scholarly journals Canon wars: A semiotic and ethnographic study of a Wikipedia talk page debate concerning the canon of Star Wars

2018 ◽  
Vol 6 (3) ◽  
pp. 279-300 ◽  
Author(s):  
Paul Thomas
Keyword(s):  
Ethnographic Study ◽  
Semiotic Analysis ◽  
Star Wars ◽  
Fan Communities ◽  
Media Objects ◽  
The Creation ◽  
The One

This article examines how Wikipedia editors who are also members of fan communities attempt to assemble articles on the ‘canon’ (i.e. the aspects of a fictional universe that are held as official by fans) of media objects of interest. Derived largely from an ethnographic study and semiotic analysis of the Wikipedia article ‘Star Wars canon’ and its accompanying ‘talk page’, this article argues the following: first, an article’s talk page often serves as its ‘heteroglossic preconscious’, functioning as a space in which fan editors can debate conflicting versions of canon. Once a definition is agreed on, the article itself is edited to reflect the consensus, and in the process becomes a monoglossic representation of the ‘One True Canon’ in the eyes of Wikipedia fan editors. Second, authority plays a major role in the creation of articles on canon, with the sayings of the author (who is often seen in the light of a quasi-deity) being revered. Authority, however, can be shared and even subsumed by institutions, leading to disagreements as to whom the final authority really is. Third and finally, the opinions of these authors are heavily cited on talk pages to allow editors to participate in the aforementioned authority of the author, ‘win’ talk page debates, and thereby establish a Wikipedia article that details the ‘One True Canon’.

scholarly journals Putting sexualized labour in the picture: Encoding ‘reasonable entitlement’ in the lap dancing industry

Organization ◽  
2018 ◽  
Vol 26 (6) ◽  
pp. 783-801
Author(s):  
Sophie Hales ◽  
Kathleen Riach ◽  
Melissa Tyler
Keyword(s):  
Service Providers ◽  
Ethnographic Study ◽  
Semiotic Analysis ◽  
Body Images ◽  
Exchange Relationship ◽  
Customer Expectations ◽  
Corporate Websites ◽  
The One ◽  
The Uk ◽  
Lap Dancing

This article is based on a semiotic analysis of corporate websites in the lap dancing industry. Forming part of a larger ethnographic study of the UK lap dancing industry, it focuses on how the exchange relationship between dancers and customers is shaped by the industry’s online presence. Methodologically, it draws on Hancock’s semiotic approach to the analysis of organizational artefacts and Brewis’s writing on the importance of understanding how sex work is constructed and perceived. The article shows the importance of corporate websites as virtual spaces that landscape customer expectations of the exchange relationship emphasizing how these expectations perpetuate, on the one hand, a very prescriptive range of body images shaping the performance and consumption of lap dancing work, and on the other, an ambiguous suggestion of open-ended possibility. The article argues that, in combination, this landscaping of prescription and possibility constitutes a powerful organization of anticipation underpinning perceptions of reasonable entitlement within the lap dancing exchange relationship considering how this impacts upon the dancers’ experiences of this relationship. The analysis highlights both the importance of virtual corporate spaces in landscaping interactive service exchanges, as well as the intensification that results from the ambiguity encoded within these spaces, requiring service providers to reconcile anticipation and experience, prescription and possibility, within the exchange relationship.

The Image of the Hasmoneans: A New Perspective

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Vered Noam
Keyword(s):  
First Generation ◽  
Second Temple ◽  
The Other ◽  
Three Generations ◽  
The Creation ◽  
New Perspective ◽  
The One

In attempting to characterize Second Temple legends of the Hasmoneans, the concluding chapter identifies several distinct genres: fragments from Aramaic chronicles, priestly temple legends, Pharisaic legends, and theodicean legends explaining the fall of the Hasmonean dynasty. The chapter then examines, by generation, how Josephus on the one hand, and the rabbis on the other, reworked these embedded stories. The Josephan treatment aimed to reduce the hostility of the early traditions toward the Hasmoneans by imposing a contrasting accusatory framework that blames the Pharisees and justifies the Hasmonean ruler. The rabbinic treatment of the last three generations exemplifies the processes of rabbinization and the creation of archetypal figures. With respect to the first generation, the deliberate erasure of Judas Maccabeus’s name from the tradition of Nicanor’s defeat indicates that they chose to celebrate the Hasmonean victory but concealed its protagonists, the Maccabees, simply because no way was found to bring them into the rabbinic camp.

scholarly journals Evangelical and Catholic Timespace in Work: An Argument against a Homeless Eschatology

Religions ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 12 (3) ◽  
pp. 199
Author(s):  
Maria Ledstam
Keyword(s):  
Empirical Study ◽  
Common Good ◽  
Ethnographic Study ◽  
The Other ◽  
Faith Based ◽  
Business As Mission ◽  
Achievable Goal ◽  
The Common ◽  
The One ◽  
The Relationship

This article engages with how religion and economy relate to each other in faith-based businesses. It also elaborates on a recurrent idea in theological literature that reflections on different visions of time can advance theological analyses of the relationship between Christianity and capitalism. More specifically, this article brings results from an ethnographic study of two faith-based businesses into conversation with the ethicist Luke Bretherton’s presentation of different understandings of the relationship between Christianity and capitalism. Using Theodore Schatzki’s theory of timespace, the article examines how time and space are constituted in two small faith-based businesses that are part of the two networks Business as Mission (evangelical) and Economy of Communion (catholic) and how the different timespaces affect the religious-economic configurations in the two cases and with what moral implications. The overall findings suggest that the timespace in the Catholic business was characterized by struggling caused by a tension between certain ideals on how religion and economy should relate to each other on the one hand and how the practice evolved on the other hand. Furthermore, the timespace in the evangelical business was characterized by confidence, caused by the business having a rather distinct and achievable goal when it came to how they wanted to be different and how religion should relate to economy. There are, however, nuances and important resemblances between the cases that cannot be explained by the businesses’ confessional and theological affiliations. Rather, there seems to be something about the phenomenon of tension-filled and confident faith-based businesses that causes a drive in the practices towards the common good. After mapping the results of the empirical study, I discuss some contributions that I argue this study brings to Bretherton’s presentation of the relationship between Christianity and capitalism.

What being an owner can also mean: A socio-anthropological study on the development of a forgotten relationship to objects

2021 ◽  
pp. 205157072110144
Author(s):  
Isabelle Dabadie ◽  
Philippe Robert-Demontrond
Keyword(s):  
Economic Models ◽  
Ethnographic Study ◽  
Ecological Crisis ◽  
Anthropological Study ◽  
Possessive Individualism ◽  
The One

In a context of ecological crisis, new economic models have developed based on the replacement of ownership by access. While they have been studied at length, the very idea of ownership, which is supposed to be abandoned in this process, has rarely been questioned. This is the aim of our research, which investigates the meanings of the concept of ownership for consumers. A socio-anthropological investigation and an ethnographic study on various sharing systems (for houses, boats and clothes) reveals the development of a relationship to ownership, which differs from the one that prevails in the society. In this paradigm, which questions possessive individualism, the owner appears as the ‘custodian’ of his possessions. The identification of his expectations opens managerial and societal perspectives to build the offers that will enable him to fulfil this role.

THE MACROSIGNIFIED OF FORMATIVE MESOAMERICA: A SEMIOTIC APPROACH TO THE “OLMEC” STYLE

2021 ◽  
pp. 1-11
Author(s):  
Artur Seredin
Keyword(s):  
Complex Analysis ◽  
Semiotic Analysis ◽  
Cultural Meanings ◽  
Sign System ◽  
Semiotic Approach ◽  
The Creation

Abstract This article applies the theory of archaeological semiotics to the study of the “Olmec” style. A semiotic approach differs from an iconographic study because it provides the possibility for complex analysis of all significant traits of material archeological objects without distinction between stylistic and iconographic traits. In this context, the semiotic analysis of the Olmec style as a sign system shows that its particular signs, which can be defined as stylistic traits because of the lack of specific iconographic meanings, simultaneously participated in the creation and transformation of cultural meanings. This phenomenon reflected the “macrosignified” of Formative Mesoamerican cultures, associated with a structure that linked together various meanings throughout the culture.

scholarly journals Teaching the Romanian neighbors Hungarian: language ideologies and the Debrecen Summer School

Multilingua ◽  
2016 ◽  
Vol 35 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Attila Gyula Kiss
Keyword(s):  
Discourse Analysis ◽  
Summer School ◽  
Teaching And Learning ◽  
Language Ideologies ◽  
Language Education ◽  
Minority Language ◽  
Ethnographic Study ◽  
The One ◽  
Hungarian Language ◽  
Historical Discourses

AbstractThis article is a contribution to the hitherto scant literature on learning a historical minority language and on language ideologies in the context of a study abroad program in Hungary, Debrecen. I analyse the language ideologies of the decision makers in Hungary and in the Debrecen Summer School in relation to the teaching of Hungarian to the neighboring peoples. Drawing on interactional data of participants from Romania, the perspective of learning Hungarian as a historical minority language is examined. The present article combines a historical approach with language ideologies by focusing on an institution offering language education. Language ideologies are presented as they appear in the larger historical discourses, contemporary documents, and media interviews. I briefly outline the major turning points in the history of the institution which also reflects the changing language ideologies and cultural politics of Hungary. The qualitative discourse analysis of interviews and the conclusion of this ethnographic study demonstrate that language ideological positions in relation to the teaching and learning of Hungarian have been firmly located in historical and cultural contexts. Discourse analysis of various data demonstrates that, on the one hand, the course providers have espoused competing ideologies of who the learners should be as well as how to present the country and the culture, while, on the other hand, showing that the learners have had to negotiate prejudice and stereotype rooted in discourses about the often burdened history.

From the Rise of Authentic Italian Restaurants in America to the Creation of New Multicultural Food Tourism Experiences

2021 ◽  
Vol 21 (1) ◽  
pp. 5-16
Author(s):  
Alessandra Campanari ◽  
Alessio Cavicchi
Keyword(s):  
Cultural Heritage ◽  
Business Models ◽  
Business Environment ◽  
Ethnographic Study ◽  
Italian American ◽  
The Us ◽  
The Creation ◽  
Food Tourism ◽  
Globalized World ◽  
Food Identity

With the emergence of culinary multiculturalism in the globalized world, ethnic restaurants have become central symbols of postmodern life, no longer relegated to a domestic and community sphere, but able to attract non-ethnic customers without necessarily destroy food cultural heritage. In line with this trend, the article aims to contribute to the literature on new food tourism experiences by examining contemporary Italian restaurants in the US to investigate how Italian food identity in ethnic restaurants is advertised and sold. Starting from the literature on Italian culinary immigration in America, from the rise of the first Italian restaurants to the invention of the Italian American culinary tradition, the article provides an ethnographic study to understand the changing business environment that is leading new entrepreneurs in foodservice to diversify their business models towards the creation of new food tourism experiences as a result of an ever-changing dialogue between tradition and innovation.

scholarly journals POETICS OF CYCLIZATION IN THE PROSE OF YURIY BUYDA

2020 ◽  
Vol 12 (2) ◽  
pp. 72-80
Author(s):  
Marina P. Abasheva ◽  
◽  
Mariya V. Kurilenko ◽  
◽  
Keyword(s):  
Short Story ◽  
Social Communication ◽  
Russian Literature ◽  
General Interest ◽  
The Novel ◽  
Text Generation ◽  
Semiotic Analysis ◽  
Literary Forms ◽  
The Social ◽  
The One

The article studies the poetics of the contemporary writer Yuriy Buyda in the context of the contemporary Russian short story. The analysis of historically specific forms of Buyda’s cyclization is considered as part of the general tasks of historical poetics in studying the evolution of literary forms. Structural and semiotic analysis of the writer’s works reveals that his prose forms peculiar cycles-clusters, ‘archipelagos’, where a cycle of stories appears to be related to novels. This connection is primarily determined by the setting, but also by recurring heroes and a specific – cumulative rather than cyclical – plot that traces its origin to myth. Through the example of one such cluster of texts – the cycles Zhungli, Gates of Zhungli (Vrata Zhungley) (2011), Lions and Lilies (L’vy i Lilii) (2013), the novel Blue Blood (Sinyaya krov’) and related works – the paper investigates the nature and logic of the depicted world, the mechanisms of its intra-textual connections, as well as the genesis due to both the nature of the author’s artistic thinking and the social, historical and literary, biographical context. Thus, we can observe a tendency of transcending the genre boundaries of a story or novel in favor of hypertext rhizomatic formations – based on mythologizing strategies. These features correlate with the general interest of contemporary Russian literature in collections of short stories, on the one hand, and the contemporary novel’s leaning to disintegration of a single narrative and fragmentation, on the other. It is possible that the tendencies toward hypertext strategies for text generation are determined by the general properties of modern thinking and social communication since today the social morphology of society is built in the form of networks.

scholarly journals Respectus Philologicus, 2011 Nr. 19 (24)

2011 ◽  
pp. 1-284
Author(s):  
Gabija Bankauskaitė
Keyword(s):  
18Th Century ◽  
Russian Language ◽  
Point Of View ◽  
Computer Hardware ◽  
Speech Community ◽  
Star Wars ◽  
Globalizing World ◽  
Polish Society ◽  
The One

CONTENTS I. PROBLEMS AND SOLUTIONSMichał Mazurkiewicz (Poland). Sport versus Religion... 11Natalia А. Kuzmina (Russia). Poetry Book as a Supertext... 19Jonė Grigaliūnienė (Lithuania). Possessive Constructions as a Purely Linguistic Phenomenon?... 31 II. FACTS AND REFLECTIONSAleksandras Krasnovas, Aldona Martinonytė (Lithuania). Symbolizing of Images in Juozas Aputis Stories...40Jūratė Kumetaitienė (Lithuania). Tradition and Metamorphosis of Escapism (Running “from” or “into”) in the Modern and Postmodern Norwegian Literature...51Natalia V. Kovtun (Russia). Trickster in the Vicinity of Traditional Modern Prose...65Pavel S. Glushakov (Latvia). Semantic Processes in the Structure of Vasily Shukshin’s Poetics...81Tatyana Kamarovskaya (Belarus). Adam and the War...93Virginija Paplauskienė (Lithuania). Woman’s Language World in Liune Sutema’s Collection “Graffiti....99Jolanta Chwastyk-Kowalczyk (Poland). The Models of e-Comunication in the Polish Society of Britain and Northern Ireland...111Vilma Bijeikienė (Lithuania). How Equivocation Depends on the Way Questions are Asked: a Study in Lithuanian Political Discourse...123Viktorija Makarova (Lithuania). The One Who Names the Things, Masters Them: Ruskij vs. Rosijanin, Ruskij vs. Rosijskij in the Discourse of Russian Presidents...136Dorota Połowniak-Wawrzonek (Poland). Idioms from the Saga Film “Star Wars” in Contemporary Polish Language...144Ilona Mickienė, Inesa Birbilaitė (Lithuania). Women’s Naming in Telsiai Parish in the First Dacades of the 18th Century...158Liudmila Garbul (Lithuania). Reflection of Results of Interslavonic Language Contacts in the Russian Chancery Language of the First Half of the 17th Century (Synchronic and Diachronic Aspects). Part II...168Vilhelmina Vitkauskienė (Lithuania). Francophonie in Lithuania... 179Natalia V. Yudina (Russia). On the Role of the Russian Language in the Globalizing World of the XXI Century...189Maria Lojko (Belarus). Teaching Legal English to English Second Language Students in the US Law Schools...200 III. OPINIONElena V. Savich (Belarus). On Generation of an Integrative Method of Discourse Analysis...212Marek Weber (Poland). Lexical Analysis of Selected Lexemes Belonging to the Semantic Field ‘Computer Hardware’...220 IV. SCIENTISTS ABOUT SCIENTISTSOleg Poljakov (Lithuania). On the Female Factor in Linguistics and Around It... 228 V. OUR TRANSLATIONSBernard Sypniewski (USA). Snake in the Grass. Part II. Translated by Jurga Cibulskienė...239 VI. SCIENTIFIC LIFE CHRONICLEConferencesTatiana Larina (Russia), Laura Alba-Juez (Spain). Report and reflections of the 2010 International Conference on Intercultural Pragmatics and Communication in Madrid...246Books reviewsAleksandra M. Ponomariova (Russia). ЧЕРВИНСКИЙ, П. П., 2010. Номинативные аспекты и следствия политической коммуникации...252Gabija Bankauskaitė-Sereikienė (Lithuania). PAPLAUSKIENĖ, V., 2009. Liūnė Sutema: gyvenimo ir kūrybos keliais...255Yuri V. Shatin (Russia). Meaningful Curves. ГРИНБАУМ, О. Н., 2010. Роман А.С. Пушкина «Евгений Онегин»: ритмико-смысловой комментарий... 259Journal of scientific lifeDaiva Aliūkaitė (Lithuania). The Idea of the Database of Printed Advertisements: the Project “Sociolinguistics of Advertisements”...263Loreta Vaicekauskienė (Lithuania). The Project “Vilnius is Speaking: The Role of Vilnius Language in the Contemporary Lithuania, 2010”...265Daiva Aliūkaitė (Lithuania). The Project “Lithuanian Language: Fractures of Ideals, Ideologies and Identities”: Language Ideals from the Point of View of Ordinary Speech Community Members...267 Announce...269 VII. REQUIREMENTS FOR PUBLICATION...270 VIII. OUR AUTHORS...278

scholarly journals Do Androids Dream of Electric Shocks?  Utilitarian Machine Ethics

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
◽  
Brendan Vize
Keyword(s):  
Science Fiction ◽  
Emotional Experience ◽  
The Other ◽  
Machine Ethics ◽  
Human Beings ◽  
Moral Obligations ◽  
Star Wars ◽  
Electric Shocks ◽  
Tv Shows ◽  
The One

<p>Consider Lt. Commander Data from Star Trek: The Next Generation, the droid C3PO from Star Wars, or the Replicants that appear in Bladerunner: They can use language (or many languages), they are rational, they form relationships, they use language that suggests that they have a concept of self, and even language that suggests that they have “feelings” or emotional experience. In the films and TV shows that they appear, they are depicted as having frequent social interaction with human beings; but would we have any moral obligations to such a being if they really existed? What would we be permitted to do or not to do to them? On the one hand, a robot like Data has many of the attributes that we currently associate with a person. On the other hand, he has many of the attributes of the machines that we currently use as tools. He (and other science-fiction machines like him) closely resembles one of the things we value the most (a person), and at the same time, one of the things we value the least (an artefact), leading to an apparent ethical paradox. What is its solution?</p>

Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document