Mixed reality for cross-cultural integration. Using positive technology to share experiences and promote communication

The opinion article highlights some innovative resources to deal with the challenges of migrations, relying in the field of positive technologies and, more specifically, in the concept of mixed reality. In the contemporary society, migrations are a common phenomenon that rises cultural and psycho-social issues, as well as political and economic challenges. People move from their place of origin for educational or professional purposes or because they are forced to leave due to political, economic and social conditions, and also natural disasters which produce population flows. Whatever the push and pull factors are, when people move permanently or temporarily they tend to maintain close ties with their place of origin (with people, places, culture, practices etc.), while trying to develop attachment with the place of residence. Immigrants construct their identities in the context of a negotiation between old and new homes’ contexts. However, such a process is not free from issues and relevant consequences on immigrants’ well-being. Some psychosocial issues can be identified regarding identity re-negotiation while moving to a different place, and cultural integration: immigrants could experience feeling of isolation, estrangement and alienation, related to the difficulty to create strong social ties in the new place; the “acculturation stress” associated to adaptation to new culture, language and practices. Positive technologies offer innovative resources to deal with these challenges, by considering the human health and well-being as the main objective for technological advancement. In a broad sense, Positive technology may be used to structure, augment or replace user experience with digital content; also, positive devices may be used to promote positive emotions (hedonic technology), to support the user in the achievement of engaging and self-actualizing experiences (eudaimonic technology), and to enhance connectedness among individuals, groups and societies (social-interpersonal technologies). In such perspective, the mixed reality technology provides resources for intervention in that it is based on the addition of digital elements in the physical environment, instead of its substitution with an immersive experience which, in this case, may act as a palliative care for sadness but does not help to integrate oneself in a new, “real” physical environment and social context. Specifically, mixed reality based Positive technologies can help in maintaining the relation with the home country, and also in fostering the inclusion in and attachment to the receiving society, by providing users with sources of identification that stretch beyond the national and local contexts of their old and new homes. Addressing the social connectedness, the mixed reality can provide the medium to share the meanings that people attach to places, people and cultures, and creating belonging in the receiving society. Indeed, people can better approach the receiving society by understanding the cultural meanings connected with places, history and activities. The concept expressed in the opinion article is still in its infancy. However, it provides an innovative idea for positive technology (at the social-interpersonal level), which may guide the development of future devices and applications for enhancing health and well-being in the growing population looking for a new life in places distant from home

The Flow Between Spaces: The Experiences of International Doctoral Candidates Negotiation and Construction of Professional Identity on Social Media

This doctoral thesis explores the experiences and practices of seven international doctoral candidates in the UK use social media for professional identity development. It analyses, too, what challenges (if any) are encountered navigating personal and professional selves on social media, and how such issues are navigated. Addressing such issues involved knowledge of social media, doctoral education, professional identity development, and international learners’ experiences. Doctoral education is a period of becoming and negotiating new environments, roles, expectations, and attitudes. Along this path, a greater sense of personal and professional self is expected to develop. For international doctoral candidates, however, this process is fraught with unique and complex challenges as they develop their identity between the intersections of doctoral study and cross-cultural communities. Vertovec (1999) concept of transnationalism and Castells (1996) networked society were used to understand the motivation, social interactions, and identity development of international doctoral candidates’ practices on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram. A digital ethnography approach was employed to answer the research questions within the context of social media. Data collection entailed online observation of social media (Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram), and two rounds of interviews. The study found that international doctoral candidates appeared to be supporting the development of professional identity through belonging, strategic networking, mentoring, and professional branding on social media. Negotiating social media between cross-cultural communities led to complex issues of privacy, content collapse, imagined audience, and collective pressure. These issues were alleviated through compartmentalisation and controlling the online narrative. This calculated and self-directed approach to social media indicates that self-reflexivity, agency, and imagined-self were motivating factors in developing their professional identity in online social spaces. International doctoral candidates in this study demonstrated a favourable approach towards social media as a transnational space in which borders, identities, and notions of imagination become more fluid

Virtual identities of Muslim women: A case study of Iranian Facebook users

The virtual identity of women in the cyberspace surrounding Muslim countries is undergoing a process of differentiation from real-life identity. Although in some Arab countries women present themselves in online social networks as faceless users, in other Muslim countries, such as in Iran, they act differently. Despite the risk of possible real-life consequences, in some Muslim countries women are starting to feel free to decide how to present themselves on the Net, especially regarding the Islamic hijab. In addition, Muslim men and women are engaging in more open dialogue through their digital identities. Furthermore, social networks have given Muslim citizens a political voice, giving them the freedom to express what they object to in social or political terms. Within the context of Iranian society, this research project analyzes how the virtual and real behavior of female Muslim Facebook users varies and how the social networks are pushing them towards a kind of ‘Westernization’. The data has been collected through a content analysis of 550 public Facebook profiles of Iranian female users who live inside and outside this country

Artspeak : articulating artistic process across cultural boundaries through digital theatre

In early 2009, researchers in the English Department of the University of Amsterdam collaborated with researchers in the Drama Department, Deakin University, Australia on a project which brought English as a Second Language students from The Netherlands into the rehearsal studio of Australian students engaged in play-building on Australian themes. The project aims were multiple and interconnected. We extended a language acquisition framework established by the Dutch investigators in previous collaborations with the Universities of Venice and Southampton, and combined this with an investigation of ways to harness technology in order to teach Australian students to communicate with and about their art. The Dutch language students were prompted to develop art-related language literacy (description, interpretation, criticism), through live, video-streamed interaction with drama students in Australia at critical points in the development of a group-devised performance (conception, rehearsal, performance). The Australian student improved their capacity to articulate the aims and processes which drove their art-making by illuminating the art-making process for the Dutch students, and providing them with a real-life context for the use of extended vocabulary whilst making them partners in the process of shaping the work. All participants engaged in the common task of assessing the capacity of the art work produced to communicate meaning to a non-Australian audience.<br /

Cross-disciplinary lessons for the future internet

There are many societal concerns that emerge as a consequence of Future Internet (FI) research and development. A survey identified six key social and economic issues deemed most relevant to European FI projects. During a SESERV-organized workshop, experts in Future Internet technology engaged with social scientists (including economists), policy experts and other stakeholders in analyzing the socio-economic barriers and challenges that affect the Future Internet, and conversely, how the Future Internet will affect society, government, and business. The workshop aimed to bridge the gap between those who study and those who build the Internet. This chapter describes the socio-economic barriers seen by the community itself related to the Future Internet and suggests their resolution, as well as investigating how relevant the EU Digital Agenda is to Future Internet technologists

Capability in the digital: institutional media management and its dis/contents

This paper explores how social media spaces are occupied, utilized and negotiated by the British Military in relation to the Ministry of Defence’s concerns and conceptualizations of risk. It draws on data from the DUN Project to investigate the content and form of social media about defence through the lens of ‘capability’, a term that captures and describes the meaning behind multiple representations of the military institution. But ‘capability’ is also a term that we hijack and extend here, not only in relation to the dominant presence of ‘capability’ as a representational trope and the extent to which it is revealing of a particular management of social media spaces, but also in relation to what our research reveals for the wider digital media landscape and ‘capable’ digital methods. What emerges from our analysis is the existence of powerful, successful and critically long-standing media and reputation management strategies occurring within the techno-economic online structures where the exercising of ‘control’ over the individual – as opposed to the technology – is highly effective. These findings raise critical questions regarding the extent to which ‘control’ and management of social media – both within and beyond the defence sector – may be determined as much by cultural, social, institutional and political influence and infrastructure as the technological economies. At a key moment in social media analysis, then, when attention is turning to the affordances, criticisms and possibilities of data, our research is a pertinent reminder that we should not forget the active management of content that is being similarly, if not equally, effective

New Media & Youth Identity. Issues and Research Pathways

Media have held a considerable and growing place in the social environment of industrial society in recent decades, transforming the perception that a people have of their place in the world and of their memberships and belonging, creating new paths for social relations, affecting lifestyles, socialization, and communication processes, and the construction of identity itself. The relationship between young people (especially teenagers and adolescents) and new media shows some peculiarities which are worth further reflection to understand the extent and outcomes of these social changes. This article aims to investigate the discourse on youth identity and new media in the social science literature, determining which are the key trends and exploring the more relevant research questions about this theme and the way these topics relate to one another. Titles and abstracts of articles published during the period 2004 \u2013 2013 were selected from the Scopus social sciences database and they were analysed using different content analysis techniques supported by the T-Lab software. The international literature on these topics presents a certain liveliness and heterogeneity in themes and its perspectives on theoretical and empirical research. Nevertheless, it has been possible to identify some key trends, focusing mainly on the idea of active identity construction by new media