scholarly journals Liquid Narrative of European Cultural Identity in the Time of Uncertainty (2008–2020)

2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
pp. 100-115
Author(s):  
Donata Bocullo
Keyword(s):  
Cultural Identity ◽  
Social Interactions ◽  
Hate Speech ◽  
Personal Narratives ◽  
Research Approach ◽  
Collective Identities ◽  
Digital Platforms ◽  
The Right ◽  
Holistic Research ◽  
Global Identities

Abstract As Leonidas Donskis (2016: 9) once wrote, “Europe has been saved many times by its narrative powers”. In this time of uncertainty and disasters, our public narratives are filled with gossips, conspiracies, intolerance, and hate speech that strengthen divisions in society. During pandemic lockdowns, when physical closeness is exchanged with social interactions online and when global identities and culture are uploaded on digital platforms, we ask: what does it mean to be European in a time of uncertainty and what binds our collective identities and helps us to overcome our fears and anxieties? Considering the past and present (2008–2020) global and European economic, political, healthcare, and cultural as well as personal crises, this auto-ethnographic essay raises these questions: How can personal narratives help to strengthen European cultural identity in these times of uncertainty? Do personal narratives weaken collective identities? By using an auto-ethnographic approach, this paper is an attempt to determine whether a holistic research approach can be used in the analysis of “liquid” European cultural identity and personal narratives. Therefore, this paper is not just for finding the right answers or right stories but is meant to act rather as a stepping stone for further discussion on how to communicate European cultural identity and how to raise self-identification, cultural solidarity, and unity during these times of uncertainty.

scholarly journals Narratives of Translation and Belonging in Multilingual Performance: The Case Study of 20/20

2013 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jozefina Komporaly
Keyword(s):  
Cultural Identity ◽  
Ethnic Conflict ◽  
Collective Identities ◽  
And Performance ◽  
The Right

This article investigates ways in which theatre and performance have the potential to revisit and re-interpret ideological narratives. Drawing on the politics of transnational performance-making processes, it examines how multilingual theatre productions can contribute to the production of subjective and collective identities, and help articulate ideas and perceptions of belonging. With reference to 20/20 – a piece of documentary-style theatre about a major inter-ethnic conflict that took place in 1990 in a bilingual city in Romania – this case study maps out arguments for utilizing multilingualism on stage, and engages with the ethics of representation in the process of multilingual transfer. Billed as  ‘multi-ethnic and multilingual’, the production embraces an agenda that goes beyond the examination of an isolated local conflict and makes the point that both theatre-making and theatre-going are experiences that strongly interact with narratives of cultural identity and hybridization. Thus, the representation of belonging or not belonging is tied in with questions of agency, and the right of individuals to affirm and indeed interrogate their hereditary links to a community.

The social context of alcohol use among Māori in Aotearoa/New Zealand: Reflections of life experiences of alcohol use by older Māori

2017 ◽  
Vol 12 (1) ◽  
pp. 57 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sarah Herbert ◽  
Margaret Forster ◽  
Timothy McCreanor ◽  
Christine Stephens
Keyword(s):  
New Zealand ◽  
Social Context ◽  
Alcohol Use ◽  
Cultural Identity ◽  
Research Approach ◽  
Face To Face ◽  
Aotearoa New Zealand ◽  
The Social ◽  
The Right

<p class="Abstract">To broaden public health approaches to alcohol use, this study provides an initial exploration of the social context of alcohol use among Māori in Aotearoa/New Zealand, from the perspectives of older Māori. Utilising a Māori-centred research approach, face-to-face interviews were conducted with 13 older Māori people to explore their personal experiences of alcohol use across their lifetime. Thematic analysis was used to identify common themes that contextualised stories of alcohol use within a Māori cultural framework. Four themes were identified: alcohol use within (1) a sporting culture, (2) a working culture, (3) the context of family, and (4) Māori culture. These themes highlight the influence of social factors such as the desire to socialise and seek companionship; the physical location of alcohol use; the importance of social networks, particularly <em>whānau</em> (family); and the role of cultural identity among Māori. In regard to cultural identity, the role of the <em>marae</em> (traditional meeting place/s of Māori), <em>tikanga</em> (the right way of doing things), and the relationship of <em>kaumātua</em> (respected elder) status to personal and whānau alcohol use are highlighted as important focuses for further research among Māori in Aotearoa/New Zealand.</p>

The right to cultural identity

2014 ◽  
Vol 29 (2013) ◽  
pp. 597-619 ◽  
Author(s):  
Valeria Piergigli
Keyword(s):  
Cultural Identity ◽  
The Right

scholarly journals Local-Indigenous Autonomy and Community Streetscape Enhancement: Learnings from Māori and Te Ara Mua—Future Streets Project

2021 ◽  
Vol 18 (3) ◽  
pp. 865
Author(s):  
Kimiora Raerino ◽  
Alex Macmillan ◽  
Adrian Field ◽  
Rau Hoskins
Keyword(s):  
Cultural Identity ◽  
Urban Design ◽  
Indigenous Peoples ◽  
Indigenous Communities ◽  
Collective Agency ◽  
Research Approach ◽  
Indigenous Autonomy ◽  
Spatial Justice ◽  
Aotearoa New Zealand ◽  
Kaupapa Māori

In settler countries, attention is now extending to the wellbeing benefits of recognising and promoting the Indigenous cultural identity of neighbourhoods as a contributing factor to more equitable and healthier communities. Re-indigenisation efforts to (re)implement cultural factors into urban design can be challenging and ineffective without the leadership and collaboration of local-Indigenous peoples. Undertaken in Aotearoa New Zealand, Te Ara Mua — Future Street project, demonstrated that co-design has critical potential in the reclamation of Indigenous autonomy, increased local-Indigenous presence and revitalisation of cultural identity. Employing a Kaupapa Māori (Māori-centred) research approach, we focused on the workings and perspectives of mana whenua (local-Indigenous peoples) and community stakeholder engagement in Te Ara Mua. An Indigenous theoretical framework, Te Pae Mahutonga, was utilised in the data analysis to explore perspectives of Indigenous collective agency, empowerment, and wellbeing. Our research demonstrates that developing capacity amongst Indigenous communities is integral for effective engagement and that the realisation of autonomy in urban design projects has broader implications for Indigenous sovereignty, spatial justice and health equity. Significantly, we argue that future community enhancement strategies must include not only re-designing and re-imagining initiatives, but also re-indigenising.

scholarly journals Lateralization in monogamous pairs: wild geese prefer to keep their partner in the left hemifield except when disturbed

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Elmira Zaynagutdinova ◽  
Karina Karenina ◽  
Andrey Giljov
Keyword(s):  
Social Interactions ◽  
Right Hemisphere ◽  
Natural Setting ◽  
Intraspecific Interactions ◽  
Brain Hemispheres ◽  
Emergency Situations ◽  
Anser Albifrons ◽  
Significant Bias ◽  
Visual Hemifield ◽  
The Right

Abstract Behavioural lateralization, which reflects the functional specializations of the two brain hemispheres, is assumed to play an important role in cooperative intraspecific interactions. However, there are few studies focused on the lateralization in cooperative behaviours of individuals, especially in a natural setting. In the present study, we investigated lateralized spatial interactions between the partners in life-long monogamous pairs. The male-female pairs of two geese species (barnacle, Branta leucopsis, and white-fronted, Anser albifrons geese), were observed during different stages of the annual cycle in a variety of conditions. In geese flocks, we recorded which visual hemifield (left/right) the following partner used to monitor the leading partner relevant to the type of behaviour and the disturbance factors. In a significant majority of pairs, the following bird viewed the leading partner with the left eye during routine behaviours such as resting and feeding in undisturbed conditions. This behavioural lateralization, implicating the right hemisphere processing, was consistent across the different aggregation sites and years of the study. In contrast, no significant bias was found in a variety of geese behaviours associated with enhanced disturbance (when alert on water, flying or fleeing away when disturbed, feeding during the hunting period, in urban area feeding and during moulting). We hypothesize that the increased demands for right hemisphere processing to deal with stressful and emergency situations may interfere with the manifestation of lateralization in social interactions.

scholarly journals COVID-19 and the Human Rights of Nationals Abroad

AJIL Unbound ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 114 ◽  
pp. 317-321
Author(s):  
Guofu Liu
Keyword(s):  
Human Rights ◽  
Hate Speech ◽  
Family Members ◽  
Right To Health ◽  
Standard Of Living ◽  
Work Permit ◽  
Rights Protection ◽  
The Right

The COVID-19 pandemic is having serious and disproportionate effects on nationals abroad and their families globally. Many states have adopted positive measures including temporarily suspending forced returns as well providing visa and work permit extensions, temporary residence, or other forms of regular status to ensure that migrants are accounted for in national responses to the pandemic. Nevertheless, the human rights of nationals abroad and nationals with foreign family members have faced significant challenges. Some states have fully or partially closed entry to all of their own nationals and their foreign family members, in violation of nationals’ right to return and their right of family unification. Other states’ nationals abroad have been unable to enjoy the right to an adequate standard of living and the right to health. Many have also encountered the burdens of hate speech in both their home states and the states in which they live, the effect of which has been to undermine freedom of opinion and expression and the right to equality and non-discrimination. This essay identifies and explains these threats to human rights in the era of COVID-19. The essay encourages states to recommit to rights protection.

Buyer-assisted lean intervention in supplier firms: a supplier development approach

2021 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
Imranul Hoque
Keyword(s):  
Financial Incentives ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
Qualitative Data ◽  
Research Approach ◽  
Capability Development ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Production Capability ◽  
Lean Tools ◽  
The Right ◽  
The Impact

PurposeThis study aims to investigate how buyer-assisted lean intervention in garment supplier factories affects garment suppliers' productivity and production capability development.Design/methodology/approachEmploying a qualitative research approach and a lean intervention design, a multiple case study method was adopted for this study. Quantitative data on productivity performance and qualitative data on production capability development were collected from a Danish buyer and their four corresponding garment suppliers. Collected data were analysed using standard lean measurement tools and qualitative data analysis techniques.FindingsThis study demonstrates that buyer-assisted lean intervention is a useful strategy for garment suppliers to enhance their productivity and production capability. However, suppliers need to select the right lean tools, ensure seriousness and commitment to lean initiatives, substantial involvement of top management and workers, arrange formal and informal training, provide performance-based financial/non-financial incentives and nurture a learning culture to facilitate suppliers' production capability development.Research limitations/implicationsThis study implemented few lean tools in a single sewing line in four supplier factories for a short intervention duration. Thus, there is a scope for future studies to investigate the impact of the lean intervention on a large scale.Practical implicationsThe findings of this study might bring new insights to the management of buyer and supplier firms concerning how buyers could involve in suppliers' lean intervention initiatives and what suppliers need to ensure to develop production capability.Originality/valueFor the first time, this study engaged a buyer in suppliers' lean intervention initiatives to improve productivity and production capability in the garment industry of a developing country.

Confessions of a Free Speech Lawyer

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Rodney A. Smolla
Keyword(s):  
Civil Rights ◽  
Free Speech ◽  
Hate Speech ◽  
Task Force ◽  
Supreme Court Decision ◽  
Law Schools ◽  
History Of ◽  
Gang Rape ◽  
The Right ◽  
The City

This personal and frank book offers an insider's view on the violent confrontations in Charlottesville during the “summer of hate.” Blending memoir, courtroom drama, and a consideration of the unhealed wound of racism in our society, the book shines a light on the conflict between the value of free speech and the protection of civil rights. The author has spent his career in the thick of these tempestuous and fraught issues, from acting as lead counsel in a famous Supreme Court decision challenging Virginia's law against burning crosses, to serving as co-counsel in a libel suit brought by a fraternity against Rolling Stone magazine for publishing an article alleging that one of the fraternity's initiation rituals included gang rape. The author has also been active as a university leader, serving as dean of three law schools and president of one and railing against hate speech and sexual assault on US campuses. Well before the tiki torches cast their ominous shadows across the nation, the city of Charlottesville sought to relocate the Unite the Right rally; the author was approached to represent the alt-right groups. Though the author declined, he came to wonder what his history of advocacy had wrought. Feeling unsettlingly complicit, the author joined the Charlottesville Task Force, and realized that the events that transpired there had meaning and resonance far beyond a singular time and place. Why, he wonders, has one of our foundational rights created a land in which such tragic clashes happen all too frequently?

“If I have to clean, I clean my own shop”: Migrant entrepreneurship as a form of emplacement in times of crisis: The example of Italy

Ethnicities ◽  
2018 ◽  
Vol 19 (2) ◽  
pp. 414-432 ◽  
Author(s):  
Claudia Lintner
Keyword(s):  
Social Interactions ◽  
Work Performance ◽  
Economic Recession ◽  
Research Approach ◽  
Structured Interviews ◽  
Opportunity Structures ◽  
Immigration Laws ◽  
Migrant Entrepreneurship ◽  
New Perspective ◽  
The One

This article analyses the relation between European economic crisis and immigration. It does so by analysing the establishment of migrants’ entrepreneurship activities in Italy, and by looking at how these activities unravel subjects’ agency in confronting constraining socioeconomic conditions and restrictive immigration laws. In this perspective, entrepreneurship should be understood as a possibility for transforming a person’s own incorporated cultural capital into a resource and, consequently, into an opportunity for self-created work performance. Interpreting entrepreneurship as a personal response of migrants to the economic recession offers a new perspective in the existing literature on migrant entrepreneurship. Crisis, in this paper, is not seen as an abstract and supernatural phenomenon leading and controlling the capacity of individuals to act, but is understood as a constructed set of meanings comprising social interactions and relationships and consolidated within public discourses. This study is based on a qualitative-explorative research approach and was carried out in South Tyrol, Italy. For the data collection, different qualitative methods were used: narrative interviews, informal discussions and semi-structured interviews. Data analysis was based on the coding processes described within the Grounded Theory. As the results show, crisis as such represents, on the one hand, a critical moment of transition or transformation of normality and the constituted ways of acting and thinking and, on the other hand, it is perceived as a new opportunity to change individual behaviour and to initiate innovative counter-strategies that will maintain a person’s capacity to act even in critical personal and structural situations. Nevertheless, showing resilience, which is powerful and leads to change, depends not only on personal motivational forces but also to given opportunity structures.

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