What are the basic thoughts formulated in the Heraclitean fragments? A cosmology, a philosophy of nature, the idea that all can be reduced to a single substance? There is always a risk that Heraclitus is fitted into a thought pattern he doesn’t belong to, if we – from our present horizon – focus on continuity in an attempt to frame his thinking as part of an overall progress, running from the so-called pre-Socratics to Aristotle, in the history of philosophy. If we picture the dawn of Western civilization as an early development of scientific thinking, built on a gradual and continuous growth of knowledge, we will easily go astray as we try to discover the Greek origins of philosophy. Assuming, for example, that the readings of Heraclitus as a natural philosopher have come to a dead end, can we approach the fragments from a different angle? The aim of this paper is not to give a systematized reading of all the remaining fragments of Heraclitus, but neither to necessarily contradict the various interpretations that emphasise how these shattered remains reflect a coherent philosophy. The focal point is the role of the sun in the fragments, but every chapter presents different perspectives, thematically possible to connect to (Diels-Kranz) Fragm 94: “The sun will not transgress his measures. If he does, The Furies, ministers of Justice (Dikê), will find him out.” (transl. C.H. Kahn)  This is the centre of the text, the hub that thematically will intertwine the Heraclitean sun with philosophical questions of measure, necessity, law, violence and destiny. It is argued that a tragic structure is discernable in Fragm 94, a structure distinguished and displayed as three oscillating layers: myth, tragedy and philosophy. The archaeological approach shows remains of an archaic (Homeric) heritage, a mythological framework crucial for the expression of a tragic experience. The mytopoetical background of the fragment indicates a series of tragic markers – helios, metra, furies etc. – a layer revealing possible resemblances to early Greek tragedy. The third layer shows how this experience, from a philosophical perspective, in the first phase of philosophy, before the consolidation of philosophical concepts, is staged as the tragic harmony we find in Heraclitus Fragm 94.

La tesi intende esaminare il significato culturale assunto dalla tecnologia informatica nella Cina contemporanea, attraverso la lente del "mito" ed un approccio empirico. La prima parte è dedicata ad una panoramica generale sui principali approcci al "mito" nelle scienze sociali, ed una più mirata sull'uso del concetto nel campo degli studi sull'immaginario informatico. La seconda parte indaga alcune delle macro-narrazioni che contribuiscono a strutturare l'esperienza simbolica della tecnologia in Occidente. La terza parte indaga con lo stesso approccio il contesto cinese, ricostruendo gli atteggiamenti della società e della cultura cinese premoderna, novecentesca e contemporanea relativamente alla tecnologia in generale ed all'informatica in particolare: entrambe sono inserite in un macro-mito di "rinascita nazionale", che vuole il Paese vittimizzato dall'Occidente ma destinato a ritornare ad un ruolo di superpotenza mondiale. L'ultima parte della tesi è dedicata all'esposizione dei risultati di una ricerca sul campo effettuata a Pechino nel 2007 su un campione di 300 soggetti. Attraverso lo strumento delle interviste direttive, si mettono in luce un gran numero di narrazioni simbolicamente investite relative al computer e alla Rete. In particolare, emerge una dinamica centrale fra una narrazione relativa alla "prosperità indotta dalla tecnologia" e una notevole preoccupazione per un indebolimento dei tratti salienti dell'identità cinese operata dalla Rete. / The dissertation examines the cultural meaning of computer technology in contemporary China, through the lens of “myth” and with an empirical approach. The first part reviews the main approaches to “myth” in social sciences, as well as the use of the concept within the field of Internet studies. The second part investigates some of the macro-narratives that contribute to the structuring of the symbolic experience of technology in the West. The third part investigates through the same approach the Chinese context, examining the main attitudes of Chinese society and culture towards technology in general and computer technology in particular. Both appear to be inserted in a myth of national rebirth, which sees China as a victim but destined to regain a role as a superpower. The last part exposes the results of a field research done in Beijing in 2007 on a sample of 300 subjects. Through directive interviews, a number of narratives emerge about computer technology and the Internet. A central dynamic appears to be the one between a myth of “prosperity through technology” and one about the “weakening of chineseness”, which sees the computer technology as weakening salient traits of Chinese identity.

”The myth of Palme- a textual analysis of the documentary Palme and its description of the social memory of Olof Palme as a norm or anomaly” by Emma Svanström aims to analyze how the directors of the documentary Palme choose to present Olof Palme to the future generations. Also the goal is to find out if their version presents Palme as a person who followed the norms or was divergent. To this purpose the thesis use textual analysis combined with a quantitative method in search of which persons the directors give the right to form the myth of Palme and which keywords they use to do describe him. To view the film as a social memory in the transformation to a myth the thesis use Jan Assmans theory of social memory and to find out if the documentary describes Palme as following the norms or divergent it uses Mary Douglas theory of anomaly. The results show that it is mainly the narrator and Olof Palme that gets to form the myth of him but also his family, friends, fellow employees and other persons that met him or was affected by his actions. Palme is discribed as special, intelligent, interested in social politics and able to act as he saw fit even if it was against the norms. He is above all described as a complex person with many and sometimes contradicting sides. Some of these actions and characteristics’ are viewed as following the norms while others are shown as anomalies.

IDENTITY In search of identity construction through the narrative of the pearl necklace   Lina Pihl   Can one reach an understanding of identity through the narrative of the pearl necklace?   The pearl necklace plays the role of the main character as well as the attribute in portraying identity in this dissertation. By looking at the pearl necklace as an object through its social context, it is possible to open it up for an understanding of its relation and impact on the individual. The world is not constructed of entities, but on relations. Thus it makes no sense to try to understand it through the notion of a predefined entity.   Through the investigation of the pearl necklace as a signified, and myth in the modern Western society, its relation to and affect on the subject when worn and the creation of a new context within the performance – a system for how we can see and look upon identity takes form, in which they both, myth and signified, play a part in the construction of identities. The myth of the pearl necklace makes it into a strong, signified that is used to manifest social belonging: by wearing the pearl necklace one becomes a part of the myth and its signified, which creates a new form, where the subject-object is the signified in action, a performance that makes the myth present and an active, living part of a society.   This proves that by taking an everyday object such as the pearl necklace and understanding it in a social context and in relation to the body and individuals, we can reach a deep and complex understanding of what identity is, how it is constructed and what potentials it possesses.

Purpose The purpose of the paper is to explain how executives can make effective use of fables provided by external guest speakers to create a situation of collective sense-making and centring, based on the story used in a policy making context of a private, Dutch for-profit organization ( fictitiously called Con-Zelo recruitment agency in this article ).   Design/methodology/approach The approach involved collecting and analyzing the ‘Swimming for gold’ fable as part of seven months phenomenological and symbolic study, to confirm organizational sense, identify categorized themes and analyze the process of creation. In which co-author Volkers, as a former member, had access to the organization and familiarity with the organization its history.   Findings The findings emphasize that both fables and myths can in fact establish organizational sense and centring based on categorized themes. Most important is that fables shared by an external guest speaker should not be considered as a singular event, but as start of a process; a true vehicle for collective sense-making and centring. Organizations can then do so through changes and alignment in all five types of cultural artifacts.   Originality/value This paper provides additional value by bridging the gap between theory and practice. Besides illustrating that fables do in fact contain the power to promote a particular point of view, specific meaning and or values and therewith establish organizational sense and centring. This study includes the documentation and cultural analysis of the fable, and illustrates the fable as a vehicle or process for collective sense-making and centring. Furthermore, the suggested fable-stretching model is a so called ‘soup-to-nuts’ approach that can serve as a blue-print for organizational researchers and change agents interested in using external guest speakers and the personal fables they carry out, to establish collective sense-making and centring within an organizational context.

Recuperating Composition’s lore in postdisciplinarity in order to illustrate the polyvalent, multidirectional positionality of our practices, this study argues that Composition’s lore, as it functions in a community of practice, helps locate and address various challenges with the cultural displacement that burgeoning scholars experience as they critically negotiate their practices within the expectations of the academy. Bridging the communities of writing teachers in classrooms and writing centers in a demonstration of institutional polyvalence, this ethnographic study’s participants suggest the reflexive influence of postdisciplinary lore in the cultivation of authority and practitioner identity. As one point of access to this cultural negotiation, the transmission and application of myth contextualizes lore as cultural phenomena affecting both professional and pedagogical development in graduate student teachers and tutors. This study concludes that the reflexivity offered in postdisciplinary sites of cultural engagement encourages a negotiated, recursive power relation between the institution and the practitioner, thus creating multiple, malleable sites of authority and agency within disciplinary culture.

Typically, when considering Adolf Hitler, we see him in one of two ways: A parodied figure or a monolithic figure of power. I argue that instead of only viewing images of Hitler he wanted us to see, we should expand our view and overall consideration of images he did not want his audiences to bear witness. By examining a collection of photographs that Hitler censored from his audiences, I question what remains hidden about Hitler’s image when we are constantly shown widely circulated images of Hitler. To satisfy this inquiry, I utilize rhetorics of display to argue that when we analyze and include these hidden images into the Hitlerian visual discourse, we further complicate and disrupt the Hitler Myth. This study aims to contribute to recent scholarship that aims to learn more about the “hidden” Hitler as well as to rhetorical studies of display.

In spite of a lively debate during the last century, there is still no scholarly consensus about the identity of the opponents in Colossians. The aim of this essay is not to put forward yet another attempt to solve this complex historical problem, but rather to examine how boundaries are drawn between the author and the opponents in Colossians and how similar boundaries are maintained, developed or even created in scholarly historiography. In what Jonathan Z. Smith refers to as the “Protestant Historiographic Myth”, nineteenth and early twentieth century scholars of biblical studies often understood early Christian developments in terms of an original purity that was lost at a later stage. According to this historiographic construction, the essence of Christianity was distorted through interaction with the cultural and religious environment of the Roman Empire and through the incorporation of pagan elements. Throughout this essay, I argue that this essentialist conception of early Christianity has shaped the construction of the opponents of Colossians in scholarly literature. In studies of Colossians, many modern scholars have, problematically, recreated the dichotomy between an original apostolic Christianity and later Hellenized deviations. This legacy of the “Protestant Historiographic myth” is mainly expressed in two ways, either as an opposition between the author’s pure apostolic Christianity and the opponents, who are understood as a syncretistic group, composed of a mixture of various Hellenistic elements, or as a dichotomy between Christianity, as represented by the author, and “religion”, as represented by the opponents.

It was the best of cities, it was the worst of cities, it was a place of giddying boom, it was a place of economic despair, it was a utopia, it was a dystopic no-topia, it was the world centre of fantasies, and the world centre of nightmares, a town where some struck it rich while others lost themselves in their desires for wealth, in short, the place was so far unlike the present place, that some of the noisiest authorities insisted on its being received, for good or for evil, in the superlative degree of comparison only. This thesis is constructed of fragmented stories but not in the classic sense as there is no over-arching narrative, no beginning, middle and end, no synthetic conclusion. Rather this thesis is similar to Los Angeles itself; it is a multi-faceted exploration of competing themes that have birthed a city of fictions, a centre of fantasy, a place that shapes our collective memories, even for those of us who grew up in far-off places. Los Angeles has searched for a down-town core, a collective identity, a dominant narrative and these attempts are explored through different themes – the story of film noir, the development of the Los Angeles Aqueduct, the redevelopment of Bunker Hill, the violence and upheavals of the riots. I have explored how the city has tried to re-brand itself, Through these prisms, and how these attempts have shaped its development and history. It is said that Los Angeles has an architecture of absence, with its superficiality and lack of depth, and as a visual metaphor, this can represent the giddy changes happening in the field of architecture, where hyper-realism trumps facts. This idea of Los Angeles as a mirror should not surprise: it has long been a world centre for myth-making, an epicenter of fiction, cinema, architecture, et cetera, spewing out seductive, grotesquely exaggerated reflections of North America itself.

Iconic brand is a new topic in the field of branding that has started to attract researchers’ attentions; yet, it is still mostly discussed in the non-academic field. Brand community is also an evolving topic in marketing. These two new concepts are the focuses of this research. The main subject of this research is to explore the componential factors of iconic brand and brand community and the influences of the former ones on the latter ones. Even though there are few books and articles related to iconic brand, so far no quantitative research has been conducted. Thus, in this study, quantitative method is used to explore the componential factors of iconic brand. The same method is applied to brand community as well to explore the impacts of iconic brand on brand community. This research also accounts for a fact that cultural differences of the three countries (Sweden, Taiwan, and Vietnam) may affect respondents’ perceptions on the factors of iconic brand and brand community, as well as the impact levels between them. This study starts with examining the relevant literatures of branding, iconic brand, brand community, and cultural aspects of branding. Then, the hypotheses and research model are proposed based on theories. Questionnaires are distributed to Swedish, Taiwanese, and Vietnamese respondents in accordance with convenience sampling and snowball sampling. A total collection of 486 accepted questionnaires (which includes 171 questionnaires from Sweden, 163 ones from Taiwan, and 152 ones from Vietnam) is coded and analyzed by using SPSS and AMOS. Factor Analysis (EFA and CFA) and Cronbach’s Alpha are used to test the measurement reliability and consistency. Together with them, other statistical techniques, such as ANOVA and SEM (Structural Equation Modeling) are employed to test the proposed hypotheses. Semi-structured interviews are then conducted, based on the results of quantitative analysis, with six dynamic consumers from the three countries to explore further the cultural differences for the topic in Sweden, Taiwan, and Vietnam. The results show that iconic brand has three componential factors: brand personality, brand myth, and brand storytelling, while brand community has two factors: brand loyalty and emotional attachment to brand community. Also, the findings reveal that brand personality has the most positive impacts on brand loyalty while brand storytelling has the lowest positive impact on brand loyalty. Other impacts of iconic brand’s factors on brand community’s factors are positively moderate. Furthermore, both quantitative and qualitative results confirm the hypotheses of cultural differences in respondents’ perceptions (in the three countries) on iconic brand’s factors, brand community’s factors, and the positive impact levels between them.