Diyakronik Medya Etnografisi: Toplumsal Değişimden Fiili Toplumsal Değişimlere

In this article I address the challenge of how to study media and actual social changes ethnographically. To do so I draw from the relevant media ethnography literature, including my own research in Malaysia and Spain. I argue that ethnographers are well positioned to contribute to the interdisciplinary study of media and social change. However, to do so we must first shift our current focus on media and ‘social changing’ (i.e. how things are always changing) to the study of media in relation to actual social changes, e.g. the suburbanisation of Kuala Lumpur in the 1970s to 2000s, the secularisation of morality in post-Franco Spain, or the success of new indignados parties in Spain’s 2015 local government elections. This shift from the ethnographic present continuous to the past simple – a move from potential to actual changes – does not require that we abandon ethnography in favour of social history. Rather, it demands new forms of ‘diachronic ethnography’ that can handle the biographical, phase-by-phase logic of actual social changes. It also requires that we conduct not only multi-sited (Marcus, 1995) but also multi-timed fieldwork on specific congeries of media practices, forms and agents. Bu makalede medya ve toplumsal değişimler gibi zorlu bir meselenin etnografik olarak nasıl incelenebileceği sorusuyla ilgileniyorum. Bu amaçla bu konuya odaklanan medya etnografisi literatürünün yanı sıra Malezya ve İspanya’da yürüttüğüm kendi çalışmalarımdan da yararlanıyorum. Etnografların medya ve toplumsal değişime dair disiplinlerarası incelemelere katkı sunabilecek bir konuma sahip olduklarını ileri sürüyorum. Öte yandan bunu başarabilmek için mutlaka dikkatimizi medya ve “toplumsal değişim”den (yani her şeyin sürekli değişim halinde olduğu yönündeki tespitten) medyanın fiilî toplumsal değişimlerle ilişkisi bağlamında incelenmesine çevirmemiz gerekiyor—1970’li yıllardan 2000’lere Kuala Lumpur’da yaşanan banliyöleşme, İspanya’da Franco sonrası dönemde ahlâkın sekülerleşmesi ya da yine İspanya’da yeni indignados partilerinin 2015 yerel seçimlerinde gösterdikleri başarı bu tür değişimlere örnek teşkil edebilir. Etnografik anlamda şimdiki zamandan geçmiş zamana—muhtemel değişimlerden fiilî değişimlere—doğru böylesi bir geçiş toplumsal tarih adına etnografiden vazgeçmemizi gerektirmez. Aksine bu tür bir yaklaşım fiilî toplumsal değişimlerin aşama aşama ilerleyen biyografik mantığını kavrayabilecek yeni “diyakronik etnografi” türlerine ihtiyaç duyar. Bunun üstesinden gelebilmek için medya pratikleri, medya biçimleri ve faillerine dair sadece çok-alanlı (Marcus, 1995) değil aynı zamanda çok-zamanlı saha çalışmaları yürütmemiz gerekir.

La teoría de los campos, el cambio mediático y los nuevos movimientos ciudadanos: el giro hacia la «democracia real» en España como una serie de campos y espacios

A revised, post-Bourdieu version of field theory can help to produce more nuanced analyses of the relationship between media change, the rise of new citizen movements and ongoing struggles for democratic renewal around the world. Taking as my example Spain’s indignados (15M) movement and its political offshoots, I explore the potential uses of a range of field concepts, including a pair of contrasting notions introduced here for the first time: ‘field of civic action’ vs. ‘dispersed civic space’. I argue that Spain’s 15M movement is best understood not as a continuous flow of events but rather as a series of discrete, ephemeral fields of civic action separated by a long hiatus of dispersed civic space. These transient, complexly mediated fields can be regarded as socio-political games of a certain kind, namely as contests in which civic ‘players’ with unique skillsets, including techno-political skills, enter into relationships with other individual and collective players in pursuit of specific goals and rewards. Of particular salience in Spain is the rise of citizen-led initiatives (e.g. PAH, Podemos, Barcelona en Comú) that have managed to bridge the alternative vs. establishment media divide to great social and electoral effect.Una versión de la teoría de campos post-Bourdieu puede producir análisis matizados de la relación entre el cambio de los medios de comunicación, los nuevos movimientos ciudadanos y las luchas por la renovación democrática actuales. Partiendo del movimiento de los indignados en España (15M), exploro los usos potenciales de una serie de conceptos de campo y propongo una distinción conceptual entre «campo de acción cívica» y «espacio cívico disperso». Los recientes cambios políticos en España no son un flujo continuo de acontecimientos, sino una serie de campos discretos y efímeros de acción cívica separados por un largo período de dispersión del espacio cívico. Estos campos complejamente mediados son «juegos» sociopolíticos en los que actores cívicos con habilidades tecno-políticas y de otra índole interactúan con otros jugadores en busca de metas y recompensas específicas. Como resultado, las nuevas iniciativas dirigidas por los ciudadanos (por ejemplo, PAH,Podemos o Barcelona en Comú) han sido capaces de salvar las distancias entre los medios de comunicación alternativos y los principales medios de comunicación de masas y han tenido un gran efecto social y político

Weather-driven clay cut slope behaviour in a changing climate

Long linear earthwork assets constructed in high-plasticity overconsolidated clay are known to be deteriorating due to long-term effects of wetting and drying stress cycles as a result of seasonal weather patterns. These stress cycles can lead to shallow first-time failures due to the mobilisation of post-peak strength and progressive failure. Design requirements of new earthworks and management of existing assets requires improved understanding of this critical mechanism; seasonal ratcheting. Incremental model development and validation to allow investigation of multiple inter-related strength deterioration mechanisms of cut slope behaviour in high-plasticity overconsolidated clay slopes has been presented. Initially, the mechanism of seasonal ratcheting has been considered independently and a numerical modelling approach considering unsaturated behaviour has been validated against physical modelling data. Using the validated model, the effects of slope geometry, design parameter selection and design life have been considered. Following this, an approach to allow undrained unloading of soil, stress relief, excess pore water pressure dissipation, seasonal ratcheting and progressive failure with wetting and drying boundary conditions has been considered. Hydrogeological property deterioration and the potential implications of climate change have been explored using the model. In both cases the serviceable life of cut slopes is shown to reduce significantly in the numerical analyses. Finally, a model capable of capturing hydrogeological behaviour of a real cut slope in London Clay has been developed and validated against long-term field monitored data. Using the validated model, a climate change impact assessment for the case study slope has been performed. The numerical analyses performed have indicated that seasonal ratcheting can explain shallow first-time failures in high-plasticity overconsolidated clay slopes and that the rate of deterioration of such assets will accelerate if current climate change projections are representative of future weather

Borneo again: media, social life and the making of a national subculture among the Iban of Malaysian Borneo.

This study examines the social and political significance of media among the Iban of Sarawak, in Malaysian Borneo. It is intended to contribute both to the ethnographic literature on the lban and to a neglected field of inquiry of key theoretical and practical importance: the anthropological study of media. The thesis is divided into seven chapters. The first chapter introduces the problem by critically reviewing the relevant literature from social anthropology and media studies. The second chapter deals with the production side of modern media from an historical perspective. The production of a modern lban identity through radio and print media in the 1 960s was superseded in the 1970s by a more vigorous rival project supported through television and textbooks: the creation of a Malaysian national culture. The third chapter explores the 'social life and afterlife' of television sets in the Saribas region as they enter into the gift and exchange systems that bind the living and the dead, including burial rites at which television sets are destroyed. This approach reveals growing wealth disparities in rural Sarawak as well as culture-specific ways in which media artefacts are appropriated and disposed of. Chapter Four analyses the critical role of radio, television, public-address systems and other media in the organisation of social time and space in Saribas longhouse communities. I argue that these media help local people to routinely naturalize clock and calendar time both in their daily and festive lives. Chapter Five focuses on the relationship between media practices and the local Saribas ideology, or 'ideolect'. A close examination of school essays, public-address speeches and television commentary reveals a consistent set of developmentalist ideas cutting across these diverse practices. Chapter Six compares and contrasts the findings from the Saribas area (chapters 3-5) with those from a more remote region, the Skrang. I stress the importance of indigenised Christian prayer books in providing recent converts with tools with which to make sense of troubling reports from television and radio, notably news of war, famine and the spread of infectious diseases. Chapter Seven is a summary and conclusion

Improving Reliability On A Centrifugal Compressor Experiencing Frequent Bearing Failures

Case StudyA 1957 vintage multi-stage centrifugal compressor, critical in a refrigeration process, had a history of poor reliability and LP stage bearing failures. Around 1995 the HP casing had been replaced and upgraded. In early 2010, the compressor suffered a major failure, including rubbing internally due to a thrust bearing failure, and damages to the shaft and drive end coupling. A new rotor and new gear type coupling were installed, both matching the original design. Since the start up after this, the thrust and journal bearings had failed approximately once per month greatly reducing the reliability of the compressor and plant profitability. To eliminate this problem, it was decided to change the coupling and to redesign and replace the bearings from the LP compressor, within the very limited spacing of the original bearing assemblies

75mw Turbine-Generator Journal/Thrust Bearing Upgrade.

Case StudyThis case history discusses the upgrade of the #1 combination journal-thrust bearing assembly in the front standard of a 75 MW turbine/generator set. The existing taper land thrust plates experienced frequent failures and the sleeve journal bearing was wearing prematurely. A combination journal-thrust assembly was designed and installed in the front standard of the turbine. This assembly incorporated fully equalized ball & socket tilting pad thrust bearings with directed lubrication and a ball & socket tilting pad journal bearing. The spherical support fit was replaced by a cylindrical support fit. The ring saddle supporting the journal housing was redesigned to be bolted to the thrust housing

Correction Of Chronic Thrust Bearing Failures On A Refrigeration Compressor

Case Studypg. 426-44

MAX share this! Vote for us! Analysis of pre-election Facebook communication and audience reactions of Latvia’s populist party KPV LV leader Aldis Gobzems

This article analyses the communication content by the Latvian populistic party KPV LV (LETA; Re: Baltica) and the audience’s reaction, with a focus on the daily updates and live videos that were posted on Facebook (FB) prior to the 13th elections of the Saeima (Parliament of Latvia). The aim of the research is to determine the type of populism that KPV LV employed (de Wreese, 2018). The research data was collected during the pre-election period in August – September 2018, when the popularity and social media activity of the party increased. The methods employed were qualitative and quantitative content analysis. In order to identify the structure of emotions expressed in audience-created content, the online data analysis tool “Emotion Recognition Model” was used. Given that populist ideology manifests itself in specific discursive patterns (Kriesi, Papas, 2015), the data interpretation was based on theoretical findings about populism as a political communication style (Jagers, Walgrave, 2007). In order to analyze the interrelations between populist communication and its audience, this study employed theoretical literature on social media use in populist communication and on expressions of emotions in social networking sites