Who Am I Interviewing?

The last twenty years have seen an increasing emphasis on the role of the subject both in sociological theory and in methodological guides on the unstructured qualitative research interview. I will argue that this emphasis on subjects is misplaced and cannot lead to a clear understanding of social relations or sociological interviewing. To make this argument I will look at what could be taken as the basic social relation in social research: the qualitative interview between sociologist and research participant. I will argue that major methodological problems arise when interviewees are addressed as identified subjects and when interviews are understood as exchanges between subjects. I will also argue that sociologists who presume subjectivity in this way are not clear about the methodology of interviews because they are not clear about the basic logic of social relation. As well as trying to clarify this logic, I will also try to draw out some of the practical implications of a genuinely social understanding of the interview

Meetings

This article examines the different theories of meeting offered by Durkheim, Mauss, Sartre, Lévi-Strauss, Bohm, Levinas and Buber. Through this examination we question the common assumption that social life, and more particularly the gift, is based on exchange — on the sequence of giving, receiving and reciprocating — which is fundamentally a Hegelian logic of subjects and objects. While many aspects of social life take this form, true meeting is characterized by a quality of grace; it occurs only when the Hegelian world gives way to a presence that has a different temporality, spatiality and ontology. This world is glimpsed, but inadequately conceptualized, in Durkheim s theory of religious congregation, which is characterized by a tension between identity and relational logics

Becoming Who You Are

Desirous time is not conducive to learning because its fantasies are distractions from the present moment, the time when genuine creative possibilities emerge. In contrast, the time of love, of an I–Thou relation, is the time of potential and infinitude. This is when engaged learning occurs, and when students develop the practices that open them to a creative way of being. In contrast to the future-oriented linearity of desirous time, the time of creative learning is the time of presence. This argument is developed using interview material from well-known Australians and well-regarded Australian teachers

How to Understand Custodial Belonging

Debates about ecological responsibility are interested in different forms of belonging. This article develops an understanding of a custodial form of belonging based on the logic of relation, which we distinguish from a proprietorial form of belonging based on the logic of identity. Theorists working on questions of belonging use a language of custodianship when describing a sense of responsibility and care that arises through connection or relation. We argue, however, that the full significance of custodial belonging cannot be appreciated when understandings of connection are derived from within the terms of identity logic. In other words, when belonging is understood in terms of identity and identification, custodianship is inadvertently reduced to a proprietorial form of responsibility and care. We develop this argument by addressing Australian research on custodial belonging. Focusing on the influential work of Deborah Bird Rose, we argue that there are tensions between, on the one hand, her attempts to recognise connected forms of belonging, and, on the other, her conceptual reliance on the assumptions of identity logic. Our primary concern here is to indicate relational possibilities in her work precluded by the language of identity. In particular, we suggest that the concept of ecological being allows for a specificity and inclusiveness that are not recognised by Rose’s concept of the ‘ecologically emplaced self’

Semantic categorisation of a word supports its phonological integrity in verbal short-term memory

In three immediate serial recall (ISR) experiments we tested the hypothesis that interactive processing between semantics and phonology supports phonological coherence in verbal short-term memory (STM). Participants categorised spoken words in six-item lists as they were presented, according to their semantic or phonological properties, then repeated the items in presentation order (Experiment 1). Despite matched categorisation performance between conditions, semantically-categorised words were correctly recalled more often than phonologically-categorised words. This accuracy advantage in the semantic condition was accompanied by fewer phoneme recombination errors. Comparisons with a no- categorisation ISR baseline (Experiment 2) indicated that, although categorisations were disruptive overall, recombination errors were specifically rarer following semantic cate- gorisation. Experiment 3 replicated the key findings from Experiment 1 and also revealed fewer phonologically-related errors following semantic categorisation compared to a per- ceptual categorisation of high or low pitch. Therefore, augmented activation of semantic representations stabilises the phonological traces of words within verbal short-term memory, in line with the ‘‘semantic binding” hypothesis

Who Am I Interviewing?

The last twenty years have seen an increasing emphasis on the role of the subject both in sociological theory and in methodological guides on the unstructured qualitative research interview. I will argue that this emphasis on subjects is misplaced and cannot lead to a clear understanding of social relations or sociological interviewing. To make this argument I will look at what could be taken as the basic social relation in social research: the qualitative interview between sociologist and research participant. I will argue that major methodological problems arise when interviewees are addressed as identified subjects and when interviews are understood as exchanges between subjects. I will also argue that sociologists who presume subjectivity in this way are not clear about the methodology of interviews because they are not clear about the basic logic of social relation. As well as trying to clarify this logic, I will also try to draw out some of the practical implications of a genuinely social understanding of the interview

Mapping to underpin management of tropical littoral rainforest

[Extract] The aim of the project was to produce fine-resolution mapping of the location of the critically endangered Littoral Rainforest & Coastal Vine Thickets of Eastern Australia ecological community (LRF) between Townsville and Cooktown and the threats to its persistence and condition from the impacts of sea-level rise, storm surge and extreme weather events. A pilot study conducted in the Mission Beach area (Metcalfe et al. 2014) developed a mapping approach which accounts for the identification and distribution of Littoral rainforest consistent with the Listing Advice. This project extended that approach across the distribution of the ecological community from Townville to Cooktown. This project used coastal LiDAR data (1 m grid, 0.15 m accuracy) to compile fine-scale terrain layers to derive inundation levels for an 80 cm sea-level rise and for eight storm surge Annual Recurrence Intervals (ARIs) between 20 and 10,000 years. Spatial layers of the location of LRF and inundation were overlaid to determine the probability and magnitude of risk to the ecological community from these effects and to prioritise management interventions. The following spatial layers were derived and are available at the CSIRO data portal: • LRF vegetation that ‘wholly-equates’ to the EPBC Listing Advice • ‘Potential’ LRF delineating areas consistent with broad characteristics of the community described in the EPBC Listing Advice • Inundation statistics for each patch of wholly-equate LRF and potential LRF (patches defined by RE mapping) indicating: o the proportion of each patch inundated with 80 cm sea-level rise o the proportion of each patch inundated at each of 8 ARIs with and without sea-level rise o the ARI at which a patch first becomes inundated o the ARI at which a patch is >20% inundated o the ARI at which a patch is >50% inundated We describe the distribution and extent of LRF in the study region, the current pressures on LRF in the region and the distribution of LRF in the region with respect to the conservation estate and other tenures. Our mapping and inundation analysis can be used to define a number of different roles of LRF in the landscape on which a portfolio of management approaches can be derived which allow for the short-, medium- and long-term effects of sea-level rise and storm surge. We define ‘refugial’, ‘buffer’ and ‘leading-edge’ LRF patches by the relative frequency at which they become inundated and suggest management actions to improve resilience of the community as a whole

Making too much of a weak case

LetterB E Christopher Nordin, Robin M Daly, John Horowitz, Andrew V Metcalf

Exploratory analysis of multivariate drill core time series measurements

Demand for mineral resources is increasing, necessitating exploitation of lower grade and more heterogeneous orebodies. The high variability inherent in such orebodies leads to an increase in the cost, complexity and environmental footprint associated with mining and mineral processing. Enhanced knowledge of orebody characteristics is thus vital for mining companies to optimize profitability. We present a pilot study to investigate prediction of geometallurgical variables from drill sensor data. A comparison is made of the performance of multilayer perceptron (MLP) and multiple linear regression models (MLR) for predicting a geometallurgical variable. This comparison is based on simulated data that are physically realistic, having been derived from models fitted to the one available drill core. 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