6,646 research outputs found
An American Knightmare: Joker, Fandom, and Malicious Movie Meaning-Making
This monograph concerns the long-standing communication problem of how individuals can identify and resist the influence of unethical public speakers. Scholarship on the issue of what Socrates & Plato called the “Evil Lover” – i.e., the ill-intended rhetor – began with the Greek philosophers, but has carried into [post]Modern anxieties. For instance, the study of Nazi propaganda machines, and the rhetoric of Hitler himself, rejuvenated interest in the study of speech and communication in the U.S. and Europe. Whereas unscrupulous sophists used lectures and legal forums, and Hitler used a microphone, contemporary Evil Lovers primarily draw on new, internet-related tools to share their malicious influence. These new tools of influence are both more far-reaching and more subtle than the traditional practices of listening to a designated speaker appearing at an overtly political event. Rhetorician Ashley Hinck has recently noted the ways that popular culture – communication about texts which are commonly accessible and shared – are now significant sites through which citizens learn moral and political values. Accordingly, the talk of internet influencers who interpret popular texts for other fans has the potential to constitute strong persuasive power regarding ethics and civic responsibility.
The present work identifies and responds to a particular case example of popular culture text that has been recently, and frequently, leveraged in moral and civic discourses: Todd Phillips’ Joker. Specifically, this study takes a hermeneutic approach to understanding responses, especially those explicitly invoking political ideology, to Joker as a method of examining civic meaning-making. A special emphasis is placed on the online film criticisms of Joker from white nationalist movie fans, who clearly exemplify ways that media responses can be leveraged by unethical speakers (i.e., Evil Lovers) and subtly diffused. The study conveys that these racist movie fans can embed values related to “trolling,” incelism, and xenophobia into otherwise seemingly innocuous talk about film. While the sharing of such speech does not immediately mean its positive reception, this kind of communication yet constitutes a new and understudied attack on democratic values such as justice and equity. The case of white nationalist movie fan film criticism therefore reflects a particular brand of communicative strategy for contemporary Evil Lovers in communicating unethical messages under the covert guise of mundane movie talk
The Metaverse: Survey, Trends, Novel Pipeline Ecosystem & Future Directions
The Metaverse offers a second world beyond reality, where boundaries are
non-existent, and possibilities are endless through engagement and immersive
experiences using the virtual reality (VR) technology. Many disciplines can
benefit from the advancement of the Metaverse when accurately developed,
including the fields of technology, gaming, education, art, and culture.
Nevertheless, developing the Metaverse environment to its full potential is an
ambiguous task that needs proper guidance and directions. Existing surveys on
the Metaverse focus only on a specific aspect and discipline of the Metaverse
and lack a holistic view of the entire process. To this end, a more holistic,
multi-disciplinary, in-depth, and academic and industry-oriented review is
required to provide a thorough study of the Metaverse development pipeline. To
address these issues, we present in this survey a novel multi-layered pipeline
ecosystem composed of (1) the Metaverse computing, networking, communications
and hardware infrastructure, (2) environment digitization, and (3) user
interactions. For every layer, we discuss the components that detail the steps
of its development. Also, for each of these components, we examine the impact
of a set of enabling technologies and empowering domains (e.g., Artificial
Intelligence, Security & Privacy, Blockchain, Business, Ethics, and Social) on
its advancement. In addition, we explain the importance of these technologies
to support decentralization, interoperability, user experiences, interactions,
and monetization. Our presented study highlights the existing challenges for
each component, followed by research directions and potential solutions. To the
best of our knowledge, this survey is the most comprehensive and allows users,
scholars, and entrepreneurs to get an in-depth understanding of the Metaverse
ecosystem to find their opportunities and potentials for contribution
Elite perceptions of the Victorian and Edwardian past in inter-war England
It is often argued by historians that members of the cultivated Elite after 1918 rejected the pre-war past. or at least subjected it to severe denigration. This thesis sets out to challenge such a view. Above all, it argues that inter-war critics of the Victorian and Edwardian past were unable to reject it even if that was what they felt inclined to do. This was because they were tied to those periods by the affective links of memory, family, and the continually unfolding consequences of the past in the present. Even the severest critics of the pre-war world, such as Lytton Strachey, were less frequently dismissive of history than ambivalent towards it. This ambivalence, it is argued, helped to keep the past alive and often to humanise it. The thesis also explores more positive estimation of Victorian and Edwardian history between the wars. It examines nostalgia for the past, as well as instances of continuity of practice and attitude. It explores the way in which inter-war society drew upon aspects of Victorian and Edwardian history both as illuminating parallels to contemporary affairs and to understand directly why the present was shaped as it was. Again, this testifies to the enduring power of the past after 1918. There are three parts to this thesis. Part One outlines the cultural context in which writers contemplated the Victorian and Edwardian past. Part Two explores some of the ways in which history was written about and used by inter-war society. Part Three examines the ways in which biographical depictions of eminent Victorians after 1918 encouraged emotional negotiation with the pas
The place where curses are manufactured : four poets of the Vietnam War
The Vietnam War was unique among American wars. To pinpoint its uniqueness, it was necessary to look for a non-American voice that would enable me to articulate its distinctiveness and explore the American character as observed by an Asian. Takeshi Kaiko proved to be most helpful. From his novel, Into a Black Sun, I was able to establish a working pair of 'bookends' from which to approach the poetry of Walter McDonald, Bruce Weigl, Basil T. Paquet and Steve Mason. Chapter One is devoted to those seemingly mismatched 'bookends,' Walt Whitman and General William C. Westmoreland, and their respective anthropocentric and technocentric visions of progress and the peculiarly American concept of the "open road" as they manifest themselves in Vietnam. In Chapter, Two, I analyze the war poems of Walter McDonald. As a pilot, writing primarily about flying, his poetry manifests General Westmoreland's technocentric vision of the 'road' as determined by and manifest through technology. Chapter Three focuses on the poems of Bruce Weigl. The poems analyzed portray the literal and metaphorical descent from the technocentric, 'numbed' distance of aerial warfare to the world of ground warfare, and the initiation of a 'fucking new guy,' who discovers the contours of the self's interior through a set of experiences that lead from from aerial insertion into the jungle to the degradation of burning human
feces. Chapter Four, devoted to the thirteen poems of Basil T. Paquet, focuses on the continuation of the descent begun in Chapter Two. In his capacity as a medic, Paquet's entire body of poems details his quotidian tasks which entail tending the maimed, the mortally wounded and the dead. The final chapter deals with Steve Mason's JohnnY's Song, and his depiction of the plight of Vietnam veterans back in "The World" who are still trapped inside the interior landscape of their individual "ghettoes" of the soul created by their war-time experiences
The implementation and application of the International Code for Ships Operating in Polar Waters (Polar Code): Evaluations and considerations addressing this functionbased regulation’s effect on safety and emergency preparedness concerning Arctic shipping
PhD thesis in Risk management and societal safetyPeople have sailed in polar waters for decades; more than one hundred years ago, Nansen and Amundsen explored the oceans of the Arctic and Antarctic with their expedition teams, with Amundsen leading the expedition that first reached the South Pole in 1911. A remarkable technological evolution has taken place since those days, bringing along even more astonishing innovations. Wooden ships with sail are replaced by standardized steel-constructed vessels, powered by diesel-electric engines or nuclear reactors, and highly technological satellite navigation and communication systems have replaced the sextant, chronometer, compass and surveyor’s wheel guiding the way at that time. The knowledge and experience concerning risks and hazards associated with shipping in polar waters is outstanding. However, the increase in the shipping activity of various vessels in the Arctic region during recent years has resulted in new risks; consequently, the knowledge, experience and the capacity to handle these are limited. Seen historically, major accidents and events have raised the focus on safety and forced the way for the development, innovation and design of new technology and systems. As a response to the Titanic disaster in 1912, the International Convention for the Safety of Life at Sea (SOLAS) was agreed in 1914 and suggested the minimum number of lifeboats and other emergency equipment required to be maintained by merchant ships. Today, the SOLAS Convention is considered the most important of all international treaties concerning the safety of merchant ships and specifies the minimum standards for the construction, equipment and operation of ships. During the last century, several revisions and amendments to this Convention, adopted by the International Maritime Organization (IMO) in 1960, have strengthened the regulations for ship design and operations. Consequently, the maritime industry is forced to innovate, (re)-design and construct vessels, emergency equipment and systems, to become compliant with the SOLAS Convention.
In 2017, the IMO amended the SOLAS Convention, by implementing the International Code for Ships Operating in Polar Waters (Polar Code), providing mandatory rules and requirements applicable to ship operations in defined geographical areas in the waters around the Arctic and Antarctica. The Polar Code supplemented existing IMO conventions and regulations, with the goal of increasing the safety of ship operations and mitigating the impact on the people and environment in the remote, vulnerable, and potentially harsh polar waters. Ship systems and equipment addressed in the Polar Code are required to maintain at least the same performance standards referred to in the SOLAS Convention. The key principle of the regulation is founded on a risk-based approach in determining scope and a holistic approach in reducing identified risks. The Polar Code consists of function-based requirements, i.e., the regulation specifies what is to be achieved without specifying how to be in compliance with its requirements. The requirement to first carry out an operational (risk) assessment of the ship and its equipment, considering the anticipated range of operating and environmental conditions, is essential in the application of the Polar Code. This operational assessment shall guide the way in the establishment of shipspecific procedures and operational limitations, based on related risk factors in operating areas and taking into consideration the anticipated range of operating and environmental conditions: amongst others, operation in low air temperature, as this affects the working environment and human performance, maintenance and emergency preparedness tasks, material properties and equipment efficiency, survival time and performance of safety equipment and systems. The Polar Code requires that a Polar Service Temperature (PST) shall be specified for a ship intended to operate in low air temperature and that the performance standard shall be at least 10°C below the lowest Mean Daily Low Temperature (MDLT) for the intended area and season of operation in polar waters. The MDLT is the mean value of the daily low temperature for each day of the year over a minimum 10-year period. Survival systems and equipment are required by the Polar Code to be fully functional and operational at the PST during the maximum expected rescue time – i.e., the time adopted for the design of equipment and systems that shall provide survival support – which is defined in the Polar Code as never being less than five days.
The overall objective of this research is to contribute to the development of new knowledge concerning the implementation and application of the Polar Code and how this function-based regulation, so far, has succeeded in achieving its goal. Two research questions were developed to support the overarching objective, concerning the Polar Code’s applicability as a regulatory instrument in Arctic shipping. The research questions were associated with: (1) the Polar Code’s contribution to enhancing safety for shipping in the Arctic Ocean, considering the risks and hazards associated with activities in these waters, and (2) the identification of key mechanisms to ensure that compliance with the stated goal of the regulation occurs in a satisfactory manner. Individual interviews are conducted with experts in the field, concerning the implementation and application of the Polar Code. Moreover, two controlled experiments are performed, to assess the risk to humans and equipment of low temperature and exposure.
The implementation of new regulations can trigger the development of new products, systems and processes, even though, in the early stages, it can be unclear how the development will manifest itself. At the time of the implementation of the Polar Code in 2017 (1st January), there was a lack of guidelines or informative standards providing support to the Polar Code, and a variety of solutions on emergency equipment and systems could comply with the regulation’s function-based requirements. Although the regulation provides additional guidance (in Part II-B) to the mandatory provisions (in Part II-A), this is in many cases general and generic. The operational assessment is required to address both individual (personal survival equipment) and shared (group survival equipment) needs, which shall be provided in the event of an abandonment of ship situation. The Polar Code states that this equipment shall provide effective protection against direct wind chill, sufficient
thermal insulation to maintain the core temperature of persons, and sufficient protection to prevent frostbite of all extremities. In the guidance (Part II-B) of the regulation, samples of suggested equipment for personal survival equipment and group survival kits are provided. However, many products will comply with the suggested equipment, regardless of their suitability under real conditions. The protection against wind chill to humans, to prevent frostbite (and to increases the survival time) depends on factors such as time and type of exposure, individual physiological conditions and activity level, rather than just the types of gloves or shoes chosen and their protective status.
The sinking of a cruise liner is considered the ultimate challenge for the rescue capability in the Arctic region, and the passengers on cruise ships represent a vulnerable group for several reasons. The average passenger is typically older and less fit and would suffer from discomfort and hypothermia faster than younger persons, in a situation requiring evacuation to lifeboats, life rafts or directly onto ice. For shipowners and operators operating in polar waters and required to comply with the Polar Code, there can be economic incentives for neglecting or not actively taking part in the innovating process of improving and developing new systems and equipment sufficient to withstand low temperatures and the harsh polar conditions. High costs are expected in the work of developing and improving emergency equipment and systems, especially if technical and operational winterization upgrades of older vessels are necessary. Search and Rescue (SAR) exercises conducted in the waters surrounding Svalbard have revealed that the marine industry in general is reactive in the work of implementing the Polar Code’s requirements. Consequently, many vessels are equipped with insufficient survival equipment, including insufficient food and water rations. Great variations are observed in Life-Saving Appliances (LSA) and arrangements, concerning both quality and functionality, approved by flag states and classification societies. There are, unfortunately, examples of tailored operational assessments which support marginal emergency equipment and systems, as the associated cost, weight, volume and capacity puts additional strain and restrictions on shipowners and operators. With limited communication between the suppliers of the development of survival equipment, there are large variations among the functionality of such equipment in polar waters. There is lack of harmonization and standardization amongst the subject groups supposed to comply with the Polar Code, and a common understanding of the most suitable and “stateof- the-art” LSA and arrangements required for an emergency response situation in polar waters seems not to be in reach yet.
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Conscience and Consciousness: British Theatre and Human Rights.
This research project investigates a paradigm of human rights theatre. Through the lens of performance and theatre-making, this thesis explores how we came to represent, speak about, discuss, and own human rights in Britain. My framework of ‘human rights theatre’ proposes three distinctive features: firstly, such works dramatise real-world issues and highlights the role of the state in endangering its citizens; secondly, ethical ruptures are encountered within and without the drama, and finally, these performances characteristically aspire to produce an activist effect on the collective behaviours of the audience.
This thesis interrogates the strategies theatre-makers use to articulate human rights concerns or to animate human rights intent. The selected case-studies for this investigation are ice&fire’s testimonial project, Actors for Human Rights; Badac Theatre; Jonathan Holmes’ work as director of Jericho House; Cardboard Citizens’ youth participation programme, ACT NOW; and Tony Cealy’s Black Men’s Consortium. Deliberately selecting companies and performance events that have received limited critical attention, my methodology constellates case-studies through original interviews, durational observation of creative working methods and proximate descriptions of practice.
The thesis is interested in the experience of coming to ‘consciousness’ through human rights theatre, an awakening to the impacts of rights infringements and rights claiming. I explore consciousness as a processual, procedural, and durational happening in these performance events. I explore the ‘æffect’ of activist art and examine the ways in which makers of human rights theatre aim to amplify both affective and effective qualities in their work. My thesis also considers the articulation of activist purpose and the campaigning intent of the selected theatre-makers and explores how their activism is animated in their productions. Through the rich seam of discussion generated by the identification and exploration of the traits of a distinctive human rights theatre, I affirm the generative value of this typological enquiry
Freelance subtitlers in a subtitle production network in the OTT industry in Thailand: a longitudinal study
The present study sets out to investigate a subtitle production network in the over-the-top (OTT) industry in Thailand through the perspective of freelance subtitlers. A qualitative longitudinal research design was adopted to gain insights into (1) the way the work practices of freelance subtitlers are influenced by both human and non-human actors in the network, (2) the evolution of the network, and (3) how the freelance subtitlers’ perception of quality is influenced by changes occurring in the network. Eleven subtitlers were interviewed every six months over a period of two years, contributing to over 60 hours of interview data. The data analysis was informed by selected concepts from Actor-Network Theory (ANT) (Law 1992, 2009; Latour 1996, 2005; Mol 2010), and complemented by the three-dimensional quality model proposed by Abdallah (2016, 2017). Reflexive thematic analysis (Braun and Clarke 2019a, 2020b) was used to generate themes and sub-themes which address the research questions and tell compelling stories about the actor-network. It was found that from July 2017 to September 2019, the subtitle production network, which was sustained by complex interrelationships between actors, underwent a number of changes. The changes affected the work practices of freelance subtitlers in a more negative than positive way, demonstrating their precarious position in an industry that has widely adopted the vendor model (Moorkens 2017). Moreover, as perceived by the research participants, under increasingly undesirable working conditions, it became more challenging to maintain a quality process and to produce quality subtitles. Finally, translation technology and tools, including machine translation, were found to be key non-human actors that catalyse the changes in the network under study
In her own words: exploring the subjectivity of Freud’s ‘teacher’ Anna von Lieben
This project is inspired by Roy Porter (1985), who draws attention to the patient-shaped gap in medical history, and Rita Charon (2006), who emphasises the need to bring the patient’s narrative to the fore in the practice of medicine. The principal aim was to devise a means of accessing the lived experience of a patient who is no longer alive in order to gain an understanding of her narrative. Anna von Lieben was identified as a suitable subject as she wrote a substantial quantity of autopathographical poetry suitable for analysis and her status as Freud’s patient makes her a person of significant interest to the history of medicine.
The poems were analysed using Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis (IPA), an idiographic and inductive method of qualitative research, based on Heideggerian hermeneutic phenomenology, which explores the lived experience of individuals and is committed to understanding the first-person perspective from the third-person position.
The main findings from the IPA study reveal that Anna experienced a prolonged period of malaise, starting in late adolescence which she believed to result, at least partly, from a traumatic experience which occurred at that time. The analysis also indicates that Anna suffered from deep and lasting feelings of guilt and shame. The discovery of additional family documentation enabled me to contextualise and add substance to the findings of the IPA study. Anna’s husband’s diaries in particular reveal that Anna:
• had a severe and longstanding gynaecological disorder
• suffered from severe morphinism
• did not benefit from Freud’s treatment which seemed neither to ease her symptoms nor identify any cause
• was treated in Paris, not by Jean-Martin Charcot as previously supposed, but by a French hydrotherapist, Theodore Keller, who appears to have become a person of considerable significance in her life.
The above findings led me to investigate Anna’s comorbidities (gynaecological disease and morphinism) and to show how those could be responsible for much of the symptomatology identified by Freud as ‘hysteria’. I then explore the possibility that her psychotic-like experiences could have been iatrogenically induced by her treatment first by Keller and then by Freud. Finally, I propose a fourfold set of hypotheses as an alternative to Freud’s diagnosis of hysteria
The Role of English and Welsh INGOs: A Field Theory-Based Exploration of the Sector
This thesis takes a field theory-based approach to exploring the role of English and Welsh international non-governmental organisations (INGOs), using the lens of income source form.
First, the thesis presents new income source data drawn from 933 Annual Accounts published by 316 INGOs over three years (2015-2018). The research then draws on qualitative data from 90 Leaders' letters include within the Annual Reports published by 39 INGOS, as well as supplementary quantitative and qualitative data, to explore the ways in which INGOs represent their role.
Analysis of this income source data demonstrates that government funding is less important to most INGOs than has previously been assumed, while income from individuals is more important than has been recognised in the extant development studies literature. Funding from other organisations within the voluntary sector is the third most important source of income for these INGOs, while income from fees and trading is substantially less important than the other income source forms.
Using this income source data in concert with other quantitative data on INGO characteristics as well as qualitative data drawn from the Leaders' letters, I then show that the English and Welsh INGO sector is a heterogenous space, divided into multiple fields. The set of fields identified by this thesis is arranged primarily around income source form, which is also associated with size, religious affiliation, and activities of focus and ways of working. As Bourdieusian field theory suggests, within these fields individual INGOs are engaged in an ongoing struggle for position: competing to demonstrate their maximal possession of the symbolic capitals they perceive to be valued by (potential) donors to that field.
Further analysis of these Leaders' letters, alongside additional Annual Reports and Accounts data, also reveals a dissonance in the way in which INGOs describe their relationship with local partners in these different communication types. While these Leaders' letters and narrative reports tell stories of collaborative associations with locally-based partners, this obscures the nature of these relationships as competitive and hierarchical.
The thesis draws on the above findings to reflect on the role of INGOs as suggested in the extant literature. This discussion highlights how the various potential INGO fields identified are associated with differing theoretical roles for INGOs. Finally, the thesis considers how INGO role representations continue to contribute to unequal power relations between INGOs and their partners
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