Improving Social Understanding of Preschool Children: Evaluation of a Training Program

This study tested the effects of a training program intending to foster social understanding or the capacity which enables them to understand themselves and others in terms of intentions, beliefs, desires, and emotions in children at preschool age. A number of studies have shown that in the context of shared narratives, children are particularly likely to engage in talk about inner states

"Voyage through death/to life upon these shores": the living dead of the Middle Passage

While historical studies of the Atlantic slave trade have amply demonstrated the magnitude of slave mortality during the Middle Passage, only recently have they started to examine how the captives might have endured and coped with this traumatic experience. Although it constitutes a major topos in African diasporic culture, the Middle Passage has only occasionally been represented directly and in details in novels and in films. This article examines three recent narratives of the Middle Passage, Fred D'Aguiar's novel Feeding the Ghosts (1998), Guy Deslauriers's film Passage du milieu (2000), and Stephanie Smallwood's historical study Saltwater Slavery: A Middle Passage from Africa to American Diaspora (2007). Beyond their individual poetic, aesthetic, and scholarly qualities, what is most striking about these three texts is that they all use the figure of the living dead in order to explore the captives' experience of the transatlantic journey. If the ghastly quality of the living dead powerfully captures the life-threatening material and physical conditions the captives endured on the voyage, its dual, liminal character also allows D'Aguiar, Deslauriers, and Smallwood to represent the metaphysical, psychological, social, and cultural journey they were forced to undertake. Through their use of the trope of the living dead, these three texts show that if death is indeed a central aspect of the experience of the Middle Passage, it impacts the captives in ways that go well beyond the issue of mortality.

Liderazgo femenino. Un análisis de las diferencias de género en la formación y desarrollo de asociaciones de inmigrantes africanos

En el presente estudio se describen, analizan y comparan las manifestaciones del liderazgo femenino en las asociaciones de inmigrantes africanos: sus objetivos de trabajo, temáticas y formas, organización e institucionalización. Para ello se analizan en profundidad diez historias de vida, partiendo de la hipótesis de la existencia de una clara diferenciación de objetivos entre las asociaciones de hombres y mujeres africanos derivados de la desigualdad básica de las posiciones sociales entre hombres y mujeres, y muy especialmente, de las culturas de género. Los resultados obtenidos sugieren que existen mujeres inmigrantes “fuertes” (ni sumisas ni ignorantes) con capacidad de liderazgo en la asociación, pero no por unas supuestas especificidades “femeninas” sino por un proceso de aprendizaje temprano (adolescente), éxito educativo y un origen social relativamente elevado que forjan una cierta rebeldía y la asunción de una autoridad explícita. De cualquier modo, no se observan diferencias relevantes entre el liderazgo femenino y el liderazgo masculino, ya que en ambos casos se da un cierto “carisma”, la existencia de unas dotes personales que se desarrollan desde la interacción en situaciones sociales concretas.

El medievalismo fértil de Paloma Díaz-Mas

The author of this article is concerned with trying to understand why Paloma Díaz-Mas, the writer of such an excellent novel as La tierra fértil (1999), has not received much critical attention. He underlines three main reasons. First, she does not live in Madrid or Barcelona and so she is far away from the main centres of cultural power. Second, she teaches Spanish literature in the Basque Country, a political and linguistic community which significantly differs from that of many other writers. Third, she writes historical novels, which does not appear to be very fashionable in Spain these days. Moreover, Díaz-Mas is a woman writer who does not make use of the most commonly available feminine patterns, and she does not seem to offer a model easy to include in a given feminist methodology either. However, Mérida-Jiménez argues that Paloma provides an intelligent deconstruction of “male authority” through subtle rhetorical means, as well as a representation of the weakness of his “domination” in very innovative ways, such as those derived from the dialectics between history and fiction, centrality and marginality, heterosexuality and homosexuality, individual and society, dream and reason or tradition and modernity.

Mujeres y literatura de los medioevos ibéricos : voces, ecos y distorsiones

La mayoría de estudios consagrados a las escritoras medievales han centrado sus esfuerzos en la exhumación de fuentes y en el análisis retórico de la diferencia literaria y sexual. Sus objetivos suelen integrar el deseo de construcción de una poética específica a partir de los testimonios conservados y la definición de una genealogía femenina secular. Este enfoque tal vez no afecte sensiblemente nuestra percepción de aquellos ámbitos culturales con una mayor producción escrita, pero sí que resulta poco fructífero en los reinos hispánicos, donde apenas contamos con testimonios anteriores al s. XV, ni en latín ni en romance. Sin embargo, en la Península Ibérica disponemos de otra vigorosa tradición cultural (la arábigo-andaluza), apenas reinterpretada comparativamente, cuya magnitud resulta insoslayable no tan solo por su peso específico, sino además por su valor excepcional para la mejor comprensión de las configuraciones de las propias literaturas del Medioevo ibero-románico.

La ciutat de les dames i Terra d’elles: dues utopies feministes en català

Elizabeth Russell sosté que les utopies escrites per dones són més transgressores «perquè desconstrueixen el concepte de perfecció» (2007: 21). En aquesta línia de crítica social i necessitat de reformes, quant al gènere femení, neixen, amb cinc segles de diferència, les dues obres estudiades aquí, Le livre de la cité des dames (1405), de Christine de Pisan, i Herland (1915), de Charlotte Perkins Gilman. Amb notables excepcions com La mística de la feminitat (1965), de Betty Friedan, i El segon sexe (1968), de Simone de Beauvoir, a casa nostra els discursos androcèntrics es ben cuidaren de negar l’entrada d’aires subversius que, per raons òbvies, poguessin esverar aquell àngel de la llar amansit i silenciat, per dir-ho a la manera woolfiana. Charlotte Perkins Gilman arribà per primera vegada a Catalunya i a la península ibèrica el 1982 amb la traducció al català de Montserrat Abelló per a l’editorial La Sal d’El paper de paret groc. En els mateixos anys vuitanta i per a la mateixa editorial Helena Valentí traduí al castellà El país de ellas (1987), obra que el 2002 traslladà al català Jordi Vidal Tubau en una edició a cura d’Eulàlia Lledó que porta per títol Terra d’elles. Poc després, el 1990, La ciutat de les dames, de Christine de Pisan, es pogué llegir en llengua catalana amb una edició i traducció de Mercè Otero per a la col·lecció «Espai de Dones» d’Edicions de l’Eixample. Aquest article presenta la recepció a Catalunya de dos clàssics del gènere de les utopies feministes, La ciutat de les dames (1990), de Christine de Pisan, i Terra d’elles (2002), de Charlotte Perkins Gilman, amb notes sobre la seva difusió al castellà i al gallec.

Structuration du raconter et évaluation de la racontabilité dans l'entretien médiatique

In this study, we assume that the organisation of storytelling activity is sensitive to emerging norms and, specifically, to what is worth telling from a participant's perspective. We associate the methods of conversation analysis with a labovian approach to oral narratives and examine how storytelling is collaboratively and sequentially built during a radio interview parody. After discussing the relevance of parodic data to understand how media practitioners see their own practices (here: telling a story during a media interview), we provide a detailed analysis of a deviant case by considering the relations between structuring the telling and evaluating the tellability. The analysis leads to show what kinds of interactional resources are used to accomplish the activity: for instance, concurrent topic formulations, shared configurations of grammatical constructions, adjacency pairs. The study also points out how competing agendas can configure the activity in dissimilar ways. Eventually, it underlines the issues of being the interviewee and the storyteller at the same time.

Maria Aurèlia Capmany, feminisme i traducció

Novel·lista, assagista, política, activista cultural, dona de teatre i traductora de més de trenta obres, Maria Aurèlia Capmany és autora d’una obra extensa i clarament ideològica, en què les reivindicacions feministes ocupen una gran part. Virginia Woolf i Simone de Beauvoir són les seves principals fonts teòriques i vitals. Encara que, per diverses circumstàncies, no les tradueix mai, es converteix en la seva mitjancera cultural i ideològica a casa nostra: proposant-ne traduccions a algunes editorials, escrivint-ne pròlegs, imitant-les, adaptant-ne conceptes o imatges, etc. Marguerite Duras, de qui traslladà Un dic contra el Pacífic (1965), és també una de les seves mares literàries. Aquest treball intenta ser una aproximació al feminisme de Capmany i a la seva repercussió en el camp de la traductologia.

The gender-based stereotype about food is on the table. Food choice also depends on co-eater's gender

Previous research has shown that different foods are stereotypically associated with gender and that eating in a role-congruent way fulfills an impression management function. On the other hand, other studies revealed that adapting one's food consumption to that of the co-eaters is a means to gain social approval as well. In the present study, we bridge these two distinct lines of research by studying what happens when the two norms (conforming to the gender-based stereotype and imitating the co-eater) conflict, that is with opposite-sex co-eaters. Results indicated that the tendency to match the co-eaters' supposed consumption generally appeared over and above one's gender-congruent choice. In addition, as expected, gender differences also emerged: while men were always willing to adapt to the co-eaters, women's intention to eat the feminine food was independent from the co-eaters' gender.

Sukupolvenvaihdos perheyrityksessä - menestystarinoita

Tutkielman tavoitteena oli selvittää perheyrittäjien kokemusten kautta menestyksellisen sukupolvenvaihdoksen keskeisiä teemoja. Tämä toteutettiin käyttämällä kvalitatiivista tapaustutkimusta. Tutkimuksen tarkoituksena on pyrkiä auttamaan sekä yrittäjiä että vaihdoksessa mukana toimivia ulkopuolisia asiantuntijoita ymmärtämään perheyrityksestä luopumiseen ja vastaavasti sen jatkamiseen liittyviä haasteita ja monimuotoista päätöksentekoprosessia. Tapaustutkimus toteutettiin teemahaastattelujen avulla. Teema-haastattelujen perusteella muodostettiin neljä yrityskohtaista tarinaa, joita analysoimalla löydettiin eräitä sukupolvenvaihdoksen avaintekijöitä ja teemoja. Tärkeimmät tekijät liittyvät sukupolvenvaihdosprosessin ajalliseen sidonnaisuuteen ja dynaamisuuteen, sekä luopujan ja jatkajan sosiaalisen todellisuuden merkitykseen. Olennaista on myös erilaisen ulkopuolisen tuen tarve. Lisäksi tutkimuksessa havaittiin, että paraskaan suunnitelma ei ole automaattinen tae sukupolvenvaihdoksen onnistumisesta, vaan vaihdos edellyttää panostusta myös seurantaan ennen vaihdosta, sen aikana ja jälkeen.

Abstracts of the refereed articles

Riitta Hänninen : The Meaning of Freedom in Snowboarding Culture, Inka Juslin : Dance narration and the feminine mimesis in Ob-Ugrian women•s dances, Pirjo Kristiina Virtanen : Multidimensional tradition : distinctions of native youths and their indigenous traditions in Brazilian Amazonia, Tea Virtanen : Pastoralists in Mecca : the moral economy of Mbororo pilgrimage

De l'interactivité du récit au récit interactif

À ses origines, la théorie du récit, notamment la narratologie d'inspiration formaliste et structuraliste, s'est développée dans le creuset des études littéraires. De ce fait, le point focal de cette discipline a longtemps été constitué par le récit verbal, généralement sous la forme d'un texte écrit et planifié par un auteur, laissant de côté les formes narratives émergentes, participatives ou interactives. On observe cependant, depuis une vingtaine d'année, une accélération dans le processus d'élargissement des objets d'étude de la narratologie, accompagnée par une mutation épistémologique. Retraçant cette évolution, Jan Christoph Meister observe ainsi un changement d'orientation faisant passer la théorie du récit de l'étude de phénomènes textuels à l'analyse « des fonctions cognitives de récits oraux et non littéraires, ouvrant ainsi un nouveau chapitre dans le projet narratologique » (2009 : 340). Si l'intrigue peut être décrite - en adoptant un point de vue fonctionnaliste et cognitiviste - comme une matrice de possibilités ontologiquement instable, comme un dispositif dont la fonction première est d'ouvrir des virtualités narratives et d'engendrer de la curiosité ou du suspense (Baroni 2007 ; 2009), alors il n'y a pas de raison de la considérer comme un obstacle à l'analyse de récits émergents et participatifs, voire de simulations ou de pratiques ludiques hautement interactives.

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The paper engages the question of how traditional religion persist in an increasingly problematic and complex swiss context. In particular, the chapter looks at the phenomenon of charismatic worship as a vehicle for resignifying the meaning of chronic suffering, over and against the traditional evangelical expectation that worldly hardship is but a temporary trial, to be endured and overcome by true believers. The experience of ongoing physical and psychological suffering is mediated by ritualized narratives, which resituate the afflicted "stakeholders" as important models of Christian life. In so doing, these narratives richly dramatize the resolution of theodicy by showing that, far from being absent in the lives of sufferers, God is especially present.

The local configuration of a science and innovation policy : a city into the nanoworld

Local trajectories and arrangements play a significant role because the development of a research field, such as nanoscience and nanotechnology, requires substantial investments in human and instrumental resources. But why are there often concentrated in a limited number of places? What dynamics lead to such concentration? The hypothesis is that there is an assemblage of heterogeneous resources through the action of local actors. The chapter will explore, from an Actor Network Theory (ANT) perspective, how the local emergence of research dynamics from: the revival of local traditions, the local and national action of institutional entrepreneurs, controversial dynamics, and researchers' arrangements to involve other actors. It will examine how they connect up with each other and mutually commit themselves to the development of new technologies. It will focus on the role of narratives in this assembling: how were the local narratives of the past mobilized and to what effect.