Symbolic Mediation Research Articles

An Urban Policy Framework for Culture-oriented Economic Development: Lessons from the Netherlands

Over the past few decades, culture and creativity have been at the center of the shift in urban economies toward the non-material and the relational. In the new "cultural-economic" paradigm, the hypermobile class of creative workers and symbolic mediators is considered the vanguard of the knowledge society, and is nurtured and competed for by an increasing number of ambitious city governments. However, the integration of creative talent into the urban economy is not without problems: many cities are rapidly coming to realize that "traditional" approaches to economic development offer little help in the case of cultural industries, and that their impacts could be short-lived or socially ambivalent. More insight is thus needed into the dynamic relationships between culture and urban development, and on their implications for policymaking. This study is an attempt to build such knowledge, using qualitative information on four Dutch cities that have chosen culture as one of the spearheads of urban policy: Amsterdam, Rotterdam, The Hague, and Eindhoven.

The Sociospatial Mechanics of Domination: Transcending the ‘Exclusion/Inclusion’ Dualism

This article takes issue with Zygmunt Bauman's thesis that physical exclusion depends on the hindrance of cognitive associations, emotional quandaries, and moral inhibitions, hence victims and their lot remain out of sight. It is counterargued that conscious engagement in directly physical forms of exclusionary behaviour is possible insofar as victims are known in ways that provoke emotional disdain and moralise violence. Such knowledge consists in the relegation of others to the status of morally lesser human beings, and is produced via prior symbolic mediations. To the extent that mediations operate according to the power differentials they both reflect and help to sustain, there is a need to shift analytical attention from exclusion to the 'meta-category' of domination.

Globalisation and loss of identity

The process of a de-territorialized or multilocal world productive system, which is more informational than industrial and more speculative than productive, has led to a crisis in social structures and the breakdown of identity referents that formerly had provided a sense of meaning to individual and social life. We are facing both a breakdown and a disarticulation of institutional and symbolic mediations from the past, and also a process of reorganization of differences and inequalities that are having a strong impact on identities. The individual and collective construction of subjectivity is acquiring multiple forms, some of them unexpected, others unprecedented. In what way does reality question psychoanalysis?

Emoções e política: a vítima e a construção de comunidades emocionais

No presente texto, detenho-me na construção cultural da categoria vítima como forma de afirmação da civilidade. Ao longo dos últimos anos, temos presenciado na Colômbia a afirmação de uma linguagem que narra experiências pessoais de sofrimento na forma de testemunho pessoal. Essa linguagem, eminentemente emocional, cria laços entre pessoas diversas, naquilo que podemos chamar sociedade civil, ao redor do compartilhamento da "verdade" a respeito dos fatos de violência ocorridos recentemente. Argumento que esta linguagem do testemunho pessoal tem efeitos políticos, na medida em que constrói uma versão compartilhada dos acontecimentos de violência da última década e serve de alicerce para uma ética do reconhecimento e para ações de protesto e de reparação, visto que é um mediador simbólico entre a experiência subjetiva e a generalização social. Examino a construção social da categoria vítima em três cenários sociais: a encenação e a mobilização por parte da comunidade indígena diante de fatos de violência, as manifestações massivas de 2008 e a luta pela promulgação da Lei de Vítimas. Destaco o papel relevante de mulheres e indígenas ao realizarem testemunhos públicos sobre os fatos de violência, como forma de chegar à verdade, o que aponta para a criação de uma narrativa compartilhada e para a generalização de princípios morais diante dos atos de violência feitos em nome da "política".

O atendimento em salas de recursos para alunos com altas habilidades/superdotação: o caso do Paraná

Este estudo objetivou conhecer o atendimento educacional realizado em Salas de Recursos para alunos com Altas Habilidades/Superdotação (AH/SD) no Estado do Paraná. Os dados foram obtidos por meio de entrevistas semiestruturadas com duas professoras que atuam neste contexto escolar. Os relatos foram analisados sob a perspectiva da Teoria Histórico-Cultural, que pressupõe a disponibilidade de mediadores materiais e simbólicos como condição essencial para o acesso à cultura. Os resultados indicam práticas pedagógicas pautadas no ecletismo e o esforço pessoal das docentes para equipar as suas salas. Conclui-se que, apesar das dificuldades identificadas, a continuidade e efetivação da proposta pode se constituir em uma importante contribuição para o enriquecimento dos níveis conceituais dos alunos superdotados.

Mediações simbólicas na atividade pedagógica

A pesquisa apresenta a análise de uma investigação didática, nas séries iniciais do Ensino Fundamental, que identifica a essência das ações e operações na atividade de ensino. Estas criam condições favoráveis para o desenvolvimento do pensamento teórico de estudantes e educadores a partir das mediações instituídas na relação ensino e aprendizagem. O objetivo da pesquisa é investigar os diferentes tipos de mediação simbólica na atividade pedagógica. Estes criam condições para o desenvolvimento do pensamento como um dos processos psicológicos superiores do gênero humano a ser desenvolvido no contexto escolar. O método de investigação fundamenta-se no materialismo histórico-dialético, na psicologia histórico-cultural e na teoria da atividade como instrumentos de análise da constituição da individualidade humana. No campo empírico, é realizado um estudo comparativo entre dois momentos distintos da investigação didática, tendo em vista a lógica que fundamenta a organização do ensino. Isso possibilita mudanças de qualidade na apropriação de conceitos, expressas pelas manifestações do pensamento nas formas de juízo, conceito e dedução. Os resultados identificam como mediações simbólicas as relações dos sujeitos com o objeto de estudo historicizado e as ações e operações coletivas e cooperativas dos sujeitos nos aspectos cognitivo, volitivo e afetivo. Como conclusão, considera-se que essas mediações somente se efetivam a partir da apropriação de conhecimentos teórico-científicos por parte dos educadores, pois estes promovem a criação de condições e circunstâncias que possibilitam a efetivação de um sistema integrado, instituindo práticas sociais no contexto escolar que viabilizam a superação das condições alienantes próprias do sistema escolar vigente e da sociedade contemporânea.

Thinking “difference” differently: Cassirer versus Derrida on symbolic mediation

Cassirer’s approach to symbolic mediation differs in some important ways from currently prevailing approaches to meaning and signification such as semiology and its more recent poststructuralist varieties. Cassirer’s philosophy of symbolic forms offers a theory of symbols that does not amount to a sign theory or semiology. It sketches out, rather, a dynamic and nonrepresentational framework in which an alternative notion of difference takes centre stage. In order to make the original features of Cassirer’s approach stand out, I will compare it with the approach of the perhaps most influential differential thinker of our day, Jacques Derrida. The philosophy of symbolic forms explicitly prefigures a great many of the insights and concerns of poststructuralism. Yet, there are some critical differences. Rather than rejecting the concepts of objectivity, identity, and truth on the premises established by traditional metaphysics, Cassirer chooses to redefine these concepts through a radical conceptual reframing. The result is a doctrine that—in Derridean parlance—neither jumps beyond the oppositions of metaphysics, nor tries to resolve them in a Hegelian synthesis—a doctrine, that is, that even though it appeals to origins, cannot so easily be dismissed as yet another instantiation of the metaphysics of presence.

Young people and the discourse on Aids: from the centrality of context to the appropriation of sense

The text discusses results of a piece of research that analyzed the ways in which young people from two neighborhoods on the outskirts of the city of Rio de Janeiro dealt with risk situations and information about Aids prevention. In other words, how they interpreted, circulated and converted into practice the prevention measures suggested to them. The theoretical perspectives of social discourse semiology and social mobilization were joined, making the symbolic mediations present in these processes stand out, revealing that underneath an apparently homogeneous speech tensions and conflicts exist, such as class, generation and gender conflicts, typical of social relations, and which also manifest themselves in the context of Aids prevention.

Os jovens e os discursos sobre Aids: da centralidade dos contextos para a apropriação de sentidos

The text discusses results of a piece of research that analyzed the ways in which young people from two neighborhoods on the outskirts of the city of Rio de Janeiro dealt with risk situations and information about Aids prevention. In other words, how they interpreted, circulated and converted into practice the prevention measures suggested to them. The theoretical perspectives of social discourse semiology and social mobilization were joined, making the symbolic mediations present in these processes stand out, revealing that underneath an apparently homogeneous speech tensions and conflicts exist, such as class, generation and gender conflicts, typical of social relations, and which also manifest themselves in the context of Aids prevention.

Imperial politics and symbolics in ancient Japan: the Tenmu dynasty, 650-800

Imperial Politics and Symbolics is an ambitious and ground-breaking study that offers a new understanding of a formative stage in the development of the Japanese state. The late seventh and eighth centuries were a time of momentous change in Japan, much of it brought about by the short-lived Tenmu dynasty. Two new capital cities, a bureaucratic state led by an imperial ruler, and Chinese-style law codes were just a few of the innovations instituted by the new regime. Herman Ooms presents both a wide-ranging and fine-grained examination of the power struggles, symbolic manipulations, new mythological constructs, and historical revisions that both defined and propelled these changes.In addition to a vast amount of research in Japanese sources, the author draws on a wealth of Sinological scholarship in English, German, and French to illuminate the politics and symbolics of the time. An important feature of the book is the way it opens up early Japanese history to considerations of continental influences. Rulers and ritual specialists drew on several religious and ritual idioms, including Daoism, Buddhism, yin-yang hermeneutics, and kami worship, to articulate and justify their innovations. In looking at the religious symbols that were deployed in support of the state, Ooms gives special attention to the Daoist dimensions of the new political symbolics as well as to the crucial contributions made by successive generations of 'immigrants' from the Korean peninsula.From the beginning, a 'liturgical state' sought to co-opt factions and clans (uji) as participants in the new polity with the emperor acting as both a symbolic mediator and a silent partner. In contrast to the traditional interpretation of the Kojiki mythology as providing a vertical legitimation of a Sun lineage of rulers, an argument is presented for the importance of a lateral dimension of interdependency as a key structural element in the mythological narrative.

Cognitive Aspects of Athlete Activity

Article is devoted to the issues of symbolic mediation and diagnostic of time perception in sport. Distinction between iconic and symbolic mediation is discussed. Evidences of effective implementation of symbolic mediation in sport are examined. Means of optimization of sportsmen and sportswomen training by the instrumentality of symbol are considered. The results of time perception diagnostic of Russian synchronized swimmers are described. It was shown that sportswomen are greatly varied in accuracy and stability of reproduction of long (2–5 sec) and estimation of short (less than 250 ms) time intervals, which were filled with different contents – ticks of metronome, persistent sound, pressuring the button and etc. The improvement of individual characteristics of time perception is an important psychological resource of sports achievements increase.

Images in the heat of the moment or the reborn Phoenix of the documental image

Despite the frequent discussion, either in the academic environment or the media, concerning the documental image, in the context of the so-called crisis in the documental culture as a whole, there is no denial of the proliferation of images and the increasing of a production with this proposal in the universe of communicative relations, be it printed or digital. If, in the realm of art, the hegemonic contemporaneous action consists of the figurative destabilization of the images, on the massive production media side, there is the affirmation of its stability as a basic condition to the action of documenting. Therefore we are not dealing here with defining the meaning of documental, since we base ourselves on the presupposition that this aspect is presented as the result of figurative-enunciative, plastic and tensive strategies, responsible for the multiple sense regimes. From these choices and organizations derive interactive modalities, based on the mediate or immediate nature of the comprehensive process, in a value system limiting the communicative action which makes evident the practical, cognitive, emotional or fiduciary functions (based on supposed systems of belief) of the symbolic mediations. The more general issue which guides this proposal is to investigate how the different media operate with these images and what types of communicative implications they provoke.

The Late Iron Age Bear-Tooth Pendants in Finland: Symbolic Mediators between Women, Bears, and Wilderness?

In the article I discuss the different functions and meanings of bronze bear-tooth pendants in the Finnish Late Iron Age (800-1150/1300 CE). I first focus on an analysis of the pendants in terms of archaeological methodology: chronology, typology and find context. The second focus on attention, and in this article the most important one, is on the interpretation on these pendants. They are usually interpreted as magical items, amulets. In my opinion this is not the only possible interpretation. I suggest that the pendants can be interpreted as magical or religious, but that their possible protective use as amulets does not exclude other functions, such as a decorative and/or social one. I emphasise the possibility that bear-tooth pendants may be linked to a symbolic form of expression involving the idea of control of the forest and wilderness. Finnish folk tradition and mythology point to a metaphoric and metonymic relationshiop on the one hand between the bear and the wilderness, on the otehr the bear and women. The bronze bear-tooth pendatns - possibly worn only by women - may have carried a symbolic message of control over the wilderness; this control could have been mythology-based and practised by ritual acts; at the same time it could also take the form of concrete acts, such as utilization of the wilderness: a fur-based economy and control over the fur trade.

Las musas jonias aprenden a escribir: ley escrita y tratado en prosa en los milesios y Heráclito

Throughout s. VI B. C., the first Ionic investigators of the nature chose as way of expression a procedure practically unexplored at that time: the writing in prose. This technology had been only proved previously in the field of the cities written legislation, which liked to use enormous stone inscriptions to show or advertise the laws and community regulations. This publicity was also good to reinforce with the strenght of the lasting thing the civic authority, from which emanated a compulsory law to be carried out. In this work, we try to show that the production and publication ways of the laws were good in certain extent to the first philosophers as reference models for the publication of their own treatises in prose (συγγραφή). That publication existed without a doubt, but it was not claimed by a demand reader mainly, but rather it pursued to reinforce the message locked in the papyrus roll with the authority associated to the written promulgation of the laws. It was, threrefore, a question of symbolic mediation between the philosopher and the city: comparing their work to the law of the city, he claimed the normative and universal force from the cosmos described in the treatise in prose, that enunciated valid laws for all the men and everywhere. In this work, we will explore this hypothesis studying the sociopolitical background that is outlined after the publication of the treatises of Anaximander, Anaximenes and, mainly, Heraclitus. The offering of Heraclitus book to the temple of Artemis in Ephesus can be interpreted from this new perspective.

“We are not terrorists!” UK‐based Iranians, consumption practices and the “torn self”

This paper presents an exploratory study of the consumption practices of UK‐based young Iranians. Based on a series of in‐depth interviews and participatory observation we provide an insight into the identity‐constituting meanings associated with consumption practices. We illustrate how individuals use consumption discourses to tackle a series of ideological tensions in their sociocultural settings, both in Iran and in the UK. We describe how in a theocratic state individuals use commodified cultural symbolic mediators to construct and reaffirm a sense of self and identity and also to covertly resist the dominant order. We discuss consumer's paradoxes and dilemmas when confronted with a complex set of clashes between restricting political/institutional dynamics and the emancipatory forces of Western consumption. We conclude by discussing how these contradictions and strategies lead to a form of “torn” self.

Symbols in dialogical structure of semiotics

This article examines how a semiotic model can show symbolic mediation between sign-event and life-event through symbol-mediated interpreting activity, introduces the Vygotskyan concept of symbol, and thus contributes to overcoming the demarcation between dyadic and triadic conception of symbol Three types of semiotic model are introduced: a representational semiotics, an indicative semiotics, and an activity-semiotics. The three systems are correlated in a triad and, in particular, activity semiotics is positioned as Peircean symbol in a Third, mediating representational structure with indicative structure. In relation to mediation and interpretation, a dialogic process of sign relations is discussed: icon, index, and symbol, through which indexical signs are emphasized, enabling the symbolic structure to be dynamic.

Reading Symbols, and Writing words. A Model for Biblical Inspiration

AbstractBiblical Inspiration has long been considered an important concept for Catholic theology, but the difficulties experienced in trying to give an adequate and convincing explanation of how divine and the human authors could collaborate in producing Biblical texts has discouraged many writers from pursuing the topic. Some have considered that the difficulties are so great that the task of exploring a theology of Inspiration is too great to make the effort worthwhile.This article, in attempting to sketch a model for Biblical Inspiration, begins by trying to identify exactly what is required for the theology of Inspiration, and then discarding what is not; it also sets out to distinguish clearly between Revelation and Inspiration, while recognising that the two are closely related, and using a model of symbolic mediation for Revelation. The article goes on to propose a model of Inspiration which satisfies not only the demands of contemporary Biblical scholarship and philosophical hermeneutics, but also the requirements of the doctrine of Inspiration as found in the Magisterial documents of the Catholic Church.

Dialogue, Identity, and Inclusion: Administrators as Mediators in Diverse School Contexts

This article describes a study that explores the identities that principals assume as they engage in dialogue in diverse school contexts. In particular it focuses on the various dimensions of one identity—that of mediator—and illustrates how this identity shapes the way in which administrators converse with others and how it affects efforts toward inclusion. Administrators in this study assumed either active or symbolic mediator identities in their quest to communicate with their respective school communities. They also devised strategies to deal with contradictions between their expressed inclusive values and their actual communication practices.

Символическое и знаковое опосредствование в познавательной деятельности

In the article the problem of sign and symbolic forms of mediation is posed as well as the problem of symbolic and other forms of imagery reflection. The issues of functions of symbolic mediation and symbolic and sign mediation sequence of appearance during ontogeny are discussed. The conditions of emergence of symbolic mediation are viewed.

Construção e crítica na nova sociologia francesa

Este artigo propõe uma análise comparativa das sociologias de Bourdieu, Boltanski/Thévenot e Latour/Callon. Seguindo uma dialética descendente, das estruturas materiais Bourdieu às alturas ideais de Boltanski e Thévenot e às platitudes de Latour e Callon, o autor expõe em um primeiro tempo o estruturalismo genético de Bourdieu como um pensamento racional e relacional, que estabelece uma prioridade às estruturas. Ele mostra que o desvio objetivista da teoria dos campos e dos habitus tende a esvaziar as capacidades reflexivas de que dispõem os atores e a reduzi-los a simples agentes. Em um segundo momento, o autor mostra que a sociologia da crítica de Boltanski e Thévenot permite retificar ou corrigir a sociologia crítica. Ela introduz, firmemente, as mediações simbólicas que são as Cidades e concebe os Dispositivos como comutadores, que restabelecem o laço com a macrossociologia. Enfim, em um terceiro e último momento, o autor critica a eliminação das estruturas materiais e ideais que configuram a ação para a sociologia dos atores em rede. Ela se fixa nas práticas que performam o mundo, associando os humanos e os não humanos, em um tecido sem costura e sem fim que cobre o mundo.