1993 research outputs found
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The Life of the Nuns at West Malling Abbey: Social and Religious Dynamics from the Middle Medieval Period to the Reformation
Full text linkThis thesis examines historical texts and archaeological evidence to explore the lives of the nuns of St. Mary’s Abbey and their impact on the growth of the town of West Malling. These resources are few and widely scattered across archives. There are two short books exclusively about the abbey, one written by the nuns themselves and a second by Anne Oakley. For research on Benedictine nuns, while not specific to St. Mary’s at West Malling, it is the works of Janet Burton, Sally Thompson, Eileen Power, Roberta Gilchrist and Maralyn Oliva which give a more general understanding of the life of a nun. This thesis aims to collate the existing works and original manuscripts to construct a chronological picture of 450 years of abbey life. Research has shown both the scarcity and ambiguities of sources while equally placing the abbey and town within the tumultuous natural and political events of the time. The thesis highlights a period when monastic life was at its height, before ending with the Dissolution. Nonetheless, life continued in West Malling whose town and abbey site still bear visible reminders of this inheritance. The enduring legacy of Gundulf, the Bishop of Rochester, would no doubt amaze him: but over a thousand years later the town, people and nuns of Malling remain a remarkable reminder of his vision to create a monastic place of worship for women
Nollywood: Challenges, Heritage Practice and Storytelling
Full text linkThis thesis investigates Nollywood’s role in preserving and promoting Nigerian
heritage through storytelling. It is approached as a heritage study with elements of film studies.
Specifically, the research examines how Nollywood’s narratives, production practices, and
institutional structures contribute to the preservation, representation, and transmission of
Nigerian cultural heritage. The central research question guiding this study is: To what extent
has Nollywood storytelling contributed to Nigerian heritage? The research examines
Nollywood’s evolution as a cultural institution, highlighting its impact on African heritage
narratives and its potential as a global ambassador for Nigerian heritage. Despite challenges
such as piracy, censorship, inadequate funding, and the recurring debate about implementing
the Motion Picture Practitioners Council of Nigeria (MOPICON) Bill, Nollywood has shown
resilience. Issues like gender inequality and sexual harassment further highlight the need for
stronger governance and ethical standards, as confirmed through interviews with industry
stakeholders.
The study examines Nollywood’s funding mechanisms, with a particular focus on the
significant role played by the Bank of Industry in financing productions. It also examines the
incorporation of oral literature, from seminal works to recent adaptations, in Nollywood films.
Historical analysis contextualises films such as Things Fall Apart (1987) and Living in
Bondage (1992) alongside representations of Nigerian cultures and contemporary values. Film
analysis and reviews offer more apparent nuances on Nollywood’s contents and relevance to
studies, and audience responses indicate that 85.4% of respondents recognise Nollywood’s role
in shaping perceptions of Nigerian culture.
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This research contributes to heritage studies by addressing gaps in understanding
Nollywood’s potential for cultural preservation, especially in the context of globalisation and
commercialisation. Drawing on frameworks like collective memory, which emphasises the
role of shared memories in cultural preservation, and Afrocentricity, a perspective that places
African culture and history at the centre, the study demonstrates how Nollywood preserves
cultural integrity while adapting to modern challenges. Other theoretical underpinnings include
decolonisation, which involves dismantling colonial ideologies and reclaiming indigenous
knowledge and traditions, and cultural appropriation, which refers to the adoption of cultural
elements without permission, often leading to distortion and commodification.
By positioning Nollywood as a dynamic tool for cultural transmission, this study
advances heritage discourse. It highlights its impact on Nigerian cultural identity, as well as its
capacity to influence global perceptions of African heritage, albeit in ways that reflect
particular rather than universal traditions
The Black Orpheus and other Portrayals of African Derived Religions
Full text linkThe film Orfeu negro (Black Orpheus) by the French director Marcel Camus (1959) which is set in the favelas of Rio de Janeiro, won several awards including the Academy Award for best foreign-language film and the Cannes Film Festival’s Palme d’Or. It catapulted Brazilian music onto the international scene and made the carnival of Rio a widely recognized symbol of Brazil. However, despite of its fame and ongoing popularity, the film has an ambivalent legacy, mainly due to the ignorance towards the social realities of its time. This chapter compares the film with the Brazilian play on which the film is (loosely) based and reflects on the social setting of both, the film and the play. The second part focuses on the portrayal of the African-derived religion in the film. By aligning it to Brazilian films that portrayed African-derived religions the chapter discusses its challenging legacy today
Mediumship as glocalized phenomena: reflection of a journey into mediumship in Brazil
No full textThe paper sets out the study of mediumship and other forms of non-ordinary experiences within a “glocal”
conceptual frame that highlights the need to build universalising concepts from local contexts. Based on
anthropological research about mediumship in religious and Spiritist communities in São Paulo, the paper
argues that while mediumship is regarded as a set of global skills, local communities have a diverse set of
scales that makes the local contexts of mediumship equally important. The chapter is divided into three
parts. First, I reflect on my previous position within mediumship studies and the methodological
difficulties for an anthropologist. Second, I illustrate the local scales of mediumship in light of cultural
contexts, traditions, the gender of the experiencers, and other factors. The third part discusses these
findings within the conceptualised framework of mediumship as glocalised experience. It reflects on the
tension between local scales and global skill and highlights the importance of both factors for our
understanding of mediumship in Brazil
Chapter 4: Cyprus in the Twelfth and Eleventh Centuries BCE
No full textThe 12th -11th century BC marks the transition between the Late Bronze Age (LBA) occupation of Cyprus and the very different social world of the Early Iron Age. The final phase of the LBA is marked by a series of violent destructions, the abandonment of major urban centres and rural communities throughout the island, and a subsequent dramatic shift in settlement pattern. Alongside this there is a clear break in material production on the island – in particular within the field of pottery production, and significant changes in funerary and ritual practice. Within the wider East Mediterranean context, the period is characterized by a breakdown in international maritime trade, the disappearance of the major palace economies and overarching empire states, and significant population movement. The extent to which Cyprus was directly affected by these changes is debated, in particular the presence of Mycenaean colonising communities; certainly, there is some evidence that the island’s significant copper trade persisted, albeit not at the same scale as during the LBA, and there is evidence for continued cultural and trading links with the island of Crete and the Philistine communities of the southern Levant. By the end of the 11th century the surviving communities occupied a very different social and economic world. This chapter will explore the context of these changes on Cyprus: the evidence for the establishment of new communities ancestral to the Iron Age city kingdoms, using settlement and cemetery archaeology, the changing material world of the new settlements, external contact beyond the island and evidence for the earliest Phoenician trading and/or colonising activity on the island. In particular it will examine the degree to which the island might be considered to be a part of the emerging world of Iron Age Greece
Countering the threat of space pollution: awareness raising via sustainability narratives
Full text linkThis paper engages with the conference themes of community engagement and awareness raising, through proposing narratives which provide alternative stories to the belief in unrestricted technological development. The plan to launch up to 400,000 satellites into Earth orbit is an example of unregulated corporate capitalism: many private corporations and governments are encouraging rapid growth of the space sector without sufficient consideration of broader and potentially consequences for Earth and space environments or the interests and welfare of the wider community. My question in this paper is how far sustainability narratives from the humanities and social sciences can assist in the attempts to limit pollution of the sky and near-Earth environment
Coastal TALES 10_Sept 2024
No full textCarymor - interviews and analysis with DB
The conversation heavily revolves around sustainable practices, particularly in agriculture and aquaculture. The participants discuss various sustainable methods being explored and developed, such as using seaweed as a biostimulant for farming
Organisational self-identity policy analyser: an innovative AI-driven approach
Full text linkOrganisational self-identification (OSI) refers to a shared understanding of an organisation’s collective identity. This identity shapes the organisational culture, employee engagement and commitment, and overall performance. While policy documents define rules and interactions, both their substance and tone reinforce or diminish the OSI. However, traditional policy reviews often overlook whether the language and tone of these documents truly reflect organisational values. In this study, we introduce an AI-powered sentiment analysis framework that offers a novel and systematic approach to evaluate OSI alignment in policy texts. Our OSI Sentiment Analyser combines a customised lexicon with rule-based scoring to identify and classify sentiments at multiple levels while ensuring transparency, explainability, and respect for privacy. The analyser was validated across 78 public policies (where it achieved over 90 % agreement with expert judgement) and further tested in two NHS hospital trusts as case studies. The proposed framework not only supports evidence-based policy refinement but also fosters inclusive and value-driven communication. Its modular design promises broad application, from employee surveys to strategic organisational messaging. Accordingly, it advances both theory and practice in organisational identity analytics
Experiencing the Journey to Sustainability Leadership
Full text linkThis research seeks to explore the journey to sustainability leadership and aims to understand how this is experienced. Sustainability leaders represent a distinct group of leaders who apply critical thought innovation by applying equal weighting to numerous stakeholders, including the natural world, to synthesize the pillars of sustainability. Against this backdrop, this research seeks to throw light on the journey to sustainability leadership with a view to understanding how and why sustainability leaders are shaped.
This research employs an adaptation on transcendental phenomenology with thematic analysis of unstructured interviews with authentic sustainability leaders. The research uncovers the key themes experienced by sustainability leaders in their journey. It demonstrates the importance of an environment which is conducive and contributory to experiences of sustainability leaders through emotional and cognitive association. Furthermore, the research highlights how the awareness of one's own presence and the ability to develop spatial focus is key and that sustainability leaders' reflective view is that of being part of a movement and not as a leader.
Recommendations are made for individual leaders, organsiations, educational facilitators and policymakers alike
The Role of Reasonable Adjustments within Organisations in Wales: Neurodivergent Employee Perceptions
Full text linkThis empirical study explores the effectiveness of the reasonable adjustments’ duty, in ensuring that the needs of Neurodivergent employees in Wales are met, adopting a constructivist perspective, and utilising a concurrent nested mixed methods design. This study responds to recognition that Neurodivergent employees may face barriers in the workplace, as well as recognition of the vagueness of how ‘reasonable’ is interpreted in the Equality Act (2010) (DWP, 2024; Lawson & Orchard, 2021; NatCen, 2024). The research combined two data sets of unequal weight, with a Freedom of Information request playing a less dominant role, than the semi-structured participant interviews (Adu & Miles, 2024). The Freedom of Information request aimed to quantify the scale of Neurodivergent employees seeking justice at an employment tribunal for perceived reasonable adjustments failures. In contrast, the more prominent qualitative semi-structured participant interviews with Neurodivergent employees allowed for an in-depth exploration of experiences and perceptions of reasonable adjustments in a large organisation in Wales. Thematic analysis was employed to process and interpret the data and produced three overarching themes that explored the Neurodivergent experiences of reasonable adjustments within their organisation in Wales (Braun and Clarke, 2022). These themes highlighted the importance of seeking Neurodivergent views on reasonable adjustments, as well as the importance of social actors and the impacts they could have on a person’s experience. Findings from the interviews emphasise inconsistent knowledge, confidence and practical application of the reasonable adjustments duty. Limitations of the legal framework were interpreted with participants suggesting ways to strengthen it. This empirical study concludes by making three core recommendations, including, review of the term reasonable adjustments by Government to add clarity, reasonable adjustments training and the requirement for robust data collection. These recommendations aim to improve the experiences of Neurodivergent employees in organisations in Wales by placing a greater onus on law makers and workplaces to improve, to provide better protections for their Neurodivergent employees and meet their needs. Overall, this empirical study contributes to research exploring the Neurodivergent nuanced experiences in the workplace by critically exploring lived experiences of Neurodivergent employees in Wales. It demonstrates the value of the constructivist approach and the true importance of seeking the very viewpoints that our legislation, policies and practices affect
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