Conflicting Modernities: Militarization and Islands

This chapter mainly points out how militarization as a bureaucratic and discursive “apparatus” results in a colonial modernization. Furthermore, the chapter establishes a direct link between military settlements – by various occupations – and a narrative of modernization and modernity. Both military protocols and the scope of the military activities contribute to a form of colonization and dependence, economically as well as culturally. Militarization is a wider concept involving at least two dimensions: the economic and political factors sustaining the expansion of military spending; and the social, cultural, and ideological dimension. However, the master narrative of modernization clashes with rising claims to autonomy in the local population that assert an alternative modernity.

The master narrative of older employees in changing workplaces

PurposeInterest in older employees increases in times of population ageing. Previous research exploring the situation has underlined older employees' struggle with workplace changes. However, it has not explored their master narrative – the socially shared narrative about older employees that steers behaviour. This study explores this narrative and its differences across changing workplaces. It draws on Lyotard's suggestion that master narratives disintegrate in post-modern societies.Design/methodology/approachThis study conducts focus groups among older Finnish employees of an airline, postal service and social care. These groups experienced different kinds of workplace changes, namely mass layoffs, digitalisation and restructuring. The focus groups highlight the individuals' shared narratives, thereby pinpointing the master narrative.FindingsThe master narrative describes how simultaneous changes at the workplace and in their health lead older employees to look for ways to exit their jobs. This narrative is largely stable across workplaces, showing no disintegration but some variation.Originality/valueThis is the first study on the master narrative of older employees and its disintegration. To the authors’ knowledge, it is also the first study to use focus groups to explore a master narrative.

Poles Apart? The Extent of Similarity Between Online Extremist and Non-extremist Message Content

Within studies of extremism, extremist and non-extremist messages are generally treated as two sets of competing constructed narratives. However, some research has argued that these message forms are not dichotomous and that non-extremist narratives demonstrate overlap with extremist master narratives. The aim of this paper is to test this hypothesis empirically by comparing 250 extremist, 250 mainstream and 250 counter-extremist messages. The paper finds considerable overlap between extremist and non-extremist material. However, an analysis of underlying content suggests that this overlap may not be so much due to the extensive adoption of an extremist master narrative by non-extremist authors, but rather a question of resistance and positioning, specifically, who are authors resisting and why? The findings have implications for counter-extremism policy.

Rethinking 1829

Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy’s 1829 Berlin performance of Bach’s St. Matthew Passion is one of music history’s most legendary events, often cited as the origin of the “Bach Revival.” The historical record makes it clear, though, that Mendelssohn did not single-handedly rediscover Bach or his Passion and that his concert was not the first, even in Berlin, to feature Bach’s sacred vocal music. Nevertheless, the legend persists. This chapter re-examines the sources in search of a more inclusive view of Bach’s reception history in Berlin. In addition, it argues that the rhetoric of legend has endured in spite of the facts because it trades in the reassuring vocabulary of myth. The belief that Mendelssohn’s 1829 concert was a sudden and miraculous rediscovery cannot stand up to the facts, but the traditional story better serves the master narrative of German cultural hegemony in which Bach has played such an essential role.

Marcel Duchamp and New Zealand Art, 1965 – 2007 By Means of Duchamp’s Peripheral Vision: Case Studies in a History of Reception

<p><b>This thesis examines the reception to Marcel Duchamp in New Zealand from 1965 to 2007. It takes as its subject two exceptional occasions when Duchamp’s work arrived in New Zealand and the various ways in which select New Zealand artists have responded to his work since that date. In doing so, this thesis acknowledges the shifting ideologies that underpin the reception of Duchamp which are characteristic of each decade. Thus it reads Duchamp’s reception through the conceptual and ‘linguistic turn’ in post-formalist practices in the late 1960s and 1970s; the neo-avantgarde strategies of the late 1970s and 1980s; a third-wave response to the readymade in the 1990s − which leads to an expanded notion of art as installation practice in the mid- to late 1990s. Finally, it offers a take on the readymade paradigm after post-modernism, as seen in a return to artisanal craft.</b></p> <p>This historical account of artistic practice in New Zealand is woven around two remarkable events that entailed Duchamp’s works actually coming to New Zealand, which I reconstruct for the first time. These are: Marcel Duchamp 78 Works: The Mary Sisler Collection (1904–1963), the exhibition that toured Auckland, Wellington and Christchurch in 1967; and the bequest of Judge Julius Isaacs and Betty Isaacs to the National Art Gallery in 1982 which included three works by Duchamp. The first took place in the 1960s during the first wave of exhibitions that brought Duchamp to a global audience. Here I argue that, rather than a belated response, this was contemporaneous with other events, proving that New Zealand was an active participant in the initial global reception of Duchamp. The second concerns the process by which Duchamp’s works entered a public collection. Here, I offer an account that reveals the uniqueness of Duchamp’s gifting of artworks to friends, and argues for the special importance of this gift, given the scarcity of Duchamp’s work, due to his limited output.</p> <p>This thesis also reads Duchamp through the lens provided by New Zealand’s situation on the periphery. Thus it offers an analysis of Duchamp’s life and work that, while acknowledging his centrality in twentieth-century art, takes from his example those components of his practice deemed relevant to the situation of art and artists here in New Zealand. By this means I locate those elements of Duchamp’s life story, his work and legacy that tell us something new about how to diffuse the power of the centre. Drawing on the consequences of the processes of decentralisation that have reshaped the landscape of global culture, this account reveals new relationships between margin and centre that provide new ways to connect Duchamp with subsequent generations of New Zealand artists. The aim here is to defy the assumed separation of New Zealand from international trends, rethink our subservient ties to England, to offer a new version of a local art history that knits our artists into a global mainstream without rendering them beholden to a master narrative that derives from elsewhere.</p>

Marcel Duchamp and New Zealand Art, 1965 – 2007 By Means of Duchamp’s Peripheral Vision: Case Studies in a History of Reception

<p><b>This thesis examines the reception to Marcel Duchamp in New Zealand from 1965 to 2007. It takes as its subject two exceptional occasions when Duchamp’s work arrived in New Zealand and the various ways in which select New Zealand artists have responded to his work since that date. In doing so, this thesis acknowledges the shifting ideologies that underpin the reception of Duchamp which are characteristic of each decade. Thus it reads Duchamp’s reception through the conceptual and ‘linguistic turn’ in post-formalist practices in the late 1960s and 1970s; the neo-avantgarde strategies of the late 1970s and 1980s; a third-wave response to the readymade in the 1990s − which leads to an expanded notion of art as installation practice in the mid- to late 1990s. Finally, it offers a take on the readymade paradigm after post-modernism, as seen in a return to artisanal craft.</b></p> <p>This historical account of artistic practice in New Zealand is woven around two remarkable events that entailed Duchamp’s works actually coming to New Zealand, which I reconstruct for the first time. These are: Marcel Duchamp 78 Works: The Mary Sisler Collection (1904–1963), the exhibition that toured Auckland, Wellington and Christchurch in 1967; and the bequest of Judge Julius Isaacs and Betty Isaacs to the National Art Gallery in 1982 which included three works by Duchamp. The first took place in the 1960s during the first wave of exhibitions that brought Duchamp to a global audience. Here I argue that, rather than a belated response, this was contemporaneous with other events, proving that New Zealand was an active participant in the initial global reception of Duchamp. The second concerns the process by which Duchamp’s works entered a public collection. Here, I offer an account that reveals the uniqueness of Duchamp’s gifting of artworks to friends, and argues for the special importance of this gift, given the scarcity of Duchamp’s work, due to his limited output.</p> <p>This thesis also reads Duchamp through the lens provided by New Zealand’s situation on the periphery. Thus it offers an analysis of Duchamp’s life and work that, while acknowledging his centrality in twentieth-century art, takes from his example those components of his practice deemed relevant to the situation of art and artists here in New Zealand. By this means I locate those elements of Duchamp’s life story, his work and legacy that tell us something new about how to diffuse the power of the centre. Drawing on the consequences of the processes of decentralisation that have reshaped the landscape of global culture, this account reveals new relationships between margin and centre that provide new ways to connect Duchamp with subsequent generations of New Zealand artists. The aim here is to defy the assumed separation of New Zealand from international trends, rethink our subservient ties to England, to offer a new version of a local art history that knits our artists into a global mainstream without rendering them beholden to a master narrative that derives from elsewhere.</p>

The Quest to Quit: an Exploration of the Cessation - Relapse Cycle of Cigarette Smoking

<p>The smoker's perspective is seldom sought in cessation research. Consequently, cessation approaches may be less effective because they are not based on assumptions and interpretations shared by those who smoke. Understanding how chronic relapsing smokers interpret their predicament could enhance cessation approaches, improving the chances for complete, permanent cessation. To generate such an understanding, five participants were recruited who had attempted to quit smoking several times. Aiming for depth rather than breadth, multiple interviews were conducted with each participant, who also kept an event diary, recording current smoking, nicotine withdrawal, lapsing and relapsing. Narratology, a biographical method of symbolic interactionism drawing on thematic, structural, and dialogic analysis, was used to elicit the participants' points of view from interview and diary data. The findings show that participants make sense of their chronic relapsing through a master narrative of 'willpower versus weakness'. Meanwhile, the tobacco control domain is largely driven by 'cost', and subsidised treatments are driven by the 'addiction' master narrative. This gap between ways of making sense of smoking and relapse can cause self-stigma, reducing the likelihood that quitting will be attempted and that quit attempts will succeed. Changes are proposed to mitigate the negative effects on self-efficacy brought about through the present approach to tobacco control. Ways to improve the effectiveness of existing treatments are suggested. Finally, the value of the narrative method is highlighted, with suggestions for its use in research where elucidating the insider point of view may improve treatment outcomes.</p>

The Quest to Quit: an Exploration of the Cessation - Relapse Cycle of Cigarette Smoking

<p>The smoker's perspective is seldom sought in cessation research. Consequently, cessation approaches may be less effective because they are not based on assumptions and interpretations shared by those who smoke. Understanding how chronic relapsing smokers interpret their predicament could enhance cessation approaches, improving the chances for complete, permanent cessation. To generate such an understanding, five participants were recruited who had attempted to quit smoking several times. Aiming for depth rather than breadth, multiple interviews were conducted with each participant, who also kept an event diary, recording current smoking, nicotine withdrawal, lapsing and relapsing. Narratology, a biographical method of symbolic interactionism drawing on thematic, structural, and dialogic analysis, was used to elicit the participants' points of view from interview and diary data. The findings show that participants make sense of their chronic relapsing through a master narrative of 'willpower versus weakness'. Meanwhile, the tobacco control domain is largely driven by 'cost', and subsidised treatments are driven by the 'addiction' master narrative. This gap between ways of making sense of smoking and relapse can cause self-stigma, reducing the likelihood that quitting will be attempted and that quit attempts will succeed. Changes are proposed to mitigate the negative effects on self-efficacy brought about through the present approach to tobacco control. Ways to improve the effectiveness of existing treatments are suggested. Finally, the value of the narrative method is highlighted, with suggestions for its use in research where elucidating the insider point of view may improve treatment outcomes.</p>

“Once an entrepreneur, always an entrepreneur” positioning analysis of written narratives

PurposeThe negative stereotypes concerning late-career workers are found to prevail and lead to negative circulation of narratives and actions between individuals and societies. Using the context of late-career entrepreneurs, the paper aims to find an alternative and a more positive narrative concerning late-career work by focusing on entrepreneurs and the narrative positioning related to them.Design/methodology/approachThe authors used a narrative-positioning analysis, cycling through three levels of analysis and then returning to level two, in order to study our sample of seven narratives written by Finnish late-career entrepreneurs. The authors present in detail one story-telling narrative, by Matthew, and then layer the remaining six narratives to present themes, positioning and actions surrounding being a late-career entrepreneur.FindingsA more positive narrative circulation was found, which related to the master narrative of entrepreneurs as continuing “until the end” and taking care of themselves, their enterprises and different stakeholder groups even after exiting the enterprise into so-called “retirement.” The entrepreneurs were found to actively use this positive narrative to position themselves both in the story-telling world and in their local interactions. By positioning themselves as “never ending caretakers,” the entrepreneurs gave a strong account that their reasons to continue working centered on the factors social.Research limitations/implicationsThe research findings and analysis should be interpreted in the context of the Nordic countries and especially Finland.Practical implicationsThe results of this study can inform the ways in which these “never ending caretakers” can transition into retirement and adjust to life spent in retirement.Originality/valueIn the study, entrepreneurs' written answers were analyzed with narrative-positioning analyses. An alternative story of people at work was found, and a more positive narrative circulation was constructed based on their narratives.