A destination’s image is a critical factor in tourists’ perceptions and evaluations of said destination. This paper analyzes the formation of the tourist destination image of Segóbriga Archeological Park, a cultural destination located in the province of Cuenca (Spain) that holds great heritage value. To this end, the paper adopted a multidimensional approach and used PLS-SEM to analyze the destination image, taking into account not only its cognitive and affective components, but also (...) the unique image component. The latter has received less attention in the literature and is a novel factor among cultural destinations. The results show that this component is essential to the overall image of an archeological destination, but is not influenced by information sources. (shrink)

This study introduces destination image, nostalgic feeling, and flow experience into tea estate tourism and constructs a theoretical model that includes destination image, nostalgic feeling, flow experience, cultural identity, and tourists’ behavioral intention. Then, an empirical study is conducted with tourists at Yunling Tea Estate in Anxi, China. The results show that all hypotheses are supported except the hypothesis pertaining to the significance of the influence of flow experience on behavioral intention, which is not supported. The (...) model includes eight mediating effects and one moderating effect that is influenced by cultural memory. (shrink)

Tourist destinations with cultural heritage have arisen as a prominent issue in tourism literature. Creating a positive image of the destination can influence tourists’ satisfaction and willingness to return. The goal of this research is to investigate the relationship between destination image formation (DIF), tourist satisfaction (TS), and tourist trust (TT). As a result, the structural relationships between local community participation (LCP), authenticity (A), access to local products (ALP), TS, and TT were investigated in this study. (...) This study used a quantitative approach based on a survey of 644 domestic and foreign tourists visiting the Guangdong cities of Guangzhou, Foshan, and Shenzhen. The statistical software SmartPLS 3.3.3 was used to determine the relationship between variables in the research model using structural equation modeling. The outcomes show a positive correlation between LCP, A, and ALP, which led to tourist satisfaction and, eventually, tourist trust. It is concluded that the DIF and TS may result in increased tourist trust. There is also a discussion of additional theoretical contributions, practical implications, and limitations. The outcomes of this study will help to shed light on the variables that encourage and promote tourism in developing countries. (shrink)

Many governments promote the concept of multi-destination tourism to attract foreign visitors to stay longer in a region. This study constructs a higher-order multi-destination image model to examine how the unique cognitive images of Hong Kong, Macau, and Guangzhou collectively constitute the overall cognitive image of China’s Greater Bay Area. Then, it further examines how this overall cognitive image builds affective, overall, and conative images of the GBA. The results of an online survey of non-Chinese (...) tourists from Guinea, Japan, New Zealand, United Kingdom, and United States show that cognitive images of three cities in the GBA take different weighting in constructing the overall cognitive image of the GBA. The overall cognitive destination image significantly influences the formation of the affective, overall, and conative images of the GBA region. For constructing the conative image, the affective image shows the greatest impact, overall cognitive image follows; the impact of the overall image is less. This study proposes theoretical implications for future regional tourism studies. Practical recommendations are also proposed. (shrink)

Residents are important participants and stakeholders in destination development. Identifying factors that assist in predicting resident pro-environmental behavior (PEB) may contribute to enhanced sustainability. Based on a traditional Chinese culture, this research constructed a model of resident PEB by introducing pro-environmental destination image (PEDI) and Confucianism as the independent and moderating variables, respectively. The structural equation modeling for 402 residents indicated the model had a satisfactory level of predictive power for PEB. The results showed that: (1) PEDI (...) positively affected residents’ environmental identity, pro-environmental attitudes, and PEB; (2) environmental identity and pro-environmental attitudes completely mediated the impact of PEDI on residents’ PEB; and (3) Confucian culture had a positive U-shaped moderating effect in the relationships among these four variables. Overall, these findings advance the understanding of the formation of PEB in Confucian culture and provide theoretical and practical implications for fostering residents’ PEB. (shrink)

Destination image is essential to tourists' loyalty and has been discussed in length among researchers and marketers in the tourism industry for decades. Based on a literature review, the destination image model, including cognitive image, affective image, and conative image, has been firmly established as an acceptable means to gain an understanding of tourists' behavior toward revisiting and recommendations. The understanding of the moderating role of cultural constructs is still unclear, especially in cross-cultural (...) travel behavior. Therefore, this conceptual paper proposes an integrated model of cognitive-affective-conative image that includes the constructs of individualism and uncertainty avoidance. Based on the underpinning theories and empirical studies, this paper proposes affective image potentially mediates the correlation between cognitive image and conative image. This model also incorporated individualism and uncertainty as potential moderating effects between affective image and conative image. By integrating individualism and uncertainty avoidance into the theoretical model from the perspective of tourism, this paper contributes to a more comprehensive understanding of the influence of travel behavior on emerging tourism marketing. (shrink)

This paper examines the effect of the image of destinations on the wage income of resident households, and the corresponding income inequality, from a novel perspective. This work uses China’s excellent tourism city image program, which is an urban planning policy implemented by the central government across cities to enhance the image of the city destination in the minds of tourists, and then promote tourist motivation and local tourism development to assess the effect on household wage (...) income and its distribution. Results show that the program significantly increases household wage income by increasing employment opportunities, promoting business and population agglomeration, and improving urban infrastructure. Additionally, the image of the city destination promotion causes an increase in income inequality among households. (shrink)

L'omniprésence des images dans la société mass-médiatique est corrélative de leur évanescence et du constant renouvellement qui conditionne le processus de leur consommation. Leur omnipotence se réduit ainsi à celle de stimuli destinés à induire des comportements. Or, il convient d'autant plus de revenir d'une telle exténuation de l'image que cette dernière constitue l'une des dimensions essentielles du déploiement de la vie humaine. L'image est traditionnellement rapportée à l'activité imaginante d'un sujet. Mais, s'il est vrai que l'étoffe des (...) hommes et des choses qui se donnent à voir dans le paraître sensible d'une image n'existe pas coupée d'un tel paraître, l'esthétique relève aussi de l'ontologie et sa tâche est de nous ré-apprendre à contempler les images. Au regard de la clarté et de la distinction conférées par la théorie à notre appréhension des choses, la détermination positive des images ne tient-elle pas en effet au fait que c'est dans leur dimension qu'il nous est donné de faire l'expérience vive du paraître de ces choses, jusqu'à l'extrême de l'horreur, du merveilleux et du sacré? (shrink)

Most research on image schema examined the meaning configuration of words connotation. However, previous studies of adjectives are meaningful in cognitive linguistics because they provide insight into how those adjectives are involved with psychological movement. In this sense, from the perspective of cognitive linguistics, one’s conceptualization and cognition are closely associated with their bodily experience and surroundings; adjectives are no exception. The varieties of transformations of image schemas lay the foundation for the conception and perception. Accordingly, this study (...) is an investigation into the perception of adjectives and psychological activities associated with image schema. Data in this study come from adjectives in the novel The Great Gatsby, which were tagged and calculated with the help of software Python and the NLTK package. The results demonstrate that a significant amount of adjectives were used in the novel. Moreover, Nick’s psychological activities changed significantly from the SOURCE to the DESTINATION schematic stage, which is uncovered by his expression of adjectives. Finally, the results further suggest that transformations of image schema as BALANCE, CONTAINER, and PATH work together to motivate one’s linguistic expression of adjectives. The present findings have several implications for research on lexicons and literacy interpretation from cognitive linguistics. (shrink)

This study explores how the integration of environmental practices in gastronomic tourism can increase the competitiveness of tourist destinations in Latin America. Through the analysis of cases in Mexico, Peru and Colombia, sustainable strategies are identified, such as the use of local products and the reduction of waste, which not only contribute to sustainable tourism development, but also improve the image and attractiveness of destinations. The results show that destinations that implement sustainable environmental practices are perceived as more attractive (...) and competitive in a tourism market that is increasingly aware of ecological impacts. (shrink)

Generation Z people are a significant force driving the modern world. They lead educated lifestyles, enjoy expressing themselves creatively, and prefer to seek out new ideas or approaches to achieve the finest results. The research study aims to examine the tourism motivation and the image that affects the cultural tourism decisions of tourists of Generation Z. The study employed quantitative research techniques to gather data from 385 Thai Generation Z tourists. The research findings revealed that status and prestige significantly (...) influenced cultural tourism decisions, followed by cultural, emotional, affective, physical, and interpersonal motivation. Moreover, the pre-conceptualized image of the tourist destinations has the most significant influence on cultural tourism decisions, followed by tourists' perceptions and the tourists' feelings. This has practical implications for economic development at both the national and regional levels. At the same time, it reflects much about Generation Z's needs and expectations, calling for the urgency to preserve the cultural heritage of the locality and the country as a whole. This is expected to maintain the value of cultural tourism, generating a balance of development in the future. (shrink)

This research investigates how multimodality is applied in logos to build a heritage brand identity for Chinese destinations. As a historical country, China is known for its huge reserves of cultural and natural heritage, which ideally offers abundant resources for developing its tourism industry. These can be taken advantage of in branding its destinations. Kress and van Leeuwen’s Visual Grammar was adopted in this study to conduct a qualitative analysis of the images and words of destination logos collected from (...) 34 provincial-level administrative regions in China. The findings indicate that pictorial and written elements are skillfully used in the logos through the manifestation of heritage, capturing features that convey significant connotations to promote a positive brand identity of the Chinese destinations. This research adds to the existing literature on destination branding through heritage commodification by embodying evocative multimodal features in destination logos, as well as promoting the semiotic approach as an effective tool in constructing the heritage brand identity of Chinese destinations. (shrink)

In theDe doctrina christianaAugustine lays the foundations of a type of hermeneutics more community oriented than epistemological. Likewise, the rules he formulates have jurisdiction beyond the sole domain of semiotics; as I shall argue, they are applicable, in like (even congruent) manner, to the world of social relations. More fundamentally, these rules are intended to moderate an economy of desire, in which semiotics and social relations find a common origin and, above all, the principles of their harmonious organization. I shall (...) demonstrate these ideas through an analysis of the image of“the voyage towards the homeland” (peregrinatio ad patriam). (shrink)

This paper offers an intellectual discourse for destination managers by exploring alternative branding approaches used during the colonial period in Kenya, now that the image is under siege both internally through socio-economic instability and unprecedented levels of poaching, and externally through travel warnings, outright trafficking in big game trophies, the constant threat of terror attacks, and poor global rankings in the Travel and Tourism Competitive Index. The paper conforms to the mission of thought and practice by identifying practical (...) ways of promoting tourist destination Kenya through an in-depth analysis of historical experiences. (shrink)

Abstract.Agricultural restructuring has disproportionately impacted smaller US farms, such as those in Michigan where the average farm size is 215 acres. To keep agricultural land in production, entrepreneurial Michigan farmers are utilizing agritourism as a value-added way to capitalize on their comparative advantages, their diverse agricultural products, and their locations near large, urban, tourist-generating areas. Using focus groups, this paper illustrates how entrepreneurial farmers have strengthened Michigan agritourism by fostering producer networks through brochures and web linkages, information sharing in refining (...) the agritourism product, referrals to other agritourism businesses that serve different markets or offer different products, purchase linkages, and a regional approach to establishing agritourism destinations and increase visitation. Successful entrepreneurial, agritourism developers thus work cooperatively, rather than individualistically and competitively. Agritourism destinations facing stiff competition from alternative venues for leisure time and food purchases benefit from supportive linkages that help sustain a critical mass of producers who offer diverse goods, maintain land in agriculture, and thus, reinforce Michigan’s image for agritourism. (shrink)

The accusation of Nihilism, which Jacobi expressed in his Letter to Fichte, marks a caesura in Fichte’s production. Reputed to be the paradigmatical representantive of a philosophical tradition letting any reality dissolve in a simple game of shadows, Fichte sees himself constrained to clarify the status of the image in his system. This paper aims to examine the strategy to which he has recourse in the Destination of Man, in order to find an answer to the attack.

This article analyses an important category from Deleuze's philosophy – the notion of intensity – and explores its significance for Deleuze and the ways it can be used to think about poetic cinema. I use the concept of the intensive-image to define a cinematic style that dissipates narrative action in favour of more contemplative and sensory experiences, hence films that are able to turn onscreen reality into purely affective phenomena. The notion of intensity, I argue, does not allow us (...) to reply easily to the question about representation (i.e., “what is the film about?”), mainly because its images are indeterminate and flowing, combined in a multiple manner that excludes any simple reduction to signification. The general argument that follows, illustrated by a careful reading of key poetic texts, is that the focus on the intensive-image inspires readers to reconsider Deleuze's classification of the cinema into two separate periods as well as to understand the ways in which intensity finds expression in films that produce problems, displacements and provocations. In the words of Pasolini, this is the poetic film tradition which must be placed diachronically in relation to the language of the film narrative, a diachronism that, he says, would appear destined to be always more pronounced. In the last section of this article, I look at Luis Buñuel's Un Chien Andalou (1929) as an early case of the poetic image and draw on key theorists and filmmakers who have discussed the cinema's power of affection and intensity. (shrink)

Kant soutient qu’une table complète et systématique des catégories peut être établie selon le « fil conducteur » des fonctions logiques du jugement. La première partie de cet article est une exposition de l’argument kantien. La deuxième partie est un examen de quelques-unes des objections formulées à l’encontre du « fil conducteur » de Kant. Je conclus que l’appropriation contemporaine de la doctrine kantienne des catégories est désormais divisée entre deux problèmes distincts : celui du contenu conceptuel (ou non) de (...) la perception, et celui des structures conceptuelles présupposées par une image scientifique particulière du monde. (shrink)

This study aims to apply self-congruity theory to examine the relationship between self-congruity of tourists and their perceived image of a gambling destination. This study employs the Euclidean distance model and extends Malhotra's pars of adjectives with five new items about gambling motives. A face-to-face questionnaire survey was used, and a total of 152 samples were collected from tourists in Macau. The results show that the actual self-image of tourists is more related to their perception of Macau (...) image. For actual congruence, tourists exhibit a greater tendency to match the informal, liberal, and emotional image of Macau. For ideal congruence, they have a tendency to match the contemporary, organized, and pleasant image of Macau. This study makes up for the deficiency of self-congruity theory in tourism research. This study helps tourism departments to develop appropriate strategies to promote gambling tourism and disseminate relevant information that can bring gambling destinations closer to tourists. (shrink)

This research discusses the impact of the perception of video images and online word of mouth on tourists’ travel intentions. A survey of 390 users who watched travel videos on short-video platforms was conducted using structural equation modeling. The results are as follows. First, the perception of video images can significantly affect tourists’ intention to visit the destinations. Second, as a mediating variable, online word of mouth can enhance the positive effects of the perception of video images on tourists’ travel (...) intentions. Third, gender had a positive moderating effect, which was particularly obvious in the relationship between the perception of video images and online word of mouth. This research provides a theoretical basis for the utility of tourism-related short videos, which can help stimulate tourists’ intention to visit promoted destinations. (shrink)

From the second half of the fifteenth century onwards, the use of printed images in the context of devotion and celebration enjoyed a prominent role in the visual strategies of the cult of the saints in general, and in those of the Franciscan Observants in particular.1 The case of Giovanni of Capestrano, by way of those repeatedly 'broken paths'2 that characterizes his tortured path to canonization, makes for both a privileged vantage point and an interesting case study, however late chronologically. (...) In fact, while we must wait for the seventeenth century for etchings of the 'Blessed Father' that were intended and destined for serial circulation (one always... (shrink)

Transfer learning can improve the robustness of deep learning in the case of small samples. However, when the semantic difference between the source domain data and the target domain data is large, transfer learning easily introduces redundant features and leads to negative transfer. According the mechanism of the human brain focusing on effective features while ignoring redundant features in recognition tasks, a brain-like classification method based on adaptive feature matching dual-source domain heterogeneous transfer learning is proposed for the preoperative aided (...) diagnosis of lung granuloma and lung adenocarcinoma for patients with solitary pulmonary solid nodule in the case of small samples. The method includes two parts: (1) feature extraction and (2) feature classification. In the feature extraction part, first, By simulating the feature selection mechanism of the human brain in the process of drawing inferences about other cases from one instance, an adaptive selected-based dual-source domain feature matching network is proposed to determine the matching weight of each pair of feature maps and each pair of convolution layers between the two source networks and the target network, respectively. These two weights can, respectively, adaptive select the features in the source network that are conducive to the learning of the target task, and the destination of feature transfer to improve the robustness of the target network. Meanwhile, a target network based on diverse branch block is proposed, which made the target network have different receptive fields and complex paths to further improve the feature expression ability of the target network. Second, the convolution kernel of the target network is used as the feature extractor to extract features. In the feature classification part, an ensemble classifier based on sparse Bayesian extreme learning machine is proposed that can automatically decide how to combine the output of base classifiers to improve the classification performance. Finally, the experimental results (the AUCs were 0.9542 and 0.9356, respectively) on the data of two center data show that this method can provide a better diagnostic reference for doctors. (shrink)

Red tourism, as a form of special interest tourism (SIT), becomes widespread among Chinese tourists. This study aims to explore memorable tourism experiences (MTEs) in red tourism destinations and examines how country competence affects intention to visit similar destinations through the influences on MTEs, destination image, red tourism place attachment, and overall satisfaction. The partial least squares structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM) analysis is utilized to analyze the data from 556 tourists. Empirical results reveal that country competence positively influences (...) MTEs and destination image. Furthermore, both MTEs and destination image influence overall satisfaction and red tourism place attachment, but do not influence intention to visit other similar destinations; the relationships between overall satisfaction, intention to visit other similar destinations, and place attachment are all confirmed as well. This study represents one of the few studies that classify red tourism as a form of historical-based SIT, with the purpose of promoting country competence. The outcomes provide a better understanding of both scholars and practitioners of historical-based SIT planning and businesses on how to promote destination image and country competence. (shrink)

Since 1952, Spanish has been included as a Degree in the Foreign Language Studies in the higher education system of China. The number of Spanish students has gradually increased and, until March 2020, with 6 Universities recently approved by the Chinese Ministry of Education, there are 102 Chinese universities that teach Spanish as a university degree. In 2017, the MOE of the People's Republic of China published the Curriculum Plan in the Higher Secondary Schools, which incorporated the teaching of Spanish (...) as a teaching option along with other languages, such as English, Japanese, Russian, German, and French. In the following year, during the Chinese President's state visit to Spain, a cooperation agreement was signed between the Royal Spanish Academy and SISU, under which a RAE-SISU Joint Research Centre was established. This study aims to publicize the situation of Spanish teaching in China, showing how a language can become a cultural and language tourism resource for Spain. An empirical study of student profiles was carried out at one of the most prestigious universities with reference to Spanish teaching in China, SISU. The data were obtained through primary sources employing a survey sent to the Chinese students studying their bachelor's degree of Spanish Philology, obtaining a sample of 159 students. The results revealed information on the studies carried out, also reviewing the most popular universities among the Chinese students in Spain, their stay period, and the destination image that the students have. The data will serve to show the opportunities for Spain as a destination for language tourism for the Chinese market. One of the implications of this study would be that it helps to explain how Spain can design a product for a niche market that demands Spain as a destination for language and cultural tourism. (shrink)

La pauvreté de l’homme pauvre, telle qu’Eckhart la caractérise notamment dans le Sermon 52, n’est pas une pauvreté d’objet. La volonté n’est pas pauvre lorsqu’elle renonce au bien : il lui faut encore s’anéantir elle-même. Le destin de la volonté est de s’effacer en tant que voulante : pour cela, elle doit, à la suite du Christ et en tant que créature, mourir. De même, l’intellect n’est pauvre que lorsqu’il délaisse son activité naturelle et propre d’intelliger par images : celles-ci, (...) abstraites à partir des étants, demeurent des médiations par lesquelles il se rapporte au créé. L’intellect ne peut être délivré des images que lorsqu’il cesse d’être leur lieu pour devenir leur origine : élevé au-dessus de sa nature propre, il produit les raisons des créatures en même temps que le Verbe – il engendre le Verbe dans l’âme. L’homme pauvre ne reste homme que par son suppôt créé : s’il demeure par lui dans la finitude spatio-temporelle, il laisse agir et penser en lui la déité. La pauvreté est, en définitive, maintien et dépassement de la relation et du face-à-face extérieur. (shrink)

The significance of educational research is today predicated on its ability to engage with the ecological, economic, and political challenges of the anthropocene, for where we might take seriously education’s commitment to the future necessitates a sustained encounter with the implications and questions raised in the wake of ‘our’ mutated planetary ecology. To repeat in the image of those educational practices, models and patterns of thinking that have contributed to the contemporary ecological crisis of the planet falls gravely short (...) of apprehending what it might entail to live in the contemporary moment. Yet further, where education is intimate to teleology, it is today clear that the image of the future posited educationally has fallen out of synch with the ‘outside thought’ of ecocatastrophe, or rather, our being ‘thought’ from the inhuman perspective of a planet destined to go on without us. Educationally, this threat poses a quite remarkable opportunity, for where human thought might be doomed to extinction, the question of how and where we might think assumes urgency. In this vein, this essay explores the wisdom that ‘we’ are and will be thought from perspectives alien to human desire becomes a catalyst for how educational research might be rethought otherwise in a more-than-human world. (shrink)

This spotlight article reflects on President Xi Jinping's handling of the COVID-19 epidemic and evaluates its specificities by making a brief incursion into the history of Chinese official responses to epidemics. This analysis shows that Xi Jinping's response to the COVID-19 epidemic differs from official responses to the 2003 SARS epidemic and the cerebrospinal meningitis epidemic of 1966–1967, and is used to assert his legitimacy on both the local and the international stage. By sharing data, even if it was not (...) as accurate as claimed, Xi Jinping has presented himself as a trustworthy international partner, leading a country that is at the forefront of scientific research, capable of vigorously implementing epidemic preparedness measures, and destined to become a major player in global health. On the Chinese stage, he showed that the central government has regained control over local public health organizations and that public health is once again a key government priority. As part of his response, Xi Jinping also honored gods of the Chinese pantheon, in a seeming contradiction with communism and science. I argue that, by combining the most advanced technology with a religious heritage, Xi Jinping is skillfully creating an image of himself not only as powerful and modern, but also as a leader undeniably rooted in Chinese tradition. (shrink)

This article examines the role of primary ethnographic materials – of field notes, letters and photographs – and even of the shelves and bookcases – in building accounts of the human condition. We trace the lives of incomplete and not-yet-found manuscripts, which have been treated as representative of whole archives, as well as closely held convictions and ideas in the history of anthropology. In so doing, we employ the notion of a ‘proxy’, or a set of signs and images which (...) point the audience in particular directions, without determining their overall destination. Our research is based on a few episodes from the histories of paper and digital copies of manuscripts and photographs of the anthropological couple Sergei and Elizabeth Shirokogoroff, who conducted ethnographic, linguistic and some archaeological research, first on the borderlands between China and Russia, and then later within China. We aim to show the complexity and social and intellectual vibrancy of their ethnographic field archives, which have been scattered across countries, institutions and personal collections. We conclude by suggesting that engaging anthropologically with field archives enables us to approach existing perspectives on archives in a new way, viewing them not as containers of catalogued information, but as entanglements reflecting social relations in local communities, the trajectories of ethnographers, and the aspirations of scholars asking questions today. (shrink)

Suicide attack is the most virulent and horrifying form of terrorism in the world today. The mere rumor of an impending suicide attack can throw thousands of people into panic. This occurred during a Shi‘a procession in Iraq in late August 2005, causing hundreds of deaths. Although suicide attacks account for a minority of all terrorist acts, they are responsible for a majority of all terrorism-related casualties, and the rate of attacks is rising rapidly across the globe. During 2000–2004, there (...) were 472 suicide attacks in 22 countries, killing more than 7,000 and wounding tens of thousands. Most have been carried out by Islamist groups claiming religious motivation, also known as jihadis. Rand Corp. vice president and terrorism analyst Bruce Hoffman has found that 80 percent of suicide attacks since 1968 occurred after the September 11 attacks, with jihadis representing 31 of the 35 responsible groups. More suicide attacks occurred in 2004 than in any previous year, and 2005 has proven even more deadly, with attacks in Iraq alone averaging more than one per day, according to data gathered by the U.S. military. The July 2005 London and Sinai bombings, a second round of bombings at tourist destinations in Bali in October, coordinated hotel bombings in Jordan in November, the arrival of suicide bombings in Bangladesh in December, a record year of attacks in Afghanistan, and daily bombings in Iraq have spurred renewed interest in suicide terrorism, with recent analyses stressing the strategic logic, organizational structure, and rational calculation involved. Whereas they once primarily consisted of organized campaigns by militarily weak forces aiming to end the perceived occupation of their homeland, as argued by University of Chicago political scientist Robert Pape in Dying to Win: The Strategic Logic of Suicide Terrorism, suicide attacks today serve as banner actions for a thoroughly modern, global diaspora inspired by religion and claiming the role of vanguard for a massive, media-driven transnational political awakening. Living mostly in the diaspora and undeterred by the threat of retaliation against original home populations, jihadis, who are frequently middle-class, secularly well educated, but often “born-again” radical Islamists, including converts from Christianity, embrace apocalyptic visions for humanity's violent salvation. In Muslim countries and across western Europe, bright and idealistic Muslim youth, even more than the marginalized and dispossessed, internalize the jihadi story, illustrated on satellite television and the Internet with the ubiquitous images of social injustice and political repression with which much of the Muslim world's bulging immigrant and youth populations intimately identifies. From the suburbs of Paris to the jungles of Indonesia, I have interviewed culturally uprooted and politically restless youth who echo a stunningly simplified and decontextualized message of martyrdom for the sake of global jihad as life's noblest cause. They are increasingly as willing and even eager to die as they are to kill. The policy implications of this change in the motivation, organization, and calculation of suicide terrorism may be as novel as hitherto neglected. Many analysts continue to claim that jihadism caters to the destitute and depraved, the craven and criminal, or those who “hate freedom.” Politicians and pundits have asserted that jihadism is nihilistic and immoral, with no real program or humanity. Yet, jihadism is none of these things. Do we really understand the causes of today's suicide terrorism? Do suicide attacks stem mainly from a political cause, such as military occupation? Do they need a strong organization, such as Al Qaeda? What else could be done to turn the rising tide of martyrdom? (shrink)

In lieu of an abstract, here is a brief excerpt of the content:Bob Dylan’s “Highway Shoes” The Hobo-Hero’s Road through ModernityTodd Kennedy (bio)In the final verse of Bob Dylan’s “Don’t Think Twice, It’s Alright” (1963), the speaker proclaims, “I’m walkin’ down that long, lonesome road, babe / where I’m bound, I can’t tell.” With no destination in sight, he seems content to remain on a perpetual, isolated journey on what he terms “the dark side of the road.” Such an (...) ethos of movement, which permeates Dylan’s corpus, mirrors a dissident strain of American culture that seeks to find a Jeffersonian, individualistic freedom via movement through space outside of mainstream society. As early as Bringing It All Back Home (1965), peaking with Blood on the Tracks (1975), and persisting into his most recent work, Dylan has consistently merged aspects of blues, country, and literary traditions, to invoke images of mobility that examine individual freedom in a world where technology, fragmentation, and homogeneity seem to result in a destructive dehumanizing of individuals. In so doing, Dylan uses an intensely innovative aesthetic as he ambivalently romanticizes uprooted wandering in a manner that both mirrors and expands upon what I term an ontology of the hobo-hero that permeates American letters from Walt Whitman to John Dos Passos (and beyond) as it glorifies those who remain in constant motion in order to maintain a sense of integrated self in the face of crushing modernity.Gilles Deleuze and Félix Guattari similarly identify such an ontology within American culture when they, in A Thousand Plateaus, declare America a “special case” defined by its ceaseless search for a “rhizome,” or a “space in which two things that have nothing to do with one another form a parallel constructed by the mind. It is not imitation or resemblance, but becoming” (10). For Deleuze, Guattari, and, as I argue, Bob Dylan, the rhizome occupies a singular place within American letters. In other words, Deleuze and Guattari admit that America “is not immune from [...] the search for roots” in its “quest for a national identity or even for a European ancestry or genealogy (Kerouac going off in search for his ancestors),” yet they adamantly assert,every thing important that has happened or is happening takes the route of the American rhizome [...]. American books are different from European books, even when Americans set off in search of trees. The conception of the book is different. Leaves of Grass. And directions in America are different: the search for arborescence and the return to the Old World occur in the East. But there is the rhizomatic West, with its Indians without ancestry, its ever-receding limit, its shifting and displaced frontiers.(19) [End Page 37]Such an assertion should come as no surprise, I would argue, since, beginning with the earliest attempts to define “America,” Americans have seen their identity linked to mobility. In fact, the lone commonality that Americans share is descent from immigrants who came to the United States from a “home” or “homeland” where cultural identity was not far removed from national identity. It would stand to reason, therefore, that a group of uprooted individuals thrust into a self-declared melting pot would begin to define themselves by their dislocation. For instance, eighteenth-century French immigrant J. Hector St. John de Crèvecœur claimed that, within the American continent, “individuals of all nations are melted into a new race of men” (44) as America represents, for Crèvecœur, an “asylum” in which “the poor of Europe have by some means met together” (42). Crèvecœur proceeded to privilege those people, such as farmers, who planted “roots” as they helped to build and improve their society, but Crèvecœur’s assertion that we are united by our mutual uprootedness proves indicative of what critic Robert James Butler has observed as a recurrent American “quest for pure motion” (80, emphasis in original). Or, one encounters what the novelist John Steinbeck claimed he perceived in “nearly every American”: a “burning desire to go, to move, to get under way, anyplace, away from any Here” (10). It is such an attempt for perennial rebirth through movement, a rhizomatic selfhood, that... (shrink)

Promettant à la fois la capture de l’instant et son dépassement vers l’intemporel, le medium photographique voit son destin intimement lié à la catégorie du temps. L’article suggère cependant que cette inclusion du temps dans l’image s’est acquise, au cours de l’histoire de la photographie, au prix d’une essentialisation du momentané. À rebours d’une telle approche, il s’agit de repenser l’instantané photographique comme découlant de l’accident, si bien que la photo figure non plus l’instant fécond, mais bien le temps (...) de l’accident, qui correspond, dans tous les sens du terme, à un arrêt de mort. (shrink)

What is postmodernity? — not simply postmodernism as a set of theories, but also postmodernity, as a set of cultural circumstances. Above all, it means the obliteration of boundaries, the confusion of categories. In the postmodern times in which we live, there is no longer any easy distinction to be made between nature and culture, private interior and public exterior, hierarchical summit and material depth; nor between idea and thing, message and means, production and exchange, product and delivery, the state (...) and the market, humans and animals, humans and machines, image and reality — nor beginning, middle and end. Everything is made to run into everything else; everything gets blended, undone and then re-blended. There are no longer any clear centres of control, and this means that new weight is given to plurality and the proliferation of difference. However, none of these differences ever assumes the status of a distinct essence: rather they are temporary events, destined to vanish and be displaced. (shrink)

In the present essay the author suggests that the main reason why history failed to develop societies in harmony with Nature, including our internal nature as well, is that we failed to evaluate the exact basis of the factor ultimately governing our thoughts. We failed to realize that it is the worldview that ultimately governs our thoughts and through our thoughts, our actions. In this work we consider the ultimate foundations of philosophy, science, religion, and art, pointing out that they (...) were and can be again in harmony with each other if their ultimate tasks are specified. It is specified here the first task of philosophy as considering the philosophical significance of the ultimate principles of physics, biology and man/society. These ultimate principles are in direct connection with the ultimate questions of religion. It is shown that the fundamental nature of art makes it able to perceive the ultimate destination of mankind and the Universe, the world-to-be. It is proposed that philosophy, religion and art together are able to supply us with an inter-subjective picture of the world-process, including the inter-subjective picture of the future of mankind and the Universe. Care is taken to enlighten the possible role of values in founding scientific research in the frame of present wide-ranging discussions. It is found that universal values of respect for existence, life and reason represent the inevitable basis of science. The exact foundations of a new, integral worldview are outlined, involving the worldprocess-picture, Nature-picture, images of man, society, self, history and manipulation. A list of our common tasks for founding the Integral Culture is proposed. (shrink)

Semiotics embraces linguistics, philosophy, and literary studies, as well as linking to anthropology, art, psychology, and biology. This new Routledge collection helps to make sense of the subject’s huge interdisciplinary corpus of scholarly literature and brings together the best and most influential materials from ‘the first phase’, neo-classics from the institutionalization of semiotics in the 1960s, and contemporary works illustrating the ongoing development of semiotics and its widening applications. Volume I collects pre-modern material showing the genesis of semiotics from Locke (...) to Peirce, along with a range of work from the last thirty years. Volume II includes key work from recent developments in cognitive linguistics and cognitive semantics, while Volume III focuses on ‘Text and Image’. Finally, Volume IV gathers the best offerings from other disciplines, and from emerging fields such as ‘biosemiotics’. Fully indexed, and with a comprehensive introduction, newly written by the editor, that places the collected material in its historical and intellectual context, this is an essential work destined to be valued by scholars, students, and researchers as a vital one-stop reference resource. (shrink)

Ces Lecons X abordent le phenomene humain hors de la conception toute faite repandue par les doctrines de la transparence. Ici, il s'agit de considerer chaque civilisation et ses facades sociales a l'instar d'un Texte, comme montage langagier, et de reconnaitre la condition theatrale de l'espece douee de parole. Dans cette perspective se revelent les structures dogmatiques du sujet et de la societe qui, du fait du langage, s'entre-appartiennent. La rehabilitation d'une tradition de pensee portee par le terme antique de (...) dogma, transmis par la Grece a l'Occident jusqu'a l'ere industrielle, rouvre des chemins longtemps verrouilles et remet a l'ordre du jour la question immemoriale: que veut dire instituer l'animal humain? Au carrefour de ces chemins: la suprematie de la relation d'identite / alterite, avec ce qu'elle postule du cote du lien d'image, objet des grandes manoeuvres religieuses et politiques. Ainsi, prendre en compte la vie de la representation comme ressort de la fonction d'instituer entraine a interroger les procedures genealogiques d'acces a la realite, les systemes normatifs differencies et, du meme pas, a decouvrir la face cachee du principe de Raison. Sont mises au jour la fragilite humaine et les incertitudes de l'edification sociale. Les echafaudages inventes par l'anthropos pour la reproduction et la survie ne sont intelligibles que mis en rapport avec la dimension de l'Ancetre, autrement dit du Temps, cette vision des lointains, marqueur des civilisations: scenario fondateur, elaboration des attaches au present, horizon de l'inconnu a venir. Cette donnee basique donne relief aux domaines qui sont strategiques parce qu'ils touchent au destin des montages instituants a l'echelle de l'espece: religion, techno-science-economie, regles et preceptes du droit. A notre epoque de deraisonnement multiforme, ou les individus sont malmenes et guettes par la menace de perdre pied, il convient de porter le regard sur ces constructions de discours - poussees de facon recurrente au delire meurtrier, de nos jours sous des formes inedites - et sur leur portee structurale. Si la notion d'anthropologie, aujourd'hui figee et si galvaudee que j'hesitai a la reprendre, peut retrouver vigueur, ce sera au prix du depassement de l'impasse a laquelle a finalement abouti cette discipline: a quoi sert le penser? Reprenant le theme, longuement medite, d'anthropologie dogmatique, ce livre invite le lecteur a s'aventurer sur les sentiers non balises par la doxa contemporaine, oublieuse de son site historial et de ses sources.P. L. (shrink)

As portrayed in Andy Clark’s extended mind thesis, human minds are inherently disposed to expand their reach outwards, incorporating and feeding off an open-ended variety of tools and scaffolds to satisfy their hunger for cognitive expansion. According to Steve Fuller’s heterodox Christian vision of transhumanism, humans are deities in the making, destined to redeem their fallen state with the help of modern science and technology. In this chapter, I re-examine Clark’s EMT through the prism of Fuller’s transhumanism, with the aim (...) of unearthing a subterranean influence of theological tropes that are sweeping along beneath the naturalistic veneer of Clark’s thesis. Starting from four theological principles, which Fuller regards as foundational to his version of transhumanism, I review the philosophical narrative which, in Fuller’s view, provides the best philosophical motivation for the contemporary transhumanist project. On the basis of my reconstruction, I show how distant intellectual offshoots of the same principles mobilized by Fuller are also at play in Clark’s EMT – dressed up in secular garb, for sure, and in a materialistically inflected form, yet with a recognizably transhumanist bent. Undertaking this “archeology” of the EMT takes us surprisingly deep into the history of Western thought – to a point where Clark’s evocative “natural-born cyborg” image of humanity, with its emphasis on the radical openness of human nature to transcend itself, comes into view as a subtly blended continuation of certain historically consequential articulations of the Christian doctrine that humans are born “in the image and likeness” of God. (shrink)

'J'en suis encore à attendre la venue d'un philosophe médecin' espérait Nietzsche en préambule de son Gai Savoir. Historiquement, la relation à la médecine a été entretenue par la philosophie dès ses premiers pas, comme une nécessité de penser et de panser. Ayant la quête de la sagesse en ligne de mire, les philosophes avaient pour vocation d'en finir avec les troubles de l'âme, à l'image des médecins et des douleurs du corps. Dès lors, que signifie guérir, soigner, prescrire (...) ou diagnostiquer lorsqu'il s'agit de la philosophie? Comment cette dimension pratique de la philosophie trouve-t-elle sa place dans cette discipline prétendument destinée à l'esprit pur? C'est dans l'oeuvre de Nietzsche que nous trouvons sans doute les élaborations les plus abouties de cette problématique, aux implications extraphilosophiques. En substituant les notions de vérité, de morale ou de consolation, Nietzsche va composer une nouvelle conceptualité philosophique, dont les outils seront la valeur, la joie ou encore la santé. Cet ouvrage se propose de remonter aux origines de la philosophie comme médecine jusqu'à Nietzsche, afin de trouver, dans sa pharmacie, les traitements et les remèdes à notre nature humaine, trop humaine"--Page 4 of cover. (shrink)

In lieu of an abstract, here is a brief excerpt of the content:CHRISTIANITY AND VIOLENCE: A RESPONSE TO ROBERT DALY Paul Nuechterlein Emmaus Lutheran Church, Racine, Wisconsin While listening to the presentations up to now, I've found myself to be continually scrapping what I was going to say and going on to something else. The only thing I've saved so far is to begin with a sincere thanks to you, Bob Daly, for this paper. It is such an excellent start (...) on the themes ofthis conference, to cover such a broad range ofthe history and the data of Christianity on the theme of violence and institution. And yet, through that broad range ofanalysis, you also help us to focus on what I see as some very important issues, especially the one that you lifted up and emphasized againjust now, the issue ofuniversal salvation. At the risk of sounding a bit like a schoolboy with a new vocabulary word, that issue is for me an insight, to usethatLonerganian term, thatbrings togethermany things under a single view. Iknow thatthere's been abroadrange ofinterestinviolence in general, and especially as it is manifested in Christian institutions of which Tm a part. Then there has also been an interest in the issue ofuniversal salvation. I've actually already been a believer, a hoper in that for quite some time. But the way that you brought them together in this paper, that is the insight for me. It is something that I honestly will take away from this conference as being very important. You've made us see that connection and from that to raise the question: if, as Christians, we continue to imagine ourselves as possibly destined to an ultimate violence of hell as a place of eternal damnation and torture, how much has that played a part in our earthly willingness to participate in violence? Does it make it easier for us to say yes to violence here in this life, when we can imagine ourselves as possibly destined to an ultimate violence? You make that connection, you mention Paul Nuechterlein35 it as a massively central problem, and you've convinced me of it. I think its something we needto work on. We now need to find ways of lifting up that minority viewpoint of hoping for universal salvation to become once again the majority viewpoint. The question thus focuses on the strategy of how to do that. Because there's always the danger that, as we become zealous about something, we can start presenting it in a forceful and violent way. For instance, people could come away from what we're trying to convince them of, and ask themselves: "Gee, did he just say something like: 'You're going to Hell if you don't stop believing in Hell.'?" We can perhaps come across that way if we're too forceful about it. Before your remarks, I hadn't made the connection with the Vietnam War. I hadn't noticed how much that could help us toward the strategy we seek. What turned the American people against the war was seeing its violence on their TV screens, violence that didn't fit in with their imaginative view of themselves. Is there a way in which we can work that sort of strategy by replacing our imagination of ultimate violence with at least the hope of universal salvation? One of my favorite stories—itjust came to me as you were talking—is from the Lynn Brothers, Matthew and Dennis, two Catholic priests or former Catholic priests. They have a little book about the goats, from the image of Matthew 25 on the separation of the sheep from the goats. They tell a story about working with a woman who came to one of them in counseling, frightened for her son. Her son had been in all kinds of addiction problems, all kinds of trouble with the law throughout his life, and was coming to apoint where he was really bottoming out. And through all ofthat, the thing that she still worried about the most was: when he dies, is he going to go to hell? The problem, of course, was that she was still holding on to that majority vision, and I think it... (shrink)

In lieu of an abstract, here is a brief excerpt of the content:Two NarractsAntoine Volodine (bio)1. DögbruzDögbruz dépassa le dernier lampadaire de l'avenue et il s'arrêta pour calmer sa respiration haletante. Derrière lui, la ville semblait déserte. La nuit était tombée depuis des heures, de longues heures, un grand nombre d'heures, et, alors que cette idée prenait naissance dans l'esprit de Dögbruz, la phrase bourgeonna et devint quelque chose d'inquiétant, une réflexion qui n'appartenait pas totalement à notre monde : la (...) nuit, pensa soudain Dögbruz. Elle est tombée depuis plusieurs jours.Plusieurs jours sans soleil ni lune, sans crépuscule, plusieurs longues tranches noires de vingt-quatre heures. La noirceur n'avait connu aucune interruption.– Je... Mais qu'est-ce que... bougonna Dögbruz.L'air était tiède, le sol sous ses pieds était chaud, de temps en temps une ombre minuscule voletait en silence autour de sa tête, puis disparaissait. Un flocon charbonneux. Une mouche, pensa-t-il. Elle est épuisée ou déjà morte, pensa-t-il.– Non, non, pas ça, murmura-t-il, effrayé par ce qui faisait des allées et venues entre sa sous-conscience et sa conscience, des images et des expressions qui avaient rompu avec la logique du réel.Il avait besoin de bouger les lèvres et les cordes vocales pour les chasser, ces images et ces expressions désagréables.– Non, pas morte, cette sale bestiole, corrigea-t-il à voix basse. Très fatiguée, peut-être. Comme moi, très, très fatiguée. Mais pas encore morte. Autrement elle serait au sol. Elle ne pourrait pas voler.Comme moi, pensa-t-il. Moi aussi je suis au sol. Et, s'il y a au moins une certitude ici cette nuit, c'est que je ne vole pas.Il resta quelques minutes immobile, sans rien faire d'autre que combattre les petites intuitions délirantes qui traversaient les couches inférieures de son intelligence et montaient sans hâte, comme des bulles de méthane cherchant, dans un marécage, la surface de la vase. Il reprenait son souffle en observant l'avenue, devant et derrière lui : une vallée d'obscurité monotone, deux parois de maisons non éclairées, quelques arbres qui agonisaient sous la poussière, des palmiers en phase terminale, quatre ou cinq, dans la distance, et, pour le reste, une vilaine coulée [End Page 60] de bitume, qui donnait l'impression d'avoir pour origine le ciel sans la moindre étoile, d'une épaisseur et d'une opacité repoussantes. Les lampadaires étaient rares. À la fin de l'image, rien ne brillait. Pas d'horizon, pas de séparation entre le monde des nuages et le ruban bitumeux, les maisons noyées dans le rien, plus de différence entre la nuit du haut et la nuit du bas.Il s'aperçut soudain qu'il ne respirait plus et il s'empressa de mettre un terme à ce moment d'apnée indésirable.– Saletés de poumons de merde, jura-t-il.De nouveau, ses sacs pulmonaires se gonflaient et se dégonflaient. Certes. Mais il devait y veiller, leur donner l'ordre de s'emplir puis de se vider. Sans cesse il devait contrôler cela. Il haussa les épaules au bout d'une minute.– Tu parles d'un organisme pourri, protesta-t-il, s'adressant à lui-même, ou plutôt à on ne sait quelle divinité familière qu'il associait à son destin, une divinité camarade et, face à l'adversité, aussi impuissante que lui.Alors qu'il essayait de confier son alimentation en oxygène à des réflexes qui fonctionnaient avec réticence, il distingua au bout de l'avenue une forme que d'abord il se refusa à identifier, puis qu'il fut bien obligé de reconnaître. C'était loin, à plus de cent cinquante mètres, noyé d'obscurité, mais le doute n'était pas possible. Non, non, je ne peux pas me tromper, pensa-t-il.Un lama.L'univers ici est en noir et blanc, pensa-t-il. Aucune couleur et presque aucune nuance de gris. Mais... (shrink)

In lieu of an abstract, here is a brief excerpt of the content:That St(r)ain Again:Blood, Water, and Generic Allusion in Horace's Bandusia OdeGottfried MaderAbstractHorace's vivid picture of the blood sacrifice to the spring of Bandusia has left many readers feeling somewhat uneasy, for while animal sacrifices appear elsewhere in the Odes,1 none matches this for its pathos or detail:O fons Bandusiae, splendidior vitro,dulci digne mero non sine floribus, cras donaberis haedo, cui frons turgida cornibusprimis et venerem et proelia destinat.frustra: nam (...) gelidos inficiet tibi rubro sanguine rivos lascivi suboles gregis.(Carm. 3.13.1-8)O spring of Bandusia, brighter than glass, worthy of sweet wine and flowers: tomorrow you will be presented with a kid whose forehead, swelling with first horns, destines him for both love and battles—but in vain, for to honour you the offspring of the wanton herd will dye your icy waters with his crimson blood.Hence the protest or surprise expressed at this allegedly offensive intrusion of blood into an otherwise idyllic scene: "Who wants a drink out of the fountain of Bandusia after that?" (Campbell 1924, 2); "[Horace] visualizes with aesthetic relish the mingling of the cool water and the red blood.... [His] behaviour was strange even by ancient criteria" (Nisbet 1962, 198); "somewhat macabre" (Williams 1969, 89); "the scandal of the sacrificial kid, whose death is dwelt upon... with a cruel brilliance quite out of proportion to any decorative needs" (Wilson 1968, 289).2 Others [End Page 51] have attempted to domesticate the sacrifice, urging that the ancients were less sentimental in these matters and justifying the description as rustic realism.3 But neither view accounts adequately for the densely suggestive detail or the perceptible emphasis on the blood offering—in a word, for the poetic intensity of these lines.The sacrifice begins to make sense when we explore its metaphorical possibilities and integrate it into the ode's thematic and intellectual design.4 Recent criticism has emphasized the metapoetic dimension of 3.13, interpreting Horace's homage to the spring as a tribute to the poetry which secures it a place among the celebrated fountains of Greek and Roman literature: "fies nobilium tu quoque fontium / me dicente cavis inpositam ilicem / saxis, unde loquaces / lymphae desiliunt tuae " (13-16; "you too will take your place among the famous springs when I celebrate the ilex set upon the hollow rocks, from which your clear-voiced waters come cascading down"). Further, since springs and water have a long metaphorical association with poetry (cf. below, note 12), the literal shades off easily into the literary, and the fons reflects the ideals and aspirations of Horace's own lyric art.5 From this perspective, the blood sacrifice too acquires a metaphorical nuance. Here is Steele Commager: "Readers have often been repelled by the details of the kid's sacrifice (6-8). Perhaps the description is not there for its realistic effect alone. Destined for love and battle, the 'offspring of the wanton flock' epitomizes life's comprehensive vitality, and as his warm blood mingles with the lucid water it is easy to sense a suggestion of the transformation of life into art" (Commager 1962, 323-24). Ralph Hexter continues on this trajectory: "The image of the red blood of the goat staining the cold spring water reflects the transmutation of life into poetry.... I believe a close reading of the poem supports a further insight: that Horace means to show us how life is transferred to the water of poetry, and by showing us how it is, he shows us that it is."6 Most recently, Gregson Davis has suggested a further association: "Unmixed wine, flowers, and young animal constitute the sine quibus non of the banqueting apparatus.... Horace's fons is to be honored with the irreducible tokens of convivial [End Page 52] poetry. This ensemble of tokens, and not the presumed reference to an obscure festival, is what principally determines the speaker's choice of offerings." And once the choice of offerings has established the lyric orientation, the goat's death suggests to Davis also the mortality topos or the "dark background," typically a foil to the convivial motifs in the context of... (shrink)

In the 1930s and 1940s, as the United States moved from a rural to an urban nation, the pull of the city was irrepressible. It was so strong that even a photographic mission designed to record the essence of rural America could not help but capture the energy of urbanization too. To the City showcases over 100 photographs from the Farm Security Administration project along with extracts from the Works Progress Administration guidebooks and oral histories, to convey the detail and (...) dimensions of that transformation. This artfully grouped collection of photographs includes magnificent images by notable photographers Dorothea Lange, Walker Evans and Gordon Parks, among many others. Foulkes organizes this history of Americana into five themes: Intersection; Traffic; High Life and Low Life; The City in the Country; and Citizens to illuminate the changes in habits, landscapes, and aspirations that the march to cities encompassed. As the rural past holds symbolic sway and the suburb presents demographic force, the urban portion of our history—why and how cities have been a destination for hope—recedes from view. To the City is a thoughtful, engaging reminder. (shrink)

The advent of cinema brought with it a different kind of image montage, to which Warburg’s iconological project was strangely oblivious. Are we meant to believe, then, that the cinema does not produce icons? Is iconology destined to be only a science of classical culture, or can it also evolve to integrate into its own study new forms of kinematic art? We would like to ask the question of organogenesis of iconology here, that is to say, the invention of (...) an iconological science for temporal objects by means of appropriate instruments for this new medium. The instrument is both conceived as a means of acting upon the real, and as a means of activating noetic capacities. The aim of our study will be to first outline the iconographic and iconological consequences stemming from animation and flux that have governed images since the birth of cinema, precipitating a crisis in classical iconology. Secondly, through the analysis of the noetic function of animated GIFs (Graphics Interchange Format) in digital streams, we will introduce the notion of ‘temporal gesture’ – as a tertiarized retentional technology, which can be reused for imagining an iconology of temporal suspension and insistence. This will be presented in the third part of this work to reflect on an iconological device for temporal objects by the grammatization and the engramming of ‘temporal gesture’, as an art of delay and repetition. This thinking will be based on the video artwork produced in collaboration with Gregory Dassié titled Iconologie pour objet temporel. (shrink)

In America, White and affluent middle-school students outperform minority students and those of low socioeconomic status on measures of academic performance. This achievement gap is partly attributable to differences in academic engagement. A promising strategy for engaging students is to elicit an academic possible identity: an image of oneself in the future as an accomplished student. Tests of this strategy’s efficacy show mixed results, however. According to Identity-Based Motivation Theory, this is because a salient possible identity enhances goal engagement (...) when it is perceived to be strongly connected to one’s current identity. Still, the connection between temporally remote identities is an abstract concept that students may have difficulty grasping. According to Conceptual Metaphor Theory, this connection may be easier to conceptualize metaphorically in terms of a dissimilar concrete experience – in particular, a physical journey between locations. Integrating these theories, prior studies show that priming a journey-metaphoric framing of an academic possible identity increased academic engagement among college students. The current study tested whether this prime would similarly motivate middle-school students in an economically disadvantaged school setting. Results show that students framing their academic possible identity as a destination on a physical path, versus without a provided metaphor, reported higher academic engagement. This finding extends metaphor priming effects to low-income and minority adolescents, a crucial population in educational research, and points to low-cost, theoretically grounded interventions for boosting academic engagement. (shrink)

La famille passionne les chercheurs français depuis au moins un demi-siècle. Il était donc temps de faire le point et c’est précisément ce que nous propose Stéphane Minvielle dans un ouvrage de synthèse à destination des étudiants et de tout public désireux de prendre connaissance de ces questions de manière rapide et efficace. L’objet du livre est de « montrer en quoi les recherches menées récemment par les historiens de la famille et les historiens démographes donnent une image (...) des familles... (shrink)

In psychoanalytic theory, the notion of the person inevitably evokes the notion of subjectivity. Not that the former can be reduced to the latter; but if psychoanalytic theory is anything more a certain type of therapeutic practice, it is indeed a theory of the subject or a theory of the subjective relation. We should perhaps begin by specifying that the subjective relation must be understood as a complex whole: an intrapsychic relation, that is, a relation between the various instances that (...) make up the subject, and at the same time an inter subjective relation, that is, a relation between (at least) two subjects. These two aspects are both inseparable and conflictual. They are inseparable because the self cannot exist, cannot construct itself without the other (whether this be a parental other or a peer). They are conflictual for at least two reasons. On the one hand, because the intrapsychic relation is by definition an arena of conflict: the conflict that opposes the Ego to the contradictory but equally tyrannical demands of the Id - which translates its attachment to the body and testifies to its inherent drives - and of the Superego, which represents its rootedness in the social and cultural sphere. And on the other hand, because this subject, which is thus divided within itself, must undergo the trial of bringing its desire face to face with the desire of the others with whom it is destined to live. The psychoanalytic theory of the subject is therefore the theory of a doubly heterogeneous relation: there is the heterogeneity of the components of the self, which go, once again, from their anchorage in somatic drives to the most ethereal expressions of the ideal; and there is the heterogeneity of the relation between this self and the self of the other. Moreover, this double heterogeneity is not limited to the matter of components: after all, these, one might think, would ideally be open to reabsorption into the homogeneity of the individual. On the contrary, this heterogeneity gives rise to a double rationality or double logic. Psychic causality - to borrow André Green's expression - is also driven by the conflict that opposes what in psychoanalysis are known as the primary processes, which Freud has described in chapter 7 of the Traumdeutung and which govern the formation and organization of the dream images, to the secondary processes, which are those processes that govern our daytime thoughts. Psychic causality is formed by the struggle for hegemony between these two logics, each of which is itself acted upon by an antagonism between what Freud, at the end of his life, called Eros and Thanatos, the urge for Life and the drive toward death or destruction. (shrink)

As the pagan classical world was subsumed into Christianity sexually hyperactive gods and goddesses transmuted into saints, their former statues that glorified the perfection of their bodies smashed into pieces and reimagined as austere two-dimensional icons to be worshipped by the new faithful. That dualistic and polemic narrative, where the soul’s purpose was to annihilate the body, survives today in the distinction between software and hardware, algorithms and robots, the former as the “ghosts” that animate the empty vessels, the “machines”. (...) But how does this narrative impact our cultural and social fantasies in the twenty-first century as we accelerate toward coexisting, uniting, or merging with intelligent artifacts? How does “humanness” blur when it is claimed by no-biological human-like entities too, or when humans augment their perception, consciousness and physical power through genetic engineering, drugs, or software and mechanical prostheses? Suppose we are destined to remake ourselves in the image of our ancient gods. Will it be through the embodiment of technologies in the physical reality, or through the complete disembodiment of our minds inside virtual worlds? (shrink)

This essay raises the question of the character and status of imagination in ancient Greek philosophy. It is often said that neither Plato nor Aristotle conceived of imagination in genuinely productive terms. The point, however, is not approaching ancient thought while thinking with Kant, as if we were looking for proto-Kantian insights in antiquity. Ancient thought is not a series of ‘tentative steps’ destined to reach a full-blown articulation in modernity, let alone an anticipation of the first critique. On the (...) contrary, it is essential to acknowledge the discontinuities that make the ancient discourse remote and, in many respects, opaque, hidden from us. On the ground of such assumptions, the essay addresses the understanding of imagination (eikasia, phantasia) in the Greek context, focusing in particular on Plato’s Timaeus. First, we consider how imagination, precisely in its creative aspect, operates at the very heart of philosophical argumentation. Plato’s emphatic awareness of this disallows the rhetoric of philosophy as the discipline of truth (of apodictic necessity, objectivity, and neutrality). In fact, it calls for a profound re-thinking of the relation between creativity and the philosophical turn to the ‘things themselves.’ Timaeus imagines the cosmos as a theatrical device: the place of seeing and being seen, of contemplation and the originary emergence of images. This evokes an understanding of imagination outside the order of subjectivity and its faculties, i.e., a meditation on the impersonal character of production and the force of images (of symbols) arising without being constituted by ‘me.’. (shrink)

Addressing both the humanities and the social sciences, this volume aims to explore the enduring significance of the work of Jacques Derrida (1930-2004) in the field of cultural theory. It assembles a variety of articles by internationally renowned scholars from different academic disciplines and traditions. Contrary to recent commemorative publications on Derrida¿s oeuvre, this volume proposes to critically evaluate and rethink key concepts in Derrida¿s work within the present state of affairs in cultural theory. Centred around four main topics (manoeuvres, (...) societies, images and fictions), the sections propose a creative and contemporary reading of `Derrida¿ and its openings to new work in cultural theory. Ce livre qui se destine à la fois aux humanités et aux études sociales tente d¿explorer la signification durable de l¿¿uvre de Jacques Derrida (1930-2004) dans le champ de la théorie culturelle. Il rassemble un ensemble d¿articles variés écrits par des chercheurs de renommée internationale provenant de différentes disciplines et traditions académiques. S¿opposant par là à la majorité du flot de publications récentes sur l¿¿uvre de Derrida ce volume se propose d¿évaluer et de repenser d¿un point de vue critique les concepts clé de Derrida tenant compte de l¿état actuel de la recherche en études culturelles. Centrées autour de quatre domaines majeurs (man¿uvres ¿ sociétés ¿ images ¿ fictions), les sections offrent une lecture créatrice et actuelle de `Derrida¿ et des ouvertures que sa pensée permet vers une nouvelle idée de la théorie culturelle. (shrink)