253 research outputs found

    International conference on software engineering and knowledge engineering: Session chair

    Get PDF
    The Thirtieth International Conference on Software Engineering and Knowledge Engineering (SEKE 2018) will be held at the Hotel Pullman, San Francisco Bay, USA, from July 1 to July 3, 2018. SEKE2018 will also be dedicated in memory of Professor Lofti Zadeh, a great scholar, pioneer and leader in fuzzy sets theory and soft computing. The conference aims at bringing together experts in software engineering and knowledge engineering to discuss on relevant results in either software engineering or knowledge engineering or both. Special emphasis will be put on the transference of methods between both domains. The theme this year is soft computing in software engineering & knowledge engineering. Submission of papers and demos are both welcome

    Spatial Production and Nomadic Subjectivities in a Buddhist Learning Space

    Get PDF
    Space and place are an integral part in the geographies of education, therefore, knowledge about culturally complex and ethnically diverse transnational communities could inform curricular innovations that meet the needs of individual students. This year-long ethnographic study challenged the prevailing realities that U.S. schools continue to devalue the experiences and cultural backgrounds of immigrant youth, which caused students from ethnic, cultural, racial, linguistic, and religious minority groups to feel structurally excluded and marginalized. Through examining the spatial production and nomadic subjectivities enacted over time in a transnational, diasporic space of a Buddhist temple in a U.S. southern state, the study provided a detailed and multidimensional account of community life as well as the dynamic process of shaping and being shaped by what happened there. Within the theoretical framework of spatial theories and nomadic thoughts, as well as the methodology of place-sensitive and interactional ethnographic practices, the study sought insights into the community through the lives of ten informants, with data collected from fieldnotes, audio recordings, interviews, participantsā€™ self-reported surveys, and artifacts. Findings showed the various values fostered in the temple as an out-of-school learning space. First, the temple presented a wealth of cultural knowledge resources available in the community. Second, the temple strengthened its communityā€™s collective memory, sense of belonging, and democratic values through daily place-making practices. Third, the multiple subjectivities and relationships created on the templeā€™s grounds transposed differences in terms of race, ethnicity, nationality, gender, class, and political systems and recognized experiences of different mobilities moving through the templeā€™s space. Lastly, the spatialized learnings from the Buddhist space of the temple challenged the isolation of schooling and educational discourses and practices from the living and breathing world of the community. The study concluded with implications for democratic education and curriculum theory, specifically through re-imagining the possibilities for nomadic pedagogy, place-conscious pedagogy and a pedagogy of the Sangha. Within these discussions, it continued to reiterate the values of community in constructing peopleā€™s subjectivities and conditioning meaningful learning experiences

    Tourism development in less developed countries.

    Get PDF
    The United Nations Research Institute of Social Development (UNIRSD) published a monograph after their workshop in Geneva 1994 on the development of Cambodia. Among the various issues the workshop revealed the pressing need for research regarding the post-conflict economic strategy, the socio-psychological effects of the war, appropriate forms of foreign aid and delivery mechanisms, and the roles and responsibilities of different types of local, national and international institutions involved in processes of rehabilitation and reconstruction. In response to this fundamental quest for knowledge, this study is designed to investigate the development of tourism in the war-tom Cambodian economy in the mist of poverty and social problems. International intervention and assistance, the role of government and the Third Sector!, and community participation are key embedded units for the study. The thesis also intended to examine the appropriateness of the approaches employed by the government and international aid in promoting tourism. Although this thesis focused on Cambodia, findings and discussions are highly relevant to other less developed countries (LDCs), especially those having a background of war and/or civil turmoil. The thesis also addresses questions related to tourism as a development agent for economic growth, social rehabilitation and political development. For example: ā€¢ How can tourism serve to reactivate processes of economic growth and social development without seriously affecting the allocation of resources and current structure of the economy? ā€¢ How can tourism development be activated given the contextual limitations? ā€¢ Why should government intervene in the development process and how does one ensure the results will be accomplished with minimal disturbance to the social system? ā€¢ What kind of new social problem(s) and/or distortions in the economy, if any, have been induced by tourism and/or the liberalization of the economy? The delimitation of the study to tourism is for practical reasons. On the one hand, it is impossible to investigate the situation in Cambodia and make meaningful recommendations without refining the scope of study. Tourism, on the other hand, is the world's largest single industry and one on which many countries have pinned their hopes. It is renowned for its ability to generate income, to attract foreign investment, to create employment and as some including the World Tourism Organization and the Pope John Paul II even argue for its capability to promote peace2. This thesis developed a tourism system model by theoretical induction making use of Cambodia as the subject of study. The ultimate vision of the study is to enhance the body of knowledge and thus to capitalize tourism as a development agent for the rehabilitation of a war-tom economy and social institutions to fight both poverty and marginalization. The findings of the study revealed the most current situation in Cambodia by applying the model of the tourism system and the model for tourism development proposed. The proposition that free-market capitalism might not work for less developed countries was tested and proved to be valid. This thesis revealed the barriers and potential of tourism as a development agent for LDC by using Cambodia as the subject for investigation. Specific recommendations were given. Although it might seem controversial given the difficulties as illustrated in the analysis, Cambodia has very limited option for development. The thesis also argued that many obstacles in the development are administrative. Once the problems were addressed, a significant increase in demand can be expected. This study attempts to provide answers to developmental questions. However, more questions and gaps in knowledge emerged in the process of the study. This study, as originally designed, is not an end in itself but a stepping-stone to further studies. To conclude, allow me to cite the words of Joan Healy, Overseas Service Bureau Australia, "to understand the meaning of this time we do well to see it through the experiences and aspirations of ordinary Cambodians. Then our questions change. We ask about ways they see to ease suffering and contribute to peace. We face the fact that we do not know so many answers

    Childrenā€™s perceptions of climate change in the Mekong Delta, Vietnam

    Get PDF
    We are in the midst of a climate crisis (IPBES, 2022). Our reliance on burning fossil fuels as the primary energy source for the global economy is leading to atmospheric and oceanic heating, which is leading to a range of societal consequences including unstable, unpredictable, and more intense hydrological extremes such as tropical storms and associated, extended periods of drought, as well as sea level rise, ocean acidification, and ecological instability; amongst many other ill effects (United Nations Environment Programme, 2021). Perhaps most significantly, Climate Change is placing a growing number of people at heightened flood risk in low laying deltaic regions around the world, including one of the most at-risk deltas, the Mekong Delta in Vietnam (Dun, 2011a; Human Rights Watch, 2019; Huong & Pathirana, 2013; Ngo et al., 2019; World Bank, 2020b), which is home for 18 million people.Among those people most at risk from Climate Change, both here and around the world, are children (Jones et al., 2021; O'Brien et al., 2018). Yet, these voices are often the least consulted or explored within Climate Change research, knowledge exchange and policy formulation (Beer, 2014; Malin & Ryder, 2018; Schlosberg & Collins, 2014; Smith, 2021; Son et al., 2021). Using a qualitative, creative, and place-based approach, this thesis provides an indepth exploration of the knowledges, perceptions, and experiences that children living in the Mekong Delta hold in relation to Climate Change and hydrological extremes ā€“ paying particular attention to the socio-cultural dimensions that shape these views. The findings presented demonstrate how children psychologically distance the issue of Climate Change both spatially and temporally and highlights the suite of reasons generating disconnects between lived experiences and formal education. The findings, however, also identify many socio-cultural factors that serve as opportunities for enhancing Climate Change education across the region and suggests ways in which these could be leveraged in future education initiatives with the aim of improving decision making and longer-term Climate Change adaptation and mitigation

    Teacher learning in Vietnam

    Get PDF
    In order for Vietnam to seek better international integration into an increasingly globalised world, the Vietnamese government has launched educational reforms, requiring teachers to adopt ā€˜westernā€™ constructivist pedagogies. This study focuses on pre-service teachersā€™ learning in Vietnam, where traditional attitudes towards teachersā€™ and learnersā€™ roles promote passivity amongst students and unquestioning respect for the authority of teachersā€™ knowledge. The thesis describes a cycle of action research conducted in a major teacher training institution in Vietnam. Through an intervention based on constructivist theories, the researcher set out to investigate factors that enhance teacher learning, and barriers that hinder it, with the aim of contributing evidence to discussions about the most appropriate strategies to be employed to bring about a change for the better in teacher education.Ā The research highlights the importance of Vietnamese teacher educators in promoting change in Vietnam. The data collected comprised tutorsā€™ and student teachersā€™ questionnaires, staff meeting discussions, student teachersā€™ journals and the researcherā€™s field notes. The findings reveal that student teachers were willing to accommodate and accept change and were often very enthusiastic about different patterns of teaching, which included peer evaluation and peer feedback. However, the student teachers' strongly held beliefs about relative roles of students and teachers remained firmly fixed. Other cultural factors also emerged from the findings. The thesis argues that the most productive way of incorporating constructivist learning into Vietnamese teacher education is by gaining a better understanding of the current status quo in order to respect and honour deep seated cultural beliefs. It argues that the imposition of pedagogical change is counter-productive without better engagement of teacher educators and teachers in discussion and debate about the characteristics that Vietnam wishes to see in its teachers and education system in the future. In particular, the thesis argues that the focus for transforming teacher education should be on promoting the responsibility of tutors to create a ā€˜transfer spaceā€™ to introduce students to new ideas about the processes of teaching and learning, and to develop new qualities needed via this ā€˜transfer spaceā€™. Evidence from the study suggests that this strategy is likely to be supportive of student teachersā€™ development as it allows them to separate the processes of teaching from the culturally dominant beliefs about roles which are part of their established identities

    Towards a Postmemorial Performance Practice: Animating intergenerational memory in the performance practices of Indigenous and second-generation migrant artists in Australia

    Full text link
    This creative practice PhD identifies an emerging wave of postmemorial performance in Australia and examines the strategies employed by artists to produce postmemorial performance outcomes. US-based scholar Marianne Hirsch termed traumatic intergenerational inherited memory ā€˜postmemoryā€™, describing it in relation to European historical contexts. Bringing this theoretical framework to Australia, this thesis critically analyses how inherited memory operates within Australiaā€™s settler-colonial context. It investigates how Indigenous and second-generation migrant performance practices respond to Australian settler-colonialism and asks how performance gives form to and advances theoretical frameworks of postmemory within Australian settler-colonialism. Through a portfolio of creative worksā€”Body Built with Glass, Dancing in the Mexican Sun, 30,000 Shots, Dreaming of You, and The War At Home: Choreographies of Transfer Across an Oceanā€”and a close interdisciplinary analysis of three key Australian contemporary performance worksā€”Article 14.1 by Phuong Ngo, Tangi Wai... The Cry of Water by Victoria Hunt, and Unsettling Suite by S.J Normanā€”the research produces an account of the multifaceted aesthetics of postmemorial performance, identifying four key dimensions. It further illustrates the complex imaginative work performed by Indigenous and second-generation migrant artists and, through this, additionally demonstrates how theories of postmemory can be further opened out to multi-temporal existences, the intertwining of inherited choreography and geography, and experiences of concurrent dislocated multi-positionalities. As a practice-based thesis, the research is led by the creative work that was produced throughout the research period. This work generated, provoked, and disrupted the critical theoretical frameworks, producing a dialogic relation between creative and critical facets. This creative-critical exchange is described and embedded within the written dissertation and is fundamental to the resulting expanded account of postmemory

    ā€œTobi (or Not) Tobiā€ Climate change, cultural heritage and community agency: an ethnographic case-study of Tobi Island in the Republic of Palau

    Get PDF
    This thesis is based on a long-term relationship with the Hatohobei community in the Republic of Palau and involved 12-months of ethnographic fieldwork in 2012 and 2013. The thesis privileges indigenous Pacific values, principles and approaches while highlighting historical and contemporary interpretive frameworks that inform a deeper understanding of how this relocated community continues to nurture and maintain an empowering connection to the remote island of Hatohobei through its natural resource management and a collective imaginary

    Voices in the Village: An inquiry into tourism, communities and community-based tourism in Cambodia

    Get PDF
    In this era of mass tourism, phenomena such as sustainable tourism, responsible tourism, rural tourism, eco-tourism, pro-poor tourism and community-based tourism have received increased attention from both practitioners and researchers. If established and managed correctly, these alternative forms of sustainable tourism have the potential to substantially contribute toward community development and to provide visitors with unique, often educational experiences. This pathway is not without problems, for the literature also reveals that the majority of community-based tourism projects fail within the first two years of operation. In considering the benefits of sustainable tourism, in particular community-based tourism, as a mechanism for rural development and poverty alleviation, I have wanted to inquire how to better understand the merits and failings of community-based tourism in the context of the community itself and tourism development in a specific country. In attempting to achieve this, the aim of my research asked what we might learn regarding tourism development, communities and particularly community-based tourism as one viable means of sustainable rural development in Cambodia. Moreover, how might my contribution be utilized by others with respect to this aspect of tourism? In order to understand and document the relationship between tourism development, rural communities and community-based tourism in Cambodia, I firstly draw upon a document and historical analysis that identifies a conceptual understanding of community development through tourism, particularly community-based tourism. I then provide a detailed narrative that concerns itself with the evolution, definitions and management of community-based tourism. The second part of this thesis focuses specifically on Cambodia. I investigate the social fabric of Cambodian communities, and in doing so, identify assets that may be beneficial toward sustainable tourism development. I continue through providing an analysis of tourism development in Cambodia from the iron age to contemporary times with reference to the evolution of sustainable tourism. An ethnographic study of community-based tourism is then utilized for the purposes of providing an in-depth understanding of the lived experiences of stakeholders within the community-based tourism environment. My inquiry concludes by arguing that community-based tourism in Cambodia provides an opportunity to substantially contribute to sustainable rural development. Such development remains inhibited, however, because of weak government policy, minimal human capital in rural communities, a lack of training and development programs for those community members who are involved in community-based tourism, and the utilization of accreditation and certification mechanisms. There is also an over-reliance on external funding and expertise. Of critical importance was my discovery that the role of kinship, bonds and relationships in Cambodian rural communities has played a significant role in the way social capital has assisted the development and operational longevity of these projects. This in turn provides evidence that in Cambodia social capital is an essential foundational component of community-based tourism projects. My thesis contributes a critical understanding of tourism development in Cambodia, with specific reference to the social fabric of communities, government policy and planning, and rural development through community-based tourism
    • ā€¦
    corecore