A Salute to Feminine Utopia: Part One Feminist Manifestos and Utopian Fiction and Part Two Cwenaland an Odyssey

[À l'origine dans / Was originally part of : Thèses et mémoires - FAS - Département d'études anglaises]En ce qui concerne la littérature féministe, il s’y trouve un chevauchement important et intéressant entre le manifesto en tant que forme littéraire et la fiction utopique. Les deux se servent d’une image imaginée de l'avenir ou d'un meilleur état futur pour critiquer et dénoncer tant les conditions actuelles que celles du passée qui ont donné naissance à celles-là. Cette thèse aborde à la fois le manifesto et la fiction utopique / dystopique pour élaborer les conditions de l’espace essentiel des femmes et du féminin. Ce lieu utopique se veut plus qu'un endroit où aller ; il exprime les origines du féminin, lesquelles vont au-delà de ce qui est masculin en visant un épanouissement du féminin en dehors et au-delà de la stricte dichotomie masculin-féminin de la société patriarcale. J'examine d'abord les termes en usage puis je discute du manifesto comme une forme littéraire d'un intérêt particulier pour les écrivains féministes. Je passe ensuite en revue des théories de fiction utopique, lesquelles me conduisent à des possibilités fructueuses du langage pour assurer une voix aux femmes ainsi que l’expression du féminin. Je prends comme exemple le livre The Activist de Renée Gladman pour appuyer mes arguments concernant le pouvoir performatif du manifesto comme une forme qui s’empiète sur la fiction utopique dans le but d'imaginer l'espace du féminin. Dans la deuxième partie de la thèse, j’entre dans une utopie fictive dans le cadre d'une exploration personnelle de ce qu’est le féminin et son expression. Le récit emmène le lecteur au pays de Cwenaland. A chaque étape de la narration d’autres voix percent et découpent le texte. Certaines sont sous la forme d'une image ou d'un portrait, d'autres sont des cris ou des gémissements qui dérangent la voix narrative. Ces voix en tangente et en diagonale enracinent mon utopie fictive dans la diversité d'expérience et d'expression féminine.There is considerable and interesting overlap between the manifesto as a literary art form and utopian fiction in regards to feminist writing. Both use an imagined image of the future or of a better future condition in order to criticize and denounce conditions in the present, and the past that gave rise to them. The thesis looks at both the manifesto and writings about utopia/dystopia in order to frame a place for female and the feminine. This utopian place is more than a place to go. It is a place that expresses what femininity is based on - more than simply that which is not masculine - and offers some kind of fulfillment outside and beyond the rigid masculine-feminine dichotomy of patriarchal society. I first examine terminology then I discuss the manifesto as a literary form of particular interest to women writers. I then review notions of utopian fiction, which leads me to the important opportunities that language offers to women to have a voice, and to express that which is feminine. I examine closely Renée Gladman’s book The Activist to support my arguments regarding the performative power of the manifesto as a form that overlaps with utopian fiction in imagining space for the feminine. In Part Two I imagine and describe a fictional utopia as part of a personal exploration of how to identify that which is expressive of the feminine. The narrative takes readers on a journey to Cwenaland. At each stage in the narrative other voices pierce and slice the prose. Some are in the form of an image or a portrait; others disrupt the narrative voice like a shout or a wail. These voices that are tangential and diagonal to the narrative ground my fictional utopia in the many levels of feminine experience and expression

O conceito de conforto ambiental no desempenho do ambiente de trabalho

O conceito de desempenho do ambiente de trabalho é aplicável no projeto do espaço de trabalho cujo objetivo explícito é apoiar o desempenho no trabalho. Neste artigo, argumentamos que existe uma variedade de abordagens para definir a produtividade do trabalhador em relação aos edifícios que eles ocupam. Como resultado do aumento de conhecimento sobre esta área de estudo, mais se conhece sobre como o ambiente de trabalho afeta os usuários dos edifícios e o trabalho destes. O conceito de conforto ambiental é apresentado como uma forma eficaz de organizar e explorar o conhecimento sobre esta área. O conforto ambiental é constituído de três tipos de conforto, cada qual passível de medição, sendo que os três juntos determinam a moral e o bem-estar dos usuários, assim como o seu desempenho e eficácia na realização de tarefas. A teoria do conforto ambiental considera como estressantes situações nas quais o conforto é inadequado. Um importante ingrediente desta abordagem é desenvolver procedimentos para medição do estresse no trabalho por conta do ambiente inadequado. Na segunda parte do artigo, são apresentados dados obtidos de funcionários de uma grande empresa canadense na área de seguros. Estes dados foram analisados para testar a pertinência de hipóteses específicas de diferentes categorias de conforto ambiental. Os resultados indicam que, embora se tenha um caso convincente sobre a influência das três categorias de conforto, mais pesquisas são necessárias para testar a utilidade desta abordagem teórica.The concept of workplace performance is applied to workspace design whose explicit objective is to support the performance of work. In this article, we argue that there are a variety of approaches to defining worker productivity in relation to the buildings they occupy. As a result of the growing knowledge in this area of study, more is understood about how workspace affects building occupants and their work. The concept of environmental comfort is presented as a useful way of organizing and exploring the knowledge we are acquiring in this area. Environmental comfort is composed of three types of comfort, each of which can be measured and which together determine occupant morale and well-being as well as task performance and effectiveness. The theory of environmental comfort considers situations where comfort is lacking, as stressful. An important ingredient of this approach is developing ways of measuring stress at work due to an inappropriate environment. In the second part of the article, data are presented from workers in a large Canadian insurance company, which were analysed to test specific hypotheses pertaining of the different categories of environmental comfort. The results indicate that while a convincing case can be made for the three categories of environmental comfort, more research is needed to test the usefulness of this theoretical approach

Empathy’s echo: post-apartheid fellow feeling

The concept of empathy has been set to work, across a range of fields, to mark a break with the relational patterns of apartheid. Similarly, empathy has been identified, historically, as that which, within apartheid and colonial rule more generally, exceeded or escaped relations of domination. This paper approaches the discourse of empathy from a different angle, taking empathy as a concept embedded in colonial thinking. Given that so many claims to empathy have had recourse to psychoanalysis, the paper focuses on empathy in Freud’s work, specifically Dora’s case and Freud’s analysis of Michelangelo’s Moses, which are read alongside the images and installations of contemporary South African artist, Nandipha Mntambo, in particular her collection of images and installations in The Encounter. Three scenes are conjured wherein empathy confronts its impossibility, but rather than foreclose on empathy as a postapartheid condition, it is through the disclosure of the aporias of empathy that it might be brought into the realm of the ethical through a practice of reinscription and through the figure of Echo

Housing Families at High Desnities

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Environmental quality in offices

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O conceito de conforto ambiental no desempenho do ambiente de trabalho

O conceito de desempenho do ambiente de trabalho é aplicável no projeto do espaço de trabalho cujo objetivo explícito é apoiar o desempenho no trabalho. Neste artigo, argumentamos que existe uma variedade de abordagens para definir a produtividade do trabalhador em relação aos edifícios que eles ocupam. Como resultado do aumento de conhecimento sobre esta área de estudo, mais se conhece sobre como o ambiente de trabalho afeta os usuários dos edifícios e o trabalho destes. O conceito de conforto ambiental é apresentado como uma forma eficaz de organizar e explorar o conhecimento sobre esta área. O conforto ambiental é constituído de três tipos de conforto, cada qual passível de medição, sendo que os três juntos determinam a moral e o bem-estar dos usuários, assim como o seu desempenho e eficácia na realização de tarefas. A teoria do conforto ambiental considera como estressantes situações nas quais o conforto é inadequado. Um importante ingrediente desta abordagem é desenvolver procedimentos para medição do estresse no trabalho por conta do ambiente inadequado. Na segunda parte do artigo, são apresentados dados obtidos de funcionários de uma grande empresa canadense na área de seguros. Estes dados foram analisados para testar a pertinência de hipóteses específicas de diferentes categorias de conforto ambiental. Os resultados indicam que, embora se tenha um caso convincente sobre a influência das três categorias de conforto, mais pesquisas são necessárias para testar a utilidade desta abordagem teórica.The concept of workplace performance is applied to workspace design whose explicit objective is to support the performance of work. In this article, we argue that there are a variety of approaches to defining worker productivity in relation to the buildings they occupy. As a result of the growing knowledge in this area of study, more is understood about how workspace affects building occupants and their work. The concept of environmental comfort is presented as a useful way of organizing and exploring the knowledge we are acquiring in this area. Environmental comfort is composed of three types of comfort, each of which can be measured and which together determine occupant morale and well-being as well as task performance and effectiveness. The theory of environmental comfort considers situations where comfort is lacking, as stressful. An important ingredient of this approach is developing ways of measuring stress at work due to an inappropriate environment. In the second part of the article, data are presented from workers in a large Canadian insurance company, which were analysed to test specific hypotheses pertaining of the different categories of environmental comfort. The results indicate that while a convincing case can be made for the three categories of environmental comfort, more research is needed to test the usefulness of this theoretical approach