scholarly journals “Vai viņa daļa dzīvo manī?” Smokija Mo dziesmas “Kas ir radītājs” interpretācija popkultūras un reliģijas studiju kontekstā

Ceļš ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 71 ◽  
pp. 6-19
Author(s):  
Ņikita Andrejevs ◽  

The Russian hip hop artist Smoki Mo has frequently referenced religious and spiritual topics in his lyrics. The composition “Who is the creator” discusses the positive and negative replies to this question. The lyrics are interpreted as a popular culture text with the aim to discover how popular culture texts can function as religious ones and how popular culture can function as religion. The article employs a functional definition of religion to explore how the studied text discusses existential questions and struggle with identity that religion also is concerned with. The popular culture itself is understood in the article as the meaning and value that people ascribe to mass culture products, such as popular music, in their everyday lives. The article also summarizes the possible issues with reading popular culture texts as religious ones to avoid misinterpretation due to researcher’s indebtedness to traditional religious definitions or to scholarly traditions of interpretation. The article also employs the notion of spirituality to connect the ideas expressed in Smoki Mo’s lyrics to a relevant ideological framework. The understanding of the “creator”, “God” and other theological notions in the lyrics is closely related to the broad features of modern spirituality that include the focus on the individual self and universal statements rather than particular religious traditions. In this way, the studied composition in itself is an expression of modern spirituality dealing with existential questions.

Public Voices ◽  
2016 ◽  
Vol 12 (1) ◽  
pp. 67 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sharon Mastracci

In this paper, the author examines public service as depicted in the television series Buffy the Vampire Slayer (BtVS). First, she shows how slaying meets the economist’s definition of a public good, using the BtVS episode “Flooded” (6.04). Second, she discusses public service motivation (PSM) to determine whether or not Buffy, a public servant, operates from a public service ethic. Relying on established measures and evidence from shooting scripts and episode transcripts, the author concludes Buffy is a public servant motivated by a public service ethic. In this way, BtVS informs scholarship on public service by broadening the concept of PSM beyond the public sector; prompting one to wonder whether it is located in a sector, an occupation, or in the individual. These conclusions allow the author to situate Buffy alongside other idealized public servants in American popular culture.


Author(s):  
Mujadad Zaman

The philosophy of Islamic education covers a wide range of ideas and practices drawn from Islamic scripture, metaphysics, philosophy, and common piety, all of which accumulate to inform discourses of learning, pedagogy, and ethics. This provides a definition of Islamic education and yet also of Islam more generally. In other words, since metaphysics and ontology are related to questions of learning and pedagogy, a compendious and indigenous definition of “education” offers an insight into a wider spectrum of Islamic thought, culture, and weltanschauung. As such, there is no singular historical or contemporary philosophy of Islamic education which avails all of this complexity but rather there exists a number of ideas and practices which inform how education plays a role in the embodiment of knowledge and the self-actualization of the individual self to ultimately come to know God. Such an exposition may come to stand as a superordinate vision of learning framing Islamic educational ideals. Questions of how these ideas are made manifest and practiced are partly answered through scripture as well as the historical, and continuing, importance of Muhammad, the Prophet of Islam; as paragon and moral exemplar in Islamic thought. Having said “I was sent as a teacher,” his life and manner (sunnah) offer a wide-ranging source of pedagogic and intellectual value for his community (ummah) who have regarded the emulation of his character as among the highest of human virtues. In this theocentric cosmology a tripart conception of education emerges, beginning with the sacred nature of knowledge (ʿilm), the imperative for its coupling with action (ʿamal), in reference to the Prophet, and finally, these foundations supporting the flourishing of an etiquette and comportment (adab) defined by an equanimous state of being and wisdom (ḥikma). In this sense, the reason for there being not one identifiable philosophy of Islamic education, whether premodern or in the modern context, is due to the concatenations of thoughts and practices gravitating around superordinate, metaphysical ideals. The absence of a historical discipline, named “philosophy of education” in Islamic history, infers that education, learning, and the nurturing of young minds is an enterprise anchored by a cosmology which serves the common dominators of divine laudation and piety. Education, therefore, whether evolving from within formal institutional arenas (madrasas) or the setting of the craft guilds (futuwwa), help to enunciate a communality and consilience of how human beings may come to know themselves, their world, and ultimately God.


2020 ◽  
pp. 96-101
Author(s):  
Alisa Kostiuk

The article is devoted to the analysis of the categories "creativity" and "creativity" in the context of modern society. The main resource in the modern era is the knowledge of the individual, his ability to creative activity. In turn, the increasing role of knowledge and information leads to an emphasis on the creative nature of activities, which are now associated with the process of individual self-realization and the study of favorable conditions for creativity. The author explores the process of transformation of creative activity, which involves the problem of simulations and determines the nature and content of this activity. The problem of simulative creativity turns into an alienation of creativity as a special way of human existence. In a simulated reality of the information society, the author characterizes a new form of creativity with the term "creativity". The study of existing approaches to the distinction between creativity and creativity leads to the definition of creativity as a form of creativity of the modern information age. The content of the concept of "creativity" corresponds to the conditions of modern society where the transformation of creative activity takes place. Creativity is a kind of "response" to the "challenge" of the information society regarding creativity. The information age opens up wide scope for creative self-realization but at the same time it sets the task for a person to form certain methods, which he could use to actualize himself as a creative person that meets the needs of the era. The new "challenge" of society is, according to the author, the return of the process of determining importance in creative activity, because focus on results turns into a depreciation of the process. A "response" to this "challenge" will mean a transition from creativity to creativity at a higher level, which is possible in the context of addressing the concept of "active life".


2016 ◽  
Vol 6 (2) ◽  
pp. 156-163
Author(s):  
Henrik Åhman

The arena for developing digital technology has undergone an aesthetic turn, broadening the focus from a functionalist approach producing centralized systems in the 1970s and 1980s to an increased awareness of the aesthetic aspects of the individual user’s interaction with technology in the 1990s and 2000s. Within the academic research fields studying digital technology (e.g. Human-Computer Interaction and Interaction Design) the aesthetic turn has resulted in a shift from a strong emphasis on user behaviour to an increased interest in aesthetic perspectives on the role of the designer, the design process, and the design material. Within these fields, aesthetics has often been interpreted as belonging to the realm of the individual; personal experiences such as pleasure, engagement, and emotions have been emphasized in both technology development and technology research. Aesthetics is not, however, only an individual phenomenon but also has relational and structural components that need to be acknowledged. Structural aspects of aesthetics condition the possibilities for individuals interacting with digital technology. Thus, the tension between individual and relational aspects of aesthetics in digital technology also reflects a tension between freedom and limitation; between change and permanence; between destabilizing and stabilizing forces.Such a broadened understanding of aesthetics offers a model of digital technology that roughly corresponds to Mark C. Taylor’s definition of religion. Taylor argues that religion is constituted by, on the one hand, a figuring moment characterized by structural stability and universality, and, on the other hand, a disfiguring moment characterized by disruption, particularity, and change. The purpose of this paper is to discuss the aesthetic turn and Taylor’s definition of religion to illustrate similarities between the two, suggesting possible religious dimensions of digital technology and how that can inform our understanding of people’s interaction with digital technology. 


2017 ◽  
Vol 21 (4) ◽  
pp. 452-468
Author(s):  
Uri Dorchin

Notions of authenticity and resistance are often addressed concomitantly in the context of popular culture and in the discourse that surrounds blackness in particular. Avoiding such a perspective, this article draws on Israeli mainstream rappers for whom rap is a way to converge popular style with the ability to speak their mind in the most sincere way. Based on ethnographic description, I therefore call to acknowledge rappers’ position as ‘authors’: aware and critical subjects whose sense of personhood depends not on strict avoidance from mainstream routes but rather on a sober participation in it. Contemporary hip-hop in this case offers a possible escape from a rigid power-oriented analysis and from the irresolvable cycle of resistance and cooptation so often found in Cultural and Popular Music Studies.


2014 ◽  
Vol 27 (1) ◽  
pp. 130-153 ◽  
Author(s):  
Chris A.M. Hermans ◽  
Carl Sterkens

How do we build theory on religion in cross-religious research? This article deals with four methodological issues in answering this question. What are the goals of cross-religious comparison? What is the object of cross-religious research? What kind of definition of religion is used in cross-religious comparison? And finally, how can we asses similar phenomena across different religious traditions? The last question is specified by the distinction of levels of equivalence in quantitative cross-religious survey research.


Popular Music ◽  
2012 ◽  
Vol 31 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-24 ◽  
Author(s):  
Geoff Baker

AbstractThe terms underground, alternative and commercial are widely used in discussions of popular music scenes in Havana and around the world. In Cuba, the words alternative and underground are often used interchangeably, in critical as well as popular discourse. I propose a working definition of, and a distinction between, these terms in Havana, since to render them synonymous reduces their usefulness. The distinction between underground and commercial, in contrast, is widely seen as self-evident, by critics as well as by fans. However, a simplistic dichotomy glosses over the interpenetration of these terms, which are of limited use as analytical categories. This discussion of terminology is grounded in an analysis of the politics of style in Havana hip hop.


2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lois Kwon ◽  
Daniela Medina ◽  
Fady Ghattas ◽  
Lilia Reyes

BACKGROUND The United States have seen an increase in depressive-anxious symptoms and suicidality in the past couple years within the adolescent population. The effects of pop culture, including music, is a factor that is worth exploring to better understand the context in which adolescents view themselves and society. OBJECTIVE This study analyzes the lyrics and music videos of the most popular music of multiple genres to better understand music theme trends. METHODS The frequencies of themes of 1052 total American and Latin songs were collected from the Nielsen Music and Billboard’s top 100 chart performance from 1998-2018 for Hip-Hop/R&B, Pop, Latin, Country, and Rock/Metal genres. Themes from songs were identified, quantified, and categorized using a rubric into negative, neutral, and positive by three different reviewers. Analysis was performed using two-tailed t-tests and a generalized linear model. RESULTS Popular songs were reviewed for positive, negative and neutral themes in three-year intervals for ease of analysis purposes: 1998-2000 (n=148), 2001-2003 (n=150), 2004-2006 (n=148), 2007-2009 (n=156), 2010-2012 (n= 150), 2013-2015 (n=150), and 2016-2018 (n=150). There was a significant increase between all the interval years in the percent of songs with negative themes by 180% across all genres (P=0.01), while there was no significance in the difference of frequency of songs with positive or neutral themes by year respectively (P=0.01). There were significant differences in the number of negative themes found across genres (P=0.01), with Hip-Hop/R&B having the highest frequency (62.5%) of negative themes when compared to each of the individual genres (P=0.01). CONCLUSIONS This study shows there is an increase in the frequency of negative themes over the span of 20 years across all genres, with Hip-Hop/R&B having the highest frequency compared to other genres. These findings point to the potential impact of music in popular culture on society and can help shape discussions between caregivers and their adolescents as well as the primary care provider and the adolescent patient.


2021 ◽  
Vol 1 (2) ◽  
pp. 42-49
Author(s):  
A. V. Kostina ◽  

One of the most difficult theoretical issues of modern humanities is the question of typological relationship of various cultural phenomena, their mutual correlation and, consequently, their embeddedness in structural and typological schemes. Despite a significant number of studies devoted to this problem, it has not been solved to date. As a rule, the definition of popular culture and mass culture is based on descriptive method, where the description of external features allows to identify these types of culture. The article shows that it is impossible to determine their essential features by external signs, the leading of which is the wide extent of these phenomena. The most optimal here is the structural-typological approach, where the basis for distinguishing the phenomena is their functional nature. Hence, the structure of culture is shown, which includes traditional, highly specialized and mass culture. Each of these types was formed at a certain stage of historical development, providing a set of functions unique to it. In this sense, this structural-typological scheme can be considered as a model of cultural dynamics. Popular culture is a concept that denotes any of the phenomena belonging to one of these types of culture, which has become widespread.


2019 ◽  
pp. 22-29
Author(s):  
Н. В. Фрадкіна

The purpose and tasks of the work are to analyze the contemporary Ukrainian mass culture in terms of its value and humanistic components, as well as the importance of cultural studies and Ukrainian studies in educational disciplines for the formation of a holistic worldview of modern youth.Analysis of research and publications. Scientists repeatedly turned to the problems of the role of spirituality in the formation of society and its culture. This problem is highlighted in the publications by O. Losev, V. Lytvyn, D. Likhachev, S. Avierintsev, M. Zakovych, I. Stepanenko and E. Kostyshyn.Experts see the main negative impact of mass culture on the quality approach, which determines mass culture through the market, because mass culture, from our point of view, is everything that is sold and used in mass demand.One of the most interesting studies on this issue was the work by the representatives of Frankfurt School M. Horkheimer and T. Adorno «Dialectics of Enlightenment» (1947), devoted to a detailed analysis of mass culture. Propaganda at all socio-cultural levels in the form is similar in both totalitarian and democratic countries. It is connected, according to the authors, with the direction of European enlightenment. The tendency to unify people is a manifestation of the influence of mass culture, from cinema to pop. Mass culture is a phenomenon whose existence is associated with commerce (accumulation in any form – this is the main feature of education), in general, the fact that it exists in this form is related to the direction of the history of civilization.Modern mass culture, with its externally attractive and easily assimilated ideas and symbols, appealing to the trends of modern fashion, becomes a standard of prestigious consumption, does not require intense reflection, allows you to relax, distract, not teach, but entertains, preaches hedonism as the main spiritual value. And as a consequence, there are socio-cultural risks: an active rejection of other people, which leads to the formation of indifference; cruelty as a character trait; increase of violent and mercenary crime; increase in the number of alcohol and drug addicts; anti-patriotism; indifference to the values of the family and as a result of social orphanhood and prostitution.Conclusions, perspectives of research. Thus, we can conclude that modern Ukrainian education is predominantly formed by the values of mass culture. Namely, according to the «Dialectic» by Horkheimer and Adorno, «semi-enlightenment becomes an objective spirit» of our modern society.It is concluded that only high-quality education can create the opposite of the onset of mass culture and the destruction of spirituality in our society. It is proved that only by realizing the importance of cultivating disciplines in the educational process and the spiritual upbringing of the nation, through educational reforms, humanitarian knowledge will gradually return to student audiences.Formation of youth occurs under the influence of social environment, culture, education and self-education. The optimal combination of these factors determines both the process of socialization itself and how successful it will be. In this context, one can see the leading role of education and upbringing. It turns out that the main task of modern education is to spread its influence on the development of spiritual culture of the individual, which eventually becomes a solid foundation for the formation of the individual. Such a subject requires both philosophical and humanitarian approaches in further integrated interdisciplinary research, since the availability of such research will provide the theoretical foundation for truly modern educational and personal development.


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