Postmodern Framework Research Articles

Dunky the Frog and the Politics of Irony

Although scholars have used poststructural and postmodern frameworks to understand the power relations of sport, critical research has rarely considered a politics of irony in the sporting realm. Using the controversial frog logo of Québec City’s professional basketball team, we explore irony as a reading strategy and method of critique that is already ambivalent. As a self-directed stereotype, Dunky the Frog is unique in its emergence through irony. It appears to be an offensive anti-French mascot intended by the team’s French Canadian owner to be an innocuous comic prop. This ironic use of frog imagery places the competing desires of liberalist sublimation and French Canadian self-representation into an irresolvable contradiction, one that encourages an alternative reading of mascot controversies and identity politics.

Utopias of Mud? Hassan Fathy and Alternative Modernisms

The article reconsiders the mud-brick architecture of Egyptian architect Hassan Fathy (1900-1989), looking particularly at his two major (but, for different reasons, incomplete) projects for settlements at New Gourna (1945-1949), across the Nile from Luxor, and at New Baris (1965-1967), in the Kharga Oasis (or New Valley). This reconsideration is timely in two contexts: first, current interest in sustainable architecture and the potential of mud brick as a low-cost (or, as Fathy put it, a no-cost) solution for the housing needs of nonaffluent countries and, second, reflections from a position in postmodernity on modernism and the possibility that there are alternative modernisms besides the international modernism specific to Europe and North America. This leads to debates around modernism and tradition, and Fathy occupies a complex position in this regard. But his work also raises questions as to the production of space, not least in a fusion of design and building, and the handing over to local masons of key aspects of both. The key question, however, in which both of the above aspects figure, is whether Fathy's work, particularly his efforts to create whole settlements, constructs a traditional (and nationalist) alternative to modernism or (still as nationalism) an alternative modernism incorporating aspects of European modernism and articulating them in new ways. The question has wide implications for visual culture—art and design as well as architecture—as well as being a means to read Fathy's work within postcolonial and postmodern frameworks.

Memory and Amnesia in the Presentation of the Hanamatsuri of Aichi Prefecture, Japan

Cornell University
 
 The Hanamatsuri is a complex ritual presented by around 17 communities located around a tributary system flowing into the Tenryû River which runs through the prefectures of Shizuoka, Nagano, and Aichi in Japan. It is associated with the end of the year, the New Year, and the revitalization of the world. Mapping the local onto the national is a significant concern that has been generated out of this festival. Maintaining a discourse of authenticity is another concern. These issues are set within a postmodern framework, as the author illustrates how elements of Japan’s postmodernism filtered down to the communities which perform the Hanamaturi. Ina larger sense, this paper participates in the academic inquiry in Japanese religious studies into how ritual and popular religion contribute to the construction of cultural memory.

Entre génétique textuelle et identité culturelle. Aspects de la représentation du roman flamand

Research in the field of textual genesis reveals that most canonized Flemish novels have been the result of a long creative process. A detailed study of preliminary drafts and different manuscripts, of typescripts and corrected proofs, of correspondence and diaries makes clear that every and each novel can be considered as a poly-system of variables. The study of textual genesis can be situated within the philosophical framework of postmodernism considering all texts as inter-texts referring to a wide variety of linguistic registers and text traditions. The analysis of literary « avant textes » also sheds an important light on the process of stereotyping in the context of cultural discourse : all too often canonized literary works have been reduced to cultural stereotypes, thus creating a distorted image of a given culture. This form of ideological text manipulation is both active within the confines of the Flemish source culture as in a broader international perspective : both auto-stereotypes and hetero-stereotypes have often been distilled from a prejudiced approach. In this article we summarize some results of our research. The textual genesis of the following novels has been analysed : F. Timmermans, Pallieter (1916) ; S. Streuvels, Het leven en de dood in de ast (1926) ; L. Zielens, Moeder, waarom leven wij ? (1932) ; M. Gilliams, Elias (1936) ; G. Walschap, Houtekiet (1939) ; H. Claus, De hondsdagen (1952) en W. Ruyslinck, Wierook en tranen (1958). We express our sincere thanks to all authors and archives concerned.

The de-pathologization of childhood, disability and aging in an intergenerational art class

Based on a naturalistic study of an intergenerational art program at a colocated child and long-term care facility, the purpose of this article is to discuss the implications of the program’s learning opportunities, primarily for young children, in light of current conceptualizations of childhood, aging and disability. Through a critical, postmodern framework which sees childhood, aging and disability as situated phenomena which are produced as objects in relation to power, I argue that programs such as this one are radical in their de-pathologization of these three social groups.

Inventive Pathways: Fresh Visions of Sport Management Research

Although qualitative research approaches such as ethnography have been applied to the field of sport (e.g., Bricknell, 2001; Hughson and Hallinan, 2001) Sparkes (2003) has suggested that it was not until the late 1990s that sport researchers began to embrace ethnographic frameworks underpinned by critical and postmodern theories. As such, the value of these research designs has not been fully realized. The benefit for sport management researchers in applying critical and postmodern thought to ethnographic approaches is that it sharpens their critical consciousness. This article therefore develops an argument for applying critical and postmodern thought to ethnographic approaches to sport management research. In doing this we (a) provide a brief historical sketch of social science research paradigms; (b) outline the benefits of applying critical and postmodern thought to sport management ethnographic research; (c) present examples of current sport and sport management ethnographic research that applies critical and postmodern frameworks; and (d) provide insight into the concerns that sport management scholars should consider when applying ethnographic research designs that embrace the tenets of postmodernism. Through this discussion we conclude that, although ethnographic approaches inspired by critical and postmodern thought are not the panacea to solve all research problems, if applied correctly they can only further enhance out knowledge of the research issue under investigation.

A Postmodern Approach to Women's Use of Violence: Developing Multiple and Complex Conceptualizations

We review the research on intimate partner abuse and, in particular, the articles in this issue, from within a feminist and postmodern framework. Research on women's use of violence is reviewed in terms of how researchers have constructed and measured violence and have conceptualized intimate partner violence (IPV) and gender. What and how we measure determines what we find ( McHugh & Cosgrove, 2005 ). We call for new conceptualizations of intimate violence and for more complex constructions of gender. We offer a postmodern perspective on gender and IPV arguing that interpersonal violence always involves gender, that approach and method influence results, and that men and women use violence in both similar and different ways.

The sprawling thicket: Knowledge and specialisation in forensic social work

This exploratory study uses a post-modern framework to investigate and map aspects of the (re)emerging occupational area of forensic social work, broadly defined as practice, which in any manner may be related to legal issues and litigation, both criminal and civil. The study is the result of each author asking questions about the nature of our professional experience in the field and then testing our thoughts against those of other social workers in the field. Our aim was to initiate discussion about the nature of forensic social work and to question whether our work called upon skills and knowledge that differed from those of social workers in other (specialised) fields. We used a cooperative inquiry method and significant themes and issues were raised with agreement for much of the discussion. The most lively dialogue centred upon the benefit or disadvantage of specialisation, with tensions evident around the perceived elitism some participants attached to the specialist title. The initial investigation raised several issues for further investigation.

Encounter with Sacred Eros

Situating art therapy within a cultural feminist postmodern framework, has taught me how valuable it is to re-write and re-image our histories, so that we are not imprisoned in the story. Veronique's art therapy process was a creative re-writing, imaging, and singing her song alive, which grieved the loss of her innocence. In honouring her grief she was able to embrace life again, and give personal and collective meaning to her suffering. This article has attempted to contextualise the impact of real relationships on psychic life. My therapeutic experience of relationship with Veronique, represented a most profound encounter with another, which was about grounding the journey of exploring the emotional waters of the heart and finding the place of soul.

Welfare Law, Welfare Fraud, and the Moral Regulation of the ‘Never Deserving’ Poor

The dismantling and restructuring of Keynesian social security programmes have impacted disproportionately on women, especially lone parent mothers, and shifted public discourse and social images from welfare fraud to welfare as fraud, thereby linking poverty, welfare and crime. This article analyzes the current, inordinate focus on ‘welfare cheats’. The criminalization of poverty raises theoretical and empirical questions related to regulation, control, and the relationship between them at particular historical moments. Moral regulation scholars working within post-structuralist and post-modern frameworks have developed an influential approach to these issues; however, we situate ourselves in a different stream of critical socio-legal studies that takes as its point of departure the efficacy, contradictions and inherently social nature of law in a given social formation. With reference to the historical treatment of poor women on welfare, we develop three themes in our critical review of the moral regulation concept: the conceptualization of welfare and welfare law, as illustrated by welfare fraud; the relationship between social and moral with respect to the role of law; and changing forms of the relationship between state and non-state institutions and agencies. We conclude with comments on the utility of a ‘materialist’ concept of moral regulation for feminist theorizing.

The framing of European foreign and security policy: towards a post-modern policy framework?

This article explores the evolution of the common foreign and security policy (CFSP) and the common European security and defence policy (CESDP), taken to represent European foreign and security policy, with an emphasis on the continuous reframing of policy within a changing "foreign policy space'. Having identified the key phases in the evolution of this European foreign policy space, the article then pursues two general aims: first, to establish how far this evolution reflects the interaction of ideas, institutions and policies; second, to assess the significance of a number of key "drivers' common to many areas of policy within the EU - the search for legitimacy, the preferences of member states and the desire for environmental stabilization. On the basis of this exploration, the article argues that it is possible to discern the emergence of a "post-modern' or " extra-national' foreign policy in the EU, which has significant echoes of policy- making in other areas of EU activity.

ASGP POSTGRADUATE PRIZE 2001 - Nation, Heimat, Vaterland: The Reinvention of Concepts by the Bavarian CSU

The article employs a post-modern theoretical framework to examine the CSU's ideological construction of the concepts of Nation, Heimat and Vaterland. Discourse theory is used to characterise the dynamics underpinning the party's bid for ideological hegemony in Bavaria. Examples of party rhetoric are placed in their historical context, in order to trace the process of political mobilisation through the definition of concepts. The CSU's articulation of the concept of Heimat is equated with a nationalist construct, one which allows the party to pursue a nation-building strategy within Bavaria whilst avoiding the negative connotations of nationalist ideology in Germany.

The (Im) Possibility of Democratic Justice and the “Gift” of the Majority

This article conceptually explores the problem of democratic justice in the form of legislated equal rights for minority citizen groups. Following Derrida's critique of Western logic and thought, at issue is the (im)possibility of justice for under- and nonrepresented constituencies. Derrida's socioethical treatment of justice, law, hospitality, and community suggests that the majority bestows a gift (ostensible sociopolitical empowerment); however, the ruse of this gift is that the giver affirms an economy of narcissism and reifies the hegemony and power of the majority. This article concludes by speculating on the possibility of justice and equality informed by an affirmative postmodern framework. A cultural politics of difference, contingent universalities, undecidability, dialogical pedagogy, border crossings, and constitutive thought would underscore this transformative and deconstructive agenda.

Modern and Postmodern Approaches to the Free Will/Determinism Dilemma in Psychotherapy

Although modernists in psychology have attempted to cast the free will/determinism dilemma as either settled or irrelevant, it continues to enfeeble theory, therapy, and practice. The primary reason for this continuing enfeeblement is the modern dualistic framework for this dilemma: Either the will (choices, decisions, motives) is dependent on antecedent conditions and thus is determined or the will is independent of antecedent conditions and thus is free. This framework, however, is not supported by current research and practical experience, indicating that the will is inextricably connected to the past but is not determined by it. A postmodern framework for this issue, which resolves the free will/determinism dilemma (at least on this point) and is consonant with research findings and therapeutic practice, is outlined. A therapy case is described to illustrate this modern dilemma and its postmodern resolution.

Postmodernism Perspectives for Macromarketing: An Inquiry into the Global Information and Sign Economy

The author proposes a postmodern framework for understanding the contemporary global economic and social/cultural order. Because the origins of postmodernism are so diverse and disparate, the challenge for macromarketers is to capture the key concepts that are relevant to macromarketing theory and practice. Toward this goal, the author specifies five postmodern conditions that constitute the postmodern framework: the sign system, hyperreality, particularism, fragmentation, and the symbolic nature of consumption. The article proceeds to identify and analyze three contemporary macromarketing topics using the postmodern framework: the global sign economy, flexible regimes of production and consumption, and the information economy and informational capitalism. The article concludes with implications for future research and practice.

The Expatriate Teacher as Postmodern Paladin

Argues that the marginality of English as a second or foreign language (ESL/EFL) expatriate teachers exemplifies the postmodern condition affecting society at the end of the millennium. Uses the image of the paladin and its juxtaposition with the conceptual framework of postmodernity to generate new ways of thinking about issues in ESL/EFL teaching.

Postmodern Concepts of the Body in Jeanette Winterson's Written on the Body

This article is concerned with Jeanette Winterson's use and reworking of post-modern concepts of the body in her novel Written on the Body. Feminist appropriations of those concepts can be problematic: they tend to focus on the way in which a coherent body image is constructed and then imposed on the body parts, whereas many feminist theorists continue to emphasize the wholeness and integrity of the female body. Written on the Body offers constructive ways of theorizing the female body within a postmodern framework, because it is shaped by concepts of wholeness and fragmentation at the same time. Winterson develops a critique of androcentric science and medicine that strives to know the female body by dissecting it, analogous to the way modern society compartmentalizes human lives into neat manageable units. Against this, a concept of wholeness is strategically employed. Likewise, Winterson criticizes the equation of the female body with a penetrable surface. The androcentric concept of sexuality that associates penetration with the exploration of hidden depths and the achievement of power and knowledge is unmasked as necrophiliac. However, by constructing a lover/narrator whose gender remains undeclared, Winterson manages to unsettle perceptions of gendered difference. The text produces different meanings depending on whether the narrator is read as a man or a woman, and sexuality requires a basic human sameness from which a host of differences emerge that may or may not be gendered. In Written on the Body, Winterson disturbs fixed boundaries and rigidly gendered identities that objectify the body in order to build up a concept of the body that is fluid and leaves room for changes and mergings with other bodies, where bodies are held together not by a stable body image and a gendered identity, but by forces of connection and interaction between parts of the body.

Eclecticism: Psychological theories as interwoven stories

Taking a postmodern perspective, the author makes the claim that all psychological theories could be viewed as stories. Labeling psychological theories as theory-stories, she argues that they reflect the life experience of their authors as well as their socio-political context. Further, by conceiving of psychology itself as a discipline of stories, she proposes that theory-stories are likely to contain many similar themes despite strong differences. These similarities exist because all theory-stories are born of human experience. The author further suggests that past theory-stories have the potential to inform, deconstruct, and add depth to current postmodern practice. This provides the justification for the importance of eclecticism. By way of example, she explores two theories, logotherapy and radical behaviorism, for their fit within a postmodern framework. Finally, by viewing theory as story, the author proposes that eclecticism provides necessary tools to explore story alternatives when liberating clients' from oppressive story lines.

Social Movements as Health-Educators

Within the postmodern framework, the present article examines how social movements may function as health-educators. Using the case study of “ACT UP” (AIDS Coalition to Unleash Power), the article establishes the configuration of this social movement organization as the product of a coalition between various pedagogical influences emanating from previous social movements, including the pre-existing AIDS movement, the gay and lesbian movement, and the women's health movement. The gay and lesbian movement offered young AIDS activists a sophisticated critique of mainstream science, especially concerning its “normative” function; the women's health movement provided ideological and logistical tools to support reliance upon community infrastructures, and the pre-existing AIDS movement, itself beneficiary of the two previous movements, accomplished seminal work to control the epidemic upon which ACT UP could thrive.

The Big House

Using a narrative form, three educators share their discovery about the importance of including students in school reform. They weave together through a postmodern frame-work, the disjunctive events surrounding conversations with their children. By sharing important insights about students' regard for education, they generate new under- standings about school reform.