The Solidarity Manifesto: A New Network for Future Change

Colonialism is a scheme of standpoint; colonizer versus colonized, West versus East, good versus bad. When put in the foreground, the value of what we see heavily relies on our perspective and knowledge. When learning to dissect, deconstruct, and decolonize spaces, we need to start utilizing decolonial thought as an historical tool rather than a true depiction of reality. Decolonizing spaces and recognizing Western colonization practices means challenging the normative structures in colonial history, thus breaking the cycle of oppression through building community and fostering solidarity. Drawing on theories exploring access to public spheres, representation, protection, permanence, cultural displacement and the creation of crosscultural ecosystems, this study gives special highlight to the (dis)connection between global policy processes and local initiatives through a decolonial feminist lens. Prescribing the need for decolonial discourses in helping bridge the gap between the literary and physical spaces that inform decision-making bodies today, this thesis places emphasis on Françoise Vergès’ A Decolonial Feminism and A Feminist Theory of Violence: A Decolonial Perspective to inform solidarity-centered approaches to future change in policy making. Through a decolonial case study analysis of the Italian occupation of Libya, the exclusive power of language, and observations of NGO work at the United Nations, and by proposing the Solidarity Model based on accountability and representation, the aim of this study is to deconstruct current systems and their discourses to explore future international networks based on human solidarit

An Exploratory Study of the Factors That Impact on the Application of Online Learning at the Department of Planning and Infrastructure of Western Australia

There is a growing necessity in today\u27s globalised and dynamic business environments for learning systems to be capable of generating the continuous learning needs of the workforces within them. In adapting to their changing environments learning workers are not only required to continuously gather new information but also to transform it into understanding within their local contexts. Much praise has been placed on the capability of new learning technologies such as online learning in supporting organisations learning processes. However, relative limited research has been undertaken on how these new learning technologies support workers in learning processes, how these new learning technologies are implemented and operate within organisational contexts, and the nature of the learning subsequently generated. This study explores how workplace learning contexts mediate the processes of learning (Garrick, 1998 p.69) and improve understanding on how this affects the implementation of Online learning. Many organisations have promoted Online Learning for its capability in providing a seemingly unlimited information source; flexible access, cost effectiveness and functionality (Schreiber & Berge, 1998). This study suggests that leaning outcomes generated by online learning practices, rather than being primarily correlated with the capabilities of the technology, are mediated by organisations\u27 learning agendas, learning culture and learning context. This exploratory study acknowledges this view and focuses on how the active nature of learners\u27 constructs and the local context in which learning occurs affects the outcomes of learning generated. This study focuses upon a case study at the West Australian Department of Planning and Infrastructure of (DPI) and applies Jonassen\u27s (2000) principle, that the values and beliefs of the forces controlling the technology determines if it is used to transmit or to transform knowledge. The study\u27s parameters are guided by a theoretical framework adapted from McKenna\u27s (1999) Meta-Learning Process and a qualitative methodology protocol described by Yin (1994). The perceptions of a cross section of organisational members at the DPI are used to improve understanding of the mediating relationships involved in the dialects of learning at the DPI. The three main conclusions drawn from the research are that: first, despite the capabilities of the technology to facilitate a range of learning outcomes, the findings indicate that perceived online learning outcomes at the DPI mirror the learning goals imposed by its current organisational learning agenda. Secondly, the findings indicate that local discourses of leadership, culture, structure and strategy reinforce the learning values and beliefs imposed by the learning agenda. Thirdly, the findings indicate that the mediating relationship between learning agenda and the role of online learning technology has prioritised Compliance orientated organisational learning goals and Transmissive learning approaches. In conclusion, the study indicates that the current learning agenda is part of the cultural pattern and a prisoner of that pattern

Environmental and social influence on human activity

http://tartu.ester.ee/record=b1068913~S1*es

Video Conferencing: Infrastructures, Practices, Aesthetics

The COVID-19 pandemic has reorganized existing methods of exchange, turning comparatively marginal technologies into the new normal. Multipoint videoconferencing in particular has become a favored means for web-based forms of remote communication and collaboration without physical copresence. Taking the recent mainstreaming of videoconferencing as its point of departure, this anthology examines the complex mediality of this new form of social interaction. Connecting theoretical reflection with material case studies, the contributors question practices, politics and aesthetics of videoconferencing and the specific meanings it acquires in different historical, cultural and social contexts

Educating the effective digital forensics practitioner: academic, professional, graduate and student perspectives

Over the years, digital forensics has become an important and sought-after profession where the gateway of training and education has developed vastly over the past decade. Many UK higher education (HE) institutions now deliver courses that prepare students for careers in digital forensics and, in most recent advances, cyber security. Skills shortages and external influences attributed within the field of cyber security, and its relationship as a discipline with digital forensics, has shifted the dynamic of UK higher education provisions. The implications of this now sees the route to becoming a digital forensic practitioner, be it in law enforcement or business, transform from on-the-job training to university educated, trained analysts. This thesis examined courses within HE and discovered that the delivery of these courses often overlooked areas such as mobile forensics, live data forensics, Linux and Mac knowledge. This research also considered current standards available across HE to understand whether educational programmes are delivering what is documented as relevant curriculum. Cyber security was found to be the central focus of these standards within inclusion of digital forensics, adding further to the debate and lack of distinctive nature of digital forensics as its own discipline. Few standards demonstrated how the topics, knowledge, skills and competences drawn were identified as relevant and effective for producing digital forensic practitioners. Additionally, this thesis analyses and discusses results from 201 participants across five stakeholder groups: graduates, professionals, academics, students and the public. These areas were selected due to being underdeveloped in existing literature and the crucial role they play in the cycle of producing effective practitioners. Analysis on stakeholder views, experiences and thoughts surrounding education and training offer unique insight, theoretical underpinnings and original contributions not seen in existing literature. For example, challenges, costs and initial issues with introducing graduates to employment for the employers and/or supervising practitioners, the lack of awareness and contextualisation on behalf of students and graduates towards what knowledge and skills they have learned and acquired on a course and its practical application on-the-job which often lead to suggestions of a lack of fundamental knowledge and skills. This is evidenced throughout the thesis, but examples include graduates: for their reflections on education based on their new on-the-job experiences and practices; professionals: for their job experiences and requirements, academics: for their educational practices and challenges; students: their initial expectations and views; and, the public: for their general understanding. This research uniquely captures these perspectives, bolstering the development of digital forensics as an academic discipline, along with the importance these diverse views play in the overall approach to delivering skilled practitioners. While the main contribution to knowledge within this thesis is its narrative focusing on the education of effective digital forensic practitioners and its major stakeholders, this thesis also makes additional contributions both academically and professionally; including the discussion, analysis and reflection of: - improvements for education and digital forensics topics for research and curriculum development; - where course offerings can be improved for institutions offering digital forensic degree programmes; - the need for further collaboration between industry and academia to provide students and graduates with greater understanding of the real-life role of a digital forensic practitioner and the expectations in employment; - continuous and unique challenges within both academia and the industry which digital forensics possess and the need for improved facilities and tool development to curate and share problem and scenario-based learning studies

The Data Journalism Handbook

The Data Journalism Handbook: Towards a Critical Data Practice provides a rich and panoramic introduction to data journalism, combining both critical reflection and practical insight. It offers a diverse collection of perspectives on how data journalism is done around the world and the broader consequences of datafication in the news, serving as both a textbook and a sourcebook for this emerging field. With more than 50 chapters from leading researchers and practitioners of data journalism, it explores the work needed to render technologies and data productive for journalistic purposes. It also gives a “behind the scenes” look at the social lives of data sets, data infrastructures, and data stories in newsrooms, media organizations, start-ups, civil society organizations and beyond. The book includes sections on “doing issues with data,” “assembling data,” “working with data,” “experiencing data,” “investigating data, platforms and algorithms,” “organizing data journalism,” “learning data journalism together” and “situating data journalism.

Blood in the Archive: Rethinking the Public Umbilical Cord Blood Bank

The collection of umbilical cord blood (UCB), a source of clinically-useful stem cells, has become a highly strategised process known as ‘banking’, with 160 banks globally. State-funded public banks rely on unremunerated donations of UCB from women. STS scholarship has explored the broader ethical and economic tensions of such banks and the private enterprises offering banking for a family’s exclusive future use of their own donated tissue. Less focus has been given to public banks’ institutional practices and strategic concerns. I address this gap by adopting an archival lens popularised by Jacques Derrida (1996). How, I explore, might it help to think of these collections not as banks, but as archives? Using a number of qualitative data collection approaches, I develop an archival anatomy to highlight different elements of these selective collections of biological matter. I explore the issues of archival order and the racialised dimension of tissue selection criteria that guide UCB collection. I also interrogate the exclusionary practices of these collections. Whose donations are excluded, and what does this mean for a system reliant on the appeal to communitarian donation? Attention is given to how use is made of the archive. How might archivists be making the collection more appealing to these users? This leads to an exploration of the risk of obsolescence in UCB collections which struggle to sustain relevance alongside changing clinical requirement. The thesis demonstrates how an archival lens offers the heuristic richness that ‘bank’ thinking cannot provide to highlight important aspects of operating and planning the future of a collection of biological material. It thus provides a novel contribution to the STS literature on regenerative medicine and tissue banking and the growing interdisciplinary corpus on the usefulness of the archive in understanding the complex aggregations of matter and data facilitated by contemporary technologies

Off the Orbit: Works of Art for Long-Term Space Travellers. Outline of a novel artistic practice

Full version unavailable due to 3rd party copyright restrictions.This research combines the arts with human spaceflight. The aim of the investigation is to identify the aesthetic parameters for display in works of art on extended crewed missions. The study claims that, within the research area of human spaceflight, novel working methods should be developed that can integrate the artist into the scientific process. The extraordinary challenges of extended space exploration not only concern technical and human-bodily aspects, they will also affect the enormous psychological and psychosocial restrictions the spacefarer will face. These limitations are due to the unusual distance and the long timeframes; the future explorers will live confined and isolated within the habitat environment far away from their place of origin. In addition, the consequences of sensory deprivation caused by the high-tech indoor habitat, the emptiness of outer space, the effects of social monotony and limited contact with home will dominate their life in the extreme environment and the emotional state of the future explorer. Many cultural techniques for recreation and stress mitigation are already in use or will be tested in human spaceflight in the near future. However, in this context the implementation of works of art has not been evaluated. The production of works of art for future astronauts represents a new research area. From the artistic perspective, creativity will expand in an unusual manner. Artists will not only have to develop significant metaphors, they will also be confronted with an unknown responsibility, because the confined and isolated astronaut will become the exclusive audience and user of their works. Furthermore, works of art must follow the particular demands of verifiability, safety, and reliability. These specific conditions will give the artistic work a unique meaning which makes the work a part of the life-sustaining system. The outcome will be an experiment that combines both artistic and scientific strategies