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This paper examines the relationship between disordered eating and class identity in Paper Daughter: the memoir of Elaine Mar, a Chinese-American woman who emigrated with her family from the Toishan region of mainland China in 1972 to a working-class neighborhood in Denver, Colorado. Mar explores the relationship between bodily “excess,” as sociologist Beverly Skeggs describes, and class identity in Paper Daughter. A close examination of Mar’s disordered eating shows readers how her ED stems from a class inferiority complex.[i] Gendered as female, and classed as inferior due to her immigrant status and working-class background, classifies Mar as the “other.” Mar utilizes her ED because she believes it will shed off her “excess” of Skeggs’s “disgust”; that is, her low-class upbringing. In other words, disordered eating is a way for Mar to achieve the American dream: the upper-class American woman. This upper-class woman wears idolized brand-name lines that symbolize the American ideal (e.g. Izod shirts) but more importantly, this woman is afforded the opportunity to ponder and explore the world of American dieting.

This article seeks to amplify Bronfenbrenner‘s (1979) concerns with concentric structured, nested systems and phenomenology, for Ungar‘s (2012) extension of resilience to systems based on Bronfenbrenner‘s (1979, 1995) socio-ecological paradigm. Resilience rests on interconnected assumptions regarding space, agency and system blockage, as well as the role of individual phenomenological dimensions. This article proposes a specific model of dynamic spatial systems of relation to underpin agency and phenomenology in resilience, building on a reinterpretation of Lévi-Strauss‘ (1962, 1963, 1973) cross-cultural observations of contrasts between concentric and diametric spatial systems; space is a key bridge between material, symbolic and interpersonal domains of relevance for resilience. Agency in resilience is interpreted in terms of movement between concentric and diametric spatial systems at social and school microsystem levels, as well as for individual phenomenology. Space is not just an object of analysis but an active constituent part of educational and developmental processes pertaining to resilience, as a malleable background contingent condition for causal trajectories. This framework of spatial-relational agency shifts focus for resilience from bouncing back into shape, towards transition points in space, moving from diametric spaces of splitting to concentric spatial relations of assumed connection across different system levels.

Although child-centred care is increasingly referred to within the nursing literature, a clear definition of child-centred care and clarity around the concept is yet to be achieved. The objectives of this review were to examine the following: (1) What constitutes the concept of child-centred care in healthcare? (2) How has the concept of child-centred care developed? (3) What is the applicability of child-centred care and what are its limitations? (4) How does the concept of child-centred care benefit and inform children's healthcare? In total, 2984 papers were imported for screening, and, following the removal of duplicates and screening, 21 papers were included in the scoping review. The findings suggest that child-centred care is an emerging, ambiguous poorly defined concept; no clear consensus exists about what constitutes child-centred care. Although it seems antithetical to argue against child-centred care, little robust evidence was identified that demonstrates the impact and benefit of child-centred care. If child-centred care is to be a sustainable, convincing model to guide practice and compete with other models of care, it needs to establish robust evidence of its effectiveness, the impact on children and their families, as well as the wider impacts on the healthcare system. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In his book, The Plato Papers, Peter Ackroyd offers a novel configuration of power: far from being monolithic and self-evident, it takes on subtle dimensions, exerting not a towering influence, but rather manifesting itself in word-making and world-writing: it is not just discourse in the Foucauldian sense that evinces traces of this power, but speech in its literal denotation. Plato, London's philosopher, expounds upon the City's history as both teacher and historian, thus appropriating power. His recounting - and therefore, reshaping - of history is made possible through an agency that is seized within the social sphere. The mutability of the past, its ambiguities and uncertainties, are the playing field within which antagonistic forces meet, inextricably dialectical. But it is an emplotted realm, rooted in a (meta)physical space, that is the subject of retelling: London itself, a ghost city, fluid. Set firmly in the middle of paradigmatic war, it is both pivot and catalyst, acting as an arena for clashing world-views. My paper seeks to investigate precisely how the interplay of time and space factor into notions of agency and power, what destabilizing workings they enforce, and what configurations they give rise to. Methodologies will include urban studies, critical theory and liminality studies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Wieloglos is the property of Jagiellonian University Press and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

While Monica Ali's remarkable novel Brick Lane narrates the experience of a Bangladeshi community living in the Towering Hamlets of London, it also focuses on the protagonist, Nazneen's struggle both as a woman and as an individual in a foreign country. Be it a process of assimilation or getting entrapped into cultural hybridization, while continuously encountering identity crisis, dislocation, and rotating in an 'un-homed' space, Nazneen was necessarily dealing with the complexities of transnational identity. Deriving from Bhaba's concept of cultural hybridization and the 'unhome,' this paper attempts to analyze the challenges Nazneen faced as an immigrant woman in London. Being married to a man with a patriarchal mindset, and living in a society bound with extreme cultural and religious values, this paper also explores Nanzeen's struggle to find an agency in her process of emancipation. Superseding the binary construct of the West and Islamic feminist ideas, and arguing that it was Nazneen's newly gained knowledge that gave her a true agency, this paper also offers an alternative understanding of Nazneen's emancipation process by discussing theorists like Talal Asad, Asma Barlas and Saba Mahmood. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In July 2007 the English and Scottish Law Commissions published the consultation paper Insurance Law – Non-disclosure and Breach of Warranty (hereafter LCCP) which sets out in detail the Commissions' provisional proposals for the reform of insurance contract law with particular reference to the key areas of utmost good faith, warranties and agency. This article analyses, from a critical standpoint, the LCCP's principal conclusions and recommendations. It begins by noting, as a means of demonstrating that the current reform process should be informed by modern industry practices, that the ways in which modern insurance contracts are concluded differ significantly from those when insurance law was last reviewed by the Law Commission in 1980. The article then discusses the dichotomy between consumer and business insurance given that this distinction underpins the LCCP and its approach towards reforming the pre-contractual duty of good faith. By way of backdrop to the analysis, we consider the approach taken towards reforming the law governing intermediaries acting for prospective assureds during the disclosure process. Finally, the proposed rules for warranties and similar terms are examined. It is argued that the proposal to retain continuing warranties in business insurance contracts will, if implemented, represent a missed opportunity to rid insurance contracts of terms long criticised as draconian and disproportionate in their effect. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Tropelías: Revista de Teoría de la Literatura y Literatura Comparada is the property of Prensas Universitarias de Zaragoza and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

This paper delves into the intricate relationship between Artificial Intelligence (AI) and the art ecosystem, emphasizing the need for a decolonizing approach in the face of AI's growing influence. It argues that the development of AI is not just a technological leap but also a significant cultural and societal moment, akin to the advent of moving images that Walter Benjamin famously analyzed. The paper examines how AI, particularly in its current oligarchical and corporate-driven form, perpetuates and magnifies the existing social inequalities, thereby necessitating a critical and radical rethinking of its role in society and the arts. At the heart of the discussion is the concept of AI as a broad term encompassing various forms of machine intelligence, from natural language processing to computer vision. The paper criticizes the dominant anthropocentric view of intelligence and creativity, proposing a more inclusive approach that considers the diverse forms of intelligence present in other species and potentially in AI itself. It underscores the role of AI in shaping the art ecosystem, not just in the creative process but also in gatekeeping and decision-making. The paper proposes a framework for decolonizing AI in the art ecosystem, focusing on four key tasks: recognizing access as a form of power, understanding and addressing biases inherent in AI, assessing the impact of AI on marginalized communities, and challenging dominant narratives and epistemologies to create space for alternative voices and perspectives. It emphasizes the need for artists and the art community to engage actively with AI, shaping its development towards more equitable and just outcomes. In conclusion, the paper calls for a radical reimagination of AI's role in society and the arts, advocating for a future where AI is not just about technological advancement but also about fostering a more inclusive, equitable, and creatively diverse world. It invites artists, thinkers, and innovators to join in this journey of reimagining and reshaping the future of AI and the art ecosystem. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Revista Telos is the property of Revista Telos and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Copyright of Revista de Arqueologia is the property of Revista de Arqueologia and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Copyright of Nesir: Journal of Literary Studies / Edebiyat Araştırmaları Dergisi is the property of Nesir: Journal of Literary Studies and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

The present paper explores Alice Walker's Possessing the Secret of Joy in an attempt to highlight the importance of the establishment of a well-defined identity as the crucial step in the life of Tashi, a victim of genital mutilation. She becomes whole and healthy once she finds a voice and remakes her severed ties with the black community. Her individual acts of rebellion are complemented with collective political action against genital mutilation. Butler's view, agency is a restorative energy which works against fragmentation and opens a new possibility for psychic healing as the essential path to the formation of an individual identity. The paper explores the path taken by the novel's female protagonist to validate her right as an active agent and defy the objectifying assumptions which deprive women of the right to be treated as human subjects. The long-held womanist aspirations shared by Tashi and her fellow sufferers matched by the desire to restore the lost agency is the only hope given to black women to establish their own voice. The protagonist's final healing is thus achieved through the healthy interaction between individual as well as collective acts of rebellion: individual agency accompanied by political and social transformation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Building on critical childhood studies and childism, this paper analyses children's participation in family law cases in Denmark. Spurred particularly by the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child, together with a general shift in the view on children, several jurisdictions, including Denmark, have implemented legislative reform in the last decades to accommodate children's participation rights. Even though such legal participation rights have increased, research in the family law field indicates that children's perspectives are often undermined or excluded. An analysis of qualitative data (workshops, observations, and interviews) establishes how the positioning of children and children's perspectives (as well as how "listening to children" is enacted) can be crucial to understanding the mechanisms that either subsidize or undermine children's perspectives in family law cases. The paper argues further that "listening emergent" to children can offer a path to deconstructing the norms and structures that undermine and exclude children's views—and thus offer a childist contribution to childhood research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Complex organisations require coherence to achieve adaptive goals through agency. This paper introduces Mindset Agency Theory (MAT), a metatheoretical framework designed for modelling and diagnosing agency within culturally diverse populations. MAT, a cybernetic multi-ontology framework, delineates five formative traits defining agency character. Its cognitive style trait (with bipolar values of Patterning–Dramatising) elucidates how agencies acquire information. Examining diverse agencies requires an appreciation of the social relationships that exist there, but MAT is currently devoid of this capability. Using the configuration approach to enable the integration of Tönnies' social organisation theory into MAT, social relationships can be suitably explored, thus enhancing its capacity to investigate agency coherence. Tönnies' theory of social organisation (with bipolar values of Gemeinschaft-Gesellschaft) that frames inter-agent interactions is configured within MAT. This integration births a new formative trait, pairing cognitive style with social organisation, and is thus capable of indicating the likelihood of operative coherence. Configuration is applied by relating propositional attributes of a holding metatheory framework such as MAT, with an entry theory such as Tönnies' social organisation theory as determined from the literature. The elaborated MAT serves as a diagnostic tool, linking trait instabilities with agency pathologies that deliver dysfunction. A subsequent paper will apply this framework to ASEAN, a regional intergovernmental organisation addressing cultural diversity issues. The study aims to evaluate ASEAN's mindset and diagnose its pathologies, such as narcissism and paradoxical behaviour. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

There is a growing need to rethink ways to teach both Black and White pupils in multicultural and diverse societies. This paper reports on a study that examined the impact that preparing multicultural resources had on student teachers' perceived preparedness to represent the diversity of UK secondary school pupils. It explores the creation of teaching materials reflecting the contributions of the African diaspora undertaken by student secondary school teachers at a university in the East Midlands, UK. Consideration of the effect of this on the students' attitudes was collected via an online survey (n=30) and the findings from this analysed thematically. Findings reflect that, given 'permission' and through developing an understanding of their own agency, the students - all of whom identified as 'White' - were enthusiastic about developing resources that challenge the marginalisation of Black people in their subjects. The findings implied a need for organisations to support students to find creative ways of teaching in diverse communities and the paper explores how understandings and respectful representations of race need to infuse every aspect of contemporary curricula. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Disruptions within higher education are seldom effortless and often provocative. They may result in a break from traditional, established educational models of knowledge transmission, offering alternative ways of accessing and cocreating knowledge. In 2021, the Higher Education Learning and Teaching Association of Southern Africa (HELTASA) adopted an (un)conferencing methodology for its annual conference. In this paper, the association's Student Learning Project Team explores contextual disruption against the (un)conferencing backdrop. Critical reflective accounts by project-team members provide the empirical grounding for the paper. First, the notions of context and contextual disruption are discussed. Second, the reflective accounts are analysed using Archer's structure, culture, and agency, as analytical framework. Third, Archer's morphogenetic framework is used to appraise whether change or stasis occurred within the project team. Finally, recommendations for others wishing to facilitate intentional contextual disruption are shared. Ultimately, the article provides insight into the intricacies of contextual disruption as part of (un)conferencing. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper studies a supply chain that consists of a retailer, an incumbent manufacturer, and a new manufacturer who is entering the market. Using game-theoretical method, we study how the retailer chooses its selling format, agency or wholesale, in the presence of new manufacturer introduction. It is found that, in the absence of new manufacturer introduction, the retailer chooses agency when the commission rate is high enough, while choosing wholesale when the commission rate is low enough. In the presence of new manufacturer introduction, however, the retailer wholesales from at least one of the two manufacturers, even when the commission rate is sufficiently high. We put forward two effects that potentially explain this finding. The first is the format differentiation effect, under which the retailer offers different formats to different manufacturers so as to relax competition. The second is the low-quality wholesaling effect, under which the retailer always wholesales from the manufacturer whose product quality is relatively inferior. Doing so enables the retailer to allocate the maximum profit from the supply chain. These two effects work no matter when the new manufacturer's product quality is inferior or superior to the incumbent's. Furthermore, this paper also discusses the case when the game proceeds over two periods and the case when the retailer offers a hybrid selling format, through which the robustness of the model is checked and more managerial insights are derived. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In feminist research on religion, women and gender, the concepts of "lived religion" as well as "agency as doing religion" take a prominent place. Both include an intersubjective and mostly partial perspective. However, against the background of current developments concerning a global religious right, the paper argues for the inclusion of a critical perspective through the methodology of a double critique that includes both an analysis of power relations that marginalize women in religious groups and an analysis of women's reproduction of gendered as well as racialized power relations. This argument is embedded in the complexity of post-secular feminist research including research on women, gender and religion, feminist critiques of secularism (and of anti-Muslim discourses), feminist, queer and trans theologies, and research on the religious right and their anti-feminist politics. The paper suggests to take feminist theologies and feminist spiritualities/religious practices as reference point for such an analysis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Prison foodways offer a unique opportunity to improve the physical and mental health and wellbeing of an underserved population, yet prison food is often rejected in favour of 'junk' food. Improved understanding of the meanings of food in prison is necessary to inform prison food policy and enhance the prison environment. Results: A meta-ethnographic synthesis of 27 papers integrated first-hand experiences of food in prison from 10 different countries. The lived experience for most in custody is of poor-quality prison-issued meals, necessarily consumed at a time and place at odds with socio-cultural norms. Beyond nutrition, food carries clear symbolic meanings in prison; through everyday food activities in prison, especially cooking, empowerment, participation, agency and identity are negotiated and performed. Cooking (with others or alone) can reduce anxiety and depression and increase feelings of self-efficacy and resilience in a socially, psychologically, and financially disadvantaged population. Integrating cooking and sharing food into the routine of prison life strengthens the skills and resources available to prisoners, empowering them as they move from the prison environment to the community. Conclusions: The potential of food to enhance the prison environment and support improvements in prisoner health and wellbeing is limited when the nutritional content is inadequate and/or where food is served and eaten impacts negatively on human dignity. Prison policy which provides opportunities for cooking and sharing food that better reflects familial and cultural identity has the potential to improve relationships, increase self-esteem, build and maintain life skills needed for reintegration. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper begins the development of new types of deontic operators, particularly ones whose semantic characterization is based on models with forward-branching time. In such models, supplemented by a choice function to model human agency, and an obligation function to introduce normative features, it is possible to develop a rich language with a variety of obligation operators, differing from one another in how they relate to time, and to the causal conditions, the causal consequences, and the logical consequences of actions. We approach these concepts making extensive use of the notion of a transition, as introduced in [M. Xu, Synthese 112 (1997) 137]. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

This paper explores the difference between the ways that nature functions and the way that the built environment is currently produced and operates, and if and how they can be realigned. While regenerative approaches can apply to a range of human enterprises, the paper focuses on their application to the production of the urban built environment. It examines if and how they may move into mainstream building practice and how long this may take given the inherent inertias in the building industry. Key issues include the recasting and interrogating of the accumulated knowledge held by design professionals within a broader living systems frame, and rethinking what constitutes a successful outcome of building design. Such efforts are set against the diminishing time available before a series of climate tipping points are crossed and further short- to mid-term constraints posed by a host of other powerful countervailing forces. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This conceptual paper presents the analytical theory of agency (ATA), an overlooked philosophical approach to the concept of action, to develop its theoretical basis in routines research in which the constructs of action and agency play crucial roles. It expounds, in the framework of ATA, the ideas of the spectrum of intentionality, kinds of action, and collective agency, which help advance the rigor of action-theoretical concepts in routines research as well as reveal the rationale of the microfoundational approach to routine actions. To uncover the developmental potential of ATA, the article discusses the most crucial conceptual challenges for routines research; it also briefly examines the limitations and future work related to using ATA in the management field. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, I interrogate the dominant representation of internally displaced persons (IDPs) in humanitarian discourse as helpless victims in need of rescue. Based on the stories of IDP women and gender diverse individuals in the Philippines affected by the Zamboanga City siege in 2013, I illustrate how they exercised agency to shape their trajectories of displacement. The capacity of Filipino IDPs to contend with their displacement is shaped by their power as bakwit (evacuees), and by their class and ethnoreligious identities. While Christian Filipino IDPs had access to material, financial, and social resources, allowing them to engage in temporary migration after displacement, Muslim Filipino IDPs with limited access to these same resources found themselves in unwanted mobility and prolonged situations of displacement. Yet, Muslim Filipino IDPs do not lack agency, as they continue to actively and consciously forge new strategies to regain a sense of home in extended exile. Ultimately, while identifying bakwit power as a useful conceptual tool to make legible how IDPs exercised control at different stages of their displacement, embracing such a framework should not negate the long history of political violence in the region that continues to keep some people on the move. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]