Journal articles on the topic 'Sels fondant'

Eight different concrete mixtures were prepared to investigate the influence of the minimum temperature of the freezing and thawing cycle on scaling deterioration due to deicer salt. In addition to the two minimum temperatures studied (−18 and −9 °C), test variables included the type of binder (with or without silica fume), the water/binder ratio (0.35 or 0.45), the characteristics of the air-void network (with or without air entrainment), and the drying temperature during the conditioning period prior to the scaling test (20, 40, or 110 °C). The scaling resistance to deicer salt of all concrete mixtures was assessed according to the prescriptions of the ASTM C672 test procedure using a 3 % NaCl solution. Test results indicate that a reduction of the minimal temperature from −9 to −18 °C significantly increases the scaling deterioration of concrete due to deicer salt. Key words: freezing cycle, scaling resistance, minimal freezing temperature, deicer salts.

Penelitian ini bertujuan untuk mendeskripsikan pemahaman diri siswa SMP tentang masa pubertas/baligh sebagai dasar layanan bimbingan dan konseling. Penelitian ini menggunakan metode kuantitatif dengan pendekatan analisis deskriptif. Populasi penelitian adalah seluruh siswa SMPN 13 Banjarmasin yang berjumlah 607 siswa dengan menggunakan teknik stratifikasi sampling. Jumlah sampel yang diambil 120 siswa yaitu kelas VIII dan IX yaitu yang terdiri dari 60 siswa laki-laki dan 60 siswa perempuan yang terdaftar pada tahun ajaran 2018/2019. Instrumen yang digunakan adalah angket. Tehnik analisis data menggunakan teknik analisa persentase. Hasil penelitian menunjukkan bahwa pemahaman diri siswa SMP Negeri 13 tentang masa pubertas/baligh adalah sebagian besar siswa laki-laki dan siswa perempuan sudah baligh pada rentang usia 11 dan 14 tahun, dan merasa biasa saja terhadap perubahan fisik, psikis, dan sosial emosional. Bagi siswa laki-laki pengalaman mimpi basah (baligh) sebagian besar tertutup kepada orangtua, sebaliknya siswa perempuan sangat terbuka terutama kepada ibu. Sebagian besar yang mengajari tatacara mandi wajib kepada siswa laki-laki adalah guru agama, dan bagi siswa perempuan adalah ibunya. Siswa laki-laki ketika junub lebih banyak tidak mengerjakan mandi wajib, sebaliknya siswa perempuan selalu mengerjakan mandi wajib selesai menstruasi. Berdasarkan temuan hasil penelitian tersebut sebagai dasar pelayanan Bimbingan dan Konseling.__________________________________________________________This study aims to describe the self-understanding of middle school students about puberty / baligh as a basis for counseling and guidance services. This study uses a quantitative method with a descriptive analysis approach. The study population was all students of SMPN 13 Banjarmasin, totaling 607 students using sampling stratification techniques. The number of samples taken by 120 students is class VIII and IX, which consists of 60 male students and 60 female students enrolled in the 2018/2019 school year. The instrument used was a questionnaire. Data analysis techniques use percentage analysis techniques. The results showed that the self-esteem of SMP Negeri 13 students about puberty / baligh was that most male and female students were already high in the ages of 11 and 14 years, and felt normal towards physical, psychological, and social emotional changes. For male students the experience of baligh dreams is mostly closed to parents, whereas female students are very open especially to mothers. Most of those who teach mandatory bathing procedures for male students are religious teachers, and for female students are their mothers. Male students when Junub did not do mandatory bathing, on the other hand female students always did bathing and had to finish menstruation. Based on the findings of the research as a basis for Guidance and Counseling services.

Mjesni narodni odbor Bašanija djelovao je od 1947. do 1952. godine, kao upravno tijelo lokalnoga karaktera neposredno podređen Narodnom odboru kotara Buje (1945-1955). Naslijedio ga je Narodni odbor Gradske općine Umag (1952. – 1955.) koji s radom počinje 1952. godine osnutkom Gradske općine Umag te čija teritorijalna nadležnost obuhvaća područje ukinutoga stvaratelja. Djelatnost Mjesnoga narodnog odbora Bašanija posebno se odnosila na ostvarivanje poljoprivrednog plana, brigu o materijalno-kulturnom napretku mjesta, obavljanje komunalnih poslova, unapređenje obrta i industrije te posredovanje u procesu razmjene dobara između grada i sela. Za vođenje administracije i izvršavanje odluka Narodnoga odbora bili su zaduženi njegov predsjednik i tajnik. Ostali su službenici od predsjednika i tajnika, kojima su bili odgovorni za svoj rad, dobivali zadatke po potrebi. Nakon prestanka rada stvaratelja gradivo fonda bilo je pohranjeno u arhivu Skupštine Općine Buje, odakle je 1977. godine, zajedno s gradivom povezanih stvaratelja, primljeno u Historijski arhiv – Pazin (danas Državni arhiv u Pazinu). Sređivanje i izrada sumarnoga inventara obavljeni su 2012. godine. Gradivo je sređeno sukladno sadržajno-funkcionalnom modelu sređivanja čuvajući prvobitni red. Cjeline »Opći spisi po broju« i »Povjerljivi spisi« ostavljene su kao zasebne serije dok je na nižoj razini gradivo složeno sukladno sadržajno-tematskoj problematici.

This paper aims to draw a connection between Jacques Derrida and Jean-Luc Marion in regard to the role of negative theology. This scrutiny shows meaningful contributions of the Authors to a new definition of subjectivity in a post-metaphysical age, and their consideration about which possibilities are still open for a non-predetermined history given outside of the presence domain. The future is neither a totalisation of history by its end, nor a simple continuation of the present. It is an eschatological event, where the relationship with the other plays a crucial role for the self-constitution. Such an interlacement is generated by the confession, where the link between past and future is not causally determined, but instead it is self-witness, as in Augustine’s masterpiece, essential reference for both the Authors

Self confidence in learning must be owned by students. However, the fact that happened to the students of semester 1 year 2016/2017 in Fondasi Matematika course still not maximal. Teori Bilangan is a course given to students of the second semester of mathematics education program at Muhammadiyah University of Ponorogo. The purpose of this research is to increase students' self confidence in the subject of Teori Bilangan using Two Stay Two Stray learning model. Thus it is expected that students will be more confident in learning in other subjects in Mathematics Education program. This classroom action research is conducted in two cycles. Results of data analysis before the implementation of the study is 18.52% of the overall students who have high confidence. After analyzing the final data of cycle 2, it is found that the percentage of students who do not have high confidence is 22.22%. The TSTS steps used to improve students' self-confidence is with the improvement effort in the form of lecturers providing assistance to groups that have difficulty in solving the LKM problem..

Lifelong learning has emerged as an important learning outcome across the Canadian post-secondary education system. However, assessments of lifelong learning have been limited to students’ self-reports, particularly questionnaires. In programs that offer work-integrated learning experiences, students’ reflections may provide a window to further developing this outcome. The purpose of this study was to develop a rubric for assessing lifelong learning in this context. A review of the literature was used to develop both a rubric and self-assessment instrument for measuring lifelong learning. Students in an accounting and financial management co-op program at a Canadian university (n = 32) completed the self-assessment and the rubric was applied to two reflection assignments. Staff feedback and correlational analyses provide initial support for the rubric as a useful tool for assessing lifelong learning. Implications for educators especially in work-integrated learning contexts are addressed. Keywords: lifelong learning, reflection, rubric, work-integrated learning L’apprentissage permanent est devenu un objectif d’apprentissage important dans l’ensemble du système d’éducation postsecondaire canadien. Toutefois, l’évaluation de l’apprentissage permanent s’est limitée jusqu’à maintenant aux témoignages des étudiants, au moyen de questionnaires tout particulièrement. Dans les programmes qui offrent des expériences d’apprentissage intégrées au milieu du travail, les réflexions des étudiants peuvent représenter une occasion de progrès dans ce domaine. L’objectif de notre étude était de concevoir une grille d’évaluation permettant d’évaluer l’apprentissage permanent dans un tel contexte. En nous fondant sur un examen des études existantes, nous avons élaboré cette grille ainsi qu’un outil d’auto-évaluation afin d’évaluer l’apprentissage permanent. Des étudiants inscrits dans un programme d’alternance travail-études en comptabilité et gestion financière d’une université canadienne (n = 32) ont complété l’auto-évaluation et nous avons appliqué la grille d’évaluation à deux devoirs d’ordre réflexif. Les commentaires du personnel et l’analyse des corrélations semblent de prime abord indiquer que la grille d’évaluation est un outil utile pour évaluer l’apprentissage permanent. Nous discutons des conséquences de notre étude pour les éducateurs, tout spécialement dans le contexte de l’apprentissage intégré au milieu de travail. Mots clés : apprentissage permanent, réflexion, grille d’évaluation, apprentissage intégré au milieu de travail

Tujuan dari penelitian adalah untuk mengetahui bagaiamana penerapan metode Lovaas dengan pendekatan ICARE terhadap General Life Skill Anak Autis. Penelitian ini termasuk jenis penelitian studi literatur dengan mencari referensi teori yang relevan dengan kasus atau permasalahan yang ditemukan. Referensi teori yang diperoleh dengan jalan penelitian studi literatur dijadikan sebagai fondasi dasar dan alat utama bagi praktek penelitian ditengah lapangan. Untuk memperoleh informasi yang tepat dalam kegiatan pemanfaatan dilakukan melalui kegiatan pemanfaatan/penggunaan metode Lovaas dengan pendekatan ICARE. Secara umum, tujuan programnya adalah sebagai berikut: (1) Usaha Tim Pengajar - siswa, (2) Compliance (kepatuhan, (3) Mengurangi self-stimulatory, (4) Mengajarkan kemampuan menirukan, (5) Perkenalkan anak yang lain sebagai model, (6) berkomunikasi: (a) Berbicara, (b) Gambar, (c) Bahasa isyarat. (7) Bermain secara mandiri, (8) Kemampuan pra-sekolah, (9) Ajarkan kemampuan bantu diri, (10) Ajarkan kemampuan bersosialisasi (11) Ajarkan kemampuan motorik kasar dan halus, (12) Ajarkan bahasa reseptif/ekspresif. Kemampuan yang telah diajarkan kemudian digeneralisasikan ke orang-orang lain dan situasi lainnya.

Abstract. Much recent scholarship explores the consequences of Heidegger's transformation of philosophic thinking for our understanding of political theory at the edge of modernity. In a response to recent readings, this essay argues that the contemporary literature on Heidegger fails to account for two fundamental concerns: the ontic/ontological distinction and the importance of moods, particularly anxiety and boredom. Utilizing these moods, this essay explores the ways in which Heidegger's thought escapes politics through a privileging of the ontological, or object-less, experience, relying on a reclusive reflection as the way to authenticity. Instead of fostering a strong community or strong liberal sense of self, Heidegger leaves us with the nothingness of anxiety and the emptiness of boredom as our alternatives. By transcending the ontic in favor of the ontological, Heidegger divorces himself from politics in the everyday sense and posits an existential response to political theory that is unable to foster authentic collective life.Résumé. Une part importante de la littérature récente explore les conséquences de la transformation de la pensée philosophique amenée par Heidegger et ses effets sur notre compréhension de la théorie politique à l'aube de l'ère moderne. En réponse à de récentes lectures, cet essai relève deux manquements fondamentaux dans la littérature contemporaine sur Heidegger. Le premier concerne la distinction entre l'ontique et l'ontologique et le deuxième a trait à l'importance des humeurs, plus particulièrement l'anxiété et l'ennui. En explorant ces humeurs, cet essai dévoile les manières dont la pensée de Heidegger échappe à la politique en privilégiant l'expérience ontologique ou immatérielle et en se fondant sur la réflexion recluse, voie qui mène à l'authenticité. Au lieu de favoriser une communauté forte ou un sens profond et libéral de soi, Heidegger nous laisse comme options de rechange le néant de l'anxiété et le vide de l'ennui. En transcendant l'ontique en faveur de l'ontologique, Heidegger se sépare de la politique au sens premier du terme pour donner une réponse existentielle à une théorie politique incapable de forger une vie collective authentique.

It is well known that the three bundles of bamboo strips found at Guōdiàn containing versions of materials appearing in the Lǎozǐ included no passages from the last fifteen chapters of the received text. This article examines closely those final ­fifteen chapters, arguing that they articulate a coherent philosophical position funda­mentally different from and even opposed to that of the Guōdiàn materials. The foundation of the last fifteen chapters is an anthropomorphic conception of heaven that supports the good, a view explicitly rejected in the rest of the Lǎozǐ. These last fifteen chapters support the use of punishments, show no awareness of skepticism about language or moralizing categories, and they have no concern with internal practices of self-cultivation. The article concludes with some reflections on the background of the last fifteen chapters and on the significance of this argument for interpreting the Lǎozǐ, particularly the split between so-called “religious” and “philosophical” readings. Il est bien connu que les trois faisceaux de fiches de bambou découverts à Guodian portant des recensions de matériaux figurant dans le Laozi ne contiennent aucun ­passage des quinze derniers chapitres du texte reçu. Cet article propose un examen soigneux de ces quinze derniers chapitres et affirme qu’ils énoncent une position philo­sophique cohérente, fondamentalement différente de celle des textes de Guodian, voire en opposition avec eux. Les quinze derniers chapitres se fondent sur une conception anthropomorphique d’un Ciel encourageant le bien. Or cette vue est explicitement rejetée par le reste du Laozi. Ils encouragent le recours aux châtiments, ne manifestent aucun scepticisme au regard du langage et des catégories morales, et se désintéressent des pratiques internes du perfectionnement de soi. L’article se conclut par quelques réflexions sur l’arrière-plan des quinze derniers chapitres et sur la portée des arguments de l’auteur pour l’interprétation du Laozi, notamment la coupure entre les lectures dites “religieuses” et “philosophiques”.

A recent magazine article evokes the perennial mystery of human desire by asking why a movie star who “has it all” — “a perfect body, happy marriage, wealth,” and “success” — is “not yet satisfied.” Beginning with a play of words, “Why Demi Moore Wants More,” the article ends by finding the wordmore“elusive.” This elusivemoreis the subject of my essay, which links a desire formoreto determinism as a doctrine of causation common to literary naturalism, behavioral psychology, modern advertising, and consumerism. Once consumption figures in a discussion of literary naturalism, at issue in this essay, the lines of argument move centrifugally in various directions to include such seemingly far-flung and unrelated matters as the Vietnam War, kleptomania, the “packaging” of American politics, women's fashion, material culture studies, fitness diets, images of burning bodies, the commodification of books, Jane Fonda's self-transformations, and indecent proposals to Demi Moore. All these matters converge at a single point of origin where a woman character, an American literary heroine, stands and looks. The consequences of this simple, ordinary act — which leads the woman to consume and be consumed — seem to me laden with literary and cultural meanings I must necessarily condense. To do so, my first tactical move will be to leap over an entire century in order to compare Theodore Dreiser's famous novelSister Carrie, published in 1900, with a contemporary story that leaves one shaken by its brilliance and horror. I ask the reader to imagine the gap between the two texts as an ellipsis - adot, dot, dot- filled in by decades of turbulent historical change that have redefined what an American heroine wants but not why she wants more.

Background:The COVID-19 pandemic has caused lockdown, reduced access to face-to-face consultations, anxiety about taking immunosuppressive agents and self-isolation1 which potentially impact rheumatic disease control negatively. However, changes in behavior including self-protection strategies during the ongoing pandemic and impact on rheumatic disease activity have only been scarcely described.The first COVID-19 wave hit Denmark in March 2020 followed by a gradual re-opening from mid-April and the second surge began in the late autumn of 2020.Objectives:To describe changes over time in self-protection strategies and health behavior during the first 8 months of the COVID-19 pandemic and to explore impact on self-reported disease activity and quality of life (=patient reported outcomes, PROs) in patients with inflammatory rheumatic disease (IRD) in DANBIO.Methods:Patients were invited to answer two on-line questionnaires regarding current behavior and disease specific PROs: One in June 2020 (including also questions regarding behavior in March 2020), and one in November 2020. Responses were linked to PROs collected as part of routine care before March 2020 (=Before) in DANBIO. For each PRO, changes (=delta values) between the two timepoints were calculated in individual patients.Results:Overall, 7,836 patients (22% of eligible patients) answered both questionnaires and were included (rheumatoid arthritis(RA): 5270(67%), psoriatic arthritis(PsA): 1217(15%), axial spondyloarthritis(AxSpA): 932(12%), other IRD: 417(5%). Patients reported highest levels of anxiety and self-protection in March with an improvement in June that was largely unchanged in November (Figure 1), e.g. proportions staying at home avoiding others as much as possible (completely or mostly agree) were 87%/49%/51% in March/June/November, respectively (Figure 1, Panel C).Disease activity and proportions of patients reporting acceptable symptom state remained stable at the three time points (Table 1), with all median delta values being close to zero (not shown).Conclusion:In this large cohort of patients with inflammatory rheumatic diseases followed in the nationwide DANBIO registry, COVID-19 related self-protection strategies were highest in March 2020, but more than half of the patients also reported self-isolation in June and November. We found no negative impact of the pandemic on patient-reported outcomes, which remained largely unchanged and were similar to before the pandemic. The latter finding probably reflects that few patients reduced or withdrew from treatment due to fear of COVID-19.1References:[1]Glintborg et al, 2021, https://rmdopen.bmj.com/content/rmdopen/7/1/e001505.full.pdfTable 1.Patient reported outcomes before March, in June and in November 2020 in patients with IRD. N=7,836Before*June 2020Nov 2020Patient VAS global, mm30 (12-58)28 (10-54)29 (10-55)Patient VAS pain, mm27 (11-51)28 (11-51)29 (11-52)HAQ0.50 (0.13-1.0)0.50 (0.13-1.00)0.50 (0.13-1.00)EQ-5D0.80 (0.72-0.86)0.79 (0.71-0.86)0.80 (0.71-0.86)PASS, yes73%75%76%Numbers are median (IQR) unless otherwise stated*Latest registration in DANBIO before March 2020Patient characteristics for RA/AxSpA/PsA/Other: female, %: 70/53/44/69. Age, years, median(IQR): 67(59-74)/62(54-69)/56(46-65)/59(50-68)Abbreviations: EQ-5D: Quality of life, 5 dimensions, HAQ: health assessment questionnaire, PASS: patient acceptable symptom state, VAS: visual analogue scaleDisclosure of Interests:Bente Glintborg Grant/research support from: AbbVie, BMS, Pfizer, Dorte Vendelbo Jensen: None declared, Sara Engel: None declared, Lene Terslev Speakers bureau: AbbVie, Janssen, Roche, Novartis, Pfizer, MSD, BMS and GE, Mogens Pfeiffer Jensen: None declared, Oliver Hendricks Grant/research support from: AbbVie, Novartis, Pfizer, Mikkel Østergaard Speakers bureau: Abbvie, BMS, Boehringer-Ingelheim, Celgene, Eli-Lilly, Hospira, Janssen, Merck, Novartis, Novo, Orion, Pfizer, Regeneron, Roche, Sandoz, Sanofi and UCB., Grant/research support from: Research grants: Abbvie, BMS, Celgene, Merck, Novartis, Simon Horskjær Rasmussen: None declared, Thomas Adelsten: None declared, Kamilla Danebod: None declared, Ada Colic: None declared, Malene Kildemand: None declared, Anne Gitte Loft Speakers bureau: AbbVie, Eli-Lilly, Janssen, MSD, Novartis, Pfizer, and UCB, Heidi Lausten Munk: None declared, Jens Kristian Pedersen: None declared, René Østgård Speakers bureau: Abbvie, BMS, Boehringer-Ingelheim, Eli-Lilly, Janssen, Merck, Novartis, Pfizer, Roche, Sanofi and UCB., Grant/research support from: Research grants: Abbvie, Christian Møller Sørensen: None declared, Niels Steen Krogh: None declared, Jette Nørgaard Agerbo: None declared, Connie Ziegler: None declared, Merete L. Hetland Grant/research support from:: AbbVie, Biogen, BMS, Celtrion, Eli Lilly Denmark A/S, Janssen Biologics B.V, Lundbeck Fonden, MSD, Pfizer, Roche, Samsung Biopis, Sandoz. MLH chairs the steering committee of the Danish Rheumatology Quality Registry (DANBIO), which receives public funding from the hospital owners and funding from pharmaceutical companies. MLH co-chairs the EuroSpA research collaboration, which generates real-world evidence of treatment of psoriatic arthritis and axial spondylorthritis based on secondary data and is partly funded by Novartis.

This study investigates normative dimensions of speech acts. It analyzes the nature of normative dimension of speech acts.To get empirical data, 9 participants were chosen as sources of spoken language data: 2 tuan guru giving speeches in formal contexts; and 7 people engaging in casual conversations in informal context. To collect data, observation and voice recording was used. Prior to analysis, the data were transcribed, labeled and classified according to categories that appeared from the data. Findings reveal and advocate the normative and moral dimensions of speech acts generated from agent’s change normative standing to hearers in terms of right, obligation and responsibility. As a result, the study argues that moral values embedded in speech act performance such honesty, truth, self-control and respect, obedience and so forth could be taught in order to foster children good character development in comprehensive ways including moral reasoning, affection and behaviors. For that reason, moral values teaching based on speech act normativity and morality could be used as an arena for bearing good character corresponding to the process of acquiring of the first language or learning the second/foreign language. This could be a starting point for teaching moral competence through language institution that are more affordable, accessible and learnable for all rational human being all over the world. Furthermore, those moral values might be the foundation for moral action of children to bear the awareness of good interpersonal or intersubjective relationship. Based on the limitation of the study, it needs to hold further study as to the practical model of teaching moral values on the bases of moral values embedded in performing speech acts.Kajian ini menelaah tentang karakter dimensi normatif tindakan berbahasa. Data empiris diperoleh dengan melibatkan 9 partisipan, yakni 2 tuan guru yang memberikan ceramah dalam konteks formal dan 7 orang yang terlibat percakapan kasual dalam konteks informal. Data dikumpulkan melalui observasi dan rekaman suara. Sebelum analisa, data tersebut ditranskripsi, dilabeli dan diklasifikasikan. Kajian ini mengungkapkan dan mendukung adanya dimensi normatif dan moral tindakan berbahasa yang dibentuk dari perubahan kedudukan normatif pembicara dan pendengar terkait hak, kewajiban dan tanggungjawab. Kajian ini mendukung bahwa dimensi normatif dan nilai moral yang melekat dalam setiap tindakan berbahasa seperti, kejujuran, kebenaran, komitmen, tanggungjawab, kontrol diri, saling menghargai dan lain-lain yang bisa diajarkan dalam pengembangan karakter anak yang bermoral dengan cara yang komprehensif meliputi penalaran moral, afeksi dan tindakan. Oleh sebab itulah, pengajaran nilai-nilai moral berbasis moralitas dan normativitas tindakan berbahasa bisa digunakan sebagai arena pendidikan karakter atau nilai. Ini bisa menjadi langkah awal pengajaran kompetensi moral melalui instiusi bahasa. Di samping itu, nilai-nilai moral tersebut merupakan fondasi dalam tindakan anak yang bermoral untuk membangun kesadaran interpersonal anak yang baik. Berdasarkan keterbatasan kajian ini, diperlukan kajian lebih lanjut tentang model praktis pengajaran nilai-nilai moral berbasis dimensi normatif dan moral yang inheren dalam setiap tindakan berbahasa.

Abstract STUDY QUESTION Does male alcohol consumption affect fecundability? SUMMARY ANSWER In data pooled across Danish and North American preconception cohort studies, we found little evidence of an association between male alcohol consumption and reduced fecundability. WHAT IS KNOWN ALREADY Experimental and clinical studies have shown that alcohol affects male reproductive physiology, mainly by altering male reproductive hormones and spermatogenesis. However, few epidemiologic studies have examined the association between alcohol consumption and male fertility. STUDY DESIGN, SIZE, DURATION Data were collected from two ongoing prospective preconception cohort studies: the Danish ‘SnartForaeldre’ (SF) study (662 couples) and the North American ‘Pregnancy Study Online’ (PRESTO) (2017 couples). Participants included in the current analysis were enrolled from August 2011 through June 2019 (SF) and from June 2013 through June 2019 (PRESTO). PARTICIPANTS/MATERIALS, SETTING, METHODS Eligible men were aged ≥18 years in SF and ≥21 years in PRESTO, in a stable relationship with a female partner and not using contraception or receiving fertility treatment. In both cohorts, alcohol consumption/serving size was self-reported as number of beers (330 mL/12 oz.), glasses of white or red wine (120 mL/4 oz. each), dessert wine (50 mL/2 oz.) and spirits (20 mL/1.5 oz.). Overall alcohol consumption was categorized as none, 1–5, 6–13 and ≥14 standard servings per week. Total menstrual cycles at risk were calculated using data from female partners’ follow-up questionnaires, which were completed every 8 weeks until self-reported pregnancy or 12 menstrual cycles, whichever came first. Analyses were restricted to couples that had been trying to conceive for ≤6 cycles at study entry. Proportional probability regression models were used to compute fecundability ratios (FRs) and 95% confidence interval (CIs). We adjusted for male and female age, female partner’s alcohol consumption, intercourse frequency, previous history of fathering a child, race/ethnicity, education, BMI, smoking and consumption of sugar-sweetened beverages and caffeine. MAIN RESULTS AND THE ROLE OF CHANCE The cumulative proportion of couples who conceived during 12 cycles of follow-up were 1727 (64.5%). The median (interquartile range) of total male alcohol consumption was 4.5 (2.0–7.8) and 4.1 (1.0–8.6) standard servings per week in the SF and PRESTO cohorts, respectively. In pooled analyses, adjusted FRs for male alcohol consumption of 1–5, 6–13 and ≥14 standard servings per week compared with no alcohol consumption were 1.02 (95% CI: 0.90–1.17), 1.10 (95% CI: 0.96–1.27) and 0.98 (95% CI: 0.81–1.18), respectively. For SF, adjusted FRs of 1–5, 6–13 and ≥14 standard servings per week compared with no alcohol consumption were 0.97 (95% CI: 0.73–1.28), 0.81 (95% CI: 0.60–1.10) and 0.82 (95% CI: 0.51–1.30), respectively. For PRESTO, adjusted FRs of 1–5, 6–13 and ≥14 standard servings per week compared with no alcohol consumption were 1.02 (95% CI: 0.88–1.18), 1.20 (95% CI: 1.03–1.40) and 1.03 (95% CI: 0.84–1.26), respectively. LIMITATIONS, REASONS FOR CAUTION Male alcohol consumption was ascertained at baseline only, and we did not distinguish between regular and binge drinking. In addition, we had insufficient numbers to study the effects of specific types of alcoholic beverages. As always, residual confounding by unmeasured factors, such as dietary factors and mental health, cannot be ruled out. Comorbidities thought to play a role in the reproductive setting (i.e. cancer, metabolic syndrome) were not considered in this study; however, the prevalence of cancer and diabetes was low in this age group. Findings for the highest categories of alcohol consumption (6–13 and ≥14 servings/week) were not consistent across the two cohorts. WIDER IMPLICATIONS OF THE FINDINGS Despite little evidence of an association between male alcohol consumption and reduced fecundability in the pooled analysis, data from the Danish cohort might indicate a weak association between reduced fecundability and consumption of six or more servings per week. STUDY FUNDING/COMPETING INTEREST(S) This study was supported by the National Institutes of Health (R01-HD060680, R01-HD086742, R21-HD050264, R21-HD072326, R03-HD090315), the Novo Nordisk Foundation, Oticon Fonden, Politimester J.P.N. Colind og hustru Asmine Colinds mindelegat and Erna og Peter Houtveds studielegat. PRESTO receives in-kind donations from FertilityFriend.com, Kindara.com, Swiss Precision Diagnostics and Sandstone Diagnostics for the collection of data pertaining to fertility. Dr Wise serves as a consultant on uterine leiomyomata for AbbVie.com. All other authors declare no conflict of interest.

Background:During the COVID-19 pandemic, widespread changes in how we work have been observed. Working from home is not an option for everyone. At work it may be difficult to keep social distance, which may lead to fear and anxiety of being infected with SARS-CoV-19 or of spreading the virus.Objectives:To explore frequency of anxiety and concerns related to work in patients with inflammatory rheumatic diseases(IRD) during the COVID-19 pandemic and to identify patient and disease characteristics associated with increased anxiety.Methods:Patients in routine care followed in the nationwide Danish DANBIO registry were invited to answer an on-line questionnaire regarding current rheumatic disease activity, behavior and anxiety including current work-status and -concerns. Responses were linked to patient data previously recorded in DANBIO. Clinical factors associated with work-related concerns (completely/mostly agree versus neither/nor, completely/mostly disagree) were explored with multivariable logistic regression.Results:Among 14,758 respondents (38% of eligible patients), 5,950 patients (40%) were currently working (60% full time/31% part time/9% self-employed) (61% female, 53% rheumatoid arthritis/19% psoriatic arthritis/20% axial spondyloarthritis/9% other). Although 68% reported that the workplace helped to make necessary interventions, work-related concerns and anxiety were frequent. Thus, 22% found it difficult (completely/mostly agree) to keep physical distance at work and 20% were worried about going to work (Figure 1).Factors associated with concerns about going to work were female gender, longer education, other chronic conditions, biological therapy, and higher (=poorer) EQ-5D, whereas diagnosis was without significance. Similar patterns were found for other work-related concerns (not shown).Conclusion:In this cohort of >5,000 patients with inflammatory rheumatic diseases followed in a nationwide registry, during the COVID-19 pandemic anxiety and concerns related to the work situation were frequent, especially in women and patients treated with biologicals, with other chronic diseases and with poor quality of life.References:[1]Glintborg et al, 2021, https://rmdopen.bmj.com/content/rmdopen/7/1/e001505.full.pdfTable 1.Factors associated with being worried (agree versus disagree) to go to work (Figure 1, panel F). Multivariable logistic regression analysesOdds ratio (95% CI)pGenderfemale1male0.45 (0.38;0.54)<0.001Age, years>40140-601.12 (0.87;1.44)0.4>600.89 (0.67;1.20)0.5EducationLong1No/short0.80 (0.69;0.93)0.005Living alone, yes0.97 (0.79;1.20)0.8Other chronic condition, yes1.37 (1.17;1.59)<0.001Biological therapy1.36 (1.17;1.58)<0.001DiagnosisRheumatoid arthritis1Psoriatic arthritis1.21 (0.99;1.48)0.06Axial spondyloarthritis1.03 (0.84;1.28)0.8Other1.17 (0.89;1.54)0.3PASS, yes*1.03 (0.85;1.25)0.7SmokingCurrent1Previous1.17 (0.94;1.47)0.2Never1.10 (0.90;1.35)0.4EQ5D**0.03 (0.02;0.06)<0.001*patient acceptable symptom state, **European Quality of Life, 5 dimensionsDisclosure of Interests:Bente Glintborg Grant/research support from: AbbVie, BMS, Pfizer, Dorte Vendelbo Jensen: None declared, Sara Engel: None declared, Lene Terslev Speakers bureau: AbbVie, Janssen, Roche, Novartis, Pfizer, MSD, BMS and GE, Mogens Pfeiffer Jensen: None declared, Oliver Hendricks: None declared, Mikkel Østergaard Speakers bureau: Abbvie, BMS, Boehringer-Ingelheim, Celgene, Eli-Lilly, Hospira, Janssen, Merck, Novartis, Novo, Orion, Pfizer, Regeneron, Roche, Sandoz, Sanofi and UCB., Grant/research support from: Abbvie, BMS, Celgene, Merck, Novartis, Simon Horskjær Rasmussen: None declared, Thomas Adelsten: None declared, Ada Colic: None declared, Kamilla Danebod: None declared, Malene Kildemand: None declared, Anne Gitte Loft Speakers bureau: AbbVie, Eli-Lilly, Janssen, MSD, Novartis, Pfizer, and UCB, Heidi Lausten Munk: None declared, Jens Kristian Pedersen: None declared, René Østgård Speakers bureau: Abbvie, BMS, Boehringer-Ingelheim, Eli-Lilly, Janssen, Merck, Novartis, Pfizer, Roche, Sanofi and UCB., Grant/research support from: Abbvie, Christian Møller Sørensen: None declared, Niels Steen Krogh: None declared, Jette Nørgaard Agerbo: None declared, Connie Ziegler: None declared, Merete L. Hetland Grant/research support from: AbbVie, Biogen, BMS, Celtrion, Eli Lilly Denmark A/S, Janssen Biologics B.V, Lundbeck Fonden, MSD, Pfizer, Roche, Samsung Biopis, Sandoz. MLH chairs the steering committee of the Danish Rheumatology Quality Registry (DANBIO), which receives public funding from the hospital owners and funding from pharmaceutical companies. MLH co-chairs the EuroSpA research collaboration, which generates real-world evidence of treatment of psoriatic arthritis and axial spondylorthritis based on secondary data and is partly funded by Novartis.

AbstractIn the 1930s, Jean Wahl, Lev Shestov, Benjamin Fondane, and Rachel Bespaloff were among the first to seriously introduce philosophical readings of Kierkegaard’s works in France. As Jewish intellectuals within a particularly troubled period in history, their readings of Kierkegaard were informed both by the problems of self-identification imposed upon them by the political context, and by a particular ontological understanding of human nature. This article argues that these considerations are essential for understanding how these early existential thinkers read the Dane and appealed to him in ways quite distinct from the Christian or atheist trends in existential philosophy.

This article is a small-scale study of eight advertisements that appeared in Canadian Home Journal between March 1910 and June 1912. Marketing a range of washing machines manufactured by Cummer-Dowswell, Ltd., a Hamilton-based company, the ads are significant for their racialized representations of women’s labour. Featuring a White woman in four ads and “Aunt Salina,” a Black “wash woman,” in four ads, their visual address hinges on racialized dichotomies. I analyze how this advertising campaign employed “race” to “sell” an ideological view of gender, labour, and the myth of technological progress through the linking of Black women to pre-industrial technologies and White women to technological progress.Cet article est une étude à petite échelle de huit annonces qui sont parues dans le Canadian Home Journal entre mars 1910 et juin 1912. Ces annonces faisaient la promotion d’un éventail de machines à laver manufacturées par Cummer-Dowswell Ltée, une compagnie située à Hamilton, et sont significatives par l’accent qu’elles mettent sur la race dans leurs représentations des femmes au travail. Quatre des annonces montrent une femme blanche tandis que les quatre autres montrent « tante Salina », une femme de ménage noire. Leurs apparences divergentes se fondent sur une dichotomie raciale. J’analyse comment cette campagne publicitaire a utilisé la race pour promouvoir une perspective idéologique du sexe, du travail et du mythe du progrès technologique en rapprochant la femme noire aux technologies préindustrielles et la femme blanche au progrès technologique.

Undergraduates use a wide range of information resources for academic and nonacademic purposes, including web sites that range from credible, peer reviewed, online journal sites, to biased and inaccurate promotional web sites. Students are taught basic critical appraisal skills, but do they apply these skills to make decisions about information in different web sites? In an experimental setting, undergraduate students examined pairs of web sites containing conflicting information based on different aspects of critical appraisal, namely credibility of the author of the information, purpose of the web site, and last update of the site, and answered multiple choice questions about the conflicting information. Results indicated that students failed to use critical appraisal criteria, and that while knowledge of and self-reported use of these criteria were related to each other, they were not related to behaviour. This research demonstrates the need for alternative strategies for critical appraisal instruction and assessment. Les étudiants de premier cycle consultent une vaste gamme de sources d’information à des fins universitaires et non universitaires, y compris des sites Web allant de revues en ligne crédibles et évaluées par des pairs à des sites Web promotionnels partials et inexacts. On enseigne aux étudiants des méthodes de base d’évaluation critique, mais mettent-ils ces méthodes en pratique pour prendre des décisions relativement à l’information tirée de différents sites Web? Dans un cadre expérimental, les étudiants de premier cycle ont étudié des paires de sites Web contenant des informations contradictoires en se fondant sur différents aspects de l’évaluation critique, notamment la crédibilité de l’auteur de l’information, l’intention du site Web et la dernière mise à jour du site, et ont répondu à des questions à choix multiples concernant les informations contradictoires. Les résultats indiquent que les étudiants n’ont pas utilisé les critères d’évaluation critique et que si les connaissances et l’utilisation de ces connaissances déclarée par les étudiants étaient reliées, cette relation ne correspondait toutefois pas au comportement observé. Cette recherche démontre la nécessité de stratégies de rechange en matière d’enseignement de l’évaluation critique et son évaluation.

Nella medicina dei trapianti l’etica del rapporto medico-paziente si estende in modo peculiare a più soggetti “deboli”: i soggetti in lista d’attesa, i familiari dei donatori deceduti, i donatori viventi. L’applicazione coerente e sistematica dei principi etici dei trapianti rappresenta forse l’elemento più critico di tutto il sistema donazione-trapianto. In Italia, il processo donazione-trapianto, sia da donatore cadavere, sia da donatore vivente, sta vivendo un’evoluzione, regionale e nazionale, che tocca le modalità di applicazione di principi fondanti quali l’equità di accesso alle cure ed il rispetto dell’autodeterminazione dei soggetti coinvolti nella donazione e nel trapianto. Nell’esperienza della Comunità dei Trapianti del NITp (Nord Italia Transplant), il coinvolgimento degli esperti di etica ha portato alla “Carta dei Principi”, modello positivo di connubio tra etica e trapianti. Il ricorso alla consulenza etica viene oggi visto, in prospettiva, come un valore aggiunto che assicura l’indipendenza di valutazione di un parte terza rispetto ad alcune scelte critiche della rete regionale e nazionale trapianti nei confronti dei “pazienti” e dei loro familiari. ---------- In transplant medicine, ethics of doctor-patient relationship extends particularly to more “weak” subjects: subjects on the waiting list, the families of deceased donors, living donors. The consistent and systematic application of the ethical principles of transplantation is perhaps the most critical element of the whole system donation-transplantation. In Italy, the cadaveric donation- transplantation process, both from cadaveric and living donor, is undergoing an evolution, at regional and national levels, touching on detailed rules for the application of principles such as equality of access to care and respect for the self-determination of stakeholders. In the experience of the NITp’s transplant community, the involvement of Ethics experts led to the “Chart of principles”, a good match between ethics and clinical transplants. Ethics consultation is seen, ultimately, as an added value that ensures the independence of evaluation by a third party in the light of some critical choices of regional and national transplant network towards the “patients” and their family members.

Abstract Introduction: There are numerous points of controversy over the psychological interpretation of the so-called S responses – namely, the interpretation of white space in the Rorschach test. The aim of my paper was to verify the position held by Charles P. Fonda, who claims that the meaning of S responses depends on the results of the test as a whole. Materials and methods: I have presented the responses of two young men and coded them according to the Comprehensive System developed by John E. Exner. I chose this way of processing data as the most precise, relatively well formalized, and detailed one. The two examinees gave an almost identical number of responses in the whole test and a similar number of S responses, similarly distributed across the cards of the test. Results: I assessed and compared the results of the two examinees in terms of the effectiveness of their cognitive processes, self-control ability, mental resources, social adjustment, and self-esteem. Finally, I looked closely at the contents of a few responses, as in my opinion they symbolically expressed the examinees’ basic problems. Discussion: I tried to avoid describing the examinees’ psyche in nosological terms and to focus on presenting the way in which they experienced the world, as well as on how this experience affected their behavior. Conclusions: I found that in Examinee 1 criticism towards other people may stem from an excessively idealistic attitude to the world and from the ensuing disappointments. Good cognitive functioning, resistance to stress, positive self-esteem, and the socialized emotional sphere make this man’s S responses a sign of creative engagement in the problems encountered rather than a sign of maladjustment. In the case of Examinee 2, S responses can be understood as defiance and a generalized attitude of negativism, which play the role of defense against the excessively complicated, not fully comprehensible, and inhospitable world; these responses may, in their turn, contribute to the intensification of problems and to an increase in maladjustment.

Il presente contributo si muove nell’ambito della riflessione giuridica e si chiede se risponde a giustizia la “libertà” di scegliere la morte quale diritto umano essenziale. Il principio “non uccidere”, ovvero “non cagionare la morte”, posto alla base di tutti gli ordinamenti giuridici moderni e democratici, viene esaminato sia con riferimento alla vita altrui sia quando il soggetto non si esprime o addirittura non vuole la morte; sia quando il soggetto esprime la volontà di porre fine alla propria vita e chiede che altri adempiano tale volontà. L’Autrice osserva che nel secondo caso, si chiede che il “terzo” (medico) assecondi l’autoderminazione di chi vuole disporre della propria vita solo quando la vita versa in condizioni di malattia inguaribile e devastante disabilità. È evidente, allora, che la vita umana propria diventa disponibile quando prevale la sofferenza e il criterio decisivo non è l’autodeterminazione individuale, ma la valutazione sociale del valore della vita. In questa prospettiva viene toccato anche il tema del “rifiuto delle cure” e posta la distinzione tra “autodeterminazione sui trattamenti” e “autodeterminazione sulla vita”. Nel delicato e complesso ambito del “fine vita”, se la morte è il limite inesorabile dell’esistenza che occorre saper accettare, occorre anche saper armonizzare il principio di autonomia e il principio del “non cagionare la morte”, fondato sul riconoscimento dell’uguale dignità del vivere. ---------- This contribution deals with the legal reflection and wonders whether “freedom” to choose death as an essential human right is fair. The “no kill” principle, at the base of all modern legal and democratic systems, is examined with reference to both someone else’s life and the situation in which a person is unable to express himeself or he does not want death; or when a person wants death and asks other people to fulfil this wish. The author notes that in the latter case, one asks the “third” (physician) fulfil the self-determination of persons who want to dispose of their own life when life is compromised. Therefore, human life is disposable when pain prevails. Finally, treatment refusal is dealt.

Introduction: Physicians are responsible for the health of all patients, but medical students receive inadequate training on the health- care needs of LGBTQ (Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, and Queer) patients [1]. Education about cultural issues and proper termi- nology are also under-addressed. Healthcare practices that cannot demonstrate inclusivity risk alienating patients and perpetuating barriers to patient care for sexual and gender minorities [2]. Methods: In 2013, medical students created the Inclusive Health Conference to address these educational deficits. Experts were in- vited to present a curriculum including disorders of sexual development, HIV pre-exposure prophylaxis, care for transgender patients, and development of inclusive practices. Self-identified sexual minority patients were also invited to share their experiences. Following these sessions, healthcare professionals and students were asked to complete a survey on knowledge and level of comfort with LGBTQ care. Results: A majority of respondents stated that they “better understand LGBTQ health issues” (2015 mean 4.39, n = 41; 2016 mean 4.31, n = 52), “better understand social issues related to LGBTQ healthcare” (2015 mean 4.32, n = 41; 2016 mean 4.31, n = 52) and “feel more comfortable exploring and discussing these issues with LGBTQ people” (2015 mean 4.43, n = 41; 2016 mean 4.17, n = 52). Conclusions: Based on survey results, this was a successful solution to a critical omission in medical curricula. Of note, the conference also drew attention to this important issue, led to financial sponsorship by the University of Alberta’s Faculty of Medicine and Den- tistry, initiated curriculum updates, and inspired similar events at other institutions. RÉSUMÉ Introduction: Les médecins sont responsables de la santé de tous les patients, mais les étudiants en médecine reçoivent une forma- tion inadéquate en ce qui a trait aux besoins de soins de santé des patients LGBTQ (lesbienne, gai, bisexuel, trans et queer) [1]. Les enjeux culturels et la terminologie appropriée sont également trop peu abordés au cours de la formation. Les pratiques de soins de santé qui ne font pas preuve d’inclusion risquent d’aliéner les patients et de perpétuer les obstacles aux soins de santé pour les per- sonnes de minorités sexuelles et de genre [2]. Méthodes: En 2013, des étudiants en médecine ont créé la conférence Inclusive Health (santé inclusive) afin de combler ce manque éducationnel. Des experts ont été invités à présenter un curriculum qui incluait des désordres de développement sexuel, la prophylaxie préexposition contre le VIH, les soins aux patients transgenres, et l’élaboration de pratiques inclusives. Des patients ayant volontaire- ment déclaré leur appartenance à une minorité sexuelle ont également été invités à partager leurs expériences. À la suite de ces sé- ances, les professionnels de la santé et les étudiants ont rempli un sondage sur leurs connaissances et leur niveau de confort dans la prestation des soins de santé aux personnes LGBTQ. Résultats: La majorité des personnes interrogées ont affirmé « mieux comprendre les problèmes de santé des personnes LGBTQ » (moyenne de 4,39 en 2015, n = 41 ; moyenne de 4,31 en 2016, n = 52), « mieux comprendre les enjeux sociaux liés à la prestation des soins de santé aux personnes LGBTQ » (moyenne de 4,32 en 2015, n = 41 ; moyenne de 4,31 en 2016, n = 52) et « se sentir plus à l’aise d’explorer et de discuter de ces problèmes avec les personnes LGBTQ » (moyenne de 4,43 en 2015, n = 41 ; moyenne de 4,17 en 2016, n = 52). Conclusions: En se fondant sur les résultats du sondage, la conférence s’est avérée efficace pour contrer une omission importante dans les curriculums médicaux. En outre, la conférence a attiré l’attention sur cet important problème, a mené à un parrainage par la Faculté de médecine et de médecine dentaire de l’Université d’Alberta, a entraîné des mises à jour aux curriculums médicaux, et a inspiré des évènements semblables à d’autres établissements.

Giovanni Paolo II dedica molta attenzione nelle sue allocuzioni e nei suoi scritti all’estensione del “non uccidere,” perché questo comandamento ordina il rispetto alla vita, un bene fondamentale, trasgredito nel secolo scorso in modo orrendo. L’estensione del quinto comandamento è stata messa sotto pressione da vari fattori: l’esegesi storica-critica, le conseguenze socio-politiche degli ideali dominanti della democrazia, la preferenza per il valore della libertà individuale rispetto a quello della vita e alcune correnti attuali nell’etica e nella teologia morale. Il pontefice, riferendosi alla Sacra Scrittura, alla Tradizione della Chiesa e al magistero della Chiesa, pone l’accento sul fatto che la vita umana è un bene fondamentale o intrinseco e indica in quale modo si deve rispettarla, curarla e proteggerla nelle circostanze concrete, spiegando l’estensione del “non uccidere.” Giovanni Paolo II pone nella parte negativa del contenuto del quinto comandamento, fondata sul fatto che la signoria assoluta della vita spetta a Dio le proibizioni dell’uccisione diretta di un essere umano innocente, dell’aborto procurato diretto e dell’eutanasia, sia nella forma del suicidio assistito che in quella dell’omicidio. Considera queste proibizioni come norme assolute o universali. Inoltre pone attenzione ad alcuni casi in cui l’abbreviazione della vita umana si configura come un effetto indiretto o collaterale, che rientrano in una proibizione generale che ammette delle eccezioni. Il quinto comandamento, benché formulato in modo negativo, ha anche un contenuto positivo, con cui siamo chiamati a confrontarci nella vita quotidiana più frequentemente rispetto a quello negativo. Il contenuto positivo del quinto comandamento, che trova il suo fondamento nel fatto che l’uomo ha una signoria ministeriale della vita, concerne i compiti seguenti: il curare la vita mediante mezzi proporzionati, la difesa della vita mediante la legittima (auto)difesa (nel cui orizzonte si colloca pure la questione della pena di morte), la protezione legale della vita umana e l’annunziare il Vangelo della Vita. ---------- John Paul II spends much attention in his allocutions and writings to the extension of the commandment “you shall non kill”, because it arranges the respect for life, a fundamental good, and has been violated in a terrible way during the last century. The extension of the fifth commandment is put under pressure by various diverse factors: historical-critical exegesis, the social and political consequences of the dominant ideals of democracy, preferring the respect for individual freedom to that for life and some actual currents in ethics and moral theology. The pope, referring to Holy Scripture, Tradition of the Church and magisterial teaching, emphasizes that human life is a fundamental or intrinsic good, and indicates in which way one should take care of life and respect and promote it under concrete circumstances, explaining the extension of the commandment “you shall not kill”. John Paul II enumerates under the negative part of the contents of the fifth commandment, based on the fact that the absolute lordship of human life belongs to God: the prohibitions of the direct killing of an innocent human being, direct procured abortion and euthanasia, either in the form of assisted suicide or that of homicide. He considers these prohibitions as absolute or universal norms. Moreover, he spends attention to some cases in which the abbreviation of life is an indirect or collateral effect, falling under a general prohibition which admits of exceptions. The fifth commandment, though negatively formulated, also has a positive contents with which we are much more frequently confronted in every day’s life than with the negative one. The positive contents of the fifth commandment, which finds its base in the fact that man has a ministerial lordship with regard to life, concerns the following duties: taking care of life by applying proportionate means, defending life by means of legitimate (self) defense (in which context the question of capital punishment also has a place), the legal protection of life and announcing the Gospel of Life.

La notion de l’individu comme être humain doué d’un corps propre et d’une identité singulière est née de la notion de sujet. C’est en effet autour de ce concept très occidental que s’est développée l’idée d’un être agissant de manière autonome et réflexive. Mais ce sujet constitué en « soi », en self, est aussi un sujet qui agit, un sujet pratique, engagé dans le monde extérieur selon une volonté et selon des motivations qui lui seraient propres. Un sujet donc non plus en tant que sub-jectum comme l’indique l’étymologie du mot ; non plus un sujet « soumis » à différents pouvoirs d’ordre politique et religieux, mais un sujet qui, au siècle des Lumières, avec la contestation de la royauté absolue et la critique de la hiérarchie catholique, devient un être de raison, constitué en droit (Taylor 1989). Désormais un sujet libre, un sujet libre de penser et libre d’agir comme il l’entend, un sujet dont les libertés sont fondées sur un certain nombre de droits, également partagés. Mais qu’en est-il dans la réalité de nos sociétés contemporaines, convaincues que démocratie et libéralisme économique vont de pair, convaincues aussi qu’elles sont les seules aptes à défendre les droits de l’homme et de l’individu dans leur universalité face à d’autres formes sociales, passant pour plus traditionnelles ? Envisagée du point de vue sociologique, la question a longtemps été de savoir qui, de l’individu ou de la société, est premier par rapport à l’autre. On le sait – pour Émile Durkheim la société ne saurait être considérée comme la somme des individus qui la composent, des individus donnés comme entités premières, dans leurs différents états de conscience. Du « holisme méthodologique » (le tout n’est pas réductible aux parties qui le composent) on est passé au « relationalisme méthodologique » : société et individus sont à comprendre dans des relations qui correspondent à des rapports de réciprocité. Le social et le collectif ne sauraient donc être envisagés comme les simples résultantes des actions et pratiques des individus (comme le laisse entendre l’« individualisme méthodologique »). Entre les individus-atomes (êtres indivis) et l’ensemble social auquel ils sont forcément intégrés, il y a interdépendance, interaction ; il y a « co-construction » des uns par l’autre, et vice versa. L’opposition toute théorique entre l’individuel et le collectif doit donc être dépassée (Corcuff 2007 ; Corcuff, Le Bart, de Singly 2010). Avant la guerre de 39-45, le sociologue et philosophe allemand Norbert Elias s’était déjà interrogé sur la nature de l’homme vivant dans ce qu’il appelait « la société des individus ». Les relations réciproques des individus les uns avec les autres constitueraient la condition même de l’existence humaine ; elles représenteraient l’une des bases de la condition d’être humain. Dès lors la vie sociale et l’appartenance à une société étaient données comme une disposition fondamentale, inscrite dans l’être social de l’homme. Pour Elias (1991), ce n’est que tardivement et épisodiquement, surtout à partir de la Renaissance, que serait apparue la conscience d’un « moi » pourvu d’une intériorité ; cette conscience nouvelle aurait alors entraîné, dans une perspective à vrai dire européocentrée, une « prédominance de l’identité du moi sur l’identité du nous ». Si les hommes en tant qu’individus sont bien interdépendants, la notion même d’individu est ancrée dans l’idée de la constitution d’un « moi » ; elle est fondée dans l’idée de sujet. C’est sur un constat analogue qu’est fondée la distinction tracée par l’anthropologue Louis Dumont (1983) entre sociétés holistes et société individualistes. D’un côté donc, dans les sociétés traditionnelles, un homo hierarchicus dont l’identité est définie par la place qu’il occupe dans l’ensemble social avec ses statuts et ses hiérarchies ; de l’autre un homo aequalis, promu dans les sociétés modernes par l’égalité instituée entre des individus considérés comme autonomes. Mais cette opposition se double d’un autre contraste. D’une part l’homme hors du monde : le modèle en est celui du renonçant indien qui se soustrait au réseau des liens sociaux pour se trouver face à lui-même, dans sa singularité ; d’autre part l’homme dans le monde : tel l’homme moderne, cet homme intra-mondain réalise son identité individuelle au sein de la société ; son individualité est posée comme une valeur et un but. Ainsi on assisterait en Occident à la naissance de l’individu moderne en particulier par la transition calviniste vers un « individu-dans-le-monde » mais pour y accomplir la volonté du dieu unique des chrétiens, puis par le passage à l’Individu de la première « Déclaration des droits de l’homme et du citoyen », libéré de la tutelle de l’Église au nom de la liberté de conscience exercée dans une société égalitaire. Or c’est précisément de la notion de liberté que sont nés tous les malentendus entretenus par une pensée économiste préoccupée de fait par la seule liberté du marché. En effet les libertés fondamentales assises sur les droits partagés qui constituent l’individu abstrait ont été transformées en des libertés individuelles qui permettraient à chacune et chacun de se développer concrètement selon ses capacités propres. Dans cette mesure, l’individualité est assimilée à la sphère privée ; et les droits égaux qui assurent des devoirs réciproques sont réduits aux droits de la personne dans sa singularité (Flahaut 2006), dans la concurrence entre les individus soumis à la marchandisation (Calame 2008). L’extraordinaire développement des sciences humaines dans les années soixante du siècle dernier a pu sembler sonner le glas du sujet occidental en tant que monade autonome, consciente et réflexive. À vrai dire, les différentes sciences de l’homme ont plutôt contribué à en approfondir les multiples dimensions. Du côté de la psychanalyse le sujet dans son psychisme s’est révélé se situer à l’intersection des pulsions animées par son corps propre et du refoulé accumulé dans l’expérience de son enfance au sein de la famille nucléaire. À l’anthropologue structuraliste ce même inconscient est apparu comme fondé, au-delà des différences culturelles, dans les structures universelles de l’esprit humain. Dans le débat entre individualisme et holisme méthodologiques, les sociologues n’ont pas manqué de subordonner l’individu aux relations sociales, insérant son existence dans les réseaux contraignants que tissent ces rapports souvent asymétriques. Et les linguistes se sont interrogés sur l’existence d’une grammaire universelle qui traverserait les langues et qui serait à la base de la compétence verbale de tout être humain. Ainsi l’atome-individu abstrait est désormais soumis aux déterminations psychiques, sociales, économiques, culturelles, verbales et bientôt neuronales qui découlent de sa constitution organique et psychique ainsi que son environnement « naturel » et social. Dans les différentes perspectives ouvertes par les sciences sociales, le sujet-individu est donc bien à saisir étymologiquement comme sub-jectum ; en tant que tel, il s’avère constamment soumis à des processus de subjectivation qui dépendent largement de son entourage matériel, familial, social et culturel. Loin d’entraver une autonomie morale et intellectuelle censée asseoir l’individu philosophique dans une liberté fondée sur la conscience de soi, ces paramètres d’ordre aussi bien organique que symbolique contribuent au contraire à l’enrichissement identitaire constant des individus singuliers. Cette fabrication est rendue indispensable par l’extraordinaire plasticité neuronale constitutive de l’être humain, en particulier dans ses manières de se représenter le monde social et l’écologie qui le déterminent et dans les modes de son action sur cet environnement humain et matériel. En se fondant sur les résultats relativement récents d’une part de la paléo-anthropologie, d’autre part de la neurologie, quelques anthropologues contemporains sont allés plus loin. Dans son incomplétude, l’homme ne saurait se développer, ni en tant que genre humain, ni en tant qu’individu, si l’organisation sociale et la culture n’étaient pas là pour activer et réaliser ses capacités neuronales ; la nature cérébrale de l’homme se révélerait ainsi dans son extraordinaire plasticité, une plasticité qui implique la contrainte (Ansermet, Magistretti 2004). Autant du point de vue phylogénétique du développement du genre humain qu’en ce qui concerne l’essence organique de l’homme avec son développement individuel, tout se passe en somme comme si la nature présupposait la culture, voire comme si, pour l’être humain, la culture précédait en quelque sorte la nature (cf. Dortier 2004). En effet, en anthropologie culturelle et sociale, la tendance traditionnelle est d’envisager la culture, de même qu’à l’époque du Romantisme allemand, comme le moyen de combler le vide laissé par la nature incomplète de l’homme. Ainsi Geertz (1973): « En résumé, nous sommes des animaux incomplets ou inachevés et nous nous complétons ou nous nous parachevons nous-mêmes par le biais de la culture ». Par le biais de pratiques d’ordre technique et symbolique où l’activité de la communication verbale joue un rôle essentiel, l’homme se constitue lui-même dans son identité affective et réfléchie ; il se construit en interaction obligée avec les différents cercles communautaires qui contribuent à sa fabrication, en interaction avec leurs différentes conventions et traditions qu’à son tour il adopte. Ce processus d’« anthropopoiésis » se poursuit pendant toute sa carrière d’être humain mortel. L’individu se fabrique à la fois par les autres et pour les autres, avec des spécificités individuelles et des processus de subjectivation qui engendrent des transformations dynamiques, mais aussi des affrontements et des conflits (Affergan et al. 2003). D’un point de vue anthropologique, l’identité complexe de chacun de nous repose donc sur une dialectique subtile entre d’une part la nécessaire fabrication sociale et culturelle de l’homme par ses proches et d’autre part le développement de la singularité de l’individu, avec son autonomie partagée entre identité-idem et identité-ipse (Ricœur 1990). L’épanouissement de l’individu en personne avec sa réflexivité critique dépend, dans l’interaction notamment discursive, des différents réseaux de sociabilité auxquels il appartient dans sa vie intellectuelle et pratique ; son émancipation repose sur les différents statuts que lui confère son action sociale, entre travail, cercle familial, activités culturelles, etc. Sans doute une identité personnelle épanouie est-elle la résultante du croisement pratique de plusieurs niveaux identitaires collectifs, d’ordre également ethnique et culturel (Galissot, Kilani, Rivera 2000). Dans cette mesure l’identité individuelle doit sans doute être garantie en situation postmoderne par une série de droits, mais aussi de devoirs.

Introduction Films with deaf characters often do not focus on the condition of deafness at all. Rather, the characters seem to satisfy a role in the story that either furthers the plot or the audience’s understanding of other hearing characters. The deaf characters can be symbolic, for example as a metaphor for isolation representative of ‘those without a voice’ in a society. The deaf characters’ misunderstanding of auditory cues can lead to comic circumstances, and their knowledge can save them in the case of perilous ones. Sign language, because of its unique linguistic properties and its lack of comprehension by hearing people, can save the day in a story line. Deaf characters are shown in different eras and in different countries, providing a fictional window into their possible experiences. Films shape and reflect cultural attitudes and can serve as a potent force in influencing the attitudes and assumptions of those members of the hearing world who have had few, if any, encounters with deaf people. This article explores categories of literary function as identified by the author, providing examples and suggestions of other films for readers to explore. Searching for Deaf Characters in Film I am a sign language interpreter. Several years ago, I started noticing how deaf characters are used in films. I made a concerted effort to find as many as I could. I referred to John Shuchman’s exhaustive book about deaf actors and subject matter, Hollywood Speaks; I scouted video rental guides (key words were ‘deaf’ or ‘disabled’); and I also plugged in the key words ‘deaf in film’ on Google’s search engine. I decided to ignore the issue of whether or not the actors were actually deaf—a political hot potato in the Deaf community which has been discussed extensively. Similarly, the linguistic or cultural accuracy of the type of sign language used or super-human lip-reading talent did not concern me. What was I looking for? I noticed that few story lines involving deaf characters provide any discussion or plot information related to that character’s deafness. I was puzzled. Why is there signing in the elevator in Jerry Maguire? Why does the guy in Grand Canyon have a deaf daughter? Why would the psychosomatic response to a trauma—as in Psych Out—be deafness rather than blindness? I concluded that not being able to hear carried some special meaning or fulfilled a particular need intrinsic to the plot of the story. I also observed that the functions of deaf characters seem to fall into several categories. Some deaf characters fit into more than one category, serving two or more symbolic purposes at the same time. By viewing and analysing the representations of deafness and deaf characters in forty-six films, I have come up with the following classifications: Deafness as a plot device Deaf characters as protagonist informants Deaf characters as a parallel to the protagonist Sign language as ‘hero’ Stories about deaf/hearing relationships A-normal-guy-or-gal-who-just-happens-to-be-deaf Deafness as a psychosomatic response to trauma Deafness as metaphor Deafness as a symbolic commentary on society Let your fingers do the ‘talking’ Deafness as Plot Device Every element of a film is a device, but when the plot hinges on one character being deaf, the story succeeds because of that particular character having that particular condition. The limitations or advantages of a deaf person functioning within the hearing world establish the tension, the comedy, or the events which create the story. In Hear No Evil (1993), Jillian learns from her hearing boyfriend which mechanical devices cause ear-splitting noises (he has insomnia and every morning she accidentally wakes him in very loud ways, eg., she burns the toast, thus setting off the smoke detector; she drops a metal spoon down the garbage disposal unit). When she is pursued by a murderer she uses a fire alarm, an alarm/sprinkler system, and a stereo turned on full blast to mask the sounds of her movements as she attempts to hide. Jillian and her boyfriend survive, she learns about sound, her boyfriend learns about deafness, and she teaches him the sign for orgasm. Life is good! The potential comic aspects of deafness may seem in this day and age to be shockingly politically incorrect. While the slapstick aspect is often innocent and means no overt harm or insult to the Deaf as a population, deafness functions as the visual banana peel over which the characters figuratively stumble in the plot. The film, See No Evil, Hear No Evil (1989), pairing Gene Wilder with Richard Pryor as deaf and blind respectively, is a constant sight gag of lip-reading miscues and lack-of-sight gags. Wilder can speak, and is able to speech read almost perfectly, almost all of the time (a stereotype often perpetuated in films). It is mind-boggling to imagine the detail of the choreography required for the two actors to convince the audience of their authenticity. Other films in this category include: Suspect It’s a Wonderful Life Murder by Death Huck Finn One Flew over the Cuckoo’s NestThe Shop on Main StreetRead My Lips The Quiet Deaf Characters as Protagonist Informants Often a deaf character’s primary function to the story is to give the audience more information about, or form more of an affinity with, the hearing protagonist. The deaf character may be fascinating in his or her own right, but generally the deafness is a marginal point of interest. Audience attitudes about the hearing characters are affected because of their previous or present involvement with deaf individuals. This representation of deafness seems to provide a window into audience understanding and appreciation of the protagonist. More inferences can be made about the hearing person and provides one possible explanation for what ensues. It is a subtle, almost subliminal trick. There are several effective examples of this approach. In Gas, Food, Lodging (1992), Shade discovers that tough-guy Javier’s mother is deaf. He introduces Shade to his mother by simple signs and finger-spelling. They all proceed to visit and dance together (mom feels the vibrations on the floor). The audience is drawn to feel ‘Wow! Javier is a sensitive kid who has grown up with a beautiful, exotic, deaf mother!’ The 1977 film, Looking for Mr. Goodbar presents film-goers with Theresa, a confused young woman living a double life. By day, she is a teacher of deaf children. Her professor in the Teacher of the Deaf program even likens their vocation to ‘touching God’. But by night she cruises bars and engages in promiscuous sexual activity. The film shows how her fledgling use of signs begins to express her innermost desires, as well as her ability to communicate and reach out to her students. Other films in this category include: Miracle on 34th Street (1994 version)Nashville (1975, dir. Robert Altman)The Family StoneGrand CanyonThere Will Be Blood Deaf Characters as a Parallel to the Protagonist I Don’t Want to Talk about It (1993) from Argentina, uses a deaf character to establish an implied parallel story line to the main hearing character. Charlotte, a dwarf, is friends with Reanalde, who is deaf. The audience sees them in the first moments of the film when they are little girls together. Reanalde’s mother attempts to commiserate with Charlotte’s mother, establishing a simultaneous but unseen story line somewhere else in town over the course of the story. The setting is Argentina during the 1930s, and the viewer can assume that disability awareness is fairly minimal at the time. Without having seen Charlotte’s deaf counterpart, the audience still knows that her story has contained similar struggles for ‘normalcy’ and acceptance. Near the conclusion of the film, there is one more glimpse of Reanalde, when she catches the bridal bouquet at Charlotte’s wedding. While having been privy to Charlotte’s experiences all along, we can only conjecture as to what Reanalde’s life has been. Sign Language as ‘Hero’ The power of language, and one’s calculated use of language as a means of escape from a potentially deadly situation, is shown in The River Wild (1996). The reason that any of the hearing characters knows sign language is that Gail, the protagonist, has a deaf father. Victor appears primarily to allow the audience to see his daughter and grandson sign with him. The mother, father, and son are able to communicate surreptitiously and get themselves out of a dangerous predicament. Signing takes an iconic form when the signs BOAT, LEFT, I-LOVE-YOU are drawn on a log suspended over the river as a message to Gail so that she knows where to steer the boat, and that her husband is still alive. The unique nature of sign language saves the day– silently and subtly produced, right under the bad guys’ noses! Stories about Deaf/Hearing Relationships Because of increased awareness and acceptance of deafness, it may be tempting to assume that growing up deaf or having any kind of relationship with a deaf individual may not pose too much of a challenge. Captioning and subtitling are ubiquitous in the USA now, as is the inclusion of interpreters on stages at public events. Since the inception of USA Public Law 94-142 and section 504 in 1974, more deaf children are ‘mainstreamed’ into public schools than ever before. The Americans with Disabilities Act was passed in 1993, opening the doors in the US for more access, more job opportunities, more inclusion. These are the external manifestations of acceptance that most viewers with no personal exposure to deafness may see in the public domain. The nuts and bolts of growing up deaf, navigating through opposing philosophical theories regarding deaf education, and dealing with parents, siblings, and peers who can’t communicate, all serve to form foundational experiences which an audience rarely witnesses. Children of a Lesser God (1986), uses the character of James Leeds to provide simultaneous voiced translations of the deaf student Sarah’s comments. The audience is ushered into the world of disparate philosophies of deaf education, a controversy of which general audiences may not have been previously unaware. At the core of James and Sarah’s struggle is his inability to accept that she is complete as she is, as a signing not speaking deaf person. Whether a full reconciliation is possible remains to be seen. The esteemed teacher of the deaf must allow himself to be taught by the deaf. Other films in this category include: Johnny Belinda (1949, 1982)Mr. Holland’s OpusBeyond SilenceThe Good ShepherdCompensation A Normal Guy-or-Gal-Who-Just-Happens-to-Be-Deaf The greatest measure of equality is to be accepted on one's own merits, with no special attention to differences or deviations from whatever is deemed ‘the norm.’ In this category, the audience sees the seemingly incidental inclusion of a deaf or hearing-impaired person in the casting. A sleeper movie titled Crazy Moon (1986) is an effective example. Brooks is a shy, eccentric young hearing man who needs who needs to change his life. Vanessa is deaf and works as a clerk in a shop while takes speech lessons. She possesses a joie de vivre that Brooks admires and wishes to emulate. When comparing the way they interact with the world, it is apparent that Brooks is the one who is handicapped. Other films in this category include: Sympathy for Mr. Vengeance (South Korea, 1992)Liar, LiarRequiem for a DreamKung Fu HustleBangkok DangerousThe Family StoneDeafness as a Psychosomatic Response to Trauma Literature about psychosomatic illnesses enumerates many disconcerting and disruptive physiological responses. However, rarely is there a PTSD response as profound as complete blockage of one of the five senses, ie; becoming deaf as a result of a traumatic incident. But it makes great copy, and provides a convenient explanation as to why an actor needn't learn sign language! The rock group The Who recorded Tommy in 1968, inaugurating an exciting and groundbreaking new musical genre – the rock opera. The film adaptation, directed by Ken Russell, was released in 1975. In an ironic twist for a rock extravaganza, the hero of the story is a ‘deaf, dumb, and blind kid.’ Tommy Johnson becomes deaf when he witnesses the murder of his father at the hands of his step-father and complicit mother. From that moment on, he is deaf and blind. When he grows up, he establishes a cult religion of inner vision and self-discovery. Another film in this category is Psych Out. Deafness as a Metaphor Hearing loss does not necessarily mean complete deafness and/or lack of vocalization. Yet, the general public tends to assume that there is utter silence, complete muteness, and the inability to verbalize anything at all. These assumptions provide a rich breeding ground for a deaf character to personify isolation, disenfranchisement, and/or avoidance of the harsher side of life. The deafness of a character can also serve as a hearing character’s nemesis. Mr. Holland’s Opus (1995) chronicles much of the adult life of a beleaguered man named Glenn Holland whose fondest dream is to compose a grand piece of orchestral music. To make ends meet he must teach band and orchestra to apparently disinterested and often untalented students in a public school. His golden son (named Cole, in honor of the jazz great John Coltrane) is discovered to be deaf. Glenn’s music can’t be born, and now his son is born without music. He will never be able to share his passion with his child. He learns just a little bit of sign, is dismissive of the boy’s dreams, and drifts further away from his family to settle into a puddle of bitterness, regrets, and unfulfilled desires. John Lennon’s death provides the catalyst for Cole’s confrontation with Glenn, forcing the father to understand that the gulf between them is an artificial one, perpetuated by the unwillingness to try. Any other disability could not have had the same effect in this story. Other films in this category include: Ramblin’ RoseBabelThe Heart Is a Lonely HunterA Code Unkown Deafness as a Symbolic Commentary on Society Sometimes films show deafness in a different country, during another era, and audiences receive a fictionalized representation of what life might have been like before these more enlightened times. The inability to hear and/or speak can also represent the more generalized powerlessness that a culture or a society’s disenfranchised experience. The Chinese masterpiece To Live (1994) provides historical and political reasons for Fenxi’s deafness—her father was a political prisoner whose prolonged absence brought hardship and untended illness. Later, the chaotic political situation which resulted in a lack of qualified doctors led to her death. In between these scenes the audience sees how her parents arrange a marriage with another ‘handicapped’ comrade of the town. Those citizens deemed to be crippled or outcast have different overt rights and treatment. The 1996 film Illtown presents the character of a very young teenage boy to represent the powerlessness of youth in America. David has absolutely no say in where he can live, with whom he can live, and the decisions made all around him. When he is apprehended after a stolen car chase, his frustration at his and all of his generation’s predicament in the face of a crumbling world is pounded out on the steering wheel as the police cars circle him. He is caged, and without the ability to communicate. Were he to have a voice, the overall sense of the film and his situation is that he would be misunderstood anyway. Other films in this category include: Stille Liebe (Germany)RidiculeIn the Company of Men Let Your Fingers Do the ‘Talking’ I use this heading to describe films where sign language is used by a deaf character to express something that a main hearing character can’t (or won’t) self-generate. It is a clever device which employs a silent language to create a communication symbiosis: Someone asks a hearing person who knows sign what that deaf person just said, and the hearing person must voice what he or she truly feels, and yet is unable to express voluntarily. The deaf person is capable of expressing the feeling, but must rely upon the hearing person to disseminate the message. And so, the words do emanate from the mouth of the person who means them, albeit self-consciously, unwillingly. Jerry Maguire (1996) provides a signed foreshadowing of character metamorphosis and development, which is then voiced for the hearing audience. Jerry and Dorothy have just met, resigned from their jobs in solidarity and rebellion, and then step into an elevator to begin a new phase of their lives. Their body language identifies them as separate, disconnected, and heavily emotionally fortified. An amorous deaf couple enters the elevator and Dorothy translates the deaf man’s signs as, ‘You complete me.’ The sentiment is strong and a glaring contrast to Jerry and Dorothy’s present dynamic. In the end, Jerry repeats this exact phrase to her, and means it with all his heart. We are all made aware of just how far they have traveled emotionally. They have become the couple in the elevator. Other films in this category include: Four Weddings and a FuneralKnowing Conclusion This has been a cursory glance at examining the narrative raison d’etre for the presence of a deaf character in story lines where no discussion of deafness is articulated. A film’s plot may necessitate hearing-impairment or deafness to successfully execute certain gimmickry, provide a sense of danger, or relational tension. The underlying themes and motifs may revolve around loneliness, alienation, or outwardly imposed solitude. The character may have a subconscious desire to literally shut out the world of sound. The properties of sign language itself can be exploited for subtle, undetectable conversations to assure the safety of hearing characters. Deaf people have lived during all times, in all places, and historical films can portray a slice of what their lives may have been like. I hope readers will become more aware of deaf characters on the screen, and formulate more theories as to where they fit in the literary/narrative schema. ReferencesMaltin, Leonard. Leonard Maltin’s 2009 Movie Guide. Penguin Group, 2008.Shuchman, John S. Hollywood Speaks. Urbana and Chicago: University of Illinois Press, 1988. Filmography Babel. Dir. Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu. Central Films, 2006. DVD. Bangkok Dangerous. Dir. Pang Brothers. Film Bangkok, 1999. VHS. Beyond Silence. Dir. Caroline Link. Miramax Films, 1998. DVD. Children of a Lesser God. Dir. Randa Haines. Paramount Pictures, 1985. DVD. A Code Unknown. Dir. Michael Heneke. MK2 Editions, 2000. DVD. Compensation. Dir. Zeinabu Irene Davis. Wimmin with a Mission Productions, 1999. VHS. Crazy Moon. Dir. Allan Eastman. Allegro Films, 1987. VHS. The Family Stone. Dir. Mike Bezucha. 20th Century Fox, 2005. DVD. Four Weddings and a Funeral. Dir. Mike Newell. Polygram Film Entertainment, 1994. DVD. Gas, Food, Lodging. Dir. Allison Anders. IRS Media, 1992. DVD. The Good Shepherd. Dir. Robert De Niro. Morgan Creek, TriBeCa Productions, American Zoetrope, 2006. DVD. Grand Canyon. Dir. Lawrence Kasdan, Meg Kasdan. 20th Century Fox, 1991. DVD. Hear No Evil. Dir. Robert Greenwald. 20th Century Fox, 1993. DVD. The Heart Is a Lonely Hunter. Dir. Robert Ellis Miller. Warner Brothers, 1968. DVD. Huck Finn. Stephen Sommers. Walt Disney Pictures, 1993. VHS. I Don’t Want to Talk about It. Dir. Maria Luisa Bemberg. Mojame Productions, 1994. DVD. Knowing. Dir. Alex Proyas. Escape Artists, 2009. DVD. Illtown. Dir. Nick Gomez. 1998. VHS. In the Company of Men. Dir. Neil LaBute. Alliance Atlantis Communications,1997. DVD. It’s a Wonderful Life. Dir. Frank Capra. RKO Pictures, 1947. DVD. Jerry Maguire. Dir. Cameron Crowe. TriSTar Pictures, 1996. DVD. Johnny Belinda. Dir. Jean Nagalesco. Warner Brothers Pictures, 1948. DVD. Kung Fu Hustle. Dir. Stephen Chow. Film Production Asia, 2004. DVD. Liar, Liar. Dir. Tom Shadyac. Universal Pictures, 1997. DVD. Looking for Mr. Goodbar. Dir. Richard Brooks. Paramount Miracle on 34th Street. Dir. Les Mayfield. 20th Century Fox, 1994. DVD. Mr. Holland’s Opus. Dir. Stephen Hereck. Hollywood Pictures, 1996. DVD Murder by Death. Dir. Robert Moore. Columbia Pictures, 1976. VHS. Nashville. Dir. Robert Altman. Paramount Pictures, 1975. DVD. One Flew over the Cuckoo’s Nest. Dir. Milos Forman. United Artists, 1975. DVD. The Perfect Circle. Dir. Ademir Kenovic. 1997. DVD. Psych Out. Dir. Richard Rush. American International Pictures, 1968. DVD. The Quiet. Dir. Jamie Babbit. Sony Pictures Classics, 2005. DVD. Ramblin’ Rose. Dir. Martha Coolidge. Carolco Pictures, 1991. DVD. Read My Lips. Dir. Jacques Audiard. Panthe Films, 2001. DVD. Requiem for a Dream. Dir. Darren Aronofsky. Artisan Entertainment, 2000. DVD. Ridicule. Dir. Patrice Laconte. Miramax Films, 1996. DVD. The River Wild. Dir. Curtis Hanson. Universal Pictures, 1995. DVD. See No Evil, Hear No Evil. Dir. Arthur Hiller. TriSTar Pictures,1989. DVD. The Shop on Main Street. Dir. Jan Kadar, Elmar Klos. Barrandov Film Studio, 1965. VHS. Stille Liebe. Dir. Christoph Schaub. T and C Film AG, 2001. DVD. Suspect. Dir. Peter Yates. Tri-Star Pictures, 1987. DVD. Sympathy for Mr. Vengeance. Dir. Park Chan-wook. CJ Entertainments, Tartan Films, 2002. DVD. There Will Be Blood. Dir. Paul Thomas Anderson. Paramount Vantage, Miramax Films, 2007. DVD. To Live. Dir. Zhang Yimou. Shanghai Film Studio and ERA International, 1994. DVD. What the Bleep Do We Know?. Dir. Willam Arntz, Betsy Chasse, Mark Vicente. Roadside Attractions, 2004. DVD.

In the contemporary era, media spectacle organizes and mobilizes economic life, political conflict, social interactions, culture, and everyday life. My recently published book Media Spectacle explores a profusion of developments in hi-tech culture, media-driven society, and spectacle politics. Spectacle culture involves everything from film and broadcasting to Internet cyberculture and encompasses phenomena ranging from elections to terrorism and to the media dramas of the moment. For ‘Logo’, I am accordingly sketching out briefly a terrain I probe in detail in the book from which these examples are taken.1 During the past decades, every form of culture and significant forms of social life have become permeated by the logic of the spectacle. Movies are bigger and more spectacular than ever, with high-tech special effects expanding the range of cinematic spectacle. Television channels proliferate endlessly with all-day movies, news, sports, specialty niches, re-runs of the history of television, and whatever else can gain an audience. The rock spectacle reverberates through radio, television, CDs, computers networks, and extravagant concerts. The Internet encircles the world in the spectacle of an interactive and multimedia cyberculture. Media culture excels in creating megaspectacles of sports championships, political conflicts, entertainment, "breaking news" and media events, such as the O.J. Simpson trial, the Death of Princess Diana, or the sex or murder scandal of the moment. Megaspectacle comes as well to dominate party politics, as the political battles of the day, such as the Clinton sex scandals and impeachment, the 36 Day Battle for the White House after Election 2000, and the September 11 terrorist attacks and subsequent Terror War. These dramatic media passion plays define the politics of the time, and attract mass audiences to their programming, hour after hour, day after day. The concept of "spectacle" derives from French Situationist theorist Guy Debord's 1972 book Society of the Spectacle. "Spectacle," in Debord's terms, "unifies and explains a great diversity of apparent phenomena" (Debord 1970: #10). In one sense, it refers to a media and consumer society, organized around the consumption of images, commodities, and spectacles. Spectacles are those phenomena of media culture which embody contemporary society's basic values, and dreams and nightmares, putting on display dominant hopes and fears. They serve to enculturate individuals into its way of life, and dramatize its conflicts and modes of conflict resolution. They include sports events, political campaigns and elections, and media extravaganzas like sensational murder trials, or the Bill Clinton sex scandals and impeachment spectacle (1998-1999). As we enter a new millennium, the media are becoming ever more technologically dazzling and are playing an increasingly central role in everyday life. Under the influence of a postmodern image culture, seductive spectacles fascinate the denizens of the media and consumer society and involve them in the semiotics of a new world of entertainment, information, a semiotics of a new world of entertainment, information, and drama, which deeply influence thought and action. For Debord: "When the real world changes into simple images, simple images become real beings and effective motivations of a hypnotic behavior. The spectacle as a tendency to make one see the world by means of various specialized mediations (it can no longer be grasped directly), naturally finds vision to be the privileged human sense which the sense of touch was for other epochs; the most abstract, the most mystifiable sense corresponds to the generalized abstraction of present day society" (#18). Today, however, I would maintain it is the multimedia spectacle of sight, sound, touch, and, coming to you soon, smell that constitutes the multidimensional sense experience of the new interactive spectacle. For Debord, the spectacle is a tool of pacification and depoliticization; it is a "permanent opium war" (#44) which stupefies social subjects and distracts them from the most urgent task of real life -- recovering the full range of their human powers through creative praxis. The concept of the spectacle is integrally connected to the concept of separation and passivity, for in passively consuming spectacles, one is separated from actively producing one's life. Capitalist society separates workers from the products of their labor, art from life, and consumption from human needs and self-directing activity, as individuals passively observe the spectacles of social life from within the privacy of their homes (#25 and #26). The situationist project by contrast involved an overcoming of all forms of separation, in which individuals would directly produce their own life and modes of self-activity and collective practice. Since Debord's theorization of the society of the spectacle in the 1960s and 1970s, spectacle culture has expanded in every area of life. In the culture of the spectacle, commercial enterprises have to be entertaining to prosper and as Michael J. Wolf (1999) argues, in an "entertainment economy," business and fun fuse, so that the E-factor is becoming major aspect of business.2 Via the "entertainmentization" of the economy, television, film, theme parks, video games, casinos, and so forth become major sectors of the national economy. In the U.S., the entertainment industry is now a $480 billion industry, and consumers spend more on having fun than on clothes or health care (Wolf 1999: 4).3 In a competitive business world, the "fun factor" can give one business the edge over another. Hence, corporations seek to be more entertaining in their commercials, their business environment, their commercial spaces, and their web sites. Budweiser ads, for instance, feature talking frogs who tell us nothing about the beer, but who catch the viewers' attention, while Taco Bell deploys a talking dog, and Pepsi uses Star Wars characters. Buying, shopping, and dining out are coded as an "experience," as businesses adopt a theme-park style. Places like the Hard Rock Cafe and the House of Blues are not renowned for their food, after all; people go there for the ambience, to buy clothing, and to view music and media memorabilia. It is no longer good enough just to have a web site, it has to be an interactive spectacle, featuring not only products to buy, but music and videos to download, games to play, prizes to win, travel information, and "links to other cool sites." To succeed in the ultracompetitive global marketplace, corporations need to circulate their image and brand name so business and advertising combine in the promotion of corporations as media spectacles. Endless promotion circulates the McDonald’s Golden Arches, Nike’s Swoosh, or the logos of Apple, Intel, or Microsoft. In the brand wars between commodities, corporations need to make their logos or “trademarks” a familiar signpost in contemporary culture. Corporations place their logos on their products, in ads, in the spaces of everyday life, and in the midst of media spectacles like important sports events, TV shows, movie product placement, and wherever they can catch consumer eyeballs, to impress their brand name on a potential buyer. Consequently, advertising, marketing, public relations and promotion are an essential part of commodity spectacle in the global marketplace. Celebrity too is manufactured and managed in the world of media spectacle. Celebrities are the icons of media culture, the gods and goddesses of everyday life. To become a celebrity requires recognition as a star player in the field of media spectacle, be it sports, entertainment, or politics. Celebrities have their handlers and image managers to make sure that their celebrities continue to be seen and positively perceived by publics. Just as with corporate brand names, celebrities become brands to sell their Madonna, Michael Jordan, Tom Cruise, or Jennifer Lopez product and image. In a media culture, however, celebrities are always prey to scandal and thus must have at their disposal an entire public relations apparatus to manage their spectacle fortunes, to make sure their clients not only maintain high visibility but keep projecting a positive image. Of course, within limits, “bad” and transgressions can also sell and so media spectacle contains celebrity dramas that attract public attention and can even define an entire period, as when the O.J. Simpson murder trials and Bill Clinton sex scandals dominated the media in the mid and late 1990s. Entertainment has always been a prime field of the spectacle, but in today's infotainment society, entertainment and spectacle have entered into the domains of the economy, politics, society, and everyday life in important new ways. Building on the tradition of spectacle, contemporary forms of entertainment from television to the stage are incorporating spectacle culture into their enterprises, transforming film, television, music, drama, and other domains of culture, as well as producing spectacular new forms of culture such as cyberspace, multimedia, and virtual reality. For Neil Gabler, in an era of media spectacle, life itself is becoming like a movie and we create our own lives as a genre like film, or television, in which we become "at once performance artists in and audiences for a grand, ongoing show" (1998: 4). On Gabler’s view, we star in our own "lifies," making our lives into entertainment acted out for audiences of our peers, following the scripts of media culture, adopting its role models and fashion types, its style and look. Seeing our lives in cinematic terms, entertainment becomes for Gabler "arguably the most pervasive, powerful and ineluctable force of our time--a force so overwhelming that it has metastasized into life" to such an extent that it is impossible to distinguish between the two (1998: 9). As Gabler sees it, Ralph Lauren is our fashion expert; Martha Stewart designs our sets; Jane Fonda models our shaping of our bodies; and Oprah Winfrey advises us on our personal problems.4 Media spectacle is indeed a culture of celebrity who provide dominant role models and icons of fashion, look, and personality. In the world of spectacle, celebrity encompasses every major social domain from entertainment to politics to sports to business. An ever-expanding public relations industry hypes certain figures, elevating them to celebrity status, and protects their positive image in the never-ending image wars and dangers that a celebrity will fall prey to the machinations of negative-image and thus lose celebrity status, and/or become figures of scandal and approbation, as will some of the players and institutions that I examine in Media Spectacle (Kellner 2003). Sports has long been a domain of the spectacle with events like the Olympics, World Series, Super Bowl, World Soccer Cup, and NBA championships attracting massive audiences, while generating sky-high advertising rates. These cultural rituals celebrate society's deepest values (i.e. competition, winning, success, and money), and corporations are willing to pay top dollar to get their products associated with such events. Indeed, it appears that the logic of the commodity spectacle is inexorably permeating professional sports which can no longer be played without the accompaniment of cheerleaders, giant mascots who clown with players and spectators, and raffles, promotions, and contests that feature the products of various sponsors. Sports stadiums themselves contain electronic reproduction of the action, as well as giant advertisements for various products that rotate for maximum saturation -- previewing environmental advertising in which entire urban sites are becoming scenes to boost consumption spectacles. Arenas, like the United Center in Chicago, America West Arena in Phoenix, on Enron Field in Houston are named after corporate sponsors. Of course, after major corporate scandals or collapse, like the Enron spectacle, the ballparks must be renamed! The Texas Ranger Ballpark in Arlington, Texas supplements its sports arena with a shopping mall, office buildings, and a restaurant in which for a hefty price one can watch the athletic events while eating and drinking.5 The architecture of the Texas Rangers stadium is an example of the implosion of sports and entertainment and postmodern spectacle. A man-made lake surrounds the stadium, the corridor inside is modeled after Chartes Cathedral, and the structure is made of local stone that provides the look of the Texas Capitol in Austin. Inside there are Texas longhorn cattle carvings, panels of Texas and baseball history, and other iconic signifiers of sports and Texas. The merging of sports, entertainment, and local spectacle is now typical in sports palaces. Tropicana Field in Tampa Bay, Florida, for instance, "has a three-level mall that includes places where 'fans can get a trim at the barber shop, do their banking and then grab a cold one at the Budweiser brew pub, whose copper kettles rise three stories. There is even a climbing wall for kids and showroom space for car dealerships'" (Ritzer 1998: 229). Film has long been a fertile field of the spectacle, with "Hollywood" connoting a world of glamour, publicity, fashion, and excess. Hollywood film has exhibited grand movie palaces, spectacular openings with searchlights and camera-popping paparazzi, glamorous Oscars, and stylish hi-tech film. While epic spectacle became a dominant genre of Hollywood film from early versions of The Ten Commandments through Cleopatra and 2001 in the 1960s, contemporary film has incorporated the mechanics of spectacle into its form, style, and special effects. Films are hyped into spectacle through advertising and trailers which are ever louder, more glitzy, and razzle-dazzle. Some of the most popular films of the late 1990s were spectacle films, including Titanic, Star Wars -- Phantom Menace, Three Kings, and Austin Powers, a spoof of spectacle, which became one of the most successful films of summer 1999. During Fall 1999, there was a cycle of spectacles, including Topsy Turvy, Titus, Cradle Will Rock, Sleepy Hollow, The Insider, and Magnolia, with the latter featuring the biblical spectacle of the raining of frogs in the San Fernando Valley, in an allegory of the decadence of the entertainment industry and deserved punishment for its excesses. The 2000 Academy Awards were dominated by the spectacle Gladiator, a mediocre film that captured best picture award and best acting award for Russell Crowe, thus demonstrating the extent to which the logic of the spectacle now dominates Hollywood film. Some of the most critically acclaimed and popular films of 2001 are also hi-tech spectacle, such as Moulin Rouge, a film spectacle that itself is a delirious ode to spectacle, from cabaret and the brothel to can-can dancing, opera, musical comedy, dance, theater, popular music, and film. A postmodern pastiche of popular music styles and hits, the film used songs and music ranging from Madonna and the Beatles to Dolly Parton and Kiss. Other 2001 film spectacles include Pearl Harbor, which re-enacts the Japanese attack on the U.S. that propelled the country to enter World War II, and that provided a ready metaphor for the September 11 terror attacks. Major 2001 film spectacles range from David Lynch’s postmodern surrealism in Mulholland Drive to Steven Spielberg’s blending of his typically sentimental spectacle of the family with the formalist rigor of Stanley Kubrick in A.I. And the popular 2001 military film Black-Hawk Down provided a spectacle of American military heroism which some critics believed sugar-coated the actual problems with the U.S. military intervention in Somalia, causing worries that a future U.S. adventure by the Bush administration and Pentagon would meet similar problems. There were reports, however, that in Somalian cinemas there were loud cheers as the Somalians in the film shot down the U.S. helicopter, and pursued and killed American soldiers, attesting to growing anti-American sentiment in the Muslim world against Bush administration policies. Television has been from its introduction in the 1940s a promoter of consumption spectacle, selling cars, fashion, home appliances, and other commodities along with consumer life-styles and values. It is also the home of sports spectacle like the Super Bowl or World Series, political spectacles like elections (or more recently, scandals), entertainment spectacle like the Oscars or Grammies, and its own spectacles like breaking news or special events. Following the logic of spectacle entertainment, contemporary television exhibits more hi-tech glitter, faster and glitzier editing, computer simulations, and with cable and satellite television, a fantastic array of every conceivable type of show and genre. TV is today a medium of spectacular programs like The X-Files or Buffy, the Vampire Slayer, and spectacles of everyday life such as MTV's The Real World and Road Rules, or the globally popular Survivor and Big Brother series. Real life events, however, took over TV spectacle in 2000-2001 in, first, an intense battle for the White House in a dead-heat election, that arguably constitutes one of the greatest political crimes and scandals in U.S. history (see Kellner 2001). After months of the Bush administration pushing the most hardright political agenda in memory and then deadlocking as the Democrats took control of the Senate in a dramatic party re-affiliation of Vermont’s Jim Jeffords, the world was treated to the most horrifying spectacle of the new millennium, the September 11 terror attacks and unfolding Terror War that has so far engulfed Afghanistan and Iraq. These events promise an unending series of deadly spectacle for the foreseeable future.6 Hence, we are emerging into a new culture of media spectacle that constitutes a novel configuration of economy, society, politics, and everyday life. It involves new cultural forms, social relations, and modes of experience. It is producing an ever-proliferating and expanding spectacle culture with its proliferating media forms, cultural spaces, and myriad forms of spectacle. It is evident in the U.S. as the new millennium unfolds and may well constitute emergent new forms of global culture. Critical social theory thus faces important challenges in theoretically mapping and analyzing these emergent forms of culture and society and the ways that they may contain novel forms of domination and oppression, as well as potential for democratization and social justice. Works Cited Debord, Guy. Society of the Spectacle. Detroit: Black and Red, 1967. Gabler, Neil. Life the Movie. How Entertainment Conquered Reality. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1998. Kellner, Douglas. Grand Theft 2000. Lanham, Md.: Rowman and Littlefield, 2001. Kellner, Douglas. From 9/11 to Terror War: Dangers of the Bush Legacy. Lanham, Md.: Rowman and Littlefield, 2003. Kellner, Douglas. Media Spectacle. London and New York: Routledge, 2003. Ritzer, George. The McDonaldization Thesis: Explorations and Extensions. Thousand Oaks, Cal. and London: Sage, 1998. Wolf, Michael J. Entertainment Economy: How Mega-Media Forces are Transforming Our Lives. New York: Times Books, 1999. Notes 1 See Douglas Kellner, Media Spectacle. London and New York: Routledge, 2003. 2 Wolf's book is a detailed and useful celebration of the "entertainment economy," although he is a shill for the firms and tycoons that he works for and celebrates them in his book. Moreover, while entertainment is certainly an important component of the infotainment economy, it is an exaggeration to say that it drives it and is actually propelling it, as Wolf repeatedly claims. Wolf also downplays the negative aspects of the entertainment economy, such as growing consumer debt and the ups and downs of the infotainment stock market and vicissitudes of the global economy. 3 Another source notes that "the average American household spent $1,813 in 1997 on entertainment -- books, TV, movies, theater, toys -- almost as much as the $1,841 spent on health care per family, according to a survey by the US Labor Department." Moreover, "the price we pay to amuse ourselves has, in some cases, risen at a rate triple that of inflation over the past five years" (USA Today, April 2, 1999: E1). The NPD Group provided a survey that indicated that the amount of time spent on entertainment outside of the home –- such as going to the movies or a sport event – was up 8% from the early to the late 1990s and the amount of time in home entertainment, such as watching television or surfing the Internet, went up 2%. Reports indicate that in a typical American household, people with broadband Internet connections spend 22% more time on all-electronic media and entertainment than the average household without broadband. See “Study: Broadband in homes changes media habits” (PCWORLD.COM, October 11, 2000). 4 Gabler’s book is a synthesis of Daniel Boorstin, Dwight Macdonald, Neil Poster, Marshall McLuhan, and other trendy theorists of media culture, but without the brilliance of a Baudrillard, the incisive criticism of an Adorno, or the understanding of the deeper utopian attraction of media culture of a Bloch or Jameson. Likewise, Gabler does not, a la cultural studies, engage the politics of representation, or its economics and political economy. He thus ignores mergers in the culture industries, new technologies, the restructuring of capitalism, globalization, and shifts in the economy that are driving the impetus toward entertainment. Gabler does get discuss how new technologies are creating new spheres of entertainment and forms of experience and in general describes rather than theorizes the trends he is engaging. 5 The project was designed and sold to the public in part through the efforts of the son of a former President, George W. Bush. Young Bush was bailed out of heavy losses in the Texas oil industry in the 1980s by his father's friends and used his capital gains, gleaned from what some say as illicit insider trading, to purchase part-ownership of a baseball team to keep the wayward son out of trouble and to give him something to do. The soon-to-be Texas governor, and future President of the United States, sold the new stadium to local taxpayers, getting them to agree to a higher sales tax to build the stadium which would then become the property of Bush and his partners. This deal allowed Bush to generate a healthy profit when he sold his interest in the Texas Rangers franchise and to buy his Texas ranch, paid for by Texas tax-payers (for sources on the scandalous life of George W. Bush and his surprising success in politics, see Kellner 2001 and the further discussion of Bush Jr. in Chapter 6). 6 See Douglas Kellner, From 9/11 to Terror War: Dangers of the Bush Legacy. Lanham, Md.: Rowman and Littlefield Citation reference for this article Substitute your date of access for Dn Month Year etc... MLA Style Kellner, Douglas. "Engaging Media Spectacle " M/C: A Journal of Media and Culture< http://www.media-culture.org.au/0306/09-mediaspectacle.php>. APA Style Kellner, D. (2003, Jun 19). Engaging Media Spectacle . M/C: A Journal of Media and Culture, 6,< http://www.media-culture.org.au/0306/09-mediaspectacle.php>

He is, surely, the only heterosexual male in the country who could get away with being photographed half-naked and smothered in baby oil for GQ and still come over as an icon of masculinity. (GQ October 2002. Article on Beckham as GQ’s Sportsman of the Year, 264) Indeed. Let us tear our thoughts away from the image of David basted in oil and consider the extract as one of innumerable examples of the media fascination with Beckham. Given his penetration in Europe, Asia, Latin America and Africa, we can take as self-evident that Beckham is a quantifiably significant figure in contemporary global popular culture. By any measure of celebrity and any taxonomy of fame (Turner 15-23), Beckham qualifies as a striking example. He has inevitably appeared in a number of recent academic publications as an exemplar of celebrity and sports culture (Whannel, Turner, Cashmore and Parker) and, more notably in Cashmore’s book, as the focus of a social biography (Beckham). In his book Understanding Celebrity, Turner provides a comprehensive overview of the vast literature which has developed on issues of celebrity and fame, painting a broad picture of concerns divided between the significance of the apparent explosion in celebrity ‘culture’ and the focus on celebrities themselves. Within the literature on the social significance of celebrity culture, we can discern two key themes. First, celebrity culture is a manifestation of globalised commodity consumerism in advanced capitalism and second, its social function as a system of meanings and values which is supplanting traditional resources for self and social identities in late modern culture, including structures such as class, gender/sexuality, ethnicity and nationality. Whilst the authors mentioned above both draw on and contribute to these arguments, their focus remains broad, citing Beckham as a key manifestation of the complex interdependence between globalised sports and media industries, and transformations in gender and consumption. For example, although Cashmore’s book is solidly researched on the impact of media finance on football and has a sound argument on the significance of consumerism, he is prone to generalisations about the transformations in masculinity and celebrity culture which he suggests are central to understanding Beckham’s significance. Turner suggests that there needs to be more focused empirical work on the specific construction of celebrity since ‘modern celebrity…is a product of media representation: understanding it demands close attention to the representational repertoires and patterns employed in this discursive regime’ (8). This is how this short piece offers a contribution to the literature – drawing on a qualitative analysis of articles on Beckham, my discussion focuses on the meanings of Beckham’s celebrity and whether they can tell us something about the way the culture of fame operates. I have drawn selectively from my data, but a fuller discussion of both the data and grounded theory methodology can be found in a previous article (Rahman). Out of the six categories of meaning established through the grounded theory procedures used in the study, my contention is that masculinity is a core nexus in ‘cultural circuitry’ (Hall) – making the stories relevant, understandable, and often controversial. Moreover, the accompanying photo spreads often create a tension with the text, emphasising dissonant/controversial images which testifies to a dynamic of respect/ridicule in the representations. To be more precise, there is a construction of deference to Beckham’s professional status and to the Beckham family as the premier celebrity unit in the UK. Deference to and respect for their status is evident not only in those magazines which have paid for the privilege of access, but also the more gossip orientated celebrity weeklies such as Heat (18-24 May: 6-8): ‘those lucky enough to be asked to join David and Victoria enjoyed one the most extravagant soirees in recent memory. The sheer scale of the £350000 shindig was stunning, even by the standards of Celebville’s most extravagant couple’. Coupled with this respect is a sense of ridicule, often in discrete publications, but also within the same magazine and even sometimes the same article. Ridicule undercuts the celebrity credentials of extravagance and glamour with an implication of tackiness and vulgarity, and this gentle undercurrent becomes stronger when linked to Beckham’s fashion icon status: We’ve supported David through the highlights and lowlights of his various haircuts: the streaked curtains, the skinhead and his travis bickle style mohican. But this latest look is a ‘do too far’ – more village idiot than international style icon… (Heat 13-19 April: 24-5) This dynamic of respect/ridicule relies heavily on another dynamic; that of queer/normative invocation and recuperation. It is not only his fashion icon status being ridiculed here but also his status as a heterosexual masculine icon: People say you’re vain. Do you think so? You can see why people might think you’re a bit of a big girl’s blouse, because you have manicures, sunbeds and bleach your hair. You’re also one of the few footballers to become a gay icon. (Marie Claire June 2002: cover of Beckham, and 69-76) His gender/sexuality is anchored in hetero-family/masculine status but is somewhat dissonant in terms of vanity/grooming and gay icon status. ‘Queerying’ Beckham is not just a technique of ridicule (how very old fashioned that would be!) but also a deliberate destabilisation of ontological anchors which induces a sense of dissonance: An example from Heat (20-26 July 2002) has the cover byline ‘Phwoar! Another new look for Becks’ with a trail for a story on pages 18-20 which has a photograph of Beckham with his nail varnish highlighted and the text: David sported a new blonde barnet and a fitted black suit, and despite the controversy caused by his pink nail varnish he still managed to look macho and absolutely beautiful. This demonstrates some feminisation of Beckham but is counterbalanced by the very masculine anchor of ‘macho’. There is a recognition that the highlighted ambiguity in gender coding is potentially disruptive or controversial and hence it is recuperated – ‘he still managed to look macho’. GQ from June 2002 repeats the play on gender and sexuality, with a cover photo of Beckham lying down, bare torso but in a suit and hat, with one hand showing a ring and nail varnish, and the other in the waistband of his trousers. Inside, on pages 142-55, there follow seven full pages of photos and an interview conducted by David Furnish, a family friend of the Beckhams but also Elton John’s partner and so one of the most visible gay men in celebrity culture. However, rather than any danger of queering by association, the presence of Furnish seems only to enhance the mega-celebrity and hetero status, since he is careful to sound all the right notes of family, football and fatherhood in his questions in the text. Rather, it is the photospread which induces the queerness in this example, with four of Beckham’s naked torso in baby oil, of which one is him in unbuttoned cut-off denim shorts on a weights bench – very retro 1970s gay. In his history of male sports celebrities, Whannel suggests that Beckham is an exceptional figure, both because he is one of the few footballers in the UK to achieve full celebrity status, but also because he transgresses the discipline and work ethic associated with sporting bodies, indulging himself through conspicuous and narcissistic consumption (212). Whannel notes Beckham’s emergence during the development of a men’s style press in the UK, documented thoroughly in Nixon’s study of men’s magazines, which provides an account of the historical moment from 1984-1990 which saw the emergence of ‘new man’ imagery. Drawing on Mort’s contention that this is the first period which showed men being sexualised – a representational strategy previously applied only to women – Nixon concurs with Mort that this moment marks the beginning of men being addressed as a specific gender. However, these images of Beckham push at the boundaries of ‘new man’ constructions and ‘respectable’ images of sporting bodies, suggesting that the deliberate, indelicate and delicious sexualisation of Beckham’s body derives its power from the ‘danger’ this presents to sporting masculinity as well as simply heterosexual masculinity. Thus we need ‘family, fatherhood’ and ‘football’ to anchor the ‘queer’ Beckham. Given these and more recent images (Vanity Fair cover in July 2004, for example), we might be tempted to agree with Cashmore and Parker and Whannel that Beckham is indeed a ‘postmodern’ or ‘hybrid’ celebrity, appearing singularly able to float free of context and to signify many different meanings to many different groups. But the brief examples of the queer/normative dynamic presented here suggest that this is too glib an answer, precisely because there seems to be an explicit recognition of this dynamic: the editor of GQ says of Beckham that ‘he is in touch with his feminine side, but he is so obviously heterosexual that he can afford to be’ (Hot Stars 2-8 Nov. 2002: 36-9). The deliberate induction of dissonance suggests a reflexivity about the constructedness of these representations; a knowing indication that queerying Beckham’s masculinity is not the reality of Beckham, but rather that the queerying is perhaps a hyper reality as Baudrillard might have it. Beckham does not float ‘free’: dialectical signs are precisely mapped onto him. Dyer argues that film stars could be read as signs for specific versions of individuality, but crucially, that these signs reflect the dominant ideological constructions of class, ethnicity and gender/sexuality. In one example, he demonstrates how the sexually transgressive and potentially lesbian elements of Jane Fonda’s star persona are recuperated through the emphasis on her nationality and ethnicity, her ‘all-Americanness’ (81). Similarly, Beckham’s queerness is deliberately deployed as a sign, to be neutralised by heterosexual signs, thus recuperating the ideological dominance of a heteronormative culture. Beckham’s masculinity can be read as a ‘sign’, divorced from traditional referents and re-marked into a queer sign, specifically to promote consumption through the heady mix of respected status and apparently exciting transgression as a key aspect of this status. But this is a simulation, not indicating any ‘real’ queering of either the subject, or indeed of the assumed audience who have to make sense of the sign. Rather, the potential to remark Beckham as ‘queer’ seems to indicate that whilst heterosexual masculinity can be a sign, so perhaps too does queer itself become a sign, similarly divorced from its traditional referents. The ‘reality’ is thus simulated through pre-determined codes of representation, and one such code seems to be that gender transgression is culturally significant. Dialectical signs are mapped onto a reality/hyper reality dynamic, with queerness presented knowingly as the hyper real – after all, the reality is that Beckham is ‘so obviously heterosexual…’ It is possible to argue that the dynamics at work in making these representations effective can be understood as dialectical since there are opposing momentums at work in the construction of celebrity and fame. The respect/ridicule dynamic demonstrates that constructions of celebrity cannot be uncritically deferential. The gentle and knowing ridicule is a collusion between the media(tors) and the audience: an indication that this relationship is the true romance of celebrity culture rather than that between fans and icons. And why should this be so? Precisely because the media needs to continue to feed the desires of the audience but there is no guarantee that the desire will continue when an icon’s star wanes – unless of course, watching the decline is as much part of the romance as building the respect. Marshall argues that celebrity legitimises the individuality central to the lock between consumer capitalism and liberal democracy and the respect/ridicule dynamic exemplifies this function. The necessary continuation of consumption produces a dialectical dynamic, wherein both respect and ridicule exist to permit easy shifts in emphasis whilst maintaining the attention on the celebrity, which promotes continued consumption. Beckham’s own demonisation and rehabilitation in the wake of France 98 testifies convincingly to the necessity for continuity of producing items for consumption, no matter what the spin. Furthermore, the recent scandals over alleged infidelities has generated a production spike in the amount of images and words produced, whilst this time, not directly attacking Beckham. The queer constructions of Beckham amplify respect/ridicule along a specific dimension, supplying a dialectic of its own. The modes of meaning surrounding Beckham do indicate a shift in the possible effective constructions of masculinity, with the incorporation of a feminised interest in fashion (hairstyles, nail varnish, presentation in general) and the affirmation of gay icon/object of desire. It is in these constructions of dissonance that the de-essentialising of masculinity occurs, which may be the productive moment of disruption for those receiving the images and texts, and incorporating them into their own meaning systems around Beckham, footballers, masculinities, heteronormativity. The fact that these queer moments are possible may be testament enough to Beckham’s social significance; he is in the right place at the right time (with the right body and profession) to be our cultural lightning conductor for contemporary anxieties around gender/sexuality. However, the dialectic of queering Beckham has a synthesis which suggests that the route into queerness is not as important as the route out. These are only fleeting materialisations of the queer David Beckham – flashes of fleshy dissonance glimpsed briefly before the recuperation into the heterosexual subject, coded by footie, family and fatherhood. The newer dissonant properties of masculinity are literally contextualised within ideological codes of heterosexuality. The evident theatricalisation and appropriation may appear to signal a productive route into queerness – from heterosexual to queer (the pink nail varnish, the oiled fashion shoots, the gay gym denim cut offs shot), but what if it is actually working in reverse? What if the cultural effectivity is achieved by appropriating and theatricalising from gay/transgender to heterosexual? – de-essentialising ‘queer’ for productive dissonance and amusement, but safe in the knowledge that there is a secure and policed route out of ‘queerness’ – the encoded red carpet of heterosexual masculinity. The possibilities of a queer visibility are thus denied through the recuperative effects of the dialectics at work. The ridiculing of his gender transgressions may be necessarily gentle, in order to walk the tightrope of respect/ridicule, but they nonetheless assume that transgressions are problematic. Furthermore, the reality/hyper reality dynamic deploys queer as a ‘sign’ precisely in order to effect a recuperation of a normative version of ‘reality’. It seems that the weight of a predominantly heteronormative culture reinforces the dialectics in celebrity culture, making the unproblematic visibility of queer subjects improbable. After all, in these examples – focused one on the world’s premier celebrities – ‘queer’ itself is not actually cool – it seems that only the simulation of queer is cool. Within contemporary fame, perhaps straight is really the new queer? References Cashmore, E. Beckham. 2nd ed. Oxford: Polity Press, 2004. Cashmore, E., and A. Parker. “One David Beckham? Celebrity, Masculinity and the Soccerati.” Sociology of Sport Journal 20.3 (2003): 214-31. Dyer, R. Stars. 2nd ed. London: BFI, 1998. Hall, S. “Encoding/Decoding.” Reprinted from original 1977 publication at Birmingham Centre for Contemporary Cultural Studies. Culture, Media, Language. Ed. S. Hall. London: Unwin Hyman, 1990. Marshall, P.D. Celebrity and Power: Fame in Contemporary Culture. London: U of Minneapolis P, 1997. Mort, F. “Boy’s Own? Masculinity, Style and Popular Culture.” Male Order. Unwrapping Masculinity. Eds. J. Chapman and J. Rutherford. London, Lawrence and Wishart, 1998. 193-224. Nixon, S. Hard Looks: Masculinities, Spectatorship and Contemporary Consumption. London: UCL Press, 1996. Rahman, M. “David Beckham as a Historical Moment in the Representation of Masculinity.” Labour History Review 69.2 (Aug. 2004): 219-34. Turner, G. Understanding Celebrity. London: Sage, 2004. Whannel, G. Media Sport Stars: Masculinities and Moralities. London: Routledge, 2002. Citation reference for this article MLA Style Rahman, Mohmin. "Is Straight the New Queer?: David Beckham and the Dialectics of Celebrity." M/C Journal 7.5 (2004). echo date('d M. Y'); ?> <http://journal.media-culture.org.au/0411/15-rahman.php>. APA Style Rahman, M. (Nov. 2004) "Is Straight the New Queer?: David Beckham and the Dialectics of Celebrity," M/C Journal, 7(5). Retrieved echo date('d M. Y'); ?> from <http://journal.media-culture.org.au/0411/15-rahman.php>.

This essay aims to show some approaches in the understanding of the lifelong learning concepts, knowledge, competence, from a literature review with the contributions of Dewey, Bruner, Freire, Schon and Tardif among others. Coming from theoretical studies carried out by Italian researchers and a Brazilian researcher, through their Research Centers/Laboratories and international collaborative partnership between Brazilian and Italian Universities, this text addresses from the undertake scientific literature, key terms which support the held studies. From the considerations, it is highlighted the regular understanding around lifelong learning concept, which considers the human condition for the permanent learning and valuing experiences from different contexts, such as family and school (basic and higher education). In view of this, the approximation between the concepts of competence and knowledge was also highlighted, recognized and valued as fundamental elements for the learning process and for the development of critical and reflexive thinking, and consequently transforming daily problems and challenges. The task reinforces the research network, pursuing the improving theoretical knowledge to subsidize the scientific research production in the educational field, besides Brazilian or Italian academic walls.SommarioQuesto saggio ha l’obiettivo di presentare gli approcci sulla definizione dei concetti di apprendimento permanente, saperi e competenze, partendo da una revisione della letteratura, con i contributi,tra gli altri, di Dewey, Bruner, Freire, Schon e Tardif. A partire dall’analisi teorica condotta da ricercatori italiani e una ricercatrice brasiliana, mediante i loro centri di ricerca/laboratório, e l’accordo di collaborazione internazionale tra l’università brasiliana e italiana, questo testo affronta, in base alla letteratura scientifica, i termini chiave che supportano gli studi realizzati. Dalle argomentazioni espresse, emerge la posizione comune sul concetto di apprendimento permanente o per tutta la vita, che considera l’approccio umanistico e la valorizzazione delle esperienze provenienti da diversi contesti come la famiglia e la scuola (in particolare di base e superiore). In questa prospettiva, si mette in evidenzia anche l'approssimazione semantica tra i concetti di competenza e saperi, riconosciuti e valorizzati come elementi fondamentali per il processo di apprendimento e per lo sviluppo del pensiero critico e riflessivo, e di conseguenza trasformatore rispetto ai problemi e alle sfide quotidiane della vita. Il presente contributo rafforza la rete di ricerca congiunta, con l'obiettivo di migliorare le conoscenze teoriche per supportare lo sviluppo di ricerche in campo educativo, al di là delle mura accademiche brasiliane o italiane.Keywords: Lifelong learning, Knowledge, Strategic competence, Reflexive competence.Parole chiave: Apprendimento permanente, Saperi, Competenze strategiche, Competenze di riflessione.Palavras-chave: Aprendizagem permanente, Conhecimento, Competência estratégica, Competência reflexiva.ReferencesALBERICI, A. La possibilità di cambiare. Apprendere ad apprendere come risorsa strategica per la vita. Milano: Franco Angeli, 2008.ALBERICI, A.; DI RIENZO, P. Learning to learn for individual and society. In: R. Deakin CRICK, C. S.; K. REN (Eds), Learning to Learn. International perspectives from theory and practice. New York: Routledge, 2014, p. 87-104.BALDACCI M. Trattato di pedagogia generale, Roma: Carocci Editore, 2002.BANDURA A. Cultivate self-efficacy for personal and organizational effectiveness. Handbook of principles of organization behavior. Wiley on line, 2000, p. 179-200.BATINI, F. (a cura di) Manuale per orientatori. Metodi e scenari per l’empowerment personale e professionale. Trento: Erickson, 2005.BATINI, F.; DEL SARTO G. Narrazioni di narrazioni: orientamento narrativo e progetto di vita. Trento: Erickson, 2005.BECK, U.; GIDDENS, A.; LASH, S. Modernizzazione riflessiva. Trieste: Asterios, 1999.BELL, D. The Coming of Post-Industrial Society. New York: Harper Colophon Books, 1999.BLAIR C.; RAZZA R.P. Relating Effortful Control, Executive Function, and False Belif Understanding to Emerging Math and Literacy Ability in Kindergarten, Child Development, v. 78, n. 2, p. 647-663, 2007.BOYATZIS R. The Competent Manager: a Model for Effective Performance. New York: John Wiley & Sons, 1982.BRUNER, J. Acts of Meaning. London: Harvard University Press, 1990.CONSOLI, F. Evoluzione e sviluppo di modelli per competenze e loro diverse matrici. In: A.M. AJELLO (a cura di), La competenza. Bologna: Il Mulino, 2002.CORNOLDI, C.; DE BENI, R.; ZAMPERLIN, C.; MENEGHETTI, C. AMOS 8-15. Abilità e motivazione allo studio: prove di valutazione per ragazzi dagli 8 ai 15 anni. Manuale e protocolli. Trento: Erickson, 2005.DEWEY, J. Esperienza e educazione. Firenze: La Nuova Italia, 1949.DI NUBILA R. D.; FABBRI MONTESANO D.; MARGIOTTA U. La formazione oltre l'aula: lo stage. L'organizzazione e la gestione delle esperienze di tirocinio in azienda e in altri contesti. Padova: CEDAM, 1999. DI RIENZO, P. Educazione informale in età adulta. Temi e ricerche sulla convalida dell'apprendimento pregresso nell'università. Roma: Anicia, 2012.DI RIENZO, P. Recognition and validation of non-formal and informal learning: Lifelong learning and university in the Italian context. Journal of Adult and Continuing Education, 20, 1, p. 39-52, 2014.DI RIENZO P. Prassi educative e competenze tacite. Il ruolo dell’approccio biografico, in G. Alessandrini, M. L. De Natale (a cura di), Il dibattito sulle competenze: quale prospettiva pedagogica? Lecce: Pensa Multimedia, 2015.DOMENICI, G. Manuale dell’orientamento e della didattica modulare. Bari: Laterza, 2009.DRUCKER, P. Il grande cambiamento. Milano: Sperling & Kupfer Editori, 1996.FREIRE, P. Pedagogia da autonomia: saberes necessários à prática educativa. São Paulo: Paz e Terra, 1996. FREIRE, P. Educação e Mudança. 26a ed. São Paulo: Paz e Terra, 2002. FREIRE, P. Pedagogia do Oprimido. 17a ed. São Paulo: Paz e Terra, 1987. FREIRE, P. Professora sim, tia não: cartas a quem ousa ensinar. São Paulo:Olho d´Água, 1997.FREIRE, P. Pedagogia da Esperança. São Paulo:Paz e Terra, 1997. FREIRE, P. Política e Educação: ensaios. 5a ed. São Paulo: Cortez, 2001. FREIRE, P. Educação como prática para a liberdade: e outros escritos. Rio de Janeiro: Paz e Terra, 1976.FREIRE, P. Conscientização: teoria e prática da libertação. São Paulo: Moraes, 1980.GATHERCOLE S.E.; ALLOWAY T.P. Working memory and learning: A teacher’s guide. London: Sage Pubblications, 2008.GAUTHIER, C. et al Por uma teoria da pedagogia: pesquisas contemporâneas sobre o Saber Docente. Ijuí: UNIJUÍ, 2006.GOLEMAN, D. Intelligenza emotiva. Milano: Rizzoli, 1996.GONZALEZ, A.; ZIMBARDO, P. G. Time in perspective: The sense we learn early affects how we do our jobs and enjoy our pleasures. Psychology Today, V. 19, n. 3, p. 21-26, 1985.GRADZIEL D. Educare il carattere. Per una pratica educativa teoricamente fondata, Roma: Las, 2014.GUICHARD, J.; HUTEAU M. Psicologia dell’orientamento professionale. Milano: Raffaello Cortina Editore, 2003.HECKMAN, J. J.; HUMPHRIES, J. E.; KAUTZ, T. (Eds.). (2014). The myth of achievement tests: The GED and the role of character in American life. University of Chicago Press, 2014.HOLMES, J.; ADAMS, J. W.; HAMILTON, C. J. The relationship between visuospatial sketchpad capacity and children's mathematical skills. European Journal of Cognitive Psychology, v. 20, n. 2, p. 272-289, 2008.ILLERIS, K. Contemporary Theories of Learning. London: Routledge, 2009.KNOWLES, M. S. The making of an adult educator: An autobiographical journey. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass, 1989.LA MARCA, A. Io studio per ... imparare a pensare. Troina: Città Aperta, 2004.LA ROCCA, C.; MARGOTTINI, M.; & CAPOBIANCO, R. Ambienti digitali per lo sviluppo delle competenze trasversali nella didattica universitaria. Journal of Educational Cultural and Psychological Studies, Special Issues: Digital Didactis, n. 10, 245-283, 2014.LA ROCCA C. ePortfolio: l’uso di ambienti online per favorire l’orientamento in itinere nel percorso universitario. Giornale Italiano Della Ricerca Educativa, Anno VIII, Vol. 14, p. 157-174, 2015.LA ROCCA, C. Il Quaderno per riflettere sul Senso della Vita. Una pagina di ePortfolio. Ricerche Pedagogiche, Anno LII, n. 208-209, p. 107-127, 2018.LA ROCCA C.; CAPOBIANCO R. ePortfolio: l’utilizzo delle nuove tecnologie per favorire processi di apprendimento autodiretti. Formazione Lavoro Persona. Anno IX, n. 26, p 138-152, 2019.LAVE, J.; WENGER, E. L'apprendimento situato. Trento: Erickson, 2006.LIMA, L. C. A EJA no contexto de uma educação permanente ou ao longo da vida: mais humanos e livres, ou apenas mais competitivos e úteis? In: Brasil. Ministério da Educação. Secretaria de Educação Continuada, Alfabetização, Diversidade e Inclusão. Coletânea de textos CONFINTEA Brasil+6: tema central e oficinas temáticas. Brasília: MEC, 2016, p.15-25.MARGOTTINI, M. Competenze strategiche a scuola e all’università. Esiti d’indagini empiriche e interventi formativi. Milano: LED, 2017.MARGOTTINI M. La validazione del QSA ridotto. In PELLEREY M. (a cura di) Strumenti e metodologie di orientamento formativo e professionale nel quadro dei processi di apprendimento permanente. Roma: Cnos-Fap., 2018a, p.257-304.MARGOTTINI M. La prospettiva temporale e la percezione delle proprie competenze: correlazioni tra i fattori del test di Zimbardo e quelli del QSA e del QPCS a livello universitario. In PELLEREY M. (a cura di) Strumenti e metodologie di orientamento formativo e professionale nel quadro dei processi di apprendimento permanente. Roma: Cnos-Fap., 2018b, p.207-250.MARGOTTINI, M. Autovalutazione e promozione di competenze strategiche per la scuola e per il lavoro. Formazione & Insegnamento, v. 1, n. 1, p. 309-322, 2019.MARGOTTINI, M.; LA ROCCA, C.; ROSSI, F. Competenze strategiche, prospettiva temporale e dimensione narrativa nell’orientamento. Italian Journal of Educational Research, anno X, p. 43-61, 2017.MARGOTTINI, M.; ROSSI, F. Il ruolo delle dinamiche cognitive, motivazionali e temporali nei processi di apprendimento. Formazione & Insegnamento, v. 15, n. 2, p. 499-511, 2017.MARGOTTINI M.; ROSSI F. Adattabilità professionale e competenze strategiche nella scuola e all’universit. Contributo presentato al Convegno Internazionale SIRD “Education and evaluation processes”, Università di Salerno, 25-26 Ottobre, 2018.MCCLELLAND, D. C. Testing for Competence Rather than Intelligence. American Psychologist, n. 1, p. 1-14, 1973.MEZIROW, J. Learning as transformation: critical perspectives on a theory in progress. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass, 2000.MEZIROW, J. Apprendimento e trasformazione. Il significato dell’esperienza e il valore della riflessione nell’apprendimento degli adulti. Milano: Raffaello Cortina Editore, 2003.MIYAKE A.; FRIEDMAN N. P.; EMERSON M. J.; WITZKI A. H.; HOWERTER A.; WAGER T. D. The unity and diversity of executive functions and their contributions to complex ‘‘frontal lobe’’ tasks: A latent variable analysis, in Cognitive Psychology, n. 41, p. 49–100, 2000.NUTTIN, J. The future time perspective in human motivation and learning.In: Proceedings of the 17th International Congress of Psychology. Amsterdam: North-Holland, 1964, p. 60-82. NUTTIN, J. Motivation et perspectives d’avenir, v. 14. Louvain: Presses Universitaires de Louvain, 1980.OLIVEIRA, M. W. et al. Processos educativos em práticas sociais: reflexões teóricas e metodológicas sobre pesquisa educacional em espaços sociais. In: OLIVEIRA, M. W.; SOUSA, F. R.. (Orgs.). Processos Educativos em Práticas Sociais: pesquisas em educação. São Carlos: EDUFSCar, 2014. p. 29-46.OWEN, A. M. The Functional Organization of Working Memory Processes Within Human Lateral Frontal Cortex: The Contribution of Functional Neuroimaging. European Journal of Neuroscience, v. 9, p. 1329-1339, 1997.PAOLICCHI, P. Esperienza del tempo e realtà sociale. Pisa: Tecnico Scientifica, 1976.PELLEREY, M. Dirigere il proprio apprendimento. Brescia: La Scuola, 2006.PELLEREY, M. Le competenze strategiche: loro natura, sviluppo e valutazione. Prima parte. Competenze strategiche e processi di autoregolazione: il ruolo delle dinamiche motivazionali. Orientamenti pedagogici: rivista internazionale di scienze dell'educazione, v. 60, n. 351, p. 147-168, 2013PELLEREY, M. Soft skill e orientamento professionale. Roma: CNOS – FAP, 2017.PELLEREY, M. Le competenze nel pensare. Una rilettura in ambito educativo delle virtù dianoetiche. Scuola Democratica, n.1, p.183-194, 2019.PONTECORVO, C. L'apprendimento tra culture e contesti. In C. PONTECORVO, A. M. AJELLO, C. Z. (a cura di), I contesti sociali dell’apprendimento. Milano: LED, 1995.ROMEO, F.P. La memoria come categoria pedagogica. Tricase (LE): Libellula, 2014.SAVICKAS M. L.; PORFELI E. J. Career Adapt-Abilities Scale: construction, reliability, and measurement equivalence across 13 countries. Journal of Vocational Behavior, n. 80, p. 661-673, 2012.SCHÖN, D. A. Educating the reflective practitioner: toward a new design for teaching and learning in the professions. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass, 1987.SEN, A. Lo sviluppo è libertà. Perché non c’è sviluppo senza democrazia. Milano: Mondadori, 2001.SPENCER, L.M.; SPENCER, S.M. Competence at Work Models for Superior Performance. New York: John Wiley & Sons, 1993.ST CLAIR-THOMPSON H.L., GATHERCOLE S.E. Executive functions and achievements in school: Shifting, updating, inhibition, and working memory. The Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology, v. 59, n. 4, p. 745-759, 2006.TARDIF, M. Saberes Profissionais dos Professores e Conhecimentos Universitários. Revista Brasileira de Educação, Rio de Janeiro, n. 13, Jan- Abr/2000.TARDIF, M. Saberes docentes e formação profissional. Petrópolis, R.J.: Editora Vozes, 2002.TARDIF, M.; LESSARD, C. O trabalho docente: elementos para uma teoria da docência como profissão de interações humanas. Petrópolis, R.J.: Editora Vozes, 2007.TOURAINE, A. La societé post-industrielle. Paris: Denoël, 1969.ZANNIELLO, G. Orientare insegnando. Esperienze didattiche e ricerca-intervento. Napoli: Tecnodid, 1998.ZIMBARDO, P. G.; BOYD, J. N. Putting time in perspective: A valid, reliable individual-differences metric. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, v. 77, n. 6, p. 1271-1288, 1999.ZIMBARDO, P. G.; BOYD, J. N. The time paradox: The new psychology of time that will change your life. New York: Simon and Schuster, 2008.ZUCCHERMAGLIO, C. Studiare le organizzazioni. Apprendimento, pratiche di lavoro e tecnologie nei contesti organizzativi. In C. PONTECORVO, A. M. AJELLO, C. Z. (a cura di), I contesti sociali dell’apprendimento. Milano: LED, 1995.

The word “prosthetic” has its origins as a mathematical term. According to scholar Brandon W. Hawk, Plato uses the words prosthesis and prostithenai in Phaedo to mean "addition, add to, to place", and Aristotle uses it in a similar, algebraic sense in the Metaphysics. Later, as the word appears in classical Latin, it is used as a grammatical and rhetorical term, in the sense of a letter or syllable that is added on to a word, usually the addition of a syllable to the beginning of a word, hence pro-thesis (Hawk). This is the sense of the word that was “inherited … by early modern humanists”, says Hawk, but when it appears in Edward Phillips's The New World of English Words: Or, a General Dictionary (1706), we can see how, with advances in technology, it changes from a grammatical/linguistic term into a medical term. What was once word is now made flesh:Prosthesis, a Grammatical Figure, when a Letter or Syllable is added to the beginning of a Word, as Gnatus for natus, tetuli for tuli, &c. In Surgery, Prosthesis is taken for that which fills up what is wanting, as is to beseen in fistulous and hollow Ulcers, filled up with Flesh by that Art: Also themaking of artificial Legs and Arms, when the natural ones are lost.Hawk also points to P. Dionis in Course Chirurg (a 1710 textbook detailing the art of chirurgy, or surgery, as it’s known now), who uses the word to denote one type of surgical operation; that is, prosthesis becomes not a word, but an act that “adds what is deficient”, an act that repairs loss, that “fills up what is wanting”, that fills up what is “hollow”, that “fills up with flesh”. R. Brookes, in his Introduction to Physic and Surgery (1754), is the first to define prosthesis as both an act and also as a separate, material object; it is “an operation by which some instrument is added to supply the Defect of a Part which is wanting, either naturally or accidentally”. It is not until the twentieth century (1900, to be exact), though, that the word begins to refer solely to a device or object that is added on to somehow “supply the defect”, or fill up what which is “wanting”. So etymologically we move from the writer creating a new literary device, to the scientist/doctor acting in order to fix something, then back to the device again, this time as tangible object that fills a gap where there is lack and loss (Hawk).This is how we most often see the word, and so we have the notion of prosthetic used in this medicalised sense, as an "instrument", in relation to people with missing or disfunctional limbs. Having a prosthetic arm or leg in an ableist society instantly marks one as "missing" something, or being "disabled". Wheelchairs and other prosthetic accoutrements also serve as a metonymic shorthand for disability (an example of this might be how, on reserved parking spots in North America, the image on the sign is that of a person in a wheelchair). In the case of deaf people, who are also thought of as "disabled", but whose supposed disability is invisible, hearing aids and cochlear implants (CIs) serve as this kind of visible marker.* Like artificial limbs and wheelchairs, these "instruments" (they are actually called “hearing instruments” by audiologists) are sometimes added on to the purportedly “lacking” body. They are objects that “restore function to” the disabled deaf ear. As such, these devices, like wheelchairs and bionic arms, also serve as a shorthand in American culture, especially in film and visual media, where this kind of obvious, material symbolism is very helpful in efficiently driving narrative along. David L. Mitchell and Sharon T. Snyder call this kind of disability shorthand "narrative prosthesis". In their 2001 book of the same name, they demonstrate that disability and the markers of disability, far from being neglected or omitted (as has been claimed by critics like Sarah Ruiz-Grossman), actually appear in literature and film to the point where they are astonishingly pervasive. Unlike other identities who are vastly underrepresented, Mitchell and Snyder note, images of disability are almost constantly circulated in print and visual media (this is clearly demonstrated in older film studies such as John Schuchman's Hollywood Speaks and Martin Norden's Cinema of Isolation, as well). The reason that this happens, Mitchell and Snyder say, is because almost all narrative is structured around the idea of a flaw in the natural order, the resolution of that flaw, and the restoration of order. This flaw, they show, is more often than not represented by a disabled character or symbol. Disability, then, is a "crutch upon which literary narratives lean for their representational power, disruptive potentiality and analytical insight" (49). And, in the end, all narrative is thus dependent upon some type of disability used as a prosthetic, which serves not only to “fill in” lack, but also to restore and reinforce normalcy. They also state that concepts of, and characters with, disability are therefore used in literature and film primarily as “opportunist metaphorical device(s)” (205). Hearing aids and CIs are great examples of "opportunist" devices used on television and in movies, mostly as props or “add-ons” in visual narratives. This "adding on" is done, more often than not, to the detriment of providing a well rounded narrative about the lived experience of deaf people who use such devices on a daily basis. There are countless examples of this in American television shows and films (in an upward trend since 2000), including many police and crime dramas where a cochlear implant device-as-clue stands in for the dead victim’s identity (Kincheloe "Do Androids"). We see it in movies, most notably in 2018’s A Quiet Place, in which a CI is weaponized and used to defeat the alien monster/Other (as opposed to the deaf heroine doing it by herself) (Kincheloe "Tired Tropes"). In 2019's Toy Story 4, there is a non-signing child who we know is deaf because they wear a CI. In the 2019 animated Netflix series, Undone, the main character wears a CI, and it serves as one of several markers (for her and the viewer) of her possible psychological breakdown.It seems fairly obvious that literal prostheses such as hearing aids and CI devices are used as a form of media shorthand to connote hearing ideas of “deafness”. It also might seem obvious that, as props that reinforce mainstream, ableist narratives, they are there to tell us that, in the end, despite the aesthetic nervousness that disability produces, "things will be okay". It's "fixable". These are prosthetics that are easily identified and easily discussed, debated, and questioned.What is perhaps not so obvious, however, is that American Sign Language (ASL), is also used in media as a narrative prosthetic. Lennard Davis' discussion of Erving Goffman’s idea of “stigma” in Enforcing Normalcy supports the notion that sign language, like hearing aids, is a marker. When seen by the hearing, non-signing observer, sign language "stigmatizes" the signing deaf person (48). In this sense, ASL is, like a hearing aid, a tangible "sign" of deaf identity. I would then argue that ASL is, like hearing aids and CIs, used as a "narrative prosthesis" signifying deafness and disability; its insertion allows ableist narratives to be satisfyingly resolved. Even though ASL is not a static physical device, but a living language and an integral part of deaf lived experience, it is casually employed almost everywhere in media today as a cheap prop, and as such, serves narrative purposes that are not in the best interest of realistic deaf representation. Consider this example: On 13 April 2012, Sir Paul McCartney arranged for a special event at his daughter Stella McCartney’s ivy-covered store in West Hollywood. Stars and friends like Jane Fonda, Gwyneth Paltrow, Chris Martin, Quincy Jones, and Reese Witherspoon sipped cucumber margaritas and nibbled on a spread of vegetarian Mexican appetizers. Afterwards, McCartney took them all to a tent set up on the patio out back, where he proudly introduced a new video, directed by himself. This was the world premiere of the video for "My Valentine", a song from his latest (some might say oddly titled) album, Kisses from the Bottom, a song he had originally written for and sung to new wife Nancy Shevell, at their 2011 wedding.The video is very simply shot in black and white, against a plain grey backdrop. As it begins, the camera fades in on actor Natalie Portman, who is seated, wearing a black dress. She stares at the viewer intently, but with no expression. As McCartney’s voiced-over vocal begins, “What if it rained/We didn’t care…”, she suddenly starts to mouth the words, and using sign language. The lens backs up to a medium shot of her, then closes back in on a tight close up of just her hands signing “my valentine” on her chest. There is then a quick cut to actor Johnny Depp, who is sitting in a similar position, in front of a grey backdrop, staring directly at the camera, also with no expression. There is a fade back to Portman’s face, then to her body, a close up of her signing the word “appear”, and then a cut back to Depp. Now he starts signing. Unlike Portman, he does not mouth the words, but stares ahead, with no facial movement. There is then a series of jump cuts, back and forth, between shots of the two actors’ faces, eyes, mouths, hands. For the solo bridge, there is a closeup on Depp’s hands playing guitar – a cut to Portman’s face, looking down – then to her face with eyes closed as she listens. here is some more signing, we see Depp’s impassive face staring at us again, and then, at the end, the video fades out on Portman’s still figure, still gazing at us as well.McCartney told reporters that Stella had been the one to come up with the idea for using sign language in the video. According to the ASL sign language coach on the shoot, Bill Pugin, the choice to include it wasn’t that far-fetched: “Paul always has an interpreter on a riser with a spot for his concerts and Stella loves sign language, apparently” ("The Guy Who Taught Johnny Depp"). Perhaps she made the suggestion because the second stanza contains the words “I tell myself that I was waiting for a sign…” Regardless, McCartney advised her father to “ring Natalie up and just ask her if she will sign to your song”. Later realizing he wanted another person signing in the video, Paul McCartney asked Johnny Depp to join in, which he did. When asked why he chose those two actors, McCartney said, “Well, they’re just nice people, some friends from way back and they were just very kind to do it”. A week later, they all got together with cinematographer Wally Pfister, who filmed Inception and The Dark Knight, behind the camera. According to the official press release about the video, posted on McCartney’s website, the two actors then "translate[d] the lyrics of the song into sign language – each giving distinctly different performances, making ... compelling viewing" ("Paul McCartney Directs His Own"). The response to the video was quite positive; it immediately went viral on YouTube (the original posting of it got over 15 million views). The album made it to number five on the Billboard charts, with the single reaching number twenty. The album won a 2013 Grammy Award for Best Traditional Pop Vocal album, and the video Best Music Film (“Live Kisses”). McCartney chose to sing that particular song from the album on the award show itself, and four years later, he featured both the song and video as part of his 31 city tour, the 2017 One on One concert, in which he made four million dollars a city. All told the video has served McCartney quite well.But…For whom the sign language? And why? The video is not meant for deaf eyes. When viewed through a deaf lens, it is not, by any stretch of the imagination, “compelling”; it isn’t even comprehensible. It is so bad, in fact, that the video, though signed, is also captioned for the deaf and hard of hearing. To the untrained, “hearing” eye, the signing seems to be providing a “deaf translation” of what is being sung. But it is in fact a pantomime. The actors are quite literally “going through the motions”. One egregious example of this is how, at the end of the video, when Depp thinks he’s signing “valentine”. it looks like he's saying “fuck-heart” (several media sources politely reported that he’d signed “enemy”). Whatever he did, it’s not a sign. In response to criticism of his signing, Depp said nonchalantly, “Apparently, instead of ‘love' I might have said, ‘murder'” ("Johnny Depp Says"). That wasn’t the only point of confusion, though: the way Portman signs “then she appears” was misunderstood by some viewers to be the sign for “tampon”. She actually signed it correctly, but media sources from MTV.com, to the Washington Post, “signsplained” that she had just gotten a bit confused between ASL and BSL signs (even though the BSL for “appears” bears no resemblance to what she did, and the ASL for tampon, while using the same classifier, is also signed quite differently). Part of the problem, according to sign coach Pugin, was that he and Depp “had about fifteen minutes to work on the song. I signed the song for hours sitting on an apple box under the camera for Johnny to be able to peripherally see me for each take. I was his “human cue card”. Johnny’s signing turned out to be more theatrical and ‘abbreviated’ because of the time issue” ("The Guy Who Taught").Portman, perhaps taking more time to rehearse, does a better job, but “theatrical and abbreviated” indeed; the signing was just not good, despite Pugin's coaching. But to hearing eyes, it looks fine; it looks beautiful, it looks poignant and somehow mysterious. It looks the way sign language is “supposed” to look.Remember, the McCartney website claimed that the actors were “translating” the lyrics. Technically speaking, “translation” would mean that the sense of the words to the song were being rendered, fluently, from one language (English) into another (SL), for an audience receptive to the second language. In order to “translate”, the translator needs to be fluent in both of the languages involved. To be clear, what Depp and Portman were doing was not translation. They are hearing people, not fluent in sign language, acting like signers (something that happens with dismaying regularity in the entertainment industry). Depp, to his credit, knew he wasn’t “translating”, in fact, he said "I was only copying what the guy showed me”. “But”, he says, "it was a gas – sign language is apparently very interpretive. It's all kind of different" (italics mine) ("Johnny Depp Passes the Buck"). Other than maybe being an embellishment on that one line, “I tell myself that I was waiting for a sign…”, the sentiments of McCartney’s song have absolutely nothing to do with ASL or deaf people. And he didn’t purposefully place sign language in his video as a way to get his lyrics across to a deaf audience. He’s a musician; it is fairly certain that the thought of appealing to a deaf audience never entered his or his daughter’s mind. It is much more likely that he made the decision to use sign language because of its cool factor; its emo “novelty”. In other words, McCartney used sign language as a prop – as a way to make his song “different”, more “touching”, more emotionally appealing. Sign adds a je ne sais quoi, a little “something”, to the song. The video is a hearing person’s fantasy of what a signing person looks like, what sign language is, and what it does. McCartney used that fantasy, and the sentimentality that it evokes, to sell the song. And it worked. This attitude toward sign language, demonstrated by the careless editing of the video, Depp’s flippant remarks, and the overall attitude that if it’s wrong it’s no big deal, is one that is pervasive throughout the entertainment and advertising industries and indeed throughout American culture in the U.S. That is, there is this notion that sign language is “a gas”. It’s just a “different” thing. Not only is it “different”, but it is also a “thing”, a prop, a little exotic spice you throw into the pot. It is, in other words, a "narrative prosthesis", an "add-on". Once you see this, it becomes glaringly apparent that ASL is not viewed in mainstream American culture as the language of a group of people, but instead is widely used and commodified as a product. The most obvious form of commodification is in the thousands of ASL products, from Precious Moment figurines, to Baby Signing videos, to the ubiquitous “I LOVE YOU” sign seen on everything from coffee mugs to tee shirts, to Nike posters with “Just Do It” in fingerspelling. But the area in which the language is most often commodified (and perhaps most insidiously so) is in the entertainment industry, in visual media, where it is used by writers, directors and actors, not to present an accurate portrait of lived deaf experience and language, but to do what Paul McCartney did, that is, to insert it just to create a “different”, unique, mysterious, exotic, heartwarming spectacle. Far too often, this commodification of the language results in weirdly distorted representations of what deaf people and their language actually are. You can see this everywhere: ASL is a prominent narrative add-on in blockbuster films like the aforementioned A Quiet Place; it is used in the Oscar winning The Shape of Water, and in Wonderstruck, and Baby Driver as well; it is used in the indie horror film Hush; it is used in a lot of films with apes (the Planet of the Apes series and Rampage are two examples); it is displayed on television, mostly in police dramas, in various CSI programs, and in series like The Walking Dead and Castle Rock; it is used in commercials to hawk everything from Pepsi to hotel chains to jewelry to Hormel lunchmeat to fast food (Burger King, Chik Fil A); it is used and commented on in interpreted concerts and music videos and football halftime shows; it is used (often misused) in PSAs for hurricanes and police stops; it is used in social media, from vlogs to cochlear implant activation videos. You can find ASL seemingly everywhere; it is being inserted more and more into the cultural mainstream, but is not appearing as a language. It is used, nine times out of ten, as a decorative ornament, a narrative prop. When Davis discusses the hearing perception of ASL as a marker or visible stigma, he points out that the usual hearing response to observing such stigma is a combination of a Freudian attraction/repulsion (the dominant response being negative). Many times this repulsion results from the appeal to pathos, as in the commercials that show the poor isolated deaf person with the nice hearing person who is signing to them so that they can now be part of the world. The hearing viewer might think to themselves "oh, thank God I'm not deaf!"Davis notes that, in the end, it is not the signer who is the disabled one in this scenario (aside from the fact that many times a signing person is not in fact deaf). The hearing, non signing observer is actually the one “disabled” by their own reaction to the signing “other”. Not only that, but the rhetorical situation itself becomes “disabled”: there is discomfort – wariness of language – laughter – compulsive nervous talking – awkwardness – a desire to get rid of the object. This is a learned response. People habituated, Davis says, do not respond this way (12-13). While people might think that the hearing audience is becoming more and more habituated because ASL is everywhere, the problem is that people are being incorrectly habituated. More often than not, sign language, when enfolded into narratives about hearing people in hearing situations, is put into service as a prop that can mitigate such awkward moments of possible tension and conflict; it is a prosthetic that "fills the gap", allowing an interaction between hearing and deaf people that almost always allows for a positive, "happy" resolution, a return to "normalcy", the very purpose of the "narrative prosthetic" as posited by Mitchell and Snyder. Once we see how ASL is being employed in media mostly as a narrative prosthesis, we can, as Mitchell and Snyder suggest we do (what I hope this essay begins to do), and that is, to begin to “undo the quick repair of disability in mainstream representations and beliefs; to try to make the prosthesis show; to flaunt its imperfect supplementation as an illusion” (8). In other words, if we can scrutinize the shorthand, and dig deeper, seeing the prosthetic for what it is, all of this seemingly exploitative commodification of ASL will be a good thing. Maybe, in “habituating” people correctly, in widening both hearing people’s exposure to ASL and their understanding of its actual role in deaf lived experience, signing will become less of a prosthetic, an object of fetishistic fascination. Maybe hearing people, as they become used to seeing signing people in real signing situations, will be less likely to walk up to deaf people they don’t know and say things like: “Oh, your language is SO beautiful”, or say, “I know sign!” (then fingerspelling the alphabet with agonising slowness and inaccuracy while the deaf person nods politely). However, if the use of ASL as a prosthetic in popular culture and visual media continues to go on unexamined and unquestioned, it will just continue to trivialise a living, breathing language. This trivialisation can in turn continue to reduce the lived experiences of deaf people to a sort of caricature, further reinforcing the negative representations of deaf people in America that are already in place, stereotypes that we have been trying to escape for over 200 years. Note* The word "deaf" is used in this article to denote the entire range of individuals with various hearing losses and language preferences, including Deaf persons and hard of hearing persons, etc. For more on these distinctions please refer to the website entry on this published by the National Association of the Deaf (NAD).ReferencesDavis, Lennard. Enforcing Normalcy. New York: Verso, 1995."The Guy Who Taught Johnny Depp and Natalie Portman Sign Language." Intimate Excellent: The Fountain Theater Blog. 18 Mar. 2012. <https://intimateexcellent.com/2012/04/18/the-guy-who-taught-johnny-depp-and-natalie-portman-sign-language-in-mccartney-video/>.Fitzgerald, Roisin. "Johnny Depp Says Sign Language Mishap Isn't His Fault." HiddenHearing Blog 14 Apr. 2012. <https://hiddenhearingireland.wordpress.com/2012/05/29/johnny-depp-says-sign-language-mishap-isnt-his-fault/>.Hawk, Brandon W. “Prosthesis: From Grammar to Medicine in the Earliest History of the Word.” Disability Studies Quarterly 38.4 (2018).McCartney, Paul. "My Valentine." YouTube 13 Apr. 2012.McGinnis, Sara. "Johnny Depp Passes the Buck on Sign Language Snafu." sheknows.com 10 May 2012. <https://www.sheknows.com/entertainment/articles/959949/johnny-depp-passes-the-buck-on-sign-language-snafu/>.Miller, Julie. "Paul McCartney on Directing Johnny Depp and Natalie Portman." Vanity Fair 14 Apr. 2012. <https://www.vanityfair.com/style/2012/04/paul-mccartney-johnny-depp-natalie-portman-my-valentine-music-video-gwyneth-paltrow>.Mitchell, David T., and Sharon L. Snyder. Narrative Prosthesis: Disabilities and the Dependencies of Discourse. Ann Arbor: U of Michigan P. 2000.Norden, Martin. F. The Cinema of Isolation: A History of Physical Disability in Movies. Rutgers UP: 1994."Paul McCartney Directs His Own My Valentine Video." paulmccartney.com 14 Apr. 2012. <https://www.paulmccartney.com/news-blogs/news/paul-mccartney-directs-his-own-my-valentine-videos-featuring-natalie-portman-and>.Ruiz-Grossman, Sarah. "Disability Representation Is Seriously Lacking in Television and the Movies: Report." Huffington Post 27 Mar. 2019. <https://www.huffpost.com/entry/disability-representation-movies-tv_n_5c9a7b85e4b07c88662cabe7>.Schuchman, J.S. Hollywood Speaks: Deafness and the Film Entertainment Industry. U Illinois P, 1999.