Praxis

"There are giggles, but there is mostly a steady drum rhythm, concerted movement, and agreement on direction. A spiraling and progressive dynamic emerges. It synchronizes the tempo of so many bodies, and opens spaces for newcomers to gracefully join in. Some folks choose to sit along the edge, but they clap, chant, and reinforce an ages-old circular form with their own collective organic border-shape. There are leaders and followers, there are innovators and doubters, there are adults and there are children, there is unity, and for a few moments of this day there is equity of power and position. Most of all, there is joy.

In this moment, how can such a celebratory and odd-shaped experience be powerful education reform?"

"SUMMARY:

This study investigates a case of westerner outrage against a sensationalist report aired by Munhwa Broadcasting Corporation (MBC) in South Korea in which young adult western men and Korean women are depicted as engaging in seemingly overly casual romantic behavior. The brief broadcast warns of the 'dangers' of relationships with foreigners, such as misunderstood intentions, theft, unwanted pregnancy, and sexual disease transmission. A corresponding retaliation of 'biased, racist, yellow reporting,' erupted primarily from white male English teaching professionals, many of whom appeared to be longterm residents of Korea married to Koreans.

PROBLEM:

Being such a white male English teaching professional and longterm resident of Korea married to Korean myself, I found this reaction peculiarly out of proportion to 'the offense.' I would have thought that our demographic's 'insider view' of Korean history and culture should immunize us from taking the broadcast seriously or finding any connection to it. Having witnessed (and been a participant in) anti-Korean sentiment among foreign English teachers before, and being concerned with how such sentiments play out in the classroom and society (viz., through c/overt cultural disapproval and acts of domination), I was compelled to investigate whether such a response housed a deeper ongoing western privilege-/bias-fueled rejection of Korean culture even on Korean soil even under a commitment to longterm association (e.g. residence and/or marriage).

PROCEDURE:

In an attempt to critically apprehend the response, therefore, the analytical lens of Critical Race Theory (CRT), particularly in the ideas of invisible (white) privilege (and corresponding systemic racism) and racial homeostasis, is leveled upon the event. Data elicitation include a collection of digital artifacts in the form of Facebook posts, groups, and events; YouTube videos; online articles and blogs; and corresponding comments connected to these various media. Additionally, my own ethnographic experience of the event and of living in Korea and being married to a Korean is brought to bear on the analysis."

FINDINGS AND CONCLUSION:

While much more research remains to be done regarding the complexity of western EFL teachers' racial/cultural attitudes towards their host cultures and the ways such attitudes express themselves and intersect with successful and respectful living and teaching practices, suggestions of supremacist-tinged discourse paralleling the kind of systemic racism and invisible privilege endemic to white (male) hegemonic thought are found in the western response; the reaction displaying characteristics of that of a group blind to their own unearned and normally uncontested privilege finding their image of themselves challenged, and the attendant discourse often fitting a pattern of systemically racist neocolonialist attitudes that remain pervasive among westerners, even abroad, even after extended stay in a foreign culture. In any case, an opportunity remains for westerners to become better guests in Korea and more legitimate bearers of the principles of teaching of English as a foreign language."

""Purpose: Perhaps nowhere is the significance of architectural design greater than for psychiatric care facilities. There’s a strong correlation between perceptual dysfunction and psychiatric illness, and also between the patient and his environment. As such, even minor design choices can be highly consequent in a psychiatric facility. It’s of critical importance, therefore, that a psychiatric milieu is sympathetic and doesn’t exacerbate the psychosis.

Design methodology: To analyse architectural elements that may influence mental health using an architectural extrapolation of Antonovsky’s salutogenic theory, which states that better health results from a state of mind which has a fortified sense of coherence. According to the theory, a sense of coherence is fostered by a patient’s ability to find meaning, to comprehend the environment (comprehensibility) and to be effective in his actions (manageability).

Findings: Saltogenic theory can be extrapolated in an architectural context to inform design choices when designing for a stress sensitive client base.

Practical implications: The design of mental health facilities has long been dominated by unsubstantiated policy and normative opinions that don’t always serve the client population. This method establishes a practical theoretical model for generating architectural design guidelines for health mental health facilities.

Originality/value: Firstly, salutogenic theory is a useful framework for improving health outcomes, but in the past the theory has never been applied in a methodological way. Secondly there have been few insights into how the architecture itself can improve the functionality of a mental health facility other than improve the secondary functions of hospital services.""

"This paper aims to highlight the most salient developments in early modernity that made it possible to identify “design intelligence” as a recognizable form of cognition. The intent behind such a move is to highlight what might be called the conceptual resources inherent in the original, early modern conception of _disegno_. Focusing particularly on the contributions of early architectural theory, I analyze the historical moment of the Italian Renaissance during which _disegno_ (“drawing”) developed from a semi-theoretical formulation of a basic artisanal technique into a fully fledged method for reasoning, on par with the so-called “topics of invention” that were taught as catalysts for rhetorical creativity. The three most distinctive features of _disegno_ are (1) its essentially semantic character, which is evidenced by its close etymological relations to modern English words such as “sign,” “signal,” and “designate”; (2) its amphibious ontological status, such that it must be conceived as both a manual practice and a form of cognition; and (3) its susceptibility to improvement through regular exercise.

I begin by briefly articulating each of these three features of early modern _disegno_, providing a few representative texts in support of its analysis. I then formulate these three features as conceptual constraints that broadly govern the potentialities and constraints of design intelligence, thereby rendering those constraints available as conceptual resources. Efforts by contemporary writers—such as Michael Jemtrud and Michael Speaks—to valorize design intelligence and to commend its exercise to those who are not professional “designers” inevitably rely upon the philological situation of the term design. A better understanding of that situation will enable a more adroit articulation of the value of design intelligence and the pedagogical techniques that have evolved to inculcate and refine it.

As an example, I will examine the practice of prototyping. I will argue that prototyping enacts design intelligence insofar as it (1) symbolizes the original intention expressed in the animating program; (2) deliberately conceives making and thinking as informed by one another; and (3) aims to improve a design (understood as both mental concept and material object) by enriching the practitioners’ experiential understanding of the project."

The appearance of the rectilinear house form in the Irish Neolithic landscape was both unprecedented and short lived. Their appearance coincided with the definite appearance of arable agriculture on the island. Their disappearance also coincided with the disappearance of this form of agriculture. The island wide similarity in their form and probable functions is remarkable. They served as both functional and symbolic focal points in the landscape for their inhabitants, and they had a major influence on burial practice. Evidence for both deliberate deposition and deliberate destruction has been found at a number of sites, indicating their ritual significance to contemporaries. They also had an important role in the socialisation of successive generations of agriculturalists.

This paper puts forth the somewhat controversial position that what is needed to improve project management in practice is not more research on what should be done or the frequency and/or use of traditional project management practices. We argue that while a great deal is written about traditional project management we know very little about the 'actuality' of project based working and management. This paper formulates a research approach that takes seriously practitioners' lived experience of projects. We explore the ontological, epistemological and methodological assumptions underlying this kind of research and provide examples of some project management research originating from this perspective. We conclude by summarizing the findings from these studies and providing insights into the map ahead for future such research. In this kind of work the attention is refocused on praxis, on context-dependent judgement, on situational ethics and on reflexivity which enables social actors to see how power actually functions in context.

This study discusses the anthropological implications of the concept of thaumaston (astonishing, astonishment) in Aristotle's Poetics. The astonishment caused by the works of art does not end in stable knowledge (differently from the case of theoretical sciences). We cannot have any total knowledge about the praxis represented by mimesis - just it is the attractiveness of art.

Discutir sobre los géneros cinematográficos o sobre la especificidad de ciertos géneros en el cine español es conducir el debate a un callejón sin salida si partimos del carácter caótico del concepto mismo de género, a partir de cuestiones tan evidentes como la consideración del "cine español" en su conjunto como un género en sí mismo o el carácter insuficiente del género para abarcar una buena parte de las prácticas cinematográficas en cualquier momento de su historia. Y sin embargo, el género sigue siendo uno de los ejes sobre los que gravita el campo cinematográfico. Seguramente, porque en su definición más constructivista —una serie de pautas que regulan las expectativas del espectador— sigue siendo uno de los pocos modos de inteligibilidad de ese escurridizo nexo que une la creación y la recepción fílmica, algo ineludible para una comprensión de un cine nacional. Por eso, una buena reconceptualización del concepto debe partir de esa carácter interaccional —a un tiempo tan clara y tan oscura—que el género tiene en la praxis fílmica