scholarly journals Varieties of agencies during working life changes

Author(s):  
Anu Järvensivu

The aim of this study is to shed light on the varieties of workers´ agencies in working life change situations, which is an under-researched topic in the literature of workplace learning and in working life studies. The research questions are what kinds of agencies there are to be found when workers encounter changes and how the different kinds of agencies are connected together. The understanding of agency is grounded on the subject-centered socio-cultural approach, whereas the methodological approach is based on applying life-course perspective on research material consisting of 48 working life narratives written by Finnish adults. The narratives are analyzed by abductive content analysis. The results reveal the dynamical and periodical processes between the different kinds of agencies during one´s working life narrative. The different forms of agency overlap and rotate. Suffering can be seen as a dynamic concept mediating transformative agencies, small agency and resistance.

2007 ◽  
Vol 1 (1) ◽  
pp. 57-75 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mihai Nadin

A semiotic machine, no matter how it is embodied or expressed, has to reflect the various understandings of what the knowledge domain of semiotics is. It also has to reflect what methods and means support further acquiring knowledge of semiotics. Moreover, it has to express ways in which knowledge of semiotics is tested, improved, and evaluated. Given the scope of the endeavor of defining the semiotic machine, the methodological approach must be anchored in the living experience of semiotics. Accordingly, the cultural-historic perspective, which is the backbone of any encyclopedic endeavor, is very much like a geological survey for a foundation conceived from a dynamic perspective. The various layers could shed light on a simple aspect of the subject: At which moment in the evolution of semiotics does it make sense to make the association (in whatever form) to tools and to what would become the notion of a machine? Reciprocally, we would have to explain how the various understandings of the notions tool and machine are pertinent to whatever was the practice of semiotics at a certain juncture. Yet another reference cannot be ignored: The reductionist-deterministic view, celebrated in what is known as the Cartesian Revolution. Since that particular junction in our understanding of the world, the reduction of semiotic processes to machine descriptions is no longer a matter of associations (literal or figurative), but a normative dimension implicitly or explicitly expressed in semiotic theories. Given this very intricate relation, we will have to systematize the variety of angles from which various understandings of the compound expression semiotic machine can be defined.In our days, such understandings cover a multitude of aspects, ranging from the desire to build machines that can perform particular semiotic operations to a new understanding of the living, in view of our acquired knowledge of genetics, molecular biology, and information biology. That the computer—a particular form of machine—as an underlying element of a civilization defined primarily as one of information processing, could be and has been considered a semiotic machine deserves further consideration.


Author(s):  
O. M. Korchazhkina

The article presents a methodological approach to studying iterative processes in the school course of geometry, by the example of constructing a Koch snowflake fractal curve and calculating a few characteristics of it. The interactive creative environment 1C:MathKit is chosen to visualize the method discussed. By performing repetitive constructions and algebraic calculations using ICT tools, students acquire a steady skill of work with geometric objects of various levels of complexity, comprehend the possibilities of mathematical interpretation of iterative processes in practice, and learn how to understand the dialectical unity between finite and infinite parameters of flat geometric figures. When students are getting familiar with such contradictory concepts and categories, that replenishes their experience of worldview comprehension of the subject areas they study through the concept of “big ideas”. The latter allows them to take a fresh look at the processes in the world around. The article is a matter of interest to schoolteachers of computer science and mathematics, as well as university scholars who teach the course “Concepts of modern natural sciences”.


Author(s):  
Heidi Hardt

Chapter 1 introduces the subject of institutional memory of strategic errors, discusses why it matters for international organizations (IOs) that engage in crisis management and reviews the book’s argument, competing explanations and methodological approach. One strategic error in the mandate or planning of an operation can increase the likelihood of casualties on the battlefield. Knowledge of past errors can help prevent future ones. The chapter explores an empirical puzzle; there remain key differences between how one expects IOs to learn and observed behavior. Moreover, scholars have largely treated institutional memory as a given without explaining how it develops. From relevant scholarship, the chapter identifies limitations of three potential explanations. The chapter then introduces a new argument for how IOs develop institutional memory. Subsequent sections describe research design and explain why NATO is selected as the domain of study. Last, the chapter identifies major contributions to literature and describes the book’s structure.


Author(s):  
Violeta Moreno-Lax

This chapter presents the subject matter under scrutiny and provides a historical account of the development of extraterritorial strategies of migration management in Europe, coinciding with parallel changes in refugee movements and the composition of migratory flows on the global scale. The objective and research questions the study seeks to address are also introduced, together with a description of the methodology underpinning the research. In particular, the ‘cumulative standards’ or ‘integrated interpretation’ model employed to construe EU Charter of Fundamental Rights standards is canvassed. The concept of ‘jurisdiction’ and the alternative ‘Fransson paradigm’ applicable to interpret the scope of application of EU law is also briefly defined. The structure of the book is outlined at the end, providing an overview of the different chapters and their interrelation.


2021 ◽  
Vol 2 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Mario S. Staller ◽  
Swen Koerner

AbstractGamification is regularly defined as the use of game elements in non-gaming contexts. However, discussions in the context of the pedagogical value of gamification suggest controversies on various levels. While on the one hand, the potential is seen in the design of joyful learning environments, critics point out the pedagogical dangers or the problems related to optimizing working life. It becomes apparent that the assumptions guiding action on the subject matter of gamification in educational contexts differ, which leads to different derivations for pedagogical practice—but also allows for different perspectives on initially controversial positions. Being aware of these assumptions is the claim of a reflexive pedagogy. With regard to the pedagogical use of gamifying elements and their empirical investigation, there are three main anchor points to consider from a reflexive stance: (a) the high context-specificity of the teaching undertaken and (b) the (non-)visibility of the design elements and (c) the (non-)acceptance of the gamified elements by the students. We start by providing a discussion of the definitional discourse on what is understood as gamification leading to our argument for a non-definition of gamification. We describe the potential of this non-definition of gamification and exemplify its use in a gamified concept of teaching police recruits professional reflexivity. The concept features the narrative of a potential crime that has been undertaken and that students decide for themselves if they want to engage with it.


2020 ◽  
Vol 7 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Federico Zanfi ◽  
Chiara Merlini ◽  
Viviana Giavarini ◽  
Fabio Manfredini

AbstractThe ‘family house’ has played a major role within the urbanisation processes that have been transforming the Italian landscape since the 1960s. It is a common feature of the widespread settlements that are part of what has been labelled the ‘diffuse city’ and was the subject of numerous studies during the 1990s. More than 20 years later, this paper returns to the topic of the Italian family house using a renewed methodological approach to describe relevant changes. The hypothesis here is that in order to grasp the tensions affecting ‘family houses’ in today’s context of demographic transition and increased imbalances between dynamic and declining areas, and to contemplate their future, the qualitative gaze adopted by scholars in the 1990s must be integrated with other investigative tools, focusing on demographic change, uses, and the property values of buildings. Using this perspective, the paper provides a series of ‘portraits’ rooted in four meaningful territorial contexts, portraits which may help scholars to redefine their imagery associated with family house and be useful for dedicated building policies.


Episteme ◽  
2013 ◽  
Vol 10 (2) ◽  
pp. 117-134 ◽  
Author(s):  
Boaz Miller ◽  
Isaac Record

AbstractPeople increasingly form beliefs based on information gained from automatically filtered internet sources such as search engines. However, the workings of such sources are often opaque, preventing subjects from knowing whether the information provided is biased or incomplete. Users' reliance on internet technologies whose modes of operation are concealed from them raises serious concerns about the justificatory status of the beliefs they end up forming. Yet it is unclear how to address these concerns within standard theories of knowledge and justification. To shed light on the problem, we introduce a novel conceptual framework that clarifies the relations between justified belief, epistemic responsibility, action and the technological resources available to a subject. We argue that justified belief is subject to certain epistemic responsibilities that accompany the subject's particular decision-taking circumstances, and that one typical responsibility is to ascertain, so far as one can, whether the information upon which the judgment will rest is biased or incomplete. What this responsibility comprises is partly determined by the inquiry-enabling technologies available to the subject. We argue that a subject's beliefs that are formed based on internet-filtered information are less justified than they would be if she either knew how filtering worked or relied on additional sources, and that the subject may have the epistemic responsibility to take measures to enhance the justificatory status of such beliefs.


2017 ◽  
Vol 4 (1) ◽  
pp. 229-255 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nafay CHOUDHURY

AbstractThis paper revisits the concept ofcriticallegal pluralism, which treats the individual as a site of normativity with the capacity to create legal knowledge. To help operationalize the usage of critical legal pluralism, I propose a methodological approach that places the individual’s ability to makes choices along a continuum. On one side of continuum, legal pluralism can be viewed as facilitating fully discrete choices that ascribe to one legal order or another. On the other side, the ability to make individual choices is curtailed because of the presence of a hegemonic legal order. This simple continuum helps to shed light on the complex considerations that affect individual choices, which in turn affect how various legal orders are legitimated. The paper then considers how critical legal pluralism can enrich the discussion on the legal system of Afghanistan, focusing on interviews with two Afghan justice actors: a former judge and an active defence lawyer.


2003 ◽  
Vol 2 (1) ◽  
pp. 126-140 ◽  
Author(s):  
Leif Chr. Lahn

Issues of late career have recently attracted much political and public interest but contributions from research have been meagre. In this article, a review is made of the literature on cognitive ageing and learning abilities in an occupational context. Multidimensional and non-linear perspectives are increasingly replacing models of late career as a period of declining expertise. Data from an European Union Framework Programme 4 research project ‘Working Life Changes and the Training of Older Workers' (WORKTOW), supports such a redefinition. Also, the optimistic scenarios for late career that are held out by the literature on ‘boundaryless careers' are challenged. A sociocultural framework that is more sensitive to the institutional and cultural context of age differences in learning at work is asked for.


KronoScope ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 21 (1) ◽  
pp. 7-27
Author(s):  
Carl Humphries

Abstract “Being is said in many ways,” claimed Aristotle, initiating a discussion about existential commitment that continues today. Might there not be reasons to say something similar about “having been,” or “having happened,” where these expressions denote something’s being located in the past? Moreover, if history – construed not only as an object of inquiry (actual events, etc.) but also as a way of casting light on certain matters – is primarily concerned with “things past,” then the question just posed also seems relevant to the question of what historical understanding amounts to. While the idea that ‘being’ may mean different things in different contexts has indisputable importance, the implications of other, past-temporal expressions are elusive. In what might any differences of substantive meaning encountered there consist? One starting point for responding – the one that provides the subject matter explored here – is furnished by the question of whether or not a certain way of addressing matters relating to the past permits or precludes forms of intelligibility that could be said to be ‘radically historical.’ After arguing that the existing options for addressing this issue remain unsatisfactory, I set out an alternative view of what it could mean to endorse or reject such an idea. This involves drawing distinctions and analogies connected with notions of temporal situatedness, human practicality and historicality, which are then linked to a further contrast between two ways of understanding the referential significance of what is involved when we self-ascribe a relation to a current situation in a manner construable as implying that we take ourselves to occupy a unique, yet circumstantially defined, perspective on that situation. As regards the latter, on one reading, the specific kind of indexically referring language we use – commonly labelled “de se” – is something whose rationale is exhausted by its practical utility as a communicative tool. On the other, it is viewed as capturing something of substantive importance about how we can be thought of as standing in relation to reality. I claim that this second reading, together with the line of thinking about self-identification and self-reference it helps foreground, can shed light on what it would mean to affirm or deny the possibility of radically historical forms of intelligibility – and thus also on what it could mean to ascribe a plurality of meanings to talk concerning things being ‘in the past.’


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