Embodiment Perspective Research Articles

Ecofeminist Drought and Slow Ecological Grief in Fabienne Bayet-Charlton’s Watershed

ABSTRACT This article analyses temporalities of drought and grief in an understudied millennial Australian novel: Fabienne Bayet-Charlton’s Watershed. Watershed depicts a young white farming couple in rural Victoria battling a fierce drought while coping with prolonged grief over the death of their ten-year-old son. I contend that the layering of drought and grief in the text – both figured as slow forms of crisis – proffer slow temporalities that deal with both the small and large scales of space and time which constitute anthropogenic climate change. Using hydrocritical, postcolonial, and ecofeminist approaches, I show how the text articulates a politicised multiscalar yet embodied perspective which demonstrates the insights that a specifically freshwater approach to the blue humanities can bring to theorisations of environmental time and narrative strategy during planetary crisis.

Spontaneous movement synchrony as an exogenous source for interbrain synchronization in cooperative learning.

Learning through cooperation with conspecifics-'cooperative learning'-is critical to cultural evolution and survival. Recent progress has established that interbrain synchronization (IBS) between individuals predicts success in cooperative learning. However, the likely sources of IBS during learning interactions remain poorly understood. To address this dearth of knowledge, we tested whether movement synchrony serves as an exogenous factor that drives IBS, taking an embodiment perspective. We formed dyads of individuals with varying levels of prior knowledge (high-high (HH), high-low (HL), low-low (LL) dyads) and instructed them to collaboratively analyse an ancient Chinese poem. During the task, we simultaneously recorded their brain activity using functional near-infrared spectroscopy and filmed the entire experiment to parse interpersonal movement synchrony using the computer-vision motion energy analysis. Interestingly, the homogeneous groups (HH and/or LL) exhibited stronger movement synchrony and IBS compared with the heterogeneous group. Importantly, mediation analysis revealed that spontaneous and synchronized body movements between individuals contribute to IBS, hence facilitating learning. This study therefore fills a critical gap in our understanding of how interpersonal transmission of information between individual brains, associated with behavioural entrainment, shapes social learning. This article is part of the theme issue 'Minds in movement: embodied cognition in the age of artificial intelligence'.

Affect, gendered embodiment and sexual harassment

Sexual harassment is an affective, embodied and relational issue with distinctly gendered consequences for those who experience it. Despite a vast literature illuminating the gendered dynamics of sexual harassment, detailed analyses of the affective dimensions of such dynamics are scarce. This article analyses young women’s and nonbinary people’s experiences of sexual harassment from the perspective of affective embodiment. The analysis draws on Sara Ahmed’s theorisation on embodied hurts, orientations and emotions to trace relational, embodied and affective processes of gendering linked with sexual harassment. The analysis identifies two harassment-related embodied processes: embodied regulation and embodied resistance. Whereas embodied regulation takes the form of feminisation – a process that renders bodies vulnerable – embodied resistance includes a variety of orientations labelled here as preparedness, defeminisation and embodied critique. Thus, the analysis suggests that bodies may respond to sexual harassment in varied ways, and even though harassment contributes to the constant shaping of bodies, it does not determine them.

Exploring the Formation of Behavioral Intention Toward Rural Tourism via Sensory Experience and Memorable Tourism Experiences, a Case Study in Henan, China

ABSTRACT This study aimed to investigate the formation of tourists’ behavioral intentions toward rural tourism by analyzing sensory experiences and memorable tourism experiences. The research was conducted through a case study in Henan, China. Using a quantitative approach, a survey was conducted where 490 participants completed a face-to-face questionnaire. The findings from the partial least squares structural equation modeling revealed that out of the five sensory experiences, only touch has a statistically significant and positive impact on behavioral intention. On the other hand, sight, sound, taste, and smell do not have a meaningful influence. In contrast, all five senses exhibited substantial beneficial effects on memorable tourism experiences. Memorable tourism experiences emerged to act as a mediator between the five senses and behavioral intention. This study is a pioneer attempt in the field of rural tourism, using the embodiment perspective to explore the mechanisms and connections linking sensory experiences, memorable tourism experiences, and behavioral intentions. The findings offer significant theoretical insights and practical contributions to advance the research and industry of rural tourism.

Sayings and Doings in Practices: Enhancing practice-driven institutionalism with insights from the philosophy of embodiment

The practice-driven perspective in organizational institutionalism has proposed that what actors say and do is decisive for the enactment of practices in everyday situations. However, this perspective has predominantly considered the role of doings and has disregarded the distinct role of sayings used in everyday situations. Our theoretical argument proposes the co-constitutive coexistence of sayings and doings in the enactment of practices that explains why and when doings inform specific sayings and why and when sayings prefigure specific doings. Theorizing this coexistence reveals when it is that sayings bolster the reproduction and stabilization of doings, when they contribute to change, and when sayings cannot coordinate doings because actors literally cannot understand one another. We argue that the consideration of the coexistence of sayings and doings is relevant for practice-driven institutionalism, as it enables the differentiation of the situated impact of doings and sayings on the development of practices. To develop this argument, we build on insights from the embodiment perspective within the philosophy of mind (i.e. philosophy of embodiment), which suggests that the body and its sensorimotor states in practices play an instrumental role in cognition and language use.

Understanding camping tourism experiences through thematic analysis: An embodiment perspective

Camping is a major form of nature tourism that emphasizes one’s physical presence in a natural environment for recreation. Despite research on recreation experiences, how one’s body and mind interact during camping tourism—and the physical environment’s contributions to these embodied experiences—has received limited academic attention. Theoretical tenets of embodiment include the roles of the external world, situational action, and physical states on people’s psychology and behavior. This study aimed to elucidate, from an embodiment perspective, the mechanisms underlying tourists’ camping experiences. Thematic analysis of 31 online blog posts revealed that the camping environment and physical activities elicit campers’ sensory experiences and subsequently stimulate psychological reactions. These sensory perceptions and responses lead to embodied experiences, which are composed of physiological experiences, cognitive experiences, and social experiences.

An embodied perspective on an augmented reality game in school: pupil's bodily experience toward learning

There has long been an increased focus on and investment in digital technology in schools to improve the quality of education. While digital tools have gained access to pedagogical spheres, physical activity has been overlooked, as pupils often engage in activities that require minimal bodily movement. In this article, we discuss pupils’ experiences with learning through an augmented reality (AR)-based game application and explain how the application supports embodied learning. Digital tools, including gaming, can supplement traditional activities, motivate children to become physically active and enhance their learning experiences. Integrating technology and physical activity can create a more varied, meaningful, and dynamic school day, positively supporting pupils’ learning processes. The AR game associated with this study facilitated physical activity and learning experiences through a mobile device application. The empirical material for the study includes interviews with pupils participating in an AR game in mathematics. The findings show that participating in an AR game promoted embodied learning and positively impacted pupils’ motivation, engagement and learning processes. More specifically, AR facilitated learners’ engagement in the learning process by fostering their active involvement through physical and social collaboration and by enhancing the pupils’ joy of learning. Additionally, the pupils expressed that they enjoyed the application’s variations and the experiences that followed working collaboratively with the tasks. Moreover, they commonly found the physical and collaborative components of the AR game exciting and academically motivating. Studies on AR games and technology focusing on the opportunities and pedagogical foundations for their use in education are relevant in these precarious times. Indeed, more knowledge is needed on the ways creative and flexible learning processes that transpire within a technological learning environment influence embodied learning, knowledge that is essential for designing teaching and learning in the technical future.

"I felt like a little kind of jolt of energy in my chest": embodiment in learning in continuing professional development for general practitioners.

Learning in medical education encompasses a broad spectrum of learning theories, and an embodiment perspective has recently begun to emerge in continuing professional development (CPD) for health professionals. However, empirical research into the experience of embodiment in learning in CPD is sparse, particularly in the practice of general medicine. In this study, we aimed to explore general practitioners' (GPs') learning experiences during CPD from an embodiment perspective, studying the appearance of elements of embodiment-the body, actions, emotions, cognition, and interactions with the surroundings and others-to build an explanatory structure of embodiment in learning. We drew on the concepts of embodied affectivity and mutual incorporation to frame our understanding of embodiment. Four Danish and three Canadian GPs were interviewed to gain insight into specific learning experiences; the interviews and the analysis were inspired by micro-phenomenology, augmented with a complex adaptive systems approach. We constructed an explanatory structure of learning with two entrance points (disharmony and mundanity), an eight-component learning phase, and an ending phase with two exit points (harmony and continuing imbalance). All components of the learning phase-community, pride, validation, rehearsal, do-ability, mind-space, ambiance, and preparing for the future-shared features of embodied affectivity and mutual incorporation and interacted in multi-directional and non-linear ways. We discuss integrating the embodiment perspective into existing learning theories and argue that CPD for GPs would benefit from doing so.

Multisectoral water‑carbon pressures and economic benefits in China: An embodied perspective driven by consumption

Developing nations encounter considerable resource and environmental pressures, exhibiting diverse levels of decoupling relationships between resource-environment consumption and economic performance in different sectors. Nevertheless, there has been insufficient scrutiny from the perspective of embodied water‑carbon within the national economic system, particularly long-term analysis. This study proposes a three-stage analytical approach integrating measurement, decoupling, and decomposition modules to track such pressures, relationships and driving factors. Within this framework, a water‑carbon extended input-output model is constructed to quantify the embodied water‑carbon structure and inter-sectoral transfers between 2010 and 2020. The main findings are: a) Over the past decade, the composite water‑carbon pressure index of the energy sector has increased from 2.94 to 3.24, making it the only sector experiencing water‑carbon dual pressure in China. The service sector exhibits the lowest embodied water‑carbon pressure, boasting an average pressure index of 0.24. b) The OECD decoupling factor between embodied water consumption and economic growth in the entire national economic system increased from 0.37 to 0.40, achieving a transition from relative decoupling to absolute decoupling. However, a significant coupling relationship persists concerning CO2 emissions. c) Technological innovation primarily drives the decoupling of embodied water consumption in most sectors. Structural driving factors play an increasingly significant role in decoupling multisectoral carbon emissions and economic benefits. Strengthening technological innovation to improve multisectoral water use efficiency is still the most effective way to promote deep decoupling of water consumption within the industrial system. Achieving deep decoupling of carbon emissions necessitates both short-term technological innovation such as low-carbon process modification and long-term structural transformation such as green industrial restructuring. Differentiated findings can help identify potential sustainable development strategies for China's industrial system under resource and environmental constraints.

Predicting instabilities: an embodied perspective on unstable experiences with art and design.

Predictive Processing (PP) provides a theoretical framework that describes perception as a process attempting to increase the predictability of stimulations by updating predictions or exploring new sensations. Moreover, perception and action are assumed to be closely linked within this process. While organisms seem to strive for predictability, we sometimes expose ourselves to objects and situations that challenge sense-making-such conditions often break perceptual habits or offer multiple possible meanings. This paper updates a previous qualification of these experiences of 'Semantic Instability' (SeIns) by following an embodied and situated understanding of perception and cognition. We suggest that art perception essentially differs from problem-solving as in engaging with art, we typically integrate contradictory elements dynamically and without the ultimate goal of resolving the contradictions-on the contrary, SeIns itself can generate aesthetic hedonics and interest. We discuss how current embodied accounts of PP might help understand what motivates such unstable yet insightful and pleasurable nonlinear sense-making processes. This article is part of the theme issue 'Art, aesthetics and predictive processing: theoretical and empirical perspectives'.

Global household energy consumption structure: direct versus embodied perspective from 2000 to 2014

Global household energy consumption structure: direct versus embodied perspective from 2000 to 2014

Affordances and curvature preference: The case of real objects and spaces.

Chuquichambi and colleagues recently questioned the prevailing belief that a universal human visual preference exists for curved shapes and lines. Their comprehensive meta-analysis demonstrated that while curvature preference is widespread, it is not universally constant or invariant. By revisiting their dataset, we made an intriguing discovery: a negative relationship between curvature preference and an object's "affordances." Taking an embodiment perspective into account, we propose an explanation for this phenomenon, suggesting that the diminished curvature preference in objects with abundant affordances can be understood through the lens of embodied cognition.

English Vocabulary Teaching in High Schools from the Embodiment Perspective on Language

English Vocabulary Teaching in High Schools from the Embodiment Perspective on Language

Theories and practical perspectives on fostering embodied abstraction in primary school geometry education

To reach for abstraction is a major but challenging goal in mathematics education: teachers struggle with finding ways how to foster abstraction in their classes. To shed light on this issue for the case of geometry education, we align theoretical perspectives on embodied learning and abstraction with practical perspectives from in-service teachers. We focus on the teaching and learning of realistic geometry, not only because this domain is apt for sensori-motor action investigations, but also because abstraction in realistic geometry is under-researched in relation to other domains of mathematics, and teachers’ knowledge of geometry and confidence in teaching it lag behind. The following research question will be addressed: how can a theoretical embodied perspective on abstraction in geometry education in the higher grades of primary school inform current teacher practices? To answer this question, we carried out a literature study and an interview study with in-service teachers (n = 6). As a result of the literature study, we consider embodied abstraction in geometry as a process of reflecting on, describing, explaining, and structuring of sensory-motor actions in the experienced world through developing and using mathematical artifacts. The results from the interview study show that teachers are potentially prepared for using aspects of embodied learning (e.g., manipulatives), but are not aware of the different aspects of enactment that may invite students’ abstraction. We conclude that theories on embodiment and abstraction do not suffice to foster students’ abstraction process in geometry. Instead, teachers’ knowledge of embodied abstraction in geometry and how to foster this grows with experience in enactment, and with the discovery that cognition emerges to serve action.

Expression in popular music singing as embodied and interpersonal

This article presents theoretical viewpoints for considering and understanding expression in popular music singing and pedagogy from the perspective of embodiment as outlined in Merleau-Ponty’s phenomenological philosophy. In our study, we apply his interpretations of such notions as intentionality, body schema, gesture, reversibility, and intersubjectivity to bring forth and discuss the holistic, embodied, and interpersonal nature of voice expression in singing. We argue that expression should be viewed as an intentional activity, based on the body’s innate mindful functioning as a whole, and in singing guided by the lyrics and emotions to be communicated. We propose that this requires a “free voice”, based on healthy vocal production, that also allows for the immediacy of expression as and through gestures that bring the meaning into existence. We further argue that expression is an interpersonal, interactive, and intersubjective process in which the performer and listener influence each other in many ways. The reversibility of perception in expression means that perception and the object perceived are intertwined and action and perception are interconnected. There is also a gap in reversibility, which implies that the perception of (one’s own) expression is never complete. In addition to our theoretical arguments, we make pedagogical suggestions, such as that the body itself has a lot of understanding ofhowand should be trusted in singing, both in terms of voice production and expression. The expression should not be primarily approached as a technical issue but taught in connection with and through expression. The expression should be viewedfrom the inside out, not the opposite. This means that expression builds on one’s personality and (emotional) experiences.

Knowledge Production Around and About Raced Covered Body: Reclaiming Muslim Female Body in Ecofeminist Theories of Embodiment

Abstract: Ecofeminists have called for adding an ecological dimension to gender research to address various forms of oppression that women experience in their daily lives and to explain how feminine exploitation of the planet results from the same logic of patriarchal domination. Now that the flow of essentialism-phobia (Field 2000, 39) has decreased, it seems that it is time to deal with the risky topic of the body in ecofeminist research and theory to make it more central in feminist epistemologies. Yet feminist theory needs to avoid repeating the past mistakes in theorizing embodiment from an ecofeminist point of view and pay proper attention to the questions of difference and diversity: whose body is being discussed and generalized? This paper builds upon the postcolonial ecofeminist perspectives of embodiment and highlights the diversity of lives and experiences of living in Others of cisgender heterosexual male bodies with a focus on covered raced body.

Aesthetic labour and diversity on the shopfloor: the experiences of women workers in fashion retail

PurposeThis paper explores the workplace experiences of aesthetic labour among racially diverse frontline women workers in a fashion retail store.Design/methodology/approachThis qualitative study is based on an ethnographic study, drawing on findings from participant observation and interviews with frontline workers at a fashion retail store in the UK.FindingsThis paper explores how the embodiments of aesthetic labour are perpetually produced and commodified through the discipline of management in a fashion retail store. It challenges the notion of phenotypical Whiteness as the beauty standard within fashion retail and demonstrates how embodiments differ according to race. While White women are continuously scrutinised by their appearance, the aesthetic demands for women of colour tend to focus on speech and racialised bodies to provide “authentically” exotic experiences for customers. Additionally, this study highlights how the mobilisation of aesthetic labour can create work humiliation and work alienation.Research limitations/implicationsDespite this study being based on an ethnographic study at one British fashion retailer, this paper seeks to give voices to an underrepresented group by exploring the lived experiences of racially diverse women workers.Originality/valueThis paper contributes to the intersection between aesthetic labour and race from an embodiment perspective, exploring the workplace experiences of racially diverse women workers in fashion retail and how their various forms of embodiment are racialised and commodified.

Towards an embodied understanding of the sustainability of consumer choice—the case of fashion shopping

This conceptual article uses an embodied theoretical lens to describe how consumption and shopping are bodily activities shaped by marketplaces. This article contributes to research on sustainable consumption in general and research on sustainable shopping in particular. The social and situated embodiment perspective highlights how sociomaterial marketplace elements configure shopping outcomes. The context of fashion shopping is used, and this article shows how an embodied view of shopping can increase our understanding of unsustainable shopping practices and promote shopping for sustainable products. This article aims to enrich the structural strand of sustainable consumption research by describing how the sustainability of individual shopping can be understood as skills and dispositions acquired within, or in relation to, marketplace activities and discourses. This suggests that current Western unsustainable fashion shopping practices, characterized by excessive consumption, change only if supply and communication practices in the fashion marketplace change.

164 (PB-077) Poster - Exploring timely perspectives of embodiment in women diagnosed with breast cancer undergoing oncoplastic breast surgery: A qualitative study from a plastic- and breast surgical outpatient clinic

Background: Women diagnosed with breast cancer in Western countries are increasingly offered oncoplastic breast surgery as part of breast cancer treatment. As the number of breast cancer survivors grows due to development in surgical and medical treatment, long-term outcomes and the experiences of individuals with breast cancer, such as quality of life related to satisfaction and body image, have become increasingly important components of breast cancer treatment and rehabilitation. Previous research indicates that women who undergo breast reconstruction after breast cancer treatment report the highest long-term satisfaction with their breasts.

Denken uit gewoonten: een belichaamd perspectief

Thinking out of habit: an embodied perspective In the second half of the twentieth century, habit had received little attention in the cognitive sciences and philosophy of cognition. This despite the extensive theoretical attention habit received in phenomenology and pragmatism. This is because due to influence of behaviorism and the cognitivist revolution, habit was reduced to mechanical stimulus-response reaction that is learned through drill and repetition, and therefore habit cannot be considered intelligent. In this article I argue that a richer and more accurate notion of habit is possible through an embodied vision of cognition, namely enactivism and ecological psychology. This means that we can consider habit as intelligent without equating habit with reflective thought. Such a notion is possible because both enactivism and ecological psychology have their conceptual roots in pragmatism and phenomenology. Secondly, an embodied vison of cognition can describe how our habits are formed from sensorimotor contingencies and are self-organizing patterns of behavior in interaction with an environment. This can be described through the metaphor of ‘laying down a path’, whereby taking a shortcut across a field of grass a path is formed, which enables walking across the field of grass. Laying down a path is more than a metaphor, but also an example of the sociomaterial dimension of habit. Habits are always formed in an interaction between an organism and an environment that is, in our case both material and social.