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People’s intimate life-worlds are increasingly taking place in networked media spaces such as social media, smartphone applications and virtual reality environments. For (digital) ethnographers, it becomes crucial to understand people’s intense intimate attachments to mediated spaces. Many researchers are already exploring networked media spaces’ affects; what opportunities they offer for people’s intimacies as well as the, albeit hidden, damage they may bring. However, there are many challenges for qualitative researchers to operate ethically when inquiring into people’s intimate life-worlds in networked media spaces. A framework of contextual integrity needs to consider what it means to live a personal life in deeply mediatised contexts. For an ethnographic researcher, being present in the intimate networked media spaces of research subjects, means tapping into affective networks. Responsible researchers should therefore understand the contextual affective dynamics and affordances of these networked media spaces; this implies understanding what it means to be present as a researcher and what the implications are of this presence.

PurposeThe purpose of this article is to present and revisit the role of rhetoric and narratives in management research and practice.Design/methodology/approachThe authors revisit the insights from previous work on the role of rhetoric and narratives in management research and introduce new perspectives based on the original contributions included in this special issue.FindingsThere is an ongoing need to stress the importance of narrative and rhetorical perspectives in management research, specifically for exploring the managing of meanings, the coaching of virtues and the mediating of rhetoric.Originality/valueThe paper revisits and provides new insights on the role of rhetoric and narratives in management research and emphasizes the interrelationship between both, specifically by focusing on the conceptual framework of Kenneth Burke, whose work can be situated at the intersection of rhetoric and narrative.

In the early 1990s, several European welfare states embraced the idea that the voice and life knowledge of people in poverty should be recognised in policymaking. In that regard, many authors procl...

Debates on arts’ social role have been prominent in cultural policy and research for the past decades. Claims for what the arts “do” to people and the ways in which they can bring about both indivi...

Within social work, participatory arts practices have increasingly been put forward as a (new) pedagogical project that creates opportunities to deal with the challenges and complexities of living ...

Purpose In Flanders, the subventions in the cultural sector are mainly divided and decided upon within the framework of the Arts Decree. Within this policy framework, art organizations may choose in their funding applications for “participation” as one of the five possible functions to describe their artistic and cultural practices. However, questions need to be raised about the different interpretations of the notion of participation within this policy framework. The growing trend of evidence-based policy-making implies that participation risks to become a “target” that needs to be achieved instrumentally, which paradoxically ignores the fact that participatory practices within culture and the arts are very often diverse, multi-layered and context-specific practices. Starting from this paradox, the purpose of this paper is to explore how the current policy framework is translated into different “participatory” art practices by art organizations and specifically how cultural practitioners themselves conceptualize it. Design/methodology/approach In this paper, the authors discuss the results of a qualitative research based on semi-structured interviews with cultural practitioners about how they grapple with the notion of participation within their organizations and practices. Findings The results clearly show that practitioners use micro-politics of resistance to deal with different, and often conflicting, conceptualizations of participation in relation to this cultural policy framework. Research limitations/implications The implications of the findings are vital for the discussion about cultural policy. These micro-politics of resistance do not only have an impact on the development of individual participatory art practices but also on the broader participatory arts landscape and on how the function of participation is perceived within the renewed policy framework. Originality/value The original contribution of this paper is to explore the perspective of practitioners in cultural organizations about the function of participation in the Arts Decree in Flanders and specifically how the notion of participation is operationalized in their practices in relation to this cultural policy framework.

This article theorises the role of educational agents in democratic education in urban contexts by engaging in the discussion about the relationship between citizenship, democracy and education. Therefore, we confront Gert Biesta’s conceptualisation of a ‘pedagogy of interruption’ with the empirical insights that emerge from a qualitative research project on democratic education in a particular urban context in Ghent (Belgium). We elaborate on the historical developments and origins of the educational practices and interventions in this urban context and reveal three contemporary educational strategies that coincide and complement each other while implementing the democratic ideal of equality in differentiated ways: integration, activation and instigation. Our analysis enables us to reflect on the complexities, ambiguities and dilemmas at stake when educational agents shape a ‘pedagogy of interruption’. This pedagogy entails the constant search to balance the multidimensional purposes of democratic education, that is, between socialisation and subjectification.

Through a self-reflexive review of collaboration in two anthropological film projects conducted during the period from 2013 to 2018, we address the dilemmas that are at stake when producing and distributing audio-visual images of vulnerable subjects (for example, refugees), and the consumption of so-called "subject-generated" imagery. The poetical and political strategies of audio-visual forms of anthropological (re)presentation as well as the existing shortcomings related to those topics, such as the 'refugee crisis', which is caught in the current context of our media-saturated society is explored. We suggest the notion of "shared anthropology" as a framework for exploring the critical potential of collaborative audio-visual rhetoric. From this perspective, we discuss the films Unless the water is safer than the land, in which performers re-enact the narratives of refugees; and Passager, a collaborative film project between an audio-visual anthropologist and a young Afghan refugee who left his country in search of safer living conditions. We explore how these films can be conceptualised as distinctive forms of "collaborative audio-visual rhetoric".

Social work scholars have argued that poverty reminds us of the necessary commitment to educate professional social workers. Being inspired by a conceptual framework that captures how poverty-awareness can be the subject of teaching in social work programmes, this article offers a qualitative analysis of the reflections being made by a cohort of students about their learning process in a post-academic course. Five common themes are discussed: (i) from recognising micro-aggressions to tackling macro-aggressions; (ii) poverty is an instance of social injustice and requires collective indignation; (iii) notions of commitment and solidarity are ambiguous; (iv) poverty is an instance of social inequality rather than merely social exclusion; and (v) from being heroic agents to social change ‘from within’. Based on these findings, we raise the lessons learned for social work educators. First, they should invite students to reinvigorate the social justice aspirations of social work practices and take a stance in relation to their environment and the wider historical and socio-political circumstances. Secondly, a poverty-aware pedagogy requires collective and long-lasting supervision at the frontline individual, organisational and societal/social policy level. Collective critical reflection and supervision might open up avenues to collectively challenge and change socially unjust rhetoric and practice.

Despite a decade of diversity policy plans, a wave of student rallies has ignited debates across western European university campuses. We observe these debates from a situated call for anti-racism in Belgian higher education institutions, and critically reflect on the gap between diversity policy discourse and calls for anti-racism. The students’ initiatives make a plea for racial literacy in the curriculum, to foster a critical awareness on how racial hierarchies have been educated through curricula and institutional processes. Students rethink race as a matter to be (un)learned. This pedagogical question, on racial literacy in the curriculum, is a response to diversity policies often silent about race and institutionalised racisms. Students request a fundamental appeal of knowledgeability in relation to race, diversity policy mostly envisions working on (racial) representation, as doing anti-racist work. This article argues how racial literacy might offer productive ways to bridge the disparities between students’ calls for anti-racism and the institutional (depoliticised) vocabulary of diversity. We implement Stuart Hall’s critical race theory and Jacques Rancière’s subjectification as key concepts to study and theorise these calls for anti-racism as a racial literacy project. This project can be built around engagement as educational concept. We coin possibilities to deploy education as a forum of engagement and dialogue where global asymmetries such as race, gender and citizenship can be critically addressed.

Purpose In previous research on rhetoric and narrative in management research, cultural narratives have been studied as tools to reflect on rhetorical situations from the perspective of management. The purpose of this paper is to present a similar exploration of rhetoric while focusing on a modern example from popular culture: the television series Mad Men. Design/methodology/approach This paper first discusses rhetorical concepts from the work of Kenneth Burke and Richard Lanham as inspirational guides, thereafter, these concepts are used to analyze the case of Mad Men. Specifically, the main character Don Draper is analyzed as a homo rhetoricus in an attention economy. Findings Don Draper becomes a case study of what it means to introduce a rhetorical perspective in advertising and management. It is argued that Don Draper’s reflections in the series can be described as a “perspective on perspectives” or as a “toggling” between different rhetorical perspectives. Originality/value Previous research discussed the emergence of spinning and the appearance of the “spin doctor” as a major figure in society in general and fiction in particular. In this article, it is argued that the same is also true for advertising. Mad Men is introduced as a case study about the revival of rhetoric as a major skill and an important perspective in and for our personal, professional and social lives.

Critical Arts has hosted a number of special issues that revisit the “ethnographic turn” in contemporary art (see previous volumes 27 [5], 27 [6], and 30 [3]). The aim of these issues is to explore...

Based on the ongoing and growing body of work that can be situated at the intersection of art and ethnography, Critical Arts has decided to host an annual themed issue that explores the ‘et...

In this article, we seek to merge an insider with an outsider perspective on participatory arts projects, by engaging with the ethnographic turn in arts and promoting the idea of a ‘researcher template’ (Goodley 1999) as a way of enabling reflexivity in practice-led inquiries. Situated at the intersection between artistic, educational and academic work, this template allows us to address and reflect upon the complexities and vicissitudes emerging from an interpretative study of the Ghent-based participatory arts project, rocsa singers. While revealing the roles of the diverse protagonists within this practice, we highlight three main challenges and tensions: (1) nurturing and supporting diversity; (2) the thin line between directing and going along; and (3) the need to go public. We argue that participatory arts practices form a tempting field to move beyond dominant interpretations and well-known (art) strategies and forms. ‘Having one foot in and one foot out’ invites us to become aware of this ...

The purpose of this article is to explore how fictional narratives that focus on educational taboos can be introduced in teacher education to reflect on disturbing practices and sensitive issues. We conducted a study to examine how student-teachers engage in “discomforting dialogues” about teaching and teacher identity in response to school movies that deal with specific taboos, i.e. the failed teacher and teacher-pupil relationships. Based on a rhetorical analysis of student reflections, we argue that confronting student-teachers with disruptive school movies provides them with a language to discuss the complex, sensitive and (inter)personal aspects of teaching.

In their article "Perspectives on Video Games as Art" Jeroen Bourgonjon, Geert Vndermeer­sche, Kris Rutten and Niels Quinten engage in discussing whether or not video games can be considered a form of art. Although this question has already been discussed elaborately, the debate is guided by many differ­ent and often conflicting positions. The aim of this article is to revisit this debate by mapping out a range of perspectives on video games as art. The authors explore the relation between games and differ­ent definitions and functions of art, different motives of artists, and the potential impact of the arts. The authors postulate that the discussion about the art status of video games is neither singular nor straightforward, and that the artistic possibilities of video games should instead be assessed by confronting a number of interrelated perspectives.

In this article it is assumed that the documentary impulse that gave the impetus to Courage, a photobook on people in poverty published in Belgium in 1998, is related to how the General Report on P...

In this article we introduce the special issue Attitudes Toward Education: Kenneth Burke and New Rhetoric, which brings together a number of contributions that were first presented at the conference Rhetoric as Equipment for Living. Kenneth Burke, Culture and Education (Ghent University, May 2013). Kenneth Burke [1897–1993] is one of the foundational figures in the development of what is known as the ‘new rhetoric’. The aim of the contributions to this special issue is to explore what is pedagogical about Burke’s anthropological account of rhetoric and, more specifically, whether his concepts and ideas can still be relevant for educational research and practice. In this article, we briefly introduce some key concepts from Burke’s rhetorical framework and we give an overview of the different contributions that are part of the special issue by summarizing how they address the educational dimension of (parts of) Burke’s corpus. We end by introducing a ‘grammar of educational motives’ to explore educational purposes and implications.

Purpose– The purpose of this paper is to present a theoretical background for studying rhetoric and narratives as equipment for living. Analyzing a case study on spinning and the spin doctor in recent narratives with a major focus on the Danish TV-seriesBorgen. Arguing that narratives can be equipment for teaching.Design/methodology/approach– Introducing rhetorical concepts as tools for an analysis of narratives (based on the work of Kenneth Burke).Findings– The authors argue for the importance of rhetoric and narrative as tools for meaning-making, illustrate how spinning has become a major topic in recent fiction (and the TV-seriesBorgenin particular), and focus on howBorgencan be equipment for living from different “terministic screens.”Originality/value– The authors analyze how a popular narrative asBorgencan be read as equipment for living, focussing on how the spin doctor has become a major character in fiction, and illustrate what the authors can learn from narratives about rhetoric and spinning.

In our research and teaching we explore the value and the place of rhetoric in education. From a theoretical perspective we situate our work in different disciplines, inspired by major turns': linguistic, cultural, anthropological/ethnographic, interpretive, semiotic, narrative, literary, rhetorical etc. In this article we engage in the discussion about what all these turns might entail for education by elaborating on what it implies to read the world as a text'as is central in a semiotic approachand by introducing new rhetoric in general, and the work of the literary critic and rhetorician Kenneth Burke in particular, as a possible theoretical and methodological resource. We illustrate its application in the analysis of a fictional narrative. Our aim is to explore how an understanding of education as rhetoric can be integrated into the teacher education curriculum.

This special themed issue, published over two consecutive issues of Critical Arts (October and December 2013), aims to revisit the ethnographic turn in contemporary art by inviting papers from theorists, artists and critics, to engage critically with the ethnographic perspective in their own work or in the work of other contemporary artists. This introductory article briefly recapitulates some of the issues explored in the first themed issue and introduces the second by situating the ethnographic turn as part of a larger rhetorical turn within the human and social sciences. The main argument is that the crisis of representation can be reframed as a focus on the inevitable rhetoricity of representation, implying that one cannot avoid rhetoric in the description and delegation of culture. This argument is related to the different contributions that constitute this issue.

The aim of this special issue is to revisit the ethnographic turn in contemporary art by exploring and critically assessing how art practices show significant similarities with anthropology and ethnography in their conceptualisations of cultural differences and in their representational practices. This contribution focuses on how narratives can be employed in the study of contemporary culture and society. It proceeds from the literary turn in ethnography to explore how literature and drama can be described as important sites for ethnographic research. This question, specifically, is approached from an educational perspective. That is, how can cultural narratives be introduced as a form of ethnography for education in general and – our field of study – literacy studies and literacy education in particular?

An increasing wave of art events has occurred since the 1990s that have displayed significant similarities with anthropology and ethnography in their theorisations of cultural difference and representational practices. In this theme issue the authors aim to revisit the ethnographic turn in contemporary art by focusing on practice-led research. Contributions were collected from theorists, artists and critics, to engage critically with the ethnographic perspective in their work. Next to full research papers the authors also invited short statements and reflections by artists about their practice. In this introductory article, the issues at stake in the ethnographic turn in contemporary art are explored in greater detail.

In this contribution we address the concept of critical literacies by analyzing how symbolic representations within subcultures can be understood as an engagement with specific literacy practices. For some time now, cultural studies researchers with an interest in literacy have depended upon ethnographic methods to document how members of subcultural communities mobilize literacy practices to achieve critical ends. But the extent to which ethnography actually grants researchers access to subcultural perspectives on literacy has come into question. In this article, we aim to problematize and thematize the ethnographic perspective on literacy in general – and subculture as a situated literacy practice in particular – by critically assessing contemporary art practices that focus on the representation of subcultural identities. We therefore specifically look at artwork by Nikki S. Lee, who focuses on subcultures in her work through ‘going native performances’.

This article introduces a special issue on the topic of ‘Cultural Studies and Critical Literacies’. The collection of articles is related to the central theme of the inaugural Summer Institute of the Association for Cultural Studies: to explore the implications of studying literacy by combining perspectives from cultural studies and (critical) literacy studies. Furthermore, with this issue we want to map current trends in cultural studies by sharing and extending some of the discussions that took place at the Institute with the larger cultural studies community. In this introductory article, we will start by revisiting some of the work done at the intersection of literacy studies and cultural studies to set the scene for our collection of articles that focuses on different contemporary ‘uses’ of literacy.

The aim of the special strand on ‘Revisiting the rhetorical curriculum’ is to explore the educational potential of a new rhetorical perspective, specifically in relation to different traditions within educational and rhetorical studies. This implies that we do not only look at education in rhetoric, but that we position education also as a rhetorical practice. In this introductory article, we introduce a broad perspective on rhetoric by exploring concepts from new rhetoric to set the scene for this special strand. We elaborate briefly on the relationship between rhetoric and education, which is reflected in the classical concept of paideia. We specifically relate the new rhetorical perspective to curricular issues and introduce the different contributions that are part of this special strand. The article ends by discussing what can be learned from (new) rhetoric about language, culture and education in a post- (or anti-) foundational world.

The communication practice of tweeting has fostered numerous literary experiments, like Teju Cole’s series “Small fates” and Jennifer Egan’s novel “Black box”. In late 2012, these experiments culminated in an event that focused on such literary experiments: the first Twitter Fiction Festival. In this paper, we explore how people who participated in the festival use tweeting to embrace and enact writing and reading literature as a social experience. The study includes a participant-centered inquiry based on two one-hour Twitter discussions with 14 participants from the Twitter Fiction Festival as well as analyses of their online literary works and secondary sources related to the festival. We show that festival participants self-identify based on their creative and social practices as artists rather than with traditional labels such as writer or author and are therefore drawn to social media environments.

This paper focuses on how readers participate in literary culture through social media environments. The study involves an observation of the website and Facebook group of the Flemish reading initiative Iedereenleest.be (EverybodyReads.be), and includes in-depth interviews with highly active participants. We introduce the concept of affinity spaces to develop our understanding of how readers engage in a variety of literary practices within social media environments dedicated to literature and reading. Based on a qualitative thematic analysis of the interview data we discuss four ways in which users characterize literary and social media practices. As such, the study provides insight into readers’ understanding and appreciation of the social aspects of participating in literary culture within social media environments. It also shows how they perceive and negotiate their role within these environments. The image presented by the participants confirms the characterization of social media as affinity spaces and stresses the crucial importance of acknowledging, supporting and encouraging people's passions and interests by allowing engagement in a variety of literary practices.

In this article the authors introduce a rhetorical perspective into disability studies by exploring the work of Kenneth Burke (1969). Specifically, the focus is on how Burke's theory of dramatism can be used in disability research as well as in teaching disability studies, as it holds potential for the production of a diversity of social interpretations of the relationship between 'impairment', 'disability' and a disabling society. The focus shifts to Burke's dramatistic pentad and the concept of circumference as possible tools for teaching social work students to deal with ambiguity in their prospective practice. The authors discuss how a rhetorical analysis of 'mental health problems' in the seminal movie, One Flew over the Cuckoo's Nest, has been introduced in a Master's degree course on cultural studies for social work students at Ghent University, Belgium. In conclusion, the relevance of a rhetorical perspective for social work students is discussed, in order to orient and reorient their prospective practice, based on a diversity of social interpretations of 'impairment' and 'disability'.

This paper examines what can be learnt from ‘new rhetoric’ (focusing on the work of the American rhetorician Kenneth Burke [1897–1993]) about (national) identity and discusses how nationalism can be taught from such a rhetorical perspective. Despite the ‘deconstruction’ of nation(alism) as a grand narrative, there is a new tendency towards emphasizing national identity, caused by trends such as globalization and multiculturalism. In the language and literature teaching curriculum, this paradoxical situation often causes frictions for teachers who very often are expected to teach standard language and national literature. The hypothesis is that rhetoric is a tool to deal with these tensions in the curriculum. This paper focuses on Flanders as a case‐study. Together with pre‐service teachers it analysed the rhetorical construction of Flanders from a dramatistic perspective. It is argued that Burke’s concepts are useful tools to make students ‘symbol‐wise’: to understand the way national symbols work, and to...

68d43i49e2s (online) This study discusses the representation of (the) literacy (myth) in popular movies and a teaching and research project on cinematic literacy narratives. It attempts to reveal the existence of a powerful ‘Pygmalion template’ in contemporary movie culture. Focusing on a discourse or culture clash ‘Pygmalion movies’ simultaneously contribute to the discursive construction and deconstruction of the literacy myth. Because of their polysemic character, these films offer fertile grounds for inquiring into the problematic nature of literacy acquisition and discourse or culture clashes. Inviting pre-service teachers to reflect on these issues, the authors created a curriculum as contact zone in which films are used as a primary source of knowledge and insight together with students’ movie analyses and interpretations, personal narratives, and theoretical readings. This exploratory study of on-line discussion groups revealed the students’ contradictory and competing movie readings. Organizing the curriculum as a contact zone deepened the students’ and one’s own understanding of literacy as an ideological site of struggle in (movie) culture.

In this article we describe a teaching project that focuses on the introduction of fictional narratives as basis for critical reflection about major issues in the teaching profession. Our main aim is to help pre‐service teachers to make appropriate decisions at particular moments of interaction in their classroom. From a theoretical perspective we are inspired by the cultural and narrative turn in the humanities and the social sciences. In our project pre‐service teachers were invited to read Teacher Man by Frank McCourt, a major novel about teaching, and were asked to comment on key topics and scenes. We argue that using fictional narratives offers a unique opportunity for imaginative engagement, perhaps even empathy in the ways that theoretical textbooks do not provide.

This article starts from the narrative turn in the humanities and the social sciences in general and social work in particular to explore the study of fictional narratives in social work education. Rhetoric is presented as an important perspective for social work by focusing on the work of the rhetorician and literary critic Kenneth Burke (1897–1993), specifically on his theory of dramatism. The dramatistic pentad is introduced as an analytical tool to study fictional narratives. In a case study, a play and a film by a Dutch–Flemish theatre collective are jointly analysed by students from the Master of Social Work and Welfare Studies programme at a Flemish university. This rhetorical perspective gives social work students the opportunity not only to study fictional narratives, but also to reflect upon their own practice.

The Blackboard Jungle (1955). Directed by Richard Brooks. Shown: Glenn Ford (as Richard Dadier). Photo courtesy of MGM/Photofest. Why study popular film and television and its relation to education...

In their article "Rhetoric, Citizenship, and Cultural Literacy" Kris Rutten and Ronald Soetaert start from concerns in contemporary educational debates about a growing lack of civic literacy. These complaints are raised both in the public sphere, in institutions of pedagogy, and in scholarship about the form, content, and function of civic literacy and civic education. Although there is an ongoing debate about the alleged decrease of political interest and the current state of civic literacy, it is clear that civic education has become an important focus of different governmental initiatives. Rutten and Soetaert aim to move away from a straightforward definition of citizenship in general and civic literacy in particular by developing a rhetorical framework for a broader and contextualized understanding of civic and cultural literacies by exploring what this implies for a contemporary humanist and liberal education.

In their article "Rhetorical Analysis of Literary Culture in Social Reading Platforms" Joachim Vlieghe and Kris Rutten present a case study of the discourse surrounding literary phenomena that are emerging within social media. The case study is part of a methodological exploration within literacy studies whereby the social media's transformative effects on literary literacies are studied by focusing on language as symbolic and situated action. Vlieghe and Rutten have identified unique social reading platforms based on a prolonged study of the social media environment. The analysis of the developers' discourse on social reading platforms shows how developers are formulating new instructions on how to talk and to act in relation to literature by changing the scope of concepts related to literary phenomena within the "social media" system.

Over the last few decades there has been a strong narrative turn within the humanities and social sciences in general and educational studies in particular. Especially Jerome Bruner’s theory of narrative as a specific ‘mode of knowing’ was very important for this growing body of work. To understand how the narrative mode works Bruner proposes to study narratives ‘at their far reach’—as an art form—and on several occasions he refers to the dramatistic pentad as an important method for ‘unpacking’ narratives. The pentad proposed by Bruner to study narratives was developed by the American philosopher and rhetorician Kenneth Burke and is embedded in his general linguistic theory of dramatism. From an educational perspective Bruner’s reference to the work of Burke has not been elaborated upon thus far. In this paper we aim to take Bruner’s suggestion at hand and explore how his educational theory of narrative as a mode of knowing can indeed be enriched by Kenneth Burke’s theory and method of dramatism. We claim that specifically the rhetorical framework that is developed by dramatism offers an important perspective about perspectives for education in a context that is increasingly confronted with a plurality of interpretive frameworks.

In his article "Academic Discourse and Narratives of Literacy as 'Equipment for Living'" Kris Rutten discusses practices of academic discourse and argues that students entering higher education have to become part of a specific community of institutional discourse. Rutten claims that narratives of and about literacy — narratives that revolve around issues dealing with language and the acquisition of literacy — "dramatize" the tension of moving from one discourse community to another. By charting situations of "type," fictional literacy narratives can be used by students as "equipment for living" in order to reflect on confrontations and difficulties they experience in higher education. Kenneth Burke's "dramatistic pentad" is introduced as an analytical tool to study representations and interpretations of institutional discourse in fictional narratives. In a case study, the popular literacy narrative Educating Rita is analyzed and confronted with personal reflections of students. Further, Rutten discusses what can be learned from a rhetorical perspective on literacy about roles (identities) and language (institutional discourses) in higher education. Kris Rutten, "Academic Discourse and Literacy Narratives as 'Equipment for Living'" page 2 of 8 CLCWeb: Comparative Literature and Culture 13.4 (2011)

In their article "Community Arts, Rhetoric and Discourse Analysis" An De bisschop, Kris Rutten, and Ronald Soetaert explore theoretical and applied aspects of the phenomenon of community arts. Community arts in Flanders have developed into a professional practice during the past few years and have received increased recognition from policy makers, scholars, and critics. This attention has caused a growing need to define the nature of a practice diverse in form, goal and process: for example, as a form of art that emphasizes the relationship between art and social context, as a form of social work that emphasizes the social functions of art, and as a form of empowerment that gives voice to those who are excluded from mainstream society. De bisschop, Rutten, and Soetaert discuss the problematics of community art projects and introduce comparative discourse analysis to interpret "situated" meanings in the practice of community arts, thereby shifting the question from "what is community arts?" to "how is meaning constructed about the notion and practice of community arts?" Further, the authors compare two geographical contexts (Flanders, Belgium and Western Cape, South Africa) and two institutional contexts (policy and press). From a methodological perspective, De bisschop, Rutten, and Soetaert operationalize the concept of "interpretative repertoires" for analyzing the different positions within these discourses, contextualize these different positions, and elaborate on the concept of "comparative consciousness."

In their article "Intermediality, Rhetoric, and Pedagogy," Kris Rutten and Ronald Soetaert discuss how the notion of intermediality challenges the institutions that traditionally "mediate" culture and they discuss implications for pedagogy. First, they focus on how the museum as an institution is questioned and problematized by describing it as a "medium" that is increasingly influenced by cultural and technological developments. Second, they focus on the implications of new material culture and intermedial practice and how this requires new perspectives on pedagogy. Rutten and Soetaert elaborate on previous work on the curriculum as a "contact zone" (Pratt) by focusing on the rhetorical nature of curricula and by introducing (new) rhetoric as a theoretical and conceptual framework for discussing the relationship between intermediality, culture, and pedagogy.

In their article "Video Games as Equipment for Living" Ronald Soetaert, Jeroen Bourgonjon, and Kris Rutten postulate that with the emergence of new media there is need of a re-evaluation of all modes of communication and the ways in which literacy is conceptualized. Drawing on the concept of multi-literacy they suggest a rhetorical/ anthropological meta-perspective to describe human beings as symbol using animals and focus on particular symbol systems: narrative, drama, and video games. Specifically, they focus on the perspective of drama as a tool to analyze cultural artifacts in general and video games — as a new art form — in particular. They implement Kenneth Burke's notion of the pentad to illustrate their perspective in two case studies, the video games Civilization and Heavy Rain . Soetaert, Bourgonjon, and Rutten illustrate how video games can be described as equipment for living because video game playing has become part of the many ways people create worlds and construct meaning and sense. Thus, they explore how new forms of media and art can be examined from the perspective of traditional disciplines such as rhetoric and anthropology and how rhetoric can transform itself in a digital world.

In their article "Science Fiction and a Rhetorical Analysis of the 'Literature Myth'" Kris Rutten, Ronald Soetaert, and Geert Vandermeersche discuss what we can learn from science fiction about cultural literacy in general and literary culture in particular. From a theoretical and methodological perspective the authors start from the work of rhetorician Kenneth Burke. First, the authors conceptualize literature as "equipment for living" followed by a discussion of science fiction as "equipment for living" based on a description of the genre as "satire by entelechy." Second, they analyze a selection of science fiction narratives using the "dramatistic pentad" as an analytical tool. The focus of the analysis is on how literature as "agency" is located in a futuristic "scene." The article concludes with a discussion about how an analysis of the "literature myth" in science fiction narratives can be used to reflect on the rhetorical construction of cultural literacy.

Edited by Kris Rutten, Stefaan Blancke, and Ronald Soetaert, Perspectives on Science and Culture explores the intersection between scientific understanding and cultural representation from an interdisciplinary perspective. Contributors to the volume analyze representations of science and scientific discourse from the perspectives of rhetorical criticism, comparative cultural studies, narratology, educational studies, discourse analysis, naturalized epistemology, and the cognitive sciences. The main objective of the volume is to explore how particular cognitive predispositions and cultural representations both shape and distort the public debate about scientific controversies, the teaching and learning of science, and the development of science itself. The theoretical background of the articles in the volume integrates C. P. Snow's concept of the two cultures (science and the humanities) and Jerome Bruner's confrontation between narrative and logico-scientific modes of thinking (i.e., the cognitive and the evolutionary approaches to human cognition). The intellectual trajectory of the volume is located in comparative cultural studies, a framework with paradigms of the empirical and systems approaches whereby attention is paid to the interrelationships between science and culture., https://docs.lib.purdue.edu/purduepress_previews/1005/thumbnail.jpg