Theater im Gespräch

Conversation in the theatrical break is traditionally associated with the ideal of a public which, inspired by the previous stage experience, rhetorically skillfully communicates about aesthetic and socio-political issues. On the other hand, it is assumed from a critical perspective that such conversations primarily served social distinction, with a banal content. This study empirically reconstructs the practices characteristic of such situations between art communication and recreation, sociability and informal learning on a conversational basis

Systematic review and meta-analysis of the diagnostic accuracy of ultrasonography for deep vein thrombosis

Background Ultrasound (US) has largely replaced contrast venography as the definitive diagnostic test for deep vein thrombosis (DVT). We aimed to derive a definitive estimate of the diagnostic accuracy of US for clinically suspected DVT and identify study-level factors that might predict accuracy. Methods We undertook a systematic review, meta-analysis and meta-regression of diagnostic cohort studies that compared US to contrast venography in patients with suspected DVT. We searched Medline, EMBASE, CINAHL, Web of Science, Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews, Cochrane Controlled Trials Register, Database of Reviews of Effectiveness, the ACP Journal Club, and citation lists (1966 to April 2004). Random effects meta-analysis was used to derive pooled estimates of sensitivity and specificity. Random effects meta-regression was used to identify study-level covariates that predicted diagnostic performance. Results We identified 100 cohorts comparing US to venography in patients with suspected DVT. Overall sensitivity for proximal DVT (95% confidence interval) was 94.2% (93.2 to 95.0), for distal DVT was 63.5% (59.8 to 67.0), and specificity was 93.8% (93.1 to 94.4). Duplex US had pooled sensitivity of 96.5% (95.1 to 97.6) for proximal DVT, 71.2% (64.6 to 77.2) for distal DVT and specificity of 94.0% (92.8 to 95.1). Triplex US had pooled sensitivity of 96.4% (94.4 to 97.1%) for proximal DVT, 75.2% (67.7 to 81.6) for distal DVT and specificity of 94.3% (92.5 to 95.8). Compression US alone had pooled sensitivity of 93.8 % (92.0 to 95.3%) for proximal DVT, 56.8% (49.0 to 66.4) for distal DVT and specificity of 97.8% (97.0 to 98.4). Sensitivity was higher in more recently published studies and in cohorts with higher prevalence of DVT and more proximal DVT, and was lower in cohorts that reported interpretation by a radiologist. Specificity was higher in cohorts that excluded patients with previous DVT. No studies were identified that compared repeat US to venography in all patients. Repeat US appears to have a positive yield of 1.3%, with 89% of these being confirmed by venography. Conclusion Combined colour-doppler US techniques have optimal sensitivity, while compression US has optimal specificity for DVT. However, all estimates are subject to substantial unexplained heterogeneity. The role of repeat scanning is very uncertain and based upon limited data

Partnerorientierung zwischen Realität und Imagination: Anmerkungen zu einem zentralen Konzept der Dialogtheorie

This paper attempts a critique of the notion of 'dialogue' in dialogue theory as espoused by Linell, Markova, and others building on Bakhtin’s writings. According to them, human communication, culture, language, and even cognition are dialogical in nature. This implies that these domains work by principles of other-orientation and interaction. In our paper, we reject accepting other-orientation as an a priori condition of every semiotic action. Instead, we claim that in order to be an empirically useful concept for the social sciences, it must be shown if and how observable action is other-oriented. This leads us to the following questions: how can we methodically account for other-orientation of semiotic action? Does other-orientation always imply interaction? Is every human expression oriented towards others? How does the other, as s/he is represented in semiotic action, relate to the properties which the other can be seen to exhibit as indexed by their observable behavior? We study these questions by asking how the orientation towards others becomes evident in different forms of communication. For this concern, we introduce ‘recipient design’, ‘positioning’ and ‘intersubjectivity’ as concepts which allow us to inquire how semiotic action both takes the other into account and, reflexively, shapes him/her as an addressee having certain properties. We then specifically focus on actions and situations in which other-orientation is particularly problematic, such as interactions with children, animals, machines, or communication with unknown recipients via mass media. These borderline cases are scrutinized in order to delineate both limits and constitutive properties of other-orientation. We show that there are varieties of meaningful actions which do not exhibit an orientation towards the other, which do not rest on (the possibility of) interaction with the other or which even disregard what their producer can be taken to know about the other. Available knowledge about the other may be ignored in order to reach interactional goals, e. g. in strategical interactions or for concerns of socialization. If semiotic action is otherorientated, its design depends on how the other is available to and matters for their producer. Other-orientation may build on shared biographical experiences with the other, knowledge about the other as an individual and close attention to their situated conduct. However, other-orientation may also rest on (stereo-)typification with respect to institutional roles or group membership. In any case, others as they are represented in semiotic action can never be just others-as-such, but only othersas-perceived-by-the-actor. We conclude that the strong emphasis which dialogue theories put on otherorientation obscures that other-orientation is neither universal in semiotic action, that it must be distinguished from an interactive relationship, and that the ways in which the other figures in semiotic actions is not homogeneous in any of its most general properties. Instead, there is a huge variation in the ways in which the other can be taken into account. Therefore close scrutiny of how the other precisely figures in a certain kind of semiotic action is needed in order to lend the concept of ‘other-orientation’ empirical substance and a definite sense

Handeln in Praxis. Hinter- und Untergründe situierter sprachlicher Bedeutungskonstitution

Wer sprachliche zu kommunikativen Praktiken in Beziehung setzt, muss bekanntlich dem Umstand Rechnung tragen, dass die zur Bedeutungskonstitution gebrauchten sprachlichen Ressourcen semantisch und pragmatisch weit unbestimmter sind als die Bedeutungen, die an Interaktionsprozessen Beteiligte Äußerungen zuschreiben, die (u.a.) auf der Verwendung dieser sprachlichen Symbole beruhen. Fragt man vor diesem Hintergrund danach, wie die Kluft zwischen Sprache und Kommunikation in der Verständigung und Kooperation geschlossen wird, so kommen Probleme ins Blickfeld, die in der theoretischen Linguistik bislang in erster Linie auf handlungslogischer Grundlage bearbeitet werden. Der gegenwärtige „Practice turn“ bezieht seine Legitimation aus einer Kritik an (bestimmten) handlungstheoretischen Positionen, die individuelle (Zweck-)Rationaliät bzw. konventionell geteiltes (Regel-)Wissen – modellhaft – als hinreichende Voraussetzungen menschlicher Kommunikation begreifen. Dagegen gehen (bestimmte) Praxistheorien von der Annahme aus, dass Sozialität basal in einer interaktionalen „Infrastruktur“ (Schegloff 2012) gründet, auf deren Basis durch sprachliches und praktisches Tun in Verbindung mit komplexen kulturellen Verstehenshintergründen (Schatzki 2002) kommunikativer Sinn gleichermaßen reproduktiv wie stets dynamisch hergestellt wird. Der vorliegende Beitrag erprobt anhand von Daten aus einem laufenden DFG-Projekt über Foyer-Gespräche im Theater – speziell im Blick auf Bewertungen – die methodische Reichweite handlungslogischer und praxeologischer Herangehensweisen und erörtert im Kontext der linguistischen Pragmatik ihr Verhältnis zueinander