Community Forestland Management, Outside Interventions and Local Responses: The case of the Thai ethnic group in the Hanh Dich commune, Que Phong district, Nghe An province, Vietnam

In an increasing interaction between indigenous or isolated ethnic communities and outside actors, a lack of confirmation of local forestland rights is seen as one of the most critical issues. Does the outsiders’ occupancy of land for rent seeking and authoritative patronage for forest management meet the dispossessed people’s aspirations? How and to what extent should local communities be involved in forestland management and play a determining role in their own future? To answer these questions, this research is based on in-depth interviews focusing on the folk traditions, cultural beliefs, customary laws, local knowledge, and comments and recommendations of the local Thai ethnic people and some outsiders residing in the Hanh Dich commune, Que Phong district, Nghe An province, Vietnam. In addition, a number of previous case studies and reports from the archive of SPERI (Social Policy Ecology Research Institute) and its alliance members have been synthesised and analysed. The essential findings and arguments in this thesis comprise the local Thai people’s cultural traits, chronicles of outside interventions, local responses, and cognitive and methodological approaches to the study of indigenous cultures and their forestlands. It was found that local people have been upholding their holistic and unique perspectives, beliefs, customary laws, traditional organizational and institutional practices and that these inherent values and strengths can contribute effectively to forest protection and improvement of local people’s livelihood. However, it was also observed that the increasing imposition of the mainstream top-down approaches have not recognized or encouraged, that is to say, have undermined local strengths and values. In addition, on the basis of an ethnocentric view, superficial perceptions of the ethnic minority peoples and their values have pervaded in the Vietnamese media. These phenomena raise questions as to cultural rights, human rights, and the quality of the policy making process and law enforcement which are inevitably affected by these ethnocentric views and approaches. To counteract the hurtful effects of mainstream interventions, local people have responded in a subtle and implicit way. As a result of outside interventions, they have had to find ways to adjust their productive and cultural settings. However, there remain wishes to recover traditional cultural values, especially in the minds of the elders. In an alternative bottom-up approach facilitated by SPERI, the people are stimulated to promote their own institutional and organizational strengths towards their brighter future. In a democratized and decentralized process, community’s land rights and customary rights should be officially recognized and confirmed. But official recognition should not be seen as the final goal, only as a supportive factor while the local community’s strengths and self-enforcement of their rights are determinant. To this end, indigenous peoples need further opportunities for networking, capacity building, and taking part in thorough socio-cultural ethnographic research in order to ensure that they are more truly and fairly represented

Approaching algorithmic power

Contemporary power manifests in the algorithmic. Emerging quite recently as an object of study within media and communications, cultural research, gender and race studies, and urban geography, the algorithm often seems ungraspable. Framed as code, it becomes proprietary property, black-boxed and inaccessible. Framed as a totality, its becomes overwhelmingly complex, incomprehensible in its operations. Framed as a procedure, it becomes a technique to be optimised, bracketing out the political. In struggling to adequately grasp the algorithmic as an object of study, to unravel its mechanisms and materialities, these framings offer limited insight into how algorithmic power is initiated and maintained. This thesis instead argues for an alternative approach: firstly, that the algorithmic is coordinated by a coherent internal logic, a knowledge-structure that understands the world in particular ways; second, that the algorithmic is enacted through control, a material and therefore observable performance which purposively influences people and things towards a predetermined outcome; and third, that this complex totality of architectures and operations can be productively analysed as strategic sociotechnical clusters of machines. This method of inquiry is developed with and tested against four contemporary examples: Uber, Airbnb, Amazon Alexa, and Palantir Gotham. Highly profitable, widely adopted and globally operational, they exemplify the algorithmic shift from whiteboard to world. But if the world is productive, it is also precarious, consisting of frictional spaces and antagonistic subjects. Force cannot be assumed as unilinear, but is incessantly negotiated—operations of parsing data and processing tasks forming broader operations that strive to establish subjectivities and shape relations. These negotiations can fail, destabilised by inadequate logics and weak control. A more generic understanding of logic and control enables a historiography of the algorithmic. The ability to index information, to structure the flow of labor, to exert force over subjects and spaces— these did not emerge with the microchip and the mainframe, but are part of a longer lineage of calculation. Two moments from this lineage are examined: house-numbering in the Habsburg Empire and punch-card machines in the Third Reich. Rather than revolutionary, this genealogy suggests an evolutionary process, albeit uneven, linking the computation of past and present. The thesis makes a methodological contribution to the nascent field of algorithmic studies. But more importantly, it renders algorithmic power more intelligible as a material force. Structured and implemented in particular ways, the design of logic and control construct different versions, or modalities, of algorithmic power. This power is political, it calibrates subjectivities towards certain ends, it prioritises space in specific ways, and it privileges particular practices whilst suppressing others. In apprehending operational logics, the practice of method thus foregrounds the sociopolitical dimensions of algorithmic power. As the algorithmic increasingly infiltrates into and governs the everyday, the ability to understand, critique, and intervene in this new field of power becomes more urgent

An aesthetics of touch: investigating the language of design relating to form

How well can designers communicate qualities of touch? This paper presents evidence that they have some capability to do so, much of which appears to have been learned, but at present make limited use of such language. Interviews with graduate designer-makers suggest that they are aware of and value the importance of touch and materiality in their work, but lack a vocabulary to fully relate to their detailed explanations of other aspects such as their intent or selection of materials. We believe that more attention should be paid to the verbal dialogue that happens in the design process, particularly as other researchers show that even making-based learning also has a strong verbal element to it. However, verbal language alone does not appear to be adequate for a comprehensive language of touch. Graduate designers-makers’ descriptive practices combined non-verbal manipulation within verbal accounts. We thus argue that haptic vocabularies do not simply describe material qualities, but rather are situated competences that physically demonstrate the presence of haptic qualities. Such competencies are more important than groups of verbal vocabularies in isolation. Design support for developing and extending haptic competences must take this wide range of considerations into account to comprehensively improve designers’ capabilities

Radical religious thought in Black popular music. Five Percenters and Bobo Shanti in Rap and Reggae

This book is discussing patterns of radical religious thought in popular forms of Black music. The consistent influence of the Five Percent Nation on Rap music as one of the most esoteric groups among the manifold Black Muslim movements has already gained scholarly attention. However, it shares more than a strong pattern of reversed racism with the Bobo Shanti Order, the most rigid branch of the Rastafarian faith, globally popularized by Dancehall-Reggae artists like Sizzla or Capleton. Authentic devotion or calculated marketing?Apart from providing a possible answer to this question, the historical shift of Bobo adherents from shunned extremists to firmly anchored personifications of authenticity in mainstream Rastafarian culture is being emphasized. A multi-layered comparative case study attempts to shed light on the re-contextualization of language as well as expressed dogmatic perceptions and symbolism, attitude towards other religious groups and aspects of ethnic discrimination. Further analysis includes the visibility of artists and their references to practical and moral issues directly derived from two obscure ideologies that managed to conquer airwaves and concert halls

Consuming Transformed Islands: Representing Human Interactions with Mobility Infrastructures with GoPro Cameras in Tahiti Nui, Mā'ohi Nui/French Polynesia

M.A.M.A. Thesis. University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa 201

Key Components for an Ethics Consultation Curriculum

Due to a lack of formal credentials for clinical ethics consultants, the professionalization of clinical ethics as a normative discipline in contemporary American health care is diminished amongst other health care professionals. While medical specialties, organizational leadership positions, and other miscellaneous health care occupations possess governing bodies that posit credentials that justify these roles, clinical ethics consultants lack a standard of competence. While this gap has been temporarily reconciled by individual employer criteria, a national standard that attempts to educate and demonstrate a clinical ethicist’s abilities does not exist. Still, various attempts have been made to establish a certification program for clinical ethicists. These programs contain central concepts in ethics consultation and are effective in demonstrating the impact of a clinical ethicist’s knowledge. However, the educational facets entailed in proposed certification programs that clinical ethicist ought to be familiar with do not include information surrounding the nature of clinical ethics and the role a clinical ethicist must embody in order to perform his job effectively. The central supposition of this dissertation is that additional work needs to be completed around clinical ethics education and certification. While no formal certification or educational standard exists for clinical ethicists, this dissertation proposes key components for an ethics consultation curriculum. The key components in this dissertation emphasize the nature and value of virtue in clinical ethics and the role virtue plays in orchestrating an effective certification program for ethicists. This dissertation aims to do the following: (i) Clarify and demonstrate the problems associated with a lack of formal certification standard for ethicists; (ii) Define and examine the nature of clinical ethics and the role philosophy plays in this line of work; (iii) Explain and demonstrate the effectiveness of teaching virtues as key components for a formalized ethics consultation curriculum; and (iv) Illustrate how key components for an ethics consultation curriculum manifest in an educational venue for clinical ethicists. This dissertation seeks to contribute a novel approach to educating and certifying clinical ethicists in the United States. By combining knowledge points associated with moral philosophy and medicine with general skill objectives for ethics consultants, this dissertation aids in developing analytic moral reasoning skills for clinical ethicists which in turn fosters the overall education and professional development of clinical ethics consultants

Development of a framework for the e-education of educators of special groups aiming to improve their compatibility with their learners

En las sociedades multiculturales modernas la diversidad es una característica que se extiende incuestionablemente a la educación. Educadores y estudiantes de diferentes culturas y etnias, con diferentes orígenes lingüísticos y sociales tienen un punto de encuentro e interacción en los procedimientos educativos. En la educación multicultural el papel del profesor es primordial para potenciar o no a los estudiantes en la clase, por lo que es muy importante mejorar las capacidades docentes del formador a este respecto si se desea conseguir la igualdad educativa. Esto cobra mayor relevancia aún cuando los educadores se hacen cargo de grupos espaciales, es decir, de cualquier grupo social cuyas características (sociales, culturales, étnicas, lingüísticas, físicas, etc) sean causa de exclusión social, marginalización o estigmatización de sus miembros (inmigrantes, gitanos, ex-convictos, ex-adictos o personas con necesidades especiales). En la educación de grupos especiales la compatibilidad entre educadores y educandos, o lo que es lo mismo, el nivel de conocimiento y aceptación del grupo de discentes y la actitud positiva hacia el mismo afecta directamente a la eficiencia y éxito del procedimiento educativo. Por otro lado, y dado el auge de las nuevas tecnologías en la educación ?con el potencial que esto conlleva?, la utilización de las mismas para conducir programas educativos personalizados ha llegado a ser una práctica globalmente adoptada. Esto permite que la personalización se adecúe a las necesidades del educador en cualquier momento y lugar y que se puedan reducir costes asociados a la educación del educador. En este documento se presenta un marco (denominado ESG) para la educación a través de medios electrónicos de los educadores de grupos especiales para la mejora de su compatibilidad con los educandos. El marco ESG se sustenta tanto en la tecnología educativa como en la educación multicultural y la educación de adultos, combinando elementos necesarios de todos estos campos. El marco ESG está basado en el modelo de diseño instruccional ADDIE (Analysis, Design, Development, Implementation, Evaluation) con la adición de una fase nueva: Mantenimiento de la red de la comunidad educativa. El marco ESG proporciona para cada fase directrices dinámicas, flexibles y claras que pueden ser seguidas por diseñadores, desarrolladores, administradores y educadores, optimizando el aprendizaje electrónico personalizado y dotando de una educación efectiva a los educadores de grupos especiales. Para validar el marco ESG se ha llevado a cabo una aplicación piloto con educadores de un grupo de personas de raza gitana en Grecia. La evaluación del curso piloto ha probado que el marco ESG es eficiente y funcional para la mejora de la compatibilidad entre educadores y estudiantes y que ofrece la posibilidad mediante el uso de tecnologías de e-learning de una personalización de los programas educativos de acuerdo a las necesidades del educador independientemente del lugar y momento en el que se requieran las acciones formativas

Development of a framework for the e-education of educators of special groups aiming to improve their compatibility with their learners

En las sociedades multiculturales modernas la diversidad es una característica que se extiende incuestionablemente a la educación. Educadores y estudiantes de diferentes culturas y etnias, con diferentes orígenes lingüísticos y sociales tienen un punto de encuentro e interacción en los procedimientos educativos. En la educación multicultural el papel del profesor es primordial para potenciar o no a los estudiantes en la clase, por lo que es muy importante mejorar las capacidades docentes del formador a este respecto si se desea conseguir la igualdad educativa. Esto cobra mayor relevancia aún cuando los educadores se hacen cargo de grupos espaciales, es decir, de cualquier grupo social cuyas características (sociales, culturales, étnicas, lingüísticas, físicas, etc) sean causa de exclusión social, marginalización o estigmatización de sus miembros (inmigrantes, gitanos, ex-convictos, ex-adictos o personas con necesidades especiales). En la educación de grupos especiales la compatibilidad entre educadores y educandos, o lo que es lo mismo, el nivel de conocimiento y aceptación del grupo de discentes y la actitud positiva hacia el mismo afecta directamente a la eficiencia y éxito del procedimiento educativo. Por otro lado, y dado el auge de las nuevas tecnologías en la educación ?con el potencial que esto conlleva?, la utilización de las mismas para conducir programas educativos personalizados ha llegado a ser una práctica globalmente adoptada. Esto permite que la personalización se adecúe a las necesidades del educador en cualquier momento y lugar y que se puedan reducir costes asociados a la educación del educador. En este documento se presenta un marco (denominado ESG) para la educación a través de medios electrónicos de los educadores de grupos especiales para la mejora de su compatibilidad con los educandos. El marco ESG se sustenta tanto en la tecnología educativa como en la educación multicultural y la educación de adultos, combinando elementos necesarios de todos estos campos. El marco ESG está basado en el modelo de diseño instruccional ADDIE (Analysis, Design, Development, Implementation, Evaluation) con la adición de una fase nueva: Mantenimiento de la red de la comunidad educativa. El marco ESG proporciona para cada fase directrices dinámicas, flexibles y claras que pueden ser seguidas por diseñadores, desarrolladores, administradores y educadores, optimizando el aprendizaje electrónico personalizado y dotando de una educación efectiva a los educadores de grupos especiales. Para validar el marco ESG se ha llevado a cabo una aplicación piloto con educadores de un grupo de personas de raza gitana en Grecia. La evaluación del curso piloto ha probado que el marco ESG es eficiente y funcional para la mejora de la compatibilidad entre educadores y estudiantes y que ofrece la posibilidad mediante el uso de tecnologías de e-learning de una personalización de los programas educativos de acuerdo a las necesidades del educador independientemente del lugar y momento en el que se requieran las acciones formativas

Human Computer Interaction and Emerging Technologies

The INTERACT Conferences are an important platform for researchers and practitioners in the field of human-computer interaction (HCI) to showcase their work. They are organised biennially by the International Federation for Information Processing (IFIP) Technical Committee on Human–Computer Interaction (IFIP TC13), an international committee of 30 member national societies and nine Working Groups. INTERACT is truly international in its spirit and has attracted researchers from several countries and cultures. With an emphasis on inclusiveness, it works to lower the barriers that prevent people in developing countries from participating in conferences. As a multidisciplinary field, HCI requires interaction and discussion among diverse people with different interests and backgrounds. The 17th IFIP TC13 International Conference on Human-Computer Interaction (INTERACT 2019) took place during 2-6 September 2019 in Paphos, Cyprus. The conference was held at the Coral Beach Hotel Resort, and was co-sponsored by the Cyprus University of Technology and Tallinn University, in cooperation with ACM and ACM SIGCHI. This volume contains the Adjunct Proceedings to the 17th INTERACT Conference, comprising a series of selected papers from workshops, the Student Design Consortium and the Doctoral Consortium. The volume follows the INTERACT conference tradition of submitting adjunct papers after the main publication deadline, to be published by a University Press with a connection to the conference itself. In this case, both the Adjunct Proceedings Chair of the conference, Dr Usashi Chatterjee, and the lead Editor of this volume, Dr Fernando Loizides, work at Cardiff University which is the home of Cardiff University Press