Zeitschriftenartikel zum Thema „Utopian Persistence“

The theorizing of utopia is a persistent theme throughout several generations of the French continental tradition, and alongside the process theory of Alfred North Whitehead to a large degree recuperates the concept of utopia from its supposed dismissal by Marx and his intellectual descendants. Most recently, attention to the notion of plasticity, popularized (relatively speaking) by Catherine Malabou, extends speculation on utopian possibility. Compelled to answer to Marx’s denigration of utopia as fantasy, the tendency was (still is, for many) to compensate for the absence of a programmatic politics by stressing what is “useful” about utopian dreaming, and therefore where or how exactly a utopian text reveals or creates political drive, or motivates political action. In this essay, I argue that theorists have overlooked the use of utopia as not only the reproduction of difference, or what Malabou calls positive plasticity, but also as, therefore, a disruption; Malabou might prefer the term accident here. Tracing the concept of plasticity from Roland Barthes to Malabou, with a nod at Miguel Abensour, this essay teases out the links between a contemporary notion of plasticity to argue, simply put, that utopia is plastic. This plasticity of the concept ensures its political force. These links, obscured in the essay “Plastic,” Barthes makes only later in his writing. But for Malabou, plasticity underlies a principle of futurity and/as generativity, such that new forms, new meanings, new concepts emerge through difference. Utopia’s horizons of potentiality depend on difference, and on non-achievement. Finally, I argue that the persistence of utopia (Abensour) as a form of thinking is the most important, and political, effect of utopian plasticity.

‘The characteristic feature of the crisis of the twenty years between 1919 and 1939 was the abrupt descent from the visionary hopes of the first decade to the grim despair of the second, from a Utopia which took little account of reality to a reality from which every element of Utopia was rigorously excluded… The Utopia of 1919 was hollow and without substance,’ So wrote E. H. Carr in the conclusion to his Twenty Years Crisis, which he sent to the press in the middle of July 1939. Fifty years later one cannot but agree with him that the peace settlement of 1919 ‘failed’: Hitler, Mussolini and Stalin wiped it off the map of Europe. But though the Second World War created a very different ‘realistic’ world, some of the ‘Utopian’ ideals of 1919, so brusquely dismissed by Carr, re-surfaced irrepressibly after 1945, and some of their practical applications returned to the agenda of international politics.

Utopias of the text are the moments of the emergence of a new and radical concept of the text as overflowing all limits and boundaries. Here these utopias are traced in the writings of Roland Barthes, Jacques Derrida, and Michel Foucault. They often emerge at the margins of these texts, in fragments or boundaries at which the utopia can be glimpsed before disappearing. These utopian moments can be reconstructed as a form of thinking the post-literary and its limits. They can also be traced to the explosion of speech during May 1968 and Maurice Blanchot is a key figure who links together this political moment with the ‘neutral’ form of writing. This article explores the fading of these utopias of the text alongside this draining of political energies. These processes of critique and waning suggest the inversion of utopias of the text into dystopias of the text. Now the sign or signifier appears dispersed or even insignificant compared to the powers and forces of post-literary domination. In this situation, however, the article suggests, the persistence of the utopias of the text as a critical horizon that can still inform how we grasp the equivocations of our post-literary moment.

PERSISTENT UTOPIA | Persistent utopia is not to be confused with the conservative notion of an eternal utopia as a static and authoritarian ideal. Rather, persistent utopia is an impulse towards freedom and justice. It is a fragile phenomenon which is seeking to avoid the closure of reality through a constant displacement. The sites of the persistent utopia can be located at two different levels: through the ontological thinking of Ernst Bloch and through the ethical philosophy of Emmanuel Levinas which takes the encounter as its point of departure. The present forms of the persistence of utopia can be seen, e.g., in the “new utopian spirit” as a responseto the dialectics of emancipation, and in the relation between utopia and democracy.

Resilience is a requirement for a modern-day academic citizen. This essay discusses the sources of academic resilience and its costs through personal reflection. The text positions academic citizenship among intersecting lifeworlds and ends up with a recognition of posthumanist ethic as a source of resilience. The vision for the academic citizen is neither utopian nor dystopian but thrutopian. Academic resilience is persistence to muddle through hardships, drawing power from the anxiety of neoliberal academia in a multicrisis world. The keyboard is our tool for crafting better futures, and the love for writing must be salvaged repeatedly from the paralyzing anxiety that has little in common with academic procrastination memes.

This paper focuses on three narratives from the popular press during the boom in apocalyptic literature at the turn of the twentieth century: George Griffith’s Olga Romanoff (1894), Robert Barr’s “Within an Ace of the End of the World” (1900), and M. P. Shiel’s The Purple Cloud (1901). In all three texts, a catastrophic event causes the near extinction of humanity, and the event is inscribed in a religious narrative wherein humanity’s moral failings justify the cataclysm. In these texts, the survivors are European or descended from Europeans, such that post-apocalyptic humanity is exclusively White; all racial Others are depicted as unworthy of divine protection, or even as worthy of divine destruction. The survivors of these disasters fuse social Darwinism and theology to present themselves as racially superior and thus divinely favoured, compared to the deceased. The providential genocide significantly alters ethical ramifications by ensuring that racial elimination does not occur because of deliberate actions on the part of characters, sparing them from any culpability; instead, racial cleansing is presented as God’s will. This sets up a White exclusivist racial utopia free of moral stain, although the persistence of racial ideology into the apocalypse can undermine the utopian sentiment.

The essay considers Serge Daney's transition from a film critic schooled in New Wave cinephilia to a television critic fascinated by the possibilities of the small screen and the status of cinema as an old medium. Looking in the “rear-view mirror,” Daney challenges foundational film theory that situates cinema at the forefront of technological and cultural modernity, and he introduces the language of belatedness, aging, and delay into his writing on the “adult art” of film. In the 1980s, Daney began to chronicle the experience of watching cinema on television, with old and new media spiraling into each other and the critic engaged in a process of archaeology focused as much on absent or damaged images as the imaginary plenitude of the screen. Tweedie's essay frames the critic's work as a key reference point for film studies in the late twentieth century because it counters both the modernist euphoria of theory produced decades before and the enthusiasm surrounding the digital revolution in the years just after his death, with new media in the vanguard once occupied by cinema. Instead of recomposing this familiar narrative of innovation, succession, and obsolescence, Daney constructs a retrospective and intermedial theory of film, with the act of watching cinema on television revealing both the diminution and the persistence of its most utopian ambitions.

An academic scientist’s professional success depends on publishing. Publishing norms emphasize novel, positive results. As such, disciplinary incentives encourage design, analysis, and reporting decisions that elicit positive results and ignore negative results. Prior reports demonstrate how these incentives inflate the rate of false effects in published science. When incentives favor novelty over replication, false results persist in the literature unchallenged, reducing efficiency in knowledge accumulation. Previous suggestions to address this problem are unlikely to be effective. For example, a journal of negative results publishes otherwise unpublishable reports. This enshrines the low status of the journal and its content. The persistence of false findings can be meliorated with strategies that make the fundamental but abstract accuracy motive—getting it right—competitive with the more tangible and concrete incentive—getting it published. This article develops strategies for improving scientific practices and knowledge accumulation that account for ordinary human motivations and biases.

In 1878, Friedrich Engels famously wrote that on the road to realizing the communist utopia, “the state is not abolished, it withers away.” In a similar manner, biomedical researchers telling us that come the promised land of individualized genomic medicine, the need for using race will also “wither away” in the face of scientific progress. Such millennial hopes are, no doubt, sincere, but they enable the continued casual proliferation of racial categories throughout biomedical research, product development, marketing, and clinical practice. My contrasting quotation to frame this article is drawn from the 20th century pioneer of rock and roll, Buddy Holly (né Charles Hardin Holley) whose 1957 hit “Not Fade Away” begins with the line, “I’m gonna tell you how it's gonna be” — the point being that far from withering away, race is persisting even as genomic milestones are being reached and passed.

O estudo publicado por Filho et al.,1 nesta edição traz uma reflexão importante sobre a evolução das infecções por Plasmodium vivax ou Plasmodium falciparum em relação aos níveis de acometimento cardíaco, especialmente ao endotélio vascular, desencadeando o tipo de tratamento a seguir, ao demostrar que é uma utopia pensar que as infecções por P. vivax são sempre benignas, uma vez que pode apresentar recidivas tardias da doença, fato que pode causar exposições repetidas do endotélio a fatores inflamatórios.

Les revendications des partisans de l’anglophonie identitaire au Cameroun sont traversées par des imaginaires opposés à ceux qui ont structuré les constructions mémorielles de l’élite postcoloniale. Mue par la hantise de l’unité, cette élite a liquidé, en 1972, le régime fédéral issu de la réunification (1961). La révision constitutionnelle de 1984 renforce l’idée de l’unité en supprimant, au nom du pays, l’épithète rappelant le souvenir de l’union entre des territoires autrefois administrés par la France et la Grande-Bretagne. Après l’ouverture démocratique des années 1990, l’ordre politique dominant ne cède pas aux pressions visant le retour à l’ordre constitutionnel de 1961. Les leadeurs anglophones, qui contestaient déjà ce qu’ils ont considéré comme une tentative d’assimilation, vont élaborer et promouvoir des mémoires concurrentes. La persistance du conflit armé animé par les séparatistes depuis les revendications corporatistes de 2016 fait finalement de l’unité et de l’indivisibilité du Cameroun des utopies à parfaire. Abstract The demands of the supporters of the Anglophone identity in Cameroon are crossed by imaginaries opposed to those who have structured the memory constructions of the postcolonial elite. Driven by the fear of unity, this elite liquidated, in 1972, the federal regime resulting from reunification (1961). The constitutional revision of 1984 reinforced the idea of ​​unity by removing, in the name of the country, the epithet recalling the memory of the union between territories formerly administered by France and Great Britain. After the democratic opening of the 1990s, the dominant political order did not give in to pressures aimed at returning to the constitutional order of 1961. The English-speaking leaders, who were already contesting what they considered as an attempt at assimilation, will develop and promote competing memories. The persistence of the armed conflict led by the separatists since the corporatist demands of 2016 ultimately makes the unity and indivisibility of Cameroon utopias to be perfected.

This article seeks to read Thomas More’s Utopia (1516) as a key of analysis of the intrinsic connections between European modernity and a set of practices produced by the colonial process. Thus, the main objective is to discuss how fictional discourse can serve us, contemporary readers, as a didactic tool to visualize, in territories created by the colonial process, the persistence of its mechanisms. Using fiction as a field of discussion and response to this process would mean to claim the topology of the utopic, making it a kind of fictional mock-up of societies constituted by colonialism, anticipating or reflecting the spatial alterations imposed by modernity.

In the history of American consumer society, the case of King Camp Gillette, the “Razor King,” is at once strange and typical. Gillette — named King after a friend of his father — is recognized as the inventor of the modern safety razor and the namesake of the corporation launched to produce and sell it. As a tale of individual entrepreneurial triumph, Gillette's life follows a familiar pattern: hard work, visionary zeal, ridicule and adversity, persistence, trial and error, and conspicuous success. His story also functions well as a case study in the evolution of modern corporate business practice. The commercial genius of Gillette's invention was its disposable blade, and given a product (the razor) which created its own perpetual market (for the blades), the corporation used the modern tools of patent enforcement, stock offerings, public relations, market research, distribution, technology, diversification, and especially advertising to build and maintain its market share for the last 100 years. In these respects and others, Gillette's story finds an indigenous place in business textbooks, company testimonials, and cultural mythology.

Inspirado na ideia de textura mítica - trama persistente e flexível, capaz de se entrelaçar a outros fios ou tecidos narrativos -,este artigo propõe uma reflexão sobre o modo pelo qual o ideal de uma perfeita gemeidade, comum à tradição indo-europeia, vem sendo atualizado nas narrativas contemporâneas. Tendo como fio condutor desta reflexão o longa-metragem Gêmeos, mórbida semelhança (Dead Ringers/1989), de David Cronenberg - que apresenta gêmeos ginecologistas como personagens centrais -, analisa-se o discurso simbólico da trama, que entretece gemeidade, esterilidade e incesto. Em última instância, trata-se de destrinçar, no emaranhado de suas malhas, a coerência de um discurso simbólico sobre a gemeidade, em seus limites e utopia

As crises humanitárias acompanham a história da humanização como um antídoto persistente. A “descoberta do humano” como valor e norma de convivência civilizada é uma construção em processo. Posturas e regimes atuais assumem narrativas e políticas de negação do humano que colocam em dúvidas supostas seguranças humanitárias institucionalizadas. A revolução humanitária que gestou uma consciência humanitária cada vez mais global resulta uma percepção milenar de fundo religioso e filosófico. Contudo, ela ainda não conheceu sua conclusão e, de fato, não poderá conhecê-la por se tratar de um projeto em permanente construção. A utopia do humano é um horizonte a ser mantido vivo para além de todas as configurações históricas.

Espírito da utopia, de Ernst Bloch, foi escrito durante os anos da I Guerra Mundial, durante sua emigração na Suíça, e publicado em 1918. Neste livro, Bloch procura contrapor à loucura da guerra a pergunta pelo sentido, a qual, quando existencialmente entendida, há de conduzir a um “autoencontro” conosco mesmos. Bloch concentra-se especialmente em três círculos temáticos: o autoencontro nas artes plásticas, na música e na “questão inconstrutível” para nós mesmos, na filosofia. O movimento dialético interno disso Bloch resume, como lema de seu filosofar, em três frases: “Eu sou. Mas eu não me tenho. Com isso nós primeiramente seremos”. Já no “com isso nós primeiramente seremos”, fica claro que Bloch não compreende seu existencialismo de modo individualista, pois o autoencontro filosófico do ser humano somente pode ser exitoso em uma sociedade humano-social. Portanto, o compromisso com uma sociedade socialista e ecológica não deveria ser degenerado a algo técnico-científico, mas, justamente em relação ao socialismo a ser construído, aquela questão com a qual a filosofia já desde sempre se ocupa deve ser posta da forma ainda mais radical. Nosso engajamento por uma convivência mais humana entre nós e por uma interação responsável com a natureza deve ser capaz de resistir até mesmo diante de um possível fim da nossa história terrena. É nisso que culmina o dramático capítulo final “Karl Marx, a morte e o apocalipse” e nisso consiste o persistente desafio do Espírito da utopia para nós hoje.

Social media sites and the internet have opened up new spaces for self-identity and the construction of social relationships. Technology communications affect human relationships by introducing innovations for individual and collective representations, but the direction and intensity of these changes may be diverse and even reinforce old patterns from the past, particularly from a gender perspective. While feminist utopians heralded the internet as a space free from gender stereotypes, evidence suggests sexist patterns still remain in place today. This work investigates several phenomena on social media sites (egobloggers, YouTubers, influencers) from a gender perspective. This analysis confirms that although some practices on social media sites display new relationships and new constructions of self-identities, others reveal the persistence of sexism and gender discrimination, even though it may be invisible to the actors and the audience. This paper argues that a code of ethics is necessary to regulate users’ activity on social media sites, creating conscious values about the (un)explored consequences of common internet activities. Some guidelines for creating this code of ethics from a gender perspective are presented in the last section.

A política é uma área que tem atraído diversas discussões na modernidade, por diversos tipos de intelectuais, tais como sociólogos, cientistas políticos, filósofos políticos, entre outros. Significativa parcela dessas discussões objetiva analisar a racionalidade e origens históricas do modo de fazer política que resultaram na conjuntura atual de determinada sociedade. Outras discussões idealizam utopias que supostamente repararia os males causados pela forma vigente de governo. Outras ainda, a exemplo de Maquiavel, descrevem a política tal como ela é praticada, para que sirva de modelo para políticos atuais e futuros, que desejam chegar ou permanecer no poder. Nesse sentido, esse trabalho consiste em uma descrição, análise e distinção entre Democracia Ideal e Democracia Real do filósofo italiano Norberto Bobbio na obra O futuro da Democracia: uma defesa das regras do jogo. O autor trabalha a distinção entre o ideal prometido pela modernidade e o que acontece na realidade, discutindo sobre o jogo do poder invisível existente nas persistentes “oligarquias”. Tanto o fim das oligarquias quanto do poder invisível foram, segundo Bobbio, promessas não cumpridas pela teoria moderna. Esses, dentre outros elementos, evidenciam uma distinção entre Democracia Ideal e Democracia Real e são a eles, principalmente, que nos deteremos nesse trabalho.

Abstract In his forthcoming Lectures on Imagination, Paul Ricoeur develops his theory by contending that the imagination may be understood across two axes. The first, horizontal axis moves from reproductive imagination at the left end to productive imagination on the right. A second, vertical axis moves from belief at the bottom to critical distance at the top. This article examines his vertical axis and seek to comprehend and appraise his distinction between imagination as belief and as critical distance. Elaboration of the vertical axis remains significant both as a matter of exegesis internal to the Lectures and, more substantively, as an opening, perhaps especially in our parlous times, to the availability of a distinction between critical distance and being captured by belief. While the article values the potential positive role of critical distance as providing a location for alternative perspectives on and critique of existing imaginative frameworks, it questions Ricoeur’s claims that the vertical axis permits even at the top an escape from belief or that belief is necessarily negative. In developing this response, the article initially returns to subtleties in Ricoeur’s presentation in the Lectures that his main argument on the vertical axis does not pursue, and it then turns to engage in a contrast between Ricoeur’s argument in the Lectures and his argument in the Lectures on Ideology and Utopia. Part of the claim is that perspectives in both hermeneutics and phenomenology to which Ricoeur otherwise adheres challenge his conclusion that critical distance permits an escape from belief. These perspectives also challenge the kind of phenomenological stance Ricoeur develops and so reveal conflicts between hermeneutics and phenomenology and between various strands of phenomenology. The article develops its analysis in particular by distinguishing between Ricoeur’s emphasis on imagination as as if or as seeing as. The article concludes by showing the interrelation of the argument about the persistence of belief to contemporary theory in behavioral economics. The article’s thesis, then, has substantial implications for the construction of Ricoeur’s vertical axis, for the implications of this axis in relation to Ricoeur’s other work, and for its engagement with and expansion of contemporary social theory.

Vivemos tempos desafiadores. Desde quando? Muito provavelmente desde que a história humana passou a ser registrada. Ou, quem sabe, bem antes disso. Conflitos, guerras, batalhas, jogos de interesse, epidemias, pandemias... Trágicos ecos humanos. Na educação não se faz diferente. Imensos desafios a exigir olhares cuidadosos. Persistentes. Leituras que nos eduquem para paz e a resiliência são, portanto, ainda mais bem-vindas em meio a essa tormenta vivida na atualidade. Nesse sentido educador para a paz é que nos interessa a delicadeza existencial, sobretudo educadora, presente na poética do livro Cultura da Paz, de Marco Lucchesi.Mas antes de abordar propriamente o livro, equilibremos o jogo das evocações, pois há que se celebrar também os momentos afortunados vividos pela humanidade. Um dos mais notáveis: o surgimento e registro da poiesis. Surgimento este, pode-se arriscar dizer, inevitável em um planeta onde pulsa, como nascida do próprio contato com a ancestralidade da terra, a poesia dos cantos, das danças, das narrativas míticas. Lembre-se, ainda, o fulgurante surgimento do logos filosófico, seguido de tantas futuras conquistas científicas questionadoras da doxa. Tudo isso, seja nos momentos mais lamentáveis, ou nos mais afortunados, acompanhado de perto pela sábia expressão de grandes pensadores-poetas com alma de educadores a nos iluminar por caminhos inéditos e, igualmente, por outros tantas vezes já trilhados, mas que teimamos em repetir mesmo em face do prejuízo às causas humanas mais nobres. Marco Lucchesi é um desses pensadores-poetas-educadores. No seu caso particular: poeta-pensador-educador. O poeta sempre em primeiro lugar, antecipando o pensador e o educador. Em Cultura da Paz ressoam incontáveis vozes de outros tantos que, como ele, tiveram, e têm, a coragem de se indignar diante da vileza para pensar nossa existência circunstanciada por esta que, muito além de mera utopia, desde sempre se mostra como uma necessidade visceral em nosso planeta: a paz.Em sua surpreendente liga poética avessa à repetição e amiga da singularidade, Lucchesi é incansável reinventor de si mesmo. A paz, que sua indignada voz insone reivindica com a máxima urgência, arrasta consigo ondas abismais de reflexões sobre o humano. Sim, a cultura da paz deveria ser para todos. É para todos, nos lembra com ênfase o poeta.O prefácio anuncia já pelo título “Infância de Poeta: quase prefácio” o tom de incompletude em duração, próprio dos pontos brilhantes do passado sempre em reconstrução no presente sobre o qual Proust e outros grandes literatos tanto nos ensinam. O elegante posfácio assinado por Ana Maria Haddad Baptista arremata, em cuidadosa leitura, a erudição aliada à suntuosa poética em graus plurais da literatura de Lucchesi. De fato, a vasta erudição do poeta-pensador nunca corre o risco de se perder em meio ao labirinto das vozes referenciais ecoantes em sua prosa poética. Ao contrário, e para sedução definitiva do leitor de alma formada, para lembrar Clarice Lispector, também por ele evocada em dado momento, é justamente pela vastidão de sua erudição que Lucchesi mais encontra sua própria senda poético-ensaística. Não há subestimação do leitor. Ao contrário, segue implícita à leitura, como em toda sua obra, o convite à pesquisa de seus rizomáticos referenciais. E nisso se reconhece também o educador Marco Lucchesi.Os ensaios de Cultura da Paz se reúnem em subtítulos suscitadores da imaginação-leitora: Locatários do Presente; Índice de Barbárie; Pentimento e Proporção; Corpo-Galáxia; Inquietude Semântica; Apolo e Tutuguri; Topologias; Fuga em Ré Menor. Ao longo de tais espessuras, palavra, aliás, recorrente em sua poética sempre a lidar com densidades, Lucchesi reafirma, incansável, quanto sempre vale a pena nos posicionarmos e lutarmos pela paz não restrita à mera utopia. E não caminha sozinho por essas espessas veredas. A exemplo de Dante, que encontra em Virgílio um guia à altura de sua busca pela luz do paraíso e de Beatriz, Lucchesi se remete constantemente a apoiadores de peso. Adeptos, cada um à sua maneira, da mesma causa pela paz por meio da literatura e da cultura. Assim é que, pelos ecos poéticos de Lucchesi, ouvem-se também as vozes de Dante (gigante inspirador sempre a guiá-lo), Agostinho, Tomás de Aquino, Leonardo, Camões, Montaigne, Kant, Nietzsche, Cervantes, Dostoiévski, para se ficar somente com alguns nomes de um passado tão necessariamente evocado pelo poeta-pensador. Artaud, Nise da Silveira, Umberto Eco, Haroldo de Campos, Remo Bodei, Teilhard de Chardin, Einstein, Jacques Monod, Prigogine dentre nomes do século XX, passando por outros tantos que, como ele próprio, representam, in memoriam ou in vitam, uma imortalidade literária legitimada pela Academia Brasileira de Letras (ABL): Machado de Assis, Eduardo Portela, Nelida Piñon, Ferreira Gullar, Ligia Fagundes Telles, Carlos Heitor Cony... Ocupante da cadeira número 15 da ABL, anteriormente ocupada, entre outros, por Olavo Bilac, e que tem Gonçalves Dias por patrono, Lucchesi exerce, neste ano ainda tão desafiador de 2021, o quarto mandato seguido, por reeleição, à frente da presidência da ABL. De fato, muito do que se lê em Cultura da Paz parece nascido justamente dos devires em desafio desse exercício em que ele próprio se posiciona como um buscador da paz por meio da expansão humanizadora da cultura literária. “Carta a um Jovem Preso” é dos ensaios mais tocantes que se pode ler em Cultura da Paz. Sobretudo por esses tempos em que se mostra vital, em termos de saúde planetária, nossa reconciliação com o humano, a natureza e a paz. Esse ensaio emociona não por algum índice de pietà. Longe disso. Mas pela dignidade humana com que Lucchesi compartilha, incondicionalmente, sua sábia erudição buscadora de paz e liberdade. Sua resposta à carta de um preso, mais do que conscientizar, educa-nos em momentos de abismais mergulhos em alma-pensamento:Concordo: a literatura abre todas as celas, que são muitas e sutis, quando não invisíveis, dentro das quais vivemos, todos, sem exceção, mais ou menos conscientes da liberdade que precisamos conquistar. Não diminuo, apesar disso, um milímetro de sua dor e inquietação. A sua história acusa a ausência do Estado e o caminho áspero e solitário que o levou ao cárcere. Somos todos culpados, em certo grau, embora o artigo e a pena recaiam sobre o indivíduo. E aqui também nos solidarizamos um com o outro (p.35).No primeiro conjunto de ensaios, reunidos sob o título de “Locatários do Presente”, memórias fluem ao longo de páginas evocadoras de uma poética geográfica. Seja uma geografia imaginária, fio da memória a desfazer agendas físicas e virtuais recomeçadas no início de mais um ano, sejam as lembranças dos pais emigrados da Itália ao Brasil durante a Segunda Guerra Mundial. Passam, ainda, por essa geografia memorialista lembranças de visitas a Cusco (Peru), Nova Déli (Índia) e o Rio de Janeiro da queima de fogos do Ano Novo, onde é possível se encontrar os ares tanto da Bahia quanto da longínqua Beirute presentes na rua da Alfândega.“Índice da Barbárie” é o título do segundo rol de ensaios. O tom se dá pela indignação do poeta-pensador perante a barbárie de ainda termos de conviver com situações indignas de aprisionamentos dos mais diversos tipos. Condições inaceitáveis de cárceres de corpos e almas, explícitas e implícitas, diante das quais Lucchesi se posiciona como incondicional defensor da liberdade. Seus argumentos evoluem com a propriedade de quem visita presídios na condição de educador pela voz da literatura e dos livros.“Pentimento e proporção” celebra artistas do porte de Leonardo da Vinci, que o poeta descreve, entre incontáveis atributos revisitados aos 500 anos de sua morte, como gênio visionário para quem a poesia é pintura cega e a pintura é poesia muda (p.50). E segue o percurso ensaístico em que pintura e música, alinhavadas pela exatidão geométrico-matemática, ou pela criatividade insubordinada à precisão, são trazidas à baila passando por nomes como o do pintor italiano Guido Reni, dos brasileiros Israel Pedrosa, José Bechara e Cândido Portinari, para finalizar com a música do também brasileiro Francisco Mignone. Lucchesi não deixa de lamentar a tímida presença da arte nas escolas brasileiras, considerando como imperativo categórico recuperá-la para a cidadania (p. 56).“Corpo-Galáxia” é viagem poética estelar que parte de lembranças dos saudosos Ferreira Gullar (também imortal da ABL), por ocasião de sua partida em 2016, passa pelo refino tradutório de Jorge Wanderley e chega ao poeta simbolista romeno Ştefan Petică. A escala obrigatória da viagem ocorre em Dante, seguindo em voo pela poesia da portuguesa Eugénia de Vasconcellos e da cabo-verdiana Vera Duarte Pina.“Inquietude Semântica” saúda os nomadismos experimentais, aliados às bem-vindas inquietudes intelectuais, de Carlos Heitor Cony, Eduardo Portella e José Cândido de Carvalho. Montaigne é bússola referencial de inquietação textual do passado revigorada nas várias vozes ensaísticas evocadas até o presente, incluindo-se a do próprio Lucchesi. As obras monumentais dos italianos Dino Buzzati e Umberto Eco também são alvos das reflexões do poeta-pensador nesse quadrante ensaístico. O arremate de singularidade experimental fica por conta do derradeiro ensaio do segmento intitulado “Livros Fantasmas”. Aposta machadiana-borgiana no desvelamento (marotamente nem um pouco confiável!) sobre a gênese de criação da obra Catálogo da biblioteca do excelentíssimo senhor marquês Umbelino Frisão, escrita “por um tal de Lúcio Marchesi”. Melhor não revelar mais detalhes sobre os segredos por trás da obra e do ensaio. Deixe-se ao leitor o prazer da descoberta.“Apolo e Tutuguri” reúne somente dois ensaios, mas com uma densidade de infinitos. O primeiro é dedicado ao imenso poeta e ator francês Antonin Artaud, referência quando se fala em teatro e em experimentalismo poético existencial. Ao sondar a vastidão de Artaud, Lucchesi percorre quatro caminhos poético-reflexivos: O Teatro de Séraphin; O Poder da Imagem; O Infinito e o Peyotl; Teologias do Inconsciente. O filósofo italiano Remo Bodei surge no segundo momento, em suntuoso diálogo com Lucchesi. Veredas dialéticas trilhadas por literatura, filosofia, arte, ciência, orquestradas pela densa poética de pensamento e expressão de ambos.“Topologias” adentra, mais uma vez, territórios reivindicadores de respeito e liberdade humana selados pela epígrafe de uma “aritmética da compaixão” (p. 135), que abre o segmento lembrando o poeta polonês Zbigniew Herbert. Começa-se, em altíssimo estilo, pela poética de vida em perpétua compaixão da dra. Nise da Silveira, definida nas palavras precisas de Lucchesi como “uma das glórias da ciência no Brasil” (p.137). O tema seguinte é a favela como lugar digno de representação social a ser alcançado pelas políticas públicas, pois “precisamos da dialética de Paulo Freire para o concerto urbano, com seus instrumentos legais” (p. 142). A memória dos livros e arquivos da Biblioteca e do Arquivo Nacional surgem a seguir, antecipando o que, no ensaio seguinte, será a celebração das memórias de Cartola e Pasolini em diálogos ativos com o presente. Despede-se essa sequência de ensaios com o adeus ao acadêmico Evaristo de Moraes Filho, imortal da ABL, que, na definição de Lucchesi, “foi dos pensadores mais refinados sobre a democracia no Brasil” (p.148).O derradeiro conjunto de ensaios se reúne sob o título de “Fuga em Ré Menor”. De teor mais autobiográfico, conduzem o leitor pelos caminhos da Vida Poética, com maiúsculas, de Marco Lucchesi. Seus discursos de posse na ABL, mais do que refinada literatura transposta a essas páginas reivindicadoras de paz, são ensinamentos sobre como é possível levar a cabo, apesar dos desafios, em seus mais variados graus, uma existência dedicada à literatura celebradora da Vida. Da Liberdade. Da Paz.

AbstractResearchers have recently shown a growing interest for studies of anti-utopian fictions in Chinese, highlighting their critical value in history, society, and ideology. However the persistence of the utopian spirit beyond these dystopian representations has often been neglected. The present paper aims to explore this underlying utopianism by focusing on Ge Fei’s

In the grand narrative of Honolulu as the gateway to the Land of Aloha, Honolulu metaphorically negotiates a position that mediates the contrasts between a typical socio-economic, urban reality and touristic myths of pastoral excoticism. Drawing on the critical works of postcolonial scholar Edward Said in conjunction with theories on semiotics and tourism, the article posits that two main factors contribute to reinforce and repeat the (neo)-colonial paradigm’s persistence in the grand narrative on Hawaii – namely aloha and nostalgia. Aloha functions conceptually as a unifying, pacifying force amongst the local population, while it defines the tourist gaze on Hawaii as a welcoming and politically uncomplicated holiday destination. Nostalgia, on the other hand, is the ideological interpretation of the past based on utopian desires in the present. Conjoined, aloha and nostalgia favor the tourist gaze and continue the hegemonic processes that colonize the minds of tourists and locals alike.

Abstract The contemporary case of settler colonialism in Palestine/Israel generates debates about the different types of violence – physical, territorial, and mental – experienced by the Palestinians. For more than 15 years, the Gaza Strip has been under blockade and isolated from the other Palestinian territories and the world. This reality has led to interpretations of Gaza as a laboratory, where remote-controlled weapons and the limits of human survival are tested. This makes Gazans use expressions such as ‘slow death’ or ‘living death’ to describe their lives. This article analyses six short stories from the science fiction book ‘Palestine +100: Stories from a century after the Nakba’ (2019) to investigate how the Israeli settler colonialism impacts Palestinian fictional production on Gaza. We argue that the persistence of the Nakba in the Palestinian present through continued expulsions, destruction and assassinations by Israel has made life an everyday dystopia. Furthermore, it made Palestinians’ imaginations regarding their future no longer utopian dreams of liberation, but dystopian and cyclical nightmares of confinement and death. Living eternally in the nightmare, as observed in Palestinian artistic productions, works as a colonial counterrevolutionary strategy. In this bleak reality, Gazans are left with the alternative of ‘living in death.’

This article examines the conceptualisations of peace and its preconditions manifested in the critical turn in peace theory: bottom-up approaches which begin with particular contexts and postulate diverse local actors as integral to the process of peace-building. This article argues that the turn is at an impasse and is unable to address the crucial charge that its conceptualisation of peace is inconsistent. To explain the persistence of inconsistency and to move us forward, the article analyses, evaluates and responds to the turn through the lens of Nicholas Rengger’s work on the anti-Pelagian imagination in political theory. This is defined as a tendency to begin theorising from non-utopian, anti-perfectionist and sceptical assumptions. Through this examination the article argues that the critical turn is anti-Pelagian but not consistently so because it often gives way to perfectionism, adopts naïve readings of institutions and postulates demanding conceptions of political agency and practice. This inconsistency with its own philosophical premises makes the turn’s conceptualisation of peace and its preconditions incoherent. Finally, the article sketches an alternative account of peace which draws upon a number of anti-Pelagian scholars and mobilises Rengger’s particular defense of anti-Pelagianism. The suggested alternative, the article argues, provides us with a more coherent theory of peace and a way out of existing dead ends.

This paper engages with two important approaches theorising the co-existence and even close entanglement between the market and non-market to rethink the making of actually existing market economies. The first, that is, the diverse/community economies approach, underscores alternative relations and ethics to capitalism but often views community economies as external to market processes. A second approach on market frontiers rejects the idea of the non-market domain as a Utopian space but re-imagines it as a constituent part within capitalism, while powerful actors manage and utilise non-market differences to configure particular regimes of accumulation. However, it says relatively little about how the market/non-market divide is navigated and appropriated to suit the wellbeing of grassroots people and communities. This paper calls for a dialogue between the two approaches and argues that community economies provide important ‘background conditions of possibility’ for ordinary people to advance their needs, interests, and wellbeing by negotiating or traversing the market/non-market divide. Our empirical study investigates recent socioeconomic transformations in two villages, Lolong and Nyiru, located within the Potatso National Park, Yunnan Province, China. In both villages, local people keep alive communal norms of reciprocity and mutual support. The persistence of the non-marketised community economies is partly attributed to a state-capital coalition that outlaws grassroots participation in local tourism economy. Subsequently, villagers devise a number of tactics to penetrate the market realm and meet emerging lifestyle and consumer needs. Three of such tactics are discussed in this study.

A abordagem que se pretende dar ao presente artigo é a de que os atores sociais, neste início do novo milênio, necessitam repensar osfundamentos civilizacionais e espiritualistas da crise pela qual passa o Planeta Terra. A característica mais premente deste momento éjustamente a instalação persistente, angustiante, de dúvidas à respeito do assunto e da falta de respostas para as mesmas. Lutar por utopias?Será utopia lutar por uma democracia ecológico-social? Deve o indivíduo buscar a criação de uma nova espiritualidade e a reconciliação com o Cosmos? Devem-se buscar novas possibilidades de re-encantar o Planeta, e com isso re-encantar o olhar do ator social, convocando-o a uma mudança de consciência, a um repensar de quem é ele e qual o seu lugar no Cosmos? De que maneira o indivíduo deve e pode fazer isto? São perguntas que estarão presentes durante a elaboração deste artigo que tem como objetivo, a tentativa na buscade soluções e respostas para as questões acima formuladas sobre o Planeta Terra.

How does a daring idea like the utopia of affordable housing weather a century of change? The persistence of institutions—shared meanings that shape individual actions—is a central feature of organizational life. Recent scholarship stresses that institutions endure not because they are static but because they evolve as individuals maintain them. However, the search for micro-foundations has sidelined the macro-conditions of such dynamic persistence. Building on structural studies of meaning, we propose and illustrate a new, complementary theory-method package that can reveal how ideas are embedded and evolve in meaning structures. Dynamic modeling of discourse (DMD) tracks changing cultural meanings over time, doing justice to the assumption that institutional persistence can result from fluid changes in how institutions are instantiated as observable patterns of interactions at any given time. We develop three diagnostic measures for tracking both institutions and their instantiations in large corpora. Applying DMD to a 140-year corpus of reports of the City of Vienna, Austria, we show that the persistence of public housing as an institution was possible due to periodically changing instantiations—such as whether public housing policies subsidize landlords or tenants—with shifting affiliations to broader meanings. Our paper unlocks methodological doors to a dynamic, contextual approach to studying institutions that complements archival and ethnographic methods. It allows researchers to test theory-led expectations about persistence and provides a mixed-methods tool for historical research on organizations. We conclude with implications for structural studies of meaning, persistence, and change.

A utopia de uma sociedade humana governada conscientemente de forma conjunta superando os velhos localismos e os preconceitos herdados do período medieval e ainda persistentes em diversos autores e instituições foi criada por autores modernistas a partir do iluminismo, entre os quais se destacam Marx, Engels e Nietzsche. Estes autores possuem uma visão anti-burguesa, mas souberam ver o potencial de progresso econômico, técnico e científico que caracteriza o capitalismo. Todavia, a construção de um mundo unido ou bem ordenado em termos econômicos, culturais ou outros continua uma utopia, dando lugar, hoje, a uma série de interrogações sobre o futuro da humanidade.

This paper argues for incorporation of attitude into geographical work on affect. We do so through an engagement with affect in musical experiences and adopting as our focus punk music in Northern Ireland during the 1970s. Through a combination of lyrical analysis and in-depth interviews with some of those involved in the punk scene in Northern Ireland at that time, we find that affective responses to musical experiences can be translated into attitude, shifting from intentional expression, e.g., through clothing or demeanour, to habituation and pre-reflective persistence at the level of the everyday, extending the duration of affect and interweaving the cognitive and pre-reflective. Further, through our emphasis on the temporalities of affect, our focus on punk music in Northern Ireland at the height of the Troubles identifies the attitudinal prefiguration of an anarchist utopia. However, due to the habituation of attitude, this political aspect becomes invisible to and unacknowledged by those exhibiting and instantiating it. This paper extends the affective moment into durable attitudinal dispositions, unsettles rigid notions of separation between the cognitive and pre-reflective, questions the radical openness of affect in the face of the regulatory power of attitude, provides theoretical insights into punk as instantiating an attitudinal form of utopia, and contributes to growing engagement with the political potential of affect.

<p>O texto apresenta e reflete sobre o tema desta revista – Educação e Cidade, cujo propósito é falar sobre a ação pública e os saberes nela envolvidos que tem que um persistente significado ético de realimentação do sentido da ação que se quer pública. Os textos e práticas veiculados têm por objetivo articular a teoria e a ação no campo social. Além disso, subsidiar profissionais da área; ampliar a consistência e o suporte teórico das intervenções exigidas pela nossa complexa demanda de proteção, educação e desenvolvimento social. O desejo da revista é caminhar numa trilha reflexiva, visando envolver, numa produção coletiva, o maior número possível de profissionais engajados na ação pública. Pretende, portanto, priorizar a intervenção e as práticas movidas a partir de políticas e programas sociais; instaurar um diálogo com características de oficinas e observatório da prática; produzir teorias da ação e investigações na ação; valorizar a leitura do contexto e da conjuntura em que se dá a ação pública. Para tanto, algumas questões permanecem na pauta do debate sobre os saberes e a ação pública: menos racionalidade cognitivo-instrumental e mais racionalidade ética/estética/crítica/comunicativa, humanizadoras da ação; menos saberes e ações fragmentadas; revalorização dos saberes e da ação local, popular, da cultura, do cotidiano; os saberes e a ação social e educacional possuem um componente ético pouco considerado; a ação é exercício da política; na pós-modernidade, a utopia do mercado, do consumo, da técnica e da informação tornou-se referência. O texto, com base nesses questionamentos, conclui e reafirma que a demanda pela ética cresce indefinidamente; há uma demanda constante pela construção e anúncio de sentidos para a ação; é preciso pensar a realidade como processo, movimento, contradição, unidade da identidade e da não identidade; alcançar uma regra para saber o que fazer com informações e conhecimento; lembrar sempre que o pensamento não dispensa a lucidez da ação, pois caminham juntos. Dessa forma, a revista pretende exercitar as propostas apresentadas, responder aos questionamentos e trilhar esses caminhos.</p>

Images of grids are employed in a number of areas of contemporary critical and cultural theory. One usage features throughout the fields of gender and sexuality studies, especially as inspired by the work of Judith Butler. Following Foucault’s formulation that disciplinary power operates as a “grid of intelligibility of the social order” (93), Butler theorises that normative modes of gender and sexuality constitute a regulatory structure through which subjectivity is rendered intelligible or not. Being off the grid – beyond its normalising mechanism – fundamentally challenges the social subject’s viability: The norm governs intelligibility, allows for certain kinds of practices and action to become recognizable as such, imposing a grid of legibility on the social and defining the parameters of what will and will not appear within the domain of the social. The question of what it is to be outside the norm poses a paradox for thinking, for if the norm renders the social field intelligible and normalizes that field for us, then being outside the norm is in some sense being defined still in relation to it. (Butler 42) During a similar period in a quite different theoretical field, media and cyberstudies scholars have reminded us of the electronic basis of contemporary media forms by referring to grids through which information and texts are transmitted. In the case of the pervasive computational matrix of the Internet, the ease, instantaneity and virtuality of transmission have often been taken to produce not rigid structure but flow – a revolutionary fluidity of global interaction but also of personal identity. The performativity of gender, sexuality and race is emphasised by the effective absence of bodies in material form from online social interaction. But as more recent cyberstudies work has shown, a disembodied inscription of identity may still operate normatively, that is with necessary recourse to the normative conceptions that make bodies legible as such. Butler’s work has not often been closely applied to cyberstudies, despite what appear to be a number of productive possibilities, such as those roughly sketched above. In this essay, I do not aim to elaborate on those possibilities in any comprehensive sense. Rather, I want to take some first steps towards seeing whether the two broad images of grid summarised above can usefully be read alongside one another. If transmission is a condition of existence in the contemporary mediascape where online interactions and connections are not supplemental to the social but are the social, is transmission possible off the grid? If the regulatory structure of the grid determines recognisability of being, can the non-normative be recognised? In thinking through the possibilities of being-as-transmission, I want to avoid the simple conclusion that digital identities are causally defined by the structural actuality of electronic grids. While the grid makes online identities possible in this literal, computational sense, I’m more interested in the figurative: are electronic grids themselves normatively produced, therefore allowing only normative conceptions of identity, despite their apparent generation of categorically fluid modes of identity? Peter Lunenfeld considers the figurative implications of the grid as it is conceived by new media. He adopts the digital design command “snap to grid” as “a metaphor for how we manipulate and think through the electronic culture that enfolds us” (Lunenfeld xvi). “Snap to grid” commands the computer to map hand-drawn images to the precise standards of digital geometry, as Lunenfeld explains: Snap a freehand sketch of a rectangular shape to a grid and it immediately becomes a flawless, Euclidean rectangle. Artists regularly disable the snap to grid function the moment they open an application because the gains in predictability and accuracy are balanced against the losses of ambiguity and expressiveness. (xvi-xvii) The question for me remains, in this metaphor, whether the freehand sketch purposely not snapped to grid is still legible within the application, itself designed by grid logic. If we unpack the metaphor in terms of online identity, which cybertheoretical orthodoxy has claimed to be ambiguous and expressive (the self as freehand sketch), a Butlerian perspective would remind us of the omnipresence of the normative frame against which non-normative identity must partly be measured. To sketch oneself as an “I” and to be recognised socially as such requires some sense of acquiescence to what has been established as within the possibility of being an “I”, even if this frame works to exclude or attempts to erase the lines of one’s sketch. Butler argues: To say that the desire to persist in one’s own being depends on norms of recognition is to say that the basis of one’s autonomy, one’s persistence as an “I” through time, depends fundamentally on a social norm that exceeds that “I”… In effect, our lives, our very persistence, depend upon such norms or, at least, on the possibility that we will be able to negotiate within them, derive our agency from the field of their operation. (32) It needs to be acknowledged here that many cybertheorists (from Haraway to Stone and Turkle, among others) have argued digital spaces including the Internet have reconceived the very ontological terms of being an “I” – of subjectivity, autonomy and agency.. In particular, questions of interactivity, collaborative practice and disembodiment force rethinking of exactly who or what the “I” might claim to include and on whose ideological terms the concept of “I” has been received. Some key aspects of the Internet do allow me to be who or what I want to be, but perhaps especially if I already act from a sociocultural and/or economic position that entails prior privilege. With this point in mind, Lisa Nakamura’s work on race destabilises “utopian” claims for the potential of Internet identity. She argues that many cyberspace practices re-establish stereotypes and normative representations of race exactly because they are conceived in a realm that seems to dispense with familiar privileges: “Bodies get tricky in cyberspace; that sense of disembodiment that is both freeing and disorienting creates a profound malaise in the user that stable images of race work to fix in place” (Nakamura 6). Similar counter-arguments can be made of the supposed liberation of the online “I” from material constraints of gender and sexuality, as if all genders and sexualities may be discursively performed online with equal facility, as if chosen from a menu. While the convincing role play of identities in online gaming and chat spaces, for instance, may be celebrated for confirming the postmodern fragmentation of the unitary subject, a significant proportion of everyday online interactions are more practically linked to the often mundane materialities of knowable selves. Moreover, invoking Butlerian performativity in relation to online gender and sexual identity must still take into account the regulatory frameworks that structure and constrain the identity discourses that iteration brings into being. In their discussion of participation in a queer female online forum, Sally Munt et al. identify ways in which new users achieve “membership” of the forum and by extension of lesbian communities offline through the peer-mentored rehearsal of what amount to normative sexuality codes. They conclude that at the same time as promising a “utopic” space for identity experimentation, the forum is also “dystopic” in that its interactions work to “compact desire into identity categories that impose disciplinary formations antithetical to liberatory ideals” (Munt et al. 136). Here the double-edged sword of queer recognition is clear. As Rob Cover puts it, “in fulfilling both the imperative of coherent sexual subjectivity and the practical needs of sexual minority community ritual and contact, the citation of the stereotype is the more intelligible process” (87). So we must ask, how can one’s various freehand sketches of gender and sexuality be recognised as a coherent “I” unless they have already been snapped to grid, that is already rendered recognisable? How can that “I” be transmitted effectively unless via a grid of legibility that regulates what is transmissible? Rather than concluding with gridlock, a successful marriage of the two broad conceptions of grid this essay is working with must move towards the productive and freeing potential of each. Just as Butler’s understanding of heteronormative social structures emphasises the emergence of “improvisational possibility [from] within a field of constraints” (15), so too digital identities must not merely relocate old norms to new media and squander the opportunities that being-as-transmission permits. As Mark Hansen proposes, our guiding question must henceforth be: can and how can we use the new media and the internet to move beyond interpellation, or more exactly, to liberate the body from its socially-imposed dependence on interpellation through preconstituted social categories of identity, subjectivity, and particularity? (114) If online identity transmission can fulfil its promise of fluidity in this ethical sense, it might serve to erase its believed distinction from the offline and guide us towards the productive uncertainty of being off the grid. We might learn “to encounter the difference that calls our grids of intelligibility into question without trying to foreclose the challenge that the difference delivers” (Butler 35). References Butler, Judith. Undoing Gender. New York: Routledge, 2004. Cover, Rob. “Bodies, Movements and Desires: Lesbian/Gay Subjectivity and the Stereotype.” Continuum 18.1 (2004): 81-97. Foucault, Michel. The History of Sexuality: Volume One. Trans. Robert Hurley. Harmondsworth: Penguin, 1978. Hansen, Mark B. N. “Digitizing the Racialized Body or The Politics of Universal Address.” SubStance 33.2 (2004): 107-133. Lunenfeld, Peter. Snap to Grid: A User’s Guide to Digital Arts, Media and Cultures. Cambridge: MIT Press, 2000. Munt, Sally R. et al. “Virtually Belonging: Risk, Connectivity, and Coming Out On-Line.” International Journal of Sexuality and Gender Studies 7.2/3 (2002): 125-137. Nakamura, Lisa. Cybertypes: Race, Ethnicity and Identity on the Internet. New York: Routledge, 2002. Citation reference for this article MLA Style Payne, Robert. "Grid: On Being-as-Transmission and Normativity." M/C Journal 9.1 (2006). echo date('d M. Y'); ?> <http://journal.media-culture.org.au/0603/06-payne.php>. APA Style Payne, R. (Mar. 2006) "Grid: On Being-as-Transmission and Normativity," M/C Journal, 9(1). Retrieved echo date('d M. Y'); ?> from <http://journal.media-culture.org.au/0603/06-payne.php>.

Introduction The farm animal sanctuary movement is a response to industrial livestock agriculture. Farm sanctuaries are spaces where formerly farmed animals are housed and taken under the sanctuaries’ care. Farm animal sanctuaries are different from other types of animal shelters (e.g. wildlife sanctuaries and pet shelters) in that they specialise in rescuing animals that were bred for the livestock agricultural sector. These spaces are positioned as more-than-human worlds in this article. Positioning farms and sanctuaries as worlds opens the perspective that both are examples of world-building. Understanding farms and farm animal sanctuaries through the theory of world-building organises these worlds as “a more or less organized sum of scattered parts, as in complex systems” (Boni 13). Farms and sanctuaries are examples of complex multispecies worlds made up of various parts; a significant facet of these is the land that these spaces are situated within. This article presents an analysis of farmed animal worlds through the stories told about them in memoir. Ten memoirs written by farmers (Baker; Browning & Finney; Connell; Forrester; Kimball; Saunders; Scott; Sigurðardóttir & Ásgeirsdóttir; Vincent; Walker) and eight memoirs written by farm animal sanctuary owners (Baur; Bishop; Brown; Jenkins & Walter; Laks; Marohn; Stevens; Zaleski) are analysed through a developed framework which draws from the field of world-building to define the ways land features in these narratives. Farm and sanctuary memoirs were chosen because the genre is “rich in the specifics of place and predicament, of voices captures and gestures duly noted” (Pinsker 315). This richness situates the study in the physical places of sanctuaries and farms and provides a glimpse into the first-hand experiences of farmers and sanctuary owners as people who live and work within the land and with the farmed animals daily. Memoirs of farmed animal life tell stories that are embedded in the land. In this article, we dissect the ways that land features within farming and farm animal sanctuary narratives. As the reality of the climate crisis looms large, we argue that a purposeful repositioning of land as a central character within more-than-human stories encourages greater care and environmental reparation. Particularly in Western worlds, stories we share about who we are tend to depict nature as a “passive backdrop” to human activity, “the scenery against which 'real' stories unfold—not a central protagonist in the narrative” (Bjornerud 14). We offer a discussion around ways the land can be foregrounded in narratives of more-than-human worlds. This article begins by outlining a framing device that focusses on how land is foregrounded, or not, within farmed animal memoirs. The following sections describe how this framing device was used to uncover how farmers and farm animal sanctuary owners tell stories of rural idyll and environmental degradation. We also highlight what is left out, such as the complexity of caring for more-than-human assemblages and a recognition of harm to the land. Creating a Framework for Narrative Land/Scapes Narrative elements Evidence of land/scape portrayal Characters Land/scape is described as a living, multi-faceted actor in the story Setting Land/scape is described in detail rather than as backdrop for human activity Relationships Stories about relating to land by assessing harms and reparations Values Environmental degradation and reparations are reckoned with Tab. 1: Framework for analysing land/scape within narratives. Methodologies of narrative inquiry (Connelly & Clandinin) inform the framework as it considers how stories about farm-worlds and sanctuary-worlds are told through the narrative elements of characters, settings, relationships, and values (Wolf). These help to develop the boundaries by which we define farms and farm sanctuaries as built worlds. The framework emerges from the acknowledgment that we live in a more-than-human world, asserting that worlds always involve co-creation with the land. The nature/culture dualism is “characterised as a way of thinking that holds human culture and nonhuman nature to be radically different ontological spheres, hyper-separated and oppositional” (Hawkins 1). Proposing the undoing of the nature/culture divide expands this recognition and aims to equalise humans and nonhumans as co-creators. It is not just humans that make worlds; nonhumans are full partners in this practice. The framework calls attention to this and teases out the ways the land is centred, or not, within stories. Land versus Landscape Real and imagined spaces with farmed animals tell stories of the land within which they exist. The framework differentiates between landscape and land to centre the importance of place by combining the ideas as ‘land/scape’. As Hunter differentiates, “land becomes landscape when seen by man, revealing the record of his activities on the surface of the earth and his relationship with his environment” (182). We use these conceptions of land and landscape to critically analyse how each is manifested and made by farm-worlds and sanctuary-worlds. Generally, how stories are told about farmed animals revolves around a preconception of land as a resource. Farmed animals are raised and reared on the land, and farmers and sanctuary owners use the land for supporting basic needs for shelter, food, and fibre for human and nonhuman residents. By purposefully repositioning landscape as land in the interpretive framework, we attempt to undo some of the human representations of landscape as a social product, and argue that placing land as a protagonist character that shapes the worlds of farmed animal spaces can help to undo the division between nature and culture. In many ways, the term landscape evokes images of European expansion into Indigenous land. We assess how well stories about farmed animals challenge this depiction of land and whether or not it is meaningfully centred in the worlds. Environmental degradation and climate change are other key parts of this structure; how do the narratives address the fact that we live in an increasingly damaged world? Scenes of Rural Idyll In both sanctuary and farm memoirs we identified persistent elements of rural idyll, described here by Shucksmith: “in many countries rural life has been portrayed for centuries as simple, innocent and virtuous as part of a pastoral myth of a lost Eden, divorced from harsher realities of rural life and masking exploitation and oppression” (163). The settings of the memoirs often represent a kind of bucolic landscape rather than the land as a multi-faceted actor in the story. This aspect of the memoirs reveals how the character of the land/scape is considered and what kinds of agency are afforded to the land/scape as the setting for these stories. Constructing an image of a rural idyll acts as a response to growing urbanisation in countries like Aotearoa New Zealand. Short’s definition of the rural idyll refers to “family values, community cohesion, a respect for necessary authority and an emblematic nationhood—all being set within surroundings that are aesthetically pleasing” (145). Our analysis of the memoirs investigates the ways they uphold this cultural and social creation of land/scape. Baur’s memoir, Farm Sanctuary, contains a description of the place in keeping with an image of a pastoral idyll: walking from the parking lot up the rutted path to the entrance, you’ll see what you imagine a farm should look like—the kind many of us thought of as we sang “Old McDonald Had a Farm” as children. (ii) In her memoir about a farm animal sanctuary, Laks describes the behaviours of nonhuman animals “springing around the yard” and “comingling in the harmony”, ultimately stating “I had healed all these beautiful things, and they were healing me, daily” (75). The animals are positioned as part of the rural idyll, and the aesthetic beauty of the landscape is also represented as serving a ‘healing’ purpose. When writing about their sanctuary, Marohn states that “it was an ideal place for sheep. They had acres to wander over at will, as much fresh grass as they could possibly want” (24). Marohn is engaging with the idea of what it means to make an ‘ideal’ world for the nonhuman animals. They present the space as idyllic for their nonhuman animals, suggesting it is a world that is perceived as the perfect home for these animals. Similarly, Zaleski writes “everywhere I look is a world of happiness” (239) when writing about their farm animal sanctuary. This, again, evokes the idea of an ideal space where animals can be ‘happy’. The carving out of an ideal space means that other worlds are not permitted or are ignored. As mentioned previously, there are certain disruptions to this idea of a rural idyll that are not accounted for when presenting a space as an ideal world. Do statements like this ignore some of the complexity inherent in caring for uneven more-than-human assemblages? Arguably, matters of care (de la Bellacasa) and a deeper understanding of the land as co-creator of the space can trouble some of these utopian views of the land and of the ‘happy’ animals within it. Shucksmith writes about the purpose of creating an ideal or utopian image of rural life: “does the rural idyll represent nostalgia for an imagined golden age of indeterminate date, a search for enchanted places with idealised qualities today, or a vision for a desired future?” (164). Within this striving for a desired future lies a contradiction: futures and the rural idyll can be seen as diametrically opposed as the rural is often seen as a passive recipient for modernity and as representational of a traditional, conservative view of the land. Shucksmith argues that “challenging the neoliberal hegemony and encouraging the collective imagining of alternatives is especially necessary during the current crisis of neoliberalism. … This is a challenge both for rural studies and for those who live in, or care about, rural places” (164). In this manner, utopian thinking becomes a method of working towards desired futures, rather than striving for utopia as an endpoint. In her memoir about a small-scale organic farm in New York, Kimball describes the setting as “a sprawling, diversified, bewitchingly beautiful thing, composed of innumerable living parts, sometimes working in perfect synergy, sometimes descending into chaos” (11). The farm is presented as “beautiful”, and yet it is a challenge to balance the many different parts that make the farm function. The image of a rural idyll serves as a way of making all the farm work ‘worth it’. The presentation of an awe-inspiring landscape is one reason a farmer would desire to live and work with animals. Proximity to the land and the connection between the farmer and an idea of nature conveys a sense of place for the author. Similarly, farm memoirist Connell writes, “the land is what we know, they said. It sustains us, enriches us, the land is our living and we know no other way” (13). The farm memoirs present a specific vision of nature when representing rural idyll. It is a way for them to connect with the land as a provider of resources and for them to survive on and build their livelihoods. Within the field of more-than-human studies, the dualism between society and nature, or culture and nature, is challenged and undone. This involves “doing away with the category of nature altogether in order to explore how different worldly actors with diverse capacities and affordances co-constitute one another” (Castree & Braun 169). We argue that through a focus on more-than-human assemblages, narratives should challenge the idea of nature or land as a backdrop to human activity. The memoirs we analysed do not often challenge the nature-culture dualism, and, as such, do not adequately present land/scape as co-creator of the space. Depicting the land/scape as a ‘beautiful’ backdrop to human activity does not meet the kind of evidence asked for by the interpretive framework. The land/scape does not fully feature as a multi-faceted character or as a complex living entity. Instead, land/scape as setting is positioned as part of the setting of rural idyll the memoirists place their worlds within. This finding leads us to ask what kinds of stories and worlds could be told if land/scape is acknowledged as a character with agency, rather than as a bucolic setting for a pastoral narrative. Future research could examine where such stories and worlds can be found in fiction, poetry, nature writing, Indigenous literatures, and other genres. Environmental Degradation and Reparation How farm and sanctuary memoirs reckon with the environmental effects of climate change is variable. The absence of these themes across many of the memoirs troubles their representations of land. What kind of land/scape do they seek to materialise if they do not reckon with the troubling aspects of living in an increasingly damaged world? When writing about their farm, Baker states that they “love nothing more than driving up the farm track, closing the gate, shutting the world out ... and just being here” (3), creating an image of secluding oneself in a protective rural bubble. This is even more evident in the sanctuary memoirs, with the term sanctuary itself evoking a space of safety away from the perceived dangers of the world. We question whether environmental degradation is considered as one way of troubling this image and assessing how well the memoirs meet the land/scape structure of the framework. Stories about environmental degradation and climate change appeared more frequently in farm memoirs than sanctuary memoirs. Within the farm memoirs, many of the authors write about the ways climate change affects the balance of the seasons, and how this impacts crop growth and the birth of livestock. Browning and Finney state that “the biggest challenge for us and other farmers is not having much idea what is around the corner. Weather is always our greatest unknown, and that is likely to become even more unpredictable with climate change” (197). Often, the farmers present the challenges of climate change and reckon with their responsibility of mitigating its most disastrous effects. Saunders writes about the responsibility of practicing ‘good’ farming that adheres to environmentally sustainable practices in the face of climate change, but also laments the pressure that is placed on farmers by the media and the general public, questioning “’how come every time they have a story about climate change, they show a picture of a cow? Never a traffic jam in town, or an aeroplane. Or the sewage from a city going into the river. Just cows.’ ... ‘People have demanded more and more food and fibre for so long, and now they are blaming us for killing the environment’” (210). The responsibility of feeding people on an increasingly volatile planet is mentioned as added pressure on farmers. The idea of farmers as keepers or stewards of the land is prominent and is described as both a privilege and a burden. Scott tells stories of her sheep farm in the high country of Aotearoa New Zealand and states that “our major goal is caring for the land and its long-term future. We believe that high-country farming is the heart and soul of New Zealand’s heritage” (99). The mention of “New Zealand’s heritage” prompts reflection about past (and ongoing) colonisation within Aotearoa New Zealand, which remains largely unreckoned with in farm memoirs. However, a few of the memoirs include this theme in varying ways. Walker is a Māori farmer who discusses “bringing Māori principles into our mahi [work]”. Vincent, a farm memoirist in Australia, when describing the land his family farm is situated on, writes that “we felt there the dispossession of the Aboriginal people” (28). The lack of stories of land dispossession highlights another tension missing in memoirs of farmed animal life. Furthermore, none of the sanctuary memoirs include reference to Indigenous peoples and land dispossession. Within sanctuary memoirs, climate change is described in a decidedly different manner to its description in farm memoirs. Rather than noting the changes in seasons or the ways that weather patterns affect the resources provided by the land, sanctuary owners write about the effects of meat eating on the climate. They present veganism as an alternative diet to meat eating and promote the shift as one way of minimising one’s environmental impact. Brown writes that “eating is a political and social action. Environmental destruction, public health, workers’ rights, decaying rural communities, world hunger, and global poverty are all deeply affected by our eating choices” (202). In this manner, climate change is presented as part of a wider agenda to promote veganism through the sanctuary memoirs and to encourage readers to adopt a more environmentally friendly diet. Farmers and sanctuary owners present climate change in different ways, yet there is a consistent sense of personal responsibility for mitigating its most damaging effects. Stories about environmental degradation challenge the formation of rural idyll as the idealised setting for these stories. This tension gets closer to the criteria expressed in the land/scape section of the framework in terms of relating to the land by assessing harms and reparations and reckoning with environmental degradation, rather than simplifying land/scape as a backdrop to human activity. Nevertheless, land/scape is not written about as a prominent character or protagonist in any of the stories. Different and more complex kinds of relationships could be presented in stories about farmed-animal-worlds if land/scape featured as a character with varying relationships to other characters, rather than as a passive setting for the narrative. What kinds of stories are left out when representing the land that farms and sanctuaries are situated on? What kinds of new stories could be told that grapple more fully with these tensions? A creative and speculative writing approach is uniquely positioned to engage with these kinds of stories because it is not bound by reality. Crafting speculative more-than-human worlds, as explored through work by first author Mañetto Quick’s own written and visual storytelling (12-17), can undo some of the power hierarchies of human-land relationships in the here and now to speculate stories that dream up new and different worlds. Conclusion Repositioning the land as a protagonist within stories about more-than-human worlds can permit greater care for the environment. Abram captures this argument by writing: “to speak of the earth … as a living field of relationships between things—each being with its own openness or creativity—is to speak in accordance with our senses and with our spontaneous bodily experience of the world around us. … Acknowledging the inherent ambiguity and mystery of the myriad beings that surround us is a way of thinking that engenders humility and a steady wonder—the exuberant heart of a wild ethics” (53). We need more stories that live up to these wild ethics to value the land and promise restorative justice and environmental reparation. References Abram, David. “Wild Ethics and Participatory Science: Thinking between the Body and the Breathing Earth.” Kinship: Belonging in a World of Relations, Volume 1: Planet. Eds. Gavin Van Horn, Robin Wall Kimmerer, and John Hausdoerffer. Center for Humans and Nature Press, 2021. 50-62. Boni, Marta. “Worlds, Today”. World Building. Ed. Marta Boni. Amsterdam: Amsterdam UP, 2013. 9-27. Baker, Matt. How the Countryside Made Me. Penguin Random House, 2022. Baur, Gene. Farm Sanctuary: Changing Hearts and Minds about Animals and Food. Simon & Schuster, 2008. Bishop, Shawn, and Alisson Jones. The Animal Sanctuary: The Inspirational Story of a New Zealand Animal and Wildlife Refuge. Renaissance Publishing, 2014. Bjornerud, Marcia. “Becoming Earthlings.” Kinship: Belonging in a World of Relations, Volume 1: Planet. Eds. Gavin Van Horn, Robin Wall Kimmerer, and John Hausdoerffer. Center for Humans and Nature Press, 2021. 13-20. Brown, Jenny. The Lucky Ones: My Passionate Fight for Farm Animals. Penguin, 2012. Browning, Helen, and Tim Finney. Pig: Tales from an Organic Farm. Hachette UK, 2018. Castree, Noel, and Bruce Braun. “Constructing Rural Natures.” The Handbook of Rural Studies. 2006. 161–170. <https://doi.org/10.4135/9781848608016.n11>. Connell, John. The Cow Book: A Story of Life on an Irish Family Farm. Granta Books, 2018. Connelly, Michael F., and D. Jean Clandinin. “Stories of Experience and Narrative Unquiry.” Educational Researcher 19.5 (1990): 2-44. <https://doi.org/.10.3102/0013189X019005002>. De La Bellacasa, Maria Puid. Matters of Care: Speculative Ethics in More than Human Worlds. U of Minnesota P, 2017. Edelson, Daniel C. “Design Research: What We Learn When We Engage in Design.” Journal of Learning Sciences 11.1 (2002): 105-121. DOI: 10.1207/S15327809JLS1101_4. Forrester, Beverley. The Farm at Black Hills: Farming Alone in the Hills of North Canterbury. Random House New Zealand, 2015. Hawkins, Ronnie Zoe. “Introduction: Beyond Nature/Culture Dualism: Let’s Try Co-Evolution Instead of 'Control'.” Ethics & The Environment 11.2 (2006): 1-11. <https://muse.jhu.edu/article/209974>. Hunter, John Michael. Land into Landscape. George Godwin, 1985. Kimball, Kristin. Good Husbandry: Growing Food, Love, and Family on Essex Farm. Scribner, 2019. Laks, Ellie. My Gentle Barn: Creating a Sanctuary Where Animals and Children Learn to Hope. Harmony Books, 2014. Mañetto Quick, Madelena. “Worlding Sanctuary: Multispecies Design Ethnography on a Farm Animal Sanctuary in Aotearoa.” Ethnographic Edge, 7.1 (2024): 5-20. <https://doi.org/10.24135/ee.v7i1.271>. Marohn, Stephanie. What the Animals Taught Me: Stories of Love and Healing from a Farm Animal Sanctuary. Hampdon Roads Publishing, 2012. Pinsker, Sanford. “The Landscape of Contemporary American Memoir.” The Sewanee Review 11.2 (2003): 311-320. <https://www.jstor.org/stable/27549356>. Saunders, Tim. This Farming Life: Five Generations on a New Zealand Farm. Allen & Unwin, 2020. Scott, Iris. High Country Women: My Life on Rees Valley Station. Random House New Zealand, 2012. Short, Brian. "Idyllic Ruralities." The Handbook of Rural Studies. London: Sage, 2006. 133-48. <https://doi.org/10.4135/9781848608016>. Shucksmith, Mark. “Re-Imagining the Rural: From Rural Idyll to Good Countryside.” Journal of Rural Studies 59 (2018). DOI: 10.1016/j.jrurstud.2016.07.019. Sigurðardóttir, Steinun, and Heiða Ásgeirsdóttir. Heiða: A Shepherd at the Edge of the World. Bjartur, 2016. Stevens, Kathy. Where the Blind Horse Sings: Love and Healing at an Animal Sanctuary. Skyhouse, 2009. Swaffield, Simon, and John Fairweather. “In Search of Arcadia: The Persistence of the Rural Idyll in New Zealand Rural Subdivisions.” Journal of Environmental Planning and Management 41.1 (1998): 111–128. <https://doi.org/10.1080/09640569811821>. Vincent, Sam. My Father and Other Animals: How I Took on the Family Farm. Black Inc., 2022. Walker, Ranginui. Farm for Life: Mahi, Mana and Life on the Land. Penguin Group NZ, 2021. Wolf, Mark J.P. Building Imaginary Worlds: The Theory and History of Subcreation. Taylor & Francis, 2012. Zaleski, Laurie. Funny Farm: My Unexpected Life with 600 Rescue Animals. St. Martin’s Press, 2021.

Abstract The relationship between human health and biodiversity, the living part of nature, is well documented and complex. While biodiversity is a threat in that it incorporates a reservoir of diseases and vectors, it is also an essential source of active molecules complementing the direct services that ecosystems contribute to the health and wellbeing of humanity. All things considered, biodiversity is a major factor in the health of humanity. And yet, current state of knowledge in the environmental and life sciences emphasises the sometimes dramatic erosion of biodiversity, in particular due to the pressure of anthropic activities, and the new magnitude of human contributions to biodiversity. In proposing ethical reflection on the relationship between humanity and biodiversity and, more generally with nature, CCNE is first of all mindful that humanity itself is a part of biodiversity. Its position in the midst of biodiversity and its capacity to alter biodiversity for the worse make it necessary to effect a change in the relationship that humanity constructs with the living world. Ethical reflection on the subject therefore resides in an analysis of the consequences of our actions or even, more fundamentally, in an analysis of their causes, that is to say the way we interact with other members of humanity and with all life on earth. CCNE believes that an ethical course of action in the life and health sciences must include drawing public attention and debate to the causes of the persistence of poverty and hunger in the world and to the increase in relative impoverishment and health issues related to impaired biodiversity, demographic expansion and the escalation of migratory flows. Within the living world, humanity’s particular accountability entails an obligation to call into question the concept of progress hitherto equated with increasing control over that world. This accountability primarily falls upon the scientific community where a more unassuming approach could help to gain a better understanding of the links between biodiversity and health in the context of the inherent unpredictability of interacting dynamic processes, in particular those related to biological evolution. At a time when genome transforming biotechnologies are increasingly effective and readily implemented, fostering a responsible ethical attitude to scientific and technical activities is an essential priority. Sharing more effectively the sum of scientific knowledge with political decision-makers and society as a whole, while contributing to the questioning of its applications, is a major ethical challenge. The protection and use of biodiversity require a somewhat more complex ethical analysis than the sole objective of conservation, all the more so because the degradation of biodiversity must frequently be correlated with the precarious situations in which many human communities find themselves. An ethical approach and solidarity must be deployed in conjunction if the issue of long-term management of natural resources is to incorporate the prospects for fighting poverty. The time has come to cast aside the utopia of nature at humanity’s disposal and to replace it by a search for the synergies between possible forms of human development allied to recognition for the dynamic processes of ecosystems, both at a local level and through global governance instruments which are yet to be discovered. This can only happen if people, including the scientific community, are committed to the task of identifying courses of action leading to relevant legislative change. Based on such ethical reflection, this report seeks to determine the pathways to rational coevolution of humanity and life on earth so as to preserve its potential for wellbeing and health.

Introduction The decline of marriage in the West has been extensively researched over the last three decades (Carmichael and Whittaker; de Vaus; Coontz; Beck-Gernshein). Indeed, it was fears that the institution would be further eroded by the legalisation of same sex unions internationally that provided the impetus for the Australian government to amend the Marriage Act (1961). These amendments in 2004 sought to strengthen marriage by explicitly defining, for the first time, marriage as a legal partnership between one man and one woman. The subsequent heated debates over the discriminatory nature of this definition have been illuminating, particularly in the way they have highlighted the ongoing social significance of marriage, even at a time it is seen to be in decline. Demographic research about partnering practices (Carmichael and Whittaker; Simons; Parker; Penman) indicates that contemporary marriages are more temporary, fragile and uncertain than in previous generations. Modern marriages are now less about a permanent and “inescapable” union between a dominant man and a submissive female for the purposes of authorised sex, legal progeny and financial security, and more about a commitment between two social equals for the mutual exchange of affection and companionship (Croome). Less research is available, however, about how couples themselves reconcile the inherited constructions of romantic love as selfless and unending, with trends that clearly indicate that romantic love is not forever, ideal or exclusive. Civil marriage ceremonies provide one source of data about representations of love. Civil unions constituted almost 70 per cent of all marriages in Australia in 2010, according to the Australian Bureau of Statistics. The civil marriage ceremony has both a legal and symbolic role. It is a legal contract insofar as it prescribes a legal arrangement with certain rights and responsibilities between two consenting adults and outlines an expectation that marriage is voluntarily entered into for life. The ceremony is also a public ritual that requires couples to take what are usually private feelings for each other and turn them into a public performance as a way of legitimating their relationship. Consistent with the conventions of performance, couples generally customise the rest of the ceremony by telling the story of their courtship, and in so doing they often draw upon the language and imagery of the Western Romantic tradition to convey the personal meaning and social significance of their decision. This paper explores how couples construct the idea of love in their relationship, first by examining the western history of romantic love and then by looking at how this discourse is invoked by Australians in the course of developing civil marriage ceremonies in collaboration with the author. A History of Romantic Love There are many definitions of romantic love, but all share similar elements including an intense emotional and physical attraction, an idealisation of each other, and a desire for an enduring and unending commitment that can overcome all obstacles (Gottschall and Nordlund; Janowiak and Fischer). Romantic love has historically been associated with heightened passions and intense almost irrational or adolescent feelings. Charles Lindholm’s list of clichés that accompany the idea of romantic love include: “love is blind, love overwhelms, a life without love is not worth living, marriage should be for love alone and anything less is worthless and a sham” (5). These elements, which invoke love as sacred, unending and unique, perpetuate past cultural associations of the term. Romantic love was first documented in Ancient Rome where intense feelings were seen as highly suspect and a threat to the stability of the family, which was the primary economic, social and political unit. Roman historian Plutarch viewed romantic love based upon strong personal attraction as disruptive to the family, and he expressed a fear that romantic love would become the norm for Romans (Lantz 352). During the Middle Ages romantic love emerged as courtly love and, once again, the conventions that shaped its expression grew out of an effort to control excessive emotions and sublimate sexual desire, which were seen as threats to social stability. Courtly love, according to Marilyn Yalom, was seen as an “irresistible and inexhaustible passion; a fatal love that overcomes suffering and even death” (66). Feudal social structures had grounded marriage in property, while the Catholic Church had declared marriage a sacrament and a ceremony through which God’s grace could be obtained. In this context courtly love emerged as a way of dealing with the conflict between the individual and family choices over the martial partner. Courtly love is about a pure ideal of love in which the knight serves his unattainable lady, and, by carrying out feats in her honour, reaches spiritual perfection. The focus on the aesthetic ideal was a way to fulfil male and female emotional needs outside of marriage, while avoiding adultery. Romantic love re-appeared again in the mid-eighteenth century, but this time it was associated with marriage. Intellectuals and writers led the trend normalising romantic love in marriage as a reaction to the Enlightenment’s valorisation of reason, science and materialism over emotion. Romantics objected to the pragmatism and functionality induced by industrialisation, which they felt destroyed the idea of the mysterious and transcendental nature of love, which could operate as a form of secular salvation. Love could not be bought or sold, argued the Romantics, “it is mysterious, true and deep, spontaneous and compelling” (Lindholm 5). Romantic love also emerged as an expression of the personal autonomy and individualisation that accompanied the rise of industrial society. As Lanz suggests, romantic love was part of the critical reflexivity of the Enlightenment and a growing belief that individuals could find self actualisation through the expression and expansion of their “emotional and intellectual capacities in union with another” (354). Thus it was romantic love, which privileges the feelings and wishes of an individual in mate selection, that came to be seen as a bid for freedom by the offspring of the growing middle classes coerced into marriage for financial or property reasons. Throughout the 19th century romantic love was seen as a solution to the dehumanising forces of industrialisation and urbanisation. The growth of the competitive workplace—which required men to operate in a restrained and rational manner—saw an increase in the search for emotional support and intimacy within the domestic domain. It has been argued that “love was the central preoccupation of middle class men from the 1830s until the end of the 19th century” (Stearns and Knapp 771). However, the idealisation of the aesthetic and purity of love impacted marriage relations by casting the wife as pure and marital sex as a duty. As a result, husbands pursued sexual and romantic relationships outside marriage. It should be noted that even though love became cemented as the basis for marriage in the 19th century, romantic love was still viewed suspiciously by religious groups who saw strong affection between couples as an erosion of the fundamental role of the husband in disciplining his wife. During the late 19th and early 20th centuries romantic love was further impacted by urbanisation and migration, which undermined the emotional support provided by extended families. According to Stephanie Coontz, it was the growing independence and mobility of couples that saw romantic love in marriage consolidated as the place in which an individual’s emotional and social needs could be fully satisfied. Coontz says that the idea that women could only be fulfilled through marriage, and that men needed women to organise their social life, reached its heights in the 1950s (25-30). Changes occurred to the structure of marriage in the 1960s when control over fertility meant that sex was available outside of marriage. Education, equality and feminism also saw women reject marriage as their only option for fulfilment. Changes to Family Law Acts in western jurisdictions in the 1970s provided for no-fault divorce, and as divorce lost its stigma it became acceptable for women to leave failing marriages. These social shifts removed institutional controls on marriage and uncoupled the original sexual, emotional and financial benefits packaged into marriage. The resulting individualisation of personal lifestyle choices for men and women disrupted romantic conventions, and according to James Dowd romantic love came to be seen as an “investment” in the “future” that must be “approached carefully and rationally” (552). It therefore became increasingly difficult to sustain the idea of love as a powerful, mysterious and divine force beyond reason. Methodology In seeking to understand how contemporary partnering practices are reconstituting romantic love, I draw upon anecdotal data gathered over a nine-year period from my experiences as a marriage celebrant. In the course of personalising marriage ceremonies, I pose a series of questions designed to assist couples to explain the significance of their relationship. I generally ask brides and grooms why they love their fiancé, why they want to legalise their relationship, what they most treasure about their partner, and how their lives have been changed by their relationship. These questions help couples to reflexively interrogate their own relationship, and by talking about their commitment in concrete terms, they produce the images and descriptions that can be used to describe for guests the internal motivations and sentiments that have led to their decision to marry. I have had couples, when prompted to explain how they know the other person loves them say, in effect: “I know that he loves me because he brings me a cup of coffee every morning” or “I know that she loves me because she takes care of me so well.” These responses are grounded in a realism that helps to convey a sense of sincerity and authenticity about the relationship to the couple’s guests. This realism also helps to address the cynicism about the plausibility of enduring love. The brides and grooms in this sample of 300 couples were a socially, culturally and economically diverse group, and they provided a wide variety of responses ranging from deeply nuanced insights into the nature of their relationship, to admissions that their feelings were so private and deeply felt that words were insufficient to convey their significance. Reoccurring themes, however, emerged across the cases, and it is evident that even as marriage partnerships may be entered into for a variety of reasons, romantic love remains the mechanism by which couples talk of their feelings for each other. Australian Love and Marriage Australians' attitudes to romantic love and marriage have, understandably, been shaped by western understandings of romantic love. It is evident, however, that the demands of late modern capitalist society, with its increased literacy, economic independence and sexual equality between men and women, have produced marriage as a negotiable contract between social equals. For some, like Carol Pateman, this sense of equality within marriage may be illusory. Nonetheless, the drive for individual self-fulfilment by both the bride and groom produces a raft of challenges to traditional ideas of marriage as couples struggle to find a balance between independence and intimacy; between family and career; and between pursuing personal goals and the goals of their partners. This shift in the nature of marriage has implications for the “quest for undying romantic love,” which according to Anthony Giddens has been replaced by other forms of relationship, "each entered into for its own sake, for what can be derived by each person from a sustained association with another; and which is continued only in so far as it is thought by both parties to deliver enough satisfactions for each individual to stay within it” (qtd. in Lindholm 6). The impact of these social changes on the nature of romantic love in marriage is evident in how couples talk about their relationship in the course of preparing a ceremony. Many couples describe the person they are marrying as their best friend, and friendship is central to their commitment. This description supports research by V.K. Oppenheimer which indicates that many contemporary couples have a more “egalitarian collaborative approach to marriage” (qtd. in Carmichael and Whittaker 25). It is also standard for couples to note in ceremonies that they make each other happy and contented, with many commenting upon how their partners have helped to bring focus and perspective to their work-oriented lives. These comments tend to invoke marriage as a refuge from the isolation, competition, and dehumanising elements of workplaces. Since emotional support is central to the marriage contract, it is not surprising that care for each other is another reoccurring theme in ceremonies. Many brides and grooms not only explicitly say they are well taken care of by their partner, but also express admiration for their partner’s treatment of their families and friends. This behaviour appears to be seen as an indicator of the individual’s capacity for support and commitment to family values. Many couples admire partner’s kindness, generosity and level of personal self-sacrifice in maintaining the relationship. It is also not uncommon for brides and grooms to say they have been changed by their love: become kinder, more considerate and more tolerant. Honesty, communication skills and persistence are also attributes that are valued. Brides and grooms who have strong communication skills are also praised. This may refer to interpersonal competency and the willingness to acquire the skills necessary to negotiate the endless compromises in contemporary marriage now that individualisation has undermined established rules, rituals and roles. Persistence and the ability not to be discouraged by setbacks is also a reoccurring theme, and this connects with the idea that marriage is work. Many couples promise to grow together in their marriage and to both take responsibility for the health of their relationship. This promise implies awareness that marriage is not the fantasy of happily ever after produced in romantic popular culture, but rather an arrangement that requires hard work and conscious commitment, particularly in building a union amidst many competing options and distractions. Many couples talk about their relationship in terms of companionship and shared interests, values and goals. It is also not uncommon for couples to say that they admire their partner for supporting them to achieve their life goals or for exposing them to a wider array of lifestyle choices and options like travel or study. These examples of interdependence appear to make explicit that couples still see marriage as a vehicle for personal freedom and self-realisation. The death of love is also alluded to in marriage ceremonies. Couples talk of failed past relationships, but these are produced positively as a mechanism that enables the couple to know that they have now found an enduring relationship. It is also evident that for many couples the decision to marry is seen as the formalisation of a preexisting commitment rather than the gateway to a new life. This is consistent with figures that show that 72 per cent of Australian couples chose to cohabit before marriage (Simons 48), and that cohabitation has become the “normative pathway to marriage” (Penman 26). References to children also feature in marriage ceremonies, and for the couples I have worked with marriage is generally seen as the pre-requisite for children. Couples also often talk about “being ready” for marriage. This seems to refer to being financially prepared. Robyn Parker citing the research of K. Edin concludes that for many modern couples “rushing into marriage before being ‘set’ is irresponsible—marrying well (in the sense of being well prepared) is the way to avoid divorce” (qtd. in Parker 81). From this overview of reoccurring themes in the production of Australian ceremonies it is clear that romantic love continues to be associated with marriage. However, couples describe a more grounded and companionable attachment. These more practical and personalised sentiments serve to meet both the public expectation that romantic love is a precondition for marriage, while also avoiding the production of romantic love in the ceremony as an empty cliché. Grounded descriptions of love reveal that attraction does not have to be overwhelming and unconquerable. Indeed, couples who have lived together and are intimately acquainted with each other’s habits and disposition, appear to be most comfortable expressing their commitment to each other in more temperate, but no less deeply felt, terms. Conclusion This paper has considered how brides and grooms constitute romantic love within the shifting partnering practices of contemporary Australia. It is evident “in the midst of significant social and economic change and at a time when individual rights and freedom of choice are important cultural values” marriage remains socially significant (Simons 50). This significance is partially conveyed through the language of romantic love, which, while freighted with an array of cultural and historical associations, remains the lingua franca of marriage, perhaps because as Roberto Unger observes, romantic love is “the most influential mode of moral vision in our culture” (qtd. in Lindholm 5). It is thus possible to conclude, that while marriage may be declining and becoming more fragile and impermanent, the institution remains important to couples in contemporary Australia. Moreover, the language and imagery of romantic love, which publicly conveys this importance, remains the primary mode of expressing care, affection and hope for a partnership, even though the changed partnering practices of late modern capitalist society have exposed the utopian quality of romantic love and produced a cynicism about the viability of its longevity. It is evident in the marriage ceremonies prepared by the author that while the language of romantic love has come to signify a broader range of more practical associations consistent with the individualised nature of modern marriage and demystification of romantic love, it also remains the best way to express what Dowd and Pallotta describe as a fundamental human “yearning for communion with and acceptance by another human being” (571). References Beck, U., and E. Beck-Gernsheim, Individualisation: Institutionalised Individualism and Its Social and Political Consequences. London: Sage, 2002. Beigel, Hugo G. “Romantic Love.” American Sociological Review 16.3 (1951): 326–34. Carmichael, Gordon A, and Andrea Whittaker. “Forming Relationships in Australia: Qualitative Insights into a Process Important to Human Well Being.” Journal of Population Research 24.1 (2007): 23–49. Coontz, Stephanie. Marriage, A History: How Love Conquered Marriage. New York: Viking, 2005. Croome, Rodney. “Love and Commitment, To Equality.” The Drum Opinion, Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC) News. 8 June 2011. 14 Aug. 2012 < http://www.abc.net.au/unleashed/2749898.html >. de Vaus, D.L. Qu, and R. Weston. “Family Trends: Changing Patterns of Partnering.” Family Matters 64 (2003): 10–15. Dowd, James T, and Nicole R. Pallotta. “The End of Romance: The Demystification of Love in the Postmodern Age.” Sociological Perspectives 43.4 (2000): 549–80. Gottschall, Jonathan, and Marcus Nordlund. “Romantic Love: A Literary Universal?” Philosophy and Literature 30 (2006): 450–70. Jankowiak, William, and Ted Fischer, “A Cross-Cultural Perspective on Romantic Love,” Ethnology 31 (1992): 149–55. Lantz, Herman R. “Romantic Love in the Pre-Modern Period: A Sociological Commentary.” Journal of Social History 15.3 (1982): 349–70. Lindholm, Charles. “Romantic Love and Anthropology.” Etnofoor 19:1 Romantic Love (2006): 5–21. Parker, Robyn. “Perspectives on the Future of Marriage.” Australian Institute of Family Studies 72 Summer (2005): 78–82.Pateman, Carole. “Women and Consent.” Political Theory (1980): 149–68. Penman, Robyn. “Current Approaches to Marriage and Relationship Research in the United States and Australia.” Family Matters 70 Autumn (2005): 26–35. Simons, Michelle. “(Re)-forming Marriage in Australia?” Australian Institute of Family Matters 73 (2006): 46–51.Stearns, Peter N, and Mark Knapp. “Men and Romantic Love: Pinpointing a 20th-Century Change.” Journal of Social History 26.4 (1993): 769–95. Yalom, Marilyn. A History of the Wife. New York: Harper Collins, 2001.

Cute pictures of animals feature as an inoffensive and adorable background to the contemporary online experience with cute content regularly shared on social media platforms. Indeed the demand for cuteness is so strong in the current cultural milieu that some animals become recognisable animal celebrities in the process (Hepola). However, despite the existence of this professionalisation in some sections of the cute economy, amateurs produce the majority of cute content that circulates online. This is largely because one of the central contributors to this steady stream of cute animal pictures is the subforum Aww, hosted on the online community Reddit. Aww is wholly dedicated to pictures of cute things and allows users to directly submit cute content directly to the site. Aww is one of the default subforums that new Reddit users are automatically subscribed to and is immensely popular, featuring over 4.2 million dedicated subscribers as well as untold casual visits. The section is self-described as: “Things that make you go AWW! -- like puppies, and bunnies, and so on...Feel free to post pictures, videos and stories of cute things” ("The cutest things on the internet!"). Users upload cute animal photos that they have taken and wait for the Reddit community to vote on their favourite pictures. The voting mechanism helps users to acknowledge their favourite posts, with the most popular featured on the front page of Aww (for a detailed critique of this process see van der Nagel 2013). The user-generated model of the site means that instead of visitors being confronted with a formally curated selection of cute animal photos, Aww offers a constantly changing mixture of amateur, semi-pro and professional content. Aww - and Reddit more generally - stand as an emblematic example of participatory culture (Jenkins 2006), with users playing an active role in the production and curation of online content. However, given the commercial nature of many user-generated content sites, this amateur media activity is becoming increasingly subject to intellectual property claims and conflicts (see Burgess; Kennedy). Across the internet there are growing tensions between website operators and amateur producers. As Jenny Kennedy (132) notes, while these platforms promote a public rhetoric of “sharing”, these corporate narratives “downplay their economic power” and imply “that they do not control the practices contained within their sites”. Subsequently, the expectations of users regarding how content is managed and organised can differ substantially from the corporate goals of social media companies. This paper contributes to the growing body of literature interested in the politics of amateur media production (see Hunter and Lastowka; Benkler; Burgess; Kennedy) by exploring the emergence of attribution norms and informal enforcement measures in and around the Aww online community. In contrast to professional content creators, amateurs often have fewer resources on hand to protect their copyrighted work and are also challenged by a pervasive online rhetoric that suggests that popular content essentially “belongs to the Internet” (Douglas). A number of communities on Reddit have questioned the company’s handling of amateur content with users suggesting that Reddit actively seeks to de-contextualise original content and not attribute original creators. By examining how amateur creators and online communities regulate content online, I interrogate the power relations that exist between social media platforms and users and explore how the corporate rhetoric of participatory culture interacts with the legal framework of copyright law. This article also contributes to existing legal scholarship on communities of practice and norms-based intellectual property systems. This literature has explored how social norms effectively regulate the protection of, among other things, recipes (Fauchart and Von Hippel), fashion design (Raustiala and Sprigman) and stand-up comedy routines (Oliar and Sprigman), in situations where copyright law does not function as an effective regulatory mechanism. Often these norms are in line with copyright law protections, but in other cases they diverge from these legal principles. In this paper I suggest that particular sections of Reddit function in a similar way, with their own set of self-governing norms, and that these norms largely align with the philosophical aims of copyright law. The paper begins by outlining a series of recent debates that have occurred between amateur media creators and Reddit, before exploring how norms are regulated on Reddit subforums Aww and Karma Court. I then offer some brief conclusions on the value of paying attention to how social norms structure forms of “sharing” (see Kennedy) and provide a useful way for amateur media producers to protect their content without going through formal legal processes. Introducing Reddit and the Confused Politics of Amateur Content Reddit is a social news site, a vibrant community and one of the most popular websites online. It stands as the most visible iteration of a long-standing tradition of user-generated and managed news, one that goes back to websites like Slashdot, which operated in the mid to late-90s. Founded in 2005 Reddit was launched after only one funding round of venture capital, receiving $100k in seed funding from Y Combinatory (Miller). Despite some early rivalry between Reddit and competitor site Digg, Reddit had enough potential to be purchased by Condé Nast for an estimated $20 million (Carr). Reddit’s audience numbers have grown exponentially in the last few years, with the site currently receiving over 5 billion page views and 114 million unique visitors per month (“About Reddit”). It has also changed focus significantly in the last few years with the site now “as much about posting interesting or funny pictures as it is about news” (Sepponen). Reddit hosts a number of individual subforums (called subreddits), which focus on a particular topic and function essentially like online bulletin boards. The front-page of Reddit showcases the most popular content from across the whole website, and user-generated content features heavily here. Amateur media cannot spread without the structural support of social media platforms, but this support is qualified in particular ways. Reddit stands as a paradigmatic case. Users on Reddit are “incentivized to submit direct links to images, because viewers can get to them more easily” (Douglas) and the website encourages amateur creators to use a preferred content server – Imgur – to host images. The Imgur service provides a direct public link to an image – even bypassing the Reddit discussion page – and with its free hosting and limited ads it has become a popular service and is used by most Reddit users (Slater-Robins). For the majority of Reddit users this is an unproblematic partnership. Imgur is free, effective and fast. However, a vocal minority of Reddit users and amateur creators claim that the partnership between Reddit and Imgur has created the equivalent of an online ghetto (Douglas).As Nick Douglas explains, when using services like Imgur there is no requirement to either provide an external link to a creators website or to attribute the creator, limiting the ability for an amateur creator to gain exposure. It also bypasses existing revenue streams that may have been set up by creators, including ad-supported websites or online stores offering merchandise. As a result creators have little opportunity to benefit either economically or reputationally from this system. This occurs to such an extent that “there are actually warnings against submitting your own [original] work” to particular subforums on Reddit (Douglas). For example, some forum moderators require submissions to either “link directly to a specific image file or to a website with minimal ads” (“Reddit Pics”). It is in this context, that the posting of original content without attribution is not actively policed. There are a number of complaints circulating within the Reddit community about these practices (see “Ok, look people. I know you heart Imgur, but webcomics? Just link to the freaking site”; “The problem with reddit”). Many creators have directly protested against this aspect of Reddit’s structural organisation. Blogger Benjamin Grelle (a.k.a The Frogman) and writer Chris Menning are two notable examples. Grelle’s protest was witty and dramatic. He wrote a blog post featuring a picture of an email he sent to Imgur offering the company a choice: send him a huge novelty check for $10,000 or alternatively, add a proper attribution system that allows artists, photographers and content creators to properly credit their work. Grelle estimates that his work generated around $20,000 in ad revenue for Imgur; however the structure of Reddit and Imgur meant he earned little income from the “viral” success of his content. Grelle claimed he was happy for his work to be shared, but attribution meant that it was more likely a fan would follow the link to his website and provide him with some financial recompense for his work. Unsurprisingly, Grelle didn’t receive a paycheck and so in response has developed a unique way to gain exposure. He has started to insert himself into his work, “[s]o when you see a stolen Frogman piece, you still see Ben Grelle’s face” (Douglas). Chris Menning posted a blog about being banned from Reddit, hoping to bring to light some of the inequalities that persist around Reddit’s current structure. He began by noting that he had received a significant amount of traffic from them in the past. He had responded in kind by looking to create original content for particular subforums, knowing what a particular community would enjoy. However, his habit of providing the link to his own website along with the content he posted saw him get labelled as a spammer and banned by administrators. Menning chose not to fight the ban:It seems that the only way I could avoid [getting banned] is if I were to relinquish any rights to my original content and post it exclusively to Imgur. In effect, reddit punishes the creation of original content, and rewards content theft (Menning). Instead he decided to quit Reddit, claiming that Reddit’s approach would carry long-term consequences as the platform provided little incentive for creators to produce wholly original content. It is worth noting that neither Menning nor Grelle turned to legal avenues in order to gain financial restitution. Considering the nature of the practices they were complaining about, compensation in the form of an injunction or damages would have certainly been possible. In Benjamin’s case, a user had combined a number of his copyrighted works into one image and posted the image to Imgur without attribution --this infringed Grelle’s copyright in his work as well as his moral right to be attributed as the creator of the work. However, the public comments of both creators suggest that despite the possibility of legal success, their issue was not so much to do with their individual cases but rather the broader structural issues at play within Reddit. While they might gain individually from a successful legal challenge, over the long term Reddit would continue to be a fraught place for amateur and semi-professional content creators. Certain parts of the Reddit community appear to be sympathetic to these issues, and the complaints of dissenting users like Menning and Grelle have received active support from some users and moderators on the site. This has led to changes in the way content is being posted and managed on Aww, and has also driven the emergence of a satirical user-run court entitled Karma Court. In these spaces moderators and members establish community norms, regularly police the correct attribution of works and challenge the de-contextualisation of content overtly encouraged by Reddit, Imgur and other subforums. In the following section I will examine both Aww and Karma Court in order to explore how these norms are established and negotiated by both moderators and users alike. reddit.com/r/aww: The Online Hub of Cute Animal Pictures As we have seen, the design of Reddit and Imgur creates a number of problems for amateur creators who wish to protect their intellectual property. To address these shortcomings, the Aww community has created its own informal regulatory systems. Volunteer moderators play a crucial role: they establish informal codes of conduct for the Aww community and enforce various rules about how the site should be used. One of these rules relates to attribution. Users are asked to to “post original content whenever possible or attribute original content creators” ("The cutest things on the internet!"). Due to the volunteer nature of the work and the size of the Aww sub-reddit, moderator enforcement is haphazard. Consequently, responsibility falls on the wider user community to self-police. Despite its informal nature, this process manages to facilitate a fairly consistent standard of attribution. In this way it functions as an informal method of intellectual property protection. It is worth noting however that this commitment to original content is not solely due to the moral character of Aww users. A significant motivation is the distribution of karma points amongst Reddit users. Karma, which represents your good standing within the Reddit community, can be earned through user likes and votes – these push the most popular content to the front page of each subforum. Thus karma stands as a numerical representation of a user’s value to Reddit. This ostensibly democratic system has the paradoxical effect of fuelling intellectual property violations on the site. Users often repost other users’ jpegs, animated gifs, and other content, in order to reap the social and cultural capital that comes with posting a popular picture. In some cases they claim authorship of the content; in other cases they simply re-post content that they feel “belongs to the internet” (Douglas). Some content is so popular or pervasive online (this content that is often described as “viral”) that users feel there is little reason or need to attribute content. This helps to explain the persistence of ownership and attribution conflicts on Reddit. In the eyes of some users and moderators the management of these rights and the correct distribution of karma are seen to be vital to the long-term functioning of site. The karma system offers a numerical representation of each contributor’s value. Re-posting already successful content and claiming it as your own challenges the proper functioning of the karma system and potentially ‘inhibits the innovative potential of contributions (Richterich). On Aww the re-posting of original content is viewed as a taboo act that breaches these norms. The poster is seen to have engaged in deceptive conduct in order to gain karma for their user profile. In addition there is a strong ethic that runs through these comment threads that the original creator deserves attribution. There is a presumption that this attribution is vital in order to increasing the possible marketability of the posted content and to recognise and courage creators within the community. This sort of community-driven regulation contrasts with the aforementioned site design of Reddit and Imgur, which frustrates effective authorship attribution practices. Aww users, in contrast, have shown a willingness to defend what they see as the intellectual property rights of content creators.A series of recent examples outline how this process works in practice. User “moonlikeme123” posted a picture of a cat with its hands on the steering wheel of a car. The picture was entitled “we don’t need to ask for directions, Helen”. During the same day, three separate users had identified the picture as a repost, with one noting that the same picture was already on the front page of Aww. “moonlikeme123” received no karma points for the picture. In a second example, the user “nibblur” posted a photo of a kitten “hunting” a toy mouse. Within a day, one enterprising user had identified the original photographer – “torode”, an amateur photographer – and linked to his Reddit profile (see fig. 2) ("ferocious cat hunting its prey: aww."). One further example: on 15 July 2013 “Cuzacelmare” posted a picture of two dogs comforting each other – an image which had originally been posted by “lauface”. Again, users were quick to point out the lack of attribution and the attempt to claim someone else’s content as their own (“Comforting her sister during a storm: aww). It is worth noting that some Reddit users consider attributing content to be entirely without benefit. Some deride karma as “meaningless” and suggest that as a significant amount of content online is regularly reposted elsewhere, there is little harm done in re-posting what is essentially amateur content destined to be lost in the bowels of the internet. For example, the comments that follow Cuzacelmare’s reflect an ambivalence about reposting, suggesting that users weigh up the benefits of exposure gained by the re-posting against the lack of attribution granted and the increasingly decontextualized nature of the photo itself:Why does everyone get so bitchy about reposts. Not everyone is on ALL the time or has been on Rreddit since it was created. I mean if you've seen it already ignore it. It's just picture you aren't forced to click the link. [sic] (“Comforting her sister during a storm: aww”)We're arguing semantics, but any content that gets attention can benefit the creator, whether it's reddit or Youtube (“Comforting her sister during a storm: aww”) Such discussions are common on comment threads following re-posts by other users. They underline the conflicted status of this ephemeral media and the underlying frictions that are part of these processes. These discussions underline the fact that on Reddit the “sharing” (Kennedy) and “spreading” (Jenkins et al.) of content is not seen as an unquestioned positive but rather as a contestable structural feature that needs to be constantly negotiated and discussed. These informal methods of identification, post-hoc attribution and criticism in comment threads have been the long-standing method used to redress questions of attribution and ownership of content on Reddit. However in recent times, Reddit users have turned to satirical methods of formal adjudication for particularly egregious cases. A sub-reddit, Karma Court, now functions as an informal tribunal in which punishment is meted out for “the abuse of karma and general contemptible actions heretofore identified as wrongdoing” (“Constitution and F.A.Q of the Karma Court”). Due to its double function as both an adjudicator and satire of users overly-invested in online debates, there is no limit to the possible “crimes” a user may be charged with. The following charges are only presented as guidelines and speak to common negative experiences on online: (1). Douchebaggery - When one is being a douche.(2). Defamation - Tarnishing another redditor's [user’s] username.(3). Public Indecency - When a user flexes his or her 'e-peen' with the intent to shame other users.(4). OhShit.exe - Intentional reposting that results in reddit Gold.(5). GrandTheft.jpg - Reposting while claiming credit for the post.(6). Obstruction of Justice - Impeding or interfering with an investigation, such as submitting false screenshots, deleting evidence, or providing false evidence to the court.(7). Other - Literally anything else you want. We like creative names for charges.(“Constitution and F.A.Q of the Karma Court”) In Karma Court, legal representation can be sourced from a list of attorneys and judges, populated by users who volunteer to help adjudicate the case. They are required to have been a Reddit member for over six months. The only punishment is a public shaming. Interestingly Karma Court has developed a fair reposting clause that attempts to manage the complex debates around reposting and attribution. Under the non-binding satirical clause, users are able to repost content if it has not featured on the front page of a sub-reddit for seven or more days, if the re-poster acknowledges in the title or description that they are re-posting or if the original poster has less than 30,000 link karma (which means that the original poster has not substantially contributed to the Reddit community). If a re-poster does not adhere by these rules and claims a re-post as their own original content (or “OC”), they can be charged with “grandtheft.jpg” and brought to trial by another Reddit user. As one of the most popular subforums, a number of cases have emerged from Aww. The aforementioned re-poster “Cuzacelmare” (“I am bringing /U/ Cuzacelmare to trial …”) was “charged” through this process and served with a summons after denying “cute and innocent animals of that subreddit of their much deserved karma”. Similar cases to do with re-posting without attribution on Aww involve “FreshCorio” (“Reddit vs. U/FreshCorio …”) and “ninjacollin” (“People of Reddit vs. /U/ ninjacollin”) who were also brought to karma court. In each case prosecutors were adamant that false authorship claims needed to be punished. With these mock trials run by volunteers it takes time for arguments to be heard and judgment to occur; however “ninjacollin” expedited the legal process by offering a full confession. As a new user, “ninjacollin” was reprimanded severely for his actions and the users on Karma Court underlined the consequences of not identifying original content creators when re-posting content. Ownership and Attribution: Amateur Media, Distribution and Law The practices outlined above offer a number of alternate ways to think about amateur media and how it is distributed. An increasingly complex picture of content attribution and circulation emerges once we take into account the structural operation of Reddit, the intellectual property norms of users, and the various formal and informal systems of regulation that are appearing on the site. Such practices require users to negotiate complex questions of ownership between each other and in relation to corporate bodies. These negotiations often lead to informal agreements around a set of norms to regulate the spread of content within a particular community, suggesting that the lack of a formal legal process in these debates does not mean that there is an absence of regulation. As noted throughout this paper, the spread of online content often involves progressive de-contextualisation. Website design features often support this process in the hopes of encouraging content to spread in a fashion amenable to their corporate goals. Considering this tendency for content to be decontextualized online, the presence of attribution norms on subforums like Aww is significant. Instead of remixing, spreading and re-purposing content indiscriminately, users retain a concept of ownership and attribution that tracks closely to the basic principles of copyright law. Rather than users radically redefining concepts of attribution and ownership, as prefigured in some of the more utopian accounts of participatory media, the dominant norms of the Reddit community extend a discourse of copyright and ownership. As well as providing a greater level of detail to contemporary debates around amateur media and its viral or spreadable nature (Burgess; Jenkins; Jenkins et al), this analysis offers some lessons for copyright law. The emergence of norms in particular Reddit subforums which govern the use of copyrighted content and the use of a mock court structure suggests that online communities have the capacity to engage in forms of redress for amateur creators. These organic forms of copyright management operate adjacent to formal legal structures of copyright law. However, they are more accessible and practical for amateur creators, who do not always have the money to hire lawyers, especially when the market value of their content might be negligible. The informal regulatory systems outlined above may not operate perfectly but they reveal communities who are willing to engage foundational conversations around the importance of attribution and ownership. Following the existing literature (Fauchart and Von Hippel; Raustiala and Sprigman; Schultz; Oliar and Sprigman), I suggest that these online social norms provide a useful form of alternative protection for amateur creators. Acknowledgements Thanks to Ramon Lobato and Emily van der Nagel for comments and productive discussions around these issues. I am also grateful to the two anonymous peer reviewers for their assistance in developing this argument. References “About Reddit.” Reddit, 2014. 29 Apr. 2014 ‹http://www.reddit.com/about/›. Benkler, Yochai. The Wealth of Networks: How Social Production Transforms Markets and Freedom. New Haven: Yale University Press, 2006. Burgess, Jean. “YouTube and the Formalisation of Amateur Media.” Amateur Media: Social, Cultural and Legal Perspectives. In Dan Hunter, Ramon Lobato, Megan Richardson, and Julian Thomas, eds. Oxford: Routledge, 2012. Carr, Nicholas. “Left Alone by Its Owner, Reddit Soars.” The New York Times: Business, 2 Sep. 2012. “Comforting Her Sister during a Storm: aww.” reddit: the front page of the internet, 15 July 2013. “Constitution and F.A.Q of the Karma Court.” reddit: the front page of the internet, 2014. Douglas, Nick. “Everything on the Internet Gets Stolen: Here’s How You Should Feel about That.” Slacktory, 8 Sep. 2009. Fauchart, Emmanual, and Eric von Hippel. “Norms-Based Intellectual Property Systems: The Case of French Chefs.” Organization Science 19.2 (2008): 187 - 201 "Ferocious Cat Hunting Its Prey: aww." reddit: the front page of the internet, 4 April 2013. 29 Apr. 2014 ‹http://www.rreddit.com/r/aww/comments/1bobcp/ferocious_cat_hunting_its_prey/›. Hepola, Sarah. “The Internet is Made of Kittens.” Salon.com, 11 Feb. 2009. 29 Apr. 2014 ‹http://www.salon.com/2009/02/10/cat_internet/›. Hunter, Dan, and Greg Lastowka. “Amateur-to-Amateur.” William & Mary Law Review 46 (2004): 951 - 1030. “I Am Bringing /U/ Cuzacelmare to Trial on the Basis of Being One of the Biggest _______ I’ve Ever Seen, by Reposting Cute Animal Pictures to /R/Awww. Feels.Jpg.” reddit: the front page of the internet, 21 March 2013. Jenkins, Henry. Convergence Culture: Where Old and New Media Collide. New York: New York University Press, 2006. Jenkins, Henry, Sam Ford, and Joshua Green. Spreadable Media: Creating Value and Meaning in a Networked Culture. New York: New York University Press, 2013. Menning, Chris. "So I Got Banned from Reddit" Modern Primate, 23 Aug. 2012. Miller, Keery. “How Y Combinator Helped Shape Reddit.” Bloomberg Businessweek, 26 Sep. 2007. 29 Apr. 2014 ‹http://www.businessweek.com/stories/2007-09-26/how-y-combinator-helped-shape-redditbusinessweek-business-news-stock-market-and-financial-advice›. “Ok, Look People. I Know You Heart Imgur, But Webcomics? Just Link to the Freaking Site.” reddit: the front page of the internet, 22 Aug. 2011. Oliar, Dotan, and Christopher Sprigman. “There’s No Free Laugh (Anymore): The Emergence of Intellectual Property Norms and the Transformation of Stand-Up Comedy.” Virginia Law Review 94.8 (2009): 1787 – 1867. “People of reddit vs. /U/Ninjacollin for Grandtheft.jpg.” reddit: the front page of the internet, 30 Jan. 2013. Raustiala, Kal, and Christopher Sprigman. “The Piracy Paradox: Innovation and Intellectual Property in Fashion Design”. Virginia Law Review 92.8 (2006): 1687-1777. “Reddit v. U/FreshCorio. User Uploads Popular Repost Picture of R/AWW and Claims It Is His Sister’s Cat. Falsely Claims It Is His Cakeday for Good Measure.” reddit: the front page of the internet, 12 Apr. 2013. 29 Apr. 2014 ‹http://www.reddit.com/r/KarmaCourt/comments/1c7vxz/reddit_vs_ufreshcorio_user_uploads_popular_repost/›. “Reddit Pics.” reddit: the front page of the internet, 2014. 29 Apr. 2014 ‹http://www.reddit.com/r/pics/›. Richterich, Annika. “’Karma, Precious Karma!’ Karmawhoring on Reddit and the Front Page’s Econometrisation.” Journal of Peer Production 4 (2014). 29 Apr. 2014 ‹http://peerproduction.net/issues/issue-4-value-and-currency/peer-reviewed-articles/karma-precious-karma/›. Schultz, Mark. “Fear and Norms and Rock & Roll: What Jambands Can Teach Us about Persuading People to Obey Copyright Law.” Berkley Technology Law Journal 21.2 (2006): 651 – 728. Sepponen, Bemmu. “Why Redditors Gave Imgur a Chance.” Social Media Today, 20 July 2011. Slater-Robins, Max. “From Rags to Riches: The Story of Imgur.” Neowin, 21 Apr. 2013. "The Cutest Things on the Internet!" reddit: the front page of the internet, n.d. “The Problem with reddit.” reddit: the front page of the internet, 23 Aug. 2012. 29 Apr. 2014 ‹http://www.rreddit.com/r/technology/comments/ypbe2/the_problem_with_rreddit/›. Van der Nagel, Emily. “Faceless Bodies: Negotiating Technological and Cultural Codes on reddit gonewild.” Scan: Journal of Media Arts Culture 10.2 (2013). "We Don’t Need to Ask for Directions, Helen: aww." reddit: the front page of the internet, 30 June 2013. 29 Apr. 2014 ‹http://www.rreddit.com/r/aww/comments/1heut6/we_dont_need_to_ask_for_directions_helen/›.

Causal attributions are an element of a frame (Entman, 1991). Furthermore, a causal attribution organizes the anatomy of a problem within a text. Hereby, causal attributions provide explanations of problems in terms of their expectations, the underlying reasons or the causes that led to one or more problems depicted in the text. Entry connected to framing devices cultural motifs Field of Application/Theoretical Foundation The causal attributions variable is used in both deductive and inductive framework analyses (e.g., Boesman & Van Gorp, 2018; Cools et al., 2024; Van Gorp, 2007, 2010). Frame analyses with a socio-constructionist approach (Van Gorp, 2007) discuss a strong correlation of causal attributions with cultural motifs (Gamson & Modigliani, 1989). However and in the context of journalistic articles in particular, the main aim tends to depict the facts and problems of an event that is being discussed and to be able to understand and solve it. To that, causal attributions are – presumably – more closely linked to the problem definition than to the cultural motifs. In other words, not every problem may be underpinned by a cultural dimension in a press release, but it is far more likely to be underpinned by a causal attribution. References/Combination with other methods of data collection Causal attributions refer to a causal interpretation of an event or an actors’ statement, while also highlighting certain aspects of cultural motifs. This may be a result of “discursive negotiation”. Example studies: Pentzold & Knorr (2024); Pentzold & Fischer (2017); Van Gorp & Vercruysse (2012) Information on Van Gorp & Vercruysse, 2012 Authors: Baldwin Van Gorp and Tom Vercruysse Research questions: What are the dominant frames used to represent dementia and what alternative frames could be proffered? Object of analysis: An inductive frame analysis to examine the various ways in which the media define dementia both in news aggregates and in audio-visual material from the internet. The aim is to find indications of how and what conceptions people gain of dementia through news, audiovisual material, novels, and public health brochures. Hereby, the analysis followed an initial three-step coding procedure: First, the authors conducted the material inductively by coding key terms, with regular feedback moments to discuss potential divergences. This first phase ended when no new frames were detected, followed by an axial coding procedure of the whole material during phase two. Here, every new passage from the material had to be connected to at least one frame package so to verify the pre-defined frames from phase one. Third and lastly, frame packages were created by linking both reasoning devices and framing devices with a cultural theme. Time frame of analysis and analyzed media type: The sample consisted of a representative selection of Belgian newspaper coverage from March 1, 2008 to July 1, 2010. In addition, books about dementia (n=20) were examined together with (audio-)visual material (n=14) based on the search results for “dementia” on www.imdb.com and www.youtube.com. Finally, public health brochures of dementia were part of the sample (n=15). Information about variable Variable/name definition: Frames/frame packages that define dementia Scale: Nominal Level of analysis: In the beginning by paragraph level, then the whole text as the frames began to emerge more clearly. Sample operationalization: A frame / frame package consists of seven elements. These are the following: (1) cultural theme; (2) definition of the problem; (3) cause (why is it a problem?); (4) consequences; (5) moral values involved; (6) possible solutions/actions; (7) metaphors, choice of vocabulary. Values: The qualitative analysis resulted in a total of twelve frame packages (six frames and six counter-frames). Each consists of a central cultural theme, a definition of dementia, the causes and possible consequences, the moral evaluation and possible future scenarios of dementia. (1A. Dualism of body and mind vs. 1B. Unity of body and mind; 2; The invader; 3. The strange travelling companion; 4A. Faith in science vs. 4B. Natural ageing; 5. The fear of death and degeneration; 6. Carpe diem; 7A. Reversed roles vs. 7B. Each in turn; 8A. No quid pro quo vs. 8B. The Good Mother) Reliability: First, both authors coded independently of each other and met to discuss differences. This resulted in tentative frames which were used for further qualitative research of the material. Then, the frames found were discussed with experts (in a workshop setting). Codebook: Description of the sample (newspapers and audiovisual material) can be found at the end of the article (appendix of Van Gorp & Vercruysse, 2012). Information on Pentzold & Knorr, 2024 Authors: Christian Pentzold and Charlotte Knorr Research questions: With which imaginaries do journalistic reports make sense of Big Data? (RQ1) How do these imaginaries evolve over time? (RQ2) To what extent are the imaginaries similar or different across countries? (RQ3) Object of analysis [and analyzed media type]: The project Framing Big Data (DFG 2021-2024) analyzed the media-communicatively articulated frames on “Big Data” in online newspapers and magazines from three countries: South Africa, Germany, and the United States. No visual material was collected or examined. In total, material from 26 newspapers and magazines was analyzed. The time frame ranged from 2011 to 2020 (N=1,456). Articles had to contain the keywords “big data” or “dataf*” (e.g., datafication, datafied) in the headline, sub-headline and/or first paragraph (sampling criteria). To analyze the frames manually, it was assumed that frames are organized according to three levels analysable in a press text. First, the reasoning devices, followed by – secondly – the framing devices (references, argumentation patterns, idioms, metaphors, topoi) and – thirdly – the cultural motifs. Coming from a socio-constructionist approach, a cultural motif is the anchor of an idea expressed in a text (Van Gorp, 2010, p. 7). It is connected to a social problem. To understand this connection, the problem definition, causal attribution, treatment recommendation, and moral evaluation associated with the coded cultural motif were analyzed (cf., Van Gorp, 2010, p. 91-92; Entman, 1991, p. 52). These four elements are the reasoning devices of a frame. They are accompanied by the so-called framing devices which are stylistic devices, catchphrases, metaphors, and references. To that end, for the manual frame analysis on Big Data in the press aggregates, we developed codes for framing devices (1), reasoning devices (2), and cultural motifs (3). All three elements form part of a frame package (Van Gorp, 2007, 2010). To build the frame packages, we followed procedures of both block modeling and cluster analysis. First, a block modeling was conducted – as introduced by White for structural analyses (White et al., 1976) – to prepare the data set for the cluster analysis. Then, the coded cultural motifs, the reasoning devices, and the framing devices that correlated strongly in the data set (a total of 9 variables and 34 codes) were chosen. With that, a hierarchical cluster analysis (Ward method) was conducted (Matthes & Kohring, 2008, p. 268). Binary variables were calculated for each of the codes of the nine variables. Time frame of analysis: 2011, Jan 1 – 2020, Dec 31 Codebook: Public_Codebook_FBD_fin.pdf Information about the variable Variable name/definition: Causal Attributions Scale: Nominal Level of analysis: Whereas the formal categories in the manual content analysis were coded at the level of a single news item, the individual frame elements were coded at the level of propositional units. A propositional unit (= analysis unit) can be connected to several codes that are assigned to either a framing device, a reasoning device or a cultural motif. Not all but some frame elements had to be present in the news item, and at least one reasoning device. Furthermore, at least one reasoning device should be tied to a framing device and/or cultural motif to prove that the propositional unit contains semantic relationships and not just elements of “raw text” (van Atteveldt, 2008, p. 5). Sample operationalization Causal attributions are part of reasoning devices that include a problem definition, a causal attribution, a treatment recommendation, and a moral evaluation. To identify a causal attribution, we asked: What causes, reasons or expectations are associated with big data while others are ignored? How does an articulated cause, reason or expectation shape a concrete problem of big data while hiding others? Either as expectations (following the conviction/hope etc. to …) OR reasons (in order to…) OR as causes (because of …) for big data. (multiple causal attributions can be coded per article; but only one per propositional unit) Values: see Table 1. Reliability: α = .669 [Krippendorff’s alpha, intercoder reliability. A total of seven reliability tests were conducted, five of them during the coding phase and two as part of two pretests. Five coders were involved in four tests, four coders were involved in three tests. All tests were conducted in the period July 2022 to December 2022]. Table 1 Values used for the variable causal attributions described for Big Data (Pentzold & Knorr, 2024). Code Label Description 1 advances in health and medicine, self-optimization (mostly expectations associated with Big Data); Big Data is used to predict future health and to cure / heal diseases; also research purposes for scientific purposes (to find something out) 2 military/governmental exploitation new technologies (AI, drones and robots) collect data and/or can be used for surveillance and defense, for military intelligence, police investigations, data for security: push-pull between privacy and security in the digital age 3 data as resource to make profit / sell data, also meta data; Advances in workflows: detailed information about consumers/workers/employees: data profiles (consumers, economic dimension), profiling social behavior and mobility patterns, consumer behavior, social media marketing, analyzing meta data to predict the future of what people will buy (not) buy, predicting consumer trends, changes on the labor market, economic developments, the machines that store data and the technologies that collect it are becoming increasingly efficient. this can save costs. 4 detailed information about voters; behavioural microtargeting (political dimension) voter mobilization; predicting voting behavior 5 networked architectures (macro) databases are globally connected, the technical infrastructures are already established, lower costs for data collection and storage, people are proceeded into data; free Services from companies for the price of some data, monitoring as default citizens get used to 6 risks of datafication are abstract, not considered (macro) lack of citizen interest and privacy interests in Big Data, “trends and changes are neglected” 7 deficient laws politically not regulated, in-transparency of contracts, police investigations are not regulated, grappling with balance of power: who will make decisions for us in the future? Ubiquitous mass surveillance; lack of expertise in handling Big Data (lack of organization of accumulated Big Data), persistence of data as data shadows (in the most negative sense: identities can be stolen) 8 Terror attacks in the past Big data analyses to prevent terrorist attacks like 9/11 9 something else/ nothing detected Note: No multiple coding. References Boesman, J., & Van Gorp, B. (2018). Driving The Frame: How News Values, News Pegs, and Story Angles Guide Journalistic Frame Building. In P. D’Angelo (Ed.), Communication Series. Doing news framing analysis II: Empirical and theoretical perspectives (Second edition, pp. 112–134). New York: Routledge Taylor & Francis Group. Cools, H., Van Gorp, B., & Opgenhaffen, M. (2024). Where exactly between utopia and dystopia? A framing analysis of AI and automation in US newspapers. Journalism, 25(1), 3–21. https://doi.org/10.1177/14648849221122647 Entman, R. M. (1991). 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