Symbolic Space Research Articles

Conflict Recovery in Socialist Utopia: A Critical Analysis of Vietnam's Postwar Reconstruction Policies Through a Visual Interpretation of 1976–1986 Propaganda Posters

The Vietnam War left a newly reunified Vietnam with innumerable challenges following the fall of Saigon in April 1975. Through an interpretive analytical approach using propaganda posters as the visual data source, this study examines how the Communist Party of Vietnam and the Vietnamese government disseminated economic, political, diplomatic, military, and social policies to the public in order to rally support for the ambitious goal of rebuilding the country as an industrialized socialist nation. In doing so, this study shows how a national reconstruction discourse could be modalized in textual, visual, and symbolic spaces to maximize its persuasiveness in conflict recovery efforts. Ultimately, this study demonstrates that while recovery is the utmost goal of governments following the end of conflicts, basing it on a specific ideology without careful examination of contextual factors can be deleterious and even calamitous. Propaganda posters can serve as a powerful communication tool for policy makers, but poorly aligned campaigns can be counterproductive.

The Images of The Feudal Societies in Vietnamese Literary Works: A Perspective of Critical Discourse Analysis

Purpose: This study aims to apply critical discourse analysis (henceforth CDA) to examine representations of feudalism in Vietnamese literary works. The discourse-historical approach (Wodak, 2009) and socio-cognitive framework (Van Dijk, 1993) guide an analysis of how linguistic strategies construct feudal portrayals and situate them within Vietnam's sociohistorical context. Methods: A corpus of five short stories (1930-1945) thematically depicting feudalism is compiled. Detailed textual analysis identifies metaphors, lexical choices, connotations and symbolic spaces that construct vivid feudal imagery portraying oppression and injustice. Results: Findings show the discourse utilizes techniques like animal metaphors, derogatory nouns, and graphic violence to dramatize the dehumanization and brutality endured by peasants under feudalism. This study demonstrates usefulness of CDA for elucidating the complex, nuanced ways literary discourse reproduces and contests dominant power structures and ideologies. Discussion: Findings provide deeper insight into linguistic strategies that critique yet inadvertently reinforce aspects of feudalism. The adoption of CDA can enrich Vietnamese literary scholarship by enabling a more critical examination of discursive constructions of identity, inequality and power relations.

An upper bound for the box dimension of the hyperbolic dynamics via unstable topological pressure

In this paper, we utilize the sub-additive unstable topological pressure to give an upper bound for the upper box dimension of the C1 hyperbolic set on local unstable manifold. As a by-product, we give a new expression of the topological pressure on symbolic spaces. This work is inspired by Barreira (1996), Feng and Simon (2023) and Zhang et al. (2022).

조선시대 궁중춤의 미적 특성 연구 -춤과 공간의 관계를 중심으로-

This study aims to understand the aesthetic characteristics of court dances in Joseon Dynasty by focusing on the relationship between dance and space. It examines the characteristics of the relationship between dance and the courtyard, a space for performance, through the literature and drawings of Joseon Dynasty. Joseon Dynasty based on Confucianism compiled Gukjo oreui, which was used as the norm for rites. As an inner rule for ideologization in the cultural sphere, it was used in a very soft and symbolic way at court rites. All the rites featured jeongjae, or court dances balanced with music, which were performed in daetteul, or the main courtyard. The illustrations of court dances in Joseon Dynasty show some characteristics of daetteul. First, daetteul, the space of court dances, implied social relationships. Second, daetteul had a central class that used it, and it was used in a mixed way depending to the purpose. In this process, the dance space of daetteul was subject to change. Third, the hierarchy that appeared in daetteul had three-dimensionality. The rites in daetteul served to make one aware of one's status according to class and to solidify the authority of the king. This appeared three-dimensionally in daetteul, as architectural hierarchy, horizontal hierarchy, hierarchy of elevation, and hierarchy of gaze. These characteristics are also related to the characteristics of court dance. Daetteul, as a symbolic space where rites were held, implied social hierarchy, and depending to the characteristics of the space, court dances also had the characteristics such as meaningfulness, internalization, and jeongjungdong (lit. movement in calmness). Dances were used in various ways due to the variable nature of the stage and were performed in a structure similar to the modern repertory system. In addition, the three-dimensional hierarchical space of daetteul created a stage in five directions and accordingly, dance also acquired a three-dimensional character. The court had the symbolism that it is a space for performing rites and reinforced that symbolism through performing rites. This means that space and dance had a reciprocal and circular nature and was reproduced through repetitive rhythms, reinforcing each other's symbolism. Therefore, this study confirms that the characteristics of the Joseon court dances are derived from the relationship between dance and space that implies social relationship, and the relationship between dance and space is reciprocal and circular.

Ecolinguistic components of the Arctic literary image in Vasily Matonin’s travelogue Kochevoy dnevnik

This article explores key ecolinguistic components forming the literary image of the modern Arctic in V. N. Matonin’s travelogue Kochevoy dnevnik (“Nomadic Diary”). Nowadays, a significant part of the scientific literary works covers the Arctic image of the past, from the very beginning of the circumpolar region development to its active transformation during the 20th c. The modern study of the Arctic image is not the same as the study of the modern image of the Arctic presented in this article. All above determines the relevance of the work. The research material includes the Arctic travelogue Kochevoy dnevnik by Vasily Nikolaevich Matonin. This book describes the author’s journey through three regions belonging to the Arctic zone of the Russian Federation in 2012–2013. The contextual analysis applied in the article aims to systematically identify and describe several contexts of the phenomena studied. This study uses the ecolinguistic approach connecting some individual components of the space representation into a complex ecosystem. The use of ecolinguistic frameworks to examine the formation of the modern Arctic literary image determines the scientific novelty of this article. This work covers the structural and functional features of travelogue as a literary genre (such as composition, author’s quasi-socialization in a new reality, relaying of the subjective space image, author’s self-reflection, manifesting importance of language as an essential element forming a connection between man, society and nature); defines the concept of the “Arctic literary image” as a combination of physical, symbolic and mathematical space of different multilingual multicultural circumpolar territories; and analyses some linguistic, social, demographic, ethnocultural, interactive, mental, political, economic and environmental aspects that construct the circumpolar literary image in V. N. Matonin’s travelogue.

Intermediate dimensions under self-affine codings

Intermediate dimensions were recently introduced by Falconer et al. (Math Z 296:813–830, 2020) to interpolate between the Hausdorff and box-counting dimensions. In this paper, we show that for every subset E of the symbolic space, the intermediate dimensions of the projections of E under typical self-affine coding maps are constant and given by formulas in terms of capacities. Moreover, we extend the results to the generalized intermediate dimensions introduced by Banaji (Monatsh Math 202: 465–506, 2023) in several settings, including the orthogonal projections in Euclidean spaces and the images of fractional Brownian motions.

“Hip Hop and the Televisual Global South: Atlanta and Sintonia”

In recent years, audiences in the United States and around the globe have witnessed an explosion of television and streaming content focused on hip hop. Such content contemplates, historicizes, promotes, and represents the art form, artists, industry, and regional genres that have together emerged as a central feature of contemporary popular culture. This article explores the spatial and thematic links to the theoretical Global South in Atlanta and Sintonia. Analyzing the series’ respective portrayals of race and inequality from the margins, I examine how hip-hop/ funk and the Global South function as narrative tools and symbolic spaces through which notions of a shared precarity stemming from global flows of capital are constructed, consumed, and challenged. By considering the series’ connections to the Global South, this article contributes to a growing body of work that aims to move beyond research that centers the west and the nation-state.

Hospital corridors as lived spaces: The reconfiguration of social boundaries during the early stages of the Covid pandemic.

This article explores the meanings and uses of a hospital corridor through 98 diary entries produced by the staff of an English specialist hospital during the early stages of the COVID-19 pandemic. Drawing on Lefebvre's (1991, The production of space. Blackwell) threefold theorisation of space, corridors are seen as conceived, perceived and lived spaces, produced through and enabling the reconfiguration and reinterpretation of social interactions. The diaries depict two distinct versions of the central hospital corridor: its 'normal' operation prior to the pandemic when it was perceived as a social and symbolic space for collective sensemaking and the 'COVID-19 empty corridor' described as a haunting place that divided hospital staff along ostensibly new social and moral boundaries that impacted negatively on lived work experiences and staff relationships. The mobilisation of the central hospital corridor in the daily social construction of meaning and experience during a period of organisational and societal crisis suggests that corridors should not be only seen as a material backdrop for work relationships but as social entities that come into being and are maintained and reproduced through the (lack of) performance of social relations.

Transformation of the Symbolic Space of the City of Halych in the Mid to Late 20th – Early 21st Century

The transformation of the symbolic space of the city of Halych from the second half of the 20th century to the beginning of the 21st century is investigated in the article. The work is based on the analysis of archival and historical documents, field materials collected by the author through the method of participant observation during the 2022–2023. The symbolic space term is used currently in various scientific studies: in cultural anthropology (O. Hrytsenko, H. Bondarenko), in semiotics (R. Barthes), in urban studies (E. Soja, R. Čepaitienė and others), in Ukrainian sociology (V. Sereda, O. Obukhova). The planning and architecture of the city, its landscape, toponymy, monuments as well as the elements of external design of the streets, squares and buildings are used together to create a symbolic space, where collective memory, identity and social dynamics of local communities are formed. In the 1930s, the places of worship have dominated in the urban space of Halych: the Greek-Catholic Church of Christmas (the 14th century), the Roman-Catholic Church of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary, St. Volodymyr’s Orthodox Church, the synagogue and the Karaite Kenesa, thus reflecting the ethnic and confessional structure of the population of the city. Part of the walls of Halych Castle is preserved on the Castle Hill, being the evidence of the historical significance of the city. The process of communization has started after the incorporation to the Soviet Union (September, 1939): streets and squares are renamed, Soviet monuments are erected. The places of worship are destroyed or reequipped. The Church of Christmas has become an Orthodox one forcibly and the only active. Participation in parades and meetings to commemorate the Soviet holidays has become a common practice for the population. A tradition to lay flowers at the monument to Lenin by the newly wedded couple has appeared. The central part of the city is a zone of official, formal events of ideological matter at that time as well as the Halych Castle remains a favourite place of family, youth leisure, the space for informal intercourse. Essential transformations of the urban public space of the city of Halych start after Ukraine has gained independence. In 1990 the monument to Lenin is dismantled and the central square of the city has got the Christmas Square name. In 1988 a monumental equestrian sculpture to King Danylo Halytskyi has appeared there. The process of streets’ renaming continues. New churches and chapels (over 20) are built, a number of commemorative plaques and monuments to the participants of the Ukrainian national resistance, public and cultural figures of the city and the region (about 10) have been placed on municipal houses. Nine memorial annotation plaques are dedicated to soldiers died in the Russian-Ukrainian war. Christmas Square today is the main symbolic space of the city, a place where various activities and communications take place (both public and private). Halych Castle continues to occupy an important place in the cultural life of the city. Many significant scientific and cultural events representing Ukrainian historical and musical heritage occur here, influencing the formation of the identity of the local population.

Libyan deportees on the Italian island of Ustica: Remembering colonial deportations in the (peripheral) metropole

In 1911, the Italian liberal government launched the colonial occupation of what is now known as Libya, which was met with unexpected local resistance. The government resorted to mass deportations to the metropole to sedate the resistance, which continued for more than two decades under both the liberal and Fascist regimes. This chapter of Europe’s and Italy’s colonial history has been almost entirely removed from collective memory. The article explores the extent to which colonial deportations are remembered on the Sicilian Island of Ustica, which witnessed the deportation from Libya of more than 2000 people. Currently, the island is home to the only cemetery in Italy that is entirely dedicated to Libyan deportees. I argue that the visits of Libyan delegations, which took place from the late 1980s to 2010, succeeded in challenging colonial aphasia at the local level. Yet, as a result of Ustica’s peripheral position within the national space, the memory work developed through the encounter between local and Libyan actors remained marginal, despite its potential to redefine the Mediterranean as a symbolic space where colonial histories are articulated and remembered. Italy’s outsourcing of the memory work in relation to colonial deportations implies a missed opportunity to interrogate the postcolonial present and thus question persistent dynamics of power in Europe that exclude the constructed Other.

Bridges of Peace: The Role of Symbols and Rituals in Peacebuilding

Purpose of the Study: This article investigates how symbols and rituals contribute to conflict management in deeply divided societies. Methodology: Through qualitative library research, this study examines the impact of symbols and rituals on peace-building by analyzing theoretical frameworks and case studies. Main Findings: The study identifies that symbols and rituals play a crucial role in the peace-building process, achievable through two primary methods: the creation of new symbols and rituals that draw on inclusive narratives to foster a shared symbolic space promoting multicultural tolerance, and the creative manipulation of existing symbols and rituals to challenge and subvert historical power dynamics. Applications of this Study: The findings offer valuable insights for policymakers, peace-building practitioners, and community leaders engaged in conflict resolution and reconciliation efforts. By understanding the dual potential of symbols and rituals in peace-building, stakeholders can develop more effective strategies to address the underlying causes of division and promote enduring peace in divided societies. Novelty/Originality of this Study: This research contributes to the field by providing a comprehensive analysis of the transformative power of symbols and rituals in peace-building. It showcases how these cultural elements can be strategically leveraged to support reconciliation and unity, marking a significant advancement in the understanding of non-traditional mechanisms of conflict resolution and peace-building efforts.

The Volga Germans’ Confirmation as the Christians’ Lifestyle Evidence

The present paper deals with the confirmation evidence of the Volga Germans in the form of the visual communication artifacts, in which religious meaning has been depicted. The semiotic analysis has identified the structure of the confirmation documents in the symbolic space. The structure contains a number of similar grounds or markers and indicates the formation of the Volga Germans’ confessional culture. The religious ceremonies’ transmission and the traditional forms’ reconstruction by the Lutheran community in «the alien environment» were based on the existential nature, contributed to the preservation of the Russian Germans’ ethno cultural image, to the ethnic identity functioning and to the national consciousness determination. Having resettled to the vast Russian expanses and to the Volga region in particular and being isolated from their homeland, the Germans built their mode of life in accordance with the traditional religious way of life. Lutherans did their best in perpetuating every stage of the Christians’ lifestyle, the Lutheran confirmation texts detecting it easily. The preserved extant examples of the confirmation evidence maintained personal data of each believer. The quotations from the Bible, the Psalms, the lines from the pastor’s sermon, the verses of the anthems and chants, the Biblical stories paintings have been found in the symbolic space under research. Thus, he confirmation evidence has been proved to comprise Lutheran confessional culture markers on the verbal, artistic, musical levels in the symbolic space of the visual communication.

The Bulgarian Liberation Myth and its Spatial Realisations: The Example of Shipka Peak

The aim of this article is to reconstruct the course of the process of creation and development of the myth of Shipka in Bulgarian collective consciousness. The study offers an analysis of literary texts, monuments and rituals intended to reproduce the memory of events related to the peak. In doing so, it provides a description of how the site of memory was created, and how the symbolism and meanings given to Shipka developed through cultural texts and rituals serving to cultivate the myth associated with it. The author describes this myth in the context of the struggle for symbolic space, involving the creation of two separate narratives (Russian and Bulgarian) concerning the same historical event.

Rethinking Yerevan's touristic landscape through social and symbolic spaces

Urban spaces are complex environments shaped by diverse perspectives and representations. This study explores the relationship between language and space in Yerevan, aiming to enhance our understanding of the city's dynamics. Drawing upon theoretical frameworks from Victor Vakhshtayn, Henri Lefebvre, Kevin Lynch, Edward Glaeser, and David Seamon, the research examines how Yerevan is represented by tourists. Through thematic interviews with tour guides, analysis of tourist information leaflets, and document studies of “Inside Yerevan” maps, the study uncovers two primary challenges: geographical limitation and onedimensional representation. To address these challenges, a multifaceted approach is proposed, including diversifying tour routes, integrating social and symbolic spaces in tour narratives, and promoting authentic local experiences. The “Inside Yerevan” map offers a promising solution by highlighting local favorites and lesser-known gems. Ultimately, by embracing diversity and authenticity, Yerevan can create a more sustainable tourism model that benefits both visitors and residents.

On the Characterization of Some m-Plithogenic Vector Spaces and Their AH-Substructures Under the Condition 6 ≤ dim SPV ≤10

This paper is concerned with studying symbolic m-plithogenic vector spaces with finite orders between 6 and 10, where it defines and characterizes the AH-subspaces, AH-kernels, and AH- linear transformations in five different symbolic m-plithogenic spaces (6-plithogenic, 7-plithogenic,10-plithogenic vector spaces). Also, we prove many theorems that describe the computation of the kernels and direct images of the plithogenic AH-linear transformations.

An Algebraic Approach to the Symbolic 5-Plithogenic Vector Spaces

The objective of this paper is to study for the first time the concept of symbolic 5-plithogenic vector space defined over symbolic 5-plithogenic field. Many results about the algebraic properties of this class of spaces will be obtained, where we define AH-subspaces, AH-linear transformations, and kernels. Also, we study the inner products defined over symbolic 5-plithogenic vector spaces and determine the conditions of orthogonality in these spaces with many interesting examples.

Hugo Zemelman's proposal in the curriculum for basic education in Mexico, 2022

The following essay seeks to account for the theoretical construction proposed by the Basic Education Plan with respect to the Training Field, this being the third step through which teachers must go through to build their programs, this has the function of being the social, cultural, political, productive and symbolic space in which the school is part. The proposal is based on various theoretical postulates, so this text will focus on understanding the importance of Hugo Zemelman's concept of Historical Subject and Construction of Reality in the Training Field. Therefore, in the first instance the Basic Education Plan was analyzed, emphasizing the Formative Field proposal based on Hugo Zemelman, in a second instance works by this author were analyzed from two categories of analysis: Historical Subject and Construction of reality.

I can get off this bus and do something important for myself. The city as a space for adult learning in the perspective of local urban elites

In this article explores small cities as the a potential for adult learning. By referencing social capital theory, habitus and cultural capital, we open a discussion on the role of physical, social and symbolic space. The results are based on the technique of walking interviews with small city residents of cities in Poland. The study shows that the basis of learning mechanisms included visiting local authorities, meetings of hobbyists, local urban projects, urban institutions and storytelling city spaces that induced storytelling of the city. The results inform us about the advantages that of elites have in shaping lifelong learning offers. They create their city's narrative of their city by deciding which symbols, people, spaces and institutions are significant. We conclude that the reception of educational content is influenced by the use patterns of use of public spaces. These are culturally and economically determined and can reinforce inequalities in access to learning. However, they still hold there is still great potential for learning in them.

La amplicatio del locus amoenus en los prefacios de Juan de Mariana

The following paper will approach the symbolic and rhetorical space of the locus amoenus in Juan de Mariana’s works De Rege et Regis institutione, first published in Toledo in 1599, and De morte et immortalitate, that were included in Mariana’sTractatus septem in Cologne in1609. Theprefaces to both worksfollow thestructure of a Ciceronianlocus amoenus, as it wascommon among the humanist scholars. This configuration of the philosophical discourse according to the Roman author can be found in Lorenzo Valla, Jerónimo Osório, etc. However, there are rhetorical differences between Mariana’s prefaces, especially when regarding the use of Latin. It is our aim to point these differences out, which are mainly based on the use of the rhetorical device of amplificatio. Furthermore, the ten-year distance between both texts reveal the evolution of Mariana’s style in Latin. We will indicate the structural function of the locus amoenus inside the texts and deconstruct the structure. Finally, we will establish similarities between the texts as a means to indicate the aspects in which Mariana evolved in his writing, paying attention to the modifications that embellish the text by means of various rhetorical devices.

Meta-learning as a bridge between neural networks and symbolic Bayesian models

Abstract Meta-learning is even more broadly relevant to the study of inductive biases than Binz et al. suggest: Its implications go beyond the extensions to rational analysis that they discuss. One noteworthy example is that meta-learning can act as a bridge between the vector representations of neural networks and the symbolic hypothesis spaces used in many Bayesian models.