521 research outputs found
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Encountering the Other: Phenomenology in Architectural Discourse and Its Underplayed Theme of Intersubjectivity
Looking into what can be termed a tradition of architectural phenomenology and the criticism it encountered over the last several decades, this dissertation contends that given the recent attempts to transform and reinvent architectural phenomenology, it is of urgent necessity to thematize intersubjectivity in the development of a phenomenological understanding, when theorizing the meaning of architecture. Contrary to the popular interpretation that architectural phenomenology deliberately endorses a specific way of life, a specific account of the body, a specific conception of subjectivity, therefore unable to take alterity and novelty into consideration, the dissertation tries to demonstrate that architectural phenomenology has underplayed the theme of (inter)subjectivity and underestimated its importance, that a phenomenological investigation of (inter)subjectivity contains many philosophical insights into alterity and novelty constructive to architectural theory and practice.
The dissertation provides a genealogy of architectural phenomenology, assesses the coherence of its discursive practice, and clarifies the notion of intersubjectivity to be further investigated with the newly available support of contemporary phenomenology. It traces the underplayed theme of intersubjectivity in the tradition, choosing two prominent figures as the anchors for contextualization—Dalibor Vesely and Ernesto Nathan Rogers. Through a critical examination of their theoretical contributions along with the relevant philosophical problems, it reveals the overlooked potential of architectural phenomenology to talk about other subjectivities and new works concretely situated in the environment and in history, thus proposing an alternative approach that can address socio-political issues. It concludes by pointing out how this approach, formed on a phenomenological sensitivity to alterity and novelty, indicative of a significant turn in theorizing the communication and creation of meaning, sheds light on the ongoing polemics revolving around architectural phenomenology
Evaluation Methodologies in Software Protection Research
Man-at-the-end (MATE) attackers have full control over the system on which
the attacked software runs, and try to break the confidentiality or integrity
of assets embedded in the software. Both companies and malware authors want to
prevent such attacks. This has driven an arms race between attackers and
defenders, resulting in a plethora of different protection and analysis
methods. However, it remains difficult to measure the strength of protections
because MATE attackers can reach their goals in many different ways and a
universally accepted evaluation methodology does not exist. This survey
systematically reviews the evaluation methodologies of papers on obfuscation, a
major class of protections against MATE attacks. For 572 papers, we collected
113 aspects of their evaluation methodologies, ranging from sample set types
and sizes, over sample treatment, to performed measurements. We provide
detailed insights into how the academic state of the art evaluates both the
protections and analyses thereon. In summary, there is a clear need for better
evaluation methodologies. We identify nine challenges for software protection
evaluations, which represent threats to the validity, reproducibility, and
interpretation of research results in the context of MATE attacks
The impact of multi-academy trust (MAT) governance and accountability systems on the people involved in the organization: Implications for professional autonomy and agency, local representation, and claims to legitimacy
Since its inception in the early 2000s, the Academies Programme in England has developed apace, with the Academies Act of 2010 encouraging schools to move out of local authority control, and a more recent policy intention for all schools in England to be part of a Multi-Academy Trust (MAT) by 2030 (DfE, 2022). This has provoked growing concern over the structures of governance and accountability within compulsory education, and the facility for public scrutiny. With major decision-making increasingly at MAT-level, there are implications for the autonomy of school leaders and local governors. This study aimed to explore the lived experiences of individuals in MATs, and the implications for professional autonomy and agency of the centralization of governance and accountability. In so doing, it also examined what made the MAT legitimate.
Using qualitative methods, this longitudinal study was framed within a phenomenological-interpretivist approach, conducting interviews over a period of four years with individuals (CEOs, trustees, local governors, academy leaders and staff and parents) across four MATs in England. Additionally, policy enactment theory was used to frame participants’ experiences within both the national and local policy context.
The findings highlighted the fragility of a system over-reliant on the reputation and expertise of the founding CEO, whilst appointing trustees who often lacked education knowledge and understanding of local issues and priorities. A lack of plurality and representation on the trust board, together with limited agency for academy leads, the reduction in local governor autonomous decision-making powers and parental reluctance to be involved in the new system, all pointed to a diminishment of space for the local voice.
Future policy formation on MATs needs to address the following issues. First, the development of a more participative system of governance and downward and lateral systems of accountability, which would address the value of including the local voice and recognise the importance of restoring local professional agency and autonomy. Second, improving representation and appropriate expertise on trust boards to be a truer reflection of the academy communities they serve, to prevent the charge of MATs appointing ‘people like us’, and to ensure they can provide effective, intellectual scrutiny and challenge to the CEO and their staff
Security and Privacy of Resource Constrained Devices
The thesis aims to present a comprehensive and holistic overview on cybersecurity and privacy & data protection aspects related to IoT resource-constrained devices. Chapter 1 introduces the current technical landscape by providing a working definition and architecture taxonomy of ‘Internet of Things’ and ‘resource-constrained devices’, coupled with a threat landscape where each specific attack is linked to a layer of the taxonomy. Chapter 2 lays down the theoretical foundations for an interdisciplinary approach and a unified, holistic vision of cybersecurity, safety and privacy justified by the ‘IoT revolution’ through the so-called infraethical perspective. Chapter 3 investigates whether and to what extent the fast-evolving European cybersecurity regulatory framework addresses the security challenges brought about by the IoT by allocating legal responsibilities to the right parties. Chapters 4 and 5 focus, on the other hand, on ‘privacy’ understood by proxy as to include EU data protection. In particular, Chapter 4 addresses three legal challenges brought about by the ubiquitous IoT data and metadata processing to EU privacy and data protection legal frameworks i.e., the ePrivacy Directive and the GDPR. Chapter 5 casts light on the risk management tool enshrined in EU data protection law, that is, Data Protection Impact Assessment (DPIA) and proposes an original DPIA methodology for connected devices, building on the CNIL (French data protection authority) model
From Houses of Worship to Worship in Houses: The Social Construction of Sacred Places in Early 21st Century China
While the concept of worship in houses can be traced back to the Christian house church places in Dura Europos between 233 and 256 AD during the Roman Empire, after the foundation of the People's Republic of China in 1949, this kind of church spaces began to appear all across the country. Characterized by the absence of a formal iconic church building or interior, existing types of secular architectural spaces (apartments, offices, basements, etc.) were rented by the Christian community and converted into sacred spaces.
Space is susceptible to manipulations caused by human actions. Now what happens if space is manipulated to house not merely a different function but transcendence? As French Marxist philosopher and sociologist Henri Lefebvre's argument in The Production of Space (1991), space is not only a social product but also a complex social construction, based on values and the social production of meanings, which affects spatial practices and perceptions. An existing space, he says, may outlive its original purpose and the raison d'étre which initially determined its forms, functions, and structures; it may thus, in a sense, become vacant and susceptible to being diverted, re-appropriated, and utilized for a different purpose than its original intent.
With my analysis of the worship places of urban house churches in early 21st-century China from the perspective of urban context and architectural space (foregrounded by the development of informal church space in the historical context of Chinese society and politics), this research shows how religious metaphors function as the productive mediators in the process of knowledge transfer between architectural and other professional discourses by bringing back social imagination to the politically neutral spaces of every day; de facto reconstructing the social through transduction of the metaphor of informal spaces
Constitutions of Value
Gathering an interdisciplinary range of cutting-edge scholars, this book addresses legal constitutions of value.
Global value production and transnational value practices that rely on exploitation and extraction have left us with toxic commons and a damaged planet. Against this situation, the book examines law’s fundamental role in institutions of value production and valuation. Utilising pathbreaking theoretical approaches, it problematizes mainstream efforts to redeem institutions of value production by recoupling them with progressive values. Aiming beyond radical critique, the book opens up the possibility of imagining and enacting new and different value practices.
This wide-ranging and accessible book will appeal to international lawyers, socio-legal scholars, those working at the intersections of law and economy and others, in politics, economics, environmental studies and elsewhere, who are concerned with rethinking our current ideas of what has value, what does not, and whether and how value may be revalued
Vitalism and Its Legacy in Twentieth Century Life Sciences and Philosophy
This Open Access book combines philosophical and historical analysis of various forms of alternatives to mechanism and mechanistic explanation, focusing on the 19th century to the present. It addresses vitalism, organicism and responses to materialism and its relevance to current biological science. In doing so, it promotes dialogue and discussion about the historical and philosophical importance of vitalism and other non-mechanistic conceptions of life. It points towards the integration of genomic science into the broader history of biology. It details a broad engagement with a variety of nineteenth, twentieth and twenty-first century vitalisms and conceptions of life. In addition, it discusses important threads in the history of concepts in the United States and Europe, including charting new reception histories in eastern and south-eastern Europe. While vitalism, organicism and similar epistemologies are often the concern of specialists in the history and philosophy of biology and of historians of ideas, the range of the contributions as well as the geographical and temporal scope of the volume allows for it to appeal to the historian of science and the historian of biology generally
Authoritarianism and Subject Formation in Post-Independence Egypt: Egyptian Literature and Western Social Theory in Dialogue
The study grew out of a desire to examine how it feels to be denied what Hannah Arendt famously referred to as the ‘right to have rights,’ including the right to disobey. More specifically, this study seeks to understand how people living under particular regimes of power—characterised by distinct politics of fear, uncertainty, and silence—feel, define, and express themselves in relation to power, whether in the form of submission or resistance. In other words: How do authoritarian power dynamics affect individuals’ perception of self and how does it play into and shape the everyday life of the individual? At the heart of this inquiry is the notion of the subject, which forms both the conceptual foundation and the central focus of this study.
The study draws primarily on the theoretical contributions of Michel Foucault, Giorgio Agamben, and Hannah Arendt on the interplay of power, resistance, and subjectivity. To frame the discussion, a socio-historical examination of post-independence power practices in Egypt and their impact on the constitution of the political subject is conducted. Research data is generated through an art-inspired qualitative research approach, primarily using Egyptian novels as a source of data to uncover the nuances and interiorities of the process of subject formation. Through a dialogue between Western social theory and Egyptian literature, the study provides an understanding of power practice in Egypt from 1952 to the present, particularly at the level of the inner panorama of the self in society and expands it into a reading of social and political theories on the question of power, subjectivity, resistance, and agency.
The study is divided into six main chapters, including an introduction and a conclusion. Each empirical chapter of this study tells the story of a particular episode in time and is somewhat self-contained, yet all chapters are connected into a large coherent reading of modern Egyptian power practices. Just as the novels examined in this study tell a story with their words, so does my research.
The study concludes that the process of subject formation in Egypt should be understood as an artefact of historical continuity that connects the past to the present, not necessarily in a linear fashion, but in a way that gives it a genealogical context, and as a dynamic process of shifting subject positions. The study further argues for the limitations of the status conception of citizenship as a defining framework for the state—society relationship in the context under study and proposes instead the use of the power—subject framework as a substitute. Last but not least, the study suggests that the connection between theory and method, expressed in the very structure of the research, reveals the epistemic relevance of literature to the conceptual imagination, contributing in a sense, to the discussion of the decolonisation of knowledge production. In some ways, this interdisciplinarity underscores the sheer breadth and hybridity of the concept of subject formation that has become apparent throughout this analysis.
Keywords— Power, Subject Formation, Subjectivity, Egyptian Literature, Resistance, Agenc
Economic diversity In contemporary Timor-Leste
Economic Diversity in Contemporary Timor-Leste analyses various economic dynamics in past and present Timor-Leste. Comprising 14 research chapters, the volume brings to the fore: 1) local, community-based economic values and arrangements; 2) community-based entanglements with a market-driven economy; 3) the colonial and postcolonial governance praxis through which a market-driven economy has permeated the country, and 4) the creative and place-based ways through which local people have responded to these transformations. The collection challenges hegemonic, market-driven analyses which characterise Timor-Leste’s economy as weak, deformed and homogenised and demonstrates the myriad of socially embedded ways through which Timor-Leste’s economy is diverse, richly complex and continually brought into being. To frame the analysis of these complex economic dynamics in Timor-Leste, the collection’s introduction develops the concept of economic ecologies: the assemblages of institutions and their localised and historical relationships mobilised for reproducing collective life, both in its material and immaterial aspects
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