12,881 research outputs found
The place where curses are manufactured : four poets of the Vietnam War
The Vietnam War was unique among American wars. To pinpoint its uniqueness, it was necessary to look for a non-American voice that would enable me to articulate its distinctiveness and explore the American character as observed by an Asian. Takeshi Kaiko proved to be most helpful. From his novel, Into a Black Sun, I was able to establish a working pair of 'bookends' from which to approach the poetry of Walter McDonald, Bruce Weigl, Basil T. Paquet and Steve Mason. Chapter One is devoted to those seemingly mismatched 'bookends,' Walt Whitman and General William C. Westmoreland, and their respective anthropocentric and technocentric visions of progress and the peculiarly American concept of the "open road" as they manifest themselves in Vietnam. In Chapter, Two, I analyze the war poems of Walter McDonald. As a pilot, writing primarily about flying, his poetry manifests General Westmoreland's technocentric vision of the 'road' as determined by and manifest through technology. Chapter Three focuses on the poems of Bruce Weigl. The poems analyzed portray the literal and metaphorical descent from the technocentric, 'numbed' distance of aerial warfare to the world of ground warfare, and the initiation of a 'fucking new guy,' who discovers the contours of the self's interior through a set of experiences that lead from from aerial insertion into the jungle to the degradation of burning human
feces. Chapter Four, devoted to the thirteen poems of Basil T. Paquet, focuses on the continuation of the descent begun in Chapter Two. In his capacity as a medic, Paquet's entire body of poems details his quotidian tasks which entail tending the maimed, the mortally wounded and the dead. The final chapter deals with Steve Mason's JohnnY's Song, and his depiction of the plight of Vietnam veterans back in "The World" who are still trapped inside the interior landscape of their individual "ghettoes" of the soul created by their war-time experiences
Implementing Health Impact Assessment as a Required Component of Government Policymaking: A Multi-Level Exploration of the Determinants of Healthy Public Policy
It is widely understood that the public policies of ânon-healthâ government sectors have greater impacts on population health than those of the traditional healthcare realm. Health Impact Assessment (HIA) is a decision support tool that identifies and promotes the health benefits of policies while also mitigating their unintended negative consequences. Despite numerous calls to do so, the Ontario government has yet to implement HIA as a required component of policy development. This dissertation therefore sought to identify the contexts and factors that may both enable and impede HIA use at the sub-national (i.e., provincial, territorial, or state) government level.
The three integrated articles of this dissertation provide insights into specific aspects of the policy process as they relate to HIA. Chapter one details a case study of purposive information-seeking among public servants within Ontarioâs Ministry of Education (MOE). Situated within Ontarioâs Ministry of Health (MOH), chapter two presents a case study of policy collaboration between health and ânon-healthâ ministries. Finally, chapter three details a framework analysis of the political factors supporting health impact tool use in two sub-national jurisdictions â namely, QuĂ©bec and South Australia.
MOE respondents (N=9) identified four components of policymaking âdue diligenceâ, including evidence retrieval, consultation and collaboration, referencing, and risk analysis. As prospective HIA users, they also confirmed that information is not routinely sought to mitigate the potential negative health impacts of education-based policies. MOH respondents (N=8) identified the bureaucratic hierarchy as the brokering mechanism for inter-ministerial policy development. As prospective HIA stewards, they also confirmed that the ministry does not proactively flag the potential negative health impacts of non-health sector policies. Finally, âlessons learnedâ from case articles specific to QuĂ©bec (n=12) and South Australia (n=17) identified the political factors supporting tool use at different stages of the policy cycle, including agenda setting (âpolicy elitesâ and âpolitical cultureâ), implementation (âjurisdictionâ), and sustained implementation (âinstitutional powerâ).
This work provides important insights into âreal lifeâ policymaking. By highlighting existing facilitators of and barriers to HIA use, the findings offer a useful starting point from which proponents may tailor context-specific strategies to sustainably implement HIA at the sub-national government level
Building body identities - exploring the world of female bodybuilders
This thesis explores how female bodybuilders seek to develop and maintain a viable sense of self despite being stigmatized by the gendered foundations of what Erving Goffman (1983) refers to as the 'interaction order'; the unavoidable presentational context in which identities are forged during the course of social life. Placed in the context of an overview of the historical treatment of women's bodies, and a concern with the development of bodybuilding as a specific form of body modification, the research draws upon a unique two year ethnographic study based in the South of England, complemented by interviews with twenty-six female bodybuilders, all of whom live in the U.K. By mapping these extraordinary women's lives, the research illuminates the pivotal spaces and essential lived experiences that make up the female bodybuilder. Whilst the women appear to be embarking on an 'empowering' radical body project for themselves, the consequences of their activity remains culturally ambivalent. This research exposes the 'Janus-faced' nature of female bodybuilding, exploring the ways in which the women negotiate, accommodate and resist pressures to engage in more orthodox and feminine activities and appearances
Political Islam and grassroots activism in Turkey : a study of the pro-Islamist Virtue Party's grassroots activists and their affects on the electoral outcomes
This thesis presents an analysis of the spectacular rise of political Islam in Turkey. It has two aims: first to understand the underlying causes of the rise of the Welfare Party which -later became the Virtue Party- throughout the 1990s, and second to analyse how grassroots activism influenced this process. The thesis reviews the previous literature on the Islamic fundamentalist movements, political parties, political party systems and concentrates on the local party organisations and their effects on the party's electoral performance. It questions the categorisation of Islamic fundamentalism as an appropriate label for this movement. An exploration of such movements is particularly important in light of the event of 11`x' September. After exploring existing theoretical and case studies into political Islam and party activism, I present my qualitative case study. I have used ethnographic methodology and done participatory observations among grassroots activists in Ankara's two sub-districts covering 105 neighbourhoods. I examined the Turkish party system and the reasons for its collapse. It was observed that as a result of party fragmentation, electoral volatility and organisational decline and decline in the party identification among the citizens the Turkish party system has declined. However, the WP/VP profited from this trend enormously and emerged as
the main beneficiary of this process. Empirical data is analysed in four chapters, dealing with the different aspects of the Virtue Party's local organisations and grassroots activists. They deal with change and continuity in the party, the patterns of participation, the routes and motives for becoming a party activist, the profile of party activists and the local party organisations. I explore what they do and how they do it. The analysis reveals that the categorisation of Islamic fundamentalism is misplaced and the rise of political Islam in Turkey cannot be explained as religious revivalism or the rise of Islamic fundamentalism. It is a political force that drives its strength from the urban poor which has been harshly affected by the IMF directed neoliberal economy policies. In conclusion, it is shown that the WP/VP's electoral chances were significantly improved by its very efficient and effective party organisations and highly committed grassroots activists
How to Be a God
When it comes to questions concerning the nature of Reality, Philosophers and Theologians have the answers.
Philosophers have the answers that canât be proven right. Theologians have the answers that canât be proven wrong.
Todayâs designers of Massively-Multiplayer Online Role-Playing Games create realities for a living. They canât spend centuries mulling over the issues: they have to face them head-on. Their practical experiences can indicate which theoretical proposals actually work in practice.
Thatâs todayâs designers. Tomorrowâs will have a whole new set of questions to answer.
The designers of virtual worlds are the literal gods of those realities. Suppose Artificial Intelligence comes through and allows us to create non-player characters as smart as us. What are our responsibilities as gods? How should we, as gods, conduct ourselves?
How should we be gods
Intervening on hypertension in Zambia: development of a culturally sensitized lifestyle programme to reduce disease incidence in urban areas
Background/purpose:
Hypertension, like other non-communicable diseases, is becoming a major public health problem for Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA). Its increasing prevalence is driven by an epidemiological transition with more people leading unhealthy lifestyles, including poor diet and physical inactivity. This project aimed to explore the use of participatory methods with an urban community in Zambia in co-developing a culturally sensitized hypertension prevention intervention.
Methods:
The intervention development study was divided into four phases. I scoped and synthesized existing literature on risk factors (non-modifiable and modifiable) for hypertension in SSA in Phase One. The identified risk factors and their drivers informed Phase Two community members focus group discussions and stakeholder interviews to explore the local context in the study site to clarify the problem, identify which hypertension risk factors were malleable (potential factors to target), the mechanism of change, and how to deliver this. The findings informed the development of the causal pathway, the intervention theory of change and the Phase Three co-development of the intervention core components and small-scale evaluation. Five co-development workshops (four with local residents and one with local stakeholders) iteratively informed identification of priority risk factors, the delivery format and setting, and finalization of intervention core components. The pilot intervention was then tested with volunteer participants (N=34) to assess feasibility, acceptability and potential effectiveness in Phase four.
Results:
The scoping review identified the most common risk factors for hypertension in SSA. Residents FGDs and key stakeholder interviews, informed by the scoping review findings, identified a number of potentially malleable hypertension risk factors at individual and interpersonal levels, including high salt intake and other dietary factors, low physical activity, excess body weight, central obesity, high alcohol intake and smoking. From these, the workshops prioritised intervening on salt intake, other dietary factors, and physical inactivity. Using these suggestions, an 8-week group-based intervention (CHiPI) was codeveloped. Stakeholders proposed evaluation of the CHiPI on a small scale and delivery through churches: ânearly all residents belong to a churchâ. Stakeholders also identified community health workers and church leaders as delivery facilitators. The intervention core components were agreed and refined in close consultation with residents. These included linguistic and cultural adaptations of SMART goal setting and self-monitoring tools, which were iteratively tested and refined to reflect the local socio-cultural context. The small-scale evaluation of the intervention showed high acceptability, feasibility and potential effectiveness in improving health literacy, adoption of healthier diets (less salt added during cooking [p=0.014], reduction in added salt to the plate at mealtimes [p=0.001], increased fruit intake [p=0.001], reduced fried meals [p = 0.001]), increased physical activity [p=0.01] and reduced sedentary lifestyle [p = 0.001]. Reductions in body weight [p = 0.002], BMI [p = 0.001], WC [p = 0.001], SBP [-3mmHg, p=0.003] and DBP [-4mmHg, p = 0.001] were also observed.
Conclusions and implications:
Participatory methods succeeded in engaging local residents and stakeholders in the development of a potentially effective culturally sensitized, 8-week, group-based hypertension prevention lifestyle intervention for delivery through churches in Zambia. Having demonstrated high feasibility, acceptability and potential effectiveness, taking this intervention to a larger evaluation to obtain evidence of effectiveness can inform hypertension prevention intervention development in Zambia and other SSA countries
Make belief: the art of inventing religions
Attention has recently turned, within the study of New Religious Movements, to the
phenomenon of invented religions. Invented religions import transmedial works of
speculative fiction from art and popular culture and convert these fictions into scriptures for new forms of religious belief. I approach this phenomenon from the unique position of being both a student and practitioner of invented religions. For the past thirteen years, my work as an artist and cultural engineer has focused upon the re-construction of a fictional queer religion as art, called RELIGIONVIR.US. My religion invokes sci-fi franchise culture and merges Judeo-Christian iconography with psychedelic, queer and cyberpunk aesthetics, to produce a religion as an ongoing transmedial space opera whose âepisodesâ have been presented as artworks in over twenty five countries worldwide. RELIGIONVIR.US explores religion as an infective agent capable of multiplying within the living cells of its host, while proposing religion as a form of multimedia production capable of inspiring beliefs, generating worldviews and engineering cultures. This Practise-led PhD explores the fabrication of my own invented religion in relation to others of its kind, as a manual of techniques both studied and utilised to elicit âreligious experiencesâ in secular publics through art. It speculates upon the processes that conspire to transform something âmadeâ into something âbelievedâ, the possibility of religion as an artistic medium, and probes what happens when people begin to âbelieveâ in something that they know is a fabrication. The contents of my artistic portfolio produced within the auspices of the PhD are presented throughout the dissertation as case studies of âReligious Prostheticsâ: devices designed with the intent to conjure religious reactions among various publics. Make Belief: The Art of Invented Religions probes the intersections of art, religion, myth and popular culture to speculate upon the difference between make-believe and make-belief in the post-truth era of deepfakes and alternative facts
Theatre, performance and digital culture
A thesis submitted to the University of Wolverhampton in partial fulfilment of the requirement of the degree of Doctor of Philosophy.This thesis proposes that the theory of aesthetic agency derived from gaming in digital culture may be used as a lens through which live theatre and performance may be analysed. I argue that the aesthetics, immersion and play with identity in live theatre and performance are informed by digital culture through the behaviour and agency of the participants, be they audience or participants. Using a grounded theory methodological approach, four large-scale outdoor immersive productions and two traditional theatrical productions have been selected to provide a comparative analysis using aesthetic agency.
Aesthetic agency is central to the analysis of immersion and play with identity in the productions selected. Comprising intention, perceivable consequence, narrative potential, transformation, co-presence and presence aesthetic agency is the feeling of pleasure audience and participants derive through the experience of live theatre and performance. Analysis using aesthetic agency in immersive productions examines qualities such as interaction and participation, discovery, understanding social rules, proximity to points of engagement within the performance, the use of narrative or gameplay, liminality and the suspension of disbelief and the use of physical or imaginary boundaries. Aesthetic agency in play with identity uses qualities of transportation, presence and co-presence and is analysed using themes of liminality, ritual, agency and memory which offer the opportunity of real experience within the virtual environments.
The outcomes of the study highlight the opportunities to analyse and understand the meaning making process in live theatre and performance in a new manner through the lens of aesthetic agency derived from digital culture. Through examples, the outcomes show how digital culture theory may be used in live theatre and performance to examine and explain the experience for spectators and participants. The future use of aesthetic agency as a dramaturgical tool then becomes a possibility which may enhance the development process and enrich the subsequent experience of spectators and participants. Further, aesthetic agency may find utility as a dramaturgical tool when used to aid the creation of new live productions
Examining the opportunities for agricultural experiences as part of Scottish secondary school pupilsâ learning under Curriculum for Excellence
Society is increasingly disconnected from the processes and practices of agriculture as food production, and therefore the true cost and value of food. A way in which to overcome this disconnect would be to increase agricultural literacy levels through education.
Learning outside the classroom has been shown to benefit children and young people including personal development and increased care towards the environment. Sustainability learning, including outdoor learning, as an approach to developing sustainable behaviours is the focus of much research. There is, however, a gap in research on the potential for agricultural learning experiences that demonstrate the positive role agriculture plays within global environmental systems. Agriculture is often portrayed in a negative framing in regard to the impacts of human action on the environment.
The aim of this study was to examine opportunities for Curriculum for Excellence (CfE) to deliver lasting impressions of farming and food production for secondary school pupils in Scotland through a concept of agricultural experiences. This research was conducted through qualitatively-driven mixed methods consisting of survey, interview, and focus group methodology with a range of school-based and rural-based participants.
The research found that CfE inadvertently maintains an anti-rural position, reflected in the lack of any meaningful reference to agriculture within the Experiences and Outcomes; framing agriculture within a context of negative environmental impact. There exist clear opportunities, as well multiple benefits, for agricultural experiences under CfE learning, however, there remain challenges for implementation within current CfE cultures and structures. Pupils and teachers recognised the value of agricultural experiences to deliver meaningful experiential learning experiences, as well as developing knowledge and skills for lifelong learning. Scottish agricultural stakeholders and farmers feel that media misrepresentation contributes to societal disconnect and thus the attitudes and perceptions of agriculture, particularly livestock farming, while often negating to recognise the primary function of agriculture-as-food within the current challenges facing global environmental systems.
Five recommendations are put forward as a result of this research: Words Matter, Framing Farming, Balanced Environmental Education, Build Partnerships, and Be Bold. These capture ways in which agriculture and agricultural experiences can be better incorporated through a âMinimum Effort Strategyâ which would strengthen current CfE structures, and a âRadical Strategyâ which envisions a planetary or agricultural phronesis challenging us to a transformation in sustainability learning that re-imagines our human relation to the world
Biodiversity: ecosystem function relationships in southern African woodlands
A broad corpus of previous research has sought to understand the role of
biodiversity as a driver of ecosystem structure and function. Although theory
suggests that increased biodiversity should increase ecosystem function by
niche complementarity among co-existing species, in natural systems wide
variation in the biodiversity effect exists among vegetation types and along
environmental gradients. In southern African woodlands and savannas, which
experience disturbance by fire and herbivory, drought and extreme temperatures,
it is unclear whether positive biodiversity effects should occur. In this thesis,
I explore the ecology of southern African woodlands through the lens of the
biodiversity-ecosystem function relationship, to improve our understanding of
the role of tree diversity as a mediator of ecosystem function, its interactions
with abiotic environment, and its effect on woodland structure.
In temperate and wet tropical forests, where the majority of biodiversity-ecosystem function studies in natural woody vegetation have been conducted,
the positive effect of niche complementarity hinges on the condition that conspecific competition is the limiting factor to ecosystem function. In highly disturbed
and environmentally stressed systems however, this may not hold true. I conducted a regional study investigating the role of tree species diversity and structural
diversity as mediators of woody biomass, using a plot network of 1235 plots
spanning wide climatic and biogeographic gradients across southern Africa.
Using Structural Equation Modelling, I determined that tree species diversity
has a positive effect on biomass, operating mostly via its effect on structural
diversity. I found that biodiversity itself increases with water availability, and that
positive biodiversity effects only arise under sufficiently high stem density.
To further understand the ecological mechanisms which drive positive
biodiversity-productivity relationships, I explored the effects of tree species
diversity and woodland demographic structure on patterns of land-surface phenology. I combined a dense plot-based tree census dataset across multiple
deciduous Zambian woodland types with remotely sensed measures of greenness, to understand drivers of variation in pre-rain green-up, growing season
length and productivity. I found that pre-rain green-up occurred earlier in more
diverse sites, across all woodland types, while in non-miombo woodlands, species richness also increased post-rain senescence lag and season length. I also
found that large-sized trees increase the degree of both pre-rain green-up and
post-rain senescence lag, across vegetation types, with an effect size similar to
that of species richness.
Southern African woodlands occur as a complex mosaic of open grassy
patches and closed canopy forest-like patches, driven by positive feedbacks of
fire-induced tree mortality and grass growth, but the biotic mechanisms causing
variation in canopy closure are unclear. I used terrestrial LiDAR at two sites, in
Tanzania and Angola, to understand at fine spatial scale the effects of species
composition and diversity on canopy architecture and canopy cover. Species
diversity was found to allow increased spatial clumping of trees, which drove
vertical canopy layer diversity and canopy height, demonstrating an indirect role
of species diversity on canopy cover via stand structure. Taken together with
the regional study of the biodiversity-ecosystem function relationship, these
findings suggest a nuanced role of tree species diversity on ecosystem function,
operating primarily via its effect on canopy structural diversity in southern
African woodlands. I propose that higher diversity communities are more likely
to produce forest-like closed canopy woodlands, with a higher upper limit on
biomass, and are more likely to transition from savanna to closed canopy forest
under conditions of atmospheric CO2 enrichment.
Finally, in an effort to increase our understanding of the variation in diversity
and structure of woodlands across southern Africa, I conducted a study of tree
species biodiversity and woodland structure in Bicuar National Park, southwest
Angola, with comparison to other woodlands around the miombo ecoregion.
Much of the published plot data and woodland monitoring infrastructure in
miombo woodlands is located in central and eastern regions of southern Africa,
while woodlands in the west of the region, which occur entirely within Angola,
remain poorly represented. I found that Bicuar National Park constitutes an
important woodland refuge at the transition between dry miombo woodland
and Baikiaea-Baphia woodlands. I recorded 27 tree species not recorded
elsewhere in the miombo ecoregion outside the HuĂla plateau. An additional
study of one-off plots in areas previously disturbed by shifting cultivation, found
that this disturbance increases tree species diversity, but ultimately reduces
woody biomass, even after a period of regeneration, potentially representing a
directional shift to a different stable vegetation type.
Together, the findings of this thesis demonstrate multiple relationships among
tree biodiversity, ecosystem structure, and ecosystem function, measured
primarily through woody biomass and productivity, at multiple spatial scales.
I conclude that incorporation of diversity and canopy structural information
into earth system models, by scaling up plot data using cutting edge remotely
sensed datasets, could improve predictions of how climate change and biodiversity change will impact the functioning of different vegetation types across
southern Africa, with consequences for carbon cycle modelling, conservation
management, and ecosystem service provision. Finally, I suggest that biodiversity loss of large archetypal miombo tree species will have the greatest
impact on a number of ecosystem functions related to carbon cycling, raising
concerns over the impacts of selective logging of these species
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