Privileged Subject Research Articles

Brittle bonds: queer relationalities in literary and cinematic forms in India

Abstract From factories to hostels, homes to neighbourhoods, how do embodied practices in stratified spaces shape the contemporary terrains of queerness in India? In this article, I analyse two recent cultural texts from India, Neeraj Ghaywan’s Geeli Pucchi (Sloppy Kisses, 2021) and Hansda Sowvender Shekhar’s (2018) novel My Father’s Garden, Speaking Tiger Books, Delhi, to engage with the fraught dynamics of relationality and queerness. My analysis contests any easy celebration of community – by foregrounding the movements of dispossessed protagonists who do not fit into the paradigm of the privileged subject of queer politics. Yet these texts capture the fleeting possibilities of reaching towards one another in spaces carved through the operations of exclusion and discrimination. I bring together two texts in which the direct references to sexual identities formed via governmental or non-governmental networks are largely absent; rather, they ask fundamental questions about the in-between terrain of the relational. The dynamics of distance and connection is opened up in complex ways in these cinematic and literary texts as they create imaginative idioms to explore the brittleness of queer bonds formed through the hierarchized operations of class, caste and ethnicity. Through an analysis of the formal aspects of these texts, and the practices of spectatorship and readership they facilitate, I seek to underline how formations of sexuality in India can be unpacked only through a close engagement with the critical discourse on gender, caste and ethnicity.

Resgate do brincar: reflexões no âmbito da educação física escolar

Play is an inherent and indispensable activity for child development that can be used with intention and quality in pedagogical action. The objective is to develop a narrative review of the literature on play in school physical education in early childhood education. Studies with different theoretical-epistemological approaches were used. The issues more latent was: (1) The manifestation of play in play enables the playful culture of those who allow themselves to play; (2) The importance of play as an educational practice that considers children as actors in the multiple dimensions of human expressiveness; and (3) The contributions of the physical education teacher to play in early childhood education. There are different childhoods and different social determinants that positively or negatively impact play. Reduced opportunities to experience play can be detrimental to the child. The curriculum component of physical education can be an important tool for promoting play in early childhood education. By emphasizing the importance of play for the full development of children, it is considered a privileged subject in physical education about the different ways of moving with spontaneity, creativity, meaning and significance.

Natasha Kellem's Minoritarian Liberalism

Normative liberalism has promoted the freedom of privileged subjects, those entitled to rights – usually white, adult, heteronormative, and bourgeois – at the expense of marginalized groups, such as Black people, children, LGBTQ people, and slum dwellers. In this ethnographic analysis of Rocinha, the largest favela in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, I explore what happens when liberalism is challenged by people whose lives are impaired by normative understandings of liberty. I call such marginalized visions of freedom “minoritarian liberalism,” a concept that stands in for overlapping, alternative modes of freedom. In this piece, I introduce Natasha Kellem, a charismatic self-declared travesti (a term used in Latin America to indicate a specific form of female gender construction opposite to the sex assigned at birth). Through interconnected experiences, I offer ethnographic evidence of non-normative routes to freedom for those seeking liberties against the backdrop of capitalist exploitation, transphobia, racism, and other patterns of domination.

The gap between us: Perceptions of feminism and womanhood in Northern Ghana - evidence from Sagnarigu Municipal District

While earlier studies on gender equality in parts of Africa revealed some understanding of feminism and the gains made by feminists’ movements across African cities, these studies were conducted largely in urban areas where cultures have been immensely inflected by education, traditional and social media as well as cross-cultural norms and values. The extent to which feminism—a philosophical and a political movement committed to drawing attention to the conditions of differently situated women and empowering them to overcome oppression in its various forms—is understood in rural areas, including those in Northern Ghana, has received limited academic attention. Much scholarly work on this subject matter is predominated by privileged subjects, who on occasion are removed from the daily struggles and realities of women at the grassroots. This study deployed a grounded theoretical perspective, relying on in-depth interviews involving 30 women from diverse backgrounds and social classes to explore the knowledge and awareness of feminism, cultural conceptualisations of femininity and the resonance of such conceptualisations with contemporary feminists’ theorising. The study found that norms that frame women as men’s subordinates are deep-seated in the Sagnarigu Municipality, and indeed across much of northern Ghana. Furthermore, most women in the study area, an extremely heteropatriarchal setting, have very limited understanding of feminism. Feminism is considered as foreign and diametrically opposed to the cultural norms of the people.

Attorney–client privilege: theory and implementation practice

The article defines the approaches to the nature of advocacy and to the subject and nature of attorney-client privilege in terms of the problems of modern legal regulation of the criminal process and the status of a lawyer.

“The Shame of Being a Man”?: Masculinity and Shamefulness in Peter Ho Davies’s A Lie Someone Told You about Yourself (2021)

Often drawing on a misogynistic psychoanalytical tradition that perpetuates gender stereotypes, guilt has generally been considered a “masculinised” affect, while shame has often been “feminised,” apparently causing men and women to write shame differently. Scholars have often concluded that while women tend to write themselves out of shame, men have frequently written shame in abstract philosophical terms, displaced it onto female bodies or tried to coin glory from it. These alleged differences between men’s and women’s writing in/about shame have been taken as an indicator that shame organises women’s personal sense of self but is never the baseline condition of being a man. However, this article proposes that Peter Ho Davies’s A Lie Someone Told You about Yourself (2021), a narrative about the aftermath of an abortion, can be read as an exploration of the shame of being a man in contemporary postfeminist society. The text investigates the legitimacy of the shame experienced by privileged subjects and demonstrates that the pro-feminist stance of its author/protagonist goes beyond mere imposture. In his exploration of male shamefulness, Davies’s writing aligns itself with the criticised female (or feminised) tradition of “oversharing” and vindicates the feminist adage that “the personal is political.”

Watching the City with Pleasure

The essay examines the intersection between aesthetic the-ory and representations of the city in the periodical essay The Spectator (1711-1714). Focusing on this intersection allows for an analysis of the cultural work aesthetic pleasure is supposed to do according to The Spectator, and also shows key differenc-es between “spectatorial” and later, Kantian aesthetics. In The Spectator aesthetic pleasure has to do with producing a model for how one should relate to the realm of politics—rather than disin-terest, the precondition of aesthetic pleasure turns out to be disengagement. Read through the lens of the city, aesthetic pleasure turns out to be a key component in The Spectator’s vision of how to live a good life as a privileged subject of a modern state.

Enterprising self and bohemian nomad: Emerging subjectivities in Chinese education mobilities

This article approaches the question of how experiences of mobility mediate subjectivities through a case study of middle-class Chinese women’s education mobilities. Drawing from longitudinal ethnographic fieldwork with 56 young women who moved from China to Australia for university, the article focuses on two of their stories to illustrate how education mobility mediated their negotiation of available understandings of gendered personhood and competing life value regimes. It demonstrates that for these middle-class women, transnational education mobility may on the one hand reinforce identification with an ideal of enterprising selfhood that is prominent in both global and Chinese public cultures, or on the other hand, facilitate identification with a countervailing model of ‘bohemian’ mobility that has hitherto mainly been observed among more privileged subjects. It also analyses how mobility shaped the women’s negotiations of the linear feminine life scripts that are normative in post-socialist Chinese society versus more flexible, individualized models of gendered biography. The article thus illustrates the gendered aspects of Chinese women’s experiences of education mobility, and the subjective effects that flow from them.

“Technocratic Socialism”: The Political Thought of Lee Kuan Yew and Devan Nair (1954–1976)

Despite initially expressing a firm commitment to socialism and its ideals, the People’s Action Party’s socialist roots remain curiously under-explored. To take a first step in reconstructing the party leadership’s understanding of socialism from 1954 to 1976, this article investigates the socialist political thought of two of their key figures – founding Secretary-General Lee Kuan Yew and stalwart union leader Devan Nair. This article reconstructs Lee and Nair’s theory of socialism that it terms “technocratic socialism.” It draws from the historiographical method of Quentin Skinner to read Lee and Nair as intervening in their specific Cold War and decolonisation context, where socialism was dominated by Marxism-Leninism. Four key overlapping tenets of the theory are posited: (i) a loose form of historical materialism; (ii) a conception of the technocratic elite as the privileged subject; (iii) equality of opportunity as a moral principle; and (iv) a geo-political position which emphasised non-alignment, material development, and power politics. The article concludes with discussion of technocratic socialism’s socialist credentials.

Claiming collectivity: the socio-political affects of hashtagging “us”

ABSTRACT This article explores the role that hashtags play in maintaining the prevailing socio-political underpinnings of inequality. It is written in response to the 2019 terror attacks on Muslim communities in Ōtautahi, Christchurch. The attacks called into question many previously held assumptions about the non-discriminatory nature of Aotearoa New Zealand politics and society, necessitating a greater attentiveness to the grounds upon which claims to solidarity are made. I argue that “collectivizing hashtags” – that is, social media hashtags characterized by their use of pronouns to inclusively identify with Others – afford new opportunities for self-expression that may simultaneously empower and compromise certain individuals. I demonstrate how the collectivizing hashtags #TheyAreUs and #ThisIsNotUs involve forms of appropriation on the part of privileged subjects, reinforcing unequal social hierarchies and silencing marginal subjects. Following the feminist traditions of Judith Butler, Erinn Gilson, and Kate Schick, my analysis incorporates an ethic of vulnerability to interrogate underlying power relations and our location within them. This analysis encourages people to think critically about assuming the identity of vulnerable Others; otherwise, we risk obscuring our own complicity in the wider relations of power in which discrimination, oppression, and violence fester.

Review: A Revolution in Movement: Dancers, Painters, and the Image of Modern Mexico, by K. Mitchell Snow

Review: A Revolution in Movement: Dancers, Painters, and the Image of Modern Mexico, by K. Mitchell Snow

A Genealogy of Phenomenology in Architectural Research: An Epistemology Discussion through Dissertations

Purpose Throughout the scientific process, architectural research has always been in tendency to highlight some research fields according to the spirit of the periods. This study is an inquiry on deciphering such "research trends" in architectural research within the framework of a specified area of study. This inquiry aims to draw a genealogy of "phenomenology" within the realm of architecture by making a specific discussion on whether this issue has been a privileged research subject or not. Design/Methodology/Approach In order to make an analysis on privileged subjects of particular periods, it is decided to use some dissertations, which are obtained from ProQuest database. The methodological approach of the study begins with dividing the periods of architectural research into six decades, which starts from 1960's up to the present. After the separation of the periods, 3 major keywords are chosen to be questioned. The dissertations are chosen among the results obtained by scanning the keywords at once, which are phenomenology, architectural body and spatial experience. The chosen dissertations are grouped according to their decades. All findings are gathered in a table, which includes lots of information such as the doctoral dissertations, annotations of their approaches, their numbers from decade to decade, epistemological frameworks, theoretical perspectives and methodologies. Findings As a result, architectural phenomenology appears as a privileged subject in architectural research. However, the findings show that there are some notable changes especially in the terms in certain decades. While meaning term had been used before 1980s, phenomenology appears as a favored term after 1980s. Especially with the late 2000s, architectural phenomenology begins to be a privileging research area. As a result of being a research trend, a sub-field emerges after 2000s that directly criticizes the theories of phenomenology itself, which is post-phenomenology. Research Limitations/Implications Because of not reaching much effective results, the other databases are not employed. ProQuest is the only database throughout the research process, which provides the most effective results in reaching proper dissertations. ProQuest already includes nearly all results other databases reached. Originality/Value To see a genealogy of the keyword itself from meaning to phenomenology provides to position this philosophical field in architectural research. In addition to identify popular research subjects according to the spirit of the decades in science, this study is a critical epistemology discussion within the field of architectural research. Such an epistemology discussion also provides to see the continuity and the changes of both the terms and the study fields over the years.

Post-feminist, post-race and post-closet discourses in Critical Studies in Media Communication from 2000-2020

This literature review examines 50 scholarly works published in the journal of Critical Studies in Media Communication (CSMC) from 2000 to 2020. Each CSMC article has been selected because it employs post-feminist, post-race and/or post-closet as categories to classify media discourse. The publication of 50 articles, comprising 9.8% of research articles in CSMC during this timeframe, testifies to the importance of understanding post- discourses as an analytically and socially significant phenomenon. Summarizing the emergence, antecedents and definitions of each discourse as outlined by CSMC authors, this literature review uniquely maps recurring themes within these 50 articles and across three post- discourses, including: relegating social inequalities to the past; containing an imprint of mainstream civil rights movements while fundamentally reconfiguring them; framing solutions to widespread structural inequalities in terms of individual empowerment; flattering privileged subjects by constituting them as morally good, innocent and caring toward marginalized people; favoring marginalized subjects who perform their empowerment in ways that disavow sexism, racism and homophobia in the present; and holding marginalized groups responsible for contemporary sexism, racism and homophobia. With the aim of enabling students and scholars to better identify and challenge post- discourses in media, I provide an overview of how CSMC authors use post-feminist, post-race and post-closet to categorize media discourse and reveal how post- logics re-center privileged subjects and reassert sexism, racism and homophobia, often in violent and dire terms.

Navigating an Uncertain Terrain: Exploring the Engagement of a Residence Life Management Team on a Canadian University Campus with Race and Privilege

As the number of racially diverse students on university campuses in Canada increases, so too do questions about whether and how postsecondary institutions are equipped to create a welcoming, respectful, and supportive learning community for a racially diverse student body. This research explored how a residence life management (RLM) team could build capacity to meaningfully engage with the subjects of race and privilege in an effort to contribute to the university’s purpose of advancing a just society. Guided by collaborative developmental action inquiry and participatory action research, this project engaged members of the RLM team to consider how they are currently navigating the subject of race and privilege and to identify support required to better facilitate learning on the subject of race and privilege. It also provided the RLM team an opportunity to transform a tangible leadership challenge into an organizational learning opportunity. Study participants indicated that engagement with the subject of race and privilege is currently limited and suggested that capacity building could be enhanced in two key ways: first, through an explicit organization-wide commitment that informs hiring and employee performance management metrics, and second, through intentionally designed spaces for learning and action through dialogue. This study identifies practical strategies to engage with the subjects on race and privilege and contributes to current literature on race and privilege by identifying both barriers and factors that enable engagement with the complex and necessary dialogue about race and privilege in a Canadian university context.

Road warriors to digital nomads: portable computers, habitats, and remote work

ABSTRACT This article focuses on two users of early portable computers – the ‘road warrior’ and ‘digital nomad’ of the 1980s and 90s – to illustrate how portability has served an imperialist function in engineering a world fit for buffering privileged subjects against conditions of existential precariousness. The label ‘road warriors’ emerged in the early history of portable computers as a reaction against the hostile environs of airports and aeroplanes, spaces that were deemed unaccommodating to the use of laptops. These complaints made clear the importance of portable milieus, spaces that had to come into existence to accommodate the transversal of portable computers. The article examines how these emergent portable milieus functioned also as pedagogical habitats, worldly enclosures that guided white, middle/upper-classed, male executives on the means to adapt to a precarious economic existence. Drawing from computer magazines, news articles, and the manifesto Digital Nomad, the article illustrates how these habitats romanticized the value of remote workers, legitimated their transformation of environments, and laid a foundation for the world to be engineered as a buffer for privileged populations. The trend of digital nomadism today which seeks to create opportunities for the austere good life amidst endemic economic problems in the West, speaks to the currency of this imaginary and the longstanding politics of remote work, ushered in by portable computers.

Review: The Sonic Episteme: Acoustic Resonance, Neoliberalism, and Biopolitics, by Robin James

Review: <i>The Sonic Episteme: Acoustic Resonance, Neoliberalism, and Biopolitics</i>, by Robin James

Analysis of formal models for access control and specific features of their applicability to databases

An integral part of any project to create or assess the security of information systems and databases is the presence of a security model. The paper considers the main positions of the most common security models based on controlling the access of subjects to objects. The analysis of formal models for access control has revealed that each of them, having certain advantages and disadvantages, has the right to be used. The decisive factor in making a decision is an assessment of a specific situation, which will allow one to make the right choice. In this regard, the paper notes that security models based on discretionary policies are advisable to be applied when conducting formal verification of the correctness of building access control systems in well-protected information systems and databases. However, it is emphasized that these models have certain drawbacks that limit their use. The paper states that despite the fact that security models based on the mandatory access policy play a significant role in information security theory and their provisions have been introduced as mandatory requirements for systems that process secret information, as well as in the standards of secure systems, a number of problems may arise in the practical implementation of these models. Among these problems there are the problems associated with overestimating the security level, blind recordings, performing operations that do not fit into the framework of the model by privileged subjects. The paper also concludes that the use of security models based on role-based policy allows one to implement access control rules dynamically changing during the operation of information systems and databases, the effectiveness of which is especially noticeable when organizing access to the resources of systems with a large number of users and objects.

Maintaining the security of attorney-client privilege while using modern technologies and electronic devices

The development of digital technologies leads to significant changes in the forms of communication between an attorney and his client, as well as in the procedure and conditions of storing an attorney’s dossier and other information received by an attorney that is a subject of attorney-client privilege. The article is devoted to the problems of maintaining the security of attorney-client privilege in attorney’s work with the confidential information using modern technologies including mobile phones and other technical devices. The author believes that in the digital era attorney should pay increased attention to the problem of interaction with information in electronic form, as well as its transfer and storage to maintain the security of attorney-client privilege. The author notes that training in the issue of interaction with modern technologies is an ethical duty of an attorney, indicates that in order to solve this problem is required the cooperation of bar association with technical specialists in the field of digital technologies is necessary. The main point of the article is to determine the measure of attorney’s reasonableness while storing and transferring confidential information and to develop additional recommendatory measures to protect information being the subject of attorney-client privilege.

More than a class act? dilemmas in researching elite school girls’ feminist politics

Feminist scholars have long been concerned with privileged women’s activism and engagement with feminist politics and how acts of resistance from privileged subjects might best be understood. In the current moment, we are seeing a reinvigoration of interest in feminist activism particularly from young women, but not necessarily focusing on young women who are positioned as privileged. Simultaneously, there is attention in the sociology of elite schooling to the question of social justice politics in privileged spaces. In this article, we contribute to both of these scholarly conversations by reporting on the feminist activism of three young women attending an elite school in Australia. We argue that these young women’s activism/feminist politics need to be understood as a complex entanglement of resistance and reproduction with regard to gender, race and class, and that drawing on recent theorisations influenced by post-humanism in feminist educational research produces fresh insights into researching gender/race/class reproduction by young women in elite educational settings.

Assisted dying in the Aotearoa New Zealand media: a critical discourse analysis

ABSTRACT Death by assisted dying has long received media attention and remains a current socio-political health topic today. For many, understanding assisted dying is derived from media representations that position health, illness and dying in particular ways. These various stories shift and shape how we understand ourselves. With a Foucauldian lens, we explore what the media made possible for people to think, feel and do in relation to this phenomenon. From media articles collated in early 2018 we identify representations of a particularly individualised “autonomy’ which intersects with assisted dying as a ‘right’ and necessary ‘choice’ to control when, where and how to die. Those with mental illness were excluded from this discourse for lacking a ‘rational’ sensibility. From the autonomous right to choose discourse, two subject positions arose; my choice and mine alone and the defender of rights. A counter-discourse positioning assisted dying as perilous for society and the subject position of concerned protector emerged in resistance to the autonomous right to choose. A particularly Western and privileged subject was representative of those in favour of legitimating the practice. Non-Western understandings were absent, religious and spiritual considerations marginalised, the disabled body let die, and the older adult voice silent.