Mimetic Processes Research Articles

Impact of Institutional Isomorphism on Gender Diversity on the Boards of Sport Organizations in Japan

This study utilized institutional theory to examine how the Governance Code implemented in Japan in 2019 increased the number of female board members in national sport federations (NF) recognized by the Japanese Olympic Committee (JOC). Using the three mechanisms of antecedents that lead to changes in institutional isomorphism as a framework (coercive isomorphism, mimetic processes, and normative pressures), we conducted semi-structured interviews with board members of sport organizations and analyzed the obtained data using thematic analysis. The results revealed institutional isomorphism influenced gender diversity on NF boards and identified the mechanisms that promote gender diversity on the boards of sport organizations.

Gutting fishy empathies off the Shetland Islands, Scotland

AbstractThis article builds upon Amerindian epistemologies and develops a perspectival ethnography of industrial Northwestern European skilled modes of engaging with wild fish. It explores Amerindian perspectivism as an ethnographic methodology grounded on animic premises: subject or object status are relative and relational, experience is intersubjective; the body is permeable, and its perspectives can be exchanged through tools and mimetic processes. Thus subjectivity is collectively constituted and the fundamental means of knowing, leading to the acknowledgement of subjectivity in others. Documenting a perspectival exchange guided by Shetland fishers trawling for monkfish, the article focuses on some possible dynamics and affective affordances involved in gutting processes. Gutting is physically and emotionally taxing labour that involves brief but intimate encounters with responsive beings that may offer effective resistance, affecting fishers or damaging their own value as catch. It entails the possibility of developing an intimate knowledge of fish anatomy, ecology, and behaviour, as well as potentially awareness of fish suffering and fishiness, an empathic quality. The research reveals how Shetland fishers maintain animic modes of learning and being in their understandings of the body and fish. The ethnography presents first‐hand insights into ‘relations of trust’, which, although widely reported, continue to be dismissed as implausible. These relations and their dynamics are further attested through Shetlands háfwords and other language practices that establish synecdochical relations between fishers and fish, restricting violence and making it endurable. These insights problematize violence, illustrating the social skills of fishing and the political dynamics of predation, suggesting paths towards addressing cruelty.

Conflict between authoritarianism and liberalization: The Feast of the Goat by Mario Vargas Llosa

Vargas Llosa worked on the terms by clarifying and illustrating the liberal principles that underpin it through a detailed examination of his most recent novel the Feast of the Goat (2000). The goal of this reading of the novel is not to evaluate the text's socio-historical fidelity or to investigate the mimetic processes of the narrative; however interesting these concerns may be, they are the subject of a different type of study. Instead, this article will focus on the novel's exploration of the conflict between authoritarianism and liberalism, specifically between the tyrants will to power and the people's free will, in terms of democratic practice and individual liberty. Vargas Llosa's novel can be traced back to the mid-1970s when he filmed Captain Pantoja and the Special Service in the Dominican Republic. However, as Vargas Llosa (in Jaggi 2002:31) notes, “Fujimori was quite different from Trujillo, a more mediocre tyrant.” Money was his main ambition and appetite. What Trujillo desired was power. However, Vargas Llosa's novel differs from the dictator novels of Bastos, Carpentier, and Marquez.

Mimesis and the Process of Becoming Human: Performativity, Repetition and Practical Knowledge

Although mimetic processes play an important role in the aesthetic experiences of art, literature, music, and theatre, they are also important in other areas. Mimetic processes are central to how human beings develop into humans. Plato and Aristotle were among the first to point this out. More recently, this ancient insight has been confirmed by research in evolutionary anthropology, neuroscience, and cultural anthropology. Cultural learning is essentially mimetic learning. It ensues through relationships with other people, as well as with nature, cultural objects, and artifacts. Hence, mimesis is of central importance for the development of cultural and practical knowledge. In this article, I argue that mimetic processes are processes of repetition and as such they are key elements both of memory and innovative action. They pave the way for innovations in post-literary cultures where a mimetic turn, or re-turn of attention to mimetic processes, is currently underway.

The Undifferentiation of Mimetic Violence: From Oedipus to COVID-19

In the Poetics Aristotle limited the concept of mimesis to the aesthetic relationship between drama and the actions of its mythical models. In the 1970s, having found representations of mimetic relationships in the myths themselves, René Girard argued that they are the cause of a violence that disrupts the mythical communities from within. Later, Girard extended the concept of mimesis to natural processes: By destroying the differences between model and imitation mimetic processes in nature and in the social world unleash violence. In this essay two important examples of dedifferentiation are discussed and compared: Sophocles’ Oedipus dramas and the COVID-19 pandemic crisis in our present time. In both examples, successive mimetic processes subvert the natural and economic foundations of the state, and primarily its framework of rights and duties. The pandemic process destroys the biological, political, and social systems of differences and gives rise to fights for domination over the state.

Beyond the Veil of Form: Developing a Transformative Approach toward Islamic Sacred Architecture through Designing a Contemporary Sufi Centre

By examining the relationship between sacred space and spiritual experience through practice-as-research, a methodology for reclaiming the wisdom embodied by transformative examples of classic Islamic sacred architecture in the design of a contemporary Sufi Centre in London, UK, is developed. The metaphysical and ontological roots of universal design principles and practices are explored in order to transcend mimetic processes and notions of typology, location, time, style and scale in the creation of context-sensitive meanings and manifestations. An ontological hermeneutic approach was followed that utilises mixed methods underpinned by direct engagement, collaboration and a willingness to examine personal transcendent experiences and spiritual practices. By conducting practice, the effects of prioritising unseen dimensions (bātin), which enfold visible dimensions (zāhir), on understanding and designing Islamic sacred space are examined. The role of the imaginal realm, the imagination (khayāl), the spiritual heart (qalb) and spiritual inter-pretation (ta’wīl) are explored. Through a contemplative process, forms are perceived as conduits between the physical and spiritual realms and space as a symbol of presence (wujūd). Seen and unseen (zāhir wa bātin) converge into one continuum, potentiating an experience of Oneness (Tawhīd). A transformative approach to practice emerges that integrates a designers’ creative and spiritual practices, cultivates the capacity for transformation and helps to mitigate some of the challenges faced when designing sacred spaces in conventional settings today.

The wisdom and madness of crowds: How information networks and board cognition help or hinder firm performance across the business cycle

We know little of why a minority of firms pursue counter-cyclical strategies and consequently outperform competitors during recessions. Based on the theory of institutional isomorphism, we hypothesize that these firms avoid the mimetic and normative pressures that promote strategic convergence during uncertainty. We demonstrate these effects at the board-level in a sample of 1,615 U.S. firms. Mimetic processes are evident, with firms' connectedness in board interlock networks attenuating profitability and decreasing firm value during recessions—a reversal of the positive effects during expansions. Normative pressures arise from homogeneity in directors’ educational and professional experience, with greater consequences for long-term performance. Overall, recessionary performance is improved when firms occupy relatively isolated positions in informational networks and appoint directors from a range of backgrounds.

Emotions in History Teaching

The teaching of history has always been conducive to influencing the emotions of young people. Sometimes this occurs in a spirit of clear demarcation and hostility towards other countries and cultures. Opening history teaching to the images of the other prevents the reduction of complex issues to simple schemata and models. Such a teaching of history replaces the unambiguousness of simplistic interpretations and easy emotional identification with new ambiguity, and it contributes to emotional development at school. For the examination of the past to have the desired effects and for a coherent historical awareness to emerge, history must be emotionally anchored in the imagination of the students. This requires mimetic processes that are oriented toward the past and its reconstruction.

Repetition in Physiological, Mimetic and Ritual Processes

This paper examines the following three interlinked aspects of repetition. To start with, biologically speaking, human life is only possible through repetition. Second, human beings develop into human beings only through cultural learning. Human development through cultural learning takes place essentially in mimetic processes, for which repetitions are constitutive. Thirdly, ritual repetitions play an indispensable role in the production and transformation of communities and the creation of social life.

ОБЩЕСТВО КАК МИМЕТИЧЕСКОЕ ПОЛЕ: ДИНАМИКА СОЦИАЛЬНОГО

The article discusses the feasibility and vistas of re-defining the concept «society» in an effort to make it fit for studying the current situation. The constant mobility of actors and the new virtual reality transcend the boundaries between social groups, which calls methodological capacity of any static and especially essentialistic understanding of the phenomenon called «society» into question. The author starts from defining society through communication acts, but at the same time distinguishes between them by the level of mutual understanding attained through communication, which makes it possible to scrutinize the internal structure of the term in question. Understanding of communication acts as a medium of memetic influence that shapes a person’s agency and ensures synchronicity between persons, adequate for a certain level of mutual understanding, enables the author to view society as a dynamic process, as a memetic field amid constantly changing and diverse challenges. The landscape contour of the challenges adds constant disturbing differentiations that guarantee continual social changes. By contrasting practical and discursive minds, the author discriminates non-reflexive mimetic processes of practical knowledge transfer from their reflexive comprehension. Thus, the author distinguishes two levels in social processes, incompatibility between which adds complexity to social dynamics. Using this understanding of the social, the author shows how in certain conditions a person may identify with a certain social group. In conclusion, the paper formulates three main practical questions the answers to which will let us assess the possibilities for further development of society.

Análisis comparativo de las estructuras articulatorias de los mundos posibles en las transducciones de "Brideshead Revisited" de Evelyn Waugh

Las obras de ficción poseen en su constitución artística estructuras que articulan el mundo posible que en ellas se desarrolla y las interacciones de los personajes entre sí y con el mundo en el que habitan. Estas estructuras articulatorias de los mundos posibles, mediante procesos miméticos, emulan patrones existentes en la realidad efectiva, haciendo que los mundos ficcionales sean verosímiles, reconocibles y significativos para el receptor. En este artículo nos detenemos a examinar las estructuras que responden a categorías éticas, estéticas y religiosas y analizamos la presencia o ausencia de estas en las transducciones intersemióticas televisiva y cinematográfica de la obra literaria Brideshead Revisited, de Evelyn Waugh y comprobamos de qué modo la estructura de orden general del protomundo se ve afectada en el proceso de transmodalización al respetar o prescindir de estas estructuras articulatorias.

Organisational mission and the involvement of academic research units in knowledge sharing with private companies

ABSTRACT We still do not have a full understanding of how the different missions of academic organisations relate to their performance in knowledge sharing. This paper addresses this gap with a data set of more than 900 Swiss academic institutions and distinguishes between mechanisms of knowledge sharing, different levels and types of missions, and the strength of isomorphic processes. We find that the missions of organisations and fields are more important than the missions of institutes for knowledge exchange through commercialisation and teaching. The opposite is true for industrial PhD students, a research-based mechanism of knowledge exchange. Coercive and mimetic isomorphic processes in organisations and normative isomorphic processes in research areas have different effects: since commercialisation of knowledge is not the main activity in any discipline, low normative isomorphism leaves more freedom for institutes to decide how and by which mechanisms they share knowledge, which correlates positively with commercialisation performance.

The Movement of Repetition: Incorporation through Mimetic, Ritual and Imaginative Movements

Summary The movement of repetition is irrevocably linked to the constitution of the human body and is therefore a human condition. The process of hominisation makes this clear. In the body of Homo sapiens and in his movements a connection between nature and culture is created. The movement of repetition is of central importance. Repetition is essential for the evolution of Homo sapiens, the development of communities and individuals. Repetitions are mimetic; they lead to productive imitations in which new elements and events also emerge. Mimetic movements and the repetitive aspects they contain open up the historical and cultural world to people. Repetitions in rituals lead to the acquisition of an implicit silent practical body knowledge. The emotions arising in mimetic processes are movements through which an orientation in the world takes place. The imaginations based on the eccentricity of the human being and on movements of repetition contribute to the development of a collective and individual imaginary.

The Movement of Repetition. Incorporation through Mimetic, Ritual and Imaginative Movements

The movement of repetition is irrevocably linked to the constitution of the human body and is therefore a human condition. The process of hominization makes this clear. In the body of homo sapiens and in his movements a connection between nature and culture is created. The movement of repetition is of central importance. Repetition is essential for the evolution of homo sapiens, the development of communities and individuals. Repetitions are mimetic; they lead to productive imitations in which new elements and events also emerge. Mimetic movements and the repetitive aspects they contain open up the historical and cultural world to people. Repetitions in rituals lead to the acquisition of an implicit silent practical body knowledge. The emotions arising in mimetic processes are movements through which an orientation in the world takes place. The imagination based on the eccentricity of the human being and on movements of repetition contribute to the development of a collective and individual imaginary.

Rituals Among School Children: Performativity, Mimesis, and Interculturality

Rituals and ritualization play a central role in the pedagogy, education and socialization of children at primary school age. They structure children’s lives and support their integration into a social order. Rituals shape transitions between fields of socialization and institutions, and facilitate social learning, which is important both in during lessons and in the school’s broader context. Due to their performativity, pedagogic processes function like rituals and ritualization in other fields of social action. How children perform their behavior, whether alone or together with adults, can be seen as the performativity of their actions. Important aspects of cultural learning at primary school age occur by way of mimetic processes. In this, images, schemes, the expectations of others, social situations, occurrences and actions are incorporated into an individual’s world of mental images. This practical knowledge enables children to learn and act together, to live and to be. In the face of globalization and Europeanization, pedagogy and education have become intercultural tasks, for which rituals, ritualization, pedagogic and social gestures, the performativity of social practices, and mimetic forms of learning play an important role. Ethnography and qualitative research methods are appropriate instruments for investigating rituals and ritualization as well as the performativity of pedagogic practices, of mimetic processes and of intercultural education processes. Participant observation, video-supported observation, video performance as well as the analysis of photographs, interviews and group discussions have proven to be the most viable methods; they should be combined wherever possible and are key for obtaining complex and methodologically transparent research results.

La cultura delle culture. Politica, media, convergenza, coscienza antropo-planetaria. (Con una Nota al testo di Chiara Simonigh)

The current media culture carries on an atrophied communication that frustrates one of the deepest need of men and does not always allow individuals – during communication – to experience the exchange between the Self/ ego and the Other/alter, as it occurs in the imaginary and the spectacle thanks to mimetic processes. That is why an active and responsible role of spectators is necessary for spreading a planetary consciousness and an anthropo-culture to re-generate humanity and re-build human relations. The culture of cultures may be based on the relationship between men and nature as a cultural revolution.

Eurocentric influence on the Brazilian consumer defense code

PurposeBased on a decolonial perspective from Latin America, this paper aims to offer a different history of the creation of Brazil’s Consumer Defense Code (CDC), analyzing the process through which Eurocentric influences, especially coming from Consumers International (CI), became present in the development of the code.Design/methodology/approachA qualitative historical research was developed using marketing amnesia and decolonialism as its theoretical backdrop. Primary and secondary data are used as source of information. Primary data were obtained through interviews with two authors of the CDC. Secondary data were collected from academic articles and books, reports, magazines and consumer organization websites, as well as journalistic articles.FindingsDuring the drafting of the CDC and after its promulgation, the presence of Eurocentric forces was constant, given the interests of CI and other agents in influencing Brazil’s consumer practices, subordinating them to those of the Global North. This Eurocentric presence was accepted by the Brazilian jurists that drafted the CDC, which led to the incorporation of both laws and bills from Eurocentric countries and the United Nations Guidelines for Consumer Protection into the code.Originality/valueSuch discussions are scarce in marketing, due to the area’s amnestic state regarding the past. While selectively forgetting certain pasts, marketing fails to both acknowledge its tendency to subordinate consumerist actions to those accepted by the Eurocentric world, and to establish analyses that deal with mimetic processes, to minimize asymmetries between companies and consumers, especially in emerging economies, and, even more, dichotomies between the Global North and the Global South.

Accounting for modern slavery: an analysis of Australian listed company disclosures

Purpose Given the impending introduction of legislation requiring large Australian listed companies to make supply chain disclosures about modern slavery, the paper aims to reveal current voluntary practice. The purpose of this paper is to provide a benchmark for assessing the current engagement of large companies with modern slavery in Australia. Design/methodology/approach Institutional theory provides the foundation for assessing current voluntary practice in relation to modern slavery disclosures by large Australian listed companies. Content analysis is used to identify quantity and quality of modern slavery disclosures of the top 100 companies listed on the Australian Stock Exchange. The contents of annual and standalone reports available on websites, as well as other online disclosures, are examined using terms associated with modern slavery identified from the literature. Findings Evidence gathered about modern slavery disclosures by ASX 100 companies shows information in annual and standalone reports reveal far less than other disclosures on company websites. Overall, the volume and quality of disclosures are low and, where made, narrative. A wide range of themes on modern slavery are disclosed with bribery and corruption and human rights issues dominant. Although currently in line with institutional theory, as there appear to be mimetic processes encouraging disclosure, results support the idea that legislation is needed to encourage further engagement. Research limitations/implications The paper provides a baseline of understanding about the volume and quality of modern slavery disclosures as a foundation for future research into the practices of Australian companies prior to the signalled introduction of legislation mandating reporting. It also identifies potential lines of research. The sample only examines large Australian listed companies which restricts generalisation from the results. Originality/value This is the first academic research paper to examine quantity and quality of modern slavery disclosures of large Australian companies. Results add support for the introduction of legislation by government.

Environmental Management Accounting (EMA) Adoption Level among Listed Manufacturing Companies in Sri Lanka: Institutional Theory Perspective

This study investigates about the relationship between institutional pressure and environmental management accounting (EMA) adoption level by applying new institutional sociology perspective to assess the pressures for EMA adoption level with reference to 38 listed manufacturing companies in Colombo Stock Exchange (CSE) in Sri Lanka, based on convenient sampling method. Data were collected through structured questionnaire distributing via e-mail and postal mail for accountant or financial managers as respondents. Reliability analysis, descriptive analysis and inferential analysis were applied to analyze the data and three hypotheses were tested by multiple regression analysis. Those hypotheses were constructed to reveal about coercive isomorphism, normative pressure and mimetic processes are positively influence for EMA adoption level. The results indicate the influences of education or/and training, and political or/and legitimacy are positively pressure for the adoption of EMA; although, the pressures on standard responses to uncertainty is insignificant for EMA adoption. In addition, Coercive isomorphism; responses to political influence or/ and legitimacy influences play vital role in pressuring on EMA adoption. Further findings supports to the practical implications of Accountant role and political/ legitimacy influences are important in managing environmental issues in an organization. This study has made preliminary understanding for the new institutional sociology perspective concerning the type of pressure that influences and, provides useful contribution to the present knowledge by exploring more explanations for environmental management accounting adoption in an unexplored context in Sri Lanka.

Implicit Decision Making in Rituals

This paper shows what the function of rituals is and how important their bodily based mise-en-scene and diversity are for the coherence of communities and societies. It will be demonstrated that to a large extent the effects of rituals and gestures are related to mimetic processes in which people mostly unconsciously relate to ritual patterns and schemes already shaped by other people in different historical and social conditions. Due to their performative character they make the invisible visible and create a flow of experience and practical knowledge. A critical perspective on rituals is required to appreciate their hierarchies and implicit power structures and to be able to modify them.