Symbolic Construction Research Articles

Visibilità e vitalità delle lingue. Un’analisi linguistica del greko di Calabria attraverso la lente del Linguistic Landscape

This paper analyzes the Linguistic Landscape of Bova Superiore, a small village in southern Calabria where Italo-Greek (Greko) is still spoken. Place-naming practices are considered communicative acts, and the linguistic signs inserted in the public space highlight the richness of the linguistic heritage of communities and contribute to the symbolic construction of collective identities. Through a mapping of the contact between the languages that characterize the Linguistic Landscape of Bova Superiore, the present study aims to fill a knowledge gap by stimulating a reflection on the degree of visibility and vitality of Greko.

Logics of competition: the forming of opinion in the bid for a green mega investment

ABSTRACT This article utilizes news media representations to scrutinize the symbolic construction and legitimizing support for green megaprojects, with a particular focus on Northvolt’s battery factory in Skellefteå, Sweden. The study reveals that the media portrayed the project as crucial for local development, driven by Northvolt’s explicit competition, Sweden’s national ambition to lead in green technology, and a neoliberal agenda for regional economic growth. These narratives, deeply rooted in ideological fantasies about the implications of such a megaproject for a small, struggling community, effectively suppressed concerns about colonialism, environmental risks, and indigenous rights. The media’s emphasis on perceived benefits overshadowed potential risks, prompting questions about the long-term impact of such projects on local communities and the environment. The article argues that while these investments are framed as opportunities for progress, they may perpetuate historical patterns of exploitation and overlook critical socio-environmental issues.

The symbolic construction of literary naming at the crossroads of tradition and modernity: towards new historicism in Ahmed Abodehman’s memoir The Belt

The symbolic construction of literary naming at the crossroads of tradition and modernity: towards new historicism in Ahmed Abodehman’s memoir <i>The Belt</i>

The Future as a Cultural Commons: Grammars of Commonality in Crisis‐Ridden Wilhelmsburg

In this article, I analyze how vulnerable yet resistant urban residents set out to “common” a particular phenomenon: the future. The scene in analysis is Wilhelmsburg, the southern section of the German city of Hamburg. Plagued by industrial pollution, infrastructural decay, and systemic poverty, Wilhelmsburg’s residents united themselves around the 2000s in an organization called Future Wilhelmsburg. Their goal? To get out of the crisis by commoning Wilhelmsburg’s future. Future Wilhelmsburg has engaged ever since in a continuous struggle—writing, blogging, researching, advocating, and protesting—to subject the neighborhood’s future to the wishes of its residents rather than to the top‐down projections of the urban governmental elite. The future of Wilhelmsburg is thus approached as a “cultural commons”: a symbolic construct that is collectively produced yet intrinsically vulnerable to enclosure. Against this background, I set out to sociologically explain Future Wilhelmsburg’s commoning of the future. How is it, precisely, that the activists united in Future Wilhelmsburg manage to turn the “not yet” into a meaningful matter of common concern? Laurent Thévenot’s “pragmatic sociology,” and more precisely his model of the three “grammars of commonality”—referring to the structuring principles through which social actors turn individual concerns into collective ones—allows us to answer this question. The article highlights how the “justificatory grammar" (structuring activists’ public argumentations), the “liberal grammar” (structuring their pinpointing of collective paths forward), and the “affective grammar” (structuring their affinity to place) all permeate the work of Future Wilhelmsburg as it sets out to turn the future into a cultural commons.

«Европеизм» между политикой и культурой: исторические смыслы и современные трансформации (материалы «круглого стола»)

The journal “Voprosy Filosofii” has repeatedly addressed various aspects of the philosophy of culture. In particular, issues of the interaction between Russia, the West, and the East, the unity of the world and the diversity of cultures, multicultur­alism and the dialogue of cultures, the role of the philosopher in culture, and the prospects for the development of Russian culture have been discussed. Special im­portance has been given to the understanding of cultural studies as a scientific and ed­ucational discipline. In April 2024, we once again turned to the philosophy of culture in the context of the problem of “Europeanism” and discussed the historical meanings and contemporary transformations of this cultural-historical phenomenon. The follow­ing questions were proposed for discussion. What constitutes the “essence” of Euro­pean culture? Does “Europeanism” have an obligatory historical and geographical at­tachment? Why does the methodological concept of “presentism-antiquarianism” gain crucial importance today, particularly for research in the field of the philosophy of cul­ture? Is antiquity the origin only of European culture, or is it the origin of the Great Culture? Is “Europeanization of the Earth” possible today? (Spengler, Husserl, Hei­degger). Who are the true heirs of antiquity today? Are there differences between Greek and Roman cultures? Which type has Europe inherited today, and to what ex­tent? Has the perception of “Europeanism” changed in Russian and world philosophy of the 19th–21st centuries? The role of Hegel in the mythologization of “Europe.” Is “Europeanism” a political myth of the 21st century? How do you evaluate the at­tempts at philosophical comparisons of the crisis of European culture in the 1920s and the 2020s? Does “Europeanism” exhaust European culture? And what philosophical or cultural problem do we want to see behind this? The crucial topic of discussion was the interpretation of Europeanism as a symbolic construct, connected with the assessment of the prospects for the development of the cultural future of Russia, Europe, and Humanity

Choreographic leadership and audience mobilization as resistance: digital sex work after the Social Media Safety Act

Digital media platforms’ incessant deplatforming have encouraged sex workers across the globe to organize novel forms of resistance and (re)construct defensive identities, embracing and resisting the dominating forces of patriarchalism and sexual fetishization to affirm control over their labor, their bodies, and their place in society. Sex workers’ content and fostered digital environments function to condense their globally dispersed constituencies into a common subjectivity, forming counterpublics to move against the restrictive hierarchies of “dominant publics” and give voice to the forms of sexual and gendered identity silenced across mainstream media. To sustain resistance against relentless legislative precarity and corporate disavowal—most recently exemplified by the passing of the draconian Social Media Safety Act in the United States—sex workers use a uniquely digital form of choreography to mobilize their disparate audiences across mercurial media platforms, websites, and services, taking on the role of “soft leaders” or “choreographers” to foster a symbolic construction of emotional space in which their audiences may congregate regardless of the movements of moderation or deplatforming their expressions of individuality and sexuality may have to endure across (inter)national legislative contexts. This digital process of mobilization is a performative and sustained form of labor.

Ideological Constitutionalism

A renewed interest in the concept of ideology is evident in recent constitutional theory. Ideology has featured prominently not only in restatements of traditional Marxist positions and attempted retrievals of the material conception of the constitution, but also in democratic critiques of liberal constitutionalism and theories of constitutional identity. The intention of this article is twofold. Firstly, the article defends the explanatory power of a conception of constitutional ideology that is centred on political domination and the ‘universalisation’ of contingent power relations, rather than more diffuse notions like the symbolic construction of reality or worldviews. Secondly, the article considers distinctive ideological dimensions of modern constitutionalism. An analysis of these dimensions, I contend, confirms modern constitutionalism's strong ideological ‘potential’.

Language politics and prestige in The Walled City: an exploratory study of the linguistic landscape of Intramuros, Manila

Abstract Tupas and Lorente (2014. A ‘new’ politics of language in the Philippines: Bilingual education and the new challenge of the mother tongues. In Peter Sercombe &amp; Ruanni Tupas (eds.), Language, education and nation-building: Assimilation and shift in Southeast Asia, 165–180. New York: Springer) contended that “the politics of language in the Philippines always featured the tension between English on the one hand and the vernacular languages on the other.” But how exactly does this language dynamic manifest itself in the linguistic landscapes (LL) of the Philippines? To explore this question, this paper conducted an exploratory LL analysis of Intramuros, the famed “Walled City” of Manila, using Scollon and Scollon’s (2003. Discourses in place: Language in the material world. London: Routledge) place semiotics and Ben-Rafael et al.’s (2006. Linguistic landscape as symbolic construction of the public space: The case of Israel. International Journal of Multilingualism 3(1). 7–30) top-down and bottom-up sign classification. It found that English-based signs are used to accommodate a global audience, i.e., foreign tourists, whereas Filipino-based signs are used to police and regulate the behavior of residents and, to a certain extent, local tourists. To conclude, it argued that by looking at its linguistic landscape, historical districts like Intramuros articulate beliefs and assumptions on language that, in turn, make them deeply political and ideological sites.

Care as pluriversal strategy? Caring in counter-hegemonic struggles in the degrowth and environmental justice movements

ABSTRACT Overcoming the destructive power of the capitalist world system requires bringing relevant alternatives together in a way that respects their diversity. In this article, we investigate the significance of care – in its ethical, practical, and affective dimensions – in the task of uniting the pluriverse alternatives at moments and sites of counter-hegemonic struggle. Our analysis focuses on the degrowth movement and environmental justice movements. Adopting a post-Marxist discourse theory lens, we argue that care can mobilize and coalesce these pluriverse alternatives into temporarily united counter-hegemonic coalitions. For effectively disrupting the hegemony of the capitalist world system, we suggest that the pluriverse should meet the following three conditions: (1) the symbolic construction of the world system as an enemy to mobilize against, (2) a vision recognizing the foundational nature of care-based relations for pluriversal futures, and (3) practices of care fitting together with the parallel understandings and visions of the pluriverse.

Man in the Space of Freedom and Resentment: Symbolic Correlation of Existentials

Purpose. The article aims to problematize the forms of correlation between the fundamental category of freedom and the phenomenon of resentment in the context of the formation of ethical discourse, as well as to consider the symbolic mechanisms of the collective imagination in the formation of a picture of the human world. Theoretical basis. The study uses the method of historical and philosophical analysis and methods of the humanities – hermeneutics and phenomenology. Originality. An attempt is made to comprehend the correlation between freedom as a category of philosophical anthropology and practical philosophy and the phenomenon of resentment. Conclusions. The ethical category of freedom, explicitly or implicitly, significantly shapes the content of the process of choice and social action by a person, which can be manifested in discursive practices and narratives of ideologies, public opinion and collective imagination. Symbolic mechanisms of human consciousness record the paradoxical correlation and at the same time the antithesis of reality reception and meaning generation between rational awareness and existential experience, humanization and appropriation of freedom and emotional-affective, reactive attitude of a person to narratives, motives, symbols and images of resentment. At the same time, freedom can presuppose the conscious content of resentment, while resentment deforms the concept of freedom into arbitrariness or violence, appealing not only to the archaic values of tribalism, but also to the rational basis of individual freedom of the individual, on which the philosophical tradition of the West is based. The resentful forms of thinking and emotional reception of reality function as symbolic constructions, that is, they can have a wide and internally contradictory field of interpretations. Western philosophical thought has a significant potential to reinterpret the challenges of the phenomenon of resentment based on the tradition of ontotheology and ethics of discourse due to the specific rationalism of the vision of the philosophy of freedom.

‘Congolité’: Dividing Lines in the Political Life of the Contemporary DRC

The article is devoted to the study of political identity in the Democratic Republic of Congo. The author pays particular attention to the modern interpretation of the concept of ‘Congolité’ – Congolese identity, which is in many ways identical to the idea of national citizenship. The concept of ‘Congolité’ itself is considered in the article as a set of legal norms, as an instrument of electoral struggle and as a symbolic construct. The concept has acquired a new meaning in the context of the 2021 draft law, and its return to domestic politics is significant for understanding the mood of Congolese society. The author also tries to identify the main lines of the identity debate and concludes that one of its constants is the problem of the political-legal status of the Rwandafon minority (Banyarwanda / Banyamulenge), and another is regional-linguistic fragmentation, which is reinforced by economic-demographic specificity. Both of these factors have a significant impact on internal voting patterns. The discourse of autochthonous ‘purity’ is seen as exacerbating this fragmentation and as generating conflict in Congo’s relations with states in the region, particularly Rwanda.

Antonio Tabucchi and the Journey of Self-Discovery:

The article centers on two novels by Italian writer Antonio Tabucchi—Requiem: A hallucination and For Isabel: A mandala. It analyzes the polysemic elements that constitute the symbolic construction of both works, supported by the main tenets of Jungian psychology and in particular the notions of coniunctio oppositorum, individuation, and journey of self-discovery. The investigation explores the relationship of Tabucchi’s narrative with works by Ferdinando Pessoa and Herman Hesse. Homologies between the author’s view of the self, cognition, human reality, and the formal structure of the novels are examined through the Bakhtinian notion of dialogical narrative and through his metaliterary and self-reflexive mode of writing.

Two worlds apart: a qualitative study of culture-led rural regeneration projects in China

ABSTRACT The urban–rural gap remains to be one fundamental inequality in modern China; however, the symbolic boundary derived from such socioeconomic inequality is less examined. Centre on two parallel initiatives aimed at cultural empowerment for rural China—independent bookstores and public-subsidized libraries—this study tries to explicate the multidimensional nature of boundaries and emphasize the cultural mechanism of boundary reproduction under institutional layering environment. We draw from policy trajectories, media discourse, and first-hand interviews in two villages, and reveal that despite the idealized portrayal of bookstores as a public cultural centre for empowerment, the symbolic construction wielded by cultural entrepreneurs is not sufficient in dissolving social differences in a digitalized society. Local villagers are not part of the “cultural consumption as identity building” ritual therefore being excluded from an urban-and-consumption culture-oriented space. Moreover, local villagers adopt differentiated interpretive strategies towards culture-led regeneration projects, so that “rural culture” is merely the swirl of an empty signal in Baudrillard’s sense that does not bear the symbolic efficacy promoted by top-down initiatives.

ORIENTAL MOTIVES IN CONTEMPORARY UKRAINIAN LITERATURE: IDENTITY AND IDEOLOGY

The work is devoted to the study of the correlation between the motives, images, symbols, stereotypes and clichés existing in modern Ukrainian literature, which outline the Eastern philosophical tradition, and the formation and transformation of identity at different levels and types. The consideration is carried out in the context of the emergence of the latest Ukrainian myth as a basis for national ideology. The purpose of the research is to outline the paradoxical nature of the general reception and individual explications of oriental motifs in modern Ukrainian literature on the occasion of those segments that can be defined through the predications of genre or mass. The article outlines the peculiarities of the reflection of oriental motifs in modern Ukrainian literature related to the dominance of the aesthetic and philosophical influences of the paradigm of postmodernism in the national tradition during the last decades. It also notes the connection between the reception of oriental motifs in Ukrainian modern literature and the politicization of modern public discourse on the occasion of the meaning-making East-West dichotomy. Political and ideological contexts of literary discourse and speech practices acquire signs of ambivalence and function as symbolic constructions. The dual nature of the reception of the image and philosophy of the East in the Ukrainian literary tradition and mass consciousness of both the metaphysical East and the geopolitical East has been clarified. The direction of transformation of oriental motives and images in the mass consciousness and literary usus in the context of finding the identity of different types and levels of generality in Ukrainian society and culture is also recorded. The liminal type of culture correlates with a divided society, and as a result the rational-educational interpretation of the image of the East as the antithesis of the West interacts with the postmodern fusion and mutual determination of East and West.

Emotional meanings attributed to sexual experiences reported by Brazilian Men with Head and Neck Cancer seen at a Public University Oncologic Outpatient Service: A Qualitative Study

Introduction“What can and what cannot I do in a sexual relationship?” |In this way, a middle-aged man with HNC - Head and Neck Cancer, under chemotherapy or radiotherapy, asks. This doubt is raised to the oncologist, radiotherapist, nurse or psychotherapist. Apparently, his concern is objective, considering he has a severe diagnosis and important treatments. However, underlying the manifest doubt, there are symbolic constructions in his mind that generate anguish. The health professionals’ response must go beyond information. They also must understand the symbolic emotional meanings associated with the patient’s speech. This attitude will bring a psychotherapeutic effect to the ill man.ObjectivesTo interpret symbolically sexual and emotional experiences reported by male patients diagnosed with HNC under outpatient treatment in a public specialized clinical unit.MethodsWe used the CQM - Clinical-Qualitative Method (Turato. Portuguese Psychos. J, 2000 2(1): 93-108). For data collection, the main researcher used the Semi-Directed Interview with Open-ended Questions In-Depth and Field Notes. The employ of the Seven Steps of the CQCA - Clinical-Qualitative Content Analysis (Faria-Schützer et al. Cien Saude Colet. 2021; 26(1): 265-274) brings us to discussion categories. The sample was closed with 12 patients according to the information saturation strategy (Fontanella et al. Cad Saude Publica. 2008; 24(1): 17-27). The interviews were conducted by the first author of this abstract, a male nurse, as part of his master’s research at a postgraduate course in Oncology. The findings were validated by peer reviewers from the Lab of Clinical-Qualitative Research at the State University of Campinas.ResultsTwo categories were chosen for this presentation: ‘The dyad perceived in the felt body and the experienced body’, and ‘The body re-signified between the sexual and affective dimensions’. The body symbolized before and after the illness experiences a movement in phenomenological consciousness that leads to external changes in its attitudes. The patient needs now to ask himself and others what this body can - or cannot - do. The severely ill body imposes new meanings for life and sexuality. It does not cancel the wish but asks for a new channelling of your psychic/sexual energies.ConclusionsThese findings indicate that patients with HNC want to talk about sexuality and ask about the risks of sexual activity, contrary to what the common view supposes. Traditional Balint groups met with the multidisciplinary team can be beneficial for doctors and nurses to deal with their own emotional limitations. Furthermore, the Consultation-Liaison Psychiatry, under the approach of psychosomatic medicine, focuses on the care of patients with behavioural and emotional manifestations, together with the work of the oncologists.Disclosure of InterestNone Declared

Beliefs and practices of the nursing team related to pressure injury preventive measures: A analysis of social representations.

To analyse the process of elaborating social representations about pressure injury preventive measures by the nursing team (nurses and nurse technicians) and how this process relates to preventive practices for hospitalized patients. Qualitative study, with the application of the theory of social representations in its procedural methodological approach. The study was carried out in an inpatient clinic of a public hospital in the state of Rondônia, Brazil. Totally, 28 nursing professionals in the medical clinic sectors who had worked directly with patient care for more than 6 months participated. The data were collected between July and September 2021 via in-depth interviews with the application of a semi-structured instrument. Analysis was carried out with the help of ALCESTE software, which performed a lexicographic analysis, and also via thematic analysis. The COREQ guided the presentation of the research report. The social representations were developed based on the professionals' symbolic beliefs about the visibility/invisibility of the results of applying preventive care. These symbolic constructions mobilized positive and negative feelings among the nursing team, which guided the classification of prevention practices as being of greater or lesser priority among other care activities. There were favourable attitudes among professionals, which included applying prevention measures in their daily routines, and unfavourable attitudes of non-adherence to the institution's protocol for preventing pressure injuries. The nursing team's perception of pressure injury prevention is influenced by symbolic, affective, values, and social dimensions. Non-adherence behaviours are attributed to the belief in the invisibility of prevention outcomes, resulting in a reluctance to implement preventive measures. Understanding the subjective logic that explains the thinking and actions of the nursing team suggests the need to incorporate discussions on beliefs, values, sentiments, and attitudes of nursing professionals into educational programs on pressure injury prevention. No public contribution.

An Imperial Adventus into a City of Warehouses: History, Modernity, and Urbanity in the Symbolic and Material Construction of Hamburg's Free Port

Abstract The article analyzes the contemporary material, political, and symbolic construction of Hamburg's free port, zooming in on its festive opening in 1888, when Kaiser Wilhelm II visited to perform this ceremonious act. Asking why the “Speicherstadt” (warehouse city) was right away dubbed a “city” even though this was an exclusively commercial space devoid of inhabitants, the article uses this case study to argue that process concepts like “urbanization” frame our perspectives in ways that eclipse how older ideas about urbanity still defined a late-nineteenth-century political imaginary. The article shows how the opening ceremony, staged as an imperial adventus, alongside the “Speicherstadt's” neo-Gothic red-brick architecture, made recourse to established cultural forms that historians and other commentators often deem premodern. To counteract the prospect that port expansion could turn Hamburg into a working-class city, Hamburg's bourgeois merchant elite tried to construct the free port as a global urban bourgeois space embodying the city's history and its longevity as a space of urban trade privilege. The latter had erstwhile been defined by Hamburg's city walls, which, as the article argues, were symbolically rebuilt in the form of the Speicherstadt. The latter was the “city” into which this modern-day imperial adventus led.

Outline of a critical sociology of free speech in everyday life: Beyond liberal approaches

Critical sociologists have been conspicuous by their absence in theoretical debates about free speech in everyday life. The aim of this article is to address this missing gap in critical sociology by making some tentative suggestions about how such a theory might advance. Drawing mainly from the ideas of Pierre Bourdieu and Judith Butler, the article suggests that free speech occurs when coalitions come together in venues to discuss the possession and dispossession of certain resources; resources that coalitional members enjoy or are denied from enjoying in social fields. If a coalition engages in dialogue and other types of expression that pushes for an equal distribution of different resources so as to make lives more liveable, then the coalition will most likely also be constructing subversive ‘heretical discourse’. Furthermore, the coalition will also most likely be challenging dominant and hegemonic symbolic constructions of ‘linguistic competence’ in a social field. The article develops these points by analysing two prominent liberal schools of thought on free speech: the marketplace of ideas school and the deliberative school. The article argues that these liberal schools cannot satisfactorily account for power relations and complexity of identity formation in relation to free speech.

Research on the Symbolic Construction and Translation of Internet Celebrity Urban Memory in the Video Era

This paper aims to explore the phenomenon of "symbolic construction and translation of Internet celebrity urban memory in the video era". By taking the Harbin explosion as a case, this paper analyzes the mechanism and influencing factors of urban image construction in the video era and its implications for urban development. The study found that in the video era, the construction and dissemination of city image no longer relies on traditional publicity methods, but is realized through emerging channels such as social media and short video platforms. The success of Harbin's popularity is inseparable from the careful creation of the city's image and the choice of communication channels, which reflects the importance of city culture and characteristics. However, the construction of urban image also faces challenges of authenticity and objectivity, as well as the need for local cultural inheritance and characteristic protection. Overall, this study provides important inspiration for further exploring the construction of urban image in the video era.

The Symbolic Strategies of Amédée VIII: A Utopian Vision Examined through Alignments and Artistic Representations

This article explores the intricacies of the Duchy of Savoy during the 15th century, exploring its complex connections with Africa, the Crusades, and the Holy Empire. Focused on the reign of Amadeus VIII, who later became Pope Felix V, the study investigates the unique devotion to Saint Maurice d'Agaune and Saint Anthony the Great within the Duchy. The research unveils new evidence through architectural alignments, religious symbolism, and artistic representations, notably analyzing Konrad Witz's "La Pêche miraculeuse." It discovers significant alignments from Chambéry to Ripaille, Basel, and Magdeburg, indicating political and symbolic strategies. The article introduces the concept of an "inclined cross," aligning Savoy with Magdeburg, Cyprus, Rhodes, and Turin. The symbolic reading of the Savoy Knot, associated with the motto Foedere et Religione Tenemur (F.E.R.T), suggests a mnemonic tool possibly derived from maritime practices, providing insights into the Duchy's unique strategies and perspectives. This Savoyard motto, a relic of the Middle Ages and some of its medals or coins, happily cultivated its reputation for mystery or obscure meaning. The methodology involves expanding references, exploring heraldry, and examining religious and spiritual connections. The article proposes a potential link between Savoy's alignments and Egyptian or Ethiopian influences, supported by pilgrimages from these regions. It suggests the existence of a coherent utopia imagined by Amadeus VIII, fostering a new perspective on the artistic achievements of the time. The erasure of symbolic constructions, orchestrated by subsequent figures like Enea Silvio Piccolomini, is discussed, leaving enigmatic traces of the Duchy's engagement with Africa.