“Practical” Hermeneutics of Muhammad Quraish Shihab – between Scilla of Anarchy and Charybdis of Dogmatism

The present article deals with the work of an Indonesian scholar and a public intellectual Muhammad Quraish Shihab. The paper reveals the main principles of Quraish Shihab's Quranic Hermeneutics, which include pragmatism (orienting towards the joint interest), thematic approach and methodological holism. Among the objects of the research there are his innovative approach to Quran exegesis, his links with Egyptian modernist schools of M. Abduh and M.R. Ridah, his ideas, where Islam comes as a “middle way”. Moreover, the article demonstrates the connection between his hermeneutical theory and his social activism, especially in the fi eld of media. The author concludes the paper with a brief explanation of the main points of Quraish Shihab's hermeneutical theory.

Looking into the kaleidoscope of activism: the engagement of care ethics and global bioethics for a refined health security

During public health crises, the United States utilizes a statist approach for securing its population’s health, which places state structures at the center of a (mainly economic) health security. The fairness of this approach relies on a distribution of resources to “trickle down” from institutions to individuals. Yet, “fairness,” in this regard, is determined a priori, that is, without reference to specific individuals who are receiving resources of health. This ignores contextual needs that arise from the disproportionate damage that epidemics and pandemics have on vulnerable populations. A statist approach can make a more equitable impact on global society if it integrates care ethics into its distributive justice. In this paper, I demonstrate how an ethic of care can substantiate health security. First, I show how an ethic of care can be engaged anywhere embodiment is recognizable—not just in the one-on-one setting of the clinical encounter—but in the (inter)national contexts through which public health crises have a full effect on. Second, I provide a methodology for state institutions to recognize the social embodiment necessary to engage an ethic of care in these contexts, specifically engaging the social embodiment that manifests through the social activism of vulnerable populations during public health crises. Third, I demonstrate how the social embodiment that activism lives through forces an encounter with state institutions, mimicking in this manner a clinical encounter on a macrocosmic scale. Finally, I assign an ethic of care to this encounter, meshing caring values to the criteria of distribution.

‘The world’s shortest highway’: Entrepreneurial populism and the making of a personal campaign

‘The world’s shortest highway’ is 1 metre long and was built in 2019 by a Romanian businessman as part of the campaign ‘Romania wants highways’. This brought interesting evolutions to the landscape of social movements in Eastern Europe. It was a highly personalised campaign, one which faced several internal contradictions and displayed an uncritical adoption of stereotypes about progress and development. We argue that it produced a discourse that revolves around ‘Westernisation’ and ‘nationhood’. As this article seeks to demonstrate, the campaign is framed in a discourse of ‘entrepreneurial populism’. By analysing this discourse, we contribute with a peculiar case to the debates on the varieties of populism and on the culture of business celebrities. Our analysis indicates that, although this single-issue campaign is nominally about highways, its substance is rather about business celebrities occupying the space of social activism.

Game-Assisted Social Activism: Game Literacy in Hong Kong’s Anti-Extradition Movement

This paper describes the appropriation of video game culture for discursive use during the 2019–20 Hong Kong anti-extradition movement, with participants relying on game argot for mass protest communication and mobilization purposes, and employing game frameworks (especially from MMORPGs) for organizing protest actions. Data from online forums are used to present examples of video game rhetoric and narratives in protest-related online discourses, to speculate on their symbolic meanings, and to examine ways that borrowed aspects of game culture influenced movement activities. After describing ways that game culture spilled over into social movements, we highlight examples of gaming literacy during dynamic protest situations. Our evidence indicates that the combination of game culture and online gaming literacy strengthened activist toolkits and intensified the “be water” nature of a social movement that many describe as leaderless.

Interactive documentary and the reinvention of digital journalism, 2015–2020

Interactive documentary (i-docs), an innovative hybrid form at the intersection of film, journalism, and digital games, has matured beyond its first wave of experimentation, gaining distinction among the most highly evolved immersive media of the twenty-first century. The latest generation of i-docs is currently winning accolades at both major film festivals and game design summits. This study charts the evolutionary trajectory of North America’s most recent and influential wave of i-docs in works mostly appearing since 2015. It culturally situates i-docs as immersive media that extend experimentation with narrative journalism into the realm of fine art and social activism. Building on the foundation of activist, highly empathic news experiences established in the early 2010s, the most recent advances in i-docs range from live action VR to animated digital games. Such works include the Canadian National Film Board’s 2018 AR (augmented reality) experience East of the Rockies, Occupied’s 2019 Cannes entry The Holy City VR, Roger Ross Williams’ 2019 Tribeca debut Traveling While Black, and iNK Stories Verité VR Series’ 2017 Blindfold and Hero, winner of the prestigious Storyscapes Award at Tribeca in 2018. The vanguard of i-docs has expanded collaboration between film, news, and digital game industries to provide new forms of citizen engagement through advocacy journalism aimed at social and political change. Through the use of John Pavlik’s (2019) critical framework for understanding immersive journalism, this article examines the texts, producers, and industrial contexts of the most recent and influential North American i-docs, as one branch of the form defined by Gaudenzi, Aston, and Rose. Principles of transparency, social responsibility, and a commitment to veracity in i-docs epitomize the esthetic and political potential of digital journalism as an empathic alternative to traditional news coverage.

Monitorowanie własnej motywacji w nauczaniu zdalnym

The article discusses new forms of youth self-control in the Internet space, which are actively developing in the postdigital culture. The text analyzes the form of social activism during the coronavirus syndemia, which the author defined as self-motivation monitoring. The use of this cognitive category prompts reflection on specific examples – the Internet users, and it allows to capture the self-control mechanism’s characteristics of the young generation community on the Internet. The educational discovery of the discussed phenomenon made it possible to notice that there are significant problems in distance learning, and the communities’ cooperation in the network is related to the educational process of creating the common good.

Building a Red Navy: Communist Activism and Military Authority in the Baltic Fleet, 1918–1940

This article examines the activities of the Soviet military-political organs in the Baltic Fleet. It shows that the web of party institutions transformed the fleet into a space of political and social activism that had little to do with the strictly military aspects of government policy. Such activism was nevertheless unfailingly promoted, even as it became clear that it compromised core elements of military efficiency such as discipline and well-defined chains of command. This argument has implications for our broader understanding of the nature of the Soviet state. It indicates that once the Bolsheviks’ revolutionary ideology had become institutionalised in the state via the ubiquitous presence of party organs, pragmatic retreats for organisational efficiency became exceptionally difficult to implement.

Where is the Queer? A case study of LGBTQ representation in Aotearoa New Zealand exhibitions

<p>Modern museums and galleries are cultural spaces that often participate in human rights advocacy and social activism. Exhibitions within these spaces are the physical manifestations of these ideologies, the way that institutions connect with their audiences and with the communities they purport to represent. ‘Where is the Queer?’ explores the ways that museums and galleries in Aotearoa represent queerness within their exhibitions, in various stages of the development process. This dissertation addresses a key gap in the literature by critically re-engaging with queerness, exploring the intersections between queer theory and museum theory in an area under-examined in New Zealand practice. This research was exploratory in nature, utilizing a credible multi-method case study approach to retrieve data from an ephemeral process, exhibition production. Archival documentary research provided the necessary background to the exhibitions’ development, as well as supporting evidence for various curatorial choices. Interviews with curators then established key areas of interest, including curatorial strategies, conceptual goals, tailored public programming, and their perspectives on issues with LGBTQ representation. The findings of this research show that exhibiting queerness is difficult terrain to negotiate, although museums and galleries generally aim to present and include a diversity of perspectives in a balanced way. However, the ways that queerness is represented also tend to rely on now outdated ideologies, such as an emphasis on gay men’s perspectives, reductive ‘coming-out’ narratives, and a neutral stance on the messages the exhibitions put forward. The comparative analysis of the cases points to the need for museums and galleries to engage more critically with queer history, theory and the community more broadly. In practice, this means greater levels of collaboration with the communities they hope to serve, taking a more activist approach that gives authority to queer voices throughout development. This is significant as queer communities become increasingly visible and celebrated in New Zealand society; representing these communities in public spaces needs to be a process in line with current ideas and not rely on defunct, overly simple, or potentially damaging modes of representation. This research therefore has applicability for both museum curatorial practice and a broader human rights movement, by challenging the sector within New Zealand and internationally to engage effectively with queer content.</p>

Where is the Queer? A case study of LGBTQ representation in Aotearoa New Zealand exhibitions

<p>Modern museums and galleries are cultural spaces that often participate in human rights advocacy and social activism. Exhibitions within these spaces are the physical manifestations of these ideologies, the way that institutions connect with their audiences and with the communities they purport to represent. ‘Where is the Queer?’ explores the ways that museums and galleries in Aotearoa represent queerness within their exhibitions, in various stages of the development process. This dissertation addresses a key gap in the literature by critically re-engaging with queerness, exploring the intersections between queer theory and museum theory in an area under-examined in New Zealand practice. This research was exploratory in nature, utilizing a credible multi-method case study approach to retrieve data from an ephemeral process, exhibition production. Archival documentary research provided the necessary background to the exhibitions’ development, as well as supporting evidence for various curatorial choices. Interviews with curators then established key areas of interest, including curatorial strategies, conceptual goals, tailored public programming, and their perspectives on issues with LGBTQ representation. The findings of this research show that exhibiting queerness is difficult terrain to negotiate, although museums and galleries generally aim to present and include a diversity of perspectives in a balanced way. However, the ways that queerness is represented also tend to rely on now outdated ideologies, such as an emphasis on gay men’s perspectives, reductive ‘coming-out’ narratives, and a neutral stance on the messages the exhibitions put forward. The comparative analysis of the cases points to the need for museums and galleries to engage more critically with queer history, theory and the community more broadly. In practice, this means greater levels of collaboration with the communities they hope to serve, taking a more activist approach that gives authority to queer voices throughout development. This is significant as queer communities become increasingly visible and celebrated in New Zealand society; representing these communities in public spaces needs to be a process in line with current ideas and not rely on defunct, overly simple, or potentially damaging modes of representation. This research therefore has applicability for both museum curatorial practice and a broader human rights movement, by challenging the sector within New Zealand and internationally to engage effectively with queer content.</p>