Sense Of Cohesion Research Articles

The social cohesion investment: Communities that invested in integration programmes are showing greater social cohesion in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Social cohesion can rise in the aftermath of natural disasters or mass tragedies, but this ‘coming together’ is often short‐lived. The early stages of the COVID‐19 pandemic witnessed marked increases in kindness and social connection, but as months passed social tensions re‐emerged or grew anew. Thus local authorities faced persistent and evolving challenges. A cross‐sectional survey (N = 2,924) examined perceptions of social cohesion while Britain was slowly emerging from its first national lockdown in June 2020 in six English local authorities that have prioritised investment in social cohesion over the last two years (including five ‘integration areas’) compared with three other areas that have not. We expected that social cohesion programmes would better equip people to tackle the various challenges of the COVID‐19 pandemic. We found a greater sense of social cohesion in the six local authorities (at the micro, meso and macro levels) than in other areas. This was manifested as higher levels of reported social activism, interpersonal trust and closer personal relationships, greater political trust and more positive attitudes towards immigrants. Findings are consistent with the proposition that investing in social cohesion underpins stronger and more connected and open communities, better able to cope with crisis situations.

Whitest City in America:A Smaller Black Community’s Experience of Gentrification, Displacement, and Aging in Place

The influx of people with higher socioeconomic status into large Black communities is well documented; less is known regarding smaller, aging Black communities. Older Black adults in Portland, Oregon, among America's fastest gentrifying cities with the smallest metropolitan Black population, discussed barriers to healthy aging. Perspectives centered on the experience of gentrification, displacement, and its impact on social microsystems, place security, and aging in place. One-time focus groups engaged 41 Black adults aged at least 45. A demographic survey included residence area/duration. Discussions were thematically coded. Ecological Systems Theory guided interpretation. The majority of participants resided within gentrifying historically Black neighborhoods (89.2%), were aged at least 65 (54.6%), and lived in their neighborhood for at least 21 years (24.3%). Emergent discussion themes were rise and fall of Black ownership, displacement, race-related stress, and financial burden. Gentrification contributed to the dismantling of Black property ownership curated over generations, increased financial burden, and threatened place security. Physical displacement strained social networks, diminishing intergenerational neighborhood ties that supported aging in place. Cultural and physical displacement weakened the sense of social cohesion and belonging and induced race-related stressful interactions with new residents within original and relocation neighborhoods. Gentrification in the Pacific Northwest echoes national trends, uprooting critical close-proximity social networks and deteriorating motivation to engage in neighborhood-based social activity. Smaller, aging Black communities may be particularly vulnerable to these effects, which critically affect aging in place. Data inform researchers and policymakers to better understand how gentrification affects smaller, aging Black communities.

Social attitudes and activities associated with loneliness: Findings from a New Zealand national survey of the adult population

There has been growing recognition of the harmful consequences of loneliness for health and well-being, and the need for community intervention, particularly in times of global crisis such as the Covid-19 pandemic with its imperatives of distancing, isolation, and quarantine. Social capital and a sense of social cohesion are known to have roles in buffering against the effects of adverse life circumstances. Our study sought to investigate the association of a range of social attitudes and activities - as proxies for social capital - with loneliness while taking into account socio-demographic factors. We undertook a national survey on a stratified random sample of the New Zealand (NZ) adult population aged 18+ in 2017 (n=1,358), data from which included the requisite variables. The prevalence of loneliness was highest in young adults (18-30), falling with age until a slight rise in older people (76+). Loneliness was associated with socio-demographic factors, being more prevalent in the more disadvantaged groups: the deprived, Māori (the indigenous people of NZ), the non-partnered, and the less educated. Controlling for these socio-demographic factors, pro-social attitudes (that is towards political efficacy, trust in others, not feeling exploited, or being committed to family) and participation in social activities (that is being employed or being involved in recreation groups) - were protective against loneliness. Our study supports asset-based approaches to tackling loneliness - with implications for health and social care - that emphasise mobilising existing social resources, building social capital, and raising social cohesion in our communities. Such intervention on loneliness would help to prevent and ameliorate its detrimental consequences for public health.

Sustainability: A Regional Australian Experience of Educating Secondary Geography Teachers

The United Nations Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) number four seeks an equitable and widespread education that enables an outcome of sustainable development by 2030. Intersecting the studies of society and earth processes, a geographical education is well placed to make cohesive sense of all the individual knowledge silos that contribute to achieving sustainability. Geography education is compulsory for the first three years of the secondary education curriculum in Australia; however, research has shown that many geography teachers are underprepared and report limitations in their teaching of sustainability. This article engages with this research problem to provide a critical reflection, using experiential knowledge as an analytical lens, on how tertiary level geography training at one Australian regional university can equip undergraduate teacher education students with the values, knowledge, and skills needed to develop their future students’ understanding and appreciation of the principles of sustainability. The authors unpacked a geography minor for a Bachelor of Secondary Education degree at Central Queensland University and, deploying content analysis, explain how three units in that minor can develop these students’ values, knowledge, and skills through fostering initiatives and activities. The analysis was framed by elements of pedagogy that offer learners a context for developing active, global citizenship and participation to understand the interdependencies of ecological, societal, and economic systems including a multisided view of sustainability and sustainable development. The study concluded that the three geography units engage student teachers in sustainable thinking in a variety of ways, which can have a wider application in the geography curricula in other teacher education courses. More importantly, however, the study found that there is a critical need for collaboration between university teachers of sustainability content and university teachers of school-based pedagogy in order to maximise the efficacy of sustainability education in schools.

A constructivist redesigning of the learning space: the development of a sense of class cohesion

In recent years, the importance of the pedagogical and physical design of new learning environments has grown. Around the world, innovative pedagogy has been implemented to address, among other things, the development of social skills. In this study, we examined an educational program that is an applied example of the constructivist approach whose goal is to develop collaborative skills and team work. The teaching and learning methods involved 143 class observations and 149 students’ questionnaire responses, and then the impact of the new learning environment on the development of a sense of social cohesion was investigated among 82 students. There was a statistically-significant advantage for sense of social cohesion among students of the innovative program compared with the traditional class. Students interpreted the collaborative learning and social mediation that teachers create as key factors in the development of classroom cohesion.

The ‘Return of Beauty’? The politics of restitution of Nazi-looted art in Italy, the Federal Republic of Germany and Austria, 1945-1998

ABSTRACT This article examines how cultural restitution was presented and debated in public discourses in the three main post-fascist countries of Western Europe, i.e. Austria, Italy and (West) Germany, from the end of the Second World War to the 1998 signing of the ‘Washington Declaration on Nazi-confiscated Art’. The study focuses on the role played by restitution in the process of memory-building vis-à-vis the development of these three countries’ Vergangenheitsbewältigung, their ‘struggling to cope with the past’. In particular, it examines the transition from a mild Vergangenheitspolitik, ‘the politics of the past’, typical of the early post-war period, to later attempts at a more fully fledged Vergangenheitsbewältigung that characterized the détente and especially the post-Cold War years. Building on a selection of Austrian, British, German, Italian and US printed primary sources, the paper investigates in comparative and transnational fashion how liberal-democratic narratives surrounding the three countries’ dictatorial past were constructed in order to tackle one central question: what role did cultural restitution play in the construction of post-war memory politics, and, vice versa, how did the memory and legacy of fascism impact restitution debates during and after the Cold War? Far from constituting a mere exercise in cultural diplomacy, the restitution of cultural property played an integral role in these three countries’ attempts at rebuilding a sense of national cohesion designed to overcome the ghosts of their fascist past. This often happened at the expense of an in-depth processing of their involvement in the Holocaust. Indeed, restitution came to perform a central function in the shift from amnesty to amnesia of the early post-war years in that it often reduced Wiedergutmachung to an economic transaction through which these countries could ‘make amends’ without effecting any deeper political and social defascistization.

Canadian Books in Canadian Schools: The Need for Teacher/Teacher-Librarian Collaboration in Reading, Knowing and Doing

This Canadian research which explored elementary teachers’ use of, and beliefs about, Canadian children’s books in the classroom, has implications for teacherlibrarians and other educators in many countries faced with the impact of the homogenization and “Disney-fication” of children’s books and other media. The research builds on previous studies which identified some of the supports that facilitate elementary teachers’ use of children’s books in their teaching (e.g., access to teacher-librarians, funding for materials, and opportunities for professional development). The case study school district was committed to supporting the work of teachers through the school library and had these supports in place. The study participants had clear ideas about what it meant to them to be Canadian and about the values that were important to them as Canadians. They believed it was important to incorporate Canadian books into classroom activities. However, they often felt a need to justify their use of Canadian books, whereas they unquestioningly used American books in their teaching across the curriculum. Overall, they were more knowledgeable about Canadian books and Canadian authors and illustrators than teachers in earlier studies. The teachers relied on the recommendations of the teacher-librarians about books, but they rarely collaborated with teacher-librarians in selecting and using Canadian books with their students. The research report concludes with questions about lost potential in terms of the power of books to enhance children’s sense of national identity and their sense of social cohesion.

Building cohesion in distributed telemedicine teams: findings from the Department of Veterans Affairs National Telestroke Program

BackgroundAs telemedicine adoption increases, so does the importance of building cohesion among physicians in telemedicine teams. For example, in acute telestroke services, stroke specialists provide rapid remote stroke assessment and treatment to patients at hospitals without stroke specialty care. In the National Telestroke Program (NTSP) of the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs, a virtual (distributed) hub of stroke specialists throughout the country provides 24/7 consultations nationwide. We examined how these specialists adapted to distributed teamwork, and we identified cohesion-related factors in program development and support.MethodsWe studied the virtual hub of stroke specialists employed by the NTSP. Semi-structured, confidential interviews with stroke specialists in the virtual hub were recorded and transcribed. We explored the extent to which these specialists had developed a sense of shared identity and team cohesion, and we identified factors in this development. Using a qualitative approach with constant comparison methods, two researchers coded each interview transcript independently using a shared codebook. We used matrix displays to identify themes, with special attention to team cohesion, communication, trust, and satisfaction.ResultsOf 13 specialists with at least 8 months of NTSP practice, 12 completed interviews; 7 had previously practiced in telestroke programs in other healthcare systems. Interviewees reported high levels of trust and team cohesion, sometimes even more with their virtual colleagues than with co-located colleagues. Factors facilitating perceived team cohesion included a weekly case conference call, a sense of transparency in discussing challenges, engagement in NTSP development tasks, and support from the NTSP leadership. Although lack of in-person contact was associated with lower cohesion, annual in-person NTSP meetings helped mitigate this issue. Despite technical challenges in establishing a new telehealth system within existing national infrastructure, providers reported high levels of satisfaction with the NTSP.ConclusionA virtual telestroke hub can provide a sense of team cohesion among stroke specialists at a level comparable with a standard co-located practice. Engaging in transparent discussion of challenging cases, reviewing new clinical evidence, and contributing to program improvements may promote cohesion in distributed telemedicine teams.

Antiaula vanguardista

Tomando como ponto de partida exercícios de desenho que Lygia Pape passava aos seus alunos, este artigo passa em revista a trajetória da artista entre os anos 1950 e o final dos anos 1960, enfocando três diferentes categorias que entram em questão na medida em que a artista vai expandindo seu repertório de meios: o plano (em sua gravura concreta), a página (em seus livros neoconcretos) e o palco (em seus balés). Ao tomar o questionamento da estabilidade convencional dessas três categorias como facetas de um mesmo movimento crítico, sustentamos, em primeiro lugar, que advém daí um nexo de coerência na obra de Pape irredutível à ideia de linguagem artística ou estilo. Além disso, buscamos situar a exata articulação entre este movimento crítico e a expansão ambiental de sua obra a partir de meados dos anos 1960.

The Role of Workplace on Work Participation and Sick Leave after a Terrorist Attack: A Qualitative Study.

Returning to work after large-scale traumatic events is desirable for employees, their organization, and society. The aim of the present study was to identify work-related factors that are perceived as important for work participation versus sick leave after a terrorist attack. We conducted in-depth interviews of 98 employees in the Norwegian governmental ministries that were the target of the 2011 Oslo bombing. Participants were randomly selected from 2519 employees who had responded to a web-based survey. We used a stratified sampling procedure to ensure inclusion of a wide range of experiences in terms of exposure and stress reactions. Participants were asked what, if any, factors contributed to work participation or sick leave, and which factors made a difference in how quickly people on sick leave returned to work. Thematic analyses provided three themes that stimulate work participation and prevent sick leave: supportive management, the ability of a leader to accept individual needs and help people cope with stress; sense of cohesion, feelings of being close, caring for each other, and working well together; and working as a coping strategy, basic assumptions that it is best to stick to work and familiar routines, or a strong belief in one’s ability to master. A fourth theme, high demands and lack of acceptance, included experiences that promoted an absence from work, such as too much business as usual, management’s lack of priorities for which tasks could be left out, or a lack of recognition of individual needs. The findings point to key factors that workers perceive as important for work participation in the aftermath of a disaster. We suggest that health and productivity benefits can be achieved by organizing work and the work environment in line with these experiences.

KEARIFAN LOKAL BERTANI PADI SAWAH DI KELURAHAN TARATARA KECAMATAN TOMOHON BARAT KOTA TOMOHON (LOCAL WISDOM OF RICE FARMING IN TARATARA KELURAHAN TOMOHON BARAT KOTA TOMOHON)

This study aims to identify and describe the local wisdom of lowland rice farming in Taratara Village. This research has been going on for 3 (three) months starting from February to April 2020, in Taratara Village, West Tomohon District, Tomohon City. This research was conducted in a survey using primary data obtained through in-depth interviews using a list of questions as a prepared guide, also through documentation and secondary data obtained from the village office. The data analysis used in this research is descriptive qualitative analysis which is described / expressed in words. Then the data obtained is presented in tabular form. The results showed that the local wisdom of lowland rice farming in the Taratara Village community at the time of land preparation, namely, a) worked before sunrise; b) using traditional tools (hoe, pajeko and rake); c) not clearing the edges of land (litir) and local wisdom that is still being applied today is wisdom c) not clearing litir (land edges), while a) and b) are extinct or not being used anymore. Local wisdom in nurseries, namely, a) selecting superior seeds; b) choosing the middle month (a good time) and what is still being done is b) choosing superior seeds. Local wisdom on land cultivation, namely, a) using traditional tools, namely pacol (hoe), pajeko, and garu; b) leveling the land, making the soil perfectly muddy and local wisdom at this stage is still being carried out today. Local wisdom at the planting stage, namely, a) mapalus farming; b) determine a good day (middle month); c) pray to the ancestors in the local language of Tombulu; d) not shouting when planting, and to all local wisdom this is no longer done at the planting stage. Local wisdom at the maintenance stage, namely, a) using traditional tools such as pacol (hoe), peda (sickle) and garu; c) using natural fertilizers (rotting grass and manure); d) using a scarecrow and a neigh (a tin filled with stones); d) methods and habits of irrigating lowland rice and local wisdom that are no longer practiced is b) using natural fertilizers. Local wisdom at the harvest stage, namely, a) singing the song of thanksgiving (ma'zani); b) mapalus farmer; c) determine a good day (middle month); d) customary practices at harvest; and what is still being done is d) customary ways of harvesting. Local wisdom is still maintained because there are still peasant communities who respect culture and customs, while local wisdom is not practiced such as mapalus peasants and ma'zani chants, this local wisdom strengthens the bonds of brotherhood and a high sense of cohesiveness because local wisdom is carried out together and in groups, but because of the modern technology that entered the farmers absorb and get a more efficient time in the process of cultivating lowland rice. The advantages of farmers in maintaining local wisdom until now is to strengthen the ties of brotherhood among the community and continue to preserve culture so that it is not lost due to the entry of modern culture.

Review: Belonging: An Autoethnography of a Life in Sign Language, by O’Connell, Noel

Review: <i>Belonging: An Autoethnography of a Life in Sign Language</i>, by O’Connell, Noel

Career constructions and a feminist standpoint on the meaning of context

AbstractThis paper explores how context shapes the career constructions of 40 Lebanese female professionals. Starting with career construction theory (CCT), we leverage feminist standpoint theory (FST) to propose a hybrid analytic framework. With this framework, we invite CCT researchers to theorize career constructions as situated. The situatedness of career constructions calls for the exploration of an individual's career choices, coupled with the simultaneous potential constraints on choice emanating from collective experiences of historical and sociopolitical oppression. Theorizing contextual complexities in this way leads to a more nuanced tracing of how the personal experiences of challenge, and for some, the oppressive aspects of collective histories are selectively used to construct a cohesive sense of career storied self, each with distinctive implications for the domains of CCT—Vocational Personality (the what), Career Adaptability (the how), and Life Theme (the why). Our analysis reveals three key patterns: (1) advancing the professional field (vocational expert), (2) seeking self‐vindication (adaptive rebel), and (3) engaging in activism (sympathetic activist vs. epistemically privileged activist). We conclude by discussing the value of our framework, thereby highlighting how acknowledging situatedness helps to inform our understandings of career patterns and of the “politicization” of career trajectories.

Навчально-виховні спільноти у вищій школі США

The article highlights the features of the learning communities in the educational practice of higher education institutions in the United States of America. The learning community is characterized as a form of long-term group cooperation in the U. S. higher education institutions, which provides a favorable educational environment where each student is individually responsible not only for their own educational activities, but also the education of other students and encourages them to actively interact, gives support, assistance in performing educational tasks. It is noted that the learning communities in the U. S. higher education institutions rely on active teaching methods, cooperation and interdisciplinarity, creating favorable conditions for the socialization of students. The learning communities under study provide a sense of group identity, cohesion and uniqueness for all students; encourage continuity and integration of various types of experience (academic, life and in some way professional experience and experience of performing socially significant activities). It was found that joint educational and cognitive activities, and interaction in learning communities encourage students to identify and enhance their communication skills, critical thinking skills, cooperation, be open and tolerant, build stronger relationships with each other and with professors, as well as more actively interact with the content of academic disciplines they study on the interdisciplinary basis. The typical structure of learning communities of students is outlined, who actively interact under the guidance of two or three professors from different disciplines in order to solve the tasks both during classes and in the process of extracurricular activities. The two main types of learning communities in the activities of higher education institutions in the United States are considered, among which are learning communities of thematic and professional orientation.

MOTIVATIVE POTENTIAL OF A TEENAGEER DURING DISTANCE LEARNING

MOTIVATIVE POTENTIAL OF A TEENAGEER DURING DISTANCE LEARNING

Slave Sites on Display: Reflecting Slavery’s Legacy through Contemporary “Flash” Moments by Helena Woodard

Reviewed by: Slave Sites on Display: Reflecting Slavery’s Legacy through Contemporary “Flash” Moments by Helena Woodard Court Carney Slave Sites on Display: Reflecting Slavery’s Legacy through Contemporary “Flash” Moments. By Helena Woodard. African Diaspora Material Culture. (Jackson: University Press of Mississippi, 2019. Pp. vi, 182. Paper, $30.00, ISBN 978-1-4968-2417-2; cloth, $99.00, ISBN 978-1-4968-2416-5.) In 2019, set to coincide with the four-hundredth anniversary of the arrival of Africans to Virginia, the New York Times ran a series of essays (some written by academics, others by journalists) that contemplated in various ways the continued significance of that historic moment. The resultant controversy of the “1619 Project,” driven by a group of professional historians who disagreed in ways large and small with the scope and tenor of the essays, underscored the unfixed nature of the past and the persistent struggle to make cohesive sense out of a national history defined as much by its divisions and omissions as any unified vision of oneness. This media flashpoint served as a present-day reminder to the volatility of how the American past is continually framed and reframed (often hinged on conceptions of race and racism). These same issues of memory, memorialization, cultural forgetting, and the building of an incomplete history help frame Helena Woodard’s new book, Slave Sites on Display: Reflecting Slavery’s Legacy through Contemporary “Flash” Moments. Sitting at the center of this book is an important, if often undernuanced, set of questions: How do we balance understanding the past with presentism and the need for historical context? How has the past revealed itself through the prism of the present without being unwittingly corrupted by the present? How do museums and memorials allow for the past to be in the present without being of the present? But conversely: how do we capture the essence of the past at all without succumbing to the pressures of presentism? Woodard parses these complex issues through the examination of five memory sites: slave castles, the African Burial Ground in New York City, presidential estates, a reconstructed slave ship, and the slave memorial at Sullivan’s Island, South Carolina. These individual stories are connected rhetorically through Woodard’s use of the “flash” moment: “specific circumstances and/or seminal events within a geopolitical framework that binds the history of Atlantic slavery to its continued resonance or impact in the present” (p. 6). Thus, Woodard is set up to discuss the past and the present through the lens of race by way of this structure. The chapter on slave castles (with an important discussion of sankofa) is a good example of what this book does best: using a particular monument to get at the underlying complexity of how the past exists in the present. Other chapters, such as the one on the reimagining of a nineteenth-century slave ship and the importance of memorial discomfort, are also worth the read. The section on presidential estates (a study of the differing ways slavery is presented on George Washington’s, Thomas Jefferson’s, and Andrew Jackson’s plantations) could [End Page 161] use more historical buttressing to develop more thoroughly her larger argument. Still, at its best, Woodard’s book offers a multifaceted examination of the power the past has on the present and the present has on the past. What makes the 1619 story, or the Olaudah Equiano story, or the story of slave castles so powerful is that they contain immediate truths, confirmed falsehoods, and enough uncertainty to bend and warp within any chosen narrative. This knot of ambiguity might play out well in the classroom, where discussion and critical thinking are key, but once these stories become embedded in public monuments or memorials, they become fixed; the vibrations of knowing and unknowing turn static as they emerge as fact. Does a quasi-historical (even antihistorical) monument provide enough meaning—however wrongheaded—to justify its place in the present moment? Can Equiano or the Door of No Return, in other words, have a rhetorical power beyond the limits of their current formulation? Are monuments real enough or teachable enough on their own terms—however flawed—or are...

Multiculturalism and social cohesion: A Japanese community’s perceptions of “being Australian”

AbstractBased on a large‐scale survey conducted with parents from Japanese language schools in Sydney in 2015, this paper aims to review multiple dimensions of social cohesion in the Japanese ethnic community in Australia. Looking at several indices such as economic, political, and cultural integration, the paper describes the social profile of the Japanese ethnic community, questioning the generic perception of the community as a coherent body of middle‐class migrants in Australia. This was achieved through a comparative analysis with outcomes of a national survey of the Australian population on social cohesion and draws attention to the ways in which a particular sense of social cohesion with Australian society is constructed by Japanese migrants. The study found a differentiated sense of belonging to the local community, country of residence (Australia), and nation of origin (Japan). It found communal diversity in the Japanese community resulting from there being a majority of women migrants who were part of cross‐border marriages and their children living in multicultural family circumstances. It was concluded that this configuration within the community leads to advocacy related to a re‐identification as a possible ethnic group of migrants that should be recognized in an inclusive migration settlement policy in Australia.

Perspectives of experts-by-experience: an exploration of lived experience involvement in social work education

ABSTRACT The involvement of service users and carers is mandated in the development and delivery of social work education since 2002. At our university we have a very active group of six Service User and Carer Involvement (SUCI) experts who contribute to all aspects of the undergraduate and post graduate qualifying social work programmes. Six SUCI experts participated in a workshop to explore their lived experience of involvement in social work education. Qualitative data was recorded with permission and later transcribed as the participants discussed their perspectives of involvement in the programmes. Themes were co-created during the workshop and captured on a whiteboard; this was later photographed. Thematic data analysis was also applied to the discussion. Themes co-created in this study were identified as: expertise; motivations; authenticity; diversity; challenging students; enablers and barriers; and areas for improvement. The SUCI experts noted their sense of cohesion and team support as a group which was essential to their positive experiences of involvement; and identified their motivations for involvement which encourages them to challenge students to improve their practice. Moving forward we are committed to exploring how we can ensure effective involvement by developing co-production and ensuring the effective and creative involvement of the group.

Media mythology of the social in the contemporary society

The article considers the media mythologization of the social: the media create representations of the world as a place for power struggle and suggest various versions of sociality which are legitimized in mythical narratives. Academic arguments emphasize the complexity of the social, the necessity of its theorization and dereification in the digital context. The study of the social/media dialectic reveals three myths - of natural collectivity, of the mediated center and of big data. The myth of the mediated center is a double construct: a narrative about the center of knowledge, values and meanings in society which produces normative or descriptive truth; and a mythical narrative of the media as representing society to its members and having a privileged access to the center of the social reality. This myth legitimizes the symbolic power of the mass media and is supported by rituals. The myth of us aims at naturalizing the network sociality, convincing users of the naturalness of its contacts, interactions and communities, providing the sense of cohesion and constructing a digital identity. The myth of us is a narrative about collectivity determined by the joint efforts of users and designers of social platforms. This myth hides the decay of the social in the digital reality and indicates its media-mythical compensation. Big data represent new landscapes of objects, methods of cognition and definition of sociality. Big data is not only a source of knowledge, innovation and change but also a mythology which should be critically examined. The article considers different approaches to the analysis of big data mythology developed within the interpretation of digital artifacts as a reflection of the social context and the best form of social knowledge. This myth presents its version of sociology - with new epistemology, ethics and methodology - and hides other sources of knowledge about sociality in the digital media (mythologizes data policy (agency), economies, ethics and epistemologies).

Book Parts. Ed. by Dennis Duncan and Adam Smyth

Book Parts is an attempt to think and write about the book through the mechanism of the blazon’, write editors Dennis Duncan and Adam Smyth in their introduction to this architectonic book. Duncan is a former Munby Fellow in Bibliography at Cambridge and is currently engaged in writing a history of the book index; Smyth’s interest in literary and material forms has most recently found expression in the new journal Inscription which experiments with design and typography (the first volume, published in Autumn 2020, is printed from both ends and has a hole drilled through the centre). Book Parts includes twenty-two chapters, each of which takes a single constituent part of the physical book as its subject, arranged in the order in which they are (theoretically) encountered. The chapters are short and sharp, and together cover European literature from antiquity to the digital age. It is undesirable to summarize twenty-two chapters in a book review, nor is it necessary when reviewing such a tightly edited volume. There are several threads of commonality—paratextual power struggles, historical emergence and decline—which mean that Book Parts retains a sense of cohesion even for the casual chapter hopper. This, then, is the book anatomized but not dissected.