The Theory and Practice of Walking: Walking as a Form of Social Criticism

Examines Thoreau\u27s work at attempting to solve life\u27s problems (including a society that is overly materialistic) through activities such as walking, cultivation and voluntary poverty

New Sites/Sights: Exploring the White Spaces of Organization

Contemporary organization is increasingly understood as contingent and improvisational - and immersed in complex and shadowy realities where customary assumptions about the space and time of organization no longer hold. This Special Issue invites organization studies into an ambivalent space of sites/sights in organization, the double-play of this modest conceptual proposal necessary in order to open up the complex folding of the epistemological and the ontological in organization today. In this introduction we seek to establish and position a distinctive approach to what we claim to be ‘white spaces’ in organization. We show that any adequate treatment of these white spaces compels a significant breaching of the disciplinary norms of organization studies. Our argument derives from a consideration of a range of recently emerging concepts and analyses in the study of organization, all of which are suggestive of crisis and of emerging (anti-)forms of organization. This edition of Organization Studies publishes six papers and three originally commissioned book reviews that help advance this emerging problematic in organization, and which in their various ways extend our understanding of possible organizing futures. </jats:p

Borderlands without borders : migrants in transit in the metropolitan area of Guadalajara, Jalisco, Mexico

textEach year, thousands of undocumented migrants in transit travelling on "La Bestia" through the Western route cross the Metropolitan Area of Guadalajara, Jalisco, Mexico- the second largest metropolitan area in the country. This thesis focuses on how the intersection between the "illegality" of Central American migrants and Mexican "nationals" creates a contested space of undefined border(s) through State's processes, everyday practices, political discourses, and landscapes. The research provides a spatial analysis of migrants in transit's trajectories, as well as of their experiences and relations with both the built environment and with the "locals" in a specific urban context. The analysis sheds light into the distinct ways through which migrants' trajectories are qualified by legal status, and by specific political, social and cultural imaginations and discourses of space. Furthermore, in an effort to "bring the humans back" to migratory narratives, this thesis brings to the fore the multiplicity and diversity of migrants' stories and trajectories while uncovering how the mobilization of the State and civil society creates racial and class borders that further marginalizes migrants in transit through the Metropolitan Area of Guadalajara, Jalisco, Mexico.Latin American StudiesGlobal Policy Studie

Creating Friction: Infrastructuring Civic Engagement in Everyday Life

This paper introduces the theoretical lens of the everyday to intersect and extend the emerging bodies of research on contestational design and infrastructures of civic engagement. Our analysis of social theories of everyday life suggests a design space that distinguishes ‘privileged moments’ of civic engagement from a more holistic understanding of the everyday as ‘product-residue.’ We analyze various efforts that researchers have undertaken to design infrastructures of civic engagement along two axes: the everyday-ness of the engagement fostered (from ‘privileged moments’ to ‘product-residue’) and the underlying paradigm of political participation (from consensus to contestation). Our analysis reveals the dearth and promise of infrastructures that create friction— provoking contestation through use that is embedded in the everyday life of citizens. Ultimately, this paper is a call to action for designers to create friction.

Change in Seventh-day Adventist Theology: a Study of the Problem of Doctrinal Development

Problem. Like other churches, Seventh-day Adventists face the challenge of harmonizing the essential immutability of revelation in Christ and what seem to be significant doctrinal modifications. This study provides the first in-depth treatment of the intricate problem of doctrinal development from a Seventh-day Adventist perspective. Method. Chapter 1 defines the problem, chapter 2 offers a historical-genetic survey of proposed solutions, while chapter 3 presents a systematic-typological analysis of possible responses to doctrinal change in Christian theology. Chapter 4 investigates the extent, nature, and direction of Seventh-day Adventist doctrinal developments in the light of the religious background of the church and the sociological forces at work in it; chapter 5 analyzes the response of the church to doctrinal adjustments historically, terminologically, and systematically; and, finally, chapter 6 discusses Ellen White\u27s personal involvement in and conception of doctrinal change. Results. The study yields the following results: (1) Doctrinal development involves complex theological and hermeneutical issues. (2) History reveals three fundamental approaches (immobilist-stationary, progressivist-evolutionary, and revisionist-revolutionary) successively developed in response to the growing awareness of doctrinal change. (3) The many theories of doctrinal development may be classified inthree ideal types (static, dynamic, and evolutionary/revolutionary) indicating the basic options available to Christians today. (4) Seventh-day Adventism grew out of William Miller\u27s apocalyptic, and increasingly separatist, revival movement. Its fundamental and distinctive teachings have been significantly affected by homogeneous, heterogeneous, and hermeneutical developments under the impact of sociological forces that tended to move the church closer towards evangelical Protestantism and denominationalism. (5) In the past, Seventh-day Adventists have predominantly advocated the historic and/or organistic theories of doctrinal development; more recently, theological, situationist, and revisionist conceptions have also been proposed. (6) Ellen White was personally involved in theological change; her concept of doctrinal development reflects a remarkable depth of insight and represents a well-balanced approach to the subject. Conclusions. A dialectic approach that is equally concerned for substantial continuity and authentic change can best avoid the twin dangers of doctrinal immobilism and revisionism. To this end, a comprehensive study of the hermeneutical issue of doctrinal development from an Adventist theological perspective is needed

Reconstructing human rights: a pragmatic and pluralist inquiry in global ethics

This work sets out to critically reconstruct human rights as both an ethical ideal and a political practice. I critique conventional moral justifications of human rights and the related role they play in legitimating political authority, arguing that the pluralism and political content of human rights cannot be eliminated. I reconstruct the relationship between ethics and politics through an engagement with pragmatist and pluralist moral theory, which I then develop into a democratising account of human rights by incorporating work on agonistic democracy. The resulting view of human rights is situated and agonistic, seeing the act of claiming human rights as a political act that makes demands on the social order in the name of a particular ethical ideal. Rather than seeing the political act of claiming rights as undermining human rights as universal moral principles, it becomes essential to global ethics as such. The international political aspect of rights is then examined by looking to the drafting of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights in historical context, and contrasting human rights practice as expressed in popular social movements with conventional state-centric and legalist accounts. In the end the defence of human rights that is offered aims to preserve the transformative power of human rights claims, their democratising content, while undermining their totalising tendency, in which a singular conception of humanity provides certain moral principles to legitimate political authority

Common pleasures: The politics of collective practice from sociability to militant conviviality.

PhDThis thesis considers from a theoretical and historical standpoint the different political implications of experiencing togetherness as a source of pleasure and joy. The first part critically reflects upon the discourse of “sociability” developed from early modernity to the 19th century and examines the most significant institutional formations that characterised its practice, with a particular focus on the passage from aristocratic salons to the bourgeois world of cafes. The sociability of the upper classes is then compared and contrasted with the forms of collective joy of the plebs, critically accounting for the way in which subjectivity and the body are differently implicated in the discourses surrounding carnivals, collective dancing and ecstatic practices. The second part focuses on the 20th century arguing that from this point the conflict between high and low sociability diminishes its political relevance to give way to increasingly ambivalent forms of togetherness based on the consumption of experiences and situation. The paradigms of the scene, the brand and the game are discussed as the primary institutions of a new dominant form of sociability deeply embedded in economic cycles. Finally, in the last part the notion of “militant conviviality” is introduced as a concept-tool to describe an emerging body of practices that are raising the stakes of sociability as an important component of radical political action today.QMUL research scholarshi

How Design Researchers Interpret Probes: Understanding the Critical Intentions of a Designerly Approach to Research

Since entering the HCI lexicon in the 1990s, Probes have been interpreted and used in divergent ways as a designerly approach to research. While originally positioned as a critique of dominant user-research methods, literature on Probes rarely reflects on such critical dimensions nor explicitly articulates the intents of using Probes as research artifacts. We conducted interviews with 12 design researchers who have worked with Probes within diverse Research through Design projects, exploring direct accounts of how and why Probes are used in practice. Our interviews brought to the fore the critical concerns behind Probe practices in relation to the language of Probing, relationships with participants, and motivations to challenge normative practices. While the pluralistic interpretations of Probes offered by our participants brings challenges, we discuss how making visible the critical motivations of our research opens up new ways of practicing and disseminating Probes

Charles Marowitz and the Personal Politics of Shakespearean Adaptation

This thesis comprises an exploration of the Shakespearean adaptations created by American director Charles Marowitz while he was Artistic Director of the Open Space Theatre in London, UK. In order of creation, they are: Hamlet (1964; revised 1966); A Macbeth (1969); An Othello (1972); The Shrew (1973); Measure for Measure (also called Variations on Measure for Measure) (1975); and Variations on the Merchant of Venice (1977). The central inquiry of this thesis is whether Marowitz’s Shakespearean adaptations adhered to his own parameters for such work, and if not, whether his objectives were subverted by other factors, political or psychological, which he unconsciously manifested dramatically within the works. Further, do Marowitz’s reconstructions of Shakespeare possibly spring from a latent desire to attack the cultural authority of Shakespeare himself? In order to accomplish this inquiry, the concept of ‘personal politics’ will be established, this being both the political orientation of an individual in terms of social government, as well as the underlying belief systems and paradigms which influence their perceptions and reactions, as factors influencing Marowitz’s adaptations. In terms of methodology, the author will examine Marowitz’s perceptions of Shakespeare’s original plays, highlighting the particular concerns that motivated him to create the adaptations under analysis. The validity of these perceptions will then be tested against a precise examination of the play text, and viewed against a survey of scholarly opinion on the original work. Any sociopolitical objectives expressed by Marowitz for the adaptation will be reviewed, then juxtaposed against the historical context in which they were written in order to discern where and how the politics of the period influenced his creative impulse. The collage technique, which characterized many of Marowitz’s adaptations, will be explored followed by a discussion of Marowitz’s stated parameters for the adaptation of theatrical classics. His approach to challenging the paradigm of Shakespeare’s work will be scrutinized, and an analysis of the adaptation given, as well as a discussion of the effect the changes from the original text might have had on an audience and a survey of critical reaction to the resulting production, based upon reviews in the major publications of the day. At this point, the central inquiry of the thesis will be addressed: to what degree does the adaptation hold to Marowitz’s own stated guidelines for Shakespearean adaptation, as well as his expressed objectives for the work in question, and if this degree is slight, what factors might account for this? In order to discern these influences, the adaptations will be examined through the lens of biographical criticism: Marowitz’s autobiographical writing, as well as personal opinions and beliefs gleaned from his theatrical reviews, journal articles and texts on acting techniques, will be gathered to shed light on dramatic choices which contravene the expressed intention for the adaptations. Aspects of psychoanalytical criticism will also be referenced, particularly focusing on trends common to the majority of the works which potentially sprang from an unconscious source. Finally, comparable adaptations of the same Shakespearean work will be reviewed in terms of how they differently, and possibly more effectively, redressed Marowitz’s stated concerns regarding the original work, in order to highlight why and how Marowitz’s personal politics may have overturned his stated intentions. Detailed synopses of all six plays under examination are provided in Appendix One

Keep on Rolling Under the Stars

Beat Studies represent a vibrant field of intellectual inquiry, and this collection examines Beat culture as deeply infused with ecological themes. Allen Ginsberg invented the term "Flower Power" and Beat texts uncover the sources of our current existential climate predicament. This is the first edited collection to place the Beat Generation in conversation with the environment. A diverse number of contributors from Asia, Europe, and North America addresses essential environmental subjects and the deep ecological vision of the Beats