Search

With the increase in infertility cases recorded over the last 20 years, there is a considerable demand for assisted reproductive treatments (ART). However, there is significant variation in the availability of such treatments across different countries. Legislation on assisted reproduction is influenced by various cultural expressions, making it seemingly impossible to create a single representation adaptable to different contexts. This work investigates the cultural representations of ART in Italy and Spain. We collected 1,735 articles from two Italian and Spanish newspapers, with all the articles containing the respective translation of ART from 2013 to 2022. The two corpora were analyzed using the Emotional Text Mining (ETM) methodology. The analysis produced 3 clusters in the Italian corpus and 5 clusters in the Spanish corpus. From the Italian results, a view of ART emerged that is linked to ethical limitations and the ideal of the traditional family. In contrast, the Spanish results depict ART in terms of community, rights, public health, and birth seen in itself. In conclusion, this study highlights the strong differences between Italian and Spanish cultures regarding ART. The results could be used to improve clinical practices and legislation surrounding ART. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Society overflows with waste, and waste and discard studies emphasize the social construction and contingency of waste, outlining it as the negatively valued. However, organizational sociology currently does not reflect these insights and rarely accounts for waste. Therefore, this article asks what kind of theory is required to capture waste in organized contexts. By searching for waste in Scott and Davis' well-accepted three perspectives on organizations (as rational, natural, or open systems), it becomes evident that each perspective conceptualizes waste based on its theoretical conception of organizations (rational: disorder; natural: disintegration; open: overdetermination) that is mirrored in different accounts of waste. While these perspectives assign negative value to different organizational conditions, they offer little insight into how organizations themselves disvalue entities and generate waste. To overcome this shortcoming, the article introduces an integrative perspective that incorporates the three prevalent perspectives, conceptualizing organizations as closed and open systems (COS) based on Luhmann's system concept and observation theory. The COS perspective explains how organizations construct waste through their selective indication of values and disvalues. It thereby identifies waste as a contingent yet inevitable part of any organization and shifts attention from the study of symptomatic waste to its underlying origins. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Based on immersive participatory observation of the curatorial practice of the 2019 OCAT exhibition Rural Construction through Art in Shenzhen, we identified two modes of community-based artistic interventions: a cultural "governance/capital" intervention deeply embedded in the social structure and a collective experimental art production intervention dissociated from the social structure. However, both forms of "production art" are essentially "unities of opposites" integrating incorporation and resistance, consistent with the socialist art policy of promoting the flourishing of all types of arts. Though the aesthetic divide between "art for society's sake" and "art for art's sake" positions these artistic interventions in different places in society, we argue that the domain of Chinese contemporary art is shifting away from the studio and toward scenes, events, experience, and dialogue. The approach of "the era of mass art" also means that "art-as-resistance" is being legitimized as "art-as-incorporation" in a subtle but unremitting way. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper theorises how a place can influence the emergence and evolution of an exchange field. Specifically, we examine the Society for Arts and Technology building in Montreal, focusing on its geographical location, material form, and meanings as their adaptations over time. Our findings identify three types of influence that the SAT building has on the field of projection mapping: supporting the community, fostering interorganisational relationships, and catalysing innovation. These influences manifest in distinct ways depending on the field's evolution phase. We contribute to the literature on field configuration by developing the concept of the field-configuring place and distinguishing it from the established concept of the field-configuring event. Additionally, we extend the institutional dynamics literature by showing how a place can support the configuration of a field from its emergence, based on its characteristics that can be adapted while providing stability. This study thus underlines the cross-fertilisation between the literature on field configuration and that on places. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article in the Queensland History Journal explores the life and work of Doris Louise Waraker, a Queensland writer born in 1894. Waraker was a journalist, broadcaster, poet, and playwright who documented her experiences and observations through various mediums. The article delves into her childhood, education, writing career, personal life, and legacy, highlighting her contributions to literature and theatre in Queensland. Waraker's work, including poetry, plays, and critiques, received both popular and critical acclaim during her lifetime. [Extracted from the article]

The article "Never Enough Time" by Christopher Samuel explores the artist's journey as a black British disabled person impacted by multiple inequalities and marginalization. Samuel discusses his experiences with disability, education, and the challenges he faced as an artist. The article highlights the importance of representation of disabled individuals in cultural spaces and the need for inclusivity and accessibility in the art sector. Samuel's work focuses on themes of time, identity, and the impact of disability on his life and artistic practice. [Extracted from the article]

The article delves into the sociological implications of beauty and artistic action, referencing the ideas of P. A. Sorokin. It introduces the concept of "altruistic artistic social action" as a means of fostering social change through beauty, using the Building Beauty project as an example. The text emphasizes the potential of artistic endeavors to promote social inclusion and transformation, underscoring the interconnectedness of love, beauty, and societal progress. It explores Sorokin's philosophy, research on altruism, and perspectives on love and humanity, while also referencing contributions from other scholars in sociology and aesthetics. [Extracted from the article]

As evidence of vitality, pain exists as a tool that unravels the mysteries of the traces and repressed stories hiddenin the memory of societies. The counterpart of pain in life can be found in the expression of emotions belonging to the life of the society from which it originates, in rituals and in the complex texture of everyday language. When the image of pain in art is considered in relation to its counterpart in life, we come across codes that reveal our identity. When the real-life counterpart of the image of pain in art isconsidered and its connections with pain are examined, we come across codes that reveal our identity. But here, palliative as a concept refers to the exact opposite situation in society's relationship with pain. Palliative societyis a contended society that is as far removed from pain as possible in texture and that desires and enforces life. This society of desires is a society based on artificiality, which presents the positivity in life excessively andimposes consumerism, desire, enthusiasm and need as the most essential of life, and aims to "be as happy as itcan". However, today, artists have produced images that express and convey that societies experience pain moredeeply, focusing on the suffering of societiesor people, in contrast to this positivity. Artists who work on thebody have even attempted to reveal the gravity and tragic nature of this tension through direct intervention on thebody. In a palliative approach, the image of pain in art can be described as an image of excessive interpretations, a negative narrative with exaggerated expressions, and an array of nauseating expressions that affect all thesenses. In this sense, the study reveals the similarities and differences between images of pain, violence, nausea, disgust in art and the image of pain in a palliative society. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

With the rise of COVID-19 and growing awareness of racial injustice, the last few years have been exceptionally tumultuous for our systems of education and their stakeholders. But scholars critical of traditional paradigms of schooling and accountability have argued that these crises kindle opportunities for profound change. Gloria Ladson-Billings, who has long argued for an approach to education that embraces cultural and epistemological diversity, has called for a "hard re-set" in education and has urged stakeholders to fundamentally reconsider the kind of human beings we want to nurture. With a reset in mind, we have turned our attention to studying out-of-school-time (OST) arts learning environments. The arts—dance, theater, music, the visual arts, and the digital and design arts—offer us a way to reimagine what good learning and teaching look like and how to design learning environments that work for all young people, and perhaps particularly for our most vulnerable youth. In this article, we draw on findings from our national critical qualitative study of out-of-school time community youth arts organizations. We offer policy recommendations for arts education and school improvement in four major categories: (1) Focus on youth and community assets; (2) Expand beyond a program-centric model of funding and design; (3) Support creative professionals; (4) Rethink the design and implementation of assessment systems. Within each category, we make recommendations specific to the various stakeholders who affect arts education policy—arts education leadership, funders and policy makers, and researchers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As grantmaking intermediary organizations, local arts agencies (LAAs) play an important but under-researched role in realizing cultural equity—the incorporation of underrepresented groups and counternarratives into democratic discourse—in thousands of local communities throughout the United States. In deploying their diversity, equity, and inclusion grantmaking practices, LAAs vary in the degree to which they proactively encourage the artistic expression of underrepresented groups, such as immigrants and racial-ethnic minorities. Little research has been directed at the relationship between the relative population size of underrepresented groups in an LAA service area and an LAA's likelihood of having a formal "race-ethnic targeting" policy, the proactive channeling of arts economic resources toward underrepresented community groups. Framing our analysis in sociological race relations theories, we examine patterns of association between an LAA's likelihood of having a formal race-ethnic targeting policy and the percentage foreign-born of the residential population in an LAA service area based on 462 LAAs of the 2018 Local Arts Agency Profile collected by Americans for the Arts, a national dataset of LAAs that we augmented with U.S. Census demographic data on LAA service-area populations. We conclude by deriving from the curvilinear pattern of findings a "representation thesis" on the community social contexts in which proactive LAAs tend to target race-ethnic minorities for distributing arts economic resources. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Being a warrior and being able to fight on the battlefield was considered one of the important characteristics for becoming a king and sitting on the throne in the history of ancient Iran. What doubled the importance of this feature was the political, religious, war, and even social position of the king among the officials, nobles and tribes, soldiers and subordinate people. Although kings such as Ardashir and Shapur were known to the subordinate people with their series of wars with East and West, and these wars were a good display of their warrior power, the kings well understood that there is a need in opportunities and on various occasions, to display their fighting power for the people of the empire as well. This research aimed to examine and analyze the images found in petroglyphs, coins, silver vessels, etc., to identify the war and propaganda elements the Sassanid kings used in conceptualizing their war position. The findings of the research show that the visual description and promotion of the king's fighting power, whether on the battlefield or in the hunting field, was invariably one of the main concerns of the kings. Due to the limitation of advertising and display tools, using existing tools such as petroglyphs, coins, silver vessels and other tools was vital for the kings. Displaying power and legitimacy that could be exposed to the public as much as possible depended on the use of permanent visual advertisements on petroglyphs, coins, and dishes. The existence of many petroglyphs, with various political, religious, war, and even social subjects, indicates that the kings were fully aware of the propaganda aspect and the effect of art on the psyche of the people, and they were determined to dominate their beliefs and thoughts by creating a completely royal art rule in society. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Ido Movement for Culture. Journal of Martial Arts Anthropology is the property of Idokan Poland Association 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.)

Performance spaces play a significant role in enhancing audience experience and perception of concerts. However, unlike their professional counterparts, community amateur orchestras frequently make use of more humble municipal venues for their performances. This distinction is foregrounded in the present research reporting the experiences of two groups of audience members who attended concerts given by Australian community orchestras: one located in a metropolitan area performing in local churches, school halls and service clubs; the other situated in a regional country town performing in town halls and outdoor settings. Themes of space, proximity and viewership emerged explaining how artistic-social relationships act as powerful catalysts to promote both musical and community connection. The findings highlight the important audience development work community orchestras do and encourage both professional and community arts audience developers to re-consider the ways that space and relationships are mediated as part of thoughtful concert curation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Rock art is internationally recognised as a tangible connection to cultures past, whose conservation, and management programmes should be developed accordingly. When these heritage places are located within living cultural landscapes and are part of the continuing culture of First Nations people as they are in Australia, there is a fundamental requirement for programmes to be owned and implemented by the relevant communities. However, giving primacy to the voices of those with cultural authority and agency does not always amplify these efforts. To address this challenge, Traditional Owners came together, supported by a land management agency and researchers, to stage a rock art forum for Indigenous Australians in early 2023. This ground-breaking initiative is significant, because the first manual on conserving and managing rock art that gives primacy to the worldviews of Australia's First Peoples will be an output from the forum. Past Australian publications om this subject have been authored by non-Indigenous scholars and practitioners who considered only an international framework for conserving and managing rock art as a cultural treasure. This paper considers discussions from the forum and the developing manual as shared stories of resilience to manage, protect and celebrate rock art through Indigenous-led initiatives to inform the present and prepare us for future advances in the discipline. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article "Bestiarium Greenlandica: A Compendium of the Mythical Creatures, Spirits, and Strange Beings of Greenland" by Maria Bach Kreutzmann explores the mythical creatures of Greenland, including the Kliffak, Qivittoq, Tupilak, and Toornat. These creatures are deeply rooted in Greenlandic mythology and folklore, with unique characteristics and abilities. The author, Maria Bach Kreutzmann, has a passion for Greenlandic monsters and has written two books on the subject, delving into the rich cultural heritage of Greenland. [Extracted from the article]

• Palaeolithic art is an unknown and often difficult to see cultural manifestation. • The conditions for viewing the rock art have been improved through augmented reality. • The light variation of the decorated panel has been overcome with LiDAR technology. • The LiDAR project has been successful implemented in caves and open-air stations. • The app democratises rock art and enhances the on-site experience. By developing new recording methodologies, current rock art studies generate a large amount of graphic information about sites (tracings, photographs, three-dimensional reproductions) providing visibility of this fragile and little-known heritage, whose accessibility is often difficult or impossible for the general public. In addition, many rock art depictions are challenging to observe, due to the very nature of the artistic entities (fine engravings or faded paintings in karst environments or open-air sites with poor or changing light conditions), or to conservation problems derived from natural factors such as erosion and geological and biological processes, as well as from anthropic factors. These conditions make rock art depictions nearly indistinguishable in many places and on many objects today, except for experts. This difficulty of accessing and visualising rock art heritage, located in fragile environments and often challenging places such as caves or difficult-to-reach open-air sites, makes the information and knowledge generated by investigation of this heritage asset difficult to transfer to society in general, which is frequently unaware of the priceless value of this heritage. The present study proposes generating several mechanisms to transfer the results of research, restitution and documentation of rock art to society in general. An AR (Augmented Reality) application has been developed using LiDAR (Light Detection and Ranging) technology to address current challenges in implementing AR technologies in low-light environments. So far, this app has been developed in a Proof-of-Concept project at Spanish archaeological sites such as Hornos de la Peña (Cantabria), Domingo García (Segovia) and La Salud (Salamanca). This application will be particularly interesting for sites currently visited with or without a guide, allowing user interactivity and real-time reconstruction, for example, of the visibility of graphic motifs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A coalition of leaders in the New Orleans area, including rabbis, the Jewish Federation of Greater New Orleans, and the Anti-Defamation League, issued a New Orleans Statement for Peace in response to the ongoing conflict in Gaza and Israel. The statement calls for unity, peace, and the condemnation of all forms of hate. The New Orleans City Council unanimously voted to support the statement, despite opposition from anti-Israel groups who claimed they were not consulted. The coalition of anti-Israel groups called for a ceasefire, the end of arms transfers to Israel, and compliance with international humanitarian law. [Extracted from the article]

Copyright of Turkish Culture & Haci Bektas Veli Research Quarterly is the property of Turkish Cultur & Haci Bektas Veli Research Quarterly 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 text discusses the October 7 attacks carried out by Hamas, in which over 1,200 Israelis were brutally massacred. The attacks were justified by Hamas's adherence to Islamic fundamentalism and their belief in "redemptive antisemitism," which calls for the elimination of Jews from the Middle East. The text criticizes the international Left for supporting Hamas and glorifying the attacks as an act of resistance, arguing that this aligns them with the ideology of Jihadi apocalypticism. It also highlights the refusal of the Left to acknowledge Jewish suffering and the hypocrisy in their condemnation of Israel as an "apartheid regime." The text concludes by discussing the Western Left's celebration of revolutionary violence and its implications for the political outcome. [Extracted from the article]

For many emerging into the realisation that the climate crisis is here and present and that we will all be affected, there is a feeling of being overwhelmed and the sense that we are standing on the edge of a precipice. In these times of uncertainty and fear, artist interventions have a capacity to engage with these embodied experiences and bring a sense of hope to the conversation through creative reflective engagement. The act of making can reduce anxiety and is a way for people to express themselves as they enter this phase of climate adaptation. As UK activist group, Culture Declares Emergency, puts it, 'creativity is the antidote of despair' (2019). Through the Insp-AIR-ation ArtScience community project, artist facilitators focused on perceptions of air quality. The ways in which we organise our collective lives are very influential on weather cycles and climate rhythms. Through the kaupapa (guiding process) in this emergent project, we sought to give voice to the concerns of community groups, their hopes, and aspirations. This arts project provided people with a space and platform to shape their feelings and express values. While science has been pivotal in highlighting the precariousness of our current way of living, the arts have never been more important than now in expressing who we are and shaping a positive response towards a liveable and just future for all. Commenting on the Climate Crisis, former US advisor, Gus Speth has called for a social response and culture as a necessary agent for bringing about transformational change. Basarab Nicolescu, in La transdisciplinarité: Manifeste (1996), talks about building bridges between science and our ways of being through symbolic language which is enriched by the originating values of the community. This project is one such response in building bridges. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

How do people living at the intersection of various forms of injury seek out collective experiences of joy? I explore this question through fieldwork with Latinx female and queer artists and entrepreneurs, some of them undocumented, who consciously seek out and enact joy in their communities in East Los Angeles. At the same time, these communities face gentrification, racism, and discrimination. I rest on joy as a conceptual framework that arises out of the analysis and theorizing of my interlocutors, who choose to push back against mainstream representations of their communities as exclusively defined by their suffering. This approach, or what I call "an ethnography of joy," draws our attention to what joy does in a particular context, how it becomes politically meaningful, and how it intersects and interacts with other phenomena. For example, in this article, I explore the more capacious idea of joy through a particular angle that emerged in my ethnographic research: entrepreneurship, or small business ownership. A focus on entrepreneurship allows me to explore how my interlocutors summon the forces of neoliberalism to seek social mobility, belonging, and community activism. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article posits that prayer is one of the popular activities that produce pleasure and animate social life in African societies. Focusing on a genre of prayer called "spiritual warfare" (also called "violent" or "deliverance") prayers, this article explores how the creativity infused into performing prayer enlivens both the art and the society that witnesses it. While prayer remains a spiritual activity, its social performance requires some aesthetic competence and innovations to be vivacious and pleasurable, retaining its animating quality despite its ubiquity. In a culture where leisure activities can be either lacking or entirely unaffordable, activities like prayer are ways in which society derives its pleasures. The moral authorities that package prayer, whether as commodities, spectacles, or sacred exercise, are all too aware of this aspect of its functions. As prayer is expressed in every aspect of life and does not always require a closed-off space, this article argues that, though a sacred activity, its banalization calls for it to be viewed as more than the "other" of secular performances. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article discusses issues pertaining to performing arts archives, in particular materials created by live theatre. Theatre materials cover the full range of creative and administrative activities and include a variety of formats; artists and other people involved in live theatre are also viewed as living archives. Theatre materials at times pose challenges for archivists who are not properly trained to handle them. Theatre materials also do not lend themselves to the classic interpretation of "life cycle". This article introduces different types of materials and formats and discusses their provenance in the context of different types of organizations, individuals, cultures, and artistic practices, bringing attention to issues that are understood within the relatively small performing arts archiving community, but are still often overlooked in other environments. This article invites a holistic and multicultural perspective and argues that a strong understanding of theatre and performance is needed to properly manage, preserve, and make accessible theatre materials. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]