scholarly journals I Am Worthy, I Want, and I Can: The Social Implications of Practicing Personal Development

2016 ◽  
Vol 61 (2) ◽  
pp. 49-70 ◽  
Author(s):  
Elena Trifan

Abstract This paper addresses the consequences of practicing personal development upon the daily life and interactions of individuals. In this context, I will describe how practitioners are applying the principles and techniques of personal development in order to transform the way individuals are relating to themselves and to others. In parallel, I will analyse how the ideology of personal development is assumed, by negotiation, in connection with the neoliberal project. This article aims to bridge a gap in the literature by showing how practicing personal development can restructure everyday experiences, emphasizing the negotiation of the intrinsic values of personal development techniques and how it (re)configures relationships and social interactions.

2020 ◽  
Vol 32 (2) ◽  
pp. 124
Author(s):  
Putut Widjanarko

Media and communication technology plays a crucial role in diasporic communities by helping members to maintain complex connections with their places of origin, and at the same time to live their life in the diaspora. The social interactions, belief systems, identity struggles, and the daily life of diasporic communities are indeed reflected in their media consumption and production. A researcher can apply media ethnography to uncover some of the deeper meanings of diasporic experiences. However, a researcher should not take media ethnographic methods lightly since a variety of issues must be addressed to justify its use as a legitimate approach. This article examines various forms of media ethnographic fieldwork (multi-sited ethnography), issues related to researching one’s own community (native ethnography), and the debates surrounding duration of immersion in ethnography research within the context of diasporic communities. Careful consideration of such issues is also necessary to establish the “ethnographic authority” of the researcher.


2003 ◽  
Vol 4 ◽  
Author(s):  
Leila Jeolás

Este artigo, baseado em pesquisa sobre o imaginário da aids entre jovens, busca compreender a noção de risco como uma categoria sociocultural, cujos significados se acumulam nos conceitos de várias áreas do conhecimento e nos usos de senso comum. O perigo, o mal e o infortúnio sempre foram moralizados e politizados nas diversas culturas humanas e a história da aids não poderia ser diferente. Os simbolismos culturais sobre contágio, doenças transmitidas pelo sexo e pelo sangue e os valores atuais da sexualidade, incluindo as relações de gênero, estão presentes na forma como os jovens representam o risco do HIV. Além disso, não se pode desconsiderar a ambivalência que os riscos assumem atualmente para os jovens: alguns negados e afastados, outros aceitos e valorizados. No caso da aids, a busca pela vertigem e pelo êxtase, componentes do sexo e das drogas, distancia o discurso dos jovens sobre risco do discurso preventivo, baseado na racionalidade do comportamento individual, assumindo valores distintos ligados a experiências cotidianas. Youngsters and the imagery of AIDS: notes for the social construction of risk This article, based on research about the imagery of AIDS among youth, aims to understand the notion of risk as a social-cultural category, whose meanings are piled upon concepts of several areas of both knowledge and common sense usages. Danger, evil and misfortune have always been moralized and politicized in the different human cultures and it could not be different in the history of aids. Cultural symbolism about infection, sexually and blood transmitted diseases, as well as sexuality’s current values, including here gender relations, are present in the way the youth represents HIV´s risks. Besides, the ambivalence these risks assume for the youth nowadays cannot be disregarded: some are denied and put aside, others are accepted and valorized. In the case of AIDS, the search for vertigo and ecstasy, components of sex and drugs, distances the youth’s discourse about risk from the preventive discourse, based on the rationality of individual behavior, assuming distinct values linked to everyday experiences.


1997 ◽  
Vol 45 (2) ◽  
pp. 279-303 ◽  
Author(s):  
Anne Kerr ◽  
Sarah Cunningham-Burley ◽  
Amanda Amos

In this paper we examine new genetics professionals' accounts of the social context of their work. We analyse accounts given in interview by an ‘elite’ group of scientists and clinicians. Drawing on the work of Gilbert and Mulkay (1984), we consider interviewees' discourse about knowledge, exploring the way in which they separate science from society through the use of what we have called the ‘micro/macro split’. We then go on to consider the reasons for such a discursive boundary, exploring the interviewees' wider discourse about expertise and responsibility for the social implications of the new genetics. We argue that interviewees' discursive boundaries allow them to appeal variously to their objectivity, to dismiss bad science and to characterize the public as ignorant. However, these discursive boundaries are permeable and flexible, and are employed to support the new genetics professionals' role in guiding education and government policy, whilst at the same time deflecting ultimate responsibility for the use of knowledge on to an abstract and amorphous society. Responsibility is flexibly embraced and abrogated. These flexible discursive boundaries thus promote rather than challenge the cognitive authority of new genetics professionals as they engage in debates about the social implications of their work. We end by challenging the replication of these discursive boundaries, noting some of the implications of such a critique for evaluation of the new genetics.


Author(s):  
Blanca Mirthala Tamez Valdez

The document develops an analysis of the family situation faced during the last decades in Mexico, particularly in the social transformation and their connection with the heterogeneity of the family groups, based on a series of analytical categories focused on family strategies that point out their daily life, taking up the proposal of Mallardi (2018) around: a) strategies aimed at obtaining subsistence resources, b) strategies linked to the specialized care, c) room strategies linked to the conditions life, d) strategies associated with health-disease processes and e) strategies for socialization, learning and use of free time. These strategies are approached as categories of analysis, for which their operationalization is carried out based on the review and reflection regarding some of the main changes observed during the last decades in Mexico; as well as the way in which these transformations are traversed by a series of social determinants, particularly those of gender and class, as well as their relationship with social policies directed at family groups. The analysis presented, without being exhaustive, shows the way in which the indicated elements and their linkage come to impact the daily life of families during the last decades. In this way, the daily life of family groups shows a series of tensions, ambivalences and contradictions derived to a large extent from the present relationship between the pressures exerted, on the one hand, from the social policy itself implemented and with it the demands and mandates generated from their socio-historical, economic and political context. On the other hand, the growing material and subjective needs of its members, which demand immediate responses that provide the minimum possibilities for the survival of the family group. El documento desarrolla un análisis de la situación familiar enfrentada durante las últimas décadas en México, en particular de las transformaciones sociales y su vínculo con la heterogeneidad de los grupos familiares, a partir de una serie de categorías analíticas centradas en las estrategias familiares que dan cuenta de la vida cotidiana, retomando para ello la propuesta de Mallardi (2018) en torno a: a) estrategias destinadas a la obtención de los recursos de subsistencia, b) estrategias vinculadas a la organización del cuidado, c) estrategias habitacionales vinculadas a las condiciones de vida, d) estrategias asociadas a los procesos de salud-enfermedad y e) estrategias de socialización, aprendizaje y uso del tiempo libre. Dichas estrategias son abordadas como categorías de análisis, por lo cual su operacionalización es realizada partiendo de la revisión y reflexión respecto a algunos de los principales cambios observados durante las últimas décadas en México; asimismo, se analiza la manera en que esas transformaciones se encuentran atravesadas por una serie de determinantes sociales, particularmente las de género y clase. Otro aspecto que se analiza es la relación de las transformaciones familiares observadas con las políticas sociales dirigidas a los grupos familiares. El análisis presentado, sin ser exhaustivo, muestra la manera en que los elementos señalados y su vinculación llegan a impactar la vida cotidiana de las familias durante las últimas décadas. De esa manera, la vida cotidiana de los grupos familiares muestra una serie de tensiones, ambivalencias y contradicciones derivadas en gran parte de la relación presente entre las presiones ejercidas, por un lado, desde la propia política social implementada y con ello las demandas y mandatos generados desde su contexto sociohistórico, económico y político. Así como, por otro lado, las crecientes necesidades materiales y subjetivas de sus miembros, las cuales exigen respuestas inmediatas que brinden las posibilidades mínimas para la sobrevivencia del grupo familiar.


SUHUF ◽  
2015 ◽  
Vol 2 (1) ◽  
pp. 113-126
Author(s):  
Wesnina Wesnina

Traditional teaching has its impact on the creation of the art of traditional ornament of Minangkabau. That phenomenon is reflected in the effort and creation of the art designer to create traditional art motive which strictly hold to the way of life and the social and cultural system society. Traditional ornamental art of Minangkabau is a visual expression which consists of the teachings becoming the way of life of Minangkabau people in their daily life; traditional teachings and religious teachings. The philosophy of the Minangkabau tradition has its firm formation when Islam entered Minangkabau. It is reflected in the motto of the Minangkabau people in implementing their tradition and religion in their life. The motto,  adat basandi syara’, syara basandi kitabullah  (tradition is based the religious teachings and religious teachings are based on the Holy Book of God) is a concept which reflects that in its implementation, tradition will adjust its practice with the Islamic teachings.


Author(s):  
P. Jovanovic

This chapter considers the social implications of managing project stakeholders with a special account of e-project management (e-PM), architecture and the importance of project management (PM) portals, and the way they are related to e-projects. The authors argue that PM portals are indispensable in project collaboration and coordination and are closely related to e-projects, since theirs is a key role in both the PM implementation and an adequate incorporation and discussion of all project stakeholders, particularly virtual teams. The authors believe that a detailed analysis of project stakeholders and PM portals presented in this chapter allows for a thorough review of the strengths as well as weaknesses of the e-project approach and is a basis for understanding of social aspects and challenges of modern ICT solutions in e-PM.


2005 ◽  
Vol 7 (1) ◽  
pp. 44-61 ◽  
Author(s):  
Stephen Egharevba

Individual African immigrants' experiences with the police in Finland often seem to be characterised by tension and suspicion. This article examines how Finnish respondents' perceptions of the police are affected by their previous encounters. In an effort to explain this phenomenon, the article examines why these past experiences have sometimes impacted on African immigrants' attitudes toward the police. Also, the article attempts to understand the role that ‘race’ played in the respondents' attitudes, a variable which is shown to be responsible for their perspective. In addition, it is argued that the respondents' personal experiences are affected by their previous encounters (or an encounter of a close friend) with the police in Finland. In analysing the social role played by these encounters, the study draws attention to their analytical significance to the respondents. Furthermore, in investigating these experiences with the police, this article attempts to describe the way individual African immigrants use their experiences to draw conclusions about the police. Finally, this study also draws on the importance of these previous experiences in view of the fact that African immigrants are often in the marginalised sector of the economy, for the aim is to improve our understanding of their everyday experiences.


2020 ◽  
Vol 19 (2) ◽  
pp. 61-74
Author(s):  
Agnieszka Pałka-Lasek

The article is an attempt to present the response drawn in the Arabic independent media by the world discussion on the figure of the Swedish climate activist Greta Thunberg, Time magazine’s Person of the Year for 2019. Using the tools for discourse analysis, the research focuses mainly on the way the activist’s image is created in the context of the social role assumed by the Internet press media as news publishers, covering the plane of language, transmitting ideas and social interactions. Articles from the Moroccan Internet journal Hespress (for several years one of the most often visited website among the Moroccan e-community), come from the period from 27 September to 29 December 2019, were used as the research material.


Author(s):  
Hassna M. Alfayez ◽  
Julia Hüttner

Abstract Most students taking part in Study Abroad (SA) programmes aim to immerse themselves as fully as possible in the target language (TL) country and so improve their TL proficiency, as well as their own personal development towards independent adulthood. From a research perspective, the quality of social networks involving TL speakers, and hence the social interactions the SA students engage in, are seen as of paramount importance in determining the ultimate success in TL attainment. This paper addresses a cohort of learners who have not received a lot of attention in the SA literature, namely Saudi Arabian female students, whose individual immersion into the TL context is limited by cultural restrictions, importantly the need to be accompanied by a male guardian (mahram). Based on a data set of a cohort of nine students gathered over the period of one year, this study aims to establish the extent to which these students engage in social interactions in the TL setting and how these affect their overall language proficiency development. Data was gathered pre-, during, and post-SA, using a mixture of qualitative and quantitative instruments. These tested language proficiencies and surveyed the social interactions and engagement with the TL of the students, using both questionnaires (Language Engagement Questionnaire, Social Networking Questionnaire) and semi-structured interviews. Findings suggest, firstly, that despite the limitations on social interactions, these students clearly benefit from SA. Findings show a complex set of relationships between language development and interactions, with diverse strategies employed to access social networks and thus engage in interactions. Overall, these results point to SA settings as highly conducive learning environments, even for students who face cultural restrictions in their interactions.


Author(s):  
Nikhil Kumar Singh ◽  
Deepak Singh Tomar

Social media has revolutionized the way of communication and interaction in daily life. It provides an effortless, expeditious and reliable approach for communicating with family, friends, and others. With the stupendous popularity of social media, users and their information over the social networking sites has also increased and accumulated the unprecedented amount of user's information. These tremendous data attract sniffer to perform attack and breach the privacy. Social networking sites provide their data for research and analysis purpose in anonymized format. But still with certain means, if a victim has an identical sub-network and the attacker has some background knowledge of the victim then the attacker can re-identify the victim by performing structural based attack such as degree based attack, neighborhood attack, sub graph attack, etc. This chapter provides a bird eye over Social Media, social media services, privacy preservation over social media, and social media attack with their graph prospective.


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