Social Reality Research Articles

What does it mean to redefine prosperity? A theory of definition for pathways to sustainable futures

ABSTRACT There is a growing body of literature arguing that we need to redefine prosperity – to move away from prosperity as economic wealth, and towards a new definition as quality of life for people and planet. While much work has been done on theories and methods for building sustainable prosperity, the process of redefinition at the level of meaning has received significantly less attention. Current arguments for redefining prosperity do not have a theory of definition despite raising multiple conceptual questions about what exactly is being redefined, what the conditions for redefining it are, and what the relationship is between redefining the word and redefining the thing. The article addresses these questions by developing a much-needed theory of definition for today’s debates on prosperity. It claims that the redefinition of prosperity is not a substitute of one definiens with another but a reconfiguration of elements in what Adorno called “a horizon of associations” at the levels of both language and social reality.

Media and Natural Disasters: Organising Storytelling in the Age of Climate Change

Starting on 2 November 2023, some territories in the Region of Tuscany in Italy were hit by exceptionally intense meteorological and calamitous events. The Region of Tuscany’s government was immediately at the forefront of relief, assisting the population, and aiding restoration. On 3 November, a national state of emergency was declared due to flooding. Journalistic communication is an essential aspect of disaster mitigation, preparedness, response and recovery. In terms of protecting people and reducing damage, journalists and the media have an important role to play. This article reports an Italian case study analysing the behaviour of local media in cases of natural disaster. Nine focus groups were conducted with local journalists covering the flood emergency. The results highlight the role of social and institutional mediation, rather than mere dissemination, played by the local press in emergency situations, a central element in the construction of a community bond, precisely in moments of insecurity and disorientation. The narration of a disaster from the inside seems to have allowed the emergence and representation of hitherto unknown social realities in Tuscany. The goal of the news coverage was widened, making it possible to respond better to the diverse interests of the reading public and to satisfy in a short time and exhaustively the information needs of individual communities in difficulty.

Echoes of silence.

Communication is an integral part of nursing practice-with patients and their relatives, other nurses and members of the healthcare team, and ancillary staff. Through interaction with the 'other', language and silence creates and recreates social realities. Acceptance, rejection or modification of social realities depends on what is expressed and by whom. Narratives that are offered can tell of some experiences and not others. Some nurses choose to be silent while others are silenced. In nursing situations recognising and allowing silence to speak is a challenging but uniquely personal experience that embraces reflection in and on experiences, practice and self as a person and a professional. If enabled and truly heard, silence can speak more loudly than the hubbub of daily practice, allowing us to collectively question and challenge inherent assumptions and biases as professionals, and as a profession. Through a microcosm of Newly Graduated Nurses' lived experiences of nursing situations and expressions of silence individuals' discomfort and private efforts to ascribe meaning to experiences are reflected on. Returning to silence is to return to a constant process of professional transformation that can enable ways of knowing and being that can reform our profession from within and enable us to cast off shackles that bind us to a shameful cultural underbelly.

Forms of Translation, Translation of Forms: From Gorky’s Mother to Mahasweta Devi’s Mother of 1084

ABSTRACT This article focuses on the Bengali novel হাজার চুরাশির মা (Mother of 1084) by Mahasweta Devi to read it as a rewriting of Maxim Gorky’s The Mother. It contends that Mother of 1084 recasts Gorky’s radical and gendered bildungsroman for the context of India where it not only documents the development of the radical consciousness of Sujata, the mother of the revolutionary Brati killed by the Indian state, but also the patriarchal structure of the Indian/Bengali family. Furthermore, it argues that the Bengali novel recasts the socialist realism of the Russian novel into modernist Bengali prose. It examines Mahasweta’s deployment of the modernist aesthetic while locating Mother of 1084 in a broader tradition of actually existing communist artistic praxis in South Asia to illuminate the tradition of committed modernism.

Exploring Stylistic analysis of lexical layer: An In-depth Study of Abdul Qayum Qawim's Poetry

The 'multi-layered stylistics' approach is a contemporary method for examining and evaluating the lexical, phonetic, syntactic, rhetorical, and ideological aspects within a text. Through the application of multi-layer stylistics, it is possible to discern the distinctive characteristics of an individual's style, thoughts, and ideologies that shape a poet or writer's written compositions. The aim of this study is to analyze and assess the lexical characteristics of a poem compilation written by Abdul Qayum Qawim. The objective is to determine the degree to which a thorough analysis and study of complex notions, such as sensuous, abstract, wonderful, slangy, and others, has been conducted at the level of language. The research employed a descriptive-analytical strategy by utilizing the library technique. This work meticulously analyzes the lexical layer of Abdul Qayum Qawim's poetry using a comprehensive stylistic analysis approach. The research is structured into two primary sections: initially, a comprehensive analysis of the poem's lexical layer is undertaken, followed by a meticulous examination of the poem's theoretical aspects. This study explores the concepts of ideology and investigates several themes like moral evaluation, societal dissatisfaction, pessimism, the passage of time, lack of mutual comprehension, concern towards instability, and the avoidance of hypocrisy. Its aim is to enlighten the general public through the use of uncomplicated poetry that highlights the abundance and vitality of spring. The research indicates that the poet exhibited a profound comprehension and extensive knowledge of contemporary affairs by skillfully portraying diverse social realities through the significance of his verses. Furthermore, the poet's method demonstrated a keen focus on the underlying meanings inside the text, highlighting the convergence of time, conceptual ideas, and human experiences, alongside the utilization of descriptive language that appeals to the senses.

Makna Generasi Sandwich Pada Film Cinta Pertama, Kedua, dan Ketiga (Analisis Semiotika Charles Sanders Peirce)

Indonesia is facing the phenomenon of the sandwich generation, which plays a dual role in the financial affairs of three generations at once. Data from the March 2022 National Socio-Economic Survey shows that 8.4 million Indonesians (62.71%) belong to the sandwich generation. The movie "First, Second, and Third Love" reflects this reality, directed by Gina S. Noer based on a true story. This study applies Charles Sanders Peirce's Semiotic method to analyze triadic signs. The research shows that individuals give meaning to societal experiences by using the Social Reality Construction Theory. The movie becomes a representation of social reality, helping to understand the complexity of the sandwich generation's life in the context of Indonesian families. To break the chain of the sandwich generation that can damage the next generation, priority awareness, implementation of life limit setting, role as an entrepreneur, and increased educational awareness are needed to change the toxic culture.

Gender Ascriptions Reconsidered

ABSTRACT A recent proposal by Quill Kukla and Mark Lance holds that surface appearances notwithstanding, gender ascriptions are closer to normative performatives than descriptions. As speech acts, they share more in common with pronouncing a marriage than a neutral description of a person, albeit this is not commonly recognized. This paper argues that the proposal faces a consistency problem. In order to affect social reality qua their illocutionary force, gender ascriptions must on average succeed. However, according to the authors most actual second- and third person gender ascriptions in fact violate the success conditions of the speech act type, which include respect for the individual’s first-person gender ascriptions. Their main claim thus becomes that gender roles can be instituted as a series of misfires, though it is left open how this is possible.

Co-producing composite storytelling comics: (counter) narratives by academics of working-class heritage

Composite storytelling as a social qualitative research method represents a growing spirit of creativity to explore themes of social injustice. This article discusses the potential methodological affordances and challenges of such approaches when used to collectively unsettle, interrogate and (re)imagine what it means to become an academic of working-class heritage. The participatory project discussed in this paper involved eight social science and humanities academics in UK-based elite higher education institutions. In a series of storytelling sessions, the participants created narrative encounters to foster moments of critique and analysis to explore the complex social realities of their routes into and through academia as people of working-class origins. Working alongside an illustrator, the participants used empirical insights to create composite stories in multimodal comic formats. Through this work, we seek to prompt further discussions about the generative possibilities of pursuing similar methods in the social sciences and beyond to challenge forms of social injustice.

“Post-Pandemic Political Television and the End of One Day at a Time”

This article analyzes “The Politics Episode” of One Day at a Time, an animated very special episode produced and aired during the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic. I focus on two aspects that prompt broader considerations about the role of scripted television in responding to pressing social issues. First, I demonstrate how the episode’s narrative structure appeals to democratic deliberation as an idealized form of conflict resolution. Second, I consider how its production and airing timeline responded to—and failed to account for—the current events its narrative attempted to incorporate. Although the disjuncture between these two elements demonstrate the pitfalls for fictional television to address social issues in a time of constant crisis, I conclude by proposing that these “failures” can also serve to illustrate a specific “post-pandemic” structure-of-feeling, one where futures are perpetually deferred and where dealing with new social realities requires constant speculative iterations.

The Body as a Social Construct: The Kosovan Context on ‘Beauty’ and ‘Look’ from the Perspective of Women and Girls in Kosovo

The inclusion of the study of the human ‘body’ in sociology abandoned the view that ‘nature’ constitutes the absolute premise that explains human interactions and social phenomena. The sociological perspective offered a new project of conceptualising the body, which enabled its reshaping and modification. In the new context of understanding the body, “the life of the body” was transformed from a technical and reproductive mechanism into a way of living, as well as an identity. This paper will address the main theoretical approaches to the study of the body, which at the same time reveals the context of the social realities that built the epistemology of sociological and gender studies in researches related to the body. Further, the paper introduces the results of an empirical research carried out with women and girls in Kosovo regarding the understanding and appreciation of the body, including their position about the image of the body that will help deconstruct the standard of the idolised body of women and girls in Kosovo. The research methodology applied is focused in two main parts: the online survey with 350 women and girls aged between 16 and 65 coming from both urban and rural areas, through a structured questionnaire technique compose of three parts with a total of 42 questions. Data collection and processing were done through the application of the SPSS program No. 24 and Excel. The second part of the research included the qualitative approach, by utilization of two focus groups with 14 girls of different ages and coming from different geographical areas of Kosovo. The research will highlight their attention and sensitivity towards ‘beauty’ as predefined by social, cultural, and the economic context. The overall results of the research show that 55.5 percent of the respondents agree that beauty plays a roles in the success of a woman/girl's life in Kosovo, whereas 22 percent neither agree nor disagree with this, whilst 33 percent do not agree that beauty plays any role. Additionally, approximately 55 percent of the respondents indicated that beauty influences a woman/girl's success in life, 60 percent believe that beautiful women/girls find it much easier to get hired, and about 70 percent stated that beauty affects self-esteem in both women and girls. Received: 4 January 2024 / Accepted: 9 April 2024 / Published: 5 May 2024

Prisms of Possibility: Biographically situated insights on the transformative potential of sustainable affordable housing

AbstractRooted in my upbringing in the South Bronx and informed by my extensive equity‐focused research on housing, energy, and health, alongside practical experience in small‐scale, place‐based real estate, I advocate for a more nuanced and holistic approach to understanding and achieving “sustainable affordable housing.” By challenging the conventional emphasis on environmental and economic sustainability, I argue that social realities must also take precedence in this endeavor. Drawing from my lived experiences and expertise, I propose viewing housing and neighborhoods through a population lens to drive equitable, intergenerational progress. In this commentary, I present three innovative strategies to harness the transformative potential of sustainable affordable housing. Bold Idea #1 emphasizes community‐based, non‐profit‐led retrofits, maintenance, and property management, while Bold Idea #2 champions legacy housing placements. Bold Idea #3 focuses on promoting moderate income housing and homeownership opportunities. These bold propositions aim to propel sustainable affordable housing beyond its current constraints, positioning it as a true catalyst for positive social change.

The Making of the Celt. Ethnogenesis, Culture and Politics in the Atlantic Arc

The theme of Celts and Celticism has attracted fierce controversy over more than two centuries. Passing over the question of ancient origins, this article places the birth of Celticism in the modern period, in line with current understandings of nationalism. Examining the construction of the Celt in Ireland, Scotland, Wales, Brittany, Galicia and Cornwall, it traces a movement from culture into politics in the course of the nineteenth century. Political pan-Celticism was ultimately a failure not because it was ‘artificial’ but because of the political conditions of the times and the force of competing projects. Like other nationalisms it relies on myth and tradition but these are social realities not easily to be dismissed by appeal to scientific history. After two hundred years, moreover, Celticism has a history of its own and continues to resonate both in culture and in politics.

Co-design in virtual environments with 3D scanned childcare rooms in social virtual reality

AbstractThis research proposes a virtual environment (VE) for co-designing in early childhood education and care settings using a social VR platform with 3D-scanned childcare rooms. Co-design workshops were analyzed focusing on perceived presence and experience and workshop outcomes. The results indicate a high level of presence in the VE, with unique advantages like facilitating 3D prototyping. However, challenges such as unbalanced prototyping tools distribution were also noted. The study highlights the potential of VEs with 3D scanned rooms in co-design.

Art-Engaged Theology: Confronting Silence

As engagement with art is increasingly recognized as an exciting and accepted practice in theology, theologians are faced with questions concerning the purposes of such engagement and how best to undertake it. This article argues that engagement with art is not merely the purview of an esoteric subdiscipline known as “Theology and the Arts” but offers an opportunity for theologians to confront the humanity at the heart of their own work, including guilt, error, and corruption, which will enable progress toward the goal of greater intimacy and belonging. Taking seriously the idea that both our theological concepts and our intellectual habits have been shaped by social and material realities, this article asks how we ought to think about theological engagement with art given that we are prone to colonizing habits of thought that affect such engagement. By putting theologians including Willie Jennings and Emilie Townes in conversation with theories about art from T.J. Clark, Alva Noe, and James A. Noel, we ask how theologians might resist temptations to categorize art as theology's other or absorb it into its own concerns, both of which reflect colonizing habits of mind and inure theology against a genuine confrontation with art. We recommend a posture of silence, responsive to the silence of the painting itself, in which the theologian opens to self-reflexive questions about both the operations of their own imagination, creativity, imagery, silence, and more, as well as the implications for the theological concepts used to designate those realities.

The ideological and artistic features of the travelogues about Turkey in the Russian parent state literature of the 1920s (based on Summer in Angora by E. Lanceray and Istanbul and Turkey by P. Pavlenko)

The article discusses the travelogues of Turkey by E. Lanceray and P. Pavlenko. If, until 1917, the Russian literature had described Turkey from the ethnographical and geographic perspectives or had made it a part of modernist vision, in the 1920s, the authors wrote mainly about its political, social and cultural changes. The aim of the article is to analyze Turkey’s image in the parent state literature of the 1920s, close the lacuna in its Asian text and form a more complete understanding of the Russian literary process of that period. The article uses the descriptive, biographical and culture-historical methods of research. It concludes that so different writers as Lanceray and Pavlenko representing the unlike generations and artistic worlds and making different accents in their writings – on ethnography and the formation of a new statehood, respectively – are prone to interpret the revolutionary changes taking place in Turkey optimistically. Therefore, the Turkish motive and thematic vector should be viewed as a relevant stage of forming the ideology and aesthetics of a new artistic method, which is to be known as socialist realism subsequently.

The Imperishables: Somatic Remediation, Femininity, and Plasticity in Ōshima Nagisa's Urban Critique

Abstract This essay probes the understudied relationship between the hypermediated urban environment and the coding of femininity in the late 1960s and 1970s Japan. Through reading Ōshima Nagisa's Man Who Left His Will on Film (1970), this essay explores the unique gender dynamics remapped in the avant-garde media practice in an era when “urban” and “media” became interconnected and filmic medium was redefined in relation to the vibrant media milieu. This essay is motivated by “the imperishables,” a prevalent trope that can be located in a wide array of literary and filmic works in the 1960s and 1970s: the vanishing men and the “plastic” women. Resilient, enduring, prone to violations but always “failing” to disappear from the screen, women's bodies occupy central roles in reorienting the epistemic structures in many prominent radical works that investigate the opaque urban network during Japan's Cold War restructuring. This essay reads cinema as a contentious site where articulations of sociopolitical sentiments and concerns with film's medium specificity find catalytic convergence with the continuous coding of gender. Rather than simply viewing female bodies as representations of social reality or fetishized objects, this article traces how femininity, constructed as both cultural artifact and techno-aesthetic device, showcases internal dissidence in the leftist urban critique and the emergent somatic politics in the avant-garde imaginaries of alterity.

교사의 존재와 의무의 비(非)대칭성에 대한 검토와 문제의 진단

This thesis deals with the cause of the fall of the teachers’ right, which was revealed by a series of teacher deaths, from the complex perspective of the cause and diagnosis, rather than falling into the trap of turbid political camp logic. In other words, by shifting the discourse of the fall of teaching authority to the dimension of pedagogical reflection, the philosophical issue of the teacher's existence(Lehrer-Sein) was examined and the cause of the problem was diagnosed through the contrast with the social reality, In order to understand this problem, this article first attempted to conduct a philosophical preliminary examination of the relationship between the existence and duty of teachers, and as a result, it was confirmed that its existence and duty are excessively dominated by teleological-ontological philosophical discourse. Existence and duty are in a non-symmetry relationship due to heterogeneity and semantic imbalance that are not conceptually similar to each other. As I believe that this problem is closely related to various changes in social reality, I analyzed it focusing on four core themes: the collapse of modern teacher Image, the dilemma of educational correctness, the contradictory consequences of functionalization and legalization of life world(Lebenswelt) like school, and the anti-intellectualism trend of society.

The Social Realities of Tausug Women in Tausug Contemporary Kalangan

Tausugs, one of the Muslim tribes in the Philippines, express themselves through their kalangan (songs). To explore the rich and vibrant colors of the Tausug culture, this qualitative research study employed a descriptive-analytic approach in the analysis and interpretation of thirty-one (31) Tausug Contemporary Kalangan. Through Norman Fairclough’s Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA), this study revealed and discussed the literary devices evident as a textual practice in the select kalangan; the social realities about Tausug women that were being communicated by these literary devices; and the perceptions of Tausug women about their social realities. The findings revealed that there was a total of five (5) literary devices evident as a textual practice in the select kalangan. These literary devices paved way to unveiling and explaining the social realities of Tausug women evident in the select kalangan. Despite the rich and colorful cultures of the Tausugs, the social realities of Tausug women prove that a social problem exists in the Tausug society hence must be addressed and resolved. This study proved to be an original contribution to feminist studies aimed at gaining liberation and empowerment for Tausug women.

티베트 역사 기억과 민족의 정체성

This study examines the historical memories and national identity of Tibetans in the novel 『Turbulent Shambhala』, written by Tashi Dawa, a contemporary Tibetan author. The lives and history of Tibetans have undergone major changes through the Democratic Reform Movement in 1959 and the Cultural Revolution in the 1960s and 1970s. Using a unique Magical Realism technique, Tashi Dawa tries to recall the historical memories of Tibetans from that time and to find their identity in those memories. In particular, he utilizes the concepts of ‘reincarnation’ and ‘karma’ from Buddhism as magical elements. Thus, he uses magical elements to show how Tibetans view their forgotten history. It was confirmed that the loss experienced by Tibetans in the face of historical difficulties and social realities caused deep divisions and conflicts within Tibetan society, manifesting as neglect and indifference towards history, as well as conflict and criticism. The ambiguous delineation between reality and fantasy served as a means to induce change and reflection in the real world, ultimately reflecting the Tibetan desire to transcend the wounds and pains of reality.

Meaning as referential work

Abstract This epilogue to the Special Issue on Interactional Semantics discusses the contributions to the Special Issue in relation to other research to support three arguments. (i) The choice of Interactional Semantics to take the referential function of language (Jakobson) as its object of research is a welcome choice. (ii) The use of the term ‘meaning’ for this research object is potentially confusing and could be replaced by ‘referential work’. (iii) A research topic which could be included in Interactional Semantics and has not been articulated as such, is the way in which the choice of a referential expression establishes the referent as a particular social reality and is a tacit proposal to the interlocutors to talk about this referent in these terms.