Private World Research Articles

Rings of power: a legal history of the engagement ring in early twentieth-century Australia

This article explores the gendered regulation of courtship by providing a legal history of the engagement ring across the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. Bringing the relationship between love, law, material culture and gender into dialogue, I use actions for breach of promise of marriage to trace the life path of the ring from the private world of romance to the moral theatre of law, examining how the ring functioned as tangible proof of contract, as a constraint on women’s sexuality, as a legitimation of their sexual identities, and as compensation for economic losses suffered in consequences of a broken engagement. Rather than a top-down analysis of how the state orders intimate life, this is a study of the vernacular life of law: of why people began imbuing rings with legal significance and how courts came to accept their reasoning.

INFLUENCE OF THE LINGUISTIC RELATIVITY ON LEARNING AND WORK OF ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE

The article analyses infl uence of linguistic relativity on existing neural networks, as well as to the fore-cast of the potential infl uence of this principle in the future on more advanced neural networks. The investigation provides an analysis of language situations when working with neural networks and a demonstration of specifi c examples of the infl uence of language on the work of AI, as well as possible situations of obtaining a positive eff ect when training neural networks considering the infl uence of linguistic relativity. Experiments conducted on neural networks demonstrating the existence of such an infl uence are described. The principles that allow to begin work on the formation of a framework for interaction with AI are formulated. The principle of engagement, which assumes that the factor of AI involvement in working with natural language not only in meanings, but also in connotations is to be taken into account. The principle of Kaja: to avoid endowing AI with consciousness and private world and not to use such metaphors.

From the womb to the world: a study of pregnancy narratives by celebrity moms in India

This article examines how celebrity moms in India are self-constructing their public persona through their pregnancy narratives. As a form of personal narrative, pregnancy narratives provide important insights into the...

How Technology Shapes Our Private Worlds

How Technology Shapes Our Private Worlds

Neocolonial Echoes in the Heart of Darkness: Peter Kubelka, Ulrich Seidl, and the Distrust of Sound

Abstract: The fascination with gaining insight into the motivation of European participants for the private and secretive world of hunting safaris in Africa informs both the avant-garde short film Unsere Afrikareise (1966) by Peter Kubelka and the more recent documentary Safari (2016) by . Both films provoke audiences with an interpretive openness that nonetheless must be understood as unveiled critiques of hunting practices and neocolonial attitudes. By drawing out formal and thematic similarities and differences, this comparative film analysis of Kubelka and Seidl illuminates the function and centrality of hunting via three interconnected aspects of their films: human and nonhuman bodies of otherness as central to understanding how both filmmakers view and instrumentalize the proximity of hunting and neocolonialism; the tension between word (sound) and image, with a focus on how the whitewashing of the hunting industry and conservation practices is exposed and challenged by images; and the key role of controversial images of slayed animals, dissected carcasses, and almost completely voiceless Africans in both films, which prove paradoxically indispensable for both Kubelka and Seidl in producing works that leave viewers with more interpretive specificity than is sometimes acknowledged.

한중일의 정원에 나타난 자연주의 사상과 반영성

The purpose of this study is to explore what the views of nature and gardens of Korea, China, and Japan are, how naturalistic ideas are expressed and projected in gardens, what their characteristics are, and what their aesthetics and message are to modern gardens. It was conducted using a literature review research method, and the results are as follows. First, Korea, China and Japan have a view of nature that humans should be in harmony with nature. Second, the views of nature and gardens in Korea, China, and Japan were influenced by shamanism, Confucianism, Buddhism, Taoism, and Zen. Third, Korea has created nature-friendly gardens that minimize human interference, China has created a somewhat artificial garden culture that creates another nature by reconstructing natural objects, and Japan has created symbolic garden art that brings nature into the house and contemplates it. Fourth, the gardens of Korea, China, and Japan all aimed for natural landscapes and gave symbolism to garden compositions, making it a mechanism to transform garden appreciators into a private world.

The Time House: between cybernetics and phenomenology

Martin Pawley’s ‘The Time House’ (1968) is a study on how to use multimedia technologies to provide a continuous record of individual experience within the domestic interior. The project’s underlying argument is that there is no authentic experience to be had in the public realm. As an antidote, Pawley proposes a retreat into a private world, where individuals, with the use of technology, can retain a continuous and repayable record of time. Thus, The Time House would enable its inhabitants to relive – phenomenologically, with all the senses – past experiences. Pawley believed that this repeated, unembellished re-creation of the past would reveal to its inhabitants a truer version of both the past and themselves, thus offering opportunities for introspection and self-knowledge. The Time House tries to bring together all the key concerns of architecture in the late 1960s: cybernetics, phenomenology, environmental behaviour studies, the use of cutting-edge technology, Cold War politics and fears, and the countercultural aim to expand human consciousness. Yet, Pawley’s proposition to use technology to simulate lived experiences with the aim of altering human behaviour still stimulates heated arguments today. These arguments stem from current fears about the effects of digital technologies on individuals and society: the disconnection with the here-and-now, the prioritisation of the individual over the collective, the disintegration of reality and the neglect of social public space. The Time House, which could be dismissed as a project of its time and place, is embedded in a web of ideas still resonant in our present.

Psychoanalysis, the Family and Personal Life: Narcissism and the “Relational Revolution” of the 1960

A life lived in public, it has been said, is a superficial one. If so, then the psychoanalytic claim to depth is well founded. Not only was psychoanalysis a theory of the private world - that is of personal life - it also took place in private. Psychoanalysis revolved around secrets, not exploits, confidentiality was its highest professional value, and one could give no higher testimony to the success of a psychoanalysis than to say that it had been forgotten. Given all this, no subject better exemplified the privileged status that private interior space occupied in psychoanalysis than its attitude toward narcissism.

Anthropology of the private world in N. V. Gogol’s Little Russian novels about modernity

The relevance of the article is connected with the application of the method of literary anthropology, the study of anthropological forms, for the first time undertaken to a set of N. V. Gogol's Little Russian novels about modernity: "Ivan Fyodorovich Shponka and His Auntie", "The Old World Landlords", "The Tale of How Ivan Ivanovich Quarreled with Ivan Nikiforovich". The problematic question is how a special narrator and a special world are related. The aims and objectives are connected to the analysis of the narrator's image and images of the characters primarily from the verbal portrait’s point of view, which makes it possible to cover important aspects of the writer's humanistic vision. The emphasis is on how the particular narrator creates a private world with all its subjects and details. The peculiarities of the narrator's image are considered as immersed in everyday life and material things, close to an ordinary common man of Mirgorod. The question is raised about the complication of this image, which, however, did not lead to the wholeness and completeness of the image. The private world created by the special narrator is dominated by special laws that determine the portrayal of the characters. The destruction of the boundaries between human and non-human, external and internal, philistine and divine, leads to the destruction of the world’s hierarchical structure. Another consequence of this is the likening of everything to everything else, the tendency to depict the mass, the similar, the echoing, including the accentuation of imaginary pairing. The singular tends to pairing, the paired tends to the mass-shaped. The destruction of the boundaries between the external and the internal leads to the dominance of corporeality, regardless of whether man is shown as flesh or as form. One can speak of Gogol's dominance of the face over the countenance (Florensky), the dismemberment of the body into parts, the autonomisation and independent life of these parts. An excessive importance is given to the character's costume, which can replace the hero. The traditional description is replaced by an expressive representation of the hero in two variants: representation-in-general and representation-in-the-moment.

Intertwining Plague and Memory: Post-Apocalyptic Genre and Possible World Narrative in Peng Shepherd’s The Book of M

Abstract This article engages with the relationship between plague and postapocalyptic genre in Peng Shepherd’s The Book of M (2018) in the conceptual system of possible worlds semantics. It argues that Shepherd’s novel frames postapocalypse not as a work of pessimism but as a social and historical context to explore the logical possibilities of the plague named Forgetting in unrevealed catastrophes and to project such themes as love, hope and unquenchable search for answers that never come. This article first examines Ory and Max’s loss of memory before proceeding to explore the mechanisms of logical possibilities and metaphorical use of Forgetting in the story. Following Marie Laure Ryan’s key concepts “accesibility relationships”, “fantasy universe”, and “private worlds” in the possible worlds narrative theory, this study then concludes that The Book of M offers readers an opportunity to observe the fictional Forgetting’s truth and status through metaphors and thus enables them to recognize the potential of plague in reality.

Zk-SNARKs As A Cryptographic Solution For Data Privacy And Security In The Digital Era

This research brings the concept of zk-SNARKs (Zero-Knowledge Succinct Non-Interactive Argument of Knowledge) in the context of data security and privacy in the digital world. zk-SNARKs is a cryptographic technology that allows individuals to prove a statement or knowledge without having to reveal the actual details of the information. We illustrate this concept through a simple example of proving age over 18 without revealing the actual date of birth. This research highlights the importance of maintaining data privacy in various technological applications, including the use of zk-SNARKs in blockchain to maintain transaction privacy and personal data protection in increasingly sophisticated applications. However, the implementation of zk-SNARKs requires deep mathematical understanding and strong data security concerns. With great potential to support data privacy and security in the evolving digital era, zk-SNARKs is a highly relevant tool in addressing privacy-related challenges in the digital world. The conclusion of this research is that zk-SNARKs is an important tool in maintaining data privacy and security in the digital age. With its ability to allow individuals to prove knowledge or assertions without revealing actual details of information, this technology has wide applications in various sectors, including finance, data management, and data privacy protection. However, it should be emphasized that the implementation of zk-SNARKs requires extra care in securing the system and ensuring that the technology is used properly to maintain high data privacy and security. With further development and understanding in this technology, zk-SNARKs can be an integral component in building a safer and more private digital world.

Private Worlds by Jeremy Seabrook: a response

This year, 2023, marks the sixtieth anniversary of Jeremy Seabrook’s authorial career as one of our finest and most impassioned writers on the nexus of the personal, the political and the global. And, it is just over three decades since he first wrote in Race & Class. With a depth and range that spans the life situation of the poor in Britain, the underprivileged and precariat of the Asian sub-continent, the impact of imperialism and consumerism on the psyche, the meaning of work, the impact of environmental disaster and the essence of what it is to be human – and a gift for striking prophecy – Seabrook’s career has been marked by the telling of beautifully expressed but often deeply uncomfortable and challenging truths. Yet always with immense feeling for the other at their heart. As expressed in his seminal piece, ‘The soul of man under globalism’ ( Race & Class 43, no. 4, 2002), ‘There are many macro-economic accounts of globalisation, but we rarely learn how it affects the psyche and sensibility of lives uprooted and radically reshaped by the penetration of their world by the market economy.’ We are therefore delighted to publish in this issue and this anniversary year, not only Jeremy Seabrook’s latest article for us, ‘The present imperium’, but also this response, by a contemporary, to his recently published autobiography, Private Worlds: growing up gay in post-war Britain (Pluto Press, 2023) which raises not only fundamental themes relating to the gay community in the UK and its history, but also profound, wider societal issues.

Il lato oscuro della ragione: sogno e follia in Kant, Hegel e Goya

Interest in dream and madness, conceived as the loss of a world shared with others, and the individual’s entry into a private world governed by a personal logic unrelated to the waking state and to common feeling, recurs in at least three of Kant’s works: Essay on the Diseases of the Head, (1764), Dreams of a Spirit-Seer (1766), and Anthropology from a Pragmatic Point of View (1798). Hegel too, from an early age, showed a strong fascination and a precocious interest in psychopathological matters (states of altered consciousness, prophetic dreams, somnambulism, catalepsy, witchcraft etc.) to which he devoted intriguing reflections in various works from different periods: from the Berne Ms Philosophy of Subjective Spirit (1794/95) to the Phenomenology (1807), from the Philosophical Propaedeutics (1808ff.) to the Encyclopedia of the Philosophical Sciences (18303). Starting from the remarks of the two philosophers, this paper aims to underline the conceptual links between their thought and that of some renowned psychologists and psychiatrists of the 1800s-1900s (Pinel, Janet, Adler, James, Binswanger, Freud et al.). On the other hand, the paper also seeks to show – within the framework of an idea of reason dating back to Heraclitus (about 544/483 B.C.) – some murky motifs, not always adequately emphasized in the past, found in the figurative and literary works of the late 1700s (e.g. Fuseli’s The Nightmare, Coleridge’s The Rhyme of the Ancient Mariner, and, in particular, plate Nr. 43 of the Caprichos by Goya, El sueño de la razón produce monstruos), where there emerges a «dark side» of psychic activity emblematically described as the cryptic relationship between dream and madness.

More–than–relationship quality: A feminist new materialist analysis of relationship quality and the potential of digital couple interventions

AbstractLong‐established studies and scales have advanced understandings of family function, marital satisfaction, and couple relationship quality. The underpinning constructs nevertheless remain under‐conceptualized and largely removed from the heuristic of everyday life and the dynamic of contemporary coupledom. We propose that a paradigm shift is required to sufficiently engage with the digital worlds of 21st century intimacies. Ideas in feminist new materialism revitalize the epistemology and ontology of relationship science. This enables a new look at how relationship quality is manifest in and created through human–technology intra–actions. The research tools of feminist new materialism are, however, typically creative and intentionally exploratory. We demonstrate how using a practices approach, which focuses on everyday lived experience, facilitates investigation of multidimensional public–private worlds. We deploy this to build a feminist new materialist analysis of a digital couple intervention. Through this, we develop the concept ofmore–than–relationship quality.

"Don't Turn a Blind Eye": An Instruction for Supporting Meaningful Conversations About Gender-Based Violence During Perinatal Care.

Evidence suggests that Gender-based violence (GBV) is prevalent throughout the perinatal period. Women during this time have frequent contact with healthcare providers (HCPs), and there are many opportunities that HCPs can identify GBV and support women by early intervention during routine prenatal care. However, evidence shows that HCPs are still hesitant to address this issue. This study was conducted to explore the experiences of Survivors and HCPs on how to manage a meaningful conversation about GBV with survivors during perinatal care. A thematic approach has been used in this qualitative study. Twenty-eight semi-structured interviews were conducted with survivors and HCPs. Three main themes emerged from the data analysis, including: "Knock gently on the door to enter the client's private world", "Show interest in clients' stories that are beyond their physical problems" and "Gradually and cautiously cross the hidden borders." HCPs play a pivotal role in identifying GBV and providing support for survivors, particularly during their perinatal period. However, initiating a conversation around this sensitive topic needs time, skill, and enough knowledge. Validating survivors' experiences, providing a private and safe atmosphere without judgment, and creating empathy could lead to more disclosure of GBV. To have a meaningful conversation, HCPs need to have a holistic approach toward care, show interest in clients' stories beyond their physical problems, and support clients who have shared sensitive information.

Benefits and Difficulties of the Implementation of Lean Construction in the Public Sector: A Systematic Review

Lean philosophy has shown successful results in the manufacturing industry since the eighties regarding efficiency, reducing cost and errors. However, the philosophy originated in the private sector, where the work rules are defined by business owners within the framework of some regulation. In the public sector, however, the picture is different. The way of working and carrying out operations and projects is directly defined by regulation, where the owner’s role—as in the private world—is embodied by the entire political system. This article aims to take a comprehensive look at the academic literature on how Lean has been applied in the public sector (LIPS) from a bibliometric perspective and then delve deeper into the concept of lean construction in the public sector (LCPS) through a systematic review. The results give a complete picture of the research in LIPS, revealing that research directions focus on implementing Lean, how it works in the public sector and the human factors involved in its practice and digitalization. Moreover, the advantages and challenges of LCPS have been presented, where again, the human factor is the central concern of researchers.

Echoes of Heaven

This article explores the musical patronage and practices of Duchess Elisabeth of Braunschweig-Lüneburg (1564–1613), a Lutheran princess of Denmark, and demonstrates that the few extant traces of her musical world testify to her careful command of music to maintain her public identity as devout consort, mother, and widow. It examines three settings of Nun lob mein Seel den Herren by Michael Praetorius (1571–1621), all of which appeared in print during his time as Elisabeth’s Kapellmeister at the Welf court in Wolfenbüttel: an Epithalamium for four choirs, a double-choir motet, and a variation set for the organ. A chorale-paraphrase of Psalm 103, Nun lob mein Seel encapsulates the tension between private religious belief and its jubilant public manifestation through music. Listening to Praetorius’s chorale settings in counterpoint with the printed record of Elisabeth’s musical and devotional life (all written by men) reveals how music helped Elisabeth construct a public image of her piety, even in seemingly private settings. The remarkable Compenius organ, commissioned from Esaias Compenius by Duke Heinrich Julius and, as Praetorius alone records, “his dear wife” Elisabeth for her rooms at Hessen Schloss, offers a glimpse into the more private musical world of a Protestant noblewoman, indicating how even such private spaces were produced, in part, for public consumption.

The Private World in the ICU: Analysis of the Hospitalization of Oncology Patientes

Resumo O presente estudo buscou investigar a percepção que pacientes adultos de uma unidade de terapia intensiva (UTI) oncológica têm acerca da experiência de internação nesse setor. Trata-se de uma pesquisa de abordagem qualitativa e de compreensão. Sete pacientes de um hospital de câncer na região Sul do país foram pesquisados. Eles responderam a uma entrevista semiestruturada, a qual foi gravada e posteriormente transcrita, o que possibilitou o acesso às concepções prévias desses sujeitos acerca da UTI, aspectos psicológicos presentes durante a internação e concepções posteriores à experiência de internamento na unidade. Tais informações foram interpretadas por meio da análise de conteúdo. A partir dos resultados, foi possível verificar que a experiência de internação em contextos de terapia intensiva pode ser afetada, favorável ou desfavoravelmente, pelo conjunto de regras que o paciente traz consigo acerca do que é a UTI. Além disso, foi possível compreender também que os estímulos aversivos existentes nesse ambiente podem ser atenuados pela presença da família e por uma relação acolhedora e sensível com a equipe de saúde, favorecendo, assim, o repertório de enfrentamento do paciente frente a esse momento crítico de saúde.

РЕЦЕНЗИЯ НА НАУЧНУЮ МОНОГРАФИЮ "ОТ ПРЕКАРНОЙ ЗАНЯТОСТИ К ПРЕКАРИЗАЦИИ ЖИЗНИ" ПОД РЕД. Ж.Т. ТОЩЕНКО. М.: ВЕСЬ МИР, 2022. 364 С.

The review deals with the publication and analysis of the main provisions of the new collective monograph “From precarious employment to precarization of life” (ed. RAS Zh.T. Toshchenko. Moscow: Ves’ Mir, 2022), written by the staff of the Federal Research Sociological Center of the Russian Academy of Sciences, the Russian State University for the Humanities, the National Research Institute of Trust, Dignity and Law. On the pages of that peer-reviewed work, the reader learns about the key features and specifics of the public and private life world of the precariat, about the precarization of the quality of the main spheres of life (labor, social sphere, public and political life, cultural and everyday life), about the degree of precarization in the health care system, science and higher education. As in previous collective monographic works (which have gained undoubted success), the new work, based on numerous both primary and secondary data, reflects new trends and ideas about the precariat. The present work is addressed to a wide range of readers and will be very useful not only to professional academic sociologists, but also to all those who care about the study of the lifestyle of individuals in the realities of the current socio-economic structure of society.

Minimally Invasive Lower Anterior Resections - Better than Open But Not All the Same.

Background/Objective: Optimal approach for lower anterior resection has been closely debated. The relatively new addition of the robotic approach adds a layer of complexity to this topic. The majority of the literature has compared the possible approaches between two techniques; however, only a few studies have comprehensively compared all 3 approaches at the same time, especially in a non-academic center.Study Design: This is a retrospective cohort study of a prospectively maintained database of data from a large group of private-practice colorectal surgeons in a large metropolitan area. Specifically, rectal resections using open, laparoscopic, and robotic approaches were queried. A total of 130 patients underwent open, laparoscopic, or robotic oncological lower anterior resection from 2016 to January 2020.Results: Statistical significance of length of stay was noted between the three approaches with the mean length of stay for open being 8.08 days, laparoscopic being 7.04 days, and robotic being 4.96 days (P < .005). No statistical significance was noted for estimated blood loss, operating time, or postoperative complications including anastomotic leak, ileus, pneumonia, pulmonary embolism, surgical site infection, and urinary tract infection. When directly comparing any minimally invasive surgery approach to open, estimated blood loss was decreased in addition to the shortened length of stay (P < .05).Conclusions: This study demonstrates that MIS LAR has significant benefit over the open approach. However, finding that robotic surgery had was superior to laparoscopic LAR which was surprising and important. This experience in the private world raises the question as to whether robotic LAR should be considered the standard of care.