Action Research: Applied Research, Intervention Research, Collaborative Research, Practitioner Research, or Praxis Research?

This article relates common ways of conceptualising action research as “intervention”, “collaboration”, “interactive research”, “applied research”, and “practitioner research” to a number of different ways of knowing, extracted from the works of Aristotle. The purpose is not to disavow any of these practices but to expand the philosophical, methodological, and theoretical horizon to contain the Aristotelian concept of praxis. It is claimed that praxis knowing needs to be comprehended in order to realize the full, radical potential in action research providing real “added value” in relation to more conventional social research approaches. Praxis knowing radically challenges the divisions of labour between knower-researchers and the known-researched. Thereby it also challenges both the epistemologies and institutionalisations dominating both conventional research and conventional ways of conceptualising action research

Europioneers in Space : The Story of the European Space Agency

This paper will examine the underlying identity processes of the European Space Agency. The aim is to discover how this agency is presenting itself and why, by using narrative analysis. Narrative analysis has proven to be effective in coming close to a subject’s performed identity. Theories from corporate communications and organisational studies have inspired the portrayal of ESA as a personified agency and, combined with narrative analysis, they will instruct both how the findings were retrieved and how they are presented in this paper. The voice of ESA has been found in certain Europioneers’ expressions, as they are part of the narrative while they are simultaneously creating it. The results from analysing these voices will not only clarify the function of ESA’s narrative, but by using David M. Boje’s ideas they will also show aspects beyond the agency’s corporate narrative. While ESA wants to be known as an organisation with great experience in European cooperation making it a legitimate, independent and competent actor on the global space market, there are clearly some stories that have not (yet) been included in the consolidated narrative

Experiences, Attitudes And Beliefs About Interpersonal Violence: A Study On Costa Rican Adolescents

Research in Latin America regarding interpersonal violence and adolescents is rare if not nonexistent. In a collaborative effort with the Costa Rican Ministry of Education and the National Institute of Women (INAMU), qualitative data were collected from three high schools and one after-school program from rural and urban locations of the Central Valley. The discussion groups/open-ended questionnaires were done with a total of 154 students ranging from ages 14 to 17 and grade levels 8th to 12th. Information was obtained concerning students\u27 perceptions, definitions and opinions on issues relating to interpersonal violence and gender roles and rules. The results show that the students made distinctions between acceptable and unacceptable uses of violence, supporting the idea behind a dichotomy of deviant and non-deviant interpersonal violence behaviors. In addition, students also recognized the overarching and detrimental existence of the machismo culture in society, which, in their eyes, perpetuates interpersonal violence. They were also generally unaware of any help that existed for abused adults, adolescents or children. Results show that the machismo culture that affects the socialization of adolescents is well recognized among adolescents and perceived as a detriment to people through gender role expectations and the use and perpetuation of interpersonal violence

Beasts of Flight

Beasts of Flight is a set of thirteen short stories connected by themes of personal impotence and the dysfunction of sexual relationships. Some stories are bizarre. The title piece, “Beasts of Flight,” explores systemic hatred and fear through the eyes of a talking parrot. In “I Should Exit My Home When the Costume Party Causes Paralysis of the Brain,” the host of a Halloween party is frozen by the mask of one of his guests. “The Joytime Killbox” details a city’s obsession with staring down the the barrel of a loaded gun. Crossing into sacrilege, “The Book of Smote,” is a subversive take on Old Testament storytelling. Other stories display the inherent strife of relationships using piercings, airplanes, a couple’s movie night, and an impromptu lunch at a fast food restaurant. “My Roberta,” “Rough Air,” “Walking Dogs,” and “Cheri,” all focus on sexual conflict and marital breakdown. The stories “Fallen Timbers,” “USS Flagg,” and “What to Say ff Anything to a Child in the Speedway Bathroom” examines the unexpected repercussions of doing a good deed. While “Homecoming” and “Coetzee Comes to Dinner” illustrate that even the best families have their problems

Beasts of Flight

Beasts of Flight is a set of thirteen short stories connected by themes of personal impotence and the dysfunction of sexual relationships. Some stories are bizarre. The title piece, “Beasts of Flight,” explores systemic hatred and fear through the eyes of a talking parrot. In “I Should Exit My Home When the Costume Party Causes Paralysis of the Brain,” the host of a Halloween party is frozen by the mask of one of his guests. “The Joytime Killbox” details a city’s obsession with staring down the the barrel of a loaded gun. Crossing into sacrilege, “The Book of Smote,” is a subversive take on Old Testament storytelling. Other stories display the inherent strife of relationships using piercings, airplanes, a couple’s movie night, and an impromptu lunch at a fast food restaurant. “My Roberta,” “Rough Air,” “Walking Dogs,” and “Cheri,” all focus on sexual conflict and marital breakdown. The stories “Fallen Timbers,” “USS Flagg,” and “What to Say ff Anything to a Child in the Speedway Bathroom” examines the unexpected repercussions of doing a good deed. While “Homecoming” and “Coetzee Comes to Dinner” illustrate that even the best families have their problems

Decolonizing: The Curriculum, the Museum, and the Mind

'Decolonizing: The Curriculum, the Museum, and the Mind' tries to identify where we’re at and where we might be going vis-à-vis the idea of decolonizing – better, the process of decolonization – in higher education, museums and galleries, and the ongoing legacies of colonization that shape structures and infrastructures, policies and protocols, mentalities and behaviours, and minds and bodies. Co-authors: Danah Abdulla, Teresa Cisneros, Andrea Francke, Lolita Jablonskiene, Ieva Mazuraite-Novickiene, Achille Mbembe, Almira Ousmanova, Ieva Pleikiene, Marquard Smith, and Michelle Williams Gamaker

The effects of brain trauma on the memory skills of musicians

The localization of function in terms of music processing in the brain has fascinated researchers in many disciplines for well over one hundred years. Is there a central location for this specialized and complex process or does it involve many different areas of the brain? Some researchers have thought that the processing of language and music are analogous, but does the processing of music occur in the same way as language (Damasio and Damasio, 1977), (Zatorre, 1984)? In recent years the use of non-invasive imaging techniques such as the PET scan (Positron Emission Tomography) and MRI (Magnetic Resonance Imaging) have proven to be most accurate in the demonstration of brain activity (Vollmer-Haase et aI., 1998) and have led researchers to agree that there is not a specific anatomical centre for music in the brain (Baeck, 2002), (Peretz, 2002). This thesis will examine in what way and to what degree various types of Traumatic Brain Injury in musicians affect music memory. A pilot study was conducted with musicians who have not experienced brain trauma. These musicians were asked to complete a questionnaire and then were interviewed in order to understand the process with which they utilize their musical memory. Six brain-injured musicians were also interviewed in the same manner. When possible, medical records were solicited and reviewed as a means of ascertaining specifics regarding the trauma. Using then, a qualitative framework in a case study format, the questionnaire and the focused interviews will provide the data. (London, 1982), (Psathas, 1972). This format will provide a perspective that has been neglected in many studies in Neuromusicology, that of allowing the musicians to speak for themselves. The interviews are a study of the personal reflections of the musicians who are commenting on their understanding of their own experiences of musical memory. While my interest does lie in the clinical evidence provided by researchers in the field of Neuromusicology and their insights into musical memory, there has not been any extensive work written which concerns itself with the personal experiences of musicians and their subjective interpretation of these memorization processes. The balance between -\ the clinical evidence needs to be contrasted with the subjective elements of a person's selfperception and understanding. It is my aim in this study to explore these perceptions in the context of real life situations. It should also be noted that the observations made are a reflection of the subject's personal experiences and their subjective view of these experiences

Multivariate scaling methods and the reconstruction of social spaces: Papers in honor of Jörg Blasius

This edited volume assembles contributions of leading scholars in the fields of statistical methods and applications in the social sciences. Multivariate scaling methods for categorical data, in particular correspondence analysis, are used to extract the most important dimensions from complex data tables and to visualize relationships in the data. The volume treats recent statistical developments, methodological considerations, and empirical applications. A special emphasis is placed on multiple aspects of space and their sociological significance: the reconstruction of "social spaces" with statistical methods, illustrations of spatial relations involving proximity, distance and inequality, and concrete interactions in urban neighbourhoods