4,400 research outputs found

    Endogenous measures for contextualising large-scale social phenomena: a corpus-based method for mediated public discourse

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    This work presents an interdisciplinary methodology for developing endogenous measures of group membership through analysis of pervasive linguistic patterns in public discourse. Focusing on political discourse, this work critiques the conventional approach to the study of political participation, which is premised on decontextualised, exogenous measures to characterise groups. Considering the theoretical and empirical weaknesses of decontextualised approaches to large-scale social phenomena, this work suggests that contextualisation using endogenous measures might provide a complementary perspective to mitigate such weaknesses. This work develops a sociomaterial perspective on political participation in mediated discourse as affiliatory action performed through language. While the affiliatory function of language is often performed consciously (such as statements of identity), this work is concerned with unconscious features (such as patterns in lexis and grammar). This work argues that pervasive patterns in such features that emerge through socialisation are resistant to change and manipulation, and thus might serve as endogenous measures of sociopolitical contexts, and thus of groups. In terms of method, the work takes a corpus-based approach to the analysis of data from the Twitter messaging service whereby patterns in users’ speech are examined statistically in order to trace potential community membership. The method is applied in the US state of Michigan during the second half of 2018—6 November having been the date of midterm (i.e. non-Presidential) elections in the United States. The corpus is assembled from the original posts of 5,889 users, who are nominally geolocalised to 417 municipalities. These users are clustered according to pervasive language features. Comparing the linguistic clusters according to the municipalities they represent finds that there are regular sociodemographic differentials across clusters. This is understood as an indication of social structure, suggesting that endogenous measures derived from pervasive patterns in language may indeed offer a complementary, contextualised perspective on large-scale social phenomena

    A Discourse-Analytic Approach to the Study of Information Disorders: How Online Communities Legitimate Social Bonds When Communing Around Misinformation and Disinformation

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    Information disorders have become prevalent concerns in current social media research. This thesis is focused on the interpersonal dimension of information disorders, in other words, how we can trace, through linguistic and multimodal analysis, the social bonding that occurs when online communities commune around misinformation and disinformation, and how these social bonds are legitimated to enhance perceived credibility. Social bonding in this thesis refers to a social semiotic perspective on the shared values that communities use to construe alignment with others. False information can spread when groups have a shared vested interest, and so information disorders need to be elucidated through an investigation of sociality and bonding, rather than via logical points alone. The term ‘information disorder’ encompasses the spectrum of false information ranging from misinformation (misleading content) to disinformation (deliberately false content), and it is within this landscape of information disorders that this thesis emerges. Two key forms of social semiotic discourse analysis were applied to a dataset of YouTube videos (n=30) and comments (n=1500): affiliation (analysis of social bonding) and legitimation (analysis of resources used to construct legitimacy). The dataset constituted two contrasting case studies. The first was non-politically motivated misinformation in the form of an internet hoax leveraging moral panic about children using technologies. The second was politically motivated conspiracy theories relating to the Notre Dame Cathedral fire. The key findings of this thesis include the multimodal congruence of affiliation and legitimation across YouTube videos, the emergence of technological authority as a key legitimation strategy in online discourse, and the notion of textual personae investigating the complex array of identities that engage with information disorders in comment threads. Additionally, six macro-categories were identified regarding communicative strategies derived from comment threads: scepticism, criticism, education and expertise, nationalism, hate speech, and storytelling and conspiracy. This shows not only how information disorders are spread, but also how they can be countered. The method outlined in this thesis can be applied to future interdisciplinary analyses of political propaganda and current global concerns to develop linguistic and multimodal profiles of various communities engaging with information disorders

    2023-2024 Boise State University Undergraduate Catalog

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    This catalog is primarily for and directed at students. However, it serves many audiences, such as high school counselors, academic advisors, and the public. In this catalog you will find an overview of Boise State University and information on admission, registration, grades, tuition and fees, financial aid, housing, student services, and other important policies and procedures. However, most of this catalog is devoted to describing the various programs and courses offered at Boise State

    Where is the learning between young people, teachers, and professional musicians? A study of learning cultures within three music education partnership projects in England.

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    Music education partnership projects (MEPPs) between schools and music organisations are a familiar form of enrichment which can open up new creative pathways. While professional musician involvement in education settings is not new, partnerships have become increasingly important. Despite the prevalence of and investment in partnership initiatives, there is limited research that explores participants’ experiences of learning in these contexts. Barriers include: a lack of communication and reflective practice; a culture of ‘victory narratives’; limited youth voice and competing partner agendas. Against this backdrop, social practices within MEPPs and the impact of MEPPs on learning is under researched, creating a cycle whereby learning, and how best to facilitate it, is commonly overlooked. In order to develop a richer understanding of learning within this phenomenon this research asks: where is the learning between young people, teachers, and professional musicians during MEPPs? To explore this further, research centred on a qualitative multiple case study of three MEPPs. MEPP1 aimed to support the development of a new school choir in a primary school while supporting one teacher’s choir leadership skills. MEPP2 and MEPP3 centred on young people composing music in collaboration with professional musicians. All three MEPPs culminated in sharing events in prestigious concert halls. Data were obtained through participant observations, document analysis, and semi-structured interviews with children and young people (YP), teachers, musicians, music organisation learning and participation (L&P) staff, and staff from partnering sponsors/charities. Following this, four elite interviews with leaders from Arts Council England, Youth Music, Arts Connect and one Music Education Hub (MEH) were conducted to gain broader perspectives on partnership working. The concept ‘learning cultures’, in other words, social practices through which people learn, supports analysis of MEPP participants’ learning. This is theoretically underpinned by Bourdieu’s concepts of habitus, capital, and field, which permits understandings of learning within MEPPs as influenced by multiple structural, contextual, and individual factors. The need for this theoretical approach is amplified in the context of MEPPs which, being at intersection of the music education and professional music fields, accommodate multiple institutions and individuals as well as multiple motivations, goals, and values. Key aspects which impact learning cultures within MEPPs include teacher identity, power relations, knowledge integration, access to authentic learning environments, legacy, communication, roles, and contextual awareness. There is a general consensus that practices of performing in prestigious venues and practices of modelling professional musicians are key benefits of MEPPs. Drawing on the empirical findings, this study concludes with a discussion on how to build effective learning cultures in future MEPPs. Altogether it is hoped that this study will inform efficacy in music education partnership working, raise awareness of the multidimensional nature of learning within MEPPs, and contribute to growing international research on collaborative music projects in schools

    An Analysis of Social Mobility in Contemporary Shanghai

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    This thesis topic is social mobility in contemporary Shanghai. After China became the second-largest economic entity in the world, it has faced the same social problems as the South Korea and Japan, such as a declining economic growth rate, ageing population, declining fertility rate, rising divorce rate, and declining social mobility. This research focused on analysing the reason for social inequality in contemporary Shanghai and the problem it posed to social mobility in Shanghai. This thesis mainly studies social mobility in Shanghai from four aspects. The first part is the historical background of the hukou system and the reduction of social mobility caused by its negative impact. The second part is to use the ISEI (International Socio-Economic Index) model to measure the changes in social mobility in Shanghai from 2003 to 2019. This part mainly quantifies overall social mobility through structural changes in the labour market. The third part is to explore the impact of education on social mobility, including educational inequity and educational level. The overall education level in Shanghai is improving faster than the industrial upgrading in the labour market, leading to a gradual decline in the competitiveness of academic qualifications in the labour market. The fourth part is that Shanghai's overall expenditure level is higher than in the past, including a higher macro tax burden rate and higher basic necessities expenditures, especially the growth of housing expenditures

    The International Handbook of Social Enterprise Law

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    This open-access book brings together international experts who shed new light on the status of social enterprises, benefit corporations and other purpose-driven companies. The respective chapters take a multidisciplinary approach (combining law, philosophy, history, sociology and economics) and provide valuable insights on fostering social entrepreneurship and advancing the common good. In recent years, we have witnessed a significant shift of how business activities are conducted, mainly through the rise of social enterprises. In an effort to target social problems at their roots, social entrepreneurs create organizations that bring transformative social changes by considering, among others, ethical, social, and environmental factors. A variety of social enterprise models are emerging internationally and are proving their vitality and importance. But what does the term “social enterprise” mean? What are its roots? And how does it work in practice within the legal framework of any country? This handbook attempts to answer these questions from a theoretical, historical, and comparative perspective, bringing together 44 contributions written by 71 expert researchers and practitioners in this field. The first part provides an overview of the social enterprise movement, its evolution, and the different forms entities can take to meet global challenges, overcoming the limits of what governments and states can do. The second part focuses on the emergence of benefit corporations and the growing importance of sustainability and societal values, while also analyzing their different legal forms and adaptation to their regulatory environment. In turn, the last part presents the status quo of purpose-driven companies in 36 developed and emerging economies worldwide. This handbook offers food for thought and guidance for everyone interested in this field. It will benefit practitioners and decision-makers involved in social and community organizations, as well as in international development and, more generally speaking, social sciences and economics

    Command and Persuade

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    Why, when we have been largely socialized into good behavior, are there more laws that govern our behavior than ever before? Levels of violent crime have been in a steady decline for centuries—for millennia, even. Over the past five hundred years, homicide rates have decreased a hundred-fold. We live in a time that is more orderly and peaceful than ever before in human history. Why, then, does fear of crime dominate modern politics? Why, when we have been largely socialized into good behavior, are there more laws that govern our behavior than ever before? In Command and Persuade, Peter Baldwin examines the evolution of the state's role in crime and punishment over three thousand years. Baldwin explains that the involvement of the state in law enforcement and crime prevention is relatively recent. In ancient Greece, those struck by lightning were assumed to have been punished by Zeus. In the Hebrew Bible, God was judge, jury, and prosecutor when Cain killed Abel. As the state's power as lawgiver grew, more laws governed behavior than ever before; the sum total of prohibited behavior has grown continuously. At the same time, as family, community, and church exerted their influences, we have become better behaved and more law-abiding. Even as the state stands as the socializer of last resort, it also defines through law the terrain on which we are schooled into acceptable behavior. This title is also available in an Open Access edition

    The Anthropocene Hypothesis

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    The Reindeer Botanist

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    This well-researched book is the first biography of one of Canada's most remarkable botanists. Alf Erling Porsild (1901-1977) grew up on the Arctic Station in West Greenland and later served as curator of botany at the National Museum of Canada. He collected thousands of specimens, greatly enlarging the National Herbarium and making it a superb research centre. For nearly twenty years, Porsild studied reindeer activities in Alaska and the Northwest Territories as part of the Reindeer Project designed to encourage grazing animal husbandry among aboriginal peoples. He published extensively, and his meticulous research and observations have particular relevance today with the growing concern over global warming in the Arctic
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