Public Square Research Articles

Zionism and Contemporary Christianity in the Public Square

ABSTRACT This essay brings together observations regarding the struggle over the Holy Land in the context of Saul Friedländer’s interests in Zionism, the role of memory in history, and the Holocaust. History and collective memory remain fundamental to the way claims have been made to the Holy Land. Jewish control over Mandatory Palestine has often been challenged in established monotheistic theology, particularly Christian supersessionism. Like other nationalisms, Zionism is supported by historical narratives framed in secular terms. Thus, arguments that support a Jewish state and those that deny its legitimacy have recourse to historical narratives. With the disposition of the Ottoman Empire largely determined by the Christian West, European antisemitism and the Holocaust proved of singular importance in the ongoing theological and ideological arguments for establishing a secure refuge for Jews. Moreover, the essay demonstrates that these discourses are not necessarily separate, but rather often overlap and complement one another. In the course of this examination, the essay references selected strands of contemporary Christianity: Catholicism, Evangelicalism, Mainline Protestantism, and Palestinian Liberation Theology. While accounting for antisemitism and the Holocaust once seemed to promise change in some established dogmas, it remains to be seen how significantly and permanently it has occasioned the hoped-for reevaluation of the Jews’ role in history given the extent and depth of supersessionist thought when also supported by ostensibly secular political categories.

Superfluous Women: Art, Feminism, and Revolution in Twenty-First-Century Ukraine by Jessica Zychowicz (review)

Reviewed by: Superfluous Women: Art, Feminism, and Revolution in Twenty-First-Century Ukraine by Jessica Zychowicz Kathleen Mitchell-Fox Zychowicz, Jessica. Superfluous Women: Art, Feminism, and Revolution in Twenty-First-Century Ukraine. University of Toronto Press, Toronto, ON, Buffalo, NY and London, 2020. xx + 399 pp. Illustrations. Notes. Bibliography. Index. $93.00. In Superfluous Women, Jessica Zychowicz presents a detailed interpretation of the protest and countercultural activities of Ukraine's inter-revolutionary generation, the generation who came of age in the decade between the Orange Revolution (2004–05) and Euromaidan (2013–14). Zychowicz's title is an ironic reference to the lishnii chelovek of nineteenth-century Russia. In her usage, it alludes to the initial dismissive response towards the feminist and anti-establishment movements as a superfluous generation protesting for protest's sake. Thus, the aim of Superfluous Women is two-fold: firstly, to demonstrate and decode the significance of inter-revolutionary protest in Ukraine, thereby reclaiming its 'superfluous women'; secondly, to provide a nuanced perspective on Ukrainian art and protest between 2004–14. The latter balances the decentring of Western liberal assumptions that all protest is a cry for closer European ties with a renegotiation of the Soviet past's relevance to the 'decommunizing' present. From the start, Zychowicz positions herself as a peer of the inter-revolutionary generation, united with them not only by time or space, but by the problem of navigating a Soviet past they did not experience but that remains a part of their lives and symbolic economies. Zychowicz writes: 'Each of us has found ourselves at a crossroads with no signposts' (p. 3). Superfluous Women represents an innovative work which illuminates the multiple crossroads that inhabitants and scholars of the post-Communist political, aesthetic and physical landscape must confront. These intersecting pathways are illustrated [End Page 171] with apt theoretical, analytical and primary source materials, accompanied by thorough visual examples. Superfluous Women is as much about Ukraine as it is about protest. While many of the questions posed in the text's introduction are those broadly associated with the study of protest (the commodification of protest, the instantiation of a public, the intersection of feminism and nationalism, and the degree to which art and activism are connected), these questions are always couched in the local context of Ukraine, Kyiv or Maidan Nezalezhnosti. Throughout Superfluous Women, Zychowicz examines the public square (Maidan) as both a physical landscape that enables protest, and the abstract potential public to whom it gives voice. The public square represents continuity not just between the Orange Revolution and Euromaidan, but between all the groups and individuals under discussion. Who occupies Zychowicz's 'square'? The first two chapters are dedicated to the best-known and most controversial feminist group since Ukraine's independence, Femen (2008–13). Of these chapters, the first dissects Femen's topless protests as a parodic strategy critiquing the fetishization of individuality on the Eastern front. Zychowicz stresses the dangers of parody, and her second chapter exposes the realization of these anxieties, detailing Femen's aesthetic shift into a problematic portrayal of Islam. In this chapter, Zychowicz also provides crucial insight into the relationship between protest and commodification by examining the exchanges between Femen and Pussy Riot, which have, so far, largely been neglected by scholars. In her third chapter, Zychowicz turns to the largest Ukrainian feminist group since 1991, Ofenzywa (2009–14), giving a close reading of the visual strategies of the affiliated artist Yevgenia Belorusets. Zychowicz compares Belorusets's photography with that of the Soviet Avant-Garde pioneer, Aleksandr Rodchenko, examining how the shift between a Soviet belief in the capacity of space to create political subjectivity and the impetus for post-Communist subjectivities to mould old Soviet space is articulated aesthetically. The problems and possibilities posed by the Soviet past are explored further in the fourth chapter's discussion of HudRada and REP. Here, Zychowicz emphasizes that unofficial Ukrainian art is more than a third Avant-Garde, by concentrating on the fetishization of the public square as a manifestation of freedom as negative space. The final chapter concerns contemporary artists such as Vlad Ralko and Alevtyna Kakhidze, who appropriate the Soviet aesthetic legacy and symbolic...

Reframing the discourse and rhetoric of language testing and assessment for the public square

As applied linguists and language testers, we are in the business of “doing language”. For many of us, language learning is a lifelong passion, and we invest similar enthusiasm in our language assessment research and testing practices. Language is also the vehicle through which we communicate that enthusiasm to others, sharing our knowledge and experience with colleagues so we can all grow in understanding and expertise. We are actually quite good at communicating within our own community. But when it comes to interacting with people beyond our own field, are we such effective communicators? Wider society—politicians, journalists, policymakers, social commentators, teachers, and parents—all seem to find assessment matters hard to grasp. And I am not sure we as language testers do much to help them. So I find myself wondering why that is? Is it that our language is too specialised, or overly technical? Do we choose unhelpful words or images when we talk about testing? Worse still, do we sometimes come across as rather arrogant or patronising, perhaps even irrelevant to non-specialists’ needs and concerns? If so, could we perhaps consider reframing our discourse and rhetoric in future to improve our communicative effectiveness, and how might we do that?

From the Editor

From the Editor Uwe Michael Lang Lord, I love you"—these were reported to be the last words of Pope Benedict XVI before he died on December 31, 2022.1 The words echo the threefold profession of faith the Apostle Peter made to the Risen Christ in John 21. Both Joseph Ratzinger's warm personal faith, which he had treasured since his childhood in Catholic Bavaria, and his profound theological work were animated by his friendship with Christ. It is no easy task to render justice to the immense legacy of Benedict XVI, whose lifework stands out in so many ways. In the first place, we must be truly grateful for his loving service to God and the Church, as a theologian and pastor. Having had the grace of knowing Joseph Ratzinger personally, I have always found it painful to see how a man of such gentleness, humility, and openness in listening to others was often met with anticipated hostility from the wider public, and with thinly veiled obstruction from some even inside the Catholic Church. So many assaults on him were personal, manifestly unjust, full of verbal abuse and intended to distract from the real reasons why the opinion makers of our time intensely disliked him. Joseph Ratzinger was a Catholic thinker who explained the faith in a luminous and attractive way and intelligently questioned the assumptions of the relativism that has dominated the public square in the Western world for some time and is now showing increasingly totalitarian features. Throughout his long life and ministry that led him to the See of Peter, he strove to put God first and ensure that Christ was at the [End Page 1] center of the Church's mission. Since his early years of formation, he found in the New Testament "the soul of all theology."2 As cardinal and pope, he challenged the hubris of historical-critical exegesis and called for a rediscovery of what it means to read the Bible in the tradition of the Church. In the three volumes of his work Jesus of Nazareth, written during his pontificate, Benedict XVI invited us to join his search for the face of Christ, which he has now completed. Even though his university career focused on fundamental and dogmatic theology, Joseph Ratzinger considered the liturgy central to his academic and pastoral work and hailed it as the "living element" of theology, "without which it would necessarily shrivel up."3 Divine worship brings us into the right relationship with God and with one another, and its true meaning and relevance far exceed the actual liturgical celebration. As Joseph Ratzinger concludes from his reading of the Exodus narrative: the worship to which the people of Israel—and, by extension, all the nations—are called "embraces the ordering of the whole of human life."4 Joseph Ratzinger lived and worked at a time when the form and expression of the Church's faith in the sacred liturgy had become a highly controversial topic. As a theologian and bishop, he did not shrink from entering this contested arena with admirable lucidity. He was convinced that infelicitous choices have been made in the actual implementation of the sound principles of the Second Vatican Council's Constitution on the Sacred Liturgy. With his election to the See of Peter, Benedict XVI found himself in a position to shape the future of the Catholic liturgy, a position he could only approach with misgivings, because he strongly held that genuine liturgical renewal does not happen by decrees and instructions. Instead, he [End Page 2] intended to create favorable conditions and open perspectives for an "organic" development of the liturgy that would avoid the discontinuity that had done so much damage to Catholic ritual in the post-conciliar period. The Society for Catholic Liturgy is indebted in a particular way to the liturgical vision of Joseph Ratzinger/Benedict XVI. Authentic liturgical renewal needs to be grounded in scholarship that is academically rigorous, faithful to the Church's perennial teaching, and guided by charity. The various activities of the Society, above all its annual conference and its journal Antiphon, promote such scholarship in the service of liturgical formation. It is rewarding...

‘The Jews are our Misfortune!’ Contemporary antisemitism as a hydra-headed phenomenon

ABSTRACT Antisemitism has once again proven itself to be an international phenomenon, crossing borders and cultures with ease and adept at finding major issues in the public square, such as the COVID-19 pandemic, upon which to hang its claims. This article argues that antisemitism currently takes four major forms: Anti-Zionist antisemitism, which targets the State of Israel as a Jewish collectivity; Neo-Traditionalism, which revives pre-modern anti-Judaic notions in contemporary guise; Holocaust relativisation, which involves instrumentalizing and distorting the nature of the Holocaust without denying it outright; and anti-Judaism, which manifests in efforts to ban circumcision, kosher slaughter and other core Jewish rituals. The article concludes by examining whether the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA) Working Definition of Antisemitism is an adequate tool for engaging with a growing problem, suggesting ways in which the definition might be amended to make it more effective.

Performing while documenting or how to enhance the narrative agency of a camera

This article proposes a methodological approach to site-oriented and expanded performance documentation practice. Taking a performance laboratory work that was carried out in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, as an example, it discloses how a specific place can be mapped, sensed, and recorded, especially through a mode of performing while documenting. By emphasizing the narrative qualities and/or layers of a recorded material, this mode seeks to develop the narrative agency of a camera. On the one hand, by exploring the tensions and/or boundaries between the documentary and fictional and on the other, by experimenting with the ways in which a recorded material can be described, portrayed and especially, be rewritten through an editing and archival process. In so doing, this article employs both writing and audio-visuality to not only trace a series of exercises and actions undertaken by a group of performing and/or documenting bodies at a public square in Rio de Janeiro. It also offers an insight into the design of a documentation process in which the camera operates both as a documentary and creative source.

Reinventing the public square and early educational settings through culturally informed, community co-design: Playful Learning Landscapes.

What if the environment could be transformed in culturally-responsive and inclusive ways to foster high-quality interactions and spark conversations that drive learning? In this article, we describe a new initiative accomplishing this, called Playful Learning Landscapes (PLL). PLL is an evidence-based initiative that blends findings from the science of learning with community-based participatory research to transform physical public spaces and educational settings into playful learning hubs. Here, we describe our model for conducting this research, which is mindful of three key components: community input, how children learn best, and what children need to learn to be successful in the 21st century economy. We describe how this model was implemented in two PLL case studies: one in a predominantly Latine community and the second in early childhood education classrooms. Furthermore, we describe how research employing our model can be rigorously and reliably evaluated using observational and methodological tools that respond to diverse cultural settings and learning outcomes. For example, our work evaluates how PLL impacts adult-child interaction quality and language use, attitudes about play and learning, and community civic engagement. Taken together, this article highlights new ways to involve community voices in developmental and educational research and provides a model of how science can be translated into practice and evaluated in culturally responsive ways. This synthesis of our process and evaluation can be used by researchers, policymakers, and educators to reimagine early educational experiences with an eye toward the built environment that children inhabit in everyday life, creating opportunities that foster lifelong learning.

Conrad Seabaugh & Company: An Inside Look at an Illinois Hinterland Merchant

Conrad Seabaugh & Company: An Inside Look at an Illinois Hinterland Merchant

Sööme, joome, lükkame, sõidame... Sotsiaalmeediakasutajate mäng Facebooki sündmuse formaadis

The Internet and its social media platforms offer opportunities to make visible grassroots creative products and activities, which would not otherwise receive wider attention. In November 2018, as Facebook enables to create online meeting spaces for various events, a series of fake events was initiated on this social media platform by Estonian-speaking users. The “actions” were announced exactly like any other Facebook event, yet were not actually intended to be performed. It is reasonable to consider the event-organising game as a special vernacular practice that deserves to be observed from a folkloristic perspective. The analysis focuses on various aspects of fake events – the genre of these actions, the seriality of events, the dialogue between the participants and those interested in the comments sections, but also the peculiarities of the co-created content. The article attempts to frame the groups of internet users that temporarily gathered around the events within the concept of event community, and traces which stages of the formation and operation of an event community occur in the fake events. In a broader context, the author discusses the similarities between the parodies that lie at the forefront of the fake events initiated by social media users’ communities and the Renaissance carnivals in a public city square.

The April Revolution and the Discovery of Child Citizenship

During the April Revolution 0f 1960 in Korea, children impressively showed that they were members of the current society and could be the subject of political action. The children’s demonstrations at Soosong Elementary School are the most well-known example, but it is worth remembering that many street boys who were considered only objects of relief and management in society at the time, that is, street orphans whose names and affiliations are unknown, street children, shoe shiners, and newspaper sellers were also participating. The serious and furious expressions of the children protesters brought cracks to the images of ‘children of the new country’ and ‘good children’, which had been strengthened since liberation. Children’s demonstrations showed that for children who are socially disadvantaged to participate in the public square, the solidarity of fellow citizens as well as the children’s voluntary and active motivation to participate was an essential condition. Children are the beings that make us look back on the closedness of the modern citizen concept based on rational and autonomous individuals.

The religious character of secular arguments supporting euthanasia and what it implies for conscientious practice in medicine.

Contemporary bioethics generally stipulates that public moral deliberation must avoid allowing religious beliefs to influence or justify health policy and law. Secular premises and arguments are assumed to maintain the neutral, common ground required for moral deliberation in the public square of a pluralistic society. However, a careful examination of non-theistic arguments used to justify euthanasia (regarding contested notions of human dignity, individual autonomy, and death as annihilation) reveals a dependence on metaethical and metaphysical beliefs that are not universally accepted in a pluralistic society. Such beliefs function in non-theistic arguments in the same way that foundational beliefs justify moral convictions in religious frameworks of belief. This parallel is apparent when religious belief is defined broadly (a la John Reeder) as 'the search for the good in light of the limits and possibilities of the real.' Seen through this interpretive lens, frameworks comprising Secular foundational commitments function, in ethically relevant respects, like the guiding beliefs found in the comprehensive frameworks of traditional religions. When conscientious practice in healthcare is reconsidered in light of this foundational similarity between the religious and the secular, it is clear that those who object to the foundational beliefs underpinning Secular arguments for euthanasia should not be required to provide, participate in, or refer patients for euthanasia (or other ethically controversial practices similarly dependent on contested frameworks of belief) in pluralistic societies that prize moral freedom as a primary human good.

Sleeping Rough

"Sleeping Rough" was shot during the summer of 2001 among a group of homeless men and women in the city centre of Hamburg after six months of ethnographic fieldwork. While the homeless are often represented as outcasts of society, this film shows critical and self-reflexive people who master their lives in public with an undefeated spirit. The cohesion of the group provides the matrix through which individuals in varying stages of liminality can find solace and support. The camera offers a privileged view of daily routines and work as well as leisure time which is spent socialising in a public square equipped with a container for luggage. Intimately and sometimes with disenchanted frankness the protagonists reflect on the circumstances of their situation, between romance and tragedy, past disappointments and future ambition. More than 20 years after the production of the film, the situation of homeless people in Germany has not improved. The number of rough sleepers in Hamburg has increased from roughly 1000 in 2009 to almost 2000 in 2018. The city centre of Hamburg is still a highly contested space.

Past critique but much praise for restoration ecology: four decades on

During the last four decades, restoration ecology has prevailed and flourished in the academy and the public square. During this time, both ecology and restoration ecology have moved away from presenting ecosystem development as a trajectory that can return to “pre‐disturbance original condition.” Evolutionary change is a much better descriptor for ecosystem development as ecology and restoration ecology enter the Anthropocene.

Humanistic school science: Research, policy, politics and classrooms

AbstractThis article establishes a rational, feasible, and necessary conclusion to reform high school science content into an equitable experience for its wide diversity of students' self‐identities. Research indicates that 85% of graduates would not normally have enrolled in any science course unless required. Their values are more aligned with their everyday world and/or the world of the humanities, to varying degrees. The 15% had already fulfilled their science prerequisite for postsecondary science‐related programs, to varying degrees. The article's conclusion rests mainly on historical and economic evidence, respectively: (1) The Sputnik crisis that instilled public fear and anxiety about the perceived technological gap between the United States and Soviet Union. This led to reforming high school science and implementing National Aeronautics and Space Administration. (2) The on‐growing climate‐change crisis for which the smart international money is increasingly investing in sustainable businesses and industries, which catalyze a shift in public values from the current “profit society” to a “sustainable society.” The article's rationale connects the two historical events. Over the past 30 years, the nature of normal science has evolved into post‐normal science. Today the public square also includes: (a) an international assessment project that receives a negative validity audit in this article; (b) a vocal small minority within the 85%, proud of their antiscience self‐identities and their leaders' hostile behavior (a problem to ameliorate by a reformed sustainable science education); and (c) instances of small‐scale, suitable reform examples developed over the last 70 years, often referred to as humanistic school science.

Incorporating the Co-Creation Method into Social Innovation Design to Promote Intergenerational Integration: A Case Study of a Public Square.

With the COVID-19 pandemic sweeping the world, there is an increased focus on intergenerational relationships, community mental health issues, and well-being in community contexts. This paper assesses the effectiveness of a co-creation approach for intergenerational integration at the theoretical level. The study used a collaborative co-creation design method in the community design process to explore whether the participation of community residents of all ages in addressing community issues promoted communication and alleviated stereotyping between the various generations. This study was conducted in Shanghai’s Hongqiao New Village square, where we conducted participatory research and co-creation workshops in response to the demand for the use of the public space as a location for social interactions. The results showed that intervention in community creation through collaborative design is conducive to promoting friendly relations among different age groups, forming a sense of social security and thus enhancing social well-being. Finally, this paper combines practical cases and theoretical models of collaborative co-creative design approaches to promote the intergenerational integration of communities and is summarized from the input and output parts as well as the influencing factors and constraints of the collaborative co-creative. In addition, it provides new ideas on how to improve intergenerational relationships and form a positive and sustainable community mental health environment in the future.

Patterns in the Public Square: Reference Models for Regulatory Science.

Science and engineering involve discovery, representation, explanation, and exploitation of recurrent patterns, observed as phenomena. Model-based representations describe not only natural phenomena and engineered products, but also the socio-technical systems of systems that carry out scientific study, product engineering, medical practice, public health, commerce, and regulation. The term “Regulatory Science” invites us to represent and understand innovation, regulation and their intended and actual consequences as observable system phenomena in their own right, using scientific and engineering principles, tools, and insights. This article summarizes three classes of model-based reference patterns central to representing, understanding, communicating, and enhancing systems of innovation, regulation, and improvement over life cycles. In order of increasing scale, these pattern classes are (1) the domain-independent pattern of model-based representation of system phenomena (the S*Metamodel) in the sciences and engineering disciplines, underlying all modeling and simulation; (2) domain-specific patterns representing families of natural systems and engineered products in their life cycle contexts; and (3) the large-scale Innovation Ecosystem Pattern, in which science, engineering, commerce, medicine, and regulation are performed, planned, and advanced—including sharing of managed models and data across ecosystems. All three are applied by the Model-Based Patterns Working Group of the International Council on Systems Engineering (INCOSE).

Inter-Ethnic Interactions in Urban Public Space: The Malaysian Experience

Social interaction entails communal experiences between people during their daily activities. People from different ethnic backgrounds in Malaysia namely the Malays, Chinese and Indians spend their leisure time in an urban square, which offers opportunities for social interaction among three ethnic groups. However, how are public spaces utilised for leisure by people from different multi-ethnic backgrounds? Does the variety of attributes in public spaces attract people from a different background? The current aim of this research sets to establish properties and attributes of urban square characteristics such as the quality of daily activities that contribute to inter-ethnic social interactions among users in urban civic spaces. The study focused on constructing indices on how daily activity attributes, and how to investigate the diversity amongst the three ethnic groups on how the urban public space is perceived. A total of 140 questionnaires were administered to measure how the public square users perceived public space use in Batu Pahat town, Malaysia Peninsular. The analysis was facilitated through analytic tool of the Rasch Model. The study revealed that the Malays use urban squares more than Indians and Chinese. Consequently, this affects the level of the Malays social interaction among others. While on the other hand, for square activities reflecting Chinese and Indian culture makes the urban square less attractive to the Chinese and Indians. It suggests that the environmental attribute quality of the square should be improved to attract social interaction amongst the three ethnic groups.

Practising collectivity: Performing public space in everyday China

This article investigates the specific cultural and collaborative nature of China’s public spaces and how they are formed through performative appropriations. Collective cultural practices as political participation were encouraged during the Mao era when cultural activities played a key role in workers’ education and participation. Since the opening-up period, performance in public space has become widespread in China and creates alternative community spaces that constitute alternatives to capitalist spaces of consumption. Using Habermas’s theory of communicative action, we argue that cultural practices performed in public space create a proletariat public sphere that plays a wider role in governance and China’s democratization. Further, the article examines performative practices in public space. It traces the popular activity of public square dancing through history and counters this research with a parallel study of a much younger skateboarding practice. The two practices are very differently rooted. Yet both practices appear to move through cycles of disruption and appropriation, followed by an affirmation of governmental rule. The studies reveal that western ideas of citizenship and individual leisure are less applicable. Public spaces are largely managed through collaborative practices, whereas contemporary scholarship reaffirms Fei Xiaotong’s description of Chinese society as individuals positioned within a complex network of concentric circles.

Hybrid Clustering Approach for Time Series Data

The clustering of data series was already demonstrated to provide helpful information in several fields. Initial data for the period is divided into sub-clusters Recorded in the data resemblance. The grouping of data series takes 3 categories, based on which users operate in frequencies or programming interfaces on original data explicitly or implicitly with the characteristics derived from physical information or through a framework based on raw material. The bases of series data grouping are provided. The conditions for the evaluation of the outcomes of grouping are multi-purpose time constant frequently employed in dataset grouping research. A clustering method splits data into different groups so that the resemblance between organisations is better. K-means++ offers an excellent convergence rate compared to other methods. To distinguish the correlation between items the maximum distance is employed. Distance measure metrics are frequently utilized with most methods by many academics. Genetic algorithm for the resolution of cluster issues is worldwide optimization technologies in recent times. The much more prevalent partitioning strategies of large volumes of data are K-Median & K-Median methods. This analysis is focusing on the multiple distance measures, such as Euclidean, Public Square and Shebyshev, hybrid K-means++ and PSO clubs techniques. Comparison to orgorganization-basedthods reveals an excellent classification result compared to the other methods with the K++ PSO method utilizing the Chebyshev distance measure.

Transgender in Tamil Movies

Many movies released in Tamil have portrayed transgenders mostly as scenes for ridicule. In the guise of comedy, films have been portraying transgender people with insults, double entendres and sexual scenes. Some movies like Bombay, Thenavattu, Chithiram Pesutadi, and Naan kadavul show transgenders in a dignified manner. From 1977’s Balabhishekam to 2017’s sivappu enakku pidikkum, this review examines the film. Transgender people are those who have been ostracized from public life by their families and the entire society and are forced to live in the public square without any means of living without any means of livelihood, begging and prostitution. Tamil cinema is using the problem of such people and their need only for ridicule. Seeing this, the growing generation grows up with such thoughts and perpetuates its violence against transgenders. The Tamil film world often portrays transgender people as ugly and ridiculous. Tamil movies were also the reason why the transgender community was seen as a laughing stock in the early days.