Unconventional Perspectives Research Articles

Architectural learning networks: a study on eliciting the learning agendas of architectural schools

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to demonstrate how network theory and methods can provide insights into the forces shaping architectural learning agendas and knowledge construction in architectural schools.Design/methodology/approachThe methodology involves conceptualising learning as a constructivist process and the agenda as an interconnected network of actors, concepts and relations. Network analysis techniques, including centrality and brokerage metrics, are used to identify roles and knowledge flows using the data locally collected from Turkish universities as well as from the OpenSyllabus open-source database.FindingsThe analysis reveals the enduring influence of early modernists, signalling imbalanced canon formation in the architectural learning system. However, marginal voices highlight struggles in integrating unconventional perspectives. Limited integration of local figures indicates a consolidation of Eurocentric epistemes. Identifying these hidden forces is vital for reimagining learning agendas and socio-culturally engaged forms of learning. Pioneering figures demonstrate potential for synthesis when situated as brokers, not bifurcated schools.Research limitations/implicationsThe outcomes are limited by the geographical and temporal boundaries of the data and the analysis method employed. Despite limitations, the diagnostic network framework reveals architectural learning as an open, contested ecosystem demanding pluralistic pedagogies concerning not only the global but the local, both canonical and marginal. Further research covering more data could enrich the understanding of qualitative complexities.Practical implicationsThe network perspective prompts critical reflexivity about power, ideology and exclusion in knowledge construction. Strategic inclusion and diversification of voices provide pathways to bridge divides and ground learning locally.Originality/valueThis research offers a methodology model to examine forces and influences shaping architectural education by elucidating hidden and remote roles and knowledge gaps in learning agendas. Extending the techniques more widely can enable strategic interventions toward inclusive, impactful learning across disciplines, time and geographies.

Decolonising Knowledge Production about Ukraine: A Security Aspect

The article aims to identify some of the misrepresentations of Ukraine that originated in Russia and led to distorted perceptions of Ukraine in the English-speaking academia. Apart from that, the article aims to expose the reasons behind the emergence of such misrepresentations, the way to counter them, and the pitfalls of using them in security analysis. The article hypothesizes that the traditional colonial perception of Ukraine prevents Western scholars and policy-makers, whom these scholars consult, from adequately interpreting and securitizing the acuteness of the contemporary Russian threat. To complete the research, the article draws from decolonial and securitization theories. The article argues that the centuries-long othering and denial of agency of Ukraine, combined with the lack of specific expertise on the country and the colonial tradition of knowledge production, led to a comparatively inconsistent response of Western academia to the post-2014 Russian aggression against a sovereign nation. To address the existing inadequacy, Western scholars should become more open to the opinions of their Ukrainian colleagues, accept the merit of unconventional perspectives, and revise Russo-centrism in research frameworks and teaching curricula.

How to enrich team research in healthcare by considering five theoretical perspectives.

The aim of this paper is to inspire team research to apply diverse and unconventional perspectives to study team dynamics and performance in healthcare settings. To illustrate that using multiple perspectives can yield valuable insights, we examine a segment of a team interaction during a heart-surgery, using five distinct interdisciplinary perspectives known from small group research: the psychodynamic, functional, conflict-power-status, temporal, and social identity perspectives. We briefly describe each theoretical perspective, discuss its application to study healthcare teams, and present possible research questions for the segment at hand using the respective perspective. We also highlight the benefits and challenges associated with employing these diverse approaches and explore how they can be integrated to analyze team processes in health care. Finally, we offer our own insights and opinions on the integration of these approaches, as well as the types of data required to conduct such analyses. We also point to further research avenues and highlight the benefits associated with employing these diverse approaches. Finally, we offer our own insights and opinions on the integration of these approaches, as well as the types of data required to conduct such analyses.

When Money Talks. A History of Coins and Numismatics by F. L. Holt

Reviewed by: When Money Talks. A History of Coins and Numismatics by F. L. Holt Antonino Crisà F. L. Holt. When Money Talks. A History of Coins and Numismatics. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2021. Pp. 336. £25.99. ISBN 9780197517659. Publishers are invited to submit new books to be reviewed to Professor Lawrence Kowerski, Classics Program, Hunter College, 695 Park Ave., New York, NY 10065; email: lawrence.kowerski@hunter.cuny.edu. The title of this book clearly reflects its essence. When Money Talks is a novel book on coins. They are examined and "narrated" as speaking objects and contextualized in a variety of circumstances, epochs, and frameworks. This book is also a work on numismatics, the discipline that studies coins through various methodological approaches and links with other fields of studies (history, archaeology, art history, economics, etc.). Frank Lee Holt, professor at the Department of History at the University of Houston, opts for wider and unconventional perspectives on the numismatic discipline, also including a new subfield (cognitive numismatics) and current forms of alternative coins (see, for instance, Bitcoins). Chapter 1 of Holt's book is a general introduction to coins, which tells us the basics of numismatics ranging from ancient to modern and contemporary case studies. The author also provides information on the magic and mystery that coins and banknotes can conceal (see, for instance, the Masonic symbols printed on US dollars) (8–9). Chapter 2, "From the Coin's Point of View," is a conceptual and broad analysis of coins that "exist only for reasons of our own choosing and in forms of our own making" (19). Coins can be produced in large quantities for different purposes, and, therefore, the perception that human beings have of them changes from time to time. "The Invention of Coins" is a more historically narrated chapter that explains how coins have been conceived and then invented to overcome the first forms of barter (35–38). Holt describes the evolution of early coinages in Lydia until the establishment of the mint states, which issued coins for pride and profit, two correlated aspects of self-promotion (48). Chapters 4 and 5 both focus on the history of numismatists, but not in the traditional way that one would expect. In chapter 4, Holt first considers the Greeks as the earliest numismatists ("the inclination of the ancient Greeks to examine everything made them natural numismatists") (55), then the Roman tresviri monetali, because they "had more than an ordinary knowledge of Roman currency" (62), and even "Jesus the numismatist from Nazareth" (66). Such an approach, even if nonconformist, is certainly noteworthy, since the author revolutionizes the very concept of being a numismatist. Chapter 5 ("The Second Wave") is entirely focused on antiquarian studies from the Renaissance to the work of Joseph Eckhel (1737–1798), the inventor of modern numismatics. The next evolution of the discipline is described in chapter 6. The author continues his narrative on numismatists in the first half of the nineteenth century, when private collectors – like the Danish merchant Thomsen – began to buy hundreds or even thousands of ancient coins, which made their way into freshly arranged collections. At that point, the constant demand for collectable coins generated a vast antiquarian coin market. While collectors enlarged their collections, new scholars, such as Théodore Mionnet (1770–1842), perfected [End Page 107] numismatic analysis. Meanwhile, the foundation of numismatic societies led to the birth of professional journals, like Revue numismatique (1836) and Numismatic Chronicle (1838). Chapter 7 ("Finding Hoards") provides a series of new perspectives on coin hoards. For instance, Holt pinpoints the effect of looting coins or the concept of hoarding in ancient literature (109–110). Opening with a short section on the importance of hoards for historians, archaeologists, numismatists, and economists, Chapter 8 ("Why Hoards Matter") is more focused on their interpretation and assessment. Holt proposes a special (and intriguing) factor (X), which represents the misery index (133), in connection with the failure to recover coin hoards by their original owners. "The Ethos and Ethics of Collecting," the penultimate chapter, is shaped as a narrative mainly involving a coin-collector scholar and some Classics students discussing the ethical problems related to coin collecting. It...

Performing a Version of Themselves: A Comparative Analysis of Želimir Žilnik’s Work with Nonprofessional Actors

Želimir Žilnik’s films are marked by the director’s work with nonprofessional actors who come from the social periphery or marginalized communities and offer unconventional perspectives about social conditions and history. As the title of Žilnik’s recent retrospective exhibition ‘Shadow citizens’ indicates, his films present individuals who embody alternatives to their time’s ruling ideology. These characters include homeless men in communist-era Novi Sad, guest workers in Germany, drag queens in nationalist-dominated Belgrade, immigrants trying to enter Europe and laid-off industrial workers in post-Yugoslav Serbia. Following the long legacy of filming amateur actors, Žilnik cuts a distinct path in using nonprofessionals. This essay comparatively analyzes his Kenedi trilogy and The Old School of Capitalism (2009) with other recent films of social concern from Eastern European directors to place in relief how Žilnik’s films define the socially marginalized and historically determined position of their subjects. This article argues that Žilnik’s films present a critical development in the cinematic practice of reenactment and the use of nonprofessional actors since the director makes it possible for his amateurs to simulate and critically revise their reality on the film screen.

The Evolution of Geographic Thought

AbstractThe formal institutional entity we today call ‘Geography’ only exists because of nineteenth‐century struggles over the science, theology, and politics of human evolution. Old struggles continue even as today’s geographic thought evolves at an accelerating pace, amidst the dramatic transformations wrought by CRISPR gene‐editing technoscience and the consolidation of computational‐cultural forms of accumulation in surveillance capitalism. This paper explores some of the contradictions of these old and new processes in the evolution of geography and the geography of evolution. New, unconventional perspectives are possible with a synthesis of David Harvey’s theory of co‐evolutionary spheres of change in human and non‐human relations, Vine Deloria, Jr.’s analysis of Indigenous/Western settler‐colonial dialectics of space and time, and Pierre Teilhard de Chardin’s portrayal of a noösphere of planetary consciousness. On the advancing frontiers of the Delorian noösphere, humanity confronts a proliferation of neo‐Lamarckian challenges and opportunities to create new geographies of planetary evolution.

Food as a new old commons

The industrial food system, which is becoming highly dominant, is increasingly failing to fulfil its basic functions: producing food in a sustainable manner, feeding people adequately and avoiding hunger. As hunger remains steadily high and obesity numbers do not cease to grow in a world that is overconsuming natural resources far beyond planetary boundaries, producing food unsustainably and wasting one third of it, there is a need to bring unconventional perspectives into the debate on possible solutions for a transition towards a fairer and sustainable food system. The dominant paradigms that have sustained human development and economic growth during the twentieth century (productivism, consumerism, individualism, survival of the fittest, the tragedy of the commons and endless growth) do not provide viable solutions to the multiple crises and the current challenges. Considering food as a commons can be an alternative paradigm worth exploring. The food commons, anchored to the adequate valuation of the multiple dimensions of food to humans, can provide a discourse of convergence that embraces contemporary (i.e. urban innovations) and customary (i.e. indigenous practices) food activities, being at the same time the aspirational vision that coalesce the different collective actions for food into a networked web that relentlessly grows to challenge and render obsolete the industrial food system that only values the economic dimension of food as a commodity, keeps food producers hungry and makes food consumers obese.

Response to Comments on “Conventional and Unconventional Perspectives on Attachment and Attachment Problems: Comparisons and Implications, 2006–2016”

Response to Comments on “Conventional and Unconventional Perspectives on Attachment and Attachment Problems: Comparisons and Implications, 2006–2016”

A Critical Response to Jean Mercer’s Article: Conventional and Unconventional Perspectives on Attachment and Attachment Problems: Comparisons and Implications. The Institute for Attachment and Child Development Model

The present article is in response to Mercer’s (Child Adolesc Social Work J. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10560-017-0511-7, 2017) manuscript Conventional and Unconventional Perspectives on Attachment and Attachment Problems: Comparisons and Implications, 2006–2016. Mercer evaluated the progress, or lack thereof, in therapeutic practices concerning reactive attachment disorder (RAD) in response to the Report of the American Professional Society on the Abuse of Children (APSAC) Task Force on Attachment Therapy, Reactive Attachment Disorder, and Attachment Problems (Chaffin et al., in Child Maltreatment 11:76–89, 2006). The authors of the present article concur that unconventional approaches to RAD were once practiced in the attachment field and that continued research is important to identify research-supported treatment. Fortunately, however, children with RAD and their families have already benefited from the practical knowledge and research gained with time and the advancements in intervention currently available to treat the effects of early trauma in children. The Institute for Attachment and Child Development inpatient model serves as one such example and will be outlined regarding theory, assessment, treatment and research in this article.

Aligning Hare Krishna

The underlying premise of this case study of the growth and development of the Hare Krishna movement is that frame alignment is a necessary, but largely unexplored, element in recruitment to religious movements. Attention is given here to the interactive and communicative processes used by ISKCON members in the United States as they strategically sought to align the practices, goals and beliefs of the movement with the unconventional interests and perspectives of recruits from the 1960s counterculture. The alignment processes described here represent attempts to gain the provisional interest of potential recruits. Whether successful or not, the alignment strategies helped define the Hare Krishna movement in America. As the counterculture declined in the mid-1970s, however, the leadership turned to a new constituent base of Hindu immigrants from India to secure the movement’s future. This required new forms of alignment that contributed to the Hinduization of the North American Hare Krishna movement.

A Critical Response to Jean Mercer’s Article on Conventional and Unconventional Perspectives on Attachment and Attachment Problems

This paper provides a critical response to Jean Mercer’s article published in the Child and Adolescent Social Work Journal (2017, https://doi.org/10.1007/s10560-017-0511-7 ), which reviewed articles published on attachment theory, practice, and research in past decade. Jean Mercer further classified information in two categories of conventional and unconventional. Primarily, the purpose of this paper is to contest this classification. This paper posits that conceptualization underlying both these categories can be linked to core tenets of attachment theory. It further identifies that attachment-related concerns occur on a continuum, and adequate guidance is not available to clinicians to diagnose it as such. At one end of the spectrum are attachment insecurities and at the other end disorders like reactive attachment disorder and disinhibited social engagement disorder. Not acknowledging the spectrum of attachment problems can result in inadequate guidance to clinicians, leading to idiosyncratic diagnosis and treatment. The absence of validated diagnostic assessment methods has further exacerbated this issue. Limited research base for conventional or unconventional approaches has allowed the growth of treatment models with the potential to harm clients. Promoting new thinking, devising validated diagnostic methods, and strengthening evidence-base for treatments for attachment-related problems are the challenges facing the practitioners in the field of child and adolescent mental health, researchers in this field, and watch-guard organizations.

A Response to Controversies in Attachment Disorders

This paper reviews Dr. Jean Mercer’s 2017 manuscript on Conventional and Unconventional Perspectives on attachment disorders. I will discuss assessment and summary of attachment disorders and the evaluation of attachment therapies in social work education and practice. I will conclude with the role of attachment theory in social work education and practice and the evaluation of evidence-based research theory and practice in attachment disorders.

Conventional and Unconventional Perspectives on Attachment and Attachment Problems: Comparisons and Implications, 2006–2016

A task force report published 10 years ago (Chaffin et al., Child Maltreatment 11:76–89, 2006) cautioned strongly against potentially harmful unconventional principles and practices related to assessment and treatment of childhood attachment problems. In an exploration of changes over a decade in such assessment and treatment, the present paper reports results of a search for material about attachment problems in children done by means of Academic Search Complete and Google, and by examination of specific websites. The paper examines print and Internet publications on both conventional and unconventional approaches to attachment problems as they have appeared since the 2006 report. The contrast between conventional and unconventional perspectives remained at least as clear in 2016 as it was in 2006. Changes in conventional views of assessment, treatment, research, and theory about attachment have apparently had little influence on unconventional approaches, nor has the reverse occurred. Most of the principles and practices against which Chaffin et al. warned remain in place and may influence families and some mental health professionals. Understanding the contrast between the two perspectives, and the continuing possible effect of unconventional methods, can be advantageous for psychologists and social workers working with children or parents and for those involved with the courts.

What We Have Learned and What We Have Missed in Tuberculosis Pathophysiology for a New Vaccine Design: Searching for the "Pink Swan".

This is a call to encourage the search for a new vaccine to stop the progression of Mycobacterium tuberculosis infection to tuberculosis (TB) disease. TB is a highly discreet and stigmatized disease, with a massive impact on human health. It has killed 1.2 billion people in the last 200 years and still kills 1.5 million people per year. Over the last 20 years, the TB vaccine field has experienced spectacular developments, and we have learned about (1) the importance of the Th1 response in controlling infection, mainly against RD1 and Ag85 antigens; (2) the stability of the antigenic repertoire; (3) the dynamics of M. tuberculosis granulomas; or (4) the link between typical and atypical pulmonary TB and the immune status of the host. However, we still do not (1) know how to avoid M. tuberculosis infection and reinfection; (2) understand the major role of the increase in lesion size in progression from infection to disease; (3) the role of interlobular septa in encapsulating pulmonary lesions; or (4) the role of neutrophilic infiltration and an exaggerated inflammatory response in the development of TB disease. These are strong reasons to pursue new, imaginative proposals involving both the antibody response and a balanced, tolerant immune response that averts progression toward TB. So far, the scientific mindset has been quite monolithic and has mainly focused on the stimulation of conventional T cells. But this approach has failed. For that reason, we are seeking unconventional perspectives to find a “pink swan,” a more efficacious and safer vaccine candidate.

Hyphenated hydrology: Interdisciplinary evolution of water resource science

AbstractHydrology has advanced considerably as a scientific discipline since its recognized inception in the mid‐twentieth century. Modern water resource related questions have forced adaptation from exclusively physical or engineering science viewpoints toward a deliberate interdisciplinary context. Over the past few decades, many of the eventual manifestations of this evolution were foreseen by prominent expert hydrologists. However, their narrative descriptions have lacked substantial quantification. This study addressed that gap by measuring the prevalence of and analyzing the relationships between the terms most frequently used by hydrologists to define and describe their research. We analyzed 16,591 journal article titles from 1965–2015 in Water Resources Research, through which the scientific dialogue and its time‐sensitive progression emerged. Our word frequency and term cooccurrence network results revealed the dynamic timing of the lateral movement of hydrology across multiple disciplines as well as the deepening of scientific discourse with respect to traditional hydrologic questions. The conversation among water resource scientists surrounding the hydrologic subdisciplines of catchment‐hydrology, hydro‐meteorology, socio‐hydrology, hydro‐climatology, and eco‐hydrology gained statistically significant momentum in the analyzed time period, while that of hydro‐geology and contaminant‐hydrology experienced periods of increase followed by significant decline. This study concludes that formerly exotic disciplines can potentially modify hydrology, prompting new insights and inspiring unconventional perspectives on old questions that may have otherwise become obsolete.

The scientist's guide to summer reading Groovy Science Knowledge, Innovation, and American Counterculture David Kaiser and W. Patrick McCray, Eds. University of Chicago Press, 2016. 432 pp. Who Cooked Adam Smith's Dinner? A Story About Women and Economics Katrine Marçal Pegasus, 2016. 240 pp. Grunt The Curious Science of Humans at War Mary Roach Norton, 2016. 285 pp. Pinpoint How

Convinced that the secret to a sniper's success is all in his aim? You're underestimating the role of Velcro. Think that artisanal cheesemakers represent the ultimate rejection of mainstream science? Think again. From an upbeat meditation on death to a snarky critique of economics, this year's picks offer delightfully unconventional perspectives on a range of scientific topics. Join a birdsong expert as he ditches academia for a cross-country bicycle tour, embrace the unknown in an exploration of the cosmos, and get lost (pun intended) in a quest to uncover the implications of modern mapping technologies.

Learning to Circumvent the Limitations of the Written-Self: The Rhetorical Benefits of Poetic Fragmentation and Internet ‘Catfishing’

One of the most complex relationships we have to convey as humans is the written identification of that which we call the self. Despite the fact that we are multifaceted beings, contemporary lingual limitations often force the perception of the individual as a definitive entity through three fundamental normative communication standards: authority, authenticity and moral accountability. This essay examines the resulting paradoxes of writerly identity in relation to these constructs, and simultaneously proposes that the way to rectify such issues is to embrace disparate identity performances of writings past and present.Using research from multiple disciplines, including sociolinguistics, literary theory, and composition studies, this essay asserts that there is a great deal to be learned from the practices of two unlikely genres of written communication— Specifically, it draws a parallel between current internet culture and poetics, as the phenomenon of “catfishing” (or creating and portraying complex fictional identities through online profiles) parallels earlier Modernist acts of fragmentation through poetry. Therefore, this paper argues that although their motives may differ considerably, both endeavours are useful rhetorical performances in that they provide a practical framework for circumventing common lingual identity traps. Ultimately, it suggests that these unconventional perspectives of the “impersonal” in and through writing can help us to (re)approach the methodology of lingual identification and those written performances of the self (professional and everyday) that may not properly serve us.

Transforming global governance: images of futures from people on the periphery

Purpose– The topics of an emerging planetary civilisation and its common affairs, global problems requiring coordinated worldwide responses and contested forms of globalisation are collectively stimulating an international conversation about alternatives to the current system of global governance. The purpose of this paper is to introduce new voices to the conversation, providing unconventional perspectives of possible futures to those found in much of the scholarly literature. These perspectives are those of the Unrepresented Nations and Peoples Organisation (UNPO), an international non-government organisation comprising nations and peoples not represented at the United Nations (UN).Design/methodology/approach– Collectively the discourses and worldviews of the UNPO, feminists, social and environmental movements, Cosmopolitan Democrats, technocrats and the Commission on Global Governance reveal contesting images of global governance futures in which the UN is transformed in ways that are aligned to emerging forms of alternative globalisations. The Causal Layered Analysis (CLA) futures research method is used to construct models of each group’s preferred global governance future from elements of their discourses and deeply held ideological commitments.Findings– Structural aspects are also considered and the author offers an analytical framework summarising the models against the layers of CLA and the history, power base, globalisation worldview and agency congruent with each model. The models are then presented as visionary scenarios generating images of future alternatives while providing an opportunity to hear what the nations unrepresented in the current system have to say.Originality/value– Their image produced a more inclusive, egalitarian and holistic image of a global governance future when compared with the “business as usual” UN future. As we approach 2015 and the 70th anniversary of the establishment of the UN, this conversation provides a timely prompt for the review of the UN system of global governance and an opportunity for the UN to consider how it might transform to retain relevance in a rapidly changing global environment.

El padre transgresor: Crisis familiar y crisis social en el teatro popular bonaerense, 1896–1934

This article analyzes how five exemplary works of Argentine popular theater (1896–1934) construct unconventional readings of a perceived social crisis during Argentina's insertion into the global capitalist market. While dominant discourses focused on women's “errant” sexuality as the source of social demise, these works place the father figure —metaphor for social leadership— at the center of the debate to explore the chain of factors that hinder these fathers from fulfilling their “proper” gender roles, which ultimately causes the so-called social crisis. This focus on the paternal figure allows these plays to posit that social crisis stemmed from a destructive capitalistic logic based on the circulation of money, fraud, competition, and theft rather than from “errant” women. The recovery of these unconventional perspectives contributes to a more complex understanding of discourses on gender in the period, as well as of the relationship between discourses on everyday life and modernization.

Development of a Microfluidic Platform to Study Effects of Physical Stresses on Microglial Activation

Brain cells are surrounded by bodily fluids such as cerebral interstitial and cerebrospinal fluid and exposed to continuous electrical stimulations. These physical microenvironments are known to play an important role in the mechanical protection of the brain cells and regulation of their functions in both physiological and pathological states. Among many cell types, microglia cells sensitively respond to the changes in physical stimuli and are transformed into different activation states featuring distinct morphological and migration patterns. To study microglial activation in a brain-like environment, we developed a microfluidic channel to realize physiologically relevant physicochemical microenvironments of controlled interstitial flow, electric field, and chemical gradients. Under various shear stress conditions, bipolar cells are transformed into an amoeboidal cells with enhanced spreading movement. Similarly, electric field promotes transformation of microglial phenotype with enhanced migration as well as phagocytic activity. Since the change in the activation state of microglia is closely related to neurodegenerative diseases, this work might provide unconventional perspectives for pathological outbreaks in the brain.Acknowledgement: This research was supported by the fundamental research project (A0601003001) and high risk high return project (N10140037) funded by KAIST.