Butoh, as Heard by a Dancer

This monograph explores the origins of Butoh in post-war Japan through orality and transmission, in conjunction with an embodied research approach. The book is a gathering of seminal artistic voices – Yoshito Ohno, Natsu Nakajima, Yukio Waguri, Moe Yamamoto, Masaki Iwana, Ko Murobushi, Yukio Suzuki, Takao Kawaguchi, Yuko Kaseki, and the philosopher, Kuniichi Uno. These conversations happened during an extended research trip I made to Japan to understand the context and circumstances that engendered Butoh. Alongside these exchanges are my reflections on Butoh’s complex history. These are primarily informed by my pedagogical and performance encounters with the artists I met during this time, rather than a theoretical analysis. Through the words of these dancers, I investigate Butoh’s tendency to evade categorization. Butoh’s artistic legacy of bodily rebellion, plurality of authorship, and fluidity of form seems prescient and feels more relevant in contemporary times than ever before. This book is intended as a practitioner's guide for dancers, artists, students, and scholars with an interest in non-Western dance and dance history, postmodern performance, and Japanese arts and culture

The British State, Citizenship Rights and Gendered Folk Devils: The Case of Shamima Begum

The revoking of Shamima Begum’s citizenship exemplifies much of the purposes of contemporary anti-Muslim racism and underlines its significant gendered element. Both state and media actors constructed the 15-year old as a problematic other, both to justify conditional citizenship ideologically, and to use her case to strengthen and add to the framework for making it legal. This comes in a context in which British Muslims and members of the British Windrush generation are being denied citizenship and the rights that go with it. We argue that Shamima Begum’s construction as a gendered folk devil must be understood in the context of nation states shifting their purpose and legitimacy from ‘civil rights’ to ‘national security’ and strengthening two-tier citizenship rights to control residents of colour, increase the state’s authoritarian purpose and, as part of an ongoing process, to transform the concept of ‘national security’ into legal reality, to further militarise the state and its borders against the ‘migrant crisis’ and, ultimately, to stifle dissent

Understanding change – developing a typology of therapy outcomes from the experience of adolescents with depression

Background: Outcome measures mostly focusing on symptom reduction to measure change cannot indicate whether any personally meaningful change has occurred. There is a need to broaden the current understanding of outcomes for adolescent depression and identify whether holistic, interlinked patterns of change may be more clinically meaningful. Objective: To create a typology of therapy outcomes based on the experiences of adolescents with depression. Method: Interview data from 83 participants from a clinical trial of the psychological treatment of adolescent depression was analysed using ideal type analysis. Results: Six ideal types were constructed, reflecting different evaluations of the holistic impact of therapy: “I’ve worked on my relationships”, “With the insight from therapy, and feeling validated, I can cope with life challenges better”, “My mood still goes up and down”, “If I want things to change, I need to help myself”, “Therapy might help, but it hasn’t been enough”, and “I don’t feel therapy has helped me”. Conclusion: Assessing change using outcome measures may not reflect the interconnected experience for adolescents or the contextual meaning of symptom change. The typology developed offers a way of considering the impact of therapy, taking into account how symptom change is experienced within a broader perspective

Teaching music theory in UK higher education today: contexts and commentaries

This multi-authored article offers accounts of how programmes for teaching music theory within the Western-notated tradition were created in two UK higher education institutions. These accounts are followed by two more discursive reflections on the nature and purpose of music education today, advocating the importance of listening skills and inclusive pedagogies. The article is framed by an introduction and conclusion contextualising the issues raised in relation to a selection of prior contributions to Music Education Research and comparing approaches to music literacy and theory teaching as represented in recent music theory conferences in the UK and the United States

Consent-deception: A feminist cultural media theory of commonsense consent

This article draws on feminist cultural studies, media and cultural theory, and engages with feminist law and criminology, to argue for a newly invigorated conceptualisation of consent in feminist theory. The article argues for a feminist cultural media theory of commonsense consent, drawing attention to the fact that there is no concept of consent that is particular to sexual encounters. A more universal, commonsense theory, shaped as much by twentieth century media as by eighteenth century political philosophy, informs how consent shows up to social experience. The article furthermore situates consent in relation to feminist culture linked to cultural discourse of intimacy, all of which are undergoing transformation in relation to digital and social media. By revising certain feminist discussions about consent in law, political philosophy and cultural studies, the article proposes that existing studies of sexual politics, such as Laura Kipnis’ (2017) Unwanted Advances: Sexual Paranoia Comes to Campus, can be read as descriptions of consent’s affective structure. Such a reading also points us to the way media, from early cinema through to contemporary social media, co-locate consent with deception. Subsequently, the media concept of consent-deception invites a culture of suspicion and betrayal, in turn shaping how consent is imagined as commonsense. To further enquire into how personalised media are transforming commonsense consent, the article discusses the example of The Tinder Swindler (Netflix, 2022). Significantly, various production techniques set up a view of social media as an encapsulation of the social life and affectivity of consent-deception, suggesting a number of implications for a feminist cultural media theory of commonsense consent. The analysis of the programme in view of consent-deception calls for further critical examination of how the evidentiary status of informational media produced by social media relate to the sense-perception of commonsense consent

A multi-country study of image-based sexual abuse: Extent, relational nature and correlates of victimisation experiences

This study examined image-based sexual abuse (IBSA) victimisation in the United Kingdom, Australia, and New Zealand (n = 6,109). Findings showed that 37.7% (n = 2,306) of respondents had at least one IBSA victimisation experience since 16 years of age. Logistic regression analyses further identified that demographic characteristics (age, sexuality, disability/assistance), attitudes towards IBSA, and experiential variables (online dating and sexual self-image behaviours, IBSA perpetration) were each predictors of IBSA victimisation. Though gender did not predict the overall extent of IBSA victimisation, the relational contexts and impacts of IBSA remained gendered in particular ways. Implications of the study are discussed with respect to conceptualising gendered violence and future research

Repetitive behaviours in autistic and non-autistic adults: Associations with sensory sensitivity and impact on self-efficacy

Purpose: Restricted and repetitive behaviours are a core feature of autism diagnoses but have not been widely studied in adulthood. This study examined the rates of and associations between repetitive behaviours and sensory sensitivity in autistic and non-autistic adults; and whether repetitive behaviours described as “stimming” impacted coping with difficulties (self-efficacy). Methods: Diagnosed autistic (n=182), undiagnosed autistic (n=163) and non-autistic (n=146) adults completed online measures of repetitive behaviours, sensory sensitivity, and self-efficacy for when able and not able to stim. Results: Repetitive behaviours and sensory sensitivity correlated significantly in each group, although ratings were high in autistic compared to non-autistic groups. When people were able to stim, no differences between the groups were observed on self-efficacy ratings. However when unable to stim, autistic people reported lower self-efficacy than non-autistic people. Conclusions: Results suggest that repetitive behaviours are significantly associate with sensory sensitivities. Rather than repetitive behaviours being viewed as negative, stimming was associated with increased self-efficacy. Results suggest that stimming may have beneficial effects. Further work is needed to better understand how repetitive behaviours and stimming manifest in adulthood, how they change over time and their effects for autistic adults

Perspectives on cultural economy: personal, institutional, historical

This short essay responds to Toby Bennett’s request for a personal account of the emergence of cultural economy during the 1990s. It brings together reflections on a particular journey into academia, identifies the influence of specific individuals, considers the institutional environment in the UK at the time, and includes observations about the broader political and intellectual context within which cultural economy emerged as a distinct idea

Decadent Aesthetics in Cyril Scott’sTranslations and Song Settings

Of the early twentieth-century composers inspired by decadent and symbolist verse, Cyril Scott (1879-1970) produced the greatest number of literary translations and musical adaptations. This essay considers Scott’s literary translations of Charles Baudelaire and Stefan George alongside his song settings of Ernest Dowson’s poems within the context of the cosmopolitan aesthetic circles in which he moved. The essay argues that a productive reading of his work takes into account a “nineties” decadent aesthetics that emphasizes sensuality, mood, and interstitiality and can be read across both his literary translations and song settings