Social Invention Research Articles

Couples: A Collective Life

ABSTRACT This creative-critical essay tells the collective life story of couples, by drawing together memoir and other texts (film, art, photography, biographical fragments) and social observation. It is inspired by two things: the ‘immersive coupledom’ (Laura Kipnis’s term) enforced by the Covid lockdowns; and a series of recent essay-cum-memoirs that have explored the experience either of being single or being in a couple. These books note the resilience of ‘the couple norm’ even as feminist and LGBTQ+ movements have challenged other societal norms. My essay also examines my own life as a single man, but tangentially, by considering its opposite: coupledom. Unpacking the unquestioned norm of coupledom is, I argue, a way of thinking about the hidden strangeness of our mundane lives—how love and care get routinised, and how the stories we tell about human relationships become true by default. But I also suggest that coupledom can’t just be reduced to a story, a heteronormative convention. A couple is, like the human beings who comprise it, a beautiful, maddening, undeterminable mess. Every couple is a social invention, but also a one-off, an anomaly, a dataset of one.

Counter-hegemonic strategies for democratic alter- politics: critical notes on the experiences of 1990-2019

This article critically engages with the political strategies of the new social and political movements that emerged in Europe in the aftermath of the financial crisis of 2007-8. It takes issue with discussions of contemporary alter-political practice and theory that overlook the crucial point that the creation of new social institutions and relations in the here and now - a central part of this politics - must itself be political: it argues for the need to tackle the whole question of the collective subject and agent of change. This leads into a discussion of the theory of hegemony put forward by Gramsci, and, later, Laclau and Mouffe, and, drawing on this, a new strategy is proposed, for the construction of powerful collective subjects. Taking its cue from recent social movements such as 15M (the Indignados) and new municipalism in Spain and Italy, it looks at new ways of configuring the strategy of hegemony, by making its concepts of leadership, unity and representation more participatory, bottom-up, accessible to ordinary people, plural and flexible. A historical transition to egalitarian democracies, solidary economies and environmental sustainability is dependent on a wider counter-hegemonic project and contest. This needs to be carried out in all social relations and fields. It must energise critical masses on the ground, and conjoin institutional interventions with new social invention and multiple assaults on the status quo. The object of a contemporary alter-political organisation should be to animate, bolster and help articulate the multi-faceted texture of current oppositional and constructive activities, re-instituting the social in all its far-reaching diversity and complexity.

Trainee Perspectives on Race, Antiracism, and the Path toward Justice in Kidney Care.

Trainee Perspectives on Race, Antiracism, and the Path toward Justice in Kidney Care.

A sense of direction: spatial boundaries in a cognitive, cultural, and deep time perspective

ABSTRACT This brief note points toward new potentials that lie at the interface between research on landscape archaeology and cognitive science. Recent advances in the cognitive and neural sciences have sharpened our understanding of spatial cognition, by providing new explanations for how the brain reduces the dimensionality of complex topography and geography for effective navigation. This research suggests that space is represented in grid-like structures in the brain, and that grid-like forms are a basic ingredient of spatial processing. At the same time, recent archaeological research shows that the organization of larger-scale space into linear forms, and in particular grid-like landscapes, is a relatively recent social invention, which suggests that these forms are historically and culturally contingent. Taken together, this research raises the question of how the dimensionality-reducing function of grid-like processing in the brain is related to higher-level conceptual and imaginative processing of space needed to plan and negotiate large-scale landscape structures. This brief note motivates this question and argues for further exploration of the relationships between biological, cognitive, and cultural processes related to space and its conceptualization between these fields of research.

Innovation in business model and finances in pediatrics

Innovation is something original, more effective, and, as a consequence, new, that “breaks into” the market or society, by development and implementation of a new product, process, or service, with the aim of improving efficiency, effectiveness, or competitive advantage. Entrepreneurship, by contrast, is applying the innovation to bring the ideas to life. It is a social invention, which lets people do what they could not previously do. Health-care delivery is a complex subject, which determines whether a government succeeds in improving the health of the nation or not. In this article, we will be talking on the innovations – specifically financial innovations as applicable to neonatal care, pregnancy care, and pediatrics – as this can make a huge impact on our everyday life.

Transforming city government: Italian variants on urban commoning

This paper examines nascent alternative approaches to “commoning” and “common goods” that have been developed over the last decade by a unique coalition of lawyers, grassroots initiatives, and local governments in Italian cities, notably Bologna and Naples. The aim is to flesh out and to critically appraise two variants of a strategy for advancing urban commons in the direction of Integrative Governance, civic equality, power-with, solidarity, plurality, openness, and care for the city: the “Bologna Model” and the “Neapolitan Way.” The argument is that the two strategies diverge in crucial respects, the former being more top-down and potentially compromising than the latter. Both, however, bear promise and potential for commons-oriented change, opening up processes of new social invention, deeper democratization, political contestation, and counter-hegemonic intervention.

Slantwise Moves: Games, Literature, and Social Invention in Nineteenth-Century AmericaRespawn: Gamers, Hackers, and Technogenic Life

Slantwise Moves: Games, Literature, and Social Invention in Nineteenth-Century AmericaRespawn: Gamers, Hackers, and Technogenic Life

Slantwise Moves: Games, Literature, and Social Invention in Nineteenth-Century America. Douglas A. Guerra. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2018. Pp. 253.

<i>Slantwise Moves: Games, Literature, and Social Invention in Nineteenth-Century America</i>. Douglas A. Guerra. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2018. Pp. 253.

Polska gościnność w świetle zapisów autobiograficznych

The research material included about 300 episodes from 30 published sources. A targeted selection was made according to a combination of three criteria: a diversity of social positions among the authors, the biographies of the authors, and the detail of description. An analysis of the material was conducted in order to contribute to a better understanding of the social significance of hospitality. Theoretical assumptions about hospitality in conditions of stability and social crisis were advanced. The analysis showed that in times of relative stability, hospitality was biographically important when it allowed a person to transition between positions in the social structure (usually between close levels) and involved some form of promotion. On the other hand, in conditions of intensified change and crises, the order was disturbed: on the one hand, visits to the homes of persons occupying more distant positions in the hierarchy (both up and down the social ladder) became more common, but on the other hand, there could be a challenge to or rejection of traditional requirements of hospitality. The first situation occurs especially at the beginning of a crisis, and with the depletion of resources, the increase in the number of negative experiences, and socialization to a long-term threat, a survival strategy begins to take shape in which only the closest circles prevail. Such findings suggest that a more cautious look should be taken at both the theoretical concepts in which hospitality is considered a useful social invention especially in times of increased need and at the Polish self-stereotype as a nation with a culture based on hospitality, invariable generosity, and an inclination to selflessness.

The Holocaust and Humanity

The Holocaust and Humanity

WACANA NASIONALISME NAJIB AL-KILANI: TELAAH ATAS NOVEL AL-NIDA AL-KHALID

Nationalism discourse is an amazing social invention in human history, at least in the latest century. There are no social spaces in the earth that are free from this ideology influence. Without nationalism, human history line could be very different. Najīb al-Kīlanī as an Egyptian novelist discussed it in his novel, al-Nidā al-Khālid (1969).

Time, realism, news

News time has since the late 19th century moved away from storytelling to embrace modern progress. But time in news is elusive. The digital era splinters time, leaving news practice and research behind. A project to track US news into the 21st century documents a history of time in news: the realism of ‘who’, ‘where’, and ‘what’ declined, and the modernism contexts of ‘when’ and ‘why’ expanded. All five Ws moved contrary to expectation. Modernism tries to map time, but its definition is undecidable – even among logicians. Practitioners of news grapple with their topic: the realist now, and try to fit it into the modernist ‘standard time’, a time regime that imposes a big-picture interpretation onto their readers. The modern view equates clock time, a purely social invention, to quantifiable nature. Clock time offers an artificial view of the passage of time, but scientists dictated another big picture. ‘For us’, wrote Einstein, ‘who are convinced physicists, the distinction between past, present, and future has no other meaning than that of an illusion, though a tenacious one’. Time, although quantifiable, does not pass; its passing is an illusion and the objective view of the world is an immutable one. Coming to grips with the elusiveness of time, as it slips away from reporters and the grasp of scientists, creates opportunities for practitioners of news to align with contemporary mediated experiences. Facing the problem of time is done through Alfred North Whitehead, in whom the present moments is not a point of infinitessimal length on a single modernist time-line but an indivisible event that ‘grows literally by buds or drops’ of experience (William James in Whitehead), a landing ground which he calls the ‘actual occasion.’ Past, present, and future are not illusions, but symptoms of the subjective experience of process, which is not only real; it is part of the fundamental actual occasion. Weaving in Arendt’s distinction between ephemeral labor and permanent work illustrates how process philosophy can be grounded in both the labor and work of journalists, allowing news practitioners to adapt to digital times.

Rewriting the Soviet Past: On the Research Program of Natalya Kozlova’s “Study of the Soviet Man”

The article attempts to outline new theoretical approaches to the study of the Soviet past, based on the cultural-anthropological research program of “the Soviet man” as proposed by N. N. Kozlova. Our assumption is that, in the implementation of her research program, Kozlova was trying to solve a double problem: on the one hand, to overcome the ideological framework posed by the concept of totalitarianism as the basic model of understanding Soviet society, and on the other, to understand Soviet society as an unintended social invention, In the framework of the model of Soviet society as an unintended social invention, classical social-theoretical views and conceptions enter into a complex theoretical alliance with the postclassical social theories of Norbert Elias, Michel Foucault, Michel de Certeau, and Pierre Bourdieu. The purpose of this strategy of research is to find adequate intellectual models and a basic theoretical framework for understanding the relationship between the individual and society. The qualification of the Soviet society as a social invention implies that a functional interdependent network of individuals arises in the course of common life of the individuals from the interactions between them. This network moves in a certain direction and has its own regularities, which, as specific patterns of relations between individuals, is not defined exactly by any one individual. The role of the basic model for the understanding of such a functional network of interdependent individuals does not play the model of the system, but the model of the common game and the social grammar, which is at the core of this game. Special attention is paid to the assessment of the heuristic potential of Kozlova’s hypothesis of Soviet civilization as a special type of modern society, and its importance for the studies of Soviet society and culture.

Introduction: The Gender and Queer Politics of Translation: New Approaches

Introduction: The Gender and Queer Politics of Translation: New Approaches

How real is race?: a sourcebook on race, culture, and biology

Part 1 The Fallacy Of Race As Biology Chapter 2 Why Contemporary Races Are Not Scientifically Valid Chapter 3 Human Biological Variation: What We Don't See Chapter 4 If Not Race, How Do We Explain Biological Differences? Chapter 5 More Alike Than Different More Different Than Alike Part 6 Culture Creates Race Chapter 7 Culture Shapes How We Experience Reality Chapter 8 Culture and Classification: Race Is Culturally Real Chapter 9 Race and Inequality: Race as a Social Invention to Achieve Certain Goals Chapter 10 Cross-Cultural Overview of Race Chapter 11 If Race Doesn't Exist, What Are We Seeing? Sex, Mating, and Race Part 12 Race And Hot Button Issues In Schools Chapter 13 Assemblies, Clubs, Slurs, and Racial Labels Chapter 14 The Academic Achievement Gap and Equity Chapter 15 Racial and Racialized Conflicts Chapter 16 Interracial Flirting and Dating in Schools Part 17 Resources Chapter 18 References Chapter 19 Alignment with Standards Chapter 20 List of Teaching Activities Chapter 21 Illustrations List

Reinventing Real Estate

The community land trust (CLT) is a social invention designed to solve several problems in land ownership, from affordability to preservation. This article traces the history of the CLT from concept to implementation, through a network of theorists and activists, and discusses the present extent of CLTs in the United States. It concludes with a case study of the Dudley Street Neighborhood Initiative (DSNI), a community development organization in Boston, that has used the CLT model as part of its holistic strategy to redevelop a neighborhood that has suffered from redlining, arson, and abandonment. DSNI is perhaps the only community organization in the United States to have attained the power of eminent domain to acquire land for housing development.

Индивид и социальное управление

Is management a social phenomenon that undermines the freedom of human nature and fundamentals of its vitality? Or management is the social phenomenon and human invention that by means of its regulating fundamentals increases not only the humanity power but the power of individual, who fi nds in managed organizations his own unique place, vocation, opportunity to show his unique abilities. Here are the key issues or two-in-one key issue that considers thus stated human personality, its individual and collective capabilities.

A Game Theory of Evangelical Fiction

Previous articleNext article No AccessArticleA Game Theory of Evangelical FictionGregory S. JacksonGregory S. Jackson Search for more articles by this author PDFPDF PLUSFull Text Add to favoritesDownload CitationTrack CitationsPermissionsReprints Share onFacebookTwitterLinkedInRedditEmail SectionsMoreDetailsFiguresReferencesCited by Critical Inquiry Volume 39, Number 3Spring 2013 Article DOIhttps://doi.org/10.1086/670041 Views: 140Total views on this site Citations: 3Citations are reported from Crossref © 2013 by The University of Chicago. 0093-1896/13/3903-0007$10.00. All rights reserved.PDF download Crossref reports the following articles citing this article:Peter McDonald Douglas A. Guerra, Slantwise Moves: Games, Literature, and Social Invention in Nineteenth-Century America, Modern Philology 117, no.44 (Feb 2020): E283–E285.https://doi.org/10.1086/708453LuElla D’Amico , Children's Literature in Education 51, no.11 ( 2020): 95.https://doi.org/10.1007/s10583-018-9356-8Kathleen Howard Tract Tales, Literary Aesthetics, and American Fiction, American Literature 86, no.33 (Sep 2014): 463–492.https://doi.org/10.1215/00029831-2717380

‘Spinning’ Warhol: Celebrity brand theoretics and the logic of the celebrity brand

The paper takes as its subject celebrity and consumption and the cultural logic of the celebrity brand. It introduces the concept of celebritisation as the engine of celebrity culture, discussing ways in which celebrity brands operate as ‘map-making’ devices which situate consumers within networks of symbolic resources. We construct particulars via an investigative narrative that draws critically upon published accounts of the life and work of Andy Warhol, generating observations of signature practices and technologies of formation of Celebrity Brandhood. Within an inductive architecture we modulate to celebrity brands as transmediated marketing accomplishments which trade upon allure, glamour and charisma, constructed around rituals of transition, belonging, intimacy, and affect. We suggest that at the heart of the machinery of the cultural logic of the Celebrity Brand is the mediated spectacle as a field of social invention and transformation. In this way, the paper opens up pathways toward further interpretive analyses of celebrity brands, articulating the basis of accounts of Celebrity Brand Theoretics.

Pitfalls in Economic Thinking

In order that an organized body of knowledge might be classified as science, its hypothetical laws must be based on facts. Unlike any other social science, fallacies are the root of the technique of thinking in economics. By the lapse of time, theses fallacies have been accepted as if they represent a part of the natural life which people have to live with. Viewing inflation as natural phenomenon: Present economic systems are designed to produce inflation in order to concentrate wealth in few hands. Economists recognize the harmful impact of inflation on societies. Inflation arises, mainly, because prices include additional charges that do not represent an element of the real cost of factors of production. Viewing money as a valuable commodity: Money is no longer a real product or a substitute of a product. Credit money represents most of the money in circulation. The role of money is broadened out of its scope of function as a valueless medium of exchange. Money plays an inflationary role, becomes profit generator and its quantity controls economic activities. Money is a social invention introduced to facilitate exchange transactions. Currency backing is inherently ridiculous tradition that limits economic growth. Viewing lending and speculative activities as economic activities: Huge amount of resources are directed toward financial activities searching for private gain on account of public loss. A historical review of financial crises explains the destructive role of financial activities on societies and the failure of monetary remedies to prevent the ghastly impacts on economic growth. Economic activities have its origin in the wants of communities. Its main purpose is the satisfaction of those wants. Production is meant the activities which result in the creation of utilities.Believing that free market does not exist in reality: Human interventions, legalized monopolies, and speculative activities are impediments to market freedom. Market is free by its nature. Free interaction of market forces makes demand and supply fluctuate to determine fair prices of products. Believing that growth of public services is the way for redistribution of income: In capitalism, redistribution policies which are based on welfare systems do not provide financial security to all individuals. In socialism, redistribution policies which are based on state ownership of means of production do not respect the right of private property.Present economic systems failed to realize prosperity. Poverty is rising and living standard of middle class is declining. Taking into consideration the complexity of present economies, different approach has been taken to identify economic topics. The views expressed here are undoubtedly drastically different from the views held by other researchers. This research assumes full responsibility of inflation for the failure of present economic systems to achieve the objective of prosperity. In its first chapter, the research gives different definition to inflation and illustrates its destructive roles. The second chapter explains the inflationary role of money and introduces different monetary theory based on viewing money as just a thing invented to be a medium of exchange. In the third chapter, optimal output growth and fair distribution of wealth are presented as the aim of a sound economic system. The fourth chapter introduces an integrated inflation-free economic system. Finally, the last chapter presents the ideological viewpoints of Islam with regard to economy.