Abstract: Students with high level skills are in demand, especially in scare skill environments. If universities wish to be successful and competitive, its students need to be adequately equipped with the necessary tools. Work Integrated Learning (WIL) is an essential component of the education of a student. The relevance of higher education should be assessed in terms of how it meets the needs of society and the world of work in a global economy. This paper demonstrates how to use Habermas's theory of communicative action to reflect on students- perceptions on their integration in the work environment to achieve social integration and financial justification. Interpretive questionnaires are used to determine the students- view of how they are integrated into society, and contributing to the economy. This paper explores the use of Habermas-s theory of communicative action to give theoretical and methodological guidance for the practice of social findings obtained in this inquiry.
Abstract: The African Diaspora in Singapore (and larger Asia)
is a topic that has received little scholarly attention and research. This
exploratory study will analyze the changing identity of Africans
throughout the process of cultural adaptation in Singapore. For the
focus of this study, “black Africans" will be defined as any black
Africans from sub-Saharan Africa who have lived in Singapore for at
least six months. The dialectic relationship between Singaporean
conceptions of black African identity and African self-consciousness
will be analyzed from the perspective of black Africans so as to
evaluate the impact of intercultural discourse on the evolution of the
African identity in Singapore.
Abstract: The ever increasing product diversity and competition on the market of goods and services has dictated the pace of growth in the number of advertisements. Despite their admittedly diminished effectiveness over the recent years, advertisements remain the favored method of sales promotion. Consequently, the challenge for an advertiser is to explore every possible avenue of making an advertisement more noticeable, attractive and impellent for consumers. One way to achieve this is through invoking celebrity endorsements. On the one hand, the use of a celebrity to endorse a product involves substantial costs, however, on the other hand, it does not immediately guarantee the success of an advertisement. The question of how celebrities can be used in advertising to the best advantage is therefore of utmost importance. Celebrity endorsements have become commonplace: empirical evidence indicates that approximately 20 to 25 per cent of advertisements feature some famous person as a product endorser. The popularity of celebrity endorsements demonstrates the relevance of the topic, especially in the context of the current global economic downturn, when companies are forced to save in order to survive, yet simultaneously to heavily invest in advertising and sales promotion. The issue of the effective use of celebrity endorsements also figures prominently in the academic discourse. The study presented below is thus aimed at exploring what qualities (characteristics) of a celebrity endorser have an impact on the ffectiveness of the advertisement in which he/she appears and how.
Abstract: The paper applies a discourse analytical approach to investigate important concepts influencing the infrastructure planning process in the region of Scania in southern Sweden. Two discourses, one concerning regional development and one concerning sustainability are identified, discussed and contrasted. It is argued that the perceptions of problems and their suggested solutions related to transportation are based on specific ideas, in turn dependent on the importance given to certain concepts, such as regional enlargement, Scania as a transit region, the national environmental quality goals and regional attractiveness. These concepts, their underlying meaning structures and their relevance for the infrastructure planning process are analyzed. The handling of conflicting interests in the planning process, and the possible implications this may have is also discussed. The results indicate that the regional development discourse is dominant and although the solutions to the problems caused by transport are framed in similar ways in the two discourses a harmonization between conflicting goals is proving difficult to achieve.
Abstract: This paper proposes rough set models with three
different level knowledge granules in incomplete information system
under tolerance relation by similarity between objects according to
their attribute values. Through introducing dominance relation on the
discourse to decompose similarity classes into three subclasses: little
better subclass, little worse subclass and vague subclass, it dismantles
lower and upper approximations into three components. By using
these components, retrieving information to find naturally hierarchical
expansions to queries and constructing answers to elaborative queries
can be effective. It illustrates the approach in applying rough set
models in the design of information retrieval system to access different
granular expanded documents. The proposed method enhances rough
set model application in the flexibility of expansions and elaborative
queries in information retrieval.
Abstract: Until recently it would have been unusual to consider classifying population movements and refugees as security problem. However, efforts at shaping our world to make ourselves secure have paradoxically led to ever greater insecurity. The feeling of uncertainty, pertinent throughout all discourses of security, has led to the creation of security production into seemingly benign routines of everyday life. Yet, the paper argues, neither of security discourses accounted for, disclosed and challenged the fundamental aporias embedded in Western security narratives. In turn, the paper aims to unpick the conventional security wisdom, which is haunted with strong ontologies, embedded in the politics of Orientalism, and (in)security nexus. The paper concludes that current security affair conceals the integral impossibility of fulfilling its very own promise of assured security. The paper also provides suggestions about alternative security discourse based on mutual dialogue.
Abstract: In today-s information age, numbers of organizations
are still arguing on capitalizing the values of Information Technology
(IT) and Knowledge Management (KM) to which individuals can
benefit from and effective communication among the individuals can
be established. IT exists in enabling positive improvement for
communication among knowledge workers (k-workers) with a
number of social network technology domains at workplace. The
acceptance of digital discourse in sharing of knowledge and
facilitating the knowledge and information flows at most of the
organizations indeed impose the culture of knowledge sharing in
Digital Social Networks (DSN). Therefore, this study examines
whether the k-workers with IT background would confer an effect on
the three knowledge characteristics -- conceptual, contextual, and
operational. Derived from these three knowledge characteristics, five
potential factors will be examined on the effects of knowledge
exchange via e-mail domain as the chosen query. It is expected, that
the results could provide such a parameter in exploring how DSN
contributes in supporting the k-workers- virtues, performance and
qualities as well as revealing the mutual point between IT and KM.
Abstract: This article analyses conspiracy theories as part of the
wider discourses of missionary politics. It presents a case study of
Venezuela and describes how its leaders use conspiracy theories as
political tools. Through quotes taken form Venezuelan president
Chavez-s public speeches and other sources, and through a short
analysis of the ideological basis of his discourses, it shows how
conspiracy theories are constructed and how they affect the local
political praxis. The article also describes how conspiracy theories
have been consistently used as an important part of the construction of
a political religion for the New Man of the Bolivarian Revolution. It
concludes that the use of conspiracy theories by political leaders
produces a sense of loss of political agency.
Abstract: Governments around the world are expending
considerable time and resources framing strategies and policies to
deliver energy security. The term 'energy security' has quietly
slipped into the energy lexicon without any meaningful discourse
about its meaning or assumptions. An examination of explicit and
inferred definitions finds that the concept is inherently slippery
because it is polysemic in nature having multiple dimensions and
taking on different specificities depending on the country (or
continent), timeframe or energy source to which it is applied. But
what does this mean for policymakers? Can traditional policy
approaches be used to address the problem of energy security or does
its- polysemic qualities mean that it should be treated as a 'wicked'
problem? To answer this question, the paper assesses energy security
against nine commonly cited characteristics of wicked policy
problems and finds strong evidence of 'wickedness'.
Abstract: Today, Higher Education in a global scope is subordinated to the greater institutional controls through the policies of the Quality of Education. These include processes of over evaluation of all the academic activities: students- and professors- performance, educational logistics, managerial standards for the administration of institutions of higher education, as well as the establishment of the imaginaries of excellence and prestige as the foundations on which universities of the XXI century will focus their present and future goals and interests. But at the same time higher education systems worldwide are facing the most profound crisis of sense and meaning and attending enormous mutations in their identity. Based in a qualitative research approach, this paper shows the social configurations that the scholars at the Universities in Mexico build around the discourse of the Quality of Education, and how these policies put in risk the social recognition of these individuals.
Abstract: Since the pioneering work of Zadeh, fuzzy set theory has been applied to a myriad of areas. Song and Chissom introduced the concept of fuzzy time series and applied some methods to the enrollments of the University of Alabama. In recent years, a number of techniques have been proposed for forecasting based on fuzzy set theory methods. These methods have either used enrollment numbers or differences of enrollments as the universe of discourse. We propose using the year to year percentage change as the universe of discourse. In this communication, the approach of Jilani, Burney, and Ardil is modified by using the year to year percentage change as the universe of discourse. We use enrollment figures for the University of Alabama to illustrate our proposed method. The proposed method results in better forecasting accuracy than existing models.
Abstract: Discourse pronominal anaphora resolution must be part of any efficient information processing systems, since the reference of a pronoun is dependent on an antecedent located in the discourse. Contrary to knowledge-poor approaches, this paper shows that syntax-semantic relations are basic in pronominal anaphora resolution. The identification of quantified expressions to which pronouns can be anaphorically related provides further evidence that pronominal anaphora is based on domains of interpretation where asymmetric agreement holds.
Abstract: This paper focuses upon three such painters working in
France from this time and their representations both of their host
country in which they found themselves displaced, and of their
homeland which they represent through refracted memories from their
new perspective in Europe. What is their representation of France and
China´╝ÅTaiwan? Is it Otherness or an origin?
This paper also attempts to explore the three artists- diasporic lives
and to redefine their transnational identities. Hou Chin-lang, the
significance of his multiple-split images serve to highlight the intricate
relationships between his work and the surrounding family, and to
reveal his identity of his Taiwan “homeland". Yin Xin takes paintings
from the Western canon and subjects them to a process of
transformation through Chinese imagery. In the same period, Lin
Li-ling, transforms the transnational spirit of Yin Xin to symbolic
codes with neutered female bodies and tatoos, thus creates images that
challenge the boundaries of both gender and nationality.
Abstract: Argument over the use of particular method in interlanguage pragmatics has increased recently. Researchers argued the advantages and disadvantages of each method either natural or elicited. Findings of different studies indicated that the use of one method may not provide enough data to answer all its questions. The current study investigated the validity of using multimethod approach in interlanguage pragmatics to understand the development of requests in Arabic as a second language (Arabic L2). To this end, the study adopted two methods belong to two types of data sources: the institutional discourse (natural data), and the role play (elicited data). Participants were 117 learners of Arabic L2 at the university level, representing four levels (beginners, low-intermediate, highintermediate, and advanced). Results showed that using two or more methods in interlanguage pragmatics affect the size and nature of data.
Abstract: The aim of this study is to show innovative techniques that describe the effectiveness of individuals diagnosed with antisocial personality disorders (ASPD). The author presents information about hate schemas regarding persons with ASPD and their understanding of the role of hate. The data of 60 prisoners with ASPD, 40 prisoners without ASPD, and 60 men without antisocial tendencies, has been analyzed. The participants were asked to describe their hate inspired by a photograph. The narrative discourse was analyzed, the three groups were compared. The results show the differences between the inmates with ASPD, those without ASPD, and the controls. The antisocial individuals describe hate as an ambivalent feeling with low emotional intensity, i.e., actors (in stories) are presented more as positives than as partners. They use different mechanisms to keep them from understanding the meaning of the emotional situation. The schema's characteristics were expressed in narratives attributed to high Psychopathy.
Abstract: The stone is a constituent part of the geological
structure of the Territory, introducing himself as a subject that has always interconnected human and environment in the development of a discourse of meanings and symbols that reflect elements realized in
different cultures and experiences.
This action meant that the first settlements and their areas of influence gained importance in the field of humanization and spatial
organization of the territory, not only for the appropriation that its
inhabitants did, but mainly because the community regardless of their
economic or social condition, used it as living space and cultural integration.
These factors become decisive in the characterization of the
landscape area in the northwest of Portugal, because the stone is a
material that appears not only in the natural landscape, but is also a strong element in humanized landscape, becoming this relation the
main characterization of the study area.
Abstract: In recent years linguistic research has turned
increasing attention to covert/overt strategies to modulate authorial
stance and positioning in scientific texts, and to the recipients'
response. This study discussed some theoretical implications of the
use of rhetoric in scientific communication and analysed qualitative
data from the authoritative The Cognitive Neurosciences III (2004)
volume. Its genre-identity, status and readability were considered, in
the social interactive context of contemporary disciplinary discourses
– in their polyphony of traditional and new, emerging genres.
Evidence was given of the ways its famous authors negotiate and
shape knowledge and research results – explicitly appraising team
work and promoting faith in the fast-paced progress of Cognitive
Neuroscience, also through experiential metaphors – by presenting a
set of examples, ordered according to their dominant rhetorical
quality.
Abstract: This study reveals that anti-immigrant policies in
Europe result from a process of securitization, and that, within this
process, radical right parties have been formulating discourses and
approaches through a construction process by using some common
security themes. These security themes can be classified as national
security, economic security, cultural security and internal security.
The frequency with which radical right parties use these themes may
vary according to the specific historical, social and cultural
characteristics of a particular country.
Abstract: The emergence of person-centred discourse based
around notions of 'personal development planning- and 'work'life
balance' has taken hold in education and the workplace in recent
years. This paper examines this discourse with regard to recent
developments in higher education as well as the inter-related issue of
work-life balance in occupational careers. In both cases there have
been national and trans-national policy initiatives directed towards
improving both personal opportunities and competitive advantage in
a global knowledge-based economy. However, despite an increasing
concern with looking outward at this globalised educational and
employment marketplace, there is something of a paradox in
encouraging people to look inward at themselves in order to become
more self-determined. This apparent paradox is considered from a
discourse analytic perspective in terms of the ideological effects of an
increasing concern with the personal world. Specifically, it is argued
that there are tensions that emerge from a concern with an innerdirected
process of self-reflection that dissolve any engagement with
wider political issues that impact upon educational and career
development.
Abstract: Metaphor has recently gained extensive interest most probably due to developments in cognitive sciences and the study of language as the reflection of humans- world perception. Metaphor is no longer reckoned as solely literary expressive means. Nowadays it is studied in a whole number of discourses, such as politics, law, medicine, sports, etc. with the purpose of the analysis and determining its role. The scientific language is not an exception. It might seem that metaphor cannot suit it; we would dare to draw a hypothesis that metaphor has indeed found its stable place in terminology. In comprehension of metaphorically represented terms the stage of visualization plays a significant role. We proceeded on the assumption that this stage is the main in provision of better term comprehension and would try to exemplify it with metaphoricallyoriented terms.