One of the most frequent ways of narrating everyday life in developed countries has been via the printed book. The invention of printing allowed for an ever-increasing mass production of documents of life that systematically established an era of communication and a political economy that had profound implications for the structure of living together. This article departs from the context of my own lifeworld: a lifeworld closely related to printed books. When attempting to explore and understand the overt and covert meanings embedded in the historical development of our social lives and the objects around us, we can turn for assistance to an analysis of the books on our shelves, books that have been constant companions for long periods of our lives. In this article, I propose that any valid interpretation, understanding, and depiction of social reality need to be, in essence, autobiographical. The autobiographical account I present includes how my personal life trajectory led me to the books that surround me. And how, in turn, these books become a reflection of myself and my roots.
HIV remains a threat to the ordinary everyday life of older woman in African society. In what can be called “a reality shock,” HIV challenges most of the ordinary everyday endeavors in conservative African societies as it imposes new Western prevention, treatment, and health-management methods over long-held African traditions. The reality of the “Western” HIV epidemic, and its impact on the “African” ordinary everyday life, demands that the infected undergo a paradigm shift in order for them to live harmoniously within their society. This calls for a re-examination of traditional values and a strong sense of responsibility, courage, and determination to remain relevant and not be considered odd in one’s community, especially as one grows old with the virus. The study, which focuses on the experiences of women from the Manicaland Province in Zimbabwe who are aging with HIV, observes that growing old with an HIV infection fosters forms of inner strength and wisdom that enable the infected to disregard some of the unquestioned traditions and employ effective ways of living well with the life-threatening condition.
Since the beginning of time art-making has been a tool to express, preserve, and challenge the extant knowledge in society. Artists do this by finding or creatively constructing new understandings in society. An artist is able to do this through the medium he/she uses to relay the message of the artwork. The medium that an artist uses to express his/her artistic concept has an impact on the character that the artwork will take. The medium of expression forms but one of the many considerations that go through an artist’s mind when creating art. In the process of art-making, an artist seeks to create new meanings or re-imagine old ones by organizing materials and concepts. In so doing, he/she discovers novel ways to get ideas across, and thereby creates new interpretations of social phenomena. In this article, attention is given to meaning-making as a conscious and iterative component of creating art. From a series of in-depth interviews, the authors analyze the inward processes that occur within six artists’ creative praxes and how these lead their construction of meaning. Attention is also paid to how the artists manipulate concepts and how they construct and deconstruct their understandings of these concepts in the course of their creative endeavors.
This project aims to unwrap some of the complexities related to female beauty and the body. It reflects on the second wave radical feminist view that beautifying the female body serves to attract male approval via the male gaze, both of which are deeply entrenched in patriarchal power. This perspective positions cosmetic surgery as a disempowering act for women. In riposte, we turn to third wave liberal feminist ideas to engage with the narratives of ten participants who tell of their personal experiences of, and motivations for, undergoing a cosmetic intervention. We undertake an in-depth exploration of these lifeworld experiences and the interplay of subjectivity and intersubjectivity in the women’s encounters. Findings suggest that a cosmetic intervention is often obtained for the self as opposed to satisfying the “other.” Importantly, cosmetic interventions allow a process to occur in which an individual’s physical body becomes better aligned to her sense of self. From this liberal feminist perspective, cosmetic surgery is positioned as an empowering act.
The aim of the article is the analysis of public discourse concerning the reforms of science and higher education in Poland, the effects of which largely affect young researchers and determine their careers and future social status. The author treats these transformations as Habermas’ ’crisis’ resulting from the dominance of technocratic consciousness. This situation generates both specific scenarios written by politicians/ economists/experts/officials for young researchers, as well as certain adaptation strategies of the researchers themselves. The empirical part of the article is the analysis of the public discourse in ’Gazeta Wyborcza’ and ’Tygodnik Powszechny’ concerning the reforms of Polish science involving symbolic elites and young researchers.
PL
Przedmiotem artykułu jest analiza dyskursu publicznego dotyczącego reform nauki i szkolnictwa wyższego w Polsce, których skutki w dużej mierze dotykają młodych pracowników nauki, stając się wyznacznikiem ich karier i przyszłego statusu społecznego. Przemiany te traktuję jako Habermasowski „kryzys” wynikający z dominacji świadomości technokratycznej. Sytuacja ta generuje zarówno specyficzne scenariusze pisane przez polityków/ekonomistów/ekspertów/urzędników dla młodych naukowców, jak również określone strategie adaptacyjne samych zainteresowanych. Część empiryczną stanowi analiza dyskursu publicznego dotyczącego reform polskiej nauki z udziałem elit symbolicznych oraz młodych pracowników nauki tocząca się na łamach „Gazety Wyborczej” i Tygodnika Powszechnego”.
The article discusses the problem of youth’s musical preferences and shaping their musical taste as a part of the lifeworld. Using the definition of lifeworld and musical socialization, the article demonstrates that the lifeworld of youth performs compensatory and stabilizing functions and also alleviates their behavior. It is mainly these functions make that social reality become their “own world”. In the lifeworld, the musical preferences of young people are very important, and quite often turn out to be a means of communication. It should be noted that the music does not only affect the shaping of the lifeworld of young people, thus allowing them to be identified but, above all, separates the “youth world” from the “adult world”. Musical styles begin to serve as a kind of social language, being the stratification criterion for youth subcultures. Musical preferences as part of the process of youth socialization are one of the main manifestations of limiting the living space of young people.
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