30115 research outputs found
Sort by
The heart of a giraffe
No full textAn interview with the artist and the curator behind the project "The heart of a giraffe in captivity is twelve kilos lighter" (Venice Biennale 2024) on the legacies of colonialism, human-animal relations and the transformative potential of art and education
Embodied time travel in VR: from witnessing climate change to action for prevention
Get PDFThis study explores the impact of embodied experiences in Virtual Reality (VR) on individuals’ attitudes and behavior towards climate change. A total of 41 participants were divided into two groups: an embodied group that interacted with a virtual environment through full-body avatars, and a non-embodied group that observed the scenarios from an invisible observer’s point of view. The VR experience simulated the progressive consequences of climate change across three generations within a family, aiming to make the abstract and relatively distant concept of climate change a tangible and personal issue. The final scene presented an optimistic scenario of a future where humans had successfully combated climate change through collective action. The evidence suggests that there is an effect of the scenario on the carbon footprint response, even 6 weeks after the VR exposure, irrespective of condition. Additionally, increases were found in participants’ perceived influence on climate action and engagement in pro-environmental behaviors, with the embodied group showing a more pronounced response in the short term. These findings suggest that immersive VR experiences that incorporate virtual embodiment can be an effective tool in enhancing awareness and motivating pro-environmental behavior by providing a powerful and personal perspective on the impacts of climate change
Another age of anxiety: psychological distress and the 'asset economy'
Get PDFRates of ‘anxiety disorder’ have risen rapidly in the 21st century, provoking much public debate as to the causes. However, despite attending to varieties of mental distress over its history, sociology has said little about the context of this ‘epidemic’. By contrast, the rise of depression and anti-depressants in the 1980s has been viewed by cultural theorists and critics as a distinctly neoliberal affliction, that casts light on its sociological context. Too often, both in critical and non-critical discourses, the distinction between ‘depression’ and ‘anxiety’ has been elided. The article seeks to take anxiety seriously as a distinct contemporary sociological phenomenon. To do this, it examines how anxiety has been framed in the past by existentialist and psychoanalytic traditions, then how this history was systematically eliminated by the medicalization of psychiatry. It then considers how the sociology of assets and assetization might provide an explanatory context for contemporary anxiety ‘disorders’
Universal basic income in Viennese Late Enlightenment: rediscovering Josef Popper-Lynkeus and his in-kind social program
Get PDFAustrian engineer, philosopher, and political economist Josef Popper-Lynkeus (1838–1921) was a renowned public intellectual of Viennese Late Enlightenment. In this article, we unearth and explore Popper-Lynkeus’s social program. It sought to implement social conscription to unconditionally guarantee a basic level of goods and services for every human individual. We appraise the economic and ethical justifications provided by Popper-Lynkeus for his allegedly “rational” proposals and the intended consequences for the discipline of economics. Finally, and based on our disambiguation of different notions of “unconditionality”, we clarify similarities and differences between Popper-Lynkeus’s social program and contemporary proposals for a universal basic income, characterising both as alternatives to traditional welfare states
Book Review: Depth Public Relations: After the masquerade
Get PDFA review of Jo Fawkes' book, 'Depth Public Relations', in which Fawkes applies psychoanalytical and other theories to de-centre PR's collective professional-organisational ‘ego’. The book review summarises Fawkes' analysis of what lies behind PR's mask, and possibilities for change
The psychometric properties of the Italian version of Reinforcement Sensitivity Theory Personality Questionnaire (RST-PQ)
No full textReinforcement Sensitivity Theory (RST) conceptualizes personality as the long-term stability of brain process underlying motivational states. It proposes three systems: the Behavioral Approach System (BAS), the Behavioral Inhibition System (BIS), and the Fight-Flight-Freeze System (FFFS). The current study examined the psychometric properties of the Reinforcement Sensitivity Theory of Personality Questionnaire (RST-PQ) in an Italian community sample of 332 participants (62.7 % female), aged between 18 and 77 years. Results confirmed that the Italian version of the RST-PQ demonstrates strong psychometric properties in terms of both internal consistency and factor structure. Reliability analyses indicated that all scales exhibited good-to-excellent reliability, comparable to the values reported in the original validation study of the RST-PQ, as well as in other language adaptations. A series of confirmatory factor analyses support the six-factor structure of the Italian RST-PQ, yielding fit indices equal to or better than those of the original version. The Italian version of the RST-PQ shows promise as a useful tool for both research and clinical applications. In particular, its capacity to differentiate between the BIS and FFFS constructs provides valuable insights for investigating and understanding motivational tendencies, reactivity, and behavioral patterns in contexts characterized by distress and fear-related phenomena in an Italian population
Understanding Gen Z Consumers: A Typology of (Un)sustainable Purchases
Get PDFGeneration Z represents an important and environmentally conscious consumer group. Yet their environmental psychological pre-dispositions often fail to translate into consistent sustainable purchases. Extending neutralization theory, this study examines the psychological mechanisms Gen Z consumers use to rationalize their (un)sustainable actions. Through in-depth interviews and thematic analysis, we identify the relevance of four established neutralization techniques, along with two novel additions: denial of efficacy and denial of proximity. We further introduce a new consumer typology, categorizing Gen Z as Disengaged, Moderates, and Advocates. The three groups differ in terms of the neutralization techniques employed to justify (un)sustainable purchases. The typology offers actionable insights for marketers and policymakers, enabling more effective message framing and the design of interventions that foster sustainable consumption within a prominent consumer group
Four ways personal language autobiographies can transform the English teaching of Generation Alpha
No full textOne of the most powerful and effective learning activities in the English classroom used to be a form of autobiography called a Personal Language Autobiography (PLA). Its holistic, contextual approach, seeking to draw out a pupil’s experiences of language, has been discarded in favour of more mechanical ways of teaching language and grammar. This chapter outlines four ways the PLA can transform the teaching of English for Generation Alpha, arguing that the PLA transforms students into experts in their own language use; provides a great tool for teaching grammar; nurtures students’ critical and creative writing skills; and it is a powerful teacher-education resource
Owed to Sonomorphix
No full text'Owed to Sonomorphix' follows two survivors of the ‘Ultimate Demise’ who can only endure the inhospitable planet by wearing full body-suits - 'Sonomorphix' - which allow them to calibrate, tune in, and/or tune out of the frequencies of the sensorially challenging apocalyptic environments that they must move through in order to stay alive