The philanthropy scale: a sociological perspective in measuring new forms of pro social behaviour

Philanthropy re-appears on the public stage. It has become part again of daily life in most industrialized countries. Growing wealth, uneven distributed, evokes the philanthropic response. The media attention for donors as Gates and Buffet may proof this. But also the plea for a “civil society” in Western European welfare states and the founding of the Volunteering and Charitable Giving Unit in the P.M. Cabinet in the UK (2005) show a shift from state responsibility into the direction of “market” and “philanthropy”. The European Commission launched December 2007 the “European Forum on Philanthropy and Research Funding”. Giving Campaigns have been started in France and the UK , the release of Clinton’s book Giving (2007), the fast growth of community foundations and family foundations (Gouwenberg et al 2007), these facts and actions all show a strong and renewed appearance of philanthropy in industrialized economies. Scholars follow and rediscover philanthropy as an interesting domain of research (Bekkers and Wiepking 2007). They stem from different academic disciplines and cover a wide range and different aspects of the phenomenon. Psychologists, economists, sociologists, anthropologists, all strive to discover the underlying incentives, facilitators and motivators of philanthropic behavior. These developments at the academia side as well as at the philanthropic practice, amplify each other. A first question emerges “how may the appearance of a new kind of philanthropy be explained?” and “how may this new kind of philanthropy be defined?” [...]

So near, so far, so what is social distancing? A fundamental ontological account of a mobile place brand

This paper offers a social phenomenological reading of the globally binding practice of 'social distancing' in light of the precautionary measures against the spreading of the Covid-19 virus. Amid speculation about the far-reaching effects of temporarily applicable measures and foresights about the advent of an ethos that has been heralded by the media as the 'new normal', the ubiquitous phenomenon of social distancing calls for a fundamental ontological elucidation. The purported hermeneutic that is situated in the broader place branding and experiential marketing literatures places Covid-19 in the shoes of Being, and, therefore, imagines how Being would behave ontologically if it were a virus. By positing that the virus does operate like Being, five these are formulated as experiential interpretive categories with regard to the ontological status of Covid-19. The adopted approach makes the following contributions to the extant literature: First, it addresses a wholly new phenomenon in place branding, namely a pre-branded place that is non-negotiable, globally applicable and seemingly equivalent to pure void. Second, it advances the application of phenomenological research in experiential consumption by highlighting the aptness of the so far peripheral (in the marketing discipline) strand of Heideggerian fundamental ontology. Third, it expands the notion of place in the place branding literature, by showing how spatialization is the outcome of temporalization, in line with the adopted phenomenological perspective

Contextualized Tirakat Form to Christian Spiritual Formation among Javanese

Tirakat is an important part in Javanese culture. It points to a spiritual path in a sense of a method of a spiritual practice. The ways of tirakat have been an element of the culture for centuries. It is for this situation that evangelizing and nurturing newly non-Christian Javanese converted have been a challenge for Adventist ministry. This research attempts to seek an answer of the church which is expected to find some strategies for nurturing the members from Javanese culture background. The new converts are isolated from their background and stay in a new culture in the church. Consequently, some of the new members cannot survive in the new culture, custom, and rituals. This study addresses the issue of contextualized tirakat form to spiritual formation as a part of discipling new members in the local church. An analysis of both theological-biblical and cultural practice indicates that some elements of the tirakat ritual are strongly correlated with the Christian spiritual formation. The tirakat form can be contextualized in the spiritual formation form to experience spiritual growth.  By giving a new meaning and modified form the believers are able to keep the tirakat ritual based on the Scriptures teaching. An evaluation of tirakat practice found some positive elements which can be continued to the form of Christian formation. However, the negative aspects need functional substitutes or discontinued. Through the worldview transformation the tirakat form as spiritual formation activity will lead the Javanese congregation to have good spiritual growth, strong faith, and ability to involve in the church mission and ministry.   Keywords: tirakat; discipleship; spiritual formation; Javanese congregatio

Contextualizing ICT in Africa: The Development of the CATI model in Tanzanian Higher Education

In many parts of Africa the application of information and communication technologies (ICTs) in higher education institutions offers a particularly interesting research problem. This is because of the far-reaching consequences that information and communication technology (ICT) services and education have on the university graduates during their careers in African societies. Our extensive and well-documented experience of utilizing ICTs in a Tanzanian private university has lead us to propose a four-level approach, called CATI model, that can be used as the basis for implementing new ICTs, for evaluating how ICT is used, and for planning ICT education in developing countries. We conceptually categorize the four levels that we use in our model – contextualize, apply, transfer and import – as an ethnocomputing approach. This four-level model enable educators to use ICT services and ICT education in African universities in a way that will prepare university graduates to make a positive contribution to their own societies. The success of this model is attributable to the emphasis that we placed on local needs and creativity and on applications of ICTs that were sensitive to local culture, conditions and understanding

New materialism and runaway capitalism: a critical assessment

The “return to materiality” is a burgeoning phenomenon in philosophy, the social sciences and the humanities. New materialists make a case against cultural constructionism and for a nondualist account of the world as comprised of fluid, ever-changing entities. This would allegedly offer grounds for an embodied, post-humanist emancipatory politics. The article problematizes such claim. By relying on techno-scientific accounts of materiality, new materialism embroils with the analytics of truth, neglecting how nondualist ontologies underpin today intensifying forms of domination over humans and nonhumans. A “critical” humanism is needed, which refrains from ambivalent post-humanist narratives without reverting to dualist thinking. To this purpose Heidegger offers valuable insights.El “regreso a la materialidad” es un fenómeno floreciente en la filosofía, las ciencias sociales y las humanidades. Los nuevos materialistas desarrollan argumentos en contra del construccionismo cultural y a favor de un relato no dualista del mundo, compuesto de entidades fluidas y en constante cambio. Esto presuntamente ofrecería fundamentos para una política emancipatoria de carácter post-humanista. El artículo problematiza tal afirmación. Al confiar en los relatos tecnocientíficos de la materialidad, el nuevo materialismo se ha embrollado con la analítica de la verdad, descuidando cómo las ontologías no dualistas sustentan hoy formas intensificadoras de dominación sobre los humanos y los no humanos. Se necesita un humanismo “crítico”, que se abstenga de las narrativas ambivalentes post-humanistas sin volver al pensamiento dualista. Con este propósito, Heidegger ofrece ideas valiosas

You and me and all of us: The significance of belonging in a continual community of children in long-term care in Norway

This paper examines the significance of children’s social lives and communities with other children, particularlyfor one group of children growing up in a care arrangement combining residential and foster care in Norway.Eight children (aged 11–17) living in care arrangements and three former residents (aged 18–27) participated inindividual, paired, or group interviews. In addition, participatory observation at a social gathering of formerresidents was conducted. Sociocultural perspectives informed the analysis. Three overall stories were categor-ized:“we do”stories; stories of available communities;andstories of me, you, and us: a storytelling community. Thesestories highlight particular interconnected aspects of the children’s social lives and communities within theircare arrangements, across contexts, and through time. Thefindings emphasize the significance of consistentlybelonging to a community of children in care as a source of vital social participation, learning, and developmentand supportive and lasting relationships among children. Thefindings also stress the necessity of professionalfacilitation to enable relationships among children. Thesefindings have implications for the conceptions ofchildren’s needs and developmental well-being while growing up in care and, accordingly, implications for themanagement of long-term care in terms of providing adequate developmental support and care for childrendependent on the state as their overarching carepublishedVersio