6,080 research outputs found

    Agency and professionalism in translation and interpreting: navigating conflicting role identities among translation and interpreting practitioners working for local government in Japan

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    This thesis investigates the ethical choices of Coordinators for International Relations (CIRs), a group of largely non-professional translators and interpreters working for local government bodies in Japan. In addition to T&I, CIRs are tasked with engaging in intercultural relations, “internationalising” their local areas, and working with the public as members of the civil service. The thesis examines the different roles and particular circumstances of CIRs to describe and explain how they make ethical decisions in T&I. This was explored using an ethnographic methodology featuring both traditional and online sites. Specifically, data was collected from participant observation of an internet forum created by CIRs, through online surveys, and also by employing focus groups and interviews held with CIRs in Japan. Analysis of forum and survey data illuminated the ethical struggles experienced by CIRs in T&I. It indicated that professionalism and agency were of particular concern for these CIRs when dealing with questions of ethics. Through focus groups, more detailed data was elicited surrounding the ethical struggles faced by CIRs, with a particular focus on professionalism and agency. Forum and focus group data combined to create a set of hypothetical ethical scenarios discussed during semistructured interviews held to understand factors that influence CIR decision making. A theoretical framework combining Agency Theory (Mitnick, 1975) and Role Identity Theory (Stryker, 1968) was used to describe and explain CIR ethical decision making; foregrounding their potential to effect change in their workplaces (agency) and the prioritisation afforded to different roles with which they identify in their work (role identity). Ultimately, CIRs were most disposed to translate or interpret in a manner that they believed was in keeping with the wishes of their employers, based on their superior ability to monitor and control the CIRs. However, in instances where the CIR operated with free will, their choices were a result of complex structuring of the various identities that they had normalised within themselves. Keywords: translation, interpreting, Coordinator for International Relations (CIR), Japan Exchange and Teaching (JET) Programme, agency, professionalism, role identity

    Ferramenta, retalho ou papel de parede: a música de catálogo na criação audiovisual online

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    Esta tese aborda a música de catálogo (conhecida internacionalmente como stock ou library music): faixas musicais compostas especificamente para uma futura utilização em produções audiovisuais, e apresentadas em catálogos sob categorias relativas a géneros musicais, emoções, instrumentação, entre outras. Embora a clientela desta indústria musical se limitasse inicialmente a profissionais do audiovisual, com o desenvolvimento de tecnologias digitais e das plataformas de partilha de vídeo da Web 2.0 afirma-se um novo mercado composto por videógrafos amadores e semiprofissionais. A música de catálogo representa então hoje uma atividade remunerada à qual um número significativo de compositores se dedica, bem como um recurso musical presente numa quantidade importante de audiovisuais. Adotando uma perspetiva interdisciplinar que conta com a sociologia da música nos seus alicerces teórico-metodológicos, proponho identificar as especificidades definidoras da música de catálogo, procurando compreender os padrões e convenções que fazem dela um mundo artístico próprio. Para explorar esta questão, parto de uma amostra de catálogos europeus e norte-americanos ativos nos últimos vinte anos. Com base em entrevistas a compositores e utilizadores de música de catálogo, bem como na análise de materiais publicitários e didáticos online a eles dirigidos, coloco em diálogo os pontos de vista de diversos agentes que interagem com esta música ao longo da sua produção, categorização ou utilização. O cruzamento de testemunhos de compositores situados em diferentes pontos do espectro desta indústria musical revela uma experiência heterogénea e multifacetada, complexificando assim retratos simplistas que predominam sobre a música de catálogo. Destaco também a relevância de examinar a música de catálogo como resultado da ação conjunta de indivíduos que intervêm de forma decisiva nos potenciais significados de uma faixa, seja através da sua etiquetagem, da sua alteração ou da sua inserção em novos contextos audiovisuais. Atender às perspetivas destes agentes permite demonstrar a importância do propósito de funcionalidade na música de catálogo: o facto de ser desde a sua génese concebida como música funcional destinada a audiovisuais é uma particularidade que governa não só as suas características sonoras como todo o seu percurso, desde a sua composição, categorização e promoção à sua modificação e articulação com imagens. Esse estatuto assumidamente utilitário constitui uma das propriedades específicas mais centrais à música de catálogo a partir da sua emergência na primeira metade do século XX. Desde então, esta age como um repositório das tendências e estereótipos musicais que marcam a produção cinematográfica e televisiva em determinado momento. Nesse sentido, os catálogos refletem e simultaneamente reforçam associações tipificadas entre música, imagens e narrativas que integram um vocabulário cultural amplamente partilhado. Para além de discernir velhos hábitos que se mantêm na produção e uso desta música, realço também novas dinâmicas e critérios que surgiram neste mundo artístico com a expansão de formatos digitais e da Web 2.0. Salienta-se nomeadamente a procura por faixas que possam ser desmontadas e rearranjadas o mais possível. Identifico assim um entendimento crescente da música de catálogo como uma matéria-prima que se encontraria incompleta até ao momento da sua transformação por outros agentes que não os seus compositores.This thesis focuses on library music (also known as stock or production music): tracks that are specifically composed for future use in audiovisual media, and categorized in catalogues according to musical genre, mood, instrumentation, among other possibilities. Although the client base of this music industry was initially limited to professional audiovisual creators, the growth of digital technologies and of Web 2.0’s video sharing platforms fostered a new market of amateur and semiprofessional videographers. Today, library music represents a source of income for a significant number of composers, as well as a musical resource extensively used in audiovisual productions. Departing from an interdisciplinary angle that counts the sociology of music as one of its theoretical and methodological foundations, I identify the essential specificities of library music, seeking a deeper understanding of the patterns and conventions that define it as a distinct art world. To examine this question, I focus on a sample of European and North-American libraries active in the last twenty years. Drawing from interviews to library music composers and users, as well as from an analysis of online promotional and instructional materials that address them, I inquire into the perspectives of various agents who interact with library music during its production, categorisation or usage. Observing the activity of composers who engage in a wide range of practices in this industry reveals their heterogeneous and multifaceted experience, emphasizing the need to move beyond the overly simplistic image of library music that is still prevalent today. I also stress the relevance of understanding this music as resulting from the joint action of individuals who intervene decisively in the possible meanings of a track, be it with its tagging, editing or inclusion in new audiovisual contexts. Comparing the discourses and viewpoints of these agents allows us to demonstrate the vital importance of the functional purpose that underlies library music: the fact that it is from the start conceived as functional music for media governs its sonic characteristics and composition, as well as its categorisation, promotion, modification and synchronisation with images. Library music’s explicitly utilitarian status has been central to its definition since its beginnings in the first half of the twentieth century. Since then, library music has acted as a repository of musical formulas that were commonplace in film and television productions in given moments. In that respect, libraries both reflect and simultaneously reinforce stereotyped associations between music, visuals and narratives that are part of a widely shared cultural vocabulary. In addition to ascertaining old habits that endure to the present day in the production and use of library music, I also shed light on new dynamics and criteria that have emerged in this art world with the expansion of digital formats and Web 2.0. Among these, I highlight the demand for tracks that can be deconstructed and rearranged as much as possible. I thus identify a growing understanding of library music as a raw material that is considered incomplete until its transformation and use by agents other than its composers

    Anime Studies: media-specific approaches to neon genesis evangelion

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    Anime Studies: Media-Specific Approaches to Neon Genesis Evangelion aims at advancing the study of anime, understood as largely TV-based genre fiction rendered in cel, or cel-look, animation with a strong affinity to participatory cultures and media convergence. Making Neon Genesis Evangelion (Shin Seiki Evangerion, 1995-96) its central case and nodal point, this volumen forground anime as a media with clearly recognizable aesthetic properties, (sub)cultural affordances and situated discourses

    International Academic Symposium of Social Science 2022

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    This conference proceedings gathers work and research presented at the International Academic Symposium of Social Science 2022 (IASSC2022) held on July 3, 2022, in Kota Bharu, Kelantan, Malaysia. The conference was jointly organized by the Faculty of Information Management of Universiti Teknologi MARA Kelantan Branch, Malaysia; University of Malaya, Malaysia; Universitas Pembangunan Nasional Veteran Jakarta, Indonesia; Universitas Ngudi Waluyo, Indonesia; Camarines Sur Polytechnic Colleges, Philippines; and UCSI University, Malaysia. Featuring experienced keynote speakers from Malaysia, Australia, and England, this proceeding provides an opportunity for researchers, postgraduate students, and industry practitioners to gain knowledge and understanding of advanced topics concerning digital transformations in the perspective of the social sciences and information systems, focusing on issues, challenges, impacts, and theoretical foundations. This conference proceedings will assist in shaping the future of the academy and industry by compiling state-of-the-art works and future trends in the digital transformation of the social sciences and the field of information systems. It is also considered an interactive platform that enables academicians, practitioners and students from various institutions and industries to collaborate

    The portrayal of Emperor Kôken/Shôtoku in historical sources and belletristic works, and the circumstances which played a part in it

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    This paper examines the portrayal of the last female ruler of Nara Japan, Emperor Kôken/Shôtoku, in different sources (chronicles, graphic images, novels, and modern historiography) and the social, political, cultural and religious factors which (could) have influenced the said narrative. Having been the last woman who ascended the Imperial throne of Japan and who had actually been able to exert real authority over the court, Emperor Kôken/Shôtoku could be considered a controversial figure in the history of the Imperial House of Japan and its rulers, and had thus become an object of either criticism of praise, with some authors even holding the opinion that her politics during her two reigns are the main reason why females were excluded from the order of succession of the Imperial House of Japan. Incorporating evidence from chronicles, graphic images, novels and modern historiography, this study demonstrated that the portrayal of Emperor Kôken/Shôtoku either in a good or in a bad light depended on a set of different factors. On the one hand there are always outer elements to consider such as the political situation, the cultural or religious influences in Japan at the time of the compilation of the particular source, as well as the author’s own opinion on the Imperial House of Japan and the role of the emperor in society. On the other hand inner factors such as the fact that Kôken/Shôtoku had been the first, and so far the last, female Crown Prince in the history of the Imperial House, her reascension to the throne after dethroning her successor, her political determination and cunning, which enabled her to compete with the male courtiers and even emerge victorious from their political struggles, or her unusual preference for the Buddhist monk Dôkyô during her second reign also played a major role in the way she had been perceived by the contemporary and later authors. As a result, there are as many sources which criticise her as there are such that praise her, which contributes to the creation of the full portrait of the woman and the ruler Kôken/Shôtoku

    Ageing with Smartphones in Urban China: From the cultural to the digital revolution in Shanghai

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    If we want to understand contemporary China, the key is through understanding the older generation. This is the generation in China whose life courses almost perfectly synchronised with the emergence and growth of the ‘New China’ under the rule of the Communist Party (1949). People in their 70s and 80s have double the life expectancy of their parents’ generation. The current oldest generation in Shanghai was born in a time when the average household could not afford electric lights, but today they can turn their lights off via their smartphone apps. Based on 16-month ethnographic fieldwork in Shanghai, Ageing with Smartphones in Urban China tackles the intersection between the ‘two revolutions’ experienced by the older generation in Shanghai: the contemporary smartphone-based digital revolution and the earlier communist revolutions. We find that we can only explain the smartphone revolution if we first appreciate the long-term consequences of these people’s experiences during the communist revolutions. The context of this book is a wide range of dramatic social transformations in China, from the Cultural Revolution to the individualism and Confucianism in Digital China. Supported by detailed ethnographic material, the observations and analyses provide a panoramic view of the social landscape of contemporary China, including topics such as the digital and everyday life, ageing and healthcare, intergenerational relations and family development, community building and grassroots organizations, collective memories and political attitudes among ordinary Chinese people

    Internet Mediated NGO Activity: How Environmental NGOs use Weibo in China

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    This thesis uses an interdisciplinary approach that draws on both the political science and media and communication fields to analyse how Chinese environmental NGOs use the microblogging site, Sina Weibo, in their online activism. The study of NGOs and how they use the internet in China is widespread. However, in many cases, the way that NGOs in China work, both online and offline, has been analysed through the lens of traditional civil society and internet studies literature, which has mostly focused on the ability of NGOs, and the internet, to give rise to significant political change, and even democratisation.Through a mixture of thematic, network, and organisational analysis, this thesis investigates the communicative functions, themes, and use of interactive features in posts on Weibo, including the use of hashtags, retweets and @mentions. At the organisational level, the ways that NGOs engage with different actors, both online and offline, including fellow NGOs, government departments, their followers, and potential donors are interrogated using four case studies. These analyses found that although the political space afforded to environmental NGOs in China is severely constrained, and the operations of the NGOs could not be seen as overtly activist or confrontational in the traditional sense, the NGOs do in fact retain a certain amount of autonomy and are able to carve out some political space for themselves. The findings of this thesis therefore challenge the notion that NGOs in China are co-opted organisations without autonomy from the state and suggests that there is scope for digital activism by NGOs in an authoritarian context, even though the online and offline political space they inhabit may be tightly regulated and controlled

    Expectations and expertise in artificial intelligence: specialist views and historical perspectives on conceptualisation, promise, and funding

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    Artificial intelligence’s (AI) distinctiveness as a technoscientific field that imitates the ability to think went through a resurgence of interest post-2010, attracting a flood of scientific and popular expectations as to its utopian or dystopian transformative consequences. This thesis offers observations about the formation and dynamics of expectations based on documentary material from the previous periods of perceived AI hype (1960-1975 and 1980-1990, including in-between periods of perceived dormancy), and 25 interviews with UK-based AI specialists, directly involved with its development, who commented on the issues during the crucial period of uncertainty (2017-2019) and intense negotiation through which AI gained momentum prior to its regulation and relatively stabilised new rounds of long-term investment (2020-2021). This examination applies and contributes to longitudinal studies in the sociology of expectations (SoE) and studies of experience and expertise (SEE) frameworks, proposing a historical sociology of expertise and expectations framework. The research questions, focusing on the interplay between hype mobilisation and governance, are: (1) What is the relationship between AI practical development and the broader expectational environment, in terms of funding and conceptualisation of AI? (2) To what extent does informal and non-developer assessment of expectations influence formal articulations of foresight? (3) What can historical examinations of AI’s conceptual and promissory settings tell about the current rebranding of AI? The following contributions are made: (1) I extend SEE by paying greater attention to the interplay between technoscientific experts and wider collective arenas of discourse amongst non-specialists and showing how AI’s contemporary research cultures are overwhelmingly influenced by the hype environment but also contribute to it. This further highlights the interaction between competing rationales focusing on exploratory, curiosity-driven scientific research against exploitation-oriented strategies at formal and informal levels. (2) I suggest benefits of examining promissory environments in AI and related technoscientific fields longitudinally, treating contemporary expectations as historical products of sociotechnical trajectories through an authoritative historical reading of AI’s shifting conceptualisation and attached expectations as a response to availability of funding and broader national imaginaries. This comes with the benefit of better perceiving technological hype as migrating from social group to social group instead of fading through reductionist cycles of disillusionment; either by rebranding of technical operations, or by the investigation of a given field by non-technical practitioners. It also sensitises to critically examine broader social expectations as factors for shifts in perception about theoretical/basic science research transforming into applied technological fields. Finally, (3) I offer a model for understanding the significance of interplay between conceptualisations, promising, and motivations across groups within competing dynamics of collective and individual expectations and diverse sources of expertise

    English translations of gender nonconformity in shōjo manga and anime: a trans-queer materialist feminist analysis

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    Shōjo, a category of manga and anime (Japanese comics and animation) primarily marketed to young girls, has a notable history of depicting gender nonconformity — i.e. gender/sexual identities, expressions, or embodiments marked as divergent from dominant norms. With the increasing popularity of manga and anime outside of Japan in the last three to four decades, many shōjo series have been translated into English, where particular linguistic constraints and political imperatives have manifested in the approaches taken to translating gender nonconformity. Applying a decolonial and trans-queer materialist feminist theoretical framework to the domain of multimodality, this thesis investigates English translations of gender nonconformity in three key titles that have defined shōjo’s growth and movement into English-speaking popular culture: The Rose of Versailles, Pretty Soldier Sailor Moon, and Ouran High School Host Club. I use a comparative analysis methodology to analyse selected excerpts of official translations and fan translations and develop an understanding of how their treatments of gender nonconformity were influenced by material factors. Through these three case studies, I attempt to define an overall trajectory of translational approaches to gender nonconformity in shōjo and shed light on shōjo’s role in the mutual negotiation of gender/sexual frameworks between Japan and the English-speaking Western world
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