613 research outputs found

    Defining Functional Illiteracy to Empower Inclusive Technology Design

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    Limited literacy presents a significant challenge in HCI research, yet the field lacks consistent definitions and measurement criteria. Researchers often interchange terms such as 'functional illiterates,' 'low literates,' and 'semi-literates,' further complicating the field. This paper conducts a systematic literature review (SLR) of 33 HCI studies, revealing concerns about the absence of a definition in 41% of the studies and the lack of measurement technique in 74%. Based on the results from our SLR and relevant research beyond HCI, we propose the following work-in-progress definition. 'Functional illiterates are motivated adults with some familiarity with text but insufficient to fully comprehend meanings and low skills in the measured digital skill, with enough language proficiency in the study language if they are literate in their native language. This understanding, coupled with addressing the identified issues, will empower the HCI4D community to design more inclusive technology solutions for functionally illiterate users in developing countries

    Facebook's Crowds and Publics: Law, Virality and the Regulation of Hate Speech Online in Contemporary India

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    A key feature of the material infrastructure of hate speech online on Facebook is virality – the rapid transmission of content over large distances through key nodes and actors on the platform. Virality is enabled by the bringing together of collectivities (crowds and publics) and connectivity provided by Facebook, which is accessed widely through Internet-enabled mobile phones. In contemporary India, increased connectivity provided by the material infrastructure of Facebook has reconfigured the relationship between crowds, publics and media, facilitated virality, and led to deadly illocutionary and perlocutionary effects such as inter-group violence and the subordination of minority groups. This thesis investigates how Facebook, through its content moderation policies and related institutional mechanisms and infrastructures, regulates the virality of hate speech online on the platform. Drawing on contemporary developments in India and the historical development of Indian hate speech doctrine, this thesis identifies emerging tensions between the global scale of hate speech regulation on Facebook and local context. These emerging tensions are visible in Facebook’s framing of its community standards on hate speech, and in the relationship between Facebook and national and subnational actors in India. These tensions are also visible in differences and contradictions in how actors who are part of Facebook’s governance model, including the Oversight Board, have approached the question of the regulation of hate speech online. This thesis employs mixed methods including a law-in-context reading of doctrine, documentary analysis and semi-structured interviews conducted with members of the Facebook Oversight Board, employees of Facebook and lawyers, academics and policy experts in the field. This thesis is part of a growing body of scholarship that examines the regulation of hate speech online and virality on Facebook through a non-United States and non-European lens

    Songs of life from fluvial worlds: A river, the state and Bengali Muslim char-dwellers in Assam, India

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    This dissertation looks at state-society relations of marginalized people living in liminal and (now) vulnerable ecologies. It is set in the fluvial and unstable landscapes called Chars or river-islands in Assam, a northeastern state in India. Using ethnography and archival sources, it looks at the historically marginalized Bengali Muslims living in these ‘chars’ and their interactions and experiences with a post-colonial majoritarian state, not just in the background of ‘jatiyotabaad’ or Assamese nationalism but also the rise and consolidation of a Hindutva regime both in India and Assam. This narrative of state-society relations between Bengali Muslim char-dwellers and a majoritarian state is complicated by the fluvial and unpredictable ecological processes and Assam being a borderland state, sharing boundaries with other nations. Thus, as much as this dissertation understands char-dwellers’ relationship with the state through their everyday interactions, it also evaluates this relationship through events such as the ‘anti-immigration’2 Assam Movement or the more recent citizenship project called the National Register of Citizens (NRC). This dissertation thus, in its quest to understand state-society relations, has been informed by and makes commentary on concepts such as violence, fluvial environment, immigration, citizenship, bureaucracy, affect, among others. Using the works of Baruch Spinoza (2002), Gilles Deleuze (1994, 1997) Pierre-FĂ©lix Guattari (1987 co-authored with Deleuze) and Sara Ahmed (2014), this dissertation finds affect to be rhizomatic which is a principle guiding both this dissertation’s methodology and as it will be established, the state-society relations in this context. Thus, while it evaluates the violence that is characterized of this state-society relationship, the thesis will show that it is marked by beyond violence. What are the varied dimensions, the other elements that characterize this state-society relation in a borderland state that historically has grappled with ‘anti-immigration’ sentiments but now also faces a fascist Hindu regime, while a river erodes and floods even more violently? That is the story that this dissertation aims to understand

    World History, Volume 1: To 1500

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    World History, Volume 1: to 1500 is designed to meet the scope and sequence of a world history course to 1500 offered at both two-year and four-year institutions. Suitable for both majors and non majors World History, Volume 1: to 1500 introduces students to a global perspective of history couched in an engaging narrative. Concepts and assessments help students think critically about the issues they encounter so they can broaden their perspective of global history. A special effort has been made to introduce and juxtapose people’s experiences of history for a rich and nuanced discussion. Primary source material represents the cultures being discussed from a firsthand perspective whenever possible. World History, Volume 1: to 1500 also includes the work of diverse and underrepresented scholars to ensure a full range of perspectives

    The 'Swadeshi Jinish' from the 'Didima Company': an analysis of the connection between Thakurmar Jhuli by Dakshinaranjan Mitra Majumder and nationalism in Bengal in the late nineteenth and early twentieth century

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    This thesis provides a critical analysis of the Bengali folktale collection Thakurmar Jhuli (1907) by Dakshinaranjan Mitra Majumder linking it to the prevalent notion of Bengal folklore and Bengali nation of late nineteenth and early twentieth century Bengal. I focus on the ways in which the dominant scholarly and political ideologies of the time shaped the choice of tales in the collection. In particular, this study analyzes Majumder’s writing in its historical context by drawing upon Benedict Anderson’s theory of nationalism and Herder’s concept of romantic nationalism. Moreover, I discuss the content of this collection adopting Sadhana Naithani’s idea of “prefaced space” and Maurice Bloomfield’s “Hindu motif” to discuss the connection between Bengal folklore and nationalism of the time. Taking a folkloric approach of analyzing the content and context of the collection, I demonstrate that this collection by Majumder introduced a Bengali folktale genre named “rupkatha” against the colonial genre of folktales and fairy tales. In so doing, he also assumed a power position where he made representational choices in including and excluding the religious, linguistic and cultural elements of the people of Bengal. Finally, demonstrating examples from other Bengali folklore genres, the thesis asserts the importance of addressing the absence of Islamic elements in Majumder’s collection, and the investigation of different versions of rupkatha to create a more complete sense of the genre

    “And by Publishing, to Preserve:” Envisioning Indigenous Futures in Anishinaabe Historical Writing, 1814–1893

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    This dissertation bridges intellectual history, biography, and ethnohistory to reveal how nineteenth-century Anishinaabeg used historical writing to historicize their past, speak to their colonial present, and offer future visions of a transformed colonial society. Historical writing was a key site of colonial struggle in which settler histories attempted to eliminate the Indigenous past and replace it with their own conception of the ‘Indian.’ Between 1814-1893, a remarkable body of Anishinaabe historical writing in English was produced by at least ten different writers, all of whom worked from the stories and knowledge of elders, family members, and knowledge keepers. Through a focus on the lives and writings of Jane Johnston Schoolcraft (Bamewawagezhikaquay), George Copway (Kahgegagahbowh), and Francis Assiginack, this dissertation analyzes expressions of Anishinaabe historical consciousness and the settler-colonial myths and ideas they engaged with. Their writings contended that elements of Anishinaabe ways of living and knowing were not only valid, but invaluable and had to be preserved in the face of permanent loss. In addition to producing immediate political and social change in Canada and the United States, these writers also sought to shape the development of future society. While their future visions called for Indigenous adoption of Euro-Canadian and Euro-American technology and religion, they also presented Anishinaabe knowledge as a gift that could potentially facilitate spiritual and moral renewal in settler society. Historical writing was a foundational aspect of this ‘envisioning process.’ By asserting an Anishinaabe understanding of history through this trans-cultural approach, these writers were able to challenge the historical and theological foundations of settler colonialism, argue for the value and historicity of Indigenous peoples, and posit visions of a settler colonial future that would transform both Indigenous and settler society

    Essays on the Socioecological Implications of Sustainable Development Projects and the Role of Environmental Preferences

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    Essays on the Socioecological Implications of Sustainable Development Projects and the Role of Environmental Preference
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