Las Vegas night at Greek Orthodox Church in Brooklyn, NY

General note: Title provided by Freda Leinwand.

Metaphysics of love in the religious philosophy of Pável Florensky

This article focuses on the analysis of the concept of love in the religious philosophy of Pavel Florensky, who shares the ontological approach to the consideration of love with other representatives of Russian religious philosophy (N. berdyaev and S. bulgakov). We pay more careful attention to the understanding of love-άγαπαν by Florensky. We have drawn the conclusion that, in the philosophy of P. Florensky, Love, closely connected with truth and beauty, is considered an ontological basis existence of personality. We develop the ideas of Pavel Florensky, and accordingly assume that it is possible to synthesise love-agape and love-eros around the idea of sacrificial love. Agapelogical and erotical ‘bezels’ of one jewel of love is aspects of united love, which is given by God. this gift of God, the gift of united love, is kept by humans through prayer and deeds of love.

Towards an Orthodox Marxian Reading of Subsumption(s) of Academic Labour

This paper deploys an orthodox Marxian reading of the concept of subsumption of labour under capital. It does so through a brief, critical overview of the components of the Marxian conceptual instrument of subsumption of labour under capital (formal, real, hybrid and ideal subsumption). Recapitulating Marx’s concept, it sheds some light on the consequences of such a reading as a way of understanding the current transformation of the global higher education sector into a capitalist production sector per se. The reconstruction is then considered here as an attempt to approximate the specifics of the subsumption of labour under capital within the higher education sector. Moreover, the paper aims at showing that a discussion of the university dominated by capital with reference to the functioning or constituting of markets does not provide real opportunities for the understanding and solution of such problems as precarization, exploitation or acceleration of academic work. Thus, it joins a wider stream of Marxist higher education research and could be seen as a conceptual contribution to a critique of the political economy of higher education.

Orthodox versus unorthodox care: A qualitative study on where rural women seek healthcare during pregnancy and childbirth in Southwest, Nigeria

Introduction Utilization of orthodox health facilities for maternal health services is determined by factors operating at the individual, household, community and state level. The prevalence of small family norm is one of the identified variables operating within the community which influences the decision of where to access care (orthodox/traditional). The objective of the study was to determine the use of orthodox versus unorthodox maternity healthcare and determinants among rural women in southwest Nigeria. Methods A qualitative study was done and involved three focus group discussions. A semi-structured interview guide was used to collect information from women of reproductive age group within a rural Local Government Area in Lagos state. Results Most of the women access some form of healthcare during pregnancy, orthodox, unorthodox or both. Those who patronize both services concurrently do so to benefit from the two as each has some unique features such as herbal concoctions for traditional, ultrasound and immunization of babies for orthodox. Traditional belief exerts a strong influence on decision of where to access maternal healthcare services. Actual place of delivery is determined by individual and household factors including financial resources. Conclusion Rural women utilize one or both orthodox and unorthodox maternal health services for different reasons. Ward Development Committees should be strengthened so as to reach the communities, educate and convince women to dispel myths which limit their use of orthodox care. Training and monitoring of Traditional Birth Attendants (TBAs) are vital to eliminate harmful practices. We also recommend improved financial access to orthodox healthcare.

New worlds and new churches: The Orthodox Church(es) and the European Union

The Orthodox church(es) share a common commitment to the unity of dogma and spirituality. There is, however, no doctrinal formulation that comes close to a form of political theology at a pan-Orthodox level. This means that the Orthodox churches’ attitude towards the European Union (EU) is driven by their ecclesial diversity and by complex inter-ecclesial relations. More fundamentally they share a fragmented and plural, theological objection to the very ideas of Europe and the West. This has been further complicated by the emergence of a substantial Orthodox diaspora from Eastern Europe, Russia, and the Middle East living across the breadth of the European continent. Consequently the ecclesial identity and self-perception of the autocephalous Orthodox churches is changing. These churches are becoming increasingly transnational and extra-territorial. With this, their perception of Europe and the West, as seen through the eyes of their diaspora communities, is altering from “threat” to “home” (Makrides and Uffelmann, 2003). The growing diaspora will not only impact the Christian demographics of Europe but will also transform the Eastern Churches’ view of Europe and the EU (Leustean, 2009; 2011; 2013; 2014a; 2014b).

Neo-Dandy

Neo-Dandy was a practice-led research project that explored histories of a quintessential men’s and womenswear garment from across the ages — the formal white dress shirt. The aim was to generate a body of radically new mens’ shirts that, whilst incorporating characteristics normally associated with womenswear, would remain acceptable to male wearers. A detailed study identified a broad spectrum of historical design approaches, ranging from the orthodox man’s shirt to the many variations of the women’s blouse. Within this spectrum a threshold was discovered where the men’s shirt morphed into the woman’s blouse — a ‘design moment’ that appeared to typify the dandy figure (a fashion character who subversively confronts dress norms of their day). The research analysed thousands of archive catwalk images from leading contemporary menswear designers, and of these, only a small number tampered appreciably with the men’s white dress shirt — suggesting a new realm of possibility for fashion design innovation. This led to the creation of a new body of work labelled ‘Neo-Dandy’. Sixty ‘concept shirts’ were produced, with differing styles and varying degrees of detailing, that fitted the brief of being acceptable to male wearers, eminently ‘wearable’ and on a threshold position between menswear and womenswear. These designs were each tested, documented, and assessed in their capacity to evolve the Neo-Dandy aesthetic. Based on these outcomes, a list of key design principles for achieving this aesthetic was identified to assist designers in further evolving this style. The creative work achieved substantial public acclaim with the ‘Neo Dandy Collection’ winning a prestigious Design Institute of Australia Award (Lifestyle category) and being one of four finalists in the prestigious overall field for design excellence. It was subsequently curated into three major Brisbane exhibitions — the ARC Biennial, at Artisan Gallery and the industry leader, the Mercedes Benz Fashion Festival. The collection was also exhibited at the Queensland Art Gallery.

Neo-Dandy

Neo-Dandy was a practice-led research project that explored histories of a quintessential men’s and womenswear garment from across the ages — the formal white dress shirt. The aim was to generate a body of radically new mens’ shirts that incorporated characteristics normally associated with womenswear, whist remaining acceptable to male wearers. A detailed study identified a broad spectrum of historical design approaches, ranging from the orthodox man’s shirt to the many variations of the women’s blouse. Within this spectrum a threshold was discovered where the men’s shirt morphed into the woman’s blouse — a ‘design moment’ that appeared to typify the dandy figure (a fashion character who subversively confronts dress norms of their day). The research analysed thousands of archive catwalk images from leading contemporary menswear designers, and of these, only a small number tampered appreciably with the men’s white dress shirt — suggesting a new realm of possibility for fashion design innovation. This led to the creation of a new body of work labelled ‘Neo-Dandy’. Sixty ‘concept shirts’ were produced, with differing styles and varying degrees of detailing, that fitted the brief of being acceptable to male wearers, eminently ‘wearable’ and on a threshold position between menswear and womenswear. These designs were each tested, documented, and assessed in their capacity to evolve the Neo-Dandy aesthetic. Based on these outcomes, a list of key design principles for achieving this aesthetic was identified to assist designers in further evolving this style. The creative work achieved substantial public acclaim with the ‘Neo Dandy Collection’ winning a prestigious Design Institute of Australia Award (Lifestyle category) and being one of four finalists in the prestigious overall field for design excellence. It was subsequently curated into three major Brisbane exhibitions — the ARC Biennial, at Artisan Gallery and the industry leader, the Mercedes Benz Fashion Festival. The collection was also exhibited at the Queensland Art Gallery.

The Euro-American psyche and the imaging of Samoa in the early 20th century

Drawing on English language sources and material from Western Samoa (now Samoa), this examination of photographically illustrated serial encyclopaedia and magazines proposes an alternative historical analysis of the colonial photographs of Samoa, the most extensively covered field in Oceanic photographic studies. Photographs published between the 1890s and World War II were not necessarily from that era, and despite claims in the text of illustrated publications of an unchanged, enduring, archaic tradition in Samoa, the amazing variety of content and subject matter often offered contradictory evidence, depicting a modern, adaptive and progressive Samoa. Contrary to orthodox historical analysis, the images of Samoa in illustrated magazines and encyclopaedia were not limited to a small, repetitive gallery of partially clothed women and costumed chiefs.

"Men at play : masculinities in Australian theater since the 1950s" -- By Jonathan Bollen, Adrian Kiernander and Bruce Parr

Adopting a thematic rather than chronological arrangement, this co-authored book surveys representations of men and masculinity in post-war Australian theater. Its searching and sophisticated analyses draw upon playscripts, critical records and archival material, including screen versions of stage productions. The study is organized around two distinct periods of Australian theater history: the 1950s to 1970, during which time a national theatremovement flourished, and the mid-1980s onward.Whilst some attention is given to different genres, discussion centers primarily on realist works from the mainstream. Several plays usually omitted from orthodox theater histories, such as Barry Pree’s A Fox in the Night (1959), are given detailed treatments.

Re-thinking home economics : from modern to postmodern accounts of pedagogical bodies

Two perceptions of the marginality of home economics are widespread across educational and other contexts. One is that home economics and those who engage in its pedagogy are inevitably marginalised within patriarchal relations in education and culture. This is because home economics is characterised as women's knowledge, for the private domain of the home. The other perception is that only orthodox epistemological frameworks of inquiry should be used to interrogate this state of affairs. These perceptions have prompted leading theorists in the field to call for non-essentialist approaches to research in order to re-think the thinking that has produced this cul-de-sac positioning of home economics as a body of knowledge and a site of teacher practice. This thesis takes up the challenge of working to locate a space outside the frame of modernist research theory and methods, recognising that this shift in epistemology is necessary to unsettle the idea that home economics is inevitably marginalised. The purpose of the study is to reconfigure how we have come to think about home economics teachers and the profession of home economics as a site of cultural practice, in order to think it otherwise (Lather, 1991). This is done by exploring how the culture of home economics is being contested from within. To do so, the thesis uses a 'posthumanist' approach, which rejects the conception of the individual as a unitary and fixed entity, but instead as a subject in process, shaped by desires and language which are not necessarily consciously determined. This posthumanist project focuses attention on pedagogical body subjects as the 'unsaid' of home economics research. It works to transcend the modernist dualism of mind/body, and other binaries central to modernist work, including private/public, male/female,paid/unpaid, and valued/unvalued. In so doing, it refuses the simple margin/centre geometry so characteristic of current perceptions of home economics itself. Three studies make up this work. Studies one and two serve to document the disciplined body of home economics knowledge, the governance of which works towards normalisation of the 'proper' home economics teacher. The analysis of these accounts of home economics teachers by home economics teachers, reveals that home economics teachers are 'skilled' yet they 'suffer' for their profession. Further,home economics knowledge is seen to be complicit in reinforcing the traditional roles of masculinity and femininity, thereby reinforcing heterosexual normativity which is central to patriarchal society. The third study looks to four 'atypical'subjects who defy the category of 'proper' and 'normal' home economics teacher. These 'atypical' bodies are 'skilled' but fiercely reject the label of 'suffering'. The discussion of the studies is a feminist poststructural account, using Russo's (1994) notion of the grotesque body, which is emergent from Bakhtin's (1968) theory of the carnivalesque. It draws on the 'shreds' of home economics pedagogy,scrutinising them for their subversive, transformative potential. In this analysis, the giving and taking of pleasure and fun in the home economics classroom presents moments of surprise and of carnival. Foucault's notion of the construction of the ethical individual shows these 'atypical' bodies to be 'immoderate' yet striving hard to be 'continent' body subjects. This research captures moments of transgression which suggest that transformative moments are already embodied in the pedagogical practices of home economics teachers, and these can be 'seen' when re-looking through postmodemist lenses. Hence, the cultural practices ofhome economics as inevitably marginalised are being contested from within. Until now, home economics as a lived culture has failed to recognise possibilities for reconstructing its own field beyond the confines of modernity. This research is an example of how to think about home economics teachers and the profession as a reconfigured cultural practice. Future research about home economics as a body of knowledge and a site of teacher practice need not retell a simple story of oppression. Using postmodemist epistemologies is one way to provide opportunities for new ways of looking.

Art in early childhood : the discourse of 'proper' teaching

This thesis is a problematisation of the teaching of art to young children. To problematise a domain of social endeavour, is, in Michel Foucault's terms, to ask how we come to believe that "something ... can and must be thought" (Foucault, 1985:7). The aim is to document what counts (i.e., what is sayable, thinkable, feelable) as proper art teaching in Queensland at this point ofhistorical time. In this sense, the thesis is a departure from more recognisable research on 'more effective' teaching, including critical studies of art teaching and early childhood teaching. It treats 'good teaching' as an effect of moral training made possible through disciplinary discourses organised around certain epistemic rules at a particular place and time. There are four key tasks accomplished within the thesis. The first is to describe an event which is not easily resolved by means of orthodox theories or explanations, either liberal-humanist or critical ones. The second is to indicate how poststructuralist understandings of the self and social practice enable fresh engagements with uneasy pedagogical moments. What follows this discussion is the documentation of an empirical investigation that was made into texts generated by early childhood teachers, artists and parents about what constitutes 'good practice' in art teaching. Twenty-two participants produced text to tell and re-tell the meaning of 'proper' art education, from different subject positions. Rather than attempting to capture 'typical' representations of art education in the early years, a pool of 'exemplary' teachers, artists and parents were chosen, using "purposeful sampling", and from this pool, three videos were filmed and later discussed by the audience of participants. The fourth aspect of the thesis involves developing a means of analysing these texts in such a way as to allow a 're-description' of the field of art teaching by attempting to foreground the epistemic rules through which such teacher-generated texts come to count as true ie, as propriety in art pedagogy. This analysis drew on Donna Haraway's (1995) understanding of 'ironic' categorisation to hold the tensions within the propositions inside the categories of analysis rather than setting these up as discursive oppositions. The analysis is therefore ironic in the sense that Richard Rorty (1989) understands the term to apply to social scientific research. Three 'ironic' categories were argued to inform the discursive construction of 'proper' art teaching. It is argued that a teacher should (a) Teach without teaching; (b) Manufacture the natural; and (c) Train for creativity. These ironic categories work to undo modernist assumptions about theory/practice gaps and finding a 'balance' between oppositional binary terms. They were produced through a discourse theoretical reading of the texts generated by the participants in the study, texts that these same individuals use as a means of discipline and self-training as they work to teach properly. In arguing the usefulness of such approaches to empirical data analysis, the thesis challenges early childhood research in arts education, in relation to its capacity to deal with ambiguity and to acknowledge contradiction in the work of teachers and in their explanations for what they do. It works as a challenge at a range of levels - at the level of theorising, of method and of analysis. In opening up thinking about normalised categories, and questioning traditional Western philosophy and the grand narratives of early childhood art pedagogy, it makes a space for re-thinking art pedagogy as "a game oftruth and error" (Foucault, 1985). In doing so, it opens up a space for thinking how art education might be otherwise.

The global division of labour and the division in global labour

Since the 1980s the locus of manufacturing and some services have moved to countries of the Global South. Liberalization of trade and investment has added two billion people to world labour supply and brought workers everywhere into intense competition with each other. Under orthodox neoliberal and neoclassical approaches free trade and open investment should benefit all countries and lead to convergence. However considerable differences in wages and working hours exist between workers of the Global North and those of the Global South. The organising question for the thesis is why workers in different countries but the same industries get different wages. Empirical evidence reviewed in the thesis shows that productivity does not explain these wage differences and that workers in some parts of the South are more productive than workers in the North. Part of the thesis examines the usefulness of explanations drawn from Marxist, institutionalist and global commodity chain approaches. There is a long established argument in Marxist and neo-Marxist writings that differences between North and South result from imperialism and the exercise of power. This is the starting point to review ways of understanding divisions between workers as the outcome of a global class structure. In turn, a fault line is postulated between productive and unproductive labour that largely replicates the division between the Global North and the Global South. Workers and their organizations need shared actions if they are to resist global competition and wage disparities. Solidarity has been the clarion of progressive movements from the Internationals of the early C19th through to the current Global Unions and International Confederation of Trade Unions (ICTU). The thesis examines how nationalism and particular interests have undermined solidarity and reviews the major implications for current efforts to establish and advance a global labour position.

Young citizens, values and new/s media

The adaptation of market segmentation to political communication is identified here as a neglected explanation for why young people often figure in popular political debates as both the cause and symptom of declining social values and civic participation. New media also contribute to public anxiety because they enable new forms of mediated civic engagement and disrupt the capacity of transmission media to bind nations. Declining engagement with news media is used as an index of young peoples' lack of civic-mindedness but, as research surveyed and reported here shows, this trend away from orthodox news forms is apparent across all age groups, not just youth. This article makes the case for public debate, informed by research that addresses the substantive problems of transforming democracy.