Journal articles on the topic 'Grippe équine'

O presente estudo objetivou conhecer as representações sociais de saúde e imunização para idosos vacinados/não vacinados com a Influenza. Adotamos como referencial teórico a Teoria das Representações Sociais, tendo cunho qualitativo. A pesquisa foi desenvolvida com trinta idosos, sendo quinze vacinados contra a gripe e quinze não vacinados. Realizou-se entrevista individual, utilizando questionário para caracterização e Teste de Associação Livre de Palavras (TALP) como instrumentos de coleta. A análise ocorreu através da Teoria do Núcleo Central, pela ordem das evocações. Os dados revelaram diferenças entre as representações para os dois grupos: os idosos vacinados representaram a saúde como sinônimo de bem-estar, que possibilita a manutenção das atividades cotidianas, e a imunização como algo que protege de diversos males; já aqueles não vacinados definiram saúde como produto da vontade divina, e a vacina como algo que protege, mas que causa variadas reações, o que os desencoraja a utilizá-la. O estudo apontou para a importância de educar em saúde e desmitificar o imaginário sobre esta como também acerca de vacinas, uma vez que hábitos saudáveis precisam ser cada dia mais estimulados, minimizando os altos índices de morbimortalidade evitáveis.

Se pretende establecer qué tipo de conexión tuvieron las respuestas que implementó el Estado uruguayo con el saber médico dominante, bajo la forma de políticas sanitarias, ante la epidemia de gripe de 1918-1919. El problema se puede desdoblar en dos aspectos: ¿Cuáles fueron las aristas más salientes del pensamiento médico al tener que enfrentar la epidemia de gripe durante los años 1918-1919? Y, ¿cómo se vinculó el saber médico con las acciones que llevó adelante el Estado uruguayo? Las respuestas intentarán ser dadas a través de una indagatoria indicial en virtud de dos razones: Primero, las fuentes consultadas presentan un grado muy alto de dispersión y heterogeneidad, segundo, quien redacta se encuentra en el contexto de la exploración del problema.

In the development of market economy in Russia, the main trend in the log processing industry is the implementation of the cutting edge technology and effective innovation in order to boost the labor productivity and reduce the production cost on the basis of environmentally friendly and rational use of timber resources. Taking into account the important role of water log transport used for timber rafting, the problem of efficiency of loading and unloading of flat rafts at log unloading berths is quite urgent. The current research considers the ways of increasing unloading efficiency of multi-row flat rafts at logging enterprise berths. The aim of this research is to present the results of the experiments of unloading multi-row flat rafts at logging enterprise berth. In these experiments, a load lifting crane equipped with special load grippers was used for unloading multi-row flat rafts at log unloading berth. During the experiments, the duration of unloading sequence from water to the unloading berth was defined and applied to multi-row flat rafts calculated by Northern (Arctic) Federal University named after M.V. Lomonosov and Volga State University of Technology based on the results of the laboratory experiments and statistical processing of the obtained data. We also carried out a strength test of the crane load gripper used for transposition of lengthy flat rafts in timber onshore yards and log unloading berths. The research was carried out on lifting force fluctuation amplitude and oscillation period of the load gripper during the process of flat raft unloading from water on log unloading berth. The fluctuation amplitude of the lifting force of the load-gripper from the ground is higher by 11–33% than from the water, facilitated by the water damping capacity. Based on the laboratory research, the durability of load grippers, patented in the Russian Federation under No. 2476366 and No. 2526767, was experimentally tested. The hypothesis of theoretical calculations of the special load gripper based on the equitability of gross load distribution on the gripper applicable to general purpose lifting apparatus for four choker grapples was experimentally confirmed. The certainty assumption amounted to 97.6%.

This paper presents the optimization of gripping points of an end effector of three fingers, and this is done by ensuring that the force exerted on the object is minimum. It begins with the design of the gripper has two degrees of freedom (DOF) for each finger. Is performed a brief mathematical description of the kinematics involved in the gripper and with this is determined the work area. With the workspace is determines the points with contact with the object geometry are obtained and these are gripping the possible points of the object. To select which of these points is the best to grab the object, we proceed to evaluate the force exerted on the object by means of the mathematic denominated of Screw. This force should be minimal, avoiding sliding and in turn damage the object. As the contact points are numerous and the evaluating would take quite some time in an algorithm combinational by this reason the optimization algorithm Non-dominated Sorting Genetic Algorithm (NSGA) is implemented.

Many scholars have assumed that stanzas 8 and 9 in Hávamál, the so-called sæluvísur, carry significant information about the poem’s ethical message. The history of their interpretation has, however, not so far been afforded due attention. On the surface the sæluvísur may appear quite easy to understand; nevertheless, it has often been pointed out that conventional interpretations are riddled with paradox. In this article I take a few illustrative examples from this history and contest a few unconventional interpretations, especially those of Ivar Lindquist and Guðmundur Finnbogason. I also put forward a new interpretation. This interpretation relies on a system of concepts – especially the distinction beween action and state, and between agent and patient – which puts the logical form of the two stanzas in a new light. According to this revised interpretation, stanza 8 tells us that being sæll (happy) requires praise from others, even if the praise is duplicitous. Basically, we should only try to change what others say about us, not what they really believe, because the latter is too difficult. Stanza 9, on the other hand, tells us that to be sæll one must be able to trust one’s own judgement, because the advice given by others can be evil or dangerous. Finally, I argue that this interpretation should make us question the common idea that the ethical message in Hávamál is akin to virtue ethics. More likely, the poem affirms ethical egoism and tries to identify ways to experience pleasure or enjoyment in an unfair world. The meaning of the word sæla or sæll, in and of itself, does not provide a reason to read anything else into the original text.

Résumé RÉSUMÉ: L’ambition de l’article est de proposer des éléments d’appréciation sur l’avenir du service public postal après l’adoption par l’Europe des Quinze d’une directive. Le secteur postal a beaucoup changé depuis quinze ans. Le texte commence par une grille de lecture économique des éléments structurants de l’activité postale. Puis, il présente un panorama institutionnel des entreprises et de la réglementation en Europe. Ensuite, il revient sur la directive postale, ses principes et ses limites. Le débat européen des années à venir va de nouveau porter sur le développement d’un processus harmonisé de libéralisation. L’article constate l’insuffisance d’études approfondies sur les conséquences qui pourraient en résulter; en particulier, les délais retenus risquent d’empêcher la prise en compte des leçons à retirer des libéralisations en cours.

To date, the improvement of forest machines is aimed at increasing productivity using modern information sys-tems. The most complex operation in logging, which requires the experience and skill of the operator, is the manipulator control when gripper-cutting device is pointed to a tree. At "hard" capture of the tree as a result of inaccurate pointing of the manipulator, the sawed tree growing around the undergrowth is damaged, expensive equipment is damaged, there is a risk of tree falling in the undetermined direction, saw mechanism is destroyed. Also the time for pointing the manipulator and capture the tree increases, which significantly reduces the productivity of work. With constant concentration on a complex operation, the operator quickly becomes fatigued, which reduces his/her efficiency and attention. Not precise guidance of the manipulator and "hard" capture of the tree occurs quite often and can happen even with an experienced operator. The operations are performed by one algorithm, which means that they can be automated. In order to eliminate the above-mentioned shortcomings, a system of automatic guidance of gripper-cutting device on a tree and its gripping is proposed. It consists, apart from both technological equipment of the machine itself, a computer with a logging machine control system, two distance sensors, and touch sensor. The distance sensors are installed on the pick-up device and determine the location of the tree. The information from the sensors is fed to the computer of the forest machine, which controls the operating mechanisms of the manipulator of the forest machine. Controlled by the machine control system, actuators of hydromanipulator guide the gripper-cutting device onto the tree. The touch sensor is mounted on the body of the gripping device. When you touch the tree with the sensor, the tree is captured. With such an implementation, the accuracy and speed of guiding the cutting device onto the tree is increased, which leads to a reduction in operator fatigue, increased productivity of the forest machine, reduction of damage to trees and gripping device due to the partial automation of the process of guiding the cutting device on the tree and its capture

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to explore the quite extraordinary way the phenomena of mobile communication has gripped our society and the opportunities this provides for healthcare. Design/methodology/approach – It describes the ticking public health time bomb surrounding long term conditions and dementia and the need to radically overhaul how community services are delivered. It dissects the opportunities and challenges of providing a mobile health and social care service in the community and explores what a mobile moment means for these professionals. Findings – It stresses that the answer is NOT to simply provide an organisation’s IT back-office environment in the field and describes the concept of a dedicated organisation app platform tailored to meet this need. Originality/value – The paper concludes by reviewing recent evidence about the benefits and opportunities for health and social care organisations to embrace mobile working.

Not a day passes but we find ourselves indignant about something or other. When is our indignation justified, and when does it count as moral indignation rather than a legitimate but non-moral gripe? You might think that we should turn to moral theories – to the varieties of utilitarian, Kantian, virtue theories, etc – to answer this question. I shall try to convince you that this is a mistake, that moral theory – as it is ordinarily presently conceived and studied – does not have a specific subject matter, a specific aim, scope or boundaries. You might think that the difference between echt moral indignation and other forms of disapproval is their relative strength or the importance of their target; but moral indignation can be quite faint, directed to a relatively minor transgression and a strongly felt gripe may be directed to a serious but presumptively non-moral infraction. I shall try to persuade you that morality does not constitute an important and distinctive domain with a distinctive set of over-riding norms or a privileged mode of reasoning: morality is everywhere or nowhere in particular. Radical as this claim may sound, I am not a complete Luddite about the matter. Traditional moral theories nevertheless have important functions. But rather than being competing ‘winner takes all’ explanatory and normative theories, OldSpeak moral systems function heuristically. They offer a heterogeneous set of reminders, questions, advice, ideals, warnings, considerations for deliberation. While we try to integrate and systematize them, there is no single overarching organizational plan.

Abstract Although animal-assisted interventions (AAIs) share specific characteristics, their differences can be quite significant (Lajoie, 2003). Most research on AAIs focuses on the human side (Muñoz Lasa et al., 2011). The autonomy and well-being of the animals involved are seldom studied, as well as the possible values of conflict between humans and animals (Glenk, 2017). The COVID-19 pandemic that gripped the world starting in 2019–2020, greatly affected human-animal interaction projects, such as animal-assisted interventions (Kumar et al., 2020). To control the spread of the SARS-CoV-2 virus, several (inter)national organisations, came up with new safety protocols. We focus on scientific insights and anecdotal observations, as well as the ethical implications of the COVID-19 safety protocols on AAIs in Belgium and Italy. The paper aims to give the reader an insight into the complexity of AAIs and its future relevance for developing protocols to handle the current and maybe future pandemics.

The audience spontaneously acted as "tap water" to initiate short video marketing, successfully triggering the box office market of the domestic literary film Return to Dust, making it a typical case of the film industry with great significance. The "tipping point" of the film at the box office is not only due to the combined effect of the dissemination of the short video of secondary creation and the live streaming of the traffic stars but also due to the topic sense created by the spiritual core of the film itself. At the same time, it benefits from the cross-media communication environment created by the UGC (user-generated content) model and the precise push of big data. With the combined force of these three parties, a breakthrough effect was formed, creating a "box office miracle" for domestic literary films. The short video explosion of the domestic literary film market is quite enlightening: only by taking quality as the core to create excellent films and taking traffic as a gripper to promote film cross-media marketing, can we get out of the film development road of "traffic + quality" with Chinese characteristics.

One of the uses of robotics technology that is developing is in the field of warehousing, with robots transferring vehicle goods used in the industrial world, especially in the warehousing section. The item transfer robot has 2 navigations, namely on the wheeled part, namely the robot can maneuver in all directions without the need to rotate the body of the robot (holonomic robot). Then one of the robots that is used quite often in the industrial world is the arm manipulator. Robots that have a physical shape like a human arm and a degree of freedom (Degree of Freedom). The transfer robot system is controlled remotely using an IoT-based smartphone using the ESP32 Wemos D1 R32 module as the robot's driving brain and ESP32-Cam as the robot's drilling visual. Several robot tests are carried out to ensure that the designed robot can run properly. From the results of functional testing, parts of the robot can run well. The robot can walk through commands from a smartphone, the gripper on the arm manipulator can grasp objects and the ESP32-Cam can display images to the smartphone.

Desde 1957, Caretas publicó la sección “Ají Molido”, a cargo del artista arequipeño Guillermo Osorio Oviedo, quien satirizó los diferentes problemas y tensiones políticas peruanos a través de sus caricaturas. La sección finalizó en octubre de 1968 y abarcó gran parte del segundo Gobierno de Manuel Prado (1956-1962), así como las elecciones generales de 1962 y 1963 y el primer Gobierno de Fernando Belaúnde Terry (1963-1968). Es así que, en el marco de las reformas electorales planteadas por Belaúnde, se volvieron a implementar las elecciones municipales, lo que dio lugar a dos comicios de este tipo durante su gestión: el primero en 1963 y el segundo en 1966. En el presente artículo nos centraremos en analizar los recursos formales e iconográficos que utilizó Guillermo Osorio en las caricaturas realizadas en el contexto electoral de 1966, al crear una campaña contra la candidatura de Jorge Grieve Madge.

L’auteur présente les résultats d’une étude empirique à caractère exploratoire portant sur un échantillon de décisions rendues en matière d’accommodement raisonnable en milieu de travail et s’étalant sur une période de quinze ans. Plus de 400 décisions ont été répertoriées et analysées en fonction d’une grille standardisée, dans le but d’évaluer notamment les acteurs, les secteurs et les juridictions les plus touchés par les demandes ayant mené à une décision juridictionnelle ainsi que les motifs les plus souvent invoqués au soutien de ces demandes. L’auteur explore également l’hypothèse voulant que l’évolution de la jurisprudence de la Cour suprême du Canada à partir des années 2007 et 2008 au regard des critères juridiques applicables en cette matière ait eu un impact sur certains des indicateurs étudiés, dont le nombre de décisions rendues et l’issue des litiges. Après l’analyse descriptive des résultats globaux, l’auteur se penche plus précisément sur les décisions relatives aux demandes d’accommodement basées sur des motifs religieux.

A lo largo de la historia de la humanidad, las epidemias, plagas o pandemias, han diezmado a las civilizaciones, y han sido causantes de grandes cambios políticos y socioeconómicos. De acuerdo con la Organización Mundial de la Salud (OMS), la Plaga de Justiniano (541-542) es la cuarta pandemia que más muertes ha causado (30-50 millones), después de la Peste Negra 1347-1351 (200 millones de muertos), la Viruela 1520 (56 millones de víctimas) y la Gripe Española 1918-1919 (40-50 millones de decesos). Hace cerca de quince siglos, el imperio Romano de Oriente (Bizantino) se vio azolado por una plaga que probablemente empezó en Asia, pero que, de acuerdo con los historiadores y escritores de la época, de quienes se conservan sus registros, empezó en África en el año 541, pasó a Constantinopla en el año 542, y se extendió posteriormente a toda Europa. La peste se presentó en oleadas, que ocurrieron en número de 20 durante los dos siglos siguientes. Se ha identificado a la bacteria Yersinia Pestis como el agente causal, probablemente transmitido por las pulgas a partir de las ratas, y se ha relacionado incluso con cambios climáticos documentados para la época. A partir de documentos históricos y de investigaciones contemporáneas en diferentes ámbitos, se presenta una revisión de “La Plaga de Justiniano”, y del comportamiento actual de la peste.

O aparecimento de um novo coronavírus, denominado de SARS-CoV-2 deu início a uma pandemia de COVID-19, onde teve como consequência mais de 251 milhões de infecções com pelo menos 5 milhões de mortes associadas a doença, sendo relatada pela OMS até novembro de 2021. Objetivo: Descrever o uso das plantas medicinais como tratamento da COVID-19 e a importância do profissional farmacêutico no estado do Amazonas. Métodos: Trata-se de uma pesquisa descritiva-exploratória, onde a coleta de dados dar-se de forma virtual, buscando artigos nas bases de dados científicos: Google Acadêmico, SciELO, BVS, PubMed e Portal de Periódicos (CAPES). O período de pesquisa dos artigos compreendeu trabalhos publicados de 2015 até 2021 e os descritores em saúde utilizados na pesquisa foram: Bioativos; Chá; COVID-19; Extratos; Plantas Medicinais. Para a coleta e análise dos dados, houve um processo e fluxo para que se concentrou artigos relativos à temática principal da pesquisa e que se evidenciasse os achados. Resultados: Com relação ao uso desordenados de plantas medicinais, a maioria mostrou-se com atividade inibitória promissora relacionada a infecções virais em humanos, mas isso não quer dizer que elas são eficazes no combater ao coronavírus. Ocorre que, assim como o chá da casca da “quina quina”, outros remédios caseiros oriundos de alimentos e plantas medicinais foram consumidos para prevenir ou tratar a COVID-19, evidenciando um comportamento cultural, onde buscava-se combater a gripe ou sintomas gripais causados pela doença. Considerações Finais: Sabe-se da necessidade de conhecer e identificar os compostos bioativos, dose segura específica para formulações e potencial interação droga-erva antes de entrar em um ensaio clínico. Além da incessante busca de nova evidências científicas para o uso terapêutico, assim como a essencial importância do profissional farmacêutico quanto ao uso de fitoterápicos no período de qualquer endemia na busca por novos métodos de assistência ao paciente.

Tras la Segunda Guerra Mundial se inició una época de crecimiento económico que, con fluctuaciones, llegaría hasta las crisis del petróleo de los años setenta. Esos años, los de la sociedad de la opulencia en palabras de Galbraith, no estuvieron libres de tragedias sanitarias: la poliomielitis, la gripe (en sus variadas formas), y más tarde el sida, afectaron a todo el planeta. Los avances médicos permitieron que muchas personas superasen las enfermedades pero no evitaron sus secuelas. Cualquier discapacidad permanente afecta a la vida de quien lo padece, no solo porque le impide hacer cosas indispensables, sino por el rechazo social que, en mayor o menor medida, puede sufrir. La forma en que se organiza el espacio público, la arquitectura que lo ocupa y los objetos que usamos son más responsables de la discapacidad que las enfermedades o los accidentes que sufrieron los afectados. El papel del diseño en este complejo entramado es tan contradictoria que puede ser la solución a muchos problemas, pero también la causa de gran parte de ellos. Este artículo repasa las circunstancias que llevaron a la formación de los movimientos a favor de la accesibilidad y su papel en el desarrollo de un marco legal favorable a las personas con discapacidad. Analiza la influencia del higienismo y la eugenesia en el diseño y se ocupa de la dificultad del diseño convencional para atender las necesidades de las personas con discapacidad.

Objetivo: Esclarecer los factores asociados a dicha práctica y conocer cuál es la prevalencia de la automedicación en el año 2023. Material y métodos: El estudio es cuantitativo, de tipo transversal y diseño correlacional. Se evaluó a 172 estudiantes, los cuales fueron seleccionados por muestreo por conveniencia y una p significativa menor a 0.05. Resultados: se halló una prevalencia de automedicación de 83,7 % en los estudiantes, la cual está relacionada con diferentes factores, los demográficos dentro de los cuales la edad tiende a hacer más significativa con un (p = 0,0478) ; factores económicos, siendo más significativo el ingreso mensual con valor de (p = 0,0437); factores sociales, siendo significativo el colegio donde estudiaron con un valor de (p = 0.0269) y finalmente los factores culturales donde tiene más significancia el año de estudio ( p =0.0214), el establecimiento al que acuden (p = 0,0403) y por la recomendación de quien la hacen ( p = 0,0145) . En cuanto a la caracterización de la automedicación se tiene que la frecuencia de automedicación es cada 2 a 4 meses (59,10%), la molestia más frecuente es el dolor (72,3%) y la gripe (59,1%); los medicamentos más frecuentes son los analgésicos (56,3%), y antigripales (52,5%); e indicaron que no tienen tiempo para ir al médico (44%). Conclusión: Existieron diversos factores personales asociados a la práctica de automedicación en estudiantes de medicina, encontramos la edad, ingreso familiar, el colegio donde estudio y el año de estudio, el establecimiento al que acuden, y la persona que recomienda.

This article examines the question of reform of the United Nations as one of the key objectives that has been on the agenda of this institution for several decades. The organization was established for the purpose of relieve future generations from the disasters of war that caused indescribable grieve to humanity; however, for quite a while there is an opinion that the UN has lost its authority and influence on the international arena. This article considers the improvement of work mechanisms of the United Nations. Particular attention is paid to the new principles founded in the early XXI century, reforms carried out within the system of UN, as well as position of the Russian Federation pertaining to the subject of research. Currently,  the United Nations is virtually the only institution that ensures security on the international arena, significantly contributes to the prevention of escalation of a high number of conflicts, despite the fact that there do still exist problematic hubs in the activity of this Organization. The UN greatly benefits the international community since its establishment; however, it requires changes and reforms in order to improve its effectiveness.

La création d’un système de contrôle de gestion par un concepteur nécessite ultérieurement une appropriation de la part de l’utilisateur. La grille d’analyse, construite à l’issue de la revue de la littérature, permet de repérer l’étape atteinte dans le processus d’appropriation composé de trois phases séquentielles. Une approche qualitative, par entretiens sur site, est réalisée dans quinze petites entreprises du second oeuvre du bâtiment. Le propriétaire-dirigeant est face à l’option de concevoir son système de contrôle de gestion, d’en externaliser la conception auprès de l’expert-comptable, ou de déléguer, en l’occurrence auprès du métreur. L’étude sur le terrain met en avant l’échec récurrent de cette appropriation lorsque le propriétaire-dirigeant n’est pas lui-même le concepteur, échec suivi de l’abandon du contrôle de gestion. Sont en cause, d’une part, la faiblesse de la communication avec l’expert-comptable en termes de formalisation de la vision pour l’avenir de l’entreprise, d’autre part, l’absence de prise en considération par le métreur de la polyvalence de la gestion. Les préconisations portent sur la faculté du propriétaire-dirigeant à transformer ses schèmes de réflexion ; en effet, la divergence entre le travail du concepteur et l’attente de l’utilisateur crée un déséquilibre potentiellement bénéfique à une évolution.

At least twice during the first half of the eighteenth century criminal prosecutions were undertaken in Ireland which gripped the public imagination. The first of these celebrated cases, involving the trial for rape, conviction and subsequent execution of the Cork Jacobite James Cotter in 1720, has also come to hold an extraordinary fascination for historians of eighteenth-century Ireland. Few writers concerned with early Georgian Ireland have been able to avoid its allure. For the most part, however, the incident has been referred to only fleetingly, employed variously as a motif of religious or political conflict or ethnic alienation. For Kevin Whelan, it is illustrative of the ‘conflict between old and new families’ in Munster, and indicative of a ‘partisan popish paranoia’ on the part of the province’s Protestant rulers. For Louis Cullen, it was ‘part of the legacy of the 1690s’, yet an event which would provide ‘the spark which set alight the sectarian tensions in Munster in the 1760s’. Other commentators have seen the case as one in which ‘a trumped-up charge’ was laid, for political purposes, against a man ‘generally believed’ to be innocent. A few have offered more guarded conclusions. Thomas Bartlett ventures only that this was ‘certainly a sensational event’. James Kelly both recognises the unique circumstances of Cotter’s case and suggests that it is ‘unlikely that he was the victim of judicial assassination’. S. J. Connolly goes further, stressing that Cotter had ‘quite clearly been guilty of rape’. However, the fullest and most recent examination of the case, in an essay written by Breandán Ó Buachalla in an ‘attempt to correlate a specific literary text to the career of a specific political activist’, returns us firmly to the recurrent context of Catholic Jacobite resistance and Protestant collusion.

Background Brazil became the epicenter of the COVID-19 epidemic in a brief period of a few months after the first officially registered case. The knowledge of the epidemiological/clinical profile and the risk factors of Brazilian COVID-19 patients can assist in the decision making of physicians in the implementation of early and most appropriate measures for poor prognosis patients. However, these reports are missing. Here we present a comprehensive study that addresses this demand. Methods This data-driven study was based on the Brazilian Ministry of Health Database (SIVEP-Gripe) regarding notified cases of hospitalized COVID-19 patients during the period from February 26th to August 10th, 2020. Demographic data, clinical symptoms, comorbidities and other additional information of patients were analyzed. Results The hospitalization rate was higher for male gender (56.56%) and for older age patients of both sexes. Overall, the lethality rate was quite high (41.28%) among hospitalized patients, especially those over 60 years of age. Most prevalent symptoms were cough, dyspnoea, fever, low oxygen saturation and respiratory distress. Cardiac disease, diabetes, obesity, kidney disease, neurological disease, and pneumopathy were the most prevalent comorbidities. A high prevalence of hospitalized COVID-19 patients with cardiac disease (65.7%) and diabetes (53.55%) and with a high lethality rate of around 50% was observed. The intensive care unit (ICU) admission rate was 39.37% and of these 62.4% died. 24.4% of patients required invasive mechanical ventilation (IMV), with high mortality among them (82.98%). The main mortality risk predictors were older age and IMV requirement. In addition, socioeconomic conditions have been shown to significantly influence the disease outcome, regardless of age and comorbidities. Conclusion Our study provides a comprehensive overview of the hospitalized Brazilian COVID-19 patients profile and the mortality risk factors. The analysis also evidenced that the disease outcome is influenced by multiple factors, as unequally affects different segments of population.

Sintetizando realidades de um mundo febril, o ensaio se acopla a variados conjuntos da sociedade humana em perigo. Numa espécie de holismo interpretativo, o texto começa pelo passado bastante atual da gripe espanhola até chegar ao presente da Covid-19. Presente salpicado de lições não aprendidas com a história. Examinando a montanha russa da pandemia que atordoa os ricos e os pobres, a narrativa mede o pulso de nações a espera da diagnose da derrota ou da vitória contra o vírus. O laudo será conhecido apenas no término da partida da vida contra morte. Em países cientes da gravidade, mas desconhecedores das causas das pestes e do nome dos antídotos, a prevalência da desinformação mutila ensaios por uma nova colegialidade nas relações internacionais. Criticando o uso do bode expiatório nas explicativas das desgraças pandêmicas, o ensaio assenta os excluídos entre os incluídos da arca de Noé.Abstract: Summarizing realities of a feverish world, the essay connects several groups of the human society in danger. In a sort of interpretative holism the text begins from the quite current past of the Spanish flu until it reaches the present of Covid-19. A present sprinkled with lessons which haven’t been learned from history. Examining the roller coaster of the pandemic which stuns rich and poor, the narrative measures the pulse of nations awaiting for the diagnosis of victory or defeat against the virus. The report will be revealed only at the end of the game between life and death. In countries aware of the severity, but unaware of the causes of the pestilences or the name of the antidotes, the prevalence of the misinformation mutilates the rehearsals for a new collegiality in the international relations. Criticizing the use of a scapegoat in the explanations of the pandemic disgraces, the essay sits the excluded among the included ones in Noah’s Ark.Keywords: Life; Health; Plague; Consensus; Cooperation; Privileges.

Cette contribution est le fruit d’un travail collectif mené par une soixantaine d’étudiants de baccalauréat en sciences sociales à l’Université catholique de Louvain sous ma supervision. Dans le cadre d’un séminaire de méthodologie en sciences sociales (récolte et analyse de données qualitatives[1]) dont le thème portait sur les pratiques écologistes, je les ai invités à exercer leurs talents de chercheur-se-s en sciences sociales, le temps de deux mois de « terrain » ethnologique (Beau et Weber 2003). Il leur fallait choisir un collectif dans le sillage du mouvement écologiste et mener des observations participantes et des entretiens auprès des personnes qui s’y engageaient. Quinze groupes de 3-4 étudiants se sont constitués et ont mené des enquêtes exploratoires, la moitié d’entre eux ayant reçu pour consigne d’adopter une grille d’analyse portant sur les rapports sociaux de sexe, tandis que l’autre moitié était libre de s’inspirer des théories souhaitées. Enfin, l’ensemble des travaux a fait l’objet d’une présentation dans le cadre d’un mini-colloque à la fin du quadrimestre (décembre 2012). Cela a permis de faire dialoguer des groupes ayant travaillé sur des collectifs similaires, partageant parfois le même un terrain, mais dans une perspective différente. Dans un premier temps, Je rendrai compte ici des travaux de ces étudiants en présentant les problématiques qui ont été élaborées au terme de leurs analyses exploratoires. Je proposerai ensuite une lecture transversale des données récoltées qui décline les dynamiques de genre (Jaunait et al. 2008) visiblement à l’œuvre dans ces collectifs. Ce concept qui induit la relation sociale entre les groupes sociaux de sexe, permettra de voir comment l’écologie, comme répertoire social de discours et d’actions, est mobilisée par les acteurs-trices sociaux dans leur production du genre, et comment le genre, de ce fait, affecte les formes des pratiques écologistes. [1] Séminaire dans le cadre du cours dispensé en 2ème baccalauréat en sciences humaines et sociales, socio-anthropologie et sciences politiques.

Werk heeft belangrijke zingevende functies en heeft daardoor een potentieel positief effect op het leven van mensen: het biedt idealiter een inkomen, het zorgt voor sociaal contact, het geeft meer zin en regelmaat aan het leven en het draagt potentieel bij aan iemands eigenwaarde en welzijnsgevoel. Of en waarom mensen hun werk als zinvol ervaren, is dan ook van oudsher een belangrijk vraagstuk in het arbeidspsychologisch en -sociologisch onderzoek. Wij zoomen in dit artikel in op de vraag welke verschillen bestaan in de gradatie en de determinanten van zinvol werk voor drie beroepsgroepen: de blue, white en grey collars. Waar de termen 'blue en white collars' gemeenzaam bekend zijn, is dat veel minder het geval voor de term 'grey collars'. Het gaat stereotiep om de 'grijze pakken', om de kader- of de leidinggevende functies. Hoe diep of ondiep is het water tussen deze drie groepen wanneer het gaat om percepties van (determinanten van) zinvol werk?How deep or shallow is the water between blue, withe and grey collars when it comes to perceptions of (determinants of) meaningful work? That’s the key focus of the article. In line with self-determination theory we examine the impact of (the fulfilling of the need of) autonomy and (the fulfilling of the need of) social support on experienced meaningfulness. Additionally, in line with Person-Environment Fit theory, we expect a mediation effect by needs-supply fit or misfit dependent on the type of professional ‘collar’ (blue, white or grey) of the employee. The results of the explanatory analysis of our survey (n=9307) shows that the expected relationships in our models are quite collar-independent, meaning that the drivers for meaningful work are almost the same for blue, white as well as for grey collars. This does not mean that the nature of the ‘collar’ of the workers has no impact at all. The descriptive results demonstrates less meaningful work perceptions, less needs-supply fit, less autonomy and social support for blue collar workers, compared with white and grey collars. Extra attention for those groups who are working in a more executive mode is therefore required.

Introduction. One of the tasks of two-link manipulators of industrial robots that move the end-effector along complex trajectories (e.g., robot welder) is associated with the need for careful programming of their movement. For these purposes, manual programming methods or training methods are used. These methods are quite labor-intensive, and they require highly qualified service personnel. A possible solution to the problem of programming the manipulator movements is the simulation of motion with the calculation of angular coordinates. This can help simplify the geometric adaptation of the manipulator in the process of debugging the control program. Therefore, this work aimed at calculating coordinates for programming the control system of a two-link manipulator operating in an angular coordinate system and moving the end-effector along a complex trajectory (e. g., when welding car bodies). Materials and Methods. A two-link robot manipulator designed for cyclically repeating actions in an angular coordinate system was considered. The manipulator consisted of two rotating links: “arm” and “elbow”, which were fixed on the base. The base could rotate, which provided a third degree of freedom. This configuration increased the working area of the manipulator and minimized the area for its placement in production. The movement of the manipulator end-effector could be performed if the kinematics provided its positioning along three Cartesian and three angular coordinates. For software control of robots, including welding robots operating in an angular coordinate system and performing the movement of the end-effector along a complex trajectory, it was required to calculate the angular coordinates of the movement of the end-effector of a two-link articulated manipulator. The robot control system should determine the position of the tool in the angular coordinate system, converting it for user friendliness into x, y and z coordinates of the Cartesian coordinate system. Results. The relations of angular and Cartesian coordinates have been obtained. They can be used for calculating when programming the control system of a two-link manipulator of an industrial robot and organizing the exchange of information between the user and the control system, as well as for checking the accuracy and debugging the movement of the end-effector of an industrial robot through feedback. Discussion and Conclusion. The presented results can be used for software control of a welding robot operating in an angular coordinate system and performing a complex trajectory of the end-effector of a two-link articulated manipulator (gripper). A manipulator operating in an angular coordinate system can be used for contact spot welding when moving the end-effector along a complex trajectory using a positioning or contouring control system. These systems control the movement of the end-effector along a given trajectory with the help of technological commands.

Based on the main purpose of industrial robots, their gripping devices must provide reliable clamping of the parts they hold in different directions and modes of their movement and perform the necessary operations (installation, connection, pressing of parts, etc.). The process of transportation and positioning itself must be carried out in compliance with the following requirements: the maximum appropriate speed or acceleration; necessary accuracy; minimal force loads on the robot grip and structure; the necessary quality of the operation; minimum energy requirements; compliance with the necessary requirements for the safety of operations, etc. In addition, the gripping devices of robots should be versatile enough to be able to work with different parts in shape and size, as well as perform maintenance of different equipment, working with different devices, etc. Therefore, functional studies of gripping devices are quite important. One of the directions of such research is the creation of a methodology for force calculations taking into account the conditions discussed above, therefore the task is relevant today. During the period of existence and development of industrial robotics, the issue of force calculation of their gripping devices has always been relevant due to the fact that this is a working body that is constantly in contact with production objects of various shapes, materials and properties. In the process of manipulating production objects, they must not be damaged, while the robot's work cycle must also be precisely worked out in a certain period of time according to the production cycle. All these issues were considered most thoroughly in the studies of I.I. Pavlenka [1, 4], ShimonY. Nof, G.J. Monkman [3], Ya.I. Prots [2] and others. Particular attention was paid to the power of gripping devices in the works of I.I. Pavlenko. These studies are taken as the basis of the idea of substantiating the operating conditions of gripping devices and creating a methodology, different approaches to force calculation with its subsequent use in the design of these executive modules, as well as in the correcting programs of the industrial robot. Thus, the purpose of the scientific work is to study the power characteristics of the gripping device of an industrial robot under different conditions of its operation, to derive formulas for determining the minimum necessary clamping forces of the part, and to build the dependence of the calculated forces on the design characteristics of the gripper. It is worth noting that the relevance of this issue has increased many times today. This is due to the use of robotics not only in production, but also for military purposes. Industrial robots (manipulators) are used in the machine-building industry, which serve the main technological equipment, and in military affairs - mobile robots with built-in manipulators for taking dangerous objects. The method of force calculation proposed by us consists in determining the minimum necessary clamping forces.

Problem setting. Modern society is gripped by the trend of digitalization, which permeates all spheres of its life. First of all, such processes affected the state’s economy, and hence the taxation and administration of taxes and fees. According to scientists, the key technologies of the digital economy contribute to the digital transformation of business – the transformation of analog products, business processes and business models of organizations into those based on the effective use of digital technologies. In addition, it should be noted that the digital economy is shaping a new, digital business environment and includes all digital resources of business organizations integrated into the system, interaction with other economic entities within the country and abroad [1, p. 122–123]. In the digital economy, digital technologies are recognized as the basis for the creation of new products, values, properties, unique systems and processes. This thesis is confirmed by the provisions reflected in the Economic Strategy of Ukraine 2030, in particular, in paragraph 6.2 Ukraine 2030E a country with a developed digital economy: data becomes an asset. Data collection, description, storage and processing allow to obtain valuable information for use in business processes, public life, the work of the state. The ability to work with data and analyze it is an opportunity to be the first to obtain valuable market “insights”, to be more competitive [9]. It is obvious that the processes of introduction of new technologies in the context of digitalization of the country’s economy have not escaped the sphere of taxation and administration of taxes and fees. Target of research. The purpose of the article is to reveal certain aspects of the impact of digitalization on the administration of taxes and fees in our country. Analysis of recent researches and publications. Researchers such as O. Dmytryk, D. Kobylnik, A. Kolisnyk, M. Kucheryavenko, and O. Makukh, V. Ryadinska, M. Chinchin and etc. are engaged in the study of innovations related to the administration of taxes and fees in the conditions of digitalization. At the same time, many aspects still remain unclear. Article’s main body. It is emphasized that the introduction of electronic services in the field of taxation, as well as the approach of the legislator to their regulation should be positively assessed, because in the context of digitalization the implementation of such principles as simplifying the procedure of interaction between taxpayers and the supervisory authority. as can be seen, this principle is part of the principle of the general principle of tax law uniformity and ease of payment. In general, the legislative approaches to the regulation of electronic services taxation in Ukraine as quite acceptable and well-founded. However, in order to improve the implementation of the relevant tax legislation, we consider it necessary to define more clearly the list of electronic services subject to taxation, as such a list is currently open and may be subject to too broad an interpretation. Conclusions and prospects for the development. The article analyzes some aspects of the impact of digitalization on the administration of taxes and fees in Ukraine. It is emphasized that many innovations that meet modern requirements have been introduced in Ukraine. At the same time, not all of the proposed innovations are perfect (in terms of content and approaches to consolidation), which in the future may negatively affect the enforcement of such rules, and thus the replenishment of revenue budgets and more.

Lidian Jackson Emerson (1802-1892), the second wife of Ralph Waldo Emerson, corresponded with a large circle of relatives and friends between 1826 and 1876. In a letter to her sister, dated February 4, 1842, she described her grief on the death of her five-year-old son who had died a week before of scarlet fever. Dear Lucy, What shall I say—I feel at this moment almost comfortless—but I will write on and better hopes and feelings will return, so that I shall not make you grieve the more by my letter. My faith that all is yet well—all is better than ever—never quite leaves me—and sometimes I am cheerful, and no one would think one of my greatest sources of happiness had so lately stopped. . . . Such another bud of lovliest promise we may not hope for. I find it was not parental partiality that made us believe Waldo [her son] to be an uncommonly interesting child. Others have felt his loveliness, and now speak of him and of the impression he made upon them, in terms which surprise as much as they gratify us. Indeed it seems as if wherever he went the eyes that saw him have witness to him—the ear that heard him, bless him. He was an angel with wings but half concealed. But his body and mind were so healthful—he was far from any thing like precocity—that it had never occurred to us that Earth would be but a little while his home.... Mr. Emerson is very sorrowful. He has an unwavering faith that all is right; but sees not how the departure of the child is to be more to us than his presence would have been. I tell him I am sure, though I too, see not how—that greatly as he was blessed in the possession of such a treasure he is still more high blessed in its recall. I can give you no idea of the joy and hope the pride—the rapture, with which he regarded Waldo; he was always his companion and his best society. . . . I did not imagine till Waldo was taken from us, how deeply I loved him. He died in the evening and after all was over we sat together (Mr. Emerson, Mother and myself) and talked of our loss—and I then felt able to endure my bereavement. But after we had separated for the night and I was left alone with the baby—and Ellen [a three-year-old daughter] who was to take her father's place in my bed that I might take care of her, grief desolating grief came over me like a flood—and I feared that the charm of earthly life was forever destroyed. I saw not how I could ever feel happy again. I thought of the words "Time brings such wondrous easing" and believed Time could bring no easing to us. I lived over my life with the child and recalled all his sweet and lovely traits. His innocence, his wisdom, his generosity, his love for his mother I wished I could forget them all. . . . I was not worthy to be his mother—except my love for him made me worthy.

A few manuscripts of Bósa saga from the seventeenth century and later preserve a text that is quite different from the medieval Bósa saga. The two texts are often referred to as the older and younger versions of Bósa saga. This article explores the transmission of Bósa saga and compares the two versions. It is argued that the younger version is in fact a new story, only loosely based on the older version. Most of the characters are the same and some of the plot, but the younger version differs from the older in many ways, and no signs of a textual relationship between the two versions are evident. Some connections between the younger version and rímur and other sagas can be found, but they are vague. Thus, oral culture undoubtedly played a part in the development of the two different Bósa sagas.

In this article, Sethskvæði is identified as a poetic re-working of a text which Esther Quinn calls “The Quest of Seth for the Oil of Life.” This connection is important not only for Old Icelandic studies but also for the study of pseudepigrapha and apocrypha, because the Quest has not been preserved elsewhere in medieval or early modern literature separated from the Legend of the Holy Cross. The transmission of Sethskvæði is traced from its early Judaic beginnings up to its inclusion in Icelandic literature. Three trends are explored: the shortening of the Legend of the Holy Cross in the Legenda (The “Quest of Seth” plus the Legend of the Holy Cross), the use of rubrics that title the text as having to do with Adam and Seth rather than the Holy Cross, and the eventual existence of the Quest on its own in the form of Sethskvæði. Because Sethskvæði has yet to be edited, a transcription of two versions of the poem from AM 100 8vo is included in the appendix.

Introduction: Presence of foreign body in the root canal system is a troublesome situation as they prevent the access to thorough root canal cleaning and shaping procedure apical to their level. They might also irritate the periapex when they protrude out of the root apex. This affects final outcome of endodontic therapy. Hence an attempt to bypass or retrieval of the foreign body should be made before leaving and obturating till the level of their presence or proceeding to surgery. The procedure for removal will vary depending on the nature of the foreign body and its position within the canal. Many different devices and techniques have been developed to retrieve foreign bodies from the root canal system, but none of them can consistently remove them from the canals. Case Presentation: Three cases requiring removal of foreign bodies from the different positions in the canals are presented. These cases present the conservative management of an inadvertently lodged foreign body in the root canal system during a routine dental procedure and describe the management strategies for their retrieval. Conclusion: Provided one has good patient cooperation, management of the situation can be quite straight forward if the appropriate diagnostic and treatment tools are utilized.

In this paper four design embodiments that employ SFL to separate surfaces are explored. Section 2 details the fundamental principles of levitation based on SFL and associated Navier-Stokes equations. Section 3 describes four design embodiments utilising squeeze-film mechanism, namely a journal bearing, flexible frame, plain levitating plate and a non-contact gripper, in terms of their analytical description plus experimental and numerical results. Section 4 concludes the paper. The paper demonstrates that the squeeze-film levitation is a feasible idea and can be implemented by a number of different embodiments. The mechanism of levitation is quite complex, and its computer modelling requires advanced numerical methods. All designs presented have been numerically modelled and the outcomes experimentally validated, which can be considered as the main contribution of this article.

This scoping review explores findings from the psychological and medical literature on the adaptive grieving experiences of bereaved dementia family caregivers and integrates what healthcare professionals can do to support bereaved dementia family caregivers transition into a post-death role. Bereaved dementia family caregivers are particularly susceptible to prolonged grief disorder post-death due to the protracted caregiving demands and progressive course of the illness. The mention of caregiver grief while the person with dementia is living is quite common in the literature; however, limited research focuses on the bereaved dementia family caregiver and the methods they use to grieve adaptively. Three overarching adaptive grieving themes emerged from the review: 1) social health, 2) emotional and spiritual fitness, and 3) reclaiming activities. Given the growing prevalence of bereaved family dementia caregivers, understanding how they might most adaptively grieve and experience the greatest possible well-being should be a top focus for research.

When you sit down to eat your delicious meal, it's better that you don't know that most of what you are eating came off a plane from Miami. And before it got on a plane in Miami, who knows where it came from? A good guess is that it came from a place like Antigua first, where it was grown dirt-cheap, went to Miami, and came back. There is a world of something in this, but I can't go into it right now.-- Jamaica Kincaid (14) The exhibit of Argentinean Art that recently travelled to the Phoenix Art Museum in the United States, Cantos Paralelos: Visual Parody in Contemporary Argentinean Art1, features the works of nine contemporary artists, among them Victor Grippo, whose fascination with food pairs economy and chemistry, politics and psychology. Three of his works in the exhibition are particularly interesting to students of food and culture who wish to appreciate art which reveals the structures that become relevant when one begins to consider the larger cultural implications of food: Analogy IV2, The Baker's Little Case3, and The Artist's Dinner4. These works explore presences and absences and so call attention to processes by which the existence of an object outside of the self is established as processes of "othering", as processes involved discursively with food. The art of Victor Grippo exists, on one hand, as a representation of the "other", and, on the other hand, it participates in the structuring of that representation. It is thus made to be a representation of the process of "othering". His art, in other words, creates what it would represent. While Grippo questions the process by which discourse on food becomes discourse on the "other" -- and while he leaves us to understand that the movement from one to the other is itself a process of "othering" involving food and the self -- he presents us with a perspective on how this transformation could occur, suggesting that it is the effect of heat, the effect of the application of excessive heat, a technique of "blackening". NVictor Grippo's sculptural instalments using objects from everyday life encourage a new attention to the relationship between product and process in the making of art and food. Grippo plays with the existence of the work of art as "not-quite-product" through references to the Dada movement in the use of "ready-mades", found objects and everyday materials. In refusing to enter into a hierarchical system that informs the choice of artistic product represented, Grippo rethinks the relationship between product and process in the making both of food and art by simply choosing to valorise process. His work specifically addresses the tension between product and process in food manufacturing through the use of food objects in varying states where the effects of the process, baking or cooking, are visible -- a burnt loaf of bread in The Baker's Little Case, and in The Artist's Dinner, the comparison established, between a dried kernel of corn, a kernel of popped corn to whose initial state a little heat has been applied, and a burnt kernel of corn which has been heated too much and has thereby not been able to "pop". The clue to decoding the transformative process invoked by Grippo's The Artist's Dinner is that it is self-reflexive; it has to do with discourse itself. InThe Artist's Dinner, an installation containing plates of food on a table, Grippo combines object and text on one of the plates with the following equation that alternates between object and script: dried corn kernel (actual object on the plate) "+ heat =" piece of popcorn (actual object on the plate); dried corn kernel (object...) "+ excessive heat =" a burnt corn kernel (object...). While this "not-quite-product" is displayed as object -- we have the presentation of what is on the plate as a product like the other food items that sit on the other plates, but what is on this plate is actually the recipe for a process -- it makes manifest the process involved in the transformed food and which also makes apparent a demonisation of "blackness" that bases itself on ideas about form and function: the extreme case of heat application which results in blackness also results in a product that is unable to be consumed, and in relation to the object preceding it, a product that is wasteful. It is the sum of the visual and the textual, the visual effects of the heating process on the object combined with the listing of the elemental ingredients that make up the object, that offers itself as the discursive space in Grippo's works such as The Artist's Dinner and The Baker's Little Case. Victor Grippo has found a visual recipe for conveying the plasticity of the transformation of energy that occurs as energy crosses borders. This observation is applicable to food substances as well as to cultural substances which food comes to signify (a transformative process in itself). Grippo has found this recipe in his fascination with the effects of heat on various substances, how what we know as an element is altered, made "other" by heat. Societal politics are related to how food signifies cultural identity and it is social critique that ties other elements in Grippo's work together so that the process of transformation that is represented in his pieces is understood as a process of making "other", of "othering" in the cultural sphere. Grippo's work is a graphic (plastic) discourse on the nature of how the addition of heat works in a system of "othering", how discourses on food that would otherwise seem innocuous could be transformed when under "fire", that is, how extremes of process, when put into question, actually reveal cultural "othering". In both the context of the exhibition and in Argentina's larger political context, his perspective is from the "other's" side, as he who has been "othered". Victor Grippo, discussing the influence that his parents' lives had on his work, describes his experience of artistic development in the following terms: "a ceaseless clarity informed my curiosity, my search for a meaning: a path out of darkness towards a glimmer of light" (qtd. in Ramírez 224). His project verges on a confrontation with the notion of demonising that which is dark by associating what is dark with what is "other". The food items present in his work produce a critique of the Argentinean economy and class structure -- the foods are those of the poor: potatoes, eggs, bread -- as well as a critique of the place of the artist in Argentinean society: the sparse dinner is that of the artist, but the table is, in effect, empty, except for the viewer who does not partake but who just passes through the art exhibit. The emptiness of this set table evokes the mass disappearances of Argentinean citizens and intellectuals who have come to be known as "Los Desaparecidos" ("The Disappeared") and who are "present" as a recurring theme in the exhibition: whose presence is produced by the process of showing them to be absent, or of symbolically "othering". Grippo's articulation of the importance of food in constructing selfhood on a national scale and the importance of food in denying selfhood to those we wish to "other" on an international scale is countered by his choice of foods to include in the installations which acts as an examination of identity on a personal level: Grippo's parents were immigrants from Italy who settled in the province of Junín and whom Grippo refers to in this respect as "'eaters of garlic and onion' (and potatoes)" (qtd. in Ramírez 221, 224). His use of the potato is also symbolic of a larger identity that makes reference to the history of colonisation by the Europeans: the potato is native to the Americas and it was only introduced to Europe as a result of the Conquest. Grippo's vision of the process by which food becomes consciousness is an "en-lightening" vision of discourse as a process that transforms food into identity, and thus, by unmasking processes of "othering" food Grippo unmasks processes of "othering" identity. By exceeding the limits of a process by which a substance is transformed (i.e. through the application of too much "heat"), the product can be destroyed. He displays this with items of food in order to simultaneously display how the subjectivity, the identity of certain peoples can be destroyed. It is here that the ethics of Grippo's graphics comes "to light" in the sense of coming to be understood, as well as in the sense of being developed out of how he approaches heat, for the heating process itself remains invisible, its presence only invoked by the visible product, only apparent in the contrast between the piece of popcorn and the dried kernel of corn next to it; done even to "excess" the heating process remains invisible, however its presence is accused by the state of the product, in the display of the burnt corn kernel. The passage at the beginning of this text from Jamaica Kincaid's A Small Place talks about the power and the processes of transformation involved in the movement of food across borders. In this passage Kincaid echoes the dynamic found in the work of Victor Grippo, but where Grippo deals on an individual and national level, Kincaid takes an international approach. This larger scale that operates in A Small Place only reinforces the ideological nature of the dynamic played out in the works of both Grippo and Kincaid: the nature of the process of this transformation is driven by -- while at the same time it reproduces -- a system of political power that refuses to be made present in discourse that seeks to target it. It is this system to which Kincaid refers when she speaks of the "world of something" that is inherent in the global movement of food but which she cannot articulate; although it is this system that participates in processes of "othering", the system itself also remains "other". Grippo contributes to an understanding of this political system in attempting to pin down the contexts concerned by the movement of energy across borders: whether those borders are between the territories of self and other, between interior and exterior, or between the contrasted states of a product that has undergone a transformation. It is in the physical representations of these transformations into "other" that Grippo suggests a genealogy of discourse on how products refer to the processes that made them; how, whether it be in regard to food or in regard to the cultural "other", the effects of a process can be traced but the particulars of it remain hidden. Grippo's contribution reminds us what is lost through process. He reminds us that political and ideological processes, if taken to extreme limits, consume the very object they sought to produce. It is perhaps in the precarious balance between a consciousness of identity and an awareness of the object which represents it, as evidenced in Victor Grippo's work, that we are to find a recipe for undoing the process of making "other". Footnotes 1. The exhibition catalogue written by Mari Carmen Ramírez is available from Amazon.Com, and from the University of Texas Press, http://ftp.cc.utexas.edu/utpress/books/ramcap.html. The University of Texas has a website devoted to the exhibit, http://www.utexas.edu/cofa/hag/cantos2.html, and the Phoenix Art Museum's on-line archives of past exhibitions also has a site at http://www.phxart.org/index_events.html. 2. Analogy IV is a table where one half is covered by a white cloth and the other half is covered by a black cloth. On the white side there is a porcelain plate with three potatoes on it; there is a metal fork on one side of the plate and a metal knife on the other. The black side of the table repeats the same scene but in Plexiglas: there is a Plexiglas dish on which are three Plexiglas "potatoes" and which is flanked by a Plexiglas fork and knife set. 3. The Baker's Little Case (Homage to Marcel Duchamp) is a Plexiglas case containing a partial loaf of burnt bread. Underneath the bread is the title followed by the word equation: "flour + water + heat (excessive)". The case is a reference to Duchamp's use of the "valise" in his own work. 4. The Artist's Dinner consists of a large table with five stools seen through (or around) the frame of an open doorway and on which are placed four ceramic plates with food on them, and one empty plate. References Counihan, Carole, and Penny Van Esterik. Food and Culture: A Reader. New York: Routledge, 1997. De Certeau, Michel. Heterologies: Discourse on the Other. (Theory and History of Literature vol. 17.) Trans. Brian Massumi. Minneapolis, Minnesota: U of Minneapolis P, 1986. Kincaid, Jamaica. A Small Place. New York: Plume, 1988. Lakoff, George, and Mark Johnson. Metaphors We Live By. Chicago: U of Chicago P, 1980. Ramírez, Mari Carmen. Cantos Paralelos: Visual Parody in Contemporary Argentinean Art. University of Texas at Austin: Jack S. Blanton Museum of Art, 1999. Scapp, Ron, and Brian Seitz, eds. Eating Culture. Albany: State U of New York P, 1998. Todorov, Tzvetan. The Conquest of America. Trans. Richard Howard. New York: Harper, 1984. Citation reference for this article MLA style: Lynn Houston. "A Recipe for 'Blackened "Other"': Process and Product in the Work of Victor Grippo." M/C: A Journal of Media and Culture 2.7 (1999). [your date of access] <http://www.uq.edu.au/mc/9910/grippo.php>. Chicago style: Lynn Houston, "A Recipe for 'Blackened "Other"': Process and Product in the Work of Victor Grippo," M/C: A Journal of Media and Culture 2, no. 7 (1999), <http://www.uq.edu.au/mc/9910/grippo.php> ([your date of access]). APA style: Lynn Houston. (1999) A recipe for "blackened 'other'": process and product in the work of Victor Grippo. M/C: A Journal of Media and Culture 2(7). <http://www.uq.edu.au/mc/9910/grippo.php> ([your date of access]).

AbstractGrief is a complex emotional experience or process, which is typically felt in response to the death of a loved one, most typically a family member, child, or partner. Yet the way in which grief manifests is much more complex than this. The things we grieve over are multiple and diverse. We may grieve for a former partner after the breakup of a relationship; parents sometimes report experiencing grief when their grown-up children leave the family home. We can also experience grief for people we have never met. Indeed, it is not just persons that we may grieve for. People report feeling grief over the death of their pets, or about the destruction the natural environment. In all these cases one factor that seems to stand out is loss. Despite being about very different things, these various forms of grief all involve a loss of some sort. Yet there is a further aspect of grief, which, on the face of it, does not quite follow this pattern. Grief can also be experienced before a loss has occurred. Grief can be experienced while the person that one is grieving for is still living and before one has (fully) suffered the loss. This phenomenon is known as anticipatory grief. The experience of anticipatory grief is a complex phenomenon, which resists easy classification. Nonetheless, we suggest that mental time travel, our ability to mentally project ourselves into the personal past (episodic memory) and personal future (episodic prospection), is a key mechanism that underpins experiences of anticipatory grief. Anticipatory grief can still be understood in terms of loss, but it is a loss that is brought to mind through memory and imagination.

Abstract Although thermo-stamping is one of the fastest and most cost-effective processes in the production of fabric-reinforced thermoplastic composite parts used in aerospace and automotive industries, it is quite prone to result in many defects. In particular, wrinkling is a frequently encountered defect in the production of doubly curved parts and is very sensitive to process parameters. Finite element analysis (FEA) is an effective tool for estimating defects that can occur during the thermo-stamping process. In this study, effects of spring configurations in spring-based holders and forming temperature on wrinkling and shear deformation are investigated experimentally and numerically by using two different spring configurations and three different forming temperatures. Non-isothermal and isothermal approaches used in thermo-stamping simulations are compared in terms of wrinkling estimation, and shear angle distribution. The results reveal that while the wrinkle predictions obtained by the non-isothermal approach are in good agreement with the experimental results, the isothermal approach cannot predict any of the wrinkles obtained in the experiment. Furthermore, the obtained results confirm that spring gripper configurations and forming temperature have a significant effect on wrinkling and shear angle distribution.

Loss of a loved one is a very painful and often a traumatic experience for most of the people. The burden of the loss can be carried over a life time or laid down. Grief is a profound and complex response for those who have been left behind. There found different gender reactions in grief and traumatic event. Women tend to experience more intense emotional reactions such as shock, denial, anger, depression that may linger on for quite some time, especially when they were widow and mother. Individuals grieve differently, yet coping with bereavement depends upon the personal characteristics, available support, coping mechanism, faith and self concept of sufferers. Using the case study approach, this article explores the grief, trauma (psychological response) and coping pattern among bereaved women while struggling with the loss. The cases of three Muslim women widowed during the last one year were analyzed. Findings highlight the importance of social support, religious or spiritual beliefs, traumatic growth in bereavement and coping with the loss of a family member.

Abstract Challenges/shortages of existing research: Both a topology graph TG and a contracted graph CG are the important tool for the type synthesis of mechanisms and have been studied. Let (b, t, q, p, h) be (binary, ternary, quaternary, pentagonal, hexagonal) link, respectively. Existing TG may include (b, t, q, p, h, …), and existing CG may include (t, q, p, h, …) and exclude b. Therefore, their derivation and isomorphism identification are quite complicated. The significance of this research: A novel high-contracted topology graph Gj/i including n (q, p, h, …) is proposed in this paper. Since Gj/i excludes (b, t), Gj/i must be more simple than complex TG and CG, and the derivation and isomorphism identification of various Gj/i must be more easily than that of the complex TG and CG. This paper focuses on the derivation and isomorphism identification of various Gj/i for deriving TG and type synthesis of the complex closed robotic mechanisms with more mechanical advantages and useful functions. First, the conceptions for deriving Gj/i and the relations between Gj/i and the basic links are explained, the relative rules are determined for representing Gj/i and reducing isomorphism of Gj/i using the character strings and the digit groups, and many different Gj/i are represented based on determined rules. Second, many different Gj/i (j = 0, …, 17) are constructed using a circle, several composite curves, and vertex points on the circle based on the character strings and the digit groups. Third, a condition for identifying isomorphism Gj/i is discovered and proved using the composite curves and their connections in Gj/i. Some isomorphism Gj/i are identified from constructed different Gj/i. Finally, different Gj/i (G7/7, G11/11) are illustrated to derive TGs, several complex closed robotic mechanisms are synthesized using derived TGs for creating robotic gripper, a long-stroke robotic pumping unit, and a tunnel robotic excavator.

The effect of acidity (pH) ranges on the mycelial growth and stroma formation of Monilia fructigena Pers: Fr. and of M. polystroma van Leeuwen was determined on agar plates and apple fruits. Four isolates of each of the brown rot fungi and two apple cultivars, `James Grieve' and 'Cox's Orange Pippin', were used for the study. For the agar plate study, a range of the initial pH was prepared from 2.5 to 6.5. The dishes were inoculated with a 4 mm plug of each isolate and incubated at 23 °C in darkness. The mycelial growth was measured after 1.5, 4, 7, 10 and 20 days of incubation. After a 30-day incubation, stroma formation was determined by image analysis and weighing of mature stroma. In the fruit experiment, both cultivars were inoculated with one isolate of M. fructigena and of M. polystroma. The pH changes were determined after 7, 14, 28 and 35 days of incubation in both healthy and inoculated fruits. The fastest mycelial growth was at pH 4.5 for M. polystroma and at pH 3.5 for M. fructigena. After a 30-day incubation, M. polystroma isolates produced twice or three times more stroma compared to M. fructigena isolates. For both brown rot fungi, the amount of mature stroma increased from pH 3.5 to 5.5, and then decreased at pH 6.5. Results of the.fruit experiment showed that healthy fruits were quite acidic (pH < 3.5), but pH rapidly increased in the inoculated fruits for both cultivars, reaching pH 4.6-5.4 depending on cultivar and fungus isolate. On both cultivars, the stroma developed at a significantly higher pH for M. polystroma than for M. fructigena. Biological and practical implications of the results are discussed.

Doctor Ricardo Aguilar, Presidente de la APMC Doctor Edwin Acuna, Secretario General Distinguidos Miembros de la Junta Directiva, Regentes, Colegas académicos, invitados, familiares y amigos. Es para mí un honor y una distinción compartir con Uds. este tema de libre escogencia que he titulado La Expectativa De Vida Al Nacer (Evn) Mi motivación hacia este tópico nació de las publicaciones en los medios científicos y noticiosos informando que la EVN ha disminuido dos años en promedio para toda la población mundial, debido a la pandemia del COVID. ¿Qué es la Expectativa de vida al nacer? cómo se calcula?, qué significa en cuanto a desarrollo social, ¿en salud y en lo económico? LA EVN o la Esperanza de Vida al Nacer, son los "años que un recién nacido puede esperar vivir si los patrones de mortalidad imperantes en el momento de su nacimiento siguieran siendo los mismos a lo largo de toda su vida" Es una proyección matemática, basada en el promedio de vida de todos los nacidos en ese año. El siguiente ejemplo simplificado lo ilustra: una EVN de 35 años puede significar, que si la mitad de la población nacida ese año, muere al nacer o en su primer año de vida (cosa bastante razonable en la prehistoria) y la otra mitad fallece a los 70 años, el promedio de la EVN sería de 35 años. Este promedio, de la EVN se correlaciona directamente con el Producto Interno Bruto económico de las naciones, e inversamente con índices de salud pública como la mortalidad infantil y la mortalidad materna. Es decir, a menor mortalidad materna e infantil, mayor será la EV. Y esta relación se mantiene a lo largo de los siglos y los continentes. La esperanza de vida al nacer no indica el número de años que vivirá realmente una persona, porque a lo largo de la vida de esa persona ocurren cambios tecnológicos, de salud, económicos y otros incidentes que variarán las tasas de mortalidad a lo largo de su vida en particular. Como se diferencia la EVN de la LONGEVIDAD o en ingles el lifespan, términos que frecuentemente se confunden. La longevidad máxima es la edad de muerte para el individuo más longevo de una especie. La longevidad más larga verificada para cualquier ser humano es la de la francesa Jeanne Calment, quien vivió hasta la edad de 122 años y 164 días, entre el 21 de febrero de 1875 y el 4 de agosto de 1997. Esto se conoce como el "período máximo de vida", que es el límite superior de la vida, el número máximo de años que se sabe que ha vivido un ser humano. Es Interesante saber que la longevidad máxima no ha variado en 200,000 años, desde la aparición del Homo sapiens. Lo que ocurre con el aumento en la EVN a lo largo de los siglos, es que más personas llegan a los 100 años, pero la longevidad máxima no ha aumentado. Que factores son los determinantes en el aumento o disminución de la EV: Esta varía según los continentes, y el ambiente, y mínimamente por la genética. Según estudios, las variaciones genéticas en el homo sapiens que influirían en su longevidad o en su EV contribuyen en menos del 10% de los cambios. Desde el Homo sapiens, 200,000 AC, hasta la segunda mitad del siglo XIX , la EVN era en promedio 33 años, porque las enfermedades , las guerras y la mortalidad perinatal e infantil la determinaban. A principios del siglo XIX: Ningún país del mundo tenía una esperanza de vida superior a los 40 años. Por ejemplo, en la India era de 25 años, en Bélgica ,40 años. Para Europa en su conjunto, era de 33 años. A lo largo del siglo XIX: Europa aumentó de 33 a 43 años, las Américas de 35 a 41 años, en Asia era 28 años, y en África 26. Las Epidemias de gripe, viruela, neumonía, tuberculosis, cólera, tifus, sarampión, la peste negra, y el polio diezmaban más de la mitad de los niños en cada generación. Si una persona sobrevivía a la infancia, tenía aproximadamente un 50% de probabilidades de vivir hasta los 50-55 años, o sea 30 años más. Cada mujer tenía que concebir una media de 5 hijos solo para mantener el mismo nivel de población, porque 3 de los 5 no sobrevivirían hasta la edad de reproducción. Y cuantos más hijos tenía una mujer, mayor era el riesgo de morir durante el parto. Desde el Imperio Romano cuando la población mundial se calcula en 200 millones, la EVN fue similar hasta el final del siglo XIX, con una población de 1000 millones. Era muy susceptible a fluctuaciones dependiendo de la cosecha, los conflictos armados, las condiciones higiénicas y los brotes de peste. A partir del siglo XIX, con la revolución industrial, Europa aumento su EVN, principalmente debido a los siguientes factores: – la construcción de alcantarillas y fuentes de agua potable en las urbes – mayor entendimiento de las causas y la transmisión de las enfermedades – cambio de costumbres higiénicas: como lavarse las manos, que reducía mucho las infecciones Durante este periodo se vivió un conjunto de transformaciones económicas, tecnológicas y sociales, que dio el paso de una economía rural basada en la agricultura y el comercio a una economía de carácter urbano, industrializada y mecanizada. ​ . La Revolución Industrial marcó un punto de inflexión en la historia, modificando todos los aspectos de la vida cotidiana. Se desarrolló la industria textil, la extracción y utilización del carbón, la expansión del comercio gracias a la construcción de vías férreas, canales, carreteras, de la máquina de vapor, el desarrollo de los barcos y de los ferrocarriles a vapor. En la segunda mitad del xix se introdujo el motor de combustión interna y la energía eléctrica. La producción agrícola se multiplicó a la vez que disminuía el tiempo de producción. A partir del siglo XIX, la población, experimentó un rápido crecimiento, la riqueza y la renta per cápita se multiplicaron como no lo habían hecho nunca en la historia. Para referencia, la población mundial en el año 1 de la era cristiana era de 300 millones, en el año 1800 era de 1000 millones, y el año 1900, de 1,500 millones. La verdadera revolución llegó en el siglo XX: Gracias a los grandes avances de la medicina con la vacunación universal de la población contra las epidemias más contagiosas. A lo largo del siglo XX, la tasa de mortalidad infantil bajó de un 20% a principios del siglo a menos del 1% a principios del siglo XXI en los países desarrollados. Pero no todo fue un progreso continuo, en 1918 hubo una disminución de la EVN, con la pandemia de la Influenza o Gripe, cuando murieron 50 millones de personas. Esta pandemia siguió inmediatamente a la Primera Guerra Mundial que duro de 1914 a 1918 en la cual fallecieron 40 millones de personas. Factores adversos en el siglo XX: las guerras, el SIDA Desde el año 1900, hasta el final de la II Guerra Mundial en 1945, el promedio de vida de las personas en los Estados Unidos se alargó en más de 30 años, hasta los 50 años; 25 años de este aumento es atribuido a los avances en la salud pública. Sin embargo, durante la II Guerra Mundial de 1939 a 1945, la EVN volvió a disminuir para los nacidos en ese periodo. Se calcula que murieron 70 millones de personas por causas directas o indirectas de la guerra. Estos 70 millones representaron el 3% de los 2.300 millones de habitantes en 1940. Después de la II guerra mundial que finalizó en 1945, la EV aumento aceleradamente hasta los 60 años. Los avances más importantes fueron: En primer lugar, la vacunación, que dio lugar a la erradicación de la viruela; la eliminación de la poliomielitis en las Américas; el control del sarampión, la rubéola, el tétanos, la difteria, el Haemophilus influenzae tipo b y otras enfermedades infecciosas. Crecían madres y bebés más sanos, resultado de una mejor higiene y nutrición, de la disponibilidad de antibióticos, y de un mayor acceso a la atención médica materna y neonatal. Desde 1900, la mortalidad infantil disminuyo un 90% y la mortalidad materna ha disminuido un 99%. La producción de alimentos más seguros y saludables. La fluoración del agua potable. El reconocimiento del consumo de tabaco como un peligro para la salud. Desde el informe del Cirujano General de 1964 sobre los riesgos para la salud del tabaquismo, la prevalencia del tabaquismo entre los adultos ha disminuido y se han evitado millones de muertes . Lugares de trabajo más seguros, y el desarrollo de la salud ocupacional. La seguridad de los vehículos a motor. La disminución de las muertes por enfermedad coronaria y accidentes cerebrovasculares reconociendo los factores de riesgo. Desde 1972, las tasas de mortalidad por enfermedad coronaria han disminuido un 51% Hay que mencionar que en el África Sub-Sahara desde 1980 a 1991, la epidemia de SIDA ocupó el primer lugar como causa de muerte. Morían de 1 a 2 millones de personas por año. África era el único continente que perdía población. Ahora en el siglo XXI todavía figura el SIDA entre las primeras tres causas de muerte, precedido por las enfermedades respiratorias, y diarreicas, y seguido por las enfermedades cardiovasculares en cuarto lugar. Aún mueren en África 70,000 personas al año por causa del VIH, y es la primera causa de muerte entre los jóvenes de 15 a 40 años. Particularmente el SIDA disminuyó la esperanza de vida en Botswana de 65 años en 1990 a 49 años en el 2000, para luego aumentar a 66 en 2011. En Zimbabwe, la esperanza de vida era de 60 años en 1990, 43 en el 2000 y luego 54 en el 2011. Es interesante mencionar que antes de la Revolución Industrial, los hombres vivían más que las mujeres en promedio, debido a la alta mortalidad perinatal. Esta diferencia se invirtió con el control de las enfermedades infecciosas y la disminución de la mortalidad perinatal. Actualmente, la diferencia en la esperanza de vida entre los sexos se explica principalmente por las diferencias en la tasa de mortalidad por enfermedades cardiovasculares después de los 50 años. Además, históricamente, los hombres han consumido más tabaco, alcohol y drogas que las mujeres en la mayoría de las sociedades, y mueren más por enfermedades asociadas como el cáncer de pulmón, la tuberculosis y la cirrosis hepática. Igualmente padecen más de accidentes ocupacionales, automovilísticos, de muertes por guerra y de homicidios y suicidios. En este siglo XXI: la dieta, el cáncer, la pandemia de COVID, la violencia, la salud mental En el mundo desarrollado, las principales causas de muerte son el cáncer, las enfermedades cardiovasculares, los accidentes y la violencia, y la mayoría de las muertes se concentran en los mayores de 60 años. Un panel de expertos del Centro de Investigación de Salud Global de la Universidad de Washington, ( el Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation (IHME, por sus siglas en inglés), ha señalado los tres primeros problemas que afectan la salud global y que demandan acciones en conjunto desde el 2023 . Afirman, que son 1- la Covid-19 persistente o Long COVID 2- la salud mental y 3- los efectos del cambio climático. El impacto de la pandemia de covid-19, de la guerra y de la violencia, en la salud mental es una prioridad, y en consecuencia los países deberán adaptar su respuesta al gran aumento de trastornos de la salud mental En tercer lugar, se encuentra el cambio climático que ya está afectando la salud de millones de personas en todo el mundo y, se pronostica que empeorará a lo largo de este siglo. Advierte Michael Brauer, profesor del Instituto de Salud de la U de Washington... “Aumentar la velocidad a la que abordamos la contaminación del aire salvará vidas hoy”, le siguen las enfermedades cardiovasculares, que contribuyen sustancialmente a la pérdida de salud y a la carga económica de los sistemas de atención médica. “La mayoría de las enfermedades cardiovasculares se pueden prevenir al abordar los factores de riesgo modificables, como la hipertensión arterial, el colesterol alto, la obesidad, los riesgos dietéticos, el tabaquismo y la contaminación del aire”, con la aparición de la Pandemia causada por el virus SARS-COV-2 llamado COVID, y declarada oficial y tardíamente en marzo del 2020 por la OMS, han muerto en todo el mundo 6,7 millones de personas. La pandemia de COVID-19 provocó un aumento significativo de la mortalidad en el 2020 con una magnitud que no se había visto desde la Segunda Guerra Mundial en Europa Occidental, o desde la desintegración de la Unión Soviética en Europa del Este. Las mujeres en 15 países y los hombres en 10, terminaron con una esperanza de vida al nacer más baja en 2020 que en el 2015. Una publicación, titulada Cuantificación del impacto de la pandemia COVID-19 a través de las pérdidas de esperanza de vida, estudio poblacional en 29 países. El estudio incluyo a todos los países de Europa, con excepción de Rusia; incluyo a Norteamérica y a Chile. La EVN disminuyó del 2019 al 2020 en 27 de los 29 países, con pérdidas en la EVN que va de 1.7 a 2.2 años. A nivel mundial, la EVN promedio en el año 2020, es de 75.6 años para las mujeres, y 70.8 años para los hombres. Con una variación geográfica que va desde los 54 años para África Central hasta los 85.3 años en Hong Kong En América Latina y el Caribe, la EVN era de 75.1 años en el 2019, y disminuyo a 72.2 en el 2021, una pérdida de 2.9 años en dos años. Europa tardó una media de 5,6 años en lograr un aumento de un año en la expectativa de vida en los últimos tiempos, un progreso que la COVID-19 anuló en el transcurso de un año, en el 2020.. El aumento de la mortalidad en los mayores de 60 años fue lo que más contribuyó. En verdad las consecuencias devastadoras podrían ser mayores a las registradas.

Edgar Morin é um pesquisador francês nascido em Paris no ano 1921, em uma família de origem judaica. Sua mãe morreu quando ele tinha 10 anos de idade, mas apenas tomou conhecimento desse fato aos 30. É formado em Direito, História e Geografia e também já realizou estudos em Filosofia, Sociologia e Epistemologia. Fez parte do Partido Comunista e da Resistência Francesa ao regime nazista. Em contraposição à visão tradicional e reducionista da ciência clássica, que mutila e isola os objetos de estudo, desenvolveu a teoria da complexidade, que propõe que o conhecimento deva ser construído considerando o fenômeno a ser estudado como um todo, constituído de várias partes, ao mesmo tempo complementares, concorrentes, antagônicas e interdependentes. Entre suas publicações, destacam-se: Introdução ao pensamento complexo (1990), Cabeça bem-feita (1999), Os sete saberes necessários à educação do futuro (2000) e O método, obra dividida em seis volumes, publicados a partir de 1977.Em É hora de mudarmos de via: as lições do coronavírus, o autor elabora um panorama da pandemia do coronavírus, suas consequências, seus prováveis desdobramentos futuros e possíveis caminhos a serem tomados pela humanidade no pós-crise.No preâmbulo do livro, Morin, que chega a um século de vida em 2021, compartilha vivências pessoais que impactaram sua formação pessoal, tendo como pano de fundo os principais acontecimentos históricos mundiais durante os cem anos que antecederam a pandemia de 2020. Aliás, como bem lembra o autor nessa parte inicial, ele mesmo nasceu ao final da última pandemia pela qual o planeta passou, a da gripe espanhola, explicando o porquê de se considerar uma vítima indireta daquele evento.Logo em seguida, descreve de que maneira a crise econômica mundial de 1929, a ascensão do nazismo na Alemanha a partir dos anos 1930 e as consequências desses dois grandes acontecimentos marcaram sua infância e adolescência e o incentivaram a estudar a obra de Karl Marx, embora Morin tenha se enveredado mais profundamente em Hegel, autor que influenciou enormemente suas teorias do pensamento complexo. Enveredando pela Segunda Guerra Mundial, Morin discorre sobre sua entrada na Resistência Francesa à ocupação hitleriana e sua adesão ao comunismo enquanto o turbulento conflito bélico devastava a Europa e, posteriormente, sobre os fatos ocorridos nos anos 1950, que o levaram à oposição ao stalinismo, fatos esses que lhe proporcionaram as reflexões germinativas das primeiras ideias de O método, sua principal obra.O autor continua contextualizando seu cotidiano e de seu país durante o maio de 1968, ocasião em que explodiram na França as revoltas estudantis contra o sistema educacional e os valores socioculturais vigentes. A seguir, descreve como se tornou um dos pioneiros de uma política ecológica a partir dos anos 1970. Finaliza o preâmbulo apresentando a razão de a pandemia de coronavírus ter confirmado ainda mais suas convicções acerca de uma consciência ecológica nascida cinquenta anos antes. Na introdução, Morin destaca as consequências gerais da pandemia de 2020 e seus diferenciais em relação a epidemias globais anteriores.O primeiro capítulo é inteiramente dedicado a apresentar as quinze lições que o coronavírus pode proporcionar à humanidade. Em cada uma delas Morin reflete sobre as insuficiências governamentais, empresariais, científicas e sociais, que refletem negativamente na capacidade de enfrentamento de graves desafios globais, apresentando as consequências caóticas da pandemia de 2020 como bases argumentativas que corroboram a ideia da existência de tais deficiências.O autor reflete sobre as reais necessidades de consumo, as aspirações humanas, os contrapontos entre o poder da humanidade sobre a natureza e a fragilidade da primeira diante da segunda, as falsas certezas perante situações desconhecidas, a relação, ou a falta da relação dos humanos com a morte e os motivos que levaram a um aparente despertar solidário entre as pessoas. Também elabora um panorama sobre os diversos tipos de desigualdades socioeconômicas escancaradas pela crise sanitária, os diferentes cenários, gestões e resultados de medidas adotadas para a contenção da pandemia, a depender do país, e o caminho que leva ao desencadeamento de uma crise e suas consequências.Usa ainda a teoria da complexidade para discutir como o combate à pandemia pela ciência, em especial pela medicina, vem sendo afetado pela compartimentação de saberes especializados que não dialogam, como a crise vem deixando claro que o progresso científico é marcado, ao mesmo tempo, por cooperação e competição, e como o coronavírus tem mostrado a importância de não se encarar as teorias científicas como verdades absolutas e de se ter uma visão complexa do conhecimento.A finalização do primeiro capítulo explora as falhas do Estado neoliberal que são capazes de agravar exponencialmente as consequências de crises que por si só já possuem grandes proporções. Ainda apresenta fatos decorrentes da pandemia que expõem a necessidade de maior autonomia dos países em relação à produção interna de aparatos de primeira necessidade, questiona a disposição das nações em se solidarizarem umas com as outras e explora os efeitos econômicos, sociais, culturais e ambientais da globalização sobre os seres humanos dentro do contexto pandêmico.Uma vez amenizada, ou até mesmo resolvida a crise sanitária, o período pós-pandemia revelará alguns desafios políticos e econômicos que são apresentados por Morin no segundo capítulo do livro. O autor inicia essa parte descrevendo os desafios existenciais, ligados aos valores de tempo, solidariedade e relações interpessoais. Em seguida, é realizada uma reflexão acerca da crise política que o autor acredita que se deflagrará, assumindo uma posição crítica e apresentando argumentos contra as bases do neoliberalismo.Em seguida, Morin volta a falar sobre globalização para discuti-la diante dos efeitos da pandemia e explicar as razões pelas quais seu atual modelo pode vir a ser problemático no período pós-crise sanitária. O autor discorre também sobre o desafio da democracia, ao dizer o porquê ela já estava em crise antes da pandemia e o porquê tal crise democrática pode ser agravada a partir do período pandêmico. Morin apresenta ainda o desafio da proteção ecológica, como a pandemia foi capaz de favorecer o meio ambiente e como as ações sustentáveis podem continuar.O desafio da crise econômica é também citado pelo autor quando este traz questionamentos a respeito das incertezas financeiras com as quais o mundo começa a se deparar por conta do surgimento do coronavírus. Morin aproveita o ensejo para citar o desafio das incertezas, não apenas econômicas, mas em relação ao futuro. Propõe, assim, novos questionamentos, dessa vez sobre diplomacia e cooperação internacional. Explica por que a pandemia pode elevar os perigos de retrocessos intelectuais, morais, democráticos e bélicos. O autor finaliza o capítulo refletindo a respeito da influência da pandemia sobre o espectro da morte entre os seres humanos.Após os desafios apresentados no segundo capítulo, é necessário propor caminhos que levem a humanidade a superá-los, o que Morin faz no terceiro e último capítulo do livro. Tais caminhos constituem uma nova “via”, sendo que o autor explica o porquê dessa denominação, ao invés de “revolução” ou “projeto de sociedade”. Essa nova “via” comporta cinco políticas. A primeira é uma política da nação, que envolve novas noções, explicadas em detalhes pelo autor, de soberania e globalismo. Morin apresenta os argumentos que justificam a necessidade de complementaridade, concorrência e antagonismo entre globalização e desglobalização, crescimento e descrescimento, desenvolvimento e envolvimento. O autor discorre também sobre as relações complexas existentes na cultura de uma nação, e que precisam ser valorizadas e preservadas, entre unidade e diversidade nacionais.A necessidade de reforma do Estado também está presente na política da nação. Morin apresenta as patologias administrativas geradas pela burocratização e quais são os princípios reorganizadores que devem reger a reforma no campo econômico, empresarial, democrático, ecopolítico, do pensamento e da sociedade, detalhando as propostas de reforma para cada um desses campos.Ao falar sobre a política civilizacional, Morin contrapõe as características positivas e as características negativas do progresso da civilização, em especial da civilização ocidental, proporcionada pelo avanço da ciência e da tecnologia nos últimos anos, de modo que tais características, além de antagônicas, são concorrentes e complementares. O autor detalha uma proposta de nova política de civilização que viabilizaria o sentimento de felicidade na humanidade e o aumento da qualidade de vida, ao mesmo tempo em que se preservaria o meio ambiente. Sobre essa política, Morin também diferencia o viver prosaicamente do viver poeticamente.Morin apresenta uma política da humanidade, explicando como é possível preservar as culturas de cada país e, concomitantemente, criar um senso de comunidade global, promovendo a mitigação de preconceitos de toda ordem, como o xenofóbico, por exemplo. O autor cita especificamente a situação dos povos migrantes e dos povos primígenos, desenvolvendo propostas de proteção a essas comunidades.Em seguida, Morin fala sobre uma política da Terra, com ideias a respeito da economia de água, bem como do acesso à água potável, da promoção de energias renováveis e do tratamento de resíduos. Também explica por que é importante se criar uma conscientização acerca da solidariedade planetária.Por fim, a última política se trata do que Morin chama de humanismo regenerado. O autor discorre sobre como uma concepção complexa dos seres humanos, ou seja, complementar, concorrente, antagônica, hologramática, recursiva e dialógica, pode contribuir para a passagem de um humanismo voltado à dominação da natureza para um humanismo que reconheça suas forças e fraquezas e revitalize a ética para que ela seja baseada na responsabilidade, na sensibilidade e na solidariedade.Na conclusão, Morin faz as últimas reflexões sobre a condição dos seres humanos em um contexto de duas globalizações concorrentes, explicadas pelo autor nessa parte do livro, e no contexto pós-pandêmico. Faz ainda uma reflexão sobre sua própria condição pessoal na contemporaneidade.É hora de mudarmos de via: as lições do coronavírus é uma leitura excelente e recomendada a todos aqueles que gostariam de obter a contribuição da perspectiva do pensamento complexo sobre os desafios trazidos pela pandemia de covid-19, bem como sobre os possíveis novos caminhos que podem e devem ser traçados em vista de seus efeitos. Embora o livro traga muitas propostas que dependem de políticas públicas e, consequentemente, dos gestores públicos para ocorrerem, é justamente isso que o torna democrático, visto que tais políticas podem ser pensadas e promovidas pela participação da sociedade civil interessada em transformar as experiências da pandemia em respostas voltadas a uma humanidade mais solidária e sustentável.

“Alegria nas mãos, primavera nos dentes” Aos vinte e dois dias do ano de dois mil e vinte e dois, quingentésimo vigésimo segundo aniversário do baixo começo, o chão de Nhoesembé tremeu. Não pelas forças da Terra, que ali são firmes — do que provém o batismo tardio de Porto Seguro, na Bahia. O que moveu o chão e suspendeu um pouco o céu foi o passo ritmado da marcha cantante dos pataxós, que naquela manhã partiam rumo à capital do estado para o 4º Acampamento dos Povos Indígenas da Bahia, quando trombaram pelo caminho com os preparativos de aparição da comitiva de inimigos oficiais da vida, recém-chegada de Brasília, para participar das mórbidas celebrações em torno dos 522 anos da chegada das caravelas portuguesas a Pindorama. Enquanto a Polícia Federal rondava, engatilhada, as imediações do Marco do Descobrimento, protegendo o palanque ainda vazio, a multidão formada por quinze aldeias indígenas cantarolava em direção à praça. Entre cantos de guerra e exaltações de alegria, um recado soa mais alto: “Pega seu governo genocida e vai embora!”.Tratada pelos jornais e sites de notícia como apenas mais uma imagem invisível destes tempos revirados, o ato Pataxó circula pelas redes sociais em vídeos feitos pelos próprios indígenas, mas também por blogueiros locais, jornalistas e, sem espanto, por apoiadores da máquina genocidária que hoje se atualiza em governo. No mar de imagens que deslizamos na tela dos smartphones, uma parece insistir: à frente da multidão, o cacique Zeca Pataxó (coordenador estadual do Movimento Indígenas da Bahia) afasta com os braços as barreiras instaladas para delimitar o percurso até o palanque.Em segundos, as grades de metal que interditam o contato entre o dentro e o fora do poder são lançadas umas sobre as outras, cedendo ao gesto implacável das mãos Pataxó, desfazendo o frágil alinhamento da barreira sobre o chão. Em impulsos ritmados pelos tambores às suas costas, o corpo do cacique faz passagem para a multidão que avança, alegre, alargando o caminho. “Os índios tão quebrando tudo”, diz um homem que grava o ato, discípulo audiovisual de Caminha, acusando seu próprio modo de ver o mundo. “Isto tomávamos nós nesse sentido, por assim o desejarmos!”Diante da presença contagiante dos Pataxó, os habitualmente ruidosos apoiadores do fascismo verde-amarelo emudecem, titubeiam, engolindo a poeira da dança. Aos semblantes atordoados do patriotismo cafona, o povo da terra contrapõe sua presença irresistível. Os inimigos, impotentes, se evadem. “Apequenante” como sempre, o chefe de Estado mede seus passos entre amedrontados.O que estas cenas podem nos dizer ultrapassa a mera sucessão das ocorrências. A imagem do Cacique e do seu povo arrebentando a barreira imaginária que os separa do livre movimento implica uma energia política em tudo distinta daquela que preparou o palanque fascista e faz circular as “andanças” do seu porta-voz, angariando engajamento através dessa eficaz algoritmia da tristeza. Ele, que precisa ser visto e ouvido para poder, não interessa aos olhos e ouvidos Pataxó. O ato carnavalesco do povo enlutado não pede que este corpo político apodrecido os escute ou os veja. Exige, ao contrário, que ele vá embora, que se pique!Poder pouco não impede que a multidão saiba muito bem o que pode. Atrapalhar a propaganda da morte com a presença da vida é “ter a força de saber que existe”, como nos lembra certa canção inatual. O gesto dos braços que rompem a ordem mortífera é um lampejo do que nos torna vivos. E olhar para o tempo assim é teimar em sempre poder contar outra história. As grades do corredor presidencial não resistem à alegria dos braços indígenas, porque as mãos Pataxó sorriem para o aço, que recua, se amontoa e diz seu sim metálico. O rosto do Cacique, “tranquilo e infalível”, transmite a alegria de quem não precisa sorrir, pois “entre os dentes segura a primavera”.É preciso ter sido feito da mesma debilidade das grades (do palanque, da história…) para respeitá-las e obedecê-las. Do contrário, testaríamos sua força lançando mão da nossa. Mas o que há nas mãos do Cacique para que ele perceba isso que nos tem escapado? Como inventar, concretamente, nossa própria capacidade de agir, de também fazer fugir o medo e a tristeza? Impulsionados pelo gesto Pataxó, perguntamos: como abrir o presente? Este livro reúne e combina as forças de cada vida que o teceu (por dentro e por fora das autorias) em meio ao desastre humanitário que nos atinge pandêmica e politicamente. Fruto da articulação do Grupo de Trabalho Políticas da Subjetividade, vinculado à Associação Nacional de Pesquisa e Pós-Graduação em Psicologia, Abrir o presente: inventar mundos, narrar a vida, enfrentar o fascismo entrelaça em suas linhas a composição de uma abertura prospectiva do nosso tempo, interpelando-o através de três vias, a saber: a análise dos processos de subjetivação em meio às políticas neoliberais no campo do trabalho, da educação, da saúde, da assistência social, da cidade, da justiça e dos direitos humanos; experimentações ficcionais, figurativas e fabulativas como aposta para a produção de afetações e deslocamentos sensíveis em processos de subjetivação hegemônicos, a partir de estratégias metodológicas inventivas construídas na singularidade dos seus campos de atuação; e por fim, o acionamento de práticas clínico-políticas atentas aos processos de resistência frente ao conservadorismo e ao acirramento de violências relativas aos marcadores raciais, de gênero, de classe e de privação sensorial e motora. Tarefas enormes, intermináveis, é verdade. Razão pela qual elas precisam de muitas mãos. O livro que se segue é, neste sentido, um convite à cumplicidade que estes pequenos-grandes combates exigem entre nós.Começamos com as mãos de Danichi Mizoguchi, Marcelo Ferreira e Maria Elizabeth Barros de Barros em “Subjetividades e sujeições no fascismo tropical?”, capítulo que aborda o projeto político jamais escamoteado na ocupação da máquina pública federal brasileira: um fascismo tropical. São exaltadas problemáticas do Brasil contemporâneo marcadas por extrema violência estatal para com as dissidências e minorias e pelo enfrentamento negacionista do governo de Jair Bolsonaro em relação à pandemia de Covid-19. Partindo das perguntas: “como enfrentar esse modo de subjetivação tão duradouro na história brasileira e que hoje viceja na cena pública sem qualquer escrúpulo? Como disputar a existência de outros mundos possíveis? Afinal, que outras imagens e que outras vidas ainda podemos inventar?”, os autores e a autora discutem as modulações do microfascismo espraiado como fluxo e tornado modo de vida, tecendo análises de que é preciso sustentar um movimento de revolta. Revolta como disputa na criação de mundos e de modos de produção subjetiva.Em “Contar nossos mortos”, Gabriel Lacerda de Resende trata das políticas de desaparecimento, com destaque àquelas praticadas no Brasil de hoje, indagando: “como contamos nossos mortos?”. Transitando por entre considerações bio e necropolíticas, suas análises abordam a particular conexão entre morte, violência e luto, destacando a importância de narrar as vidas e as mortes, com destaque para aquelas relacionadas aos mais diversos contornos da violência de Estado, tal como expresso em falas do atual presidente brasileiro quanto aos desaparecidos políticos ou às pessoas mortas pela Covid-19. “É tempo de escavar este solo de valas comuns, este solo de que somos filhos. É tempo de buscarmos na solidariedade lutuosa e na força da memória o empuxo para interromper, ainda que por um frágil instante, o curso da barbárie”, diz o autor.As mãos carnavalescas e antropofágicas de Juliana Cecchetti, Eder Amaral e Danichi Hausen Mizoguchi estão juntas no terceiro capítulo. “‘Nunca fomos catequizados. Fizemos foi carnaval’: a vacina antropofágica contra a doença fascista” busca em experiências estéticas brasileiras de cem anos para cá o que chamam de “fagulhas de insurreição”. Do carnaval de 1919 (pós-gripe espanhola) à Semana de Arte Moderna, e desta à Tropicália, ao Teatro Oficina, ao Cinema Novo e tanto mais, o trio revisita o modernismo antropofágico explorando sua potência de invenção de mundos, pela alegria e pela erotização do agir na defesa de um sair da linha, como modo de restaurar a “vacina antropofágica”.Ainda sob os ares da festa, Juliana Cecchetti e Marcelo Santana Ferreira dão as mãos em “Outras doces barbáries: a força dos carnavais na disputa do presente”. Nele, discute-se a inesgotabilidade do sentido do carnaval, explorando-o como potência de uma alegria que revoluciona e a carnavalização na qualidade de força de interrupção da cronologia, tentativa oportuna de se abrigar no tempo intensivo da festa para indicar que se está em luta. Partindo da cena de um Rio de Janeiro de 2021, sem carnaval devido à pandemia de Covid-19, sob a “égide” de uma política genocida e negacionista em que a alegria parece ter sucumbido, a dupla pergunta: “quando o carnaval se recolhe, o que ele ainda tem a nos dizer em relação à viabilidade da vida e da existência em comum que não estão separadas da alegria?”.“Como o discurso de ódio pode prosperar com tal facilidade entre nós? Por que nos é tão difícil compor com a diferença, uma vez que ela é também uma direção estratégica? Como promover outras modulações micropolíticas dos encontros com as diferenças de modo a escapar deste voraz jogo de assimilação pela colonização, fetichização, tokenismo?”. Estas perguntas nos chegam pelas mãos de Vanessa Maurente, Luis Artur Costa e Cleci Maraschin em seus “Ensaios para figurações: Indústria do Gênero e Ilhas dos Afetos”. A partir daí, as autoras e o autor trazem elementos de suas experiências de pesquisa e extensão pelo nucogs (Núcleo de Ecologias e Políticas Cognitivas/UFRGS), onde empregam tecnologias materiais, semióticas e coletivas, promovendo jogos narrativos que tensionem e desloquem as formas normativas hegemônicas que costumam conformar nossas experiências e fazeres com o mundo. São abordadas duas experiências de jogo em particular: A Indústria do Gênero e Ilha dos Afetos, as quais geraram uma estranha experiência familiar com o presente, bem como envolvem a construção coletiva de sentidos sobre afetos e experiências na e com a diferença.“Por uma Clínica do Trabalho antirracista” vem das mãos de Tatiane Oliveira e Fernanda Spanier Amador. Decorrendo da pesquisa de mestrado intitulada Racializar o problema clínico do trabalho: professoras negras e experiência do trabalho como atividade na educação básica, defendida no Programa de Pós-Graduação em Psicologia Social e Institucional/UFRGS, discute-se aqui a necessidade de racializar as Clínicas do Trabalho. Trata-se de interpelar a dimensão racializada da experiência por entre a história do ofício, a qual permite-nos compreender como o racismo sustenta certos gêneros profissionais. Partindo do conceito de Estilo em Clínica da Atividade, apresenta-se a original formulação das Estilizações Marginais (produzidas no escopo da dissertação em questão), isto é, aquilo que diz das estratégias empregadas pelas docentes negras na direção da expansão do poder de ação no trabalho, uma vez que enfrentam, reiteradamente, o não reconhecimento de sua contribuição ao ofício por parte da branquitude. Argumenta-se pela urgente necessidade de tensionar o campo das Clínicas do Trabalho na direção de um fazer comprometido com uma prática antirracista, comprometido com um fazer clínico que escute, veja e problematize as práticas de violência racista que conformam o cotidiano do trabalho e do próprio ofício.Ainda com as mãos sobre o trabalho, Fabio Hebert, Fernanda Spanier Amador, Jéssica Prudente e Maria Elizabeth Barros de Barros escrevem “Sobre ofício e cosmopolíticas: quando a vida no trabalho se torna defensável?”. Nele são levantados elementos analíticos relativos a como conectar trabalho a uma vida digna de ser vivida. Partindo dos desafios ético, políticos e estéticos, tendo em vista os modos como se têm cuidado do planeta, liga-se a pergunta: “como cuidar do trabalho no presente distópico?.” Levando em conta o recrudescimento dos fascismos e da intensificação precarização do trabalho contemporâneo, analisa-se a gravidade do que se passa com os ofícios no presente. Partindo do argumento de Yves Clot de que a vida precisa ser defensável no e pelo trabalho para que a sua prática opere saúde, trabalhos nos quais a vida não é defensável requer de nós, pessoas que exercemos a Clínica do Trabalho, um posicionamento específico de crítica que não oferte amortecimento do sofrimento, mas que também possa compor com as narrativas e possa operar em outras cosmopolíticas. Por isso reafirma-se a impossibilidade de ofício em certos casos, o que nos mostra uma situação extrema de degradação existencial.“Por uma ética da desobediência para o presente” chega pelas mãos de Jéssica Prudente e Rosimeri de Oliveira Dias. O capítulo trata do desobedecer no tempo presente como um imperativo ético, uma aposta na vida aliançada com a coragem intrínseca aos riscos das modulações do fascismo contemporâneo. Entre essas urgências que as condições de possibilidade do presente engendram, propõe-se dois eixos de análise e de intervenção, pela transversalização de experiências e operação de resistências à aderência fascista que restringe possibilidades de criação e convoca obediência. O primeiro eixo é o da desobediência e o segundo eixo trata da coragem e da alteridade, atravessados pela noção de crítica. Afirma-se uma escrita que se singulariza pelo feminino, escrita por mulheres entre suas práticas na educação e na saúde.Encerramos os trabalhos “Por entre conversas e histórias com povos originários para adiar o fim do mundo”. Feito pelas mãos de Cristiane Bremenkamp Cruz, Fabio Hebert da Silva e Rosimeri de Oliveira Dias. Tecido entre Espírito Santo, Pará e Rio de Janeiro e pela inspiração das Ideias para adiar o fim do mundo, de Ailton Krenak (2019) —, o nono e último capítulo traz histórias como forma de enfrentar o presente em companhia dos povos originários. “Como temos sido capazes de afirmar vida em tempos tão sombrios como os que vivemos no presente? Como nos utilizamos desta conexão e interlocução com os povos originários para que elas sustentem uma aposta ético-estética-política de resistência às práticas de individualização? De que modos podemos nos engajar em experimentações coletivas que busquem tecer possibilidades de um futuro aberto à alteridade e sua própria tessitura coletiva e comum? Como explorar conexões com novas potências de agir, sentir, imaginar e pensar, geradoras de alegria e de solidariedade, enfrentando o modo de produção capitalista e o projeto de eliminação necropolítico que ganha força na contemporaneidade?” são algumas das interrogações das autoras e do autor ao longo do texto.Padecer de Brasil não é coisa que se aguente sozinho. Abrir o presente, sintagma plural e polifônico, nos parece uma maneira direta de cuidar do pensamento e do corpo, de empurrar barreiras entre nós, de abrir passagem e mexer no clima. Cada linha deste livro é um gesto no sentido da restauração do nosso tamanho, isto é, daquilo que alcançamos andando com os pés no sonho. Outono do ano em que voltamos a nos encontrar! Eder Amaral; Fernanda Spanier Amador; Rosimeri de Oliveira Dias

Home is the place where one knows oneself best; it is where one belongs, a space one longs to be. Indeed, the longing for home seems to be grounded in an anthropological need for anchorage. Although in English the German loanword ‘Heimat’ is often used synonymously with ‘home’, many would have claimed up till now that it has been a word particularly ill equipped for use outside the German speaking community, owing to its specific cultural baggage. However, I would like to argue that – not least due to the political dimension of home (such as in homeland security and homeland affairs) – the yearning for a home has experienced a semantic shift, which aligns it more closely with Heimat, a term imbued with the ambivalence of home and homeland intertwined (Morley 32). I will outline the German specificities below and invite an Australian analogy. A resoundingly positive understanding of the German term ‘Heimat’ likens it to “an intoxicant, a medium of transport; it makes people feel giddy and spirits them to pleasant places. To contemplate Heimat means to imagine an uncontaminated space, a realm of innocence and immediacy.“ (Rentschler 37) While this description of Heimat may raise expectations of an all-encompassing idyll, for most German speakers “…there is hardly a more ambivalent feeling, hardly a more painful mixture of happiness and bitterness than the experience vested in the word ‘Heimat’.” (Reitz 139) The emotional charge of the idiom is of quite recent origin. Traditionally, Heimat stimulates connotations of ‘origin’, ‘birth place, of oneself and one’s ancestors’ and even of ‘original area of settlement and homeland’. This corresponds most neatly with such English terms as ‘native land’, ‘land of my birth’, ‘land of my forefathers’ or ‘native shores’. Added to the German conception of Heimat are its sensitive associations relating, on the one hand, to Romanticism and its idolisation of the fatherland, and on the other, to the Nazi blood-and-soil propaganda, which brought Heimat into disrepute for many and added to the difficulties of translating the German word. A comparison with similar terms in Romance languages makes this clear. Speakers of those tongues have an understanding of home and homeland, which is strongly associated with the father-figure: the Greek “patra”, Latin and Italian “patria” and the French “patrie”, as well as patriarch, patrimony, patriot, and patricide. The French come closest to sharing the concept to which Heimat’s Germanic root of “heima” refers. For the Teutons “heima” denoted the traditional space and place of a clan, society or individual. However, centuries of migration, often following expulsion, have imbued Heimat with ambivalent notions; feelings of belonging and feelings of loss find expression in the term. Despite its semantic opaqueness, Heimat expresses a “longing for a wholeness and unity” (Strzelczyk 109) which for many seems lost, especially following experiences of alienation, exile, diaspora or ‘simply’ migration. Yet, it is in those circumstances, when Heimat becomes a thing of the past, that it seems to manifest itself most clearly. In the German context, the need for Heimat arose particularly after World War Two, when experiences of loss and scenes of devastation, as well as displacement and expulsion found compensation of sorts in the popular media. Going to the cinema was the top pastime in Germany in the 1950s, and escapist Heimat films, which showed idyllic country scenery, instead of rubble-strewn cityscapes, were the most well-liked of all. The industry pumped out kitsch films in quick succession to service this demand and created sugar-coated, colour-rich Heimat experiences on celluloid that captured the audience’s imagination. Most recently, the genre experienced something of a renaissance in the wake of the fall of the Berlin Wall and the subsequent accession of the German Democratic Republic (GDR, also referred to as East Germany) to the Federal Republic of Germany (FRG or West Germany) in 1990. Described as one of the most seminal moments in modern history, the events led to large-scale change; in world politics, strategic alliances, but were most closely felt at the personal and societal level, reshaping community and belonging. Feelings of disbelief and euphoria occupied the hearts and minds of people all around the world in the days following the night of the 9 November 1989. However, the fall of the Wall created within weeks what the Soviet Union had been unable to manage in the previous 40 years; the sense of a distinctly Eastern identity (cf. Heneghan 148). Most of the initial positive perceptions slowly gave way to a hangover when the consequences of the drastic societal changes became apparent in their effects on populace. Feelings of disenchantment and disillusionment followed the jubilation and dominated the second phase of socio-cultural unification, when individuals were faced with economic and emotional hardship or were forced to relocate, as companies folded, politically tainted degrees and professions were abolished and entire industry sectors disappeared. This reassessment of almost every aspect of people’s lifestyles led many to feel that their familiar world had dissipated and their Heimat had been lost, resulting in a rhetoric of “us” versus “them”. This conceptual divide persisted and was cemented by the perceived difficulties in integration that had emerged, manifesting a consciousness of difference that expressed itself metaphorically in the references to the ‘Wall in the mind’. Partly as a reaction to these feelings and partly also as a concession to the new citizens from the East, Western backed and produced unification films utilised the soothing cosmos of the Heimat genre – so well rehearsed in the 1950s – as a framework for tales about unification. Peter Timm’s Go, Trabi, Go (1991) and Wolfgang Büld’s sequel Go, Trabi, Go 2. Das war der Wilde Osten [That Was the Wild East, 1992] are two such films which revive “Heimat as a central cultural construct through which aspects of life in the new Germany could be sketched and grasped.” (Naughton 125) The films’ references to Eastern and Western identity served as a powerful guarantor of feelings of belonging, re-assuring audiences on both sides of the mental divide of their idiosyncrasies, while also showing a way to overcome separation. These Heimat films thus united in spirit, emotion and consumer behaviour that which had otherwise not yet “grown together” (cf. Brandt). The renaissance of the Heimat genre in the 1990s gained further momentum in the media with new Heimat film releases as well as TV screenings of 1950s classics. Indeed Heimat films of old and new were generally well received, as they responded to a fragile psychological predisposition at a time of change and general uncertainty. Similar feelings were shared by many in the post-war society of the 1950s and the post-Wall Europe of the 1990s. After the Second World War and following the restructure after Nazism it was necessary to integrate large expellee groups into the young nation of the FRG. In the 1990s the integration of similarly displaced people was required, though this time they were having to cope less with territorial loss than with ideological implosions. Then and now, Heimat films sought to aid integration and “transcend those differences” (Naughton 125) – whilst not disputing their existence – particularly in view of the fact that Germany had 16 million new citizens, who clearly had a different cultural background, many of whom were struggling with perceptions of otherness as popularly expressed in the stereotypical ethnographies of “Easterners” and “Westerners”. The rediscovery of the concept of Heimat in the years following unification therefore not only mirrored the status quo but further to that allowed “for the delineation of a common heritage, shared priorities, and values with which Germans in the old and new states could identify.” (Naughton 125) Closely copying the optimism of the 1950s which promised audiences prosperity and pride, as well as a sense of belonging and homecoming into a larger community, the films produced in the early 1990s anticipated prosperity for a mobile and flexible people. Like their 1950s counterparts, “unification films ‘made in West Germany’ imagined a German Heimat as a place of social cohesion, opportunity, and prosperity” (Naughton 126). Following the unification comedies of the early 1990s, which were set in the period following the fall of the Wall, another wave of German film production shifted the focus onto the past, sacrificing the future dimension of the unification films. Leander Haußmann’s Sonnenallee (1999) is set in the 1970s and subscribes to a re-invention of one’s childhood, while Wolfgang Becker’s Goodbye Lenin (2003) in which the GDR is preserved on 79 square metres in a private parallel world, advocates a revival of aspects of the socialist past. Referred to as “Ostalgia”; a nostalgia for the old East, “a ‘GDR revival’ or the ‘renaissance of a GDR Heimatgefühl’” (Berdahl 197), the films achieved popular success. Ostalgia films utilised the formula of ‘walking down memory lane’ in varying degrees; thematising pleasing aspects of an imagined collective past and tempting audiences to revel in a sense of unity and homogeneous identity (cf. Walsh 6). Ostalgia was soon transformed from emotional and imaginary reflection into an entire industry, manifesting itself in the “recuperation, (re)production, marketing, and merchandising of GDR products as well as the ‘museumification’ of GDR everyday life” (Berdahl 192). This trend found further expression in a culture of exhibitions, books, films and cabaret acts, in fashion and theme parties, as well as in Trabi-rallies which celebrated or sent up the German Democratic Republic in response to the perceived public humiliation at the hands of West German media outlets, historians and economists. The dismissal of anything associated with the communist East in mainstream Germany and the realisation that their consumer products – like their national history – were disappearing in the face of the ‘Helmut Kohl-onisation’ sparked this retro-Heimat cult. Indeed, the reaction to the disappearance of GDR culture and the ensuing nostalgia bear all the hallmarks of Heimat appreciation, a sense of bereavement that only manifests itself once the Heimat has been lost. Ironically, however, the revival of the past led to the emergence of a “new” GDR (Rutschky 851), an “imaginary country put together from the remnants of a country in ruins and from the hopes and anxieties of a new world” (Hell et al. 86), a fictional construct rather than a historical reality. In contrast to the fundamental social and psychological changes affecting former GDR citizens from the end of 1989, their Western counterparts were initially able to look on without a sense of deep personal involvement. Their perspective has been likened to that of an impartial observer following the events of a historical play (cf. Gaschke 22). Many saw German unification as an enlargement of the West; as soon as they had exported their currency, democracy, capitalism and freedom to the East, “blossoming landscapes” were sure to follow (Kohl). At first political events did not seem to cause a major disruption to the lives of most people in the old FRG, except perhaps the need to pay higher tax. This understanding proved a major underestimation of the transformation process that had gripped all of Germany, not just the Eastern part. Nevertheless, few predicted the impact that far-reaching changes would have on the West; immigration and new minorities alter the status quo of any society, and with Germany’s increase in size and population, its citizens in both East and West had to adapt and adjust to a new image and to new expectations placed on them from within and without. As a result a certain unease began to be felt by many an otherwise self-assured individual. Slower and less obvious than the transition phase experienced by most East Germans, the changes in West German society and consciousness were nevertheless similar in their psychological effects; resulting in a subtle feeling of displacement. Indeed, it was soon noted that “the end of German division has given rise to a sense of crisis in the West, particularly within the sphere of West German culture, engendering a Western nostalgica for the old FRG” (Cooke 35), also referred to as Westalgia. Not too dissimilar to the historical rehabilitation of the East played out in Ostalgic fashion, films appeared which revisit moments worthy of celebration in West German history, such as the 1954 Soccer World Championship status which is at the centre of the narrative in Sönke Wortmann’s Das Wunder von Bern [Miracle of Bern, 2003]. Hommages to the 1968 generation (Hans Weingartner’s Die fetten Jahre sind vorbei [The Educators, 2004]) and requiems for West Berlin’s subculture (Leander Haußmann’s Herr Lehmann [Mr Lehmann, 2003]) were similar manifestations of this development. Ostalgic and Westalgic practices coexisted for several years after the turn of the millennium, and are a tribute to the highly complex interrelationship that exists between personal histories and public memories. Both narratives reveal “the politics, ambiguities, and paradoxes of memory, nostalgia, and resistance” (Berdahl 207). In their nostalgic contemplation of the good old days, Ostalgic and Westalgic films alike express a longing to return to familiar and trusted values. Both post-hoc constructions of a heimatesque cosmos demonstrate a very real reinvention of Heimat. Their deliberate reconstruction and reinterpretation of history, as well as the references to and glorification of personal memory and identity fulfil the task of imbuing history – in particular personal history – with dignity. As such these Heimat films work in a similar fashion to myths in the way they explain the world. The heimatesque element of Ostalgic and Westalgic films which allows for the potential to overcome crises reveals a great deal about the workings of myths in general. Irrespective of their content, whether they are cosmogonic (about the beginning of time), eschatological (about the end of time) or etiologic myths (about the origins of peoples and societal order), all serve as a means to cope with change. According to Hans Blumenberg, myth making may be seen as an attempt to counter the absolutism of reality (cf. Blumenberg 9), by providing a response to its seemingly overriding arbitrariness. Myths become a means of endowing life with meaning through art and thus aid positive self-assurance and the constructive usage of past experiences in the present and the future. Judging from the popular success of both Ostalgic and Westalgic films in unified Germany, one hopes that communication is taking place across the perceived ethnic divide of Eastern and Western identities. At the very least, people of quite different backgrounds have access to the constructions and fictions relating to one another pasts. By allowing each other insight into the most intimate recesses of their respective psychological make-up, understanding can be fostered. Through the re-activation of one’s own memory and the acknowledgment of differences these diverging narratives may constitute the foundation of a common Heimat. It is thus possible for Westalgic and Ostalgic films to fulfil individual and societal functions which can act as a core of cohesion and an aid for mutual understanding. At the same time these films revive the past, not as a liveable but rather as a readable alternative to the present. As such, the utilisation of myths should not be rejected as ideological misuse, as suggested by Barthes (7), nor should it allow for the cementing of pseudo-ethnic differences dating back to mythological times; instead myths can form the basis for a common narrative and a self-confident affirmation of history in order to prepare for a future in harmony. Just like myths in general, Heimat tales do not attempt to revise history, or to present the real facts. By foregrounding the evidence of their wilful construction and fictitious invention, it is possible to arrive at a spiritual, psychological and symbolic truth. Nevertheless, it is a truth that is essential for a positive experience of Heimat and an optimistic existence. What can the German situation reveal in an Australian or a wider context? Explorations of Heimat aid the socio-historical investigation of any society, as repositories of memory and history, escape and confrontation inscribed in Heimat can be read as signifiers of continuity and disruption, reorientation and return, and as such, ever-changing notions of Heimat mirror values and social change. Currently, a transition in meaning is underway which alters the concept of ‘home’ as an idyllic sphere of belonging and attachment to that of a threatened space; a space under siege from a range of perils in the areas of safety and security, whether due to natural disasters, terrorism or conventional warfare. The geographical understanding of home is increasingly taking second place to an emotional imaginary that is fed by an “exclusionary and contested distinction between the ‘domestic’ and the ‘foreign’ (Blunt and Dowling 168). As such home becomes ever more closely aligned with the semantics of Heimat, i.e. with an emotional experience, which is progressively less grounded in feelings of security and comfort, yet even more so in those of ambivalence and, in particular, insecurity and hysteria. This paranoia informs as much as it is informed by government policies and interventions and emerges from concerns for national security. In this context, home and homeland have become overused entities in discussions relating to the safeguarding of Australia, such as with the establishment of a homeland security unit in 2003 and annual conferences such as “The Homeland Security Summit” deemed necessary since 9/11, even in the Antipodes. However, these global connotations of home and Heimat overshadow the necessity of a reclaimation of the home/land debate at the national and local levels. In addressing the dispossession of indigenous peoples and the removal and dislocation of Aboriginal children from their homes and families, the political nature of a home-grown Heimat debate cannot be ignored. “Bringing them Home”, an oral history project initiated by the National Library of Australia in Canberra, is one of many attempts at listening to and preserving the memories of Aboriginals and Torres Strait Islanders who, as children, were forcibly taken away from their families and homelands. To ensure healing and rapprochement any reconciliation process necessitates coming to terms with one’s own past as much as respecting the polyphonic nature of historical discourse. By encouraging the inclusion of diverse homeland and dreamtime narratives and juxtaposing these with the perceptions and constructions of home of the subsequent immigrant generations of Australians, a rich text, full of contradictions, may help generate a shared, if ambivalent, sense of a common Heimat in Australia; one that is fed not by homeland insecurity but one resting in a heimatesque knowledge of self. References Barthes, Roland. Mythen des Alltags. Frankfurt a.M.: Suhrkamp, 1964 Berdahl, Daphne. “‘(N)ostalgie’ for the Present: Memory, Longing, and East German Things.” Ethnos 64.2 (1999): 192-207. Blumenberg, Hans. Arbeit am Mythos. Frankfurt a.M.: Suhrkamp Verlag, 1979. Blunt, Alison, and Robyn Dowling. Home. London: Routledge, 2006. Brandt, Willy. “Jetzt kann zusammenwachsen, was zusammengehört [Now that which belongs together, can now grow together].” From his speech on 10 Nov. 1989 in front of the Rathaus Schöneberg, transcript available from http://www.bwbs.de/Brandt/9.html>. Cooke, Paul. “Whatever Happened to Veronika Voss? Rehabilitating the ‘68ers’ and the Problem of Westalgie in Oskar Roehler’s Die Unberührbare (2000).” German Studies Review 27.1 (2004): 33-44. Gaschke, Susanne. “Neues Deutschland. Sind wir eine Wirtschaftsgesellschaft?” Aus Politik und Zeitgeschichte B1-2 (2000): 22-27. Hell, Julia, and Johannes von Moltke. “Unification Effects: Imaginary Landscapes of the Berlin Republic.” The Germanic Review 80.1 (Winter 2005): 74-95. Heneghan, Tom. Unchained Eagle: Germany after the Wall. London: Reuters, 2000. Kohl, Helmut. “Debatte im Bundestag um den Staatsvertrag.” 21 June 1990. Morley, David. Home Territories: Media, Mobility and Identity. London: Routledge, 2000. Naughton, Leonie. That Was the Wild East. Film Culture, Unification, and the “New” Germany. Ann Arbor: U of Michigan P, 2002. Rentschler, Eric. “There’s No Place Like Home: Luis Trenker’s The Prodigal Son (1934).” New German Critique 60 (Special Issue on German Film History, Autumn 1993): 33-56. Reitz, Edgar. “The Camera Is Not a Clock (1979).” In Eric Rentschler, ed. West German Filmmakers on Film: Visions and Voices. New York: Holmes and Meier, 1988. 137-141. Rutschky, Michael. “Wie erst jetzt die DDR entsteht.” Merkur 49.9-10 (Sep./Oct. 1995): 851-64. Strzelczyk, Florentine. “Far Away, So Close: Carl Froelich’s Heimat.” In Robert C. Reimer, ed., Cultural History through the National Socialist Lens. Essays on the Cinema of the Third Reich. Rochester, NY: Camden House, 2000. 109-132. Walsh, Michael. “National Cinema, National Imaginary.” Film History 8 (1996): 5-17. Citation reference for this article MLA Style Ludewig, Alexandra. "Home Meets Heimat." M/C Journal 10.4 (2007). echo date('d M. Y'); ?> <http://journal.media-culture.org.au/0708/12-ludewig.php>. APA Style Ludewig, A. (Aug. 2007) "Home Meets Heimat," M/C Journal, 10(4). Retrieved echo date('d M. Y'); ?> from <http://journal.media-culture.org.au/0708/12-ludewig.php>.

The twentieth was, from one perspective, the democratic century — a span of one hundred years which began with no fully functioning democracies in existence anywhere on the planet (if one defines democracy as a political system in which there is both universal suffrage and competitive elections), and ended with 120 countries out of 192 classified by the Freedom House think tank as ‘democratic’. There are of course still many societies where democracy is denied or effectively neutered — the remaining outposts of state socialism, such as China, Cuba, and North Korea; most if not all of the Islamic countries; exceptional states such as Singapore, unapologetically capitalist in its economic system but resolutely authoritarian in its political culture. Many self-proclaimed democracies, including those of the UK, Australia and the US, are procedurally or conceptually flawed. Countries emerging out of authoritarian systems and now in a state of democratic transition, such as Russia and the former Soviet republics, are immersed in constant, sometimes violent struggle between reformers and reactionaries. Russia’s recent parliamentary elections were accompanied by the intimidation of parties and politicians who opposed Vladimir Putin’s increasingly populist and authoritarian approach to leadership. The same Freedom House report which describes the rise of democracy in the twentieth century acknowledges that many self-styled democracies are, at best, only ‘partly free’ in their political cultures (for detailed figures on the rise of global democracy, see the Freedom House website Democracy’s Century). Let’s not for a moment downplay these important qualifications to what can nonetheless be fairly characterised as a century-long expansion and globalisation of democracy, and the acceptance of popular sovereignty, expressed through voting for the party or candidate of one’s choice, as a universally recognised human right. That such a process has occurred, and continues in these early years of the twenty-first century, is irrefutable. In the Gaza strip, Hamas appeals to the legitimacy of a democratic election victory in its campaign to be recognised as the voice of the Palestinian people. However one judges the messianic tendencies and Islamist ideology of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, it must be acknowledged that the Iranian people elected him, and that they have the power to throw him out of government next time they vote. That was never true of the Shah. The democratic resurgence in Latin America, taking in Venezuela, Peru and Bolivia among others has been a much-noted feature of international politics in recent times (Alves), presenting a welcome contrast to the dictatorships and death squads of the 1980s, even as it creates some uncomfortable dilemmas for the Bush administration (which must champion democratic government at the same time as it resents some of the choices people may make when they have the opportunity to vote). Since 9/11 a kind of democracy has expanded even to Afghanistan and Iraq, albeit at the point of a gun, and with no guarantees of survival beyond the end of military occupation by the US and its coalition allies. As this essay was being written, Pakistan’s state of emergency was ending and democratic elections scheduled, albeit in the shadow cast by the assassination of Benazir Bhutto in December 2007. Democracy, then — imperfect and limited as it can be; grudgingly delivered though it is by political elites in many countries, and subject to attack and roll back at any time — has become a global universal to which all claim allegiance, or at least pay lip service. The scale of this transformation, which has occurred in little more than one quarter of the time elapsed since the Putney debates of 1647 and the English revolution first established the principle of the sovereignty of parliament, is truly remarkable. (Tristram Hunt quotes lawyer Geoffrey Robertson in the Guardian to the effect that the Putney debates, staged in St Mary’s church in south-west London towards the end of the English civil war, launched “the idea that government requires the consent of freely and fairly elected representatives of all adult citizens irrespective of class or caste or status or wealth” – “A Jewel of Democracy”, Guardian, 26 Oct. 2007) Can it be true that less than one hundred years ago, in even the most advanced capitalist societies, 50 per cent of the people — women — did not have the right to vote? Or that black populations, indigenous or migrant, in countries such as the United States and Australia were deprived of basic citizenship rights until the 1960s and even later? Will future generations wonder how on earth it could have been that the vast majority of the people of South Africa were unable to vote until 1994, and that they were routinely imprisoned, tortured and killed when they demanded basic democratic rights? Or will they shrug and take it for granted, as so many of us who live in settled democracies already do? (In so far as ‘we’ includes the community of media and cultural studies scholars, I would argue that where there is reluctance to concede the scale and significance of democratic change, this arises out of continuing ambivalence about what ‘democracy’ means, a continuing suspicion of globalisation (in particular the globalisation of democratic political culture, still associated in some quarters with ‘the west’), and of the notion of ‘progress’ with which democracy is routinely associated. The intellectual roots of that ambivalence were various. Marxist-leninist inspired authoritarianism gripped much of the world until the fall of the Berlin Wall and the end of the cold war. Until that moment, it was still possible for many marxians in the scholarly community to view the idea of democracy with disdain — if not quite a dirty word, then a deeply flawed, highly loaded concept which masked and preserved underlying social inequalities more than it helped resolve them. Until 1989 or thereabouts, it was possible for ‘bourgeois democracy’ to be regarded as just one kind of democratic polity by the liberal and anti-capitalist left, which often regarded the ‘proletarian’ or ‘people’s’ democracy prevailing in the Soviet Union, China, Cuba or Vietnam as legitimate alternatives to the emerging capitalist norm of one person, one vote, for constituent assemblies which had real power and accountability. In terms not very different from those used by Marx and Engels in The German Ideology, belief in the value of democracy was conceived by this materialist school as a kind of false consciousness. It still is, by Noam Chomsky and others who continue to view democracy as a ‘necessary illusion’ (1989) without which capitalism could not be reproduced. From these perspectives voting gave, and gives us merely the illusion of agency and power in societies where capital rules as it always did. For democracy read ‘the manufacture of consent’; its expansion read not as progressive social evolution, but the universalisation of the myth of popular sovereignty, mobilised and utilised by the media-industrial-military complex to maintain its grip.) There are those who dispute this reading of events. In the 1960s, Habermas’s hugely influential Structural Transformation of the Public Sphere critiqued the manner in which democracy, and the public sphere underpinning it, had been degraded by public relations, advertising, and the power of private interests. In the period since, critical scholarly research and writing on political culture has been dominated by the Habermasian discourse of democratic decline, and the pervasive pessimism of those who see democracy, and the media culture which supports it, as fatally flawed, corrupted by commercialisation and under constant threat. Those, myself included, who challenged that view with a more positive reading of the trends (McNair, Journalism and Democracy; Cultural Chaos) have been denounced as naïve optimists, panglossian, utopian and even, in my own case, a ‘neo-liberal apologist’. (See an unpublished paper by David Miller, “System Failure: It’s Not Just the Media, It’s the Whole Bloody System”, delivered at Goldsmith’s College in 2003.) Engaging as they have been, I venture to suggest that these are the discourses and debates of an era now passing into history. Not only is it increasingly obvious that democracy is expanding globally into places where it never previously reached; it is also extending inwards, within nation states, driven by demands for greater local autonomy. In the United Kingdom, for example, the citizen is now able to vote not just in Westminster parliamentary elections (which determine the political direction of the UK government), but for European elections, local elections, and elections for devolved assemblies in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland. The people of London can vote for their mayor. There would by now have been devolved assemblies in the regions of England, too, had the people of the North East not voted against it in a November 2004 referendum. Notwithstanding that result, which surprised many in the New Labour government who held it as axiomatic that the more democracy there was, the better for all of us, the importance of enhancing and expanding democratic institutions, of allowing people to vote more often (and also in more efficient ways — many of these expansions of democracy have been tied to the introduction of systems of proportional representation) has become consensual, from the Mid West of America to the Middle East. The Democratic Paradox And yet, as the wave of democratic transformation has rolled on through the late twentieth and into the early twenty first century it is notable that, in many of the oldest liberal democracies at least, fewer people have been voting. In the UK, for example, in the period between 1945 and 2001, turnout at general elections never fell below 70 per cent. In 1992, the last general election won by the Conservatives before the rise of Tony Blair and New Labour, turnout was 78 per cent, roughly where it had been in the 1950s. In 2001, however, as Blair’s government sought re-election, turnout fell to an historic low for the UK of 59.4 per cent, and rose only marginally to 61.4 per cent in the most recent general election of 2005. In the US presidential elections of 1996 and 2000 turnouts were at historic lows of 47.2 and 49.3 per cent respectively, rising just above 50 per cent again in 2004 (figures by International Institute for Democracy and Electoral Assistance). At local level things are even worse. In only the second election for a devolved parliament in Scotland (2003) turnout was a mere 48.5 per cent, rising to 50.5 in 2007. These trends are not universal. In countries with compulsory voting, they mean very little — in Australia, where voting in parliamentary elections is compulsory, turnout averages in the 90s per cent. In France, while turnouts for parliamentary elections show a similar downward trend to the UK and the UK, presidential contests achieve turnouts of 80-plus per cent. In the UK and US, as noted, the most recent elections show modest growth in turnout from those historic lows of the late 1990s and early Noughties. There has grown, nonetheless, the perception, commonplace amongst academic commentators as well as journalists and politicians themselves, that we are living through a ‘crisis’ of democratic participation, a dangerous decline in the tendency to vote in elections which undermines the legitimacy of democracy itself. In communication scholarship a significant body of research and publication has developed around this theme, from Blumler and Gurevitch’s Crisis of Public Communication (1996), through Barnett and Gaber’s Westminster Tales (2000), to more recent studies such as Lewis et al.’s Citizens or Consumers (2005). All presume a problem of some kind with the practice of democracy and the “old fashioned ritual” of voting, as Lewis et al. describe it (2). Most link alleged inadequacies in the performance of the political media to what is interpreted as popular apathy (or antipathy) towards democracy. The media are blamed for the lack of public engagement with democratic politics which declining turnouts are argued to signal. Political journalists are said to be too aggressive and hyper-adversarial (Lloyd), behaving like the “feral beast” spoken of by Tony Blair in his 2007 farewell speech to the British people as prime minister. They are corrosively cynical and a “disaster for democracy”, as Steven Barnett and others argued in the first years of the twenty first century. They are not aggressive or adversarial enough, as the propaganda modellists allege, citing what they interpret as supine media coverage of Coalition policy in Iraq. The media put people off, rather than turn them on to democracy by being, variously, too nice or too nasty to politicians. What then, is the solution to the apparent paradox represented by the fact that there is more democracy, but less voting in elections than ever before; and that after centuries of popular struggle democratic assemblies proliferate, but in some countries barely half of the eligible voters can be bothered to participate? And what role have the media played in this unexpected phenomenon? If the scholarly community has been largely critical on this question, and pessimistic in its analyses of the role of the media, it has become increasingly clear that the one arena where people do vote more than ever before is that presented by the media, and entertainment media in particular. There has been, since the appearance of Big Brother and the subsequent explosion of competitive reality TV formats across the world, evidence of a huge popular appetite for voting on such matters as which amateur contestant on Pop Idol, or X Factor, or Fame Academy, or Operatunity goes on to have a chance of a professional career, a shot at the big time. Millions of viewers of the most popular reality TV strands queue up to register their votes on premium phone lines, the revenue from which makes up a substantial and growing proportion of the income of commercial TV companies. This explosion of voting behaviour has been made possible by the technology-driven emergence of new forms of participatory, interactive, digitised media channels which allow millions to believe that they can have an impact on the outcome of what are, at essence, game and talent shows. At the height of anxiety around the ‘crisis of democratic participation’ in the UK, observers noted that nearly 6.5 million people had voted in the Big Brother UK final in 2004. More than eight million voted during the 2004 run of the BBC’s Fame Academy series. While these numbers do not, contrary to popular belief, exceed the numbers of British citizens who vote in a general election (27.2 million in 2005), they do indicate an enthusiasm for voting which seems to contradict declining rates of democratic participation. People who will never get out and vote for their local councillor often appear more than willing to pick up the telephone or the laptop and cast a vote for their favoured reality TV contestant, even if it costs them money. It would be absurd to suggest that voting for a contestant on Big Brother is directly comparable to the act of choosing a government or a president. The latter is recognised as an expression of citizenship, with potentially significant consequences for the lives of individuals within their society. Voting on Big Brother, on the other hand, is unmistakeably entertainment, game-playing, a relatively risk-free exercise of choice — a bit of harmless fun, fuelled by office chat and relentless tabloid coverage of the contestants’ strengths and weaknesses. There is no evidence that readiness to participate in a telephone or online vote for entertainment TV translates into active citizenship, where ‘active’ means casting a vote in an election. The lesson delivered by the success of participatory media in recent years, however — first reality TV, and latterly a proliferation of online formats which encourage user participation and voting for one thing or another — is that people will vote, when they are able and motivated to do so. Voting is popular, in short, and never more so, irrespective of the level of popular participation recorded in recent elections. And if they will vote in their millions for a contestant on X Factor, or participate in competitions to determine the best movies or books on Facebook, they can presumably be persuaded to do so when an election for parliament comes around. This fact has been recognised by both media producers and politicians, and reflected in attempts to adapt the evermore sophisticated and efficient tools of participatory media to the democratic process, to engage media audiences as citizens by offering the kinds of voting opportunities in political debates, including election processes, which entertainment media have now made routinely available. ITV’s Vote for Me strand, broadcast in the run-up to the UK general election of 2005, used reality TV techniques to select a candidate who would actually take part in the forthcoming poll. The programme was broadcast in a late night, low audience slot, and failed to generate much interest, but it signalled a desire by media producers to harness the appeal of participatory media in a way which could directly impact on levels of democratic engagement. The honourable failure of Vote for Me (produced by the same team which made the much more successful live debate shows featuring prime minister Tony Blair — Ask Tony Blair, Ask the Prime Minister) might be viewed as evidence that readiness to vote in the context of a TV game show does not translate directly into voting for parties and politicians, and that the problem in this respect — the crisis of democratic participation, such that it exists — is located elsewhere. People can vote in democratic elections, but choose not to, perhaps because they feel that the act is meaningless (because parties are ideologically too similar), or ineffectual (because they see no impact of voting in their daily lives or in the state of the country), or irrelevant to their personal priorities and life styles. Voting rates have increased in the US and the UK since September 11 2001, suggesting perhaps that when the political stakes are raised, and the question of who is in government seems to matter more than it did, people act accordingly. Meantime, media producers continue to make money by developing formats and channels on the assumption that audiences wish to participate, to interact, and to vote. Whether this form of participatory media consumption for the purposes of play can be translated into enhanced levels of active citizenship, and whether the media can play a significant contributory role in that process, remains to be seen. References Alves, R.C. “From Lapdog to Watchdog: The Role of the Press in Latin America’s Democratisation.” In H. de Burgh, ed., Making Journalists. London: Routledge, 2005. 181-202. Anderson, P.J., and G. Ward (eds.). The Future of Journalism in the Advanced Democracies. Aldershot: Ashgate Publishing, 2007. Barnett, S. “The Age of Contempt.” Guardian 28 October 2002. http://politics.guardian.co.uk/media/comment/0,12123,820577,00.html>. Barnett, S., and I. Gaber. Westminster Tales. London: Continuum, 2001. Blumler, J., and M. Gurevitch. The Crisis of Public Communication. London: Routledge, 1996. Habermas, J. The Structural Transformation of the Public Sphere. Cambridge: Polity Press, 1989. Lewis, J., S. Inthorn, and K. Wahl-Jorgensen. Citizens or Consumers? What the Media Tell Us about Political Participation. Milton Keynes: Open University Press, 2005. Lloyd, John. What the Media Are Doing to Our Politics. London: Constable, 2004. McNair, B. Journalism and Democracy: A Qualitative Evaluation of the Political Public Sphere. London: Routledge, 2000. ———. Cultural Chaos: News, Journalism and Power in a Globalised World. London: Routledge, 2006. Citation reference for this article MLA Style McNair, Brian. "Vote!." M/C Journal 10.6/11.1 (2008). echo date('d M. Y'); ?> <http://journal.media-culture.org.au/0804/01-mcnair.php>. APA Style McNair, B. (Apr. 2008) "Vote!," M/C Journal, 10(6)/11(1). Retrieved echo date('d M. Y'); ?> from <http://journal.media-culture.org.au/0804/01-mcnair.php>.

The twentieth was, from one perspective, the democratic century — a span of one hundred years which began with no fully functioning democracies in existence anywhere on the planet (if one defines democracy as a political system in which there is both universal suffrage and competitive elections), and ended with 120 countries out of 192 classified by the Freedom House think tank as ‘democratic’. There are of course still many societies where democracy is denied or effectively neutered — the remaining outposts of state socialism, such as China, Cuba, and North Korea; most if not all of the Islamic countries; exceptional states such as Singapore, unapologetically capitalist in its economic system but resolutely authoritarian in its political culture. Many self-proclaimed democracies, including those of the UK, Australia and the US, are procedurally or conceptually flawed. Countries emerging out of authoritarian systems and now in a state of democratic transition, such as Russia and the former Soviet republics, are immersed in constant, sometimes violent struggle between reformers and reactionaries. Russia’s recent parliamentary elections were accompanied by the intimidation of parties and politicians who opposed Vladimir Putin’s increasingly populist and authoritarian approach to leadership. The same Freedom House report which describes the rise of democracy in the twentieth century acknowledges that many self-styled democracies are, at best, only ‘partly free’ in their political cultures (for detailed figures on the rise of global democracy, see the Freedom House website Democracy’s Century). Let’s not for a moment downplay these important qualifications to what can nonetheless be fairly characterised as a century-long expansion and globalisation of democracy, and the acceptance of popular sovereignty, expressed through voting for the party or candidate of one’s choice, as a universally recognised human right. That such a process has occurred, and continues in these early years of the twenty-first century, is irrefutable. In the Gaza strip, Hamas appeals to the legitimacy of a democratic election victory in its campaign to be recognised as the voice of the Palestinian people. However one judges the messianic tendencies and Islamist ideology of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, it must be acknowledged that the Iranian people elected him, and that they have the power to throw him out of government next time they vote. That was never true of the Shah. The democratic resurgence in Latin America, taking in Venezuela, Peru and Bolivia among others has been a much-noted feature of international politics in recent times (Alves), presenting a welcome contrast to the dictatorships and death squads of the 1980s, even as it creates some uncomfortable dilemmas for the Bush administration (which must champion democratic government at the same time as it resents some of the choices people may make when they have the opportunity to vote). Since 9/11 a kind of democracy has expanded even to Afghanistan and Iraq, albeit at the point of a gun, and with no guarantees of survival beyond the end of military occupation by the US and its coalition allies. As this essay was being written, Pakistan’s state of emergency was ending and democratic elections scheduled, albeit in the shadow cast by the assassination of Benazir Bhutto in December 2007. Democracy, then — imperfect and limited as it can be; grudgingly delivered though it is by political elites in many countries, and subject to attack and roll back at any time — has become a global universal to which all claim allegiance, or at least pay lip service. The scale of this transformation, which has occurred in little more than one quarter of the time elapsed since the Putney debates of 1647 and the English revolution first established the principle of the sovereignty of parliament, is truly remarkable. (Tristram Hunt quotes lawyer Geoffrey Robertson in the Guardian to the effect that the Putney debates, staged in St Mary’s church in south-west London towards the end of the English civil war, launched “the idea that government requires the consent of freely and fairly elected representatives of all adult citizens irrespective of class or caste or status or wealth” – “A Jewel of Democracy”, Guardian, 26 Oct. 2007) Can it be true that less than one hundred years ago, in even the most advanced capitalist societies, 50 per cent of the people — women — did not have the right to vote? Or that black populations, indigenous or migrant, in countries such as the United States and Australia were deprived of basic citizenship rights until the 1960s and even later? Will future generations wonder how on earth it could have been that the vast majority of the people of South Africa were unable to vote until 1994, and that they were routinely imprisoned, tortured and killed when they demanded basic democratic rights? Or will they shrug and take it for granted, as so many of us who live in settled democracies already do? (In so far as ‘we’ includes the community of media and cultural studies scholars, I would argue that where there is reluctance to concede the scale and significance of democratic change, this arises out of continuing ambivalence about what ‘democracy’ means, a continuing suspicion of globalisation (in particular the globalisation of democratic political culture, still associated in some quarters with ‘the west’), and of the notion of ‘progress’ with which democracy is routinely associated. The intellectual roots of that ambivalence were various. Marxist-leninist inspired authoritarianism gripped much of the world until the fall of the Berlin Wall and the end of the cold war. Until that moment, it was still possible for many marxians in the scholarly community to view the idea of democracy with disdain — if not quite a dirty word, then a deeply flawed, highly loaded concept which masked and preserved underlying social inequalities more than it helped resolve them. Until 1989 or thereabouts, it was possible for ‘bourgeois democracy’ to be regarded as just one kind of democratic polity by the liberal and anti-capitalist left, which often regarded the ‘proletarian’ or ‘people’s’ democracy prevailing in the Soviet Union, China, Cuba or Vietnam as legitimate alternatives to the emerging capitalist norm of one person, one vote, for constituent assemblies which had real power and accountability. In terms not very different from those used by Marx and Engels in The German Ideology, belief in the value of democracy was conceived by this materialist school as a kind of false consciousness. It still is, by Noam Chomsky and others who continue to view democracy as a ‘necessary illusion’ (1989) without which capitalism could not be reproduced. From these perspectives voting gave, and gives us merely the illusion of agency and power in societies where capital rules as it always did. For democracy read ‘the manufacture of consent’; its expansion read not as progressive social evolution, but the universalisation of the myth of popular sovereignty, mobilised and utilised by the media-industrial-military complex to maintain its grip.) There are those who dispute this reading of events. In the 1960s, Habermas’s hugely influential Structural Transformation of the Public Sphere critiqued the manner in which democracy, and the public sphere underpinning it, had been degraded by public relations, advertising, and the power of private interests. In the period since, critical scholarly research and writing on political culture has been dominated by the Habermasian discourse of democratic decline, and the pervasive pessimism of those who see democracy, and the media culture which supports it, as fatally flawed, corrupted by commercialisation and under constant threat. Those, myself included, who challenged that view with a more positive reading of the trends (McNair, Journalism and Democracy; Cultural Chaos) have been denounced as naïve optimists, panglossian, utopian and even, in my own case, a ‘neo-liberal apologist’. (See an unpublished paper by David Miller, “System Failure: It’s Not Just the Media, It’s the Whole Bloody System”, delivered at Goldsmith’s College in 2003.) Engaging as they have been, I venture to suggest that these are the discourses and debates of an era now passing into history. Not only is it increasingly obvious that democracy is expanding globally into places where it never previously reached; it is also extending inwards, within nation states, driven by demands for greater local autonomy. In the United Kingdom, for example, the citizen is now able to vote not just in Westminster parliamentary elections (which determine the political direction of the UK government), but for European elections, local elections, and elections for devolved assemblies in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland. The people of London can vote for their mayor. There would by now have been devolved assemblies in the regions of England, too, had the people of the North East not voted against it in a November 2004 referendum. Notwithstanding that result, which surprised many in the New Labour government who held it as axiomatic that the more democracy there was, the better for all of us, the importance of enhancing and expanding democratic institutions, of allowing people to vote more often (and also in more efficient ways — many of these expansions of democracy have been tied to the introduction of systems of proportional representation) has become consensual, from the Mid West of America to the Middle East. The Democratic Paradox And yet, as the wave of democratic transformation has rolled on through the late twentieth and into the early twenty first century it is notable that, in many of the oldest liberal democracies at least, fewer people have been voting. In the UK, for example, in the period between 1945 and 2001, turnout at general elections never fell below 70 per cent. In 1992, the last general election won by the Conservatives before the rise of Tony Blair and New Labour, turnout was 78 per cent, roughly where it had been in the 1950s. In 2001, however, as Blair’s government sought re-election, turnout fell to an historic low for the UK of 59.4 per cent, and rose only marginally to 61.4 per cent in the most recent general election of 2005. In the US presidential elections of 1996 and 2000 turnouts were at historic lows of 47.2 and 49.3 per cent respectively, rising just above 50 per cent again in 2004 (figures by International Institute for Democracy and Electoral Assistance). At local level things are even worse. In only the second election for a devolved parliament in Scotland (2003) turnout was a mere 48.5 per cent, rising to 50.5 in 2007. These trends are not universal. In countries with compulsory voting, they mean very little — in Australia, where voting in parliamentary elections is compulsory, turnout averages in the 90s per cent. In France, while turnouts for parliamentary elections show a similar downward trend to the UK and the UK, presidential contests achieve turnouts of 80-plus per cent. In the UK and US, as noted, the most recent elections show modest growth in turnout from those historic lows of the late 1990s and early Noughties. There has grown, nonetheless, the perception, commonplace amongst academic commentators as well as journalists and politicians themselves, that we are living through a ‘crisis’ of democratic participation, a dangerous decline in the tendency to vote in elections which undermines the legitimacy of democracy itself. In communication scholarship a significant body of research and publication has developed around this theme, from Blumler and Gurevitch’s Crisis of Public Communication (1996), through Barnett and Gaber’s Westminster Tales (2000), to more recent studies such as Lewis et al.’s Citizens or Consumers (2005). All presume a problem of some kind with the practice of democracy and the “old fashioned ritual” of voting, as Lewis et al. describe it (2). Most link alleged inadequacies in the performance of the political media to what is interpreted as popular apathy (or antipathy) towards democracy. The media are blamed for the lack of public engagement with democratic politics which declining turnouts are argued to signal. Political journalists are said to be too aggressive and hyper-adversarial (Lloyd), behaving like the “feral beast” spoken of by Tony Blair in his 2007 farewell speech to the British people as prime minister. They are corrosively cynical and a “disaster for democracy”, as Steven Barnett and others argued in the first years of the twenty first century. They are not aggressive or adversarial enough, as the propaganda modellists allege, citing what they interpret as supine media coverage of Coalition policy in Iraq. The media put people off, rather than turn them on to democracy by being, variously, too nice or too nasty to politicians. What then, is the solution to the apparent paradox represented by the fact that there is more democracy, but less voting in elections than ever before; and that after centuries of popular struggle democratic assemblies proliferate, but in some countries barely half of the eligible voters can be bothered to participate? And what role have the media played in this unexpected phenomenon? If the scholarly community has been largely critical on this question, and pessimistic in its analyses of the role of the media, it has become increasingly clear that the one arena where people do vote more than ever before is that presented by the media, and entertainment media in particular. There has been, since the appearance of Big Brother and the subsequent explosion of competitive reality TV formats across the world, evidence of a huge popular appetite for voting on such matters as which amateur contestant on Pop Idol, or X Factor, or Fame Academy, or Operatunity goes on to have a chance of a professional career, a shot at the big time. Millions of viewers of the most popular reality TV strands queue up to register their votes on premium phone lines, the revenue from which makes up a substantial and growing proportion of the income of commercial TV companies. This explosion of voting behaviour has been made possible by the technology-driven emergence of new forms of participatory, interactive, digitised media channels which allow millions to believe that they can have an impact on the outcome of what are, at essence, game and talent shows. At the height of anxiety around the ‘crisis of democratic participation’ in the UK, observers noted that nearly 6.5 million people had voted in the Big Brother UK final in 2004. More than eight million voted during the 2004 run of the BBC’s Fame Academy series. While these numbers do not, contrary to popular belief, exceed the numbers of British citizens who vote in a general election (27.2 million in 2005), they do indicate an enthusiasm for voting which seems to contradict declining rates of democratic participation. People who will never get out and vote for their local councillor often appear more than willing to pick up the telephone or the laptop and cast a vote for their favoured reality TV contestant, even if it costs them money. It would be absurd to suggest that voting for a contestant on Big Brother is directly comparable to the act of choosing a government or a president. The latter is recognised as an expression of citizenship, with potentially significant consequences for the lives of individuals within their society. Voting on Big Brother, on the other hand, is unmistakeably entertainment, game-playing, a relatively risk-free exercise of choice — a bit of harmless fun, fuelled by office chat and relentless tabloid coverage of the contestants’ strengths and weaknesses. There is no evidence that readiness to participate in a telephone or online vote for entertainment TV translates into active citizenship, where ‘active’ means casting a vote in an election. The lesson delivered by the success of participatory media in recent years, however — first reality TV, and latterly a proliferation of online formats which encourage user participation and voting for one thing or another — is that people will vote, when they are able and motivated to do so. Voting is popular, in short, and never more so, irrespective of the level of popular participation recorded in recent elections. And if they will vote in their millions for a contestant on X Factor, or participate in competitions to determine the best movies or books on Facebook, they can presumably be persuaded to do so when an election for parliament comes around. This fact has been recognised by both media producers and politicians, and reflected in attempts to adapt the evermore sophisticated and efficient tools of participatory media to the democratic process, to engage media audiences as citizens by offering the kinds of voting opportunities in political debates, including election processes, which entertainment media have now made routinely available. ITV’s Vote for Me strand, broadcast in the run-up to the UK general election of 2005, used reality TV techniques to select a candidate who would actually take part in the forthcoming poll. The programme was broadcast in a late night, low audience slot, and failed to generate much interest, but it signalled a desire by media producers to harness the appeal of participatory media in a way which could directly impact on levels of democratic engagement. The honourable failure of Vote for Me (produced by the same team which made the much more successful live debate shows featuring prime minister Tony Blair — Ask Tony Blair, Ask the Prime Minister) might be viewed as evidence that readiness to vote in the context of a TV game show does not translate directly into voting for parties and politicians, and that the problem in this respect — the crisis of democratic participation, such that it exists — is located elsewhere. People can vote in democratic elections, but choose not to, perhaps because they feel that the act is meaningless (because parties are ideologically too similar), or ineffectual (because they see no impact of voting in their daily lives or in the state of the country), or irrelevant to their personal priorities and life styles. Voting rates have increased in the US and the UK since September 11 2001, suggesting perhaps that when the political stakes are raised, and the question of who is in government seems to matter more than it did, people act accordingly. Meantime, media producers continue to make money by developing formats and channels on the assumption that audiences wish to participate, to interact, and to vote. Whether this form of participatory media consumption for the purposes of play can be translated into enhanced levels of active citizenship, and whether the media can play a significant contributory role in that process, remains to be seen. References Alves, R.C. “From Lapdog to Watchdog: The Role of the Press in Latin America’s Democratisation.” In H. de Burgh, ed., Making Journalists. London: Routledge, 2005. 181-202. Anderson, P.J., and G. Ward (eds.). The Future of Journalism in the Advanced Democracies. Aldershot: Ashgate Publishing, 2007. Barnett, S. “The Age of Contempt.” Guardian 28 October 2002. < http://politics.guardian.co.uk/media/comment/0,12123,820577,00.html >. Barnett, S., and I. Gaber. Westminster Tales. London: Continuum, 2001. Blumler, J., and M. Gurevitch. The Crisis of Public Communication. London: Routledge, 1996. Habermas, J. The Structural Transformation of the Public Sphere. Cambridge: Polity Press, 1989. Lewis, J., S. Inthorn, and K. Wahl-Jorgensen. Citizens or Consumers? What the Media Tell Us about Political Participation. Milton Keynes: Open University Press, 2005. Lloyd, John. What the Media Are Doing to Our Politics. London: Constable, 2004. McNair, B. Journalism and Democracy: A Qualitative Evaluation of the Political Public Sphere. London: Routledge, 2000. ———. Cultural Chaos: News, Journalism and Power in a Globalised World. London: Routledge, 2006.

Introduction Many social media tools and services are free to use. This fact often leads users to the mistaken presumption that the associated data generated whilst utilising these tools and services is without value. Users often focus on the social and presumed ephemeral nature of communication – imagining something that happens but then has no further record or value, akin to a telephone call – while corporations behind these tools tend to focus on the media side, the lasting value of these traces which can be combined, mined and analysed for new insight and revenue generation. This paper seeks to explore this social media contradiction in two ways. Firstly, a cursory examination of Google and Facebook will demonstrate how data mining and analysis are core practices for these corporate giants, central to their functioning, development and expansion. Yet the public rhetoric of these companies is not about the exchange of personal information for services, but rather the more utopian notions of organising the world’s information, or bringing everyone together through sharing. The second section of this paper examines some of the core ramifications of death in terms of social media, asking what happens when a user suddenly exists only as recorded media fragments, at least in digital terms. Death, at first glance, renders users (or post-users) without agency or, implicitly, value to companies which data-mine ongoing social practices. Yet the emergence of digital legacy management highlights the value of the data generated using social media, a value which persists even after death. The question of a digital estate thus illustrates the cumulative value of social media as media, even on an individual level. The ways Facebook and Google approach digital death are examined, demonstrating policies which enshrine the agency and rights of living users, but become far less coherent posthumously. Finally, along with digital legacy management, I will examine the potential for posthumous digital legacies which may, in some macabre ways, actually reanimate some aspects of a deceased user’s presence, such as the Lives On service which touts the slogan “when your heart stops beating, you'll keep tweeting”. Cumulatively, mapping digital legacy management by large online corporations, and the affordances of more focussed services dealing with digital death, illustrates the value of data generated by social media users, and the continued importance of the data even beyond the grave. Google While Google is universally synonymous with search, and is the world’s dominant search engine, it is less widely understood that one of the core elements keeping Google’s search results relevant is a complex operation mining user data. Different tools in Google’s array of services mine data in different ways (Zimmer, “Gaze”). Gmail, for example, uses algorithms to analyse an individual’s email in order to display the most relevant related advertising. This form of data mining is comparatively well known, with most Gmail users knowingly and willingly accepting more personalised advertising in order to use Google’s email service. However, the majority of people using Google’s search engine are unaware that search, too, is increasingly driven by the tracking, analysis and refining of results on the basis of user activity (Zimmer, “Externalities”). As Alexander Halavais (160–180) quite rightly argues, recent focus on the idea of social search – the deeper integration of social network information in gauging search results – is oxymoronic; all search, at least for Google, is driven by deep analysis of personal and aggregated social data. Indeed, the success of Google’s mining of user data has led to concerns that often invisible processes of customisation and personalisation will mean that the supposedly independent or objective algorithms producing Google’s search results will actually yield a different result for every person. As Siva Vaidhyanathan laments: “as users in a diverse array of countries train Google’s algorithms to respond to specialized queries with localised results, each place in the world will have a different list of what is important, true, or ‘relevant’ in response to any query” (138). Personalisation and customisation are not inherently problematic, and frequently do enhance the relevance of search results, but the main objection raised by critics is not Google’s data mining, but the lack of transparency in the way data are recorded, stored and utilised. Eli Pariser, for example, laments the development of a ubiquitous “filter bubble” wherein all search results are personalised and subjective but are hidden behind the rhetoric of computer-driven algorithmic objectivity (Pariser). While data mining informs and drives many of Google’s tools and services, the cumulative value of these captured fragments of information is best demonstrated by the new service Google Now. Google Now is a mobile app which delivers an ongoing stream of search results but without the need for user input. Google Now extrapolates the rhythms of a person’s life, their interests and their routines in order to algorithmically determine what information will be needed next, and automatically displays it on a user’s mobile device. Clearly Google Now is an extremely valuable and clever tool, and the more information a user shares, the better the ongoing customised results will be, demonstrating the direct exchange value of personal data: total personalisation requires total transparency. Each individual user will need to judge whether they wish to share with Google the considerable amount of personal information needed to make Google Now work. The pressing ethical question that remains is whether Google will ensure that users are sufficiently aware of the amount of data and personal privacy they are exchanging in order to utilise such a service. Facebook Facebook began as a closed network, open only to students at American universities, but has transformed over time to a much wider and more open network, with over a billion registered users. Facebook has continually reinvented their interface, protocols and design, often altering both privacy policies and users’ experience of privacy, and often meeting significant and vocal resistance in the process (boyd). The data mining performed by social networking service Facebook is also extensive, although primarily aimed at refining the way that targeted advertising appears on the platform. In 2007 Facebook partnered with various retail loyalty services and combined these records with Facebook’s user data. This information was used to power Facebook’s Beacon service, which added details of users’ retail history to their Facebook news feed (for example, “Tama just purchased a HTC One”). The impact of all of these seemingly unrelated purchases turning up in many people’s feeds suddenly revealed the complex surveillance, data mining and sharing of these data that was taking place (Doyle and Fraser). However, as Beacon was turned on, without consultation, for all Facebook users, there was a sizable backlash that meant that Facebook had to initially switch the service to opt-in, and then discontinue it altogether. While Beacon has been long since erased, it is notable that in early 2013 Facebook announced that they have strengthened partnerships with data mining and profiling companies, including Datalogix, Epsilon, Acxiom, and BlueKai, which harness customer information from a range of loyalty cards, to further refine the targeting ability offered to advertisers using Facebook (Hof). Facebook’s data mining, surveillance and integration across companies is thus still going on, but no longer directly visible to Facebook users, except in terms of the targeted advertisements which appear on the service. Facebook is also a platform, providing a scaffolding and gateway to many other tools and services. In order to use social games such as Zynga’s Farmville, Facebook users agree to allow Zynga to access their profile information, and use Facebook to authenticate their identity. Zynga has been unashamedly at the forefront of user analytics and data mining, attempting to algorithmically determine the best way to make virtual goods within their games attractive enough for users to pay for them with real money. Indeed, during a conference presentation, Zynga Vice President Ken Rudin stated outright that Zynga is “an analytics company masquerading as a games company” (Rudin). I would contend that this masquerade succeeds, as few Farmville players are likely to consider how their every choice and activity is being algorithmically scrutinised in order to determine what virtual goods they might actually buy. As an instance of what is widely being called ‘big data’, the data miing operations of Facebook, Zynga and similar services lead to a range of ethical questions (boyd and Crawford). While users may have ostensibly agreed to this data mining after clicking on Facebook’s Terms of Use agreement, the fact that almost no one reads these agreements when signing up for a service is the Internet’s worst kept secret. Similarly, the extension of these terms when Facebook operates as a platform for other applications is a far from transparent process. While examining the recording of user data leads to questions of privacy and surveillance, it is important to note that many users are often aware of the exchange to which they have agreed. Anders Albrechtslund deploys the term ‘social surveillance’ to usefully emphasise the knowing, playful and at times subversive approach some users take to the surveillance and data mining practices of online service providers. Similarly, E.J. Westlake notes that performances of self online are often not only knowing but deliberately false or misleading with the aim of exploiting the ways online activities are tracked. However, even users well aware of Facebook’s data mining on the site itself may be less informed about the social networking company’s mining of offsite activity. The introduction of ‘like’ buttons on many other Websites extends Facebook’s reach considerably. The various social plugins and ‘like’ buttons expand both active recording of user activity (where the like button is actually clicked) and passive data mining (since a cookie is installed or updated regardless of whether a button is actually pressed) (Gerlitz and Helmond). Indeed, because cookies – tiny packets of data exchanged and updated invisibly in browsers – assign each user a unique identifier, Facebook can either combine these data with an existing user’s profile or create profiles about non-users. If that person even joins Facebook, their account is connected with the existing, data-mined record of their Web activities (Roosendaal). As with Google, the significant issue here is not users knowingly sharing their data with Facebook, but the often complete lack of transparency in terms of the ways Facebook extracts and mines user data, both on Facebook itself and increasingly across applications using Facebook as a platform and across the Web through social plugins. Google after Death While data mining is clearly a core element in the operation of Facebook and Google, the ability to scrutinise the activities of users depends on those users being active; when someone dies, the question of the value and ownership of their digital assets becomes complicated, as does the way companies manage posthumous user information. For Google, the Gmail account of a deceased person becomes inactive; the stored email still takes up space on Google’s servers, but with no one using the account, no advertising is displayed and thus Google can earn no revenue from the account. However, the process of accessing the Gmail account of a deceased relative is an incredibly laborious one. In order to even begin the process, Google asks that someone physically mails a series of documents including a photocopy of a government-issued ID, the death certificate of the deceased person, evidence of an email the requester received from the deceased, along with other personal information. After Google have received and verified this information, they state that they might proceed to a second stage where further documents are required. Moreover, if at any stage Google decide that they cannot proceed in releasing a deceased relative’s Gmail account, they will not reveal their rationale. As their support documentation states: “because of our concerns for user privacy, if we determine that we cannot provide the Gmail content, we will not be able to share further details about the account or discuss our decision” (Google, “Accessing”). Thus, Google appears to enshrine the rights and privacy of individual users, even posthumously; the ownership or transfer of individual digital assets after death is neither a given, nor enshrined in Google’s policies. Yet, ironically, the economic value of that email to Google is likely zero, but the value of the email history of a loved one or business partner may be of substantial financial and emotional value, probably more so than when that person was alive. For those left behind, the value of email accounts as media, as a lasting record of social communication, is heightened. The question of how Google manages posthumous user data has been further complicated by the company’s March 2012 rationalisation of over seventy separate privacy policies for various tools and services they operate under the umbrella of a single privacy policy accessed using a single unified Google account. While this move was ostensibly to make privacy more understandable and transparent at Google, it had other impacts. For example, one of the side effects of a singular privacy policy and single Google identity is that deleting one of a recently deceased person’s services may inadvertently delete them all. Given that Google’s services include Gmail, YouTube and Picasa, this means that deleting an email account inadvertently erases all of the Google-hosted videos and photographs that individual posted during their lifetime. As Google warns, for example: “if you delete the Google Account to which your YouTube account is linked, you will delete both the Google Account AND your YouTube account, including all videos and account data” (Google, “What Happens”). A relative having gained access to a deceased person’s Gmail might sensibly delete the email account once the desired information is exported. However, it seems less likely that this executor would realise that in doing so all of the private and public videos that person had posted on YouTube would also permanently disappear. While material possessions can be carefully dispersed to specific individuals following the instructions in someone’s will, such affordances are not yet available for Google users. While it is entirely understandable that the ramification of policy changes are aimed at living users, as more and more online users pass away, the question of their digital assets becomes increasingly important. Google, for example, might allow a deceased person’s executor to elect which of their Google services should be kept online (perhaps their YouTube videos), which traces can be exported (perhaps their email), and which services can be deleted. At present, the lack of fine-grained controls over a user’s digital estate at Google makes this almost impossible. While it violates Google’s policies to transfer ownership of an account to another person, if someone does leave their passwords behind, this provides their loved ones with the best options in managing their digital legacy with Google. When someone dies and their online legacy is a collection of media fragments, the value of those media is far more apparent to the loved ones left behind rather than the companies housing those media. Facebook Memorialisation In response to users complaining that Facebook was suggesting they reconnect with deceased friends who had left Facebook profiles behind, in 2009 the company instituted an official policy of turning the Facebook profiles of departed users into memorial pages (Kelly). Technically, loved ones can choose between memorialisation and erasing an account altogether, but memorialisation is the default. This entails setting the account so that no one can log into it, and that no new friends (connections) can be made. Existing friends can access the page in line with the user’s final privacy settings, meaning that most friends will be able to post on the memorialised profile to remember that person in various ways (Facebook). Memorialised profiles (now Timelines, after Facebook’s redesign) thus become potential mourning spaces for existing connections. Since memorialised pages cannot make new connections, public memorial pages are increasingly popular on Facebook, frequently set up after a high-profile death, often involving young people, accidents or murder. Recent studies suggest that both of these Facebook spaces are allowing new online forms of mourning to emerge (Marwick and Ellison; Carroll and Landry; Kern, Forman, and Gil-Egui), although public pages have the downside of potentially inappropriate commentary and outright trolling (Phillips). Given Facebook has over a billion registered users, estimates already suggest that the platform houses 30 million profiles of deceased people, and this number will, of course, continue to grow (Kaleem). For Facebook, while posthumous users do not generate data themselves, the fact that they were part of a network means that their connections may interact with a memorialised account, or memorial page, and this activity, like all Facebook activities, allows the platform to display advertising and further track user interactions. However, at present Facebook’s options – to memorialise or delete accounts of deceased people – are fairly blunt. Once Facebook is aware that a user has died, no one is allowed to edit that person’s Facebook account or Timeline, so Facebook literally offers an all (memorialisation) or nothing (deletion) option. Given that Facebook is essentially a platform for performing identities, it seems a little short-sighted that executors cannot clean up or otherwise edit the final, lasting profile of a deceased Facebook user. As social networking services and social media become more ingrained in contemporary mourning practices, it may be that Facebook will allow more fine-grained control, positioning a digital executor also as a posthumous curator, making the final decision about what does and does not get kept in the memorialisation process. Since Facebook is continually mining user activity, the popularity of mourning as an activity on Facebook will likely mean that more attention is paid to the question of digital legacies. While the user themselves can no longer be social, the social practices of mourning, and the recording of a user as a media entity highlights the fact that social media can be about interactions which in significant ways include deceased users. Digital Legacy Services While the largest online corporations have fairly blunt tools for addressing digital death, there are a number of new tools and niche services emerging in this area which are attempting to offer nuanced control over digital legacies. Legacy Locker, for example, offers to store the passwords to all of a user’s online services and accounts, from Facebook to Paypal, and to store important documents and other digital material. Users designate beneficiaries who will receive this information after the account holder passes away, and this is confirmed by preselected “verifiers” who can attest to the account holder’s death. Death Switch similarly provides the ability to store and send information to users after the account holder dies, but tests whether someone is alive by sending verification emails; fail to respond to several prompts and Death Switch will determine a user has died, or is incapacitated, and executes the user’s final instructions. Perpetu goes a step further and offers the same tools as Legacy Locker but also automates existing options from social media services, allowing users to specify, for example, that their Facebook, Twitter or Gmail data should be downloaded and this archive should be sent to a designated recipient when the Perpetu user dies. These tools attempt to provide a more complex array of choices in terms of managing a user’s digital legacy, providing similar choices to those currently available when addressing material possessions in a formal will. At a broader level, the growing demand for these services attests to the ongoing value of online accounts and social media traces after a user’s death. Bequeathing passwords may not strictly follow the Terms of Use of the online services in question, but it is extremely hard to track or intervene when a user has the legitimate password, even if used by someone else. More to the point, this finely-grained legacy management allows far more flexibility in the utilisation and curation of digital assets posthumously. In the process of signing up for one of these services, or digital legacy management more broadly, the ongoing value and longevity of social media traces becomes more obvious to both the user planning their estate and those who ultimately have to manage it. The Social Media Afterlife The value of social media beyond the grave is also evident in the range of services which allow users to communicate in some fashion after they have passed away. Dead Social, for example, allows users to schedule posthumous social media activity, including the posting of tweets, sending of email, Facebook messages, or the release of online photos and videos. The service relies on a trusted executor confirming someone’s death, and after that releases these final messages effectively from beyond the grave. If I Die is a similar service, which also has an integrated Facebook application which ensures a user’s final message is directly displayed on their Timeline. In a bizarre promotional campaign around a service called If I Die First, the company is promising that the first user of the service to pass away will have their posthumous message delivered to a huge online audience, via popular blogs and mainstream press coverage. While this is not likely to appeal to everyone, the notion of a popular posthumous performance of self further complicates that question of what social media can mean after death. Illustrating the value of social media legacies in a quite different but equally powerful way, the Lives On service purports to algorithmically learn how a person uses Twitter while they are live, and then continue to tweet in their name after death. Internet critic Evgeny Morozov argues that Lives On is part of a Silicon Valley ideology of ‘solutionism’ which casts every facet of society as a problem in need of a digital solution (Morozov). In this instance, Lives On provides some semblance of a solution to the problem of death. While far from defeating death, the very fact that it might be possible to produce any meaningful approximation of a living person’s social media after they die is powerful testimony to the value of data mining and the importance of recognising that value. While Lives On is an experimental service in its infancy, it is worth wondering what sort of posthumous approximation might be built using the robust data profiles held by Facebook or Google. If Google Now can extrapolate what a user wants to see without any additional input, how hard would it be to retool this service to post what a user would have wanted after their death? Could there, in effect, be a Google After(life)? Conclusion Users of social media services have differing levels of awareness regarding the exchange they are agreeing to when signing up for services provided by Google or Facebook, and often value the social affordances without necessarily considering the ongoing media they are creating. Online corporations, by contrast, recognise and harness the informatic traces users generate through complex data mining and analysis. However, the death of a social media user provides a moment of rupture which highlights the significant value of the media traces a user leaves behind. More to the point, the value of these media becomes most evident to those left behind precisely because that individual can no longer be social. While beginning to address the issue of posthumous user data, Google and Facebook both have very blunt tools; Google might offer executors access while Facebook provides the option of locking a deceased user’s account as a memorial or removing it altogether. Neither of these responses do justice to the value that these media traces hold for the living, but emerging digital legacy management tools are increasingly providing a richer set of options for digital executors. While the differences between material and digital assets provoke an array of legal, spiritual and moral issues, digital traces nevertheless clearly hold significant and demonstrable value. For social media users, the death of someone they know is often the moment where the media side of social media – their lasting, infinitely replicable nature – becomes more important, more visible, and casts the value of the social media accounts of the living in a new light. For the larger online corporations and service providers, the inevitable increase in deceased users will likely provoke more fine-grained controls and responses to the question of digital legacies and posthumous profiles. It is likely, too, that the increase in online social practices of mourning will open new spaces and arenas for those same corporate giants to analyse and data-mine. References Albrechtslund, Anders. “Online Social Networking as Participatory Surveillance.” First Monday 13.3 (2008). 21 Apr. 2013 ‹http://firstmonday.org/article/view/2142/1949›. boyd, danah. “Facebook’s Privacy Trainwreck: Exposure, Invasion, and Social Convergence.” Convergence 14.1 (2008): 13–20. ———, and Kate Crawford. “Critical Questions for Big Data.” Information, Communication & Society 15.5 (2012): 662–679. Carroll, Brian, and Katie Landry. “Logging On and Letting Out: Using Online Social Networks to Grieve and to Mourn.” Bulletin of Science, Technology & Society 30.5 (2010): 341–349. Doyle, Warwick, and Matthew Fraser. “Facebook, Surveillance and Power.” Facebook and Philosophy: What’s on Your Mind? Ed. D.E. Wittkower. Chicago, IL: Open Court, 2010. 215–230. 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In Showtime’s Yellowjackets (2021-present), ‘magic’ (referred to by the characters as “It”) has an overwhelming presence. Supernatural visions, clairvoyance, and occult iconography are laden throughout each episode. However, the audience is often left uncertain if magic is, in fact, ‘real’ or conjured in the imagination of the show’s characters. Yellowjackets follows a women’s high-school soccer team (named the Yellowjackets) who survive a plane crash deep in the North American wilderness. The show explores the team’s struggle for survival and the present adult lives of those who survived. In this article, we draw from Caroline Bainbridge’s understanding of television as a psychical object to investigate the role of magic in Yellowjackets’ exploration of grief and trauma. We provide a close textual reading and an analysis of online fan discourse to explore the ambiguity of magic and its capacity to generate meaning. We argue that it is precisely through the ambiguity surrounding the ‘realness’ of magic that Yellowjackets can effectively explore grief, trauma, and empathy. Ultimately, we contend that the ambiguity of magic in Yellowjackets helps viewers empathise with the trauma and grief experienced by the characters. The Ambiguity of Magic in Yellowjackets Magic has often been seen by scholars as an effective artistic tool to explore trauma and grief narratives (Bowers). As Maggie Ann Bowers puts it, magic helps create a space where the “unrepresentable can be expressed” (77). Scholarship surrounding the literary genre of magical realism offers a particularly useful exploration of exactly how magic can be an effective avenue to explore such themes (Arva; Abdulla and Abu). Beatrice Chanady defines magical realism as the amalgamation of realist and supernatural/magical elements. In her understanding of this genre, both realism and magic are “equally autonomous and coherent” (18). In a similar vein, Wendy Faris observes that the narratives of magical realism “merge two different realms”, and as a result the reader may “experience some unsettling doubts in the effort to reconcile two contradictory understandings of events” (101). Indeed, it is the merging of these two worlds that allows for the symbolic exploration of trauma narratives. In the case of Yellowjackets, these elements of magical realism certainly come into play. As we will explore throughout this article, the tension between realism and the supernatural is precisely what allows Yellowjackets to “say what cannot be said” (Mrack 3). The idea of magic is a constant presence throughout both seasons of Yellowjackets. However, the realness of this magic is always ambiguous and up for debate. Much like The X-Files (1993-2002), the textual features of Yellowjackets can allow for both ‘sceptic’ and ‘believer’ readings of the show that are not expressly affirmed or denied (Goode). Magic is first hinted at in the opening sequence of the pilot episode when an unnamed character (referred to affectionately by fans as “pit girl”) is chased into a crude spike trap. The sequence is laden with occult imagery—there are mysterious eye symbols carved into the trees and the other girls are wearing ritualistic masks made from animal skin and antlers. As the show progresses, the other characters start to openly speculate about the supernatural magic of the wilderness. One of the central characters, Lottie Mathews, starts having ‘visions’ that seemingly align with the strange occurrences of the forest. As she starts to surrender to the call of the wilderness her magic appears to grow stronger. In the season one finale, “Sic Transit Gloria Mundi” (S1E9), a bear threatens the Yellowjacket’s camp. Lottie steps forward to face the bear armed with only a small knife. Through seemingly accepting the call of the wilderness, the bear lies down and submits to her without a fight. For many of the other characters, this affirms Lottie’s magic powers, and they anoint her the “Antler Queen”. Of course, these instances of ‘magic’ can just as easily be explained as coincidence. Lottie is shown to have an established history of mental illness and magic is never clearly shown—it is just alluded to an entity that has an invisible presence. The uncertain allusion of magic has a divisive effect on the girls in Yellowjackets. The survivors organise themselves into pseudo-factions depending on their belief in the supernatural powers of the wilderness. Characters in the wider group including Shauna, Natalie, Taissa, and Misty are quick to reveal their scepticism toward Lottie and the existence of magic. To begin with, this group tension is relatively minor—the sceptics find the believers silly and dismiss Lottie as simply being “crazy”. However, group tension becomes more significant as it starts to influence the decision-making of the whole group. After another group member, Javi, goes missing, Travis (Javi’s older brother) and Natalie spend hours each day searching for him in the freezing cold. This search is resource-consuming and dangerous because the pair could easily get lost or succumb to frostbite. Natalie quickly realises the search is futile, as it is extremely unlikely that Javi could have survived on his own. In the episode “Friends, Romans, Countrymen” (S2E1) she is on the verge of convincing Travis to give up when Lottie mentions that she had a vision about Javi and is certain that he is alive, inspiring Travis to continue the search. Frustrated, Natalie confronts Lottie: Natalie: What the fuck was that!? Javi is… Look giving him false hope is just going to make things worse.Lottie: There’s no such thing as false hope. There is just hope.Natalie: Did you read that in a fucking fortune cookie?Lottie: What do you want from me Nat? I said what I felt.Natalie: I want you to say less, Lottie, a lot fucking less! As situations like this become more common, relations between the believer and sceptic factions in Yellowjackets become more fractured. It quickly becomes clear that magic and its ambiguity in the show is a divisive source of conflict. The impact that magic has on the characters in Yellowjackets is seemingly mirrored in fan communities—particularly the r/Yellowjackets subreddit. As outlined by Victor Costello and Barbara Moore, online fandoms have the capacity to transform the private act of viewing into a communal activity that significantly enhances one’s emotional involvement with a text (124). Meaningful exchanges in online discussions empowers fans to “organise en masse as resistors and shapers of commercial television narratives” (Costello and Moore 124). On the r/Yellowjackets subreddit debate about ‘magic’ and whether the supernatural is a real force is a central theme, one poll that received over 800 responses asked users whether there were “supernatural/dark powers lurking, or no? Is it just mass hysteria with the perfect storm of events” (Reddit). There was nearly a complete split in the vote, with 401 users agreeing that there is an ancient, evil magic impacting on the characters and 460 indicating that there is no magic in the show. The lack of consensus in the fandom has led to countless disagreements within posts as users enthusiastically debate the legitimacy of magic. As seen in Figure 1, users on the subreddit can select a ‘flair’ (a tag of text that appears under usernames to give additional context to a post or perspective) to denote their allegiance to “Team Rational” or “Team Supernatural”. Users adopt these flairs to place their opinions and arguments into a particular context of thinking. Intense arguments erupt as a result of the ambiguity surrounding magic, with fans speculating using clues from the text. Will Brooker has suggested that debates can be a source of pleasure in fan communities and are what allows them to “thrive” (113). In the case of r/Yellowjackets, the debate about magic is a form of productive conflict that is very much part of the fun of watching the show (Brooker). It encourages fans to sleuth for specific textual evidence that both supports their position and shapes their interpretation of the Yellowjackets narrative (Costello & Moore 124). Forum identity is heavily connected to the implied supernatural elements of Yellowjackets, and this uncertainty results in factional splits much like the groupings displayed on the show itself. Fig. 1: Available Flairs on r/Yellowjackets subreddit (2023). How the users of r/Yellowjackets interrogate and draw their conclusions about the authenticity of magic in Yellowjackets impacts on their perceptions of the show’s paratextual discourse (Gray). As the show is ambiguous in its messaging to do with the supernatural, users have many different wells of meaning to draw from. These include specific characters they trust (like Lottie and Nat), the communication tools of the text (shots, audio, lighting, mise-en-scène, etc.) and the show's creators. Some users trust the legitimacy of Lottie as a true clairvoyant who “consistently has visions of the future” (Reddit). Others rely more on what the audience has been told about the characters, particularly regarding Lottie’s schizophrenia. One user questions whether they are “the only one who didn't really pick up on occult?” and continued that they had read “everything more as Lotti [sic] slipping into whatever mental illness she has and pulling others into her delusions when nothing supernatural is actually happening. More cult than occult” (Reddit). Many fans on the subreddit implicitly trust the writers’ paratextual discussions about the show. Series creators Ashley Lyle and Bart Nickerson frequently comment on and confirm previously ambiguous elements of the show (Chaney). Actors like Christina Ricci (who plays an older Misty on the show) have also debunked audience theories (Weiss). One user argues they “trust” the writers on questions of ambiguity. Statements like “writers have confirmed” become commonplace in these debates, with users citing writers' comments as to why much of the supernatural is merely a figment of the characters’ imagination. Other posters are sceptical of writer discourses, preferring to trust the texts themselves rather than rely on creators who either may not know the answer or who benefit from ambiguity. Whatever and whoever fans believe influences their perception of the show and who to trust, users look to varied show elements as the locus of meaning and truth regarding magic, and whom they choose to believe changes their perspectives and impacts on their engagement with the show and the characters. ‘Who the fuck is Lottie Mathews?’ Magic, Meaning and Empathy Yellowjackets’ textual exploration of grief and trauma is so often mediated through the idea of magic. As Yellowjackets progresses, the girls find themselves in increasingly hopeless situations. Characters die, freezing weather confines them to a cabin, and their food supply becomes almost completely exhausted. The girls are often forced into impossible situations where they must choose between cannibalism and starvation. These declining conditions are what lead many of the ‘believer’ characters (Van, Mari, and Travis) to their intense faith in Lottie as a human conduit upon which the wilderness has bestowed magic powers. Magic offers some meaning to the brutality and hopelessness of their situation. As things get worse for the girls in season two, ‘sceptic’ characters slowly start to accept the idea of magic. Nat starts receiving blessings from Lottie, Taissa begins attending Lottie’s prayer circle, and Shauna allows prayer during the birth of her child. When faced with dire situations, ‘magic’ offers the characters a way to confront their violent actions and absolve themselves of responsibility for horrible decisions. For example, in the season two episode “It Chooses” (S2E8) the Yellowjackets decide that they must resort to killing and eating one of their teammates in order to survive. The group agrees that, through the magic red queen ritual designed by Lottie, the wilderness will decide who is to be ‘sacrificed’. In this instance, the idea of magic is used by the girls as a psychological tool to distance themselves from the trauma and grief that are inherent to their situation. Throughout Yellowjackets the characters in the present timeline are shown to still suffer from the intense trauma and guilt of their time in the wilderness. For example, Natalie is in and out of rehab programs and Taissa suffers dissociative sleep-walking episodes. Most notable in this regard is the character of adult Lottie. In the opening montage of “Friends, Romans, Countrymen” (S2E1) we see the range of psychological treatments that Lottie has gone through since returning from the wilderness. For the first few episodes of season two, it appears as though adult Lottie has managed to heal and move on from the past. She has set up a ‘commune’ that is seemingly having a positive influence on the lives of new characters like Lisa and (to an extent) former Yellowjackets like Nat and Misty. However, soon after her old Yellowjackets teammates re-enter her life, we see Lottie become increasingly unstable. She is frequently shown to be having intrusive thoughts and violent visions about her time in the wilderness. In this sense, Lottie’s reunification with the other Yellowjackets is a trigger for her repressed grief and trauma. As season two progresses, there are several scenes of Lottie receiving therapy from an unnamed psychiatrist. While these sessions start off relatively innocuous, they gradually become more sinister as Lottie opens up about her time in the wilderness, and finally her feeling of “It” returning: Therapist: Lottie, when does self-repression ever serve us? It could be that this reunion strikes a primal chord with you because in the past when you were with those other women you were free. You were your truest, most authentic self. What is standing in the way of you embracing that again?Lottie: We hurt each other. People died.Therapist: Tell me, is there anything of value in this life that doesn’t come with risk? Or loss? Or consequence?Lottie: Are you saying what I think you’re saying? At this moment the therapist transforms into the antler queen, dressed in a white ceremonial robe that is adorned with bones and symbols of the wilderness and it is revealed that Lottie has been hallucinating the entire session. The scene concludes with the therapist (in the form of the antler queen) telling Lottie: “You tell me, does a hunt that has no violence feed anyone?” From this moment, adult Lottie embraces the magic of the wilderness again. It is the only way she can find meaning in and confront the trauma and grief that she still holds from her time in the wilderness. This ultimately leads to Lottie convincing Shauna, Van, Misty, and Taissa to believe in the supernatural magic of the wilderness again and perform the deadly Red Queen hunting ritual as adults. Giving in to magic allows the characters a chance to escape the trauma and grief and give meaning to their violent actions in the wilderness. In this sense ‘magic’ in Yellowjackets is somewhat of a psychological sleight of hand for characters to artificially separate themselves from their past. Caroline Bainbridge has emphasised how the immersive environments created by a television program allow audiences to work through themes in very personal ways. According to Bainbridge, complex story worlds can be critical tools to help viewers work through complicated issues. In essence, audiences may “internalise drama as an object of the mind but also put it to work in their everyday life” (300). She argues that we should begin to understand how a television show can become a psychical object, available for use in terms of unconscious interrogation of one’s sense of selfhood and one’s immersion in a complex ideological environment. (300) Understanding long-form television as this type of object allows us to recognise a similar potential within Yellowjackets. Leaving magic as an ambiguous feature allows audiences to empathise and engage with the characters’ uncertainty; just as they are left to wonder about the state of reality and magic, so too are the fans on forums. One user explores how the characters’ uncertainty creates discussion and debate within a group of people ‘trapped’ together: what I really like is the way the potential for paranormal is implied in the girls’ situation by these odd coincidences, adding to the group psychosis and shared trauma… they’re scared shitless at the drop of a pin out there, and questioning everything they see (or don’t see), which adds to the anxiety. (Reddit) Much like the characters on the show, the fans have become a group trying to make sense of ‘odd coincidences’ and are ‘questioning’ everything they can see (on the show) and everything they ‘don’t’ see (writer and cast interviews). This ambiguity has led some fans to connect more closely with the character of Lottie, who seems to truly believe her visions are real, with some even “defending” her decisions and perspectives throughout the show (Reddit). Others are also impacted upon by the possibility of magic in the show, but rather react like Shauna and Nat—if there is magic it might not be helpful. One user identifies a kind of meta-experience fans are having thanks to the possibility of magic in the show: when [the writers] were asked if the show believes in the supernatural they kind of paused and started talking about the concept of believing in the supernatural, without saying if it definitely exists within the realm of the show. Which is kind of meta, as we're all discussing whether we believe in the supernatural existing within the show or not. (Reddit) As outlined by Mittell, Andrejevic, and Bainbridge, participation in TV fan communities allows for fundamentally different engagements with a text. In the case of r/Yellowjackets, it “significantly enhances” fans’ emotional involvement with the show (Costello and Moore) and brings new textual experiences to the fore. It is only through fan debate and community participation that fans can experience this ‘meta-narrative’ of magic. In this context, magic in Yellowjackets operates as a tool to connect audiences with the experiences of their characters. The consequences of unknown supernaturality and magical elements cause strife throughout fan communities much like in the community of the cabin in the show. Fans are shown how characters might ostracise, argue, deflect, and rationalise when their reality is questioned, much like the Yellowjackets themselves. Magic, therefore, is effective at encouraging empathy and understanding of perspectives and beliefs in televisual texts. Supernatural horror has often been understood in relation to trauma and grief. According to Becky Millar and Johnny Lee, it is particularly suited to represent these feelings because the disruption of the supernatural “mirror the core experience of disruption that accompanies bereavement” (171). Moreover, magic and the supernatural offer ways in which the experience of grief can “be contained and regulated and in doing so, may offer psychological benefits to the bereaved” (171). In the case of Yellowjackets, such connections are very much amplified by the ‘meta-experience’ facilitated by the show’s fan community. For some, these discussions on magic as reality or fiction are useful to help grieve the perceived loss of quality of the show across season two. Many expressed anger, sadness, dissolution, and disconnection with the show as a whole. Some took this as an opportunity to walk away claiming the “magic” of the show had been lost for them, and that they had “never seen such a dramatic drop in quality in a tv show … I think I’m done” (Reddit). One user turned to wishing for the occult and for magic, citing that “at this point, I'm quite content with this going full supernatural, since it could bring back Laura or Nat which would be impossible otherwise” (Reddit). Magic and supernatural are something that users, much like the characters of the show, have started to wish for as an escape from their experience. In a way, the discussions around the ambiguity of magic offers a sense of control. Sometimes audiences take pleasure in rationalising and making sense of a show for fun. In the case of Yellowjackets, though, we argue that audiences are using the uncertainty of magic to cope with a decline and navigate community and trauma. Some users explain that magic is not real as a way to demonstrate the show is still salvageable, others hope magic is real because that will make it salvageable. Much like the characters in Yellowjackets, some audience members are experiencing and working through a kind of ‘grief’ using the discussion of magic as a space to work through these ideas. References Arva, Eugene. “The Analogical Legacy of Ground Zero: Magical Realism in Post-9/11 Literary and Filmic Trauma Narratives.” The Palgrave Handbook of Magical Realism in the Twenty-First Century. Eds. Richard Perez and Victoria A. Chevalier. London: Palgrave Macmillan, 2020. Abdula, Shanid, and Md. Abu. “Heavy Silence and Horrible Grief: Reconstructing the Past and Securing the Future through Magical Realism in Joseph Skibell’s A Blessing on the Moon.” Ostrava Journal of English Philosophy 12.1 (2020). Andrejevic, Mark. “Watching Television without Pity: The Productivity of Online Fans.” Television and New Media 9.1 (2008): 24-46. Bainbridge, Caroline. “Television as Osychical Object: Mad Men and the Value of Psychoanalysis for Television Scholarship.” Critical Studies in Television 14.3 (2019): 289-206. Brooker, Will. Using the Force: Creativity, Community and Star Wars Fans. London: Continuum, 2002. Bowers, Maggie Ann. Magic(al) Realism. London: Routledge, 2004. Costello, Victor, and Barbara Moore. “Cultural Outlaws: An Examination of Audience Activity and Online Television Fandom.” Television and New Media 8.2 (2007): 124-143. Chanady, Amaryll Beatrice. Magical Realism and the Fantastic. New York: Garland, 1985. Chaney, Jen. “The Yellowjackets Creators Answer All Our Post-Finale Questions.” Vulture, 16 Jan. 2022. <https://www.vulture.com/article/yellowjackets-season-1-finale-explained-showrunners-interview.html>. Faris, Wendy B. “The Question of the Other: Cultural Critiques of Magical Realism.” Janus Head 5.2 (2002): 101-119. “Friends, Romans, Countrymen.” Yellowjackets. Writ. Ashely Lyle and Bart Nickerson. Dir. Daisy von Scherler Mayer. Showtime, 2023. Gray, Jonathan. Show Sold Separately: Promos, Spoilers and Other Media Paratexts. New York: NYU Press. 2010. Goode, Erich. “Why Was the X-Files So Appealing?” Sceptical Enquirer 4 (2002): 9. “It Chooses.” Yellowjackets. Writ. Sarah Thompson and Liz Phang. Dir. Daisy von Scherler Mayer. Showtime, 2023. Mrak, Anja. "Trauma and Memory in Magical Realism: Eden Robinson’s Monkey Beach as Trauma Narrative.” Politics of Memory 3.2 (2013): 1-15. Millar, Becky, and Johnny Lee. “Horror Films and Grief.” Emotion Review 13.3 (2021): 171-182. Mittell, Jason. “Sites of Participation: Wiki Fandom and the Case of Lostpedia.” Transformative Works and Cultures 3.3 (2009): 1-10. “Pilot.” Yellowjackets. Writ. Ashely Lyle and Bart Nickerson. Dir. Karyn Kusama. Showtime, 2021. r/Yellowjackets. Reddit. 30 July 2023 <https://www.reddit.com/r/Yellowjackets/>. “Sic Transit Gloria Mundi.” Yellowjackets. Writ. Ashley Lyle, Bart Nickerson, and Katherine Kearns. Dir. Eduardo Sanchez. Showtime, 2021. Wiess, Josh. “Season 2 of Showtime’s Yellowjackets Could Sting Again Sooner than Expected with 2022 Return.” SYFY, 18 Jan. 2022. <https://www.syfy.com/syfy-wire/yellowjackets-season-2-could-premiere-in-2022>.

The rise of expertise in the lives of women is a complex and prolonged process that began when the old networks through which women had learned from each other were being discredited or destroyed (Ehrenreich and English). Enclosed spaces of expert power formed separately from political control, market logistics and the pressures exerted by their subjects (Rose and Miller). This, however, was not a question of imposing expertise on women and forcing them to adhere to expert proclamations: “the experts could not have triumphed had not so many women welcomed them, sought them out, and … organised to promote their influence” (Ehrenreich and English 28). Women’s continuing enthusiasm for self-help books – and it is mainly women who buy them (Wood) – attests to the fact that they are still welcoming expertise into their lives. This paper argues that a major factor in the popularity of self-help is the reversal of the conventional ‘priestly’ relationship and ethic of confession, in a process of conversion that relies on the enthusiasm and active participation of the reader.Miller and Rose outline four ways in which human behaviour can be transformed: regulation (enmeshing people in a code of standards); captivation (seducing people with charm or charisma); education (training, convincing or persuading people); and conversion (transforming personhood, and ways of experiencing the world so that people understand themselves in fundamentally new ways). Of these four ways of acting upon others, it is conversion that is the most potent, because it changes people at the level of their own subjectivity – “personhood itself is remade” (Miller and Rose 35). While theories of conversion cannot be adequately discussed here, one aspect held in common by theories of religious conversion as well as those from psychological studies of ‘brainwashing’ is enthusiasm. Rambo’s analysis of the stages of religious conversion, for example, includes ‘questing’ in an active and engaged way, and a probable encounter with a passionately enthusiastic believer. Melia and Ryder, in their study of ‘brainwashing,’ state that two of the end stages of conversion are euphoria and proselytising – a point to which I will return in the conclusion. In order for a conversion to occur, then, the reader must be not only intellectually convinced of the truth, but must feel it is an important or vital truth, a truth she needs – in short, the reader must be enthused. The popularity of self-help books coincides with the rise of psy expertise more generally (Rose, "Identity"; Inventing), but self-help putatively offers escape from the experts, whilst simultaneously immersing its readers in expertise. Readers of self-help view themselves as reading sceptically (Simonds), interpretively (Rosenblatt) and resistingly (Fetterly, Rowe). They choose to read books as an educational activity (Dolby), rather than attending counselling or psychotherapy sessions in which they might be subject to manipulation, domination and control by a therapist (Simonds). I have discussed the nature of the advice in relationship manuals elsewhere (Hazleden, "Relationship"; "Pathology"), but the intention of this paper is to investigate the ways in which the authors attempt to enthuse and convert the reader.Best-Selling ExpertiseIn common with other best-selling genres, popular relationship manuals begin trying to enthuse the reader on the covers, which are intended to attract the reader, to establish the professional – or ‘priestly’ – credentials of the author and to assert the merit of the book, presenting the authors as experienced professionally-qualified experts, and advertising their bestseller status. These factors form part of the marketing ‘buzz’ or collective enthusiasm about a particular author or book.As part of the process of establishing themselves in the priestly role, the authors emphasise their professional qualifications and experience. Most authors use the title ‘Dr’ on the cover (Hendrix, McGraw, Forward, Gray, Cowan and Kinder, Schlessinger) or ‘PhD’ after their names (Vedral, DeAngelis, Spezzano). Further claims on the covers include assertions of the prominence of the authors in their field. Typical are DeAngelis’s claim to being “America’s foremost relationships expert,” and Hendrix’s claim to being “the world’s leading marital therapist.” Clinical and professional experience is mentioned, such as Spezzano’s “twenty-three years of counseling experience” (1) and Forward’s experience as “a consultant in many southern California Medical and psychiatric facilities” (iii). The cover of Spezzano’s book claims that he is a “therapist, seminar leader, author, lecturer and visionary leader.” McGraw emphasises his formal qualifications throughout his book, saying, “I had more degrees than a thermometer” (McGraw 6), and he refers to himself throughout as “Dr. Phil,” much like “Dr Laura” (Schlessinger). Facts and SecretsThe authors claim their ideas are based on clinical practice, research, and evidence. One author claims, “In this book, there is a wealth of tried and accurate information, which has worked for thousands of people in my therapeutic practice and seminars over the last two decades” (Spezzano 1). Another claims that he “worked with hundreds of couples in private practice and thousands more in workshops and seminars” and subsequently based his ideas on “research and clinical observations” (Hendrix xviii). Dowling refers to “four years of research … interviewing professionals who work with and study women.” She went to all this trouble because, she assures us, “I wanted facts” (Dowling, dust-jacket, 30).All this is in order to assure the reader of the relevance and build her enthusiasm about the importance of the book. McGraw (226) says he “reviewed case histories of literally thousands and thousands of couples” in order “to choose the right topics” for his book. Spezzano (7) claims that his psychological exercises come from clinical experience, but “more importantly, I have tested them all personally. Now I offer them to you.” This notion of being in possession of important new knowledge of which the reader is unaware is common, and expressed most succinctly by McGraw (15): “I have learned what you know and, more important, what you don't know.” This knowledge may be referred to as ‘secret’ (e.g. DeAngelis), or ‘hidden’ (e.g. Dowling) or as a recent discovery. Readers seem to accept this – they often assume that self-help books spring ‘naturally’ from clinical investigation as new information is ‘discovered’ about the human psyche (Lichterman 432).The Altruistic AuthorOn the assumption that readers will be familiar with other self-help books, some authors find it necessary to explain why they felt motivated to write one themselves. Usually these take the form of a kind of altruistic enthusiasm to share their great discoveries. Cowan and Kinder (xiv) claim that “one of the wonderful, intrinsic rewards of working with someone in individual psychotherapy is the rich and intense relationship that is established, [but] one of the frustrations of individual work is that in a whole lifetime it is impossible to touch more than a few people.” Morgan (26) assures us that “the results of applying certain principles to my marriage were so revolutionary that I had to pass them on in the four lesson Total Woman course, and now in this book.”The authors justify their own addition to an overcrowded genre by delineating what is distinctive about their own book, or what other “books, articles and surveys missed” (Dowling 30) or misinterpreted. Beattie (98-102) devotes several pages to a discussion of Dowling to assert that Dowling’s ‘Cinderella Complex’ is more accurately known as ‘codependency.’ The authors of another book admit that their ideas are not new, but claim to make a unique contribution because they are “writing from a much-needed male point of view” (Cowan and Kinder, back cover). Similarly, Gray suggests “many books are one-sided and unfortunately reinforce mistrust and resentment toward the opposite sex.” This meant that “a definitive guide was needed for understanding how healthy men and women are different,” and he promises “This book provides that vision” (Gray 4,7).Some authors are vehement in attacking other experts’ books as “gripe sessions,” “gobbledegook” (Schlessinger 51, 87), or “ridiculous” (Vedral 282). McGraw (9) writes “it is amazing to me how this country is overflowing with marital therapists, psychiatrists and psychologists, counselors, healers, advice columnists, and self-help authors – and their approach to relationships is usually so embarrassing that I want to turn my head in shame.” His own book, by contrast, will be quite different from anything the reader has heard before, because “it differs from what relationship ‘experts’ tell you” (McGraw 45).Confessions of an Author Because the authors are writing about intimate relationships, they are also keen to establish their credentials on a more personal level. “Loving, losing, learning the lessons, and reloving have been my path” (Carter-Scott 247-248), says one, and another asserts that, “It’s taken me a long time to understand men. It’s been a difficult and often painful journey and I’ve made a lot of mistakes along the way in my own relationships” (DeAngelis xvi). The authors are even keen to admit the mistakes they made in their previous relationships. Gray says, “In my previous relationships, I had become indifferent and unloving at difficult times … As a result, my first marriage had been very painful and difficult” (Gray 2). Others describe the feelings of disappointment with their marriages: We gradually changed. I was amazed to realize that Charlie had stopped talking. He had become distant and preoccupied. … Each evening, when Charlie walked in the front door after work, a cloud of gloom and tension floated in with him. That cloud was almost tangible. … this tension cloud permeated our home atmosphere … there was a barrier between us. (Morgan 18)Doyle (14) tells a similar tale: “While my intentions were good, I was clearly on the road to marital hell. … I was becoming estranged from the man who had once made me so happy. Our marriage was in serious trouble and it had only been four years since we’d taken our vows.” The authors relate the bewilderment they felt in these failing relationships: “My confusion about the psychology of love relationships was compounded when I began to have problems with my own marriage. … we gave our marriage eight years of intensive examination, working with numerous therapists. Nothing seemed to help” (Hendrix xvii).Even the process of writing the relationship manual itself can be uncomfortable: This was the hardest and most painful chapter for me to write, because it hit so close to home … I sat down at my computer, typed out the title of this chapter, and burst into tears. … It was the pain of my own broken heart. (DeAngelis 74)The Worthlessness of ExpertiseThus, the authors present their confessional tales in which they have learned important lessons through their own suffering, through the experience of life itself, and not through the intervention of any form of external or professional expertise. Furthermore, they highlight the failure of their professional training. Susan Forward (4) draws a comparison between her professional life as a relationship counsellor and the “Susan who went home at night and twisted herself into a pretzel trying to keep her husband from yelling at her.” McGraw tells of a time when he was counselling a couple, and: Suddenly all I could hear myself saying was blah, blah, blah. Blah, blah, blah, blah. As I sat there, I asked myself, ‘Has anybody noticed over the last fifty years that this crap doesn’t work? Has it occurred to anyone that the vast majority of these couples aren’t getting any better? (McGraw 6)The authors go to some lengths to demonstrate that their new-found knowledge is unlike anything else, and are even prepared to mention the apparent contradiction between the role the author already held as a relationship expert (before they made their important discoveries) and the failure of their own relationships (the implication being that these relationships failed because the authors themselves were not yet beneficiaries of the wisdom contained in their latest books). Gray, for example, talking about his “painful and difficult” first marriage (2), and DeAngelis, bemoaning her “mistakes” (xvi), allude to the failure of their marriage to each other, at a time when both were already well-known relationship experts. Hendrix (xvii) says: As I sat in the divorce court waiting to see the judge, I felt like a double failure, a failure as a husband and as a therapist. That very afternoon I was scheduled to teach a course on marriage and the family, and the next day, as usual, I had several couples to counsel. Despite my professional training, I felt just as confused and defeated as the other men and women who were sitting beside me.Thus the authors present the knowledge they have gained from their experiences as being unavailable through professional marital therapy, relationship counselling, and other self-help books. Rather, the advice they impart is presented as the hard-won outcome of a long and painful process of personal discovery.Peace and PassionOnce the uniqueness of the advice is established, the authors attempt to enthuse the reader by describing the effects of following it. Norwood (Women 4) says her programme led to “the most rewarding years of my life,” and Forward (10) says she “discovered enormous amounts of creativity and energy in myself that hadn't been available to me before.” Gray (268) asserts that, following his discoveries “I personally experienced this inner transformation,” and DeAngelis (126) claims “I am compassionate where I used to be critical; I am patient where I used to be judgmental.” Doyle (23) says, “practicing the principles described in this book has transformed my marriage into a passionate, romantic union.” Similarly, in discussing the effects of her ideas on her marriage, Morgan (26) speaks of “This brand new love between us” that “has given us a brand new life together.” Having established the success of their ideas and techniques on their own lives, the authors go on to relate stories about their successful application to the lives and relationships of their clients. One author writes that “When I began implementing my ideas … The divorce rate in my practice sharply declined, and the couples … reported a much deeper satisfaction in their marriages” (Hendrix xix). Another claims “Repeatedly I have heard people say that they have benefited more from this new understanding of relationships than from years of therapy” (Gray 7). Morgan, describing the effects of her ‘Total Woman’ classes, says: Attending one of the first classes in Miami were wives of the Miami Dolphin football players … it is interesting to note that their team won every game that next season and became the world champions! … Gals, I wouldn’t dream of taking credit for the Superbowl … (Morgan 188)In case we are still unconvinced, the authors include praise and thanks from their inspired clients: “My life has become exciting and wonderful. Thank you,” writes one (Vedral 308). Gray (6) talks of the “thousands of inspirational comments that people have shared” about his advice. Vedral (307) says “I have received thousands of letters from women … thanking me for shining a beam of light on their situations.” If these clients have transformed their lives, the authors claim, so can the reader. They promise that the future will be “exceptional” (Friedman 242) and “wonderful” (Norwood, Women 257). It will consist of “self fulfilment, love, and joy” (Norwood, Women 26), “peace and joy” (Hendrix xx), “freedom and a lifetime of healing, hope and happiness” (Beattie), “peace, relief, joy, and passion that you will never find any other way” (Doyle 62) – in short, “happiness for the rest of your life” (Spezzano 77).SummaryIn order to effect the conversion of their readers, the authors seek to create enthusiasm about their books. First, they appeal to the modern tradition of credentialism, making claims about their formal professional qualifications and experience. This establishes them as credible ‘priests.’ Then they make calculable, factual, evidence-based claims concerning the number of books they have sold, and appeal to the epistemological authority of the methodology involved in establishing the findings of their books. They provide evidence of the efficacy of their own unique methods by relating the success of their ideas when applied to their own lives and relationships, and those of their clients and their readers. The authors also go to some lengths to establish that they have personal experience of relationship problems, especially those the reader is currently presumed to be experiencing. This establishes the ‘empathy’ essential to Rogerian therapy (Rogers), and an informal claim to lay knowledge or insight. In telling their own personal stories, the authors establish an ethic of confession, in which the truth of oneself is sought, unearthed and revealed in “the infinite task of extracting from the depths of oneself, in between the words, a truth which the very form of the confession holds out like a shimmering mirage” (Foucault, History 59). At the same time, by claiming that their qualifications were not helpful in solving these personal difficulties, the authors assert that much of their professional training was useless or even harmful, suggesting that they are aware of a general scepticism towards experts (cf. Beck, Giddens), and share these doubts. By implying that it is other experts who are perhaps not to be trusted, they distinguish their own work from anything offered by other relationship experts, thereby circumventing “the paradox of self-help books’ existence” (Cheery) and proliferation. Thus, the authors present their motives as altruistic, whilst perhaps questioning the motives of others. Their own book, they promise, will be the one (finally) that brings a future of peace, passion and joy. Conversion, Enthusiasm and the Reversal of the Priestly RelationshipAlthough power relations between authors and readers are complex, self-help is evidence of power in one of its most efficacious forms – that of conversion. This is a relationship into which one enters voluntarily and enthusiastically, in the name of oneself, for the benefit of oneself. Such power enthuses, persuades, incites, invites, provokes and entices, and it is therefore a strongly subjectifying power, and most especially so because the relationship of the reader to the author is one of choice. Because the reader can choose between authors, and skip or skim sections, she can concentrate on the parts of the therapeutic diagnosis that she believes specifically apply to her. For example, Grodin (414) found it was common for a reader to attach excerpts from a book to a bathroom mirror or kitchen cabinet, and to re-read and underline sections of a book that seemed most relevant. In this way, through her enthusiastic participation, the reader becomes her own expert, her own therapist, in control of certain aspects of the encounter, which nonetheless must always take place on psy terms.In many conversion studies, the final stage involves the assimilation and embodiment of new practices (e.g. Paloutzian et al. 1072), whereby the convert employs or utilises her new truths. I argue that in self-help books, this stage occurs in the reversal of the ‘priestly’ relationship. The ‘priestly’ relationship between client and therapist, is one in which in which the therapist remains mysterious while the client confesses and is known (Rose, "Power"). In the self-help book, however, this relationship is reversed. The authors confess their own ‘sins’ and imperfections, by relating their own disastrous experiences in relationships and wrong-thinking. They are, of course, themselves enthusiastic converts, who are enmeshed within the power that they exercise (cf. Foucault History; Discipline), as these confessions illustrate. The reader is encouraged to go through this process of confession as well, but she is expected to do so privately, and to play the role of priest and confessor to herself. Thus, in a reversal of the priestly relationship, the person who ‘is knowledge’ within the book itself is the author. It is only if the reader takes up the invitation to perform for herself the priestly role that she will become an object of knowledge – and even then, only to herself, albeit through a psy diagnostic gaze provided for her. Of course, this instance of confession to the self still places the individual “in a network of relations of power with those who claim to be able to extract the truth of these confessions through their possession of the keys to interpretation” (Dreyfus and Rabinow 174), but the keys to interpretation are provided to the reader by the author, and left with her for her own safekeeping and future use. As mentioned in the introduction, conversion involves questing in an active and engaged way, and may involve joy and proselytising. Because the relationship must be one of active participation, the enthusiasm of the reader to apply these truths to her own self-understanding is critical. Indeed, the convert is, by her very nature, an enthusiast.ConclusionSelf-help books seek to bring about a transformation of subjectivity from powerlessness to active goal-setting, personal improvement and achievement. This is achieved by a process of conversion that produces particular choices and types of identity, new subjectivities remade through the production of new ethical truths. Self-help discourses endow individuals with new enthusiasms, aptitudes and qualities – and these can then be passed on to others. Indeed, the self-help reader is invited, by means of the author’s confessions, to become, in a limited way, the author’s own therapist – ie, she is invited to perform an examination of the author’s (past) mistakes, to diagnose the author’s (past) condition and to prescribe an appropriate (retrospective) cure for this condition. Through the process of diagnosing the author and the author’s clients, using the psy gaze provided by the author, the reader is rendered an expert in therapeutic wisdom and is converted to a new belief system in which she will become an enthusiastic participant in her own subjectification. ReferencesBeattie, M. 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