The article examines the cultural situation following postmodernism in the first decade of the 21st century. To characterise this situation, the umbrella term “post-postmodernism” is used, as well as “neomodernism”, “altermodern”, “metamodernism”, “hypermodernity”, “performatism”, “critical realism” etc. All these approaches are, in a wider sense, united by their aim of opposing postmodernist cynicism and irony, and bringing back truth, simplicity and clarity. It has also been found that literature has returned or is returning to realism, and various cultural phenomena are (...) emerging, which have been designated by the concept “new sincerity”. In descriptions of the current cultural situation, this trend seeking truth and simplicity is supported by approaches which emphasise the significance of technological developments during the last decade. A prominent figure here is Alan Kirby, who launched the term “digimodernism”, mainly linked with the adaptation and spread of Web 2.0 at the beginning of the 21st century: the blogosphere, Wikipedia, Twitter and Facebook. The article seeks answers to the question of whether we can talk about digimodernism in Estonian literature in the 2000s. In the 1990s Estonian writers were quite reluctant to undertake computer-technological experiments, and there are only a few examples of Estonian digital literature, whereas a change occurred in the 2000s. Many Estonian writers have had and still have their own blogs and surprisingly many have joined Facebook. The term “twitterature” is also familiar to Estonian writers. The article tackles the dominant topics in the blogs of Estonian writers and analyses their possible collective creative work on Facebook. A question is raised as to whether it is possible that the fragmentary narrative structure of blogs and Facebook has influenced mainstream literature. The article concludes that one essential change in Estonian literature in the 2000s is writers’ technological leap, active usage of the opportunities offered by Web 2.0 and participation in the web world: blogs, Facebook and Twitter. We can thus claim that a “digimodernist turn” did take place in Estonian culture in the 2000s. (shrink)

Traditional approaches in healthcare have been challenged giving way to broader forms of users’ participation in treatment. In this article we present the Health 2.0 movement as an example of relational and participatory practices in healthcare. Health 2.0 is an approach in which participation is the major aim, aspiring to reshape the system into more collaborative and less hierarchical relationships. We offer two illustrations in order to discuss how Health 2.0 is related and can contribute to a positive uptake of (...) patient’s knowledge, which implies challenging healthcare practices exclusively focused on scientific expertise. In contrast, the illustrations we discuss focus on relations and cultural practices, searching for responsive and context-sensitive interventions, entertaining multiple views and allowing space for creativity. Finally we introduce two relational resources to contribute with the development and sustainability of Health 2.0 practices: Relational being and edge of fluidity. Those are resources aiming to engage professionals in a type of conversation with their clients, which is different from the hierarchical, linear and fact-oriented approach. This conversation aims at creating a space where the voices of all involved are welcomed, raising different opinions and points of view, bringing up new light and possibilities to the problem being investigated. These resources may be useful for those who are interested in improving quality in healthcare by investing in collaboration, contextual sensitivity and relational engagement. (shrink)

Pragmatic Critical Realism has been acclaimed by several scholars as one of the most versatile, application friendly and philosophically consistent paradigms for the social sciences, especially management research (Fleetwood and Ackroyd 2004). One of the more visible methodological offshoots of this epistemological school, being the case study, which has been extensively deployed as a dominant method in strategic management, organizational studies and marketing literatures. Until recently, there was some consternation in the academic world about the insufficiency of recourses available to (...) aggregate individual case studies and extract more generalizable learnings within delimited boundaries. However, the development of the QCA (Qualitative Comparative Analysis) by Ragin (2000; 2014) has changed that perception. In this paper, we argue that all of these case study-based methods, especially as they relate to Norbert Elias’ conception of figurations, and all of which fall under the broader heading of the Abduction methodology; are especially suited to gaining marketing insights in emerging market economies for a host of reasons. This is the issue that we seek to explore through theoretical argumentation and to establish with a review of the methods literature. (shrink)

This article engages with the work of Scotland-based artist Kate Davis (b.1977). The discussion begins to articulate a framework for understanding Davis's work within a feminist logic of re-visioning and re-citing, strategies that are explicated and suggested as paradigmatic to feminist art production since 1970. Fundamentally, the article explores Davis's complex strategies for adopting and adapting motifs from within the archives of art history, arguing that her work constitutes a mode of visual research and historiography.

In this article the causes and features of a shift from neurosis to narcissism and then autism were investigated. Moreover, special attention is paid not so much to the psychological or even psychiatric aspects of the problem, but to changes in the general features of a human being. Thus, when speaking of the transition from narcissism to autism, one is focusing on true autism, which is characterized by veracity, sincerity and authencity, which reveal themselves in the form of a special (...) kind of infantility, a kind of mature infantility. A suitable example of such infantility is found in the animated film Shrek, a certain barbarism of which is not so ironic or even knowing ironic, but to a greater extent it is warm, earnest and serious although childish. Among other infantile practices, it is worth noting the situationalist-lettrist practice of organizing a text in the form of an ABC alphabet book, a hornbook, which is actualized in a digimodern context. True autism and to some extent pseudoautism in a certain sense become a way to cope with the trance and amnesia of pseudomodernism and leave a hope for the future. Thus, paradoxically, wholeness that was lost is restored through desocialization and sociopathy. This article also draws parallels between digimodernism and speculative realism, conceptualization of interpassivity as well as automodernity. It is emphasized that personal autonomy and automation can be achieved through the use of devices as a means of achieving productive loneliness, which should be distinguished from alienation. In this case, the widespread use of sensory experience as a way of communication is especially important, as an example of which Hope Sandoval’s mode of being and work are considered. It suggests that the high-tech / high-touch approach is best released in DIY activities. The above considerations allow to conclude that true autism is one of the most actual post-postmodern modes of subjectivation. (shrink)

This article employs the concepts of spectres and haunting to analyse Graham Swift’s Mothering Sunday: A Romance as a commentary on history and its economy of spectres. Referring to Jacques Derrida’s notions of haunting, inheritance, and time, I focus on the spectres of literary modernism and the First World War to explore the ways in which Swift’s novella questions the canonical representation of modernism and revises the conventional means of writing about the past, memory, and history. The analysis of Mothering (...) Sunday approaches the spectre as a figure of repressed otherness and a reminder of what has been excluded or silenced, so as to trace some of the ghosts that appear in the book and to underline its melancholic, spectral character. Situating Swift’s novella within the context of contemporary cultural criticism, I propose to see it as a sign of a larger cultural and critical turn, where spectres have been assimilated into the structure of the everyday and where the experience of haunting has become a major expression of the present condition. (shrink)

O diálogo entre museu e público enfrenta um desafio cada vez mais premente face ao crescimento do turismo cultural, encarado como atividade de lazer prestigiante, e que, por isso, seleciona alguns destinos de eleição e vota outros ao abandono. Prevêem-se, portanto, novas vias de desenvolvimento agregadas ao turismo criativo, onde o museu se redefine no confronto com as restantes vivências culturais do território. A articulação entre museu e turismo passa pela investigação no domínio das humanidades digitais. A aplicação da tecnologia (...) confere ao visitante competências potenciadoras da experiência museológica para programar a visita, antecipar o conhecimento da coleção e construir um percurso pessoal de acordo com as suas expetativas e vivências e, no espaço museológico, interagir com a exposição, aceder a recursos cognitivos complementares, contextualizar o universo funcional e simbólico do objeto, além de construir memórias futuras que prolonguem a experiência. O museu reassume o papel de mediador de cultura e de espaço de lazer, ao completar o conceito da visita enquanto atividade turística, e ao manter a atualização tecnológica, a par do desenvolvimento do conteúdo cultural que lhe é intrínseco. (shrink)

In the past twenty years, all the key authors who wrote about the state of postmodernity either began to be engaged in other research areas (Fredric Jameson) or declared that the postmodernism is dead (Linda Hutcheon). Since 2000, when the fatigue from the postmodernism became evident to everyone, various researchers, critics and theorists began to offer their concepts of our era. However, all these theories, emphasizing the change of cultural paradigms, interpret culture traditionally not paying attention to total digitalization and (...) the introduction of new technologies into our lives. However, in two concepts of our time these processes become central. These are the concepts of the digimodern and automodern. The focus of this article is the idea of automodernism, proposed by the American social theorist Robert Samuels in 2007/2009. He believes that our world is characterized by two contradictory tendencies – automation and the desire for autonomy (personal freedom). From his point of view, the former often does not allow to reach the latter due to certain circumstances. Samuels, using the example of a car, a personal computer, the Internet, etc., shows what exactly our culture is in the broadest sense. Analyzing the concept of “digital youth,” he also pays attention to the formation of a new subjectivity of the era of automodernity. Finally, the most interesting part of the concept of automodernism, which is most relevant today, is the criticism of leftwing social and philosophical concepts (Slavoj Žižek, Jameson) and cultural theories (Henry Jenkins). At the end of the article, the author mentions Adam Greenfield’s latest book Radical Technologies: The Design of Everyday Life. Thanks to this book, Samuels’ theory can be verified. (shrink)

Metamodernism, which is used synonymous with post-postmodernism or neo-modernism, has come forward in response to postmodernism and the emerged crises, instabilities, and uncertainties in all areas of this epoch. Metamodernism is a perspective situated epistemologically with modernism, ontologically between modernism and historically beyond modernism. It seeks an oscillation between modernism and postmodernism with mediating between them and responding to existing cultural modes. Thus, metamodernism is a paradigm beyond modernism and postmodernism, trying to explain today’s cultural and intellectual developments which are (...) not sufficiently criticized by modernism nor postmodernism. This paper questions and discusses the understanding of this paradigm and its reflections on education, school leadership, and schooling in the Nordic countries. By reviewing education related reports, survey reports, books and articles about these countries, comprehending their philosophy of education throughout the years, and analyzing the ongoing educational developments, the main notion of metamodernism and its influences on schooling, leadership implications, classroom activities and research in education are focused on this paper. (shrink)