Kind Of Dialogue Research Articles

THE MAIN CHARACTERISTICS OF THE FAMILY DISCOURSE

At the current stage of the development of linguistic sciences, when the problems of language as a form and environment of human activity remain the focus of scientists’ attention, any study of discourse in a specific sphere of human activity can reveal a new side in already known linguistic phenomena. Therefore, this article is devoted to the definition of the concept of discourse, as well as this work considers the place of discourse in the field of linguistics, the concept of "family discourse" is revealed. Particular attention is paid to the identification of essential characteristics of this phenomenon.A person is not only an object of discourse, but also a participant in it. First of all, this refers to the discourse of family life and its kind of dialogue with close people in the family. The main tasks of family discourse are related to the regulation of life together and the maintenance of relations between close people.

Technical Terms of Navya-Nyāya Language and its Methodology

The Navya-Nyāya language1 (Neo-logic) exhibit one of the purest languages of human intellect. It has been assists India’s intellectual academic culture and traditions. From the 10th Century AD Navya-Naiyāyikas emphasized one-step further in intelligentsia and came out with a precise technical language which is a special form of Sanskrit-delimits ultimate mining of each and every word and capture reality as it is, destroy Jalpa and Vitaṇdā kind of dialogues in intellectual countering amid different school of thoughts. Since Navya-Nyāya language is a peculiar language based on logic-thought and reality invented by Great Indian logicians that is why it has been treated an artificial language as well. Due to unique features of Navya-Nyāya language many traditional philosophical problems have been scientifically clarified and resolved. Navya-Nyāya methodology proved to be so multifaceted not just for philosophers, but also in poetics, linguistics, legal theories, and other domains of medieval Indian thought process. Apart from philosophers, Navya-Nyāya style of writing has also been adapted by grammarians, aestheticians and the scholars of rhetoric and poetry. The reason for this could be the ease of putting one’s views methodologically and unambiguously when using Navya-Nyāya language for universal thinking. Navya-Nyāya made the evolution that there was Navya-Vyākaraṇa, Navya-Mīmāṁsā and Navya-Vedānta’s new school of thoughts arose. These terms came into configuration only because of Navya-Nyāya and these other schools followed the footsteps of Navya-Nyāya very systematically. The focus of modern Navya-Nyāya was to define terms in a precise and particular manner and then to formulate or emerge a language which may be called ‘the precise medium of communication’. It was necessary to evolve a new or should we say an artificial language to do away with the possible ambiguity, which is a basic quality of any natural language. Since natural language cannot be totally ambiguity-free, NavyaNyāya can serve the academic needs. To understand our Indian Intellectual Traditions in medieval period or the actual meaning of our Śāstras written after 10 th century AD, this NavyaNyāya language and Methodology is highly efficient device. Without proper knowledge of Navya-Nyāya, intellectual development of aforementioned period cannot be properly known. Hence, this, paper would try to revive the basic features of Navya-Nyāya by analysing its technical terms so that it could serve contemporary academic needs and so on.

Wrestling with Ambiguity: Koans as Agents of Change and their Application to the Helping Professions

The similarities that exist between working with koans—the riddles presented by Zen masters to their pupils—and the exchanges of people in the helping professions are examined in an effort to shed light on the transformative potential of ambiguity as a tool in therapeutic practice. This is of particular significance to coaches and psychotherapists with more of a psychodynamic or even paradoxical orientation. It is suggested that koans are ideal agents for learning to engage ambiguity. In that respect there are similarities between Eastern and Western practices, having as their ultimate objective a greater understanding of the self and—through that understanding—the arrival at a transformation of the self. This article also points out that the aim of koan practice—similar to the kinds of dialogues between helping professionals and their clients—is to encourage Zen students to explore the non-analytical, more creative part of the mind and arrive at a more holistic view of the world. Generally speaking, koans help in acquiring a more three-dimensional view of life—again a process that shows similarities with the work of the helping professionals. In addition, given the importance of ambiguity management, the purpose of koan practice—very similar to psychotherapy or coaching—is not to arrive at premature answers to knotty problems. Instead, both orientations to self-exploration practice what’s called negative capability—in an effort to tolerate and utilize not-knowing—a process described by the poet John Keats as being “capable of being in uncertainties, mysteries, doubts, without any irritable reaching after fact and reason.” It is suggested that koan practice will improve the capacity to tolerate non-knowing and manage ambiguity, important qualities that enable more creative problem solving. In that respect, koans can also serve as meaningful pedagogical tools that assist in transcending constricted thinking. To illustrate the effectiveness of this way of working with the mind, a number of koans are presented.

‘It was you who taught me that peaceful marches did not work’, Uncivil Disobedience and the Hong Kong Protests

Hong Kong’s one country, two systems model denies meaningful political equality for citizens. Instead citizens have engaged government in dialogue and have been granted a foothold in politics through protest. However, this equilibrium was upset in 2019 to 2020. Protests took place that were unprecedented in their scale, duration, widespread support and participation. And yet, government refused to engage in any kind of dialogue or deliberative action. This refusal, along with the use of excessive force by police, provoked an unprecedented escalation from civil disobedience to principled uncivil disobedience. This article argues that the escalation of principled uncivil disobedience was not only justified, but satisfied a duty that citizens have to resist injustice. It relies on the legal and political theory of Candice Delmas, arguing that while citizens have a prima facie obligation to obey the law, where law or policy becomes unjust, citizens may have a duty to resist that injustice, even if it means breaking the law. To illustrate this point, one type of principled uncivil disobedience that has become prevalent – graffiti – is used as an analytical lens. Graffiti communicates protestors’ grievances and subverts authority by reclaiming the space. It is allegorical of both the movement and the city; just as the cityscape has been permanently altered by the protests, so too has Hong Kong been changed by this period of unrest.

Master Questions, Student Questions, and Genuine Questions: A Performative Analysis of Questions in Chan Encounter Dialogues

I want to know whether Chan masters and students depicted in classical Chan transmission literature can be interpreted as asking open (or what I will call “genuine”) questions. My task is significant because asking genuine questions appears to be a decisive factor in ascertaining whether these figures represent models for dialogue—the kind of dialogue championed in democratic society and valued by promoters of interreligious exchange. My study also contributes to a more comprehensive understanding of early Chan not only by detailing contrasts between contemporary interests and classical Chan, but more importantly by paying greater attention to the role language and rhetoric play in classical Chan. What roles do questions play in Chan encounter dialogues, and are any of the questions genuine? Is there anything about the conventions of the genre that keeps readers from interpreting some questions in this way? To address these topics, I will proceed as follows. First, on a global level and for critical-historical context, I survey Chan transmission literature of the Song dynasty in which encounter dialogues appear, and their role in developments of Chan/Zen traditions. Second, I zoom in on structural elements of encounter dialogues in particular as a genre. Third, aligning with the trajectory of performative analyses of Chan literature called for by Sharf and Faure, I turn to develop and criticize a performative model of questions from resources in recent analytic and continental philosophy of language and I apply that model to some questions in encounter dialogue literature.

РОЛЬ МЕТАФОРЫ В ИСТОРИЧЕСКОМ ПОЗНАНИИ

The article continues the author's series of publications on the terminological apparatus of the historian. The problems of humanitarian science cannot have "final solutions". F.R.Ankersmith paid attention to the fact that the attitude to the role of metaphors knows not onli "ups" but also "downs". Exploring aspects of the conceptual arsenal associated with the explicit use of the metaphor. "Implicit use" refers to those semantic situations when a historian or another humanist enters into a kind of dialogue with other sciences, carrying out terminological borrowing. Since the semantic content of the term changes in this case, then, in essence, a metaphorical action takes place that does not require a special name. The article contains, the author's reflection on the circumstances and features of the use of metaphors. The author finds out how and why historiography becomes metaphorical. Referring to specialists who developed the cognitive basis of the theory of metaphor, the author analyzes different traditions of understanding what metaphor is. There is a search for a positive sense of metaphor usage with some ambiguity. Since the metaphor creates a new meaning of the word, its cognitive significance becomes unquestionable. By citing examples of various uses of metaphors in the texts of historians, the author shows how a metaphor helps clarify the uniqueness of historical situations.

The Power of Silence in the Work of Justice: Feminist Catholicism in Action

The Power of Silence in the Work of JusticeFeminist Catholicism in Action Mary E. Hunt (bio) Keywords abuse, Buddhism, Catholicism, power, silence I enter Buddhist–Christian dialogue as a white, U.S., Catholic feminist living in this dreadful time of war, racial oppression, manufactured "national emergency" around immigration, sex/gender disrespect, climate change, ecological disaster, excessive wealth, and extreme poverty. I live with more privilege than most people and with a faith-informed sense of what that privilege requires of me in political terms. That begins with a return to honesty in the public forum, respectful disagreements without vilifying the other, and serious efforts at cooperation across differences. Living in the Washington, DC, area, I see up close what the erosion of these basic cultural pillars portends for our future. I reject it actively by engaging interreligious dialogue. This article begins at the nexus of spirituality and social justice, or what I call sacrament and solidarity. This formulation has a Catholic "ring" to it in terms of the Catholic social justice tradition and centuries of monastic and other sites of silence. This combination describes the lives of Catholic feminists who practice contemplative silence and engage in effective and far-reaching social change work including opposition to sex trafficking, health and housing support at the southern border, reproductive justice, and LGBTIQ advocacy, among myriad others. This is the "brand" of Christianity that I bring to Buddhist–Christian dialogue. This work is founded on Catholic social teachings, but it builds out those teachings in ways that are explicitly "feminist." Feminism is an ideology and a praxis for gender equality that is committed to antiracism, the overturning of unjust economic structures, the rejection of trans and homohatred, ableism and Earth destruction, all part of an activist agenda predicated on the well-being of women and dependent children. Such intersectionality is a sine qua non for all [End Page 99] aspects of interreligious dialogue. One-dimensional vectors of analysis are inadequate to describe and transform the experiences of most people who live outside the elite circles that have heretofore authored such work. Catholic feminists do our work out of deep commitments to justice and equality as per our tradition but with the challenging twist that we are not official agents or protagonists within our own church. This is a problematic reality in such dialogues. I suspect that similar marginalization is common in other traditions as well and thus has an impact on interreligious work that needs to be named, interrogated, and changed. I respectfully bring this structural outsider position shared by women of many faith traditions to the rich mix of Buddhists, Christians, and many persons who profess other faiths, or none whatsoever, who seek planetary survival and the common good. It is an example of one very specific slice of a multibillion-person community, half of whom are in the position of marginalization I describe. To ignore this "elephant in the meditation room" is to miss an opportunity to cast the circle of conversation ever wider and to do justice while at the same time deepening interreligious sharing. The alternative, to ignore this negative characteristic of one dialogue partner, is to reinforce and reinscribe a false sense of what it means to speak of things Christian. I choose this approach to highlight just how broadly cast each tradition is—would the Pope recognize my views as Catholic, and do I recognize some of his as authentic? It is critical in any dialogue to move beyond the institutional and "official" parameters to find useful partners and realistic possibilities wherever they exist. There is also a strategic, transformational gain when persons from other traditions recognize those who are marginalized by their own tradition as authentic representatives of their traditions even though the powers that be in those traditions do not. For example, when I am taken as fully, normatively Catholic in interfaith conversation, it reinforces my legitimacy within the tradition. A different kind of dialogue goes on when those on the margins, and not only those in the center of the tradition, come into conversation. Imagine neighbors chatting rather than officials pontificating, and project how different the results might be. As a methodological matter...

APPROACHES TO RELIGIOUS POETRY IN POLISH AND ANGLOPHONE SCHOLARSHIP. A COMPARATIVE OVERVIEW

The article compares Polish and Anglophone literary-theoretical approaches to religious poetry. It demonstrates that some common tendencies to be found in Polish studies and in English scholarship include drawing on a single religious tradition (Christian, official), focusing on the author and their religious experience, and narrow and/or prescriptive approaches that are sometimes more theological than literary-theoretical in nature. The survey suggests that the most prominent difference is that Polish criticism has produced a long-standing tradition of literary-theoretical studies that develop on or polemicize with each other in an attempt to describe and systematize the field of the intersections of poetry and religion and propose literary methodologies for studying religious poetry, while Anglophone studies do not enter into this kind of dialogue. The Polish studies, if popularized, could help reduce the theoretical and methodological deficit in Anglophone scholarship on the subject.

Russian émigré life in France as covered by Soviet literary magazines of the first half of the 1920s

The authors consider the problem in which extent did the Bolshevik authorities allow a coverage of Russian émigré life and work in France, under conditions of ideological confrontation and censorship. The present study is based on materials of Soviet literary and socio-political magazines such as Book and Revolution and Krasnaya Nov’ of the fi rst half of the 1920s. These journals off ered chronicles of events, literary reviews, information in special sections (‘In the West,’ ‘Relations with Russia,’ ‘Russian literature and art abroad,’ and particularly in the section ‘France’) that off ered a fairly complete picture of cultural events in France and activities of Russian émigrés in the country. Characteristic was the reproduction of large fragments of works authored by emigrant authors, which acquainted readers with the development of emigrant thought of that time. The article concludes that with regard to the fi rst half of the 1920s, we can speak about a kind of dialogue between the Russian intelligentsia in France and that in Soviet Russia. This communication was not always politicized and often remained in the fi eld of literature and art theory. In those years the cultural life of France in general was subject of constant attention. It is argued that most publications on French literature and art were free from ideology, thereby continuing the tradition of pre-revolutionary cultural relations between the two countries.

LÍDERES POLÍTICAS ARGENTINAS EN TWITTER. UN ESTUDIO EN EL MARCO DE LAS ELECCIONES 2017

Fil: Zunino, Esteban. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Cientificas y Tecnicas. Centro Cientifico Tecnologico Conicet - Mendoza. Instituto de Ciencias Humanas, Sociales y Ambientales; Argentina. Universidad Nacional de Cuyo. Facultad de Ciencias Politicas y Sociales; Argentina

The theatre space as essayistic space: on Infini 1-15 by Decoratelier

ABSTRACTI will introduce the notion of the ‘theatre space as an essayistic space' by exploring and unfolding Infini 1-15 (2015) by Decoratelier. As a scenographer and founder of Decoratelier, Jozef Wouters invited 15 artists from various disciplines to create an infini, a backdrop on which a view or a landscape is painted, in response to the question: ‘Which space should we depict in theatre at the present time?' Scenography, for Wouters, is not a medium but a way of working. It becomes a strategy that creates the possibility to start an encounter and a dialogue with what already exists: the architecture of a specific space. Within this dialogue, scenography becomes ‘a negotiation in space, between the space it refers to and the space that there is'. The form of Infini 1-15, the kind of dialogue that the performance establishes, and Wouters' practice with Decoratelier prior to the performance resonate with the form of the essay. In my contribution for this special issue, I explore how the form of the essay applies to Wouters’ understanding of scenography and how his approach can help us to conceive of theatre space as an essayistic space.

Le De quantitate animae d’Augustin, un dialogue philosophique ?

Abstract Saint Augustine’s De quantitate animae is a dialogue often neglected by scholars who have studied the question of Augustinian dialogue. This study aims to remedy this lack of interest and to show the strategic place of this dialogue in the Augustinian production of the years 386–390. Firstly, after stating the question, the article questions the genre of dialogue and shows that the De quantitate animae of Augustine perfectly meets the criteria defining the genre of the philosophical dialogue. Secondly, this study examines the stakes and the place of the dialectic in this work. In fact, our paper emphasizes, following the analyzes proposed by Giovanni Catapano, the importance of considering the kind of dialogue in Augustine by the yardstick of his epistemological presuppositions. In this perspective, the De quantitate animae appears as a work of transition, which is based on the epistemology of Contra Academicos and the notions of doubt and inconcussum, while announcing the epistemology of the inner Master developed in the De magistro.

A dialogue in support of social justice

There are kinds of dialogue that support social justice and others that do the reverse. The kinds of dialogue that support social justice require that anger be bracketed and that hiding in safe spaces be eschewed. All illegitimate ad hominem/ad feminem attacks are ruled out from the get-go. No dialogical contribution can be down-graded on account of the communicator’s gender, race, or religion. As well, this communicative approach unapologetically privileges reason in full view of theories and strategies that might seek to undermine reasoning as just another illegitimate form of power.On the more positive side, it is argued in this paper that social justice dialogue will be enhanced by a kind of “communicative upgrading,” which amplifies “person perception,” foregrounds the impersonal forces within our common social spaces rather than the “baddies” within, and orients the dialogical trajectory toward the future rather than the past. Finally, it is argued in this paper that educators have a pressing responsibility to guide their students through social justice dialogue so that their speech contributes to the amelioration of injustice, rather than rendering the terrain more treacherous.

Reducing Language Barriers to Domestic Violence

The instrumentalist approach refuses to illustrate or analyze in detail the complex relationship between aggression and language in subordinating abuse. Collective Aggression Politics, which makes collective violence a form of "controversial politics." Violence as "a kind of dialogue" containing systems where different groups make claims against each other and where the targets of those claims are likely to give rise to violent reactions. Debate centers on a shift from a peaceful to a violent discourse in which they live, throughout, under the heading of divisive politics.

Increasing the "Productivity" of the Academic Sector and Ensuring Cooperation with the Large Corporate Sector in Japan

Purpose:the main purpose of this article is to review the Japanese policy to promote cooperation between the academic and large corporate sectors in the field of science and technology, and to analyze its role in the formation of the innovation system in Japan.Methods:this article is based on the analysis of scientific and analytical materials on the problem of research. The factual basis is the framework documents of the Cabinet of Japan.Results:the article provides a brief retrospective review on the support policy for universities and large corporate sector cooperation, identifies the key factors for the establishment of intersectoral cooperation; identifies the problem areas of the implemented policy that hinder the achievement of the set goals. The relative failure of the applied measures in the sphere of venture business support, commercialization of technologies and other instruments was noted. The hypothesis is put forward about the insufficiency of government efforts to monitor and analyze the activities already implemented, the lack of practice of taking into account failures in the formation of new programs and projects. Also revealed contradictions between the support programs implemented through various government agencies, which also leads to the inefficiency of scientific and technological projects and the establishment of dialogue with the corporate sector, including the need to resolve bureaucratic disagreements. It is also necessary to emphasize, that Japanese experience in implementing of science and technology and innovation policy is very important for Russian economic development. In particular, special attention is paid to study foreign experience in creating an effective mechanism of academic and private sectors interaction, where the key-supporting role is played by government in case of Japan. No doubt, it is not justified to try to copy any foreign institutional system, but the analysis of the negative and positive effects of foreign economic system cases is very valuable for self-institutional mechanisms development.Conclusions and Relevance:the analysis leads to the conclusion that Japan has not yet completed the transformation to a modern model of the national innovation system, the current problem is the weakness of relations between the academic and corporate sectors. At the same time, there is an excessive, "paternalistic" role of the state in the organization of intersectoral interactions, in the absence of attention to the optimization of conditions and incentives for this kind of dialogue. The Japanese government actively supports and tries to develop the practice of "open innovation" business model, but due to the obsolescence of existing institutional structures, as well as their unpreparedness to the development and perception of radically new business models, has not yet been able to achieve concrete sustainable results.

Происхождение «народа и имени российского» от племени роксолан : к вопро- су о бытовании идеи в коммуникативном пространстве раннего Нового времени

The question of the origin, functioning and evolution in the historiography of the early New Age of an idea that raises the origin of the Russian people to the Roxolani is considered in the article. Particular attention is paid to the study of the transition of the Roxolan idea from the Italian humanists of the Renaissance through Polish historians of the 16 th century to the works of Russian historians of the 18th - early 19th centuries. The author dwells in detail on the argument in favor of the Roxolan concept. It is shown that the historiography of the New Age should be considered as a single communicative space, providing information exchange between historians of different regions. The author comes to the conclusion that in the Roxolan version we are dealing with a powerful intellectual tradition related to the ethnogenetic searches of the early New Age. It is proved that these searches were typical of various national schools of historical writing. The article provides an overview of the work of modern followers of the Roxolan concept and concludes that in these attempts you can see a kind of dialogue with pre-scientific knowledge and a certain inertia of the scientific ideas of the early New Age.

The Dialogical Subgenres of Argument in British and Ukrainian Lexicographical Presentation: a Comparative Aspect

The thesis is devoted to the comparative study of the dialogical genre “argument” in the present-day British and Ukrainian language pictures of the world. This type of investigation has been the first so far in the field of comparative linguistics that deals with human communication. Argument is a widespread type of day-to-day communication, namely a kind of dialogue that finds its verbal conceptualization in English and Ukrainian. The general idea of argument can be formulated as an emotionally coloured verbal communication between partners who differ about something and try to convince each other in the righteousness of one’s position. Such a general scheme of argument interpretation is modified in the structures of ethnic languages. Thus, the terms argument and суперечка reflect the existing differences between two nations as for the type of interaction itself. The crucial difference is understanding of argument as a verbal exchange in British society and a verbal contest in Ukrainian one. One more allomorphic feature is that the British typically tend to get excited in argument, the fact reflected in the semantic components a heated or angry interaction . The next verbal specification argument gets in a number of its forms or subgenres. A closer comparative look at such kinds of argument as debates , polemics , dispute and discussion is suggested. The main differences and common features of the genres are established.

Semiotics of ukrainian and polish waggard in the light of the ideas of the lvvivsk-warsaw philosophical school. K. Malevich - V. Steshinsky and G. Stazhevsky: search for suprematist and constructivist avant-garde art (Article 3)

Purpose of the article . In the first article on the semiotics of the Ukrainian and Polish avant-garde, his philosophical aesthetic and cultural context was considered, in particular, in light of the ideas of the Lviv-Warsaw Philosophical School. To continue this problem, the semiotic parallels (homology) in the works of the Ukrainian and Polish avant-gardists of the first third of the twentieth century are being analyzed. On the basis of the unity of cultural, aesthetic-semiotic and art-study analysis of artistic achievements of artistic avant-garde in Ukraine and Poland, an understanding of the cultural and historical peculiarities of the creative of artists working in similar ideological and aesthetic paradigms is achieved. Methodology. The research is based on the aesthetic-semiotic concepts of the representatives of the Lviv-Warsaw School of Philosophy (S. Baley, R. Ingardin, S. Lisse, L. Hvysteck) and the founders of the semantic philosophy of art (K. Bell, B. Croce, S. Langer, G. Rickert) and modern semiotics of culture (Y.Mukarzhovsky, Y.Loman, U.Eko). Interdisciplinary synthesis of philosophical and cultural, aesthetic and art-study approaches is used. Scientific novelty. From the standpoint of modern semiotics, for the first time, symbolic complexes and semantic contents in the works of the Ukrainian and Polish avant-garde are analyzed. Models of semiotic parallels (homologies) are created in the works of leading artists of Ukraine and Poland of the first third of the XX century. The method of extrapolation of the aesthetic-semiotic ideas of the Lviv-Warsaw School of Philosophy is used to understand the similarity and dialogism in the artistic imagery of individual artists. Conclusions. Phenomenological, intuitive, neo-positivist orientations of scientific and artistic and aesthetic thinking have caused cubistic, futuristic, abstract, and constructivist quests of avant-garde artists. The aesthetic principles of the semiosis of avant-guardism in Ukraine were laid by V. Kandinsky, K. Malevich, O. Bogomazov, in Poland - T. Piper, V. Steshinsky, G. Stazhevsky. The development of the Ukrainian and Polish avant-garde of these times is, in particular, a kind of dialogue between artistic groups and individual artists in Warsaw and Kiev, and Lviv. The intellectual atmosphere of these creative competitions is symptomatic of the scientific and philosophical positions of the Lviv-Warsaw School of Philosophy with its neo-positivist and phenomenological orientations, and especially - the semantic philosophy of art, which corresponded to the establishment of a new semiosphere of avant-garde imagery. The peculiarities of the of the artists are analyzed on the examples of aesthetic-semiotic and artistic parallels between V. Kandinsky and Y.T.Pyper (theoretical justification of the avant-garde in art), K. Malevich and V. Stshinsky and G. Stazhevsky (the search for suprematist and constructivist artistic language ), O. Bogomazov and artists of the Krakow group (the path from Cubism and Futurism to expressive and lyrical abstraction). It is summarized that the semiotics of the Ukrainian and Polish avant-garde of the first third of the 20th century coincides in the sphere of significant forms of non-classics in fine arts.

“Teen Views of Sex:” Inter-animation of dialogues in a radio feature story produced by Mexican immigrant youth

This paper proposes an analysis of dialogical processes in the creation of a radio feature story titled “Teen Views of Sex,” co-produced by Mexican immigrant high school students in the context of a Youth Radio and Radio Arts program. After describing the socio-cultural and curricular context of the program, I apply Zittoun and Grossen’s (2013) semiotic approach to dialogicality to describe the kinds of dialogue that took place during the interviews and subsequent reflections upon the feature story and production process. The types of dialogue examined include: actual dialogue, distant dialogue, auto-dialogue, dialogue between situations, and dialogue with material objects, or non-human actants. I explore how the inter-animation of these forms of dialogue gave rise to dialogic tensions, which may have created openings for shifts in identity positioning and an enhanced sense of agency for the youth in their personal and public lives.

Rakowski, Tomasz Søren Gauger (review)

REVIEWS 593 Rakowski, Tomasz. Hunters, Gatherers, and Practitioners of Powerlessness: An Ethnography of the Degraded in Postsocialist Poland. Translated by Søren Gauger. European Anthropology in Translation, 6. Berghahn, New York and Oxford, 2016. xiii + 312pp. Illustrations. Notes. Appendix. Bibliography. Index. $130.00: £92.00. While Western media were confidently relaying stories of Poland’s successful transition to capitalism, the lives of a broad swathe of the country’s population were being shattered as industrial shut-down, mass unemployment and the cancellation of welfare left large numbers of people to fend for themselves. This book captures the ambivalences, ironies and the humanity intrinsic to social change after Communism where what was billed as modernization and ‘freedom’ meant degradation and a fast track to ‘unmodernity’ for people who had no choice but to scrape together a minimum existence by mobilizing whatever they could. Tomasz Rakowski presents a theoretically reflective and empirically rich ethnographic study of ‘the degraded’ in three geographical locales in Poland which were ravaged by change. One is a rural community in the Świętokrzyskie Foothills where most households had had at least one member employed in industry, but that industry had since been wound up. Here, farming had broken down and people had become immobile, living a life centred on their streets and in their houses, wheeling and dealing and cadging the odd job. The quality of psychic life had also been spoiled — shame was now attached to the very meaning of being in the village and near the house. What Rakowski describes as ‘the ever-present transparency of being dispensible’ (p. 49) generated a sense among the villagers of being at risk, of being caught up in a recurring state of both chaos and standstill (p. 55). Drawing on Merleau-Ponty, Rakowski shows the idiom to be one of physicality and ecology — the unhappiness of not working is understood organically (p. 55). Only one small step up from unemployment in the eyes of the villagers are the ‘private guys’, people who offer bits of work on bad terms: ‘(private) factories, middlemen — they’ll do us in’ (p. 59). Although inherently shameful, gathering wild herbs and undergrowth and wood from the forest were now universal money-making activities. Here, as Rakowski describes it, the meaning of the environment and what counts as local knowledge is in a constant process of change. In contrast to this rural setting, Wałbrzych is a former site of mining and a place that has gone through some of the most difficult changes after 1989. As mines were liquidated, illegal coal extraction took over in the coal basin, along with the dismantling of buildings and the collection of all kinds of scrap. Despite prior problems, the destruction of the coal basin was seen entirely in terms of current events: ‘Wałbrzych is a ruin, even the birds are turning away SEER, 96, 3, JULY 2018 594 from here’; ‘Wałłbrzych is simply extermination’ (p. 102). Rakowski reads complaints about danger as being important for the expression of grief, rather than their carrying the hope that any kind of dialogue will ensue. The desire to engage in open aggressive action he interprets as a public demonstration of the diggers’ and scrap collectors’ externalized sense of shame. Protest is futile — ‘The social world is deaf to all their complaints and dismay’ (p. 107, original emphasis). The diggers, the scrap collectors, the gatherers, Rakowski concludes, ‘all indirectly speak of their attempts to understand a world that cannot be understood’ (p. 111). Finally, Rakowski presents an analysis of change in a deprived area in the environs of Bełchatów Brown Coal Mine. When brown coal reserves were discovered under Bełchatów in the 1970s, the area underwent rapid development, adversely affecting surrounding villages. The members of the households in Szamów, the settlement at the centre of the study in this area, collect scrap, post-industrial bits and pieces; they also forage in the forests and poach the game that lives on the local spoil heap. The home thus seems to Rakowski ‘to move outwards’, overlapping with the world outside (p. 215), which he compares with the pre-Neolithic hunter/gatherer reality of being in...