1,720,962 research outputs found
Semiotic Analysis of Workforce Diversity
Full text linkPurpose/Objective: The purpose of this dissertation is to affect a paradigmatical shift in workforce diversity in response to the literature gap. Workforce diversity in the USA, a phenomenon often reduced to enumerable categories set forth by and in consequence of the Civil Rights Act. This Act outlawed discrimination on the basis of sex, race, colour, religion, pregnancy, national origin, age, and disability. These categories emerge from a Western, specifically Anglo-Saxon, perspective and are rooted in a nominalist presupposition that construes diversity as a collection of specific dimensions. Literature indicates a lack in diversity research, being narrowly focused on categorisable dimensions and causing conceptual fragmentation. Therefore, this dissertation studies diversity from a paradigm other than positivism and nominalism embedded in empiriometric models which are in no way equipped to understand the reality of diversity.
Design/Methodology/Approach: Peirce opposed nominalism and positivism. Thus, this thesis adopts semiotics, effectively shifting diversity from empiriometric paradigm to Peirce’s semiotic realism. Peirce held that humans are themselves signs, dynamically acting as mutual interpretants from their individual frames of reference. The data will be analysed within the Peircean Logic System to allow for extracting the signs in accordance with the Peircean triadic structure.
Findings: The interviews revealed differing attitudes and, therefore, radically opposed interpretations of diversity’s nature. Participants highlighted disparities in the creation of identities because of a fragmented approach to the terms used by the Civil Rights Act. Hence, this thesis gave diversity an essential definition as approbation of the other as other
Shakespearean Polyphony. An exploration of female voices in seven selected plays using a dialogical framework.
No full textThis thesis employs the concept of 'voice' in order to explore the variety of dialogic relationships between men and women in seven Shakespeare plays. Here, 'voice' is defined as an ideological position held by a character and voices within a dialogical relationship test dominant social ideas. In doing so, the aim is to explore how employing a linguistic approach allows us to develop a more nuanced perspective towards women and female voices in Shakespeare. Taking the early modern tradition of an all-male-cast into consideration, this project acknowledges the tension between the idea of embodiment and voice; however, it argues that even though there is no biological female body of the Shakespearean stage, there is a female voice.
Dialogism, of course, derives from the work of the Russian theorist Mikhail Bakhtin. These 'voices' are analysed in the context of a theoretical framework informed by his writings on the novel, which are also increasingly being used to make sense of drama in line with Bakhtin's own awareness of a nascent dialogism in Shakespearean drama. 'Polyphony', in particular, assumes a separation between the author's and the characters' points of view. Thus, this project considers Shakespeare's texts as dialogic and his plays as a dialogue of voices, in which the characters have the capacity to hold dialogical relationships where no voice holds more importance than any other. This is significant because these conflicting voices are what make the Shakespearean text different from those in which a single voice is heard - that of the author, for example. As this study talks about an oppressive authoritative/patriarchal language, a dialogic approach unlocks the languages of the others which it tries to marginalise and silence.
The research reveals a complex relationship between space, time and voice. More precisely, the carnivalesque becomes visible in Shakespeare's use of innovative discursive devices, such as 'active parody', 'Menippean dialogue' and 'Socratic dialogue', which suggests a multi-toned and ambiguous female voice; a voice that has the capacity to covertly and overtly oppose and challenge social ideologies surrounding gender.
The thesis offers new perspectives on the presentation of women and speech. Importantly, it offers a more sophisticated and complex Bakhtinian framework for looking at carnival in Shakespeare. Additionally, a linguistic model of analysis also develops current scholarly use of Bakhtin's concept of carnival. Rather than viewing carnival as simply a time-space of betwixt and between, this project looks at carnival in the context of language (the carnivalesque). More specifically, it reveals how Shakespeare¿s female figures find pockets of carnivalesque space in everyday existence through dialogue. Thus, suggesting that emancipation is not limited to an allocated time or space, rather, it can also be achieved through language
Mapping the holistic journey of former vegans: The polyphony within veganism
No full textNoThis book explores Veganism through the holistic journeys and lived experiences of former vegans, with a particular focus on the impact this has on their Selfhood and identity. It delves into the complexities underpinning definitions of Veganism and vegan identities.
Based on original qualitative research charting the experiences of ten former vegans, the text offers a theoretical lens for understanding evolving self-perception, identity, and experience, exploring what leads to initiating a transition in and out of Veganism and how former vegans reconcile with losing their vegan identity. Applying a Bakhtinian model of Selfhood, this book explores the tensions between ‘Voices’ representing values within social discourse, such as Veganism, and how individuals co-construct their identity and self-perception through said Voices. Chapters explore the Polyphony within Veganism and offer an insight into the embodied experience of former vegans. Each analysis chapter has been divided into three distinct Threshold-moments of beginning, middle, and end.
Mapping the Holistic Journey of Former Vegans: The Polyphony within Veganism is intended for scholars and postgraduate students interested in Veganism, Selfhood and identity, and behaviour change and anyone looking to understand the context of Veganism in practice
Speaking pictures, silent voices: female athletes and the negotiation of selfhood
Full text linkYesCombining Mikhail Bakhtin's (1990) theoretical position on Architectonics and Erving Goffman's (1979) writings on visual content analysis, the aim of this paper is to explore how female athletes are caught in a complex matrix of power, post - feminist neoliberalism, and self - presentation. The visual images they choose to portray are, therefore, perfect for determining how this cohort of women negotiates social discourses around identity and femininity. Appropriating the Bakhtinian notion of architectonic unity, not only provides an alternative theoretical lens for enquiries concerning the body, identity, and selfhood, but also initiates some thought provoking questions around neoliberal feminism and 'new femininity.' This paper advances on previous research by exemplifying how Serena Williams (considered the greatest female tennis player of all time) combines both her femininity and strong physicality to self - shape a myth - like persona, setting her apart from traditional stereotypes of femininity and 'femaleness.
Going Beyond Counting First Authors in Author Co-citation Analysis
Full text linkThe present study examines one of the fundamental aspects of author co-citation analysis (ACA) - the way co-citation
counts are defined. Co-citation counting provides the data on which all subsequent statistical analyses and mappings
are based, and we compare ACA results based on two different types of co-citation counting - the traditional type that
only counts the first one among a cited work's authors on the one hand and a non-traditional type that takes into
account the first 5 authors of a cited work on the other hand. Results indicate that the picture produced through this non-traditional author co-citation counting contains more coherent author groups and is therefore considerably clearer. However, this picture represents fewer specialties in the research field being studied than that produced through the traditional first-author co-citation counting when the same number of top-ranked authors is selected and analyzed. Reasons for these effects are discussed
From Cultural Imperialism to Cultural Peacebuilding. The Role of Media Within the Framework of the Responsibility to Protect Doctrine: The Case of Libya 2011
Full text linkThis thesis undertakes a critical approach to understanding the role of media within the responsibility to protect doctrine framework. The purpose of this work is to respond to the following main two questions: Are there non-violent means that can be applied within the context of the responsibility to protect, Pillar III in particular? Does the conceptualisation of the responsibility to protect and the role assigned to the media prevent or facilitate the application of non-violence to the resolution of humanitarian crises, such as genocide, ethnic cleansing, war crimes and crimes against humanity? In order to investigate the above research questions, it adopts a nuanced Social Constructionist perspective, through which the social function of the media is highlighted. This is achieved through the application of Critical Discourse Analysis, which allowed critical engagement with the semantic position of ‘media’, ‘dialogue,’ and ‘non-violence’ within the founding documents published by the International Commission on Intervention and State Sovereignty and the United Nations that developed the concept of the responsibility to protect between 2001 and 2018. Finally, the work explored how the responsibility to protect has been discussed in selected media outlets that are reflective of two different approaches to journalism, whose underpinning principles differ substantially: mainstream and peace journalism. By adopting the same methodological approach and applying it to the case of the NATO intervention to Libya in 2011 this section of this thesis critically investigated whether there is a difference in their discourse, and, if so, what this difference is
Variations on the Author
Full text link“Variations on the Author” discusses two of Eduardo Coutinho’s recent films (Um Dia na Vida, from 2010, and Últimas Conversas, posthumously released in 2015) and their contribution to the general question of documentary authorship. The director’s filmography is characterized by a consistent yet self-effacing form of authorial self-inscription: Coutinho often features as an interviewer that rather than express opinions propels discourses; an interviewer that is good at listening. This mode of self-inscription characterizes him as an author who is not expressive but who is nonetheless markedly present on the screen. In Um Dia na Vida, however, Coutinho is completely absent form the image, while Últimas Conversas, on the contrary, includes a confessional prologue that moves the director from the margins to the center of his films. This article examines the ways in which these works stand out in the filmography of a director who offers new insights into the notion of cinematic authorship
Appropriate Similarity Measures for Author Cocitation Analysis
Full text linkWe provide a number of new insights into the methodological discussion about author cocitation analysis. We first argue that the use of the Pearson correlation for measuring the similarity between authors’ cocitation profiles is not very satisfactory. We then discuss what kind of similarity measures may be used as an alternative to the Pearson correlation. We consider three similarity measures in particular. One is the well-known cosine. The other two similarity measures have not been used before in the bibliometric literature. Finally, we show by means of an example that our findings have a high practical relevance.information science;Pearson correlation;cosine;similarity measure;author cocitation analysis
Dispelling the Myths Behind First-author Citation Counts
Full text linkWe conducted a full-scale evaluative citation analysis study of scholars in the XML research field to explore just how different from each other author rankings resulting from different citation counting methods actually are, and to demonstrate the capability of emerging data and tools on the Web in supporting more realistic citation counting methods. Our results contest some common arguments for the continued
use of first-author citation counts in the evaluation of scholars, such as high correlations between author rankings by first-author citation counts and other citation
counting methods, and high costs of using more realistic citation counting methods that are not well-supported by the ISI databases. It is argued that increasingly available digital full text research papers make it possible for citation analysis studies to go beyond what the ISI databases have directly supported and to employ more
sophisticated methods
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