Blurring the Boundaries between Real Worlds, Discourse Worlds and Text Worlds

Blurring the Boundaries between Real Worlds, Discourse Worlds and Text WorldsWhat do the article title ‘Black Widow Breaks Up With Kylo Ren’ and a Twitter message saying ‘The scene in The Departed where Mark Wahlberg shoots Matt Damon is the blueprint for how to handle corrupt cops’ have in common? Clearly, they both combine references to actors and movies, but do they combine them through the same cognitive technique(s)? This paper starts by addressing the question of how these two instances of reference differ. The line of argumentation that is supported suggests that a world-building theory needs to be employed in order to understand the difference. In doing this, the paper aims and contributes to the theoretical advancement of world-building approaches by arguing for the introduction of the concept of ‘Real Worlds’ in research on Text Worlds and Discourse Worlds. Data set sample analyses employing the Real World concept are included to verify the main theoretical premise. The analyzed texts cover traditional genres such as political speeches as well as modern-day, boundary-blurring genres such as Twitter messages. Zacieranie granic między światem rzeczywistym, światem dyskursu i światem tekstu Co mają wspólnego artykuł zatytułowany Czarna wdowa zrywa z Kylo Renem i wiadomość na Twitterze o treści „Scena w The Departed, w której Mark Wahlberg strzela do Matta Damona, jest schematem postępowania ze skorumpowanymi gliniarzami”? Oczywiście oba łączą odniesienia do aktorów i filmów, ale czy łączą je za pomocą tych samych technik poznawczych? Artykuł rozpoczyna się od odpowiedzi na pytanie, czym różnią się te dwa przypadki odniesienia. Wynikiem zaprezentowanej argumentacji jest sugestia, aby w celu zrozumienia różnicy między nimi wyjść od teorii tworzenia światów. Opowiedzenie się za wykorzystaniem koncepcji „świata rzeczywistego” w badaniach nad światem tekstu i światem dyskursu ma na celu rozwój i wzmocnienie teorii tworzenia światów. W weryfikacji podstawowej przesłanki teoretycznej w artykule uwzględniono wyniki analizy próbek ze zbioru danych, w których wykorzystano koncepcję „świata rzeczywistego”. Analizie poddano zarówno teksty reprezentujące tradycyjne gatunki, takie jak przemówienia polityczne, jak również teksty, w których dochodzi do zacierania granic międzygatunkowych, na przykład wiadomości w serwisie społecznościowym Twitter.

Trails of Cultural Memory: Rediscovering Shylock as a Father Figure in the 21st Century

Given that in the last few decades theories of adaptation have advanced enormously, with such names as Linda Hutcheon setting the theoretical premise of these ideas, it is essential to see how certain aspects present in canonical texts have been translated into present-day literature. In this paper, I discuss how the father-daughter relationship in The Merchant of Venice by William Shakespeare, has been (re)interpreted through the carrying of similar characters and situations in the novel Shylock Is My Name by Howard Jacobson. The novel does not only serve as a means of projecting old ideas as new, but it also provides the stage of resolution for such prominent characters as Shylock. In order to have a broader understanding of the (re)interpreted father-daughter relationship, this chapter will take into account the sociological symbolism of the contemporary text, with Erik Erikson’s descriptions of adolescence in the foreground.

Strategic management accounting and performance implications: a literature review and research agenda

The important role that management accounting plays in driving organisational performance has been reiterated in the literature. In line with that importance, the call for more effort to enhance knowledge on strategic management accounting has increased over the years. Responding to that call, this study utilised a qualitative approach that involved a systematic review to synthesise existing literature towards understanding the strategic management accounting foundation, contingency factors, and organisational performance impact. Based on the evidence in reviewed literature, we flag key directions for advancing this theoretical premise towards providing further insights that would enable practitioners strategically align their strategic management accounting practices for optimal organisational performance. The limitations of this study have been acknowledged.

Vox Peritorum: Capitalizing on Confidence and Projection to Characterize Expertise

Theory and research seek to isolate the properties of experts in judgment and decision-making tasks. Confidence in judgment and social projection have emerged as two important meta-judgmental markers. The joint utility of these two indicators of expertise has not been considered yet. We show that the joint study of individual and contextual differences in confidence and projection offers new opportunities to understand expertise. Our theoretical premise is that experts can solve difficult tasks, and do so with high confidence while knowing that few others accomplish this. In a reanalysis of data from Prelec and colleagues (2017) we show that expert judgments are accompanied by higher confidence and less social projection than judgments made by non-experts. Only among experts, confidence and projection are weakly correlated. Moreover, experts align their rate of projection with the difficulty of the judgment task. The present results support a new and integrative approach to the study of experts and expert judgment. We discuss the limitations of the present work and point to future research questions.

The study about developing methodology of investigation of оrientation on communicative activity

Проблема коммуникативной активности человека становится чрезвычайно актуальной в связи с трансформацией прежних констант общения в современных условиях меняющегося мира; возникает потребность в создании психологического инструментария для изучения этой активности. В статье представлены результаты авторской разработки методики изучения направленности коммуникативной активности, ее теоретический и психометрический анализ. Теоретической предпосылкой создания методики изучения направленности коммуникативной активности является концептуальное представление о функциях человека как субъекта общения (В.Н. Панферов). Исходными теоретическими положениями послужили также идеи активности человека, заложенные в концепции интегральной индивидуальности (В.С. Мерлин); полифонии активности в концепции метаиндивидуального мира (Л.Я. Дорфман); интегративный подход к коммуникативной активности (С.А. Васюра). Методика выявляеткоммуникативную, информационную, когнитивную, эмотивную, конативную, креативную направленность активности человека, реализующуюся в непосредственном и Интернет-общении. На выборке 418 человек 17 - 25 лет (128 юношей, 290 девушек) обсуждены результаты валидизации методики. Доказано, что методика обладает прогностической ценностью при изучении круга явлений, относящихся к непосредственному и опосредованному (виртуальному) общению, а также к коммуникативному потенциалу личности. Методика изучения направленности коммуникативной активности может применяться в научных и прикладных исследованиях. The problem of a person's communicative activity becomes urgent due to the transformation of previous communication constants in the current conditions of the changing world, there is a need for development of psychological tools for this activity. The article contains results of developing methodology of investigation of оrientation on communicative activity, its theoretical and psychometric analysis. The theoretical premise of the methodology is the conceptual idea of human's functions as a subject of communication (V.N. Panferov). The ideas of human's activity that is a part of integrated individuality concept (V.S. Merlin), polyphony of activity in the concept of metainividual world (L.Ya. Dorfman), integrative approach to communicative activity (S.A. Vasyura) have become the underlying theory. The methodology examines communicative, informational, cognitive, emotive, conative, creative оrientation on a person's activity that implements in the direct Internet-communication. Results of methodology's validation are discussed on a sample of 418 people 17 - 25 aged (128 males, 290 females). The research has a predictive value in examining a range of features referring to both direct and indirect (virtual) communication, as well as a person's communicative potential. This study can be used in scientific and applied researches.

How political philosophies can help to discuss and differentiate theories in community ecology

This paper uses structural analogies to competing political philosophies of human society as a heuristic tool to differentiate between ecological theories and to bring out new aspects of apparently well-known classics of ecological scholarship. These two different areas of knowledge have in common that their objects are ‘societies’, i.e. units composed of individuals, and that contradictory and competing theories about these supra-individual units exist. The benefit of discussing ecological theories in terms of their analogies to political philosophies, in this case liberalism, democratism and conservatism, consists in the fact that political philosophies show clear differences and particularities as regards their approach to the concepts of individuality and intentional action. The method therefore helps to expose peculiarities of ecological theories that are usually considered canonical (e.g. Clements, Gleason), as well as hybrid forms (E. P. Odum), and to differentiate between two different types of theories about functional wholes. The basis of this method is the constitutional-theoretical premise that modern paradigms of socialization structure the ecological discourse.

The Rise of Data Politics: Digital China and the World

Data has become one of the most valuable assets for governments and firms. Yet, we still have a limited understanding of how data reshapes international economic relations. This paper explores various aspects of data politics through the lens of China’s digital rise and the country’s global engagement. I start with the theoretical premise that data differs from traditional strategic assets (e.g., land, oil, and labor), in that it is nonrival and partially excludable. These characteristics have generated externality, commitment, and valuation problems, triggering three fundamental changes in China’s external economic relations. First, data’s externality problem makes it necessary for states to regulate data or even to pursue data sovereignty. However, clashes over data sovereignty can ignite conflicts between China and other countries. Second, the commitment problem in data use raises global concerns about foreign government surveillance. As data is easier to transfer across borders than physical commodities, Chinese tech companies’ investments abroad are vulnerable to national security investigations by foreign regulators. Chinese tech companies, therefore, confront a “deep versus broad” dilemma: deep ties with the Chinese government help promote their domestic business but jeopardize their international expansion. Lastly, data’s valuation problem makes traditional measures (e.g., GDP) ill-suited to measure the relative strengths of the world’s economies, which may distort perceptions of China and other states.

Reference switching in sign and speech: grammatical and discourse features across modalities within signed-to-spoken language interpretation

Human languages contain a variety of tools for referencing agents, locations, arguments of predicates, and other entities that are introduced, described, and attributed actions within sentences. While there are similarities across modalities, there also exist notable differences. For example, signed languages are articulated with two hands, and sometimes one of them serves referencing functions while the other produces complementary signs. Additionally, signers use role shift and constructed action extensively, whereas there is comparatively less use of reported speech and co-speech enactment in spoken language discourse. Differences across modalities such as these provide areas of focus for studies of interpretation, since a common theoretical premise is that interpreters should disengage from the form of a source-language message in order to provide the meaning in the target language (with its own form). It is open to debate whether an interpretation can achieve complete semantic equivalence, given differences in the grammars, lexical items, and discourse features of the source- and target-languages. We use Libras texts interpreted into Brazilian Portuguese to examine various types of referencing in language and how it occurs in such texts. Our analysis is intended to raise questions about referencing and interpretation that merit in-depth study.-----------------------------------------------------------------------------ALTERNÂNCIA DE REFERÊNCIA NAS LÍNGUAS DE SINAIS E LÍNGUAS FALADAS: CARACTERÍSTICAS GRAMATICAIS E DISCURSIVAS ENTRE MODALIDADES EM INTERPRETAÇÕES DE LIBRAS PARA LÍNGUA PORTUGUESAAs línguas humanas contêm uma variedade de ferramentas para referenciar agentes, locais, argumentos de predicados e outras entidades que são introduzidas, descritas e atribuídas com ações nas sentenças. Embora existam semelhanças entre as modalidades, também existem diferenças notáveis. Por exemplo, as línguas de sinais são articuladas com duas mãos, e às vezes uma delas tem funções de referência enquanto a outra produz sinais complementares. Além disso, o sinalizador usa a alternância de referência e a ação construída extensivamente, enquanto há comparativamente menos uso de cotação e ação construída que co-ocorre com discurso da língua falada. Diferenças entre modalidades como essas fornecem áreas de foco para estudos da interpretação, uma vez que uma premissa teórica comum é que os intérpretes devem se desvincular da forma de uma mensagem na língua de origem a fim de fornecer o significado na língua de destino (com sua própria forma). É possível debater se uma interpretação pode alcançar equivalência semântica completal, dadas as diferenças nas gramáticas, itens lexicais e características do discurso das línguas-fonte e as línguas-alvo. Usamos textos de Libras interpretados para o português brasileiro para examinar vários tipos de referência nessas línguas e como ela ocorre nesses textos. Nossa análise pretende levantar questões sobre referenciação e interpretação que merecem um estudo aprofundado.---Origina em inglês.

Reflexive discourse analysis: A methodology for the practice of reflexivity

How to implement reflexivity in practice? Can the knowledge we produce be emancipatory when our discourses recursively originate in the world we aim to challenge? Critical International Relations (IR) scholars have successfully put reflexivity on the agenda based on the theoretical premise that discourse and knowledge play a socio-political role. However, academics often find themselves at a loss when it comes to implementing reflexivity due to the lack of adapted methodological and pedagogical material. This article shifts reflexivity from meta-reflections on the situatedness of research into a distinctive practice of research and writing that can be learned and taught alongside other research practices. To do so, I develop a methodology based on discourse: reflexive discourse analysis (RDA). Based on the discourse analysis of our own discourse and self-resocialisation, RDA aims to reflexively assess and transform our socio-discursive engagement with the world, so as to render it consistent with our intentional socio-political objectives. RDA builds upon a theoretical framework integrating discourse theory to Bourdieu’s conceptual apparatus for reflexivity and practices illustrated in the works of Comte and La Boétie. To illustrate this methodology, I used this very article as a recursive performance. I show how RDA enabled me to identify implicit discriminative mechanisms within my discourse and transform them into an alternative based on love, to produce an article more in line with my socio-political objectives. Overall, this article turns reflexivity into a critical methodology for social change and demonstrates how to integrate criticality methodologically into research and writing.

Change in Family Therapy

A fundamental theoretical premise in Structural Family Therapy (SFT) is that changes in individual members and improvements in intra-familial relations are realized by repairing the family structure. Dysfunctional families are conceptualized in terms of individuals taking on inappropriate roles (e.g., children acting as if they were parents) and the boundaries between parental executive levels and the children/sibling level are unclear, too rigid, or highly permeable. The therapist’s role is to temporarily engage (join) with family members in a way that generates in-session interactions that exemplify the desirable family structure. While the theory supporting these interventions are well developed, there has been little work done on explicating how such tasks may be interactively accomplished in clinical practice. Drawing from the methods of conversation analysis, our aim for this paper is to show how a master therapist in SFT accomplishes some of these transformations during a single therapy session. We focus on the discursive resources through which the therapist is able to readjust the role relationships between a mother and her daughter (i.e., in such a way that the mother can adopt a more agentive position vis-a-vis her children) and how the therapist’s actions indexed core SFT principles of restructuring the family.