scholarly journals Investigating the language-culture nexus in refugee legal advice meetings

Multilingua ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 39 (4) ◽  
pp. 395-429
Author(s):  
Judith Reynolds
Keyword(s):  
Communication Theory ◽  
Ethnographic Study ◽  
Cultural Resources ◽  
Cultural Complexity ◽  
Family Reunion ◽  
Communicative Practices ◽  
Legal Advice ◽  
Structured Analysis ◽  
Analytical Approaches ◽  
Different Levels

AbstractThis paper explores linguistic and cultural complexity within immigration legal advice communication. Drawing from a linguistic ethnographic study, ethnographic and interactional data from two linked advice meetings about UK refugee family reunion processes are subject to deductive analysis using Risager’s model of the language-culture nexus, within which the intersection of language(s) and culture(s) in a communicative event is conceptualised as a nexus of linguistic, languacultural, discursive, and other (non-linguistic) cultural resources and practices. The paper operationalises this intercultural communication theory in a new and exploratory way to investigate how cultural complexity is manifest, and interactionally managed, at different levels of meaning.The substantive analysis shows how a range of divergent resources, brought in by the different participants, are drawn upon and externalised as communicative practices in both legal advice meetings. Understanding is negotiated interculturally at different levels of meaning – the linguistic, the languacultural, and the discursive – in contrasting ways in each meeting. Methodologically, the paper argues that a strength of Risager’s framework is that it supports a methodical and structured analysis of communicative events characterised by linguistic and cultural complexity, which can be linked to other discourse analytical approaches. The model’s complexity, and its foregrounding of verbal over other semiotic modes, are highlighted as challenges for the analyst.

Decoding algorithms

2019 ◽  
Vol 42 (5) ◽  
pp. 745-761 ◽  
Author(s):  
Stine Lomborg ◽  
Patrick Heiberg Kapsch
Keyword(s):  
Empirical Study ◽  
Digital Media ◽  
Communication Theory ◽  
Media Use ◽  
Daily Life ◽  
Black Box ◽  
Cultural Knowledge ◽  
Communicative Practices ◽  
Decoding Algorithms ◽  
Modes Of Engagement

In this article, we propose to adapt the communication theory concept of ‘decoding’ as a sensitizing device to probe how people come to know and understand algorithms, what they imagine algorithms to do, and their valorization of and responses to algorithmic work in daily media use. We posit the concept of decoding as useful because it highlights a feature that is constitutional in communication: gaps that must be filled by mobilizing our semiotic and socio-cultural knowledge in processes of interpretation before any communication becomes meaningful. If we cannot open the black box itself, we can study the relationships that people experience with algorithms, and by extension how and to what extent these experienced relationships become meaningful and are interwoven with users’ reflections of power, transparency, and justice in digital media. We demonstrate the potential of approaching algorithmic experience as communicative practices of decoding through an exploratory empirical study of how people from different walks of life come to know, feel, evaluate, and do algorithms in daily life. We unpack three prototypical modes of decoding algorithms – along preferred, negotiated, and oppositional modes of engagement with algorithms in daily life.

scholarly journals Fields of Action for Designing Measures to Avoid Food Losses in Logistics Networks

2020 ◽  
Vol 12 (15) ◽  
pp. 6093 ◽  
Author(s):  
Julia Kleineidam
Keyword(s):  
Value Chain ◽  
Added Value ◽  
Prevention Measures ◽  
Food Loss ◽  
Network Cooperation ◽  
Logistics Networks ◽  
Structured Analysis ◽  
Food Losses ◽  
A Company ◽  
Different Levels

The literature contains many analyses of measures against food loss. However, there exists no structured analysis of the objective of these measures. This study employs a systematic literature analysis and open expert interviews, combining the perspectives of science and practice. For each analyzed case, we identified the objectives behind the implemented measures. Using qualitative clustering, we categorized the located objectives into fields of action. The identified 13 fields of action provide an overview of the objectives of food loss prevention measures. The results indicate that different levels of importance can be assigned to these fields of action. In particular, the results show the relevance of increased network cooperation and transparency within a company and along the entire value chain. Furthermore, the study indicates that the creation of transparency provides the greatest overall added value in terms of reducing food losses.

scholarly journals Polymedia repertoires of networked individuals

2021 ◽  
Vol 12 (5) ◽  
pp. 725-755
Author(s):  
Caroline Tagg ◽  
Agnieszka Lyons
Keyword(s):  
Mobile Phone ◽  
Social Relationships ◽  
Digital Communications ◽  
Linguistically Diverse ◽  
Social Meaning ◽  
Communicative Practices ◽  
Theoretical Contribution ◽  
Linguistic Resources ◽  
Identification Processes ◽  
Different Levels

Abstract This article introduces the concept of the polymedia repertoire to explore how social meaning is indexed through the interplay of communicative resources at different levels of expression (from choice of media to individual signs) in digitally mediated interactions. The multi-layered polymedia repertoire highlights how people move fluidly between media platforms, semiotic modes and linguistic resources in the course of their everyday interactions, and enables us to locate digital communications within individuals’ wider practices. The potential of our theoretical contribution is illustrated through analysis of mobile phone messaging between participants in a large multi-sited ethnography of the communicative practices of multilingual migrants working in linguistically diverse UK city neighbourhoods. Our analysis of mobile messaging exchanges in a day-in-the-life of these networked individuals reveals the importance of device attention in shaping interpersonal interactions, as well as the complex ways in which choices at different levels of a polymedia repertoire are structured by social relationships, communicative purpose and (dis)identification processes.

scholarly journals KOMUNIKACIJOS TEORIJOS IR KOMUNIKACIJOS FILOSOFIJOS ASIMETRIJA

Problemos ◽  
2008 ◽  
Vol 75 ◽  
pp. 141-149
Author(s):  
Kęstutis Kirtiklis
Keyword(s):  
Social Life ◽  
Science Communication ◽  
Communication Theory ◽  
Levels Of Abstraction ◽  
Demarcation Line ◽  
Theory Formation ◽  
Philosophy Of Communication ◽  
Universal Communication ◽  
Different Levels

Straipsnyje nagrinėjama komunikacijos teorijos ir komunikacijos filosofijos demarkacijos problema, iškylanti komunikacijos teoretikams siekiant mažinti partikuliarumą ir sukurti universalesnę komunikacijos teoriją. Tvirtinama, jog komunikacijos teorija ir komunikacijos filosofija turi būti apibrėžiamos remiantis skirtingais jų tikslais. Komunikacijos teorija siekia struktūruoti ir kaupti turimas žinias apie komunikaciją, jomis remiantis aiškinti ir numatyti konkrečius komunikacijos atvejus. Savo ruožtu komunikacijos filosofija domisi komunikacijos vieta socialiniame žmogaus gyvenime bei bendrosiomis komunikacijos teorijų ir empirinių tyrimų prielaidomis. Tvirtinama, jog komunikacijos teorija ir komunikacijos filosofija yra skirtingų abstrakcijos lygmenų teorijos, todėl negali būti laikomos lygiavertėmis. Pagrindiniai žodžiai: komunikacijos teorija, komunikacijos filosofija, komunikacijos mokslo metodologija.Asymmetry between Communication Theory and Philosophy of CommunicationKæstutis Kirtiklis  Summary The author analyzes the problem of a demarcation line between communication theory and philosophy of communication. This problem arises when communication theorists seek to reduce particularism and create a more universal communication theory. The article argues that communication theory and philosophy of communication should be defined through their different ends. Communication theory aims to cumulate and structure the knowledge of communication, to explain and predict particular cases of communication, whereas philosophy of communication is concerned with questions regarding the place of communication in social life and also with theory formation and methodology in communication science. Communication theory and philosophy of communication are on the different levels of abstraction and therefore cannot be considered to be commensurate theories. Keywords: communication theory, philosophy of communication, methodology of communication science.eight: 18px;"> 

Ethnography, Tactical Responsivity and Political Utility

2021 ◽  
pp. 089124162110608
Author(s):  
Naomi Nichols ◽  
Emanuel Guay
Keyword(s):  
Grounded Theory ◽  
Data Collection ◽  
Ethnographic Research ◽  
Communicative Practices ◽  
Specific Focus ◽  
Academic Settings ◽  
Analytic Strategy ◽  
Analytical Approaches

In this article, we address issues of attribution, utility, and accountability in ethnographic research. We examine the two main analytical approaches that have structured the debate on data collection and theorization in ethnography over the last five decades: an inductivist approach, with grounded theory as its main analytic strategy; and a deductivist stance, which uses field sites to explore empirical anomalies that enable an ethnographer to test and build upon pre-existing theories. We engage recent reformulations of this classical debate, with a specific focus on abductive and reflexive approaches in ethnography, and then weigh into these debates, ourselves. drawing on our own experiences producing and using research in non-academic settings. In so doing, we highlight the importance of strategy and accountability in one’s ethnographic practices and accounts, advocating for an approach to ethnographic research that is reflexive and overtly responsive to the knowledge needs and change goals articulated by non-academic collaborators. Ultimately, we argue for a research stance that we describe as tactical responsivity, whereby researchers work with key collaborators and stakeholders to identify the strategic aims and audiences for their research, and develop ethnographic, analytic, and communicative practices that enable them to generate and mobilize the knowledge required to actualize their shared aims.

On the Development of the Theory of Fiscal Federalism: An Essay in the History of (Recent) Economic Thought

2011 ◽  
Vol 29 (1) ◽  
pp. 3-24
Author(s):  
Wallace E. Oates
Keyword(s):  
Public Finance ◽  
Real World ◽  
Financial Crises ◽  
Fiscal Federalism ◽  
Economic Thought ◽  
History Of ◽  
Economic Roles ◽  
Analytical Approaches ◽  
Different Levels

Abstract This paper explores the origins and evolution of the theory of fiscal federalism. A relatively recent sub-field of public finance, fiscal federalism addresses the economics of multilevel government including the economic roles of different levels of government and the fiscal instruments they employ. Its evolution has been influenced both by some real-world financial crises and by the application of new analytical approaches in the discipline of economics.

scholarly journals Russian Political Discourse in the Focus of Linguistic Ecology

2019 ◽  
pp. 76-92 ◽  
Author(s):  
Natalya Bozhenkova ◽  
Pavel Katyshev ◽  
Svetlana Ionova ◽  
Elmira Afanasyeva ◽  
Levon Saakyan
Keyword(s):  
Political Communication ◽  
Political Discourse ◽  
Cultural Resources ◽  
Collective Consciousness ◽  
Component Structure ◽  
Communicative Practices ◽  
Communicative Acts ◽  
Cultural Interpretation ◽  
Political Interaction

The article provides an overview of typological mechanisms in the arrangement of communicative practices in modern political discourse and methods of verbal explication of its axiological and symbolic constituents, determining mental universals in individual/collective consciousness. The study provides a systematic characterization of linguistic and social-and-cultural dominants in political interaction. Verbal indicators of social asymmetry are identified. The description of the language of political discourse aspectual data are summarized. A multilevel analysis of the component structure of political interactions is carried out. The genre specifics of legitimate and illegitimate communicative acts is taken into consideration. The combination of the methods applied in discourse analysis, such as linguistic cognitive projection, linguistic-and-cultural interpretation and functional-and-pragmatic examination of text units, enabled the researchers to identify and qualify linguo-semiotic elements of political practices. Hence, an ecolinguistic typology of basic linguistic components of political communication acts characterized by various legitimacy degrees has been carried out. The study revealed a possibility to single out a specific communicative range in Russian political discourse, in the framework of which linguistic and cultural resources of ideologically charged discursive practices would be actualized and the area of possible communication risks would be significantly expanded.

scholarly journals Molecular signatures of resource competition: clonal interference drives the emergence of ecotypes

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Massimo Amicone ◽  
Isabel Gordo
Keyword(s):  
Evolutionary Dynamics ◽  
Resource Competition ◽  
Ecological Model ◽  
De Novo ◽  
Clonal Interference ◽  
Microbial Ecosystems ◽  
Difficult Challenge ◽  
Asexual Populations ◽  
Analytical Approaches ◽  
Different Levels

AbstractMicrobial ecosystems harbor an astonishing diversity that can persist for long times. To understand how such diversity is generated and maintained, ecological and evolutionary processes need to be integrated at similar timescales, but this remains a difficult challenge. Here, we extend an ecological model of resource competition to allow for evolution via de novo mutation, focusing on large and rapidly adapting asexual populations. Through numerical and analytical approaches, we characterize adaptation and diversity at different levels and show how clonal interference – the interaction between simultaneously emerging lineages – shapes the eco-evolutionary dynamics. We find that large mutational inputs can foster diversification under sympatry, increasing the probability that phenotypically and genetically distinct clusters arise and stably coexist, constituting an initial form of community. Our findings have implications beyond microbial populations, providing novel insights about the interplay between ecology and evolution in clonal populations.

Accounting for activity development through perspectives in an inbound call centre

2017 ◽  
Vol 29 (6) ◽  
pp. 428-446 ◽  
Author(s):  
Maria Ianeva ◽  
Jacqueline Vacherand-Revel ◽  
Christian Licoppe
Keyword(s):  
Empirical Studies ◽  
Ethnographic Study ◽  
Insurance Companies ◽  
Call Centre ◽  
Cultural Resources ◽  
Situated Action ◽  
Relational Context ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Video Recordings ◽  
Health Insurance Companies

Purpose This paper aims to address the methodological and conceptual challenges arising from the use of activity theory as a theoretical framework in empirical studies of work. Design/methodology/approach To grasp the relationship between situated action and activity development, the authors build upon the concept of perspective and suggest that perspectives are grounded on salient configurations, which are both emergent in situ and collectively elaborated cultural resources. Empirical evidence for these theoretical considerations is provided through a two-year ethnographic study of the organizational change and collective activity at an inbound call centre for a number of mutual health insurance companies. This research used several data collection techniques such as ethnographic observation, video recordings and interviews. Findings The presented results highlight that seemingly unskilled routine practices such as opening and sorting the mail rely upon a complex set of informational resources that only have “value” and meaning in a broader relational context, that of the activity. Originality/value The originality of this paper is the use of salient configurations as a basis for the operationalization of the notion of perspective and open new avenues of thought (and action) on situated work practices as embedded within activities.

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