How can the Pragmatic Philosophy of John Dewey Make a Contribution to the Theory and Practice of Intercultural Communication?

2016 ◽  
Vol 13 (3) ◽  
pp. 242-262
Author(s):  
Stephen Holmes

This paper focuses on the practical question of how the ideas of John Dewey can contribute to improved intercultural communication theory and practice, especially to training. The question is answered in four parts. The first part refers to the presumed superiority of sensitivity to difference as opposed to similarity in intercultural communication. The second part suggests that Dewey’s duality of potentiality and interaction can be carried over to the duality of competence and performance. The third part highlights the use of the generic concepts of pattern and habit to better understand culture as a practical experience. The final part advocates a closer look at the idea and experience of rhythm as an epistemological alternative to subject vs object. The author relies on his experience as a trainer and a teacher of Intercultural Communication and proceeds down an interdisciplinary path, especially attempting to set up a dialogue with biology, systems and the arts.

2021 ◽  
Vol 3 (2) ◽  
pp. 1-16
Author(s):  
Mélodine Sommier ◽  
Malgorzata Lahti ◽  
Anssi Roiha

This is the first special issue that JPHE hosts—and could there be a more suitable forum for an issue dedicated to exploring and encouraging a critical dialogue around transformative intercultural communication teaching practices in higher education (HE)? What has led us to engage with the theme of making intercultural education meaningful is a shared observation that there seems to be an increasing disconnect between recent developments in intercultural communication theory and practice. With so much critique published over the years, we are perplexed as to why traditional notions of culture still prevail not only in mainstream intercultural communication research but also in institutional discourses in HE and in popular discourses as articulated by the people who sit—or have once sat—in our classrooms. In this editorial and Special Issue, we approach intercultural communication from a critical angle, akin to the theorization of interculturality as a discursive and contingent, unstable and contradictory, political and ideological construct. We are thrilled to see this approach gain ground in the field of intercultural communication. However, at the same time, we are worried that the terrain of intercultural communication teaching across HE settings has become quite unruly and is characterized by pedagogical solutions that do not have a stable connection to state-of-the-art theory, and that might lead to naive, simplistic, and essentialist understandings of ‘culture’ and ‘the other’.......


Author(s):  
Anu Oinaala ◽  
Vilja Ruokolainen

Independent Performing Arts Sector as a Part of the Third Sector inTransition This article examines the Finnish independent performing arts sector as a part of the so-called third (non-profit and voluntary) sector. The independent performing arts sector is analyzed from the viewpoint of the changing nature of the new third sector as identified in recent research. The aim of the article is to describe the agents in the manifold independent sector of performing arts and to analyze what kind of forms the elements important to the so-called new third sector, organizational membership and paid labour, take in the independent performing arts. From the genres of performing arts, theatre, dance, circus and performance art are investigated. There are two sets of data. Quantitative data consists of the number of productions performed in the Helsinki region during 2009–2011 by the independent performing arts sector and the number of the artists participating in those productions. The qualitative data includes case studies from 16 independent performing arts groups from around Finland. In addition to case studies, research methods include typification and network analysis. This article is concerned especially with four identified transitions in the third sector: from volunteerism to professionalism, from institutions to informal groups, from influencing to performing services and from traditional membership to different forms of participation. We conclude that the independent sector in the performing arts consists of a variety of forms of organization, and the volume of productions by groups that are not formally organized is significant. Membership has several different meanings, and they often differ from the traditional notion of the concept. In the independent sector of the arts different forms of employment and labour are mixed. The independent performing arts sector uses many familiar third sector features such as forms of organization, tradition of volunteering and light administration to organize and fund its activities, but it also moves freely outside the third sector conventions, borrows and creates its own ways, which are sometimes again borrowed by actors outside the arts sector. Keywords: Independent arts sector, performing arts, third sector


PMLA ◽  
2015 ◽  
Vol 130 (5) ◽  
pp. 1381-1404
Author(s):  
Vinay Dharwadker

A work of classical Indian theory and practice, Bharata's Nāṭyashāstra offers a comprehensive account of emotion and of the production, communication, and reception of representations of it in dance, music, poetry, and theater. This essay examines remarkable points of convergence and divergence between the third-century Sanskrit text and three influential modern Euro-American accounts: Charles Darwin's mapping of involuntary expressions of emotion in human beings and animals, William James's aggregation of emotions in the stream of consciousness, and Sylvan Tomkins's atlas of primary affects that links neurobiology and cybernetics. My comparative analysis highlights the Nāṭyashāstra's contributions to our understanding of the connections of emotion to cognition, consciousness, and causality; of the combinatorial constitution of emotions; and of treatments of emotion in contemporary affect theory and performance theory. The essay concludes with an exploration of Bharata's and Aristotle's models of mimesis and of their mutual differences regarding the representation of emotion in the verbal and performing arts.


2017 ◽  
Vol 14 (4) ◽  
pp. 475-505
Author(s):  
Stephen Holmes

In order to set up a dialogue the author, first, will attempt to discern similarities and differences between the ideas of Gregory Bateson and those of the so-called Pragmatist philosophers, John Dewey and William James. Second, he will address connecting points and relevance to intercultural communication training and teaching. For both sides aesthetics are of central importance, for Bateson, coming from the direction of systems, more in the observation of the pattern that connects (beauty). For Dewey, the aesthetic experience is embedded in the context potentially in any situation. For both Dewey and James human and other organisms actively experiencing environments as situations are the beginning and the end of any philosophy of pragmatic significance. For Bateson, the addition of aesthetics to ecology is necessary to highlight its global significance.


2020 ◽  
Vol 23 (8) ◽  
pp. 906-921
Author(s):  
R.A. Alborov ◽  
S.M. Kontsevaya ◽  
S.V. Kozmenkova

Subject. This article deals with the theory-and practice-relevant issues of classification and content definition of different types of capital used as sources of operations financing, and recommendations for developing their accounting in agricultural organizations. Objectives. The article aims to substantiate the organizational and methodological aspects of capital accounting development to generate information on value reserve and creation of value as new in the organization's integrated reporting. The article also aims to define the classification and content of capital types as sources of financing for the organization's activities and develop recommendations for developing the accounting of the availability, increase, reduction or transformation of the relevant types of capital in the organization's business activities. Methods. For the study, we used the methods of analysis and synthesis, induction and deduction, analogy, and comparison. The scientific works of domestic specialists and regulations, including the International Standard on Integrated Reporting (IR) are the methodological basis of this work. Results. The article defines conceptual provisions and offers practical recommendations on the set-up and development of capital flow accounting in the corporate governance system of the agricultural organization. It clarifies the classification and economic content of capital as a source of funding for the organization's reproduction activities. The article also offers an original method of accounting for the value reserve (balances) and capital changes. Conclusions and Relevance. The practical application of the developed recommendations for value accounting and capital changes will help generate all the necessary information in the integrated reporting of the agricultural organization to assess its reserves of value, create value as new, economic, environmental, and social efficiency of the organization's activities. The results of the study can be used to develop the theory, methodology and techniques of accounting of capital types as sources of financing of value creation as a result of the agricultural organization's business activities.


2020 ◽  
Vol 12 (2) ◽  
pp. 19-50 ◽  
Author(s):  
Muhammad Siddique ◽  
Shandana Shoaib ◽  
Zahoor Jan

A key aspect of work processes in service sector firms is the interconnection between tasks and performance. Relational coordination can play an important role in addressing the issues of coordinating organizational activities due to high level of interdependence complexity in service sector firms. Research has primarily supported the aspect that well devised high performance work systems (HPWS) can intensify organizational performance. There is a growing debate, however, with regard to understanding the “mechanism” linking HPWS and performance outcomes. Using relational coordination theory, this study examines a model that examine the effects of subsets of HPWS, such as motivation, skills and opportunity enhancing HR practices on relational coordination among employees working in reciprocal interdependent job settings. Data were gathered from multiple sources including managers and employees at individual, functional and unit levels to know their understanding in relation to HPWS and relational coordination (RC) in 218 bank branches in Pakistan. Data analysis via structural equation modelling, results suggest that HPWS predicted RC among officers at the unit level. The findings of the study have contributions to both, theory and practice.


Author(s):  
Nurit Yaari

This chapter surveys the history of classical Greek drama productions at the Department of Theatre Arts of Tel Aviv University as the basis for an exploration of the issue of theatre and art education. By analysing the students’ approach to classical Greek drama, we can see how they deal with the interpretative reading, translation, and performance of such texts on stage. We also see how the ancient works invite the students to delve more deeply into their distinctive content and forms; to draw links between theory and practice, and between text and context; to gain a deeper understanding of the issues of style and styling; and to engage in a richer experimentation with various aspects of stage performance—such as pronunciation, diction, voice, movement, music, and mise-en-scène.


Electronics ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 10 (9) ◽  
pp. 1117
Author(s):  
Bin Li ◽  
Zhikang Jiang ◽  
Jie Chen

Computing the sparse fast Fourier transform (sFFT) has emerged as a critical topic for a long time because of its high efficiency and wide practicability. More than twenty different sFFT algorithms compute discrete Fourier transform (DFT) by their unique methods so far. In order to use them properly, the urgent topic of great concern is how to analyze and evaluate the performance of these algorithms in theory and practice. This paper mainly discusses the technology and performance of sFFT algorithms using the aliasing filter. In the first part, the paper introduces the three frameworks: the one-shot framework based on the compressed sensing (CS) solver, the peeling framework based on the bipartite graph and the iterative framework based on the binary tree search. Then, we obtain the conclusion of the performance of six corresponding algorithms: the sFFT-DT1.0, sFFT-DT2.0, sFFT-DT3.0, FFAST, R-FFAST, and DSFFT algorithms in theory. In the second part, we make two categories of experiments for computing the signals of different SNRs, different lengths, and different sparsities by a standard testing platform and record the run time, the percentage of the signal sampled, and the L0, L1, and L2 errors both in the exactly sparse case and the general sparse case. The results of these performance analyses are our guide to optimize these algorithms and use them selectively.


Human Affairs ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 30 (3) ◽  
pp. 328-342
Author(s):  
László Bernáth ◽  
János Tőzsér

AbstractOur paper consists of four parts. In the first part, we describe the challenge of the pervasive and permanent philosophical disagreement over philosophers’ epistemic self-esteem. In the second part, we investigate the attitude of philosophers who have high epistemic self-esteem even in the face of philosophical disagreement and who believe they have well-grounded philosophical knowledge. In the third section, we focus on the attitude of philosophers who maintain a moderate level of epistemic self-esteem because they do not attribute substantive philosophical knowledge to themselves but still believe that they have epistemic right to defend substantive philosophical beliefs. In the fourth section, we analyse the attitude of philosophers who have a low level of epistemic self-esteem in relation to substantive philosophical beliefs and make no attempt to defend those beliefs. We argue that when faced with philosophical disagreement philosophers either have to deny that the dissenting philosophers are their epistemic peers or have to admit that doing philosophy is less meaningful than it seemed before. In this second case, philosophical activity and performance should not contribute to the philosophers’ overall epistemic self-esteem to any significant extent.


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