Mediation in new media production: representation and involvement of audiences/users at NESTA Futurelab

This thesis addresses the interface between producers of new media and their audiences/users as it manifests itself in production. It is based on a case study of NESTA Futurelab (a production-research laboratory in educational new media) conducted in its first year of existence, as its staff sought to define the endeavour —'what it is for' and, more importantly, 'whom it is for'. Drawing on science and technology studies (STS) and media theory, this study challenges models of the producer-user interface which endorse 'technical mediation' in proposing alternatives to its three components — the use bias, overstated co-design and the ontological divide between producers and users. In response to the use bias, the study of Futurelab demonstrates that the producers' perceptions of their audiences (both users and partners) determine from the outset decisions as to the organization's purpose, structure, methodology and outputs. Overstated co-design is countered by uncovering the producers' downplaying of direct user involvement and any pretension to scientific methodology through which they engage the users. This study stresses the more pervasive practice of mediation whereby they represent the absent users. This is further conceptualized through their portrayal as 'experience-based experts' — the producers claim the ability to contribute substantively to production by virtue of their social experience, while minimizing their technical competence. Lastly, the presumed ontological divide between producers and users is contested by illustrating that the spheres of production and reception overlap in the producers' experience, which is reactivated on an ad hoc basis in production. Through notions such as 'reflexivity', 'prior feedback', 'producer-user overlap', `mediated quasi-interaction' and 'experience-based expertise', the producer-user interface is thus inscribed in the continuity of producers' social experience rather than being seen as an interaction purposely and strategically instated at a discrete moment. The most notable instances of continuity are captured by the producers' playing of the synthetic role of producer-user, which rests on the claimed proximity between production and other relevant social situations

Chemical and Toxicological Analyses of Lake Calumet (Cook County, Illinois) Sediments

HWRIC Project 88-048NTIS PB90-16072

Biological and toxicological investigations of Chicago area navigation projects

unpublishednot peer reviewe

Summary of Toxicological Data for Aquatic Organisms of Illinois

The data presented in this report contain Information on toxicity testing performed on organisms that could be found In aquatic habitats in Illinois. To compile this information a thorough list of all aquatic organisms in Illinois was required. This was constructed through literature searches and personal communication with scientists who collect and identify Illinois aquatic specimens. Each species name was used to search a database which contained toxicity information on aquatic organisms. No toxicological Information was found for many Illinois species. For most organisms, all available information retrieved from the database is presented. For species on which extensive toxicological research has been performed, data showing 96 hour LC50 or EC50 values and chronic testing values constitute the bulk of the records. In addition to records detailing toxicity values and experimental conditions, a list of tested chemical compounds and organisms is included. Literature citing observations and identification of aquatic organisms within Illinois was the most valuable resource in compiling a list of Illinois aquatic species. Staff of the Illinois Natural History Survey were helpful in recommending the most useful publications, making available their own field lists, and helping to update taxonomy and nomenclature from older reports. In particular we would like to acknowledge Don Webb, Larry Page, Warren Brigham, Mark Wetzel, Kevin Cummings, and Allison Brigham from the INHS Faunistics section and Michael Henebry from the section of Aquatic Biology. To retrieve toxicity data on the aquatic organisms of Illinois, a Chemical Information System, Inc. database, AQUIRE (Aquatic Information Retrieval System), was employed. AQUIRE contains data extracted from publications dealing with the toxic effects of chemical substances on aquatic organisms. Each Latin species name from the compiled Illinois list was used to search records in the database. If AQUIRE matched a record with the species name, the record was stored. If there were an excessive number of matching records, the search was narrowed by specifying particular regimens and/or effective endpoint types. Ultimately a printout of the records pertaining to each organism was produced. The data contained In this report are duplications of the AQUIRE records obtained for Illinois organisms. The taxonomy, habitat, and Illinois distribution is listed immediately preceding the AQUIRE records compiled for each species. These records have been substantially reduced from their original size and are arranged by chemical compound in alphabetical and/or numerical order.published or submitted for publicationis peer reviewe

Contesting austerity, de-centring the state : anti-politics and the political horizon of the urban

This article draws novel links between ‘anti-politics’, austerity and a political horizon centred on the urban. Research on anti-politics often invokes a binary understanding of a politics of and within the state and an anti-politics at a distance from or hostile towards the state. This article argues that in the context of austerity, this binary loses traction. Austerity has intensified the transformation towards networked forms of governance within which the state becomes a more hybrid entity of contradictory ideals and practices. Austerity not only calls into question the legitimacy of formal politics because of its devastating social outcomes, it also disaggregates the political authority of the state and opens up a particularly urban terrain of politics. We capture this development by examining the intersections between the local state and the urban field of politics. Looking across the struggles against austerity in Europe, and focusing in more detail on housing politics in Berlin, we assert that the urban is important not only as a setting (as typically argued) but also as the basis for a different rationality of political action in and against austerity. In the context of austerity struggles, state authority becomes ever more contingent and other, more urban, forms of politics advance. In sum, the article contributes to a spatial reading of (anti-)politics against austerity, points to the de-centring of the state in transformative political projects and emphasizes the analytical purchase of a distinctly urban perspective on contemporary politics in Europe

Contesting austerity, de-centring the state: anti-politics and the political horizon of the urban

This article draws novel links between ‘anti-politics’, austerity and a political horizon centred on the urban. Research on anti-politics often invokes a binary understanding of a politics of and within the state and an anti-politics at a distance from or hostile towards the state. This article argues that in the context of austerity, this binary loses traction. Austerity has intensified the transformation towards networked forms of governance within which the state becomes a more hybrid entity of contradictory ideals and practices. Austerity not only calls into question the legitimacy of formal politics because of its devastating social outcomes, it also disaggregates the political authority of the state and opens up a particularly urban terrain of politics. We capture this development by examining the intersections between the local state and the urban field of politics. Looking across the struggles against austerity in Europe, and focusing in more detail on housing politics in Berlin, we assert that the urban is important not only as a setting (as typically argued) but also as the basis for a different rationality of political action in and against austerity. In the context of austerity struggles, state authority becomes ever more contingent and other, more urban, forms of politics advance. In sum, the article contributes to a spatial reading of (anti-)politics against austerity, points to the de-centring of the state in transformative political projects and emphasizes the analytical purchase of a distinctly urban perspective on contemporary politics in Europe

A community environment design hypertool. Application to sustainable cities interaction regulation

International audienceThis paper develops an innovative structure of knowledge collaboration forms that allows effective and creative collaboration among the actors along territorial design process. To contribute to the development of the social dimension of the sustainable development, we investigate a new methodology and computational tools for understanding and facilitating multi-disciplinary, cross-cultural collaboration in sustainable architectural-, urban- land- and ambient-scape design, through evaluating collaboration among project developers, local authorities, architects, engineers, contractors, building inspectors, clients and future users. Therefore, this proposed integrative tool increases the pool of knowledge and skills available to undertake activities that exceed the capacities of any single person or organization on its own, thus making possible the design and construction of complex skills, especially buildings and ambiences in urban or suburban environmen

L'innovation technique comme action collective : conception de la Zone Éducation de la Société Radio-Canada

Mémoire numérisé par la Direction des bibliothèques de l'Université de Montréal

Reactions of Juvenile Delinquents to "Justified" and "Less Justified" Movie Violence

In order to determine whether juvenile delinquents would respond to the sight of someone being beaten up the same way as previously studied university students, two-thirds of the in stitutionalized delinquents in the sample watched a brief filmed prize fight after having been insulted or treated in a neutral fashion by the experimenter's confederate. A story summary given to the subjects depicted the defeated movie character as either a callous exploiter of other persons or as a more sym pathetic individual. Immediately after the film the insulted de linquents shown the exploiter being beaten administered stronger electric shocks to the confederate than a no-movie control group and somewhat more than other provoked subjects seeing the sympathetic character being hurt. Like the university students, the delinquents had apparently regarded the exploiter's beating as "justified" aggression; and this interpretation temporarily legitimated their own attacks upon their tormentor.Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/68641/2/10.1177_002242787401100103.pd