642 research outputs found
Colonization of later life ? Laypersons' and users' agency regarding anti-aging medicine in Germany
No full textAnti-aging medicine is regarded as a significant trend in contemporary Western societies. Foucauldian gerontology provides some of the dominant theoretical perspectives on this trend in social and cultural theory. Proceeding from its interpretation and critique of anti-aging in terms of medicalization and responsibilization of aging, we explore by means of qualitative socio-empirical research how interested laypersons as well as non-professional users in the German context actually perceive of and deal with the medical claims and moral imperatives surrounding anti-aging medicine. The study is based on 12 focus groups and 20 narrative interviews (96 participants all included). They were conducted in Germany between 2011 and 2012, and analyzed by qualitative content analysis as well as comparative sequence analysis. The empirical findings indicate that in everyday life, interested laypersons and non-professional users employ different strategies for dealing with anti-aging products and services, corresponding to different degrees of affirmation and rejection. Four strategies could be identified: (a) medical optimism, (b) preventive maximalism, (c) ritualized well-being, and (d) considerate rejection. Also, each type was problematized and arguments against it were expressed. Overall, these findings show how our participants develop viable strategies to put the relevance of medical knowledge and moral imperatives for their own lives into perspective. This sheds light on laypersons' and users' agency that is, their active role and deliberative space in the uptake, adaptation, and integration of anti-aging into their personal life. These empirical findings contribute to an enriched picture of the actual practice of anti-aging in concrete national and socio-cultural settings. This can help to differentiate the evaluation and thus make its critique more context sensitive, adequate, and targeted. (C) 2014 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved
Rezension: Rudolf Schmitt, Julia Schröder & Larissa Pfaller (2018). Systematische Metaphernanalyse
No full textMit "Systematische Metaphernanalyse: Eine Einführung" legen Rudolf SCHMITT, Julia SCHRÖDER und Larissa PFALLER in zwölf Kapiteln eine didaktische Aufarbeitung der systematischen Metaphernanalyse vor. Die Autor*innen führen zunächst in die grundlegenden theoretischen Konzepte der Methode ein. Da jeder Schritt an Beispielen vorgeführt wird, ist dies auch für Einsteiger*innen in die qualitative Forschung stets nachvollziehbar. SCHMITT et al. diskutieren häufige Herausforderungen sowie Lösungsstrategien im Forschungsprozess und zeigen dabei die vielfältigen Anwendungsmöglichkeiten der systematischen Metaphernanalyse auf. Anschließend erläutern sie Möglichkeiten der Ergebnisdarstellung anhand von Beispielen und diskutieren Erweiterungen der systematischen Metaphernanalyse. Der Band schließt mit einer übersichtlichen Zusammenfassung der zentralen Thesen. Mit seiner klaren Struktur sowie seiner präzisen und zugleich verständlichen Sprache wird das Buch dem Anspruch an eine Einführung in die systematische Metaphernanalyse mehr als gerecht
Critical analysis of communication strategies in public health promotion: An empirical‐ethical study on organ donation in Germany
No full textGiven the need for organs, public organizations use social marketing strategies to increase the number of donors. Their campaigns employ a variety of moral appeals. However, their effects on audiences are unclear. We identified 14 campaigns in Germany from over the last 20 years. Our approach combined a multimodal analysis of categorized posters with a qualitative analysis of responses, collected in interviews or focus groups, of 53 persons who were either skeptical or undecided about organ donation. The combined analyses revealed that the posters failed to motivate laypersons in general to donate, and were even less effective on skeptical or undecided individuals. We explain this in terms of the types of moral messages found on posters and the limits of such social marketing strategies. Furthermore, we discuss certain ethical aspects of organ donation campaigns pertaining to communicating norms and trust in public institutions
Beziehungsweise. Sozial wirksame Prasenzeffekte des Musikalischen
No full textMusik kann Atmosphären erzeugen und damit Menschen vergemeinschaften. Aus der Perspektive und in der Sprache der Neuen Phänomenologie ist das so, weil musikalische Praktiken menschliches Miteinander-in-Beziehung-Stehen durch die solidarische Einleibung von Bewegungssuggestionen erfahrbar machen. Zuhören und sich Zueinanderhören sind dann auch miteinander verwoben. Der Beitrag entfaltet dieses Argument, indem produktive Ideen zur Musik aus der Neuen Phänomenologie vorgestellt werden, um dann, gerichtet auf das Konzept der musikalischen Bedeutsamkeit (vs. das der musikalischen Bedeutung), einige chancenreiche Impulse daraus zu destillieren und diese anhand einer konkreten Musiksituation aus dem Westpazifik fruchtbar zu machen. Daraus wird folgen, dass Musik eben auch eine „Beziehungsweise“ ist: ein spezifisch musikalischer, ästhetisch und affektiv erfahrbar gemachter Vollzug sozialen Seins und Werdens
On Reading and Writing: an Interview with Larissa Lai
No full textCultural activist, author and Creative Writing Professor Larissa Lai is interviewed by Spanish critic Sonia Villegas López
‘Saying no to organ donation’: an empirical typology of reluctance and rejection
No full textIn Germany, as well as in other countries, organ shortages are usually explained by a relative unwillingness to donate among a population which is assumed to be caused by a lack of information and mistrust of the system. As we can see in the data of our qualitative research (focus groups and interviews), lack of information or mistrust are not the only reasons for people to be reluctant to agree to the donation of their organs after death. In fact we can identify four positions: (1) information deficit; (2) mistrust; (3) no killing; and (4) bodily integrity. The first and second are the two prominent explanations in the public discourse about low donation rates. The third and the fourth instead have neither been adequately articulated nor been discussed as a proper argument. Therefore, by means of sociology of critique, we discuss their contribution to the discourse as comprehensible reasons for reluctance and present them as credible positions of criticism: These two positions illuminate fundamental and universal values of the inviolability of the person and human dignity. Thus, both positions are consistent and morally justifiable and should be addressed with sensitivity
“Are You In or Are You Out?!” Moral Appeals to the Public in Organ Donation Poster Campaigns: A Multimodal and Ethical Analysis
No full textAltern zwischen Medikalisierung und reflexiver Praxis. Der Alltag im Zeichen des Anti-Aging
No full textLarissa Lai reading for Campus Author 2011 Launch
No full textThe 2011 Campus Author Recognition Program was launched on March 16, 2011 with the help of Larissa Lai, award winning novelist and poet and Winter 2011 College of Arts Writer-in-Residence. She currently holds the position as Assistant Professor of Canadian English at the University of British Columbia.
Larissa read from her novel "Salt Fish Girl".
Introductions performed by Michael Ridley
The theory and practice of utopia in our troubled times : a conversation with author Larissa Lai and critic Sherryl Vint
No full textAmid current global crises, the international conference “The Knock at the Door: Utopian Dreams for Post-Covid Times,” jointly organized by the University of Huelva (Spain) and the University of Calgary (Canada) on May 21–24, 2023, at the University of Huelva, provided a forum for reflecting upon the role played by speculative fiction in (re)imagining better futures, while remaining vigilant to possible threats and dangers. The title of the conference, borrowed from philosopher John Rajchman,1 is intentionally ambiguous. Lying behind that door could be total liberation for all—or it could be secret police who lead us toward genocides, deportation, rapes, and mass graves. Taking this dichotomous trope, “the knock at the door,” as a point of departure, professors Larissa Lai (University of Toronto, Canada; recipient of a Maria Zambrano fellowship at the University of Huelva at the time of the interview) and Sherryl Vint (University of California Riverside, USA) engaged...Depto. de Estudios Ingleses: Lingüística y LiteraturaFac. de Ciencias Económicas y EmpresarialesTRUEpu
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