Agents of the Hidden Imam

In 874 CE, the eleventh Imam died, and the Imami community splintered. The institutions of the Imamate were maintained by the dead Imam's agents, who asserted they were in contact with a hidden twelfth Imam. This was the beginning of 'Twelver' Shiʿism. Edmund Hayes provides an innovative approach to exploring early Shiʿism, moving beyond doctrinal history to provide an analysis of the socio-political processes leading to the canonisation of the Occultation of the twelfth Imam. Hayes shows how these agents cemented their authority by reproducing the physical signs of the Imamate, including protocols of succession, letters and the alm taxes. Four of these agents were ultimately canonised as “envoys” but traces of earlier conceptions of authority remain embedded in the earliest reports. Hayes dissects the complex and contradictory Occultation narratives to show how, amidst the claims of numerous actors, the institutional positioning of the envoys allowed them to assert a quasi-Imamic authority in the absence of an Imam.

MTV’s The Hills: A Leading American Docusoap

<p>This thesis explores the relatively uncharted academic territory of the American docusoap, and case studies The Hills as a pertinent example of this burgeoning television genre. Docusoap is a ‘mixed-genre’ that enhances factual material with the story-telling techniques of fictional drama. Whilst many academics have studied the origins of British docusoap and have registered the influence upon it of ‘public service’ objectives in programming, less attention has been paid to the emergence of the docusoap in the commercially-driven American television context. It is in this context that the docusoap has entailed a more overt blending of the attributes of ‘documentary’ and ‘soap opera’ for purely entertainment purposes. Testifying to the need to reconcile risk with conservatism in a commercially-driven schedule context, the generic mix within The Hills draws from the genres of soap opera and ‘reality’ TV, both of which bring the advantages and assurances of a well-demonstrated audience popularity. Having recently completed its sixth and final season, The Hills exemplifies current developments within the American docusoap form. This docusoap details the lives of a group of attractive, affluent young people in their early twenties who work and socialise within the entertainment and fashion industries of Los Angeles. Significantly, The Hills maintains the voyeuristic allure of a ‘reality’ TV premise and enhances this by adapting the melodramatic aesthetics and distinctive narrative strategies of soap opera to a degree that is more overt than other docusoaps, aside, of course, from that which characterised its forerunner, Laguna Beach. This thesis undertakes a close examination of the generic and institutional positioning of The Hills in four distinct chapters. Chapter One examines the generic position of docusoap as a ‘mixed-genre’ and the institutional role The Hills performs for the youth-oriented MTV network. Chapter Two analyses the specific fictional narrative techniques The Hills uses to enhance its documented footage whilst Chapter Three addresses the controversies that have emerged due to this docusoap’s blending of the fictional and the factual. Finally, Chapter Four details how the docusoap’s ability to appeal to lucrative young viewers positions The Hills as a powerful promotional tool for MTV’s consumerist messages.</p>

MTV’s The Hills: A Leading American Docusoap

<p>This thesis explores the relatively uncharted academic territory of the American docusoap, and case studies The Hills as a pertinent example of this burgeoning television genre. Docusoap is a ‘mixed-genre’ that enhances factual material with the story-telling techniques of fictional drama. Whilst many academics have studied the origins of British docusoap and have registered the influence upon it of ‘public service’ objectives in programming, less attention has been paid to the emergence of the docusoap in the commercially-driven American television context. It is in this context that the docusoap has entailed a more overt blending of the attributes of ‘documentary’ and ‘soap opera’ for purely entertainment purposes. Testifying to the need to reconcile risk with conservatism in a commercially-driven schedule context, the generic mix within The Hills draws from the genres of soap opera and ‘reality’ TV, both of which bring the advantages and assurances of a well-demonstrated audience popularity. Having recently completed its sixth and final season, The Hills exemplifies current developments within the American docusoap form. This docusoap details the lives of a group of attractive, affluent young people in their early twenties who work and socialise within the entertainment and fashion industries of Los Angeles. Significantly, The Hills maintains the voyeuristic allure of a ‘reality’ TV premise and enhances this by adapting the melodramatic aesthetics and distinctive narrative strategies of soap opera to a degree that is more overt than other docusoaps, aside, of course, from that which characterised its forerunner, Laguna Beach. This thesis undertakes a close examination of the generic and institutional positioning of The Hills in four distinct chapters. Chapter One examines the generic position of docusoap as a ‘mixed-genre’ and the institutional role The Hills performs for the youth-oriented MTV network. Chapter Two analyses the specific fictional narrative techniques The Hills uses to enhance its documented footage whilst Chapter Three addresses the controversies that have emerged due to this docusoap’s blending of the fictional and the factual. Finally, Chapter Four details how the docusoap’s ability to appeal to lucrative young viewers positions The Hills as a powerful promotional tool for MTV’s consumerist messages.</p>

Do Independent Fiscal Institutions Enhance Parliamentary Accountability in the Eurozone?

Independent fiscal institutions (IFIs) have been established or reformed in all eurozone countries following the reform of economic governance. As they are expected to counter the deficit bias of the governments and the information asymmetry of the legislatures and the public over the management of the budget, IFIs may support or even strengthen parliamentary accountability. This hypothesis is tested with regard to three IFIs, the Irish Fiscal Advisory Council, the Italian Parliamentary Budget Office, and the Spanish Independent Authority for Fiscal Responsibility. Although the economic context in which the IFIs were created was similar in the three eurozone countries, as was their mandate, these institutions have a rather different institutional positioning, being within the Parliament, in Italy; within the Executive, in Spain; and a stand-alone body in Ireland. This is likely to influence the IFIs’ contribution to parliamentary accountability, we hypothesize that the closer the position of an IFI and its contacts to the parliament, the stronger is the scrutiny of the executive on budgetary policies. The analysis of parliamentary questions, hearings, and of the activation of the ‘comply or explain’ procedures shows that, overall, the IFIs’ potential role to enhance parliamentary accountability has remained underexploited by the three legislatures, with no significant differences as for the institutional positioning of the IFI.

Digital Citizenship in the Age of Datafication

“Digital citizenship” has become a prominent concept to understand the ways in which we interact with our social, political, and economic environment through digital infrastructures and how our lives—and, more broadly, society—are transformed in the process. Many accounts of digital citizenship have emphasized its empowering nature and suggested a shift towards enhanced agency by citizens and a democratizing trend in state-citizen relations. However, as contemporary governance becomes increasingly centered on the collection and analysis of personal data, the age of “datafication” requires us to rethink the concept and its implications. This chapter provides a thorough review of established understandings of digital citizenship and explores what it means when citizens are increasingly subject to data processing and data-based categorization. It offers a perspective on digital citizenship that combines the self-enacted and the institutional positioning of citizens in society in the context of data infrastructures.

Comunicação orientada para cultura de paz nas organizações: uma proposta de análise da comunicação organizacional digital de três empresas do Pacto Global no Brasil

This article aims to understand some aspects of communication in organizations in order to identify which elements are essential for a communication dynamic focused on the culture of peace in a context that may or may not naturalize organizational violence. Although it may seem controversial, both dynamics (focused on a peace culture or violence) can be strained in the organizational environment as they value and legitimize strategic elements of communication in these same organizations. This conception is based on the understanding that companies, through the diffusion of their media discourses, either through their own official spaces or by other means, assume a significant role in society to schedule matters and establish standards. Thus, a demand arises for responsible communication, which has been used by companies as a form of competitive advantage to create and / or strengthen bonds with their audiences and, therefore, differentiate themselves in a market with competition fierce. For this, based on the principles discussed in Peace Studies and considering its multidisciplinary nature, there is in the Communication for Peace the debate about the appearance (or not) of violence through communicational dynamics. For this reason, we also support this paper in the strategic elements of Peace Journalism, which indicates forms of communication that stimulate a culture of peace in conflict scenarios. From this, it was possible to construct analytical categories, in order to list the essential characteristics that could indicate a direction of organizational communication as a potentializer of actions directed to the culture of peace or legitimizing organizational violence. This is because the communicational actions of companies, especially when referring to an institutional positioning, can influence behaviors and, consequently, in the consolidation of the organizational culture itself. In an attempt to check in a practical way the formulation of the developed categories, we selected three Brazilian companies that have long been committed to the Global Compact, an initiative of the United Nations, which seeks to bring elements linked to ethical and sustainable management into the organizational sphere, they are: Natura, Copel and ArcelorMittal. Therefore, we analyzed the institutional speeches propagated in the three selected videos of these companies, “Natura – The most beautiful tune”; “Institutional Copel Energia” and “Safety Day - ArcelorMittal” referring to the institutional campaigns of these companies that were published in the first half of 2019 on their official YouTube channels. The analysis of the material was performed based on the discursive proposal of stereotypes offered by Amossy (2008), which aligns the aspects of the enunciator's search for legitimation before an audience. To this end, four analytical categories were established to identify a communication directed towards peace, that is, one that is concerned with promoting dialogue, building collective values, generating social transformation and considering the historical and socio-cultural context in which they are inserted. The development of these categories was inspired by the perspective of Journalism for Peace (Lynch and Mcgoldrick, 2007; Cabral and Salhani, 2017) and by the dimensions of essential communication skills (Calonego, 2018). With the study, it was possible to identify that although organizations are committed to the goals established by the Global Compact, these elements are not necessarily presented in their institutional campaigns, indicating the need for organizational communication focused on peace. In addition, problems related to the alignment between the formulation of organizational discourse and its institutional communication were detected.

The Role of Institutional Engagement at the Macro Level in Pushing the Circular Economy in Spain and Its Regions

Currently, the European Union is promoting the circular economy, a change that involves moving the foundations of actual economies toward the most sustainable production and consumption periods, in which the reuse of resources predominates, mainly through recycling, reuse, and reduction, among other strategies. This study, through the application of institutional theory, analyzes the role that institutional pressure has in the diffusion and adoption of the circular economy from the state to the regions inside through coercive, normative, and mimetic pressures. A matrix of institutional positioning was developed that analyzes the number and diversity of circular economy initiatives. The results show that coercive pressure followed by mimetic pressure are the most relevant in explaining the development of the circular economy in Spain in relation to the closest other European countries in Southern Europe, while there is low normative pressure. The results obtained provide relevant information on how to accelerate the development of the circular economy throughout the European Union through the adequate exercise of different types of institutional pressure.

The The Power of Deficit Discourses in Student Talk about Writing

Does engagement with writing centre consultants in one-on-one consultations help students shift from remedial discourses toward meta-cognitive awareness more in keeping with the nature of peer review in an academic setting? This study investigates this question through looking longitudinally over a four-year period in a Canadian university writing centre. We situate this research within wider discussions of Standard English and remediation in student academic writing, as well as writing centre research that explores correlations between numbers of writing centre visits and both students’ confidence as writers and their intrinsic motivation. Using a corpus-supported genre and discourse analysis, we focus on student appointment requests, as well as summative writing centre consultant notes. Results suggest that deficit discourses are highly tenacious, which we explain in part as the result of the constraints inherent in the genre of requests for help, and also in terms of the institutional positioning of writing centres.