Here I am yet cannot hold this visible shape:The Music of Gender in Shakespeare’s Twelfth Night

Music has always been used as an important dramaturgical strategy in Western theatre to create a holistic theatrical experience. In Shakespeare’s plays, music was employed as a unique dramaturgical device for various purposes. Twelfth Night distinguishes itself from among the many plays that employ music because it begins, ends and progresses with music. Music pervades Twelfth Night and is tightly interwoven into the thematic concerns of the play such as love and gender. Because of music’s elusive nature and the difficulty of discussing a musical aesthetics, Shakespearean music critics have approached music in the play as a theme or an idea. This paper hopes to develop upon older scholarship by introducing an alternate framework of considering music’s musicality through a musicological analysis of the songs in Twelfth Night. In so doing, the paper hopes to show how and why music can modulate our responses to the play and in particular, to the theme of gender, a problematic issue that produces the elusive and darker nature of this festive comedy.

'When I Look I am Seen, So I Exist to Change': Supplementing Honneth's Recognition Model for Social Work

The subject of identity continues to attract widespread interest and debate in the social sciences. The nature of who we are, our potential to be different, and our similarity with others, underpins many present-day social issues. This paper contributes to this debate by examining critically the work of Axel Honneth on optimal identity-formation. Although broadly supporting Honneth’s chief construct of inter-personal recognition, a gap in his thinking is highlighted and addressed through proffering a fourth dimension to his tripartite model. This additional dimension requires demonstrations of recognition that instil hope in the face of hardship and empower positive transformations in identity. The implications of this reworked model for social work are then considered in terms of a range of approaches that can be utilised to build flourishing identities characterised by self-esteem, self-confidence, self-respect and self-belief.

“I am in a constant state of insecurity trying to make ends meet, like our service users”: Shared austerity reality between social workers and service users: Towards a preliminary conceptualization

This article introduces the concept of an emerging shared austerity reality, which refers to the socio-economic context of austerity that is shared both by social workers and service users, albeit to different degrees. Traditionally, the concept of the shared reality has been utilized to encompass the experiences of welfare professionals working in situations where both they and service users are exposed to the adverse effects of a natural disaster, war or terrorist attack. Here, the concept of shared reality is expanded through the introduction of the context of austerity. Drawing on 21 in-depth interviews with public sector social work practitioners in Greece it discusses, among other things, social anxieties about their children’s future, and their inability to take care of their elderly relatives that suggest an emerging shared austerity reality, reflecting the deterioration of socio-economic conditions. The paper ends with a discussion about the possibilities of alliance and division that emerge from the concept and future research directions. Moreover, it concludes with a reflection on the role of the social work profession and recent political developments in Greece in anti-austerity struggles.

Jazz in Athens: Frustrated Cosmopolitans in a Music Subculture

This paper presents an ethnographic account of jazz music in Athens. The small scene under scrutiny is mainly populated by professional session instrumentalists of the Greek popular music scene who perform jazz as a side activity for their own pleasure. In the process, they construct a conceptual dichotomy between ‘work’ and ‘play’. Drawing on the author’s extended involvement in this scene, and focusing on private interviews with musicians, this article unveils the discourses of cosmopolitanism invoked through local jazz music making. The ethnographic material presented aims to illustrate how even a small subculture can serve as a terrain for contesting cosmopolitan imaginaries.

Down with MNE-centric theories! Market entry and expansion as the bundling of MNE and local assets

Both Anderson and Gatignon and the Uppsala internationalization model see the initial mode of foreign market entry and subsequent modes of operation as unilaterally determined by multinational enterprises (MNEs) arbitraging control and risk and increasing their commitment as they gain experience in the target market. OLI and internalization models do recognize that foreign market entry requires the bundling of MNE and complementary local assets, which they call location or country-specific advantages, but implicitly assume that those assets are freely accessible to MNEs. In contrast to both of these MNE-centric views, I explicitly consider the transactional characteristics of complementary local assets and model foreign market entry as the optimal assignment of equity between their owners and MNEs. By looking at the relative efficiency of the different markets in which MNE and complementary local assets are traded, and at how these two categories of assets match, I am able to predict whether equity will be held by MNEs or by local firms, or shared between them, and whether MNEs will enter through greenfields, brownfields, or acquisitions. The bundling model I propose has interesting implications for the evolution of the MNE footprint in host countries, and for the reasons behind the emergence of Dragon MNEs.

Semiotics, Presence and the Sublime in the Work of Alvin Lucier

Alvin Lucier, in his uncompromising exploration into the artistic potential of acoustic phenomena, has developed a body of work that remains highly original and hugely influential across many disciplines. His seminal works such as I am sitting in a room and Music for Solo Performer foreshadowed ways of approaching sound that are in common use among electro-acoustic composers, installation artists, as well as in commercial products. Lucier, despite his far reaching influence, is and has always been a composer, and his explorations of acoustics have been singularly focused on the development of a rich body of music. In this article, I investigate Lucier’s unique approach and attitude towards acoustics and aspire to enumerate important aesthetic developments he has made in creating music through the exploration of acoustic phenomena. In particular, this article seeks to investigate the role of semiotics in Lucier’s work, commenting on the pre-linguistic nature of Lucier’s approach to acoustic phenomenon. Here as well, an exploration of Lucier’s musical materials takes place, focusing on his instrumental compositions, specifically Diamonds for One, Two or Three Orchestras, where instruments are used as catalysts to generate in real-time acoustic phenomenon which interact to produce a rich yet intimate world of sound. Finally, Lucier’s approach to semiotics and real-time generation of music is viewed through a sublime aesthetic provoking questions regarding issues of presence and the now.

The place of sperm DNA fragmentation testing in current day fertility management

In this debate article, I am going to set out the case that sperm DNA fragmentation testing is essential in current day fertility management because-
• Our current semen analysis testing is unfit for purpose
• Sperm DNA damage testing has strong associations with every fertility check point
• Sperm DNA damage testing has strong associations with miscarriage
• Sperm DNA testing can explain ‘unexplained’ infertility
• There are reasons why sperm with poor DNA are successful in ICSI
• There are no non-invasive sperm function tests that provide the same information
• We need to take a fresh look at the ‘evidence’ against sperm DNA testing
• We have no reason to wait. There are benefits for clinics and couples alike.

Surviving but stigmatised:Making sense of living with Burkholderia cepacia

Infection control policies recommend segregation of people with Cystic Fibrosis (CF) according to bacterial status. This involves isolating those people with cepacia from all other CF patients in order to prevent additional infection. These policies are reliant on the understanding and adherence of those colonised with cepacia. Service user reports suggest that emotions like anxiety and anger are aroused when those with cepacia are faced with cross infection measures (UK CF Trust, 2009). No studies to date investigate this anecdotal emotional reaction. This research was conducted to ask what it is like to live with cepacia, using in depth interviews. A phenomenological approach was used. Three themes that appeared to characterise the experience of living with cepacia were identified: (1) Lost Identity: cepacia can challenge one’s self identity, and along with cross infection measures lead to feeling objectified and even alienated from the CF group identity. (2) Status: Condemned: being colonised with cepacia brings with it knowledge of a certain type of restricted future, and an imagined death. There is loss of normality and hope. (3) I Am Cepacia: making decisions about preventing cross infection is influenced by medical knowledge as well as human emotions and social information; therefore adherence to these measures is fluid and contextual. These themes have real world clinical implications for all CF services, where preventing the spread of cepacia is paramount. Responsibility for cross infection is a burden and requires knowledge and understanding from both those living with and without cepacia. We need to see beyond the bacteria to the person.