New Forms Of Sociality Research Articles

Гуманистическая адаптация проекта «Умный город»: эстетический аспект

In the implementation of the Smart City project, one of the significant challenges lies in the complex interaction between digital technologies and new forms of sociality, aimed at creating a comfortable living environment for humans. The concept of sustainable development, which is a priority goal of modern urbanization, implies special attention to the environmental parameters of city life. New trends in the inclusion of a natural component in the fabric of urban life are developing in line with the phenomenon of aestheticization as a characteristic feature of modern culture. The tendency to give aesthetic sound to everyday phenomena is aimed at the sensory-emotional sphere as the basis of aesthetic sensibility. Embracing the principle of naturalness in shaping nature, even if this simplicity is achieved through complex technological solutions and adheres to archetypal artistic images, provides a stable guideline for assessing the appropriateness and harmony of the environment. The study delves into the reflective aspect of perception in urban environments, emphasizing the development of emotional intelligence and the ability to engage with the sensory-rich “smart environment”. It discusses the importance of flexible communication with digital devices, facilitated by an enhanced realm of sensuousness and emotional connectivity. By embracing humanistic principles and aesthetic sensibilities, the Smart City project can create more livable, sustainable, and emotionally engaging urban environments.

Historical Layers of Refugee Reception in Border Areas of Italy: Crossroads of Transit and Temporalities of (Im)mobility

In border areas, time and space are constantly suspended from the usual rules along a liminal pathway transforming status and identity. In order to understand how different regimes of mobility and reception influence the experience of time and the subjective actions of both asylum seekers arriving via the so-called Balkan route and Ukrainian refugees fleeing from the war, the paper puts forward an analysis of the multiple scales of migration and reception policies as historically situated practices. How and to what extent has the increasing role of the humanitarian regime contributed to improving or worsening the lives of asylum seekers in borderland places where the memory of wars, civil conflicts, and experiences of refoulement is very much alive? Building on a multilocal ethnography of the temporalities of migrants’ reception, the paper aims at disentangling the historical layers of hospitality in the northeastern Italian border areas of Trieste and Bolzano and the intersecting forms of (im)mobility at play. By addressing “reception” as an entanglement of spatial and temporal practices carried out by migrants, institutional, and humanitarian actors, we discuss not only how time reduces the existence of asylum seekers and Ukrainian refugees to an empty and meaningless human condition by exerting control over the subjective experiences, but also how the migrants’ experience of waiting translates into an active state of being with the creative potential to trigger new forms of sociality, solidarity, and senses of belonging.

Ständigt slölyssnande

This article discusses the impact of digitalization on music consumption based on interviews with Swedish music consumers about their music consumption. The findings indicate that digitalization allows music to be consumed in more and more situations and in combination with other activities rather than as a stand-alone activity. On the one hand, this development contributes to making music more ubiquitous in contemporary society; on the other hand, it transforms music listening into something that is done with less attention. Digitalization also changes music as a consumption object, e.g. from specific artists and albums to single tracks or new forms of compilations such as play lists adapted to specific moods or situations. Digitalization creates new coordination needs, e.g. when sharing accounts and play lists or determining in what order tracks will be played in social situations. Digitalization also gives rise to new forms of sociality where both individual and joint listening becomes digitally mediated. Taken together, these findings raise questions about the role of music in style formation and identity construction and the paper concludes with some thoughts on music’s changing role in contemporary consumer culture.

Identification of the pedagogical potential of Internet socialization of youth in the international professional community

Introduction. The dynamic development of new forms of socialization of young people actualizes the need of the educational society to realize the pedagogical potential of Internet socialization of students in the international professional community. The realization of this potential will make it possible to rethink the pedagogical significance of professionally-oriented Internet networks and to identify the features of the organization of various types of professional practices on the Internet. The purpose of the study is to analyze the pedagogical potential of Internet socialization of youth in the international professional community in order to clarify the conceptual apparatus of professional pedagogy focused on the use of Internet technologies. Materials and methods. To analyze world-class publications on the research topic, the following bibliographic bases were used: Scopus, Web of Science, Lens and other international information systems of peer-reviewed scientific literature. To solve the research tasks, the following methods were used: system analysis, analysis of Internet information resources, classification, comparative analysis and questionnaires. The results of the study. Digital technologies for the Internet socialization of youth in the international professional community were analyzed. The features of the organization of various types of professional practices using the Internet were identified, which served as the basis for choosing the optimal directions for comparative analysis of internships using Internet technologies. A comparative analysis of the traditional form of internship and practice using Internet technologies was presented, taking into account the following criteria: the purpose of internship in the Internet, the process (stages) of internship, professional and value orientations, new Internet technologies of internship, subjects of the practice and educational process, administrative management. The results of the search and critical rethinking of the pedagogical potential of Internet socialization of students in the international professional community were presented, which made it possible to use theoretical research to clarify the conceptual apparatus of professional pedagogy focused on the use of professionally-oriented Internet technologies during various types of professional practices. Conclusion. The presented analysis made it possible to identify and substantiate the pedagogical potential of Internet socialization of youth in the international professional community, namely: new opportunities for expanding professional ties, access to professionally-oriented resources and information, mechanisms for improving the future professional profile and reputation of students. The potential and possibility of organizing educational and industrial practice on the Internet (freelance, online internships, online practices, etc.) were considered, the possible structure of the pedagogical system of Internet socialization of youth in the international professional community was substantiated.

‘Elections can wait!’ The politics of constructing a ‘Hindu atmosphere’ in Kerala, South India

AbstractThe lack of electoral success of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in the South Indian state of Kerala is often explained through the idea of Kerala ‘exceptionalism’, a broad term used to explain the unique historical, political, and developmental trajectory of the state. However, such explanations do not adequately address the systematic and concerted attempts by Hindu nationalist organizations to transform the cultural sphere of Kerala into a fertile ground for its future electoral politics. Through an ethnographic study of three Hindu nationalist organizations in the civil society sphere of Kodungallur, a multi-religious town in central Kerala, this article explores the politics and implications of their cultural interventions. The article argues that, peeved by an ‘absent Hindu atmosphere’ in Kerala, these organizations are trying to construct new forms of sociality and subjectivity and a grassroots public sphere embedded in Hindu nationalist ideology in Kodungallur. Often described by these organizations as ‘apolitical’ and ‘cultural’, these interventions are indeed a critique of the Kerala public sphere which is characterized by religious pluralism and secular sociality. Hence, the attempt to create a ‘Hindu atmosphere’ by these organizations is a deeply political endeavour aimed at creating an exclusivist Hindu hegemony in the cultural sphere, which they assume will pave the way for their electoral hegemony in Kerala in the long run.

Atypical aspects of social stratification and mobility

The authors attempts to highlight certain aspects of social relations and social movements that go beyond the traditional typology of social stratification and mobility. It is emphasized that the general vector of modernity, namely the information and digitalization in many areas significantly complements and changes the understanding of mobility. Separately, the social group of "remote workers" is analyzed, the number of which has been growing noticeably in recent years in connection with the informatization of society, as well as in connection with the geopolitical situation, the situation of "uncertainty". Structural-functional, axiological, activity-based approaches were chosen as the methodological basis of the study, the comparative method and the method of scientific analysis were used. The novelty of the research lies in the fact that the article identifies three social groups — "remoters", "organizers", "fallacians", attention to which in classical literature, in our opinion, was not paid enough. In conditions of uncertainty, individuals who are able to design new forms of sociality, which have significant advantages over traditional projects, gain a noticeable advantage. The main conclusion is that social mobility acquires new indicators and is often not associated with the real movements of the subject in space and time. New research and analysis of this phenomenon are required, taking into account the conditions of rapid informatization and transformation of modern society.

The Shifting Nature of Relationality in the Blurred Boundaries of Hybrid Organizational Ethnography

AbstractTechnology's impact on conducting organizational research is axiomatic. Studies on the topic focus on how digital technologies are used to collect data and how people use or interact with technology in online spaces. Although it is generally agreed that boundaries between online and offline realms are becoming increasingly blurred, few studies exist on the impact of digital technologies on the work and life of organizational ethnographers. Our contribution lies in alerting new and experienced ethnographers engaging in hybrid ethnography – a developing methodology encompassing both face‐to‐face and online interactions – to how boundaries may blur between space and time, professional and personal, participation and observation, and what is real and what isn't. We emphasize the importance of anticipating relational shifts – understanding how new forms of sociality emerge when digital and physical interactions are an integral part of the field; and we examine subsequent advantages and challenges. To illustrate, we offer examples from a hybrid ethnography conducted in an investigative police force, where smartphones and WhatsApp are embedded in work and consequently became an integral part of the research.

HOW THE MASS MEDIA AND THE PUBLIC DISCOURSE AFFECTS INTENTIONAL COMMUNITIES: AN ETHNOGRAPHIC STUDY

The paper explores the journey of an organization that is a small intentional community, whose objective is to contribute to the new forms of sociality as well as the artistic and cultural life of the youth in the city of Tetova in North Macedonia. For the sake of better comprehension concerning how mass media can affect the public discourse, a case study is examined of a recent incident that happened in the community. The methodology used for this study is applied anthropology as a practice, which involves a problem-solving approach that draws on the knowledge and skills of anthropology to develop culturally sensitive solutions to the challenges this community faces.

The Humans and Non-Humans Interaction: the Features of Digital Discourse

The article is devoted to the interaction between people and digital non-human. The relevance is due to both the speed of the emergence and spread of digital technologies, during which digital non-human objects are created, and the specifi cs of the interaction of people and non-human in the digital environment, in contrast to traditional technological environments. The purpose of the article is to identify and articulate this specifi city. The main methods used are research of sources and analysis, and the methodology is based on an actor-network approach. The article studies how people and non-people interact in the digital space and reveals the specifi cs of these interactions in comparison with the interaction of people with traditional technological non-human. As shown, the key in this interaction is the indistinguishability of digital objects for humans, which leads to very specifi c forms of interaction with them, differing from interaction with well known technological non-human agents. This feature leads to the formation of new forms of sociality and the emergence of new social phenomena, for example, FOMO, post-truth etc. In conclusion, it is recorded that people and digital artifacts in the form of digital objects, creating sociomaterial networks mutually constitute each other. It is necessary to continue research on the interaction of people and digital non-human, so that even at the design stage of digital technological objects, the basic foundations of sociality and human perception are laid in order to minimize possible negative consequences of future interactions between people and digital non-human.

Managing the Transition to Online Freelance Platforms: Self-Directed Socialization

Individuals increasingly turn to online freelance platforms to find flexible, remote, knowledge-based work. Yet we have only begun to understand the challenges new freelancers face with limited formal resources to orient themselves to this career. To inform design and policy to support new freelancers, we conducted a qualitative interview study on transitions to online freelance platforms with 27 freelancers working on the Upwork and Fiverr platforms. We found that new freelancers engage in self-directed socialization as they proactively seek support not directly provided by the platform or their clients. This support helps them resolve professional identity ambiguity, learn platform work self-management, build credibility, and overcome self-doubt in their new careers. Our findings suggest opportunities to support new forms of socialization and mentorship to address disparities in access to networks, resources, and knowledge needed to successfully begin an online freelance career.

Transsociality as uncertainty or incertitude of the human condition

Uncertainty, dynamism of transformations, liquid and incertitude are the leading features of the present age, through which time, society, and human situation are increasingly defined. This work examines the interrelationships between human position and social change in traditional, modern, and postmodern societies. The “social – personal” system is considered in the context of changes in the understanding of the humanistic attitude. Thus, the humanism of pre-modern society is particular, i.e. limited to belonging to a certain group, whose virtues are nurtured and formed through education. The sociality of traditional society is natural, rooted in the idea of the divine, and it aspires to the transcendent. In return, modern sociality is constructed around an exclusive humanism that excludes the transcendent, for which only the human matters are important. The sociality of postmodern society is correlated with the spread of antihumanism and transhumanism, both of which overcome the boundaries of the abstract idea of the universal human subject in different ways. One of them is focusing on the phenomena beyond the human nature, and the other one is oriented toward its improvement. The goal of the second approach is to use new technologies to overcome death, aging, and suffering which also applies to all living things beyond humanity.In crisis periods of changes in the type of sociality, uncertainty and insecurity increase, which is analyzed in two paradigms. A resource-oriented view of the history of mankind shows the modern improvement of the human condition, focusing on the further development of the state’s human capital (plasticity, adaptability, stress resilience, creativity, cognitive and emotional abilities of individuals). The defined position of consideration differs from the consideration of a person in pre-modern and modern societies, when a person was a physical resource and social capital. A problem-oriented approach analyzes signs of crises and dangers, foresees possible options for the development of events, and warns of possible disasters in order to be protected from them. Thus, the analysis of the crisis of sociality indicates the emergence of its new multiple forms, which are formed both by dispersal and by going beyond the boundaries of human communities, which allows describing new forms of sociality through the concept of transsociality.

Motivations for Christian conversion among rural to urban migrants in the Kathmandu Valley

ABSTRACT This article explores the rise of Christianity in urban Nepal through the lens of rural to urban migrants and their experiences. As Christianity continues its exponential growth in the Kathmandu Valley, especially among socially and culturally marginalized groups, the article provides theoretical indicators of what is driving the phenomenon. The article explores the motivations for Christian conversion through a comparative methodology: it compares rural-to-urban migrants who converted to Christianity with those who did not and remained Hindu. Interviews with these two groups (conducted from 2018 to 2021) open a window onto the perceived benefits of Christian conversion. The empirical findings are framed through sociological theories of conversion. Interviews show that Christian conversion in urban Nepal is associated with the development of new forms of sociality that assist newcomers to the city adjust to a larger, more anomic environment. Survey findings are supplemented by reports of Christian worship services from various churches in the Kathmandu Valley. The article ends by exploring possible reactions from mainstream Hinduism in Nepal, arguing that Hinduism in Nepal has not yet evolved in the direction of India’s populist hindutva but that among the professional classes personalistic forms of Hindu belief are flourishing.

Evangelists from avatime (Ghana): the formation of the first Christian community and the introduction to the "German flag" (1868–1895)

The article is based on the archival materials that were kindly provided to the author during her work in the State Archives of Bremen and Basel Christian Mission in 2019, as well as field materials collected during expeditions to the small Avatime people, living in the Eastern Ghana. The article is devoted to the consequence of interrelated events that predetermined a new development vector of the Avatime history. First, the war with the Ashanti people that ended in 1871 with a crushing defeat for the Avatime. Secondly, the formation of the first Christian communities that arose in the 1870s due to Joseph Tavuya, Emmanuel Tsikor and Jacob Anku. These communities were settlements isolated from the Avatime Pagans. The Christian Church has become permanently active since 1889. Third, the compulsory annexation to the German colonial system in 1895. The Basel and Bremen missions practiced the ransom of slaves from the Gold Coast and new forms of socialization through school and the Christian faith. After the abolition of the slave trade, the former helots had the opportunity to return to their native lands safely – as did the founders of the first Christian community in their Avatime homeland. The relationship between the German missionaries and the colonial administration was also nontrivial – later, it was the connection with the Bremen mission that became a kind of protective "buffer" between the Avatime and the colonialists. This should be remembered.

The Metropolis and the “Bloodless Characters”: A Comparative Study of James Joyce’s “A Painful Case” and Yusuf Idrīs’s “Qāʿ al-Madīna” [“The Bottom of the City”

The current paper has been developed to examine the complexities of metropolitan subjects’ blasé attitude and bloodless life as portrayed in James Joyce’s “A Painful Case” and Yusuf Idrīs’s “Qāʿ al-Madīna” [“The Bottom of the City”] short stories. The paper aims at analyzing the impact of metropolis on its bloodless characters’ mental health and perception of self through the unpacking of the blasé attitude which emerges in Georg Simmel’s famous study “The Metropolis and Mental Life.” Using Simmel’s study as a tool to analyze the two short stories, the paper will comment on and compare the manner in which the Irish and the Egyptian urban texts decipher the code of their modern metropoles to interpret in what ways Simmel’s insights illuminate our understanding of the dilemma of the metropolitan subject. In this paper the urban and literary theory will complement each other in shedding light on the emergence of new forms of socialization. The paper reaches the conclusion that the overall image of the metropolis portrayed in the two short stories was constructed through the mutilated sensibilities of the metropolitan subjects that have become dispirited by the routine of their daily lives. The two protagonists – Mr. Duffy and Mr. Abdallah - end up living like strangers who maintain minimal comunication with others due the cold and unfeeling rationality they adopt to protect themselves against the overstimulation of their dehumanizing metropoles.

DEEP GAMES: ADDRESSING MENTAL HEALTH THROUGH INDEPENDENT VIDEOGAME DEVELOPMENT

Game workers and reports on the videogame industry frequently document cases of anxiety, depression, burnout and impostor syndrome. Mental health issues are exacerbated among independent developers and freelancers. The article draws on interviews with four London-based independent videogame developers who have been producing 'deep games' about mental health. The article argues that conceiving, producing and releasing these videogames is understood by their makers as a strategy to establish new and 'deeper' relations with consumers, participants and other developers. Developers seek relations with other game workers and players through the process of making, researching, testing, and showing their videogames. Their responses draw on biographical self-reflexivity and are articulated within a network sociality that conceives the individual developer as the agent of change. The development of videogames about mental health is interpreted by the participants as facilitating exchanges of autobiographical experiences that are otherwise regulated by the norms of professional networking. At the same time, these exchanges aim at the establishment of new forms of sociality and at a fairer and more inclusive videogame industry.

More Than Three Meals per Day

More Than Three Meals per Day

The Art of Disciplined Imagination: Prediction, Scenarios, and Other Speculative Infrastructures

Contemporary art is brimming with images of a future shaped by environmental destruction, technological innovation, and new forms of sociality. This article looks beyond the content of such images in order to examine the infrastructures that underpin them. Paying attention to two key infrastructures in particular—the Cold War faith in prediction and the extraordinary explosion of scenario planning in the years that followed—the article explores the ways in which speculation was transformed into a tightly defined field of expertise straddling military, policy, and corporate worlds. No longer the preserve of prophets or mystics, the speculative infrastructures incubated within organizations such as the RAND corporation were underwritten by cybernetics, game theory, and systems analysis, all of which helped give prediction a veneer of scientific credibility. And yet, as the planning tools of the postwar era lost their predictive edge, new techniques came to exert influence in a world dominated by the uncertainties of looming environmental catastrophe. The future was no longer thought to emerge from the present in a linear fashion but unfold along a series of branch points that allowed decision makers to navigate through a landscape of uncertainty. Tracing the genealogy of forms of prediction and scenario planning from the mid-twentieth century to the present day, this article places futurological tools in the context of an expanded field of speculative practices that include works of art. Projects by the likes of Stephen Willats, Experiments in Art and Technology, the Harrisons, and others not only generate alternative images of the future but also rework the infrastructures by which such images are conceptualized and produced.

Living the death of others: the disruption of death in the COVID-19 pandemic

Abstract On 11 March 2020, the World Health Organization classified the COVID-19 emergency as a pandemic, a decision that was taken following the perception that the virus was both lethal and rapidly spreading. The role played by mortality and contagion in this pandemic narrative, thus, cannot be ignored. On the one hand, contagion acts as a transgressive category that is a main source of socio-political disruptions and a catalyst for new forms of sociality. On the other hand, the effectiveness and persuasiveness of mortality as a quantifiable reality overshadows death as lived experience, obfuscating a profound reorganisation of the ways death is managed and produced through the work of a whole professional segment. Hence, this article explores how the response to the COVID-19 pandemic is reshaping death as lived experience by transgressing categories of existence and reorganising the conditions under which death is managed and produced.

HugForUs, opera di relazione tra persone

Exploring new forms of socialization by creating artwork in transformation, reinventing communication, is the goal of HugForUs. Amedani, the author, becomes a creator of tools, providing technological devices that make the forms of design and participation accessible to all, towards a collective pro- cess of creation. The redefinition of space, through collective action, widening the possibilities of the user, allows invisible identities to appear in the visible. The project triggers an active process that goes from individual to collective in a continuous semantic and aesthetic evolution, extending the capabilities of the subject-user. Overcoming the object-art identifier through public actions that exploit online platforms. The operation is defined, using the words of Giacomo Verde, as a «artwork of relationship between people». Amedani was able to activate creative contexts that allow the different processes of relationship.

Justice after Atrocity

Anthropologists have been critical of the global asymmetries of knowledge and power embedded in justice institutions established in the aftermath of violence. Truth commissions and mediation processes may be coopted by states seeking to nation-build and extend their coercive and normative capacity in local communities. International criminal courts may impose an alien version of justice that disrupts national politics and a peace process, and they often misapprehend the causes of mass crimes because they employ a form of legal inquiry that is far removed from local historical contexts. Litigation against companies for complicity in crimes against humanity may raise survivors’ expectations, only to dash them when states refuse to recognize universal jurisdiction. Even when legal recourse is not successful, new social movements focused on accountability, reparations, and legal remedy can emerge that engender new forms of sociality and political subjectivity. Anthropological investigations into transitional justice reveal a complex process in which survivors can recover an emancipatory political agency, and anthropologists testifying as experts often influence outcomes more than anticipated.