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The aim of this study is to understand how the frequency of attendance at outdoor exercise gyms by elderly people shapes their consumption practices and reinvents their daily lives. As a theoretical support, we adopted an interdisciplinary approach between postmodernism and consumer culture studies using Michel de Certeau's theory of everyday practices. Data for this qualitative study was collected through participant observation and interviews with elderly people who attended an outdoor exercise gym. Analysis followed the concept of interpretative research for organizing and categorizing information. The frequency of attendance at outdoor exercise gyms was shown to be a starting point for the reinvention of the daily life of elderly people. This reinvention of everyday life comes from new consumption practices that emerge by means of a new dynamic in their lives. Finally, we present a new possibility of theoretical investigation in consumer studies related to consumption practices. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

He draws attention to the way that the consensus politics of the post-Second World War period ended with the triumph of neoliberalism, notably through the reigns of Margaret Thatcher in the UK and Ronald Reagan in the US which represented a reassertion of the power of capital in the global political economy. When this sort of meta-theory is located within the political system of liberal democracy it tends also to validate, within its perspective, that very system of liberal democracy within which it finds itself at home. Developments in the 1960s of Black Power in the US and to a lesser extent in the UK, along with Black Consciousness in South Africa, failed entirely to register either with the psychoanalytic or the group analytic discourse. We have to consider our own social unconscious: that is our social unconscious as Europeans, as group analysts and thereby members of a predominantly white European discourse, and as participants and believers in something called "democracy" as it has been defined by "liberal democracy". [Extracted from the article]

This paper entitled "postmodernism in international relations" examines the epistemological and ontological development of the theory taking into consideration that the term has already constituted an international relations discourse after the second world war in Europe and that recognition and injection of the theory into international relations was done in 1980. The evolution and emergence of postmodernism as a social theory will be discussed, basic assumptions, contributions and criticisms of the postmodernism will be discussed and analyzed. Related academic books and journals on postmodernism will be used as a reference in gathering literature to analyses the concept in a broader meaning. The paper argued that postmodernism in international relations is a radical departure or break away from modernism way of thinking to postmodernism characterized by the new and complex articulation of world conditions and issues within the context of interpretative and internationalized informed by postmodern preoccupations of new philosophy and ideas based on the relative objective reality of human conditions. The paper concluded that postmodernism is a reaction from modernity to post modernity for their inability and failure to interpret world events based on objective reality. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Greater support is required in health promotion for practitioners to adopt critical approaches to their practice. Despite recognition of the role that critical reflection can play in supporting critical practice, it is underdeveloped in health promotion. This pilot study aimed to explore the use of critical reflection with health promotion practitioners. Critical postmodernism provided the theoretical perspective and critical reflection methodology guided the study. The data collection method involved the application of a critical reflection model via in-depth semi-structured interviews with two health promotion practitioners who were recruited using purposive sampling. Critical postmodernism and critical health promotion values and principles were the thematic frameworks used to analyse the data. Four types of assumptions were identified across both participants’ narratives: binary opposites and dichotomous thinking; identity and othering; professionalism; and power. Two key themes that evidenced these assumptions were conceptualising power as a commodity, and identity in the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander context. Both traditional and critical health promotion practice approaches were evident in participants’ practice. The process of engaging in critical reflection resulted in positive outcomes for the practitioners, including the identification of new, more critical ways of practising. Critical reflection provides a process for developing critical health promotion practice. The designation of critical reflection as a core health promotion competency may enhance the development of critical health promotion. Further research is needed to develop and test a critical reflection model incorporating the values and principles of health promotion with a larger sample of practitioners. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Extant research findings confirm the conjecture that Muslims in Malaysia in general are very concerned with the surge of globalization, fearing that Islamic values stand to be diluted with non-Islamic influences as a result of this. However, a more careful analysis suggests that globalization is merely a by-product of a more dominant notion and philosophy known as post-modernism. This indicates that postmodernism is the hub of globalization through which its ideologies and cultures are formed. It is also worth noting that post-modernism has also given birth to the latest model of secularism. Therefore, post-modernism, whether in the form of globalization or current version of secularism, is Islam's great enemy as it brings about values, beliefs and lifestyles that completely contradict Islamic teachings. As such, in the context of Muslims in Malaysia today, despite the proliferation of teachings of Islamic values at various levels, both formally and informally, there is still a clear indication that many are still trapped within the ideals of post-modernism. This manifests in the form of serious moral crime, strong beliefs in liberalism and religious pluralism, liberal ethics that champion feminism and homosexuality as well as the lack of respect towards traditional authority. This suggests that Islamic education in Malaysia in its current form is not able to counter the threats of post-modern thinking. Therefore, a new approach in teaching Islamic values must be sought, and in this context, presented from the viewpoint and approaches of sufism and sufi's order. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The original Two Cultures debate has been told and retold as a struggle for the moral high ground; the entitlement to define ‘culture’ and especially the route to understanding humanity. Later skirmishes and attempts to define a ‘Third culture’ snatched elements of these and the battleground shifted, with the strangely playground-sounding claims that science had ‘won’. However I will argue that more interesting features of the debate were the underlying assumptions about epistemology; how can we, and should we, proceed in understanding our world and experience, and how sixty years of intellectual and cultural developments in many fields illuminate profoundly new and apparently incompatible discourses. This wide-ranging argument will necessarily be superficial but my purpose is to draw attention to what I regard as central concerns of twenty-first century lay and expert epistemologies and why they matter. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The author makes a travel through the concept "representation" and "representation representative" as pulsional (impulse) representative to sustain that the erogenous inscriptions as well as the human sexuality circuits are marked by the cultural changes. The culture is the place where the human sexuality is built and played. He places it on the 60ies social and cultural movements that had influenced the actual sexuality, the relationship systems, the identifications, the desire circuits and the exchanges. Finally, the author takes from the late modernism the great offer of virtual objects, the visual predominance, the hyper reality of the representations. From there he asks himself if the visual predominance with its characteristic of overstepping limits, will excessively move closer the incestuous object under the shape of hyper real representations. The resulting joy would allow to understand the ways which takes the anguish on the panic crisis representations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The author considers the various influences that have shaped his clinical practice and particular identity as a Jungian analyst. It is hoped that the sharing of these observations will, like a shard of a hologram, reflect aspects of the Jungian community as a whole. The author also attempts to put Jungian analysis 'on the couch' by looking at the current debate in the Journal between traditional and relational psychoanalysis. This is compared to the discourse that philosophy has been struggling with for centuries concerning the nature of truth. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the world, changing and transformations about every fields affect classic public management theory and practices. In this process it is important the form of the public management as a discipline in the future. In this process, it become very important that how form public management discipline will be in the future. Nowadays, problems of public management discipline and its solutions will determine the forms of public management discipline in future. So that, if this process will be successful, public management discipline will be reliable better. It is said that post modernism and ideas about new ecology of public management will define public management structure. In this paper, problems of public management discipline, new seekings solutions to these problems, future projection of public management, post modernism and public sector reforms and new ecology of public management discipline will be evaluated in briefly. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

What is the meaning of social context for the connection between Psychologists and Social Workers with the organization they work for? Many professionals are searching for both professional space, and a fitting connectedness to the organization. This connection seems to be greatly influenced by social developments. This article will show that organizations are important communities of the future that will partially adopt the function of family and township connections. By conscious deployment of organization-communities, as a manager it is possible to bind professionals to an organization that offers them freedom and challenge. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Based on an overview of the research done during the last 15 years on family and community in Venezuela, this article discusses the contributions and limitations of the different approaches under which the family has been studied. Since family research covers a wide spectrum of models, this article is organised in three sections. The first discusses an overview of anthropological and demographic findings, in order to illustrate the historical situation of Venezuela and compare these findings with those from Central American research In the second section, the sociological and psychological approaches used To describe the cultural characteristics of the family, arc discussed. Here, systems-oriented models and action-research methodologies applied in some intervention studies on family dynamics are introduced The third section, focusing on the Educational Approach, is an example of the most recent trends in family and community intervention. It is intended to illustrate programs aimed at accelerating social change and strengthening family and community life around the school. Finally, ii is concluded that an analysis of current trends in research with families and communities in Venezuela reveals a paradigm shift from positivist to postmodern approaches. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A way of approaching post existential practice is illustrated through the idea that relationships occur in the between, which is largely unknown, except as suggested by Laing, through our experience. A difficulty occurs, however, when we are not able to be grounded in our experience which could be seen as a form of ontological insecurity brought about by intolerance of unknowing. It is argued here that this intolerance can lead us to replace the possibility of our own experience with some one else's story of their experience which is presented to us as theory, which could then be seen as an obstruction of the between. Post existentialism does not, however, discard theory but requires the ability to: firstly engage with our experience through the between, deferring the need to reach for theories; secondly question whether the ideas that do occur to us are simply a return to theory as a familiar place needed in the face of our own anxiety or dread and; thirdly remain open to where the return to such formulations becomes a way of reconstituting more of the same rather than permitting difference. Such aspects are firstly explored in terms of the relational as between (Laing) and as transitional space (Winnicott). Secondly this is followed by a return to some existential phenomenological ideas which illustrate something of the dread of possibility (Kierkegaard) as well as offering an approach which may help us to sustain attention to experience in relationship (Heidegger, Merleau Ponty). Thirdly the postmodern is then seen to raise questions about the way knowing and language can create a binding that closes down (Derrida) whereas the idea of the semiotic (Kristeva) illustrates how something threatens rupture and moves us elsewhere than intentionality. In turn too much rupture can lead to chaos thus some form of structure is seen as necessary. Here the post existential with its post phenomenology provides an intersection between existential phenomenology, psychoanalytic and postmodern thought where a between is permitted through a willingness to continually question in order to hold open rather than assimilate. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]