Defining participatory video from practice

In this chapter we explore the common threads within different strands of participatory video by considering some examples of practice. Taken together these reveal a rich diversity of purpose and application. Participatory video has been used as a term to describe some quite distinct practices, and conversely, there are instances of the use of video in social settings that seem to be closely related to participatory video without being described as such. This makes it difficult to immediately pin down what the term means, and indeed it is said that there is no common understanding of participatory video. To scholars the diversity of participatory video practice presents two separate issues. The first is that it is necessary to bear in mind that participatory video has been applied in many more ways outside of academic research and education than inside. Even if one is only interested in participatory video solely as a component of research, an understanding of non-academic practice is likely to enrich and enhance methodological choices. The second is that participatory video is a rich site for a pragmatic and phronetic scholarship that questions social experiences to explore what works and to what end. The question here is what lessons can be learned from diverse practices, and how to apply this learning elsewhere. Thus with participatory video, as with any practice, scholarship has a role to play in terms of providing a platform for considered and critical reflection, a space to consider the significance of what is and of what could be. Effective reflection rests on some basic taxonomic work in order to gain an overview of the field. We therefore have selected three vignettes to show some key features of participatory video in practice, with an eye to establishing a broad baseline. These examples are drawn from our personal research in two cases and some background research in the third. For the purpose of this chapter, breadth is more appropriate if we are interested in to explore the range of extant practice, and the vignettes are simple outlines to provide illustration for an exploratory discussion rather than fully developed case studies with all of the detailed evidence presented

Visiting the House of Bad\u27s Mother: Queering Saadat Hasan Manto\u27s “Thanda Gosht”

This essay reads Saadat Hasan Manto\u27s short story, “Thanda Gosht” (1950), depicting women\u27s experience of sectarian brutality during the 1947 partition of India and Pakistan, to delineate the postcolonial significance Gayatri Spivak\u27s concept of originary queerness. Manto\u27s synecdoche (“cold meat”) for an unnamed and raped female corpse, her Sikh abductor and violator, as well as for the story\u27s readers, (re)figures reproductive heteronormativity as a process of unknowing that emplaces a gendered taxonomy, even when its victims are silent. Rather than reinforce sexual difference as a finished itinerary, however, Kulwant Kaur\u27s repeatedly piercing question—who she is—queers “Thanda Gosht” by taking us to a “she” who we cannot imagine but seem to know. This tarrying with originary queerness “in its place” (Spivak, “Gender” 817, emphases added) dockets an unpredictable futurity made especially resonant by the chill that asseverates from Ishar\u27s Singh\u27s use of a peculiar affective idiom to describe his encounter with the unnamed and raped corpse, whose originary queerness inverts a teleological trajectory to manifest (the fight for) Nation as (visiting) “burre ki ma ka ghar” (बुरे की माँ के घर; the house of Bad\u27s mother). This place, far from patriarchal honor and protection, makes a “zaalim” (ज़ािलम; bloodthirsty) of (“us”) all, such that we cannot say what happened

"My SocioWorld" : an optimized application for mobile social networking

Being connected with old social contacts and making new social contacts on social networking sites is becoming more essential these days. Mobile social networking is adding value towards socializing world by being connected any day, anywhere, anytime and on the go. Applications providing good user experience and taking full advantage of increasing capabilities of mobile phones are still challenging. The common challenges faced by user while using different social networking sites on mobile phone are; increased level of concentration, limited mobile display and rising cost of mobile communication. Ultimately all these affect users’ engagement in mobile social networking. In this thesis, the focus is to propose an optimize application for mobile social networking by adopting user centred design methodology. It involves integration of users’ favourite social networking sites that would facilitate them in socializing with different social networking services from one common user-interface. Further the involvement of users with proposed application is supported by the changing trends of mobile phones by becoming full-featured mobile computers. Several iterative user-interface designs are represented graphically and interaction with those designs is displayed. The proposed application focuses on different ways user could remain active on this application and be able to create new content easily with the help of integrated mobile tools available within smart phone mobile device. Additionally, a usability test is performed with the potential users to validate proposed application. Based on feedbacks and suggestions from the users who performed usability test, further enhancements are made to improve the end-user experience. Thus, by considering the needs and requirements of the end-users the proposed application has been developed to provide enhanced user usability and satisfaction for today’s mobile social networking

Reimagining The Orchestra Subscription Model

The need to revitalize orchestra subscriptions to meet the needs of today's audiences is absolutely critical. Until now, there has been a lack of field-wide research in this area, so we knew we had to employ a data-driven approach to find strategies to meet the challenge. Working with the expert team at Oliver Wyman and in partnership with League of American Orchestra members, we created the largest ever orchestra sales dataset. Ten years of transaction data, combined with new surveys and buying simulations, provided an incredibly strong empirical basis for the analysis in this final report. The result is a compelling set of recommendations and guidance for orchestras as well as other performing arts producers to consider as building blocks for future audience and donor development strategies

Establishment of Methods for Isolation of Pnmt+ Cardiac Progenitor Cells

Cardiovascular disease is the leading cause of death in the United States. Millions of patients suffer each year from endothelial dysfunction and/or debilitating myocardial damage resulting in decreased quality of life and increased risk of death or disablement. Current pharmacological approaches are only partly effective at treating cardiovascular disease, and hence, better strategies are needed to provide significant improvements in treatment options. Cardiac stem/progenitor cells have the potential to regenerate myocardial tissue and repair damaged heart muscle. There are many different types of cardiac progenitor cells, and each may have certain unique properties and characteristics that would likely be useful for particular clinical applications. A current challenge in the field is to identify, isolate, and test specific cardiac stem/progenitor cell populations for their ability to repair/regenerate myocardial tissue. Our laboratory has discovered a new type of cardiac progenitor cell that expresses the enzyme, Phenylethanolamine-n-methyltransferase (Pnmt). My initial studies focused on identification of Pnmt+ cells based on knock-in of a nuclear-localized Enhanced Green Fluorescent Protein (nEGFP) reporter gene into exon 1 of the Pnmt gene in a stable recombinant Pnmt-nEGFP mouse embryonic stem cell (mESC) line. These cells were differentiated into cardiomyocytes, and I identified nEGFP+ cells using fluorescence, immunofluorescence, and phase-contrast microscopy techniques. Our results showed that only about 0.025% ( 1 per 4000) of the cardiac-differentiating stem cells expressed the nEGFP+ marker. Because of the relative rarity of these cells, optimization of isolation methods proved initially challenging. To overcome this technical barrier, I used a surrogate cell culture system to establish the methods of isolation based on expression of either a fluorescent cell marker (EGFP), or a unique cell surface receptor represented by an inactivated (truncated) version of the human low-affinity nerve growth factor receptor (LNGFR). Plasmid DNA containing these reporter genes was transiently transfected into a permissive cell line (RS1), and reporter gene expression was used to identify and isolate transfected from non-transfected cells using either Fluorescence-Activated Cell Sorting (FACS) or Magnetic-Activated Cell Sorting (MACS) methods. The main objective of the study was to establish the isolation techniques based on the expression of reporter genes (EGFP and LNGFR) in RS1 cells. Following transfection, EGFP+ cells were successfully isolated via FACS as verified by flow cytometric and microscopic analyses, which showed that approximately 96% of the isolated cells were indeed EGFP+. Despite the relative purity of the isolated cell population, however, their viability in culture following FACS was substantially compromised ( 50% attrition). In contrast, MACS enabled efficient isolation of LNGFR+ cells, and the vast majority of these ( 90%) retained viability in culture following MACS. The LNGFR expression was verified using RT-PCR. Further, MACS methods enabled isolation of marked cells in about 5-7 mins, whereas it took 2-4 hours to using FACS to perform similar isolations from the same amount of starting material (10^6 cells). In addition, MACS is a more economical method in that it does not require the use of an expensive laser-based instrument to perform the sorting. These results suggest that MACS was a more efficient, gentle, and feasible technique than FACS for isolation of reporter-tagged mammalian cells. Consequently, future studies aimed at isolation of Pnmt+ cardiac progenitor cells will thus primarily focus on MACS methods