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International audience ; Network topology –decentralized arrangement of various elements of a computer grid- in which each node relays data for the network, MESH technologies has been recently presented as profoundly disruptive and able to change both our telecom infrastructure, our citizenship practices and our "communicative action" (Habermas, 1981). Recently implemented on mobile devices (Mobile -WiFi- peer-to-peer communication), this technology has been prominently mentioned during global political movements (Arab spring, Occupy movements, etc.) who crystallized, in a certain way, questions related to the Internet citizen's socio-technical and political skills, to the roles of States in the defense of individual liberties, bottom-up telecommunication infrastructures and net neutrality. Disseminated widely within wireless community networks, organizations that attempt to take a grassroots approach to providing a viable alternative to municipal wireless networks for consumers; MESH technology software can be observed in different ways. This article discusses the communication aspects of this technology from a critical point of view, it analyses of the storytelling that surround it and presents an ethnography of a Detroit MESH network and its publics (USA). By observing both the speeches given on this technology and the "manières de faire" (De Certeau, 1989) in local deployment of a software able to create MESH networks, we show how this technology is once a vector for emergence of "democratic rationalization" (Feenberg, 2004) and a set of local "tactics" to a more distributed governance of the Internet, less concentrated around major operators of infrastructure. ; Topología de red (una red en la que cada nodo está conectado a todos los demás nodos de forma que es posible llevar los mensajes de un nodo a otro por distintos caminos), la topología "MESH" (de red malla) esta presentada últimamente como profundamente perturbadora y capaz de cambiar tanto nuestra infraestructura de telecomunicaciones como nuestras prácticas de ciudadanía y nuestra "acción comunicativa" (Habermas, 1981). Implementada en dispositivos móviles, se mencionó esta tecnología durante los recientes movimientos políticos (primaveras árabes, movimientos Occupy y indignados, etc.) porque representó, en ciertos modos, las cuestiones relacionadas con las habilidades socio-técnicas y políticas de los ciudadanos respecto a Internet, con los roles de los Estados en la defensa de las libertades individuales, de las infraestructuras de telecomunicaciones de abajo hacia arriba y de la neutralidad de la red. Diseminada dentro de las redes inalámbricas comunitarias, por grupos de voluntarios o instituciones que construyen redes informáticas libres, gratuitas y alternativas a las redes privadas gestionadas por los proveedores clásicos de Internet, esta tecnología de malla se puede observar de distintas maneras. Este artículo analiza las dimensiones comunicativas de esta tecnología desde un punto de vista crítico y presenta una etnografía de un caso de red MESH en Detroit. Observando tanto los discursos pronunciados sobre esta tecnología como las "manières de faire" (De Certeau, 1989) en la implementación local de un software capaz de crear redes de malla, se demuestra cómo esta tecnología participa a la existencia de una "racionalización democrática" (Feenberg, 2004) y es un conjunto de "tácticas" locales para una gobernanza más distribuida de Internet, menos concentrado por los principales operadores de la infraestructura. ; Principe de structuration d'un réseau numérique où tous les appareils connectés au réseau communiquent entre eux et se distribuent de façon dynamique et intelligente les données pour éviter les points d'engorgement ; la technologie MESH (de l'anglais « mesh », maillage, filet - protocole de routage informatique décentralisé et sans fil) est présentée depuis quelques années comme étant profondément disruptive et en mesure de modifier à la fois nos infrastructures télécoms, nos pratiques citoyennes et notre « agir communicationnel » (Habermas, 1981). Récemment implémentée sur des terminaux mobiles, cette technologie a connu une publicité particulière à la faveur de mouvements politiques mondiaux (printemps arabes, mouvements occupy) qui ont su cristalliser, dans un certain sens, des questionnements relatifs aux compétences sociotechniques et politiques des citoyens internautes, aux rôles des États dans la défense des libertés individuelles, à l'infrastructure matérielle et à la neutralité du Net. Diffusée très largement au sein des réseaux communautaires sans fils, réseaux locaux hors-sol ne reposant pas sur les infrastructures des fournisseurs d'accès ou opérateurs télécom, la technologie MESH peut être envisagée de différentes manières. Cet article se propose d'explorer les aspects communicationnels de cette technologie à partir d'une critique du « storytelling » récent dont on l'affuble et d'une ethnographie de l'implantation d'un logiciel MESH au sein de la ville de Détroit (Etats-Unis). En observant à la fois les discours que l'on porte sur cette technologie de manière globale et les « manières de faire » très locales d'un déploiement d'un logiciel capable de créer des réseaux MESH, nous montrons comment cette technologie est à la fois un vecteur relatif d'émergence de « technologies démocratiques » (Feenberg, 2004) et un ensemble de « tactiques » locales servant une stratégie plus globale qui vise à une gouvernance de l'Internet plus distribuée et moins concentrée autour de grands opérateurs d'infrastructures.

Crowd Intelligence and Crowd Cooperative Computing -- Explicit Coordination Based Multi-Agent Reinforcement Learning for Intelligent Traffic Signal Control -- A Crowdsourcing Task Allocation Mechanism for Hybrid Worker Context Based on Skill Level Updating -- Blockchain-Based Multi-factor K-anonymity Group Location Privacy Protection Scheme -- Context-Aware Automatic Splitting Method for Structured Complex Crowdsourcing Tasks -- A Method for Security Traffic Patrolling Based on Structural Coordinated Proximal Policy Optimization -- Crowdsourced Task Recommendation via Link Prediction -- Research on Multi-UAV Target Allocation Based on Improved Auction Algorithm -- Enhancement of Cat Breeds Classification Model based on Meta Loss Correction -- Multi-UAV Cooperative Reconnaissance Task Allocation Based on IEPPSO Algorithm -- Cooperative Evolutionary Computation and Human-like Intelligent Collaboration -- Group Role Assignment with Trust between Agents -- Memetic Algorithm with Exchange Coding for Intelligent Scheduling Optimization -- A Dimension-Based Elite Learning Particle Swarm Optimizer For Large-Scale Optimization -- Compactness and Separateness Driven Fuzzy Clustering Validity Index Called TLW -- Cross-lingual Speaker Transfer for Cambodian based on Feature Disentangler and Time-Frequency Attention Adaptive Normalization -- Refining Skeleton-based Temporal Action Segmentation with Edge Information -- CoME: Collaborative Model Ensemble for Fast and Accurate Predictions -- Study on the evolution of public opinion on public health events -- Enhance the Transferability From an Overfitting Perspective -- CMGN: Cross-Modal Grounding Network for Temporal Sentence Retrieval in Video -- Fast Community Detection Based on Integration of Non-cooperative and Cooperative Game -- Professional Text Review Under Limited Sampling Constraints -- Latent Diffusion Model-Based T2T-ViT for SAR Ship Classification -- Domain-Specific Collaborative Applications -- An Empirical Study On the Urgent Self-Admitted Technical Debt -- Modular Joint Training for Speech-Driven 3D Facial Animation -- Extracting Structural Knowledge for Professional Text Inference -- Card Mini Program Design and Implementation Based on SCHOLAT Social Network -- A Traffic Flow Prediction based Task Offloading Method in Vehicular Edge Computing -- A Prediction-based Fuzzy Method for Multi-objective Microservice Workflows Scheduling -- Smart Contract Generation Supporting Multi-instance for Inter-Organizational Process Collaboration -- Arterial Traffic Optimization Algorithm Based on Deep Reinforcement Learning and Green Wave Coordination Control in Complex Lane Queuing Conditions -- Multi-robots Formation and Obstacle Avoidance Algorithm based on Leader-follower and Artificial Potential Field Method -- A Multi-stage Network with Self-attention for Tooth Instance Segmention -- Fault Tolerance Aware Virtual Machine Scheduling Algorithm in Cloud Data Center Environment -- Personalized Learning Made Simple: A Deep Knowledge Tracing Model for Individual Cognitive Development -- Vehicle Edge Computing Network Service Migration Strategy Based on Multi-Agent Reinforcement Learning -- A Lightweight Dual Branch Fusion Network for Single Image Deraining -- 3D Object Detection Method Based on LiDAR Point Cloud Data -- Collaborative Computer Vision and Cloud Platform for Gastrointestinal Polyp Detection -- An Intelligent Teaching Evaluation System Integrating Emotional Computing and Cloud Platform -- Deep Learning-Based Fastener Counting and Localization Correction Method -- Design and Simulation of Cooperative Communication Networks for Wireless Sensors in Underwater Environments.

A wireless ad hoc network is composed of a decentralized set of mobile and self-organized hosts. Such a network does not rely on any infrastructure, and is thus completely autonomous and dynamic. Based on these concepts, any set of objects equipped with appropriate communication interfaces may spontaneously form such a network. As wireless communications are used, only closest hosts may directly communicate with each other. Long distance communications must be done through a multi-hopping mechanism: this simply means that intermediate objects have to forward the packets until the destination is reached. Wireless sensor networks are similar to ad hoc networks, as they are also decentralized and autonomous. A sensor is a small device with monitoring capabilities, allowing it to gather information on its environment. For instance, typical use case of sensor networks may be the monitoring of military areas (movements detection) or forests (heat detection). Among the common problems studied in these networks is broadcasting. In such communication, a message is sent from a given host to all the other ones in the network. Applications of this process are numerous: route discovery, synchronization\ldots{} As mobile objects rely on a battery, it is mandatory for the broadcast protocol to be energy efficient. This is generally done by reducing the quantity of needed relaying nodes, or by limiting the transmission power at each host. Of course, all these optimizations must preserve the reliability of the protocol. The goal of my work was to study broadcasting in ad hoc and sensor networks, in order to highlight the characteristics and the flaws of existing mechanisms, and to propose new efficient protocols. In all our proposals, we always tried to provide realistic solutions: a lot of previous studies was based on centralized mechanisms, where a global knowledge was needed to perform the broadcasting process. We focused on reliable and localized solutions, using only close information on the neighborhood of each node. This kind of solution is also more scalable, as the quantity of needed information does not grow with the size of the network. Some of our studies, especially in \cite{2005-medhoc}, show that these solutions may be as efficient as centralized ones. As power adjustment is a a mechanism of prime importance for energy preservation, we proposed in \cite{2006-tpds, 2004-medhoc, 2004-icc} an original broadcasting method based on the concept of optimal communication range. The latter is theoretically computed thanks to the considered energy model, and is the best compromise between the spent energy at each node and the quantity of relays. We thus proposed two different protocols based on this concept, each of them being specifically targeted either at ad hoc (TR-LBOP) or sensor networks (TR-DS). To further reduce energy savings, we studied a well-known centralized and very efficient protocol named BIP. Its efficiency is due to its consideration of the coverage obtained thanks to a single omnidirectional transmission, instead of considering all links separately. We proposed in \cite{2007-winet, 2005-iscc} a localized solution based on BIP, in order to incrementally construct a broadcasting structure. We experimentally showed that results are very close to those provided by BIP, especially in highest densities, while only local information is needed at each node. We finally considered the removal of a strong hypothesis, broadly spread in the ad hoc and sensor networks community, referred to as the unit disk graph. The latter defines the communication area of each device to be a perfect circle. In \cite{2006-msn}, we replaced this hypothesis by a more realistic one in order to study a well-known broadcasting mechanism, the multipoint relay protocol (MPR). We showed that MPR does not provide anymore sufficient performance in such a realistic environnement. We also proposed efficient modifications in order to get back efficient results. ; Un réseau ad hoc sans fil est composé d'un ensemble décentralisé d'objets mobiles et auto-organisés. Un tel réseau ne repose sur aucune infrastructure, et est donc complètement autonome et dynamique. Selon ces hypothèses, tout ensemble d'objets équipés d'interfaces de communication adéquates peut spontanément former un tel réseau. Puisque des communications sans fil sont utilisées, seuls les objets suffisamment proches les uns des autres peuvent communiquer ensemble. Les communications de longue portée doivent donc être effectuées via un mécanisme multi-sauts : cela veut simplement dire que les objets intermédiaires doivent faire suivre les messages jusqu'au destinataire. Les réseaux de capteurs sont similaires aux réseaux ad hoc, car ils sont également décentralisés et autonomes. Un capteur est un petit appareil capable de surveiller son environnement. Des cas typiques d'utilisation peuvent être la surveillance de zones militaires (détection de mouvements) ou de forêts (détection d'incendie). Parmi les problèmes communs à ces deux types de réseaux se trouve la diffusion. Dans une telle communication, un message est envoyé depuis un objet donné vers tous les autres du réseau. Les applications de ce processus sont nombreuses : découverte de routes, synchronisation. Comme les objets mobiles utilisent une batterie, il est nécessaire que la diffusion soit la plus économe possible d'un point de vue énergétique. Cela est généralement obtenu en réduisant la quantité de relais nécessaires, ou en limitant la puissance d'émission à chaque relais. Le but de mon travail était d'étudier la diffusion dans les réseaux ad hoc et de capteurs, afin de mettre en lumière les caractéristiques et les défauts des mécanismes existants, puis d'en proposer de nouveaux, plus efficaces. Dans tous ces travaux, nous avons toujours voulu rester dans le domaine des solutions 'réalistes' : beaucoup des précédentes études utilisaient en effet des mécanismes centralisés, où une connaissance globale du réseau est nécessaire pour effectuer la diffusion. Nous nous sommes concentrés sur des solutions fiables et localisés, c'est-à-dire n'utilisant que des informations sur le voisinage de chaque noeud. Ce type de mécanisme permet également un passage à l'échelle simplifié, car la quantité d'informations nécessaire ne varie pas avec la taille du réseau. Nos études montrent de plus que ces solutions peuvent être aussi efficaces que les méthodes centralisées. Puisque l'ajustement de portée est un mécanisme très important dans la conservation de l'énergie, nous avons proposé une méthode de diffusion originale, basée sur le concept de portée optimale de communication. Cette dernière est calculée de manière théorique grâce au modèle énergétique considéré, et représente le meilleur compromis entre l'énergie dépensée à chaque noeud et le nombre de relais nécessaires. Nous avons ainsi proposé deux protocoles différents basés sur ce concept, chacun étant plus spécifiquement adapté soit aux réseaux ad hoc (TR-LBOP), soit aux réseaux de capteurs (TR-DS). Afin de réduire encore plus la consommation énergétique, nous avons étudié le fameux protocole centralisé nommé BIP. Son efficacité est due au fait qu'il considère la couverture obtenue par une seule émission omnidirectionnelle, au lieu de considérer chaque lien séparément. Nous avons proposé une solution localisée basée sur BIP, afin de construire incrémentalement une structure de diffusion. Nous avons montré de manière expérimentale que les résultats ainsi obtenus sont très proches de ceux fournis par BIP, notamment dans les réseaux de forte densité, tout en n'utilisant que des informations locales à chaque noeud. Nous avons finalement considéré la suppression d'une hypothèse forte, largement répandue dans la communauté des réseaux ad hoc et de capteurs : l'utilisation d'un graphe du disque unitaire. Ce dernier définit la zone de communication d'un noeud comme étant un cercle parfait. Nous avons remplacé cette hypothèse par une autre plus réaliste afin d'en étudier les conséquences sur un protocole connu, le protocole de diffusion par relais multipoints (MPR). Nous avons montré que ce dernier ne fournit plus de résultats suffisants dans un tel environnement. Nous avons également proposé quelques modifications afin d'obtenir à nouveau de bons résultats.

Author's introductionThe media landscape has changed dramatically in recent decades, from one predominated by traditional mass communication formats to today's more personalized communications environment. Mobile telephony plays a central role in this transition, with adoption rates that surpass even those of the Internet. This article attempts to situate the role of mobile communication technology in the changing media environment by examining key areas of social change associated with its widespread diffusion and use. These areas include symbolic meaning of technology, new forms of coordination and social networking, personalization of public spaces, and the mobile youth culture. Drawing from these areas of change, we advance the argument that mobile telephony is iconic of a larger socio‐technological shift toward a new 'personal communication society.'Author recommendsRheingold, Howard 2002. Smart Mobs: The Next Social Revolution. Cambridge, MA: Basic Books.From Tokyo to Helsinki, Manhattan to Manila, Howard Rheingold takes us on a journey around the world for a preview of the next techno‐cultural shift – a shift he predicts will be as dramatic as the widespread adoption of the PC in the 1980s and the Internet in the 1990s. The coming wave, says Rheingold, is the result of super‐efficient mobile communications – cellular phones, personal digital assistants, and wireless‐paging and Internet‐access devices that will allow us to connect with anyone, anywhere, anytime. From the amusing ('Lovegetty' devices in Japan that light up when a person with the right date‐potential characteristics appears in the vicinity) to the extraordinary (the overthrow of a repressive regime in the Philippines by political activists who mobilized by forwarding text messages via cell phones), Rheingold gives examples of the fundamentally new ways in which people are already engaging in group or collective action. He also considers the dark side of this phenomenon, such as the coordination of terrorist cells, threats to privacy, and the ability to incite violent behavior. Applying insights from sociology, artificial intelligence, engineering, and anthropology, Rheingold offers a penetrating perspective on the brave new convergence of pop culture, cutting‐edge technology, and social activism. At the same time, he reminds us that, as with other technological revolutions, the real impact of mobile communications will come not from the technology itself but from how people use it, resist it, adapt to it, and ultimately use it to transform themselves, their communities, and their institutions.Katz, James E. and Mark A. Aakhus (eds.) 2002. Perpetual Contact: Mobile Communication, Private Talk, Public Performance. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press.This edited volume contains a landmark collection of chapters from researchers all over the world. The book offers a multi‐national perspective on some of the key themes that were identified at the outset of the emergent new field of mobile communication studies, ranging from the private sphere of interpersonal relations to the public performance of social groups and structures. In their conclusion, the editors advance the theoretical orientation of Apparatgeist (translation: 'spirit of the machine') to explain cross‐cultural consistencies in how people conceptualize and use personal communication technologies such as the mobile phone.Ling, Rich 2004. The Mobile Connection: The Cell Phone's Impact on Society. San Francisco, CA: Morgan Kaufmann.This book, based on worldwide research involving tens of thousands of interviews and contextual observations, looks into the impact of the mobile communication on our daily lives. Areas of impact include accessibility, safety and security, coordination of social and business activities, use of public places, and the social emancipation of youth.Ito, Mizuko, Daisuke Okabe, and Misa Matsuda (eds.) 2005. Personal, Portable, Pedestrian: Mobile Phones in Japanese Life. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.This edited volume explores how Japan's enthusiastic engagement with mobile technology has become part of its trendsetting popular culture. The chapters document the emergence, incorporation, and domestication of mobile communications in a wide range of social practices and institutions. The book first considers the social, cultural, and historical context of keitai (i.e., mobile phone) development in Japan, including its beginnings in youth pager use in the early 1990s. It then discusses the virtually seamless integration of keitai use into everyday life, contrasting it to the more escapist character of Internet use on the PC. Other essays suggest that the use of mobile communication reinforces ties between close friends and family, producing 'tele‐cocooning' by tight‐knit social groups. The book also discusses mobile phone manners and examines keitai use by copier technicians, multitasking housewives, and school children.Castells, Manuel, Mireia Fernandez‐Ardevol, Jack Linchuan Qiu and Araba Sey 2007. Mobile Communication and Society: A Global Perspective. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.This book looks at how the possibility of multimodal communication from anywhere to anywhere at any time affects everyday life at home, at work, and at school, and raises broader concerns about politics and culture both global and local. Drawing on data gathered from around the world, the authors explore who has access to wireless technology, and why, and analyze the patterns of social differentiation seen in unequal access. They explore the social effects of wireless communication – what it means for family life, for example, when everyone is constantly in touch, or for the idea of an office when workers can work anywhere. The authors consider the rise of a mobile youth culture based on peer‐to‐peer networks, with its own language of texting, and its own values. They examine the phenomenon of flash mobs, and the possible political implications. And they look at the relationship between communication and development and the possibility that developing countries could 'leapfrog' directly to wireless and satellite technology. Drawing from a global body of research, the book helps answer the key questions about our transformation into a 'mobile network society'.Ling, Rich 2008. New Tech, New Ties: How Mobile Communication Reshapes Social Cohesion. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.In New Tech, New Ties, Rich Ling examines how the mobile telephone affects both mobile‐mediated and face to face interactions. Ling finds that through the use of various social rituals the mobile telephone strengthens social ties within the circle of friends and family – sometimes at the expense of interaction with those who are physically present – and creates what he calls 'bounded solidarity'. Ling argues that mobile communication helps to engender and develop social cohesion within the family and the peer group. Drawing on the work of Emile Durkheim, Erving Goffman, and Randall Collins, Ling shows that ritual interaction is a catalyst for the development of social bonding. From this perspective, he examines how mobile communication affects face‐to‐face ritual situations and how ritual is used in interaction mediated by mobile communication. He looks at the evidence, including interviews and observations from around the world, which documents the effect of mobile communication on social bonding and also examines some of the other possibly problematic issues raised by tighter social cohesion in small groups.Katz, James E. (ed.) 2008. Handbook of Mobile Communication Studies. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.This edited volume offers a comprehensive view of the cultural, family, and interpersonal consequences of mobile communication across the globe. Leading scholars analyze the effect of mobile communication on all parts of life, from the relationship between literacy and the textual features of mobile phones to the use of ringtones as a form of social exchange, from the 'aspirational consumption' of middle class families in India to the belief in parts of Africa and Asia that mobile phones can communicate with the dead. The contributors explore the ways mobile communication profoundly affects the tempo, structure, and process of daily life around the world. They discuss the impact of mobile communication on social networks, other communication strategies, traditional forms of social organization, and political activities. They consider how quickly miraculous technologies come to seem ordinary and even necessary – and how ordinary technology comes to seem mysterious and even miraculous. The chapters cut across social issues and geographical regions; they highlight use by the elite and the masses, utilitarian and expressive functions, and political and operational consequences. Taken together, the chapters demonstrate how mobile communication has affected the quality of life in both exotic and humdrum settings, and how it increasingly occupies center stage in people's lives around the world.Ling, Rich and Scott W. Campbell (eds.) Forthcoming in Fall/Winter 2008. The Reconstruction of Space and Time: Mobile Communication Practices. New Brunswick, NJ: Transaction Publishers.Mobile communication enables us to call specific individuals, not general places. This advancement had changed, and continues to change, human interaction. It also alters the ways people experience both space and time. This edited volume explores these changes through a collection of studies from some of the top mobile communication researchers from around the world. Collectively, the contributions highlight nuanced changes in coordination and cohesion across space and time, the ways people manage mobile communication and mobility in new spatio‐temporal realms, and how individuals relate to their co‐present surroundings while using mobile communication technology.Online materials Resource Center for Mobile Communication Studies http://www.scils.rutgers.edu/ci/cmcs/ The Center for Mobile Communication Studies is the world's first academic unit to focus solely on social aspects of mobile communication. Established in June 2004 at Rutgers University's School of Communication, Information and Library Studies, the Center has become an international focal point for research, teaching, and service on the social, psychological, and organizational consequences of the burgeoning mobile communication revolution. International Journal of Mobile Communication Studies https://www.inderscience.com/browse/index.php?journalID=40 The International Journal of Mobile Communication (IJMC), a fully refereed journal, publishes articles that present current practice and theory of mobile communications, mobile technology, and mobile commerce applications. The objectives of the IJMC are to develop, promote, and coordinate the development and practice of mobile communications. The IJMC aims to help professionals working in the field, academic educators, and policy makers to contribute, to disseminate knowledge, and to learn from each other's work. The international dimension is emphasised in order to overcome cultural and national barriers and to meet the needs of accelerating technological change and changes in the global economy. IJMC is an outstanding outlet that can shape a significant body of research in the field of mobile communications and in which results can be shared across institutions, governments, researchers, and students, and also industry. Wi: The Journal of Mobile Media http://wi‐not.ca/ Wi publishes the latest in Canadian mobilities research, encompassing disciplines such as design, engineering, computer science, communications, and media studies. MobileActive.org http://mobileactive.org/ MobileActive.org is an all‐volunteer community of people and organizations using mobile phones for social impact. They are committed to increasing the effectiveness of NGOs around the world who recognize that the 3.5 billion mobile phones provide unprecedented opportunities for organizing, communications, and service and information delivery. They work together to create the resources NGOs need to effectively use mobile phones in their work: locally relevant content and services, support and learning opportunities, and networks that help MobileActives connect to each other. With these things on hand, tens of thousands of NGOs will be in a better position to enrich and serve their communities. The MobileActive.org community includes grassroots activists, NGO staff, intermediary organizations, content and service providers, and organizations who fund mobile technology projects. Mobile Society http://www.mobilesociety.net/ Mobile Society is an academic research website focusing on social aspects of the mobile phone. The site includes links and information about news, events, publications, and other related sites pertaining to the social consequences of mobile communication. SmartMobs: The Next Social Revolution http://www.smartmobs.com/ A Website and Weblog about topics and issues discussed in the book 'Smart Mobs' by Howard Rheingold.Select sample syllabus topics and readings for course on 'the social consequences of mobile communication' History and adoption of the mobile phone

Ling, Rich. 2004. 'The Mobile Connection' Chapter 1: Introduction.
Castells et al. 2007. 'Mobile Communication and Society' Chapter 1: The Diffusion of Wireless Communication in the World.

Theoretical perspectives on the relationship between technology and society: Part 1, social and technological determinism

Ling, Rich. 2004. 'The Mobile Connection' Chapter 2: Making Sense of Mobile Telephone Adoption.
Campbell, Scott W. and Tracy C. Russo 2003. The Social Construction of Mobile Telephony. Communication Monographs 70: 317–34.

Theoretical perspectives on the relationship between technology and society: Part 2, the 'network' perspective

Castells, Manuel. 2000. 'The Rise of Network Society' Opening Chapter: The Network is the Message.
Castells et al. 2007. 'Mobile Communication and Society' Chapter 5: The Space of Flows, Timeless Time, and Mobile Networks.

Mobile communication in everyday life: Part 1, safety and security

Ling, Rich. 2004. 'The Mobile Connection' Chapter 3: Safety and Security.

Mobile communication in everyday life: Part 2: new forms of coordination

Ling, Rich. 2004. 'The Mobile Connection' Chapter 4: The Coordination of Everyday Life.

Mobile communication in everyday life: Part 3: new social networking practices

Ling, Rich and Birgitte Yttri. 2002. 'Hyper‐coordination via Mobile Phones in Norway' in Katz & Aakhus (eds.) Perpetual Contact.
Licoppe, Christian. 2003. 'Two Modes of Maintaining Interpersonal Relations through Telephone: From the Domestic to the Mobile Phone' in J. Katz (ed.) Machines that Become Us.
Campbell, Scott. W. and Michael Kelley. 2006. Mobile phone use in AA networks: An exploratory study. Journal of Applied Communication Research 34: 191–208.

Apparatgeist: 'Spirit of the machine' and the fashion and function of the mobile phone

Katz, James E. and Mark Aakhus. 2002. 'Conclusion: Making meaning of mobiles – a theory of Apparatgeist' in Katz & Aakhus (eds.) Perpetual Contact.
Campbell, Scott W. 2008. 'Mobile Technology and the Body: Apparatgeist, Fashion and Function' in J. Katz (eds.) Handbook of Mobile Communication.

SMS and the language of wireless communication

Ling, Rich. 2004. 'The Mobile Connection' Chapter 7: Texting and the Growth of Asynchronous Discourse.
Castells et al. 2007. 'Mobile Communication and Society, Chapter 6: The Language of Wireless Communication.

Use of mobile technology in public settings

Ling, Rich. 2004. 'The Mobile Connection' Chapter 6: The Intrusive Nature of Mobile Technology.
Okabe, Daisuke and Ito, Mizuko. 2005. 'Keitai in public transportation' in Ito, Okabe, & Matsuda (eds.) Personal, Portable, Pedestrian.
Ito, Mizuko, Daisuke Okabe and Ken Anderson 2008. 'Portable Objects in Three Global Cities: The Personalization of Urban Places' in Ling & Campbell (eds.) Reconstruction of Space and Time: Mobile Communication Practices.
Campbell, Scott W. 2006. Perceptions of mobile phones in college classrooms: Ringing, cheating, and classroom policies. Communication Education 55: 280–294.

M 10/22 Use of the technology around co‐present others and the challenge of 'absent presence'

Cumiskey, Kathleen. 2007. 'Hidden meanings: Understanding the social‐psychological impact of mobile phone use through storytelling' in Goggin & Hjorth (eds.) Mobile Media Proceedings.
Gergen, Kenneth. 2002. 'The challenge of absent presence' in Katz & Aakhus (eds.) Perpetual Contact.

The mobile youth culture

Ling, Rich. 2004. 'The Mobile Connection' Chapter 5: The Mobile Telephone and Teens.
Castells et al. 2007. 'Mobile Communication and Society' Chapter 4: The Mobile Youth Culture.

Mobile communication in the socio‐political sphere

Castells et al. 2007. 'Mobile Communication and Society Chapter 7: The Mobile Civil Society: Social Movements, Political Power, and Communication Networks.
Rheingold, Howard. 2002. 'Smart Mobs' Chapter 7: Smart Mobs – The Power of the Mobile Many.
Campbell, Scott W. and Nojin Kwak. 2008, May. Mobile communication and the public sphere: Linking patterns of use to civic and political engagement. Paper presented at the ICA pre‐conference, The Global and Globalizing Dimensions of Mobile Communication: Developing or Developed?, Montreal.

W 11/7 Mobile communication in the developing world

Castells et al. 2007. 'Mobile Communication and Society' Chapter 8: Wireless Communication and Global Development: New Issues, New Strategies.
Donner, Jonathan. 2008. Research approaches to mobile use in the developing world: A review of the literature. The Information Society 24: 140–159.
Donner, Jonathan. 2008. The rules of beeping: Exchanging messages via intentional 'missed calls' on mobile phones. Journal of Computer‐Mediated Communication, 13(1). Available: http://jcmc.indiana.edu/vol13/issue1/donner.html.

M 11/12 Mobile communication and work

Andriessen, Erick and Mattai Vartianen. 2006. Emerging Mobile Virtual Work in Andriessen & Vartianen (eds.) Mobile Virtual Work: A New Paradigm?
Perry, Mark and Jackie Brodie. 2006. Virtually Connected, Practically Mobile in Andriessen & Vartianen (eds.) Mobile Virtual Work: A New Paradigm?
Chesley, Noelle. 2005. Blurring boundaries? Linking technology use, spillover, individual distress, and family satisfaction. Journal of Marriage and Family 67: 1237–1248.

OptionalFocus questions

To what extent does mobile communication lead to changes in family dynamics? On the one hand, mobile communication empowers youth to carry out their social relations 'under the radar' of parental supervision. In the 'old days', kids had to share a domestic landline phone and had less privacy, or had to shut themselves up in their room when on the phone to get privacy. The mobile phone is anytime/anywhere and it a personal object (not shared), so users have much more control over their private relations. Text messaging is an especially effective way of having private communication. Because of all this, young people have more autonomy to live out their social lives as they see fit. On the other hand, the mobile phone also gives parents more control by being able to better keep tabs on their kids and their kids' whereabouts. In some respects, it can actually be considered as an 'umbilical cord' keeping kids accountable to their parents. This is an interesting dichotomy for discussion.
To what extent and how does the mobile phone support 'perpetual contact' among social ties? There seems to be a continual flow of communication now, which some refer to as 'perpetual contact'. Follow‐up questions could be: how is this a good thing? Are there negative aspects of perpetual contact?
How is the mobile phone used for boundary management (i.e., demarcating in‐group members from out‐group members)? This can be seen in names kept in contact lists, who people text with, whose calls they screen, and even the style or brand of a phone ... some groups of friends get the same types of phones.
What are the effects of taking/placing a phone call when interacting with physically co‐present others? What are norms for doing this? How can people mitigate the intrusion?
On a related note to the questions above ... to what extent does the mobile phone lead to 'absent presence?' The notion of absent presence refers to being physically present, but socially absent. To what extent is this problematic?
To what extent might mobile communication lead to 'tele‐cocooning?' Some are concerned that people are getting so wrapped up in their tight little social networks now, that they are less engaged with others who are weak social ties. If this is true, then it begs the question about whether there are benefits to having weak social ties. Most feel there are benefits, like being exposed to a diversity of perspectives and ideas.
With regard to the changing media landscape, where else do we see increased 'personalization' in our uses of traditional mass media? In this sense, 'personalization' can refer to personalized content, interactivity, control, etc.

Research project idea (note this approach can be taken with any of the topics recommended above)Description of the paperMobile communication technology has become a common artifact in public settings, offering a means for social connection for its users and unsolicited melodies, chirps, and half conversations for co‐present others. Because social norms for behavior around others often conflict with those for phone conversations, mobile communication can present as many challenges as it does opportunities for maintaining social order. In class, we will discuss numerous perspectives on this topic, such as absent presence, symbolic fences, front stage‐back‐stage dynamics, and cocooning through mobile media. The purpose of this paper is to conduct an original investigation of the use of mobile communication technology around others. Each student will select a particular aspect of this phenomenon to explore in depth by collecting data first‐hand, analyzing those data, and drawing conclusions to shed new light on this topic. Students may choose to examine mobile communication in a particular setting, compare mobile communication in different social contexts or across different users, examine or compare the use of certain types of mobile technologies, observe reactions of and effects on non‐users of the technology, or select some other such 'angle' for the project that sheds light on this topic.Paper guidelinesYour paper should contain the following sections: (1) An introduction that justifies the importance of your topic and provides a clear explanation of the purpose of the paper, (2) a review of relevant literature/theory/key concepts to frame your particular project followed by specific research questions, (3) a method section explaining how you collected data (observation, interviews, questionnaires, and/or otherwise) and how you analyzed your data, and (4) a discussion section that develops conclusions based on the findings. Each paper should have at least 10 scholarly citations, of which at least half should come from readings other than those assigned for class. Use American Psychological Association (5th edition) to format citations and reference list. Papers should be about 10 pages in length, double‐spaced. In addition to meeting these guidelines, the writing should be clearly organized within each section and (of course) well‐written. Students will present their papers in class at the end of the semester.

La idea de las redes ad-hoc (MANET) nace con el fin de proporcionar servicios de comunicaciones sin el soporte de infraestructura alguna. Típicamente, el estudio de este tipo de redes ha sido orientado a aplicaciones militares o a escenarios de desastres naturales donde la infraestructura es escasa, inexistente o no funcional. Sin embargo, en los últimos años, con el desarrollo de la tecnología inalámbrica, los investigadores han vislumbrado la oportunidad de prestar nuevos servicios de comunicación entre usuarios de electrónica de consumo. Así, los esfuerzos de la comunidad investigadora en este campo se han centrado en el diseño y evaluación de algoritmos y protocolos para implementar comunicaciones eficientes en escenarios donde los nodos móviles colaboran y comparten recursos para proveer funcionalidades usuales en las redes con infraestructura. En ese contexto, las redes móviles ad-hoc (MANETs) y las redes vehiculares adhoc (VANETs) han sido un tópico de extensa investigación por muchos años, con un sinnúmero de propuestas en la literatura para hacer frente a los desafíos planteados principalmente por la movilidad de los dispositivos. Muchos autores han defendido las MANETs como un elemento crucial para el futuro de los servicios de comunicación ubicuos. De igual forma, el desarrollo de las tecnologías de comunicaciones inalámbricas nos permite vislumbrar que en un futuro cercano las VANETs se convertirán en una extensión del Internet cableado, allanando el camino a un conjunto de nuevos servicios de comunicaciones. Esas visiones requieren medios para tornar este tipo de redes en ambientes de comunicación más robustos, capaces de soportar la operación de sistemas distribuidos que cursen grandes cantidades de información multimedia. Desde esta perspectiva, investigadores del Instituto Tecnológico de Massachusetts (MIT) propusieron una capa de virtualización, denominada Virtual Node Layer (VNLayer), con procedimientos para que nodos móviles físicos emulasen colaborativamente nodos virtuales que podrían ser direccionados como servidores en localizaciones conocidas. Esta aproximación se demostró conveniente para facilitar el desarrollo de software de aplicación en entornos tradicionales de MANETs. Esta tesis analiza las potencialidades de la virtualización para brindar nuevos servicios de comunicación en ambientes MANETs y VANETs, diseñando, desarrollando y evaluando nuevos mecanismos en la capa de virtualización para alcanzar este objetivo. Así, en primera instancia, presentamos un grupo de mejoras y nuevos mecanismos orientados a incrementar el rendimiento de la capa de virtualización en entornos MANETs de mayor movilidad y con aplicaciones más demandantes, otorgándole flexibilidad para ajustarse a las necesidades de los usuarios, y una mayor robustez y rapidez para reaccionar ante los fallos provocados por la movilidad de los nodos o las condiciones adversas del medio inalámbrico (pérdida de paquetes de control debido a colisiones, ruido, etc.). De igual forma, proponemos una serie de mejoras a la versión virtualizada del protocolo de encaminamiento AODV para aprovechar las nuevas características de la capa de virtualización, así como nuevos procedimientos para evitar la pérdida de paquetes debido a la movilidad de los nodos físicos que le dan soporte. Ya en el campo de las VANETs, este trabajo introduce por primera vez el concepto de la capa de virtualización en estos ambientes. Para ello, hemos diseñado varios procesos que permiten (i) adaptar la forma y ubicación de las regiones cubiertas por los nodos virtuales a las condiciones de los planos de las calles y vías, propias del entorno urbano, y (ii) ofrecer una reacción más rápida y robusta de los nodos virtuales frente la alta variabilidad y movilidad de los vehículos y las condiciones de mayor pérdida de paquetes de las redes vehiculares. Adicionalmente, diseñamos un nuevo protocolo de encaminamiento que aprovecha las ventajas ofrecidas por la capa de virtualización en los entornos vehiculares para obtener un mejor rendimiento que algunos protocolos presentes en la literatura. Nuestras contribuciones a la capa de virtualización, tanto en el campo de las MANETs como en el de las VANETs, son validadas a través de una serie de experimentos de simulación, desarrollados en diferentes escenarios y aplicaciones, y contrastadas con varios protocolos relevantes en la literatura. Los resultados muestran que los nuevos mecanismos que hemos implementado superan notablemente el rendimiento de la VNLayer original, al tiempo que aseguran mejores prestaciones en las comunicaciones que varios algoritmos relevantes en el campo de los escenarios propuestos, asegurando una buena tasa de entrega de paquetes gracias a la efectiva explotación de las comunicaciones multisalto. ; Ad-hoc networks arose with the aim of providing communication services without the support of any fixed infrastructure. Typically, the study of these kind of networks has been focused on military applications or natural disaster scenarios where infrastructure is scarce, nonexistent or nonfunctional. However, in recent years, with the development of wireless technology, researchers have envisioned the opportunity to provide new communication services among users of consumer electronics. Thus, the efforts of the research community in this field have focused on the design and evaluation of algorithms and protocols to implement efficient communications in scenarios where mobile nodes collaborate and share resources to provide functionalities which are common in networks with infrastructure. In this context, mobile ad-hoc networks (MANETs) and vehicular ad-hoc networks (VANETs) have been a topic of extensive research for many years, with countless proposals in the literature dealing with the challenges raised mainly by the mobility of devices. Many authors have defended MANETs as a crucial element for the future of pervasive communication services. Similarly, the development of wireless communication technologies allows us to foresee that VANETs will become an extension of the wired Internet in the near future, paving the way to a set of new communication services. These visions require means to turn this kind of networks into more robust communication environments, capable of supporting the operation of distributed systems carrying large amounts of multimedia information. From this perspective, researchers from the Massachusetts Institute Technology (MIT) presented a layer of virtualization, called the Virtual Node Layer (VNLayer), with procedures for physical mobile nodes to collaboratively emulate virtual nodes that could be addressed as server devices in known locations. This approach has proven suitable for easy development of application software in traditional MANET environments. In this thesis we are interested in analyzing the potential of the virtualization to provide new communication services in MANET and VANET environments, designing, developing and testing new mechanisms within the virtualization layer to achieve this goal. So, firstly, we present a set of improvements and new mechanisms aimed at increasing the performance of the virtualization layer in MANET environments with higher mobility and more demanding applications, giving it flexibility to adapt to the needs of users, and greater robustness and speed to react to failures caused by the mobility of nodes or adverse conditions of the wireless medium (control packet loss due to collisions, noise, etc.). Likewise, we propose a set of enhancements to the virtualized version of the routing protocol AODV to exploit new features of the virtualization layer, as well as new procedures to avoid packet losses due to the mobility of physical nodes that support it. To the best of our knowledge, this thesis is the first study to introduce the concept of virtualization layer in VANET environments. To do this, we designed several processes that allow (i) adapt the shape and location of the regions covered by the virtual nodes to the conditions of the layouts of the streets and roads, typical of urban environment, and (ii) provide a faster and more robust response of the virtual nodes to deal to high variability and mobility of vehicles, and the major conditions for packet loss in vehicular networks. Additionally, we design a new routing protocol that takes advantage of the virtualization layer to deliver better performance than recent protocols in the literature. Our contributions to the virtualization layer, both in the field of MANETs as in VANETs, are validated through a set of simulation experiments, developed in different scenarios and applications, and compared with several relevant protocols representative of the current state-of-the-art. The results of simulation experiments conducted in MANET and VANET environments show that the new mechanisms we have implemented significantly outperformthe original VNLayer, while ensuring best performance in communications that the most relevant algorithms in the field of the proposed scenarios. A good packet delivery rate is assured thanks to the effective operation of multi-hop communications.

Este artículo busca identificar las características de las redes comunitarias de internet desde una perspectiva histórica como experiencias "alternativas" al desarrollo de una tecnología de comunicación, y, a su vez, describir el surgimiento de este movimiento a comienzos de la década de 1990. Si bien se trata de un proceso reciente, se observa una amplia diversidad de experiencias y un nuevo foco en los últimos años que relaciona a estas redes con la universalización del acceso a internet por sus potencialidades para brindar conexión de última milla en zonas rurales y a poblaciones en situación de vulnerabilidad. Sobre este último punto se presentan dos casos argentinos: AlterMundi, en la provincia de Córdoba, y Atalaya Sur, con despliegues en Villa 20 de la Ciudad de Buenos Aires y el norte de la provincia de Jujuy. Desde la Economía Política de la Comunicación y los estudios de infraestructuras se indaga sobre la dinámica de estos actores con el Estado y el mercado para comprender las limitaciones regulatorias y económicas como también las coyunturas críticas que se han identificado hasta el momento, para arriesgar también algunas reflexiones sobre los aspectos clave de política pública que pueden incidir en el rumbo de estos proyectos. ; This article seeks to identify the characteristics of wireless community networks from a historical perspective as "alternative" experiences to the development of a communication technology and, in turn, to describe the emergence of this movement at the beginning of the 1990s. Although it is a recent process, there is a wide diversity of experiences and a new focus in recent years that links these networks with the universalization of Internet access due to their potential to provide last mile connections in rural areas and to low income populations. Regarding the latter, two Argentine cases are presented: AlterMundi, in the province of Córdoba, and Atalaya Sur, with deployments in Villa 20 in the City of Buenos Aires and the North of the Jujuy province. From the Political Economy of Communication perspective and the infrastructure studies, we investigate the dynamics of these actors with the State and the market to understand the regulatory and economic limitations as well as the critical junctures that have been identified so far, in order to risk some reflections regarding key aspects of public policy that may influence the direction of these projects. ; Este artigo busca identificar as características das redes comunitárias de Internet, a partir de uma perspectiva histórica, como experiências "alternativas" ao desenvolvimento de uma tecnologia de comunicação e, por sua vez, descrever o surgimento desse movimento no início da década de 1990. Embora seja um processo recente, há uma grande diversidade de experiências e um novo foco nos últimos anos que liga essas redes à universalização do acesso à Internet, devido ao seu potencial de fornecer conexões de última milha em áreas rurais e populações em situação de vulnerabilidade. Neste último ponto são apresentados dois casos argentinos: AlterMundi, na província de Córdoba, e Atalaya Sur, com desdobramentos na Villa 20 da Cidade de Buenos Aires e no norte da província de Jujuy. A partir da Economia Política da Comunicação e estudos de infraestrutura, investigamos a dinâmica desses atores com o Estado e o mercado para entender as limitações regulatórias e econômicas, bem como os momentos críticos que foram identificados até agora, a fim de arriscar alguns reflexões sobre os principais aspectos da política pública que podem afetar a direção desses projetos. ; Facultad de Trabajo Social

This study reviews recent experience applying ICTs in the fight against rural poverty and identifies ways in which donor interventions can make effective use of ICTs to improve the living conditions of rural communities in Latin America and the Caribbean and help reduce poverty.

Die Geschichte zeigt, dass der städtische öffentliche Raum schon immer ein Ort gewesen ist, der von vielseitigen Interaktionen lebt und von ihnen geformt wird. Besonders die Bildung von Öffentlichkeit und Urbanität entsteht durch ein Zusammenkommen von verschiedensten Austauchprozessen. Seit Aufkommen der digitalen Medien ist jedoch die Art der menschlichen Interaktion deutlich erweitert und komplexer geworden, sodass sie Befürchtungen auslösten, der reale öffentliche Raum verliere als Interaktionsort an Bedeutung. Unabhängigkeit von Ort und Zeit, entlokalisierte und individualisierte Zeitstrukturen zerfasern den Rhythmus der Stadt. Jene droht ungemütlicher und gefährlicher zu werden. Das Netz wurde zum neuen 'öffentlicheren' Raum im Sinne einer aktiven kritischen bürgerlichen Öffentlichkeit erhoben. Mit der Mobilisierung der digitalen Technologien wird es jedoch möglich, zurück in den öffentlichen Raum zu gehen und sich die neuen Medien als kommunikationsfördernd, identitäts- und gemeinschaftsproduzierend zu Hilfe zu nehmen, um ein neues integrierendes und identitätsstiftendes Interaktionsfeld für eine demokratische Gesellschaft zu kreieren - im besonderen als Gegenentwicklung zur weiteren Kommerzialisierung und Reizüberfrachtung des öffentlichen Raums. Die interaktive Kunst mit ihrer Lebensnähe, den kommunikativen Ansätzen und dem reflektierenden Umgang mit den modernen Machttechnologien ist dementsprechend besonders prädestiniert, mit dem städtischen öffentlichen Raum verknüpft zu werden. Ziel der Arbeit ist es nun, aus dem Feld der Interaktiven Kunst neue Ansätze für eine Wiederbelebung der Öffentlichkeitsfunktion des Stadtraumes aufzuzeigen, so zum Beispiel Katalysatoren für eine direkte Mensch-Mensch-Interaktion oder eine neue Art von Involvie- rung in die Gestaltung des öffentlichen Raumes. In seiner neuen Interaktivität kann der Raum selbst zu einer Art Austauschmedium werden. Aus den theoretischen Überlegungen, den Fragebögen und der Analyse gesammelter interaktiver Projekte, die bewusst in den öffentlichen Raum gehen, haben sich schließlich folgende fünf Kategorien herauskristallisiert. Sie bilden Ansatzpunkte für einen Schritt in Richtung Realisierung eines zeitgemäßen Interaktionsfeldes. • Interaktionsförderung zur angstfreien Konfrontation und zum Kontakt mit Fremden • Förderung der Öffentlichkeitsbildung durch Kritik, Diskussion und Reflektion der Gesellschaft • Förderung der sozialen Interaktion und Verortung in der lokalen Nachbarschaft • Wahrnehmung der gesellschaftlichen Entwicklung durch Technologie reflektierende, sinnliche Systemerfahrung • Aktivierung zur bewussten Teilnahme an der Gestaltung des öffentlichen Raums Die Homepage, die sich aus der CD-Rom zur Diplomarbeit entwickelt hat, stellt diese interaktiven Medienprojekte vor. Sie verdeutlicht anhand der Analyse und Kategorisierung der Projekte, wie nun die Neuen Medien alternativ genutzt werden können, um zur Reaktivierung und positiven Veränderung des Stadtraumes beizutragen. In einer offenen Liste können weitere Projekte eintragen werden. Mit der Zeit kann sich so ein umfangreiches Archiv entwickeln, mit Beispielen, die zu neuen Ansätzen im Umgang der Stadtplanung mit dem öffentlichen Raum anregen. www.interactionfield.de ; The history shows that the urban public space always had been a place that is living of and formed by various interactions. Especially the formation of public sphere and livability develops through a constellation of various kinds of exchange process, which is creating llocal culture. Since the rise of digital media the ways of human Interaction has been clearly widened and became more complex. This has also caused the fear that the real public space looses in importance as a space for interaction. The independence from place and time, entlocalised and individualized time structures destroy the rhythm of the city which threatens to become more uncomfortable and more dangerous. The net was called the new "more" public space in the sense of an active critical civil public. With the mobilization of the digital technologies, wireless and wearable techniques, it becomes however possible to go back into the public space. The new media can be used as communication-promoting, identity- and community-producing in order to create a new integrating and identity-donating interaction field for a democratic society. A new social critical use for the public space - especially as counter development to the further commercialisation and visual overloading of the public space. The interactive art with its life proximity, communicative issues and reflection of the power of the modern technologies is well suited to be linked in this sense with the urban public space, ready to adress a wider audience. The goal of the work is it now to point out new ways for a revival of the public function of the urban space looking at the field of interactive art. For example catalysts for a direct person to person interaction or a new kind of involving into the codesigning and formation of the public space, which thus becomes a kind open (art)work. In its new interactivity the space can become a kind of exchange medium supporting the formation of public sphere and local culture. Out of the theoretical considerations, a questionnaire for Artists and the analysis of collected interactive projects, which go consciously into the public space, the following five categories finally crystallized. They form starting points for a step toward a realization of a modern interaction field, here shortly explained by selected examples of the collection. The projects and categories are visualized and more detailed explained under www.interactionfield.de:

AbstractChronic diseases and illnesses associated with non-specific symptoms are on the rise. In addition to chronic stress in social and work environments, physical and chemical exposures at home, at work, and during leisure activities are causal or contributing environmental stressors that deserve attention by the general practitioner as well as by all other members of the health care community. It seems necessary now to take "new exposures" like electromagnetic fields (EMF) into account. Physicians are increasingly confronted with health problems from unidentified causes. Studies, empirical observations, and patient reports clearly indicate interactions between EMF exposure and health problems. Individual susceptibility and environmental factors are frequently neglected. New wireless technologies and applications have been introduced without any certainty about their health effects, raising new challenges for medicine and society. For instance, the issue of so-called non-thermal effects and potential long-term effects of low-dose exposure were scarcely investigated prior to the introduction of these technologies. Common electromagnetic field or EMF sources: Radio-frequency radiation (RF) (3 MHz to 300 GHz) is emitted from radio and TV broadcast antennas, Wi-Fi access points, routers, and clients (e.g. smartphones, tablets), cordless and mobile phones including their base stations, and Bluetooth devices. Extremely low frequency electric (ELF EF) and magnetic fields (ELF MF) (3 Hz to 3 kHz) are emitted from electrical wiring, lamps, and appliances. Very low frequency electric (VLF EF) and magnetic fields (VLF MF) (3 kHz to 3 MHz) are emitted, due to harmonic voltage and current distortions, from electrical wiring, lamps (e.g. compact fluorescent lamps), and electronic devices. On the one hand, there is strong evidence that long-term exposure to certain EMFs is a risk factor for diseases such as certain cancers, Alzheimer's disease, and male infertility. On the other hand, the emerging electromagnetic hypersensitivity (EHS) is more and more recognized by health authorities, disability administrators and case workers, politicians, as well as courts of law. We recommend treating EHS clinically as part of the group of chronic multisystem illnesses (CMI), but still recognizing that the underlying cause remains the environment. In the beginning, EHS symptoms occur only occasionally, but over time they may increase in frequency and severity. Common EHS symptoms include headaches, concentration difficulties, sleep problems, depression, a lack of energy, fatigue, and flu-like symptoms. A comprehensive medical history, which should include all symptoms and their occurrences in spatial and temporal terms and in the context of EMF exposures, is the key to making the diagnosis. The EMF exposure is usually assessed by EMF measurements at home and at work. Certain types of EMF exposure can be assessed by asking about common EMF sources. It is very important to take the individual susceptibility into account. The primary method of treatment should mainly focus on the prevention or reduction of EMF exposure, that is, reducing or eliminating all sources of high EMF exposure at home and at the workplace. The reduction of EMF exposure should also be extended to public spaces such as schools, hospitals, public transport, and libraries to enable persons with EHS an unhindered use (accessibility measure). If a detrimental EMF exposure is reduced sufficiently, the body has a chance to recover and EHS symptoms will be reduced or even disappear. Many examples have shown that such measures can prove effective. To increase the effectiveness of the treatment, the broad range of other environmental factors that contribute to the total body burden should also be addressed. Anything that supports homeostasis will increase a person's resilience against disease and thus against the adverse effects of EMF exposure. There is increasing evidence that EMF exposure has a major impact on the oxidative and nitrosative regulation capacity in affected individuals. This concept also may explain why the level of susceptibility to EMF can change and why the range of symptoms reported in the context of EMF exposures is so large. Based on our current understanding, a treatment approach that minimizes the adverse effects of peroxynitrite – as has been increasingly used in the treatment of multisystem illnesses – works best. This EMF Guideline gives an overview of the current knowledge regarding EMF-related health risks and provides recommendations for the diagnosis, treatment and accessibility measures of EHS to improve and restore individual health outcomes as well as for the development of strategies for prevention.

10/28/2020 Campus News - January 2016 www.fresnostatejournal.com/vol19no5/index.html 1/7 Features | Around Campus | Events | Recognition | Service | SEARCH ARCHIVES January 2016 - Vol. 19, No. 5 P􀶋􈬍􀵾􇸍􀶌􈰍􀶂􈈍􀵽􇴍􀵾􇸍􀶇􈜍􀶍􈴧'􀶌􈰠 M􀵾􇸍􀶌􈰍􀶌􈰍􀵺􇨍􀶀􈀍􀵾􇸠 Welcome back to campus! I hope all of you had an enjoyable holiday break and are ready for a new year ofserving our students. We have some exciting events, projects and staff additions ahead, including: The annual Spring Assembly for Faculty and Staff is Thursday, Jan. 14, with a continental breakfastat 8:30 and program beginning at 9 a.m. I hope you'll come to the Save Mart Center for a brief recapof the fall semester. What's even more important, I have exciting news about the future. The Strategic Plan Committee worked throughout the fall to refine our plan based on the excellentinput received in our campus and community forums. Stay tuned for a final version of our StrategicPlan this spring. A new Cabinet member soon will be joining us. I've appointed Lawrence Salinas as executive directorof Government Relations, effective Feb. 1. He will develop and manage strategies to inform andinfluence public policy at the local, state and federal levels on issues and in areas of interest toFresno State and to advise the campus on legislative matters that may affect us. Lawrence, a FresnoState alumnus, has held leadership positions in governmental relations at UC Merced and the UCOffice of the President. I am thrilled that we again recruited our #1 choice in a Cabinet search! As we begin 2016, I am more convinced than ever that Fresno State's future is very bright. Let's go boldlyinto this new year! 10/28/2020 Campus News - January 2016 www.fresnostatejournal.com/vol19no5/index.html 2/7 F􀵾􇸍􀵺􇨍􀶍􈴍􀶎􈸍􀶋􈬍􀵾􇸍􀶌􈱒 Red Wave honors faculty, staff Fresno State staff and faculty were honored Dec. 3 at a special men's basketball game appreciation night. Meet some ofthe player's favorite professors: Thea Fabian (Economics), Leonard Olson (Philosophy), Aric Min (Earth andEnvironmental Sciences) and Jonathan Hernandez (Communication). See more . EOP: Making a difference |The Educational Opportunity Program (EOP) at Fresno State continues to"make a difference" in helping first generation and historically low-incomestudents attain their goal of graduating from college. EOP recently announcedthat students in the fall 2009 cohort achieved a 6-year graduation rate of 59.7percent, which is higher than the campus rate of 58.4 percent. See more . FresnoStateNews.com is all new Stay current on the latest news, information and events happening at FresnoState by visiting the redesigned www.FresnoStateNews.com . This one-stop-shop for campus news features University produced videos, press releases,magazine and newsletter articles. FresnoStateNews.com is an easy way to follow the latest posts on the University'sofficial Facebook and Twitter accounts, and the live calendar is always up-to-date with the latest events on campus. Andif you have a question about a past event or issue facing the University, simply search the archives to access past newsarticles, videos and photos. The new FresnoStateNews.com is also the place to sign up for Fresno State's CommunityNewsletter. Created to showcase how Fresno State is making a bold difference in our region, this monthly newsletter isfilled with videos and features about all aspects of Fresno State. It's never been easier to stay in the know about allthings Fresno State. Bookmark www.FresnoStateNews.com today! Campus colors of fall The campus presents a beautiful show of color during the seasons, and this fall is a showstopper. Photos by CaryEdmondson. See slideshow . A look back at 2015 Revisit key moments from the past year. Photos by Cary Edmondson. See slideshow . A􀶋􈬍􀶈􈠍􀶎􈸍􀶇􈜍􀵽􇴠 C􀵺􇨍􀶆􈘍􀶉􈤍􀶎􈸍􀶌􈱎 New Warmerdam Field track project begins Warmerdam Field is undergoing a facelift as of December. The $2.6 million project is expected to continue through June2016. The project includes an eight-lane, all-weather track; a high-jump area; long- and triple-jump runways; two polevault runways; and shot put, discuss, hammer cage and javelin improvements. Also included are updates in utilities,landscaping and fencing. The current nine-lane, 400-meter track was constructed in 1976 and is named in honor ofCornelius "Dutch" Warmerdam, the former Fresno State head coach and former world-record holder in the pole vault.The track was last resurfaced in 1989. See more . Proposed Hmong minor option would be a first in western U.S. The University is developing a new minor program in Hmong Studies that will be the fifth such program in the nation andfirst in the western United States. The minor, which would be offered through the Linguistics Department in the College ofArts and Humanities, is in the final stages of the approval process with a decision due in the spring. The target date tolaunch is the fall 2016 semester. See more . Student Cupboard receives $25,000 endowment A Bay Area family joined together to establish an endowment that will help Fresno State students facing food insecurity.Michael Treviño, University of California director of undergraduate admissions, has established a $25,000 charitable giftannuity in honor of his aunt, Ermelinda Treviño. The annuity will provide lasting support of the Student Cupboard, whichprovides free food and hygiene products for Fresno State students in need. See more .10/28/2020 Campus News - January 2016 www.fresnostatejournal.com/vol19no5/index.html 3/7 Global wireless connectivity is here On Jan. 14, Fresno State will launch eduroam(education roaming), a global wireless connectivityservice that enables students, faculty, staff, andguests to obtain secure internet connectivity. Theeduroam federation is a group of thousands ofuniversities and higher-education institutions across54 countries. These institutions have the eduroamnetwork at their locations and will grant you secureaccess to their network without having to go throughthe long process of setting up a guest login andpassword. Your device will work on their campusesthe same as if it were on Fresno State's. Additionalinformation about eduroam is available here . Benefits: Simplicity - Fresno State students, faculty and staff can log in to eduroam with their own Fresno State credentialsat any participating institution. Security - Eduroam' uses WPA2-enterprise authentication and encryption to prevent eavesdropping when usinginsecure applications on the network. The most significant change to the Fresno State network is that the process for logging in will require an email addressand corresponding email password instead of using computer login credentials. Contact the Help Desk at 278.5000 formore information. Salinas named director of governmental relations For Lawrence Salinas, a Fresno State alumnus with 30 years of political and public affairsexperience, coming home to serve as the University's new executive director of governmentalrelations is an opportunity to advocate for his alma mater. His primary role will be to develop andmanage strategies to inform and influence public policy at the local, state and federal levels inareas of interest to Fresno State. He will report directly to the president and advise the campuson legislative matters that may affect the University. See more . Philanthropist and supporter Dee Jordan dies Mrs. Dee Jordan, who, along with her husband and brother-in-law, was responsible for the largest cash gift in FresnoState's history, passed away on Nov. 17 in San Francisco at age 87. Her connection to Fresno State started at a socialgathering more than three decades ago when a retired Fresno State agriculture professor shared his enthusiasm for hiscollege's programs. That meeting led to a lasting relationship between the Jordans and Fresno State that ultimatelyresulted in a $29.5 million gift to Fresno State's Ag One Foundation in 2009. See more . Former psych professor, chair, Merry West, dies Dr. Merry West, professor emerita and former chair of the Psychology Department, died Nov. 20. She earned a Ph.D. inPsychology from Iowa State University in 1972 and joined the University soon after, then received emeritus status in1993. While at the University, she helped to initiate re-entry programs for students and to develop Women Studiesprograms. Dr. West loved traveling, but her favorite places were in California. See more . E􀶏􈼍􀵾􇸍􀶇􈜍􀶍􈴍􀶌􈱋 Keyboard Concerts presents Yefim Bronfman on Jan. 22 Yefim Bronfman performs at 3 p.m., Jan. 22, in the Concert Hall. Bronfman, a Russian-Israeli-American artist, regularly collaborates with the world's foremost conductors, including SirSimon Rattle, Daniel Barenboim, Herbert Blomstedt, Christoph von Dohnányi, Charles Dutoit,Valery Gergiev, Christoph Eschenbach, Zubin Mehta, Esa-Pekka Salonen, and David Zinman.General admission is $25, seniors $18 and students $5. For reservations and otherinformation, call 278.2337.10/28/2020 Campus News - January 2016 www.fresnostatejournal.com/vol19no5/index.html 4/7 Comedian Drew Lynch performs Feb. 9 Student Involvement is hosting a special performance from comedian Drew Lynch on Feb. 9 at7 p.m. in the Satellite Student Union. This event is free to students with a valid Fresno StateI.D. and open to public for $5 per person. Drew Lynch starred on season 10 of America's GotTalent and advanced all the way to the finale. During his first audition, he shared his story ofhow a softball accident resulted in a permanent, severe stutter and how his life changedimmediately. Drew Lynch's comedy performance is being sponsored by Student Involvement,Services for Students with Disabilities, and Advocates for Students with Disabilities. For moreinformation, contact Shawna Blair at 559.278.2741. Library hosts Saleri exhibition Feb. 6-May 31; gala dinner is Feb. 5 During the spring 2016 semester, the Henry Madden Library presents a retrospective exhibition of artwork by KristinSaleri (1915 to 1987), a pioneering 20th century artist of Armenian heritage who lived and painted in Istanbul. Discovering Kristin Saleri runs Feb. 6 through May 31 in the Leon S. Peters Ellipse Gallery and Pete P. Peters BalconyGallery. The Gala Donors Opening Dinner is Feb. 5 at 6 p.m. in Henry Madden Library, second floor outside Leon S.Peters Ellipse Gallery. The exhibition is curated by Fresno natives Joyce Kierejczyk and Carol Tikijian, who also curateda spring exhibition at the Fresno Art Museum of works by artists of Armenian descent in commemoration of thecentennial of the Armenian genocide. The artworks exhibited are on loan from the family of the artist, who reside inHouston. For more information on the artist, visit www.kristinsaleri.com . For more information on the exhibit, visit the website . Save the date: Jan. 14 - International Fun Night, University Student Union Pavilion, 4 p.m. Jan. 16 - Men's basketball, Save Mart Center, 4 p.m. Meet members of the team . Jan. 20 - Women's basketball, Save Mart Center, 7 p.m. Jan. 21 - The Harlem Globetrotters, Save Mart Center, 7 p.m. Jan. 21 - Visual Arts Seminar, Satellite Student Union, 8 a.m. Jan. 22 - Women's basketball, Save Mart Center, 2 p.m. Jan. 27 - Club Sports Expo and Greek Day, University Student Union Balcony, starting at 7 a.m. Jan. 30 - SATAM Tai Chi group practice, South Gym 134, 7:30 a.m. R􀵾􇸍􀵼􇰍􀶈􈠍􀶀􈀍􀶇􈜍􀶂􈈍􀶍􈴍􀶂􈈍􀶈􈠍􀶇􈝅 Emmanuel Alcala (Central Valley Health Policy Institute) presented on air pollution in the Valley and its effects on children at the NationalInstitute of Environmental Health Sciences/Environmental Protection Agency Children's Centers Annual Meeting inWashington, D.C. See more . Nancy Delich and Stephen Roberts (Social Work and Communicative Disorders and Deaf Studies) are featured in the latest issue of Central California LifeMagazine, in which they discuss their underwater sign language course, which they teach at their dive shop, CentralValley Scuba Center. See more . Ethan Kytle and Blain Roberts (History) had their op-ed article advocating for a national slavery memorial published in the New York Times. See more .Roberts' book, "Pageants, Parlors, and Pretty Women: Race and Beauty in the Twentieth Century South" (University ofNorth Carolina Press, 2014) was recently awarded the 2105 Willie Lee Rose Prize by the Southern Association forWomen Historians. This award recognizes the best book in southern history published by a woman during the previouscalendar year. The book was also a finalist (among the top three, out of 70 submissions) for the 2015 BerkshireConference of Women Historians First Book Prize. Annette Levi (Agricultural Business) was named to the National Agricultural Research, Extension, Education, and Economics Advisory10/28/2020 Campus News - January 2016 www.fresnostatejournal.com/vol19no5/index.html 5/7 Board by U.S. Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack. The board advises Vilsack and land-grant colleges and universities. Bradley Myers (Theatre Arts) received recognition from the Region VIII Governing Board of the Kennedy Center/American CollegeTheatre Festival for the production of the play, "Really, Really ." A scene from the play will be included at the regionalfestival at the University of Hawaii Honolulu, Hawaii, held this February. Barlow Der Mugrdechian (Armenian Studies) had a book chapter published, "The Theme of Genocide in Armenian Literature," (pp. 273-286) in thenewly released book, The Armenian Genocide Legac y (Palgrave, 2015). The book was the product of a conference, "TheArmenian Genocide's Legacy, 100 Years On," held in The Hague, Netherlands, March 5-7, 2015. Saúl Jiménez-Sandoval (Arts and Humanities) was named dean of the College of Arts and Humanities, effective Jan. 1. He is a Fresno Stateprofessor of Spanish and Portuguese and served as interim associate dean of the college. Jiménez-Sandoval willsucceed Interim Dean José A. Díaz, who was not a candidate for the position. Díaz will be on special assignment in thespring semester. See more . Samendra Sherchan (Public Health) received the 2015-16 WRPI Faculty Research Incentive Award (from the Office of the Chancellor, WaterResources and Policy Initiatives) for his project, Understanding Public Perception to Direct Potable Reuse of MunicipalTreated Waste-water in the Central Valley. S􀵾􇸍􀶋􈬍􀶏􈼍􀶂􈈍􀵼􇰍􀵾􇹒 Reading and Beyond at Fresno State celebrates asuccessful semester The Reading and Beyond at Fresno State program (a partnershipbetween Fresno State's Richter Center and Reading and Beyond )recently took time to celebrate a successful semester. Over the courseof fall 2015, 60 work-study students served as tutors with the program,providing tutoring and mentoring services to children throughoutFresno County. Tutors worked directly with 183 elementary studentsproviding literacy and homework support. In addition, the tutors servedmore than 800 children intermittently. Reading and Beyond at FresnoState program also took part in several additional community serviceprojects, including school carnivals, local revitalization projects,educational community events, and a special letter-writing campaign benefiting military members and veterans. Save the Date: Spring Community Service Opportunities Fair The 13th annual Spring Community Service Opportunities Fair takes place Wednesday, Jan. 27, from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m.in the Satellite Student Union. The event is sponsored by The Jan and Bud Richter Center for Community Engagementand Service-Learning. During the Community Service Opportunities Fair students will have the opportunity to learn aboutvolunteer, service-learning, internship, and career opportunities offered through local community benefit organizations. Faculty and staff are encouraged to attend this event and send students who are interested in community service or whoare required to do service as part of a class assignment. For more information, please contact Trisha Studt in the RichterCenter at 559.278.7079. Registration open for Kids Day 2016 Kids Day is one the Valley's largest and most visible special events benefitting Valley Children's Hospital . Last year over1,400 Fresno State students participated in Kids Day and raised over $41,000! Kids Day will be held on March 8, 2016and is a great way for students, faculty, and staff to engage in a community-wide philanthropy project and can help inthree ways: (1) volunteer to sell papers, (2) help recruit other volunteers by sharing information on this event with friends,students and colleagues and (3) buy a paper on Kids Day from those around campus. Each year the Richter Centerhosts a friendly competition recognizing the top-selling student clubs and organizations. Register your club ororganization today by completing the online form . Individuals can also sign-up to volunteer using the same form . Formore information about participating, please contact Madison Dakovich in the Jan and Bud Richter Center for CommunityEngagement and Service-Learning at 559.278.7079 or send an email to fresnostatekidsday@gmail.com.10/28/2020 Campus News - January 2016 www.fresnostatejournal.com/vol19no5/index.html 6/7 Fresno State for Summer Campaign a success This fall, Fresno State students Nancy Mohamed and Kelli Lowe, coordinated a campus-wide fundraising campaign builtaround the annual Giving Tuesday . This project raised money to support the wish of a Make-A-Wish CentralCalifornia child, Summer, whose wish is to visit to Walt Disney World with her family and meet Elsa from the movie Frozen . The campaign, "Fresno State for Summer" ran from November 1 - December 1, 2015. Over $1,400 was raisedto support Summer's wish. Mohamed and Lowe hope that this project will inspire future students to continue organizingfundraising efforts around Giving Tuesday and establishing a new philanthropic tradition at Fresno State. Richter Center student leaders provide nearly 3,000 hours of service In December, the Richter Center Student Leaders (RCSL) celebrated a successful fall semester. RCSL is made-up ofthree distinct teams including the Richter Center Ambassadors, Reflection Facilitators, and SERVE Committee. Theteam of 27 students provided a combined 2,734 hours of service to the campus and community. This service includedcoordinating and hosting two one-day service events (Make a Difference Day and Serving Fresno Day), conductingservice-related presentations and workshops for fellow Fresno State students, and promoting service through variousdigital and in-person campaigns. The team will return in the spring semester to continue these efforts including planningand hosting Spring into Service – a one-day service event – and National Volunteer Week activities. For more informationon RCSL, contact Mellissa Jessen-Hiser . Send us your photos! Campus News wants to share your most whimsical or memorable photo as a photo of the month . Faculty and staff, please submit your photo to campusnews@csufresno.edu . In case you missed it: Fresno State vs. San Francisco Catch some highlights from the Fresno State basketball win against San Francisco on Nov. 19. See slideshow . Fresno State vs. Colorado State Miss the Fresno State Bulldogs football game against Colorado State Rams, Nov. 28? See slideshow . International Cultural Night Enjoy the colors and vibrancy of International Cultural Night. See slideshow . ROTC Presentation Fresno State's ROTC made a presentation at the Oakland Raiders game, Dec. 6. See slideshow. Marching Band Moments A look back at some key Fresno State Marching Band moments. See slideshow . Happy Holidays Enjoy a glimpse of some of the seasonal decorations on campus, including displays in the Kennel Bookstore. Seeslideshow . Or enjoy holiday greetings from Victor E. Bulldog III. See slideshow . Slideshow photos by Cary Edmondson and courtesy of University Communications.10/28/2020 Campus News - January 2016 www.fresnostatejournal.com/vol19no5/index.html 7/7 Still looking for more news? For the latest university press releases, visit FresnoStateNews.com. For sports news, visit GoBulldogs.com . Find announcements, events, and more on BulletinBoard . For the academic calendar, see the catalog . Find additional calendars through Academic Affairs . A listing of season stage performances is available through Theatre Arts and music performances through the Music Department . Campus News is the Fresno State employee newsletter published online the first day of each month – or the weekday closest to the first – fromSeptember through May. The deadline for submissions to the newsletter is 10 days prior to the first of each month. Please e-mail submissions to campusnews@csufresno.edu ; include digital photos, video clips or audio clips that are publishable online. Phone messages, PDFs, faxes, and printedhard copies will not be accepted. President , Joseph I. Castro Vice President for University Advancement , Paula Castadio . Campus News is published by the Office of University Communications. Archives | Academic Calendar | FresnoStateNews | Campus News Deadlines | University Communications Print this Page

List of FiguresList of TablesPreface AcknowledgementPart 1: Living with Floods⁰́₄Case Studies in Flood Risk Management1. Assessing Vulnerability, Coping Mechanism & Adaptive Capacity of Community During Urban Floods:A Case of Kerala Floods 2018B. Sneha Singh and Anil Kumar Roy2. Flooding Problems in Periyar River Basin, Kerala⁰́₄The Effects of Land Use Land Cover ChangesKashish Sadhwani, T. I. Eldho and Subhankar Karmakar3. Attitudinal Capacity and Flood Risk Management of the People of Kerala after the Flood DisasterM. V. Bindu4. Kosi Floods in Bihar: A Study from Anthropological PerspectiveRahul Kumar Yaduka5. Operation Research on Flash Flood in River Dhauli Ganga On 7th February, 2021 at Tapovan⁰́₄Raini Village, Joshimath, ChamoliAditya Pratap Singh6. Multi-Stakeholder Planning and Coordination for Flood Risk Reduction in BiharVivek Kumar Singh, Geetanjali Kumari, Amrita Dhiman and Amritanjali Kumari7. Urban Floods in the Time of Pandemic⁰́₄Hyderabad 2020Vijaya Kumari Nunna8. Himalayan Flash Floods, the Complexities and Challenges in Mitigation: Case Study of Chamoli DisasterAgraj Upadhyay, S. K. Joshi and P. K. SatyawaliPart 2: Planning and Managing Risks of Floods and River Erosion9. Cloudburst Induced Flood Assessment in the North-Western Himalayan Region⁰́₄A Case Study of Upper Beas BasinSachchidanand Singh and Mitthan Lal Kansal10. PARA-FM: Graphical User Interface for Emergency Flood Planning and ManagementUtsav Rai, Durgakant Pushp, Aditya Choudhary, Amit Kumar, Chaitanya B., Rolif Lima, Abhinay N. S.,Rudrashis Majumder, Shuvrangshu Jana, Kaushik Das and Debasish Ghose11. Flood Response to Geomorphic Setup and Coastal Land Use Patterns: A Case Study inKrishna River Delta, Andhra Pradesh, IndiaM. V. Ramana Murty, K. Mruthyunjaya Reddy and K. V. Swamy12. Flood Hazard Mapping for Disaster Management: Multisectoral Approach for a Riverine RegionDeeksha Biswas and Anurag Bagade13. Benefit-Cost Analysis of Flood Management, A Case Study of Jammu and KashmirKowser Ali Jan and R. Balaji14. Tackling River Erosion: A Post-Disaster Transformative FrameworkSiji Chacko and Anil Kumar15. Flood Inundation Mapping Using C-band Synthetic-aperture Radar and Random Forest Algorithm:A Methodological BasisSwapnil Singh Parihar and Shafique Matin16. Public-Private-People Partnership (4P) Framework for Managing Floods in Raigad [MH]A. N. Chavan, S. M. Pore and S. R. Bhagat17. Role of Kerala Fire & Rescue Services Department in Handling Kerala Floods 2018B. Sandhya IPS, Nousad M. and Abdul Rasheed K.Part 3: Cyclone Risk Mitigation and Management18. Impact and Management of Super Cyclone Amphan in OdishaD. Panda and M. Devi19. At the Cross-roads in Cyclone-prone Odisha: Titli⁰́₄The Butterfly⁰́₉s Duel with DevelopmentGeeta Vaidyanathan and Ramani Sankaranarayanan20. Resilient Settlements Amid Cyclonic Storm⁰́₄Empirical Evidence on Factors at Play fromSouthwest Coastal BangladeshSumaiyah Binte Mamun and Khandaker Shabbir Ahmed21. Climate Change Induced Cyclones in Arabian Sea and Mitigating the Emerging Risks for SmallScale Fishermen CommunityVaishnavi and Katyayini Sood22. Vulnerability Assessment of a Cyclone Affected Community Kapateswar, Puri SadarChestha Khurana and Meghna Chatterji23. Evolution of Vulnerability to Cyclones: A Study of Storm Surge Vulnerability in theCoastal Blocks of South Twenty-four Parganas, West Bengal During 1997⁰́₃2019Nandita Singh and Neeti Neeti24. Study and Impact of Cyclones Over Coastal Regions of IndiaAakanksha Darge and S. R. BhagatPart 4: Managing Risks of Drought25. Machine Learning Tools and Techniques for Prediction of DroughtsRashmi Nitwane, Vaishali D. Bhagile and R. R. Deshmukh26. Assessment of Rainfall Variability and Drought Features in Bundelkhand Region ofMadhya Pradesh, IndiaR. V. Galkate, R. P. Pandey and Shalini Yadava27. Drought Crisis In Rajasthan and Their ManagementHarish Samaria28. Floods as Prequels to Droughts and Lessons for Drought ResilienceI. Kavila, B. V. Hari and Amrutha Sasidharan29. Reliability, Resilience, and Vulnerability Risk Assessment of Extreme Hydrological DisastersUsing Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment (GRACE) of IndiaSachin Bhere and Manne Janga Reddy30. A Survey of Drought Impact and Mitigation in the State of TelanganaVijaya Kumari NunnaPart 5: Climate Change and Disasters⁰́₄New Dimensions31. Role of Local Sea-level Rise on Disaster Exposure in Coastal IslandVinay S., Aishwarya N. and Bharath H. A.32. Spatial Variability of Climate Extreme Indices Over Mahanadi Basin (India)R. K. Jaiswal, A. K. Lohani, R. V. Galkate and S. Jain33. Climate Change⁰́₄Induced Natural Disaster: A Case Study of 2013 Kedarnath Disaster,UttrakhandNeha Gupta, Josodhir Das and James Xavier Paul34. Framework for Evaluating the Physical Infrastructure Vulnerability Due to Relative Sea-LevelRise in Coastal Districts of Kerala⁰́₄Case of AlappuzhaR. S. Vishnu and Anurup K.35. Increasing Risk of Glacial Lake Outburst Floods (GLOFs) as a Consequence of Climate Changein the Himalayan RegionAhmed Faraz Khan36. Glacial Lake Outburst Flood ModellingA. K. Lohani, Sanjay K. Jain and R. K. Jaiswal37. Comparative Analysis of Developed, Developing and Underdeveloped Countries in Regards toClimate Change and Global PoliciesAanchal Pundir38. The Most Credible 05 Elements to Tackle Displacement in Nearest 10 Years of AsiaMahendra Jagath Kuragodage39. Climate Change and its Interconnectedness with Natural Disasters: A Global PerspectiveAreeba Naaz and Parvez Hayat IPS40. Climate-Induced Displacement and Climate Disaster Law: Challenges and OpportunitiesSunil Kumar Chaudhary41. Climate Hazards and the Role of Local Authorities: Exploring the Indian Legal FrameworkChandrika MehtaPart 6: Technological Disasters42. An Incident of Styrene Monomer Gas Poisoning at VisakhapatnamChandrasekhar Krishnamurti, M. D., Saurabh Dalal and Mounika Jonnavittula House Surgeon43. Chemical Disaster: Leakage of Styrene Gas at L. G. Polymers, Vishakhapatnam (Andhra Pradesh)Anupam Srivastava44. Managing a Blackout⁰́₄The Consequences of an Oil Spill at SeaMalini S. Shankar and K. M. Sivakholundu45. Baghjan Fire: A Case Study of the ⁰́₈2020 Assam Gas and Oil Leak⁰́₉ at Baghjan Oil Field,Tinsukia, AssamSwapnali Gogoi, Bubu Baruah and Annekha Chetia46. Assessing the Risk of Fire Hazard: A Case Study of DelhiKanika Bhatia and Aakash Upadhyay47. CBRN Management in IndiaPankaj Kumar48. Covid-19 Necessitates Review of Existing Framework for Management of CBRNDisasters/Emergencies in IndiaBrigadier Kamal Singh ChauhanPart 7: Other Disasters49. Are Strong Aftershocks Always Triggered by a Positive Coulomb Stress Change?:A Case Study of the 2018 Indonesia (Sulawesi) MW 7.5 Tsunamigenic EarthquakeNazeel Sabah and Daya Shanker50. Sedimentation Modeling of 2004 Indian Ocean Tsunami: Towards Early Warning StrategyAbdullah Ansari, Javed N Malik and Shivam Tripathi51. Forest Fire Risk Zone Mapping in Parambikulam Tiger Reserve, Western Ghats, Kerala, IndiaUsing Geospatial Techniques and Fire Risk Index (FRI) MethodShalu George, Kripa K., Anbazhagi S. and Muthukumar Muthuchamy52. Forest Fire Early Detection System using Wireless Beacon Network and UAV based Object DetectionAmal Sujith, Sagar Sajeev and Vishnu O. V.53. Patterns and Consequences: Australian BushfiresRitu Bir and Meenakshi Singh54. Global trend of Forest Fire and its ManagementRajesh Thakur55. Building Disaster Resilience to Cloud Burst Events in Uttrakhand, IndiaAnjali Saraswat and Satish Pipralia56. Heat Wave and Outbreak of Encephalitis⁰́₄A Case Study of BiharSunil Kumar Chaudhary

XXXII, 612 p. ; 24 cm ; Libro Electrónico ; En este documento se plantea un tema de interes general mas como lo es especificamente el tema de la evolucion de la sociedad en materia de industria y crecimiento de las actividades humanas en el aspecto de desarrollo de la creatividad enfocada a los mercados ; edited by Mark Tovey ; foreword by Yochai Benkler (re-mixed by Hassan Masum) ; prefaces by Thomas Malone, Tom Atlee & Pierre Levy ; afterword by Paul Martin & Thomas Homer-Dixon. ; The era of collective intelligence has begun in earnest. While others have written about the wisdom of crowds, an army of Davids, and smart mobs, this collection of essays for the first time brings together fifty-five pioneers in the emerging discipline of collective intelligence. They provide a base of tools for connecting people, producing high-functioning teams, collaborating at multiple scales, and encouraging effective peer-production. Emerging models are explored for digital deliberative democracy, self-governance, legislative transparency, true-cost accounting, and the ethical use of open sources and methods. Collective Intelligence is the first of a series of six books, which will also include volumes on Peace Intelligence, Commercial Intelligence, Gift Intelligence, Cultural Intelligence, and Global Intelligence. ; Table of Contents Dedication i Publisher's Preface iii Foreword by Yochai Benkler Remix Hassan Masum xi The Wealth of Networks: Highlights remixed Editor's Preface xxi Table of Contents xxv A What is collective intelligence and what will we do 1 about it? (Thomas W. Malone, MIT Center for Collective Intelligence) B Co-Intelligence, collective intelligence, and conscious 5 evolution (Tom Atlee, Co-Intelligence Institute) C A metalanguage for computer augmented collective 15 intelligence (Prof. Pierre Lévy, Canada Research Chair in Collective Intelligence, FRSC) I INDIVIDUALS & GROUPS I-01 Foresight I-01-01 Safety Glass (Karl Schroeder, science fiction author 23 and foresight consultant) I-01-02 2007 State of the Future (Jerome C. Glenn & 29 Theodore J. Gordon, United Nations Millennium Project) I-02 Dialogue & Deliberation I-02-01 Thinking together without ego: Collective intelligence 39 as an evolutionary catalyst (Craig Hamilton and Claire Zammit, Collective-Intelligence.US) I-02-02 The World Café: Awakening collective intelligence 47 and committed action (Juanita Brown, David Isaacs and the World Café Community) I-02-03 Collective intelligence and the emergence of 55 wholeness (Peggy Holman, Nexus for Change, The Change Handbook) I-02-04 Knowledge creation in collective intelligence (Bruce 65 LaDuke, Fortune 500, HyperAdvance.com) I-02-05 The Circle Organization: Structuring for collective 75 wisdom (Jim Rough, Dynamic Facilitation & The Center for Wise Democracy) I-03 Civic Intelligence I-03-01 Civic intelligence and the public sphere (Douglas 83 Schuler, Evergreen State College, Public Sphere Project) I-03-02 Civic intelligence and the security of the homeland 95 (John Kesler with Carole and David Schwinn, IngeniusOnline) I-03-03 Creating a Smart Nation (Robert Steele, OSS.Net) 107 I-03-04 University 2.0: Informing our collective intelligence 131 (Nancy Glock-Grueneich, HIGHEREdge.org) I-03-05 Producing communities of communications and 145 foreknowledge (Jason "JZ" Liszkiewicz, Reconfigure.org) I-03-06 Global Vitality Report 2025: Learning to transform I-04 Electronic Communities & Distributed Cognition I-04-01 Attentional capital and the ecology of online social 163 conflict and think together effectively (Peter+Trudy networks (Derek Lomas, Social Movement Lab, Johnson-Lenz, Johnson-Lenz.com ) UCSD) I-04-02 A slice of life in my virtual community (Howard 173 Rheingold, Whole Earth Review, Author & Educator) I-04-03 Shared imagination (Dr. Douglas C. Engelbart, 197 Bootstrap) I-05 Privacy & Openness I-05-01 We're all swimming in media: End-users must be able 201 to keep secrets (Mitch Ratcliffe, BuzzLogic & Tetriad) I-05-02 Working openly (Lion Kimbro, Programmer and 205 Activist) I-06 Integral Approaches & Global Contexts I-06-01 Meta-intelligence for analyses, decisions, policy, and 213 action: The Integral Process for working on complex issues (Sara Nora Ross, Ph.D. ARINA & Integral Review) I-06-02 Collective intelligence: From pyramidal to global 225 (Jean-Francois Noubel, The Transitioner) I-06-03 Cultivating collective intelligence: A core leadership 235 competence in a complex world (George Pór, Fellow at Universiteit van Amsterdam) II LARGE-SCALE COLLABORATION II-01 Altruism, Group IQ, and Adaptation II-01-01 Empowering individuals towards collective online 245 production (Keith Hopper, KeithHopper.com) II-01-02 Who's smarter: chimps, baboons or bacteria? The 251 power of Group IQ (Howard Bloom, author) II-01-03 A collectively generated model of the world (Marko 261 A. Rodriguez, Los Alamos National Laboratory) II-02 Crowd Wisdom and Cognitive Bias II-02-01 Science of CI: Resources for change (Norman L 265 Johnson, Chief Scientist at Referentia Systems, former LANL) II-02-02 Collectively intelligent systems (Jennifer H. Watkins, 275 Los Alamos National Laboratory) II-02-03 A contrarian view (Jaron Lanier, scholar-in-residence, 279 CET, UC Berkeley & Discover Magazine) II-03 Semantic Structures & The Semantic Web II-03-01 Information Economy Meta Language (Interview with 283 Professor Pierre Lévy, by George Pór) II-03-02 Harnessing the collective intelligence of the World- 293 Wide Web (Nova Spivack, RadarNetworks, Web 3.0) II-03-03 The emergence of a global brain (Francis Heylighen, 305 Free University of Brussels) II-04 Information Networks II-04-01 Networking and mobilizing collective intelligence (G. Parker Rossman, Future of Learning Pioneer) II-04-02 Toward high-performance organizations: A strategic 333 role for Groupware (Douglas C. Engelbart, Bootstrap) II-04-03 Search panacea or ploy: Can collective intelligence 375 improve findability? (Stephen E. Arnold, Arnold IT, Inc.) II-05 Global Games, Local Economies, & WISER II-05-01 World Brain as EarthGame (Robert Steele and many 389 others, Earth Intelligence Network) II-05-02 The Interra Project (Jon Ramer and many others) 399 II-05-03 From corporate responsibility to Backstory 409 Management (Alex Steffen, Executive Editor, Worldchanging.com) II-05-04 World Index of Environmental & Social 413 Responsibility (WISER) By the Natural Capital Institute II-06 Peer-Production & Open Source Hardware II-06-01 The Makers' Bill of Rights (Jalopy, Torrone, and Hill) 421 II-06-02 3D Printing and open source design (James Duncan, 423 VP of Technology at Marketingisland) II-06-03 REBEARTHTM: 425 II-07 Free Wireless, Open Spectrum, and Peer-to-Peer II-07-01 Montréal Community Wi-Fi (Île Sans Fil) (Interview 433 with Michael Lenczner by Mark Tovey) II-07-02 The power of the peer-to-peer future (Jock Gill, 441 Founder, Penfield Gill Inc.) Growing a world 6.6 billion people would want to live in (Marc Stamos, B-Comm, LL.B) II-07-03 Open spectrum (David Weinberger) II-08 Mass Collaboration & Large-Scale Argumentation II-08-01 Mass collaboration, open source, and social 455 entrepreneurship (Mark Tovey, Advanced Cognitive Engineering Lab, Institute of Cognitive Science, Carleton University) II-08-02 Interview with Thomas Homer-Dixon (Hassan 467 Masum, McLaughlin-Rotman Center for Global Health) II-08-03 Achieving collective intelligence via large-scale argumentation (Mark Klein, MIT Center for Collective Intelligence) II-08-04 Scaling up open problem solving (Hassan Masum & 485 Mark Tovey) D Afterword: The Internet and the revitalization of 495 democracy (The Rt. Honourable Paul Martin & Thomas Homer-Dixon) E Epilogue by Tom Atlee 513 F Three Lists 515 1. Strategic Reading Categories 2. Synopsis of the New Progressives 3. Fifty-Two Questions that Matter G Glossary 519 H Index 525

This volume explores emerging research and pedagogy in analytics, collaboration, and decision support with an emphasis on business intelligence and social media. In general, the chapters help understand where technology involvement in human decisions is headed. Reading the chapters can help understand the opportunities and threats associated with the use of information technology in decision making. Computing and information technologies are reshaping our global society, but they can potentially reshape it in negative as well as positive ways. Analytics, collaboration and computerized decision support are powerful decision aiding and decision making tools that have enormous potential to impact crisis decision making, regulation of financial systems, healthcare decision making and many more important decision domains.Many information technologies can potentially support, assist and even decide for human decision makers. Despite the potential, some researchers think that we know the answers to how these technologies will change society. The 'Wisdom of Crowds' or 'Big Data' become the topic of the day and are soon replaced with new marketing terms. In many ways, mobile technology is just another form factor to adapt decision support capabilities too and experiment with new capabilities. The cloud is a nebulous metaphor that adds to the mystery of information technology. Wireless technology enables the ubiquitous presence of analytics and decision support. With new networking capabilities, collaboration is possible anywhere and everywhere using voice, video and text. Documents can be widely shared and massive numbers of documents can be carried on a small tablet computer. Recent developments in technologies impact the processes organizations use to make decisions. In addition, academics are looking for ways to enhance their pedagogy to train students to be more adept in understanding how emerging technology will be used effectively for decision making in organizations.The chapters are based on papers originally reviewed at the Special Interest Group on Decision Support Systems (SIGDSS) Workshop at the 2013 International Conference on Information Systems (ICIS 2013). Ultimately this volume endeavors to find a balance between systematizing what we know, so we can teach our findings from prior research better, and stimulating excitement to move the field in new directions. Lakshmi Iyeris an Associate Professor and Director of Graduate Programs in the Information Systems and Supply Chain Management Department, Bryan School of Business and Economics at the University of North Carolina Greensboro (UNCG). She received her Ph.D. in Business Administration from the University of Georgia, Athens, GA and her M.S. in Industrial Engineering from the University of Alabama, Tuscaloosa. Her research interests are in the area of business analytics, knowledge management, emerging technologies its impact on organizations and users, and diversity in computing. Her research work has been published in or forthcoming in Communications of the AIS, Journal of Association for Information Systems, European Journal of Information Systems, Communications of the ACM, Decision Support Systems, eService Journal, Journal of Electronic Commerce Research, International Journal of Business Intelligence Research, Information Systems Management, Journal of Global Information Technology and Management, and others. She is a Board member of Teradata University Network, Chair of the Special Interest Group in Decision Support and Analytics (formerly SIGDSS), and served as research track co-chair for BI Congress.Dr. Iyer is also involved in community engaged outreach and scholarship that furthers the role of women in IT (wiit.uncg.edu). She is a member of the American Association of University Women (AAUW) and received the Dr. Shirley Hall Award from AAUW Greensboro Branch in April 2011 for exemplary contribution to enrich STEM education for women. She is founder and Director of the 'IT is for Girls' at UNCG, an outreach program for middle and high-school girls that aims to increase their awareness about education and career paths in computing. She has received funding from AAUW, National Center for Women in IT (NCWIT) and from foundations to offer STEM events for young women. Dr. Iyer serves as a co-chair of the Association of Information Systems' (AIS) task force on Women in IS to enhance the outreach efforts of AIS to women in Information Systems (IS) based on systematic assessment of the current status of women in IS, globally, including students (both current and potential) and professionals in academia, corporate, and non-profit organizations with the intent to creating a nurturing, supporting environment conducive to enhancing the growth and success of women in IS field.Daniel J. Poweris a Professor of Management and Information Systems at the College of Business Administration at the University of Northern Iowa, Cedar Falls, Iowa and the Editor of DSSResources.COM, the Web-based knowledge repository about computerized systems that support decision making, the editor of PlanningSkills.COM, and the editor of DSS News, a bi-weekly e-newsletter. Dan writes a regular column in Decision Support News. Also, Dan is a blogger on the Business Intelligence Network.Since 1982, Daniel Power has published more than 50 articles, book chapters and proceedings papers. His articles have appeared in leading journals including Decision Sciences, Decision Support Systems, Journal of Decision Systems, MIS Quarterly, Academy of Management Review, Communications of the Association for Information Systems and Information and Management. He is also co-author of a book titled Strategic Management Skills and he has authored four books on computerized decision support. His DSS Concepts book (2002) titled Decision Support Systems: Concepts and Resources for Managers is a broad ranging scholarly handbook on the fundamentals of building decision support systems. His expanded DSS Framework has received widespread interest. His latest book from Business Expert Press is titled Decision Support, Analytics, and Business Intelligence.Professor Power is the Editor-in-Chief of the Journal of the Midwest Association for Information Systems (JMWAIS), a member of two academic journal editorial boards, and was the founding section editor of the ISWorld pages on Decision Support Systems Research and was founding Chair of the Association for Information Systems Special Interest Group on Decision Support and Analytics (SIG DSA). Also, Professor Power was the founding President of the Midwest United States Chapter of the Association for Information Systems (MWAIS) and served as the at-large member of the Board of Directors.In 1982, Professor Power received a Ph.D. in Business Administration from the University of Wisconsin-Madison. He was on the faculty at the University of Maryland-College Park from 1982 to 1989. Dr. Power has been a visiting lecturer at universities in China, Denmark, Ireland, Israel, and Russia. Power has consulted with a number of organizations and in Summer 2003 he was a Visiting Faculty Research Fellow with the U. S. Air Force Research Lab Information Directorate (AFRL/IF).Dr. Power is a pioneer developer of computerized decision aiding and support systems. During 1975-77, he developed a computerized system called DECAID, Decision AID. In 1981-83, he reprogrammed and expanded the system for the Apple II PC.

Issue 67.4 of the Review for Religious, 2008. ; Personal Witness Heart -Knowledge, .Spiritual Reflection QUARTERLY 67.4 2008 Review for Religious fosters dialogue with God, dialogue with ourselves, and dialogue with one another about the holiness we try to live according to charisms of Catholic religious life. As Pope Paul Vl said, our way of being church is today the way of dialogue. Review for Religious (ISSN 0034-639X) is published quarterly at Saint Louis University by the Jesuits of the Missouri Province. Editorial Office: 3601 Lindell Boulevard ¯ St. Louis, Missouri 63108-3393 Telephone: 314-633-4610 ¯ Fax: 314-633-4611 E-Maih review@slu.edu ¯ Web site: www.reviewforreligious.org Manuscripts, books for review, and correspondence with the editor: Review for Religious ¯ 3601 Lindell Boulevard - St. Louis, MO 63108-3393 Correspondence about the Canonical Counsel department: Elizabeth McDonough OP ¯ Pontifical College Josephinum 7625 North High Street ¯ Columbus, Ohio 43235 POSTMASTER Send address changes to Review for Religious ¯ P.O. Box 6070 ¯ Duluth, MN 5.5806. Periodical postage paid at St. Louis, Missouri, and additional mailing offices. See inside back cover for information on subscription rates. ©2008 Review for Religious Permission is herewith granted to copy any material (articles, poems, reviews) contained in this issue of Review for Religious for personal or internal use, or for the personal or internal use of specific library clients within the limits outlined in Sections 107 and/or 108 of the United States Copyright Law. All copies made under this permission must bear notice of the source, date, and copyright owner on the first page. This permission is NOT extended to copying for commercial distribution, advertising, institutional promotion, or for the creation of new collective works or anthologies. Such permission will only be considered on written application to the Editor, Review for Religious. ~ gournal of Catholic ~pir~ual~ for 0 religious Editor Associate Editor Canonical Counsel Scripture Scop~ Editorial Staff Advisory Board David L. Fleming sJ Philip C. Fischer sJ Elizabeth McDonough OP Eugene Hensell OSB Mary Ann Foppe Tracy Gramm Judy Sharp Paul Coutinho SJ Martin Erspamer OSB Margaret Guider OSF Kathleen Hughes RSCJ Louis and Angela Menard Bishop Terry Steib SVD QUARTERLY 67.4 2008 contents 340 prisms Prisms 342 personal witness Thomas Merton's Legacy: A Personal Reflection Richard Hauser SJ gives personal witness to Thomas Merton's influence in five areas of spirituality: models of spirituality, personal prayer, the sacred and the secular, nonviolence, and interreligious understanding. Personal Reflection / Group Discussion 358 Our Ethnicity.en Route to God Ruth Bolarte IHM, recalling her early religious formation as a Peruvian woman in the United States, points out the need for everyone's ethnic cultural roots to be recognized and made good use of in spiritual direction and in faith and religious-life education. 366 heart knowledge Constitutions and Heart Knowledge Beatrice Eichten OSF proposes that women and men religious may ~ell review their ¢onstitntions and question how they live out in practice their co ,mmunity life and governance today. Personal Reflection / Group Discussion Revie~ for Religious 380 Can New Life Arise from the Rule Book? 386 Nestor Gregoire OMI suggests ways that the Rule Book of a religious congregation can become user friendly and be a part of the community's prayer life. Monasticism's Rooted Adaptations Joel Rippinger OSB paints a picture of the contemporary demands on the monastic community and the adaptation required to remain true to monastic life. 392 4O4 413 Revisiting Hope William P. Clark OMI ruminates on all the richness that the virtue of hope gives to our daily living and to our witness-ing to our Christian faith. Becoming All Fire: Thoughts on Religious Identity Hedwig Lewis SJ offers reflections on the Jesuit as "a man on fire" in the light of Decree 2 of General Congregation 35. Though applied here to the Society of Jesus, the ideas have relevance for all women and men religious and for others who desire greater commitment to the Lord. A Source for Prayer Undreamt Of A. Paul Dominic SJ proposes ways that we might find content for our prayer in the dreams that God may use in speaking to us. 425 Scripture Scope: The New Perspective on St. Paul 430 Canonical Counsel: The Lacuna Canon: Common and Constant Opinion 435 Book Reviews 443 2008 Index 339 67.4 2008 prisms 3401 Nvember is the month in the Catholic liturgical tradition devoted to a commemoration of the faithful departed. We remember, those who have died and now have a different role to exercise in the communion of the saints. We remind ourselves that death is not an end, but rather a door passed through to life forever. Some years ago the Jesuit theologian Karl Rahner wrote a long essay in the Quaestiones Disputatae series entitled On the Theology of Death. One of the challenges that Rahner pre-sented was for us to view death as a beginning. Obviously in our Christian faith in the resur-rection of the body we acknowledge that in dying we rise to new life. Although physical death can be seen as an end, that same death can be seen as a beginning. Rahner, however, was drawing our atten-tion to how we prepare for our Christian death by how we live. If we truly 7want to enter into living our Christian faith, we should spend our lives learning how to die. All the little dying opportunities in our life allow for this growth. Something so simple as the physical act of fall-ing asleep at night and waking to a new day can be an exercise in dying. We can't make ourselves sleep, but we can give ourselves over Review for Religious to its possibility. And that attitude/action of "giving our-selves over" is what makes death a beginning. In our everyday life, there can be a lot of bringing things to a completion or to an end (a dying), and then we find ourselves giving ourselves over to a new project. Every time we face an ending or a dying, we are learning how to die by giving ourselves over to something new. As Christians, then, we truly can be said to be peo-ple who spend their lives learning how to die. In fol-lowing Jesus, we are his disciples even up to his death on a cross. Even suffering an unjust and cruel death by crucifixion, Jesus saw and freely accepted his death as a giving over of himself to God and to us--his own gift of self in love. This is the gift God makes present to us in every Eucharist--the eternal stance of Jesus giving himself over to the Father and to us, and inviting us to be with him in this gift. So as we enter into every Eucharist, we again are exercising our learning how to die--a giving of ourselves over to new life. November is also the end of the church's liturgical year. We begin anew our liturgical year with the sea-son of Advent. Just as in the secular ending of a year and then the beginning of a new year, we find ourselves challenged to acknowledge that this year we are one year closer to dying, no matter our age. It seems to be a good time to ask ourselves; as Rahner would remind us, how we accept death as a beginning and how each day we are learning how to die. David L. Fleming SJ The Review for Religious advisory board members and editorial staff pray for a blessed Advent and Christmas sea-son for all of you, our readers. 341 67.4 2008 prayer RICHARD J. HAUSER Thomas Merton's Legacy: A Personal Reflection 342 The Newsweek cover of 19 November 2007 proclaimed 1968 as "The Year That Made Us Who We Are." Prominent among the events recalled were the deaths of Martin Luther King Jr. on 4 April and Robert Kennedy on 6 June. For me the year recalled another death, Thomas Merton's, on 10 December, and Newsweek's title led me to reflect on how Merton had made me and many of my genera-tion who we are as Christians. This surprised me. I had never explicitly assessed Merton's contribution either to 20th-century spiritual-ity or to my own. Then I received and accepted an invitation from St. Mary's College, South Bend, to speak about Merton's legacy to contemporary spiritu-ality. I began delving back into spiritual devel-opments after the Second Vatican Council. Richard J. Hauser SJ writes from Creighton University; 2500 California Plaza; Omaha, Nebraska 68178. Review for Religious To be safe I narrowed my topic to Merton's influence on me, but I soon felt that Merton had influenced my entire generation, affecting major writers such as Henri Nouwen and Thomas Keating. From 1969 to 1972 I studied in the Department of Religion and Religious Education at Catholic University in Washington, D.C. There I became fascinated by Abraham Maslow's self-actualizationpsychology, espe-cially his approach to peak "religious" experience. Deciding for my dissertation to compare Maslow, an agnostic, with a Christian spiritual writer, I did not take the suggestion to use Ignatius Loyola. I had read Seven Storey Mountain in high school; as a young Jesuit I had not become further acquainted; but I would become familiar with him. I chose Merton. Looking back now, I am aware that Merton signifi-cantly altered my approach to spirituality in at least five areas: models of spirituality, personal prayer, the sacred and the secular, nonviolence, and interreligious under-standing. Models of Spirituality Merton transformed my understanding of not only spirituality but also human nature. He moved me from a behavior-centered approach to a contemplative, heart-centered approach. And for the first time I began under-standing the role of grace. In my Jesuit formation from 1955 to 1968, we strove to do God's will as indicated in the daily order. Our day included Mass, meditation, examinations of conscience, the rosary, and other prayers. It included times for work, study, play, eating, and sleeping. Our, day was spent doing things for God. Holiness, as I understood it throughout my Jesuit formation, was in fidelity in doing God's will 343 67.4 2008 Hauser * Thomas Merton's Legacy: .4 Personal Reflection by observing the daily order and keeping the rules: "Keep the rules and the rules will keep you." I frequently failed in observance. I was a perfectionist and experienced guilt. I had migraine headaches during my early years. During my studies at Catholic University, I began rethinking my model of spirituality and of human nature. Though I had never formally articulated it, my understanding of human nature throughout my forma-tion was Freudian: Human nature cannot be trusted because it is dominated by the strong self-centered instinctual impulses of the Id, and so spirituality strives to repress and control this unruly nature. Abraham Maslow's personality theory challenged this model. Maslow describes human nature in a posi-tive series of needs leading to full self-actualization. This actualization occurs as we recognize and respond to our nature's promptings. For my dissertation I sought a theological perspec-tive on human nature that would complement Maslow's psychological one. Merton's theory of the True Self pro-vided that perspective. He stresses that the True Self is the self in an existential union with God. This union is capable of transforming the self if we live in tune with it: "The secret of my identity is hidden in Him. He alone can make me who I am, or rather who I will be when at last I fully begin to be. But, unless I desire this identity and work to find it with him and in him, the work will never be done." Also: "There is only one problem on which all my existence, my peace, and my happiness depend: to discover myself in discovering God. If I find him I will find myself, and if I find my true self I will find him.''1 For the first time in my life I was exposed to a Christian approach to the self that stressed not sinful- Review for Religious ness but grace. For me, Merton was describing grace as it worked transforming the various levels of Maslow's series of needs. Merton's "self-realization in Christ" was the perfect complement to Maslow's agnostic "self-actu-alization.'~ But Merton's approach to the self was not naive. He realized that discovering our True Self is difficult because we are shadowed by a False Self. This False Self is a product of our secular, materialistic culture; it leads to an understand- ¯ ing of the self that does not include God: "Every one of us is shadowed by an illusory person: a false self. My false and pri-vate self is the one who wants to exist outside the reach of God's will and God's love--outside of reality and outside of life. And such a self can-not help but be an illusion .A.ll sin starts from the assumption that my false self, the self that exists only in my own egocentric desires, is the fundamental reality of life to which everything else in the universe is ordered" (Seeds, 34-35). Merton's approach to spirituality focuses not on behavior but on the habitual consciousness underlying actions. Spirituality seeks to recognize and respond to God's presence at the center of our self, our True Self. This includes recognizing and rejecting the patterns of our False Self that separate us from God. It is not unlike Paul's contrast between following Christ by faith-ful observance of the external law and following Christ Merton's approach to spirituality focuses not on behavior but on the habitual consciousness underlying actions. 67.4 2008 Hauser * Thonms Merton'~ Legacy: .4 Per~onM Reflection 346 by responding to the law of the Holy Spirit written upon our hearts. This insight illumined my spirituality. When I began my university teaching, I was asked to teach a graduate course called Approaches to Mysticism. Merton's contemplative spirituality became my guide. Personal Prayer Merton transformed my personal prayer, helping me experience prayer as an authentic and fulfilling expres-sion of myself before God and not only as a prescribed religious obligation. He helped me recognize the Spirit's role and become aware of actual contemplation in my life and prayer. I believe that contemplation is the key to Merton's spirituality. ' Daily personal prayer was a regular part of our Jesuit formation. We were given Jesuit-authored meditation books that presented scriptural passages for each day of the year. We were taught the Ignatian methods of meditation and contemplation presented in his Spiritual Exercises. We were instructed to reflect on those passages using memory, understanding, will, and imagination. We prayed for fifty minutes each morning beginning at 5:30. I found these prayer hours difficult and did not look forward to them. They seemed irrelevant; I often experienced distraction, boredom, and sleep. I was faith-ful to this regimen for the first nine years of my Jeslait formation. As part of my formation I taught at a Jesuit mis-sion in South Dakota. Life at the mission was difficult, both in community life and in ministry. The students showed little enthusiasm for the courses I taught or the activities I ran. Discouraged, I wondered if I had fol-lowed the right vocation. I began taking walks alone late at night down the country road. I poured out my Review for Religious discouragement to the Lord. The walks stabilized me; in the stillness I often found peace. I looked forward to these walks and would not miss them if I could help it. I determined to continue serving the Lord. But I did not consider these walks personal prayer-- they were not the Ignatian prayer I was trained in. Needing sleep, I soon was sleeping through the morning prayer hour and getting up in time for the 6:30 Mass. I felt guilty, but one day I realized I was not skipping prayer--I was doing it at night. From that moment my personal prayer changed. I felt that prayer does not have to be a strenuous concentration of mem-ory, understanding, will, and imagination. Simply being with the Lord anywhere--in chapel or outside--was prayer. Theologians might not agree with me, and this was not the Ignatian prayer I was taught--so I kept my ideas to myself. In graduate school Merton gave me a theological foundation for my prayer. He helped me realize I was holding on to a Pelagian understanding of prayer. He showed me that prayer is really more the work of the Holy Spirit than my work: "It can therefore be said that the aim of mental prayer is to awaken the Holy Spirit within us, and to bring our hearts into harmony with his voice, so that we allow the Holy Spirit to speak and pray within us, and lend him our voice and our affec-tions that we may become, as far as possible, conscious of his prayer in our hearts.''2 Merton showed me that prayer can actually be easy and that we can pray from wherever we are in our lives. It does not have to be a strenuous effort to forget our daily lives and to concentrate on Scripture using mem-ory, understanding, and will. "In prayer we discover what we already have. You start where you are and you 347 67.4 2008 Hauser ¯ Thomas Merton's Legacy: .4 Personal R~ection Merton gave me the theology and language to explain and justify what had become my regular practice of personal prayer. 348 deepen what you already have, and you realize that you are already there. We already have everything; but we don't know it and we don't experience it. Everything has been given to us in Christ. All we need is to experience what we already possess.''3 Finally, and unbelievably, I learned that my prayer sometimes fulfilled Merton's description of contem-plation- being touched by God in a way transcending words. What I had considered merely natural human expe-riences-- Maslow's peak experiences-- were actually encoun-ters with the divine: "Contemplation is a sudden gift of aware-ness, an awakening to the Real within all that is real. A vivid - ¯ - awareness of infinite Being at the roots of our own limited being. An awareness of our contingent reality as received, as a present from God, as a free gift of love. This is the existential contact of which we speak when we use the metaphor of being 'touched by God'" (Seeds, 3). I realized these experiences happened most frequendy for me--and for Merton--in nature, and they happened most frequently outside of formal prayer times. He showed me that contemplation is not merely the preserve of cloistered monks and nuns, but that we are all called to it by our baptism. In short, Merton gave me the theology and language to explain and justify what had become my regular prac-tice of personal prayer. This had several enduring effects Review for Religious on my rhythm of personal prayer. I moved toward more and more silence in prayer, allowing the Holy Spirit to pray within me. I began daily prayer with my personal concerns rather than Scripture. I arranged my place of prayer to ensure I could always view God's creation. I altered my annual eight-day retreats: I stopped going to retreat houses and went to places of great natural beauty near a mountain or an ocean--and I began looking for-ward to these retreats. The Sacred and the Secular Merton's ideas had many ramifications in my life. He helped me transcend an artificial distinction I had made between the sacred and the secular. He helped me recognize that daily life is sacred. Before the Second Vatican Council and throughout my formation, I had lived with a basic misunderstand-ing about spirituality and holiness. I believed that spiri-tuality is primarily faithful performance of devotional practices aimed directly at worshiping God, such as Mass and visits to chapel, and that holiness is measured by fidelity to these practices. I did acknowledge other things as important, such as doing God's will and charity toward others, especially toward the most needy. These things, however, seemed not as central to holiness as the explicitly religious activities. When the council came, I was deeply influenced by the document "The Church in the Modern World" (Gaudium et spes). The council clearly taught that being a good Catholic is more than simply performing reli-gious obligations faithfully. A good Catholic must also be actively involved in serving the kingdom of God by living in love in ordinary daily life, and especially by working for justice in the world and working for the poor. 349 67.4 2008 Hauser ¯Tbomas Merton's Legaiy: A Personal Reflection This call occasioned a crisis in my life. I began to feel there had been too much emphasis on religious activities and not enough on service to others. I questioned my commitment to daily Mass and meditation. For a while I dropped daily personal prayer. I had set up a dichotomy between sacred activities and secular activities. Merton helped me overcome this dichotomy. His understand-ing of the True Self was key. The True Self exists in an existential union not only with God but also with the entire human family. There is no true union with God without union with one another, and so the Holy Spirit moves our hearts not only to love God in religious activ-ities but also to love one another in our daily activities: "Christ prayed that all men might become One as He was One with his Father, in the Unity of the Holy Spirit. Therefore when you and I become what we are really meant to be, we will discover not only that we love one another perfectly but that we are both living in Christ and Christ in us, and we are all One Christ. We will see that it is he who loves in us" (Seeds, 65). Living a life of service to others is not a distrac-tion from union with God but actually a condition for reaching this union: "One of the paradoxes of the mys-tical life is this: that a man cannot enter into the deep-est center of himself, and pass through that center into God, unless he is able to pass entirely out of himself and empty himself and give himself to other people in the purity of a selfless love" (Seeds, 64). Merton emphasizes that the quality of prayer affects the quality of our action. The more deeply we are united to God in prayer, the more energy we have to serve our neighbor. "Action and contemplation now grow together into one life and one unity. They become two aspects of the same thing. Action is charity looking out- Review for Religious ward to other men, and contemplation is charity drawn inward to its own divine source. Action is the stream, and contemplation is the spring. The spring remains more important than the stream, for the only thing that really matters is for love to spring up inexhaustibly from the infinite abyss of Christ and of God.''4 Merton gave me the theology to dedicate myself to both prayer and service. Since both flow from the Holy Spirit, both are sacred. This theology impelled me to social action. Soon after I began my university teaching, I initiated a campus boycott of iceberg lettuce to sup-port the farm workers' union. I encouraged nonviolent picketing of the food service lines. The boycott took more than a year but was ultimately successful. Nonviolence Before reflecting on Merton's spirituality, I had a lim-ited understanding of nonviolence. I thought of it sim-ply as conscientiously objecting to the war in Vietnam and, influenced by Martin Luther King's civil rights movement, as not retaliating physically when attacked. Though I admired these positions, I saw those who took them as rare, highly idealistic, and a bit naive. Merton revolutionized my understanding. His description of the True Self showed me that an attitude of nonviolence is an integral part of living the gospel and following Christ. Since God dwells within every human being, this com-munion has radical consequences for how we think and how we act. When we are in tune with God at our center, in our True Self, we experience our oneness with others, even with our "enemies." Our behavior changes. Merton helped me realize that Western understand-ings of the person foster secularism, individualism, materialism, competition, and a sense of superiority. 67.4 2008 Hauser ¯ Thomas Merton's Legacy: A Personal R~leaion Merton helped me.realize that Western understandings of the person foster secularism, individualism, materialism, competition, and a sense of superiority. This False Self has the illusion that our existence is not connected with God or with others, and this illusion leads to violence: "People who know nothing of God, and whose lives are centered on themselves, imagine that they can only find themselves by asserting their own desires and ambi-tions and appetites in a struggle with the rest of the world. They try to become real by imposing themselves on other people, by appro-priating for them-selves some share of the limited supply of created goods and thus emphasizing the difference between themselves and other men who have less than they, or nothing at all" (Seeds, 47). Merton concludes simply: "I must look for my identity, somehow, not only in God but in other men. I will never be able to find myself if I isolate myself from the rest of mankind as if I were a different kind of being" (Seeds, 51). The transformation Merton calls for happens most profoundly in contemplation. In a busy Kentucky city, Merton experienced his most well-known contemplative awakening: "In Louisville, at the corner of Fourth and Walnut, in the center of the shopping district, I was suddenly overwhelmed with the realization that I loved all those people, that they were mine and I theirs, that we could not be alien to one another even though we were total strangers. It was like waking from a dream of Review for Religious separateness, of spurious self-isolation in a special world, the world of renunciation and supposed holiness.''s Such consciousness is the foundation for Merton's understanding of nonviolence. It can move us to deal with our neighbors always with compassion and love, not violence. We seek nonviolent ways to show our neigh-bors the divine within them as it has been shown joyfully to ourselves. This is the way Merton was leading me to radical implications of being a Christian. How inad-equate my understanding of nonviolence had been! Merton lived during the turbulent 1960s and applied nonviolent principles to social movements. He became the prophetic voice for many involved in these movements. While studying in Washington, I attended many mass demonstrations against the Vietnam War. I remember a group of marchers on Pennsylvania Avenue carrying a ban-ner slandering President Nixon. Merton helped me realize that this was not true nonviolence. Without compassion and love, it was merely a redirection of hatred. Truly non-violent social movements exclude hatred, because we are all members of one human family with God as our Father. I began applying nonviolent principles to personal con-flicts. I realized how often I sought to resolve conflicts by some sort of psychological intimidation. I saw anew the need for prayer. And I began teaching a course titled Faith and Nonviolence. We read the New Testament, Gandhi, Martin Luther King, Cesar Chavez, Daniel Berrigan, and Merton. The course applied nonviolent principles to both societal and personal conflicts. Interreligious Understanding Although I had taken several courses on world reli-gions during my theology studies, I understood these religions mainly as institutions with distinctive creeds, 67.4 2008 Hauser * Thomas Merton's Legacy: .4 Personal Reflection codes, and cults. Through his approach to contem-plation, Merton led me toward an empathetic under-standing of them. Key to this deeper understanding was Merton's insistence that the contemplative experi-ence of the divine is beyond words: "Contemplation is always beyond our own knowledge, beyond our own light, beyond systems, beyond explanations, beyond discourse, beyond dialogue, beyond our own self." "It cannot even be clearly explained. It can only be hinted at, suggested, pointed to, symbolized. The more objec-tively and scientifically one tries to analyze it, the more one empties it of its real content, for this experience is beyond the reach of verbalization and rationalization" (Seeds, 2 & 6). Since all human beings share the same human nature, and since the same God dwells within us all, we may indeed share similar experiences of God. Reading Merton's Inner Experience confirmed this idea for me. Buddhist descriptions of satori are not unlike Merton's descriptions of contemplation. Merton presents a poem. Devoid of thought, I sat quietly by the desk in my official room, With my fountain-mind undisturbed, as serene as water; A sudden crash of thunder, the mind doors burst open, And lo, there sits the old man in all his homeliness. Merton comments: "There sits Chao-pien himself, the same and yet utterly different, for it is the eternal Chao-pien, one with no familiar name, at once humble and mighty., utterly beyond description or comparison because he is beyond yes and no, subject and object, self and not-self. It is like the wonderful, devastating, and unutterable awe of humble joy with which a Christian realizes: 'I and the Lord are One.'''6 Review for Religious This was a major breakthrough in my understand-ing. After my own experiences of contemplation, I could now allow Merton's books and essays on Zen Buddhism, Taoism, Sufism, Judaism, and Hinduism to lead me to deeper understanding of these religions. Since I wanted my students to understand the centrality of prayer and contemplation for every world religion, I began adding these readings to my courses. We all mourned Merton's untimely death in Bangkok on 10 December 1968, during his three-month trip to Asia. This death was especially sad because his firsthand Asian experiences would have given him further data on similarities between Eastern and Western mysticism. My Debt to Merton I realize that many today take for granted the five areas of spirituality that I have described. But Merton's insights were presented before the council and offi-cial Catholicism accepted them. Indeed, his own abbot general censored his 1961 antiwar writings. Merton's writing became foundational for a new generation of Christians and spiritual writers. This fortieth anni-versary of his death is the first time I have stopped to acknowledge my debt. I do not consider it an exaggera-tion to say that Merton was a prophet heralding a new age of spirituality. Merton paved the way for my own understanding of the council's teaching on the Holy Spirit in Christian spirituality. Merton's insistence that the True Self is ontologically united both to God and to all humanity and that the Holy Spirit is the source of this communion transformed my previously unrecognized American indi-vidualism. I had never grasped that the indwelling of the Spirit has actual effects in daily life and daily prayer. The 67.4 2008 Hauser * Thomas Merton's Legacy: .4 Personal Reflection combination of Merton's description of the True Self and the council's message on the Holy Spirit revolution-ized my spirituality. I was so energized by these insights that I wrote three books and dozens of articles. I am indebted to Merton for "bringing me home" to Ignatian prayer. Merton's descriptions of prayer flow-ing spontaneously from daily life led me to reconsider my understanding of it. I realized that Ignatian prayer is not simply to be identified with intense concentra-tion on scripture texts as found in the meditations and contemplations of the Spiritual Exercises. Prayer more characteristic of Ignatius is found in his Contemplation for Obtaining Divine Love and flows from daily life. Observations of Ignatius at prayer, like the following recollection from one of Ignatius's first companions, assure me that I am on the right track: At night he would go up on the roof of the house, with the sky there up above him. He would sit there quietly, absolutely quietly. He would take his hat off and look up for a long time at the sky. Then he would fall on his knees, bowing profoundly to God. Then he would sit on a little bench because the weakness of his body did not allow him to take any other posi-tion. He would stay there bareheaded and without moving. And the tears would begin to flow down his cheeks like a stream, but so quietly and so gently that you heard not a sob nor a sigh nor the least possible movement of his body.7 Merton helped me internalize that hallmark of Ignatian spirituality "Finding God in all things." He also paved the way.for my understanding of Ignatius's discernment of spirits, but that is another article. I have asked myself why my journey into Ignatian spirituality took so long. I recognize now that Iowas blocked by invalid False Self assumptions. I needed Review for Religious someone to address them directly. In God's providence Thomas Merton was that person--the person who with God's grace most made me who I am today as a Catholic Christian. Notes 1 Thomas Merton, New Seeds of Contemplation (New York: New Directions, 1961), pp. 33 & 36. Hereafter, in the text, Seeds. 2 Thomas Merton, Spiritual Direction and Meditation (Collegeville: Liturgical Press, 1960), p. 67. 3 David Steindl-Rast OSB, "Recollections of Thomas Merton's Last Day in the West," Monastic Studies, Vol. 7, pp. 1-10. 4 Thomas Merton, No Man Is an Island (New York: Doubleday Image, 1955), p. 65. 5 Thomas Merton, Conjectures of a Guilty Bystander (New York: Doubleday Image, 1989), p. 156. 6 Inner Experience, pp. 300-301, taken from L.S. Cunningham, Thomas Merton: Spiritual Master (New York: Paulist Press, 1992). 7 W.W. Meissner SJ, Ignatius of Loyola: The Psychology of a Saint (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1992), p. 280. Personal Reflection / Group Discussion Has Thomas Merton or another spiritual writer influenced my practices of the spiritual life? Like Hauser, how would I describe the change? 67.4 2008 RUTH BOLARTE Our Ethnicity en Route to God ~ elonging and "distinctness" are both .signifi- ~ cant dimensions of my life. Years ago I left my country of origin, Peru, and began religious life in the United States. During those first years, away from fam-ily and friends and the emotional and material support they had been for me, my desire and need to belong and be one of.the group made me conceal a part of myself, my Peruvian culture. My initial years of religious for-mation did not acknowledge my Hispanic heritage and the spiritual treasure it was. My being Hispanic was only a curious novelty, something to be asked a few questions about. Without any intentional fault of those guiding me on the spiritual journey, I neverthe-less received the unspoken message that I should abide by the new codes and values that were presented to me and somehow forget what I had learned in Peru Ruth Bolarte IHM, a member of the Sisters, Servants of the Immaculate Heart of Mary, is director of the Catholic Institute for Evangelization; 4404 North 5th Street; Philadelphia, Pennsylvania 19140. Review for Religious about God, life, and people. Eventually, little by little, my God-friend became the God of rules and formality. Spontaneity, touching, and initiative disappeared, and a "prove yourself" attitude emerged. I believed in my heart that hard work, silence, and distance were the key to my religious life in the United States. In order to be recognized as one of the group, I adapted myself to the mainstream culture and disre-garded my images of God, of prayer, of life and death. When the opportunity presented itself, I limited my "ethnic sharing" to external aspects of culture: food, music, stories, and dance. These were safe issues and did not upset anyone. People, consciously or not, were simply not interested in listening with open hearts to the heart of my culture: my experiences of God through family, nature, joy, and suffering; my views on authority, poverty, power, or church. I was not raised with a code of beliefs and rules to obey. We.entrusted ourselves to a loving God who walked, ate, laughed, and cried with us throughout the events of our day. Church was not the only place where we could worship God. We gave glory and praise to God through our family celebrations, our processions, and our dead. In later years I would find out that my traditions of religion were what theologians and the church named "popular religigsity." Pope Paul vI explains this concept in his apostolic exhortation Evangelii nuntiandi: " One finds among the people particular expressions of the search for God and for faith, both in the regions where the church has been established for centuries and where she is in the course of becoming established. These expressions were for a long time regarded as less pure and were sometimes despised, but today they are almost everywhere being redis-covered. l 67.4 2008 Bolarte ¯ Our Etbnicity en Route to God The Holy Father explains that these religious expres-sions are susceptible to many misinterpretations. If, however, they are well oriented through the pedagogy of evangelization, they are rich in value since they reflect the thirst for God that 0nly the poor and simple can know. Popular religiosity is a major part of the spiritual life of Hispanic people. Hispanic spirituality is divine and human at the same time; it is incarnated spiritual-ity. 2 God is perceived as all-powerful, sovereign, and superior to all human beings, but also as a member of the family--someone who sits at the table and does not need a special invitation. God is not a far distant image in heaven; God is Emmanuel, always at our side, accom-panying us all day every step of the way. Since these expressions of faith were not acknowl-edged during my formation years, my cultural identity became dim. I only became aware of this only when I visited Peru after having lived in the United States for five years. I began to feel this tension between two seemingly opposite forces, my Pei'uvian culture and my adopted American one, between my yearning to "belong" and my efforts to hold on to my "distinctness." What a surprise it was to find that I did not "belong" anymore to the place where I had lived most of my life! Two cultures, American and Peruvian, had shaped me into a new person I only pardy understood. Returning to my homeland made me conscious that somehow my identity and personhood were rooted in both the American and Peruvian cultures. Once I became aware of this, I felt a need to inte-grate both cultures in my life, whether I resided in Peru or in the United States. The questions for ~e were, How do I do that? and who will understand? Many questions arose, 'and there was no one to talk to about Review for Religious them. Even though I had spiritual directors, I did not feel comfortable bringing up these "cultural" issues. For ten more years I lived with the questions and the ten-sions of being different and trying to belong to a com-munity, a parish, a church that was at the same time borne and foreign. During this time I learned to assert myself and prove to others that I was as capable and prepared as any other religious in the United States. I have come to believe that wholeness in our lives is a process of becoming,, something we undertake each day. Tension is an opportunity for growth and devel-opment. Becoming conscious of my longing to "belong" while also recogniz-ing my "uniqueness" and sense of inde-pendence marked the beginning of a long road borne. Only when I started to ask myself questions about my Latina identity, reading the works of various Hispanic theologians and reflecting critically on my experiences in the United States, was I able to be at borne with the tension of being part of two worlds. I had the opportunity for this reflection while doing the research for my thesis. After so many years living in the United States, I was finally able to name struggles and hurts, and more than anything I could identify, cel-ebrate, and rejoice in my cultural heritage. The tension I had felt became a source of wealth and fulfillment Becoming conscious of my longing to "belong" while also recognizing my "uniqueness" and sense of independence marked the beginning of a long road home. 361 67.4 2008 Bolarte ¯ Our Etbnicity en Route to God As my own "true self" was gradually revealed to me and then to others, a new person emerged, one that was freer to relate to God and others. rather than being a barrier to my social and personal development. The cultural wealth of our various ethnic groups, yours and mine, is a main component in our human and spiritual development. It is crucial that those involved in religious formation, spiritual direction, and ministry consider the cultural factors in people's spir-itual journeys. People need a sense of belong-ing and historical con-tinuity. If we deny our family origins and his-tory, we deny ourselves. 0nly when we feel affirmed in our identity can we be free, open, and welcoming to other cultural groups. On the other hand, people often develop a sense of inferiority, a poor self-image, when they feel minimized or attacked in their ethnic identity. In many cases these feelings become a defen-sive or aggressive attitude toward the dominant ethnic group or toward other minority ethnic groups. Since spirituality involves all aspects of life--psy-chological, physical, social, and political--we need to recognize that all cultural groups have distinctive ways of facing life, sickness, family, power, pain, and death. An inte, grated spirituality recognizes that all of our lives must be subjected to the transformative power of the Holy Spirit. We hear and appropriate the Good News of Jesus from our various cultural perspectives. Those perspectives influence how we understand the message Review for Religious and how we respond to it. Vgho can be sure of a univer-sal description that is the norm for all? The ministry of Jesus is to reveal the meaning of life and offer humanity an opportunity to enter freely into a loving relationship with God as adult daughters and sons. Because an important root of spirituality is found in the self, we must integrate the psychological value of self-affirmation, self-fulfillment, or self-realization with the Christian tradition of self-denial, self-emptying, or self-surrender. From the moment of birth we seek in our human development a proper balance, the right connectedness with others and the right separateness from others. The challenge for everyone is to achieve relatedness without symbiotic engulfment and indepen-dence without alienation and emptiness. As my own "true self" was gradually revealed to me and then to others, a new person emerged, one that was freer to relate to God and others. In faith I had the power to respond to the gift of my being and abandon the "false self" of pretenses; concealments, and fears. It was this "false self" that I was called to deny, the self that hid my ethnicity. Thomas Merton summarizes this dynamic when he affirms that if we find God we find ourselves and if we find our own selves we find God.3 For Merton, maturing in the spiritual life is a discov-ery journey, the discovery of oneself and of God. One of the tasks of those involved in faith formation is to search for and reveal the seed of God that is already there in her and her culture. They must lead her to recognize Christ in herself and challenge those aspects of her which need purification so the complete image of God can be revealed. All through human development, critical reflection is required. As people grow in maturity, there is a shift 363 67.4 2008 Bolarte * Our Etbnicity en Route to God from being acted on by the world to acting on the world. In my experience of tension between two worlds, it was only when I internalized and reflected on being a part of two cultures that I could incorporate the tension into who I was. Duringthis internalization, I needed to grieve my cultural losses, experience the pain of the hurts, and forgive those who purposely or not had discriminated against me. Sometimes people do not perceive that ignoring cultural differences is a form of discrimination: it deprives someone of her distinctive cultural identity, the unique person she was created to be. Our spiritual journey in Christ requires accepting that our worth, our value, our selfhood as children of God is given to us as our birthright. It means knowing deeply that we are known, loved, and invited to partnership in being with the God who from all eternity intended us and who desires our love. To answer the question "Who am I?" we need to incorporate all our past--including the past of our family, culture, religion, and national group. Only this person can be the subject of our own destiny. Knowing that I am loved by God, I need not live in anxi-ety, or seek affirmation through achievement or some other form of power, for I learn to accept imperfections and strengths, my own and others'. God's grace invites us to become the persons we were created to be. God's love does not absorb, anni-hilate, or force itself upon the beloved. Instead it longs for the beloved to become more and more "other" or differentiated. Without such "letting be" of the beloved, the dialogical intimacy essential to a loving relation-ship would be impossible. God allows unique persons to emerge and become capable of deep relationships because, God, "how could you give yourself to me unless you had fii'st given me to myself?.''4 Review for Religious By no means is my endeavor to integrate cultures within myself and my religious life a finished task. It is a process that every day makes use of the newness I encounter in the many kinds of relationship in my life. Sometimes I long for the support of my Anglo friends because they can understand my experience; other times I look for my Latino support group because they can feel forme. There are times when I feel alienated from one or both of the cultures, like a fish out of water; at other times I am tired of the tension of the two worlds and I just want to run and hide. Being a "bridge per-son"-- gente puente--is dangerous business. One takes the risk of being hurt or judged--becoming the scape-goat for one of the cultural groups. At these times I remember Who called me to be a Latina woman reli-gious evangelizing in the United States. God is the one who gifts me with the ability to interact with two ethnic groups. Yes, the gift entails pain and suffering--dying to my "false self." But in Jesus' resurrection I find the hope and joy of new life and the courage to continue living in a tension that is a source of new life for many, including me. Notes ~ Pablo VI, Evangelii nuntiandi (On Evangelization in the Modern World), §48. 2 Rosa Marfa Icaza, "Prayer, Worship, and Liturgy in a United States Hispanic Key," in Frontiers of Hispanic Theology in the United States, ed. Allan Figueroa Deck (Maryknoll: Orbis Books, 1995), p. 136. 3 Thomas Merton, Seeds of Contemplation (New York: Dell, 1960), p. 53. 4 Cited by Nicholas of Cusa as quoted in John Haught, God aj%r Darwin (Boulder, Colo.: Westview Press, 2000), p. 40. 67.4 2008 heart BEATRICE EICHTEN Constitutions and Heart Knowledge knowledge 366 In this article I suggest that religious--you and I, wherever we are--reflect on our vari-ous constitutions, on what we say about our life together and on how we live what we say. For most congregations the original con-stitutions antedate all the members. They were written to carry the inspiration and hopes of founders, foundresses, and early members regarding the possibility of living the gospel with charismatic idealism and practical action. They contain many elements--identity, vowed life, community, mission, prayer, membership, governance, and stewardship--all matters of relationship. After Vatican Council II ~any members were involved in adapting to the changing times. This called for re-visioning and revising the constitutions and having them Beatrice Eichten OSF here offers an adaptation of words to a Franciscan Sister's community. Her address is/577 Huff Street, #1; Winona, Minnesota 55987. eichten.consuldng@gmail.com Review for Religious approved. Now, many years later, it may be helpful to review our constitutions and ask (possibly in a second-ary document) how our community life and governance are lived today. This would be a practical effort, not an academic one. In the fast pace of life today, with many calls on our attention, have we lost touch with the heart of who we are and why we are here? Few members entered their community because they read compelling statements in their congregation's con-stitution, and it is surely the same today. Women enter a community because they are drawn to members who embody its charism, who have been claimed as God's own and who love and live for, hope and work for, God's kingdom on earth. Such women have the energy and spirit of the founders and the early members. They may not be able to quote the constitution, but they know its values and challenges. They have "heart knowledge" of their constitution, from their experience in the presence of God and their community. One could say that they know their constitution "by heart." Their lives express their constitution, the dreams and hopes and challenges it contains. We all know persons like this--we may even be one! How do people acquire that "heart knowledge"? By persistence. I am reminded of my training as apastoral psychotherapist. We were told that only after we learned the training center's theory well would we know when to adapt or depart from it. I remember the foundational text--it was like reading a foreign language! I read it diligently, paragraph by paragraph. Some sentences were a paragraph long! I would read them several times silently, and then out loud. I even underlined the sub-ject, verb, and object as I tried to figure out what they meant. Bit by bit, as I studied the text and saw it used 367 67.4 2008 Eicbten ¯ Constitutions and Heart Knowledge by skillful practitioners, I came to know and understand the theory very well. The text became a practical work-ing document for me, one that was useful and which I felt comfortable adapting as needed. Your constitution is like that. It captures the funda-mentals of your way of life--who you say you are as a congregation and how you will live your life together. As you study it and live it, you begin to live it "by heart." You make some adaptations that are, hopefully, faithful to the intent of the original document. After a while you live your life without conscious reference to your constitution--and you may have lost some of the motivation and challenge it carries. A wise Sufi teacher said of the Koran that'it is like a map. If it is used well, if you follow the rivers of life it charts out for you, it helps you make progress in living a faithful life. If you do not use it, why have it? But, he added, it is important to remember that, unlike maps, rivers change course over time. If you insist on follow-ing the river as it is mapped, you will miss the flow of life. Our constitutions are like that map, and charism, vows, and mission are rivers of our lives. Vghen maps are used wisely, they help. Ernie Larkin OCarm offers another image for our constitutions. He says we "emphasize the presence of God in all things, but may tend to forget the envelope that contains it." Our constitutions are the envelope that contains the essentials of our community way of life, essentials that are "the medium through which God comes." Our constitutions contain our "Now," which is "the only place where one can meet God." Fundamentally, then, constitutions exist to articu-late "heart knowledge," and are not the mere sets of rules and laws that a legalistic mindset too easily makes Review for Religious them. St. Clare of Assisi was aware of this. She insisted that her Rule, the guideline for the Poor Ladies' reli-gious life, express clearly her sisters' impulse in coming together. Essential to her vision was the privilege of poverty, a privilege and obli-gation which she insisted be written into their official Rule. It contained inspiration or poetry along with obliga-t_ ion or requirement. It became a living document when its followers lived by it. C.S. Lewis expresses the idea: "poetry replaces grammar, gospel replaces law, longing transforms obedience." Constitutions contain both inspiration and require-ments. Congregations sometimes register only the inspi-ration while bypassing the requirements. Sometimes they bypass the inspiration and register only the require-ments-- and chafe at them. So how do we make our constitutions truly living documents that honor both poetry and obligation? In our relationships with God and one another, do we "mind the music and the step"? Are joyful inspiration and gracefully disciplined foot-work changing us into Jesus' disciples? Fundamentally, then, constitutions exist to articulate "heart knowledge," and are not the mere sets of rules and laws that a legalistic mindset too easily makes them. Conversion Religious constitutions come from our relationship with God, from our desire to let God be the center of our life. There are different ways to do this. Franciscan 369 67.4 2008 Eicbten ¯ Constitutions and Heart Knowledge constitutions seek conversion of life. The Third Order Regular Rule of St. Francis says this: "With all., who wish to serve the Lord; the brothers and sisters of this order are to persevere in true faith and penance. They wish to live this evangelical conversion of life in a spirit of prayer, of poverty, and of humility." You and I know that conversion is not a comfortable experience, nor is it one you can program for yourself: "I think that this year I will be converted to poverty, or nonviolence, or . " Typically, conversion comes to us unbidden, in ways that surprise and perturb us. Dr. Ann Ulanov, a Jungian psychoanalyst, says: "Being truth-ful with ourselves can be messy business. [We think] the illusions we have created . . . will be more readily received than our true self." She goes on to say that we all have protective armor which can look like virtue or competence or generosity. Nonetheless, it is armor designed to hide our wounds and messiness and keep us safe and protected. The human reality is that those very wounds create chinks in our armor. Conversion occurs because God will always find the chinks and slip through them to unsettle us and invite us to make "soul decisions," decisions to recommit our hearts to a pilgrim's journey in witness to the gospel. Soul decisions open us to be changed by God's abundant love into true disciples. Sister Helen Prejean resisted the gospel's social-justice dimension until, at a presentation by Sister Maria Augusta Neal, she heard the phrase "integral to the Good News was that they would be poor no lon-ger." Helen adds, "And I got it. She cracked me open." Perhaps her very resistance was the source of that con-version moment. She moved a year later from a suburb to a housing project that was "less than five miles . . . Review for Religious but it was galaxies away." She could not have done that without a profound soul decision. How do our relationships in community open us to "soul decisions" or conversion moments? I see four movements. Relationship with God We all entered a communal life of prayer and con-templation, of working relationships, and of minis-try that fulfills and stretches us. Communal life, lived fully, offers ample opportunities for conversion. Parker Palmer says we enter religious life with the illusion that outside there is jealousy, compe-tition, resentment, power struggle, status difference, and more, but in religious life there will be only love, sharing, working together, generosity, equality, and so forth. We find, however, after living in a religious community for a while, that people are the same both inside and outside religious life. We pour effort into learning to commu-nicate, to deal with conflict, to share our faith, to do many other things, hoping thereby to have the perfect community. Guess what? Even if we do learn all these things, there is still iealousy, resentment, and failure. We learn that there is no perfect community. We have to face, says Palmer, our "illusion of salva-tion by interaction." In the face of contradictions and In our constitutions and in our living of them we are called to center our lives on God, realizing that God longs for us and desires our love. 371 67.4 2008 , Eicbten ¯ Constitutions and Heart Knowledge differences, we are called to "go deep inside [ourselves] beyond the polarities to a place of unity where every-thing holds together." We know that place as God. Etty Hillesum says of this place: "There is a really deep well inside me. And in it dwells God. Sometimes I am there too." In the midst of our real relationships, in our prayer and letting go and giving over to God, we move to the awareness that salvation is from God. We only come to know that when we come to know the mystery of God--that God is for us and is given to us. In our constitutions and in our living of them we are called to center our lives on God, realizing that God longs for us and desires our love. Coming to believe this leads us to have room for others, seeing.in them the face of Jesus, accepting, lov-ing, and receiving them because God loves them and receives them. This leads me to the second interper-sonal movement. Relationship with Others in Community Our commitment to life in community is not some-thing casual or optional. It is a lifelong commitment to our congregation, to its shared life in the Spirit, and to its members rights and responsibilities. As members we are interdependent financially, structurally, and relation-ally. Sandra Schneiders says that a constitutive element of communitarian life is "a permanent acceptance of the community itself as the primary and determining rela-tional context of one's life." It means loving, and living today at this particular time, in this particular commu-nity, with these particular women--with all our gifts, limitations, and idiosyncrasies. Our diversity is "authored and authorized by the Source of all life, in whose Mystery diversity poses no Review for Religious threat to unity." When we become aware that the very diversity that delights God troubles and disturbs us, we have stepped into a special moment for conversation and conversion. We realize that diversity need not be a threat to unity. Rather, in our diversity, we realize the need to make "a commitment to sustained and deliber-ate conversation for the purpose of achieving a common ground." Michael Blastic OFMConv points to St. Francis as a prime example of relationships with the other: Francis allows the other to be other. His sense of self is an openness to and for the other. Francis continu-ously looks to the Other, Jesus Christ, as the content of his self. By definition. Francis's self was room for the other. Francis was "a person in full possession of him-self, but [was] never by himself. In order to be an example for others, Francis needed to work at being himself---it did not come naturally., for him. Fran-cis did not nor could he accomplish this identity for himself by himself. One cannot become a self with room for others by oneself for oneself. In our constitutions we call ourselves to this kind of awareness of the other, challenging ourselves to embrace diversity within the congregation as a sign of the Spirit and, by doing so, to proclaim the possibility of harmony on earth. Accepting diversity, however, does not mean that individualism reigns, even though we remain differ-ent and retain our unique characteristics (the only way we each have to express our humanity). Accepting our diversity enables us to give a countercultural witness to a new kind relationship, a relationship based on unity, on a mutuality where there is no "other." This witness of community, says John Allen, a Catholic newspaper cor- 373 67.4 2008 Eicbten ¯ Constitutions and Heart Knowledge respondent in Rome, is the most powerful gift we have to offer our fragmented and troubled world today. Relationship for Mission We are in our religious community not simply for ourselves. Our vowed commitment "does not exist within the individual alone, but within the context of community . . . a community fully engaged in con-versation about its life." The mission statement in my community's constitution challenges us to "be a com-munity of compassion, reconciliation, and reverence for all creation, to rebuild our own society, and to reach out in solidarity to our sisters and brothers throughout the world." Becoming part of the spirit and flow of energy that is our religious community stretches us and opens us to God's great energy working in the world today. As reli-gious we have a great responsibility. We need to know and to claim that we are the face of God to those around us, and we need to open our eyes and hearts to see the face of God in creation and in every creature. How we live that responsibility is a challenge. Marie Chin RSM, in a presentation to my Franciscan community, said that we are challenged to take a crucial step in recognizing that we can no longer equate community with mere group living or, to put it more blundy, simply living under the same roof for expediency or convenience. Community has to be for a greater project than self. Somehow we have to change our root image of community as a place of security where we have all our needs met and instead begin to explore the chal-lenges of justice, the challenges of forming relation-ships that are right and just and which are potentially present in community. Review for Religious Her challenge confronts our tendency to become, as Laurie Brink OP says "settled religious, [who have] lost sight of the power and passion of our original covenant with God." It is not that we are not involved in commu-nity life or engaged in a valued ministry, but rather that we are settling for comfort and "good enough"--which in turn means liv-ing with little zest and passion for life and ministry. It means not being willing to take risks or make changes that might unset-tle. Ron Rolheiser OMI says that the problem for reli-gious today is not that we are not good people, doing good things, but that we are not great people. We have settled for giving ninety percent of ourselves and held on to the ten percent that would give witness to the pas-sion and energy of God alive in us. When we entered, I would guess, we wanted to give ourselves a hundred percent. Avis Clendenen offers an interesting reflection on how we may have adapted Jeremiah's response to God "from 'too young' to 'too old'; Ah, Lord God! I am weary from speaking the truth in love. Our best days are behind us. I am too old." And God says, "Do not say 'I am too old,' for even now to all to whom I send you you will go; be not afraid, for I am with you to deliver you." Are we holding back? Can we live more fully every moment of our life today and on into the future? The problem for religious today is not that we are not good people, doing good things, but that we are not great people. 67.4 2008 Eicbten * Constitutions and Heart Knowledge 376 Relationship with Structure and Authority Our constitutions are about holding with care the relationships that shape our life together. They assume and emphasize our relationship with God, which in turn is expressed in relationships with other members and associates and with the church and society. Treating these relationships with care can only happen when both members and leaders take seriously their responsibility as part of community. As individuals, you bring your personal power to the community, ideally making it a force for growth, bridge building, and healing, rather than a force for negativ-ity, divisiveness, and controlling behavior. Together you affirm that your congregation is there to facilitate your religious way of life and your ministry, and you accept responsibility as members to participate in defining and working towards the purpose of your community. The goal of your congregation's governance is to exemplify and facilitate the living of your congregation's charism, weaving "the organizational elements of shared values, mission, and vision and translating tl~em into reality, into a course of action." In the governance of our religious congregations, we have various indications of history and personality. Rigid authority structures have left many with scars and cautions, and efforts towards new models of communal living have not always been successful. Leadership functions amid our practice and expec-tations of ourselves as members of our communities. Patricia Wittberg SC offers three models of relation-ships of community and authority. Hierarchical/Bureaucratic Model: This model offers an organized way to carry out the purpose and mission of the congregation. The value it emphasizes is effi- Review for Religious ciency; the mode of operation is dependency. Power and authority are concentrated at the top and flow downward, as does communication. There is little individual responsibility. The young are mentored, and the model can continue without changing. Every congregation has some elements of hierarchy/bureau-cracy which are needed for effective functioning of an organization. Associational Modek This model values individual fulfill-ment; the individual "I" is at the center of the model. Relationships are one-on-one and dependent on the individual's choice of persons to whom s/he wishes to relate, both within'the organization and outside it. Persons live as if this were a professional organiza-tion where membership is equated with paying one's dues or meeting basic requirements and participating as one wishes. Leadership is often not acknowledged or is reluctant to call for difficult actions on the part of members. This model is not likely to reproduce into the next generation. Communitarian/Relational/Intentional Modek The value for this model is the common good; interdependence is the desired mode of operation. Relationships and communication are mutual and are focused around a sense of common identity--"we" with members and leaders working together for common goals. In this model, individual members are willing to sacrifice or limit some personal goals for the common good. There is a mutual shaping of the future. Wittberg says today'~ congregations have their ¯ Toe in the Hierarchical/Bureaucratic model; ¯ Torso in the Association model; ¯ Hand reaching out to the Communitarian model, but fearful of sacrifice or of retreat to the Hierarchical model. She offers this reflection: Religious congregations, precariously balanced between the competing commitment models of 67.4 2008 Eichten ¯ Constitutions and Heart Knowledge 378 ] bureaucracies and intentional communities, may. ¯ have mutually contradictory expectations of their leadership or of their members . Congregatio.ns which refrain from addressing the ambiguous roles of leadership [I would add membership] may miss discov-ering creative and psychologically healthy new ways of filling them. Most communities, I wager, create goals based on the Communitarian model while denying or not acknowledging that the other models exist and may even predominate. There is no right/wrong, good/bad to any model; each has good elements. It might be worthwhile to reflect together on the blessings and challenges of each model as you experience them in your community. The challenge may be to identify and implement the best elements in each as we move into the future. Governance is part of the process of communal transformation. It invites members to a continual com-munal effort toward conversion of heart, mind, and spirit. We bring together our individual selves with our dreams, passions, idiosyncrasies, and personal power. Through the design of our constitution, we seek together the common good for the sake of the gospel. We are one with many, experiencing a range of relation-ships that offer the possibility of transformations into people mutually empowering and accountable. All of these relationships--with God, with one another, with authority, and in mission--are what constitutes your religious congregation and mine. Relationship calls for risk, trust, hope, and moments of conversion, moments to be followed up with firm "soul decisions" to give our all to God's grand dream "that all may be one." Review for Religious Personal Reflection / Group Discussion "Fundamentally constitutions exist to articulate 'heart knowledge,' and are not the mere sets of rules and laws that a legalistic mindset too easily makes them." Have I experienced a "heart knowledge" approach to the reading and study of the constitutions of my congrega-tion? What are some necessary steps for me to take in order to read the constitutions in such a way? What happens to me when I approach the constitutions of my congregation in terms of relationship~to God, to community, and to mission? How do I understand my relationship to structure and authority? Dark Matter It should not surprise us that we encounter darkness and unknowingness within; two-thirds of the cosmos is dark energy and we are offspring of that unfolding mystery, pregnant with possibilities, gestating, incubating in our wombs. The shapeless masses and undeveloped forms lie clogged in a fathomless morass, yet the Potter takes the no-thingness, gently birthing it into a new creation. Barbara Mayer OSB 379 67.4 2008 NESTOR GREGOIRE Can New Life Arise from the Rule Book? 380 ~iin every religious congregation the religious Rule s the distillation of the community's spirit, ideals, goals, and governance. It is the result of years of reflec-tion and prayer, revisions and constitutional changes. It is meant to be the mission statement (long before the term was ever developed) of all the members of the religious congregation: novices, newly professed, and those with perpetual vows. But have the rules become too much a document of doctrinal values and governance procedures in too nar-row a sense? While they are read and studied, reflected upon and taught in many conferences, are they a source of nourishment at the grass roots? Do we consult the Rule Book about what to do, or do we use it for prayer and as inspiration for our prayer, our liturgy, and the community's day-to-day life? Is it more reference book than prayer book? Nestor Gregoire OMI lives at 504 - 3rd Avenue East; Meadow Lake, Saskatchewan; S9X 1H5 Canada. olppastor@sasktel.net Review for Religious How do the Rule Book and the constitutions serve your congregation? Is it very directive, constricting the community's life and spirit, or does it improve vision and expand the horizons of community members? Does the text go beyond expressing doctrinal correctness and touch the community's lived experience? How does the Rule actually fit in the day-to-day living of the local community? Do particular rules have noticeable par-ticular effects? Are there unintended consequences? The Rule Book must be more than a reference book that the novices study, consult, and know parts of from memory. It must become user friendly and be a living part of the community's prayer life. A good indicator of this would be how worn the pages of our personal copy of the Rule Book are. Are they library fresh, or do they have fingerprints, personal notations, and other signs of frequent use? Does the book appear to be one that is close to the heart of a community member? User Friendly Each community can work to make the Rule user friendly in its own way. There are many ways that indi-viduals and communities can find to do this and thereby nourish their own and the community's spiritual life. No one size fits all. Be creative. In the publishing world there have always been meditation books to serve our prayer and reflection, often with a page containing one thought or insight for each day of the year. The reader need not delve into a developed chapter. Often religious congregations will prepare a book of meditations for each day of Lent and Advent and send it out to their members. One of the best ways to make the Rule Book user friendly is to ask members of the community to develop 381 67.4 2008 Gregoire * Can New Life Arise from the Rule Book? 382 a series of meditations and prayers that arise from the values, the vision, and the actual words of the rules. What themes recur frequently throughout the rules? What resources are there available to assist reflecting and praying about the meaning and implications of indi-vidual rules and their contexts? With the Rule Book as our source document, it is possible-to develop a series of meditations which incor-porate the values and teachings of general chapters, writings of our congregation's past and present spiri-tual teachers, and stories of members who served well, lived the charism with joy, and even may have given the congregation its particular tone. Bring the character and flair of these members to the meditations. The stories and the experience of members who have preceded us can help us discover in the Rule mean-ings that are new to us. Each congregation's Rule Book did take on flesh, in joy and tears, in earlier members. What possibilities does the same Rule challenge us to try and perhaps fulfill today? By preparing a series of meditations on the rules and constitutions of my own congregation, the Oblates of Mary Immaculate, I discovered new connections being made between the documents of the past four general chapters, the talks of our superior general, and the text of the Rule. New depths appeared in my own under-standing of our "mission statement." The Founder's Writings There are many opportunities to take bite-size quo-tations and insights from the talks and writings of the founder to flesh out the meaning of particular state-ments in the Rule: We can parallel today's text with passages which ring with the conviction of the founding Review for Religious members. The writings of the founder and founding members can help us appreciate and integrate the offi-cial text into our daily lives. Using the actual words of our congregation's founder can develop a fuller understanding and application of this particular rule. Our understanding of the present text must not be based only on its meaning on the page. It must be broadened to the possibilities that are given to it through the insights of our foundation documents and the firstmissionary endeavors. Allow the writings of the founder and the early members to give new flesh to our understanding of our community charism, the religious values and idealism of our institute. When we try to broaden the possibilities for new insights into and understanding of the Rule, we can find togetherness and nourishment in our foun-dational days and in our church's mission in our mod-ern world. Not only must we seek the contributions of the past to our living the Rule today, but we must be receptive to the new insights and challenges that our situation brings to the Rule. The Rule must always be in dialogue, giving to and receiving from our current mission work, our reflections, and our prayer. Daily Prayer The words of the Rule can be used in composing prayers for the community's daily life. Take individual statements of our rules and constitutions and adapt them into prayers of intercession for the daily office. A little editing can bring the rules' clear and concise statements into our prayer with God. Here are two examples, from our Oblate Constitutions and Rules. The text is not just read but becomes a living part of our prayer. 67.4 2008 Gregoire ¯ Can New Life Arise from the Rule Book? Leader: Lord Jesus, may we always work in cooperation with you, our Savior, and imitate your example-- Response: --by committing ourselves principally to evan-gelizing the poor (Constitution #1). Leader: We pray that the community of the Apostles may with you, our Jesus, be the model of our life (Constitution #3). Response: May we come together in apostolic communi-ties of priests and brothers, united to God by the vows of religion, cooperating with you, our Savior (Constitution #1). We must search for other places in the Rule that can be used in composing new prayers for various community gatherings: at the beginning of meet-ings, on renewal days, at funeral prayer services, and so forth. 384 Poetry and Song Our Rules are meant to be user friendly, to be alive in us, to be at home in our emotions and in our heartfelt prayers. They must touch us in order to move us, to energize us tolive the religious values and the charism our Rule expresses. In her classroom a good teacher makes sure that her students not only pay attention and read the lesson on the board, but also write it, sing it, recite it, and put it .into bodily motion whenever possi-ble. There are so mgny ways that lessons can and should become part of her students' minds and hearts and lives. Too often our religious Rule has been limited to the printed text. Can we express it in new ways? One of the most underused possibilities for our Rule to become more user friendly is to turn it into poetry and song. Where are the gems of religious thought that are seeking to get off official printed pages and be sung Review for Religious as proof of our willing service of Christ and as ways to bring joy and love to the poor? Has the text of our Rule ever become a hymn or a refrain? Have we asked the poets in our midst to look at the Rule and allow the poetic muse to bring forth through them new pic-tures for our imaginations, fresh words that touch our hearts? And what of the photographers, the painters, and those who can sketch? Can they create visual expres-sions of the valued teachings in our Rule? Can the text evoke in them color, pattern, and depth that they can share? For the next community gathering, can one of our photographers bring together a collection of sym-bolic photos and significant texts to help us see our Rule in new and vibrant ways? Let the imagination within your community enable your Rule to be absorbed by your community through all five senses. How else? Let me draw a picture from many a childhood. Will your community's Rule Book be like an encyclopedia that was bought years ago to give the children a learning atmosphere but was hardly ever used? Or will it be like your mother's cookbook, tat-tered, pages falling out or sticking together, scribblings in the margin, flour stains, memories of mother calling us or fragrances inviting us to just-baked cinnamon rolls or to supper? Cookbook, prayer book, rule book--all redolent of love and devotion and sharing. How differ-ent are they? 67.4 2008 JOEL RIPPINGER Monasticism' s Rooted Adaptations ~f~irtainlmg oass ta f porrotyfe ysseeadr sm ionn ak cwohmom hausn liitvye odf Benedictines, I am aware of the reality that, at the beginning of the third millennium, monasteries of men and women living according to the Benedictine Rule constitute an endangered species. We run the risk of becoming an exotic form of religious expression, with our communities acquiring the character of religious theme parks and our spiritual tradition being taken over by increasing numbers of nonprofessed laypersons intensely attracted to the monastic charism. Several developments have been part of this phe-nomenon. Vocations to vowed monasticism have been in decline for some years, especially in North America and Europe, and that course seems to be continuing. With this decline there has been a marked increase of lay oblates and affiliates to monastic communities. Joel Rippinger OSB writes again from Marmion Abbey; 850 Butterfield Road; Aurora, Illinois 60504. Religious Many of those bringing with them this new interest in monastic life have adopted and are putting into prac-tice much of this ancient heritage. Indeed, one of the remarkable aspects of the recent rise in popularity of all things monastic has been the spate of books and articles by such non-Catholic and nonprofessed writers as Kathleen Norris. Norris and others have brought to monastic life both an inherent sympathy for its spiritual character and an outsider's insights into its distinctive charism. They have brought to wide circles of believers their insights into monastic common life and liturgical prayer. The contemporary phrase "family values" has a spiritual counterpart in what book publishers have pro-moted as monastic values. In fact, it seems that attaching the very word Benedictine or monastic to any book can assure many readers. The number expands when it takes in American and British television productions chroni-cling life inside monasteries for visitors from outside the cloister. The recent surprise hit from the Grande Chartreuse in the French Alps, "Into Great Silence," was an exploration of the most austere monastic order, the Carthusians. All of this has generated some striking spiritual scenarios. Increasing numbers of the laity are seeking retreats and spiritual direction at monastic houses, even as the professed monastic men and women struggle to maintain sufficient staff to care for their visitors' needs. Diocesan priests, who once were sent unwillingly to monasteries as a place to be disciplined and do pen-ance, now willingly sacrifice time and personal comfort to make personal retreats in the solitude and silence of monastic guest rooms. A cottage industry has arisen to publish material on St. Benedict's Rule as a model for corporate management, ecological balance, and family 67.4 2008 Rippinger ¯ Monasticism's Rooted Adaptations The hospitality called for in the monastic tradition trumps demands for orthodoxy or religious conversion, life. And, as we have said, programs of spirituality are likely to attract sincere searchers if they use the terms Benedictine or monastic in their publicity. At one level, all of this is cause for rejoicing. An ancient and revered tradition of spiritual formation and communal observance has been retrieved. What only a few decades ago many considered an arcane and irrelevant current of church life is now prized as a source from which to draw the gospel's living waters. Nor does it hurt that monasticism repre-sents a strain of tra-dition that antedates the Reformation and the more polemi-cal and controver-sial categories of the Catholic Church's public profile. Protestants and other non-Catholics come to pray and to dialogue in monastic settings, and they feel at home. The hospitality called for in the monastic tradition trumps demands for orthodoxy or religious con-version. Moreover, the sacred space of monastic cloisters attracts an intriguing variety of searchers. There are those seeking the soundness and insights of spiritual direction, pursuing like Tony Hendra the wisdom of the "Father Joes." There are those drawn by the aesthetic appeal of Gregorian chant and the spare beauty, not of bare ruined choirs, but of natural landscape and architecture that inte-grates silence and a life shared in community. There are those who, caught in the frenzy and rootlessness of what passes for contemporary culture, see in the deep-rooted witness of monastic communities a safe haven. Review for Religious At another level, there is cause for concern. The fact that some monastic communities are dying is a reminder that this is part of a historical cycle that has been in place for well over 1500 years. The dying also alerts us to an unsettling prospect for the near term. There will be fewer and smaller communities of pro-fessed monastic men and women in North America and in first-world countries generally, along with the emer-gence of an ever larger number of nonprofessed devo-tees of all things monastic. The irony here has already been referred to. Devout "outsiders" come to a monas-tery today for the experience of leisure and for restful rhythms of prayer, but they also expect to encounter monastics, whose own time for spiritual direction and holy leisure is now much eroded from what it was in an era of bulging novitiates. It may in fact be a blessing that the outsiders look-ing over the cloister wall are now faced with the real-ity of human struggle and imperfection that is always present in monastic enclosure, but too often in the past has been disguised by various romantic views of monas-tic life. The economy of monasteries is of a piece with its marginal status in society--always a bit parlous and never capable of assuring a comfort zone for those who are committed to it. At the same time the interface with a nonmonastic public has changed. The services pro-vided by the larger monastic communities have evolved with the passage of time. No longer anchored exclu-sively in such institutional ministry as education or pas-toral care, many of the more contemplative houses now emphasize the signature monastic marker of hospital-ity. Monasteries that were once remote in both a physi-cal and a psychological sense now have accessible Web sites and accommodating retreat centers. While some of 67.4 2008 Rippinger * Monasticism's Rooted Adaptations Monasteries of the third millennium have broader borders their contact with an outside public entails the selling of caskets and caramels, fruitcakes and jam, greeting cards and icons, another dimension consists in offering guests the freedom of a room without HBO or wireless com-puter hookup, but with the amplified sounds of nature and the silence of the cloister. The counsel of a wisdom figure and the simple rhythms of a daily round of prayer and work constitute for many guests the unique spiritual ambience of monastic hospitality. If monastic life has been de-romanticized in recent years, it has also been given a wider religious compass. Monasteries of ~e third millennium have broader bor-ders than their predecessors. An international com-munity like Taiz6 illustrates an ele-ment of young than their predecessors, people that is quite at home in the lit-urgy and life of a monastic commu-nity. Thomas Merton would no doubt be impressed at how his Trappist community at Gethsemani recently invited a number of victims of clergy sex abuse to their community to have the monks hear their stories. The spirit of ecumenism and religious renewal heralded by Vatican Council II is incorporated in the variegated communities of Bose and its satellite houses in Italy. The number of non-Catholic and non-Christian com-munities that have claimed monastic connections in recent years is not small. These include not just tra-ditional communities of the Anglican and Lutheran tradition that follow the Benedictine Rule, but variants Revie~v for Religious of the Orthodox faith that follow the different forms of Eastern monasticism. This has led to some fascinat-ing boundary crossing, such as Pentecostal seminarians in Missouri taking regular weekend retreats at a local Trappist monastery or a Monastic Institute sponsored by St. John's Abbey in Minnesota inviting representa-tives from Buddhist and Islamic traditions to speak of monastic hospitality. A measured look at the future should not induce too much anxiety. Monasticism in the third millennium can count on doing what it has always done: adapt its timeless liturgical round and its particular work of com-munity life to fit the needs of a changing world and ever more complex demands. To do that in a way that is faithful to its spiritual pedigree and open to a wider public will require drawing both old and new from its storehouse. The shape of a future monastic identity will have less to do with drawing people by the charm of its physical surroundings and more with the substance of spiritual life. However newly configured it becomes in the course of the coming generations, one can only hope that monasteries will remain places where a wide variety of people can find a place of peace, a place where the work of inner transformation can be encouraged and expedited. 391 67.4 2008 WILLIAM P. CLARK Revisiting Hope spiritual reflection An Irish-American author, by the name of Frank O'Connor, writing of his growing up in Ireland, told how he and his pals enjoyed hiking in the countryside. Sometimes they would come to a wall separating one farm from another, a wall that seemed too high to scale. They would then toss their caps over it and thus be motivated to scale it. When obstacles daunt, we need to use our hope like those caps. In one of Graham Greene's novels, a man speaks of hope in a strange way. He refers to it as a disease. If it is a disease, it is a disease which both comforts and strengthens and is an antidote for the cancer of despair. We very much need hope after all the disheartening things we have experienced in our world and in our church in recent years. We need hope William P. Clark O!VII, in active retirement from teach-ing philosophy, writes from St. Henry's Oblate Residence; 200 North 60th Street; Belleville, Illinois 62223. Revi~-w for Religious in our own public and private lives. Charles Spurgeon offers a good image of hope: "Hope is like a star--not seen in the sunshine of prosperity, and only discovered in the night of adversity." Hope seems especially important as we grow older. As adults we come to realize that choices really do not exist in the way we thought they would when we were children. We expected the regal power of adulthood to provide clarity and insight and control. In the light of humbling realizations, hope takes on increased impor-tance. According to an oft-quoted saying of Julian of Norwich, "The highest honor we can give God is to live gladly because of the knowledge of that love." We can give God that honor only through faith and hope. We know of God's love through faith. The primary object of hope--and our destiny--is to be perfectly united with God in love. Diametrically opposed to hope is the belief that existence is meaningless. If existence has no mean-ing, why would anyone want to continue living? One of our most intimate experiences is of ourselves as incomplete, as unfinished. As someone put it, "In this life there are no finished symphonies." We are drawn beyond anything we manage to achieve. Regardless of the level at which we find ourselves, we feel an attrac-tion to something still higher. In a certain sense, we leave every achievement behind in the very moment of accomplishment. When we achieve what we most want, our pleasure in it often fades. We even may be most acutely aware of our failures precisely when, after some achievement, someone praises us for it. Even in our achievements, we experience the need to go beyond where we are. We still hunger for what is "not yet." Desire outstrips satisfaction. Desire or longing is a driv- 393 67.4 2008 Clark * Revisiting Hope ing force in our lives. It can show itself as aching pain or as hope. As Christians we deal with the future by choosing to believe that life, not death, is the ultimate reality. We choose to turn continuously to our God in hope. That hope rests on the conviction that we are free and thus we have real control over our future. We can turn from where we are to what we want to be. Hope is confidence in God's power to do all things. Hope is the "nevertheless" of faith. In spite of every contradiction, we believe in the divine life within us and that God will bring it to completion if we but persevere in trust. We believe God will preserve and guide the church. Sometimes believing those things is difficult. That is why we must again and again ask the Lord to strengthen our hope. Hope might well be described as the dynamic force of faith and love. Because we are pilgrims, because we. do not see God and do not yet share God's love defini-tively, our faith and our love need to be permeated with hope. We know we cannot attain final fulfillment on earth. We know equally well how decisive our life on earth is in regard to final fulfillment. It is through hope that we press on. Hope offers a vision beyond the inevitable difficul-ties of our human condition, beyond human suffering and even death. It is hope that enables us to choose life, even in a deathlike situation. In hope we trust God can bring life out of death. Sooner or later virtually every-one has to face a deathlike situation in which they are challenged to choose life. It is a deathlike situation to be forced (in fear) to enter long-term nursing care. It looks like the end of the road, the gateway to death. From a purely human Revie~ for Religious point of view, there seems nothing to look forward to except the loss of privacy and freedom, humiliating dependence, chronic pain, and loneliness. To many it appears worse than death. How do people find the courage to carry on in such a situation except through hope? Persons with severe disabilities, persons who have undergone some crushing loss or misfortune, how can they find the courage to go on except through hope? Obviously the hope in question is not a form of escapism or wishful thinking. Rather it is the kind of hope that the Catechism calls a "theo-logical virtue." That terminology is helpful, emphasizing two charac- .teristics our hope should have. By saying it is a virtue, we are saying it is a well-intentioned, stable aspiration. By saying "theological" we are saying it is directed toward God and is a gift from God. Christian hope is not based on self-confidence. Self-confidence is fragile even in a purely human sense. A combat pilot in World War II put it this way in his book God Is My Co-Pilot: "Those who knew no strength except their own to lean on soon found that fear can sabotage even the strongest hea~'t." As Christians, the fulfillment we hope for is pure gift. It is not something we deserve because of our own talents, or efforts, or merits. Nor should hope be confused with optimism. Hope and optimism are quite different. Optimism often distorts reality, making it look better than it is. Hope is the assur-ance of God's fidelity even in the most troubled times. Hope means surrendering everything into God's hands. Christian hope is not based on self-confidence. 67.4 2008 It is not unusual for people to lose hope, to become disillusioned, even bitter, when years of hard work bear no apparent fruit, when little of a desired change is accomplished. Such temptations can surface in any life when one's efforts and prayers seem to be without result. We may be tempted to confuse unseen results with waste, utter waste. That is a mistake. Real faith and hope pro-vide the remedy for that temptation and that mistake. For whatever reason, hope seems to be a some-what neglected virtue. In the Christian tradition we find much more emphasis on faith and charity than on hope. Simply consider the output of books and articles, whether in academic theology or in popularization. Hope also seems an underdeveloped virtue. One finds people whose faith is firm who nevertheless experience considerable fear and anxiety. In his book The God 1 Don't Believe ln, Juan Arias tells of a conversation he had with the great Dominican theologian Reginald Garrigou-Lagrange. The conversation took place toward the end of Garrigou's life. He is quoted as say-ing: "How difficult is hope! I feel I shall soon reach my God. I cannot deny that my faith and my charity have been purified and that they are virtues which I possess in peace, but hope is my torment." Scripture scholars tell us it is often difficult to dis-tinguish faith and hope in the Bible. One reason sug-gested for' this is that the original Hebrew text uses the same root word for both ideas. Thus there seems to be a scriptural basis for saying that hope is not something apart from faith. Bernard H~iring calls hope "the inter-nal dynamism of faith." Faith is more than intellectual assent to a body of propositions. The fullness of faith is the gift of one's whole being to God as Truth itself. The biblical con- Review for Religious cept of faith includes trust in the Lord, who is faith-ful, who pledged to remain with us, who gave us that hope-inspiring message recorded by John: "Do not let your heart be troubled. Trust in God and trust in me. There are many mansions in my Father's house; if there were not I should have told you. I am going to prepare a place for you, and after I have gone and prepared you a place, I shall return to take you with me; so that where I am you also may be" (Jn 14:1-4). In the Bible, faith is understood as a joyous, grateful acceptance of the One who is our savior and our hope. In the Epistle to the Hebrews, there is a close con-nection between faith and hope. "Faith is the confident assurance concerning things we hope for and conviction about things we do not see" (Heb 11:1-2). Scripture scholars tell us this is not a formal definition of faith. In any case, the passage gives us a good insight into the dynamic nature of faith. It suggests how hope is implied in faith. We think of hope as a reaching beyond. Faith is depicted here as enabling us to reach beyond ourselves and our own powers in a double sense. The first part of the passage, "Faith is confident assurance concerning things we hope for," represents reaching beyond our-selves into the future. It concerns what is not yet pres-ent but is confidendy awaited. The second part, "Faith is. conviction about things we do not see," represents reaching beyond ourselves to grasp a present reality that is unknown except through faith. Together these two dimensions describe essential characteristics of Christian existence. First, Christian existence is marked by the assurance that the goods promised by God will be ours. Second, Christian existence is marked by the conviction that the past and present facts on which that assurance is based are indeed facts and not illusion. 67.4 2008 Clark * Revisiting Hope The assent of faith is a surrender to God reveal-ing himself and his kingdom to us, a surrender based ultimately on the testimony of the Spirit, not on the strength of any argument. Faith gives assurance to our hopes because God does not reveal abstract, philosophi-cal ideas, but trust-inspiring truths of salvation, or, better, God reveals himself as a lov-ing Father. To put it another way, by faith we not only believe in God but we also believe that God believes in us. Typically we focus on the first part of that statement. Most people, if asked what ° they mean by faith, would answer with a simple formula such as "It means belief in God." We fail to appreciate the implications of the second part of the statement, that God believes in us. This latter idea is the basis of our hope. Saying God believes in me means he knows I am capable, of being totally fulfilled. It means I have such a capability because God has so willed it. This is possible because God's faith in me does not depend on me, on my goodness. That faith in me comes from the fact that God first loved me. That love is the foundation of my goodness and my value. As Fulton Sheen used to say, "God does not love us because we are good. We are good because God loves us." God's love is unshakable. God loves us without the possibility of regret or reversal. The Bible constantly reminds us of God's initiative. It tells us over and over again of God's loving invitation to us, that he does not regret his work, that his friendship is everlasting. It is By faith we.not only believe in God but we also believe ¯ that God believes in us. 398 Re~iew for Religious not easy to believe in this faith God has in us. It is not easy to sustain the hope that belief implies. So we often minimize God's generous love. We hesitate to believe that God believes fully in us. Only too often do we have to face our limitations and our brokenness. In spite of that, God seems to be telling us: "I know everything about you but I still believe in you." In Isaiah we read: "The mountains may depart, and the hills be shaken, but my love for you will never leave you, and my covenant of peace with you will never be shaken, says Yahweh" (Is 54:10). God does that in spite of our infidelities, our sins. "Though your sins are like scarlet, they shall be white as snow; though they are red as crimson, they shall be like wool" (Is 1:18). We can trust completely in God's faithfulness even though it is beyond our ability to measure. According to our narrow standards, even a mother can lose faith in her child. But God never loses faith in us: "Does a woman forget the baby at her breast, or fail to cherish the son of her womb? Yet even if these forget, I will never forget you. See, I have branded you on the palm of my hands" (Is 49:15-16). Even if we deliberately turn away from God, God continues to believe in us. He goes on believing in our capacity to return. Like the father of the prodigal son, he will go out every morning and evening to wait for us with open arms. When he sees us returning, he will run to meet us and prepare a feast for us. There is not one text in the Bible mentioning sin and judgment without some reference to the hope to which God calls us. This conviction that God believes in us, this hope, is obviously important in our spiritual life. It also has great witness value. Traditi6nally we have been encouraged to witness to our faith by the way we lead our lives. In 399 67.4 2008 Cl~rk * Revisiting Hope 400 today's world it is vital also to witness to our hope. In our shrunken world we are constantly made aware of the problems, the suffering, the evil that exists in virtu-ally every corner of the world. That led Louis Evely to say, "Hopelessness gnaws at our era." We are called to witness to the meaning of Christian hope. We need to show by our lives how our hope gives us strength and courage to face the difficulties and problems that inevitably come into our lives, to show, as Isaiah says, "Those who hope in Yahweh renew their strength, they put out wings like eagles. They run and do not grow weary, walk and never tire" (I~ 40:31). It is important to bear that witness. In Lumen gen-tium the council fathers urged Christians not to hide their hope in the recesses of their hearts, but to bying it to bear on the external structures of daily life. Pierre Teilhard de Chardin was fond of saying, "The world belongs to those who offer it the greatest hope." Christian hope is a gift, a gift of peace, but also a deci-sion. Christian hope means that in and through Christ we can courageously face sin and evil in the world and in our own lives. Hope frees us from the need to predict the future and allows us to live in the present with the deep trust that God will never leave us, but rather will fulfill the deepest desires of our heart. It is important to realize that Christian hope is not a form of escapism or wishful thinking. It is a Christian virtue, not a purely human virtue. No one naturally hopes for victory in the face of helplessness or defeat. In his Letter to the Romans, St. Paul utters a triumphant cry of hope: "Condemnation will never come to those who are in Christ Jesus, because the law of the Spirit which gives life in Christ Jesus has set you free from the law of sin and death" (Rm 8:1-2). Paul's hope arises Revie~ for Religlous out of his personal experience of the inward struggle and anguish that characterize the human situation (Rm 7:14-23). He ends that description with a desperate cry: "What a wretched man am I? Who can free me from this body under the power of death?" And Paul answers: "God--thanks be to him--through Jesus Christ our Lord" (Rm 7:24-25). What distinguishes Christian hope is that it arises in the very face of human helplessness and defeat and is anchored in Jesus Christ. The Epistle to the Hebrews says: "This is the anchor our souls have, reaching inside the curtain, where Jesus has entered as a forerunner on our behalf, having become a high priest forever of the order of Melchizedek" (Heb 6:20). This does not mean we are to leave the present world as it is and simply wait for God to make it new. History reveals that the Christians who did the most for the world in which they lived were precisely those who thought most of the next. We need to look not only at what we hope for but also at what we are doing when we are hoping. Hoping implies looking ahead, but it is not just envisioning something we do not yet possess. The experience of hope includes three things: desire, we want what we hope for; belief, we believe what we hope for is indeed possible; doubt, we fear what we hope for may not hap-pen. Those are the elements of human hoping. Hope, as a Christian virtue, is something different, something more. The difference lies in the third element. Christian hope does not include doubt. Christian hoping is not just believing in the possible. It is a conviction about what is sure. Christian hope is the gift of certainty that what God has promised will surely be ours. St. Paul calls it a "hope that never disappoints" (Rm 5:5); in 401 67.4 2008 Cl~rk * Revisiting Hope Christian hoping comes only as a gift of grace. 402 Hebrews it is called "a sure and steadfast anchor of the soul" (Heb 6:20). Christian hoping comes only as a gift of grace. It is rooted in faith, which is itself a gift. Our faith and our hope are not based on history. A natural reading of history surely does not provide us encouragement to hope. In fact, that reading of history suggests that noth-ing will ever change radically for the better. That reading of history provides no model of people living together in mutual respect and universal love. In fact we see just the opposite. The human appe-tite for violence is enormous. A cynic would say history shows that people love killing each other. Almost three thousand years ago Homer wrote in the Iliad: "Men grow tired of sleep, love, singing, and dancing sooner than war." One need look no further than the last cen-tury for ample evidence supporting that view. But there is another history, the history of God's definitive intervention in our world in the person of Jesus Christ. Our faith and our hope are based on that intervention, on God's word--his word in Scripture and his incarnate Word. In his second letter, St. Peter tells us: "What we are waifng for, relying on his promises, is the new heaven and the new earth, where uprightness will be at home" (2 P 3:13). Old Testament prophets have spoken of "swords beaten into ploughshares and spears into pruning hooks" (Mi 4:3); "lions sleeping alongside lambs, the poor given justice, the weak raised to strength, and no hurt or harm done on all God's holy mountain" (Is 11:6;9). Preaching to the Jews, Paul said: Review for Religious "To keep his promise God raised up for Israel one of David's descendants, Jesus, as savior" (Ac 13:23). Hope is a challenging virtue. There are times when our hopes seem to be in vain. Hoping for, if not an end, at least a lessening of suffering and evil in the world seems almost a futile effort. And, from time to time in our personal lives, we are disappointed in our hopes. Often we may feel we have only enough spiri-tual bread in our basket for one day, and we are fearful about tomorrow and all the tomorrows to come. But we do not live in those tomorrows. We have no guarantee there will even be a tomorrow for us. In any case, just as the past is history and should not preoccupy us, so the future is mystery and should not preoccupy us. There is a difference between living for the future and living in the future. The former is done in the present; the latter alienates us from our real life. Among the ancient Christian symbols in the Roman catacombs, there is one which depicts an anchor with two small fish attached to the points of the anchor. The symbolism is clear. We Christians are the small fish attached to the anchor of our hope, Jesus Christ. God offers us the fullness of hope in Jesus Christ. Christ, as the fulfillment of God's saving love, is our hope. Christ is the great visible sign of God's fidelity and love for all men and women. Christ is our hope as victor over all the negatives of life, over the disappointments and frustrations, over anguish and pain, over sin, and even over death. "In the power of the Holy Spirit, may you be rich in hope" (Rm 15:13). 403 67.4 2008 HEDWIG LEWIS Becoming All Fire: Thoughts on Religious Identity Abba Lot, one of the Desert Fathers,. on a visit to Abba Joseph, confided: "Abba, when I am able, I recite a short office, I fast a little, I pray, I medi-tate, I stay recollected. As far as I can, I try to keep my thought pure. What else should I do?" Abba Joseph rose to his feet and stretched out his hands to heaven. Suddenly his fingers became like ten lamps alight. He turned to Abba Lot, eyes sparkling, and whispered, "If you will, become all fire." 404 A young Jesuit, in one of his regular sessions with his spiritual director, asked searchingly: "What is it to be a Jesuit today?" The older Jesuit grabbed a hard-copy of the Decrees of General Congregation 35 (GC35) that lay beside his compute.r, raised it aloft, and said, emphasizing every phrase: "To be a Jesuit today is to be 'a man on fire.'" Many a mystic has written about the "spark of the divine" in every human heart. Divine Providence graces each Of us with potential to turn that spark into a blaze. Hedwig Lewis SJ, th~ author of several professional and psycho-spiritual books, reside~ at St. Xavier's College; P.B. 4168; Ahmedabad 380 009; Gujarat, India. His website is http://joygift.tripod.com. Review for Religious We can let it burn so fiercely that everything around catches fire, spreading far and wide, destroying despair and detestation, creating space for hope and harmony. Hearts Inflamed Fire has often been used to express diverse emotions we experience: purification and passion, comfort and control, devotion and devastation. "Becoming all fire" would mean controlling these conflicting tensions and living life to the full--hearts on fire with Love. And Love then spreads out, setting other hearts afire. All religious are called to be on fire with Love and to let Love shine forth through their good works, in keeping with their charisms, so as to bring glory to God and spread the joy of the kingdom. The Jesuits recently rekindled their own fire. Over a period of about two years before GC35 (held in the first months of 2008), they met in their provinces and came up with suggested topics for discussion, which were sent to Rome. These were scrutinized and presented to the delegates of GC35, who zeroed in on six themes and drafted them into decrees. These were promulgated in early June. Decree 2, titled "'A Fire that Kindles More Fires': Rediscovering Our Charism," defines Jesuit iden-tity today. It responds to questions like: What does it mean to be a Jesuit in a globalized world? What mean-ing and message do Jesuit life and identity bring to people of diverse identities? Drawing inspiration from this decree, I offer here some reflections on what it means to be % man on fire" in the Society of Jesus. I hope this article will serve as a source of enlightenment to Jesuits, to those who share the Ignatian constitutions, and to other men and women religious, and will help them to be "persons on fire." 405 67.4 200g Lewis ¯ Becoming.41l Fire: Tbougbts on Religious Identity The Enkindling Spirit Religious founders have been "men and women on fire," and members of all religious orders and congrega-tions today can tell stories of how they originated as a spark that enkindled other sparks and became a flame. A torch was handed from generation to generation. The first Jesuits "began a narrative, they lit a fire.''t GC35 beautifully summarizes this tradition in the opening paragraph of Decree 2: The Society of Jesus has carried a flame for nearly five hundred years through innumerable social and cul-tural circumstances that have challenged it intensely to keep that flame alive and burning: Things are no different today. In a world that overwhelms people with a multiplicity of sensations, ideas, and images, the Society seeks to keep the fire of its original inspi-ration alive in a way that offers warmth and light to our contemporaries. It does this by telling a story that has stood the test of time, despite the imperfec-tions of its members and even of the whole body, because of the continued goodness of God, who has never allowed the fire to die. (§1) When we read the histories of other religious communi-ties, we find them echoing these sentiments. The story of the Society of Jesus begins with St. Ignatius Loyola. The very name Ignatius suggests fire. Ignatius faced not only cannon fire but also the ecclesi-astical canons that almost had him burned at the stake. His spiritual journey as a "pilgrim" takes a defini-tive turn after his "sublime illumination" at the River Cardoner in Manresa (§5). He set myriad hearts on fire with the love of God, sharing his spiritual experiences through "conversations" and his "school of prayer," the Spiritual Exercises. He enlightened a few enthu-siastic men on the ways of God, forming a group that Review f~r Religious would share his vision of spreading Christ's kingdom. As the Eucharistic Preface of his feastday liturgy states, Ignatius provided the church "with a society of apostles on fire with [God's] love." A letter that Ignatius wrote in 1546 reflects his fiery spirit. A certain Friar Barberan in Spain had publicly expressed a wish that all Jesuits from Perpignan to Seville should be burned at the stake. Ignatius, in Rome, heard of the outburst and wrote to a friend, "Please tell Father Barberan from me that I wish him and all his friends and acquaintances, not only between Perpignan and Seville, but throughout the whole world, to be set on fire and burned up by the Holy Spirit, so that they may all attain to great per-fection and signalize them-selves gready, to the glory of his Divine Majesty." St. Francis Xavier, the pioneer apostle of the Society, ventured beyond physical and socioreligious frontiers "to set the world on fire." Through five centuries to the present, Jesuits have been inflamed with the same spirit and have followed the blazing trails of their predeces-sors and created new paths (§25;.Decree 1, §6). As "men on fire," charged by the Ignatian magis, Jesuits are urged to spread the fire of God's love even in the darkest parts of the world's civilizations (§22). They must gather people around and warm their hearts, listen attentively to their varied stories, encourage them to dance in harmony with their different melodies, and thus "give them meaning and provide focus in a frag-mented world" (§1). The Jesuit vision is to re-create a divine milieu by manifesting "a strong sense of the The very name Ignatius suggests fire. 407 67.4 2008 Lewis ¯ Becoming All Fire: Thoughts on Religious Identity sacred inseparably joined to active involvement in the world. Our deep love of God and our passion for his world should set us on fire--a fire that starts other fires! For ultimately there is no reality that is only profane for those who know how to look" (§ 10). Hopefully GC35's decrees will bring to reality the prophecy of the Jesuit visionary Pierre Teilhard de Chardin: "Someday, after we have mastered the winds, the waves, and gravity, we shall harness for God ener-gies of love. Then for the second time in the history of the world we will have discovered fire." 408 Persons on Fire The "new" fire that GC35 has lighted engulfs the "spirit" of the Jesuit identity as spelled out in the pre-ceding three general congregations. To be a Jesuit today is to be "a man on fire." The fire at the heart of a Jesuit's identity and mission is Jesus Christ (§2). The "man on fire" is an alter Cbristus, for Christ is his con-stant companion (§3). The "man on fire" lets his light shine through good works for the greater glory of God (§22). He enkindles other hearts with the Love that burns within him, for that was Christ's deepest yearn-ing: "I have come to cast fire on earth!" (see §21). From an Ignatian perspective, it is a "fire" that con-sumes and cleanses, for the Jesuit is "a sinner, yet called to be a companion of Jesus." It is a fire that cannot be contained, for the Jesuit is "a man for and with others." It is a fire that urges the Jesuit, a "servant of Christ's mission" (§7), to the edges of society (§24) in the ser-vice of faith and the propagation of justice (both human and environmental) (§7, §24; Decree 1, §6). The fire is kept ablaze by the Jesuit living out generously the Ignatian "polarities": "being and doing, contemplation Review for Religious and action, prayer and prophetic living, being com-pletely united with Christ and completely inserted into the world with him, as an apostolic body" (§9). Our near-contemporary St. Alberto Hurtado (of Chile, 1901-1952) was "a fire that enkindles other fires" (§25). He established the nonprofit organization Hogar de Cristo (the Hearth of Christ) to aid the homeless. It provides both shelter and human warmth for body and soul. Hurtado not only enkindled these unfortu-nate people, but wanted his experience with them to intensify the fire in his own being. He made this conviction abundantly clear: "Love them in order to make them live, that a more human life may develop in them, unlocking their intel-ligence, putting an end to their backwardness. May the errors anchored in their hearts prick me continuously. May I be tor-mented by the lies and illusions used to intoxicate and enrapture them; may the mate-rialistic press that pretends to enlighten them irritate me; may their prejudices stimulate me to show them the truth. And this is nothing more than the translation of the verb 'to love.' I have placed them in my heart so they may live as people in the light, and the light is none other than Christ himself, the true light that enlightens everyone who comes into the world. All the light of natural reason is really the light of Christ; all knowledge, all human science. Christ is the supreme science. ,2 Father Pedro Arrupe SJ was described in 1952 as "a man on fire" by a seventeen-year-old student in Madrid, The "man on fire" is an alter Christus, for Christ is his constant companion. 409 67.4 2008 Lewis * Becoming All Fire: Thoughts on Religious Identity Adolfo Nicol~is.3 Like Hurtado, Arrupe had sheltered the hapless victims of the atomic bomb at Hiroshima. Given his training in medicine, Arrupe ministered to those suffering from severe burns. His experience would inflame his own heart with greater compassion and love - - for the suffer- ,~ ing. Later, as the Jesuits' superior general, he would open centers for refugees (see Decree 1, §6). Arrupe's is also a good example of how "men and women on fire" foster religious vocations: they walk their talk and talk their walk in the service of the Lord. Arrupe's lecture on his experiences at Hiroshima had rekindled in young Nicol~s's heart the burning desire to become a Jesuit. Nicolas would later follow the great missionary to Japan and eventually succeed him as supe-rior general in Rome. The Jesuit "man on fire" must realize that "the Jesuit identity is relational." He shares in the life of a com-munity, each member drawing its fire from the same source: Christ. Together as "friends in the Lord," they bear witness to the Light. A glowing community life, one that is intensive and joyful, attracts people, "inviting them--above all the young--to 'come and see,' to join us in our vocation and to serve with us in Christ's mis-sion. Nothing could be more desirable and more urgent today, since the heart of Christ burns with love for this world, with all its troubles, and seek~ companions who can serve it with him" (§ 19). The Jesuit "man on fire" must realize that "the Jesuit identity is relational. Review for Religious Playing with Fire Jesuits are also, by choice, "firemen" in Christ's brigade. The "demons" of this age are on a rampage, spreading on earth the fires of the underworld through irreligion, injustice, and consumerism (see §21). As firemen in Christ's brigade, Jesuits have been called to unflagging commitment to Christ and his mission of extinguishing the fires that defile human dignity and ravage natural resources. The Jesuit fireman plays with fire and becomes vul-nerable to the "inferno" he has to confront. It often means getting burned by rampant injustice or religious fanaticism. He comes under fire when he ventures beyond the frontiers--as is evident in the long list of Jesuit martyrs for social justice in recent times. Yet he remains committed regardless of thorns, threats, and thrashings and moves ahead fearlessly under the banner of the cross (§11; Decree 1, §9). The pathway is not always bright. There are periods in the Jesuit fireman's life when the fire within him burns low, threatened by storms inside or out, or the path is hidden in thick smoke. He experiences, in short, the challenge of the cross--where "the Divinity is hidden." The light flickers or fades in the struggle, and doubts and anxieties oppress. The time may compare with what mystics have described as the "dark night of the soul." "The experience of a hidden God cannot always be avoided, but even in the depths of darkness the transforming light .of God is able to shine" (§7). The "man on fire" must not lose hope, but seek and find that "light" so as to rekindle his fire. After the example of Jesus our companion, whose "entire life was a kenosis," he must feel supported and continue on his mission (§ 14). 411 67.4 2008 Lewis * Becoming/Ill Fire: Thoughts on Religious Identity While GC3 5 was in session, every Jesuit community around the globe kept a small lamp lit in the chapel as a symbol of oneness and solidarity, uniqueness and unity. Every Jesuit, in his own God-given way, must more than anything else be "a man on fire." And then, merging his flame with the flames of other religious "men and women on fire," together with "all persons of goodwill" (§21), he must set the world ablaze. Notes ~ GC35, Decree 2, §2. The texts of all the decrees are available at www.sjweb.info. Paragraph numbers of this decree will be given in the body of the article thus: (§2). 2 Albert Hurtado, personal reflection written in November 1947, quoted in "Saint Hurtado's Christocentric Mindset" by Hedwig Lewis sJ, Ignis 2005, no. 4, Gujarat Sahitya Prakash, Anand, India. 3 Adolfo Nicolfis sJ, "Eight Encounters with Father Pedro Arrupe," Province Express, Australia, 14 November 2007. 412 A Birthing On my way to Damascus I was tripped by Grace, and fell Into the hands of Love. My brain lay scrambled And pride lay wounded I felt blinded. Deep within my labored soul Faith gave its birth cry. Paulson V. Veliyannoor CMF Review for Religious A. PAUL DOMINIC A Source for Prayer Undreamt Of God speaks first in one way, and then in another, but no one notices. He speaks by dreams, and visions that come in the night, when slumber comes on mankind, and men are all asleep in bed. Then it is he whispers in the ear of man, or may frighten him with fearful sights, to turn him from evil-doing, and make an end of his pride; to save his soul from the pit and his life from the pathway to Sheol. (Jb 33:14-18; JB) If it is true that God speaks to us in dreams, what fol-lows? Or what should we do? We should speak in turn. Or we should at least desire to do so and try. Speaking to God in dreams as God does to us in dreams is not normally at our command. However, whether we dare speak to God after we have dreamt depends on us: it is definitely within our power. Such speaking to God is prayer indeed. Prayer linked with dreams may start in dreams and end in them or continue after them, or it A. Paul Dominic sJ last wrote for us in our 66.4 (2007) issue. His address is Human Development Centre; Port Mourant, Corentyne; Guyana (South America). 413 67.4 2008 Dominic ¯ A Source for Prayer Undreamt Of 414 may begin only outside them, drawing inspiration from them. Both kinds could be learned, though for now my interest is in the second,~ which is simpler: it is prayer following the dreams. The literature on prayer has been mosdy on how to pray rather than on what to pray. Is it worthwhile to con-sider the manner and matter of prayer separately? In any case, being persuaded myself that more deserves to be said about what to pray about, I would like to deal with the hardly dreamt-of topic broached above. To state it explicidy, whatever you dream at night can well serve as food for your prayer. I believe that something sensible can be said about dreams as source material for our praying. The idea proposed here is really part of what Christians generally use in their meditative or contem-plative prayer, namely, the Bible.2 They use the whole Bible, even if not every page and even though they most often use Gospel passages.3 Even in the Gospels, some paragraphs may seldom be considered prayer-worthy. It is a rare person who will pray over the genealogy of Jesus given at the beginning of Matthew. Still, the Bible in all its multiplicity and variety serves Jewish and Christian prayer. I think this is true of the bibli-cal passages about dreams, albeit they are not noticed much.4 Biblical dreams are found here and there in both Testaments. For many, they could prove to be a new wellspring of prayer. God Active in the Unconscious A

It is widely recognized that broadband is of fundamental importance to the social and economic development of a nation. The focus of the paper is on infrastructure-related actions; measures to stimulate demand for broadband are, therefore, only marginally addressed. This paper aims to provide a platform for debate with the Russian counterparts in the sector, and to discuss the measures needed to develop broadband in support of actions aimed at economic growth. This paper examines the broadband market in Russia and preconditions for its sustainable development. It begins by presenting arguments demonstrating the importance of broadband to the overall economic development of Russia, including from the perspective of diversification of the economy and new job creation. The paper benchmarks Russia s broadband performance with Organization of Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) comparators, as well as with other nations leading the way in broadband diffusion. The paper takes stock of the existing broadband market structure in Russia and its main players as they stand today, including the regulatory and legal environment of the market for both fixed and mobile broadband. Finally, the paper provides a set of recommendations that addresses the issue of sustainability in Russian broadband delivery, and how it can continue its acceleration in the years to come.