Narrative and Violence in Just Institutions

Beginning with images of rampant destruction and violence in our day, Paul Ricœur’s reflections on the political paradox and his “little ethics” (contained in Oneself as Another) are responses to peace and understanding. Ricœur is concerned …

The Narrative Possiblity of Peace and Understanding

With its emphasis on action and new possibilities opened by imagination, Paul Ricœur’s narrative theory offers insights to understanding each other in a world of polarized views. His theory is helpful in describing the potential that narrati…

Toward an Ontology of Peace II

Following Part I, this essay (Part II) continues my attempt to develop an ontology of peace by drawing resources from Ricœur’s thought. I begin with Augustine, Dionysius, and Aquinas to show that peace is not contrary to our humanity but is …

Toward an Ontology of Peace I

This essay is the first of two seeking to draw out an ontology of peace from Paul Ricoeur’s thought.  This first essay (Part I) argues that Ricoeur’s hermeneutics of creation provides the best starting point because of its insistence on…

There is More to the Story than Skipping School

This article offers a reflective exploration of the storied experiences of young climate strikers in Bristol through a narrative inquiry approach. In-depth analysis of the narratives of the young people collected at two distinct timepoints i…

Water Drops

This article examines how individuals of diverse cultural backgrounds in Norway participate in anti-racist activism via social media. It investigates the nature of digital activism compared to traditional paradigms, highlighting the varied f…

Calling the Ancestors to Dance

The Abakuá are an all-male ceremonial association founded in Cuba in the 1830s which persist to this day as exponents of a form of Afrocuban folklore. Legally recognized on the island for the first time in 2005, the Abakuá community has asse…

Stuck in Representation

This article aims to discuss how Muslims participating in the Norwegian public debate experience what we refer to as representation work activism. Building on Conner’s and Rosen’s understanding of activism ‘as acts that challenge the status …

‘We Feel Something’

On February 11, 1965, less than one year after the outset of the Brazilian military dictatorship, singer Maria Bethânia assumed one of the principal roles in the musical theater piece Opinião in Rio de Janeiro. Taking over for Nara Leão, …

Street Rhythms and the Revolution

Cuban street vendors use pregones, high-pitched rhymes and rhythms, to promote their goods and services. This ambulant form of small-scale commerce has been part of the urban soundscape since the early years of Spanish colonization. While of…

Affective Turn, or Return?

The ‘affective turn’ suggests that we pay attention to how affects create subjectivities, build communities, and shape new forms of politics in the making. It invites us to move beyond established humanities and social science paradigms and …

A Laboratory of Stories

This article develops the concept of community lore, initially devised by the social learning theorists Jean Lave and Etienne Wenger (1991). In extending this promising but hitherto neglected aspect of their work, this article sheds light on…

Newcomers Learning Religious Ritual

In this article, we explore the learning of newcomers in a religious community through a micro-sociological approach, making use of Jean Lave and Etienne Wenger’s (1991) notion of “legitimate peripheral participation” to conceptualize initi…