Search

Based on the assumption that agency is a discursive practice and one basic premise of an education aimed at developing critical, participative and transformative agents to live in a society under constant changes associated with globalization and neoliberalism, the main objective of this paper, which results from my PhD research (Landim, 2020), was to investigate if agency development implies a critically oriented English Language Teaching (ELT) in global times. To address such objective, the research was conducted with a group of teachers and student teachers participating in the English Language Teaching (ELT) practicum of a public university located in the north of Brazil. The study followed qualitative research methodological paths of ethnographic nature, within the field of critical applied linguistics, using concepts borrowed from decolonial theories, new literacies studies and crEitical literacies and other fields, especially sociology and philosophy of education. The main results indicate that agency concepts developed by the participants ranged from neoliberal traditions in education to decolonial/critical perspectives. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Geographers have examined how sacred spaces are made spiritually meaningful through embodied practice. This paper brings together scholarship on post-secular feminism and geographies of religion to develop a theory of non-subversive power in the sacred space literature. This paper demonstrates how Kurdish women create sacred space through embodied Islamic mystical practices in Kurdish Turkey and how these practices carve out a space for creative existence within and alongside state and masculinist systems of power, not against. Using a post-secular feminist framing and building on conversations of power in the sacred space literature, we show how the formation of sacred space forms the feminine subject and constitutes an act of feminine agency. Specifically, we focus on two material and sacred sites: private communal prayer houses and public tomb sites used for communal petitions. In these spaces, women organize and lead collective and embodied meditations and petitions that centre their desires, concerns, and wishes in a common register to create, following Saba Mahmood, a 'politics in unusual places'. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, I interrogate the images of childhood in the model of respectful parenting from a sociological perspective. I am interested in problematizing the notion of agency in articulation with the new social studies of childhood. To this end, I describe the main characteristics that define respectful parenting from the perspective of its followers, and I focus on the example of complementary feeding where I delve into how it produces a view of babies which enhances their agency when it comes to managing the feeding process. This paper is based on previously conducted qualitative ethnographic research about the experiences of middle-class mothers who follow this style of parenting in the city of Buenos Aires, Argentina. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The voluntary departure of hundreds of young women, born and socialised in Europe, to Daeshcontrolled territories has raised many legitimate questions. Why do women choose to adhere to ideologies that appear to disempower them? Can they really embrace such patriarchal violence? Women have traditionally been seen as the victims of violence, particularly Islamic terrorist violence, often thought of as a male prerogative. Even years after Daesh's defeat on the ground, the ambiguity of female violence remains a compelling issue, particularly when faced with social and legal challenges posed by female returnées. To offer a gendered analysis of women in/with violent ideologies and address their agency this paper will analyse representations of "acceptable"and "unacceptable" forms of female violence by focusing on the intersection between femininity, vulnerability, empowerment, sexuality and violence. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The aim of this paper is to offer an explanation of the legitimacy of certain ad hominem arguments by appealing to virtue epistemology. The main thesis is that there are ad hominem arguments that are acceptable if they are conceived as inductive arguments, whose soundness is given by a fair appeal to the interlocutor's epistemic vices. It is argued that some abusive ad hominem arguments are acceptable if they rest on a fair pointing out of the interlocutor's lack of agential intellectual virtues. Likewise, some circumstantial ad hominem arguments would be acceptable if they rest on a fair pointing out of the interlocutor's lack of non-agential intellectual virtues. The paper exposes some problems of other attempts to vindicate ad hominem arguments. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The memories of boys and girls who migrate contain past and present experiences of countries of origin and destination, as well as experiences of movement. This paper presents the results of research that aims to identify how migrant children's memories are constructed around experiences of violence and practices of agency. From the perspective of the new social studies of childhood and based on a field study in the city of Barcelona, it shows that in various spaces violence is conditioned by a web of power relations and vectors of differentiation (ethnicity, gender, nationality, age). It concludes that these memories strain the conception of violence against children as an individual, domestic/private problem, and generate meanings that facilitate agency for such childhoods in the present, going beyond vulnerability and subordination. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In recent years, forced marriage as a manifestation of violence against women has entered the public agenda in European Union countries. This is partly due to higher numbers of migrants from regions where it is a regular practice. This paper aims to show the different ways violence manifests itself in forced marriage, both symbolically and practically - in terms of experiences - based on a qualitative sample of women with a range of migration backgrounds residing in Catalonia. The intersectional gender approach of the analysis enables the interaction to be considered of various factors when it comes to understanding contexts of risk and violence, as well as exit strategies from forced marriage. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper aims to call attention to some interpretative questions concerning a semantic constellation running through the entire Metaphysics of Morals. This semantic constellation has to do with the German root ehr- and refers to such concepts as ehrlich, Ehre, Ehrbarkeit, and Ehrlichkeit, which - although they have different meanings - share a connection to the central idea of the coincidence of honesty and honor, as shown by the Latin terms Kant often uses in the same context (honestas, honeste, etc.). It discusses how Kant uses the concepts of honesty and honor. It tries to answer the question of whether, according to Kant, it is acceptable to die for honor's sake by analyzing some passages from the Metaphysics of Morals. Based on this analysis, it finally presents some conclusions on the concepts of dignity and agency and on their reciprocal relationship. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

When thinking about deathscapes and how they are assembled, current literature often points to the presence of material objects as ways in which individuals evoke the absence of the dead. These objects can be both performative and communicative, becoming a channel of communication. But the literature has so far mostly neglected the ability of spirits to 'talk back' to the living through objects and bodies, and in doing so influence and have effect on the latter's actions. In this paper, I will investigate the ways in which spirits are seen to have agency in deathscapes. I propose the concept of material proxies of consociation, denoting objects/bodies which act as ways for spirits to not just communicate, but interact with the living. Using two visual ethnographic case studies, one of the divining blocks and the other of a ritual exhumation, I will demonstrate that spirits can indeed be seen to be active and effective agents in the assembling of deathscapes. In doing so, this paper offers new ways of understanding three things – the role and importance of spirits in deathscapes, how the absent is made present, and how the spaces in which living and dead interact are constructed and shaped. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Este artigo aborda a agência como o principal modo de envolvimento com o design da informação. Estamos particularmente interessados no design da informação em uma interface digital. Consideramos que a agência como um modo de envolvimento pode enquadrar a dimensão do design da informação em uma interface digital. Para isso, foi aplicado o método de leitura atenta para investigar como a interface suporta a agência em dois websites. O interesse pessoal, os pontos de contato e o processamento de informações foram utilizados como lentes analíticas. Os resultados sugerem que o envolvimento com o design da informação pela agência, apoia o projeto da informação em seu aspecto concreto. Por outro lado, o design da informação tende a facilitar todo o escopo da agência no recebimento desta interface. O domínio da ação é o mais evidente devido à dimensão tátil da interatividade e seu efeito imediato sobre a interface. Assim, o reconhecimento da importância do envolvimento por agência pode beneficiar tanto a análise quanto a produção do design da informação. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]