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Throughout a history of struggle the Métis have continually fought to be recognized as a distinct nation. An interesting perspective from which to examine the Métis nationhood is the use of Benedict Anderson's theory of a nation as an 'imagined community'. Anderson's criteria state that a nation must be limited, have sovereignty, and provide a sense of community. An examination of Métis history demonstrates their right to nationhood under this theory. Through exclusionary terminology, a unique language, and conditional acceptance, the Métis identity remains separate from that of others. Military and political actions throughout their history demonstrate their constant quest for sovereignty. Finally, a set of inherited and invented cultural traditions brings the Métis together as a community. It is clear that under Anderson's theory, the unity of the Métis throughout their turbulent past qualifies them as a distinct nation.

In the final decades of the 20th century, issues such as identity, Otherness and the role of social and cultural boundaries have been prominent in social theory, sociology and cultural studies. In this context, an analysis of Bauman's work is important because it raises pertinent questions pertaining to the nature of social and cultural boundaries and the nature of boundary construction under modernity. The metaphors of inside and outside and the idea of the boundary are significant in Bauman's critique of modernity's search for a meta-order and in his examination of strangerhood. The article illustrates how this ordering process manifests itself at the individual and societal levels of modernity. Bauman's contention is that modernity's search for a meta-order leads to the construction of boundaries and to exclusionary practices. It is the presence of the Third, for Bauman, which threatens the certainty of order. Different images of the stranger in Bauman's work are identified and the ways in which Bauman's conception of freedom and `community' is intrinsically linked to his work on the ambivalent stranger are demonstrated.

This paper explores the phenomenon of rituals as a contested intersection of religion and ethnicity and demonstrates how changes in religio-ethnic inclinations of various generations of immigrant communities influence the religious authenticity/inauthenticity of rituals. Its focus is the British Pakistani Muslim community in the UK where the emerging second and subsequent generations of British Muslims have started to redefine and contest their religious and ethnic identities. The findings, derived through interview and observation, reveal that religion has become the preeminent marker of identity, eclipsing that of ethnic identity. Through reciprocal socialization, the first generation are relearning an Islam from younger generations that is unfettered by cultural bonds. We illustrate how and why rituals are deemed inauthentic and abandoned. Findings demonstrate that authenticity/inauthenticity provides a potential outlet for reflexive consumers to assert agency against ethnic norms and ideological hailings that are at odds with their emergent religious identities. Accordingly, the study conceptualizes emergent inauthenticity to explain this phenomenon and delineates the role of boundary work and contamination in the authentication and rejection of rituals.

In this paper we take a cultural perspective to understand the success of Simon Cowell's X Factor TV talent show and its various brand extensions which, we suggest, epitomize the new marketing priorities of the media convergence era. We seek insights not from formal theories of marketing management but in the myth and magic of Cowell's enchanted TV presence as the mystical authority, the trickster figure, conducting a mass-mediated experience of Turner's (1969) 'existential liminality'. Detached from formal rites of passage, this simulation of liminal ritual, temporarily and symbolically, subverts formal social barriers and opens up for the contestants the possibility of transformed identity. We suggest that X Factor viewers partake both vicariously and actually in this marketized experience of existential liminality. We review literary as well as anthropological antecedents of the media role Cowell personifies and we critique and extend previous applications of Turner's work in marketing and consumption to suggest a wider resonance beyond the exemplar of X Factor in a range of ordinary, as well as extraordinary, consumption phenomena.

We propose a novel perspective on positioning by identifying goods and services first as market objects and then as marketing objects. As part of their normal marketing activities marketers position market objects and thereby provide means for other market actors to evaluate differences and similarities across an array of goods and services. Hence, marketers help disentangle goods and services in a market space, so formatting them as market objects. At the same time, marketers tend to make references to cultural and material dimensions in the worlds of producing and consuming goods and services, thereby re-entangling these market objects in the worlds beyond the market and re-formatting them as marketing objects. Drawing on an actor-network theoretical lens, we develop our argument to show that positioning refers to many 'others'; producers and consumers as well as those objects which the market and its calculating frame ignore. We extend our reference beyond market objects through the marketing object to those others, which necessarily are poorly defined, and which suggest complex, contentious and rich alternatives to a market's frames of calculation.

This book thinks through modernity and its representations by exploring critical considerations of time and space. Drawing on anthropology, history and social theory, it investigates the oppositions and enchantments, the contradictions and contentions, and the identities and ambivalences spawned under modernity. Crucially, it understands these antinomies not as errors, but as constitutive elements of modern worlds. The book questions routine portrayals of homogeneous time and antinomian blueprints of cultural space, while acknowledging the production of time and space by social subjects. Instead of assuming a straightforward, singular trajectory for the phenomena, it views modernity as involving checkered, contingent and contended processes of meaning and power, which have found heterogeneous historical elaborations over the past five centuries. Bringing together past and present, theory and narrative, it sows the historical, ethnographic and methodological deep into its critical procedures, offering an innovative understanding of cultural identities and imaginatively exploring the relationship between history and anthropology.

Background: Career Choice in Medicine is an important and problematic topic. Medical education has been framed as professional identity development, yet career choice has not been viewed as a matter of identity. My primary aim was to offer new insights by exploring career choice using Figured Worlds theory, a socio-cultural theory of identity. Graduate retention is a challenge for many countries, including Ireland. My secondary aim was to address a gap in the data on postgraduate trainees in Ireland and to use the Irish case to illustrate points transferable to other contexts. Methodology & Methods: This was a predominantly qualitative Mixed Methods programme of research. My qualitative studies were oriented towards social constructionism. I collated existing data from the Royal College of Physicians of Ireland (RCPI) and HSE-MET to describe trainees and their career paths. I surveyed Basic Specialist Training trainees (n=333) about their career plans. I surveyed new trainees (n=527) about their expectations of training and all RCPI trainees about their experiences of training (n=1246). I conducted semi-structured interviews with 18 medical students and doctors. A subgroup (n=6) provided longitudinal data. Figured Worlds theory and Gee's discourse tools were used for analysis. Results: I have used the case of medical training and career choice in Ireland to explain how social, political and cultural context, and day to day experiences in the cultural world of medicine, shaped doctors' career choices. My qualitative findings described a unifying model of career choice, consisting of priming, exposure, positioning and open-endedness, which can guide the design of interventions to shape and support career choice. Conclusion: My original contribution has been to demonstrate the fruitfulness of framing career choice in terms of identity development. This represents a turn in the conversation about career choice, which brings new starting points and moves the dialogue forward.

Abstract
My article underscores the intermediate existence of black American women between race and gender by stressing the role white patriarchy and black hypermasculinity play in the marginalisation of black female voices and the prioritisation of white women's interests within and beyond mainstream feminist spaces. In order to legitimise this intermediate existence of black women, my article develops the triple consciousness theory (TCT). Inspired by W.E.B. Du Bois' concept of double consciousness, TCT argues that black women view themselves through three lenses and not two: America, blackness and womanhood. Black feminists, TCT affirms, are able to reimagine misguided narratives of black womanhood in contemporary American culture by unpacking the complexity of this threefold consciousness. In Bad Feminist, Roxane Gay strives for the inclusion of pluralist voices in the mainstream feminist movement and in Lemonade, Beyonce uses Afrofuturist tropes, reappropriation and gothic imagery to exorcise the generational pain of betrayal by black men and white women. With Insecure, Issa Rae radicalises feminist theory by critiquing archetypes attached to black womanhood and in Marvel's Black Panther, not only do black women possess the unprecedented agency to shape their own identities on their own terms, there is also an existential reconnection with their past.

La figura de l'emprenedor tecnològic ha guanyat especial rellevància en el món contemporani. Històries d'èxit reconegudes, com les d'Steve Jobs, Bill Gates i Mark Zuckerberg, han popularitzat l'imaginari del jove estudiant que comença una empresa de garatge amb res més que la pròpia passió, intel·ligència i determinació, i es converteix en una celebritat mundial i un multimilionari en pocs anys. No obstant això, els discursos i les produccions culturals que donen forma a aquesta figura no sempre obeeixen a conseqüències empíriques i dades fàctiques del sector empresarial, sinó que, de fet, són el resultat d'alguns processos determinats pels desitjos i les fantasies dels qui construeixen i transmeten aquesta figura (emprenedors, gurus i experts en emprenedoria, publicistes, agències governamentals, etc.), així com d'aquells que la consumeixen (joves amb aspiracions d'emprenedoria). En el procés d'anàlisi de la dimensió "material/empírica" de la figura de l'emprenedor, en contrast amb la dimensió "simbòlica/imaginària", aquest article proposa una discussió teòrica entre la Teoria de l'Actor-Xarxa, la psicoanàlisi lacaniana i la teoria dels imaginaris socials. Partint del treball de Lacan, Latour i Taylor, i recorrent a entrevistes aplicades a emprenedors de tecnologia a Colòmbia en diferents etapes de desenvolupament, es conclou que allò simbòlic/imaginari té un paper fonamental en l'estructuració de la figura contemporània de l'emprenedor de tecnologia, amb importants repercussions en la realitat material/empírica en la mesura que modela accions i objectes. Per tant, la teoria lacaniana i la teoria dels imaginaris socials constitueixen dos marcs fonamentals d'anàlisi que contribueixen a comprendre d'una manera més detallada com funciona el sector tecnològic i quin tipus d'objectes tecnològics es creen.https://youtu.be/s5mCGu1xVxg ; La figura del emprendedor tecnológico ha ganado especial relevancia en el mundo contemporáneo. Historias de éxito reconocidas,como las de Steve Jobs, Bill Gates y Mark Zuckerberg, han popularizado el imaginario del joven estudiante que comienza unacompañía de garaje con nada más que su propia pasión, inteligencia y determinación, y se convierte en una celebridad mundial yun multimillonario en pocos años. Sin embargo, los discursos y las producciones culturales que dan forma a esta figura no siempreobedecen a consecuencias empíricas y datos fácticos del sector empresarial, sino que, de hecho, son el resultado de algunosprocesos determinados por los deseos y las fantasías de quienes la construyen y transmiten (emprendedores, gurús y expertos enemprendimiento, publicistas, agencias gubernamentales, etc.), así como de aquellos que la consumen (jóvenes con aspiraciones deemprendimiento). En el proceso de análisis de la dimensión "material/empírica" de la figura del emprendedor, en contraste con ladimensión "simbólica/imaginaria", este artículo propone una discusión teórica entre la Teoría del Actor-Red, el psicoanálisis lacanianoy la teoría de los imaginarios sociales. Con base en el trabajo de Lacan, Latour y Taylor, y recurriendo a entrevistas aplicadasa emprendedores de tecnología en Colombia en diferentes etapas de desarrollo, se concluye que lo simbólico/imaginario juega unpapel fundamental en la estructuración de la figura contemporánea del emprendedor de tecnología, con importantes repercusionesa nivel de la realidad material/empírica en la medida en que moldea acciones y objetos. Por lo tanto, la teoría lacaniana y la teoríade los imaginarios sociales constituyen dos marcos fundamentales de análisis que contribuyen a comprender de manera más comprensivacómo funciona el sector tecnológico y qué tipo de objetos tecnológicos se crean.https://youtu.be/s5mCGu1xVxg ; The figure of the tech entrepreneur has gained special relevance in the contemporary world. Recognized stories of success such as those of Steve Jobs, Bill Gates and Mark Zuckerberg have popularized worldwide the imagination of the young student who starts a garage company with nothing more than his own passion, intelligence and determination, and becomes a global celebrity and a billionaire in just a few years. Nevertheless, the discourses and cultural productions that shape this figure do not always adhere to empirical consequences and factual data, but in fact, are the result of some processes determined by the desires and dreams of those who construct and transmit it (entrepreneurs, entrepreneurship gurus and experts, advertisers, government agencies, etc.), as well as those who consume it (young people with entrepreneurial aspirations). In this process of analyzing the "material/empiric" dimension of the figure of the tech entrepreneur in contrast with the "symbolic/imaginary" dimension, this article proposes a theoretical discussion between the Actor-Network-Theory, the Lacanian psychoanalysis and the Social Imaginaries theory. Based on the work by Lacan, Latour and Taylor and recurring to interviews applied to tech entrepreneurs in Colombia in different stages of development, it is concluded that the symbolic/imaginary dimension plays a fundamental role in structuring the contemporary figure of the tech entrepreneur with important implications at the level of the material/empirical reality, insofar as it shapes actions and objects. Thus, the Lacanian theory and the Social Imaginaries constitute two fundamental frameworks of analysis that contribute to understanding more comprehensively how the tech sector works as well as what sort of technological objects are created.https://youtu.be/s5mCGu1xVxg

Tracing historical and cultural factors which gave rise to the Nordic Education Model, this volume explores why Northern European education policy has become an international benchmark for schooling. The text explains the historical connection between a Nordic ideal of democracy and schooling, and indicates how values of equality, welfare, justice, and individualism might be successfully integrated in national school systems and curricula around the world. The volume also highlights recent debates around the longevity of the Nordic model and explores the risks and challenges posed by international policy and assessment agendas. Exploring how Nordic education polices successfully merge social equity with academic excellence, the book combines cultural, historical, sociological and philosophical analysis with a deep exploration of curriculum and teaching. This book will be of great interest to researchers, scholars, and postgraduates working across the fields of curriculum, comparative education, cultural studies and history and philosophy of education and education policy.

Lepinard continues the discussion on feminism and gender that has been central to this journal. She engages in the ongoing debate initiated by Susan Moller Okin on whether multiculturalism is compatible with feminist principles. To reconcile multicultural claims with those of feminism, Lepinard shifts attention to the pressing issue of autonomy and argues for a "post-agency" conception that focuses on how individual actions are conditioned by social relationships of power while at the same time remaining attentive to everyday practices and experiences of resistance that move beyond the primacy of consciousness. In highlighting the problems with theories of multiculturalism, Lepinard seeks to open up the potential for building collective feminist subjects both within and between cultural communities. Adapted from the source document.