Academic literature on the topic 'Denmark. (2007 June 13 (Social Security)'

استهداف العرب والمسلمين: الحقوق المدنية في خطر، إيلين ك. هاغوبيان، ترجمة، تحقيق: محمد توفيق البجيرمي، الرياض- مكتبة العبيكان، 2006، 423 صفحة. مراجعة في خطابات معاصرة حول المرأة: نحو منظور حضاري، مراجعة: أسامة أحمد مجاهد، تحرير: أماني صالح، برنامج حوار الحضارات - كلية الاقتصاد والعلوم السياسية، جامعة القاهرة، 2007، 397 صفحة. أصول البرمجة الزمنية في الفكر الإسلامي: دراسة مقارنة بالفكر الغربي، محمد بن موسى باباعمي، دمشق- الأوائل للنشر والتوزيع، 2006، 559 صفحة. تحولات الحركة الإسلامية والاستراتيجية الأمريكية، كمال حبيب، القاهرة- دار مصر المحروسة، 2006، 300 صفحة. الإسلاميون وسراب الديمقراطية: دراسة أصولية لمشاركة الإسلاميين في المجالس النيابية، عبدالله سامي إبراهيم الدلال، القاهرة - مكتبة مدبولي، 2007، 479 صفحة. استراتيجيات العلوم والتعليم في إسرائيل والوطن العربي ودورها في بناء الدولة، عبد الحسن الحسيني، بيروت- الدار العربية للعلوم ناشرون، 2007، 357 صفحة. عن الفساد وسنينه، فهمي هويدي، القاهرة- دار الشروق، الطبعة الثانية، 2007، 270 صفحة. خطابات إلى الأمة والقيادة: دور المفكر السياسي ومسئوليته المجتمعية، حامد عبد الله ربيع، تقديم وتحرير حامد عبد الماجد قويسى، القاهرة- مكتبة الشروق الدولية، 2007، 291 صفحة. عقيدة الواحد في المئة، رون سسكند، ترجمة، تحقيق: ميشيل دانو، بيروت- الدار العربية للعلوم، 2007، 384 صفحة. التفكير في العلمانية: إعادة بناء المجال السياسي في الفكر العربي، كمال عبداللطيف، القاهرة- رؤية للنشر والتوزيع، 2007، 199 صفحة. العلم وشروط النهضة: التصورات العلمية الجديدة والتأسيس العلمي للنهضة العربية، سمير أبو زيد، القاهرة- مكتبة مدبولي، 2008، 555 صفحة. القرآن ونقض مطاعن الرهبان، صلاح عبدالفتاح الخالدي، دمشق، دار القلم، 2007، 758 صفحة. تأصيل فقه الأولويات: دراسة مقاصدية تحليلية، محمد همام عبد الرحيم ملحم، عمان، دار العلوم، 2007، 412 صفحة. أمريكا على مفترق الطرق (ما بعد المحافظين الجدد)، فرانسيس فوكوياما، ترجمة: محمد محمود التوبة، الرياض- مكتبة العبيكان، 2007، 472صفحة. أزمة التعليم الديني في العالم الإسلامي. تأليف خالد الصمدي وعبد الرحمن حللي، دمشق: دار الفكر، 2007، 280صفحة. Security First: For a Muscular, Moral Foreign Policy, Amitai Etzioni, Yale University Press (July 5, 2007), 336 Where Have All the Leaders Gone?, Lee Iacocca, Scribner (April 17, 2007), 288 Strategic planning and implementation for Islamic organizations, Rafik Issa Beekun, International Institute of Islamic Thought; 1st edition (August 15, 2006), 220 Islamism: A Documentary and Reference Guide, John Calvert, Greenwood Press (November 30, 2007), 290 The Sum of All Heresies: The Image of Islam in Western Thought, Frederick Quinn, Oxford University Press, USA (October 31, 2007), 208 Encyclopedia of Islam in the United States [Two Volumes], Jocelyne Cesari (Editor), Greenwood Press (September 30, 2007), 1060 Producing Islamic Knowledge: Transmission and Dissemination in Western Europe (Routledge Studies in Religion), van Bruinessen, Routledge; 1 edition (September 30, 2007), 240 pages. Risk Management and Insurance: Perspectives in a Global Economy, Jean Kwon, Harold D. Skipper, Blackwell Publishing Limited; 1 edition (June 13, 2007), 768 pages. Making Islam Democratic: Social Movements and the Post-Islamist Turn, Asef Bayat, Stanford University Press; 1 edition (May 17, 2007), 320 للحصول على كامل المقالة مجانا يرجى النّقر على ملف ال PDF في اعلى يمين الصفحة.

Abstract BACKGROUND Sickle cell disease (SCD) is an autosomal recessive disorder characterized by abnormal hemoglobin. SCD causes hemolytic anemia, vaso-occlusion leading to vaso-occlusive crises (VOC) and contributing to organ damage and early death. SCD is most prevalent in sub-Saharan Africa and the Middle East, but also countries such as Brazil, India and US, have comparatively high frequencies of SCD. Global migration has contributed to a greater geographical spread. The prevalence of SCD in Sweden is unknown. OBJECTIVE The primary objectives of this study were to estimate the 1-year prevalence of SCD and SCD-associated resource use in Sweden. Secondary objectives were to estimate birth incidence, treatment patterns and survival. PATIENTS Patients with an ICD-10 diagnosis code for SCD (any D57 [excluding D57.3, sickle cell trait]) were identified from the Swedish Patient Registry (between January 1 st 2001 and June 30 th 2018). Patients were assessed for 1-year prevalence and resource use per calendar year for a follow-up period of 13 years (2006-2018). METHODS Patients were considered prevalent from birth or immigration to death or emigration. Resource use from specialized care, including all events recorded in the registry with any D57 as the main diagnosis was assessed in the follow up period 2006-2018 as number of outpatient visits and inpatient stays. Costs for this hospital resource use were estimated through remuneration amounts based on diagnosis related groups. Data on sick leave days and days with disability pension due to SCD in patients in working age (18-65 years) were retrieved from the Swedish Social Security Agency and costed with the mean salary in Sweden, plus social security contributions. Costs are reported in 2019 Swedish Krona (SEK, ≈$ 0.1). RESULTS One-year prevalence of all SCD diagnosis increased from 504 patients (5.53 per 100,000 population) in 2006 to 670 patients (6.55 per 100,000 population) in 2018. The 1-year prevalence of SCD patients ever recorded with an ICD-10 code for SCD with VOC (D57.0) increased from 139 patients (1.53 per 100,000 population) in 2006 to 260 patients (2.54 per 100,000 population) in 2018. The proportion of prevalent patients that were born in Sweden decreased over the years, from approximately 55% in the beginning of the study period to 45% in the end of the study period. The mean and median age of the SCD population decreased over the study period. Individuals with SCD and VOC were, on average younger than the other SCD (D57) subgroups. Birth incidence was captured by calendar year 2006-2018 and was highest in 2007 with 15 children born with SCD. For Swedish-born children with SCD during the patient identification time (n=123), the mean time to identification in the registers was 2.6 years (SD 2.7, range 0-16 years). Hospital outpatient visits and inpatient stays with SCD (all events with D57 recorded) as main diagnosis increased from 57 to 189, and 250 to 1,003, respectively, over the years 2006-2018. This corresponded to costs of inpatient care increasing from 1.4 million (M) SEK in 2006 to 7.3 M SEK in 2018 and costs of outpatient visits increasing from 0.9 M SEK in 2006 to 4.6 M SEK in 2018. The vast majority of costs were incurred in individuals ever recorded with a SCD with VOC diagnosis (D57.0). The most frequent hospital treatment was blood transfusion, with 8-11% of patients receiving transfusion in each year studied, especially common in SCD and VOC diagnosis. The prescribed treatment with the highest increase of uptake over the study period were hydroxyurea, vitamins and paracetamol in all SCD. Individuals in working age had on average 2.3 days of sick leave per patient-year due to SCD (D57), and approximately 4% of these patients received disability benefits because of their SCD. During the follow-up period, the median age at death was 74 years for all SCD and 69 years for SCD with crisis, this is 7-10 years and 12-15 years less compared to the Swedish general population respectively. CONCLUSION This study demonstrates that the prevalence, hospital resource use and associated costs have increased substantially in Sweden. In an era of emerging treatments for SCD we have for the first time comprehensively described epidemiological-, disease-related and economical aspects of SCD in Sweden. Disclosures Hernlund: ICON: Current Employment. Ivergård: ICON: Current Employment. Svedbom: ICON: Current Employment. Dibbern: Novartis: Current Employment. Stenling: Novartis: Current Employment. Sjöö: Novartis: Ended employment in the past 24 months. Vertuani: Novartis: Current Employment. Glenthøj: Saniona: Research Funding; Bristol Myers Squibb: Consultancy; Agios: Consultancy; Novo Nordisk: Honoraria; Novartis: Consultancy; Alexion: Research Funding; Sanofi: Research Funding; Bluebird Bio: Consultancy.

The pandemic of COVID-19 has afflicted every individual and has initiated a cascade of directly or indirectly involved events in precipitating mental health issues. The human species is a wanderer and hunter-gatherer by nature, and physical social distancing and nationwide lockdown have confined an individual to physical isolation. The present review article was conceived to address psychosocial and other issues and their aetiology related to the current pandemic of COVID-19. The elderly age group has most suffered the wrath of SARS-CoV-2, and social isolation as a preventive measure may further induce mental health issues. Animal model studies have demonstrated an inappropriate interacting endogenous neurotransmitter milieu of dopamine, serotonin, glutamate, and opioids, induced by social isolation that could probably lead to observable phenomena of deviant psychosocial behavior. Conflicting and manipulated information related to COVID-19 on social media has also been recognized as a global threat. Psychological stress during the current pandemic in frontline health care workers, migrant workers, children, and adolescents is also a serious concern. Mental health issues in the current situation could also be induced by being quarantined, uncertainty in business, jobs, economy, hampered academic activities, increased screen time on social media, and domestic violence incidences. The gravity of mental health issues associated with the pandemic of COVID-19 should be identified at the earliest. Mental health organization dedicated to current and future pandemics should be established along with Government policies addressing psychological issues to prevent and treat mental health issues need to be developed. References World Health Organization (WHO) Coronavirus Disease (COVID-19) Dashboard. 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By its very nature, fashion consumption assumes a diverse and updated relevance in light of social, cultural, and economic transformations. The global fashion industry is undergoing a paradigm shift driven by rapid technological advances (Bertola & Teunissen, 2018; Lee, 2022), increased awareness of environmental sustainability (Heim & Hopper, 2022; Mishra et al., 2020), and the changing values of individuals (Bürklin, 2018; Camacho-Otero et al., 2020; Domingos et al., 2022). These transformations are forcing creative, production, distribution and communication systems and, not least, the “end consumer” to critically reflect on the role and impacts of the fashion system (Luchs et al., 2015). Digital technologies, for example, have revolutionized how fashion is produced, distributed, and consumed. Digital platforms enable unprecedented levels of interaction between brands and consumers, fostering new forms of engagement and co-creation (Gielens & Steenkamp, 2019). These are widespread, ubiquitous platforms that expand and fragment the fashion narrative (Sadler, 2021), creating a more interconnected, immediate ecosystem within which to experiment with new systems of relationship and mediation. In addition, the growing recognition of the fashion industry’s environmental and social impact has catalyzed a movement toward more sustainable practice. On the one hand, the fast fashion model, characterized by rapid production cycles and disposable garments, is being challenged by consumers and activists calling for greater accountability and transparency (Mazzarella et al., 2019). Conversely, sustainable fashion emphasizes ethical production, resource efficiency and circularity, seeking to minimize negative impacts and promote long-term well-being (Centobelli et al., 2022). Finally, European legislation has been proactive in promoting sustainability within the textile and fashion industries through several key legislative initiatives and strategies aimed at reducing the environmental and social impacts of textile production and consumption (European Commission, 2022; Regulation (EU) 2024/1781 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 13 June 2024 Establishing a Framework for the Setting of Ecodesign Requirements for Sustainable Products, Amending Directive (EU) 2020/1828 and Regulation (EU) 2023/1542 and Repealing Directive 2009/125/ECText with EEA Relevance., 2024). The term “consumption” is inherently multivalent and nuanced. Its very etymology encompasses several facets: consumption means “transformation” of natural resources into fungible goods, but also of signs and symbols into systems of meaning and value. This dual nature of consumption underscores its complexity. On the one hand, it involves converting resources into products that satisfy human needs and desires (Boivin, 2008). On the other hand, it involves the symbolic process of attributing meanings to these products that resonate within cultural and social contexts (Davis, 1992). This duality is particularly evident in fashion, where clothing has both functional and self-expression purposes. Consumption also means “destruction”, that is, the reduction to nothingness of tangible or intangible elements, in turn rendering them unusable through the very act of use. This aspect of consumption highlights the inherent tension between use and waste. Every act of consumption carries with it a potential for depletion and degradation, whether physical goods or intangible experiences. In fashion, this is manifested in the life cycle of clothing, from creation and use to eventual disposal (Shirvanimoghaddam et al., 2020). The environmental cost of producing and discarding garments is significant and prompts a critical examination of consumption practices and their sustainability. Obviously, in its most common meaning, consumption stands for “use” or “utilization”, which consists of the activity of making use of a tangible or intangible item but also, in a broader sense, in the act of enjoying services, experiences or activities that do not involve transformation or destruction. This broader interpretation of consumption emphasizes the experiential dimension, where value derives from enjoyment and engagement with fashion as a social and cultural phenomenon (Woodward, 2007). Fashion consumption thus encompasses a wide range of activities, from the purchase and use of clothing to its enjoyment in cultural terms to the experience provided by virtual worlds. The fashion system has always intertwined its practices and processes with this multivalent universe that constitutes the landscape of the consumption system of both the creative, material and human resources along the entire fashion supply chain and the fashion object itself, its images and projections. The interaction between creation and consumption is a distinctive feature of the fashion industry. Designers and brands create products that are functional and charged with symbolic meanings, anticipating how consumers will interpret and interact with them. This relationship extends throughout the supply chain, influencing decisions about material sourcing, production processes, communication strategies, and retail experiences. In the current digital and sustainable transformation context, this intertwining opens up broad areas for thinking about consumption practices, processes and impacts with a more critical and responsible approach (Colombi & D’Itria, 2023). Digital technologies have expanded the possibilities for creating, sharing and experiencing fashion. Virtual and augmented reality, for example, offer consumers new ways to interact with fashion products and brands, blurring the boundaries between the physical and digital worlds (Zarantonello & Schmitt, 2022). These innovations enable more personalized and immersive experiences, fostering deeper connections between consumers and fashion. On the one hand, focusing on more sustainable forms of natural resource use promotes new business models and circular forms of production, which involve reducing, recovering, and reusing finished products and their waste. Circular fashion models aim to extend the life cycle of garments, reducing the need for new resources and minimizing waste. Practices such as upcycling, recycling, and using sustainable materials are integral to this approach (de Aguiar Hugo et al., 2021). By designing long-lasting products and encouraging practices such as repair and resale, the fashion industry can reduce its environmental footprint and promote a more sustainable consumption pattern. On the other hand, new forms of collaborative consumption are emerging, aimed at extending the life cycle of products through the adoption of curation practices, re-signification and rethinking. These practices promote more active and conscious consumer participation, emphasizing the shift from passive consumption to an engaged and responsible use of fashion (McNeill & Venter, 2019). Collaborative consumption models, such as clothing rental services, fashion exchanges, and peer-to-peer resale platforms, encourage consumers to share and reuse clothing, reducing demand for new products (Arrigo, 2021). These models not only promote sustainability but also create communities of individuals who share values and practices. The third issue of Fashion Highlight investigates the dynamics, practices, and impacts of fashion consumption in the light of the transformations taking place, questioning the role and potential that fashion industries, creative communities, consumers and education can express. The issue comprehensively covers the different declinations of contemporary fashion consumption, highlighting the trajectories that shape practices, processes and methods within the context of the - long and complex - fashion value chain. The contributions cover three relevant and promising macro-areas to understand the state of the art of fashion design, manufacturing and consumption and to get a preview of the near future: “Consumed fashion”, with a focus on the economic-productive dimension of fashion within a context for which digital and sustainable transformation is crucial, with necessary implications in terms of reconfiguring and updating processes and competences; “Consumer communities”, through the investigation of new and contemporary orientations towards more responsible and sustainable consumption practices; “Consumer culture”, concerning the dynamics, approaches and practices through which fashion is narrated, conveyed, and experienced. The first section, “Consumed Fashion”, brings together articles that critically explore the trajectories within which fashion manufacturing systems are evolving, highlighting both the criticalities and impacts of a socio-economic system dominated by hyper-production and hyper-consumption, and outlining and experimenting with new and more responsible approaches to design and manufacturing. Likewise, the selected articles highlight transformational dynamics involving the fashion “know-how”, delving into the implications needed to reconfigure and update processes and skills and emphasizing the need for continuous evolution in how fashion is understood and practiced. These dynamics require a shift in the sector’s knowledge base, leading to a re-examination of traditional practices and the development of new sustainable approaches that respond to contemporary transformations. Jacopo Battisti and Alessandro Spennato critically examine the profound impact of fast fashion on individuals and societies in the context of globalization and consumer capitalism. The study explores how the industry’s rapid replication of trends and profit motivations have transformed clothing consumption, leading to hyper-consumption and disposability, with negative impacts in terms of economic dependency and inequalities to the detriment of low labour-cost countries. The paper underscores the need to address these systemic injustices through collective action, stressing the importance of prioritizing social and environmental responsibility to envision a more ethical and equitable fashion industry. Erminia d'Itria and Chiara Colombi propose an examination of sustainable innovation dynamics within the fashion industry, scrutinizing various merchandising strategies through fashion companies’ case studies. The authors build a system model centered on refashioning, formulated from diverse strategies aimed at enhancing product longevity and curbing overconsumption and overmanufacturing. Through their analysis, they identify three thematic frameworks that encapsulate sustainable design approaches, responsible practices, and conscious consumption strategies, thus providing reference for future research to explore the implications, challenges, and benefits of a viable, eco-sustainable future scenario. Isabella Enrica Alevato Aires and Stefan Lie explore the integration of next-generation materials into products with psychological significance to improve consumer acceptance and achieve environmental benefits. The study hypothesizes that customizing products with users’ genetic material can better represent their environmental concerns and individuality. Focusing on biofabricated bags, the research moves from secondary research to materials testing and prototyping to investigate whether incorporating the user’s genetic material into a bag can symbolize self-extension and advances in materials design, thus supporting environmental sustainability. Gianni Denaro and Andrea Pruiti’s article delves into the evolution of production and consumption paradigms in the fashion industry, highlighting the growing emphasis on customising fashion products through local craftsmanship, an approach considered more environmentally, economically, socially and culturally sustainable. Beginning with a renewed interest in local craft traditions, particularly in Italy, where the “Made in Italy” label exemplifies a fusion of creative manual skills and taste rooted in local tradition, the article explores how designers are integrating these craft practices into industrial production, promoting a new dimension of “know-how” that combines local specificity with industrial processes. Ludovica Rosato, Alberto Calleo, Simona Colitti, Giorgio Dall’Osso e Valentina De Matteo present an interesting case study on a multidisciplinary, multistakeholder model designed for a hybrid research-education-business environment. This model shows how involving research and industry professionals in a collaborative learning model can produce results that address contemporary fashion industry challenges. The study emphasizes the importance of collective intelligence in design-led innovation, particularly in the framework of open innovation, and through the adoption of co-design processes, proposes new strategies for industry transformation, especially in the shaded realm of technical apparel and uniforms. The article by Angelica Vandi, Paola Bertola and Emma Suh explores the evolution of the concept of “materiality” in fashion, influenced by Industry 4.0 technologies, and its implications in human-computer interaction (HCI). The research, resulting from a collaboration between the Gianfranco Ferré Research Center of the Politecnico di Milano and the Department of Mechanical Engineering at MIT, employs a Reverse Engineering approach to study and deconstruct a garment from the Gianfranco Ferré archive. This process aims to rematerialize the garment and integrate HCI principles into educational applications in culture and design. The results underscore the innovative potential of the fusion of traditional craftsmanship and advanced production, highlighting the democratization and dissemination of archival knowledge through technological hybridization and interdisciplinary collaboration. The second section, “Consumer Communities”, brings together articles that critically reflect on the changing dynamics of fashion consumption and the growing influence of consumer communities, highlighting their intrinsic motivations and imagining future trajectories. This section analyses how consumer behaviour, social movements and community-led initiatives are reshaping the fashion industry towards sustainability and ethical approaches. By examining different case studies and research findings, the selected articles provide insights into how consumer participation, digital platforms and innovative consumption patterns are beginning to contribute to a more sustainable and responsible fashion ecosystem and what - desirable - impacts they may have on the future of fashion. Claudia Morea and Silvia Gambi explore the central role of consumers in the transition to sustainable fashion. Recent consumer purchasing decisions have shaped new trends and business models, with one segment viewing purchasing as a political choice and in line with European legislation promoting sustainability in the fashion industry. The research surveyed Generation Z to investigate their familiarity with eco-design strategies related to the use phase, revealing a gap between policy and design orientations and actual consumer engagement. The study highlights the need to bridge the gap between policy, design and consumer behaviour for true sustainability in fashion. Lam Hong Lan and Donna Cleveland’s article analyzes the shift to sustainable consumption through pre-owned fashion in Vietnam. The research includes observations of local media, analysis of two major pre-owned fashion platforms, and insights from an online survey of Vietnamese consumers. This comprehensive study reveals how online media, particularly celebrity endorsements and social commerce, contribute significantly to this transformation by building e-communities that support circular fashion practices. The findings reveal that these e-communities are crucial in promoting responsible consumption among Vietnamese youth, driven by economic, environmental, and style considerations that make second-hand fashion attractive. Iryna Kucher’s article examines fashion consumption by analyzing clothing purchase, use, and disposal practices in Denmark and Ukraine. Employing the theory of fashion consumption temporalities, the study analyzes how these practices have evolved due to social changes. Through wardrobe studies of different age groups, the research highlights the unique and common aspects of sustainable clothing consumption among Western and post-Soviet consumers. It also introduces an additional temporality of clothing consumption, challenging previous studies and offering new perspectives for understanding the transition to sustainability in fashion. Laura Giraldi, Marta Maini, and Francesca Morelli examine the contemporary fashion consumption landscape, focusing on consumers' growing awareness of sustainability in the fashion industry. Analyzing the current state and highlighting exemplary sustainable practices, the article reveals emerging service design solutions that promote more sustainable and conscious fashion consumption. These practices, such as second-hand shopping, collaborative wardrobe sharing, and clothing customization, reshape consumer experiences and push brands to adapt their communication strategies to appeal to the more conscious Gen Z audience. Remaining in collaborative fashion consumption practices, Gabriela Fabro Cardoso analyzes the final stages of retail dynamics as potential pathways to a more sustainable future, focusing on the distribution and use phases through collaborative consumption models such as resale, rental and subscription services. Through case studies, the research explores the relationship between community involvement in retail activities - such as product authentication, promotion, price negotiation, and transaction completion - and corporate commitments to sustainability, including consumer education on circularity, financial support for sustainable practices, and progress monitoring systems. Finally, Giovanni Conti and Martina Motta explore the resurgence of knitwear in the contemporary fashion industry, emphasizing its role as a bridge between creation and consumption and challenging traditional fashion norms. Their qualitative research highlights knitwear’s response to changing consumer attitudes, technological advances and global events, showing its potential to promote creativity, sustainability and ethical practices. The article investigates the space created by knitwear, questioning the new role of individuals, who are freer to experiment and experiment with interconnected aspects, breaking away from being mere consumers and becoming conscious makers. The third and final section, “Consumer Culture”, presents a selection of articles that aim to analyze, adopting different points of view, the dynamics, approaches and practices through which fashion is narrated, transmitted and experienced. This section explores fashion narratives and recent evolutions in terms of languages, content and formats, focusing on the impact of digital technologies. Examining historical perspectives, philosophical readings and the transformative power of digital media, these articles offer a comprehensive understanding of how consumer culture shapes and is shaped by fashion. The studies provide insights into the cyclical nature of fashion, the intersection of fashion and social class, the emerging role of the metaverse, the motivations behind digital fashion consumption, and the implications of technologies in sustainable fashion. Karmen Samson opens the discussion with a theoretical reflection on fashion as an “economy of the ephemeral”, emphasizing its cyclical and transitory nature within consumer culture. Using the concepts of “blooming” and “decay”, the author elucidates the temporal dynamics of fashion, integrating these natural processes with the temporal politics of industry. By investigating the interplay between time, consumerism, and fashion’s impermanence, the article provides a deeper understanding of cycles that extend beyond traditional notions and presents a detailed and nuanced analysis of fashion's fleeting essence, encouraging to reconsider the significance of decay within the fashion industry. Shajwan Nariman Fatah’s article delves into the social dynamics captured in the narratives of the Toile de Jouy textile through a philosophical perspective. This study aims to reveal the fundamental connection between working-class labor and bourgeois consumption patterns as depicted in Toile de Jouy. Utilizing the theoretical frameworks of Karl Marx and Jean Baudrillard, the research examines the links between fashion, production methods, consumer behavior, and the concept of simulation, highlighting how the capitalist system commodifies/appropriates the product without regard for its aesthetic qualities, labor origins, or intrinsic value. Finally, diving into the impacts of digital technologies on fashion consumption, Romana Andò delves into the emerging and evolving concept of the Metaverse within the fashion industry. Through qualitative research focused on international Millennials and Generation Z consumers, the study explores the meanings associated with the Metaverse, its intersection with the digitization of fashion and digital apparel, and its target audience's media literacy and expectations. The investigation highlights the relationship between fashion and individual self-presentation in the Metaverse and examines how these digital environments are transforming consumption processes in the fashion industry. Adil Boughlala and Silvia Mazzucotelli Salice’s article explores the intricate relationship between contemporary fashion consumption and digital tools, from pre-purchase browsing to post-purchase sharing on social media. The study delves into the growing field of digital fashion, particularly the motivations behind consumer adoption of digital fashion end products such as NFT fashion, video game skins, and AR filters. The research, adopting a mixed-media approach, examines the profiles and cultures surrounding digital fashion consumption, suggesting that digital fashion contributes significantly to identity formation and self-expression, creating a new “phygital” hybrid identity paradigm in which the physical and digital realms merge, reinforcing socio-cultural dynamics within brand communities. By means of data from web platforms and social media recommendation systems, Tommaso Elli proposes research to identify and analyze significant local projects in sustainable fashion and design initiatives in the Milanese context. The research aims to investigate the relationships between urban actors, highlight key sustainability advocates, and evaluate the effectiveness of digital methods in studying local phenomena. The results demonstrate the potential of these methodologies to improve the understanding and promotion of sustainable practices in fashion and design. To conclude, Ermanno Petrocchi investigates the influence of persuasive technologies on consumer behavior in sustainable fashion. The study addresses the ethical concerns surrounding sustainability labels and their implementation within digital platforms, highlighting potential consumer risks in the digital age. By analyzing consumption patterns and consumer preferences, the paper reveals how persuasive technologies can manipulate individuals with weak preferences for sustainable fashion, thereby affecting the formation and expression of their identity. Together, these sections offer a comprehensive exploration of the multifaceted nature of fashion consumption in the contemporary world. By examining the economic, social and cultural dimensions of consumption, the issue provides a nuanced understanding of the complex dynamics shaping the fashion industry today. Contributors highlight the critical need for a more responsible and reflective approach to fashion consumption that recognizes the interconnectedness of production, distribution and use and the potential for more sustainable and ethical practices. Through this critical lens, this issue thus advances the discourse on sustainable fashion and deepens understanding of the changing landscape of fashion consumption.

Teachers have an important and primary role in the education system. The achievement of the teacher's role in education will have an impact on job satisfaction. This study aims to analyze the job satisfaction of Early Childhood Education teachers in terms of variables of technostress and work-family conflicts among teachers who are married. This study was designed with a correlational quantitative design. Data collection is done online with the assistance of Google forms-distributed throughout Indonesia. One hundred and fifty-seven teacher respondents who fit the criteria became the research sample. The data analysis technique uses hierarchical regression. The results of the analysis stated that there was a relationship between technostress and job satisfaction. The findings show that two of the five aspects of technostress that techno-overload and techno-insecurity have a negative correlation with job satisfaction, while techno-uncertainty has a positive correlation. In addition, two aspects of technostress namely techno-invasion and techno-complexity do not correlate with job satisfaction. next to the relationship between work-family conflict with job satisfaction. The findings show that one of the two aspects of work-family conflict is strain negatively correlated with job satisfaction while time and behavior do not correlate with job satisfaction. Based on the results of this study it can be concluded that early childhood teachers are more affected by their job satisfaction technostress/techno-overload compared to work-family conflict. Keywords: early childhood teacher, job satisfaction, technostress, work-family conflict References: A Suh, JL (2017). Understanding teleworkers' technostress and its influence on job satisfaction. Internet Research, 27(1), 140–159. https://doi.org/10.1108/IntR-06-2015-0181 1. Dwi Putranti, A., & Achmad Kurniady, D. (2013). 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The relationship between Technostress and Job Satisfaction and Organizational Commitment to Mojokerto Hospital Employees. Thesis, University of Surabaya. Netemeyer, RG, Boles, JS, McMurrian, R. (1996). Development and validation of work-family conflict and family-work conflict scales. Journal of Applied Psychology, 81, 400–410. https://doi.org/doi:10.1037/0021-9010.81.4.400 Nisak, IA (2020). The effect of technostress on job satisfaction with work-family conflict and work-family conflict as intervening variables in PDAM Kota…. http://etheses.uin-malang.ac.id/19081/ Noor, NM, & Zainuddin, M. (2011). Emotional labor and burnout among female teachers: Work-family conflict as mediator. Asian Journal of Social Psychology, 14(4), 283–293. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-839X.2011.01349.x PC Smith, LM Kendall, and CLH (1969). The measurement of satisfaction in work and retirement. Rand McNally. Chicago. Park, HJ, & Cho, JS (2016). 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Give me the liberty to know, to utter, and to argue freely according to conscience, above all liberties. —John Milton (1608-1674) Introduction The publication of 12 cartoons depicting images of Prophet Mohammed [Peace Be Upon Him] first in Denmark’s Jyllands-Posten on 30 September 2005, and later reprinted in European media and two New Zealand newspapers, sparked protests around the Muslim world. The Australian newspapers – with the exception of The Courier-Mail, which published one cartoon – refrained from reprinting the cartoons, acknowledging that depictions of the Prophet are regarded as “blasphemous by Muslims”. How is this apparent act of restraint to be assessed? Edward Said, in his book Covering Islam has acknowledged that there have been many Muslim provocations and troubling incidents by Islamic countries such as Iran, Libya, Sudan, and others in the 1980s. However, he contends that the use of the label “Islam” by non-Muslim commentators, either to explain or indiscriminately condemn “Islam”, ends up becoming a form of attack, which in turn provokes more hostility (xv-xvi). This article examines how two Australian newspapers – The Australian and The West Australian – handled the debate on the Prophet Muhammad cartoons and considers whether in the name of “free speech” it ended in “a form of attack” on Australian Muslims. It also considers the media’s treatment of Muslim Australians’ “free speech” on previous occasions. This article is drawn from the oral testimonies of Muslims of diverse ethnic background. Since 1998, as part of PhD and post-doctoral research on Muslims in Australia, the author conducted 130 face-to-face, in-depth, taped interviews of Muslims, aged 18-90, both male and female. While speaking about their settlement experience, several interviewees made unsolicited remarks about Western/Australian media, all of them making the point that Muslims were being demonised. Australian Muslims Many of Australia’s 281,578 Muslims — 1.5 per cent of the total population (Australian Bureau of Statistics) — believe that as a result of media bias, they are vilified in society as “terrorists”, and discriminated in the workplace (Human Rights and Equal Opportunity Commission; Dreher 13; Kabir 266-277). The ABS figures support their claim of discrimination in the workplace; in 1996 the unemployment rate for Muslim Australians was 25 per cent, compared to 9 per cent for the national total. In 2001, it was reduced to 18.5 per cent, compared to 6.8 per cent for the national total, but the ratio of underprivileged positions in the labour market remained almost three times higher than for the wider community. Instead of reflecting on Muslims’ labour market issues or highlighting the social issues confronting Muslims since 9/11, some Australian media, in the name of “free speech”, reinforce negative perceptions of Muslims through images, cartoons and headlines. In 2004, one Muslim informant offered their perceptions of Australian media: I think the Australian media are quite prejudiced, and they only do show one side of the story, which is quite pro-Bush, pro-Howard, pro-war. Probably the least prejudiced media would be ABC or SBS, but the most pro-Jewish, pro-America, would be Channel Seven, Channel Nine, Channel Ten. They only ever show things from one side of the story. This article considers the validity of the Muslim interviewee’s perception that Australian media representation is one-sided. On 26 October 2005, under the headline: “Draw a Cartoon about Mohammed and You Must Die”, The Australian warned its readers: ISLAM is no laughing matter. Danish newspaper, Jyllands-Posten, is being protected by security guards and several cartoonists have gone into hiding after the newspaper published a series of 12 cartoons about the prophet Mohammed. According to Islam, it is blasphemous to make images of the prophet. Muslim fundamentalists have threatened to bomb the paper’s offices and kill the cartoonists (17). Militant Muslims The most provocative cartoons appearing in the Danish media are probably those showing a Muhammad-like figure wearing a turban shaped as a bomb with a burning fuse coming out of it, or a queue of smoking suicide bombers on a cloud with an Islamic cleric saying, “Stop stop we have run out of virgins”. Another showed a blindfolded Muslim man with two veiled Muslim women standing behind him. These messages appeared to be concerned with Islam’s repression of women (Jyllands-Posten), and possibly with the American channel CBS airing an interview in August 2001 of a Palestinian Hamas activist, Muhammad Abu Wardeh, who recruited terrorists for suicide bombings in Israel. Abu Wardeh was quoted as saying: “I described to him [the suicide bomber] how God would compensate the martyr for sacrificing his life for his land. If you become a martyr, God will give you 70 virgins, 70 wives and everlasting happiness” (The Guardian). Perhaps to serve their goals, the militants have re-interpreted the verses of the Holy Quran (Sura 44:51-54; 55:56) where it is said that Muslims who perform good deeds will be blessed by the huris or “pure being” (Ali 1290-1291; 1404). However, since 9/11, it is also clear that the Muslim militant groups such as the Al-Qaeda have become the “new enemy” of the West. They have used religion to justify the terrorist acts and suicide bombings that have impacted on Western interests in New York, Washington, Bali, Madrid amongst other places. But it should be noted that there are Muslim critics, such as Pakistani-born writer, Irshad Manji, Bangladeshi-born writer Taslima Nasreen and Somalian-born Dutch parliamentarian Ayaan Hirsi Ali, who have been constant critics of Muslim men’s oppression of women and have urged reformation. However, their extremist fellow believers threatened them with a death sentence for their “free speech” (Chadwick). The non-Muslim Dutch film director, Theo van Gogh, also a critic of Islam and a supporter of Ayaan Hirsi Ali, advocated a reduction in immigration into Holland, especially by Muslims. Both van Gogh and Hirsi Ali – who co-scripted and co-produced the film Submission – received death threats from Muslim extremists because the film exhibited the verses of the Quran across the chest, stomach and thighs of an almost naked girl, and featured four women in see-through robes showing their breasts, with texts from the Quran daubed on their bodies, talking about the abuse they had suffered under Islam (Anon 25). Whereas there may be some justification for the claim made in the film, that some Muslim men interpret the Quran to oppress women (Doogue and Kirkwood 220), the writing of the Quranic verses on almost-naked women is surely offensive to all Muslims because the Quran teaches Muslim women to dress modestly (Sura 24: 30-31; Ali 873). On 4 November 2004, The West Australian reported that the Dutch director Theo van Gogh was murdered by a 26-year-old Dutch-Moroccan Muslim on 2 November 2004 (27). Hirsi Ali, the co-producer of the film was forced to go into hiding after van Gogh’s murder. In the face of a growing clamour from both the Dutch Muslims and the secular communities to silence her, Ayaan Hirsi Ali resigned from the Dutch Parliament in May 2006 and decided to re-settle in Washington (Jardine 2006). It should be noted that militant Muslims form a tiny but forceful minority of the 1.4 billion Muslims worldwide. The Muslim majority are moderate and peaceful (Doogue and Kirkwood 79-80). Some Muslim scholars argue that there is specific instruction in the Quran for people to apply their knowledge and arrive at whatever interpretation is of greatest benefit to the community. It may be that stricter practitioners would not agree with the moderate interpretation of the Quran and vice versa (Doogue and Kirkwood 232). Therefore, when the Western media makes a mockery of the Muslim religion or their Prophet in the name of “free speech”, or generalises all Muslims for the acts of a few through headlines or cartoons, it impacts on the Muslims residing in the West. Prophet Muhammad’s Cartoons With the above-mentioned publication of Prophet Muhammad’s cartoons in Denmark, Islamic critics charged that the cartoons were a deliberate provocation and insult to their religion, designed to incite hatred and polarise people of different faiths. In February 2006, regrettably, violent reactions took place in the Middle East, Europe and in Asia. Danish embassies were attacked and, in some instances, were set on fire. The demonstrators chanted, “With our blood and souls we defend you, O Prophet of God!”. Some replaced the Danish flag with a green one printed with the first pillar of Islam (Kalima): “There is no god but God and Mohammed is the messenger of God”. Some considered the cartoons “an unforgivable insult” that merited punishment by death (The Age). A debate on “free speech” soon emerged in newspapers throughout the world. On 7 February 2006 the editorial in The West Australian, “World Has Had Enough of Muslim Fanatics”, stated that the newspaper would not publish cartoons of Mohammad that have drawn protests from Muslims around the world. The newspaper acknowledged that depictions of the prophet are regarded as “blasphemous by Muslims” (18). However, the editorial was juxtaposed with another article “Can Liberty Survive a Clash of Cultures?”, with an image of bearded men wearing Muslim head coverings, holding Arabic placards and chanting slogans, implying the violent nature of Islam. And in the letters page of this newspaper, published on the same day, appeared the following headlines (20): Another Excuse for Muslims to Threaten Us Islam Attacked Cartoon Rage: Greatest Threat to World Peace We’re Living in Dangerous Times Why Treat Embassies with Contempt? Muslim Religion Is Not So Soft Civilised World Is Threatened The West Australian is a state-based newspaper that tends to side with the conservative Liberal party, and is designed to appeal to the “man in the street”. The West Australian did not republish the Prophet Muhammad cartoon, but for 8 days from 7 to 15 February 2006 the letters to the editor and opinion columns consistently criticised Islam and upheld “superior” Western secular values. During this period, the newspaper did publish a few letters that condemned the Danish cartoonist, including the author’s letter, which also condemned the Muslims’ attack on the embassies. But the overall message was that Western secular values were superior to Islamic values. In other words, the newspaper adopted a jingoistic posture and asserted the cultural superiority of mainstream Australians. The Danish cartoons also sparked a debate on “free speech” in Australia’s leading newspaper, The Australian, which is a national newspaper that also tends to reflect the values of the ruling national government – also the conservative Liberal party. And it followed a similar pattern of debate as The West Australian. On 14 February 2006, The Australian (13) published a reader’s criticism of The Australian for not republishing the cartoons. The author questioned whether the Muslims deserved any tolerance because their Holy Book teaches intolerance. The Koran [Quran] (22:19) says: Garments of fire have been prepared for the unbelievers. Scalding water shall be poured upon their heads, melting their skins and that which is in their bellies. Perhaps this reader did not find the three cartoons published in The Australian a few days earlier to be ‘offensive’ to the Australian Muslims. In the first, on 6 February 2006, the cartoonist Bill Leak showed that his head was chopped off by some masked people (8), implying that Muslim militants, such as the Hamas, would commit such a brutal act. The Palestinian Hamas group often appear in masks before the media. In this context, it is important to note that Israel is an ally of Australia and the United States, whereas the Hamas is Israel’s enemy whose political ideology goes against Israel’s national interest. On 25 January 2006, the Hamas won a landslide victory in the Palestine elections but Israel refused to recognise this government because Hamas has not abandoned its militant ideology (Page 13). The cartoon, therefore, probably means that the cartoonist or perhaps The Australian has taken sides on behalf of Australia’s ally Israel. In the second cartoon, on 7 February 2006, Bill Leak sketched an Arab raising his sword over a school boy who was drawing in a classroom. The caption read, “One more line and I’ll chop your hand off!” (12). And in the third, on 10 February 2006, Bill Leak sketched Mr Mohammed’s shadow holding a sword with the caption: “The unacceptable face of fanaticism”. A reporter asked: “And so, Mr Mohammed, what do you have to say about the current crisis?” to which Mr Mohammed replied, “I refuse to be drawn on the subject” (16). The cartoonist also thought that the Danish cartoons should have been republished in the Australian newspapers (Insight). Cartoons are supposed to reflect the theme of the day. Therefore, Bill Leak’s cartoons were certainly topical. But his cartoons reveal that his or The Australian’s “freedom of expression” has been one-sided, all depicting Islam as representing violence. For example, after the Bali bombing on 21 November 2002, Leak sketched two fully veiled women, one carrying explosives under her veil and asking the other, “Does my bomb look big in this”? The cartoonist’s immediate response to criticism of the cartoon in a television programme was, “inevitably, when you look at a cartoon such as that one, the first thing you’ve got to do is remember that as a daily editorial cartoonist, you’re commenting first and foremost on the events of the day. They’re very ephemeral things”. He added, “It was…drawn about three years ago after a spate of suicide bombing attacks in Israel” (Insight). Earlier events also suggested that that The Australian resolutely supports Australia’s ally, Israel. On 13-14 November 2004 Bill Leak caricatured the recently deceased Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat in The Weekend Australian (18). In the cartoon, God appeared to be displeased with him and would not allow him to enter paradise. Arafat was shown with explosives strapped to his body and threatening God by saying, “A cloud to myself or the whole place goes up….”. On the other hand, on 6 January 2006 the same cartoonist sympathetically portrayed ailing Israeli leader Ariel Sharon as a decent man wearing a black suit, with God willing to accept him (10); and the next day Sharon was portrayed as “a Man of Peace” (12). Politics and Religion Thus, the anecdotal evidence so far reveals that in the name of “freedom of expression”, or “free speech” The West Australian and The Australian newspapers have taken sides – either glorifying their “superior” Western culture or taking sides on behalf of its allies. On the other hand, these print media would not tolerate the “free speech” of a Muslim leader who spoke against their ally or another religious group. From the 1980s until recently, some print media, particularly The Australian, have been critical of the Egyptian-born Muslim spiritual leader Imam Taj el din al-Hilali for his “free speech”. In 1988 the Australian Federation of Islamic Councils bestowed the title of Mufti to Imam al- Hilali, and al-Hilali was elevated to a position of national religious leadership. Al-Hilali became a controversial figure after 1988 when he gave a speech to the Muslim students at Sydney University and accused Jews of trying to control the world through “sex, then sexual perversion, then the promotion of espionage, treason and economic hoarding” (Hewett 7). The Imam started being identified as a “Muslim chief” in the news headlines once he directly criticised American foreign policy during the 1990-91 Gulf crisis. The Imam interpreted US intervention in Kuwait as a “political dictatorship” that was exploiting the Gulf crisis because it was seen as a threat to its oil supply (Hewett 7). After the Bali bombings in 2002, the Howard government distributed information on terrorism through the “Alert and Alarmed” kit as part of its campaign of public awareness. The first casualty of the “Be alert, but not alarmed” campaign was the Imam al-Hilali. On 6 January 2003, police saw a tube of plastic protruding from a passenger door window and suspected that al-Hilali might have been carrying a gun when they pulled him over for traffic infringements. Sheikh al-Hilali was charged with resisting arrest and assaulting police (Morris 1, 4). On 8 January 2003 The Australian reminded its readers “Arrest Adds to Mufti’s Mystery” (9). The same issue of The Australian portrayed the Sheikh being stripped of his clothes by two policemen. The letter page also contained some unsympathetic opinions under the headline: “Mufti Deserved No Special Treatment” (10). In January 2004, al-Hilali was again brought under the spotlight. The Australian media alleged that al-Hilali praised the suicide bombers at a Mosque in Lebanon and said that the destruction of the World Trade Center was “God’s work against oppressors” (Guillatt 24). Without further investigation, The Australian again reported his alleged inflammatory comments. Under the headline, “Muslim Leader’s Jihad Call”, it condemned al-Hilali and accused him of strongly endorsing “terrorist groups Hezbollah and Hamas, during his visit to Lebanon”. Federal Labor Member of Parliament Michael Danby said, “Hilali’s presence in Australia is a mistake. He and his associates must give authorities an assurance he will not assist future homicide attacks” (Chulov 1, 5). Later investigations by Sydney’s Good Weekend Magazine and SBS Television found that al-Hilali’s speech had been mistranslated (Guillatt 24). However, the selected print media that had been very critical of the Sheikh did not highlight the mistranslation. On the other hand, the Archbishop of Sydney, Cardinal George Pell has been critical of Islam and is also opposed to Australia’s involvement in the Iraq war in 2003, but the print media appeared to ignore his “free speech” (Dateline). In November 2004, Dr Pell said that secular liberal democracy was empty and selfish, and Islam was emerging as an alternative world view that attracted the alienated (Zwartz 3). In May 2006, Dr Pell said that he tried to reconcile claims that Islam was a faith of peace with those that suggested the Quran legitimised the killings of non-Muslims but: In my own reading of the Koran [Quran], I began to note down invocations to violence. There are so many of them, however, that I abandoned this exercise after 50 or 60 or 70 pages (Morris). Muslim leaders regarded Dr Pell’s anti-Islam statement as “inflammatory” (Morris). However, both the newspapers, The Australian and The West Australian remained uncritical of Dr Pell’s “free speech” against Islam. Conclusion Edward Said believed that media images are informed by official definitions of Islam that serve the interests of government and business. The success of the images is not in their accuracy but in the power of the people who produce them, the triumph of which is hardly challenged. “Labels have survived many experiences and have been capable of adapting to new events, information and realities” (9). In this paper the author accepts that, in the Australian context, militant Muslims are the “enemy of the West”. However, they are also the enemy of most moderate Australian Muslims. When some selected media take sides on behalf of the hegemony, or Australia’s “allies”, and offend moderate Australian Muslims, the media’s claim of “free speech” or “freedom of expression” remains highly questionable. Muslim interviewees in this study have noted a systemic bias in some Australian media, but they are not alone in detecting this bias (see the “Abu Who?” segment of Media Watch on ABC TV, 31 July 2006). To address this concern, Australian Muslim leaders need to play an active role in monitoring the media. This might take the form of a watchdog body within the Australian Federation of Islamic Councils. If the media bias is found to be persistent, the AFIC might then recommend legislative intervention or application of existing anti-discrimination policies; alternatively, AFIC could seek sanctions from within the Australian journalistic community. One way or another this practice should be stopped. References Ali, Abdullah Yusuf. The Holy Quran: Text, Translation and Commentary. New Revised Ed. Maryland, USA: Amana Corporation, 1989. Anonymous. “Dutch Courage in Aftermath of Film-Maker’s Slaying.” The Weekend Australian 6-7 Nov. 2004. Chadwick, Alex. “The Caged Virgin: A Call for Change in Islam.” 4 June 2006 http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=5382547>. Chulov, Martin. “Muslim Leader’s Jihad Call.” The Australian 19 Feb. 2004. Dateline. “Cardinal George Pell Interview.” SBS TV 6 April 2005. 7 June 2006 http://news.sbs.com.au/dateline/>. Dreher, Tanya. “Targeted”, Experiences of Racism in NSW after September 11, 2001. Sydney: University of Technology, 2005. Doogue, Geraldine, and Peter Kirkwood. Tomorrow’s Islam: Understanding Age-Old Beliefs and a Modern World. Sydney: ABC Books, 2005. Insight. “Culture Clash.” SBS TV 7 March 2006. 11 June 2006 http://news.sbs.com.au/insight/archive.php>. Guillatt, Richard. “Moderate or Menace.” Sydney Morning Herald Good Weekend 21 Aug. 2004. Hewett, Tony. “Australia Exploiting Crisis: Muslim Chief.” Sydney Morning Herald 27 Nov. 1990. Human Rights and Equal Opportunity Commission. Ismaa – Listen: National Consultations on Eliminating Prejudice against Arab and Muslim Australians. Sydney: Human Rights and Equal Opportunity Commission, 2004. Jyllands-Posten. 24 Jan. 2006. http://www.di2.nu/files/Muhammad_Cartoons_Jyllands_Posten.html>. Jardine, Lisa. “Liberalism under Pressure.” BBC News 5 June 2006. 12 June 2006 http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/magazine/5042418.stm>. Kabir, Nahid. Muslims in Australia: Immigration, Race Relations and Cultural History. London: Kegan Paul, 2005. Media Watch. “Abu Who?” ABC Television 31 July 2006. http://abc.net.au/mediawatch/>. Morris, Linda. “Imam Facing Charges after Row with Police.” Sydney Morning Herald 7 Jan. 2003. Morris, Linda. “Pell Challenges Islam – O Ye, of Little Tolerant Faith.” Sydney Morning Herald 5 May 2006. Page, Jeremy. “Russia May Sell Arms to Hamas.” The Australian 18 Feb. 2006. Said, Edward. Covering Islam: How the Media and the Experts Determine How We See the Rest of the World. London: Vintage, 1981, 1997. Submission. “Film Clip from Short Submission.” Submission. 11 June 2006. http://www.ifilm.com/ifilmdetail/2655656?htv=12> The Age. “Embassies Torched over Cartoons.” 5 Feb. 2006. http://www.theage.com.au>. The Guardian. “Virgins? What Virgins?” 12 Jan. 2002. 4 June 2006 http://www.guardian.co.uk/>. Zwartz, Barney. “Islam Could Be New Communism, Pell Tells US Audience.” Sydney Morning Herald 12 Nov. 2004. Citation reference for this article MLA Style Kabir, Nahid. "Depiction of Muslims in Selected Australian Media: Free Speech or Taking Sides." M/C Journal 9.4 (2006). echo date('d M. Y'); ?> <http://journal.media-culture.org.au/0609/1-kabir.php>. APA Style Kabir, N. (Sep. 2006) "Depiction of Muslims in Selected Australian Media: Free Speech or Taking Sides," M/C Journal, 9(4). Retrieved echo date('d M. Y'); ?> from <http://journal.media-culture.org.au/0609/1-kabir.php>.

While exploring the virtual world Second Life one day, I received a group message across the in-world communication system – “there’s a griefer on the beach. Stay away from the beach till we catch him.” There was no need to explain; everyone receiving the message knew what a griefer was and had a general idea of the kinds of things that could be happening. We’d all seen griefers at work before – someone monopolising the chat channel so no one else can communicate, people being “caged” at random, or even weapons fire causing so much “overhead” that all activity in the area slows to a crawl. These kinds of attacks are not limited to virtual worlds. Most people have experienced griefing in their everyday lives, which might best be defined as having fun at someone else’s expense. More commonly seen examples of this in the real world include teasing, bullying, and harassment; playground bullies have long made other children’s free time miserable. More destructive griefing includes arson and theft. Griefing activities happen in all kinds of games and virtual worlds. Griefers who laugh at new users and “yell” (so that all players can hear) that they stink, have followed new users of Disney’s tween-popular ToonTown. Griefers pose as friendly, helpful players who offer to show new users a path through difficult parts of a game, but then who abandon the new user in a spot where he or she does not have the skills to proceed. In World of Warcraft, a popular massively multiplayer online role playing game (MMORPG) created by Blizzard with more than seven million registered, if not active, users, griefers engage in what is known as corpse camping; they sit by a corpse, killing it over and over every time the player tries to get back into the game. The griefer gets a small number of experience points; the player being killed gets aggravated and has to wait out the griefing to play the game again (Warner & Raiter). Griefing in World of Warcraft was featured in an award nominated episode of the television program South Park, in which one character killed every other player he met. This paper considers different types of griefing, both in online games and virtual worlds, and then looks at the actions other players, those being griefed, take against griefers. A variety of examples from Second Life are considered because of the open-structure of the world and its developing nature. Definitions and Types Griefing in online environments such as video games and virtual worlds has been defined as “purposefully engaging in activities to disrupt the gaming experience of other players” (Mulligan & Patrovsky 250). The “purposeful” part of the definition means that accidental bumping and pushing, behaviours often exhibited by new users, are not griefing (Warner & Raiter). Rossingol defines a griefer as, “a player of malign intentions. They will hurt, humiliate and dishevel the average gamer through bending and breaking the rules of online games. ...They want glory, gain or just to partake in a malignant joy at the misfortune of others.” Davis, who maintains a gaming blog, describes Second Life as being populated by “those who build things and those who like to tear them down,” with the latter being the griefers who may be drawn to the unstructured anything-goes nature of the virtual world (qtd. in Girard). Definitions of griefing differ based on context. For instance, griefing has been examined in a variety of multi-player online games. These games often feature missions where players have to kill other players (PvP), behaviour that in other contexts such as virtual worlds would be considered griefing. Putting a monster on the trail of a player considered rude or unskilled might be a way to teach a lesson, but also an example of griefing (Taylor). Foo and Koivisto define griefing in MMORPGs as “play styles that disrupt another player’s gaming experience, usually with specific intention. When the act is not specifically intended to disrupt and yet the actor is the sole beneficiary, it is greed play, a subtle form of grief play” (11). Greed play usually involves actions that disrupt the game play of others but without technically breaking any game rules. A different way of looking at griefing is that it is a sign that the player understands the game or virtual world deeply enough to take advantage of ambiguities in the rules by changing the game to something new (Koster). Many games have a follow option; griefers pick a victim, stand near them, get as naked as possible, and then just follow them around without talking or explaining their actions (Walker). Another example is the memorial service in World of Warcraft for a player who died in real life. The service was interrupted by an attack from another clan; everyone at the memorial service was killed. It is not clear cut who the griefers actually were in this case – the mourners who chose to have their peaceful service in an area marked for player combat or the attackers following the rules for that area and working to earn points and progress in the game. In the case of the mourners, they were changing the rules of the game to suit them, to create something unique – a shared space to mourn a common friend. But they were definitely not playing by the rules. The attackers, considered griefers by many both in and outside of the game, did nothing that broke any rules of the game, though perhaps they broke rules of common decency (“World”); what they did does not fit into the definition of griefing, as much as do the actions of the mourners (Kotaku). Reshaping the game can be done to embed a new, sometimes political, message into the game. A group named Velvet Strike formed to protest US military action. They went into Counter Strike to bring a “message of peace, love and happiness to online shooters by any means necessary” (King). They placed spray painted graphics containing anti-war messages into the game; when confronted with people from other teams the Velvet Strike members refused to shoot (King). The group website contains “recipes” for non-violent game play. One “recipe” involved the Velvet Strike member hiding at the beginning of a mission and not moving for the rest of the game. The other players would shoot each other and then be forced to spend the rest of the game looking for the last survivor in order to get credit for the win. Similar behaviour has been tried inside the game America’s Army. Beginning March, 2006, deLappe, an artist who opposes the U.S. government’s involvement in Iraq, engaged in griefing behaviour by filling (spamming) the in-game text channel with the names of the people killed in the war; no one else can communicate on that channel. Even his character name, dead-in-Iraq, is an anti-war protest (deLappe). “I do not participate in the proscribed mayhem. Rather, I stand in position and type until I am killed. After death, I hover over my dead avatar’s body and continue to type. Upon being re-incarnated in the next round, I continue the cycle” (deLappe n.p.). What about these games and virtual worlds might lead people to even consider griefing? For one thing, they seem anonymous, which can lead to irresponsible behaviour. Players use fake names. Characters on the screen do not seem real. Another reason may be that rules can be broken in videogames and virtual worlds with few consequences, and in fact the premise of the game often seems to encourage such rule breaking. The rules are not always clearly laid out. Each game or world has a Terms of Service agreement that set out basic acceptable behaviour. Second Life defines griefing in terms of the Terms of Service that all users agree to when opening accounts. Abuse is when someone consciously and with malicious intent violates those terms. On top of that limited set of guidelines, each landowner in a virtual world such as Second Life can also set rules for their own property, from dress code, to use of weapons, to allowable conversation topics. To better understand griefing, it is necessary to consider the motivations of the people involved. Early work on categorising player types was completed by Bartle, who studied users of virtual worlds, specifically MUDs, and identified four player types: killers, achievers, socialisers, and explorers. Killers and achievers seem most relevant in a discussion about griefing. Killers enjoy using other players to get ahead. They want to do things to other people (not for or with others), and they get the most pleasure if they can act without the consent of the other player. Knowing about a game or a virtual world gives no power unless that knowledge can be used to gain some advantage over others and to enhance your standing in the game. Achievers want power and dominance in a game so they can do things to the game and master it. Griefing could help them feel a sense of power if they got people to do their will to stop the griefing behavior. Yee studied the motivations of people who play MMORPGs. He found that people who engage in griefing actually scored high in being motivated to play by both achieving and competition (“Facets”). Griefers often want attention. They may want to show off their scripting skills in the hope of earning respect among other coders and possibly be hired to program for others. But many players are motivated by a desire to compete and to win; these categories do not seem to be adequate for understanding the different types of griefing (Yee, “Faces of Grief”). The research on griefing in games has also suggested ways to categorise griefers in virtual worlds. Suler divides griefers into two types (qtd. in Becker). The first is those who grief in order to make trouble for authority figures, including the people who create the worlds. A few of the more spectacular griefing incidents seem designed to cause trouble for Linden Lab, the creators of Second Life. Groups attacked the servers that run Second Life, known as the grid, in October of 2005; this became known as the “gray goo attack” (Second Life; Wallace). Servers were flooded with objects and Second Life had to be taken off line to be restored from backups. More organised groups, such as the W-hats, the SL Liberation Army, and Patriotic Nigas engage in more large scale and public griefing. Some groups hope to draw attention to the group’s goals. The SL Liberation Army wants Linden Lab to open up the governance of the virtual world so that users can vote on changes and policies being implemented and limit corporate movement into Second Life (MarketingVox). Patriotic Nigas, with about 35 active members, want to slow the entry of corporations into Second Life (Cabron, “Who are Second Life’s”). One often discussed griefer attack in Second Life included a flood of pink flying penises directed against land owner and the first person to have made a profit of more than one million United States dollars in a virtual world, Anshe Chung, during a well-publicised and attended interview in world with technology news outlet CNET (Walsh, “Second Life Millionaire” ). The second type proposed by Suler is the griefer who wants to hurt and victimise others (qtd. in Becker). Individual players often go naked into PG-rated areas to cause trouble. Weapons are used in areas where weapons are banned. Second Life publishes a police blotter, which lists examples of minor griefing and assigned punishment, including incidents of disturbing the peace and violating community standards for which warnings and short bans have been issued. These are the actions of individuals for the most part, as were the people who exploited security holes to enter the property uninvited during the grand opening of Endemol’s Big Brother island in Second Life; guests to the opening were firebombed and caged. One of the griefers explained her involvement: Well I’m from The Netherlands, and as you might know the tv concept of big brother was invented here, and it was in all the newspapers in Holland. So I thought It would be this huge event with lots of media. Then I kinda got the idea ‘hey I could ruin this and it might make the newspaper or tv. So that’s what set me off, lol. (qtd. in Sklar) Some groups do grief just to annoy. The Patriotic Nigas claim to have attacked the John Edwards headquarters inside SL wearing Bush ‘08 buttons (Cabron, “John Edwards Attackers”), but it was not a political attack. The group’s founder, Mudkips Acronym (the name of his avatar in SL) said, “I’m currently rooting for Obama, but that doesn’t mean we won’t raid him or anything. We’ll hit anyone if it’s funny, and if the guy I want to be president in 2008’s campaign provides the lulz, we’ll certainly not cross him off our list” (qtd. in Cabron, “John Edwards Attackers”). If they disrupt a high profile event or site, the attack will be covered by media that can amplify the thrill of the attack, enhance their reputation among other griefers, and add to their enjoyment of the griefing. Part of the definition of griefing is that the griefer enjoys causing other players pain and disrupting their game. One resident posted on the SL blog, “Griefers, for the most part, have no other agenda other than the thrill of sneaking one past and causing a big noise. Until a spokesperson comes forward with a manifesto, we can safely assume that this is the work of the “Jackass” generation, out to disrupt things to show that they can“ (Scarborough). Usually to have fun, griefers go after individuals, rather than the owners and administrators of the virtual world and so fit into Suler’s second type of griefing. These griefers enjoy seeing others get angry and frustrated. As one griefer said: Understanding the griefer mindset begins with this: We don’t take the game seriously at all. It continues with this: It’s fun because you react. Lastly: We do it because we’re jerks and like to laugh at you. I am the fly that kamikazes into your soup. I am the reason you can’t have nice things … . If I make you cry, you’ve made my day. (Drake) They have fun by making the other players mad. “Causing grief is the name of his game. His objective is simple: Make life hell for anyone unlucky enough to be playing with him. He’s a griefer. A griefer is a player bent on purposely frustrating others during a multiplayer game” (G4). “I’m a griefer. It’s what I do,” the griefer says. “And, man, people get so pissed off. It’s great” (G4). Taking Action against Griefers Understanding griefing from the griefer point of view leads us to examine the actions of those being griefed. Suler suggests several pairs of opposing actions that can be taken against griefers, based on his experience in an early social environment called Palace. Many of the steps still being used fit into these types. He first describes preventative versus remedial action. Preventative steps include design features to minimise griefing. The Second Life interface includes the ability to build 3D models and to create software; it also includes a menu for land owners to block those features at will, a design feature that helps prevent much griefing. Remedial actions are those taken by the administrators to deal with the effects of griefing; Linden Lab administrators can shut down whole islands to keep griefer activities from spreading to nearby islands. The second pair is interpersonal versus technical; interpersonal steps involve talking to the griefers to get them to stop ruining the game for others, while technical steps prevent griefers from re-entering the world. The elven community in Second Life strongly supports interpersonal steps; they have a category of members in their community known as guardians who receive special training in how to talk to people bent on destroying the peacefulness of the community or disturbing an event. The creators of Camp Darfur on Better World island also created a force of supporters to fend off griefer attacks after the island was destroyed twice in a week in 2006 (Kenzo). Linden Lab also makes use of technical methods; they cancel accounts so known griefers can not reenter. There were even reports that they had created a prison island where griefers whose antics were not bad enough to be totally banned would be sent via a one-way teleporter (Walsh, “Hidden Virtual World Prison”). Some users of Second Life favour technical steps; they believe that new users should be held a fixed amount of time on the Orientation island which would stop banned users from coming back into the world immediately. The third is to create tools for average users or super users (administrators); both involve software features, some of which are available to all users to help them make the game good for them while others are available only to people with administrator privileges. Average users who own land have a variety of tools available to limit griefing behaviour on their own property. In Second Life, the land owner is often blamed because he or she did not use the tools provided to landowners by Linden Lab; they can ban individual users, remove users from the land, mute their conversation, return items left on the property, and prevent people from building or running scripts. As one landowner said, “With the newbies coming in there, I’ve seen their properties just littered with crap because they don’t know protective measures you need to take as far as understanding land control and access rights” (qtd. in Girard). Super users, those who work for Linden Lab, can remove a player from the game for a various lengths of time based on their behaviour patterns. Responses to griefers can also be examined as either individual or joint actions. Individual actions include those that land owners can take against individual griefers. Individual users, regardless of account type, can file abuse reports against other individuals; Linden Lab investigates these reports and takes appropriate action. Quick and consistent reporting of all griefing, no matter how small, is advocated by most game companies and user groups as fairly successful. Strangely, some types of joint actions have been not so successful. Landowners have tried to form the Second Life Anti-Griefing Guild, but it folded because of lack of involvement. Groups providing security services have formed; many event organisers use this kind of service. (Hoffman). More successful efforts have included the creation of software, such as SLBanLink.com, Karma, and TrustNet that read lists of banned users into the banned list on all participating property. A last category of actions to be taken against griefers, and a category used by most residents of virtual worlds, is to leave them alone—to ignore them, to tolerate their actions. The thinking is that, as with many bullies in real life, griefers want attention; when deprived of that, they will move on to find other amusements. Yelling and screaming at griefers just reinforces their bad behaviour. Users simply teleport to other locations or log off. They warn others of the griefing behaviour using the various in-world communication tools so they too can stay away from the griefers. Most of the actions described above are not useful against griefers for whom a bad reputation is part of their credibility in the griefer community. The users of Second Life who staged the Gray Goo denial of service attack in October, 2005 fit into that category. They did nothing to hide the fact that they wanted to cause massive trouble; they named the self-replicating object that they created Grief Spawn and discussed ways to bring down the world on griefer forums (Wallace) Conclusion The most effective griefing usually involves an individual or small group who are only looking to have fun at someone else’s expense. It’s a small goal, and as long as there are any other users, it is easy to obtain the desired effect. In fact, as word spreads of the griefing and users feel compelled to change their behaviour to stave off future griefer attacks, the griefers have fun and achieve their goal. The key point here is that everyone has the same goal – have fun. Unfortunately, for one group – the griefers – achieving their goal precludes other users from reaching theirs. Political griefers are less successful in achieving their goals. Political creative play as griefing, like other kinds of griefing, is not particularly effective, which is another aspect of griefing as error. Other players react with frustration and violence to the actions of griefers such as deLappe and Velvet-Strike. If griefing activity makes people upset, they are less open to considering the political or economic motives of the griefers. Some complaints are relatively mild; “I’m all for creative protest and what not, but this is stupid. It’s not meaningful art or speaking out or anything of the type, its just annoying people who are never going to change their minds about how awesome they think war is” (Borkingchikapa). Others are more negative: “Somebody really needs to go find where that asshole lives and beat the shit out of him. Yeah, it’s a free country and he can legally pull this crap, but that same freedom extends to some patriot kicking the living shit out of him” (Reynolds). In this type of griefing no one’s goals for using the game are satisfied. The regular users can not have fun, but neither do they seem to be open to or accepting of the political griefer’s message. This pattern of success and failure may explain why there are so many examples of griefing to disrupt rather then the politically motivated kind. It may also suggest why efforts to curb griefing have been so ineffective in the past. Griefers who seek to disrupt for fun would see it as a personal triumph if others organised against them. Even if they found themselves banned from one area, they could quickly move somewhere else to have their fun since whom or where they harass does not really matter. Perhaps not all griefing is in error, rather, only those griefing activities motivated by any other goal than have fun. People invest their time and energy in creating their characters and developing skills. The behaviour of people in these virtual environments has a definite bearing on the real world. And perhaps that explains why people in these virtual worlds react so strongly to the behaviour. So, remember, stay off the beach until they catch the griefers, and if you want to make up the game as you go along, be ready for the other players to point at you and say “Bad, Bad Avatar.” References Bartle, Richard. “Players Who Suit MUDs.” Journal of MUD Research 1.1 (June 1996). 10 Sep. 2007 http://www.mud.co.uk/richard/hcds.htm>. Becker, David. Inflicting Pain on “Griefers.” 13 Dec. 2004. 10 Oct. 2007 http://www.news.com/Inflicting-pain-on-griefers/2100-1043_3-5488403.html>. Borkingchikapa. Playing America’s Army. 30 May 2006. 10 Aug. 2007 http://www.metafilter.com/51938/playing-Americas-Army>. Cabron, Lou. John Edwards Attackers Unmasked. 5 Mar. 2007. 29 Apr. 2007 http://www.10zenmonkeys.com/2007/03/05/john-edwards-virtual-attackers-unmasked/>. Cabron, Lou. Who Are Second Life’s “Patriotic Nigas”? 8 Mar. 2007. 30 Apr. 2007 http://www.10zenmonkeys.com/2007/03/08/patriotic-nigras-interview-john-edwards-second-life/>. DeLappe, Joseph. Joseph deLappe. 2006. 10 Aug. 2007. http://www.unr.edu/art/DELAPPE/DeLappe%20Main%20Page/DeLappe%20Online%20MAIN.html>. Drake, Shannon. “Jerk on the Internet.” The Escapist Magazine 15 Nov. 2005: 31-32. 20 June 2007 http://www.escapistmagazine.com/issue/19/31>. Foo, Chek Yang. Redefining Grief Play. 2004. 10 Oct. 2007 http://64.233.167.104/search?q=cache:1mBYzWVqAsIJ:www.itu.dk/op/papers/ yang_foo.pdf+foo+koivisto&hl=en&ct=clnk&cd=7&gl=us&client=firefox-a>. Foo, Chek Yang, and Elina Koivisto. Grief Player Motivations. 2004. 15 Aug. 2007 http://www.itu.dk/op/papers/yang_foo_koivisto.pdf>. G4. Confessions of a Griefer. N.D. 21 June 2007 http://www.g4tv.com/xplay/features/42527/Confessions_of_a_Griefer.html>. Girard, Nicole. “Griefer Madness: Terrorizing Virtual Worlds.”_ Linux Insider_ 19 Sep. 2007. 3 Oct. 2007 http://www.linuxinsider.com/story/59401.html>. Hoffman, E. C. “Tip Sheet: When Griefers Attack.” Business Week. 2007. 21 June 2007 http://www.businessweek.com/playbook/07/0416_1.htm>. Kenzo, In. “Comment: Has Plastic Duck Migrated Back to SL?” Second Life Herald Apr. 2006. 10 Oct. 2007 http://www.secondlifeherald.com/slh/2006/04/has_plastic_duc.html>. King, Brad. “Make Love, Not War.” Wired June 2002. 10 Aug. 2007 http://www.wired.com/gaming/gamingreviews/news/2002/06/52894>. Koster, Raph. A Theory of Fun for Game Design. Scotsdale, AZ: Paraglyph, 2005. Kotaku. _WoW Funeral Party Gets Owned. _2006. 15 Aug. 2007 http://kotaku.com/gaming/wow/wow-funeral-party-gets-owned-167354.php>. MarketingVox. Second Life Liberation Army Targets Brands. 7. Dec. 2006. 10 Aug. 2007 http://www.marketingvox.com/archives/2006/12/07/second-life-liberation-army-targets-brands/>. Mulligan, Jessica, and Bridget Patrovsky. Developing Online Games: An Insider’s Guide. Indianapolis: New Riders, 2003. Reynolds, Ren. Terra Nova: dead-in-iraq. 7 May 2006. 15 Aug. 2007 http://terranova.blogs.com/terra_nova/2006/05/deadiniraq_.html>. Rossingnol, Jim. “A Deadly Dollar.” The Escapist Magazine 15 Nov. 2005: 23-27. 20 June 2007 http://www.escapistmagazine.com/issue/19/23>. Scarborough, Solivar. Mass Spam Issue Inworld Being Investigated. 13 Oct. 2006. 20 June 2007 http://blog.secondlife.com/2006/10/13/mass-spam-issue-inworld-being-investigated/>. Sklar, Urizenus. “Big Brother Opening Hypervent Griefed for 4 Hours.” Second Life Herald 12 Dec. 2006. 10 Aug. 2007 http://www.secondlifeherald.com/slh/2006/12/big_brother_ope.html>. Suler, John. The Bad Boys of Cyberspace. 1997. 10 Oct. 2007 http://www-usr.rider.edu/~suler/psycyber/badboys.html>. Taylor, T.L. Play between Worlds: Exploring Online Game Culture. Cambridge, MA: MIT, 2006. Velvet Strike. Velvet-Strike. N.D. 10 Aug. 2007 http://www.opensorcery.net/velvet-strike/nonflame.html>. Walker, John. “How to Be a Complete Bastard.” PC Gamer 13 Mar. 2007. 10 Aug. 2007 http://www.computerandvideogames.com/article.php?id=159883&site=pcg>. Wallace, Mark. “The Day the Grid Disappeared.” Escapist Magazine 15 Nov. 2005: 11. 20 June 2007 http://www.escapistmagazine.com/issue/19/11>. Walsh, Tony. Hidden Virtual-World Prison Revealed. 3 Jan. 2006. 10 Oct. 2007 http://www.secretlair.com/index.php?/clickableculture/entry/hidden_virtual_world_prison_revealed/>. Walsh, Tony. Second Life Millionaire Interview Penis-Bombed. 20 Dec. 2006. 10 Oct. 2007 http://www.secretlair.com/index.php?/clickableculture/entry/second_life_millionaire_interview_penis_bombed/>. Warner, Dorothy, and Mike Raiter. _Social Context in Massively-Multiplayer Online Games. _2005. 20 Aug. 2007 http://www.i-r-i-e.net/inhalt/004/Warner-Raiter.pdf>. “World of Warcraft: Funeral Ambush.” 2006. 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Human history has witnessed varied surveillance and counter-surveillance activities from time immemorial. Human beings could not surveille others effectively and accurately without the technology of their era. Technology is a tool that can empower both people and governments. The outcomes are different based on the users’ intentions and aims. 2,500 years ago, Sun Tzu noted that ‘If you know both yourself and your enemy, you can win numerous (literally, "a hundred") battles without jeopardy’. His words still ring true. To be a good surveiller and counter-surveiller it is essential to know both sides, and in order to be good at these activities access to technology is vital. There is no doubt that knowledge is power, and without technology to access the information, it is impossible to be powerful. As we become more expert at technology, we will learn what makes surveillance and counter-surveillance more effective, and will be more powerful.“Surveillance” is one of the most important aspects of living in the convergent media environment. This essay illustrates government surveillance and counter-surveillance during the Iranian Green Movement (2009) on social and mobile media. The Green Movement refers to a non-violent movement that arose after the disputed presidential election on June 2009. After that Iran was facing its most serious political crisis since the 1979 revolution. Claims of vote fraud triggered massive street protests. Many took to the streets with “Green” signs, chanting slogans such as ‘the government lied’, and ‘where is my vote?’ There is no doubt that social and mobile media has played an important role in Iran’s contemporary politics. According to Internet World Stats (IWS) Internet users in 2009 account for approximately 48.5 per cent of the population of Iran. In 2009, Iran had 30.2 million mobile phone users (Freedom House), and 72 cellular subscriptions for every 100 people (World Bank). Today, while Iran has the 19th-largest population in the world, its blogosphere holds the third spot in terms of number of users, just behind the United States and China (Beth Elson et al.). In this essay the use of social and mobile media (technology) is not debated, but the extent of this use, and who, why and how it is used, is clearly scrutinised.Visibility and Surveillance There have been different kinds of surveillance for a very long time. However, all types of surveillance are based on the notion of “visibility”. Previous studies show that visibility is not a new term (Foucault Discipline). The new things in the new era, are its scale, scope and complicated ways to watch others without being watched, which are not limited to a specific time, space and group, and are completely different from previous instruments for watching (Andrejevic). As Meikle and Young (146) have mentioned ‘networked digital media bring with them a new kind of visibility’, based on different kinds of technology. Internet surveillance has important implications in politics to control, protect, and influence (Marx Ethics; Castells; Fuchs Critique). Surveillance has been improved during its long history, and evolved from very simple spying and watching to complicated methods of “iSpy” (Andrejevic). To understand the importance of visibility and its relationship with surveillance, it is essential to study visibility in conjunction with the notion of “panopticon” and its contradictory functions. Foucault uses Bentham's notion of panopticon that carries within itself visibility and transparency to control others. “Gaze” is a central term in Bentham’s view. ‘Bentham thinks of a visibility organised entirely around a dominating, overseeing gaze’ (Foucault Eye). Moreover, Thomson (Visibility 11) notes that we are living in the age of ‘normalizing the power of the gaze’ and it is clear that the influential gaze is based on powerful means to see others.Lyon (Surveillance 2) explains that ‘surveillance is any collection and processing of personal data, whether identifiable or not, for the purpose of influencing or managing those whose data have been granted…’. He mentions that today the most important means of surveillance reside in computer power which allows collected data to be sorted, matched, retrieved, processed, marketed and circulated.Nowadays, the Internet has become ubiquitous in many parts of the world. So, the changes in people’s interactions have influenced their lives. Fuchs (Introduction 15) argues that ‘information technology enables surveillance at a distance…in real time over networks at high transmission speed’. Therefore, visibility touches different aspects of people’s lives and living in a “glasshouse” has caused a lot of fear and anxiety about privacy.Iran’s Green Movement is one of many cases for studying surveillance and counter-surveillance technologies in social and mobile media. Government Surveillance on Social and Mobile Media in Iran, 2009 In 2009 the Iranian government controlled technology that allowed them to monitor, track, and limit access to the Internet, social media and mobiles communication, which has resulted in the surveillance of Green Movement’s activists. The Iranian government had improved its technical capabilities to monitor the people’s behavior on the Internet long before the 2009 election. The election led to an increase in online surveillance. Using social media the Iranian government became even more powerful than it was before the election. Social media was a significant factor in strengthening the government’s power. In the months after the election the virtual atmosphere became considerably more repressive. The intensified filtering of the Internet and implementation of more advanced surveillance systems strengthened the government’s position after the election. The Open Net Initiative revealed that the Internet censorship system in Iran is one of the most comprehensive and sophisticated censorship systems in the world. It emphasized that ‘Advances in domestic technical capacity have contributed to the implementation of a centralized filtering strategy and a reduced reliance on Western technologies’.On the other hand, the authorities attempted to block all access to political blogs (Jaras), either through cyber-security methods or through threats (Tusa). The Centre for Investigating Organized Cyber Crimes, which was founded in 2007 partly ‘to investigate and confront social and economic offenses on the Internet’ (Cyber Police), became increasingly important over the course of 2009 as the government combated the opposition’s online activities (Beth Elson et al. 16). Training of "senior Internet lieutenants" to confront Iran's "virtual enemies online" was another attempt that the Intelligence minister announced following the protests (Iran Media Program).In 2009 the Iranian government enacted the Computer Crime Law (Jaras). According to this law the Committee in Charge of Determining Unauthorized Websites is legally empowered to identify sites that carry forbidden content and report that information to TCI and other major ISPs for blocking (Freedom House). In the late fall of 2009, the government started sending threatening and warning text messages to protesters about their presence in the protests (BBC). Attacking, blocking, hacking and hijacking of the domain names of some opposition websites such as Jaras and Kaleme besides a number of non-Iranian sites such as Twitter were among the other attempts of the Iranian Cyber Army (Jaras).It is also said that the police and security forces arrested dissidents identified through photos and videos posted on the social media that many imagined had empowered them. Furthermore, the online photos of the active protesters were posted on different websites, asking people to identify them (Valizadeh).In late June 2009 the Iranian government was intentionally permitting Internet traffic to and from social networking sites such as Facebook and Twitter so that it could use a sophisticated practice called Deep Packet Inspection (DPI) to collect information about users. It was reportedly also applying the same technology to monitor mobile phone communications (Beth Elson et al. 15).On the other hand, to cut communication between Iranians inside and outside the country, Iran slowed down the Internet dramatically (Jaras). Iran also blocked access to Facebook, YouTube, Wikipedia, Twitter and many blogs before, during and after the protests. Moreover, in 2009, text message services were shut down for over 40 days, and mobile phone subscribers could not send or receive text messages regardless of their mobile carriers. Subsequently it was disrupted on a temporary basis immediately before and during key protests days.It was later discovered that the Nokia Siemens Network provided the government with surveillance technologies (Wagner; Iran Media Program). The Iranian government built a complicated system that enabled it to monitor, track and intercept what was said on mobile phones. Nokia Siemens Network confirmed it supplied Iran with the technology needed to monitor, control, and read local telephone calls [...] The product allowed authorities to monitor any communications across a network, including voice calls, text messaging, instant messages, and web traffic (Cellan-Jones). Media sources also reported that two Chinese companies, Huawei and ZTE, provided surveillance technologies to the government. The Nic Payamak and Saman Payamak websites, that provide mass text messaging services, also reported that operator Hamrah Aval commonly blocked texts with words such as meeting, location, rally, gathering, election and parliament (Iran Media Program). Visibility and Counter-Surveillance The panopticon is not limited to the watchers. Similarly, new kinds of panopticon and visibility are not confined to government surveillance. Foucault points out that ‘the seeing machine was once a sort of dark room into which individuals spied; it has become a transparent building in which the exercise of power may be supervised by society as a whole’ (Discipline 207). What is important is Foucault's recognition that transparency, not only of those who are being observed but also of those who are observing, is central to the notion of the panopticon (Allen) and ‘any member of society will have the right to come and see with his own eyes how schools, hospitals, factories, and prisons function’ (Foucault, Discipline 207). Counter-surveillance is the process of detecting and mitigating hostile surveillance (Burton). Therefore, while the Internet is a surveillance instrument that enables governments to watch people, it also improves the capacity to counter-surveille, and draws public attention to governments’ injustice. As Castells (185) notes the Internet could be used by citizens to watch their government as an instrument of control, information, participation, and even decision-making, from the bottom up.With regards to the role of citizens in counter-surveillance we can draw on Jay Rosen’s view of Internet users as ‘the people formerly known as the audience’. In counter-surveillance it can be said that passive citizens (formerly the audience) have turned into active citizens. And this change was becoming impossible without mobile and social media platforms. These new techniques and technologies have empowered people and given them the opportunity to have new identities. When Thompson wrote ‘the exercise of power in modern societies remains in many ways shrouded in secrecy and hidden from the public gaze’ (Media 125), perhaps he could not imagine that one day people can gaze at the politicians, security forces and the police through the use of the Internet and mobile devices.Furthermore, while access to mobile media allows people to hold authorities accountable for their uses and abuses of power (Breen 183), social media can be used as a means of representation, organization of collective action, mobilization, and drawing attention to police brutality and reasons for political action (Gerbaudo).There is no doubt that having creativity and using alternative platforms are important aspects in counter-surveillance. For example, images of Lt. Pike “Pepper Spray Cop” from the University of California became the symbol of the senselessness of police brutality during the Occupy Movement (Shaw). Iranians’ Counter-Surveillance on Social and Mobile Media, 2009 Iran’s Green movement (2009) triggered a lot of discussions about the role of technology in social movements. In this regard, there are two notable attitudes about the role of technology: techno-optimistic (Shriky and Castells) and techno-pessimistic (Morozov and Gladwell) views should be taken into account. While techno-optimists overrated the role of social media, techno-pessimists underestimated its role. However, there is no doubt that technology has played a great role as a counter-surveillance tool amongst Iranian people in Iran’s contemporary politics.Apart from the academic discussions between techno-optimists and techno-pessimists, there have been numerous debates about the role of new technologies in Iran during the Green Movement. This subject has received interest from different corners of the world, including Western countries, Iranian authorities, opposition groups, and also some NGOs. However, its role as a means of counter-surveillance has not received adequate attention.As the tools of counter-surveillance are more or less the tools of surveillance, protesters learned from the government to use the same techniques to challenge authority on social media.Establishing new websites (such as JARAS, RASA, Kalemeh, and Iran green voice) or strengthening some previous ones (such as Saham, Emrooz, Norooz), also activating different platforms such as Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube accounts to broadcast the voice of the Iranian Green Movement and neutralize the government’s propaganda were the most important ways to empower supporters of Iran’s Green Movement in counter-surveillance.‘Reporters Without Borders issued a statement, saying that ‘the new media, and particularly social networks, have given populations collaborative tools with which they can change the social order’. It is also mentioned that despite efforts by the Iranian government to prevent any reporting of the protests and due to considerable pressure placed on foreign journalists inside Iran, social media played a significant role in sending the messages and images of the movement to the outside world (Axworthy). However, at that moment, many thought that Twitter performed a liberating role for Iranian dissenters. For example, Western media heralded the Green Movement in Iran as a “Twitter revolution” fuelled by information and communication technologies (ICTs) and social media tools (Carrieri et al. 4). “The Revolution Will Be Twittered” was the first in a series of blog posts published by Andrew Sullivan a few hours after the news of the protests was released.According to the researcher’s observation the numbers of Twitter users inside Iran who tweeted was very limited in 2009 and social media was most useful in the dissemination of information, especially from those inside Iran to outsiders. Mobile phones were mostly influential as an instrument firstly used for producing contents (images and videos) and secondly for the organisation of protests. There were many photos and videos that were filmed by very simple mobile cell phones, uploaded by ordinary people onto YouTube and other platforms. The links were shared many times on Twitter and Facebook and released by mainstream media. The most frequently circulated story from the Iranian protests was a video of Neda Agha-Sultan. Her final moments were captured by some bystanders with mobile phone cameras and rapidly spread across the global media and the Internet. It showed that the camera-phone had provided citizens with a powerful means, allowing for the creation and instant sharing of persuasive personalised eyewitness records with mobile and globalised target populations (Anden-Papadopoulos).Protesters used another technique, DDOS (distributed denial of service attacks), for political protest in cyber space. Anonymous people used DDOS to overload a website with fake requests, making it unavailable for users and disrupting the sites set as targets (McMillan) in effect, shutting down the site. DDOS is an important counter-surveillance activity by grassroots activists or hackers. It was a cyber protest that knocked the main Iranian governmental websites off-line and caused crowdsourcing and false trafficking. Amongst them were Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, Iran's supreme leader’s websites and those which belong to or are close to the government or security forces, including news agencies (Fars, IRNA, Press TV…), the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the Ministry of Justice, the Police, and the Ministry of the Interior.Moreover, as authorities uploaded the pictures of protesters onto different platforms to find and arrest them, in some cities people started to put the pictures, phone numbers and addresses of members of security forces and plain clothes police officers who attacked them during the protests and asked people to identify and report the others. They also wanted people to send information about suspects who infringed human rights. Conclusion To sum up, visibility, surveillance and counter-surveillance are not new phenomena. What is new is the technology, which increased their complexity. As Foucault (Discipline 200) mentioned ‘visibility is a trap’, so being visible would be the weakness of those who are being surveilled in the power struggle. In the convergent era, in order to be more powerful, both surveillance and counter-surveillance activities aim for more visibility. Although both attempt to use the same means (technology) to trap the other side, the differences are in their subjects, objects, goals and results.While in surveillance, visibility of the many by the few is mostly for the purpose of control and influence in undemocratic ways, in counter-surveillance, the visibility of the few by the many is mostly through democratic ways to secure more accountability and transparency from the governments.As mentioned in the case of Iran’s Green Movement, the scale and scope of visibility are different in surveillance and counter-surveillance. The importance of what Shaw wrote about Sydney occupy counter-surveillance, applies to other places, such as Iran. She has stressed that ‘protesters and police engaged in a dance of technology and surveillance with one another. Both had access to technology, but there were uncertainties about the extent of technology and its proficient use…’In Iran (2009), both sides (government and activists) used technology and benefited from digital networked platforms, but their levels of access and domains of influence were different, which was because the sources of power, information and wealth were divided asymmetrically between them. Creativity was important for both sides to make others more visible, and make themselves invisible. Also, sharing information to make the other side visible played an important role in these two areas. References Alen, David. “The Trouble with Transparency: The Challenge of Doing Journalism Ethics in a Surveillance Society.” Journalism Studies 9.3 (2008): 323-40. 8 Dec. 2013 ‹http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/14616700801997224#.UqRFSuIZsqN›. 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If the home is traditionally considered to be a space of safety associated with the warm and cosy feeling of the familial hearth, it is also continuously portrayed as a space under threat from the outside from which we must secure ourselves and our families. Securing the home entails a series of material, discursive and performative strategies, a host of precautionary measures aimed at regulating and ultimately producing security. When I was eleven my family returned home from the local fruit markets to find our house had been ransacked. Clothes were strewn across the floor, electrical appliances were missing and my parents’ collection of jewellery – wedding rings and heirlooms – had been stolen. Few things remained untouched and the very thought of someone else’s hands going through our personal belongings made our home feel tainted. My parents were understandably distraught. As Filipino immigrants to Australia the heirlooms were not only expensive assets from both sides of my family, but also signifiers of our homeland. Added to their despair was the fact that this was our first house – we had rented prior to that. During the police interviews, we discovered that our area, Sydney’s Western suburbs, was considered ‘high-risk’ and we were advised to install security. In their panic my parents began securing their home. Grills were installed on every window. Each external wooden door was reinforced by a metal security door. Movement detectors were installed at the front of the house, which were set to blind intruders with floodlights. Even if an intruder could enter the back through a window a metal grill security door was waiting between the backroom and the kitchen to stop them from getting to our bedrooms. In short, through a series of transformations our house was made into a residential fortress. Yet home security had its own dangers. A series of rules and regulations were drilled into me ‘in case of an emergency’: know where your keys are in case of a fire so that you can get out; remember the phone numbers for an emergency and the work numbers of your parents; never let a stranger into the house; and if you need to speak to a stranger only open the inside door but leave the security screen locked. Thus, for my Filipino-migrant family in the 1990s, a whole series of defensive behaviours and preventative strategies were produced and disseminated inside and around the home to regulate security risks. Such “local knowledges” were used to reinforce the architectural manifestations of security at the same time that they were a response to the invasion of security systems into our house that created a new set of potential dangers. This article highlights “the interplay of material and symbolic geographies of home” (Blunt and Varley 4), focusing on the relation between urban fears circulating around and within the home and the spatial practices used to negotiate such fears. In exploring home security systems it extends the exemplary analysis of home technologies already begun in Lynn Spigel’s reading of the ‘smart home’ (381-408). In a similar vein, David Morley’s analysis of mediated domesticity shows how communications technology has reconfigured the inside and outside to the extent that television actually challenges the physical boundary that “protects the privacy and solidarity of the home from the flux and threat of the outside world” (87). Television here serves as a passage in which the threat of the outside is reframed as news or entertainment for family viewing. I take this as a point of departure to consider the ways that this mediated fear unfolds in the technology of our homes. Following Brian Massumi, I read the home as “a node in a circulatory network of many dimensions (each corresponding to a technology of transmission)” (85). For Massumi, the home is an event-space at the crossroads of media technologies and political technologies. “In spite of the locks on the door, the event-space of the home must be seen as one characterized by a very loose regime of passage” (85). The ‘locked door’ is not only a boundary marker that defines the inside from the outside but another technology that leads us outside the home into other domains of inquiry: the proliferation of security technologies and the mundane, fearful intimacies of the home. In this context, we should heed Iris Marion Young’s injunction to feminist critics that the home does provide some positives including a sense of privacy and the space to build relationships and identities. Yet, as Colomina argues, the traditional domestic ideal “can only be produced by engaging the home in combat” (20). If, as Colomina’s comment suggests, ontological security is at least partially dependent on physical security, then this article explores the ontological effects of our home security systems. Houses at War: Targeting the Family As Beatriz Colomina reminds us, in times of war we leave our homelands to do battle on the front line, but battle lines are also being drawn in our homes. Drawing inspiration from Virilio’s claim that contemporary war takes place without fighting, Colomina’s article ‘Domesticity at War’ contemplates the domestic interior as a “battlefield” (15). The house, she writes, is “a mechanism within a war where the differences between defense [sic] and attack have become blurred” (17). According to the Home Security Precautions, New South Wales, October 1999 report conducted by the Australian Bureau of Statistics, 47% of NSW dwellings were ‘secure’ (meaning that they either had a burglar alarm, or all entry points were secured or they were inside a security block) while only 9% of NSW households had no home security devices present (Smith 3). In a similar report for Western Australia conducted in October 2004, an estimated 71% of WA households had window security of some sort (screens, locks or shutters) while 67% had deadlocks on at least one external door (4). An estimated 27% had a security alarm installed while almost half (49%) had sensor lights (Hubbard 4-5). This growing sense of insecurity means big business for those selling security products and services. By the end of June 1999, there were 1,714 businesses in Australia’s security services industry generating $1,395 million of income during 1998-99 financial year (McLennan 3; see also Macken). This survey did not include locksmith services or the companies dealing with alarm manufacturing, wholesaling or installing. While Colomina’s article focuses on the “war with weather” and the attempts to control environmental conditions inside the home through what she calls “counterdomesticity” (20), her conceptualisation of the house as a “military weapon” (17) provides a useful tool for thinking the relation between the home, architecture and security. Conceiving of the house as a military weapon might seem like a stretch, but we should recall that the rhetoric of war has already leaked into the everyday. One hears of the ‘war on drugs’ and the ‘war on crime’ in the media. ‘War’ is the everyday condition of our urban jungles (see also Diken and Lausten) and in order to survive, let alone feel secure, one must be able to defend one’s family and home. Take, for example, Signal Security’s website. One finds a panel on the left-hand side of the screen to all webpages devoted to “Residential Products”. Two circular images are used in the panel with one photograph overlapping the other. In the top circle, a white nuclear family (stereotypical mum, dad and two kids), dressed in pristine white clothing bare their white teeth to the internet surfer. Underneath this photo is another photograph in which an arm clad in a black leather jacket emerges through a smashed window. In the foreground a black-gloved hand manipulates a lock, while a black balaclava masks an unrecognisable face through the broken glass. The effect of their proximity produces a violent juxtaposition in which the burglar visually intrudes on the family’s domestic bliss. The panel stages a struggle between white and black, good and bad, family and individual, security and insecurity, recognisability and unidentifiability. It thus codifies the loving, knowable family as the domestic space of security against the selfish, unidentifiable intruder (presumed not to have a family) as the primary reason for insecurity in the family home – and no doubt to inspire the consumption of security products. Advertisements of security products thus articulate the family home as a fragile innocence constantly vulnerable from the outside. From a feminist perspective, this image of the family goes against the findings of the National Homicide Monitoring Program, which shows that 57% of the women killed in Australia between 2004 and 2005 were killed by an intimate partner while 17% were killed by a family member (Mouzos and Houliaras 20). If, on the one hand, the family home is targeted by criminals, on the other, it has emerged as a primary site for security advertising eager to exploit the growing sense of insecurity – the family as a target market. The military concepts of ‘target’ and ‘targeting’ have shifted into the benign discourse of strategic advertising. As Dora Epstein writes, “We arm our buildings to arm ourselves from the intrusion of a public fluidity, and thus our buildings, our architectures of fortification, send a very clear message: ‘avoid this place or protect yourself’” (1997: 139). Epstein’s reference to ‘architectures of fortification’ reminds us that the desire to create security through the built environment has a long history. Nan Ellin has argued that fear’s physical manifestation can be found in the formation of towns from antiquity to the Renaissance. In this sense, towns and cities are always already a response to the fear of foreign invaders (Ellin 13; see also Diken and Lausten 291). This fear of the outsider is most obviously manifested in the creation of physical walls. Yet fortification is also an effect of spatial allusions produced by the configuration of space, as exemplified in Fiske, Hodge and Turner’s semiotic reading of a suburban Australian display home without a fence. While the lack of a fence might suggest openness, they suggest that the manicured lawn is flat so “that eyes can pass easily over it – and smooth – so that feet will not presume to” (30). Since the front garden is best viewed from the street it is clearly a message for the outside, but it also signifies “private property” (30). Space is both organised and lived, in such a way that it becomes a medium of communication to passers-by and would-be intruders. What emerges in this semiotic reading is a way of thinking about space as defensible, as organised in a way that space can begin to defend itself. The Problematic of Defensible Space The incorporation of military architecture into civil architecture is most evident in home security. By security I mean the material systems (from locks to electronic alarms) and precautionary practices (locking the door) used to protect spaces, both of which are enabled by a way of imagining space in terms of risk and vulnerability. I read Oscar Newman’s 1972 Defensible Space as outlining the problematic of spatial security. Indeed, it was around that period that the problematic of crime prevention through urban design received increasing attention in Western architectural discourse (see Jeffery). Newman’s book examines how spaces can be used to reinforce human control over residential environments, producing what he calls ‘defensible space.’ In Newman’s definition, defensible space is a model for residential environments which inhibits crime by creating the physical expression of a social fabric that defends itself. All the different elements which combine to make a defensible space have a common goal – an environment in which latent territoriality and sense of community in the inhabitants can be translated into responsibility for ensuring a safe, productive, and well-maintained living space (3). Through clever design space begins to defend itself. I read Newman’s book as presenting the contemporary problematic of spatialised security: how to structure space so as to increase control; how to organise architecture so as to foster territorialism; how to encourage territorial control through amplifying surveillance. The production of defensible space entails moving away from what he calls the ‘compositional approach’ to architecture, which sees buildings as separate from their environments, and the ‘organic approach’ to architecture, in which the building and its grounds are organically interrelated (Newman 60). In this approach Newman proposes a number of changes to space: firstly, spaces need to be multiplied (one no longer has a simple public/private binary, but also semi-private and semi-public spaces); secondly, these spaces must be hierarchised (moving from public to semi-public to semi-private to private); thirdly, within this hierarchy spaces can also be striated using symbolic or material boundaries between the different types of spaces. Furthermore, spaces must be designed to increase surveillance: use smaller corridors serving smaller sets of families (69-71); incorporate amenities in “defined zones of influence” (70); use L-shaped buildings as opposed to rectangles (84); use windows on the sides of buildings to reveal the fire escape from outside (90). As he puts it, the subdivision of housing projects into “small, recognisable and comprehensible-at-a-glance enclaves is a further contributor to improving the visual surveillance mechanism” (1000). Finally, Newman lays out the principle of spatial juxtaposition: consider the building/street interface (positioning of doors and windows to maximise surveillance); consider building/building interface (e.g. build residential apartments next to ‘safer’ commercial, industrial, institutional and entertainment facilities) (109-12). In short, Newman’s book effectively redefines residential space in terms of territorial zones of control. Such zones of influence are the products of the interaction between architectural forms and environment, which are not reducible to the intent of the architect (68). Thus, in attempting to respond to the exigencies of the moment – the problem of urban crime, the cost of housing – Newman maps out residential space in what Foucault might have called a ‘micro-physics of power’. During the mid-1970s through to the 1980s a number of publications aimed at the average householder are printed in the UK and Australia. Apart from trade publishing (Bunting), The UK Design Council released two small publications (Barty, White and Burall; Design Council) while in Australia the Department of Housing and Construction released a home safety publication, which contained a small section on security, and the Australian Institute of Criminology published a small volume entitled Designing out Crime: Crime prevention through environmental design (Geason and Wilson). While Newman emphasised the responsibility of architects and urban planners, in these publications the general concerns of defensible space are relocated in the ‘average homeowner’. Citing crime statistics on burglary and vandalism, these publications incite their readers to take action, turning the homeowner into a citizen-soldier. The householder, whether he likes it or not, is already in a struggle. The urban jungle must be understood in terms of “the principles of warfare” (Bunting 7), in which everyday homes become bodies needing protection through suitable architectural armour. Through a series of maps and drawings and statistics, the average residential home is transformed into a series of points of vulnerability. Home space is re-inscribed as a series of points of entry/access and lines of sight. Simultaneously, through lists of ‘dos and don’ts’ a set of precautionary behaviours is inculcated into the readers. Principles of security begin codifying the home space, disciplining the spatial practices of the intimate, regulating the access and mobility of the family and guests. The Architectural Nervous System Nowadays we see a wild, almost excessive, proliferation of security products available to the ‘security conscious homeowner’. We are no longer simply dealing with security devices designed to block – such as locks, bolts and fasteners. The electronic revolution has aided the production of security devices that are increasingly more specialised and more difficult to manipulate, which paradoxically makes it more difficult for the security consumer to understand. Detection systems now include continuous wiring, knock-out bars, vibration detectors, breaking glass detectors, pressure mats, underground pressure detectors and fibre optic signalling. Audible alarm systems have been upgraded to wire-free intruder alarms, visual alarms, telephone warning devices, access control and closed circuit television and are supported by uninterruptible power supplies and control panels (see Chartered Institution of Building Service Engineers 19-39). The whole house is literally re-routed as a series of relays in an electronic grid. If the house as a security risk is defined in terms of points of vulnerability, alarm systems take these points as potential points of contact. Relays running through floors, doors and windows can be triggered by pressure, sound or dislocation. We see a proliferation of sensors: switching sensors, infra-red sensors, ultrasonic sensors, microwave radar sensors, microwave fence sensors and microphonic sensors (see Walker). The increasing diversification of security products attests to the sheer scale of these architectural/engineering changes to our everyday architecture. In our fear of crime we have produced increasingly more complex security products for the home, thus complexifying the spaces we somehow inherently feel should be ‘simple’. I suggest that whereas previous devices merely reinforced certain architectural or engineering aspects of the home, contemporary security products actually constitute the home as a feeling, architectural body capable of being affected. This recalls notions of a sensuous architecture and bodily metaphors within architectural discourse (see Thomsen; Puglini). It is not simply our fears that lead us to secure our homes through technology, but through our fears we come to invest our housing architecture with a nervous system capable of fearing for itself. Our eyes and ears become detection systems while our screams are echoed in building alarms. Body organs are deterritorialised from the human body and reterritorialised on contemporary residential architecture, while our senses are extended through modern security technologies. The vulnerable body of the family home has become a feeling body conscious of its own vulnerability. It is less about the physical expression of fear, as Nan Ellin has put it, than about how building materialities become capable of fearing for themselves. What we have now are residential houses that are capable of being more fully mobilised in this urban war. Family homes become bodies that scan the darkness for the slightest movements, bodies that scream at the slightest possibility of danger. They are bodies that whisper to each other: a house can recognise an intrusion and relay a warning to a security station, informing security personnel without the occupants of that house knowing. They are the newly produced victims of an urban war. Our homes are the event-spaces in which mediated fear unfolds into an architectural nervous system. If media plug our homes into one set of relations between ideologies, representations and fear, then the architectural nervous system plugs that back into a different set of relations between capital, fear and the electronic grid. The home is less an endpoint of broadcast media than a node in an electronic network, a larger nervous system that encompasses the globe. It is a network that plugs architectural nervous systems into city electronic grids into mediated subjectivities into military technologies and back again, allowing fear to be disseminated and extended, replayed and spliced into the most banal aspects of our domestic lives. 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This paper examines the manner of reconciling the concepts of Public Administration as a discipline and the contemporary actual realities in the Philippines as carried out by the National College of Public Administration and Governance of the University of the Philippines, Diliman. As a center of academic excellence and bestowed with the mandate of advancing nation-building into which utterance of identity is an implicit element, there is no other academic institution where expectations to advance the development of a ‘grounded’ public policy is so high than the said College. The paper studies the research direction of the NCPAG vis a vis its role in strengthening Philippine Public Administration both as discipline and praxis by developing approaches that are culturally and socially grounded in the Philippine society. The paper however limited its scrutiny to the epistemological element of the researches. Through content analysis, the article analyzed the theoretical frameworks used in the dissertations covered by the study and tries to answer the question of whether or not there is an attempt to develop, let alone to utilize in its analysis of phenomena, an indigenous theory. Initial results of the study had been juxtaposed to the academic orientation, research interests, and history of the College. References Books: Abueva, J. (1995). The Presidency and the Nation-State. In P. Tapales & N. Pilar (Eds.), Public Administration by the Year 2000: Looking Back into the Future (pp. 575-582). Quezon City: College of Public Administration. Abueva, J. (2007). From IPA to NCPAG: Some Reflections. In C. Alfiler (Ed.), Public Administration plus Governance: Assessing the Past, Addressing the Future (pp. 675-684). Quezon City: National College of Public Administration and Governance. Alfiler, M. C. Public Administration plus Governance: Assessing the Past, Addressing the Future. Quezon City: National College of Public Administration and Governance, 2007. Cariño, L. (2007). Traditional Public Administration to Governance: Research in NCPAG, 1952-2002, Public Administration plusGovernance: Assessing the Past, Addressing the Future (pp. 685-706). Quezon City:National College of Public Administration and Governance. Reyes, D. (1995). Life Begins at Forty: An Inquiry on Administrative Theory in the Philippines and the Structure of Scientific Revelations. In P. Tapales & N. Pilar (Eds.), Public Administration by the Year 2000: Looking Back into the Future (pp. 18-73). Quezon City: College of Public Administration. Tapales, P. & Pilar, N. Public Administration by the Year 2000: Looking Back into the Future. Quezon City: National College of Public Administration and Governance, 1995. Journal Articles: Abueva, J. “Ideals and Practice in the Study of Public Administration and Governance.” Philippine Journal of Public Administration 52, nos. 2-4 (2008): 119-138. 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Reyes, D. “The Study of Administrative History: Philippine Public Administration as an Historical Discipline.” Philippine Journal of Public Administration 52, nos. 2-4 (2008). Ricote, E. “Philippine Public Administration as a Field of Study, Enduring and Emerging Areas, Challenges, and Prospects.” Philippine Journal of Public Administration 52, nos. 2- 4 (2008): 167-194. Sampaco-Baddiri, M. “New Institutionalism and Public Administration.” Philippine Journal of Public Administration 55, nos. 1 & 2 (2011): 1-20. Sto. Tomas, P. & Mangahas, J. “Public Administration and Governance.” Philippine Journal of Public Administration 50, nos. 1-4 (2006): 54-89. Thornhill, C. & Van Dijk, G. “Public Administration Theory: Justification for Conceptualisation.” Journal of Public Administration 45, no. 1.1 (2010): 95-110. Wilson, W. “The Study of Administration.” Political Science Quarterly 2, no. 2 (1887): 197-222. Unpublished Dissertations Abad-Sarmiento, L. (2005). 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Process Assessment of the Implementation of Integrated Approach to Local Development Management in Davao City. (Unpublished doctoral dissertation). University of the Philippines, Quezon City, Philippines. Bajao, A.R. (2009). Philippine Counterinsurgency Programs From Marcos to Arroyo: A Study in National Security Administration. (Unpublished doctoral dissertation). University of the Philippines, Quezon City, Philippines. Bambalan, G.C. (2005). Elements of Sustainability in Philippine Forest Governance: An Analysis of the Community-Based Forest Management and Integrated Forest Management Programs in Isabela, Quirino, Aurora, and Negros Oriental, Philippines. (Unpublished doctoral dissertation). University of the Philippines, Quezon City, Philippines. Bautista-Cruz, C. (April 2007). Strengthening Institutional Capacity for Disaster Reduction: The Cases of the Local Governments of Marikina, Pasig, and Pateros. (Unpublished doctoral dissertation). 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(April 2008). Strategies for Crisis Management: The Responses of China to SARS and Avian Flu Pandemics and Lessons for the Philippines. (Unpublished doctoral dissertation). University of the Philippines, Quezon City, Philippines. Co, E.A. (July 1997). Management Policy Formulation: The Generics Act of 1988. (Unpublished doctoral dissertation). University of the Philippines, Quezon City, Philippines. Cuaresma, J.C. (April 13, 2008). Institutionalization of Geographic Information System for RPTA in Seven Philippine Local Government Units: Enabling and Hindering Factors. (Unpublished doctoral dissertation). University of the Philippines, Quezon City, Philippines. Dimzon, C. (October 2003). An Evaluation of the Pre-Departure Orientation Seminar Program for Women Overseas Household Workers: Implications for Good Governance. (Unpublished doctoral dissertation). University of the Philippines, Quezon City, Philippines. De Vera III, J.E. (July 1999). 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