Building the media picture of a city: the method of frame analysis

The article is written in the framework of cognitive linguistics, discourse analysis and frame theory. A frame is defined as a deep conceptual structure containing information about the world. The transmission of this information is achieved through language, such as words, sentences, texts. This process is known as frame activation. The relation between close notions of frame and concept is discussed. With the help of linguistic analysis of media texts there proposed a typology of six contextual macro frames constituting the media picture of a single city. The classification can be characterized as thematic. Our interest lies in the positioning of the city in the federal media which is the data for our study. It permits to outline a general city image among wide audience. In the course of our work, we compiled a specialpurpose corpus of 9,500 selected news texts from the past twenty years, which helped us to obtain a fairly consistent media picture. The research clarifies that the positioning of a city in the media represents an accentuated ideological communication with a hidden and not strong speech influence where framing is realized as a means of constructing the reality. Framing of social issues is carried out through a wide range of linguistic tools: lexical units with positive or negative connotations, set expressions, metaphors, epithets, syntactical constructions, various expressive and stylistic means. A frame conveys characteristics of a problem, possible reasons, predominant assessment and possible solutions. Framing of the urban social problems results in constructing certain meaning systems and images which are described in this paper. Apart from relevance for linguistics, frame analysis of urban environment is viewed as promising studies to improve journalism as a social institution.

Living in the Era of an Ideological Climate of Globalisation: A Study of Psychological Sense of Community Among Young and Older Adults in Two Cultures (India and Norway). Challenges for Community Psychology and the Applied Social Sciences

How do people describe the psychological sense of community (PSOC) in the present day ideological climate of globalising neo-liberalism, assuming that people are essentially individualistic, that solidarity, social commitment, and citizenship are not natural dispositions, as we all are the lonely citizen? This issue is addressed by a mixed-methods study using semi-structured interviews with two age groups—young and older people—from two different cultures—India (Mumbai) and Norway (Oslo). This two by two design gives the opportunity to analyse people’s meaning systems of PSOC, asking; is there a core meaning system of PSOC shared by people within as well as across cultures? Belongingness and citizenship are continuously formed and negotiated, just at the intersection of two dimensions: culture and historical time. The young and older adult informants often live in different “historical times.” The meaning systems of PSOC were explored and compared by language analyses of words used by the informants. Text search queries were made for 69 words. “Help,”, “care,” “different,” “problem,” and “family” were identified as central for further in-depth qualitative analyses. The word, “family” demonstrated high frequencies of use across sub-samples. There was nothing more relevant for the groups than the family when thinking of PSOC, revealing almost a “prior to society perspective.” PSOC is about being part of families. Simultaneously, we are members of other communities: schools, workplaces, neighborhoods, cities and nations. The informants mentioned such communities, but not often. Feeling part of the family, helping and caring not only the family but also your neighbourhood, local community, or national and global communities are particularly necessary today, as we live in a time where communities, societies, and nations across the world are heavily impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic. In this crisis, it is vital that nobody forgets that we are national and transnational citizens and part of many interrelated social systems. This study points out how community psychology and the applied social sciences can work to strengthen the feelings of connections to other communities, societies, and nations outlining and co-creating transformative multi-level interventions of public policy programmes of inclusion and “we-ness.”

The Paradox of the Black Professional: Whitewashing Blackness through Professionalism

Discrimination against Black workers in the United States workplace is an ongoing problem. This study explores one understudied type of discrimination—the paradoxes and contradictions that create untenable situations for Black professionals who work in largely white-dominant organizations. Through in-depth interviews with self-identified Black professionals, we developed a novel theoretical concept we term the paradox of the Black professional. The participants uniformly identified white assumptions underlying the meaning of professionalism and were forced to navigate the impossible expectations of needing to be white while inhabiting a Black body. The findings suggest that organizations expressing a commitment to diversity, inclusion, and equity need to rethink the meaning systems and expectations that drive the professional and organizational discourses around which work is organized.

Digital Technologies within and beyond the Workplace: Impacts, Ambiguities, and Transformative Trends

Digital transformation (DT) is increasingly establishing itself as a constant theme in contemporary academic and practitioner conversations (Hanelt et al., 2020). Organisation scholars are attentive to the role and impact of digitalisation (Hinings, Gegenhuber and Greenwood, 2018), investigating how digital technologies affect individuals (Zuboff, 2015; 2019), organisations and professions (Foer, 2017), entire industries (Taplin, 2017), and societies (Morozov, 2011). There is no doubt that digitally-enabled arrangements permeate and reshape industries and fields, challenging organisational models, HRM practices, power structures and meaning systems (Alvesson and Kärreman, 2011). Moreover, the COVID-19 pandemic has accelerated the digitalisation of economy and organisations, anticipated many issues and transformations that would have taken longer to be addressed and posed unique demands in terms of conditions and scale of technology adoption at work (Wang et al., 2021). Thus, promoting theory and research development on this important substantive and methodological topic is therefore of foremost importance.

Illusion vs. Disillusion: Chinese Viewers’ Articulation of “House of Cards”

This study explores how Chinese viewers articulate the meaning of the Netflix series “House of Cards” through analyzing viewer comments posted on Sohu Video, which streamed the show in China. A qualitative textual analysis of the comments reveals that the Sohu viewers turned the commenting of the show into articulations of democracy and China’s political conditions. In their articulation, some endorsed American democracy as a superb political system, while others resented it as being dark and corrupt, similar to the one in China. Still other viewers made a connection between “Cards” with China’s lack of freedom of speech. These connections were made under certain social conditions, including China’s internet providing a space for political discourse, tensions among different social forces and conflicting meaning systems existing in today’s China, and Chinese people’s increasing consumption of foreign media content and assumptions. Analyzing a particular case of transnational communication, this study demonstrates how the audience can make meaning of a foreign media product by connecting with their own social context, and how such articulations can be plural and multifaceted.

On the Cutting Edge of Additional Andragogical Developments

Gross addressed nine critical andragogical and four gerontological learning needs that must be met for successful aging in place for those with developmental disabilities. Nukic's research uncovered eight andragogical themes which helped adults learn English as a second language: goals, resources, qualifications, curriculum, environment, teaching strategies, learning, and obstacles. Pagano likens the andragogy of nature as man being like a tree – a metaphor of learning, values, will, and meaning systems. Giampaolo identifies the andragogical process as preparation, climate, planning, needs, objectives, designing, completion, and assessment. Keefe articulates the high extent Tennessee Highlander Folk School's actions corresponds with Knowles' six assumptions of andragogy. Washington showed how the use of andragogy in medical sales training leads to more beneficial corporate results. Cranton led a three-week truly andragogical class, garnering a comment from fellow adult educator, as the best class in which he was engaged. This chapter explores all of this.

Social accounting in the context of profound political, social and economic crisis: the case of the Arab Spring

PurposeThis paper explores how social accounting operates in the context of profound political, social and economic crises. Specifically, it examines how companies constructed strategies of action to produce and organise social accounting practices under different sociopolitical and economic contexts prior to and after the Arab Spring.Design/methodology/approachThe paper draws on Swidler's theory of “Culture Toolkit” and 43 semi-structured interviews with 17 firms and their stakeholders in the Arab region.FindingsThe study argues that context influences social accounting practices by shaping a cultural toolkit of habits, skills and styles from which companies develop their social accounting related strategies of action. During “settled” periods, companies draw on resources to develop their social accounting practices whilst they seek knowledge and feedback on boundaries and expectations of the socio-political and economic contexts. During “unsettled” periods, companies begin to adopt highly organised meaning systems (i.e. ideologies) from which new ways and methods of social accounting practices are deployed.Originality/valueThe paper contributes to the extant literature by providing insights into social accounting practices in the under-explored context of the profound political, social and economic crises that followed the Arab Spring. In addition, we introduce Swidler's Culture Toolkit theory to the accounting literature.

PECULIARITIES OF MANIFESTATION OF MEANING DISSONANCE

Modern psychology considers meaning regulation, as an integral mechanism of personal development. A system of personal meanings develops in the processes of under-standing reality. Due to their polymodality personal meanings cannot be good or bad, but they are not the same. When confronted with unknown situations, the unevenness of the emerging personal meanings can lead to match or mismatch with the existing system of mean-ings. Coincidence, as agreement with a new fact, means meaning consonance. Mismatch, as a mismatch between new and existing information, means meaning disso-nance, as a kind of cognitive dissonance. An analysis of modern psychological literature shows that there are two main plans for the action of meaning dissonances: the dissonance of individual meanings in the implementation of real interactions and the dissonance of common mean-ings during the translation of interpersonal meaning formations. It is proposed to consider that meaning ac-quires a personal coloring due to the processes of both consonance and dissonance positioning of meaning con-structs in the meaning sphere of the subject. The revealed dichotomy of the meaning formation processes shows the possibility of manifestation of meanings bipolarity, which is revealed in the process of transition from the internal to the external world and in collisions with oth-er meaning systems. Then it can be assumed that the ef-fect of meaning dissonance manifests itself in two ways: firstly, in terms of real interactions as a discord of indi-vidual meanings, and secondly, in terms of translation of interpersonal meaning constructs as a dissonance of common meanings. In the course of such an external for-mation, meaning becomes already a personal meaning in the consciousness of a particular person.

Religiosity Improvement and Development of Islamic Spirit: Case Study of Lecturers and Education Personnel in Universitas Islam Bandung

This study examines the development of the quality of Islamic spirituality and the improvement of religiosity especially for lecturers and education personnel at Universitas Islam Bandung (UNISBA). The aim is to explore and analyze the level of bound of lecturers and educational personnel to the development of Islamic spirituality as meaning systems that are seen through individual behavior based on religious motivation. The development of Islamic spirituality and the improvement of religiosity have an interdependence relationship. The approach used in this study is a qualitative approach combined with a quantitative approach (mixing) with phenomenology methods. Data collection techniques were carried out through participant observation, literature review/ documentation, in-depth interviews, and FGD (= Focus Group Discussion) which were followed by UNISBA leaders from the foundation leadership, Chancellor and Vice Chancellors, Deans and Chairpersons to the level of Chair of the Study Program and Head of Division. To complete this study also used historical analysis, comparison, and heuristics. The results achieved were the formulation of a model for increasing the religiosity and development of the Islamic spirit in UNISBA, and in turn it was expected to be used as a model by other Islamic universities.