The Human Condition.
TL;DR: In some religious traditions, the myth of the ‘Fall from the Garden of Eden’ symbolizes the loss of the primordial state through the veiling of higher consciousness.
Abstract: Human beings are described by many spiritual traditions as ‘blind’ or ‘asleep’ or ‘in a dream.’ These terms refers to the limited attenuated state of consciousness of most human beings caught up in patterns of conditioned thought, feeling and perception, which prevent the development of our latent, higher spiritual possibilities. In the words of Idries Shah: “Man, like a sleepwalker who suddenly ‘comes to’ on some lonely road has in general no correct idea as to his origins or his destiny.” In some religious traditions, such as Christianity and Islam, the myth of the ‘Fall from the Garden of Eden’ symbolizes the loss of the primordial state through the veiling of higher consciousness. Other traditions use similar metaphors to describe the spiritual condition of humanity:
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Book•
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27 Mar 2015
TL;DR: In this article, a series of meditations on life, ground, weather, walking, imagination and what it means to be human are presented, with a focus on the life of lines.
Abstract: To live, every being must put out a line, and in life these lines tangle with one another. This book is a study of the life of lines. Following on from Tim Ingold's groundbreaking work Lines: A Brief History, it offers a wholly original series of meditations on life, ground, weather, walking, imagination and what it means to be human.
In the first part, Ingold argues that a world of life is woven from knots, and not built from blocks as commonly thought. He shows how the principle of knotting underwrites both the way things join with one another, in walls, buildings and bodies, and the composition of the ground and the knowledge we find there.
In the second part, Ingold argues that to study living lines, we must also study the weather. To complement a linealogy that asks what is common to walking, weaving, observing, singing, storytelling and writing, he develops a meteorology that seeks the common denominator of breath, time, mood, sound, memory, colour and the sky. This denominator is the atmosphere.
In the third part, Ingold carries the line into the domain of human life. He shows that for life to continue, the things we do must be framed within the lives we undergo. In continually answering to one another, these lives enact a principle of correspondence that is fundamentally social.
This compelling volume brings our thinking about the material world refreshingly back to life. While anchored in anthropology, the book ranges widely over an interdisciplinary terrain that includes philosophy, geography, sociology, art and architecture.
410 citations
TL;DR: In this article, the authors argue that the fact that gender equality and women empowerment have been eviscerated of conceptual and political bite compromises their use as the primary frame through which to demand rights and justice.
Abstract: The language of ‘gender equality’ and ‘women’s empowerment’ was mobilised by feminists in the 1980s and 1990s as a way of getting women’s rights onto the international development agenda. Their efforts can be declared a resounding success. The international development industry has fully embraced these terms. From international NGOs to donor governments to multilateral agencies the language of gender equality and women’s empowerment is a pervasive presence and takes pride of place among their major development priorities. And yet, this article argues, the fact that these terms have been eviscerated of conceptual and political bite compromises their use as the primary frame through which to demand rights and justice. Critically examining the trajectories of these terms in development, the article suggests that if the promise of the post-2015 agenda is to deliver on gender justice, new frames are needed, which can connect with and contribute to a broader movement for global justice.
271 citations
TL;DR: A network simulation model used to study a possible relationship between echo chambers and the viral spread of misinformation finds an “echo chamber effect”: the presence of an opinion and network polarized cluster of nodes in a network contributes to the diffusion of complex contagions.
Abstract: The viral spread of digital misinformation has become so severe that the World Economic Forum considers it among the main threats to human society This spread have been suggested to be related to the similarly problematized phenomenon of “echo chambers”, but the causal nature of this relationship has proven difficult to disentangle due to the connected nature of social media, whose causality is characterized by complexity, non-linearity and emergence This paper uses a network simulation model to study a possible relationship between echo chambers and the viral spread of misinformation It finds an “echo chamber effect”: the presence of an opinion and network polarized cluster of nodes in a network contributes to the diffusion of complex contagions, and there is a synergetic effect between opinion and network polarization on the virality of misinformation The echo chambers effect likely comes from that they form the initial bandwagon for diffusion These findings have implication for the study of the media logic of new social media
223 citations
Cites background from "The Human Condition."
...The disappearance of media intermediation seems not to have, as was believed, fostered a space for direct meetings in a sort of online Habermasian public sphere, but rather to have implied that the “world between them has lost its power to gather them together, to relate and to separate them” [6] (p....
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...But despite early optimism about this ostensibly decentralized and democratic meetingplace, the online world seems less and less like a common “table” that “gathers us together” [6] (p....
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TL;DR: In this article, the authors proposed a mediation model to explain the relationship between CEO humility and firm performance and found that when a more humble CEO leads a firm, its top management team is more likely to collaborate, share information, jointly make decisions, and possess a shared vision.
215 citations
Cites background from "The Human Condition."
...Drawing on the communal power perspective (Arendt, 1958), we propose that humble CEOs do not stress power over other TMT members but, instead, have power to pursue goals for collective interest with the TMTs....
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...In this sense, humble CEOs exercise power in a way that diverts from an interpersonal power perspective (Sturm & Antonakis, 2015) and complies with a communal power perspective (Arendt, 1958)....
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TL;DR: The turn to the study of antibiotic resistance in microbiology and medicine is examined, focusing on the realization that individual therapies targeted at single pathogens in individual bodies are environmental events affecting bacterial evolution far beyond bodies.
Abstract: Beginning in the 1940s, mass production of antibiotics involved the industrialscale growth of microorganisms to harvest their metabolic products. Unfortunately, the use of antibiotics selects for resistance at answering scale. The turn to the study of antibiotic resistance in microbiology and medicine is examined, focusing on the realization that individual therapies targeted at single pathogens in individual bodies are environmental events affecting bacterial evolution far beyond bodies. In turning to biological manifestations of antibiotic use, sciences fathom material outcomes of their own previous concepts. Archival work with stored soil and clinical samples produces a record described here as ‘the biology of history’: the physical registration of human history in bacterial life. This account thus foregrounds the importance of understanding both the materiality of history and the historicity of matter in theories and concepts of life today.
204 citations
References
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01 Jan 2018
TL;DR: The PAR project as mentioned in this paper, a participatory research endeavor, seeks to empower Muslim Americans with a sense of place and voice in an environment that has been more conducive to denying both of these considerations.
Abstract: of a dissertation at the University of Miami. Dissertation supervised by Professor John W. Murphy Number of pages in text (175) This project, as a participatory-research endeavor, seeks to empower MuslimAmericans with a sense of place and voice in an environment that has been more conducive to denying both of these considerations. Previous research on Muslims has not dealt with them fairly, despite any good intentions that may have existed. The point of the PAR project is to gain access to the Muslim experience, rather than speaking for these persons. Rather than use their voice, be their voice, or to speak for Muslims, a participatory research project desires to: speak with Muslims, echo their experiences, coproduce knowledge, and leverage resources as a researcher that may advance community autonomy. The task in this project was to co-create a rendering of different Muslim experiences that has yet to exist. Turning towards Muslims as accomplices necessitated a turn away from the Western gaze that recognized Muslims as antithesis, as mission work, or as victims. An accomplice opens spaces and redirects resources to affirm diversity within a particular community. Together, as collaborators/accomplices/Muslims, we came to understand the meanings and concerns of this marginalized community. This dissertation, then, provides an insider’s account to the burdens, honors, and responsibilities of being a part of a “breaking” Muslim community in Miami. From looking Muslim and feeling the pressures of embodiment to the violence and empowerment realized through Muslim bodies, the struggle for meaning represented a struggle for survival and community, as much as a struggle of faith. When the committee examined the hundreds of pages amassed during the interview phase, five aspects of the community became evident: (1) locating community (2) relating the social to the Mosque, (3) breaking community, (4) structural violence, and (5) Muslim anomie. While the five phases captured dimensions of the Muslim community, most participants viewed the Mosque as the epicenter of Muslim activity. However, an important distinction was made between a Mosque rooted in homogeneity and exclusivity versus a Mosque as it ought to be. In the case of the latter, the Mosque represented an unfulfilled potential. That is, everything about being Muslim and a Muslim community represented an outgrowth that moved from an internalized actualization to an external materialization. To become Muslim was to be Muslim. To be Muslim was to become Muslim. In the case, of being rooted in homogeneity and exclusivity, boundaries between the Mosque and mainstream society became blurred. The paradox of this homogeneity is Muslim anomie. These findings emphasize the need for Muslims to re-connect and build trust with each other, as well as to the need to connect to non-Muslim communities. Muslims will need to work through differences to help salvage the potential of the greater community. Indeed, the commitment involved in bridging communities, with distinctive outlooks, is a challenge but necessary. Therefore, a five point-initiative for Muslims involved in the struggle for community is proposed. This plan serves more as a launching point for “dialogical action” than a blueprint for fixing a community in crises.
30 citations
TL;DR: One of the main criticisms of agonistic democracy (and of post-structuralism more generally) is that it fails to get beyond a purely negative assessment of alternative theories as mentioned in this paper, which is a common criticism of many poststructuralist theories.
Abstract: One of the main criticisms of agonistic democracy (and of post-structuralism more generally) is that it fails to get beyond a purely negative assessment of alternative theories. The article takes u...
30 citations
TL;DR: In this article, a conceptual-theoretical-empirical-Empirical (C-T-E) framework is proposed to explain the origins, processes, and ethical limitations of self-forgiveness.
Abstract: Self-forgiveness literature has grown in depth and breadth since its inception in 1974. In 2005, Hall and Fincham proposed a conceptual process model of self-forgiveness. In approximately 10 years, there have been considerable advancements in conceptual understanding and empirical findings but less refinement of a theoretical framework. This article outlines a Conceptual-Theoretical-Empirical (C-T-E) framework to explain the origins, processes, and ethical limitations of self-forgiveness; to refine the definition of self-forgiveness; and to improve upon Hall and Fincham's (2005) model. This C-T-E framework provides a social-cognitive theoretical structure to direct future research and therapeutic practice.
30 citations
Dissertation•
01 Jan 2020
TL;DR: In this article, a self-study action research approach is used to investigate the role of an academic in co-ordinating an international collaborative project between those inside and outside of academia in global North and South.
Abstract: Universities tend to take an exclusive view of knowledge and who can generate such knowledge. This knowledge tends to be based upon concepts within Western frameworks which assume the desirability of objectivity between the individual knower and what is known, the fragmentation of knowledge into disciplines and a marked distinction between theory and practice. As such, legitimate knowledge creation is seen to be the prerogative of academics based in Western contexts. Other forms of knowledge and other knowers are viewed as less legitimate. I challenge this view in practical and theoretical ways, arguing that it is exclusional, unjust and counterproductive. The practices described in the thesis are premised on the belief that all people should be seen as having knowledge creating capacity and the ability to use such capacity. It explores how relational, participative practices of knowledge creation between people of difference were enacted.
Using a self-study action research approach, I investigate my practices as an academic in co-ordinating an international collaborative project between those inside and outside of academia in global North and South. I describe and theorise how participative, relational and dialogic spaces were created for knowledge creation. The thesis explores how all participants were recognised as having a unique role which contributed to addressing a common concern, how such a role may be developed in collaboration with others and how this inclusive approach can motivate participation. I explain how such practices can embody epistemic justice.
I draw conclusions which contribute to a conceptualisation of the role and responsibility of the academic towards creating spaces for participation in collaborative and dialogical political action. I also draw out the practices embedded within my research and view them as a microcosm of what universities could be: spaces of participation in dialogical learning and in political action, towards social hope.
30 citations
TL;DR: This paper used a case study of cleaners in Australia to challenge influential representations of workers as prone to ‘shirking' and the interpretation of management control to which these perspectives lead, arguing that craft concepts of work derived from Richard Sennett and contemporary recognition theory provide alternative narratives of how workers can derive satisfaction from working we...
Abstract: Although sociologists and psychologists have documented various motivations for working, the concept of work as essentially disutility or undesirable retains broad resonance among influential economists and social theorists. These concepts imply that workers will tend to avoid or ‘shirk’ their work task unless subjected to management controls. Yet emerging counter-narratives have sought to retrieve and develop alternative concepts of work as craft, where workers are motivated to work well or be recognized for doing so. On these approaches, management controls can decrease the quality of the final outputs. This article uses a case study of cleaners in Australia to challenge influential representations of workers as prone to ‘shirking’ and the interpretation of management control to which these perspectives lead. The article argues that craft concepts of work derived from Richard Sennett and contemporary recognition theory provide alternative narratives of how workers can derive satisfaction from working we...
30 citations