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The present study undertakes an analysis of the dichotomy mind over matter, culture and civilization, a plea for art – with special focus on literature – and raising awareness of the increasing role of humanities and the liberal arts in a society driven and increasingly dominated by scientific advancement and aiming towards solely technological purposes. The paper stems from previous research interest in the field of cultural studies and relies on recent scholarly studies raising awareness about a revival of the word and language akin to the call “make it new” and calling attention to the impact of the image versus the power of the word highly valued by literature. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

One of the main questions in the humanities is how cultures and artistic expressions change over time. While a number of researchers have used quantitative computational methods to study historical changes in literature, music, and cinema, our paper offers the first quantitative analysis of historical changes in visual art created by users of a social online network. We propose a number of computational methods for the analysis of temporal development of art images. We then apply these methods to a sample of 270,000 artworks created between 2001 and 2010 by users of the largest social network for art—DeviantArt (). We investigate changes in subjects, techniques, sizes, proportions and also selected visual characteristics of images. Because these artworks are classified by their creators into two general categories—Traditional Art and Digital Art—we are also able to investigate if the use of digital tools has had a significant effect on the content and form of artworks. Our analysis reveals a number of gradual and systematic changes over a ten-year period in artworks belonging to both categories. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Revista Crítica de Ciências Sociais is the property of Centro de Estudos Sociais 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 researcher investigated how the teachers at the preschool integrated the vision of the preschool, educational goals, and community resources to develop and implement the local culture curriculum as well as what problems they encountered in the process. Thereafter, the researcher developed strategies that can be used to solve such problems. The researcher discovered that the most important aspects of the local culture curriculum were (1) its ability to pique the children's interest in history and the humanities through the lens of the children's experiences at the market, and (2) its integration of local culture and the community, specifically through interactions between young children and adults at a vegetable market. The implementation of the local culture curriculum involved the following steps: (1) establishing a thematic network; (2) planning the activities, including exploring the children's previous experiences and adjusting the curriculum and teaching methods accordingly; (3) conducting the activities, including visiting and participating in work at the market; (4) evaluating the activities; and (5) creating thank you cards and formulating plans for store renovation. Some of the obstacles the teachers encountered in the development and implementation of the vegetable-market-themed local culture curriculum were (1) shortages of preschool teachers willing to teach outdoor courses, (2) concerns about young children's safety, and (3) young children's lack of experience. Finally, on the basis of my conclusion, the researcher developed the following culturally responsive education strategies: (1) integrating aspects of local culture and the community into courses, (2) situating local culture courses in learning areas, (3) developing local culture curriculum that are rich in humanities, and (4) developing local culture curriculum based on parent–teacher cooperation to overcome teacher shortages at preschools. The results of this study may serve as a reference in the development of a local culture curriculum and other strategies to cultivate young children's cultural identities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, we analyzed some issues about the notion of utility of the humanities. Is the thinking not attached to an immediate utilitarianism synonym of inutility? To answer this question, we present some historical aspects that found the automatic link between utility and sciences and the devaluation of the subjects that do not produce an immediate product. This is not a manifest against the hard sciences or a panegyric to humanities. These are just some reflections that reshape the issue of the humanity studies as an integrant part of the contemporary knowledge. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article discusses the text and its problem in the culture of philosophy of the XX century. It is shown that the peculiarity of this approach is the disclosure of the essence of dialogical thinking in culture through the study of the text as the “primary reality” of any Humanities. The article analyzes the scientific research that the text as a universal form of communication can not be reduced only to the semiotic or only hermeneutic understanding. The paper presents an attempt to chronologically consider the problem of the text in different periods of society. The concept of “test epoch” is revealed in great detail . In conclusion, the article reveals the cultural and philosophical traditions of the XX century in the Russian intellectual field, where of particular interest is the direction of philosophical thought, which seeks to justify the specifics of the methodological approach to social and humanitarian knowledge, which differs from the natural science and mathematical methodology. Central to this area of research are the concepts of symbol, function, communication, game, and text. The main advantage of this study is that such a view will be interesting to specialists in the field of philosophy and Philology.

George Steiner was a French-American polymath and polyglot. Along with Umberto Eco, Steiner has been ranked among the very last European metaphysicians as well as a leading cultural critic of the 20th century. Although an erudite scholar writing extensively in four languages about the most pressing issues of late modernity, Steiner has never been very popular among the general public. While his original essays won critical acclaim, by intellectuals he has also been rebuked for his ill-judged, doom-laden and reactionary elitist visions. The following paper deals with Steiner’s most thought-provoking, “heretical” texts on the nature of modern barbarism and the basic inhumanity at the heart of the humanities. The aim is to suggest possible reasons for Steiner’s “persona non grata” status.

This article outlines how the historical human sciences see 'culture' and its dynamic developments over time and over generations. The operations of human culture are systemically self-reflexive and, as a result, exhibit a complexity that sets them apart, as a semiotic system, from mere communicative information transfer. Peculiar to this complexity is the two-way interaction between the 'etic' substance of the cultural exchanges and their 'emic' function. Cultural signals require parallel etic/emic processing at stacked levels of complexity. As a result of this complexity, the homeostasis and autopoiesis of human culture, including its dynamics and development over time, cannot be explained fully in terms of responses to the physical environment. How, this article ponders by way of conclusion, can an evolutionary approach be reconciled with these characteristics of human culture, or the notion of culture be applied to evolutionary modelling? This article is part of the theme issue 'Foundations of cultural evolution'. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

While economic and environmental aspects of civil engineering have attracted the greatest attention among contemporary academy, its social side has frequently been set aside. However, the social impact that infrastructures have is huge and its analysis and understanding are fundamental. At the same time, social aspects such as culture or human behaviour can have significant effects during the different stages of the lifecycle of infrastructures. Therefore, a better understanding of the connections between civil engineering and society can help to better adapt infrastructures to their contexts, as well as minimise their negative impacts; as a result, this understanding can bring about infrastructures that are more socially sustainable. The scarce studies that have assessed the connection between society and civil engineering have considered this relationship as unidirectional. The real scenario is not so simple. The analysis of this relationship needs to be interdisciplinary, and it is in this context that this paper addresses the analysis of infrastructures and of social sciences from a sociotechnical point of view. We draw on the interrelationships found to propose a conceptual framework with the main objective of providing both practitioners and academics with tools to carry out more sustainable and context-adapted decisions. We classify the fields of civil engineering and social sciences into several different subfields, namely six for infrastructures (transport, water, energy, environment, urban planning and buildings) and twelve for social sciences (culture and history, behaviour and mind, communication and interaction, socioeconomics, juridical sciences, life and health, politics, social problems, social groups, ethics and philosophy, arts and education and innovation). Afterwards, we review the existing literature at the intersection between the various categories. We conclude proposing a framework that can support decisions and actions made at different levels and working areas. The framework includes guidelines for a more holistic consideration of the interaction between infrastructures and society in key activities whereby an improved understanding of the effect of this relationship is often required. The guidelines provide a description of different key areas and can be applied to a wide variety of actions ranging from the development of university curricula to the social impact assessment of projects. Image 1 • The dual relationship between civil engineering and social sciences is studied. • Politics and vulnerability are the most studied social areas in civil engineering. • Transport is the most studied civil engineering area from a social perspective. • Infrastructure projects should consider social aspects during all their lifecycles. • A framework and future research directions are proposed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Ever more often, researchers and scholars endeavor to situate law in its social, political, historical and cultural contexts. At the same time, there is a need to invest law and the social sciences with new roles and resources. We thus propose to look for the many intersections of law, culture and the humanities by presenting four topical preoccupations: (1) interlegality in everyday life; (2) the synesthesia of law; (3) material socio-legal studies; and (4) interactive ecologies of knowledges and methodologies. This will constitute part one of the paper. Parts two and three will look at two particular and very recent interdisciplinary relationships: those between law and music and between law and food. We thus propose it would be appropriate to expose students, learners and practitioners of all kinds to the difference that an understanding of the links between law, culture and the humanities makes.

Copyright of Sociologia & Antropologia is the property of Sociologia & Antropologia 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.)

Research in management and organization may only gain by being inspired from arts, culture and humanities in order to rethink practices but also to nourish its own perspectives. Life in organizations is artificially separate from ordinary life: all of mundane objects are thus conducive to astonishment, inspiration, and even problematization. The unplugged subsection "voices" gives the opportunity to academics and non-academics to deliver an interpretation about an object from the cultural or artistic world. Interpreted objects are or not directly related to organizational life, resonate or not with the moment, but share some intriguing features. These interpretations suggest a patchwork of variations on the same object. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We are facing radical changes in our ways of living in the nearest future. Not necessarily of our own choice, but because tchnological development is moving so fast, that it will have still greater impact on many aspects of our lives. We have seen the beginnings of that change within the latest 35 years or so, but according to newest research that change will speed up immensely in the nearest years to come. The impact of that change or these changes will affect our working life immensely as a consequence of automation. How these changes are brought about and which are their consequences in a broad sense is being attempted to be understood and guessed by researchers. No one knows for sure, but specific patterns are visible. This paper will not try to guess, what will come, but will rather try to understand the deepest ”nature” of technology in order to understand the driving factors in this development: the genesis of technology in a broad sense in order to contibute to the understanding of the basis for the expected development.

Background: Although there is strong advocacy for uptake of both the arts and creative activities as determinants of individual health conditions, studies evaluating causal influence of attendance at cultural events on population health using individual population data on health are scarce. If available, results are often only of an associative nature. In this light, this study investigated causative impact of attendance at cultural events on self-reported and physical health in the Polish population.Methods: Four recent waves (2009, 2011, 2013 and 2015) of the biennial longitudinal Polish household panel study, Social Diagnosis, were analysed. The data, representative for the Polish population aged over 16, with respect to age, gender, classes of place of residence and NUTS 2 regions, were collected from self-report questionnaires. Causative influence of cultural attendance on population health was established using longitudinal population representative data. To account for unobserved heterogeneity of individuals and to mitigate issues caused by omitted variables, a panel data model with a fixed effects estimator was applied. The endogeneity problem (those who enjoy good health are more likely to participate in cultural activities more frequently) was circumvented by application of instrumental variables.Results: Results confirmed positive association between cultural attendance and self-reported health. However, in contrast to the often suggested positive causative relationship, such a link was not confirmed by the study. Additionally, no evidence was found to corroborate a positive impact from cultural attendance on physical health. Both findings were substantiated by augmentation in the longitudinal perspective and causal link.Conclusions: We showed the relation between attendance at cultural events and self-reported health could only be confirmed as associational. Therefore, this study provided little justification to encourage use of passive cultural participation as a measure of health promotion (improvement). Our study did not confirm any identifiable benefit to physical health from passive participation in culture. Future research should investigate the causative influence of active participation in creative activities on health outcomes as, in contrast to passive attendance, it may be influential. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this article, incoherent results of the associations between subjective well-being and economic status at multiple social levels are shown. Although individual-level positive associations are shown within developed countries, national-level associations disappear among developed countries. Group/area-level associations, meanwhile, do exist within Japanese societies. From these inconsistent phenomena, a sociocultural unit is proposed, within which well-being of people is collectively shared based on mutual reciprocity. The simple addition of social scientific results themselves cannot reconstruct the whole range of phenomena. Humanities could be considered as the glue, which adds sociocultural meanings to the generalized scientific results. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

T.S. Eliot once proposed that there were two sorts of problems in life. One prompted the question, 'What are we going to do about it?' and the other provoked the questions, 'What does it mean? How does one relate to it?' Geriatric medicine, an eminently practical specialty, has concentrated with good effect on the former but with notable exceptions has yet to devote significant time to the latter. Into this breach has developed an innovative and exciting movement in gerontology to provide a deeper and more comprehensive insight into the meaning of ageing. Largely encompassed by the terms of cultural, humanistic and narrative gerontology, their intent and methodologies in many ways mirror the relationship between the medical humanities, narrative medicine and medicine. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]