurring trope of the butterfly dream. It demonstrates that Kon develops a unique aesthetic over his career that blurs the boundary not only between reality and fiction within the diegetic space, but more significantly between the diegesis (i.e., the fictional universe depicted in the animated films) and the tangible, everyday reality that we dwell in. From the perspective of media ecology, this article proposes to consider the diegetic space, which tends to be treated as a commodity that we unproblematically consume, as something that is thoroughly imbricated in and dialogized with our concrete existence in the physical reality.

Punitive justice in the light of the tasks of international humanitarian law and international criminal law

Taking into account the everyday reality that when a criminal act is committed, the civil society of which the perpetrator is a part, considers it reprehensible, taking into account the relation of the act to the own value system of that society, and thus arises the question "who and how will he have to bear the consequences of this injury?", this article tries to identify and analyze the possible ways of carrying out justice in the event of a criminal act, pointing the needs of the victims at the center of the analysis.

ПРИНЦИПЫ СОЗДАНИЯ ОБРАЗА ЛИСЫ В РУССКИХ СКАЗКАХ О ЖИВОТНЫХ, ЗАПИСАННЫХ В СИБИРИ И НА ДАЛЬНЕМ ВОСТОКЕ

The article, based on an analysis of research literature, as well as a comparative method and cultural commentary, analyzes fairy tales about animals recorded in the 19th (collection of A. N. Afanasyev, 44 texts) and 20th (“Russian fairy tales of Siberia and the Far East: Magic. About Animals”, 13 texts) centuries, reveals the features of the creation of the image of a fox in the considered works. 45 plots with which this character is associated are analyzed, 9 of the most stable of them, preserved in the tales of Russian settlers to Siberia and the Far East, are identified: 15; 158+1+2+3+4; 155; 20A+21; 170+158; 103; 1+130; 61A; 61B, also in Russian fairy tales about animals, recorded in Siberia and the Far East, very rare plots for the Eastern Slavs are found: 31; 51A*; 56A; 6, which are also associated with the image of a fox. The principles of creating the image of a fox are characterized: 1) the name and addresses of other characters to her; 2) character; 3) speech; 4) characterization of the fox given by other characters; 5) features of the relationship between the fox and wild and domestic animals, as well as with humans; 6) actions and actions characteristic of a fox; 7) motives associated with the image of a fox. Modifications of these principles can be traced in later records made in Siberia and the Far East: a change in the nature of the interaction of the fox with humans and some animals (both wild and domestic); the emergence of a new motive for trade (in addition to such stable motives associated with the image of the fox as greed, gluttony, mischief, pretense, cunning, death of the fox through tearing/cutting). In addition to the atypical motif among the regional components in the records of the 20th century. The emergence of new characters interacting with the fox (milk mushroom, magpie, goat), a reflection of the natural features of a particular region, is noted. The good preservation in the texts of the settlers of what was discovered in the records of the 19th century is proven. a complex of archaic ideas about the fox, characteristic of the traditional picture of the world of the Eastern Slavs: the fox as a demon; fox as a female hypostasis; fox as a negative and positive image (trickster). Loss in 20th century texts The ancient idea of the connection between the image of a fox and fire is probably due to frequent observations of the habits of specific animals and the influence of everyday realities.

Entrepreneurial community development and the everyday realities of existing enterprises

ABSTRACT Entrepreneurship and innovation are key inputs to the revitalization and sustainability of rural communities and economies. While compelling, entrepreneurial community development models heavily favor new venture start-up activities and largely overlook the needs and potential of existing enterprises. Drawing on principles of everyday life sociology and organizational culture, we explored how a sample of Southeastern Arizona ranchers confront persistent challenges by way of their daily routines, practices, and interactions. Data were collected through extensive field work involving nearly 100 hours of direct observation and semi-structured interviews with 14 participants across four ranches. The findings show the innovative characteristics of the ranchers’ everyday practices and routines and illustrate how everyday ingenuity among the ranchers drives a problem-driven mindset and immediate, short-term action. We use the insights generated to conceptualize a temporal dynamic that if integrated with entrepreneurial community development models may better foster and support innovation within existing enterprises.

Exploring the Digital Cognitive Landscape: Theoretical Underpinnings of Internet Use in Children and Teenagers

In the context of the new digital era, children and teenagers have gained an access to the Internet which is becoming their everyday reality affecting their cognition. The research focuses on the theoretical underpinnings of Internet use. The areas of language center activation and the application of metacognitive skills, memory, analytical thinking, multitasking, social cue processing, and social competence are specifically emphasized. Whether to portray the factors driving the cognitive issues or to reveal the transformation potential of the online activities, the essay examines the changes affecting digital participation. The ability to grasp the intricate relationships between different age groups and context is only made possible through empirical studies which are the basis for technology evolution. The paper underlines the need for conducting further studies that aim to thoroughly investigate the multi-faceted role of the Internet in cognitive maturation. Keywords: Internet use, cognitive development, cognitive centers activation, metacognitive skills, memory and information retrieval, analytical thinking, and social competence in the digital realm.

‘I need readers to trust that this can happen’: relational realism in Catherine Bush’s and Doreen Vanderstoop’s climate crisis novels

This article demonstrates how, challenged by Amitav Ghosh’s claim that realist fiction is ill-suited to deal with the climate crisis, and inspired by Indigenous relational thinking, Catherine Bush and Doreen Vanderstoop turn to ‘relational realism’ in their recent novels. I argue that they use realist narrative strategies creatively to represent climate catastrophes as a symptom of the carbon economy. But rather than portraying a world that is radically different, Blaze Island and Watershed are concerned with everyday reality, are set in clearly identifiable Canadian geographies, and focus on the eco-anxieties of ordinary characters. In addition to discussing intergenerational climate justice and emphasising the need for Indigenous leadership in combating global warming, the two novels enter into conversation with Shakespeare’s The Tempest and early twentieth-century prairie realist novels respectively to tease out their ecological undercurrents and implications. In so doing, they foreground the interplay of realist narrative strategies and relational thinking to emphasise the creative potential of the novel in addressing climate change and the need for communities to come together to save the planet.

Negotiating periodised training programmes in youth soccer development: A social process

ABSTRACT The purpose of the study was to develop new knowledge about the everyday realities when implementing periodised training programmes in professional soccer Academies. Specifically, this project enhances understanding in relation to 1) those stakeholders involved in periodised training programmes in professional soccer Academies, 2) factors that facilitate and constrain the design, implementation, and monitoring of periodised programmes, 3) the extent to which practitioners perceive that education programmes adequately prepared them for this aspect of their work. Academy managers, coaches and sport science support staff were approached to complete an online survey, with 30 individuals (33.6 ± 9.5 years old) agreeing to do so. Findings highlight that practitioners “have” to adapt their practices accordingly in response to contextually constraining factors. Here, the importance of developing richer insights into the social aspects of work in applied settings, greater recognition of facilitating and constraining factors, and an improved awareness and development of the educational interventions that can prepare practitioners in applied practice is emphasised.

There are no Such ‘Bad Women’: Reading Text and Politics of ‘Conscious or Intended Pleasure’

Television serials are widely acclaimed as the most entertaining genre in India. Focusing on the characters’ family lives in different settings gave the female audience a more profound and engaging experience. However, watching women in specific roles is not seen as a reflection of everyday reality by the female audience in the Anand Nagar slum in India but rather as un-existing characteristics or traits. However, such characters are actively watched and argumentatively recalled as ‘bad women’. Watching female characters in negative roles triggered the respondents’ emotional imbalance and negative feelings, but the audience reasoned that it was still entertaining to watch. Within the parameters of entertainment and reading text, this article examined the relationship between reading soaps and women’s lives in the slums of Bhopal city in India. Leaning towards qualitative approaches and ethnography, this article looked into text, reception and the politics of pleasure in how women’s audiences intersected with bad women characters and oppositional readings for deriving ‘conscious or intended pleasure’. Thus, this study examined the paradoxical interaction between societal notions of ‘bad women’, conscious pleasure derived from women’s portrayals and the realities of women in slums.

Making Sense of the Gendered Realities in Science: An Exploration of the Indian Situation

The field of ‘women in science’ in India is evolving with policies that could support ending gender discrimination in the practice and culture of science. Gender inclusivity in science is a complex phenomenon, and it differs in forms and scale across institutions. This complexity has invoked feminist scholars, governments, and organisations to critically engage with issues of gender inequities in science. This article, based on a sample study, seeks to understand the idea of gender inclusivity in science, and the discrimination and marginalisation women scientists face, while exploring how they negotiate institutional spaces and address specific and unique challenges in their everyday reality.