HKDI Alumni - The Spirit of Esprit

Hong Kong- and Germany-based fashion brand Esprit was actually founded in 1968 in San Francisco with the aim of bringing a “sunny Californian attitude” to its wares, now sold in 40 countries via 761 directly managed retail stores and some 6,332 wholesale points of sale. Its Esprit Cares Trust, set up in 1993, provides financial support and charitable donations to various communities and includes an annual exchange scholarship for HKDI design students to participate in full-semester or short study trips to renowned design schools in Europe. Three such award-winners were sent to Germany recently and here we report on how they earned that trip and what the future holds for them

Esprit de la mer: Spirit of the Sea

Original work by Ashley Jone

The Holy Spirit in an urban African religiosity, between tradition and transformation : a case study in two Christian denominations in Yaoundé, Cameroon

L'articulation de cette thèse découle d'une curiosité sur la façon dont les croyants africains contemporains urbains comprennent le Saint-Esprit. Les portraits que les théologiens africains ont dressés de la compréhension africaine du Saint-Esprit, semblent être basés sur un paradigme théologique dichotomique: la religion traditionnelle africaine et la tradition chrétienne occidentale, qui avait créé la dissonance dans la scène académique. Ce paradigme soulève un débat de continuité et de discontinuité entre les êtres spirituels des deux traditions, les esprits traditionnels et le Saint-Esprit. Cette thèse va prendre une attention particulière sur les travaux de Elochukwu Uzukwu et de Matthew Michael, qui figurent parmi les quelques théologiens africains ayant travaillé sur la compréhension de l'Esprit Saint. Uzukwu soutient la continuité fondée sur l'orientation théologique des églises indépendantes africaines, tandis que Michael s'est rangé du côté de ceux qui déclarent la discontinuité, se basant sur l'orientation théologique évangélique. Ces théologiens, qui adoptent des positions opposées en s’appuyant sur leurs orientations théologiques respectives, défendent des positions théologiquement bipolarisées de la pneumatologie africanisée et de la religiosité africaine. Étonnamment, le débat en cours parmi les théologiens n'a pas accordé beaucoup de place à la religiosité des croyants laïcs, ni à son étude empirique. Par conséquent, cette thèse a décidé d'interroger les croyants africains laïcs sur qui le Saint-Esprit est pour eux, en espérant que cette étude pourrait régler la dissonance persistante dans le terrain académique. Les voix des laïcs africains contemporains ont rapporté des récits vivants à la façon dont ils ont théologisé les deux mondes spirituels pour définir le Saint-Esprit dans une foi africaine. Leurs voix, qui ont été introduites dans le domaine universitaire, ont apporté des idées novatrices et des découvertes. Elles ont révélé comment la compréhension africanisée du Saint-Esprit présentée par les théologiens Africains ont été la position de la minorité des croyants, bien qu'elle ait fût représentée comme si elle était une pneumatologie africanisée populaire. À l'inverse, le paradigme bipolarisé sur lequel les théologiens africains articulaient la compréhension africanisée du Saint-Esprit semblait même dépassé. Par conséquent, sur la base des voix du terrain, cette thèse développe des propositions, pour une compréhension africanisée du Saint-Esprit, qui pourraient être pertinentes pour la religiosité urbaine de nos jours. Par les voix inédites à qui elle offre une ouverture, cette thèse appelle à réévaluer l'articulation entre le Christianisme et la religion traditionnelle en Afrique.The articulation of this thesis derives from a curiosity on how the urban contemporary African believers understand the Holy Spirit. The portrayals African theologians have drawn of the African understanding of the Holy Spirit, seems to be based on a dichotomized theological paradigm: the African traditional religion and the Western Christian tradition, which had created dissonance on the academic stage. This paradigm raises a debate of continuity and discontinuity between the spiritual beings of the two traditions, the traditional spirits and the Holy Spirit. Elochukwu Uzukwu and Matthew Michael, whom this thesis will take a special attention, figure among the few works of the African theologians about the understanding of the Holy Spirit. Uzukwu supports continuity based on the African Independent Churches’ theological orientation, whereas Michael sided with those stating the discontinuity, grounds on the Evangelical theological orientation. These theologians, whom take opposite stances based on their respective theological orientations, represent theologically bipolarized stances on Africanized Pneumatology and the African religiosity. Surprisingly, the ongoing debate among the theologians did not accord much room to the lay believers’ religiosity nor on their empirical studies. Therefore, this thesis has decided to inquire the lay African believers on whom the Holy Spirit is to them hoping that this study could settle the dissonance persisting on the academic field. The voices of the contemporary lay African believers brought vivid accounts on how they have theologized the two spiritual worlds to define the Holy Spirit into an African faith. Their voices that were introduced to the academic field have brought innovative insights and discoveries. It revealed how the Africanized comprehension of the Holy Spirit presented by the African theologians were the stance of the very minority of believers, although it were wrapped as if it was a popular Africanized Pneumatology. Conversely, the bipolarized paradigm on which the African theologians were articulating the Africanized understanding of the Holy Spirit even appeared to be outmoded. Therefore, based on the voices of the ground, this thesis develops proposals for an Africanized understanding of the Holy Spirit that could be relevant and pertinent to an urban contemporary African religiosity. The unheard voices that this thesis brought its attention to call to re-evaluating the articulation between Christianity and Traditional Religion in Africa

One-, Two-dimensional Model of Personal Identity and Personal Being, as an Accumulator of “Zombies” Ontology (Regressive Tendency of Combining a Living Body and a Corpse Within a Semantic Field of the “Body” Concept in 19 European Languages and in All Hie

The aim of research is revealing the correlation of one-, two-dimensional models of personal identity and the ontology of a dead body without signs of consciousness (“zombies”). Research methods are hermeneutic and systemic structural. The author pays special attention to the phenomena of “philosophical, social, soulless zombies”. It is specified that such concepts as anima (Latin), fren (Greek), 灵魂 (Chinese), 精神 (Chinese), आत्मन (atman) (Sanskrit), बुद्धि (Buddhi) (Sanskrit), رُوحٌ (ruh) (Arabic), הנשמה (Hebrew); רוח (Hebrew), ψϋχ'ή (psyche) (Greek), spirit (English), esprit” (French), gemüt (German), geist (German), Körper (German),body (English),corpus (Latin), Le corps (French), chair (French) contribute most to the deformation of personal identity. Both the transcendental form of identity (spirit, soul) and material (human body) are subject to deformation. Using the example of the substitution of the “god of the morning” (Lucifer) for the “devil” (Satan) within the Latin language, the practice of influencing the collective consciousness of people of the transformational power of letters-symbols relating to the structure of the alphabetical plan of two-dimensional dimension (as understood by A. Sviridov). It is revealed that the concepts of transformation of personal identity within 19 European languages and all hieroglyphic languages are created today by critical masses of people whose consciousness is congruent with the phenomenon of "social zombie"

Community and co-existence: Nancy and Derrida reading Hegel, Separately and Together

Esprit and morality: The German, who knows the secret of how to make spirit, knowledge and heart boring, and has accustomed himself to feeling that boredom is moral, fears French esprit that it may put out the eyes of morality: a commentary on the Frenchness of esprit and the Germanness of Hegel

The impact of organisational antecedents on employee job The impact of organisational antecedents on employee job satisfaction: An empirical evaluation of public sector employees in Pakistan

Human resource development is one of the important issues in the field of organisational behaviour. It affects employee performance in the organisation. Job satisfaction is one of the important issues in the developing country particularly for Pakistan. This study focuses on the employee perception towards job satisfaction. In this regard procedural justices, on job training, esprit de corps and job clarity variables have been examined. This study is a cross sectional study which applied a survey questionnaire for data collection. In this regard employee of public sector health organisations selected for data collection. Based on one hundred ten randomly selected participants, results show significant and positive impact of procedural justices, on job training, esprit de corps for job satisfaction. However, employees reported less job satisfaction with their jobs due to lack of fairness. With few limitations this study contributes to literature in the field of human resource management and organisational behaviour and can support public sector management to design policies that may help to enhance employee job satisfaction in the context of developing countries i.e. Pakistan

HEGEL E LO SPIRITO DELLE LEGGI

This essay concentrates on the ideal dialogue that Hegel engages with Montesquieu in his Philosophy of Right focusing in particular on the relevance for Hegel of concepts such as the “spirit of a people” and of “manners” and customs discussed in the Esprit des Lois. Ac-cording to Hegel, Montesquieu provided a real philosophical understanding of the history of people's laws and institutions considering them as necessary relationships within a his-torically determined society, that is as the whole set of its objective ways of being

Surrationalism after Bachelard: Michel Serres and le nouveau nouvel esprit scientifique

The work of Michel Serres is often presented as a radical break with the work of Gaston Bachelard. The aim of this paper is to partly correct this image, by focusing on Serres’s early Hermes series (1969-1980). In these books Serres portrays himself as a follower of Bachelard, exemplarily shown in his neologism of the ‘new new scientific spirit’ (le nouveau nouvel esprit scientifique), updating Bachelard in the light of more recent scientific developments. This allows a reinterpretation of the relation between both authors, one where there is room to acknowledge how the roots of Serres’s philosophy lie not in a radical break with Bachelard, but can be partly understood as a Bachelardian criticism of Bachelard himself. This Bachelardian criticism consists in what could be called his ‘surrationalism’: the sciences do not follow the categories imposed by philosophers, but are always more flexible and open than these categories allow. Specific critiques of Serres, such as those concerning the novelty of Bachelard’s thought, the role of epistemology and finally the political dimension of science will be evaluated through a reappraisal of this Bachelardian move that underlies Serres’s criticism

On the Concept of Creal: The Politico-Ethical Horizon of a Creative Absolute

Process philosophies tend to emphasise the value of continuous creation as the core of their discourse. For Bergson, Whitehead, Deleuze, and others the real is ultimately a creative becoming. Critics have argued that there is an irreducible element of (almost religious) belief in this re-evaluation of immanent creation. While I don’t think belief is necessarily a sign of philosophical and existential weakness, in this paper I will examine the possibility for the concept of universal creation to be a political and ethical axiom, the result of a global social contract rather than of a new spirituality. I argue here that a coherent way to fight against potentially totalitarian absolutes is to replace them with a virtual absolute that cannot territorialise without deterritorialising at the same time: the Creal principle

Stakeholder orientation and organizational performance in an emerging market

There has been research that studies Chinese firms’ stakeholder orientation but fails to identify Chinese firms’ specific stakeholder groups. In addition, little research in this line has been conducted so far to reflect recent Chinese constitutional transition. This study seeks to fill these gaps. It extends previous studies assuming that a fixed set of stakeholders is suitable for firms in different countries context, and identifies Chinese firms’ key stakeholder groups by adopting the descriptive approach of stakeholder theory. Based on this identification, the authors further examine how these stakeholder orientations influence organizational performance and how they interact. Interviews with managers from 107 firms show that customer, employee, shareholder, supplier, and competitors are perceived as Chinese firms’ most important stakeholders; empirical studies using data collected from 307 Chinese firms reveal that orientations towards these stakeholders enhance organizational performance. Moreover, there are synergy effects existing among customer orientation, supplier orientation, and competitor orientation, and between customer orientation and competitor orientation, while shareholder orientation has significant hindering effects upon competitor orientation as a reflection of recent institutional changes taking place in China