Dying through the looking glass… The influence of discursive formations on end of life care

This research contributes to the professional understanding of the contextual conditions that exist in end of life care. Using a Foucauldian lens, this research explores the apparatus and technologies of power at play, and considers the impact of mainstream media on discursive practice in end of life care. Mass media campaigns have had a significant impact on end of life care, developing a sense of scandal and moral panic among the population. The research highlights the tensions, challenges and possibilities that emerge from the intersection between media and healthcare practice. Foucauldian discourse analysis has provided a philosophical lens through which to view this research and explore the professional contexts in which we operate. Collection and analysis of media artefacts from journalistic press in the form of broadsheet newspapers and terrestrial television (factual outputs) were undertaken. In addition, self-recorded narratives from nine healthcare professionals working in end of life care were transcribed and analysed. The findings have given rise to discourses that have been aligned to specific domains of understanding. Technologies enable us to highlight the way in which structures, and functions within political and social institutions, can manipulate populations or individuals, or indeed how power can shape human conduct. The technologies emerging from this thesis are: technologies of caring; technologies of power; technologies of self; technologies of representation and professional apparatus. The mainstream media influences discursive practice in end of life care; therefore, professionals need an appreciation of how they might deal with the challenges and opportunities posed. Exposing dying and the discursive formations in this research offers a novel insight into how healthcare professionals are not immune to, but are part of, the influences that mediate how care is delivered at the end of life; how, indeed the media can have such a strong influence on perceptions and understanding

The female body, technology and performance : performing a feminist praxis

This research project examines the relationship between the female body and technology and analyses how contemporary artists are exploring the creative and political potential of technologies within their performance practice. By interrogating the culturally constructed gendering of technologies and theories of the female body through contemporary feminisms, this study shows how by working against existing patriarchal structures surrounding bodies and technology female artists are developing a technologised feminist praxis. The artists that I focus on throughout this thesis acknowledge, challenge and attempt to subvert dominant and conventional applications of the technologies, and therefore I read their work as feminist. This study analyses a range of types of technology and their applications in contemporary performance practice including: immersive technologies, digital and analogue technologies, the Internet, biotechnologies and cyborg technologised performance. Within each of these chapters the technologies are analysed in relation to the performing female body and I apply critical theory to enable me to read these works as “hybrid” and as illustrative of artists working within a “cyborg consciousness” to explore alternative political modes. This project is informed by the work of cultural critic and feminist theorist Donna J. Haraway whose “Cyborg Manifesto” (1985) altered the landscape of feminist discussions surrounding the technologised female body. Her utopian manifesto evokes the cyborg as a creature of social fiction and social reality and calls for a re-coding of bodies and approaches to political thinking. I argue in this thesis that the artists I am investigating attempt a re-coding of female bodies and of existing gender conventions surrounding bodies and technology to develop a new cyborg feminist praxis

Narrative accounts of women who use complementary and alternative medicine in pregnancy: 'Forewarned, forearmed and relaxed'

Pregnancy and childbirth are events of major significance in women’s lives. In western countries women are increasingly using complementary and alternative medicine (CAM) (see glossary of terms) during this time. However, there is little research exploring and minimal empirical evidence to judge the significance and impact of CAM on pregnancy and childbirth. This thesis explores the experiences of women who use CAM during pregnancy and childbirth in an attempt to understand the meaning they ascribe to CAM use.A narrative approach was chosen to explore women’s experiences of CAM as it emphasises the meaning that individuals ascribe to life events (Czarniawska 2004, Elliott 2005). Additionally, through narratives it is possible to learn about the world of individuals, about their lives and their experienced reality (Engel et al. 2008).A purposive sample of 14 women who had used a variety of complementary therapies during pregnancy and childbirth participated in the study. Women’s narratives were obtained through open ended interviews on two or three occasions. The narratives were analysed using a 5 stage process. The words of one participant eloquently portrayed the significance and meaning of CAM use as one of being ‘Forewarned, Forearmed and Relaxed’. These words then became a framework to re-present participants’ narratives.Beck’s (1992a) and Giddens’ (1990) concept of risk and reflexivity provides a theoretical framework to aid interpretation of the data. The study findings offer insights into how CAM meets women’s physical, emotional and spiritual needs during pregnancy and childbirth. CAM use signifies women’s desire to achieve a normal birth without medical intervention, a need to make choices and be in control of their healthcare practices and a desire to enjoy their pregnancy and birth without fear

Recruiting researchers: Survey of employer practice 2009

This report sets out the findings of a piece of research conducted by Vitae into the experiences and attitudes of employers towards doctoral graduates. The research surveyed 104 employers who represent a diverse mix of sectors, organisation size and orientation towards doctoral graduates.Vitae is supported by Research Councils UK (RCUK), managed by CRAC: The Career Development Organisatio

The Value of Information Technology-Enabled Diabetes Management

Reviews different technologies used in diabetes disease management, as well as the costs, benefits, and quality implications of technology-enabled diabetes management programs in the United States

Emotional Biosensing: Exploring Critical Alternatives

Emotional biosensing is rising in daily life: Data and categories claim to know how people feel and suggest what they should do about it, while CSCW explores new biosensing possibilities. Prevalent approaches to emotional biosensing are too limited, focusing on the individual, optimization, and normative categorization. Conceptual shifts can help explore alternatives: toward materiality, from representation toward performativity, inter-action to intra-action, shifting biopolitics, and shifting affect/desire. We contribute (1) synthesizing wide-ranging conceptual lenses, providing analysis connecting them to emotional biosensing design, (2) analyzing selected design exemplars to apply these lenses to design research, and (3) offering our own recommendations for designers and design researchers. In particular we suggest humility in knowledge claims with emotional biosensing, prioritizing care and affirmation over self- improvement, and exploring alternative desires. We call for critically questioning and generatively re- imagining the role of data in configuring sensing, feeling, ‘the good life,’ and everyday experience

TV 2.0: animation readership / authorship on the internet

Traditional platforms for animation, such as broadcast television or cinema, are rapidly becoming obsolete as a new type of spectator demands more choice, the ability to interact with animated content and access to global distribution for their own user-generated work. Audiences are no longer satisfied with receiving a top down distribution of content from traditional cinema or broadcasters. Internet technologies are emerging to address this demand for active spectatorship and enable communities of interest to evolve their own alternative distribution methods. Viewing animation online has become increasingly accessible with the mass adoption of broadband and the emergence of new file formats. TV 2.0 is an amalgamation of Internet technologies that combine video on demand with the social networking capabilities of Web 2.0. In the age of TV 2.0, the role of the viewer has increased in complexity with new possibilities for active interaction and intervention with the content displayed. This new audience seeks a form of spectatorship that can extend beyond the passive recipience of programming distributed by elite broadcasters. TV 2.0 on the Internet has changed both methods of distribution and traditional patterns for the viewing of animation. However, any potential for democratic participation in the visual culture of moving images that this could entail may be a brief historic moment before the assimilation and control of active readership by mainstream corporate culture

Social Justice, Artistic Practice and New Technologies: Gender and Disability Activisms and Identities in Film and Digital Video

Contemporary disability cultural production is under-researched in feminist and cultural theory. Focusing on the film and digital video trilogy, Whole: A Trinity of Being, by South African visual poet Shelley Barry, this paper examines how her work theorizes disability and gender and critically interrogates possibilities for social justice. Résumé La culture de la production de l’incapacité contemporaine est sous-recherchée dans la théorie culturelle féministe. En se concentrant sur le film et la trilogie vidéo digitale, Whole: A Trinity of Being, par la poète visuelle sudafricaine Shelley Barry, cet article étudie la façon dont son oeuvre théorise l'handicap et le sexe, et interroge de façon critique les possibilities pour la justice sociale

ICS Materials. Towards a re-Interpretation of material qualities through interactive, connected, and smart materials.

The domain of materials for design is changing under the influence of an increased technological advancement, miniaturization and democratization. Materials are becoming connected, augmented, computational, interactive, active, responsive, and dynamic. These are ICS Materials, an acronym that stands for Interactive, Connected and Smart. While labs around the world are experimenting with these new materials, there is the need to reflect on their potentials and impact on design. This paper is a first step in this direction: to interpret and describe the qualities of ICS materials, considering their experiential pattern, their expressive sensorial dimension, and their aesthetic of interaction. Through case studies, we analyse and classify these emerging ICS Materials and identified common characteristics, and challenges, e.g. the ability to change over time or their programmability by the designers and users. On that basis, we argue there is the need to reframe and redesign existing models to describe ICS materials, making their qualities emerge