Language policy and linguistic landscaping in a contemporary blue-collar workplace in the Dutch–German borderland

This article argues that an expanded view of linguistic landscapes provides a useful metaphor for exploring language policies. Following this view, “language policy” is defined as “linguistic landscaping” (i.e., placing language policy mechanisms which, together with already placed mechanisms, construct a metaphorical landscape). The application of this landscaping metaphor has several advantages, as it provides a way to imagine language policy as a continuously ongoing construction process, and as it provides a way to imagine the historical layers of a landscape, the overlap and connections between different landscapes, and the complex hierarchical positions within a landscape. The article is based on linguistic-ethnographic fieldwork in a metal foundry in the Dutch province of Limburg, within walking distance from the Dutch–German border. Specifically, it discusses why a group of senior production workers from Limburg were dissatisfied with the linguistically diverse landscape that had emerged in the foundry over time, even though the foundry’s management tried to place Dutch-speaking workers in the company’s sociolinguistic norm centre. Confirming the usefulness of the landscaping metaphor, the article shows that a full consideration of diverse historical and contemporary acts of both linguistic and semiotic landscaping helps explain why these workers experienced that their position in the foundry had become peripheralised over time. In conclusion, the article calls for more attention to the complex human experience, rather than just the detection, of sociolinguistic inequalities

Power dynamics at work:an ethnography of a multilingual metal foundry in the Dutch-German borderland

This PhD dissertation is a linguistic ethnography of a metal foundry in the Dutch province of Limburg, in the Dutch-German borderland. When its fieldwork data were collected in 2017, over 300 people with many different language backgrounds worked in the production departments of the foundry, including Dutch, German, Limburgish, and Polish, as well as Arabic, Greek, Russian, and Turkish, among others. Some workers lived on the Dutch, others on the German side of the border. Slightly more than half were temporary workers, and an important part of their daily and nightly work consisted of interactions with machines. The dissertation contains lively and detailed descriptions of life in the metal foundry. A returning issue is to what degree the language diversity in the workplace constituted a ‘problem’ or not, and if yes: what the nature of this ‘problem’ was. The dissertation shows that speakers of majoritised languages in the foundry often found the language diversity more problematic than speakers of minoritised languages, that the often-temporary work relations constituted a bigger obstacle for communication and workplace learning than language diversity in and of itself, and that production workers often had more problems understanding machines in the workplace than each other. The dissertation reflects upon these and other observations and applies both established, linguistic-ethnographic as well as post-humanist concepts

Klinische psychopathologie: Niet hoe het was; niet hoe het is; hoe het wordt

Klinische psychopathologie gaat hierover: over mensen met een aandoening die klagen en last hebben van symptomen en daar professionele bijstand voor vragen

Summary of Northern Europe as a role model:successful enterprise in a globalising economy

Does Northern Europe possess unique characteristics that cannot disappear and do not need to disappear, or will globalisation inevitably result in uniformity, divested businesses, lower wages and huge pressure on social security provisions? This is one of the main questions addressed by the authors. The authors examine how companies respond to global developments. They also discuss the implications of these developments for entrepreneurs and whether knowledge institutions and governments play a part in creating a climate that is conducive to enterprise. They consider these issues from the perspective of different regions. Each region has its own distinct regional characteristics and its own distinct regional views on particular issues. As well as endeavouring to describe the key macroeconomic characteristics, they also consider how (entrepreneurial and policy-making) organisations should respond to the current macroeconomic challenges

Emotional scars : impact of childhood trauma on depressive and anxiety disorders

The aim of this thesis was to investigate the effect of childhood trauma and childhood life-events on the development and course of depressive and anxiety disorders, and to identify risk factors contributing to these associations. In brief, our findings indicate that childhood trauma is an important risk factor for the development of depressive and/or anxiety disorders, especially depressive and comorbid disorders, and predicts a more chronic course of illness. Emotional neglect, as core component of childhood trauma, is of particular relevance and has a predominant and strong negative impact on onset and course of depressive and anxiety disorders. Our mediation analyses demonstrate the lifelong scarring through which childhood trauma may affect cognitive style, personality traits and ultimately psychopathology in adulthood. The findings of this thesis are keys to increased awareness of the negative impact of childhood trauma on psychosocial functioning, personality profile, and psychopathology. Based on our findings, recommendations for Chapter 7 Summary 136 clinical practice and future research have been formulated.The infrastructure for the Netherlands Study of Depression and Anxiety (www.nesda.nl) is funded through the Geestkracht program of the Netherlands Organisation for Health Research and Development (Zon-MW, grant nummer 10-000-1002) and is supported by participating universities and mental health care organizations (VU University Medical Center, GGZ inGeest, Arkin, Leiden University Medical Center, GGZ Rivierduinen, University Medical Center Groningen, Lentis, GGZ Friesland, GGZ Drenthe, Scientific Institute for Quality of Healthcare [IQ healthcare], Netherlands Institute for Health Services Research [NIVEL] and Netherlands Institute of Mental Health and Addiction [Trimbos]).UBL - phd migration 201

The thyrotropin receptor in thyroid carcinoma

A subgroup of patients with thyroid cancer (10-15% of patients with DTC) with distant metastases have high remission rates after conventional RaI-treatment. We have explored several routes which in time may help to improve the prognosis for this subset of patients, focussing on the TSHR. The combination of troglitazone and lovastatin may have potential use in DTC as we observed a strong reduction of growth and distinct changes in morphology in the follicular thyroid carcinoma cell-line FTC-133 at clinically achievable concentrations. Furthermore, the combination of troglitazone and lovastatin was able to increase the expression of NIS and the TSHR which may prove to be beneficial in sensitizing thyroid tumor cells to conventional RaI therapy. Secondly, we explored the possibility of thyroid specific membrane associated therapy by using the TSHR as a target. We succeeded in modifying TSH into a potential vehicle for toxins by converting it into a single chain protein with improved binding to the TSHR. The fusion of short proteins to our modified single chain TSH did not impair binding thus confirming the potential in using modified TSH as a vehicle for therapeutic proteins. We have demonstrated in our studies that a balanced attitude is feasible in commonly used TSH suppressing thyroxine replacement therapy, thus preventing those patients from the potential negative effects of long term TSH suppression on other organs.UBL - phd migration 201