Carousel of Consumerism: Austrian Filmmaker Barbara Albert’s Critique of Contemporary Society in \u3cem\u3eBöse Zellen\u3c/em\u3e

All of Austrian filmmaker Barbara Albert’s three feature films, Nordrand (Northern Skirts) (1999), Böse Zellen (Free Radicals) (2003) and Fallen (Falling) (2006), portray human relationships in flux and depict people reacting to changes in the world. These films critique society obliquely as they present damaged figures in their attempts to shape a meaningful existence. Albert always manages to keep the viewer floating on the side of this latter point—that of looking for a meaningful existence, even though the social setting often appears so meaningless and commercialized. In Böse Zellen the building and opening of a new shopping mall play a role in bringing together the many characters’ lives. This film from 2003 and its mall’s offering of a carousel of consumer fantasy masks a sense of alienation in contemporary society; this alienation appears in all of Albert’s films, but it provides specific anti-consumerist ideas in Böse Zellen—a film that successfully empties the promise of consumer happiness

Weimar Anxieties Through Avant Garde Short Film

One of the clearest ways to understand a society and the held mentalities and beliefs over time is through film. The era of the Weimar Republic in Germany through the lens of film shows a society not just rooted in political and post-war fear, but anxiety of changing gender roles and norms in culture. The heavily edited and cut up style of dada in Berlin from artists like Hannah Höch and Raoul Hausmann act as representations of the held mentalities of fear and anxiety during the Weimar Republic. ‘Kunst an Kunst’, translated into English as ‘Art on Art’, recreates the style and form of Berlin dada art through collage in the medium of film. Following the creative endeavors of Berlin Dadaists, ‘Kunst an ‘Kunst’ heavily plays into the themes of gender roles, fear of modernity, and New Objectivity. By sampling films from German dada directors like Hans Richter, along with other Avant Garde short films of the time and radio plays of the era, this heavily edited and constructed art film displays the same fears and anxieties that controlled Germany from the years 1919 to 1933

Cognitive and social delays in the initiation of conversational repair

The exact timing of a conversational turn conveys important information to a listener. Most turns are initiated within 250ms after the previous turn. However, interlocutors take longer to initiate certain types of turns: those that either require more cognitive processing or are socially dispreferred. Many dispreferred turns are also cognitively demanding, so it is difficult to attribute specific conversational delays to social or cognitive mechanisms. In this paper, we evaluate the relative contribution of cognitive and social variables to the timing of utterances in conversation. We focus on a type of turn that is socially dispreferred, cognitively demanding, and generally delayed: other-initiations of repair (OIRs). OIRs occur when a listener notices and decides to signal a comprehension problem (e.g., "What?"). We analyzed the Floor Transfer Offsets of 456 OIRs, and found that interlocutors initiated OIRs later when trouble sources had weaker discourse context or were shorter, and when the OIR was more face-threatening. Our results suggest that both cognitive and social variables contribute to the timing of delayed utterances in conversation. We discuss how attention, prediction, planning, and social preference manifest in the timing of turns

Calibration to swaptions in the libor market model

Master'sMASTER OF SCIENC

Adapting an Elementary School Nutrition Context Assessment for High School Settings and Students

The school nutrition context is comprised of supportive environmental features, programs, policies, and social relationships that shape students’ healthy dietary choices and patterns. When engaging students as change agents, advocates, and partners in making healthy nutrition choices easier, environmental assessment tools developed for adults may be too complex or inappropriately tailored for youth. Adolescents need practical, user-tailored tools that reliably measure the food and beverage environments they encounter in school to inform youth-led changes to the school nutrition context. To meet this need, an evidence-based school environmental assessment was adapted for use in high schools by students as evaluators. Cooperative Extension educators engaged students in experiential learning to adapt the nutrition component of an environmental tool (SPAN-ET) designed for elementary school contexts to high school applications. The resulting tool is a comprehensive nutrition-specific adaptation that incorporates considerations of food security, structures for youth-driven data collection, and data-identified areas for action. The tool was adapted in one high school setting and piloted in three additional high schools. Student-generated data were used to prioritize and plan policy, systems, and environmental strategies aimed at increasing healthy food/beverage access and supporting healthy eating/drinking behaviors to reduce hunger and obesity risk factors in schools

«Nå er han borte»: Minoritets- og majoritetsnorske om å følge en som står nær, i siste fase av livet

Two questions are explored in this article: How is it experienced to accompany a dear one at the end of life? And, how these experiences can be interpreted as shared by all humans? The empirical material are qualitative interviews. Interpretations are made using theories on how we are made into human beings in close relations to others – and how this is universal despite cultural and social differences. The point of departure, is a tendency to do research on “elderly immigrants” and on health- and care services equal to all, based on certain assumptions: That cultural differences make distinctions and a need for health professionals to be culturally competent. These perspectives are, however, criticized for constructing othering, for ignoring asymmetrical power relations and the ability of professionals to use their competence on human relations – no matter who people are. The article relates to the critique. Interviews with minority and majority Norwegians on experiences of accompanying their dear ones at the end of life, are analyzed inspired by a phenomenological strategy: First close to the actual experiences individuals talk about, then based on a theoretical framework. A close community based on a shared we, is visible in the narratives analyzed. This is a we characterized by love, as well as dependency and commitment. But it is also a community of tending, caring and administrating – as well as distancing towards a fact hard to acknowledge; the death of the other. At the end it is also a community of farewell. These are experiences interpreted as universal to all humans, using Martin Bubers philosophy on I-Thou relations and I-It relations – how we are made in to human beings in relations to the other. As well as theory on partiality in special relations, such as the family. Experiences of accompanying a dear at the end of life challenge I-Thou-relations.I denne artikkelen utforskes to spørsmål: Hvordan erfares det å følge en som står nær, fram mot døden? Og, hvordan kan slike erfaringer forstås som fellesmenneskelige? Dette gjøres basert på et kvalitativt intervjumateriale og teorier om hvordan de nære relasjonene bidrar til å bestemme oss som menneskelige – på tvers av sosiale og kulturelle forskjeller. Utgangspunktet er en tendens til at det i forskning om «eldre innvandrere» og om hvordan skape likeverdige helse- og omsorgstjenester i møte med en mangfoldig sammensatt befolkning, fokuseres på kulturell forskjell og behov for kultur- sensitiv kompetanse. Samtidig kritiseres dette perspektivet for å være andregjørende, for å ha manglende oppmerksomhet om sammensatte maktforskjeller, og for å overse profesjonelles universelt anvendelige menneskekunnskap. I artikkelen analyseres et intervjumateriale med minoritetsnorske og majoritetsnorske etter- latte. De forteller om erfaringer med å følge en nærstående i siste fase av livet. En empirinær fortolkning av materialet synliggjør fellesskapet som trer fram i de ulike individuelle erfaringene, et fellesskap som er et tett vi – preget av kjærlighet, men også av avhengighet og forpliktelse. Det rommer pleie, omsorgs- og administrasjonsoppgaver. Og det rommer avstand til det de pårørende, på ulike bevissthetsnivåer vet; at den andre skal dø. Til slutt rommer dette vi’et også avskjeden. Erfaringene kan forstås som universelle og fellesmenneskelige basert på teori om nære og familiære relasjoner frie for mål-middel-rasjonalitet, men også basert på filosofen Martin Bubers tilnærming til at mennesket blir til som et Jeg ved å inngå i forhold til et Du – et forhold der man er uten noe bestemt formål, og ved å inngå i forhold til et Det – der den andre forstås som et objekt. Å følge noen i den siste fasen av livet, gjennom ekstremhverdager, utfordrer gjensidigheten i tette og nære Jeg-Du-relasjoner

La imagen negativa de los jóvenes en los adultos mayores de Segovia como freno para el programa de Convivencia Intergeneracional

Con este trabajo intentamos comprender el fracaso del programa de Alojamientos Compartidos que brinda la Universidad de Valladolid. Nos basamos en la hipótesis de que existe una mala imagen y un estereotipo por parte de los adultos mayores sobre los jóvenes, y que a raíz de eso es que los mayores no aceptan convivir con estudiantes. Hemos realizado distintos planes, con el fin de lograr un contacto real entre personas mayores y jóvenes, y para comprender qué es lo que opina una generación de la otra.Máster en Comunicación con Fines Sociales: Estrategias y Campaña