566 research outputs found

    Sociologická analýza fotografií. Fotografie jako zdroj poznání o sociální struktuře a sociální změně

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    The bachelor thesis analyzes a set of photographs taken during the normalization period (1969-1989) in Czechoslovakia using visual fact analysis, semiotic analysis, and sociological structuralist analysis. Firstly, this thesis investigates classical theories of photography with the objective of comprehending the complexities of the photographic medium and identifying key factors to be considered during the analysis of photographs. Furthermore, it explores the use of photography within the field of sociology, with a focus on the techniques employed to interpret and analyze photographic materials. The analysis provides insights into the social structure and characteristics of the normalization period in Czechoslovak society, such as the militarization of society, the prevalence of communist propaganda, and the emphasis placed on labor as one of the pillars of the regime. The analysis also sheds light on everyday life during the period, including recreational practices, unhealthy habits, and family dynamics. Moreover, the thesis emphasizes the significance of using photographs as a complementary tool to other sociological methods in research. Keywords photography, sociology of photography, visual sociology, social structure, normalization (ČSSR)Bakalářská práce analyzuje soubor fotografií pořízených v období normalizace (1969- 1989) v Československu pomocí analýzy vizuálních faktů, sémiotické analýzy a sociologické strukturalistické analýzy. Práce se nejprve zabývá klasickými teoriemi fotografie s cílem porozumět komplexnosti fotografického média a identifikovat klíčové faktory, které je třeba brát v úvahu při analýze fotografií. Práce dále zkoumá využití fotografie v oblasti sociologie se zaměřením na techniky používané k interpretaci a analýze zkoumaných fotografií. Analýza poskytuje vhled do sociální struktury a charakteristik normalizačního období v československé společnosti, jako je militarizace společnosti, převaha komunistické propagandy a důraz kladený na práci jako jeden z pilířů režimu. Analýza poskytuje vhled do každodenního života během normalizace, včetně rekreačních praktik, nezdravých návyků a rodinné dynamiky. Práce dále zdůrazňuje význam využití fotografií jako doplňkového nástroje k jiným sociologickým metodám ve výzkumu. Klíčová slova fotografie, sociologie fotografie, vizuální fotografie, sociální struktura, normalizace (ČSSR)Katedra sociologieDepartment of SociologyFaculty of ArtsFilozofická fakult

    A systems approach to the process dynamics of interpersonal selling in the financial services industry

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    The Financial Services Industry (FSI) in South Africa is currently under severe criticism for the quality of service it provides to its customer base. Customer dissatisfaction expressed through individuals, (See Appendix A) consumer bodies and members of parliament has resulted in the draft and approval of three new bills in parliament, which will protect the rights of customer

    Balancing Freedom and Restraint: The Role of Virtue in Legal Analysis

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    Even if one sees the law as “a self-contained system of legal reasoning” from which we deduce “neutral,” non-political conclusions from “general principles and analogies among cases and doctrines” (including formalist claims that judges simply call “balls and strikes” like umpires in a baseball game), one should still consider certain characteristics of the party making such deductions or calling such “balls and strikes.” [Relevant citations to quoted language are in the Article.] If such decision maker has questionable motivations, lacks proper perspective, does not grasp the flexibility in the concepts in play, does not grasp the restraints on concepts in play, does not follow the proper processes involved, and lacks the detail, courage, and tenacity needed to reach the proper “deduction” or “call,” on the face of things the formalist, too, should have reason to re-examine any “deduction” or “call” by such party. Thus, even the formalist should not deny the critical role of virtue when examining legal analysis, a role belying the notion of law as a "self-contained system of legal reasoning." This Article thus explores basic freedoms and restraints applicable to legal analysis and the role that virtue plays in balancing such freedoms and restraints. Such exploration covers: (i) the origin, nature, and purpose of concepts and categories used in legal analysis; (ii) the experiential nature of the meaning of such concepts and categories used in legal analysis; (iii) the freedoms and restraints applicable to such concepts and categories as a result of either experience or of the concepts or categories themselves; (iv) how workable notions of virtue rightly balance such freedoms and restraints in legal analysis; (v) the distinction between such virtue and skill; (vi) reconceiving the analytically virtuous mean as a proper balance between such applicable freedoms and restraints; and (vii) defining and surveying the particular virtues that lead us to such proper balance and thus to good legal analysis. My hope is that lawyers and law schools in their curricula will follow such explorations as well in a quest to better understand legal analysis and how to teach and perform it well

    Atlas

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    Public libraries want to contribute to an inclusive and innovative society and aim to enable their patrons to acquire the necessary 21st century skills. Dutch public libraries are therefore gradually adding more and more activities to their curriculum, teaching these different types of skills, such as ‘invention literacy’. They also often provide a ‘performative space’ (i.e. a makerspace) for their patrons. This means library spaces are no longer dominated by books, but rather reflect the current development in libraries’ core business, moving from collections to connections in order to serve their local communities. The KB, the National Library of The Netherlands, participated in the KIEM1 project Performative Spaces in Dutch Public Libraries. Stepping Stones of Inclusive Innovation, researching the development of performative spaces in libraries. This project, a collaboration with the Faculty of Architecture and the Built Environment at the Delft University of Technology, fits the KBs strategic interests in providing an innovative and socially aware library system

    Attending responding becoming : a living-learning inquiry in a naturally inclusional playspace

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    Traditional scientific paradigms emphasise writing in the third person, effectively marginalising the subjective perspective of the researcher. Many systems thinking, cybernetics and complexity approaches are better in this regard, as they involve systemic interventions where the relationships between the researcher and other participants really matter. Writing in the first person therefore becomes acceptable.In this Thesis (and a partner document coupled with it), I have explored how to reincorporate subjective empiricism into my systemic intervention practice. This has brought forth many unanticipated contributions. These take the form of new frameworks, concepts and approaches for systems and complexity practice, emerging from my engagements with myself and others, as well as from reflections upon those engagements.However, the content of my reflections and ‘becomings’ are not all that represent my doctoral contribution; there is also the form of my representation(s), as well as the emergent nature of the process through which they have come to be. I have drawn from Gregory Bateson’s use of metalogues: where the nature of a conversation mirrors its content – e.g. getting into a muddle whilst talking about muddles! Intuitively, I grasped the importance of metalogue in what I was attempting, and found myself coining the term metalogic coherence. Without fully appreciating what this might mean in practice, I groped my way into undertaking and documenting my research in ways that I believed would be metalogically coherent with the complexity-attuned principles to which I was committing. In sum, and key to appreciating what unfolds in the narrative, is recognising this Thesis and its partner document as metalogically coherent artefacts of naturally inclusional, complexity-attuned, evolutionary research.To fully acknowledge the different ways of knowing that have flowed into my inquiry, I have written in multiple voices (called statewaves, for reasons to be explained in the thesis). I found myself shifting from one voice to another as I explored and expressed different dimensions of what I was experiencing and discovering.In addition, I have made liberal use of hyperlinks, so both documents are far from linear. They are more akin to a mycorrhizal network, interlinking flows of ideas and sensemaking, all of which can be accessed and experienced differently, depending on each reader’s engagement with and through it.The thesis and its partner document are part of a composite submission that contains both poetry and artwork (visual depictions and animations of the ideas). These elements, along with the more conventional academic text, are augmented by penetrating reflections on my personal motivations, guided by a narrator signposting the streams as they flow into and between each other. All of my being has been implicated and impacted by this endeavour. When insights and new ‘becomings’ emerged flowfully during my practice, my joy was reflected in my narrative; as indeed were my pain, doubts and reinterpretations associated with ideas that were difficult to birth. I present all this in my submission, without retrospective sanitisation or simplification. In so doing, I am keeping faith with the principle that I remain at the heart of my research, and cannot be extracted from it without doing violence to the metalogical coherence that gives it meaning

    Understanding Whitehead

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    Originally published in 1962. The central aim of this book is to discuss the development of Alfred North Whitehead's thought and to underscore how it is unique. The book collects nine essays written by Victor Lowe originally published between 1941 and 1961. The essays have been revised for inclusion in this volume

    If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it : An Abductive and Contextual Exploration of Maintenance Deferral

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    Objective: To create academic insights into how organisations approach and manage the maintenance of vendor-supplied information systems software. Approach: Three iterations of the Peircean Abduction methodology lead to the identification, conceptualisation, and application of new knowledge in vendor-supplied Information Systems (IS) maintenance deferral by means of undertaking a qualitative multiple-case study. The research goals are achieved through the appropriation and application of theories from Peircean Abduction and Systemic Functional Linguistics. Research questions: The following abductive statement is created through the application of the Peircean Abduction methodology: The surprising observation, “some organisations, having invested in a vendor-supplied IS software solution, defer the implementation of vendor-supplied maintenance”, is made; However, if “the existence of deterrents to maintenance, requiring a trigger event before the implementation of maintenance” were true, then “maintenance deferral” would be a matter of course. Hence there is a reason to suspect that “the existence of both deterrents, and of triggers” is true. From this abductive statement, three research questions are deduced. The first research question investigates the existence, characteristics and influence of deterrents; the second question investigates the existence, characteristics and influence of triggers. As a consequence of this approach, the final question provides a general understanding of IS maintenance deferral. Methodology: Following the implementation of a systematic literature review methodology, six themes are identified: 1. an acknowledgement that problems exist when considering vendor-supplied software maintenance; 2. deterrents as a driver in behaviour; 3. the occurrence of tipping-points which require vendor-supplied maintenance to be undertaken; 4. the consequences of deferral; 5. the value of maintenance; and 6. the formalisation of a maintenance lifecycle. Taking the insights arising from the systematic literature review, a multiple-case study following the pragmatic framework is constructed from data collected interviewing twelve participants across a diverse set of ten organisations. An abductive approach to this research topic creates opportunities for a comprehensive, well-grounded exploratory contribution to a scarcely investigated research domain. Major findings: The translation of Peircean abduction to an interpretative context generates a rich and substantive contribution to theory and practice. The existence of both deterrents and triggers are strongly supported, leading to the conclusion that maintenance deferral is a matter of course. The development of a new abductive and Systemic Functional Linguistic model enhances the knowledge of maintenance deferral and allows refinement of historical IS maintenance models. Finally, the application of Systems Thinking situates insights from the application of their mode within their respective organisational environments

    Reclaiming the Church: Puritan Structure, Political and Theological Distinctions in a Transatlantic Context, 1603-1689

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    When Puritans crossed the Atlantic Ocean to populate the Thirteen Colonies (whether the Massachusetts Bay Colony, Virginia, Maryland, or others), they did so as loyal subjects of England who wanted a place to freely practice their religion. They never stopped their efforts at reforming the Church of England, nor did they stop seeing themselves as Englishmen. Neither did the Crown. As a result, if the Crown took measures that could affect Puritans in England, it could also affect Puritans in the colonies. In addition, if the Puritans in England became involved in a conflict, colonial Puritans often saw it as their duty to support their comrades in the mother country. Colonial Puritans also knew that if England was reformed in their image (politically and religiously), this would have positive effects not only on the nation itself, but also the colonies. This was particularly true of Virginia and Maryland, where Puritans struggled against the established religious authorities of the Church of England for reform. A study of the struggles of Southern Puritans is critical to understanding the weight of the Puritans’ conflict with the Church of England. Eventually, following the English Civil War, the Puritans temporarily achieved what they wanted in England. Nevertheless, their inability to agree on key matters concerning the government of England led to the collapse of the Commonwealth of England and much infighting within the movement in the decades that followed. The Puritans were actively attempting to complete the English Reformation. They sought no middle ground, but to fully advance the Reformation to its logical conclusions. This firm resolve frequently put the Puritans at odds with the Crown and the Church of England, whether in the mother country or the colonies

    Legal Philosophy from Plato to Hegel

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    Originally published in 1949. Huntington Cairns identifies the views that major Western philosophers took on law, the problems they considered significant about law, and the nature of the solutions they proposed. This book develops ideas discussed in Cairns' Law and the Social Sciences (1935) and Theory of Legal Science (1941). The object of these three volumes is the same: to construct the foundation of a theory of law that is the necessary antecedent to a possible jurisprudence. The inventory of philosophers that Cairns examines includes Plato, Aristotle, Cicero, Aquinas, Hobbes, Spinoza, and Hegel
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