Eight is not enough: a historical, cultural, and philosophical analysis of the flash mob

In 2003, writer and cultural critic Bill Wasik stunned the world with his newest experiment, the MOB Project, which flooded the streets of New York City with strange performances quickly labeled “flash mobs” by participants and local media. With the goal of understanding the communicative purpose and function of these new performance events, this project analyzes the flash mob through the lenses of performance studies, rhetorical studies, cultural studies, and continental philosophy. Drawing from genealogical research, rhetorical analyses, and critical philosophy, I argue the flash mob is a new form of performance serving as a locus of community, creativity, and politics in an age overrun by spectacle and surveillance. Moreover, whether created as complex communal in-jokes or a modern form of cultural critique, flash mobs act as elaborate pranks played out within the quasi-public realm of the capitalist city, exposing its heretofore unrealized methods of operation. Through a critical application of the theories of philosophers Michel de Certeau, Michel Foucault, Gilles Deleuze and Felix Guattari, I analyze the ability of Bill Wasik’s flash mobs to highlight the dominant strategies of surveillance, standardization, and structure operating within the capitalist system. In so doing, I explore the tactical nature of the flash mob as a performance event

Understanding Structure/Process-Property Relationships to Optimize Development Lifecycle in Yttria-Stabilized Zirconia Aerogels for Thermal Management

Aerogels are mesoporous materials with unique properties, including high specific surface area, high porosity, low thermal conductivity, and low density, increasing these materials’ effectiveness in applications such as catalyst supports, sorption media, and electrodes in solid oxide fuel cells. Zirconia (ZrO2) aerogels have special interest for high-temperature applications due to the high melting point of ZrO2 (2715°C) and stability between 600°C and 1000°C, where other aerogel systems often begin to sinter and densify. These properties and unique pore structure make zirconia aerogels advantageous as thermal management systems, especially in aeronautics and aerospace applications. However, to be effective in high-temperature applications, the aerogel formulation must be optimized so that pore collapse and subsequent surface area decrease are mitigated following high-temperature exposure. By utilizing surfactant templates, it is anticipated that the mesoporous structure and high surface area of yttria-stabilized zirconia (YSZ) aerogels will be retained following exposure to high temperatures, increasing the thermal stability and efficiency of YSZ aerogels as thermal management systems. To experimentally consider the impact of synthetic variables on aerogels, surfactants are used as templating agents to influence the pore structure and surface area of YSZ aerogels. Additionally, due to the large number of parameters associated with aerogel synthesis and processing, a developed aerogel graph database and a machine learning predictive model are applied to examine the complex relationships between aerogel synthesis, processing, and final properties, specifically BET surface area. Sub-graphs of the developed aerogel graph database are used to visually determine the impact of specific variables on the aerogel surface area, while the predictive model maps from aerogel synthetic and processing conditions to predict the final property, BET surface area, with precision. These digital design tools could reduce experimental dimensionality, time, and resources, enabling the successful synthesis of high surface area aerogels

A language of her own : Willful displacement and nomadic subjectivity in Jhumpa Lahiri

PostprintPeer reviewe

Social Construction of Retail Digitalization: Managerial Perspectives

Digitalization is a pervasive movement, shifting society rapidly into the next industrial revolution and causing disruption to traditional ways of working. This movement has had major ramifications on brick and mortar retailers, redefining the traditional business model and offering opportunities to enhance the customer experience. The purpose of this study was to gain a holistic understanding of the digital transformation of retail from a retail manager’s perspective, thus, this study explores the ways in which retail managers are socially constructing retail digitalization. To address the lack of an established conceptualization of digitalization from a retail managers’ perspective, I applied an exploratory, framing analysis approach to this research gap. This procedure involved integrating field-based insights from 26 managers within the retail sector across Finland and the UK with supplementary literature on the topic of retail digitalization. Through conducting this research, three framing categories were identified, including: 1) investing in digital strategy and management, 2) changing organizational competences and mindset, and 3) shifting power to the retail customer, which were formulated based on nine managerial framings that were developed in the analysis. The findings indicate that though managers are aware of the various threats caused by digitalization, overall, they consider it a positive movement that stimulates innovation, offers new solutions, improves business processes, and enables a better service offering for customers. This study suggests that undergoing the digital transformation is not only a technological change in processes and systems, but a human change in terms of ways of thinking and working. The findings further indicate that retail managers must develop with the organization and have a thorough understanding of their business and the retail market. This study makes theoretical contributions by supporting ideas that are explored in existing literature such as the challenges related to creating the omni-channel business model, while adding the managerial perspective on various issues surrounding this organizational change. This study also contests some points made in the current literature on the death of high street by highlighting the hedonic value that brick and mortar retailers offer their customers which cannot be replaced by other channels. New perspectives were also contributed through this study by exploring how managers view data and analytics as important tools in organizational decision making and understanding the business. Finally, this study highlights an unexplored area in the literature, more specifically, the significance that retail managers place on the human side of the organization through the digital transformation

One-to-one laptop programs: Is transformation occurring in mathematics teaching?

There is a body of research around the uptake of digital technologies in secondary schools, and a growing body of research specifically designed to investigate the use of one-to-one laptop programs. However this research focused on the initial uptake of the digital technology or initial implementation of a one-to-one (1:1) laptop policy. Given the expenditure of time and money associated with 1:1 laptop initiatives, investigation needs to be carried out to determine if the commitment has been worthwhile. This new study contributes to this body of research as it focused upon middle schools in which the 1:1laptop program has existed for over seven years; it sought to examine the evolution of teacher practice in mathematics education. Anonymous online surveys as well as semi-structured interviews with teachers were used to collect descriptive data. The data revealed that issues associated with the initial implementation of 1:1 laptop programs continued to be problematic, and little authentic integration of the technology had taken place in the pedagogical practices of the mathematics teachers