Dictionary catalog of the collection of African American literature in the Mildred F. Sawyer Library of Suffolk University

https://dc.suffolk.edu/afam/1002/thumbnail.jp

Integrating online-offline interactions to explain societal challenges

Despite the wide literature on the consequences of Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) use, the literature still lacks understanding about the societal consequences, positive or negative, intended or unintended. ICTs can yield the good and the bad. Consequences of technology usages on society are paradoxical. The paradoxical outcomes can be ta threat to the sustainability of society. Because interactions spread beyond the online space and its outcomes are paradoxical, societal challenges are complex problems. But not only complex problem, rather social complex problem. To harvest society, we need a better understanding of social complex problems. To do so, we adopted a multi-study dissertation model. To achieve that goal, the three studies of this doctoral work adopt a qualitative approach and a critical realist philosophy. This dissertation focuses on the societal implications of online phenomena that spillover offline. We look at a first case: The Arab Spring and aim at understanding how an online community that started on Facebook materialized in urban space, changing the political landscape (Study 2). Addressing these kind of contemporaneous events does not come without analytical challenges. Therefore, we use and extend a semiotic analytical tool to face the representational complexity of the data collected (Study 1) with a discussion of the underlying philosophical assumptions. Finally, online communities can also have social costs by providing an echo chamber to socially undesirable behaviors. We aim at offering a conceptual explanation of how these online interactions turn into offline behaviors with negative spillovers (Study 3)

The Politics of Knowledge and the Reciprocity Gap in the Governance of Intellectual Property Rights

ABSTRACT This study examines the politics of knowledge benefit-sharing within the re-regulatory framework of the Trade-related Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS) Agreement which entered into force in 1995 under the auspices of the World Trade Organisation (WTO). The thesis argues that TRIPS both represents a mainstream legal mechanism for states and organisations to govern ideas through trade, and is characterised by a commercial direction away from multilateralism to bilateralism. In its post-implementation phase, this situation has seen the strongest states and corporations consolidate extensive markets in knowledge goods and services. Through analyses of the various levels of international and national governance within the competitive knowledge structure of international political economy (IPE), this study argues that the politicisation of intellectual property has resulted in the dislocation of reciprocity from its normative roots in fairness and trade equity. In conducting this enquiry the research focuses on the political manifestations of intellectual property consistent with long-standing epistemic considerations of reciprocity to test the extent to which the intrinsic public good value of knowledge and its importance to human societies can be reconciled with the privatisation of public forms of knowledge related to discoveries and innovations. This thesis draws on Becker's virtue-theoretic model of reciprocity premised on normative obligations to social life to ground its claim that an absence of substantive reciprocal requirements capable of sustaining equivalent returns and rewards is detrimental, both theoretically and practically, to the intrinsic socio-cultural foundation and public good value of knowledge. The conceptual framework of reciprocity defined and developed in this study challenges the materialist controlling authority and proprietary ownership vested in intellectual property law. A new conceptual approach proposed through reciprocity, and provoked by on-going debates about IP recognition, knowledge protection, access and distribution is advanced to counter strengthened and expanded IPRs. Theories of knowledge and property drawn from political philosophies are employed to test whether reciprocity is sufficiently robust enough, or even capable of, encompassing the gap between capital and applied science. This thesis argues that hyper-capitalism at global, national and local levels, accompanied by the boundless accumulation of technology, closes down competition both compromising IP as private rights and the viability of their governance. The political implications of the protection and enforcement of private rights through IP is examined in two key chapters utilising empirical data in relation to traditional knowledge (TK) and reciprocity; the first sets the parameters of TK and the second explores aspects of Māori knowledge systems and reciprocity directed at identifying national and local issues of significance to the debates on IP governance. As a viable direction for knowledge governance this thesis concludes that the gap between the re-regulatory trade framework of intellectual property on the one hand, and reciprocity on the other, requires closing to ameliorate the detrimental disruptions to democratic integrity, fairness and trade equity for significant numbers of communities and peoples around the world

Investigating The Use Of Naturally Occurring Spoken French In Adult Foreign Language Learning

This study explores the feasibility and desirability of introducing samples of naturally occurring spoken French to adult language learners at an early stage of the learning process to develop perception and listening skills. The literature review examines the status of the spoken language, the notion of authenticity of materials, and the development of listening skills in the context of past and present language teaching methodologies, including recent ecological and data-driven approaches. Linguistic theories and descriptions of the spoken French language are also reviewed. The research is based on an experimental study, set in the context of distance language learning at the Open University, and makes use of mixed methods. Students were asked to work with experimental teaching materials comprising self-study activities based on recorded samples of naturally occurring spoken French matching the topics and structures of the Open University beginners’ French module. A test was then administered to participants and their performance was compared to that of members of a control group. Their reaction to the experimental approach was gauged using semi-structured interviews. The data analysis demonstrates that the students were able to engage with the speech samples and related tasks, and with their specific linguistic features. It also reveals that students found the approach challenging but useful in developing listening skills. Taking into account cognitive, affective and contextual dimensions, and bearing in mind the constraints inherent to the typically mixed context of adult language learning, the study concludes that naturally occurring spoken French and activities aimed at developing awareness of its features should be introduced as part of a mix of materials, striking a balance between ecological and reductionist approaches, offering students a chance to exercise choice between types of materials and providing tools they can reuse when exposed to naturally occurring spoken French autonomously

Archives et création : nouvelles perspectives sur l'archivistique. Cahier 1

Ce cahier de recherche fait état des travaux menés au cours de la première étape (2013-2014) du projet « Archives et création : nouvelles perspectives sur l’archivistique ». Il comprend les textes suivants : Yvon Lemay et Anne Klein, « Introduction », p. 4-6; Yvon Lemay, « Archives et création : nouvelles perspectives sur l’archivistique », p. 7-19; Anne-Marie Lacombe, « Exploitation des archives à des fins de création : un aperçu de la littérature », p. 20-59; Simon Côté-Lapointe, « Archives sonores et création : une pratique à la croisée des chemins », p. 60-83; Hélène Brousseau, « Fibres, archives et société », p. 84-104; Annie Lecompte-Chauvin, « Comment les archives entrent dans nos vies par le biais de la littérature », p. 105-120; Aude Bertrand, « Valeurs, usages et usagers des archives », p. 121-150; Laure Guitard, « Indexation, émotions, archives », p. 151-168; Anne Klein, Denis Lessard et Anne-Marie Lacombe, « Archives et mise en archives dans le champ culturel. Synthèse du colloque « Archives et création, regards croisés : tournant archivistique, courant artistique », p. 169-178. De plus, dans le but de situer le projet dans un contexte plus large, le cahier inclut une bibliographie des travaux effectués sur les archives et la création depuis 2007, p. 179-182.Le projet de recherche est financé par le Conseil de recherches en sciences humaines du Canada (Programme Savoir, 2013-2016)

Life-writing in the History of Archaeology

Life-writing is a vital part of the history of archaeology, and a growing field of scholarship within the discipline. The lives of archaeologists are entangled with histories of museums and collections, developments in science and scholarship, and narratives of nationalism and colonialism into the present. In recent years life-writing has played an important role in the surge of new research in the history of archaeology, including ground-breaking studies of discipline formation, institutionalisation, and social and intellectual networks. Sources such as diaries, wills, film, and the growing body of digital records are powerful tools for highlighting the contributions of hitherto marginalised archaeological lives including many pioneering women, hired labourers and other ‘hidden hands’. This book brings together critical perspectives on life-writing in the history of archaeology from leading figures in the field. These include studies of archive formation and use, the concept of ‘dig-writing’ as a distinctive genre of archaeological creativity, and reviews of new sources for already well-known lives. Several chapters reflect on the experience of life-writing, review the historiography of the field, and assess the intellectual value and significance of life-writing as a genre. Together, they work to problematise underlying assumptions about this genre, foregrounding methodology, social theory, ethics and other practice-focused frameworks in conscious tension with previous practices

Londres, capitale du post-modernisme?:Transformations des modèles et des pratiques de l'architecture dans la culture britannique à la fin du XXe siècle

The advantage of the dynamism of the London architectural scene seems rather ignored by historians and theorists. Not only is London absent from the grand narrative of modernity, but it is also denied the status of avant-garde, although since the 1960s, the British capital has been one of the main testing grounds of the renewal of forms and architectural ideas. The emergence of the of notion âpost-modernismâ at the turn of 1970s, initiated within the London specialized publishing, confirms this central role. This theoretical notion was created by the historian Charles Jencks (whose professor was Reyner Banham, initiator of the New Brutalism with Alison and Peter Smithson) as an alternative to modernism. It has transformed the architectural scene by establishing the return of historicism, the great moral taboo of a modernity based essentially on functionalism. This theoretical revolution, however, did not occur without causing grotesque postures, fueling a debate exacerbated and soon disrupted by the controversial speech of Prince Charles, who became the spokesman of the traditionalists. The impact in the media of this âpost-modern affairâ has led to believe in the manifestation of a crisis of legitimacy and of reception for the work of architects, in the context of heated debates concerning the cancellations of three major architectural and urban planning competitions for the capital city â the extension of the National Gallery on Trafalgar Square, the No.1 Poultry programme in the City, the redesigning of Paternoster Square near St Paulâs Cathedral. Yet, this intense sequence of the reappraisal of modernism has not curbed the development of an innovative and a radical architecture. On the contrary, it has led to the deregulation of the modern discourse by problematizing the architectâs responsibility in the creation of the built environment and by forcing to reconsider the challenges of integrating radicalism in a located environment. In this, âpost-modernismâ questions the foundations and the revival of a specifically British culturalist approach, as an alternative to the progressive model that has guided the idea and the act of modernity