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Drinking before going out, also referred to as ‘pre-drinking’ or ‘pre-loading’, has received little academic attention in adult female populations. This comparative research analyses women’s pre-drinking routines by drawing on ethnographic data from a broader study of women’s wine drinking practices in Australia and England. Informed by Catherine Bell’s ‘ritualised activities’, and the work of Victor Turner on ‘liminoid’ experiences and ‘communitas’, it finds that pre-drinking is a dynamic, ritualised, liminoid experience, with distinct contextual variations. In both groups, pre-drinking acts as a ritual and liminoid event which signifies the cue from ‘domestic’ home roles to ‘free’ social times. However, it finds that for the English women, pre-drinking is typically performed as a solo routine involving construction of idealised gender roles through which self-presentation is performed. In doing so, it supports previous research that posits that women drink wine to feel decadent and sophisticated, as part of a gendered embodiment of femininity. In the case of the Australian women, pre-drinking typically manifests as a feeling of ‘sisterhood’ among friends in an expression of communitas. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The subject of the article is a plein air painting event, considered as a liminal experience that is widely practiced by traditional artists to create and maintain communities in the local and supra-local art fields. The interest in organizing this kind of meetings among artists, modern art galleries, and art schools is not decreasing, and one can talk about the exceptionally long duration of the phenomenon. This article discusses the experience of participants for whom these joint meetings have a metaphysical dimension. The descriptions and expressions used by the artists have become the inspiration to use Victor W. Turner’s concept in the analysis. That is why this practice is discussed as a liminal experience and a rite of passage, whereas the relations between its participants are understood in terms of a specific type of community that is called by Turner ‘spontaneous communitas’. All the considerations and conclusions included in this text are based on qualitative research conducted among visual artists.

This study analyzes liminal characters in the selected two novels by focusing on the Uncanny and liminality and its impact on the characters. The selected novels for the current study are, "When the Moon is Low" by Nadia Hashimi and "Exit West" by Mohsin Hamid. The present research work explores the elements of uncanny liminality in the selected novels by using Victor Turner's theory of liminality (1969) and Sigmund Freud's concept of "Uncanniness" (2003) as theoretical framework. It also looks into the impact of uncanny liminality on the personality of characters because characters have undergone a serious change and transition which ultimately lead to severe changes in the life and personality of characters. Furthermore it evaluates the relationship between liminality and uncanny and the impact of its interplay on character's migrant experience and their journey. The study uses textual analysis and close reading techniques for collecting and processing data. The key findings of the study reveal that Fereiba Waziri in "When the Moon is Low" and Nadia and Saeed in "Exit West" are liminal characters as they leave their native lands in search of a peaceful and stable life. These characters undergo the process of migration and experience grave outcomes because it is a transitional process that involves significant mental, physical and spiritual transformation in the personalities of the migrants. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Camping – a growing niche in the tourism industry – allows participants to have a liminal experience. Using qualitative methods, we examine camp participants' perspective through the lens of liminal theory. The data were obtained through participant observation and interviews with 27 campers. Camp participants' liminal experiences are grouped into three dimensions: (1) learning in liminal spaces; (2) increased tolerance in liminal spaces and, (3) the effects of liminal spaces on eudaimonic happiness. Learning and tolerance in the camping experience has the potential to foster happiness, even after the participants return home. These findings from the Turkish experience contribute to a growing literature on liminality in camps and tourism more broadly. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Within Japan, Japanese hospitality or omotenashi is seen as distinct from 'western' hospitality, which is seen as a transactional service, focusing on the provision of food and beverages. Omotenashi, on the other hand, is based on the cultivation of a relationship between host and guest and an anticipation of needs. This article examines the role that volunteers played in delivering omotenashi and in co-creating a hospitable environment at the 2019 Rugby World Cup (RWC) in Japan. To welcome visitors, 13,000 volunteers were mobilized in host cities across the country, the highest number of volunteers in the history of the RWC. As a social event, the tournament offered many opportunities for interaction between the hosts and visitors, allowing for a co-created experience. Employing a walking methodology and participant–observation conducted within the event spaces, this article demonstrates how the engagement of the local communities through hosting, volunteering and direct interaction with visitors contributed to the co-creation of the event experience, and how omotenashi was embedded in the experiencescape. The research finds that although visitors were provided with a space in which their service needs were met, the hospitable environment was largely created through interactions between visitors and volunteers and between visitors and other visitors, both domestic and international. Significantly, volunteers displayed omotenashi, engaging with visitors in (fleeting) relationships, rather than as service providers, contributing to a clear sense of communitas and welcome that would not be found in typical transactional hospitality. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We examine the impact of the coronavirus pandemic on teaching and learning in an Engineering School of a large US research university. We focus on the adjustment of instructors as they converted their courses to distance teaching and learning formats (e.g., virtual sessions, online forums) and on bachelor student experiences with those changes. While both instructors and students experienced liminality, the pandemic affected these groups differently. Instructors attempted to form communitas with their students by prioritizing their teaching responsibilities, increasing the accessibility of course materials, and being more available to students compared to pre‐pandemic times. However, students struggled to adapt to online learning contexts which lacked the sense of togetherness previously offered by in‐person classes, study‐groups, tutorial sessions, and communal study spaces. Unable to interact with their peers and create communitas, learning online proved to be an ineffective "solution." Interacting with classmates and working in study groups are among the practices that can help students adjust to course delivery changes, even if it means those cultural practices go virtual. We argue that higher learning institutions, regardless of type (e.g., R1, R2, liberal arts, community colleges), should strengthen their remote teaching approaches. However, those strategies should incorporate: building strong relationships within and across roles, designing inclusive teaching and learning practices that take the contexts in which students learn into account, increasing spaces for peer‐to‐peer learning, and becoming proficient in the technologies needed to teach virtually. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper explores volunteers' sense of (dis)connection and belonging at a major peripatetic sport event. Utilizing qualitative in-depth interviews with 31 volunteers at the Tall Ships race held in Sunderland in 2018, we sought to understand their lived experiences of this event 18 months after it was held. We argue that the Turnerian concepts of liminality and communitas, can be used to comprehend these lived experiences but require more critical problematization in their application. Our contention is that volunteers demonstrate intricate (dis)connections with a range of people, with place, and with the event itself and thus communitas should be conceptualized as more complex and paradoxical when applied within the context of liminal event spaces. We further suggest that volunteers' sense of belonging to place influences how they experience liminal event spaces at least in the medium term. Space and place are therefore intimately connected in the lived experiences of volunteers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This play called Grieving Time, was written from the personal perspective of Rachel Fehily, author and barrister, in 2020 as a response to the Irish Coronavirus lockdown, with a theme based around how small comforts during the lockdown affected people’s grieving process. It was created through a process of collaboration and rehearsal between the author, actor, and producer within the constraints of the time. It was written in monologue for an actor with whom the author had worked previously. The completed radio play was broadcast on 17 August 2021 by the Irish public service broadcaster, Raidió Teilifís Éireann on the radio programme, Drama on One. It is available as a podcast on https://www.rte.ie/radio/dramaonone/1241306-grieving-time-by-rachel-fehily. The intended effect is to create a sense of communitas among listeners.

Purpose/rationale: Volunteers of special events have been cited as being unlike volunteers at other events. Moreover, little is known regarding why people volunteer at small-scale sports events in small cities. Building on the four volunteer factors developed by Farrell et al. (1998. Volunteer motivation, satisfaction, and management at an elite sporting competition. Journal of Sport Management, 12(4), 288–300. doi:), the concepts of communitas and liminality as well as age and gender differences, this study sought to examine the motivations of sport volunteers in the context of a small-scale special sports event. Design/methodology/approach: Descriptive statistics were used to report the results. Additionally, MANOVA's were used to determine if any differences existed between the gender or age and any of the four factors identified in the Special Event Volunteer Motivation Scale (SEVMS). Findings: The results indicated a purposive sense of community and sharing similar experiences, community meaningfulness, sense of togetherness, and satisfaction from the development of personal relationships and interactions from the volunteer experience were important reasons to volunteer at small-scale sports events. Practical implications: The results of this study can be utilized by practitioners responsible for small-scale sports events for volunteer recruitment. Research contribution: The present study also explored the SEVMS within the context of small-scale, special events, which has been underexplored using this scale. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Art-E is the property of Suleyman Demirel University, Faculty of Fine 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.)

Copyright of ABEI Journal: The Brazilian Journal of Irish Studies is the property of Associacao Brasileira de Estudos Irlandeses 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.)

Abstract Utilizing Turner’s (1974a) theoretical framework of liminoidity, this research analyzes leisure experiences by Harry Potter fans visiting the Wizarding World of Harry Potter in Orlando, Florida. Liminoid experiences are broadly characterized by leisure, individualization, continuously reoccurring nature, and do not require society-wide participation or personal transformation (Turner, 1974a). This phenomenological research employed qualitative methods to explore the structure of liminoidity in leisure experiences and extend Turner’s concept of spontaneous communitas and play. The author puts forth the Liminoid Leisure Experience Model to describe the processes of liminoid leisure experiences. Findings are transferrable and generalizable across fan communities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper focuses on the way novice marathon runners experience and respond to a change -- becoming marathoners. It utilises Victor Turner's concepts of liminality and communitas to illustrate the complexity and challenges experienced by novice runners. The scope of sociological research regarding distance runners over the last two decades has expanded, nevertheless, very little has been written in reference to the process of the liminal phase per se. Therefore, the contribution of this paper is to address this lacuna of research and focus on the link between the process of 'becoming' and concepts such as solidarity, hierarchies, and standing norms, which play significant roles and constitute key components in the process of liminality. An ethnographic research design of three years was implemented in two running groups, using participant observation and semi-structured interviews. The data presented suggest that embarking on a marathoner identity requires a phase of betwixt and between wherein the 'traditional' borders of liminality and communitas are not fixed and often negotiable. Moreover, the relatively advanced age, similar socioeconomic status and military background among the running members serve as loopholes in liminality for novice runners towards 'interested solidarity' with veteran runners in achieving their new status as marathoners. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Music often facilitates the experience of communitas within disparate groups of people. As the American mainline Protestant church faces schism and struggles for relevance in a post-modern era defined by mistrust in the institutional church and social subjectivism, reexamining how singing together can break down barriers within ecclesial structures and create shared understanding is merited. As demonstrated through the music of pilgrimage, community musicking allows individuals to define the sacred together. Music then becomes an educational resource for the reformation of the church. The Iona and Taizé communities offer insights into this process. Their publishing efforts and worship styles, influenced and crafted by the populations who visit their locations, have provided resources for this dialogue in localized contexts. However, the experience of communitas is individualized—no one person, group, or organization can define this outcome. Consequently, no single musical or liturgical approach will be appropriate in all contexts; the church's music must adapt so that each selection is imbued with meaning for that community. Facilitating such a process in the local congregation may threaten the status quo while also becoming a tool for revitalization in the post-modern era. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Loss of work, furlough, and increased social isolation were prevalent for many working in the broad context of cultural and community engagement for health and wellbeing. This study set out to explore if and how regular online group interactions may foster social cohesion and provide support for these individuals during the critical time of the COVID-19 global pandemic. It was conducted in the context of the 'social cohesion chat' series led by a network called the Arts Play Health Community which was initiated in response to the pandemic as a way to bring those working in or connected to arts, play and health together during times of social isolation. Two qualitative focus groups with creative, participatory components were conducted with artists, researchers, evaluators, and arts/play managers (n = 11), and then analyzed using thematic analysis. Researcher ethnographic reflections and fieldnotes were also collected and analyzed. The authors engaged in reflexive online discussions to integrate and synthesize findings across different data. Four themes were constructed through the analysis procedure: (1) 'Building an online community as processes of communitas', spotlighting the importance of the non-hierarchical structure of the 'chats' particularly in relation to there being 'no end goal' to the online dialogues; (2) 'Individual and shared emotional experiences' that underpinned feelings of connection to others and the online space; (3) 'Psychosocial benefits' such as improving confidence and providing an opportunity to 'have a voice' in the community; and (4) 'The importance of facilitation', highlighting the opportunities the chats provided for participants to feel validated and valued as an active member of the community. The article concludes that constructing an inclusive and welcoming online community, where active participation is at the heart of regular social interactions can provide support for those working across arts and play for health and wellbeing. This was particularly important during the societal turbulence of the COVID-19 pandemic. It further concludes by noting the unique structure of these online dialogues as not being connected to institutions, with this playing a key role in allowing those in the community to 'be themselves' within it. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Recent years have seen a resurgence of research on the potential of psychedelic substances to treat addictive and mood disorders. Historically and contemporarily, psychedelic studies have emphasized the importance of contextual elements ('set and setting') in modulating acute drug effects, and ultimately, influencing long-term outcomes. Nevertheless, current small-scale clinical and laboratory studies have tended to bypass a ubiquitous contextual feature of naturalistic psychedelic use: its social dimension. This study introduces and psychometrically validates an adapted Communitas Scale, assessing acute relational experiences of perceived togetherness and shared humanity, in order to investigate psychosocial mechanisms pertinent to psychedelic ceremonies and retreats. Methods: In this observational, web-based survey study, participants (N = 886) were measured across five successive time-points: 2 weeks before, hours before, and the day after a psychedelic ceremony; as well as the day after, and 4 weeks after leaving the ceremony location. Demographics, psychological traits and state variables were assessed pre-ceremony, in addition to changes in psychological wellbeing and social connectedness from before to after the retreat, as primary outcomes. Using correlational and multiple regression (path) analyses, predictive relationships between psychosocial 'set and setting' variables, communitas, and long-term outcomes were explored. Results: The adapted Communitas Scale demonstrated substantial internal consistency (Cronbach's alpha = 0.92) and construct validity in comparison with validated measures of intra-subjective (visual, mystical, challenging experiences questionnaires) and inter-subjective (perceived emotional synchrony, identity fusion) experiences. Furthermore, communitas during ceremony was significantly correlated with increases in psychological wellbeing (r = 0.22), social connectedness (r = 0.25), and other salient mental health outcomes. Path analyses revealed that the effect of ceremony-communitas on long-term outcomes was fully mediated by communitas experienced in reference to the retreat overall, and that the extent of personal sharing or 'self-disclosure' contributed to this process. A positive relationship between participants and facilitators, and the perceived impact of emotional support, facilitated the emergence of communitas. Conclusion: Highlighting the importance of intersubjective experience, rapport, and emotional support for long-term outcomes of psychedelic use, this first quantitative examination of psychosocial factors in guided psychedelic settings is a significant step toward evidence-based benefit-maximization guidelines for collective psychedelic use.

Copyright of Revista de Antropología Social is the property of Universidad Complutense de Madrid 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 Canterbury Earthquake Sequence (2010, 2011) devastated central Christchurch, necessitating wholesale urban renewal. But national government’s ensuing recovery efforts were castigated for exemplifying global worst practice, providing a textbook case in how not to undertake recovery. Alliteratively, I argue that the issues underpinning this failure to build back better cluster around questions of complexity, control and coherence. The government’s blueprint, the Christchurch Central Recovery Plan, illuminates several fantasies of mastery associated with the technocratic mindset: that a central authority can dictate local interests, that community is homogenous, that their wishes can be proscribed from the top down, and that a fixed recovery plan can deal with emergent complexities. For, while we can formulate blueprints, design buildings and even mandate precincts, we cannot engineer urban life. Having identified problems, we can look to community activities in Ōtautahi to recommend three best-practice solutions: enacting co-governance (between Crown and iwi – Māori kinship group, tribe, nation), undertaking meaningful collaboration (between authorities and affected communities) and harnessing communitas (the distinctive social energy that emerges after disaster). All three elements often combine as social infrastructure. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Tensions between spiritual development and school discipline academic goals at one Puerto Rican Protestant high school mirror tensions between leadership development and discipline at my own school. At the Protestant school where I conducted ethnographic research, faculty-student hierarchies were downplayed and students were given ample freedom of expression in worship, in the interest of encouraging them to have individual encounters with God. At the second site, I recount "auto-ethnographically" how the school's leadership-development mission is associated with rituals and relationships paralleling those in the first site. As part of this auto-ethnography, I also describe how students, through the student government which serves as a counterpart to worship activities at the Protestant school, successfully contested the administration's authority in a controversy over the dress code. I employ both cases to illustrate how liminality and communitas, concepts developed by the anthropologists Victor Turner and Edith Turner, explain the tensions described and serve to draw attention to similar moments and spaces in religious and secular schooling. The writings of John Taylor Gatto as well as Eileen de los Reyes and Patricia Gozemba's concept of "pockets of hope" further highlight this tension. Liminality and communitas also help identify much of what was lost in emergency remote teaching during the COVID-19 pandemic. Research with these concepts could produce important insights into the possibilities and pitfalls of such educational endeavours, as well as into the interplay between structure and agency in schooling. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper aims to explore the worldview of young people in Serbia (defined here as roughly those aged 18-30) who are experiencing prolonged youth due to the repercussions of critical events that shaped their formative years, from the viewpoint of one particular friendship group. By documenting the "nodal points" and rituals of a group of young people in a small Serbian city, utilizing research gathered through a variety of methods, including direct observation, ethnographic participation, and formal interviews, this paper seeks to open a window of understanding to the liminal space occupied by youth in the face of the material and economic forces shaping the sociopolitical background of their lives. This paper also aims to contextualize the current social and economic climate that young Serbians are facing. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

To what extent does the community formed among pilgrims on the Camino de Santiago correspond to Turner's concept of communitas? How might pilgrimage with significant others differ from individual pilgrimages in the sense of community? This study attempts to answer these questions based on qualitative and quantitative content analysis of 32 travelogues written by pilgrims who completed the pilgrimage alone or with relatives or friends. The findings show that pilgrims develop an egalitarian and creative community that prevails the notion of a generic bond between people, an intense comradeship and generous common friendliness. In such a community, pilgrims' behaviour is typically passive or humble, and wisdom has ontological value. Pilgrims have similar experiences of communitas regardless of going to Santiago alone or with significant others. However, pilgrims who join organised groups solely for the last 100 kilometres of their journey are not considered part of this community and are classified as pseudo-pilgrims. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Examination of the experience of a group of Chilean exiles participating in El Sueño Existe, a contemporary Welsh festival inspired by the work of the Chilean artist Víctor Jara, suggests that by allowing Chileans to observe and experience social, material, and symbolic dynamics that suspend certain norms of everyday life, the festival helps them to construct a symbolic bridge between the past and the present, between "them" and "us," and to formulate a critique of certain political power structures. Una examinación de la experiencia de un grupo de exiliados chilenos que participan en El Sueño Existe, un festival galés contemporáneo inspirado en la obra del artista chileno Víctor Jara, sugiere que al permitir a los chilenos observar y experimentar dinámicas sociales, materiales y simbólicas que suspenden ciertas normas de la vida cotidiana, dicho festival les ayuda a construir un puente simbólico entre el pasado y el presente, entre "ellos" y "nosotros", y formular una crítica de ciertas estructuras de poder político. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A validade do legado de Victor Turner traçada com os Ndembu, na Zâmbia, tem atravessado fronteiras. A arena desta análise é o enfrentamento à Pandemia do Covid-19, pandemia esta personificada na condição de sombra e que faz revelar conflitos, proponho, então, pensá-lo tendo por referência o Mayab atual, mais conhecido pelo nome de Yucatán, região de referência maia. O povo maia que jaz nesta análise é um povo que transita e vive entre comunidades rurais, zonas urbanas e fronteiras macronacionais, e desenha na paisagem humana o retrato de uma sociedade abigarrada com suas tensões decorrentes da formação social herdada da conquista colonial e da instauração dos Estados Nacionais. Objetivo refletir o método sobre si mesmo, como possibilidades e limites, no uso de conceitos advindos de Turner: drama social, sombra, aflição, multivocalidades, comunidades, cismas e continuidades. No risco da tradução cultural, mais que apenas possível, é potente e frutífero refletir esta pandemia e seus rumos, contextualizada no Mayab tomando como parâmetro a reflexão de Turner sobre o método Ndembu.

Modern pilgrimages are gaining popularity in Western culture despite increased secularization. Historically, pilgrimages were a religious ritual with the goal of personal transformation. This study explores the phenomenology of modern pilgrimage: the motivations to go on a pilgrimage, the experience and the subsequent changes. An explorative study was conducted on 142 pilgrims. The results indicate that 74% of the participants were motivated by psycho-existential motives to go on the Camino to Santiago. In addition, 75% of the participants experienced changes in life after walking the Camino. The findings indicate that modern pilgrimage still has transformative potential. Furthermore, six major themes regarding the phenomenology of the Camino emerge from the data: (1) authentic experience, (2) walking in nature, (3) self-transformation, (4) community, (5) simplicity and (6) spirituality, indicating that modern pilgrimage is a multidimensional psycho-existential phenomenon. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This contribution carries out a spatial analysis of the short stories and poems collected in Giovanna Capone’s In My Neighborhood (2014), with a twofold aim: exploring the significance of physical and metaphorical liminalities in the development of Capone’s poetics and, on a more theoretical level, outlining an alternative paradigm, based on the concepts of liminality and communitas, to read Capone’s poetry, as well as other contemporary Italian-American literary texts. I identify four sites of liminality in Capone’s work and delve into their relationship with the narrative voice and the role they play in its evolution. This essay reflects on Giovanna Capone’s Bildung and her identity as a queer Italian-American author by re-reading the four spaces described in In My Neighborhood through the lens of Victor Turner’s theory of liminality and Roberto Esposito’s notion of communitas. Esposito’s development of the concept allows for an alternative interpretation of the community of Italian American queer subjectivities created by Capone in the Southwest. Finally, the connection of such community with Gloria Anzaldúa’s formulation of Borderland and ‘mestiza consciousness’ is highlighted as a theoretical counternarrative to the identification of the ethnic queer self as a member of a community defined by borders.

In 2020 and 2021, the restrictions imposed by the Covid-19 pandemic suspended or limited important rites and the web became the place to fill the void. In March 2020, I started to conduct virtual fieldwork on this development from the perspective of what happened to the pilgrimage to the Holy Trinity of Vallepietra (Central Italy).

This article argues and explores how popular Catholic piety can serve as an agent to create life-giving communitas for women in Macao, China. This research uses the narratives of six Catholic women about how their immersion in various public and private devotional practices creates solidarity and communities that are inclusive, empowering, and nurturing during the outbreak of COVID-19. Besides petitioning their long-lasting devotional images such as St Roch and Our Lady of Fatima, women learn and move on to a new model of online and live stream religious response and ritual innovations at the time of coronavirus in Macao. The digitisation of gathering strengthens the global connection among women to the rest of the world, shaping a new form of devotional culture and community ties that are not necessarily institutionalised. Devotional practices act as a spiritual oasis, personally and communally, for women coming together and bring hope, strength, and consolation to this unprecedented time. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We report on our work with the street community of Pittsburgh, specifically, a community-based action initiative we call the Mobile Thriving Respite (Institutional Review Board approval was obtained from our university). For 5 years, student advocate ethnographers from Point Park University have gathered data (e.g., long- and short-term interviews, participant-observations generating fieldnotes). The data revealed and supported the need for thriving beyond surviving homelessness. The data endorsed the creation of the mobile thriving respite. In the first part of this work, we will discuss some critical concepts regarding homelessness as a phenomenon and then argue that while surviving as enduring is necessary, there are some for whom survival is a perpetual, lethal state of being. We will discuss the theoretical foundations to the respite and offer researchers' ethnographic accounts of the respite's process and progress (We had to temporarily end the respite during the Covid-19 pandemic. To date, the respite has returned with "pop up" events outside at various locations). We will outline how the mobile thriving respite is a praxis as site of resistance as well as an emergent strategy, and an instantiation of communitas. We will then revisit surviving as collectively bearing witness and testifying to the lived experiences of those living outside. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This contribution carries out a spatial analysis of the short stories and poems collected in Giovanna Capone's In My Neighborhood (2014), with a twofold aim: exploring the significance of physical and metaphorical liminalities in the development of Capone's poetics and, on a more theoretical level, outlining an alternative paradigm, based on the concepts of liminality and communitas, to read Capone's poetry, as well as other contemporary Italian-American literary texts. I identify four sites of liminality in Capone's work and delve into their relationship with the narrative voice and the role they play in its evolution. This essay reflects on Giovanna Capone's Bildung and her identity as a queer Italian-American author by rereading the four spaces described in In My Neighborhood through the lens of Victor Turner's theory of liminality and Roberto Esposito's notion of communitas. Esposito's development of the concept allows for an alternative interpretation of the community of Italian American queer subjectivities created by Capone in the Southwest. Finally, the connection of such community with Gloria Anzaldúa's formulation of Borderland and 'mestiza consciousness' is highlighted as a theoretical counternarrative to the identification of the ethnic queer self as a member of a community defined by borders. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study draws on qualitative data to analyse the effect of the national Year 5 test culture on test actors in selected Slovak schools. The test culture is presented in the context of disciplinary power, while the method of analysis follows Foucault's later recommendation to focus more on the 'new economy of power relations'. Such an analysis is more empirically oriented and takes account of, and even emerges from, practical forms of resistance. It allows for a better understanding of the complexity and diversity of social responsiveness to the normative test culture in the school and the relativization of the one-sided power-oriented perception of the effect of testing in school settings. The study presents a critical view of across-the-board perceptions of national large-scale testing that ignore its specific normative setting and how it operates within the cultures themselves. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This essay uses both published and archival material to reconstruct the ideological and social contexts of Martin Buber's 1909 address "Judaism and the Jews". It suggests that Buber's address became immensely influential because it equated mysticism and politics into one metaphor. Secondly, it shows that Buber imported this idea from debates and discussions that took place almost a decade earlier in Berlin, among the bohemian circle known as the Neue Gemeinschaft (new community). Finally, the author hopes to show that the social context can be as crucial to understanding an idea as the ideological context. The question about the functions and potentials of the "community" so central to Buber and the Neue Gemeinschaft must be examined, this essay contends, not only conceptually but also as a lived reality. In order to get a glimpse of "the new community", this essay reproduces archival material that testifies not only to what people thought but also what they did, who they were, and how they interacted. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, we examine the ways in which aggression may be escalated during mediatised rites of aggression. We argue that Victor Turner's concept of 'rite of antistructure' is particularly useful to capture the pragmatic dynamics of public aggressive ritual events in which the rights and obligations holding for 'ordinary' life scenarios are turned upside down. The notions liminality and communitas – the pillars of 'rites of antistructure' – are particular useful to understand the evaluative and communal aspects of such rituals. We approach mediatised rites of aggression by focusing on evaluations of the behaviour of two antagonists. As a case study, we examine an incident in which one of the antagonists was responsible for the fact that the aggression became overtly hostile, beyond what would normally be tolerated in this context, and then allegedly attempted to de-escalate the aggression. • Provides a ritual framework for analysing complex instances of aggression and the escalation of aggression. • Introduces the concepts of liminality and communitas and explains their relevance to the study of the moral order. • Systematises various factors responsible for ambiguity in mediates rites of aggression. • Examines a high-profile case study drawn from the realm of martial arts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Music often facilitates the experience of communitas within disparate groups of people. As the American mainline Protestant church faces schism and struggles for relevance in a post-modern era defined by mistrust in the institutional church and social subjectivism, reexamining how singing together can break down barriers within ecclesial structures and create shared understanding is merited. As demonstrated through the music of pilgrimage, community musicking allows individuals to define the sacred together. Music then becomes an educational resource for the reformation of the church. The Iona and Taizé communities offer insights into this process. Their publishing efforts and worship styles, influenced and crafted by the populations who visit their locations, have provided resources for this dialogue in localized contexts. However, the experience of communitas is individualized—no one person, group, or organization can define this outcome. Consequently, no single musical or liturgical approach will be appropriate in all contexts; the church’s music must adapt so that each selection is imbued with meaning for that community. Facilitating such a process in the local congregation may threaten the status quo while also becoming a tool for revitalization in the post-modern era.

El artículo es una aproximación teórico-interpretativa a la noción de comunidad religiosa femenina en la temprana Edad Moderna en tanto unidad estratégica e instrumento discursivo analizado a partir del caso de Ana Francisca Abarca de Bolea (O. Cist., ca. 1602-1686) y las cistercienses de la Villa de Casbas. Estudia las estrategias retóricas y modelos de autoría en los textos selectos de la monja dónde se ha priorizado la colectividad femenina en reclusión dando nombre a una herencia simbólica femenina y una memoria afectiva a la vez comunes y propias. El estudio parte de una reflexión crítica sobre la noción de la comunidad religiosa femenina de la alta modernidad a la luz de las recientes contribuciones teóricas (Roberto Esposito, Judith Butler y Marta Segarra, entre otros) y el origen griego (koinonia) y latino (communitas) de la palabra, para abrirla más allá de la cualidad de lo “común” entendido en términos de una propiedad o esencia compartidas. Con ello se logra pensar en otra dinámica de las relaciones de mujeres religiosas del periodo, basadas no en los binomios dentro/fuera o superioridad/subordinación, que han sido marcos privilegiados de la lectura de este tipo de fuentes, sino derivadas de la relacionalidad, reciprocidad y agentividad que moldean otra geometría de la comunidad.

During summer 2020, many organizations shifted traditional, in-person camp programs online due to concerns from the COVID-19 pandemic. This study explores the intentional design and building process of a camp community in an online program when that format was not the organizations’ original delivery mode. The study involved six online camp programs that historically operated in person. Researchers gathered data through interviews with camp directors across three time points during their online programs. The findings revealed distinct components that comprise a camp-specific community with pertinent considerations for youth development organizations seeking to create a feeling of community in their online programs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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