Showing papers on "Theme (narrative) published in 2008"

Communication-oriented policies versus classroom realities in japan

Abstract: TESOL Quarterly publishes brief commentaries on aspects of English language teaching. For this issue, the editor focused on the theme of government policy versus classroom reality in the new millennium. Reports from two countries are presented.

Note from Special Issue Editors

Abstract: In the spirit of this Special Issue theme, we start with the definition of user-generated content (UGC, also called consumer-generated media) offered by Wikipedia, itself a classical example of UGC...

Conceptualising Empowerment and the Implications for Pro-Poor Growth

Abstract: This paper proposes a framework for how empowerment can be conceptually understood and operationally explored. It makes recommendations for forthcoming areas of work within the POVNET Work Programme on empowering poor women and men to participate in, contribute to and benefit from growth. In responding to our terms of reference the authors have sought to introduce ideas and evidence from latest publications on this theme, combined with findings from our own research.

Africa Europe: A Double Engagement

Abstract: This introduction to the special issue entitled ‘Africa Europe: Transnational Linkages, Multi-Sited Lives’ outlines the history of the African migrant presence in Europe, gives an account of the contexts which shape contemporary migration, and surveys the approaches to international migration from Africa which have influenced researchers since the 1960s. Linking the contributions to the special issue is the theme of migrants’ transnational ‘double engagement’ with both Africa and Europe. The paper examines this theme across three domains of the lived experience of African migrants and refugees in Europe: ‘Livelihoods’, ‘Families’, and ‘Identities’. We conclude with an assessment of what can be learned (theoretically and methodologically) from the study of African transmigration, and suggest future lines of research.

An eye for movement quality: A phenomenological study of movement quality reflecting a group of physiotherapists' understanding of the phenomenon

Abstract: Movement quality is a phenomenon frequently used by physiotherapists in oral language, written text, and clinical practice, with little clarification. The purpose was to investigate the lived experiences of a group of expert physiotherapists, searching for essential features and characteristics of the phenomenon. A phenomenological study, using in-depth interviews was chosen. Ten copies of Fine Art were used to stimulate the description of the phenomenon. The informants were 15 peer-designated physiotherapists, five from each field of neurology, psychosomatic/psychiatry and primary health care. They were nominated by physical therapist leaders in the region. The interviews were audiotaped and transcribed. Giorgis' recommendation concerning analysis of the interview data was followed. Four main themes were developed, seeing movement quality as biomechanical, physiological, psycho-socio-cultural, and existential, all interacting processes. Each theme includes preconditions to movement quality and movement characteristics. Movement quality in general was seen as a unifying phenomenon, representing a synthesis of the four themes. The outcome of the study is the Movement Quality Model (MQM) illuminating essential features and characteristics of the phenomenon. Further research is needed for clarification and application in clinical practice.

Nomadic education: variations on a theme by Deleuze and Guattari

Abstract: This comprehensive and thoughtful volume is the fi rst book to investigate, assess and apply a philosophy of education drawn from the great French philosopher Gilles Deleuze. It contains powerful and beautiful essays by some of the most infl uential Deleuze and Guattari commentators (the chapters by Bogue, Colebrook, May and Semetsky, and Genosko are particularly rewarding). The book provides very useful situations within the philosophy of education and some interesting experimental developments of Deleuze’s work, notably in terms of new technologies and original methods. This is then an indispensable work on Deleuze and education. It covers the historical background and begins shaping debates for future research in this exciting and growing area.

Conceptualising empowerment and the implications for pro-poor growth: a paper for the DAC Poverty Network

Abstract: This paper proposes a framework for how empowerment can be conceptually understood and operationally explored. It makes recommendations for forthcoming areas of work within the POVNET Work Programme on empowering poor women and men to participate in, contribute to and benefit from growth. In responding to our terms of reference the authors have sought to introduce ideas and evidence from latest publications on this theme, combined with findings from our own research.

How the Soviet man was unmade : cultural fantasy and male subjectivity under Stalin

Abstract: In Stalinist Russia, the idealized Soviet man projected an image of strength, virility, and unyielding drive in his desire to build a powerful socialist state. In monuments, posters, and other tools of cultural production, he became the demigod of Communist ideology. But beneath the surface of this fantasy, between the lines of texts and in film, lurked another figure: the wounded body of the heroic invalid, an inversion of Stalin's New Man.In ""How the Soviet Man Was Unmade"", Lilya Kaganovsky exposes the paradox behind the myth of the indestructible Stalinist-era male. In her analysis of social-realist literature and cinema, she examines the recurring theme of the mutilated male body, which appears with startling frequency. Kaganovsky views this representation as a thinly veiled statement about the emasculated male condition during the Stalinist era. Because the communist state was ""full of heroes,"" a man could only truly distinguish himself and attain hero status through bodily sacrifice - yet in his wounding, he was forever reminded that he would be limited in what he could achieve, and was expected to remain in a state of continued subservience to Stalin and the party.Kaganovsky provides an insightful reevaluation of classic works of the period, including the novels of Nikolai Ostrovskii (""How Steel Was Tempered"") and Boris Polevoi (""A Story About a Real Man""), and films such as Ivan Pyr'ev's ""The Party Card"", Eduard Pentslin's ""The Fighter Pilots"", and Mikhail Chiaureli's ""The Fall of Berlin"", among others. The symbolism of wounding and dismemberment in these works acts as a fissure in the facade of Stalinist cultural production through which we can view the consequences of historic and political trauma.

An Assessment of the Sustainable Uptake of Conservation Farming in Zimbabwe: Global Theme on Agroecosystems Report no. 39

Abstract: The International Crops Research Institute for the Semi-Arid Tropics (ICRISAT) is a nonprofit, non-political organization that does innovative agricultural research and capacity building for sustainable development with a wide array of partners across the globe. ICRISAT’s mission is to help empower 600 million poor people to overcome hunger, poverty and a degraded environment in the dry tropics through better agriculture. ICRISAT belongs to the Alliance of Centers of the Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research (CGIAR).

The pragmatics of forgiveness: judgments of apologies in the Israeli political arena

Abstract: Although the theme of forgiveness has been studied extensively in various fields of humanities and social science, it has thus far been neglected by discourse scholars. Drawing on data from the Isr...

Tree of Hate: Propaganda and Prejudices Affecting United States Relations with the Hispanic World

Abstract: First published in the early 1970s, "Tree of Hate" is Philip Powell's exploration of "the Black Legend"--the popular myth that colonial Spain and her military and religious agents were brutal and unrelenting in their conquest of the Americas. "Powell seeks not merely to trace the origins of what he calls Hispanophobia but to analyze its impact on American education, textbooks, religion, and especially foreign policy. . . . The evidence easily demonstrates that English-speaking scholars and diplomats speak with a biased tongue. . . . Too many critics of Spain, to use Powell's central theme, have merely erected a 'Tree of Hate' out of ignorance or to justify their own prejudices and activities. . . . Powell's book deserves careful reading."--"Journal of American History"

The writer as migrant

Abstract: As a teenager during China's Cultural Revolution, Ha Jin served as an uneducated soldier in the People's Liberation Army. Thirty years later, a resident of the United States, he won the National Book Award for his novel "Waiting", completing a trajectory that has established him as one of the most admired exemplars of world literature.Ha Jin's journey raises rich and fascinating questions about language, migration, and the place of literature in a rapidly globalizing world - questions that take center stage in "The Writer as Migrant", his first work of nonfiction. Consisting of three interconnected essays, this book sets Ha Jin's own work and life alongside those of other literary exiles, creating a conversation across cultures and between eras. He employs the cases of Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn and Chinese novelist Lin Yutang to illustrate the obligation a writer feels to the land of his birth, while Joseph Conrad and Vladimir Nabokov - who, like Ha Jin, adopted English for their writing - are enlisted to explore a migrant author's conscious choice of a literary language.A final essay draws on V. S. Naipaul and Milan Kundera to consider the ways in which our era of perpetual change forces a migrant writer to reconceptualize the very idea of home. Throughout, Jin brings other celebrated writers into the conversation as well, including W. G. Sebald, C. P. Cavafy, and Salman Rushdie - refracting and refining the very idea of a literature of migration.Simultaneously a reflection on a crucial theme and a fascinating glimpse at the writers who compose Ha Jin's mental library, "The Writer as Migrant" is a work of passionately engaged criticism, one rooted in departures but feeling like a new arrival.

Objections in Research Interviewing

Abstract: In this article the author argues that research interviewing can be a form of research practice in which the subjects of study can object to the researcher’s questions and the interview’s theme. Researchers performing qualitative interviews should pay particular attention to situations where interviewees object to what we think, say, and write about them. The author draws on empirical examples where the objections and hesitations voiced by the interviewees toward the interviewer’s questions became part of reconsidering the initial theoretical concepts guiding the research process. She argues that the interviewer should not provoke such situations but, rather, be sensitive enough to remain open to the possibility that the interviewee might feel a need to object to or refuse the researcher’s interpretations. When this happens, it can allow for a fruitful exploration of the theme of conversation and the researcher’s agenda.

Introduction. Cultural transmission and the evolution of human behaviour

Abstract: The articles in this theme issue seek to understand the evolutionary bases of social learning and the consequences of cultural transmission for the evolution of human behaviour. In this introductory article, we provide a summary of these articles (seven articles on the experimental exploration of cultural transmission and three articles on the role of gene–culture coevolution in shaping human behaviour) and a personal view of some promising lines of development suggested by the work summarized here.

Tradition and Modernity in Postcolonial African Philosophy

Abstract: The relationship between tradition and modernity has been a central theme of postcolonial African philosophy. While African philosophers have examined this theme from many angles, several basic questions have become the focus of ongoing debate and discussion: What is the relevance of indigenous African traditions to the challenges of contemporary life? Do traditional modes of thought and behavior constitute resources or impediments to the projects of development and modernization in Africa? What, precisely, is meant by the terms "development" and "modernization" when they are used in reference to African countries? Discussion of such questions reveals a conflict between two broad perspectives. The first perspective, which Kwame Gyekye calls "cultural revivalism" (Gyekye 1997b, 233), assumes a basically reverential attitude toward the African cultural heritage. According to this view, the key to effectively addressing contemporary problems lies in reclaiming and revitalizing indigenous traditions that have been degraded and suppressed in the wake of colonialism. Colonialism violently disrupted African cultural traditions and imposed, with varying degrees of success, European forms of thought and social organization upon colonized peoples. Having achieved political independence, postcolonial Africans must now pursue a more decisive liberation, a "decolonization" of African minds and societies. While revivalists are often skeptical of calls for development and modernization, viewing them as thinly veiled calls for the continued imposition of European cultural norms, it is important to realize that they do not typically view their own project as antimodern. For revivalists, the key point is that genuine modernization in Africa can only be realized through the revitalization of African cultural norms. The second perspective assumes a more critical attitude toward the indigenous heritage. Adherents to this perspective argue that the revivalist project is fundamentally misguided and ill-suited to the challenges of contemporary Africa. According to critics, the call for a nostalgic return to the past is not merely naive and romantic, but positively dangerous. In their view, cultural revivalism diverts attention from pressing political issues, such as authoritarian oppression and class exploitation, and endorses forms of thought that interfere with the important goals of scientific and technological advancement. The most extreme form of this view, hinted at by some thinkers but seldom explicitly endorsed, suggests that Africans must make a "clean break" with the premodern past in order to address the most urgent demands of the present (Hountondji 1996, 48). Modernization, for them, requires a mental orientation commensurate with the problems of the present, not an attempt to resurrect ideas from societies of the distant past. It should come as no surprise that the debate between cultural revivalists and their critics hinges in large part on contrasting interpretations of "modernity" and "modernization." "Modernity" is a much discussed term in philosophy, and I will not engage the numerous arguments about the meaning of modernity, or the debates about whether modernity itself should be eclipsed by a "postmodern" sensibility. In order to understand the debate within African philosophy, it will suffice to identify two distinct aspects of modernization. The first and most conspicuous aspect involves scientific and technological development--that is, the emergence of science-based technologies that can be used to improve the basic conditions of human life. The second element is broadly political in nature. This aspect, described by one scholar as the "modernity of liberation" (Wallerstein 1995, 472), involves the development of political institutions that move away from authoritarian rule, toward forms of government that enhance the liberty and welfare of all citizens, rather than the select few. We can think of this political project as the "modernity of democratization. …

Method and System for Creating Theme, Topic, and Story-Based Cover Pages

Abstract: A method creates cover pages for news themes, topics, and stories, with elements to allow viewing more information from the theme, topic, or story. A database of stories is provided, comprising text, images, and possibly other web-accessible content. For a theme-based cover page, a theme is selected, and topics relevant to that theme are chosen. Search strings generated from the topics are used to search the database for matching stories. Representative images for the matching stories are then chosen from the database, and headlines are created based on the story content. For a topic-based cover page, a topic is selected and is used to search the database for matching stories. The cover page, comprising the image and information about the theme, topic, or story, is then created and displayed, with clickable elements to view more information about the theme, topic, or story.

Why We Should Discard “the Integration of Faith and Learning”: Rearticulating the Mission of the Christian Scholar:

Abstract: DISCUSSION ABOUT THE integration of faith and learning has become a common theme among Christian colleges and universities. Although it has fostered a robust academic dialogue, I contend the langua...

A guide for planning and implementing instruction for adults : a theme-based approach

Abstract: Using Integrated, Theme--Based Instruction with Adults Understanding Contextual Learning in Educating Adults Defining the Teacher's Role in Thematic Instruction Identifying, Selecting, and Planning Theme Units Sample Theme Units Instructional Strategies Assessing ITB Instruction Successfully implementing ITB Instruction: Challenges and Opportunities

The Pursuit of Stability in International Energy Investment Contracts: A Critical Appraisal of the Emerging Trends

Abstract: The purpose of this paper is to examine the emerging trends of stabilization in view of the current state of international law in the field. The theme of the paper is approachedfrom three broad perspectives. First, a brief review of the classic stabilization techniqueswill be offered, followed by an appraisal of the modern ones (which are yet to attract seri-ous scholarly attention and arbitral scrutiny) in international energy contracts with spe-cial reference to the emerging innovative pursuit of stability in the cross-border pipelineindustry. Although the focus of the present paper is on the energy industry, the discussionwill also be relevant to the broader area of international investment. Second, thefunctional value of stabilization techniques will be examined in light of the arbitral jurisprudence and juristic views. Third, the emerging conceptual perimeter of the norma-tive standards of treaty stabilization of foreign investors’ contractual rights will be criti-cally explored. And, finally some concluding remarks will be made.

Participation and media production. Critical reflections on content creation (ICA 2007 conference theme book)

Abstract: Participation and media production. Critical reflections on content creation (ICA 2007 conference theme book)

Standards and Norms in the English Language

Abstract: The theme of this collection is a discussion of the notions of 'norms' and 'standards', which are studied from various different angles, but always in relation to the English language. These terms are to be understood in a very wide sense, allowing discussions of topics such as the norms we orient to in social interaction, the benchmark employed in teaching, or the development of English dialects and varieties over time and space and their relation to the standard language. The collection is organized into three parts, each of which covers an important research field for the study of norms and standards. Part 1 is entitled "English over time and space" and is further divided into three thematic subgroups: standard and non-standard features in English varieties and dialects; research on English standardization processes; and issues of standards and norms in oral production. Part 2 deals with "English usage in non-native contexts," and Part 3 is dedicated to "Issues on politeness and impoliteness." The notions of standards and norms are equally important concepts for historical linguists, sociolinguists with a variationist background, applied linguists, pragmaticians, and discourse analysts.

Reading Food in Modern Japanese Literature

Abstract: Literature, like food, is, in Terry Eagleton's words, "endlessly interpretable," and food, like literature, "looks like an object but is actually a relationship." So how much do we, and should we, read into the way food is represented in literature? Reading Food explores this and other questions in an unusual and fascinating tour of twentieth-century Japanese literature. Tomoko Aoyama analyzes a wide range of diverse writings that focus on food, eating, and cooking and considers how factors such as industrialization, urbanization, nationalism, and gender construction have affected people's relationships to food, nature, and culture, and to each other. The examples she offers are taken from novels (shosetsu) and other literary texts and include well known writers (such as Tanizaki Jun'ichiro, Hayashi Fumiko, Okamoto Kanoko, Kaiko Takeshi, and Yoshimoto Banana) as well as those who are less widely known (Murai Gensai, Nagatsuka Takashi, Sumii Sue, and Numa Shozo). Food is everywhere in Japanese literature, and early chapters illustrate historical changes and variations in the treatment of food and eating. Examples are drawn from Meiji literary diaries, children's stories, peasant and proletarian literature, and women's writing before and after World War II. The author then turns to the theme of cannibalism in serious and popular novels. Key issues include ethical questions about survival, colonization, and cultural identity. The quest for gastronomic gratification is a dominant theme in "gourmet novels." Like cannibalism, the gastronomic journey as a literary theme is deeply implicated with cultural identity. The final chapter deals specifically with contemporary novels by women, some of which celebrate the inclusiveness of eating (and writing), while others grapple with the fear of eating. Such dread or disgust can be seen as a warning against what the complacent "gourmet boom" of the 1980s and 1990s concealed: the dangers of a market economy, environmental destruction, and continuing gender biases. Reading Food in Modern Japanese Literature will tempt any reader with an interest in food, literature, and culture. Moreover, it provides appetizing hints for further savoring, digesting, and incorporating textual food.

Qual é o lugar do aluno com deficiência? O imaginário coletivo de professores sobre a inclusão escolar

Abstract: This study aimed to make a psychoanalytic investigation of the collective imaginary of Higher Education Professors regarding school inclusion. A group interview was carried out with 12 faculty members of Language and Pedagogy Programs for the collective imaginary approach. For that, the Thematic Story-Drawing Procedure was used as mediator-dialogical resource. Each professor individually produced drawings and stories on the theme "inclusion student". Through this clinical material, analyzed through the psychoanalytic method, four unconscious psychological fields were collected: "his mother's boy", "(un)capacities", "where's Wally?" and "the pain and the pleasure". In this set, such fields indicated that school inclusion is experienced with anxiety by professors, whose collective imaginary conceives that the student with a deficiency must be cared for by his(er) mother. Thus, it is understood that school inclusion demands, in addition to technical information, space to care for the emotional aspect of these professionals.

The Ancient Self: Issues and Approaches

Abstract: In this essay, I consider the implications of two themes in ancient philosophy as a way of exploring current issues and approaches in the study of the self in antiquity. The first theme is Cicero’s presentation of Cato in On Duties (1.112), considered in the context of his account of the theory of the four roles (personae). The second is Epictetus’ recurrent theme in the Discourses that we should focus our lives on exercising prohairesis (rational agency or will), taken together with his three-topic programme of practical ethics. Both examples fall within the area of HellenisticRoman practical ethics and are based on Stoic thinking. In examining these themes, I draw on the frameworks developed in two books on ancient conceptions of personality or selfhood, one centred on Homer, Greek tragedy, Plato, and Aristotle, and the other on Hellenistic and Roman philosophy. These two themes are also treated by Richard Sorabji in his contribution to this volume and in a recent book on the self, and I consider certain salient differences between our treatments. Sorabji also discusses my interpretation in his essay and so the two chapters constitute a kind of dialogue between our approaches to this topic. I also refer to other recent treatments of Hellenistic and Roman thinking on the self, including those of Michel Foucault and A.A. Long. In a topic as complex and many-layered as study of the ancient self, it would be naive and misguided to suggest that there is a single “right” approach. In presenting my standpoint alongside that of others, my aim is to illustrate certain representative approaches to this fascinating – but rather elusive – topic and to reflect on the conceptual and interpretative issues raised by these approaches.