The Development and Validation of a Measure of Beliefs about Sex and Spirituality

Spirituality and sexuality are related concepts that include sacredness and transcendence. When the spiritual concepts of sacredness and transcendence are the filter through which sexuality is understood, there are many positive benefits, including increased sexual and relationship satisfaction. Previous research has considered the concepts. However, little empirical work has addressed the idea of transcendence, spirituality, and sacredness without explicitly religious overtones. Previous measures that have considered spirituality and sexuality have been found lacking in the ability to capture the multidimensionality of sex fully and have utilized explicitly religious terminology that may not capture the experience of non-religious or spiritual individuals. This study created and validated a measure with the idea that the spiritualization of sexuality will predict an increase in sexual satisfaction and couple satisfaction. The Sexuality and Spirituality Measure (SSM) was created to explore the relationship between transcendence, sacredness, and sexuality. The results of this study suggested that there were four subscales: sacred, transcendence, peak experience, and spiritual importance. The SSM accounted for about 4% of the variance of couple satisfaction beyond what sexual satisfaction predicted. This indicated that spiritualization of sexuality is meaningful for relationship satisfaction

Popular Music Heritage and Tourism

Where music and musicians have travelled, tourists often travel too, visiting the various traces left behind. This chapter visits theoretical debates on popular music tourism and heritage through two differing case studies. First, the chapter traces the fabrication of popular music heritage in Winslow, Arizona. Briefly mentioned in the lyrics of the Eagles’ song ‘Take it easy’ (1972), Winslow annually attracts over 100,000 people who visit a statue, mural, and festival at the ‘Standin’ on a Corner Park’, even though the Eagles had never been there. Second, the chapter considers official, authorised and tangible heritage as tourist attractions by spotlighting the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Museum in Cleveland, Ohio. Now an anchor in the cultural and economic regeneration of the city, the chapter identifies popular music heritage discourses that both celebrate and mask the story of Cleveland’s claim to serve as the site of the Rock Hall. In both cases, music tourism can help conceptualise music heritage, and vice versa, music heritage allows purchase on debates about music tourism

Popular Media, Critical Pedagogy, and Inner City Youth

In this article, we explored ways youth, traditionally silenced, engaged with popular culture to voice experiences and challenge dominant narratives of public schools and daily lives. We also considered how educators use popular culture as critical pedagogy with inner city youth. Through ethnographic bricolage and case study methods, and drawing from cultural studies and critical pedagogy, we have presented two case studies. One study highlighted how a school used popular theatre and critical literacy to connect with students’ experiences. The second focused on narratives in students’ rap songs. These case studies highlight the risks, challenges, and potential for building respectful and reciprocal relationships with students. Key words: rap music, popular theatre, ethnography, bricolage, case study, schools, poverty Dans cet article, les auteurs analysent comment des jeunes, d’ordinaire réduits au silence, utilisent la culture populaire pour exprimer leur vécu et contester les discours dominants des écoles publiques. Ils étudient également comment des éducateurs ont recours à la culture populaire comme outil de pédagogie critique auprès de jeunes de quartiers défavorisés. Utilisant un montage ethnographique et s’appuyant sur des études culturelles et la pédagogie critique, ils présentent deux études de cas. L’une met en relief comment une école s’est servie du théâtre populaire et de la littératie critique pour faire le lien avec les expériences des élèves. L’autre est axée sur les narrations des élèves dans des chansons « rap» de leur cru. Ces études de cas montrent bien les risques, les défis et les possibilités d’établir des liens réciproques et respectueux avec les élèves. Mots clés : rap, théâtre populaire, ethnographie, étude de cas, écoles, pauvreté

Isolation of polyacetylene: Exploring the properties of isolated, oriented, and insulated polyacetylene utilizing inclusion crystal chemistry

The creation of isolated, oriented and insulated polyacetylene (PA) chains was assisted by utilizing the favorable features of self assembling inclusion compounds to form inclusion complexes (IC). Calculations suggesting that conducting or even superconducting behavior is anticipated for a one-dimensional, infinite , isolated PA chain led to the desire to experimentally synthesize this polymer in a manner consistent with the model underlying the theoretical treatment. A two-pronged approach was taken to accomplish this objective. The first method proposed was to isolate a small molecule PA precursor, with terminal end groups that are favorable to cleavage with UV irradiation, in an IC. The small molecule chosen was (E,E)-1,4-diiodo-1,3-butadiene (DIBD) due to the easy cleavage of C-I bonds and stereochemically pure synthesis. Once isolated in an IC, UV-light was used to polymerize the monomer unit. The second method proposed was to simultaneously grow PA while it was encapsulated by an IC. This was attempted by utilizing olefin metathesis with the Grubbs group of catalysts to grow the polymer in a solution containing the desired host molecule. As the polymer forms the host molecule should encapsulate the polymer. The small molecule inclusion method produced DIBD UICs with three different formation techniques: slow evaporation, slow cooling, and vapor transfer. All crystals formed had the same unit cell, which suggests that the same crystal structure was formed by all methods. These crystals were irradiated with 254 or 532 nm light, and the resulting photoproducts in the UICs were probed by Raman spectroscopy. These results showed that both irradiation wavelengths converted the isolated monomer to PA. This conversion was observed to occur selectively at the surface of the crystal when 254 nm light was used, likely due to strong absorption of the 254 nm radiation by the DIBD monomer in the crystal. The 532 nm sample showed deeper penetration into the DIBD UIC. This deeper penetration resulted in a higher amount of DIBD converted to PA in the UIC versus the use of 254 nm light. This is important because to have complete conversion within the UIC light will need to penetrate completely through the crystal. The simultaneous inclusion and polymerization method was attempted with both urea and tris(o-phenylenedioxy)cyclotriphosphazene (TPP) to form ICs. Possible PA ICs resulted from the work with TPP and was consistent with PA inclusion. Melting point was the first characterization technique attempted with the possible ICs but the data was very inconclusive. FT-IR was the second characterization technique attempted, the data showed a change in the vibrations associated with PA, suggesting something was different about the material formed in this manner versus the unrestricted bulk polymer. X-ray data was then taken of the material which appeared to indicate a hexagonal host lattice with a possible disordered guest present within it. The potential uses for this material are mostly in the electronics industry. Conductive polymers are most useful in OLED TVs, Li-polymer batteries, and thin film solar cell application. If these PA ICs show strong conductive behavior the main use for them would be as batteries or in molecular circuits. If superconducting behavior is observed then it could fundamentally shift our understanding of conducting polymers. This would represent a huge leap forward in organic molecular electronics research. This PA research could also lend insight into graphene or carbon nanotubes since these two materials are heavily studied for their desirable properties but face many similar synthetic challenges

Decentring Liverpool’s popular music heritage: Routes jukebox

This chapter takes as its focus a documentary film, Routes Jukebox (2015), as a ‘record’ of music, place and heritage. Commissioned by the Liverpool International Music Festival (LIMF), Routes Jukebox explores Liverpool’s musical heritage by (re)connecting the city to its cultural ‘roots and routes’ (Gilroy, 1993), including musical influences from Dublin, New York, Detroit, Nashville, Los Angeles and Kingston, Jamaica. Through these places, the filmmakers trace the arrival of early rock ʼn' roll, the influence of country music, the significance of soul, and reggae, ska and sound systems in Liverpool. Whilst offering a playlist of significant songs in the city’s past, the film also ‘changes the record’, decentring Liverpool’s musical heritage. By looking out across the Atlantic, rather than an assumed home-grown essentialism, Routes Jukebox explores a few records that form part of the global ‘mix’ that has shaped the city’s popular music heritage

Leisure, activism, and the animation of the urban environment

This editorial sets the conceptual frame of reference for the special issue. It examines key themes at the intersection of activist leisure and critical event studies. Drawing on a wide range of social and leisure theory, we establish the critical lens of the Disrupt! project. Funded by Leeds Beckett University, Disrupt! used a variety of innovative methods to interrogate how activism could animate urban spaces

Mapping the underground: An ethnographic cartography of the Leeds extreme metal scene

This article centralizes changes within Leeds’ popular ‘musicscape’, i.e., the relations between popular music and urban landscape. Focusing on Leeds’ extreme heavy metal musicscape, we map sites of the Leeds metal scene (past and present) in order to understand the shifting social relationships, effects of city centre regeneration, and the ways in which heavy metal music scenes have the ability to adapt and respond to continual modifications within the urban city. To address these concerns, we draw upon scholarship from popular music and place, heavy metal and human geography. Heavy metal scenes are a significant, yet often invisible and under-acknowledged, part of the urban cultural landscape. Mapping the metal musicscape, then, becomes an important way to understand broader physical, social, political, and cultural changes that occur to, and within, the postmodern city

Rec Needs a New Rhythm Cuz Rap Is Where We\u27re Livin\u27

This research presents an autoethnographic strategy for self-reflection by sharing stories consistent with Indigenous methodologies and establishing a frame for re-mixing leisure theory. As an autoethnographic study, we reflect on how we have been engaged, changed, and challenged to rethink understandings of leisure and ourselves as leisure scholar-practitioners as a result of listening to rap music, especially composed by Aboriginal young people. We pause on questions related to how Aboriginal young people challenge leisure theory and its relevance to their lives through their rap and hip hop performances

Somewhere under the rainbow: Drag at the Showbar

This chapter shares ethnographic research on leisure, gender, and sexualities in relation to drag and drag performance spaces. There is a rich history and increasing popular media attention to drag performers, whom Rupp and Taylor define as “people who create their own authentic genders” by blurring the lines between masculine and feminine, often in theatre, film, music, comedy, and television. The Showbar is a drag venue in a northern English city. It occupies a two-story building under a rainbow-painted railway bridge at the southern edge of the city centre known locally, yet unofficially, as the city’s Gay Quarter. Drag has deep roots in theatre. Romaya argues that drag, in distant Western history, originated in ancient Greece where young men would play women’s roles when performing theatrical tragedies. Drag is challenging to articulate because it encompasses a vast range of gendered and sexual performances and signifiers

What difference does dance make? Critical conversations across dance, physical activity and public health

Critical conversations concerning if and how dance ‘fits’ within current (dominant) discourse across physical activity (PA), public health (PH) and sport policy are presented here in the form of commentaries from a ‘collective’ research base and individual ‘worldviews’ that includes the director of an established community-based dance organisation, a local authority PH commissioner and three academic researchers (a sociologist, cultural geographer and technologist). Dynamic dialogue between all parties has been encouraged throughout the research process (January–December 2015). From our viewpoints, discursive differences and occasional disciplinary dilemmas are regarded as potentially knowledge producing. We share transcribed parts of our critical conversations to illustrate how evaluating dance as PA represents opportunities for challenging if not disrupting some discursive terrain, whilst concurrently being somewhat constrained by that terrain. Our broader research remit contributes to ongoing debates surrounding ‘what works’ in relation to PA. Our dynamic interactions are thus constitutive of and productive within wider circuits or discourses of policy and provision. Paradigmatic rivalry or epistemological ‘tensions’ may well be hindering attempts to demonstrate that dance does have positive impacts on health. Acknowledgement and engagement with these tensions can arguably inform policy and practice in effective and meaningful ways and contribute further to debates regarding an evidence base seeking to ‘prove’ the benefits of activity-based programmes and interventions as we look across PA, PH and sport