Relational Data Exploration by Relational Concept Analysis

Relational Concept Analysis [4] is an extension to FCA con- sidering several contexts with relations between them. Often used to extend the knowledge that can be learned with FCA, RCA also meets the issue of combinatorial explosion. The initial specification of RCA implies a monotonic growth of the number of concepts and an exhaustiveness of all the concepts that can be obtained when a fixed point is reached. In this position paper we propose a different specification of RCA that permits an interactive exploration of the data by letting the choice of the user for each step. This change will permit to handle richer relational data in a more flexible way by restraining the relations explored at each step hence reducing the number of created concepts

Diagramming the Social: Relational Method in Research

This book challenges the hyper-production and proliferation of concepts in modern social research. It presents a distinctive methodological response to this tendency through an exploration of one of the most underappreciated yet widely deployed conventions for the analysis of social processes: the creation of diagrammatic relational spaces. Designed to capture social processes in a way that resists reductive and essentialist categories, such spaces have the capacity to produce powerful, systematic analyses that break the spell of concept proliferation and its resultant naively realist approach to explaining the world. Through an exploration of key examples and series of original case studies, the authors demonstrate the application of this approach across a variety of empirical settings and academic disciplines. They thus offer a relational and pragmatic approach to social research that resists current trends characterised by supposedly self-evident data and/or disconnected theory. As such, the book constitutes an important contribution to some of the central questions in current social research, and promises to unsettle and reinvigorate considerations of method across different fields of practice

Leveraging new knowledge with relational capabilities: an investigation of rural school libraries in southern Portugal

Purpose: This paper aims to identify and conceptualize a set of relational capabilities that school libraries in the Alentejo region of Portugal develop for acquiring new knowledge that exists externally in the wider community. Design/methodology/approach: A qualitative research design operationalized via case studies was followed for the empirical analysis. Empirical findings are based on the analysis of the 84 narrative reports submitted by school libraries as part of a national performance evaluation exercise that took place between 2010 and 2012. Data analysis followed the techniques of inductive data categorization, within case-analysis, and cross-case analysis. Findings: The exploration of the relational capabilities that school libraries in the Alentejo region of Portugal develop for acquiring new knowledge that exists externally in the community resulted in the identification of relationships that school libraries in the region have established to acquire new knowledge: connecting with and supporting organizations committed to civic engagement; facilitating discussions about challenging issues through strategic partnerships; convening community conversations to identify shared concerns and solutions; and embracing local culture to foster endogenous development. Originality/value: The ability to seek and recognize the value of new and external knowledge, assimilate it and apply it to organizational ends has been traditionally linked to the concept of absorptive capacity. While absorptive capacity literature in business settings is prolific, literature that focuses on school libraries’ ability to identify and explore external knowledge and applying it to improve their performance is scarce. Focusing on the specific context of the Alentejo region of Portugal as an archetypical rural area, this paper identifies how knowledge existing externally in the community is absorbed by rural school libraries through specific relational capabilities that reflect school libraries’ community orientation and engagement in participatory processes that develop social resilience

An Analysis of College-aged Women’s Personal Relations

Current communication literature regarding personal relations is limited by its focus on romantic, friendship and friends with benefits relations. To better understand the types of relations college-aged women practice, this study sought to explore (a) the types of cross-sex relations college-aged women practice (b) the reasons they give for practicing the relations and (c) the identities they construct by practicing the relations. Results indicated a myriad of relational types. Types were categorized under three supra-categories and were explored in terms of their description, initiation, maintenance and communication rules, as well as their benefits and drawbacks. Identities associated with the relations were also examined, along with relational fluidity, commitment and intimacy

Integration of Exploration and Search: A Case Study of the M3 Model

International audienceEffective support for multimedia analytics applications requires exploration and search to be integrated seamlessly into a single interaction model. Media metadata can be seen as defining a multidimensional media space, casting multimedia analytics tasks as exploration, manipulation and augmentation of that space. We present an initial case study of integrating exploration and search within this multidimensional media space. We extend the M3 model, initially proposed as a pure exploration tool, and show that it can be elegantly extended to allow searching within an exploration context and exploring within a search context. We then evaluate the suitability of relational database management systems, as representatives of today’s data management technologies, for implementing the extended M3 model. Based on our results, we finally propose some research directions for scalability of multimedia analytics

A state of readiness : an exploration of the client's role in meeting at relational depth

It is widely acknowledged that the therapeutic relationship is important to therapeutic outcome. In recent years, there has been additional evidence to suggest that specific, identifiable moments of relational depth between client and therapist can also have a major positive impact on the progress and outcome of therapy; however, the question of how such moments occur remains largely unexplored. Are they solely initiated by the therapist, or does the client have a role too? This article explores clients' perceptions of the factors facilitating an experience of relational depth. Findings suggest that immediately prior to such an experience the clients themselves have reached a state of readiness, and as making a positive decision to bring their vulnerability to the fore in the therapeutic relationship, thereby facilitating a potential moment of change. Findings are discussed in relation to contemporary theory with implications for practice given

Measuring the relationship conditions in person-centred and experiential psychotherapies : past, present, and future

This chapter looks at measuring the relationship conditions in person-centred and experiential psychotherapie

Relationship qualities that are associated with moments of relational depth: the client's perspective

This study explores the qualities of the therapeutic relationship that are associated with profound moments of interpersonal connectedness. Using a phenomenological approach, qualitative, semi-structured interviews were conducted with 14 participants all of whom had been clients of predominately person-centered counseling. Therapists with whom participants did experience moments of relational depth were experienced as being trustworthy, real, genuinely caring and earnest in their desire to understand. In relationships where they felt there was no moments of relational depth, participants described their therapist as distant, powerful, interpreting, misunderstanding or saying the right words but not really meaning it. Findings are discussed in relation to theory and previous studies, and suggestions for further research given