Ex-servicemen on the road: travel and homelessness

An emerging literature has recently attempted to address the transitory characteristics of the single homeless population. In this paper I contribute to this focus by arguing that one way in which to account for the high mobility of the insecurely accommodated is to focus on its gendered groundings. Drawing on a study of seventeen homeless ex‐servicemen, I explore the long‐term influence of military‐masculine gender ideology in a civilian environment pervaded by disadvantage. The themes of the emotions, camaraderie, alcohol use and ‘freedom from the military’ are discussed within an empirical and theoretical framework. In conclusion, it is suggested that a number of ex‐servicemen are both disposed to, and equipped for, a life on the road, and may become ‘addicted’ to travel and fleeting fixedness to place. It is hoped that these comments have a wider generalisability, and may throw light on the deeper underpinnings of movement for homeless (non ex‐service) men, a number of whom may romanticise their lives ‘on the open road’.     

Human nature and neurosciences: a methodical cultural criticism of naturalism in the neurosciences

In its predominant form, the understanding of the neurosciences, which stand in high public esteem, is a naturalistic one. The critique of this naturalism concerns the technical modelling of brain functions as a syntactic or control loop machine. Adequate solutions to the mind-body problem are not found in this way.An alternative exists in the shape of the methodical-culturalistic approach, which describes the neurosciences as human practice, modelled on the pragmatism of medicine: Starting from (diagnosed and described) defects, the medical practitioner searches for the causes of the disorder.The neuroscientists naïve focus on the central nervous system is replaced by the reflection on the actions and objectives of the neuroscientist himself. This results in a number of conclusions with regard to human/animal comparisons and to the importance of brain research for the self-image of human beings, for instance concerning free will.

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Zusammenfassung Das Verständnis der öffentlich hoch geschätzten Neurowissenschaften ist in vorherrschender Form naturalistisch. Kritik an diesem Naturalismus betrifft die technische Modellierung von Hirnfunktionen als syntaktische oder als Regelkreis-Maschine. Adäquate Lösungen des Geist-Körper-Problems werden dadurch nicht gewonnen.Eine Alternative bietet der methodisch-kulturalistische Ansatz zur Beschreibung der Neurowissenschaften als menschliche Praxis. Der Pragmatismus der Medizin bietet hierfür ein Vorbild: Ausgehend von (erkannten und beschriebenen) Defekten wird nach Störursachen gesucht.Der naive Blick des Neurowissenschaftlers auf das Zentrale Nervensystem wird ersetzt durch die Reflexion auf die Handlungen und Ziele des Neurowissenschaftlers selbst. Daraus ergeben sich einige Folgerungen zum Mensch-Tier-Vergleich und zur Tragweite der Hirnforschung für das menschliche Selbstverständnis etwa hinsichtlich der Willensfreiheit.

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Résumé La compréhension des neurosciences tenues en haute estime par le public est naturaliste dans sa forme prédominante. La critique formulée à lencontre de ce naturalisme concerne le modelage technique des fonctions du cerveau en tant que machine syntactique ou à circuits de régulation. Il ne permet pas daboutir à des solutions appropriées sur le problème du corps et de lesprit.La démarche méthodologique culturaliste servant à décrire les neurosciences comme pratique humaine présente une alternative. Le pragmatisme de la médecine propose ici un modèle : à partir de défauts (identifiés et reconnus), on recherche les causes de la perturbation.Le regard naïf du neuroscientifique sur le système nerveux central est remplacé par une réflexion sur les actes et les objectifs du neuroscientifique lui-même. Il en résulte quelques déductions sur la comparaison homme-animal et sur la portée de la recherche sur le cerveau pour la compréhension humaine de soi, par exemple en ce qui concerne la liberté de la volonté.

     

塔哈·侯赛因的文学批评历程

塔哈·侯赛因在1914年以前已开始涉足文学批评领域,曾就曼弗鲁蒂的<泪水集>和乔治·宰丹的<阿拉伯文学史>撰写过评论文章.但这一时期,他尚未构建起自己鲜明独特且比较完整的文学批评体系,这些尝试只是他文学批评思想的一些最初的零星萌芽,没有在当时的阿拉伯文学批评界产生太大的影响,也没有引起广泛注意.     

On The Face It: the cultural construction of gender in contemporary Australian society

In the past in Manus Province, Papua New Guinea, specialised practices, such as the construction of canoes or traditional slit-drums (garamuts), were the property of patrilineal descent groups. Today, processes of objectification of traditions have generated new cultural identifications and redefined the ways skills are perceived as resources and can be claimed as property. The present article traces contemporary developments of notions of tradition and culture in Manus and discusses these in the light of empirical material obtained in connection with the preparations for an ethnographic exhibition on Manus. The argument is that cultural practices classified as kastam are part of local interpretations of cultural differences in ways that seem contingent with precolonial ‘cultural totemism’ but, as knowledge, cultural practices can also be transacted.     

Defining the Universe of Social Enterprise: Competing Metaphors

After more than a decade of research the debate over social enterprise definitions and classifications continues. EMES network in Europe argues that there is an ideal type of social enterprise to which all ventures should aspire. The spectrum approach emphasizes the trade-off between pure profit-making and social impact, locating organizations on this continuum. The Schumpeterians take innovation as its central focus, arguing that the disruption of the status quo is an important differentiator. We argue that each falls short of providing an adequate framework for future research, policy, and practice. Instead we offer an alternative metaphor, that of a social enterprise zoo; many different “animals” combine social and market goals in substantially different ways and each species has distinct environments and needs. Using the metaphor we consider the important components of a meaningful research agenda and examine the place of social entrepreneurs within the social enterprise zoo.     

Traditional Chinese herbal medicine as cultural power along the Southeast Asian belt and road corridor

In 2013, President Xi Jinping launched the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) as a global strategy to catapult China onto the global stage through port and infrastructure development, financial, technological, trade and cultural connectivity. The BRI embraces six corridors, one of which is the Southeast Asian corridor. Among the BRI portfolio, the Chinese government has identified traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) as an important health commodity for the global and Chinese Diaspora market. It is also promoted as part of the cultural and intangible Chinese heritage. This paper explores TCM as an important cultural power - a variant of soft power - that connects Mainland Chinese and global Chinese communities and enables the formation of regional social and economic networks that assist in the development of trade, leading to the formation of collaborative cultural basins between TCM institutions in China and Southeast Asian nations.     

Falling in love again and again: Marlene Dietrich and the iconization of non‐native English1

Icons are those stars who have become widely established and circulated as enduring international cult figures. Numbered among these is Marlene Dietrich, one of a class of international performers who present in English although not native speakers. Her performances can be theorized as Referee Design, by which speakers target linguistic codes other than their own. Dietrich came to stardom in the 1930 German‐made film, The Blue Angel, which provided her career‐long signature tune, ‘Falling in love again’. Analysis of her pronunciation shows her English as markedly non‐native. Her subsequent Hollywood films crafted Dietrich's image, enregistering her non‐native accent and baritone quality as the first and lasting voice of the femme fatale. For three decades from the 1940s Dietrich toured a live show renowned for her stunning costumes. Comparison of a 1964 stage performance of ‘Falling in love again’ reveals her English as much more native but still retaining a hearably different accent, which is now valorized as her distinctive voice. Dietrich's decades of repeated performances established her iconicity, and her appearance and vocal style – both its timbre and pronunciation – were widely circulated, referenced, imitated, and occasionally parodied. Living the femme fatale persona in her own life, and cultivating her image with extreme reflexivity, Marlene Dietrich achieved the ultimate ingroup identification. In language and appearance, she became her own referee. Ikonen sind jene Stars, die sich als bleibende internationale Kultfiguren etabliert haben. Zu diesen zählt Marlene Dietrich, eine derjenigen internationalen Darsteller, die in englischer Sprache auftreten, obgleich es nicht ihre Muttersprache ist. Ihre Darbietungen können als ,Referee Design‘ bezeichnet werden, wobei sich Sprecher eines Codes bedienen, der nicht ihr Eigener ist. Dietrich wurde durch den 1930 produzierten Film Der Blaue Engel zum Star. Diesem entstammt auch der Titel ,Ich bin von Kopf bis Fuß‘, welcher zu ihrem Markenzeichen wurde. Die Analyse ihrer Englischaussprache weist sie zu dieser Zeit als Nicht‐Muttersprachlerin aus. Ihre späteren Hollywoodfilme festigten Dietrichs Image. Ihre einzigartige Aussprache und baritonartige Sprechweise wurden zum Sinnbild der .Femme Fatale‘. Ab den 40er Jahren trat Dietrich drei Jahrzehnte lang in einer für ihre atemberaubenden Kostüme bekannten Bühnenaufführung auf. Ein Vergleich mit einer Aufführung von ,Ich bin von Kopf bis Fuß‘ aus dem Jahre 1964 zeigt, dass ihre englische Aussprache seither muttersprachlicher geworden ist, aber noch immer einen hörbaren Akzent aufweist, der bereits als ihr Erkennungsmerkmal betrachtet wird. Durch jahrzehntelang wiederholte Aufführungen hat sich Dietrich als Ikone durchgesetzt. Ihr Aussehen und ihre Sprechweise – Klangfarbe sowie Aussprache – waren weit verbreitet und wurden ein Vielfaches nachgeahmt und manchmal sogar parodiert. Dietrich hat die Femme Fatale auch im Privaten gelebt, ihr Image mit höchster Selbstreflexion kultiviert und erreichte dadurch die Spitze der Ingroup‐Identifikation: in Sprache und Aussehen wurde sie ihr eigener ,Referee’. [German]     

论民营企业文化建设

关于民营企业这一概念,理论界仍存在颇多争议,本文是在“国有国营”对称之意义上使用这一概念,即将非国有企业作为民营企业的同义语。文中论及的民营企业主要指私营企业以及由此发展演变而成的股份制、股份合作制企业。长期以来人们始终认为民营企业只是与低层次的生产力水平、科技水平、经营管理水平相适应,始终认为民营企业没有先进文化。在现实生活中往往过多地指责、甚至夸大民营企业文化中存在的某些负面的东西,以致淹没了民营企业文化的主流。我们必须认清支流与主流,区分发展中存在的问题和民营企业的本质属性。民营企业文化的特点1.…     

On artistic and cultural generations in Northeastern Tibet

Beginning in the 1980s, and continuing for over three decades since, a particular generation of Tibetans from the Northeastern Tibetan region known as Amdo, and particularly from the northern parts of China’s Qinghai province, has proven extremely productive. Why has this generation, born primarily between 1959 and 1967, been so incredibly successful? This article examines the contextual factors that may have contributed to the incredible success of this generation. This ranges from the policies and circumstances that affected their births, and the state of the cultural field at the time they reached adulthood. Personal experience narratives, autobiographies, and scholarly studies then reveal how this generation was able to access the intellectual field. Finally, I briefly discuss how the Amdo Tibetan intellectual field compares with other Tibetan and ethnic experiences in the People’s Republic of China.     

Re-Imagining Family Therapy: Choosing the Metaphors We Live By

This paper examines the influence of dominant metaphors in everyday and professional language, and relates this theme to emerging concerns with the historically dominant metaphor in family therapy: the family viewed as a system. Increasing interest is being shown in the development of alternative metaphors, especially those based on aspects of language and literary practice e.g. conversation, discourse, rhetoric, narrative and text. However, the fundamental question remains: how do we choose the metaphors we wish to live by? To address this question, a journey into postmodernist cultural studies is made and the concept of the ethical-poetical imagination is borrowed as a criterion for comparison and choice. From this vantage point, preferences for the metaphorical future of ‘postmodernist’ family therapy are expressed and explained.     

论后现代主义批判的思想逻辑

后现代主义批判主要来自新左派学术阵营,他们坚持反后现代主义的立场具有家族相似性。我们可以将其看作是某种格瓦拉的幽灵在当代的重现。     

Citizenship as cultural: Towards a theory of cultural citizenship

Traditional notions of citizenship have focused on formal membership, including access to rights, in a national community. More recent scholarship has expanded this definition beyond citizenship as a legal status to focus on struggles for societal inclusion of and justice for marginalized populations, citizenship as both a social and symbolic boundary of exclusion, and post‐colonial and post‐national citizenship. In this article, I review conceptions of citizenship that involve more than legal rights. After reviewing this scholarship, I discuss the theoretical framework of cultural citizenship – a move to center the cultural underpinnings of modern citizenship in analyses of citizenship as a boundary of inclusion and exclusion. I use the example of France as one site to locate the connections between citizenship and culture and the cultural underpinnings and implications of citizenship more broadly.     

More Than Protest: Further Explorations of Alternative Metaphors in Narrative Therapy

In the experience of non‐narratively trained therapists, as well as some narratively trained therapists, the ‘protest metaphor’ for framing externalising conversations retains signature status. Yet this metaphor does not adequately represent the breadth of narrative work. As therapist and client reflecting on our joint work, we explore what using a range of metaphors offers to narratively informed therapeutic work. The concept of ‘resistance practices’ from Stacey (1997) is revisited, alternative metaphors employed in externalising conversations are reviewed, and power is re‐examined. We then review the effects on practice that ensue from drawing on a range of alternative metaphors, illustrating our account with extracts from letters and comments on sessions.     

Not forgetting happiness: the tripartite model of disability and its application in literary criticism

This interdisciplinary article draws on the social sciences to posit a tripartite model from which literary research into disability can benefit. Ableism and disablism are defined by normative positivisms and non-normative negativisms respectively, but consideration is also given to non-normative positivisms. Informed by experiential knowledge, the model is illustrated with reference to a trilogy of literary representations of blindness: George Sava’s novel Happiness is Blind, Brian Friel’s play Molly Sweeney, and Stephen Kuusisto’s memoir Eavesdropping. The result is a complex reading that recognises problems but also non-normative renderings of happiness.     

Commitment and the cultural mandate: women in medicine

Though little overt, "actionable" discrimination is apparent in medical schools, a "discriminatory environment" persists, in part because its structure is based on an understanding of "commitment" and "success" congruent with male--but not female--sex role stereotypes and familial roles. Professional commitment--one of the profession's most important criteria for judging a recruit's suitability and potential for success--is used to illustrate how women's choice of careers are channelled and constrained within medicine. Illustrative data are drawn from semi-structured interviews with administrators, faculty, and students in a nationwide sample of medical schools.     

Desiring nature: Identity and becoming in narratives of travel

Abstract

This paper explores the cultural value of desiring nature through reading the travel narratives of Val Plumwood and Alphonso Lingis with the writings of Deleuze and Guattari (1987). As Game (1991) suggests this textual practice produces different ways of writing the social that undoes the nature/culture opposition informing popular discourses and much cultural theory. Rethinking the value of nature/culture relations has tended to be the domain of environmental philosophy. Yet a cultural analysis also has much to contribute to current debates around value and identity, embodiment and representations of desire. Such a shift requires rethinking the sensory relation between self and nature through the mediation of language. Two quite distinctive experiences of awe provide texts for this analysis. In the desire to know non‐human nature as other, Lingis and Plumwood are moved by a wish to become nearer, to move beyond the bounds of an identity premised on a cultural relation of mastery over nature. These are compelling narratives, for they do not simply indulge the reader in a romantic appreciation of nature's wildness, as if nature was simply an object of aesthetic contemplation and background to the unfolding drama of human identity. These journeys involve disturbing transformations of self; Plumwood travels into the dangerous waters of the crocodile's territory in Kakadu National Park, Australia, while Lingis encounters the uninhabitable terrain of the Antarctic. The reverberating effects of awe produce a movement of becoming ‐ becoming‐animal, becoming‐nature, which contests the Hegelian desire for mastery of nature and the teleological structure of desire itself aimed at unity. Awe as a profoundly disturbing relation, threatens to undo the dominant fantasy of human identity as pure culture, separate from the realm of nature, body and materiality.     

Encountering the postmodern: new directions in cultural anthropology

Faisant appel à la littérature d'études culturelles, cet article suggère que la condition de post-modernité crée de nouveaux challenges pour le domaine d'anthropologie culturelle qui vont au delà du problème pourtant significatif de la représentation ethnographique. Explorant le projet post-moderniste comme l'un de ceux qui impliquent une approche particuliere des phénomènes culturels dans une économie globale, l'article pousse les anthropologues à reconcevoir le concept de culture et à explorer les politiques culturelles de la vie quotidienne dans le contexte d'une representation globale du capitalisme.
Drawing upon cultural studies literature, this article suggests that the condition of postmodernity poses new challenges to the field of cultural anthropology that go beyond the (still significant) problem of ethnographic representation. Exploring the postmodernist project as one that involves a particular approach to cultural phenomena in a multinational global economy, the article urges anthropologists to reconceive the concept of culture and explore the cultural politics of everyday life in the context of the global restructuring of capitalism.