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In this article I present the main findings of an empirical study about contemporary spirituality in Italy begun in 2017 by reasoning about the analysis of twelve case studies which are particularly eloquent concerning the different spiritual worlds emerging in Catholic Italy. I argue that three main narratives—the spirituality of nature, wellbeing, and mystery—are useful to synthesize the heterogeneousness of groups, communities, festivals, and organizations engaged in the Italian "holistic milieu". In order to address this reflection, firstly I will trace the international sociological debate that has accompanied the concept of contemporary spirituality and the relationship between spirituality and religion, a couple which I have named "frenemies". Then, I will extend the analysis to the concept of the secular, examining the intertwining of the spiritual, religious, and secular spheres. After illustrating the landscape of contemporary spirituality in Catholic Italy more broadly, I shall focus on the case studies taken as examples of the spirituality of nature, the spirituality of health and wellbeing, and the spirituality of mystery. In the Discussion and Conclusion, I shall raise some fundamental questions that the study of contemporary spirituality poses for the sociology of religion with reference to secularisation, one of its most classic and yet contested paradigms. I shall claim that future research paths could further contribute to strengthening the idea, raised in this article, that secularisation can also be understood not only as an antithetical force to religion but as the process in Western history that has led to the emergence of a secular social space in dialogue with the religious sphere. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article assesses the "mission" of the journal Social Sciences and Missions as it approaches its twentieth anniversary, starting from its origins as a forum for interdisciplinary study of colonial-era Christian missions, especially in Africa. It surveys major debates that the journal has followed regarding gender, migration, and more. It reflects on its revised manifesto of 2021, committing to the study of missions as neither a "theological category" nor exclusively Christian phenomenon "but rather [as] a type of social action" and mode of "religious intervention in social space." Building on this history, this article argues, the journal should critically question the nature of religion and the "religious;" cover non-Christian topics more fully; and encompass organizations that may not be recognizably "faith based." Broader comparative focus will sharpen the journal's focus on missions as movements that have aimed to channel and promote social change, often with far-reaching and ambiguous consequences. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: This study aims to explore the relationship between folk religious place-making and the development of urban public spaces and summarize its influence on community network construction and daily behavior to discover the authentic practices and role of folk faith culture in social space. Design/methodology/approach: Taking Macau's Shi Gandang Temple and its belief culture as an example, on-site research, historical evidence and interviews were used to elaborate and analyze the processes of place-making, social functions, management mechanisms and folk culture to establish a new perception of folk religious place-making in contemporary urban spaces. Findings: The article argues that the culture of folk beliefs profoundly influences urban spaces and the social management system of Macau and has a positive significance in building the local community and geopolitical relations. In addition, it suggests that the participation of folk religious places in local practices is important as key nodes and emotional hubs of local networks, reconciling conflicts between communities of different backgrounds and driving urban spaces toward diversity while forming a positive interaction and friendly cooperation between regional development and self-contained management mechanisms, governance models and cultural orientations. Originality/value: This study takes an architectural and anthropological perspective of the impact of faith on urban spaces and local governance, using the Shi Gandang Temple in Macau as an example, to complement related studies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Cuadernos del CILHA is the property of Universidad Nacional de Cuyo 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 Turkbilig/Turkoloji Arastirmalari Dergisi is the property of Turkbilig/Turkoloji Arastirmalari Dergisi 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 Ciencias Sociales (13159518) is the property of Revista de Ciencias Sociales de la Universidad del Zulia Venezuela 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 Estudios de Filosofía is the property of Universidad de Antioquia, Instituto de Filosofia 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 Universitaria de Historia Militar (RUHM) is the property of Centro de Estudios de la Guerra 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 article aims to discuss gender identification processes as a dialectic of autonomy and dependence with respect to the production of hegemonic models of masculinity. The analysis which are proposed in this paper are based on results from a prolonged qualitative research on sexual conducts and construction of masculinities among young Moroccan and Muslim immigrant men living in Europe (France and Italy). By discussing specific case studies, I will analyse predatory masculinity -- one of the hegemonic representations of "being a man" among the young people interviewed -- as a gender performance where heterosexuality is conceived as an "essential" attribute of men. The text will first explore how this model of masculinity is configured as a normative reference by scientific literature on Islamic masculinities and among the young Moroccans I met. Then, I will show how this model allows the production of different social relations, especially between men, in homosocial spaces within immigrant milieu, and between Morocco and Europe. Finally, I will study the case of those young men who come to terms with this predatory model of masculinity in order to negotiate subordinate sexual orientations, such as homosexual. The paper will try to show how young men both develop new margins of manoeuvre to perform their masculinities and experience the coercive power of gender norms according to their social backgrounds and family origins. The main purpose of the text is an attempt to highlight both constricting and productive power of heterosexuality and its plural forms of expression. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Examining Omar Shahid Hamid's The Prisoner through Postmodern Marxist lens, this research analyzes how Karachi's city space is being victimized by globalization and capitalism and highlights different ways of Karachiites' spatial manipulation. Karachi as a metropolitan city, went through fragmentation and discontinuity due to globalization and is being affected by polycentric and kaleidoscopic socio-spatial structure. Postmodernists raise questions upon the idea of utopian city space and about the role of architecture and geography in a person's life. Based upon arguments by Henri Lefebvre and Edward William Soja, this research substantiates how in The Prisoner, characters are manipulated by their social space and also foregrounds their resistance against this spatial cleansing. The research establishes how the individuality of a person is being victimized by capitalism which ultimately leads to spatial manipulation. Hamid also features how social institutions are becoming major tool for spatial cleansing and causes spatial injustice in a person's life which is totally a backwash of pre-existing human norms and values. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this article, the use of autoethnography and third-wave feminism allows for an exciting, creative, and unruly method to emerge. The author knits together their theoretical location with an autoethnographic methodology, uniquely coining this approach to autoethnography as Third-Wave Dervish. By doing so, the creation of many micro- and macro-reflective spins—the act of whirling—holds space for an ever-evolving process of gaining knowledge from multiple sources such as somatic sensations, understanding through already published scholarship, learning through resistance, revisiting child- and youth-hood journals, and the triggering of lived experiences. This process allows the author to deepen the understanding of living in the in-between of social spaces as an Ismaili Muslim woman in Canada. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Revista Cuadernos de Literatura del Caribe e Hispanoamerica is the property of Revista Cuadernos de Literatura del Caribe e Hispanoamerica 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.)

Marriage in Türkiye, as in many societies, is of great importance in the reproduction of life, and the choice of a spouse often involves the intervention of families and society. Within this structure, it is seen that marriages usually occur between extended family members or the same ethnic/sectarian groups. Nevertheless, mixed marriages between migrants with different ethnic, racial, religious, and cultural identities and settled people have increased in the last 30 years. The fluidity of the transnational social space created by marriages is effective in this increase. This paper reviews the current studies on mixed marriages in Türkiye from the perspective of transnational social spaces, which express a way of life somewhere between two communities and provides a link between them. It reflects the ways in which this fluidity affects the political and social positioning of mixed marriages and the agency of marriage migrants. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article examines the issue of heteronormativity and gender normativity in South Africa, focusing on the discrimination and violence faced by individuals with non-normative sexual and gender identities. Despite constitutional protections, these individuals continue to face significant challenges. The article argues for the need to challenge heteronormative and gender-normative discourses in order to promote inclusivity and combat discrimination. It includes contributions from scholars who have conducted research on various topics related to heteronormativity and traditional gender norms in different social contexts. The findings suggest that progress towards inclusivity is possible with concerted effort and intervention. The article emphasizes the importance of creating more inclusive societies and acknowledges the contributions of individuals and organizations in this endeavor. [Extracted from the article]

Copyright of Revista Tamoios is the property of Editora da Universidade do Estado do Rio de Janeiro (EdUERJ) 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 Pedagogía Social is the property of Pedagogia Social 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 Arulmigu Kamatchi Amman Devasthanam, located on Jalan Dato Keramat, in Penang, Malaysia provides entry into the cultural world of Pathars, the traditional Tamil goldsmiths who have long established their business in Penang. The continuity of this temple is studied through its spatial attributes and social impact in anchoring collective community experience Primary data was acquired through ethnography and secondary data was drawn from a document and photo review. The analysis provides a narrative account of the temple's mandapa as a social space that facilitates the hybridity of identities that grow from this temple. As a representation of Bhabha's Third Space and emanation of Lefebvre's "space triad", the mandapa within this temple fosters the lived experience of its users through bodily encounters, to renegotiate and reimagine their culture and identity that has been shaped by colonialism, as well as the transnational movement of people, culture, and memories. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Sociedade e Estado is the property of Sociedade e Estado 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 article discusses the book "Framing Texts/Framing Social Spaces: Conceptualising Literary Translation in Three Centuries of Swahili Literature" by Serena Talento. The book explores the history and sociological aspects of literary translation in the Swahili-speaking context, focusing on the pre-twentieth century Swahili coast, colonial and post-independence East Africa. It examines the construction of a discourse on translation and its impact on the Swahili literary scene. The book also discusses the role of translation in the process of nation-building and the validation of Swahili as a national and literary language in post-independence Tanzania. Overall, the book provides valuable insights into the field of translation studies in Africa and highlights the importance of the East African context and African-language textual tradition. [Extracted from the article]

Copyright of Revista Colombiana de Ciencias Sociales is the property of Fondo Editorial Fundacion Universitaria Luis Amigo 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 Confluências Culturais is the property of Fundacao Educacional da Regiao de Joinville - FURJ 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.)

During the global pandemic, teachers and students were forced to quickly adjust teaching and learning to fit in the new socially distanced world. Along with the challenge of establishing effective online teaching tools came the need to create social spaces for connecting with students through teacher-student interactions. This study followed the practices of K–12 teachers who were also graduate students seeking an advanced endorsement in literacy as they grappled with problems and solutions of online learning during an intensive K–12 literacy tutoring program. The researchers honed in on the work of one focal teacher as she carved out a new social space for connecting with her students. This work resulted in the identification of specific criteria for three dimensions of social presence: relationship building, engagement, and social interactions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Journal of Sociology: Bulletin of the Yerevan State University / Banber Erevani Hamalsarani. Sots'iologia is the property of Publishing House of Yerevan State University 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 explores the social action of sanctioning an interlocutor's conduct in public spaces through social media. Using membership categorisation analysis (Hester and Eglin 1997), we examine how, in offline face-to-face disputes filmed by one party, interactants deploy the name 'Karen' to sanction someone and threaten the transposition of the recording onto social media to impose accountability to the public at large. Our findings show how sanctioning through categorising an individual as a 'Karen' is interactionally achieved through framing conduct as entitled or otherwise problematic, distinguishing in-situ production of 'Karen' from a delivery that is perceptually unavailable to an interlocutor. We explore how social media functions as a resource to shape the ongoing encounter by orienting to the camera, and thus the online audience, as an external authority. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Aufklärung: Revista de Filosofia is the property of Aufklarung: Revista de Filosofia 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.)

Coworking spaces – which combine an office workspace with a social space – enable collaboration, creativity and knowledge exchange, and offer opportunities to develop social and professional networks for users. Using a multilevel approach, we integrate data from two sources – at the level of the coworking space (N = 57) and the entrepreneur (N = 317) – and apply SEM to test our hypotheses. Our study finds that innovation-based narratives generated by coworking space providers significantly influence new venture growth for entrepreneurs within the space. The results also show that the alignment between the entrepreneur's identity and the perceived social structure of a coworking space (the immediate entrepreneurial space) positively influences new venture growth. Taken together, we propose an extension to the founder identity literature by integrating psychological and sociological theories of identity to explain how the reciprocal relationship between context and identity is critical to new venture performance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Over the last two decades, Italian cinema has turned its gaze towards the Mediterranean Sea to dismantle the narratives constructed by populist political parties and mainstream European media, which have emphasized the rhetoric of border protection, security and legality through the systematic depersonalization of migrants. Film counter-narratives to this have been effectively developed, and cinema has responded to the materiality and fixity of migrants' bodies by composing stories in which these migrants recover their sociopolitical agency. This article provides a close analysis of the characterization in Emanuele Crialese's Terraferma (2011) and Gianfranco Rosi's Fuocoammare (Fire at Sea) (2016) in relation to technical and stylistic forms of filmic representation. Particular attention is paid to the correlation between the aesthetic level of the films and the social dimension of the characters, which is primarily expressed through framing in which the migrant occupies the central position, establishing a dialectical relationship with the other characters and their social space. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Theatralia is the property of Masaryk University, Faculty of Arts 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.)

"Emotional Arenas: Life, Love, and Death in 1870s Italy" by Mark Seymour is a book that explores the role of emotions in society and politics during the 1870s in Italy. The book introduces the concept of "emotional arenas," which highlights the cultural rules for expressing emotions and how they change in different social spaces. The author applies this concept to a murder case that occurred during this time period, examining the emotional dynamics between the individuals involved. The book provides a rich analysis of the emotional arenas in various social spaces, such as the circus, the funeral, and the court of law. It also explores the interclass sociability and desires of women during this time. The author's analysis is sensitive to the cultural norms of the time and highlights the agency of social actors in navigating these emotional arenas. [Extracted from the article]

This document is an editorial titled "Blurring boundaries: reconfiguring social and digital spaces" published in Frontiers in Sociology. It discusses the blurring boundaries between digital and social spaces, particularly highlighted by the COVID-19 pandemic. The editorial brings together 10 articles from around the world to explore the reconfiguration of identities, relationships, and institutions in the context of social and digital spaces. The articles cover various topics such as the representation of female subjectivity in social media, the values conveyed by media contents, educational issues, political and citizenship issues, and methodological considerations. The editorial emphasizes the need for a transdisciplinary approach and highlights the complexity of exploring the interconnections between social and digital spaces. [Extracted from the article]

Social capital in libraries has been explored in a variety of contexts, including public and academic libraries as well as as a form of intellectual capital that libraries manage alongside other types of capital. To date, however, leadership in relation to social capital in libraries has not been addressed in a sustained and practical way. This article introduces the foundational elements of social capital and explains their dynamic involvement with leadership and leaders, whose primary levers of agency in the social capital space are influence and trust. Examples from public and academic libraries are given to illustrate the conceptual domains in which leaders operate in service to broader organizational goals and to virtuous cycles of increasing social capital. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Public libraries are often regarded as having the potential to support healthy aging. Past work has shown that public librarians increasingly endeavor to offer programs and services for those aging in place. However, research about the effects that public library services and spaces have on the lives of older adults and the affordances they bring is limited. This article presents the results of a nationwide study in which 49 public libraries participated—most from rural and small towns across the United States. More than 535 older adults engaged in a 12-week strength-training program in these libraries. Results of the study indicate that health outcomes for participants can be grouped into three interconnected categories: physical health, mental health, and social health. Results also suggest that the program influenced the participants' perception of the public library as a social space. Implications for research on aging in place and public librarianship are highlighted and discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: Cities from ancient times to the present day have been centres of civilisation, centres of science, culture, economy and power. Some, thanks to their functions and location, have grown into huge metropolitan centres, others have retained a more intimate or peripheral character. The city as a special social space, as opposed to as a special social space, in contrast to non-urban areas, has always attracted diversity, development and education, but has also been associated with a sense of freedom, liberty and the development of a democratic and civil society. The city in its social dimension is also identified with place as an expression of cultural identity, of a small homeland, of belonging to a particular cultural community. This specific form of organisation of space, both the physical or material one expressed in the form of architecture and landscape, as well as the spiritual and social one, creates a specific and unique atmosphere described as a specific genius loci. The city as an economic formation, like a company, must also define its profile and mission. In order to build a city's image and thus promote its 'brand', an idea - an 'idea for the city' - is therefore necessary. This article aims to present examples of how a city's image can be built on the basis of based on its cultural heritage and a specific original atmosphere. However, the author's attention has been drawn not so much to large and significant urban centres with an established position on the cultural map of the country, but to cities that are today rather peripheral in character, which, however, as it turns out, can be an asset in creating their positive and original image. Project/methodology/approach: The article is explanatory and descriptive in nature. The research methods adopted in this paper indicate a qualitative type of research. These include, both the technique of observation and content and document analysis, i.e. on the basis of the observed phenomena and facts occurring in urban space, as well as the analysis of the subject literature and found factual data (desk research), the process of creating the image of the city will be presented. Findings: A contemporary creative city is a city that makes innovative use of its assets, including its cultural heritage, the special qualities or symbols of its landscape, or the cultural industries present in its space, to build its image and brand. Originality/value: The innovativeness of the article consists in the analysis of the ways in which the city carries out creative activities that are conducive to promotion and development, taking into account its particular character and specificity, i.e. what makes the city attractive and interesting, as well as the development of the cultural and tourist offer and activities related to the process of developing creative industries. The results of the analysis and the conclusions formulated may allow similar solutions to be used and implemented in other cities in order to stimulate their future development and build their own image. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The particular abundance of zoomorphic figurines found in different archaeological sites and different animal rock representations in shelters and caves in the southern Isthmus region allude to a particular relevance of the native fauna in the construction of the cultural landscape, mainly towards the end of the Classic period and during the Postclassic. Reasoned as ethnobiological records that transcend time, such evidence motivated the study of the cultural landscape as heritage articulated by places where certain stories are woven and give identity. Approaches to those memories, as well as to current regional zoological perceptions, are based on the name Guiigu' Bi'cunisa, which in the Zapotec language means "river of water dogs", a physical and social space in which even today they link very different networks between the neotropical otter and the inhabitants of different localities along the same tributary. Involving the tangible or intangible forms immersed in the landscape composition, the narrative analysis of primary sources such as myths and legends, together with that of different musical, plastic and artistic expressions, is providing useful information about the knowledge and importance of this mustelid in the appropriation culture of the territory. The study of these narrations regarding the biological data of the species is not only making it possible to apprehend different aspects of the human fauna framework, but also to document the interactions between people and their closeness or affinity for various spaces of the riparian landscape in the south of the Isthmus events that transcending time have been incorporated as life stories. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Children's voices have been little heard in the Pacific research. The United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child 1989 asserts the child's right to have a say on matters that affect them and for their views to be considered. There has been massive growth in technologically assisted participative research; however, we argue the value of hand drawn maps should not be underestimated in the rush to engage with more advanced techniques. We present data from 267 neighbourhood maps drawn by children in Fiji, Kiribati, Samoa and New Zealand. To better understand the social construction of knowledge in children's everyday lives, we propose two models to conceptualise the complexity of their world, a social connection and a spatial connection model. These models reveal how Pacific Island children negotiate different levels of social connection from home, family, and community through to transnational kinship relations. People, specifically family, provide the geographic basis on which their spatial encounters are overlaid. Irrespective of country or rural/urban/atoll setting, it is social space that is the strongest connector for children as displayed in their maps. Application of our models can be used to reveal how knowledge is socially constructed in Pacific children's everyday lives. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The underground--for decades the invisible 'other' of landscape and terrain in geography--has emerged in political ecology literature as the source of 'stuff', or material things, resources and commodities that are not deemed intrinsically valuable until extracted. As a corrective, this paper offers a feminist political ecology perspective that brings subaltern women's voices to the forefront, and argues that the underground is co-constituted as a gendered space by gendered humans. As evidence, I take the readers on a journey into the belly of a coalmine where humans labour, and bring out women's voices that narrate their experiences and imaginations to create the underground as a space teeming with social life. These alternative and gendered narratives reinstate the diverse, complex, and secret lives of this netherworld, draw attention to the politics of imagining space, and potentially shift geographers' focus to interpreting the underground as a gendered social space. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article focuses on three types of domestic alcohol practices: drinking at home, accommodating alcohol products, and crafting alcohol drinks. It explores how Chinese young people associate their emotional, creative, and embodied experiences with domestic alcohol consumption and how the social and material space of home shapes their alcohol-related practices, drawing on a qualitative analysis. We argue that domestic alcohol practices shaped by diverse dwelling patterns can (re)produce the socio-cultural structures and multiplex spatiotemporalities of home. This article can contribute to geographies of alcohol in the domestic sphere by a deep investigation of the relationship between people, the socio-material space of home, alcohol-related practices, and the plural meanings of domestic lives from a non-Western perspective. It can also develop the relational geographies of domestic lives through a nuanced understanding of Chinese young people's relational knowledge, imaginaries and practices that constitute the interplay between alcohol practices and the social, material and atmospheric aspects of home-making. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Various measures to mitigate the spread of COVID-19 have altered mobility flows worldwide and caused people to adopt new ways of being and moving in public space. These changes have been considerably pronounced across modes of public transportation. This paper explores the experiences of individuals who continued riding and working in public transport throughout the pandemic to yield insight into changing mobility meanings and grounded realities of urban mobility processes in the context of COVID-19 and beyond. Through the combined analysis of ethnographic fieldwork, participant observations and interviews, the paper unpacks lived experiences of riding and working in public transport in the city of Amsterdam during lockdown by addressing the changed nature of embodied encounters and mobile sociability in public transit. Findings denote that COVID-19 has altered the conditions of mobile sociability in spaces of public transport, and has produced complex experiences of daily travel with others involving mutually negative and positive impressions. As a result, we argue that when challenged by COVID-19 related restrictions, mobile sociability and fleeting encounters on the move significantly shape the experience of traveling with others in ways that call into question how we think of public transport as a social space in cities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

During its twelve-year existence from 1974 to 1986, the arts gallery Just Above Midtown (JAM) occupied spaces in three disparate buildings in three distinct districts of Manhattan: in Midtown on West 57th Street; then in Tribeca; and, finally, also Downtown, in SoHo. This article considers the role of architecture in the production of the gallery as a Black artistic, commercial, and social space. Beyond the physical structures and neighborhoods that JAM occupied, changes made to the spaces by JAM and the reflections of gallery administrators and artists are also considered. The gallery's multiple built environments ultimately reveal a metaphorical transformation of JAM's ambitions. With each physical manifestation, JAM moved closer toward its aspiration of realizing a space that supported the complete self-determination of its artists. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Italy's digital Covid certificate, known nationally as the 'Green Pass,' was enforced through unusual restrictions for a liberal democracy, as part of the government's effort to bolster the Covid-19 vaccination campaign. Since July 2021, the Green Pass provided the main authorizing tool for the public to access a wide spectrum of social spaces and activities, from leisure to public transport and from education to workplaces. The Green Pass therefore served as a normative technology, and triggered intense political controversy and heated debates in the Italian public discourse. In constructing claims about the Green Pass, advocates and critics alike co-produced normative arguments with understandings of scientific evidence. Notably, they articulated competing framings around: conceptions of freedom during a pandemic; what should be considered as 'evidence that matters' regarding the effectiveness of Covid-19 vaccines; value-laden projections of vaccination as either a solidaristic practice or an act of self-protection; the proper relationship between the state and its citizens; and the most appropriate modes of public health intervention. Accordingly, Italy's Green Pass offers a revealing case study for probing the implications of a normative technology with respect to public health effectiveness and the safeguarding of individual and social rights. It also provides an opportunity for scrutinizing the (re-)structuring of scientific and public health governance in a major Western democracy during a public health crisis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, key findings are presented from an Australian Research Council (ARC) Linkage project that investigated the geographies, mobilities and politics for disabled people who roll powered assisted devices (wheelchairs and mobility scooters). We offer a spatial framework to think about the politics of exclusion/inclusion from public space along three dimensions: as a distributed institutional decision-making process, as personal, and as an event/journey. We recruited 68 disabled people to collaborate in a multi-stage, mixed-method qualitative project from 2020–2022. Four themes emerged from our thematic analysis of everyday power-assisted device practices that offer insights to what enables or constrains access to public space: the desire for social connections and independence, normative assumptions of standing design, the built form when going places (steps, gutters and stairs) alongside the interdependencies of various care and transport networks. We point to the implications for policy, planning and future research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The very nature of large-scale infrastructure projects—long design and construction periods, high investment, and impact on social and natural spaces—makes them prone to socioecological and technical conflicts. These conflicts materialize in stories that become keystones in the making of infrastructure. In this article, we analyze the infrastructuring power of stories by drawing on the case of the Chacao Bridge on Chiloé Island in southern Chile, a controversial infrastructure project that has been in the making over the last six decades. We argue that the "absence" of the bridge creates a space for the production of stories on the island's inherited past and imagined future that keeps recurring and growing in the form of myths. Thus, we propose the concept of "mythical infrastructuring" to capture this process. We then conclude by arguing that the Chacao Bridge project develops its infrastructuring presence over landscape and culture in contradictory ways that cannot be solved technically or symbolically. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Studies related to prehistoric, Circum-Alpine lakeside settlements have for the last decade or so begun to focus increasingly on the reconstruction of its inhabitant's social dimensions of life. More traditional models attempting to explain the often-fleeting settlement patterns set in a tightly managed cultural landscape focusing on climate and economic factors alone have proven insufficient and opened up to more nuanced and multi-scalar approaches. Especially built structures, due to their exceptional preservation, constitute a popular jumping-off point for a number of theories and interpretations but recent work has also moved beyond the confines of the settlement to include the wider cultural landscape as crucial in understanding the lakeside phenomenon. This article re-evaluates one of the more popular architecture-based models, namely the non-correspondence model, and subsequently suggests an alternative, more integrative approach based on Amos Rapoport's understanding of space. The aim is to create a more flexible approach to questions of space, time and meaning that does not stop at the built environment. Input from both the natural and the social sciences is combined in an attempt to sketch out an approximation of life on the lakeshores more than 5000 years ago. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]