5,747 research outputs found

    Mobile heritage practices. Implications for scholarly research, user experience design, and evaluation methods using mobile apps.

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    Mobile heritage apps have become one of the most popular means for audience engagement and curation of museum collections and heritage contexts. This raises practical and ethical questions for both researchers and practitioners, such as: what kind of audience engagement can be built using mobile apps? what are the current approaches? how can audience engagement with these experience be evaluated? how can those experiences be made more resilient, and in turn sustainable? In this thesis I explore experience design scholarships together with personal professional insights to analyse digital heritage practices with a view to accelerating thinking about and critique of mobile apps in particular. As a result, the chapters that follow here look at the evolution of digital heritage practices, examining the cultural, societal, and technological contexts in which mobile heritage apps are developed by the creative media industry, the academic institutions, and how these forces are shaping the user experience design methods. Drawing from studies in digital (critical) heritage, Human-Computer Interaction (HCI), and design thinking, this thesis provides a critical analysis of the development and use of mobile practices for the heritage. Furthermore, through an empirical and embedded approach to research, the thesis also presents auto-ethnographic case studies in order to show evidence that mobile experiences conceptualised by more organic design approaches, can result in more resilient and sustainable heritage practices. By doing so, this thesis encourages a renewed understanding of the pivotal role of these practices in the broader sociocultural, political and environmental changes.AHRC REAC

    An examination of the professional judgement and decision-making of strength and conditioning coaches

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    Athletic coaching is a complex profession, and coaches must perform a wide range of tasks in a variety of environments. In high-performance sporting environments, strength and conditioning coaches (SCCs) must fulfil a variety of roles that are growing in importance. Despite a recent broadening of the scope of SCC research beyond their knowledge, practical skills, experiences, and training preferences, a lack of attention continues to be paid to the professional judgement and decision-making (PJDM) of SCCs. First, in recognition of this lacuna in research, this thesis examined the thought processes of SCCs who possessed varying levels of experience and analysed the rationales that informed their approaches. Second, this thesis constructed and tested an intervention using the empirical findings of earlier investigations to enhance the PJDM of SCCs. This qualitative study employed a constructivist paradigm and was based on relativist ontology and interpretivist epistemology. The initial research used applied cognitive task analysis (ACTA) to examine the respective decision-making processes of participants who were engaged in training programme design and difficult common tasks. These studies, together with a focus group approach, used reflective thematic analysis (RTA) to engage with data sets and identify new patterns of meaning. The results indicated that the roles of SCCs require them to apply their theoretical knowledge and practical experiences to a wide range of tasks. An indication of the cognitive demands associated with these tasks were also generated as a consequence of the ACTA. Furthermore, clear contrasts in the PJDM of high-level and early-career SCCs were discussed. The analysis of the focus group results was used to construct a revised model of thinking processes regarding training programme design. Crucially, this stage of the analysis identified the variables of context, collaboration, and communication as providing depth and breadth to the perceived impact of each proposed stage of the training programme design process. Considering the difficult situations that must be managed within strength and conditioning (S&C) environments, the following three themes were identified as having the strongest impact on SCCs’ decision-making processes: situational awareness, improvisation, and metacognition. Both the ACTA and cognitive apprenticeship (CA) research enabled this study to make a unique contribution to the literature, as it provided empirical findings on the PJDM of SCCs with both high and low levels of experience. The application of a constructivist philosophy to the design and implementation of online S&C learning materials constitutes a novel contribution to existing traditional strategies for SCC preparation in the workplace. This CA study provides valuable preliminary findings that can be used by educators in the field to produce authentic, relevant materials for those aspiring to work in the S&C sector. Throughout this thesis, a case was developed that demonstrates the importance of experience for SCCs of all levels to be able to evaluate their thought processes and overall S&C coaching performance. Lastly, a platform for future research to build on was constructed

    Panacea or producer? Analysing the relationship between international Law and disaster risk

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    This thesis seeks to critically analyse the relationship between international law and disaster risk. Despite the increasing global threat that disasters present, international law’s engagement with their prevention remains at a relatively nascent stage compared to the development of other areas of the law. However, the progress that has been made since the United Nation’s International Decade for Natural Disaster Reduction in the 1990s suggests that international law is widely viewed as a valuable tool in addressing the issue and reducing the risk of disasters. In contrast to this, however, relatively little attention has been paid to the ways that international law itself may also play a role in the creation of disaster risk. It is here that the project makes an important and original contribution, by interrogating this presupposition and analysing the ways that international law itself may be culpable in the creation and exacerbation of risk. Through a novel, compound theoretical lens combining Marxist and Third World approaches to international law and insights from disaster theory, the thesis highlights the longstanding complicity of international law in the production of disaster risk. The thesis draws on understandings of disasters as processes that reach back through time, and thus begins its analysis with an examination of the early history of international law and the role of its colonial doctrines in the historic construction of vulnerability and hazards. It then turns to modern international law, particularly within the realm of international economic law, to examine the continuing legacies of these early developments and the ongoing role of international law in disaster risk creation. Overall, the thesis offers an original contribution to conversations on the connection between international law and disaster risk. Rather than focusing only on the positive role that international law can have in the reduction of disaster risk found in the majority of the literature, it seeks to highlight more pathological aspects of the relationship between the two and the implications of this. It ultimately concludes that unless the burgeoning field of international disaster law engages more with such critical accounts of international law and their understandings of the harm the law produces, then it will remain blind to a major source of disaster risk creation and be unsuccessful in achieving its normative aims

    Harmonious Living: Sustainability, Ecology, and Eco-Islam in Wales

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    This thesis is an in-depth examination of Eco-Islam in Wales. Eco-Islam refers to the conceptual intersection of Islamic principles with environmental and ecological concerns. It is not necessarily a formalised movement with a centralised structure but rather a broader concept that explores the compatibility between Islamic teachings and environmental stewardship. It emphasises the idea that Islamic values and ethics can be applied to address contemporary environmental challenges. This dissertation addresses the question of the normative influence of Islamic environmental principles and their implementation within Welsh Muslim communities and Welsh society. More generally, this thesis is embedded in the academic discourse on the normative role and agency of religions in motivating their members to engage in proenvironmental behaviour. Given the urgency of the environmental crisis facing humanity, which requires a concerted effort from all sectors of society, the research question of this thesis is particularly relevant. Furthermore, despite the growing body of literature on ecology and Islam, there has been little research on the practical implementation of Islamic teachings on nature. Therefore, whilst giving a comprehensive overview of Islamic environmental ethics based on a literature review, the thesis also provides research data on the Eco-Islam movement based on fieldwork conducted in Wales. Particular attention is paid to the social and power structures that contribute to or hinder the development of a Muslim environmental movement. The study provides practical recommendations for better cooperation between faith communities and the (still) predominantly secular environmental movement, with particular attention to the challenges faced by minority communities such as the Muslim communities in Wales

    Displacement and the Humanities: Manifestos from the Ancient to the Present

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    This is the final version. Available on open access from MDPI via the DOI in this recordThis is a reprint of articles from the Special Issue published online in the open access journal Humanities (ISSN 2076-0787) (available at: https://www.mdpi.com/journal/humanities/special_issues/Manifestos Ancient Present)This volume brings together the work of practitioners, communities, artists and other researchers from multiple disciplines. Seeking to provoke a discourse around displacement within and beyond the field of Humanities, it positions historical cases and debates, some reaching into the ancient past, within diverse geo-chronological contexts and current world urgencies. In adopting an innovative dialogic structure, between practitioners on the ground - from architects and urban planners to artists - and academics working across subject areas, the volume is a proposition to: remap priorities for current research agendas; open up disciplines, critically analysing their approaches; address the socio-political responsibilities that we have as scholars and practitioners; and provide an alternative site of discourse for contemporary concerns about displacement. Ultimately, this volume aims to provoke future work and collaborations - hence, manifestos - not only in the historical and literary fields, but wider research concerned with human mobility and the challenges confronting people who are out of place of rights, protection and belonging

    The Council of Europe’s Framework of Competences for Democratic Culture: Hope for democracy or an allusive Utopia?

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    Democracies around the world are increasingly polarized along political and cultural lines. To address these challenges, in 2016, the Council of Europe (CoE) produced a model of twenty competences for democratic culture. In 2018, this same model became the basis of the Reference Framework of Competences for Democratic Culture (RFCDC). The RFCDC provides pedagogical instructions to help implement these competences. Together, I call this set of materials “the Framework”. This thesis begins with the premise that utopia has long played an important role in the way power is maintained or resisted in democratic education. It questions the assumption that democratic culture can be cultivated instrumentally through policy- based competences without imposing power on subjects and views this assumption to be utopian. It thus excavates the potential utopian ideals at play in the Framework using ‘hidden utopias’ as a conceptual lens and method, which draws inspiration from the theories of Michèl Foucault, Ernst Bloch and Ruth Levitas. It investigates how using ‘hidden utopias’ as a theoretical lens might facilitate a deeper understanding of the nature and purpose of the Framework, how implicit utopias might be at play, how this could be problematic and how these theories might shed light on the application of the Framework in pedagogical contexts. The contribution of this thesis is to make visible potential utopias at the heart of the Framework. It suggests that making implicit utopias visible in democratic education can help educators and learners engage with these discourses in critical and innovative ways and think beyond them

    The role played by non-formal education in the lives of Iraqi-British citizens: A study of three Iraqi-British cultural institutions and how non-formal education empowers individuals and communities

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    This thesis highlights the role played by non-formal education in the lives of Iraqi community members who participate in the activities offered by London’s Iraqi-British cultural centres. The key aims of this thesis were; to research, document and analyse London’s Iraqi community and their experiences of non-formal learning within Iraqi cultural centres; and to establish the extent to which they found their participation in this non-formal learning empowering, both at an individual and community level. Many studies have been conducted into the lives of newly arrived communities. Generally, these studies tend to focus on their early years in the UK and the issues they face in rebuilding and re-establishing their lives. However, from my literature searches I identified what appears to be an overall lack of research which focuses on the UK’s established Iraqi community. To this end, the findings of my study seek to address this gap in our knowledge and research into the lives of Iraqis in the UK and in diaspora globally, particularly relating to their non-formal learning needs. I have also included information which focuses on historic Iraqi-British links within this thesis, to contextualise the Iraqi community presence in the UK. Utilising an interpretive research methodology, this thesis involved conducting in-depth qualitative research interviews with a group of respondents drawn from London’s Iraqi community, utilising social capital and social empowerment theory approaches, and reporting the unfolding stories of eight respondents who participate in, and facilitate, non-formal learning within these centres. The key themes arising from my research included; social capital maintenance, widening participation through social media and live-streaming technologies, the role played by pedagogy and how gender, age and social background shape participatory patterns in the centres’ learning activities. The findings of this thesis aim to highlight the importance of multicultural research, social empowerment and social capital, including bonding social capital, bridging social capital, linking and imagined social capital. In particular, these findings highlight the unique stories and accounts of the Iraqi community’s engagement with non-formal learning in London, with the intention of providing an enriched understanding of the Iraqi community’s educational needs to academics, educators, community organisers and policy makers. In doing so, the thesis seeks to provide a clearer picture of Iraqis in diaspora, the challenges of integration they face and how society can empower them through education to improve their bridging social capital and integration with other communities and the wider global society

    Choreographing tragedy into the twenty-first century

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    What makes a tragedy? In the fifth century BCE this question found an answer through the conjoined forms of song and dance. Since the mid-twentieth century, and the work of the Tanztheater Wuppertal Pina Bausch, tragedy has been variously articulated as form coming apart at the seams. This thesis approaches tragedy through the work of five major choreographers and a director who each, in some way, turn back to Bausch. After exploring the Tanztheater Wuppertal’s techniques for choreographing tragedy in chapter one, I dedicate a chapter each to Dimitris Papaioannou, Akram Khan, Trajal Harrell, Ivo van Hove with Wim Vandekeybus, and Gisèle Vienne. Bringing together work in Queer and Trans* studies, Performance studies, Classics, Dance, and Classical Reception studies I work towards an understanding of the ways in which these choreographers articulate tragedy through embodiment and relation. I consider how tragedy transforms into the twenty-first century, how it shapes what it might mean to live and die with(out) one another. This includes tragic acts of mythic construction, attempts to describe a sense of the world as it collapses, colonial claims to ownership over the earth, and decolonial moves to enact new ways of being human. By developing an expanded sense of both choreography and the tragic one of my main contributions is a re-theorisation of tragedy that brings together two major pre-existing schools, to understand tragedy not as an event, but as a process. Under these conditions, and the shifting conditions of the world around us, I argue that the choreography of tragedy has and might continue to allow us to think about, name, and embody ourselves outside of the ongoing catastrophes we face
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