This document discusses potential parallels between traditional social science research methods and pan-African arts practices. It explores how arts-based research is developing new research tools and challenges traditional disciplines. The author is interested in the "creative, expressive and communicative 'affordances'" that pan-African arts, like music, offer to thinking about social science research processes, strategies, design, and presentation of findings. The document considers if everyday practices in African music making can inform traditional social research methods from a phenomenological perspective.
The article entitled Techniques and Gaps in Translation of Cultural Terms is an attempt to find out the techniques adopted in translates in cultural terms an observe gaps in the process of translation. The main purpose of this study has to evaluate the techniques of translation of cultural words and to find out the gaps. For this purpose, the researcher collected cultural terms as corpus of data for the study from Nepali cultural words and the corresponding translated words from the English language. They were categorized them into five different categories. Findings of the study shows that ten different techniques such as literal, addition, deletion, claque, back translation, borrowing, definition are to be found to have been employed in translating cultural words of the novel.
The Paper tries to unveil the vital actions and counteractions of language and culture upon each other. A language neither can originate nor live without the culture. Language and culture, thus, are inseparable. Language rolls on the concrete passage of time encountering many alike and opposite processes like a culture, de cultures and re culture and gathers moss. Particularly, in post colonial context Odia language encounters some radical changes and reaps new products with respect to words, morphology, prefixes, suffixes and many more things. In post colonial context, we encounter a special kind of language called ‘hybrid language or ‘glocal language. The paper emphasizes the dimensions of language change with a global perspective as well as with local perspectives. Dr. Santosh Kumar Nayak ""Language in Glocal Cultural Context"" Published in International Journal of Trend in Scientific Research and Development (ijtsrd), ISSN: 2456-6470, Volume-3 | Issue-3 , April 2019, URL: https://www.ijtsrd.com/papers/ijtsrd23304.pdf
Paper URL: https://www.ijtsrd.com/humanities-and-the-arts/odia/23304/language-in-glocal-cultural-context/dr-santosh-kumar-nayak
The article entitled Techniques and Gaps in Translation of Cultural Terms is an attempt to find out the techniques adopted in translates in cultural terms an observe gaps in the process of translation. The main purpose of this study has to evaluate the techniques of translation of cultural words and to find out the gaps. For this purpose, the researcher collected cultural terms as corpus of data for the study from Nepali cultural words and the corresponding translated words from the English language. They were categorized them into five different categories. Findings of the study shows that ten different techniques such as literal, addition, deletion, claque, back translation, borrowing, definition are to be found to have been employed in translating cultural words of the novel.
The Paper tries to unveil the vital actions and counteractions of language and culture upon each other. A language neither can originate nor live without the culture. Language and culture, thus, are inseparable. Language rolls on the concrete passage of time encountering many alike and opposite processes like a culture, de cultures and re culture and gathers moss. Particularly, in post colonial context Odia language encounters some radical changes and reaps new products with respect to words, morphology, prefixes, suffixes and many more things. In post colonial context, we encounter a special kind of language called ‘hybrid language or ‘glocal language. The paper emphasizes the dimensions of language change with a global perspective as well as with local perspectives. Dr. Santosh Kumar Nayak ""Language in Glocal Cultural Context"" Published in International Journal of Trend in Scientific Research and Development (ijtsrd), ISSN: 2456-6470, Volume-3 | Issue-3 , April 2019, URL: https://www.ijtsrd.com/papers/ijtsrd23304.pdf
Paper URL: https://www.ijtsrd.com/humanities-and-the-arts/odia/23304/language-in-glocal-cultural-context/dr-santosh-kumar-nayak
Three Ways of Looking at Culture - SSPC Symposium - San Diego - 2018Université de Montréal
Symposium: Three Ways of Looking at Culture - Social Class, Dialogues & Borders, Camps & Refugees
Conference: What Does Culture Mean? Evolving Definitions in Mental Health Service, Training, and Research. 39th Annual Meeting of the Society for the Study of Psychiatry and CultureAt: University of San Diego, CA, USA
Two themes are explored in my contribution to this symposium:
1. “Culture as a boundary.”
To demonstrate definitions of culture are essentialist, based on a “historico-cultural deficit approach” (Matusov, et al., 2007), and offer Bakhtin’s dialogic approach to culture that identifies “interactional breakdowns.”
2. “Theory of the border.” Based on Nail’s (2016) work and congruent with Bakhtin’s definition of culture, to review the deployment of “border” as separator and, more positively, as a way to think about culture and migration, identity and belonging with economic and political impacts, for psychiatric care.
References
Di Nicola, Vincenzo (2012). Family, psychosocial, and cultural determinants of health. In: Eliot Sorel, ed., 21st Century Global Mental Health. Burlington, MA: Jones & Bartlett Learning, 2012, pp. 119-150.
Mason, Caleb (2012). Jay-Z’s 99 Problems, Verse 2: A close reading with Fourth Amendment guidance for cops and perps. Saint Louis University Law Journal, 56: 567-586.
Matusov, Eugene, Smith, Mark, Albuquerque Candela, Maria, and Lilu, Keren (2007). “Culture has no internal territory”: Culture as dialogue. In: Jaan Valsiner and Alberto Rosa, eds., The Cambridge Handbook of Sociocultural Psychology. New York: Cambridge University Press, pp. 460-483.
Nail, T. (2016). Theory of the Border. 2016. Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press.
Sennett, Richard and Cobb, Jonathan (1972/2008). The Hidden Injuries of Class. New York: Knopf. (Re-issued New Haven: Yale University Press, 2008)
Presentation by Alison Phipps, University of Glasgow, with Tawona Sitholé (Seeds of Thought), Gameli Tordzro (Pan African Arts Scotland) and Naa Densua Tordzro at the Conference on Languages and Tourism at the Institut für Afrikanistik und Ägyptologie, Universität zu Köln, 30 May 2016
Intercultural Communication by Claire KramschParth Bhatt
Intercultural or cross-cultural communication is an interdisciplinary field of research that studies
how people understand each other across group boundaries of various sorts: national, geographical,
ethnic, occupational, class or gender. In the United States it has traditionally been related
to the behavioural sciences, psychology and professional business training; in Europe it is mostly
associated with anthropology and the language sciences. Researchers generally view intercultural
communication as a problem created by differences in behaviours and world views among people
who speak different languages and who belong to different cultures. However, these problems may
not be very different from those encountered in communication among people who share the same
national language and culture.
Nowadays, we need to learn how to communicate all over again, just like when we were children. This requires learning language as well as learning behavioral norms for good communication. However, this will be a bit different since we're adults learning how to communicate in someone else's culture, not our own.
Intercultural communication is the verbal and nonverbal interaction between people from different cultural backgrounds. Basically, 'inter-' is a prefix that means 'between' and cultural means… well, from a culture, so intercultural communication is the communication between cultures. Sometimes, this is used to describe a single person trying to interact in a foreign environment but more often, it is a two-way street, where people from both cultures are trying to improve their communication.
Figurative Language in Muigai Wa Njoroge “Mŭri Mŭrŭrŭ” (Bitter Root) SongAJSSMTJournal
The study begins by positing one critical aspect of language as observed by Finegan et al, (1992) who cites that, one of the
functions of language is to express thought; in other words, language is used to communicate wills or feelings with others.
While quoting Jacobson (1960); Kamaliah (2013) opined that language serves an expressive or emotive function and that
such expressive function can be found, for instance, in song lyrics. Kamaliah (ibid) goes on to say that in the song lyrics, the
composers can freely express their feelings with their hearers. It is worth to note that, it is against this backdrop that this
paper envisages to analyze figurative language employed by Muigai Wa Njoroge song “Mŭri Mŭrŭrŭ” (bitter root) that was
composed in the wake of the Building Bridges Initiative (hereafter BBI) that found its way in Kenya political arena in the
culmination of the handshake fiasco within Kenya political echelon
Here is my progress Report of Term 1 from 29/1/2018 to 29/7/2018. The topic of my research is "Contemporary Retelling of Ramayana; In Search of New Cultural Meaning."
Three Ways of Looking at Culture - SSPC Symposium - San Diego - 2018Université de Montréal
Symposium: Three Ways of Looking at Culture - Social Class, Dialogues & Borders, Camps & Refugees
Conference: What Does Culture Mean? Evolving Definitions in Mental Health Service, Training, and Research. 39th Annual Meeting of the Society for the Study of Psychiatry and CultureAt: University of San Diego, CA, USA
Two themes are explored in my contribution to this symposium:
1. “Culture as a boundary.”
To demonstrate definitions of culture are essentialist, based on a “historico-cultural deficit approach” (Matusov, et al., 2007), and offer Bakhtin’s dialogic approach to culture that identifies “interactional breakdowns.”
2. “Theory of the border.” Based on Nail’s (2016) work and congruent with Bakhtin’s definition of culture, to review the deployment of “border” as separator and, more positively, as a way to think about culture and migration, identity and belonging with economic and political impacts, for psychiatric care.
References
Di Nicola, Vincenzo (2012). Family, psychosocial, and cultural determinants of health. In: Eliot Sorel, ed., 21st Century Global Mental Health. Burlington, MA: Jones & Bartlett Learning, 2012, pp. 119-150.
Mason, Caleb (2012). Jay-Z’s 99 Problems, Verse 2: A close reading with Fourth Amendment guidance for cops and perps. Saint Louis University Law Journal, 56: 567-586.
Matusov, Eugene, Smith, Mark, Albuquerque Candela, Maria, and Lilu, Keren (2007). “Culture has no internal territory”: Culture as dialogue. In: Jaan Valsiner and Alberto Rosa, eds., The Cambridge Handbook of Sociocultural Psychology. New York: Cambridge University Press, pp. 460-483.
Nail, T. (2016). Theory of the Border. 2016. Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press.
Sennett, Richard and Cobb, Jonathan (1972/2008). The Hidden Injuries of Class. New York: Knopf. (Re-issued New Haven: Yale University Press, 2008)
Presentation by Alison Phipps, University of Glasgow, with Tawona Sitholé (Seeds of Thought), Gameli Tordzro (Pan African Arts Scotland) and Naa Densua Tordzro at the Conference on Languages and Tourism at the Institut für Afrikanistik und Ägyptologie, Universität zu Köln, 30 May 2016
Intercultural Communication by Claire KramschParth Bhatt
Intercultural or cross-cultural communication is an interdisciplinary field of research that studies
how people understand each other across group boundaries of various sorts: national, geographical,
ethnic, occupational, class or gender. In the United States it has traditionally been related
to the behavioural sciences, psychology and professional business training; in Europe it is mostly
associated with anthropology and the language sciences. Researchers generally view intercultural
communication as a problem created by differences in behaviours and world views among people
who speak different languages and who belong to different cultures. However, these problems may
not be very different from those encountered in communication among people who share the same
national language and culture.
Nowadays, we need to learn how to communicate all over again, just like when we were children. This requires learning language as well as learning behavioral norms for good communication. However, this will be a bit different since we're adults learning how to communicate in someone else's culture, not our own.
Intercultural communication is the verbal and nonverbal interaction between people from different cultural backgrounds. Basically, 'inter-' is a prefix that means 'between' and cultural means… well, from a culture, so intercultural communication is the communication between cultures. Sometimes, this is used to describe a single person trying to interact in a foreign environment but more often, it is a two-way street, where people from both cultures are trying to improve their communication.
Figurative Language in Muigai Wa Njoroge “Mŭri Mŭrŭrŭ” (Bitter Root) SongAJSSMTJournal
The study begins by positing one critical aspect of language as observed by Finegan et al, (1992) who cites that, one of the
functions of language is to express thought; in other words, language is used to communicate wills or feelings with others.
While quoting Jacobson (1960); Kamaliah (2013) opined that language serves an expressive or emotive function and that
such expressive function can be found, for instance, in song lyrics. Kamaliah (ibid) goes on to say that in the song lyrics, the
composers can freely express their feelings with their hearers. It is worth to note that, it is against this backdrop that this
paper envisages to analyze figurative language employed by Muigai Wa Njoroge song “Mŭri Mŭrŭrŭ” (bitter root) that was
composed in the wake of the Building Bridges Initiative (hereafter BBI) that found its way in Kenya political arena in the
culmination of the handshake fiasco within Kenya political echelon
Here is my progress Report of Term 1 from 29/1/2018 to 29/7/2018. The topic of my research is "Contemporary Retelling of Ramayana; In Search of New Cultural Meaning."
The Role of Improvisation in Developing Musical CreativitySunnyLahkar
This essay looks into the pedagogy of improvisation in both the instrumental and vocal contexts of teaching, with the main aim seeking to find out what teachers could do within their pedagogic frame so as to thread improvisation effectively
Ur[ban]sonate: Echoes of Twentieth Century Sound Art in the Urban Elementary ...Kevin Summers
Here, the history of experimental music and sound art are used to integrate shared art making and free inquiry into an elementary science curriculum. The historic arc of sound art from Russolo to Bell Labs to Cage is used to activate student interest and situate student investigations into the nature of sound and vibration.
A class presentation for ADV 6383 - Creativity as Problem Solving by graduate students Jingya Huang, Danielle Latta and Katie McCarney at SMU's Temerlin Advertising Institute.
Cultural Rationality andthe Igbo SocietyQUESTJOURNAL
ABSTRACT:Culture is complex. Each culture is clearly different. This is because of its unique historical evolution. This confers on it qualities that make it peculiar, original and an organic whole. Culture as the entire way of life of a people past and present, has dynamic interplay of factors promoting progress, adaptation and interaction. Global change constantly challenges people to maintain their identity in the face of new conditions. Notwithstanding culture is marked by stable and enduring elements as well as by changing and contingent factors. As a way of life, culture includes art, religion and religiosity, marriage and family, elders and ancestors, egalitarian societal values etc. The Igbo people have a profound religious sense in which the existence of the divine being and the invisible spirit world is natural. This study will examine some components of culture and highlights cultural erosion that affects the esteemed values vis-à-vis global changes. This leads to the trend to jettison original cultural authenticity by its sons and daughters. Hence the urgent challenge to engage the rest of the world within a composite framework situated in a purely African reality in spite of global change.
Establishing connections: online teacher training in the Gaza StripRMBorders
Presentation by Giovanna Fassetta (University of Glasgow), Maria Grazia Imperiale (University of Glasgow) and Nazmi Al-Masri (Islamic University Gaza) at the UNESCO Mobile Learning Week in Paris 20/24 March 2017
From fluency to linguistic incompetence: Humble reflections on multilingual r...RMBorders
Lecture by Prof Alison Phipps (University of Glasgow) as 2016 Visiting EU Thinker in Residence for the Hawke EU Centre for Mobilities, Migrations and Cultural Transformations, UniSA City West Campus, Adelaide, 14 November 2016
‘We Refugees’: Hardening and Softening of Borders of Everyday LifeRMBorders
Lecture by Alison Phipps (University of Glasgow) at the Global Tipping Points and the Role of Research: European Union and Asia-Pacific Migration Summit, UniSA, Hawke EU Centre, Adelaide, 1-2 November 2016
Recent Refugee Flows in Europe: Challenge and ResponsesRMBorders
Public lecture by Prof Alison Phipps (UNESCO Chair for Refugee Integration through Languages and the Arts, University of Glasgow) at the Political Science and International Relations Programme of Victoria University of Wellington, in association with the European Union Centres Network and the University of South Australia, 7 November 2016
At Home and Exiled in Language Studies: Interdisciplinarity, intersectionalit...RMBorders
Phipps. A. (University of Glasgow), At Home and Exiled in Language Studies: Interdisciplinarity, intersectionality and interculturality. Presentation at the Language, Communities and Moving Borders: Theories and Methodologies symposium, hosted by Birkbeck, University of London and the Institute of Modern Language Research, School of Advanced Study, University of London, June 29, 2017. With funding support from AHRC ‘Translating Cultures’ and ‘Open World Research Initiative’ projects.
“Coming clean” about researching multilingually – learning from different dis...RMBorders
Andrews, J. (University of the West of England), Fay, R. (University of Manchester), Holmes, P. and Attia, M. (both Durham University), “Coming clean” about researching multilingually – learning from different disciplines. Paper presented at the 2nd AHRC Researching Multilingually at the Borders of Language, the Body, Law and the State Symposium, 15th – 17th October 2014, Durham University.
Cultures of practitioner research: extending Exploratory Practice from langua...RMBorders
Fay, R. and Dawson, S. (University of Manchester), Cultures of practitioner research: extending Exploratory Practice from language education to researching multilingually collaboration. Paper presented at CultNet 2015, 17th-19th April, 2015, Durham University.
“They thought they heard somebody who had risen from their grave”: stories of...RMBorders
Davcheva, L. and Fay, R. (University of Manchester), “They thought they heard somebody who had risen from their grave”: stories of multilingual, collaborative, narrative research into Ladino and intercultural identity. Paper presented as LANTERN Lunch-time Talk No. 4 at the Manchester Institute of Education, March 4th, 2016.
Researching multilingually exploring emerging linguistic practices in migrant...RMBorders
Presentation by Andrews, J. (University of the West of England), Pöyhönen, S. (University of Jyväskäla), Fay, R. (University of Manchester) and Tarnanen, M. (University of Jyväskäla), Researching Multilingually – exploring emergent linguistic practices in migrant contexts. Paper presented at the 2nd International Conference on the Sociolinguistics of Immigration (Slimig2016), Rapallo (Genova) Italy, September 22nd-23rd, 2016.
Teacher education as intercultural practice: narratives of Spanish-medium pra...RMBorders
Gomez Parra, M. E. (Universidad de Córdoba) and Fay, R. (University of Manchester), Teacher education as intercultural practice: narratives of Spanish-medium practicum experiences in the refugee camps of Western Sahara. Paper presented at the 12th ELIA Conference ELIA XII, hosted by the University of Seville, Spain, 1st – 3rd July, 2015.
Living intercultural lives: Identity performance and zones of interculturality. RMBorders
Davcheva, L. (University of Sofia) and Fay, R. (University of Manchester), Living intercultural lives: Identity performance and zones of interculturality. Paper presented at the Cultural Horizons: Identities, Relationships and Languages in Migration conference, Cagliari (Sardinia/Italy), September 25th – 27th, 2015.
Living intercultural lives: identity performance and zones of interculturality.RMBorders
Davcheva, L. (University of Sofia) and Fay, R. (University of Manchester) (2015, November). Living intercultural lives: identity performance and zones of interculturality. Guest Lecture given at Sofia University, Bulgaria, November 9th, 2015.
Revisiting linguistic preparation: Some new directions arising from researchi...RMBorders
Fay, R. (University of Manchester), Andrews, J. (University of the West of England), Holmes, P. and Attia, M. (Durham University), Revisiting linguistic preparation: Some new directions arising from researching multilingually. Paper presented at the 48th Annual Meeting of the British Association for Applied Linguistics (BAAL), hosted by Aston University, September 3rd – 5th, 2015.
Global Mental Health: the importance of contextual sensitivity and appropriat...RMBorders
White, R. (University of Liverpool), Fay, R. (University of Manchester), Kasujja, R. (Makerere University) and Okalo, P. (2015). Global Mental Health: the importance of contextual sensitivity and appropriate methodologies. Paper presented at MAGic 2015 ‘Anthropology and Global Health: interrogating theory, policy and practice’, 9th-11th September, 2015, Sussex University, UK.
The role of the arts in researching multilingually at the borders of language...RMBorders
Fay, R. (University of Manchester), The role of the arts in researching multilingually at the borders of language, the body, law and the state. Paper presented at the Language Research, Performance and the Creative Arts scoping event, hosted by the University of Leeds, October 16th, 2015.
What does it mean to be (en)languaged in a world of vulnerability, discrimina...RMBorders
Fay, R. (University of Manchester), What does it mean to be (en)languaged in a world of vulnerability, discrimination, inequity and pain? Researching multilingually ay the borders of language, the body, law and the state. Paper presented at the Research Matters seminar series, hosted by the Manchester Institute of Education at The University of Manchester, October 28th, 2015.
Revisiting a framework for Researching Multilingually: Contributions from cri...RMBorders
Holmes, P. (Durham University), Fay, R. (University of Manchester), Andrews, J. (University of the West of England) and Attia, M. (Durham University), Revisiting a framework for Researching Multilingually: Contributions from critical theory, intercultural relations, ethics, and the creative arts. Presentation as part of the AHRC Researching Multilingually at the Borders of Language, the Body, Law and the State symposium, Bucharest, Romania, November 3rd – 6th, 2015.
RM-ly work in progress: some current whats and hows from our interdisciplinar...RMBorders
Fay, R. (University of Manchester), Andrews, J. (University of the West of England), Holmes, P. and Attia, M. (Durham University), RM-ly work in progress: some current whats and hows from our interdisciplinary, collaborative work to date. Presentation as part of the AHRC Researching Multilingually at the Borders of Language, the Body, Law and the State symposium, Bucharest, Romania, November 3rd – 6th, 2015.
Researching multilingually and interculturallyRMBorders
Holmes, P. (Durham University), Fay, R. (University of Manchester), Attia, M. (Durham University) and Andrews, J. (University of the West of England), Researching multilingually and interculturally. Paper presented at the 19th CultNet, hosted by Durham University, April 21st-23rd, 2016.
The Knowledge Landscape of 念(niàn)/mindfulness: Intercultural Ethics for Tran...RMBorders
Huang, Z.M., Fay, R. (University of Manchester) and White, R. (University of Liverpool), The Knowledge Landscape of 念(niàn)/mindfulness: Intercultural Ethics for Transcreation. Paper presented at the 19th CultNet, hosted by Durham University, April 21st-23rd, 2016.
Welcome to TechSoup New Member Orientation and Q&A (May 2024).pdfTechSoup
In this webinar you will learn how your organization can access TechSoup's wide variety of product discount and donation programs. From hardware to software, we'll give you a tour of the tools available to help your nonprofit with productivity, collaboration, financial management, donor tracking, security, and more.
Unit 8 - Information and Communication Technology (Paper I).pdfThiyagu K
This slides describes the basic concepts of ICT, basics of Email, Emerging Technology and Digital Initiatives in Education. This presentations aligns with the UGC Paper I syllabus.
Operation “Blue Star” is the only event in the history of Independent India where the state went into war with its own people. Even after about 40 years it is not clear if it was culmination of states anger over people of the region, a political game of power or start of dictatorial chapter in the democratic setup.
The people of Punjab felt alienated from main stream due to denial of their just demands during a long democratic struggle since independence. As it happen all over the word, it led to militant struggle with great loss of lives of military, police and civilian personnel. Killing of Indira Gandhi and massacre of innocent Sikhs in Delhi and other India cities was also associated with this movement.
Palestine last event orientationfvgnh .pptxRaedMohamed3
An EFL lesson about the current events in Palestine. It is intended to be for intermediate students who wish to increase their listening skills through a short lesson in power point.
Read| The latest issue of The Challenger is here! We are thrilled to announce that our school paper has qualified for the NATIONAL SCHOOLS PRESS CONFERENCE (NSPC) 2024. Thank you for your unwavering support and trust. Dive into the stories that made us stand out!
Model Attribute Check Company Auto PropertyCeline George
In Odoo, the multi-company feature allows you to manage multiple companies within a single Odoo database instance. Each company can have its own configurations while still sharing common resources such as products, customers, and suppliers.
Instructions for Submissions thorugh G- Classroom.pptxJheel Barad
This presentation provides a briefing on how to upload submissions and documents in Google Classroom. It was prepared as part of an orientation for new Sainik School in-service teacher trainees. As a training officer, my goal is to ensure that you are comfortable and proficient with this essential tool for managing assignments and fostering student engagement.
Embracing GenAI - A Strategic ImperativePeter Windle
Artificial Intelligence (AI) technologies such as Generative AI, Image Generators and Large Language Models have had a dramatic impact on teaching, learning and assessment over the past 18 months. The most immediate threat AI posed was to Academic Integrity with Higher Education Institutes (HEIs) focusing their efforts on combating the use of GenAI in assessment. Guidelines were developed for staff and students, policies put in place too. Innovative educators have forged paths in the use of Generative AI for teaching, learning and assessments leading to pockets of transformation springing up across HEIs, often with little or no top-down guidance, support or direction.
This Gasta posits a strategic approach to integrating AI into HEIs to prepare staff, students and the curriculum for an evolving world and workplace. We will highlight the advantages of working with these technologies beyond the realm of teaching, learning and assessment by considering prompt engineering skills, industry impact, curriculum changes, and the need for staff upskilling. In contrast, not engaging strategically with Generative AI poses risks, including falling behind peers, missed opportunities and failing to ensure our graduates remain employable. The rapid evolution of AI technologies necessitates a proactive and strategic approach if we are to remain relevant.
CATC / PhD Presentation - Brussels June 2015 (G. Tordzro)
1. Traditional Social Science Research
Method and pan-African Arts Practice:
Are There Parallels?
Gameli Tordzro
RM Borders Symposium
PhD Research Paper Presentation
Brussels: June 2015
Researching Multilingually at the Borders of
Language, the Body, Law and the State
2. The consideration that there may be identifiable parallels in pan-African arts practice and traditional social science
research method is an interesting one that throws up many questions and challenges about how social science
research is perceived in the context of new ways of thinking about arts and research.
Patricia Leavy: arts based research is ‘carving’ new research tools (Leavy, 2009)
Nelson’s (2009): to compare the practices of arts methods with those of traditional research disciplines challenges arts
and social researchers.
My interest: the creative, expressive and communicative ‘affordances’ the arts in general and pan African arts practice
in particular, offer when thinking about social science research processes, strategies, design, questions, referencing
and presentation of findings, as well as the ethical and political considerations around these.
(Gibson 1986)
(Bryman, 2012) (Englis, D; Thorpe, C, 2012)
(Barber, E; Saverese, N, 1991)
(Glăveanu 2012)
Method in other disciplines is not without stages of copious making. In Engineering, for
example, the researcher may go so far as to build a miniature pulp mill to conduct the
science. The creative arts distinguish themselves from other forms of research […]
nevertheless, our methods engage with the motif of making in a unique way. It may be
helpful to compare our habits of making with those of traditional research disciplines.
(Nelson 2009)
Abstract
3. The theoretical underpinning for discussing traditional methods of social
research and pan-African arts practice is that of phenomenology. It concerns
everyday life, the ordinary mundane contexts in which music is practiced and
how that informs research practice.
What is present in pan-African music and its everyday making that is research
and its ‘traditional’ process and method?
“The cultivation of musical life in traditional society is promoted through active
participation”. (Nketia 1974: cited in Herbst 2005: p. 21)
Are there useful everyday practices or phenomena in participating in ‘pan-
African music’ or African music making and practice that can inform traditional
social research?
Main Theoretical Consideration
4. It is worth noting that phenomenology would usually be described with an emphasis
on experience. In that respect, artistic practices open up
• Different modes of allowing us a particularly vivid awareness of experience.
• Different modes of experiencing relations and encounters,
• Different modes of reflecting on, and reporting on experience.
Also,
There is process in arts and its making: does this process mirror or resemble
the process of research?
Or is it a case that they do not, and a resemblance should not be contrived?
Main Theoretical Consideration Contd.
5. Is it just that: and just that maybe, arts in general, and for that matter,
pan-African arts method, has some value to offer research, as ‘a way,
another way’ a unique phenomenal way of doing social research
without comparing and contrasting it with ‘traditional’ social research
methods and processes?
My Linguistic Resource for understanding: Eʋegbe + English + Music
+ Story and Telling
Eʋegbe: Afiyi-nɔ-me-nɔ-logo! English: Here-be-in-be-knowledge-of!
Phe-no-me-no-logy! = The knowledge of being in the here
Main Theoretical Consideration Contd.
6. My theoretical standpoint is the phenomenon of 'affordances' in creative arts practice: in this case, in the form of the ‘cre’
(what emerges out of) within the ‘creative’: as the primary resource available to pan-African arts practice.
‘Mawu Kli’ (noun) An Ewe reference to the ‘Cre’-ative force (Mawu: That which lies beyond/surpasses all) and (kle: the
verb for peel off; shine; brighten)
This thinking is anchored in Van Lier’s three point idea of shifting the emphasis from scientific reductionism to the notion
of ‘emergence’: using an ecological approach to research, (Van Lier, 2000) which states that,
at every level of development, properties emerge that cannot be reduced to those of prior levels, meaning every
phenomenon cannot be explained in terms of simpler phenomena or components,
“[…] not all of cognition and learning can be explained in terms of processes that go on inside
the head. […] the perceptual and social activity of the learner, and particularly the verbal and
nonverbal interaction in which the learner engages, are central to an understanding of
learning. In other words, they do not just facilitate learning, they are learning in a fundamental
way”
This standpoint is also rooted in the phenomenon of what Phipps refers to as:
“the ‘quick’ of human relations” Phipps, 2007: p. 1) “What happens when we ignore the
‘quick’, when our habitual ways of researching social, cultural and linguistic practices fail to
search out the presence of life?”
Main Theoretical Consideration Contd.
7. The focal point for this discussion of creative affordances in arts practice is music: pan-African musical culture and
practice: its relation to doing research.
The level and degree to which a person can transmit information, their life experiences, their thoughts, ideas, perceptions,
how they make sense of the social world, is hinged on what linguistic affordances become available at their disposal. This
concept is based on
Gibson’s theory of ‘affordances’ (Gibson, 1986)
Vlad P. Glăveanu (Glăveanu, 2012), draws links with ‘creativity’ as
“a process of perceiving, exploiting, and generating novel affordances during socially and
materially situated activities”
Eg: aside the verbal, a musical instrument and the music created with the instrument can become a person’s additional
lingual affordance to varied degrees depending on the type of instrument and its range of expressivity as well as the
proficiency of the person on their instrument, thereby offering an:
Extension of their Physical Communicative Affordance: related to what is available as potential extension to and beyond
the borders of to the physicality of the human body. (see Barba and Savarese, 1991: p. 24).
Extension of Sonic Communicative Affordance: (see Wigam et al: 1999: pp. 342-343) related to vibration and its impact on
the world. This in a nutshell is the acquisition, possession and usage of sounds available outside the limitation of the
human body
Creative Affordances
8. • Extension of Visual Communicative Affordance: related to the spectacle of music making - the aesthetic
values of musical instruments and appearances of musician and the instrument on the performance
stage, with lighting and light the impact of lighting effects. It is in relation to the size of physical space
occupied by musician and instrument at a particular time; the performer’s posture and position in
space in relation to the other - Mise en scene, mette en scene. (what exists within and constitutes the
presence of the space, what is placed or added to the space) (see Parvis 2013)
• Extension of Mental Communicative Affordance (communicating with oneself - making sense of the
world) The default of communicating with oneself is mental, it is a cognitive default of the silent
monologue, 'The Think', which I call the 'Su' of communication. Bob Marley makes reference to this
cognitive default as “I’n’I” in his song ‘Rastaman Vibration’:
Live if you want to live
(Rastaman vibration, yeah! Positive!)
That's what we got to give!
(I'n'I vibration yeah! Positive)
Got to have a good vibe!
(Iyaman Iration, yeah! Irie ites!)
Wo-wo-ooh!
(Positive vibration, yeah! Positive!)
http://www.lyrics.com/rastaman-vibration-lyrics-bob marley.html#K13pHsoW8z2bHsy6.99
Creative Affordances Contd.
9. It is also related to self-consciousness, self-awareness, which also impacts on self-confidence and
interpersonal relations.
This in relation to music and musical instruments, the ‘Su’ manifests in solitary music making for
oneself, with oneself by oneself.
Within this important affordance is increased access to:
• creativity;
• knowledge creation;
• discovery;
• solace;
• reflection;
• learning and skill development;
• confidence building and development;
• building proficiency;
• practice;
• overcoming inhibition;
• quite time;
• stillness and recharging the self.
Creative Affordances Contd.
10. In relation to social research, the mental communicative affordance is the site for the
artistic research question.
I call this the 'the silent what if?‘
1. "What if I play this note after that note? What if these two notes are played
together before these ones, one after the other?"
This becomes the birth of ‘Melody’ in the same manner that the birth of ‘Story’ could be
2. 'What if two hijacked planes were flown into the twin towers?'
The notion that artistic practice does not need a question overlooks the 'silent what if'.
Within the cognitive lies the artists’ mental communicative affordance. This is also the
site where ‘form’ is mentally generated and nurtured and structured before it is
physically expressed.
Main Theoretical Consideration Contd.
11. Arts as Research and Process
Reference Point: some elements of the traditional musical cultures of the Ewe
and Ge people of Ghana, Togo and Benin and the Akan people of Ghana, and
Cote d’Ivoire.
• Idea/Question
• Design
• Data and collection/gathering/generation
• Analysis and interpretation
• Theory formulation and testing
• Documentation/writing up
• Publication, exchange and ownership
• Ethics
• Outcome, impact, result value
12. Music as Method
Method is regarded as the soul of research (Nelson 2009: p. 100).
Contexts for social research method are formulated by a number of factors including;
1. the theories that propel the understanding of the social word;
2. existing knowledge of the subject of research;
3. how the researcher perceives the relationship between these theories and the research itself;
4. how it is assumed (the epistemological considerations) that research should be done;
5. social phenomena (the ontological considerations) viewed.
Other considerations for the context of social research method include:
1. the values of the research community;
2. what the research is for;
3. the political and economic drive behind the research;
4. the training and personal values of the researcher.
(Bryman 2012: pp. 6-7)
In some ways, the music and its practice of the Ewe, Ge and the Akan people is also contextually framed and
reflects certain aspects of method in social research, with theories, epistemological and ontological assumptions
that frame understanding of the social, based on specific cultural knowledge and experience. Amegago, (2011)
illustrates the formation of African communities and states as “open ended”. The manner in which a particular
musical type occurs conveys theories about the understanding of the social world. For example among the Ewe, the
Agbadza musical instruments depict the concept of a family unit .
13. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vq35XWgzZFE#t=14
(YouTube, AfricanMusic Safari 05/02/2015. 17:15)
Still drawing on the conceptual framework of Ewe music, how the music is structured and
constructed is based on existing knowledge, in this case, the basic social structure of a typical
community.
An additional drum ‘Atsimewu’ means the role of the Sogo changes in the same manner as the
role of the father would change in the presence of a community leader.
The ultimate command role is now owned and exercised by the Atsimewu in ‘Atsiagbekor’ which
is a war situation.
The Atsiagbekor is a battlefield enactment ‘music-dance’ and the Atsimewu plays the double
role of reconnaissance and commander-in-chief, giving rhythmic instructions to warrior-dancers
in relation the enemy positions: and the warriors move accordingly.
This YouTube video demonstrates the role of Atsimewu in Atsiagbekor.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OMRQ8_P1u_U
(YouTube Video Dance-Drumming of Ghana: 05/02/15: 17:52)
Music as Method Contd.
14. Doing creative arts, (pan-African arts included) is essentially a (messy) process. The value of such a
process and what is generated within it as it happens in terms of method, output, outcome and impact and
where these occur as a part of that process, can impact how we continue rethinking traditional social
science research and its process.
Schwab’s thought experiment in the editorial of the 6th Issue of the Journal of Arts Research (JAR)
(Schwab, 2014) suggests two relationships with process;
1. firstly that the particularities of a research process may be important elements of the research and
worthy of communication, and
2. secondly “that an opening up of the ‘lab’ and the sharing of work-in-progress, providing that this
sharing touches upon the very qualities of the research process. Furthermore, ‘process’ may not only be
what a researcher has done, it may also be what is instigated on the reader’s, viewer’s, or listener’s side
as he or she experiences the research”. (Schwab, 2014)
The elements of social research process; literature review, concepts and theories, research questions;
sampling cases; data collection; data analysis; and writing up the research finding in that order, provide a
logical progression framework for thinking and conceptualizing process. Art process can be tidy too in
concept, but is messy in the same way as traditional social science research process is.
[…] social research is often a lot less smooth than the accounts of the research
process you read in books […] In fact research is full of false starts, blind alleys,
mistakes, and enforced changes to research plans. (Bryman, 2012: p. 15)
Social Research and Creative Arts As Process
15. Concepts and Theories:
Social concepts and theories are preserved and referenced in language: in the form of proverbs, adages or axioms
infused in artistic work like symbols, songs and stories.
1. Adinkra symbol system of the Akans of Ghana and the Cote d’Ivoire for instance offers an insight into how the Akan
conceptualizes the social.
2. ‘Afa’ divination system of the Ewe of Ghana, Togo, Benin and the Igbo of Nigeria has 257 ‘Kpoliwo’ (divination sets)
each with a name, a story and its concomitant song.
‘Kpoli Blamedzi’ (the devination ‘Blamedzi’)
‘One may have something in excess, but one receives a gift of that same thing with gratitude’. And the story that goes
with it is told in song, and the song:
Nu nɔna amesi gake wo naa nu ame wo xɔnae
Blamedzi,
Nu nɔna amesi gake wo naa nu ame wo xɔnae
Dzɔki ku tsi tso ekpo dzi tsɔyi na Lovi le tɔme
Lo ha fɔ nake e, tsɔyi na Dzɔki le dzogbe,
Nu nɔna amesi gake wo naa nu ame wo xɔnae
Blamedzi,
Nu nɔna amesi gake wo naa nu ame wo xɔnae
“One may have something in excess and still receive a gift of the same in gratitude”
‘Bla’ in Ewe means ‘tie’ or ‘bind’ ‘ame’ is the word for person and ‘èjì’ (edzi) is the Yuraba word for ‘two’ so the ‘afadu’
‘Bla-ame-dzi’ refers to or recommends a strong tie or bond between two parties.
16. Research questions are an important aspect of research for the social science researcher in
how they frame up the basics about the general idea upon which the researchers’ interests
are built upon. “Developing research questions is a matter of narrowing down and focusing
more precisely on what it is you want to know about”. (Bryman, 2012: p.10).
Even though it may not seem obvious that questions are central to processes of doing arts,
the example of ‘Kporli Blamedzi’ and its concomitant song and the whole system of ‘Afa’
divination with all the Kporlis their stories and songs and how they may have been
generated, point to the fact of the presence of questions about the social, questions that led
to an attempt to refute such social theories as
“The more of something one has the less gratitude one feels to be
gifted of the same”,
and propound new ones as a part of the divination system like
“One may have something in excess and still receive a gift of the
same in gratitude”.
Research Questions
17. ‘Su’ is the space for the ‘silent what if’ question and the source of perceived form.
Questions like ‘What if Elo the crocodile got a gift of water?’ could have been the starting point
(the research question) of devising the song and story of Afa Blamedzi. These are the ways in
which sense is made of the world, by capturing and phrasing those aspects of the social
world, in everyday life that strike us as significant.
They also form a system of unpacking what is not obvious to all and shedding a light on it to
reveal the same thing from another perspective, thereby creating new knowledge and
understanding. There is light shed upon the concepts of friendship, gifting and gratitude by
phrasing them within the theory of:
“The more of something one has the less gratitude one feels to be gifted of the same”
Through a story-song set within the divination system, the entire Ewe community is called
upon to review this theory from a new, critical and different and enriched perspective. The
result is new understanding! That is ‘research’! Or in the least, there is something ‘research’
about this!
Research Questions contd.
18. There are spaces within the social where ‘the presence of life’ is always evident: these are creative spaces where
the actors of the social engage with and tap into their creative affordances as part of everyday life, in a way that
could be considered for observation as a way of doing social research. These, taking from Gibson (1998) and
Glaveanu (2012), include what I have termed "the perceptive, the formative, and the expressive affordances" of
artistic practice.
How do [how can] pan African arts and their practice offer creative affordances that drive conceptualization
perception, language, communication and understanding in the context of social research?
To lay the foundation on which pan African arts is conceptualized as language for perceiving, forming or creating,
expressing and communicating in the context of social research, is it may be the case that there is a need for a
creative arts research framework developed on the concept of 'increasing communicative; expressive; creative;
affordances' of the social science researcher and participant?
These are questions arising from thinking about creative arts affordances as constituting the conceptual resource
that also occurs in addition to perceiving, forming and expressing, as additional and (or) alternative learning
spaces, 'creative healing spaces' as well as a framework for continued health and wellbeing of the researcher and
the research participant when doing social research: for example, as part of the evolving research practice of the
CATC Hub, at the end of interactions Case Studies and RMTC researchers, a brief improvised live music is played
to capture and encapsulate the ‘energy’ of the moment and create a space of calm before everybody departs (a
practice used in the final presentation of the RM Borders project application to AHRC when PI Alison Phipps talks
over the recorded music and song, ‘How Long?’ composed and sung by Gameli Tordzro). Obviously, this is a
function or a role which perhaps in the context of traditional social science research practice may be classified as
separate from the ‘actual’ research: as additional, recuperative or supportive, but supplementary to research itself.
However, this is important and crucial to the process and experience of doing pan African arts research.
Conclusion
19. Researching Multilingually at the Borders of
Language, the Body, Law and the State
Gameli Tordzro
RM Borders Symposium
PhD Research Paper Presentation
Brussels: June 2015
Akpe Namì Kata!
Editor's Notes
a. For example holding a guitar increases the length of a musicians physical gesture and produces added meaning to say, an arm gesture. This is also related to enriching people with disabilities of physical nature as the musical instrument assumes an extension of the physicality because the musicians instrument and how it is used is not perceived separately from the musician. Patricia Leavy (Leavy, 2015: p,127) quotes Loira Bresler (2005: pp. 176-177) on the function of music and musical instruments as an extension of the body where the performer ‘unites’ with an instrument to produce sounds beyond the ‘borders of the body’ In this sense, there the musical instrument and its interaction with the skills of the musician constitute the affordance at the musician’s disposal.
b. For example: also related to the re-enrichment of one’s sonic experience of the world where objects are used or created to be used for making new sounds that exist outside the capacity of the human body, for specific communicative purposes. For example the battle drum and the rhythms played on them communicate coded messages to warriors on battlefield. The church bell is made of metal and shaped to vibrate at frequencies that lie way beyond the physical capability of the human body.
musical instruments depict the concept of a family unit and consists of a set of drums that represent the way a family is structured in terms of sizes and roles of individual family members. The ‘Sogo’ master drum, has intermittent deep toned rhythms that represents the ‘male command’, protection and overview of the patriarch of the family, which is supported by the ‘Kidi’ drum either in rhythmical unison or ‘complimentary echo’ to represent the ‘mother’ in the family, who understands the importance of the male command as a result of her own wisdom and closeness to the father and so carries out the duty of enforcing that command in the absence of the father. Following on is the ‘Kagan’ which represents the adolescent with energy, typically represented by a single purposed basic rhythm which occasionally is allowed to venture in with the ‘Kidi’ when the ‘Sogo’ moves on to a basic pulse. The ‘Gakogui’ and the ‘Axatse’ shaker, represent the infant and the toddler within the family, of whom everyone has to be aware and respond to at all times. These two are the highest in pitch and chatter in the same manner as very young children are in the family.
These are the ways in which sense is made of the world, by capturing and phrasing those aspects of the social world, in everyday life that strike us as significant. They also form a system of unpacking what is not obvious to all and shedding a light on it to reveal the same thing from another perspective, thereby creating new knowledge and understanding. There is light shed upon the concepts of friendship, gifting and gratitude by phrasing them within the theory of:
“The more of something one has the less gratitude one feels to be gifted of the same”
Through a story-song set within the divination system, the entire Ewe community is called upon to review this theory from a new, critical and different and enriched perspective. The result is new understanding! That is ‘research’! Or in the least, there is something ‘research’ about this!