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Experiences of Divine Bliss, Anger and Evil during the Pandemic: Non-ordinary Experiences during Lockdown
Get PDFThis article illustrates the complexity of non-ordinary experiences during the pandemic, highlighting accounts of three different types of experiences: encounters with divine bliss, anger, and evil. The focus is on four narrative accounts of non-ordinary experiences that were submitted by email in response to a wider research project about religious, spiritual and otherwise non-ordinary experiences during the COVID-19 pandemic. The following sections discuss the distinction between experiences perceived as ordinary and non-ordinary and the impact of non-ordinary experiences on wellbeing during lockdown—sometimes as positive meaning-making experiences that contribute to people’s ability to cope with the lockdown and the devastation of the pandemic, and other times expressive of stress and fear, often further exacerbated by silence about the experience. The article then contextualizes approaches to studying these experiences within the academic study of religion and spiritual experiences. Anthropologists have long understood non-ordinary experiences, along with their context-dependent interpretations, as reflective of cultural meaning-making processes
From Menarche to Menopause: A Systematic Review of Black and Asian Minority Ethnic (BAME) Women's Reproductive Health Challenges in the UK
Get PDFBackground:
This study explores reproductive health challenges among Black, Asian, and Minority Ethnic (BAME) women in the United Kingdom. The aim of this study is to explore the multifaceted challenges faced by BAME women across various stages of their reproductive lifespan, including menstruation, maternity care, childbirth, cancer related to reproduction, sexual and reproductive health, and menopause.
Methods:
A systematic review was conducted to gather insights from existing research. An electronic database search of PubMed, Science Direct, Medline, BMJ, ProQuest from 2014 to 2024 was conducted according to the PRISMA statement. The search terms included “BAME women”, “Reproductive health”, “Menstrual health”, “Menopause”. Relevant studies focusing on menstrual beliefs, maternity care, reproductive cancer, and menopause among BAME women in the UK were identified and critically analysed. The search encompassed various databases and included qualitative, quantitative, and mixed studies.
Results:
The study demonstrated cultural taboos and stigma surrounding menstruation among BAME communities, leading to barriers in accessing healthcare services. Maternity care disparities were highlighted, with the influence of socioeconomic and racial factors on perinatal outcomes. Additionally, systemic biases and inadequate cultural sensitivity within healthcare systems contribute to delayed diagnoses and insufficient care for BAME women facing reproductive cancers. Menopause care emerged as another area of concern, with disparities in awareness and communication barriers hindering access to appropriate support and treatment.
Conclusion:
The dissertation highlights the urgent need for targeted interventions and policy reforms to address reproductive health inequities among BAME women in the UK. By exploring the complexity of cultural, socioeconomic, and systemic factors, this research provides valuable insights into the challenges faced by BAME women across their reproductive journey. Culturally competent healthcare services, healthcare professionals training, and communitybased interventions are essential to promote reproductive health equity for all women, regardless of ethnicity or background
1290 A.D or 1307 A.D? When? Why? And by Whom? Was a Medieval Charter Granted to the Township of Laugharne, West Wales
Get PDFLaugharne is a small, west Wales township of 2,700 people situated ten miles south of Carmarthen.1 It is unusual if not unique, outside of the City of London, for being a medieval chartered borough with an active corporation, who still convene a fortnightly ‘Hundred Court’ and manage 200 acres of land. This makes it both historically important and of academic interest.
The chartered borough was created by a member of the de Brian family, the Marcher lords of the manor, but the document is undated and unsigned, albeit there is a wax seal and a list of local earls and nobles appended as witnesses.
Therefore, the central question addressed by this dissertation is when, why and by whom was the charter granted? The situation is complicated by the successive use of the first name ‘Guy’ in the de Brian family throughout thirteenth century, the sparsity of local extant documentation and several candidate dates (1290, 1307, etc.,) for the charter.
The conventional approach to undated charters is to focus on the birth/death dates of witnesses to narrow the possible timeframe for issue. However, this dissertation recognises that Edward I’s strategy was predicated upon a secure castle with a protected ‘alien’ settlement in its shadow and peaceful economic conditions -necessary for a charter to be successful, so the first step was to identify intervals when this opportunity existed.
The second consideration is the overt reference in the Laugharne charter to the Carmarthen equivalent, granted between 1254 and 1257 and which provides useful information with which to connect the Laugharne charter to other historical events, helping to qualify these probable timeframes.
Finally, witnesses’ lives were ‘overlaid’ on putative dates, identifying a grant of the charter between November 1279 and March 1282
Language Domains and Status in Middle Cornish
Get PDFThe revived Cornish language is based on the Cornish medieval miracle and saints' lives plays, and a question arising is their use of non-Cornish phrases, which has been remarked on for many years, with no consensus of what their use means. Is there a pattern in its use, or is it random, and does this compare with the English plays and the other European medieval plays' counterparts?
This study shows that language choice is dictated by social status, Christian spiritual status, learned status, theological status, and relationship to the establishment power structures. Using the sociolinguist theory of code-switching, Communication Accommodation Theory (CAT), transgressive language theory, and literary criticism, the Cornish plays can be used as a window into the world of the Cornish audience. This dissertation demonstrates that the Cornish were using code-switching in the plays to both mock and resist the overarching English-speaking power establishment. This temporal power and its abuse are closely tied to English transgressive language use and are counterpointed by the Latin use for the spiritual power of characters. The use of transgressive English language follows that of the English miracle and morality plays, emphasised further through code-switching. Furthermore, French is a higher status marked court language used by the middling sort
Influencer Marketing and Artificial Intelligence Influencer Marketing and Artificial Intelligence
No full textThis chapter aims to review artificial intelligence (AI) in influencer marketing literature to identify gaps and provide directions for future research. In this direction, the authors critically assess 21 articles that have appeared in the Web of Science (WOS) database. Definitions of influencer marketing and AI, theoretical foundations, and main methodologies employed were reviewed and the countries of focus and social media websites studied. The systematic literature review has demonstrated some significant findings. Research on AI in influencer marketing has revealed an emphasis on AI Influencer marketing. Findings also show that the majority of influencer marketing studies were conducted with a quantitative approach, and focused more on Instagram while less attention has been paid to other social media websites. At the end of the research, the study contributes to the existing literature by examining the current state of AI in influencer marketing research and providing future research directions from theoretical, methodological, and context-related perspectives
The Role of Public Health Education in Promoting Heart Health and Preventing Coronary Artery Disease among adults worldwide: A Systematic Literature Review
Get PDFBackground: Coronary artery disease (CAD) continues to be a major global health issue, contributing significantly to the morbidity and mortality associated with cardiovascular disease globally. Public health education interventions play a crucial role in promoting heart health and preventing CAD. However, there is a need for a comprehensive evaluation of the effectiveness of these interventions to inform evidence-based strategies for disease prevention.
Methods: This systematic literature review aims to assess the efficacy of public health education interventions in promoting heart health and preventing CAD among adults worldwide. To find relevant studies from electronic databases including PubMed, Google Scholar, Science Direct, and ProQuest, an organised search approach was used. Studies published between 2003 and 2023 were included, focusing on interventions targeting heart health education and CAD prevention. Data extraction and synthesis were conducted using a narrative synthesis approach, with key themes and findings summarized.
Results: The review identified a total of 18 studies meeting the inclusion criteria. Findings indicate that public health education interventions have a positive impact on promoting heart health and reducing CAD risk factors. Culturally tailored interventions, community-based programs, and digital health tools emerged as effective strategies for facilitating lifestyle modifications and behaviour change. The accessibility and availability of educational resources were identified as key determinants of intervention success. Furthermore, the integration of innovative technologies, such as mobile applications and wearable devices, showed promise in enhancing patient outcomes and healthcare delivery in CAD management.
Conclusion: Overall, this systematic review underscores the importance of public health education interventions in CAD prevention. By synthesizing existing evidence, the study provides valuable insights for policymakers, public health practitioners, and researchers. Moving forward, continued investment in public health education and evidence-based interventions is essential to address the global burden of CAD and improve cardiovascular health outcomes
Exploring the Social Lives of Cylinder Seals in Late Cypriot Society
Get PDFThis thesis examines how cylinder seals became socially embedded in Late Bronze Age Cyprus. Although these objects appear throughout the Near East and Mesopotamia at the time, their use in Cyprus appears unique. To explore this, cylinder seals are studied according to funerary, sanctuary and settlement types of findspot. Different patterns of social engagement are then examined according to the context of their use and deposition. They are analysed through a theoretical lens, specifically focusing on the concepts of object biography, the ideological potency of geographic distance, and object inalienability, to examine how these objects were recontextualised and reinterpreted within their new Cypriot cultural context. The diachronic analysis of the cylinder seals found in different types of sites across the island highlights distinctive patterns of appropriation as well as cultural and material entanglement. It further allows us to explore how these objects were used to actively construct and maintain the identity and authority of local political-ideological elites. As a result, this study argues that cylinder seals were reconfigured to fit a distinctly Cypriot cultural need
Organisational sensemaking through the sustainable management of Fujian opera troupes in the urban-rural reconstruction
Get PDFBased on the urban-rural reconstruction in China, the Fujian Opera Troupe is experiencing profound changes in the external environment and internal management. This thesis investigates organisational sensemaking in the sustainable management of Fujian Opera Troupes from pluralistic stakeholders based on the theoretical framework in applied ethnomusicology and business administration. The sustainable development of Fujian Opera Troupes has been studied in many fields, but few reflect the sensemaking perspective nor use quantitative methods. To fill this research gap, this study embraced the pragmatism philosophy, and utilised mixed methods to make sense of the adaptive process for sustainable management of the Fujian Opera Troupe during the period from 2013 to 2023. The qualitative phase used two case studies to investigate the adaptive changes of two troupes separately. Data analysis of cross-case studies enabled refine cues embedded in two separate case reports and explaining equivocality in sustainable management from three data sources. The findings of case studies show that facing changes inside and outside organisations, practitioners need effective policy support and organisational support to motivate positive emotions at work, sequentially impacting sustainability. The quantitative phase examined the influence of key factors on sustainability. A questionnaire was developed by combining cues from the case study and validated items/variables from past literature. Structural equation modelling was then used to test the hypotheses through path analysis. The results of the quantitative phase show that policy support and organisational support significantly impact practitioners’ emotions at work positively but do not have a direct effect on sustainability. Emotion at work plays a mediating role between policy support and sustainability, as well as between organisational support and sustainability. Therefore, the sustainable management of the Fujian Opera Troupe should focus on the positive interaction between organisational support, policy support, and practitioners’ emotion at work to adapt to changes within and outside organisations
The Domains of Aesthetics and Perception Theories: A Review relevant to Practice-based Doctoral Theses in the Visual Arts
Get PDFEvery doctoral thesis requires contextualisation within its specific discipline’s theoretical bases. For a visual arts practice-based thesis, the relevant bases include those of aesthetics and visual perception. This article reviews a Western history of the domain of visual aesthetic theory, addressing both the Analytical philosophical efforts to define art, and the Continental approaches which construe art as social construction. It then reviews a third, normative stance which foregrounds cognitive value before definition or sociological context; an Aesthetic Cognitivist position, art practice as a means of acquiring and sharing experiential knowledge and understanding. Contemporary concerns about environmental aesthetics and somaesthetics are also addressed in the Introduction.
Aesthetic theories are related to visual perception theories as an aid to fulfilling the scholarly requirements for a practice-based thesis
'Visualcy': the Progenitor of Literacy and Numeracy
Get PDFThis article aims to enhance the pedagogy of drawing by integrating relevant aspects of art history and aesthetics with perception and communication theories.
Visualcy is defined as an articulacy with visual languages, from which the more familiar ‘3Rs’ (Reading, wRiting, and aRithmetic), alluding to literacy and numeracy, evolved. It embraces not only the more familiar definition of ‘visual literacy’ in the sense of how people perceive, interpret and learn from existing visual imagery, but also the semogenic facility for producing the means to understanding through the articulation of visual elements (line, shape, tone, texture, colour) in the construction of new images. After reviewing the role of drawing in cultural evolution, the article discusses drawing in relation to aesthetics, before outlining a pedagogy of drawing designed to nurture visualcy, of central importance to human culture
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