Mighty Fortresses: Explaining the Spatial Distribution of American Megachurches

One of the most significant phenomena in organized religion over the past two decades is the development and growth of the "megachurch." While these dramatically large campuses and congregations represent a relatively new aspect of religious life in the United States, they are already having a profound effect on the way in which Americans worship through their size and often their wealth. Given their size and increasing numbers, where they are located takes on a special significance. We assess their location within the context of a range of demographic and economic factors in those states in which they are most prevalent.     

Idol Curiosity: Andy Warhol and the Art of Secular Iconography

Abstract

This article examines issues at the intersections of race, gender, sexuality and celebrity in contemporary society. Taking Andy Warhol and Marilyn Monroe as its focus, it considers the fate of the modern-day icon. In particular, it assesses the importance of whiteness and blondness in the construction of Western iconography, and the influence of Warhol's Catholic faith upon his work.     

Unpacking the Georgian Nation: Examining the Symbolic Boundaries of Group Membership through National Iconography

This article concerns a lesser-studied aspect of nation-building in Georgia: the role of national iconography in the reproduction and reaffirmation of a Georgian national identity. National iconography is a tool commonly used by states to legitimize and solidify the ties among the territory, nation, and state in the imaginations of both domestic and foreign audiences. By examining key pieces of Georgian national iconography, the article examines the symbolic boundaries of the resultant national identity as well as what room remains for members of Georgia’s diverse religious, linguistic, and socio-cultural minority groups in the overall official meta-narrative.     

Islam and the Environment: theory and practice

The paper discusses some aspects of the industrialisation effects on the natural environment in the Middle East in general. While Islam as a religion has a deep sense of respect and consideration for the natural environment (Izzi Dien, 1990), the current status quo in Muslim countries is not noticeably different to that in the rest of the world. The paper submits that this is because industrial culture has overtaken traditional culture leading to the prevalence of materialistic values over the intrinsic.

The paper maintains that Islam provides a paradigm solution for many forms of environmental degradation, including that of water distribution. The proposal does not preclude other, non‐Islamic, regional states from a fair share of water, nor does it deny that international law is the main arbitrator in resolving disputes. However the paper underlines Islam's role as an important potential ground for settling disputes from which international law may proceed. The examples discussed are only models and the author acknowledges that other cities such as Beirut, Baghdad, Teheran, and Jerusalem also warrant study.     

Mind and the Environment

Intuitively, an object is something that coheres internally and is largely independent of its environment. But what is the environment? Viewed at one scale, it surrounds and separates objects and differentiates them. Viewed at another scale, it is itself a collection of objects surrounded by (more) environment. At all scales, we describe the world in terms of objects in an environment. I examine the nature of the environment and its role in mediating the object-subject relation. This dedicated analysis of the environment provides a new perspective on the notion of objectivity.     

Finding Their Place: Women and the Environment for Worship

Abstract

The history of the intersection between women and their worship-spaces is both simple and complex. This article begins to identify ways in which women have responded to restrictions on them in liturgical space and how they have interpreted that space. This task poses serious methodological challenges, identified here, and raises questions about ways in which women have found a place in and around church buildings during a history characterized by their restriction and exclusion. Using a variety of primary and secondary sources, women's action through patronage, fundraising and benefaction, in disobedience and disorder, is explored, together with ways in which women have exercised the natural authority of their religious gifts and experience, when their temporal authority wis limited and indeed have reinterpreted the meaning of the term ‘liturgical space’.     

Food Systems Change and the Environment: Local and Global Connections

Making changes to the way food is produced, distributed, and processed is one strategy for addressing global climate change. In this case study, we examine the "forming" stage of an emergent and locally-based coalition that is both participatory and focused on promoting food security by creating food systems change. Social network analysis is used to compare network density, centrality, and centralization among coalition partners before the formation of the coalition and at its one-year anniversary. Findings reveal that the coalition facilitated information seeking, assistance seeking, and collaborative efforts related to food security among a group of organizational stakeholders that were relatively disconnected pre-coalition. Results also illuminate tensions related to increased centralization of the network, coalition efficiency, and the goals of democratic decision-making. This study highlights the utility of social network analysis as a tool for evaluating the aims and trajectory of locally-based coalitions focused on global concerns.     

Social Affordances and Interaction II: Autism and the Affordances of the Human Environment

The interaction between informational support or task constraints and functional motor performance was explored using kinematic profiles of the arms and hands of 40 participants with and without multiple sclerosis (MS). Three functional tasks were performed under three conditions: impoverished (i.e., participants mimed the tasks), partial (i.e., participants mimed the tasks with a limited array of the objects normally used), and natural (i.e., participants performed the actual tasks). Results indicated that each of the three conditions elicited unique kinematic profiles. Movement time, maximum displacement, and velocity variability were significantly different among each of the three conditions. An ecological interpretation suggested that functional performance emerged from the interaction of the task demands of each condition and of the action capabilities of the participants. Participants with and without MS responded to the three conditions in similar ways, except that those with MS performed the tasks more slowly. We speculated that the slower performance was a function of the reduced and inconsistent action capabilities of the participants with MS.     

Organizational Learning: The Role of the Physical Environment

This paper examines the role of the physical environment in facilitating organizational learning. Semi-structured interviews related to learning and experiences of physical environment were conducted in two organizations in India. Workspaces were studied using non-participant observation. Cognitive maps of the layouts were created and movements in the workspaces mapped. Content analysis was performed on interview responses, and space syntax analysis was used to analyse maps of the workspaces. Findings suggest that knowledge in organizations is transformed through dialogue and discussion. Relationships, supportive leadership, culture, organizational strategy, and physical environment were found to play a key role in facilitating this process. The physical environment afforded co-presence, movement, and encounter. These features were found to contribute to interaction that facilitated dialogue, and thereby transformation of knowledge. This paper highlights the importance of physical design and provides areas of concrete intervention, allowing for facilitation of learning based on the physical dimension of the learning context.