7,860 research outputs found
Serving to secure "Global Korea": Gender, mobility, and flight attendant labor migrants
This dissertation is an ethnography of mobility and modernity in contemporary South Korea (the Republic of Korea) following neoliberal restructuring precipitated by the Asian Financial Crisis (1997). It focuses on how comparative âservice,â âsecurity,â and âsafetyâ fashioned âGlobal Koreaâ: an ongoing state-sponsored project aimed at promoting the economic, political, and cultural maturation of South Korea from a once notoriously inhospitable, âbackwardâ country (hujinâguk) to a now welcoming, âadvanced countryâ (sĆnjinâguk). Through physical embodiments of the culturally-specific idiom of âsuperiorâ service (sĆbisĆ), I argue that aspiring, current, and former Korean flight attendants have driven the production and maintenance of this national project.
More broadly, as a driver of this national project, this occupation has emerged out of the countryâs own aspirational flights from an earlier history of authoritarian rule, labor violence, and xenophobia. Against the backdrop of the Korean stateâs aggressive neoliberal restructuring, globalization efforts, and current âHell Chosunâ (HelchosĆn) economy, a group of largely academically and/or class disadvantaged young women have been able secure individualized modes of pleasure, self-fulfillment, and class advancement via what I deem âservice mobilities.â Service mobilities refers to the participation of mostly women in a traditionally devalued but growing sector of the global labor market, the âpink collarâ economy centered around âfeminineâ care labor. Korean female flight attendants share labor skills resembling those of other foreign labor migrants (chiefly from the âGlobal Southâ), who perform care work deemed less desirable. Yet, Korean female flight attendants elude the stigmatizing, classed, and racialized category of âlabor migrant.â Moreover, within the context of South Koreaâs unique history of rapid modernization, the flight attendant occupation also commands considerable social prestige.
Based on ethnographic and archival research on aspiring, current, and former Korean flight attendants, this dissertation asks how these unique care laborers negotiate a metaphorical and literal series of sustained border crossings and inspections between Korean flight attendantsâ contingent status as lowly care-laboring migrants, on the one hand, and ostensibly glamorous, globetrotting elites, on the other. This study contends the following: first, the flight attendant occupation in South Korea represents new politics of pleasure and pain in contemporary East Asia. Second, Korean female flight attendantsâ enactments of soft, sanitized, and glamorous (hwaryĆhada) service help to purify South Koreaâs less savory past. In so doing, Korean flight attendants reconstitute the historical role of female laborers as burden bearers and caretakers of the Korean state.U of I OnlyAuthor submitted a 2-year U of I restriction extension request
AIUCD 2022 - Proceedings
Lâundicesima edizione del Convegno Nazionale dellâAIUCD-Associazione di Informatica Umanistica ha per titolo Culture digitali. Intersezioni: filosofia, arti, media. Nel titolo Ăš presente, in maniera esplicita, la richiesta di una riflessione, metodologica e teorica, sullâinterrelazione tra tecnologie digitali, scienze dellâinformazione, discipline filosofiche, mondo delle arti e cultural studies
Optical coherence tomography methods using 2-D detector arrays
Optical coherence tomography (OCT) is a non-invasive, non-contact optical technique that allows cross-section imaging of biological tissues with high spatial resolution, high sensitivity and high dynamic range. Standard OCT uses a focused beam to illuminate a point on the target and detects the signal using a single photodetector. To acquire transverse information, transversal scanning of the illumination point is required. Alternatively, multiple OCT channels can be operated in parallel simultaneously; parallel OCT signals are recorded by a two-dimensional (2D) detector array. This approach is known as Parallel-detection OCT. In this thesis, methods, experiments and results using three parallel OCT techniques, including full -field (time-domain) OCT (FF-OCT), full-field swept-source OCT (FF-SS-OCT) and line-field Fourier-domain OCT (LF-FD-OCT), are presented. Several 2D digital cameras of different formats have been used and evaluated in the experiments of different methods. With the LF-FD-OCT method, photography equipment, such as flashtubes and commercial DSLR cameras have been equipped and tested for OCT imaging. The techniques used in FF-OCT and FF-SS-OCT are employed in a novel wavefront sensing technique, which combines OCT methods with a Shack-Hartmann wavefront sensor (SH-WFS). This combination technique is demonstrated capable of measuring depth-resolved wavefront aberrations, which has the potential to extend the applications of SH-WFS in wavefront-guided biomedical imaging techniques
Graphical scaffolding for the learning of data wrangling APIs
In order for students across the sciences to avail themselves of modern data streams, they must first know how to wrangle data: how to reshape ill-organised, tabular data into another format, and how to do this programmatically, in languages such as Python and R. Despite the cross-departmental demand and the ubiquity of data wrangling in analytical workflows, the research on how to optimise the instruction of it has been minimal. Although data wrangling as a programming domain presents distinctive challenges - characterised by on-the-fly syntax lookup and code example integration - it also presents opportunities. One such opportunity is how tabular data structures are easily visualised. To leverage the inherent visualisability of data wrangling, this dissertation evaluates three types of graphics that could be employed as scaffolding for novices: subgoal graphics, thumbnail graphics, and parameter graphics. Using a specially built e-learning platform, this dissertation documents a multi-institutional, randomised, and controlled experiment that investigates the pedagogical effects of these. Our results indicate that the graphics are well-received, that subgoal graphics boost the completion rate, and that thumbnail graphics improve navigability within a command menu. We also obtained several non-significant results, and indications that parameter graphics are counter-productive. We will discuss these findings in the context of general scaffolding dilemmas, and how they fit into a wider research programme on data wrangling instruction
'Inventions and adventures': the work of the Stevenson engineering firm in Scotland, c. 1830 - c. 1890
This thesis examines the work of the nineteenth-century Stevenson civil engineering firm to argue
that civil engineering should be approached geographically both because it takes place in and is
shaped by particular spaces, but also because the result of such work reshapes space and the
relationship between places. Geographers have extensively analysed the ways in which humans
have worked to alter environments, but relatively little attention has been paid to engineering as a
socially and geographically transformative process, to the technical questions and to the engineering
professionals whose work brought about such change. This thesis analyses engineers as social and
technical agents of environmental change, rather than viewing their role as the simple
implementation of directives developed elsewhere and by others. It combines insights from the
history and historical geography of science, environmental history and the history of technology to
make a case for the relevance of an historical geography of engineering.
The thesis explores these issues through the work of the Stevenson family. The Stevensons
were an Edinburgh-based and internationally-renowned firm of engineers who specialised in the
construction of coastal infrastructure. The start and end dates of the thesis indicate, broadly, the
careers of David and Thomas Stevenson, who jointly managed the family firm under the name D. &
T. Stevenson between 1850 and 1886. The empirical basis for this thesis draws upon the detailed
analysis of the firmâs archival records: technical publications, project reports, diaries,
correspondence, maps, plans and diagrams.
The work of the Stevensonsâtheir engineering epistemologies, practices, and professional
identitiesâ are examined through four diverse projects undertaken by the firm in the nineteenth
century. These projects are: the training of new engineers; surveying and designing improvement
works for the rivers Tay and Clyde; the implementation of a coastal sound-based fog signal network;
and the failed attempt to expand Wick harbour through the construction of a breakwater. These
projects highlight the range of activities undertaken by nineteenth-century engineers and illustrate
the âmakingâ of engineers and the work they did by highlighting training and learning, surveying,
maintenance, testing, evaluation, repair and the explanation of failure. With reference to these
projects and by drawing upon relevant contextual material, the thesis examines the
conceptualisation of geographical space and natural forces in engineering, the relationship between
science and engineering, the nature of expertise and notions of engineering judgement, and the role
of family, legacy and reputation in securing professional credibility and status.
This approach challenges older historiographical traditions which portrayed engineers as
individual geniuses. The thesis instead understands engineering to be a combination of specialist
knowledge and tacit skill and situates engineers within their social and institutional networks of
power and authority. In pointing out that some engineering works failed, the thesis challenges the
tendency in histories of engineering works to focus on success. It makes the case for an historical
geography of engineering as a way of understanding engineering as an activity, a status and as
processes which changed human-environment relations
A Syntactical Reverse Engineering Approach to Fourth Generation Programming Languages Using Formal Methods
Fourth-generation programming languages (4GLs) feature rapid development with minimum configuration required by developers. However, 4GLs can suffer from limitations such as high maintenance cost and legacy software practices.
Reverse engineering an existing large legacy 4GL system into a currently maintainable programming language can be a cheaper and more effective solution than rewriting from scratch. Tools do not exist so far, for reverse engineering proprietary XML-like and model-driven 4GLs where the full language specification is not in the public domain.
This research has developed a novel method of reverse engineering some of the syntax of such 4GLs (with Uniface as an exemplar) derived from a particular system, with a view to providing a reliable method to translate/transpile that system's code and data structures into a modern object-oriented language (such as C\#).
The method was also applied, although only to a limited extent, to some other 4GLs, Informix and Apex, to show that it was in principle more broadly applicable. A novel testing method that the syntax had been successfully translated was provided using 'abstract syntax trees'.
The novel method took manually crafted grammar rules, together with Encapsulated Document Object Model based data from the source language and then used parsers to produce syntactically valid and equivalent code in the target/output language.
This proof of concept research has provided a methodology plus sample code to automate part of the process. The methodology comprised a set of manual or semi-automated steps. Further automation is left for future research.
In principle, the author's method could be extended to allow the reverse engineering recovery of the syntax of systems developed in other proprietary 4GLs. This would reduce time and cost for the ongoing maintenance of such systems by enabling their software engineers to work using modern object-oriented languages, methodologies, tools and techniques
Conjunctures in Law and Development: Assemblages for Progress in Indian Agricultural Futures
This dissertation asks: how are the legal, political, and social legacies of the Green Revolution and India's incorporation into the global knowledge economy shaping or undermining the emergent discourses, practices, and regulatory rationalities of India's current Climate Smart Agriculture development initiatives? To answer this question, I construct a theoretical/methodological framework that brings together conjunctural analysis, assemblage theory, Foucaultian governmentality, and transnational legal pluralism. I identify two previous historical eras of significant agricultural and developmental change in India: the Green Revolution (1950s-early 1970s) and the liberalization of Indian agriculture as part of India's broader incorporation into the global knowledge economy (1991-mid 2000s). I study the historical relationship between the modern Indian state and Indian farmers across these eras of agricultural and developmental transformation to investigate how they are informing current Climate Smart Agriculture programs, how these contemporary programs work, and the extent to which these programs and the political struggles they incite represent a new historical phase of state power in India. I argue that Climate Smart Agriculture programs and the accompanying introduction of Big Data technology in Indian agriculture should not be understood as a singular event or a unique and novel initiative, but as the most recent project of governmentality mediating the relationship between the Indian state and Indian farmers. This dissertation further shows how relationships between states in the Global South and farmers are shaped by the interplay of technologies (understood both conventionally and in the Foucaultian sense) that are constructed and regulated through the law. I simultaneously demonstrate how the entwined processes of postcolonial state- and subject-making in the domains of agriculture and development always invokes forms of resistance that often result in contradictory regulatory outcomes, which continue to establish the conditions for future political contestation. This dissertation contributes to the field of Socio-legal Studies at large, and the subfields of Law and Development, Law and Globalization/TWAIL, and Green Criminology
Internationalisation dynamics in contemporary South American life sciences: the case of zebrafish
We tend to assume that science is inherently international. Geographical boundaries
are not a matter of concern in science, and when they do â e.g. due to the rise of
nationalist or populist movements â they are thought to constitute a threat to the
essence of the scientific enterprise; namely, the global mobility of ideas, knowledge
and researchers. Quite recently, we also started to consider that research could
become âmore internationalâ under the assumption that in doing so it becomes better,
i.e. more collaborative, innovative, dynamic, and of greater quality. Such a positive
conceptualisation of internationalisation, however, rests on interpretations coming
almost exclusively from the Global North that systematically ignore power dynamics
in scientific practice and that regard scientific internationalisation as an unproblematic
transformative process and as a desired outcome.
In Science and Technology Studies (STS), social research on model
organisms is perhaps the clearest example of the influence of the dominant vision of
internationalisation. This body of literature tends to describe model organism science
and their research communities as uniform and harmonious international ecosystems
governed by a strong collaborative ethos of sharing specimens, knowledge and
resources. But beyond these unproblematic descriptions, how does
internationalisation actually transform research on life? To what extent do the power
dynamics of internationalisation intervene in contemporary practices of knowledge
production and diffusion in this field of research?
This thesis revisits the dynamics and practices of scientific internationalisation
in contemporary science from the perspective of South American life sciences. It takes
the zebrafish (Danio rerio), a small tropic freshwater fish, originally from the Ganges
region in India and quite popular in pet shops, as a case study of how complex
dynamics of internationalisation intervene in science. While zebrafish research has
experienced a remarkable growth in recent years at the global scale, in South America
its growth has been unprecedented, allowing average laboratories, which often
operate with small budgets and with less well-developed science infrastructures, to
conduct world-class research.
My approach is based on a consideration of internationalisation as a
conceptual model of change. I consider internationalisation to be a process essentially
marked by tensions in the spatial, cognitive and evaluative dimensions of scientific
practice. These tensions, I claim, are not just a key feature of internationalisation, but
also aspects of a conceptual opposition that is geared towards explaining how change
comes about in science. By studying the dynamics of internationalisation, I seek to
understand various transformations of zebrafish research: from its construction as a
research artefact to its diffusion across geographical boundaries. My focus on South
America, on the other hand, helps me to understand the complexity of such dynamics
beyond the lenses of the dominant discourse of internationalisation that prevails in
the STS literature on model organisms. I use mixed-methods (i.e. semi-structured
interviews, document analysis, bibliometrics and social network analysis) to observe
and interpret transformations of internationalisation at different scales and levels.
My analysis suggests first, that internationalisation played an important role in
the construction of the zebrafish as a model organism and that, in the infrastructures
and practices of resource exchange that sustain the scientific value of the organism
internationally, dynamics of asymmetry and empowerment problematise the
collaborative ethos of this community. Second, I found that collaborative networks â
measured through co-authorships â also played an important role in the diffusion of
zebrafish as a model organism in South America. However, I did not find a clear
indication of international dependency in the diffusion of zebrafish, explained by a
geographical concentration of scientific expertise in the zebrafish collaboration
network. Rather than exposing peripheral researchers to novel ideas, networks of
international collaboration seem to be more related to access to privileged material
infrastructures resulting from the social organisation of scientific labour worldwide.
Lastly, by examining practices of biological data curation and researchersâ
international mobility trajectories, I describe how dynamics of internationalisation
shape the notion of research excellence in model organism science. In this case, I
found mobility trajectories to play a key role in boosting researchersâ contributions to
the communityâs database, especially among researchers from peripheral
communities like South America. Overall, while these findings show the value of
considering internationalisation as a conceptual model of change in science, more
research is needed on the intervention of complex dynamics of internationalisation in
other cases and fields of research
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