Search Results (365)

This article analyzes the creative and social practices surrounding batida do gueto (ghetto beat), an emerging Afro-diasporic electronic music genre developed by Lisbon’s peripheral youth. Drawing on extensive ethnographic fieldwork conducted in 2025—including participant observation in home studios, semi-structured interviews, and digital netnography—this study explores how young Afro-descendant DJs transform digital music production software, specifically FL Studio, into technologies of postcolonial belonging. The discussion is structured around three main dimensions: first, the emergence of the “Fox clan,” a symbolic kinship network and musical lineage built through peer-to-peer knowledge transmission; second, the analysis of home studio musicking, highlighting the emic category of descompasso (rhythmic micro-displacement) as an esthetic and identity element that encapsulates postcolonial experiences of racialization and displacement; and finally, the urban and transnational circulation of batida do gueto through parties that challenge the boundaries between peripheral neighborhoods and Lisbon’s central neighborhoods. By bringing digital musicking into dialog with contemporary debates on the Black Atlantic and the politics of belonging, this article argues that the sonic subversions embedded in the genre operate as crucial resources of contestation, allowing peripheral youth to claim spatial visibility, citizenship, and historical recognition within contemporary Portuguese society. Full article

In Christianity, the tree symbolizes both human and divine life and is closely associated with wisdom and with the knowledge of good and evil, whose root is love. This article examines the symbolism of the tree with a twofold aim. First, and more extensively, it explores the process of secularization that transformed the understanding of life and wisdom in the early modern period through a comparative analysis of the symbolism of the tree in Augustine, Sabunde, and Descartes. Second, it offers a brief reflection on the contemporary world, the legacy of modernity, in which the human condition has come to be represented by figures that contrast sharply with the symbolism of the tree: the castaway, the vagabond, and the tourist. Drawing on the symbolism of the tree and the thought of Augustine, Sabunde, and Descartes, the article examines three fundamental dimensions of human existence: self-knowledge; the human relationship with nature, with others, and with God; and, finally, the articulation between the active and the contemplative life. Full article

Tourism firms frequently invoke heritage, tradition, and place identity, yet cultural visibility does not show whether corporate narratives connect culture to organisational action, stewardship, or community value. This study develops and independently validates a relational measure of annual report cultural sustainability disclosure using 85 reports from 17 Chinese A-share tourism firms during 2021–2025. A frozen rule-based classifier was evaluated on 400 previously unseen narrative units coded independently by two authors. Intercoder kappa ranged from 0.810 to 1.000 across eight dimensions. In the 200-unit probability sample, confirmatory F1 was 0.982 for cultural symbols, 1.000 for organisational capability and consumption scenarios, and 0.977 for participation/benefit; naturally rare dimensions are reported descriptively. Applied to 26,131 punctuation-based narrative units, the classifier identified 3828 cultural symbol units, of which 2167 had a strict semantic link to capability, scenario, or partner content. The pooled isolation share was 43.4% (firm-cluster bootstrap 95% CI: 34.7–50.4%). Stewardship appeared in 220 units across 40 firm-years. Eleven strict same-unit community participation/benefit links were observed across 10 firm-years, increasing to 47 windows under an adjacent-unit sensitivity definition. Firm-level trajectories were heterogeneous: all Holm-adjusted sign test p-values were at least 0.717. Category-pair coverage was only weakly related to report length and remained highly correlated with equal-unit rarefaction. The study contributes a reproducible measurement architecture that separates cultural visibility, relational operationalisation, and documentary accountability. It does not verify implementation, consent, benefit distribution, or sustainability performance. Full article

Folklore narratives often function as cultural mechanisms through which societies construct memories of origin, authority, and identity. This article examines how hierogamy narratives in Indonesian folklore transform sacred ancestry into genealogical legitimacy and social authority. Employing a qualitative comparative folklore analysis with a genealogical reading approach, this study examines seven Indonesian folktales: Jaka Tarub, Rajapala, Pego dan Putri Petong, Bujang Bekurung, Putri Tujuh (Ternate), Sidang Belawan, and Putri Tujuh (Maluku). The analysis focuses on three dimensions: the transformation of social status following sacred unions, the transmission of legitimacy through genealogical relationships, and the narrative trials that validate authority. The findings demonstrate that hierogamy functions as a cultural mechanism through which celestial being origins are converted into political, social, and customary legitimacy. Sacred marriages establish extraordinary ancestry, genealogies preserve and transmit symbolic authority, and trials confirm the legitimacy of protagonists and their descendants. The study also reveals a gendered paradox: celestial women provide the foundation of sacred legitimacy, yet authority is frequently institutionalized through male-centered genealogical systems. By positioning hierogamy as a form of genealogical legitimation, this article contributes to folklore and genealogy studies by demonstrating how narratives construct, preserve, and negotiate authority across generations. Full article

To mitigate the delay spread and inter-symbol interference (ISI) induced by optical scattering in underwater wireless optical communication (UWOC), this paper introduces long short-term memory (LSTM), a convolutional block attention module (CBAM), and residual connections into a convolutional neural network autoencoder (CNN-AE), and proposes a CNN-LSTM-AE-based end-to-end DC-biased optical orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (DCO-OFDM) system. In the proposed system, convolutional layers in the encoder serve to extract local features; CBAM adaptively weights salient features along the channel and spatial dimensions; LSTM layers model the temporal dependencies of signal sequences; and residual connections are incorporated to improve the learning capability for subtle signal features, thereby enhancing the robustness of the system against multipath channels. A symmetric structure is adopted at the receiver, ultimately enabling end-to-end signal recovery. Simulation results show that, under typical clear ocean and coastal ocean channel conditions, the proposed system outperforms end-to-end systems based on a fully connected autoencoder (FC-AE) and a CNN-AE at different modulation orders, i.e., different numbers of bits per symbol. For example, under strong scattering conditions in the coastal ocean channel, when the number of bits per symbol is 2 and the bit error rate (BER) is ${10}^{-3}$, the proposed system achieves signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) gains of approximately 3.33 dB and 1.82 dB over the two baselines. In terms of block error rate (BLER), SNR gains of approximately 4.52 dB and 2.19 dB are achieved over the two comparison systems, which substantiates the superior end-to-end transmission reliability of the proposed system. Full article

This article offers a philosophical investigation into the phenomenon of seeing-as within the experience of cinema, through a dialogue between phenomenology and Wittgenstein’s grammatical method. It seeks to question the myth of direct access to an experience independent of language and technical apparatuses, and instead proposes an analysis of the complex relations between language, perception, and human practices. The study first examines the relationship between seeing-as and intentionality, questioning the possibility of a phenomenological account of aspect perception. Although seeing-as appears close to certain analyses of form (Gestalt), particularly because of its interpretative character, cinema reveals the limits of an approach grounded solely in natural perception. The cinematic image introduces a technical, symbolic, and temporal dimension that transforms our way of seeing. Through an analysis of Rear Window, the article argues that film does not merely reproduce a perceptual experience: the apparatuses of recording and editing produce meanings of their own. Cinema thus becomes a privileged field for examining how our ways of perceiving are shaped by techniques, signs, and forms of life. Full article

Extra virgin olive oil (EVOO) is a key component of the Mediterranean diet and a functional food whose health properties are mainly attributed to phenolic compounds. Despite the availability of EFSA-approved health claims, consumers often rely on heuristic cues that may not correspond to scientifically recognized quality indicators. A cross-sectional online survey involving 516 Italian consumers was conducted to investigate consumption patterns, health-related beliefs, territorial identity, and sensory quality perception. Descriptive analyses, regional comparisons, and a multivariable logistic regression model predicting sensory misperception were performed. Most respondents reported frequent EVOO consumption and willingness to pay a premium for certified products. Territorial identity, trust in local producers, and origin-related cues emerged as important dimensions of quality perception. Although respondents generally recognized the health relevance of antioxidants and unsaturated fatty acids, misconceptions regarding sensory indicators were common. Specifically, 41% of respondents associated sweetness with EVOO quality, whereas bitterness and pungency were less frequently recognized. Greater perceived knowledge of EVOO health properties was associated with a lower likelihood of identifying sweetness as an indicator of EVOO quality. Overall, consumer evaluation of EVOO reflected the interaction of informational, symbolic, and experiential dimensions, highlighting the potential relevance of communication strategies and sensory education initiatives whose effectiveness should be evaluated in future research. Full article

This article analyzes how novice investors emotionally experience a stock market simulation conducted with virtual money. Financial simulations are sometimes criticized because they do not reproduce the real financial consequences of investment decisions. However, the fifteen semi-structured interviews conducted after the simulation show that the absence of monetary loss does not eliminate the emotional intensity of the experience. Participants report stress, fear, frustration, disgust, disappointment, satisfaction, and pride. This article argues that virtual money shifts emotional responses toward other forms of issues. Virtual losses are often interpreted as signs of poor decision-making, a lack of competence, or personal failure. Conversely, virtual gains may produce feelings of satisfaction or validation of one’s choices. Ranking also plays a central role: it transforms the exercise into a competitive situation and gives social value to individual performance. The academic bonus constitutes another form of stake because it situates the simulation within a framework aimed at improving academic performance. Based on a thematic analysis of the interviews, this article identifies five dimensions: virtual money as partial protection against financial loss; ranking as a symbolic substitute for financial stakes, the academic bonus as a real consequence of performance, virtual loss as a perceived loss of competence and frustration as a driver of recovery attempts, withdrawal, or disengagement. These findings show that stock market simulations are useful tools for observing how novices assign emotional meaning to gains, losses, ranking and their own competence. This article contributes to the literature on emotions and experimental simulations by demonstrating that emotional intensity does not depend exclusively on exposure to financial loss. Even when virtual, money becomes emotionally significant when it is associated with stakes related to performance, social comparison, academic success, and decision-making identity. Full article

University canteens occupy a structurally significant position within European higher education, functioning simultaneously as food security infrastructures, socioeconomic equalizers, and community-building spaces. Yet, access to these services remains deeply uneven, shaped by financial constraints, logistical barriers, and a frequently underexplored cultural and symbolic dimension that precedes and overrides direct experiential evaluation. Drawing on 56 semi-structured qualitative interviews conducted with university students in Milan between April and May 2025, this paper investigates how students organize and experience their midday lunch break and what motivates them to access or exclude themselves from the university canteen service. The findings reveal that the student sample departs substantially from the dominant framing in the contemporary literature of the canteen as an existential food-security resource, instead deploying a range of domestic and commercial food tactics that bypass institutional catering entirely. More significantly, the data demonstrates that canteen avoidance is driven less by objective assessments of food quality or pricing than by a stratification of memories in which childhood memories of institutional dining spaces trigger pre-emptive rejection of the university facility before any direct engagement takes place. Against this backdrop, peer socialization emerges as a particularly salient counterforce for overriding both affective aversion and economic and logistical inconvenience, symbolically transforming the canteen from a regimented site of institutional constraint into a shared territory of collective belonging. Taken together, these findings suggest that improving canteen access requires intervention not only at the level of food quality and pricing, but at the level of spatial culture, service typology, and the culinary imagery that students carry with them to campus. Full article

Beyoğlu emerged as one of the principal centers of Western influence in the late Ottoman Empire due to the presence of Levantine communities and European institutions. This study investigates the role of the Sixth Municipal Department, the first modern municipal organization in the Ottoman Empire, in shaping urban governance, architecture, and cultural transformation in Beyoğlu. Using a historical-analytical approach, the research examines Ottoman archival documents, travelogues, memoirs, contemporary newspapers, architectural evidence, and secondary literature. The findings demonstrate that Levantines occupied influential positions within the municipal administration and significantly shaped urban development through investments in transportation, lighting, sanitation, public spaces, and architectural projects. However, municipal services were distributed unevenly and primarily benefited affluent Levantine and European residents, while poorer Muslim and non-Muslim neighborhoods received limited attention. The study further reveals that the Sixth Municipal Building, designed in a European Neo-Classical style, symbolized the institutional and architectural dimensions of Ottoman Westernization. Beyond urban administration, Levantine influence contributed to transformations in social life, consumption patterns, language, and architectural culture. The article concludes that the Sixth Municipal Department played a pioneering role in the emergence of modern municipal governance in the Ottoman Empire, while simultaneously reflecting the social inequalities and cultural dynamics that accompanied the Westernization process. Full article

Biophilic design connects people to nature through direct, indirect, and spatial experiences, yet how systematically LEED v5 and WELL v2 represent these dimensions remains insufficiently understood. This study examines how and to what extent LEED v5 BD+C and WELL v2 optional scoring components represent biophilic design, using 14 Patterns of Biophilic Design as a common analytical framework. Optional LEED v5 credits and WELL v2 optimization features were screened for biophilic relevance, mapped to a primary pattern, and scored for alignment strength on a 0–3 scale. Representation was limited on every measure. Only 9 of 34 LEED v5 optional credits (26.5%) and 11 of 84 WELL v2 optimization features (13.1%) qualified as biophilically relevant, and only 3 credits (8.8%) and 4 features (4.8%) showed strong and direct alignment. LEED v5 addressed 7 of the 14 patterns and WELL v2 only 5; the remaining 7, including Mystery, Risk/Peril, Biomorphic Forms and Patterns, and Complexity and Order, received no primary representation in either system. Nature in the Space accounted for 17 of the 20 qualifying items (85%). LEED v5 showed a more site- and ecology-oriented profile, particularly through Connection with Natural Systems, while WELL v2 concentrated more on occupant-centered indoor environmental conditions, especially lighting, daylight, airflow, and thermal comfort. These findings suggest that, within the optional components analyzed, biophilic design is more readily represented where it overlaps with measurable and documentable criteria. Experiential, symbolic, and psychological–spatial dimensions are largely absent from the primary pattern assignments. The study contributes a transparent procedure for screening, mapping, and scoring biophilic content across rating systems. Given the small number of qualifying items and the interpretive nature of pattern scoring, the findings are presented as a documentation-based, pattern-level critique rather than a statistical ranking of the two systems. Full article

Corporate net-zero pledges have proliferated across the Middle East, yet whether capital markets distinguish credible decarbonization strategies from symbolic ones remains unexamined in energy-exporting emerging markets, a gap this study addresses. This omission matters because the six Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) economies in our sample face acute stranded-asset exposure amid national diversification programmes such as Saudi Arabia’s Vision 2030 and the UAE’s Operation 300bn. We test whether net-zero credibility is associated with firm valuation among 167 listed firms across seven Middle Eastern countries (2020–2025, 1002 firm-year observations), constructing a five-dimension Credibility Index (pathway specificity, capex alignment, verification, policy compliance, and track record) and applying event-study, pooled panel regression, mediation, moderation, and firm/year fixed-effects analysis. The index is internally consistent (Cronbach’s α = 0.92) and its estimated valuation association is invariant to equal, alternative and leave-one-out weighting schemes. Credibility is positively associated with all four valuation multiples (p < 0.001, firm-clustered standard errors); a one-standard-deviation increase corresponds to a 0.133 increase in Tobin’s Q (95% CI [0.116, 0.149]). High-credibility announcements earn cumulative abnormal returns 5.95 percentage points above low-credibility announcements over (−5, +5) trading days (95% CI [4.79, 7.11]), a gap robust to nonparametric tests, placebo dates and strictly pre-announcement credibility scoring. The association survives firm and year fixed effects (within-firm β = 0.119 per SD, p < 0.001). No moderator—foreign ESG fund, domestic institutional or sovereign wealth fund ownership, regulatory stringency, carbon intensity or financial health—reaches significance after correction for multiple testing, so we find no evidence of investor-type or jurisdictional heterogeneity in this sample. To the authors’ knowledge, this is the first Middle East-calibrated, capex-verified credibility index and the first evidence on the pricing of transition authenticity across GCC markets and Egypt, informing regulators, boards, and ESG investors. Full article

The seismic performance of reinforced concrete (RC) beam–column joints depends on both shear strength and failure mechanisms, the assessment of which remains challenging because of complex interactions among geometric, material, loading, and reinforcement parameters. This study presents a data-driven framework for assessing the shear strength and failure mechanisms of exterior RC beam–column joints. A database comprising 210 experimental specimens was systematically compiled from published studies. Seventeen input variables were selected based on structural mechanics, seismic design provisions, and previous experimental investigations. Machine learning models were developed for shear strength prediction and failure mode classification. SHAP was employed to interpret the trained models, while symbolic regression derived an interpretable design-oriented equation. On the independent test set, XGBoost achieved the highest shear strength prediction (R² = 0.973, RMSE = 40.09 kN), whereas the Support Vector Machine achieved 80.5% classification accuracy. The results indicate that the governing parameters for failure mechanisms differ from those controlling shear strength. Joint shear capacity was primarily influenced by geometric dimensions and longitudinal reinforcement ratios, whereas axial load ratio and joint transverse reinforcement had a greater influence on failure mechanisms. These findings highlight the importance of simultaneously assessing shear strength and failure mode in RC beam–column joints. Full article

The aim of this article is to offer a theoretical contribution to the topic of “engaged spirituality”. First, I provide definitional and conceptual clarifications, hopefully useful in specifying what I call ‘postmodern spirituality’. In this way, we will also be able to better understand the specific features of “engaged spirituality”, at least from the theoretical perspective adopted here. I am proposing a conceptual integration that takes into account some frequently underestimated dimensions of the phenomenon. Particular attention will be paid to highlighting the defining dividing line between the transcendent and immanent spheres. I elucidate that I will focus exclusively on new forms of spirituality, not on spirituality in a broader sense. In the third section, I explain why I believe we can—applying some insights from Bell and Maffesoli—speak of a ‘postmodern spirituality’. The affirmation of a re-enchanted sacred sphere undergoing a process of “dionysification” is, in my view, the symbolic core of the imagery of new forms of spirituality. In the fourth section, through a comparative analysis, I will briefly highlight the main differences between archaic/premodern sacred and postmodern spirituality: here I will highlight a transition from the social condition of ‘ontological debt’—according to Gauchet—to that of ‘ontological credit’. In the fifth section I will finally address “engaged spirituality”, underlining how ‘postmodern spirituality’ can certainly be a vehicle for social transformation. However, for reasons I will try to clarify, the “engagement” of ‘postmodern spirituality’, while characterized by emotional intensity, simultaneously lacks temporal extension. In my conclusions I will propose to frame the engagement related to the ‘postmodern spirituality’ as a form of “inner-worldly mysticism” but characterized by a peculiar Gnostic component. The final goal is to propose an original theoretical speculation that, drawing also on concepts from Max Weber and Eric Voegelin, provides an analytical tool I hope will be helpful in contributing to the sociological study of the phenomenon of “engaged spirituality”. Full article

This study investigates how formal references are transformed into architectural form and meaning. While previous studies have acknowledged the diversity of source domains in architecture, they often remain fragmented and lack a systematic framework that explains how such references are operated upon during design. This gap limits the ability to distinguish between the literal replication of recognizable forms and the deeper transformation of their conceptual, structural, and symbolic properties. In response, this research develops a Transformation-Based Formal Reference Framework (TFRF) that traces formal reference through six stages—source, interpretation, abstraction, transformation, architectural expression, and meaning production—with a feedback loop from received meaning back to interpretation. The contribution is therefore not a new classification of sources; classification by source domain (living organisms, cosmos and geographical formations, language, belief systems, precedent architecture, and human-made products) is retained only as the entry point of the process. Thirty-one architectural cases, selected through purposive sampling and independently double-coded (κ = 0.75 for abstraction and κ = 0.86 for transfer), are positioned within a two-dimensional matrix that crosses degree of abstraction (direct, analogy, abstraction) with type of transfer (form, structure, performance, symbol, space). The analysis suggests that source domain and transformation mechanism function as analytically distinct dimensions: one source can yield opposite mechanisms and distant sources can converge on the same one. The framework thereby reframes formal reference from a catalogue of inspirations into a navigable two-axis design space, offering a transferable analytical framework for understanding how architectural references become form and meaning. Full article