Showing papers on "Face (sociological concept) published in 2014"

Two puzzles for linguistic theory: nativelike selection and nativelike fluency

Abstract: Since World War II interethnic communication has emerged as a fact of the modern world. Pluralism in communicative style is found throughout world and national technological, business, legal and educational bureaucracies. This chapter looks at the distribution of talk or how speakers exchange turns at speaking and how the topic of a conversation is determined. It makes brief reference to the work in artificial intelligence and cognitive science which deals with frames, schemata, and scripts. The chapter elaborates most fully on the presentation of self or face. It argues that multi-ethnic communication is a fact of the modern world. It also argues that taciturnity reflects an assumption of deference politeness and volubility reflects an assumption of solidarity. The only way to untie the double bind of interethnic gatekeeping encounters is for the gatekeeper to voluntarily use strategies of deference. The global politeness systems reflect the overriding values on distance (D) and power (P) differences held by members of particular groups.

In beauty we trust: children prefer information from more attractive informants.

Abstract: Preschool children were presented with slides on a computer screen showing a novel object, together with two informants, one with an attractive and one with a less attractive face. Children were asked which informant they would like to ask about the name of the novel object. After hearing the informants provide conflicting names, they were asked who they thought was correct. Children were more likely to endorse names provided by the person with the more attractive face, a bias that cannot be justified on epistemic grounds. The implications of this finding are discussed.

Linking Emotion to the Conflict Face-Negotiation Theory: A U.S.-China Investigation of the Mediating Effects of Anger, Compassion, and Guilt in Interpersonal Conflict

Abstract: This study linked emotion to the theoretical assumptions of the face-negotiation theory and probed the critical role of anger, compassion, and guilt in understanding the complex pathways of their relationships with self-construal, face concerns, and conflict styles in U.S. and Chinese cultures. Results showed that anger was associated positively with independent self-construal, self-face concern, and the competing style, and compassion was associated positively with interdependent self-construal, other-face concern, and the integrating, compromising, and obliging styles. Guilt was related positively with interdependent self-construal and the obliging style in the United States, and with interdependent self-construal and the avoiding style in China. Overall, emotion mediated the effects of self-construal and face concerns on conflict styles in both cultures, but cultural differences also emerged.

Challenges confronting teachers of English language learners

Abstract: The number of English language learners and limited English proficient students has grown exponentially in the United States over the past decades. Given the huge cultural and linguistic diversity among them, educating this population of students remains a challenge for teachers. This paper aims to review the types of challenges that educators face when teaching limited English proficient students in the US context. Findings from existing literature show the obstacles teachers confront are social, institutional, and personal in nature. Although some research has emphasised stronger teacher education programmes as a solution to problems related to the teaching and learning of these students, these programmes are insufficient for teachers to overcome all of the challenges they face. Concerted efforts by educators, local and central administrators, academics, local communities, and lawmakers are necessary.

Marking Communicative Repertoire Through Metacommentary

Abstract: In this chapter, I illustrate that people accumulate idiosyncratic experiences as a repertoire of communicative resources and, in many everyday interactions, use those elements to strike out in new, more loosely encoded, de-enregistered ways. In the face of this kind of everyday creativity, however, a question arises: How do people make sense of each other? Without adhering to the normative expectations of language, dialect and register, how do people interacting know what counts as a communicatively relevant repertoire element? This chapter answers that question by using the concept of metacommentary—or comments about language—as a new ordering principal for understanding heteroglossic communication.

The Japanese Overseas: Can They Go Home Again?

Abstract: The astonishing success of Japanese corporations throughout the world has transplanted millions of Japanese into foreign lands, but returning families face a crisis--a problematic, sometimes traumatic reunion with an inward-looking culture. Drawing on scores of in-depth interviews, Merry White explores the personal and social consequences of a problem that is fully recognized as a national issue in Japan. She pays particular attention to the plight of the returnee Japanese child--a stranger in his or her own land. "In this knowledgeable and perceptive book, [Merry White] describes how families who have returned from prolonged sojourns abroad endure damaged careers and spoiled educational prospects."--Joan Cassell, "The New York Times Book Review" "An invaluable source of insights into the problems that Japanese overseas face and the strategies they pursue, both in adjusting to life in foreign countries and in preparing for what may or may not be a hospitable welcome when they arrive back home."--Theodore C. Bestor, "The Journal of Asian Studies"Originally published in 1992.The Princeton Legacy Library uses the latest print-on-demand technology to again make available previously out-of-print books from the distinguished backlist of Princeton University Press. These paperback editions preserve the original texts of these important books while presenting them in durable paperback editions. The goal of the Princeton Legacy Library is to vastly increase access to the rich scholarly heritage found in the thousands of books published by Princeton University Press since its founding in 1905.

Rejecting knowledge claims inside and outside science

Abstract: Citizens, policy-makers and scientists all face the problem of assessing maverick scientific claims. Via a case study, I show the different resources available to experts and non-experts when they make these judgements and reflect upon what this means for technological decision-making in the public domain.

Interpreting the Chinese Dream: An Exercise of Political Hermeneutics

Abstract: Using an approach described as political hermeneutics, this paper interprets the Chinese Dream as a discourse that is historically and politically situated and contextualized within a number of other ongoing narratives and policies in China. This approach is especially apt because, in many respects, the purpose of the Chinese Dream is to round out while also reframe and reemphasize the Party’s longstanding vision of Chinese political and economic development, and to do so ahead of difficult reforms and transitions. Thus, we show how the Chinese Dream should be understood as being a part of a larger historical discourse and pressing needs for change. Consequently, we assemble and discuss the broader narratives that surround and suffuse the Chinese Dream and illustrate how it aims to function as a metanarrative—one that attempts a discursive “reset” under a new leader. As a positive discourse, the Chinese Dream aims to express official visions of the past, present and future; but it must also be understood as part of a web of activities designed to advance Party interests and the various challenges these face. Accordingly, we interpret the Chinese Dream in tandem with discussions of other recent developments, including what appears to be a national rectification campaign as Xi Jinping continues to consolidate power, curtail Party factions and corruption, discipline critics, and prepare the Party and nation for some measure of reform and, likely, some measure of more of the same.

The Changing Face of War in Textbooks: Depictions of World War II and Vietnam, 1970–2009

Abstract: How have U.S. high school textbook depictions of World War II and Vietnam changed since the 1970s? We examined 102 textbooks published from 1970 to 2009 to see how they treated U.S. involvement in ...

Rethinking Africa’s sociological project

Abstract: This article explores what challenges African sociologists face in the contemporary period. It argues that one needs to go beyond references to resource constraint or the emphasis on the market or ...

Subaltern cosmopolitanism: concept and approaches

Abstract: ‘Cosmopolitanism is back’, proclaimed David Harvey presciently in 2000 (Harvey, 2000: 529). In the face of injustice, inequality and violence emerging from globalization processes, the last decade ...

Introduction: Sociology as a combat sport

Abstract: This introduction sets out from the unresolved paradox to be found in the writings of Bourdieu, namely the theoretical impossibility of public sociology and his own sustained practical engagement with publics. I appropriate and develop his concept of the ‘field’ to account for his success as a public sociologist. It requires us to understand that public sociology is only possible at the intersection of two distinct fields – the academic field and the political field. Public sociology proves to be a rather precarious pursuit, then; first, because of competing demands internal to the academic field; second, because of the difficulty in operating at the intersection of the academic and political fields; and third, because of the obduracy of common sense that cannot be easily dislodged, the very attempt often arousing open hostility. Difficult though it may be, the development of its public face will be necessary for the survival of sociology as well as an important ingredient in defending human existence fro...

Identifying Factors Causing Difficulties To Productive Skills Among Foreign Languages Learners

Abstract: This study focused on analyzing the factors that affected English as a foreign language (EFL) learners’ performance when working on writing or speaking activities. This study may help EFL teachers understand why most of their students face difficulties throughout their learning process.

In your face: transcendence in embodied interaction.

Abstract: In cognitive psychology, studies concerning the face tend to focus on questions about face recognition, theory of mind and empathy. Questions about the face, however, also fit into a very different set of issues that are central to ethics. Based especially on the work of Levinas, philosophers have come to see that reference to the face of another person can anchor conceptions of moral responsibility and ethical demand. Levinas points to a certain irreducibility and transcendence implicit in the face of the other. In this paper I argue that the notion of transcendence involved in this kind of analysis can be given a naturalistic interpretation by drawing on recent interactive approaches to social cognition found in developmental psychology, phenomenology, and the study of autism.

Person recognition is easier from faces than from voices

Abstract: This article reviews a number of recent studies that systematically compared the access to semantic and episodic information from faces and voices. Results have showed that semantic and episodic information is easier to retrieve from faces than from voices. This advantage of faces over voices is a robust phenomenon, which emerges whatever the kind of target persons, might they be famous, personally familiar to the participants, or newly learned. Theoretical accounts of this face advantage over voice are finally discussed.

Public Sector Innovation Theory Revisited 1

Abstract: The purpose of this paper is to inquire into the state of public sector innovation (PSI) theory. Four authors, Rogers, Borins, Behn, and Glor and recent comparative governmental practices are chosen to represent a variety of approaches. This sample allows identification of both areas of consensus and of controversy in the field. Important disagreements remain about the defining parameters of PSI study and about the basic questions PSI studies should address.Keywords: public service innovation, theory, concepts, problems.IntroductionInnovation is a prime subject in our time. In business and government, it is held to be essential in the face of the massive and complex problems and the rapid pace of change in contemporary society. Innovation is thought to be the way to harness the creative potential of the human race in order to survive, to progress, and to prosper. A letter in the Montreal newspaper Le Devoir (26 April 2013) noted that the Latin and Greek words for stupidity referred to immobility, lethargy or inertia, so we might infer that the opposite of stupidity would be mobility, energy, adaptation.Public sector innovation (PSI) is a subset of all innovation. A Google search in July 2013, found references to 316 million publications, of which PSI constituted 4,4 million, or about 1.4 per cent of the whole, a small part, but a big absolute number. In the final edition of his masterwork on the diffusion of innovations, Rogers (2003: 45-46) identified nine disciplinary fields producing the greatest number of studies, of which "marketing and management" accounted for 16 per cent. This group did not appear to cover the public sector, but some of the others include subjects like city managers, public health and education. Publications on PSI thus appears rather marginal to the field of innovation studies.Having written a book on the diffusion of administrative innovations among Canadian governments twenty years ago (Gow, 1994), I was curious to learn how the field had evolved since then. I wanted to see how the subject itself had changed, what are the main theoretical approaches and what the outstanding unresolved issues. What follows is not a primer on all the contemporary theories of PSI. Instead, I have chosen five theorists and approaches in order to see what unites and what divides them. In part one, these authors and schools are presented briefly. In the second part, the contentious issues are examined with a view to exploring their potential for asking good questions.What to expect of a theoryThe very first step in considering this subject is to enquire what we mean by theory. The root meaning is not controversial: the Shorter Oxford Dictionary gives, among others, one that fits our case, "A scheme or system of ideas or statements held as an explanation of a group of facts or phenomena". The operative word is "explanation"; the familiar expression "descriptive theory" is an oxymoron.Theories use concepts to organize raw material into variables, abstract categories concerning causal variables (independent) and outcome variables (dependent). The common distinction is between deductive and inductive theories. In deductive theory, the hypotheses to be tested are drawn from postulates and principles that are held to be true while inductive theory builds up hypotheses from observation and adjusts them as experience dictates. Most social science is inductive, but there are important theoretical schools that are deductive. Both Marxism and Public Choice theories start from first principles and deduce their hypotheses. The theory of the class struggle, for example, made it very difficult for the leaders of the Communist countries to accept that working class protests against their governments could be genuine.Glor (2008: 3) recalls the advantages of inductive theory, since it is constantly adjusting itself to take account of new evidence. She also makes a distinction between substantive and formal theory. …

Polite appearances: How non-manual features convey politeness in British Sign Language

Abstract: This study gives an account of what Ghanaians perceive as politeness in their daily interactions by gathering data from interviews granted by residents of Accra, Kumasi and Ho. The residents selected as respondents are people whose ages are above fifty years and who have lived in any of the communities for at least twenty years. The study shows that among Ghanaians, politeness is the use of any communicative behaviour that expresses respect or deference. Some of such communicative behaviours identified are greetings, the use of titles and honorifics, the use of “please” and “thank you”, the use of “a soft voice” and being silent as and when necessary. Although the communicative behaviours that manifest politeness usually involve speech, politeness can be also be achieved by employing paralinguistic and extralinguistic features like soft voice and silence. This confirms Culpeper’s (2005) assertion that the communicative resources for politeness or impoliteness extend well beyond grammar and lexicon.

The Changing Face of War

Abstract: The Second Conference on Veterans in Society: Humanizing the Discourse was held at the Hotel Roanoke in Roanoke, VA from April 27-28, 2014

The Past and Future of Technology in Interpersonal Communication Theory and Research

Abstract: Without question, many people live relentlessly multimodal lives. To maintain our interpersonal relationships, we juggle Facebook, Twitter, calling, texting, e-mailing, and, of course, meeting face...

Metaphors: Sources for intercultural misunderstanding?

Abstract: Over the last two decades, questions of languages’ cultural specificity, diversity, and of linguistic universalism versus relativism, have increasingly been applied to the study of metaphor in analyses that take data from a wide range of languages into account. After reviewing existing research on cross-cultural metaphor variation, this paper focuses on the phenomenon of ‘false-friend metaphors,’ i.e., seemingly identical mappings which reveal hidden culture-specific differences when used in intercultural communication and in contrastive analysis. Examples of this phenomenon are drawn (1) from interpretations tasks concerning the metaphor THE STATE IS A (HUMAN) BODY, and (2) from cross-cultural research on the concept of SOCIAL FACE. In conclusion, a preliminary categorization of types of metaphor-induced intercultural misunderstanding is proposed.

Evaluative discourse and politeness in university students' communication through social networking sites

Abstract: This chapter explores evaluative discourse on social networking sites (henceforth SNSs), paying special attention to the role played by the expression of attitude and positive politeness in the management of interpersonal rapport. The corpus for the study consists of a random sample of 100 messages exchanged among university students in the United Kingdom and the United States on a particular site, i.e., Facebook, during the two-year period 2010–2012. Analysis is approached from the theories of appraisal (Martin and White 2005; Bednarek 2008) and politeness (Brown and Levinson 1987); and the methodology for processing the data borrows quantitative techniques from Corpus Linguistics. The findings indicate that specific contextual features of SNSs seem to trigger the production of attitudinal meanings of affect, judgement and appreciation, which are exploited for the relational work involved in the construction and maintenance of positive face.

How do the Vietnamese lose face? Understanding the concept of face through self-reported, face loss incidents

Abstract: In Western universal theory, face has been considered as an individual possession, a fundamental motivation for politeness and driven by the concern for autonomy as well as the desire to be free from imposition. However, research on face and politeness in a number of East Asian countries has provided evidence that such a way of conceptualizing face may not be valid to these cultures and languages. Given the scarcity of research on the concept of face in Vietnamese, this paper explores face in Vietnamese by means of self-reported incidents where a sense of face loss (mất mặt or mất thể diện) was felt. Scenarios reconstructed from collected authentic incidents were used to examine whether different participants responded in the same way to situations perceived as potentially causing loss of face. The findings have confirmed that face in Vietnamese is both an individual and collective possession and a subjective value, conditionally dependent on social evaluation.

Challenges Educational Psychologists Face Working with Vulnerable Children

Abstract: Sub-Saharan Africa is the world’s second fastest growing region after Asia with a GDP of 5.8% for 2012. However, it is still the world’s poorest region and it has the largest proportion of vulnerable children in the world (Sewpaul & Matthias, 2013).