1,726 research outputs found

    Graduate Catalog of Studies, 2023-2024

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    Graduate Catalog of Studies, 2023-2024

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    Digitalization and Development

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    This book examines the diffusion of digitalization and Industry 4.0 technologies in Malaysia by focusing on the ecosystem critical for its expansion. The chapters examine the digital proliferation in major sectors of agriculture, manufacturing, e-commerce and services, as well as the intermediary organizations essential for the orderly performance of socioeconomic agents. The book incisively reviews policy instruments critical for the effective and orderly development of the embedding organizations, and the regulatory framework needed to quicken the appropriation of socioeconomic synergies from digitalization and Industry 4.0 technologies. It highlights the importance of collaboration between government, academic and industry partners, as well as makes key recommendations on how to encourage adoption of IR4.0 technologies in the short- and long-term. This book bridges the concepts and applications of digitalization and Industry 4.0 and will be a must-read for policy makers seeking to quicken the adoption of its technologies

    Fictocritical Cyberfeminism: A Paralogical Model for Post-Internet Communication

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    This dissertation positions the understudied and experimental writing practice of fictocriticism as an analog for the convergent and indeterminate nature of “post-Internet” communication as well a cyberfeminist technology for interfering and in-tervening in metanarratives of technoscience and technocapitalism that structure contemporary media. Significant theoretical valences are established between twen-tieth century literary works of fictocriticism and the hybrid and ephemeral modes of writing endemic to emergent, twenty-first century forms of networked communica-tion such as social media. Through a critical theoretical understanding of paralogy, or that countercultural logic of deploying language outside legitimate discourses, in-volving various tactics of multivocity, mimesis and metagraphy, fictocriticism is ex-plored as a self-referencing linguistic machine which exists intentionally to occupy those liminal territories “somewhere in among/between criticism, autobiography and fiction” (Hunter qtd. in Kerr 1996). Additionally, as a writing practice that orig-inated in Canada and yet remains marginal to national and international literary scholarship, this dissertation elevates the origins and ongoing relevance of fictocriti-cism by mapping its shared aims and concerns onto proximal discourses of post-structuralism, cyberfeminism, network ecology, media art, the avant-garde, glitch feminism, and radical self-authorship in online environments. Theorized in such a matrix, I argue that fictocriticism represents a capacious framework for writing and reading media that embodies the self-reflexive politics of second-order cybernetic theory while disrupting the rhetoric of technoscientific and neoliberal economic forc-es with speech acts of calculated incoherence. Additionally, through the inclusion of my own fictocritical writing as works of research-creation that interpolate the more traditional chapters and subchapters, I theorize and demonstrate praxis of this dis-tinctively indeterminate form of criticism to empirically and meaningfully juxtapose different modes of knowing and speaking about entangled matters of language, bod-ies, and technologies. In its conclusion, this dissertation contends that the “creative paranoia” engendered by fictocritical cyberfeminism in both print and digital media environments offers a pathway towards a more paralogical media literacy that can transform the terms and expectations of our future media ecology

    Nice Food, Good People : Technologies of subjectivity and class distinction in media texts about the right kind of food

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    Minkälainen ruoka määrittyy kulttuurissamme hyväksi? Ruoka määritellään useimmiten hyväksi koska se maistuu hyvältä, mutta ruoka voi olla hyvää myös muilla tavoin. Ruokaan liittyvät arvomääritykset kiinnittyvät muodostamiimme moraalisiin arvostelmiin: siihen, millainen ruoka ansaitsee huomiomme tai hyväksyntämme, minkälaista ruokaa pidämme sosiaalisesti ja kulttuurisesti arvokkaana ja ennen kaikkea siihen, määritymmekö me itse hyviksi, arvokkaiksi ja legitiimeiksi kuluttamamme ruuan kautta. Tässä väitöskirjassa esitän, että ruuan kulttuurista diskurssia asuttavan subjektin arvo kietoutuu yhtäältä kulttuuriseen erottautumiseen ja toisaalta itsen hallinnointiin. Tutkimuksessa pohdin, kuinka arvottaminen ja se liike, jonka kautta kuulumme jonnekin ja etäännymme jo(i)stakin muotoutuu ruuan kuluttamiseen kiinnittyvien merkitysten kautta. Tämä väitöskirja lähestyy hyvää ruokaa eettisen syömisen ja terveellisen syömisen perspektiiveistä. Eettiseen ja terveelliseen ruokaan kiinnittyy muun muassa luonnollisuuteen, puhtauteen ja elinkelpoisuuteen (fitness) viittaavia kulttuurisia arvostelmia, ja siten joitakin keskeisiä (ruoka)kulttuurisia kysymyksiä voi lähestyä niiden analyysin kautta. Väitöskirjassa perehdyn eettisen syömisen merkityksiin luomua ja lähiruokaa käsitteleviä journalistisia tekstejä tarkastelemalla, ja analysoin ruokaa ja terveellisyyttä digitaalisten mediasisältöjen wellness ruokaan keskittyvien aineistojen avulla. Väitöskirjan neljä osajulkaisua avaavat monipuolisia näkökulmia mediavälitteiseen ruokakulttuuriin ja sen tarjoamiin subjektiasemiin. Ensimmäisessä tutkimusartikkelissa tutkin luomu- ja lähiruokaan Helsingin Sanomissa kiinnittyviä merkityksiä ja selvitän, minkälaisin diskursiivisin keinoin ruoka määritellään luomuja lähiruokateksteissä kulttuurista arvostusta ansaitsevaksi, ja miten erityisesti autenttisuuden ja nostalgian diskurssit kietoutuvat aineiston teksteissä kulttuuriseen pääomaan. Toinen artikkeli keskittyy Helsingin Sanomien uutisartikkeleihin ja niissä muodostuviin luokkamerkityksiin: artikkelissa tutkin, minkälaisia kulttuurisia erontekoja luomu- ja lähiruokateksteissä tuotetaan, millaisiin luokkakulttuureihin eettisen ruoan kuluttaminen lehden diskursseissa kiinnittyy ja minkälaisiin diskursiivisiin keinoihin nämä käytännöt nojaavat. Kolmas artikkeli uppoutuu wellness-ilmiöön liittyviin merkityksiin, ja analysoin artikkelissa wellness-kulttuuriin yhdistyviä ruokablogeja kiinnittäen huomiota niihin minätekniikoihin, joiden keinoin ’ideaali wellness-yksilö’ blogiteksteissä rakentuu. Neljäs ja viimeinen tutkimusartikkeli pureutuu digitaaliseen wellness-kulttuuriin analysoimalla Instagramin #womenswellness (pseudo)yhteisöä ja sen sisällöissä kierrätettyjä tunnesääntöjä ja neuvoteltua naiseutta. Artikkeli kysyy, minkälaisten tunteiden näyttämiseen yhteisön tunnesäännöt kannustavat, ja miten nämä affektiiviset käytännöt kietoutuvat yhteen populaarimedian feminististen muodostelmien kanssa. Näiden neljän tutkimusartikkelin puitteissa lähestyn aineistojani 1) sosiaalisen luokan (erityisesti keskiluokan) ja kulttuurisen erottautumisen sekä 2) hallinnallisuuden ja (sukupuolittuneisiin) subjektiviteetteihin liittyvien terveysaatteen (healthism) ja uusliberalismin käsitteiden kautta. Tarkoituksenani on tuoda työn yhteenvedossa yhteen edellä mainittuja teoreettisia näkökulmia ja niihin liittyviä tutkimusongelmia, ja siksi väitöskirjan yhteenvedossa lähestyn osatutkimuksia ja niissä tärkeässä osassa olleita teoreettisia kehyksiä hyvän elämän käsitteen kautta. Tavoitteenani on vastata yhteenvedossa kysymykseen, jota voi pitää eräänlaisena hyvää subjektia painottavana koosteena väitöskirjan analyyseista ja osatutkimusten monista tutkimuskysymyksistä. Keskityn siten yhteenvedossa hyviin ihmisiin hyvän ruuan konteksteissa, kysyen: minkälaisia arvokkaita subjekteja nykykulttuurin ruokadiskurssit tuottavat? Yhteenvedon lopussa esitän, että ruuan diskurssit kiinnittyvät hyvän elämän ideaaleihin ensinnäkin tavoitellen jotakin, kurkottaen kohti edessä siintävää täydellisyyttä (täydellistä terveyttä, kehoa, tasapainoa), ja toiseksi pyrkimällä turvaamaan hyvän ja huonon sekä hyvien ja huonojen ihmisten väliset etäisyydet, jähmettäen asemiinsa tiettyjen ruokien tai elämäntyylien kulttuurisen legitiimiyden ja toisenlaisten ruokien tai elämäntyylien epälegitiimiyden. Hahmottelen yhteenvedossa neljä erilaista kulttuurista subjektiasemaa, joita analysoidut mediatekstit lukijalleen tarjoavat. Nimeän nämä subjektiasemat hyvän maun subjektiksi, moraaliseksi subjektiksi, tasapainoiseksi subjektiksi sekä resilientiksi subjektiksi, ja pohdin sitä, miten kulttuurinen erottautuminen, luokka ja sukupuoli kytkeytyvät subjektiasemiin aineistoissa erilaisin tavoin. Väitöskirja tuo esiin, kuinka ruokaan kiinnittyvät makuarvostelmat ja subjektiasemat eivät määrity ensisijaisesti esimerkiksi valinnanvapauden tai itsen kehittämisen kautta, ja kuinka ruuan diskursiiviset neuvottelut tuovat näkyviksi toimijoiden eriarvoisuuden suhteessa kulttuuriseen statukseen tai itsen toteuttamiseen. Analyysien perusteella voidaan todeta, että luokka ja sukupuoli määrittävät vahvasti sitä, miten ja minkälaisista lähtökohdista hyvän elämän ideaalia yhteiskunnassamme tavoitellaan.What kind of food might be categorised as good in our contemporary society? Describing food as good most often means that it tastes good, however, food is evaluated as good in other ways as well. These evaluations touch upon the moral judgements we make: what kind of food is worthy of our attention and approval, what kind of food is deemed as socially and culturally legitimate, and, most importantly, whether the food we eat and the culinary lifestyles we aspire towards make us good, worthy or legitimate. I argue that evaluating the subject of mediated food discourse – be it ourselves or ‘the other’ – is entangled, firstly, with cultural distinction and secondly, with governing the self. In this dissertation, I ponder how evaluation, the movement through which we belong somewhere or turn away from something else is done through mediated meanings connected with food consumption. This dissertation approaches good food from the perspectives of ethical eating and healthy eating. Ethical and healthy food incorporate cultural evaluations connected with, for example, naturalness, pureness, cleanliness and fitness, and thus some of the central food-related judgements of goodness and legitimacy can be addressed through mediated meanings connected with ethicality and healthiness. In this dissertation, ethical eating is examined in terms of how organic and locally grown food (i.e., sustainable food) are framed in journalistic texts, and healthy eating is viewed through the wellness food culture of digital media. The four publications open multiple perspectives on the contemporary mediated food culture and the legitimate subjectivities inhabiting it. The first publication analyses the meanings connected with organic and local food in Helsingin Sanomat through an examination of texts that can be categorised as ‘lifestyle journalism’, asking how organic and local food are legitimised in the data, and how authenticity and nostalgia are deployed in connection with sustainable lifestyle. The second publication centres on Helsingin Sanomat news articles and the class-related meanings created there in connection with organic and local food. The paper asks what kind of cultural distinctions are produced in these journalistic texts, and through which discursive strategies ethical consumption becomes associated with and attached to different class cultures. The third publication delves into the cultural field of wellness, analysing the ways in which subjectivity is discursively produced in the blog content of three wellness food blogs run by women. The article seeks answers to the question of how, and through what kind of technologies of the self the ‘ideal wellness subject’ is created in the blog texts. Finally, the fourth publication examines digital wellness culture through an analysis of the #womenswellness intimate public of Instagram, concentrating on the affective practices observable in the food-related content of this intimate public and how gendered existence and popular feminism factor into the displays of feeling in that space. The paper asks what emotions are encouraged in the #womenswellness public of Instagram, and how these affective practices intertwine with contemporary configurations of feminism in popular media. In these four research articles I approach my data predominantly through theoretical discussions on 1) social class (especially the middle class) and cultural distinction as well as 2) governmentality and the (gendered) subjectivities related to healthist and neoliberal ‘sensibilities’. With the intention of bringing these scholarly discussions together, the introductory part of this dissertation reflects on the research articles and on their theoretical frameworks through the concept of ‘the good life’. As I endeavour to answer an overarching research question focusing on the good people behind the good food, this dissertation asks: What kind of a valuable subject is being produced in contemporary food discourses? I propose that mediated, everyday food discourses adhere to the good life through, firstly, aspiring towards something (a lifestyle or a state of being for example): reaching for a beacon glimmering in the distance, promising perfection and happiness if we only stretch our reach far enough. Secondly, these food discourses work to secure the symbolic distance between good and bad, solidifying and reaffirming the legitimacy of certain foodstuffs, practices and eaters and the illegitimate status of others. In the concluding section of this dissertation, I formulate four different subject positions that seem to be offered to the (right kind of) recipient in food-related media texts. These are the tasteful subject, the morally-righteous subject, the balanced subject and the resilient subject, all of which attach to cultural distinction, class and gender in different ways. This dissertation shows that the judgements and subject positions related to good food are not a matter of free choice or self-improvement, as the discursive negotiations relating to food depict how subjects are on unequal footing with regard to cultural status or possibilities for ‘selfactualisation’. On the basis of the analyses, what is evident is that formations of class and gender have a crucial bearing on from which positions and with what kind of stakes the good life is pursued to begin with

    Unique Experiences:Designing Warm Technology to Support Personal Dynamics in Dementia

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    Mission Focus: Supporting executive functions in VLEs and the design of inclusive user interfaces.

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    Virtual learning environments (VLEs) use educational technologies to facilitate remote online learning in the absence of synchronous supervision and support. Most VLEs offer inclusive options for learners to access content at any time and to adapt content into a form suiting their interaction modes. They also facilitate online collaboration and peer communication. However, they do not fully consider the needs of pre-literate adolescents with developing executive functioning for engaging in asynchronous learning, resulting in barriers. Through an exploratory-cum-participatory research approach combined with a collaborative and iterative co-design process with the participants, this study explored and examined barriers to independent and asynchronous functions that pre-literate adolescent learners face when learning in a VLE, such as planning, focus, and setting and achieving goals (executive functions). Building on principles for user interface design, guidelines were developed to help enhance the design of VLEs to make them more inclusive of diverse executive functioning needs

    Understanding associations between chronic illness identity, psychological flexibility, and type 2 diabetes emotional, behavioral, and psychosocial functioning.

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    Introduction: Illness identity, defined as the extent to which one integrates their illness into their sense of self, may be a key psychological factor to consider in overall adjustment to and management of Type 2 Diabetes. Emerging research suggests illness identity integration is associated with aspects of diabetes-specific functioning. Psychological flexibility has also been found to be associated with positive diabetes-specific functioning. This modifiable cognitive factor may play a role in the relationship between illness identity and diabetes-specific functioning. This study aims to examine associations between illness identity enrichment, illness identity rejection, psychological flexibility, and aspects of diabetes-functioning, including self-management diet behavior, diabetes distress, and diabetes stigma in adults with Type 2 Diabetes. Methods: Participants were 224 adults with Type 2 Diabetes (Mage = 54.94; 49.6% female, 87.9% White) recruited from an online crowdsourcing platform. Participants took an online survey consisting of demographic information, diabetes health characteristics, and well-validated self-report measures examining illness identity, psychological flexibility, and aspects of diabetes-specific emotional, behavioral, and psychosocial vii functioning. Data was analyzed using descriptive statistics, bivariate Pearson correlations, and hierarchical multiple regression. Results: Hierarchical multiple regression revealed enrichment was positively associated with general diet behavior (β = .560, p \u3c .001). Rejection was negatively associated with diet behavior (β = -.410, p = .010), and positively associated with stigma (β = 3.56, p \u3c .001). Psychological inflexibility was found to be positively associated with diabetes stigma (β = .694, p Discussion: Findings suggest that dimensions of illness identity and psychological flexibility, when considered individually, play an important role in diabetes self-care behaviors, diabetes distress, and diabetes stigma. Consideration of illness identity integration in diabetes care may promote prevention and treatment efforts, as well as overall adjustment to living with Type 2 Diabetes. Future studies should examine associations between illness identity, specific facets of psychological flexibility, and diabetes-specific functioning. Longitudinal studies are needed to better understand the bidirectionality of associations, as well as how illness identity integration may change over time or across situations. Acceptance-based interventions focused on increasing illness identity enrichment and psychological flexibility may promote diabetes-specific functioning
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