No full-text available
To read the full-text of this research,
you can request a copy directly from the author.
Universe of the Mind: A Semiotic Theory of Culture:Universe of the Mind: A Semiotic Theory of Culture
Abstract
Universe of the Mind:. Semiotic Theory of Culture. Yuri M. Lotman. Bloomington and Indianapolis: Indiana University Press, 1990.288 pp. $45.00 (cloth)
... It This article is a result of a research program funded by The Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada/Le Conseil de recherches en sciences humaines du Canada. L. Radford (&) E ´ cole des sciences de l'e ´ducation, Université Laurentienne, Sudbury, ON, Canada P3E 2C6 e-mail: lradford@laurentian.ca might be helpful, I think, to look at this social networking practice and its meta-language as located in a conceptual semiotic space that cultural theorist Yuri Lotman, in the context of the encounter of various languages and intellectual traditions, called a semiosphere (Lotman, 1990), i.e., an uneven multi-cultural space of meaning-making processes and understandings generated by individuals as they come to know and interact with each other. One of the striking characteristics of the semiosphere is its heterogeneity. ...
... One of the striking characteristics of the semiosphere is its heterogeneity. For Lotman (1990, p. 125) ''Heterogeneity is defined both by the diversity of elements and by their different functions.'' In this context, the role of a meta-language connecting two or more theories is not to erase them through uniform assimilation. ...
... This limit has to do with the boundary of each theory under consideration. For Lotman (1990), a boundary is one of the primary mechanisms of semiotic individuation, something that marks the limits of a first-person form (''I,'' ''us'') in opposition to non-first person forms (''you,'' ''them''). ...
This paper is a commentary on the problem of networking theories. My commentary draws on the papers contained in this ZDM
issue and is divided into three parts. In the first part, following semiotician Yuri Lotman, I suggest that a network of theories
can be conceived of as a semiosphere, i.e., a space of encounter of various languages and intellectual traditions. I argue that such a networking space revolves
around two different and complementary “themes”—integration and differentiation. In the second part, I advocate conceptualizing
theories in mathematics education as triplets formed by a system of theoretical principles, a methodology, and templates of
research questions, and attempt to show that this tripartite view of theories provides us with a morphology of theories for
investigating differences and potential connections. In the third part of the article, I discuss some examples of networking
theories. The investigation of limits of connectivity leads me to talk about the boundary of a theory, which I suggest defining as the “limit” of what a theory can legitimately predicate about its objects of discourse;
beyond such an edge, the theory conflicts with its own principles. I conclude with some implications of networking theories for the advancement of mathematics education.
... This revitalisation demands that not only the mode of television being produced is considered but that questions about the youth audience and the culture of young people are also raised. The extent to which commercial entities mobilise youth culture and the degree to which both television networks and young people embrace elements from foreign cultures and " translate " (Lotman, 1990) them for domestic purposes become central issues. Davis and Dickinson (2004) writing about teen television more broadly, find some advantage in the case made by Hay (2002) that considerations of genre benefit from an approach that moves beyond understanding sets of textual practice and grasps the role of " genres in relation to 'overall situations' and socio-historical 'contexts' " (Hay, 2002). ...
... Looking at the function of American texts in the Australian mediasphere (Hartley, 1996), this thesis adopts Lotman's (1990) concept of the semiosphere and crosscultural communication as translation as a model that avoids falling victim to discourses of Americanisation and cultural imperialism. Lotman argues for a diachronic approach and stresses the role of individual units in the greater semiotic space, which he describes as the semiosphere, " the semiotic space necessary for the existence and functioning of languages " (Lotman, 1990: 123). The semiosphere is the space in which cultures exist, where communication via languages occurs. ...
... Lotman proposes a model of communication based on difference and dialogue. This is the process of translation, a process not of direct representation (symmetrical transformation) but of relative interpretation (asymmetrical transformation) (Lotman 1990: 14). ...
The thesis examines American teen dramas on Australian television in the period 1992 to 2004. It explores the use of the genre by broadcasters and its uptake by teenagers in an environment where American popular culture has frequently been treated with suspicion and where there are perennial arguments about the Americanisation of youth and their vulnerability to cultural imperialism. The thesis argues concerns about Americanisation and cultural imperialism in relation to youth culture, young people and the media are misplaced. American teen dramas are investigated as an example of the ways imported programs are made to cohere with national logics within the Australian mediasphere (Hartley, 1996). Utilising Yuri Lotman's (1990) theory of cultural 'translation' this thesis argues teen drams are evidence of dynamic change within the system of television and that this change does not result in a system dominated by imported product, but rather a system that situates foreign programming amongst domestic frames of reference.
... We notice this specially at traditional moments which have come down to us from the past. (Lotman, conforme citado por Ecco, 1990, p. xii) ...
... Os sistemas semióticos, tanto separadamente quanto unidos como unidades integradas da semiosfera, sincronicamente e, em todos os níveis da memória histórica, desempenha operações intelectuais, preserva, retrabalha e expande o conjunto de informação. (Lotman, 1990, p. 273) Ora, isso é o mesmo que dizer, como Moscovici (1988) que " as representações sociais que modelam nossas relações com a sociedade, são, ao mesmo tempo, um componente da organização social " (p. 214). ...
This paper attempts to analyze the integration of subjective, developmental and cognitive aspects of semiotic processes in a psychological context with the historical, institutional, and ideological grounding of sign systems in the sociocultural context. In this analysis, arguments against the mind/body dichotomy are reviewed, their implications examined and relations between the process of semiotic mediation and the theory of social representations are established. A psychosocial synthesis, providing both theoretical and empirical guidelines for Developmental Psychology, is proposed.. This is carried out through the integration of the analysis of speech acts in the study of personal paradigms, processes of developing conscious awareness and cognitive and metacognitive development.
... As a consequence, it renders the semiospheric model of culture pansemiotic or, rather, pan-textual 5 , cutting it off from the " inert " yet real space human beings inhabit (in opposition to the " abstract space " of semiosphere [Lotman 1984: 6]). We have to consider semiosphere only in the context of other semiotic formations: " in reality no semiosphere is immersed in an amorphous, 'wild' space, it is in contact with other semiospheres which have their own organization (though from the point of view of former they may seem unorganised) " (Lotman 2000: 125). Yet the vital points of consonance Lotman finds in Vernadsky in a way presuppose the coexistence as well as a sharp distinction between living matter and inert matter. ...
... However, as we elaborate the comparison between Lotman and Vernadsky further, we could re-establish the semiosphere as a function of human thinking, the main transformative force of the human environment that could be in complete accordance with the living matter, stated by Vernadsky as a definitive source of transformative energy in biosphere with its specific space-time characteristics . According to Lotman, semiosphere is characterised by a specific structure of space and time whose organization is established through the workings of the semiosphere itself and it is through this transformative activity that Lotman partially comes to terms with the " outside " reality: " The outside world in which human being is immersed in order to become culturally significant, is subject to semiotisation, i.e. it is divided into domains of objects which signify, symbolise, indicate something (have meaning), and objects which simply are themselves " (Lotman 2000: 133). This is obviously largely due to the idea of the specific space-time of living matter expressed by Vernadsky. ...
The concept of semiosphere coined by Lotman in analogy of Vernadsky's biosphere can be considered as a starting point for the new model in the semiotics of culture that enables us to conceptualise the human culture in its great diversity, as well as a certain single system as a part of this diversity. Present article will clarify some points of dissonance between Lotman and Vernadsky, as well as consider the dual influence of Vernadsky and Prigogine on the workings of the semiosphere in relation to the cultural dynamics. As a conclusion, the article entertains the idea that if we take the comparison with Vernadsky a bit further, the concept of semiosphere could be reinvented rather as a main transformative force of the (human) environment.
... The term was originally introduced by Yuri Lotman and used in a more specific cultural sense , as follows : " The unit of semiosis , the smallest functioning mechanism , is not the separate language but the whole semiotic space in question . This is the space we term the semiosphere " ( Lotman 1990 , 125 ) . John Deely accepts my use of the word and suggests " signosphere as a term more appropriate for the narrower designation of semiosphere in Lotman ' s sense , leaving the broader coinage and usage to Hoffmeyer ' s credit " ( Deely 2001 , 629 ) . ...
A sign is something that refers to something else. Signs, whether of natural or cultural origin, act by provoking a receptive system, human or nonhuman, to form an interpretant (a movement or a brain activity) that somehow relates the system to this “something else.” Semiotics sees meaning as connected to the formation of interpretants. In a biosemiotic understanding living systems are basically engaged in semiotic interactions, that is, interpretative processes, and organic evolution exhibits an inherent tendency toward an increase in semiotic freedom. Mammals generally are equipped with more semiotic freedom than are their reptilian ancestor species, and fishes are more semiotically sophisticated than are invertebrates. The evolutionary trend toward the production of life forms with an increasing interpretative capacity or semiotic freedom implies that the production of meaning has become an essential survival parameter in later stages of evolution.
... But Lotman was also a 126 follower of Saussure, and inherited from him the idea that language is made of two distinct components: an 127 abstract-universal system called Langue, and a concrete-individual entity called Parole. Langue, according to 128 Saussure, is the system that lies at the very heart of culture, and for that reason Lotman called it " the primary 129 modelling system " of our species (Lotman, 1991). 130 Thomas Sebeok accepted both the idea of a modelling system proposed by Lotman, and the concept of ...
Thomas Sebeok and Noam Chomsky are the acknowledged founding fathers of two research fields which are known respectively as
Biosemiotics and Biolinguistics and which have been developed in parallel during the past 50years. Both fields claim that
language has biological roots and must be studied as a natural phenomenon, thus bringing to an end the old divide between
nature and culture. In addition to this common goal, there are many other important similarities between them. Their definitions
of language, for example, have much in common, despite the use of different terminologies. They both regard language as a
faculty, or a modelling system, that appeared rapidly in the history of life and probably evolved as an exaptation from previous
animal systems. Both accept that the fundamental characteristic of language is recursion, the ability to generate an unlimited number of structures from a finite set of elements (the property of ‘discrete infinity’).
Both accept that human beings are born with a predisposition to acquire language in a few years and without apparent efforts
(the innate component of language). In addition to similarities, however, there are also substantial differences between the
two fields, and it is an historical fact that Sebeok and Chomsky made no attempt at resolving them. Biosemiotics and Biolinguistics
have become two separate disciplines, and yet in the case of language they are studying the same phenomenon, so it should
be possible to bring them together. Here it is shown that this is indeed the case. A convergence of the two fields does require
a few basic readjustments in each of them, but leads to a unified framework that keeps the best of both disciplines and is
in agreement with the experimental evidence. What is particularly important is that such a framework suggests immediately
a new approach to the origin of language. More precisely, it suggests that the brain wiring processes that take place in all
phases of human ontogenesis (embryonic, foetal, infant and child development) are based on organic codes, and it is the step-by-step
appearance of these brain-wiring codes, in a condition that is referred to as cerebra bifida, that holds the key to the origin of language.
KeywordsBiolinguistics-Biosemiotics-Cognitive development-Organic codes-Origin of language
... Axelrod & Cohen, 1999, p. 15). This line of thinking should explore the role of reciprocal or circular causality (Minsky, 1988), or of recursive causality within an ensemble (Morin, 1992, p. 130), as a process " in which the products or final effects generate their own new beginning " (ibid., p. 133; emphasis added), like in autocatalytic reactions (Lotman, 1990, p. 3), also to be viewed as an autocatalytic loop (Koneko, 2004). Such a process can be nicely illustrated by the work of Escher's drawing of " Hands " , in figure 3 below. ...
This article explores the usefulness of interdisciplinarity as method of enquiry by proposing an investigation of the concept of information in the light of semiotics. This is because, as Kull, Deacon, Emmeche, Hoffmeyer and Stjernfelt state, information is an implicitly semiotic term (Biological Theory 4(2):167–173, 2009: 169), but the logical relation between semiosis and information has not been sufficiently clarified yet. Across the history of cybernetics, the concept of information undergoes an uneven development; that is, information is an ‘objective’ entity in first order cybernetics, and becomes a ‘subjective’ entity in second order cybernetics. This contradiction relegates the status of information to that of a ‘true’ or ‘false’ formal logic problem. The present study proposes that a solution to this contradiction can be found in Deely’s reconfiguration of Peirce’s ‘object’ (as found in his triadic model of semiosis) into ‘thing’ and ‘object’ (Deely 1981). This ontology allows one to argue that information is neither ‘true’ nor ‘false’, and to suggest that, when considered in light of its workability, information can be both true and false, and as such it constitutes an organism’s purely objective reality (Deely 2009b). It is stated that in the process of building such a reality, information is ‘motivated’ by environmental, physiological, emotional (including past feelings and expectations) constraints which are, in turn, framed by observership. Information is therefore found in the irreducible cybersemiotic process that links at once all these conditions and that is simultaneously constrained by them. The integration of cybernetics’ and semiotics’ understanding of information shows that history is the analytical principle that grants scientific rigour to interdisciplinary investigations. As such, in any attempt to clarify its epistemological stance (e.g. the semiotic aspect of information), it is argued that biosemiotics does not need only to acknowledge semiotics (as it does), but also cybernetics in its interdisciplinary heritage.
This is a study of interaction between American Indian patients and the Euro-American mainstream organization that provides health care to Indians. Posted displays of verbal language at three U.S. Indian Health Service (IHS) facilities are the data for the present study. The term bureaucratic therapy is used to characterize the health care delivery organization--a federal bureacracy--and IHS perspectives in this study. This study demonstrates that the application of rhetorical constructs to ethnographic studies has been substantially assisted by Eco's reconfiguration of semiotic ontology. By providing a method for the semiotic analysis of both verbal and nonverbal language, Eco has made possible the perspectival rhetorical analysis of the semantically vibrant cotexts often documented by ethnographic research. These posted displays were found to constitute more than verbal language expressions subject to traditional rhetorical analysis. Rather, they reveal the cultural conflict as iconic sign-functions made up of intertwined verbal and nonverbal elements. These provide evidence of language-created social perspectives consistent with results obtained in other studies at the same facilities and are data for interpretation of the organizational text as a coherent whole. (187 words) This is a study of conflict between American Indian patients and an Euro- American mainstream federal organization that provides health care to Indians. Posted displays of verbal language at three U.S. Indian Health Service (IHS)
Written in 1979, Company, epitomises all the efforts of Samuel Beckett to cross the boundaries between the narrative and the drama. In this work I concentrate on the relationship between space and communication in his selected works (the narrative - Company, radio plays, film as well as stage plays) so as to show that Company contributes to the understanding of main semantic concerns (i.e. darkness vs. light, inside vs. outside, stage vs. theatre, speaking vs. silence, monologue vs. dialogue, mimetic vs. metaphoric, vertical vs. horizontal etc.) in Beckett's drama. I also focus on the invariant principles constructing the model of the world that emerges from all the works in question. I place my observation in the context of English language criticism on Samuel Beckett.
Diagnostics of a mental disorder completely bases on an estimation of patient’s behaviour, verbal behaviour being the most important. The behaviour, in turn, is ruled by a situation expressed as a system of signs. Perception of a situation could be seen as a function, which depends on the context resulting from the previous situations, structuring personal world. So the world is not given — it is being formed while the person is in action. We argue that distinctive features of behaviour, including its abnormal variants, can be explained not in categories of characters and diseases but in terms of situations taking place in individual worlds. The situation in which a person perceives himself is not simply a site in a three-dimensional space at a certain moment, but a part of the world and an episode of his life. Like a text composed of words, individual world is composed of situations. Each of them needs certain context to cope with ambiguity. This context is induced by the world as a whole. And the world, in turn, is presented as a chain of situations. If the context cannot help to interpret a situation adequately, uncertainty can be eliminated by actions clarifying a situation, which is changed in a predictable way. Thus, purposeful activity, skills to make predictions and corrections of one’s own actions are crucial. Weakness of any of them inevitably leads to the distortion of the presentation of the world, to wrong evaluation of situations and, as a result, to inadequate actions that finally reduce the activity as being ineffective. Thus, the lack of activity becomes the key factor in the development of disorder, being simultaneously its cause and effect. In periods of insufficient activity conditions for violated (and violating) sign processing arise. Possible variants of sign malfunction are: oligosemia (reduction of the number of perceivable signs), hyposemia (decrease of significance of signs), hypersemia (increase of significance of some signs at the expense of others), ambisemia (uncertainty of sign, when situation remains unclear), cryptosemia (recognition of signs not obvious for other observers), and parasemia (perverted interpretation of signs influenced by a false context).
This thesis is designed to improve our understanding of the evolutionary dynamics of
media forms, with a special historical focus on the recent processes of Web and mobile
convergence and the early development of the cross-platform Web. It aims to investigate
the dynamics that have underpinned the creation, evolution and conventionalisation of
new media forms in the open mobile Web following the launch of 3G mobile networks.
In theoretical terms the thesis explores the possibilities for the analytical
integration of evolutionary approaches that traditionally have shed light on the discrete
components of the evolutionary ‘ensemble’ that comprises media’s textual forms, their
technologies and organisational systems. Among the theoretical pillars the study builds
on is, first, the cultural semiotic approach (Lotman) that is utilised for interpreting the
textual dynamics constituting the form evolution. Second, evolutionary economics
(Schumpeter, Freeman and others) is included for interpreting the market dynamics that
condition the formation of the media industries. Third, systems theoretical sociology
(Luhmann) is deployed in order to understand the broader dynamics of social organisation in late modernism. The integration of these approaches provides the conceptual
framework that focuses on the following phenomena: dialogic interchange among
industry sub-systems as enabling innovations and the emergence of new sub-systems; the
self-organisation of the sub-systems in the contingent environment; the role of memory
and systemic ‘path-dependencies’ in guiding the processes of self-organisation; and the
nature of the power relations that shape the dialogic processes.
The empirical study focuses on textual as well as organisational developments.
The semiotic analysis of mobile websites reveals the intertextual relations of the new
forms with other media domains, especially the desktop Web. The interviews with
representatives of industry stakeholders provide insights into the dialogic practices
between the parties engaged in designing the mobile Web, and how, via these practices,
the new platform, its media forms and institutional structures were shaped. The findings
point to the historical formation of two main industry sub-systems – ‘infrastructure
enablers’ and content providers – with different preferred alternatives for the design of
the cross-platform Web. The thesis demonstrates how the formation of these groups was
conditioned by their systemic path-dependencies, but also by the mesh of dialogic
relationships among them and by the resulting changes in the discursive constellations
framing the organisation of the industry and the norms for its media forms. The study
points to the first signs of the historically momentous emancipation of the mobile Webmedia forms, their shaking free of path-dependency on the desktop Web.
This paper appraises design studies as part of teacher education and they are seen here as both a product and a process. Concept design has been applied when teaching the process of designing a product and paying attention to the viewpoint of the customer. However, I argue for the use of the intertextual art method because it offers an intercultural viewpoint for design education and promotes the understanding of plural meanings between cultures. The article presents a case study taken from a teacher student's open-ended intercultural design learning process and a prognosis is made for the future based on this study.
Friendship is studied as a culturally and
contextually embedded entity. Focusing on the interactions between
network marketers and their prospects, this article proposes
four key central elements through which participants make sense
of themselves when their identities are in transgression and
conflict. Instead of being essentialist, the four elements of
friendship – intimacy, control, trust, and positiveness
– are highly interactional and dynamic elements that can
be negotiated by participants in a conversation. It is argued
that Grice's Cooperative Principle is valid, but this should
be enhanced by participants' specific culture and prior experience.
The notion of “face” in politeness models should be expanded
in light of its dynamic characteristics in interaction.
This paper presents the current state in an ongoing development of the Genetic Improvisation Model (GIM): a framework for the design of real-time improvi-sational systems. The aesthetic rationale for the model is presented, followed by a discussion of its general principles. A discussion of the Emonic Environment, a networked system for audiovisual creation built on GIM's principles, follows.
I shall do no attempt at ridding myself of any trace of intentionality in the process (Hoffmeyer 1996 a). Natural translation is not a macro-level process but a process, which is played out by individual entities at many levels from single cells to organisms or even populations and perhaps ecosystems. To this day Darwinists have claimed that natural selection rests on purely hypothetical-deductive principles: Suppose a population of organisms reproduce to exceed its resource base. Suppose furthermore that heritable variants exist among individuals of the population. Then competition necessarily ensues and results in better adapted variants leaving more surviving offspring, i.e. in differential survival.
Europäische politische Realität im/und Verfassungskonvent. Elemente und Funktionen einer supranationalen Institution Der vorliegende Artikel beruht auf empirischen Forschungen zum Europäischen Verfassungskonvent als institutionellem Milieu und als supranationaler politischer Arena. In fünf Schnitten wird je ein anderer Aspekt des Konventsprozesses, seines Mandats und seiner Funktionen hervorgehoben und im Kontext der EU und ihrer Entwicklung analysiert, wobei das besondere Augenmerk den Ambivalenzen und Wider-sprüchen des Gegenstandes gilt: Die in der Laeken Erklärung geforderte breite Debatte der Zukunft der erweiterten Union widersprach auf der anderen Seite den Erfordernissen einer expertenbasierten Konso-lidierung der Verträge, wie sie durch den organisatorischen Aufbau des Konvents (Macht), die inkrementalistische Arbeit des Sekretariats sowie die eigentümliche soziale Dynamik des Konventsprozesses (mainstreaming bzw. engrenage) ermöglicht wurde. Das intergouvernementale Element wiederum erwies sich als unhintergehbar, musste aber zu einer Kompromittierung der neuen ‚konstitutionellen Selbst-beschreibung' der EU durch Kompromisse führen. Schließlich blieb der demokratische Auftrag des Kon-vents im Wesentlichen auf Inszenierung und Rhetorik beschränkt, wobei der Beitrag des ‚etatistischen' imaginaire einer Verfassungsgebung zur Legitimation der ‚pluralistischen' Europolity entsprechend am-bivalent beurteilt wird.
This article explores the often untapped relationship between trade mark law, language and culture from a cultural theory perspective. Of the few works that employ cultural theory as an interpretive background, there has been an overwhelming rejection that private rights in trade marks should be recognised beyond the current state of the law. Some cultural theorists even suggest that existing trade mark protection goes too far. This article attempts to curb this academic tendency by showing that trade mark rights might not be as harmful to culture and cultural expression as perhaps first thought. In fact, it is argued that a carefully adapted trade mark dilution right might satisfy a cultural public interest in facilitating speech by preventing the dilution of a trade mark's expressive function.
From the perspective of semiotics, or a science of signs, communication exceeds the usual verbal mode of expression and covers
extra linguistic modes. This paper addresses a specific communicative system represented by Tarot pictures. The semiotic approach
not only presents Tarot as exceeding its function as a game but also de-mystifies, in part, its occult side by virtue of the
analysis of semiosis, or the action of signs in nature. Using references from the Hermetic philosophy, to Dummett, to Peirce,
to Smolin, the paper asserts that, should we understand the language of signs, the memories of past and future events would
be accessible to human reason.
While it is clear that cultural boundaries shape the ways we think and act, the processes by which some emerge as dominant while others languish is less well understood. Drawing on a case study of a conflict among climbers, I show how an innovation's evolution from heresy to orthodoxy was shaped by the relationship between borders enacted by players on different sides of the issue. I argue that because boundaries emerge in an interactional nexus, the nature of the boundaries that prevail can only be understood in the context of prior boundaries through and against which they are created.
Computer-mediated small group research has focused efforts on the medium of electronically networked text-based messages. An experiment which instead combines a synchronous text-based messaging medium with two-dimensional interactive computer graphics is detailed. Three-person groups participated in a risk-taking choice-dilemma task involving a discussion of the dilemma and consensus attainment. The groups' prediscussion and postdiscussion opinions were collected. Two conditions, one where groups received graphics-based feedback of their individual prediscussion opinions, and a second, which included a graphical representation of the prediscussion average, were coupled with a text-based communication medium. The text-based medium, without interactive graphics, served as control. In the condition involving the graphical prediscussion opinions and average, groups sent proportionately more messages containing persuasive-style arguments and proportionately fewer messages containing normative-style arguments. In the graphical condition without the average, roughly the inverse was found to occur. In the control, the discussion parameters fell proportionately between the two graphics conditions. In both graphics conditions, the first discussant to advocate a decision proposal had a stronger influence on the group decision than in the control. The data suggests that the inclusion of two-dimensional graphics can either augment or inhibit normative and informational forms of social influence during the group decision-making process.
An integrated learning object, a web-based inquiry environment "Young Scientist" for basic school level is introduced by applying the semiosphere conception for explaining learning processes. The study focused on the development of students' (n=30) awareness of the affordances of learning objects (LO) during the 3 inquiry tasks, and their ability of dynamically reconstructing meanings in the inquiry subtasks through exploiting these LO affordances in "Young Scientist". The problem-solving data recorded by the inquiry system and the awareness questionnaire served as the data-collection methods. It was demonstrated that learners obtain complete awareness of the LO affordances in an integrated learning environment only after several problem-solving tasks. It was assumed that the perceived task-related properties and functions of LOs depend on students' interrelations with LOs in specific learning contexts. Learners' overall awareness of certain LO affordances, available in the inquiry system "Young Scientist", developed with three kinds of patterns, describing the hierarchical development of the semiosphere model for learners. The better understanding of the LO affordances, characteristic to the formation of the functioning semiosphere, was significantly related to the advanced knowledge construction during these inquiry subtasks that presumed translation of information from one semiotic system to another. The implications of the research are discussed in the frames of the development of new contextual gateways for learning with virtual objects. It is assumed that effective LO-based learning has to be organized through pedagogically constrained gateways by manifesting certain LO affordances in the context in order to build up the dynamic semiosphere model for learners.
This study examines boundaries in health care organizations. Boundaries are sometimes considered things to be avoided in everyday living. This study suggests that boundaries can be important temporally and spatially emerging locations of development, learning, and change in inter-organizational activity. Boundaries can act as mediators of cultural and social formations and practices. The data of the study was gathered in an intervention project during the years 2000-2002 in Helsinki in which the care of 26 patients with multiple and chronic illnesses was improved. The project used the Change Laboratory method that represents a research assisted method for developing work. The research questions of the study are: (1) What are the boundary dynamics of development, learning, and change in health care for patients with multiple and chronic illnesses? (2) How do individual patients experience boundaries in their health care? (3) How are the boundaries of health care constructed and reconstructed in social interaction? (4) What are the dynamics of boundary crossing in the experimentation with the new tools and new practice? The methodology of the study, the ethnography of the multi-organizational field of activity, draws on cultural-historical activity theory and anthropological methods. The ethnographic fieldwork involves multiple research techniques and a collaborative strategy for raising research data. The data of this study consists of observations, interviews, transcribed intervention sessions, and patients' health documents. According to the findings, the care of patients with multiple and chronic illnesses emerges as fragmented by divisions of a patient and professionals, specialties of medicine and levels of health care organization. These boundaries have a historical origin in the Finnish health care system. As an implication of these boundaries, patients frequently experience uncertainty and neglect in their care. However, the boundaries of a single patient were transformed in the Change Laboratory discussions among patients, professionals and researchers. In these discussions, the questioning of the prevailing boundaries was triggered by the observation of gaps in inter-organizational care. Transformation of the prevailing boundaries was achieved in implementation of the collaborative care agreement tool and the practice of negotiated care. However, the new tool and practice did not expand into general use during the project. The study identifies two complementary models for the development of health care organization in Finland. The 'care package model', which is based on productivity and process models adopted from engineering and the 'model of negotiated care', which is based on co-configuration and the public good. Rajoja pidetään joskus haitallisina esteinä jokapäiväisessä elämässä. Tutkin rajoja ajallisesti ja paikallisesti laajentuvina kehittämisen, oppimisen ja muutoksen tiloina terveydenhuollossa. Mikä on kehittämisen, oppimisen ja muutoksen rajoihin liittyvä dynamiikka monista sairauksista kärsivien potilaiden hoidossa? Miten yksittäiset potilaat kokevat rajat terveydenhuollossa? Miten terveydenhuollon rajat muodostuvat ja uudistuvat sosiaalisessa vuorovaikutuksessa? Mikä on rajan ylityksiin liittyvä dynamiikka uusien työvälineiden ja käytäntöjen kokeilussa? Kokosin tutkimusaineiston 26:n helsinkiläisen montaa sairautta sairastan potilaan hoidosta sitä kehittävän hankkeen yhteydessä vuosina 2000-2002. Hankkeessa sovellettiin muutoslaboratorio-menetelmää, mikä on tutkimusavusteinen kehittävää työntutkimusta edustava työn kehittämismenetelmä. Potilaat, työntekijät ja tutkijat osallistuivat kaikki aktiivisesti kehittämistyöhön. Tutkimuksen aineisto koostuu haastatteluista, havainnoinneista, nauhoitetuista muutoskokouksista ja potilasdokumenteista. Tutkimusmenetelmä yhdistää toiminnan teoriaa ja antropologisia menetelmiä. Tutkimuksen mukaan montaa sairautta sairastavien potilaiden hoito on potilaiden ja ammattilaisten, eri erikoisalojen ja terveydenhuollon tasojen välisten rajapintojen pirstomaa. Terveydenhuollon rajat ovat historiallisesti muodostuneita rakenteita ja käytäntöjä. Rajoista johtuen tutkimuksen potilaat kokivat epävarmuutta ja jopa laiminlyöntejä hoitojärjestelyissään. Potilaiden hoitoa haittaavia rajoja voitiin kuitenkin muuttaa muutoslaboratorioistunnoissa. Erityisesti hoitojärjestelyissä ilmenneet tiedonkatkokset ja vastuuaukot käynnistivät rajoja ylittävän oppimisen. Sen tuloksena käyttöönotettiin ja kehitettiin hoitosopimus ja neuvotteleva käytäntö montaa sairautta sairastavien potilaiden hoitoon. Uusi työväline ja käytäntö eivät kuitenkaan levinneet hankkeen kuluessa yleiseen käyttöön terveydenhuollossa. Tutkimuksessa tunnistetaan kaksi vaihtoehtoista, mutta toisiaan täydentävää terveydenhuollon kehittämisen mallia Suomessa. 'Hoitopakettimalli' perustuu tuottavuusajattelulle ja teollisuudesta omaksutuille prosessimalleille. 'Neuvotteleva hoitokäytäntö' perustuu yhteiskehittelylle ja yhteisen hyvän periaatteille.
Since time immemorial, philosophers and scientists were searching for a “machine code” of the so-called Mentalese language capable of processing information at the pre-verbal, pre-expressive level. In this paper I suggest that human languages are only secondary to the system of primitive extra-linguistic signs which are hardwired in humans and serve as tools for understanding selves and others; and creating meanings for the multiplicity of experiences. The combinatorial semantics of the Mentalese may find its unorthodox expression in the semiotic system of Tarot images, the latter serving as the ”keys” to the encoded proto-mental information. The paper uses some works in systems theory by Erich Jantsch and Erwin Laszlo and relates Tarot images to the archetypes of the field of collective unconscious posited by Carl Jung. Our subconscious beliefs, hopes, fears and desires, of which we may be unaware at the subjective level, do have an objective compositional structure that may be laid down in front of our eyes in the format of pictorial semiotics representing the universe of affects, thoughts, and actions. Constructing imaginative narratives based on the expressive “language” of Tarot images enables us to anticipate possible consequences and consider a range of future options. The thesis advanced in this paper is also supported by the concept of informational universe of contemporary cosmology.
This essay is dedicated to the tenth muse . . . One of the foundations of Western thought is the structure of binary oppositions based in abstract conceptualizations. This process includes the expression of generic qualities as universalized notions. With respect to women, these qualities are generally contracted into "Woman." Luce Irigaray describes this "Woman" as "having been misinterpreted, forgotten, variously frozen in show-cases, rolled up in metaphors, buried beneath carefully stylized figures, raised up in different realities . . . " (144). Women and writing have often been symbolic of each other as objects of the process of conceptualization. Aníbal González proposes that in many nineteenth-century texts the struggle for expression is represented as the attempt to submit a particularly rebellious or "hysterical" woman to the legality of an organizing discourse that "interprets" woman (137). Thus, women have always had to find a way to write within a cultural structure burdened by a long tradition of assumptions about gender ("women did not write") and about authorship ("men, inspired by Muses, did it" (Jed 196)). Women's role in poetic production was seen to be similar to that of her role in the home: as mediator and inspiration or muse. The millenary patriarchal patterns of subjectivity and gendering which imprisoned women in sensibility without legitimate desires, power, language, or participation in history made agency difficult. Be(com)ing a woman poet in the midst of the cultural, social, and artistic renovations taking place at the end of the nineteenth century was fraught with cultural, social, and artistic obstacles. In order to become writers, women had to cross several boundaries: that of gender (between "men" and "women") and that of timeless abstraction (between "Woman" and "a woman"). In order to define herself as an author, a woman would in effect have to redefine the terms of her socialization. In the classical paradigm of the "double bind," becoming an author meant denying one's sex, becoming unsexed or a perversely sexed female (Gilbert and Gubar 49, 34). In Cuba in particular, the bellicose and ultra-politicized environment of the late nineteenth- century made it even more difficult for women to participate in the intellectual activities legitimated by the establishment. During the last quarter of the nineteenth century, Cuba
En las sociedades de Europa occidental, el pueblo ha aceptado la realidad del nacionalismo, pero considerando que, en democracia, la mayor parte de las naciones son similares y el Estado sólo debe tener una mínima conexión con lo étnico. Ese equilibrio entre universalismo y particularismo era considerado formalmente ilegal en los países de Europa Central y del Sudeste de Europa durante el período de vigencia del comunismo. Los sucesos de 1989 supusieron, sin embargo, el final del internacionalismo socialista. Desde entonces existe un debate entre planteamientos universalistas y particularistas en estos países. Ese debate constituye el ámbito en el que se debe contemplar el análisis del marco legal de Hungría. Este análisis tiene dos importantes dimensiones: el propósito de regular las relaciones de Hungría con las comunidades húngaras de los países vecinos y la necesidad de establecer una nueva posición para la nación húngara en el contexto mundial actual. In Western European societies, people have accepted the reality of nationhood, but considering that in democracy most nations are similar, and the state should have only a minimal connection with ethnicity. This equilibrium between universalism and particularism was formally declared illegal in Central and South-Eastern Europe under the communism. The events of 1989 involved the end of the socialist internationalism. Since then, there has been a debate between universalistic and particularistic discourses in these countries. This debate is the background against which the analysis of the Status Law in Hungary should be seen. This analysis have two important dimensions: the aim to regulate Hungarys relations with the Hungarian communities in the neighbouring states and the necessity to establish a new position for the Hungarian nation in the present world context.
This thesis adopts a Cultural Industries framework to examine how Queensland's arts council network has, through the provision of arts products and services, contributed to the vitality, health and sustainability of Queensland's regional communities. It charts the history of the network, its configuration and impact since 1961, with particular focus on the years 2001 - 2004, envisages future trends, and provides an analysis of key issues which may be used to guide future policies and programs. Analysis is guided by a Cultural Industries understanding of the arts embedded in everyday life, and views the arts as a range of activities which, by virtue of their aesthetic and symbolic dimensions, enhance human existence through their impact on both the quality and style of human life. Benefits include enhanced leisure and entertainment options, and educational, social, health, personal growth, and economic outcomes, and other indirect benefits which enrich environment and lifestyle. Queensland Arts Council (QAC) and its network of branches has been a dominant factor in the evolution of Queensland's cultural environment since the middle of the 20th century. Across the state, branches became the public face of the arts, drove cultural agendas, initiated and managed activities, advised governments, wrote cultural policies, lobbied, raised funds and laboured to realise cultural facilities and infrastructure. In the early years of the 21st century, QAC operates within a complex, competitive and rapidly changing environment in which orthodox views of development, oriented in terms of a left / right, or bottom up / top down dichotomy, are breaking down, and new convergent models emerge. These new models recognise synergies between artistic, social, economic and political agendas, and unite and energise them in the realm of civil society. QAC is responding by refocusing policies and programs to embrace these new models and by developing new modes of community engagement and arts facilitation. In 1999, a major restructure of the arts council network saw suffragan branches become autonomous Local Arts Councils (LACs), analogous to local Cultural Industry support organisations. The resulting network of affiliated LACs provides a potentially highly effective mechanism for the delivery of arts related products and services, the decentralisation of cultural production, and the nurturing across the state of Creative Community Cultures which equip communities, more than any other single asset, to survive and prosper through an era of unsettling and relentless change. Historical, demographic, behavioural (participation), and attitudinal data are combined to provide a picture of arts councils in seven case study sites, and across the network. Typical arts council members are characterised as omnivorous cultural consumers and members of a knowledge class, and the leadership of dedicated community minded people is identified as the single most critical factor determining the extent of an LAC's activities and its impact on community. Analysis of key issues leads to formulation of eight observations, discussed with reference to QAC and LACs, which might guide navigation in the regional arts field. These observations are then reformulated as Eight Principles Of Effective Regional Arts Facilitation, which provide a framework against which we might evaluate arts policy and practice.
This paper looks at programming strategies adopted by Chinese television producers, drawing on an ongoing large-scale study of Asia-Pacific television format trade currently being conducted by the Australian Key Centre for Cultural and Media Policy. The paper argues that the concept of cultural technology transfer is a useful way of theorizing the positive benefits of program replication in China. On the other hand, the negative effect is that dynamics of program development and innovation are retarded by excessive reliance on the cloning of formats.
This paper will examine how policy in Australia is underpinning the development of a national innovation system in the cultural industries. I make distinctions between innovation and creativity. Specific examples come from digital content industries in Australia. I will suggest that many of the policies that Australia has adopted, and is considering, have relevance for China. While there are distinctions that can be drawn between cultural industries and creative industries, in this paper the terms are used interchangeably.
En este artículo se explora la transición entre la plaza pública tradicional y los malls, y se propone una hipótesis interpretativa de la relación de los jóvenes citadinos con los nuevos espacios comerciales en el marco de la globalización. La investigación está basada en entrevistas a jóvenes visitantes de los mall de Maracaibo, Venezuela, y se discuten sus conductas desde un punto de vista semioantropológico, con el propósito de interpretar los valores simbólicos y ritos que ellas actualizan. Se analizan también los distintos grupos de jóvenes que visitan los malls como parte distintiva de una identidad que no sólo se deriva de valores compartidos sino también de un común espacio.
Using insights from `embodied cognition? and a resulting `cognitive theory of the firm?, I aim to contribute to the further development of evolutionary theory of organizations, in the specification of organizations as `interactors? that carry organizational competencies as `replicators?, within industries as `populations?. Especially, I analyze how, if at all, `dynamic capabilities? can be fitted into evolutionary theory. I propose that the prime purpose of an organization is to serve as a cognitive `focusing device?. Here, cognition has a wide meaning, including perception, interpretation, sense making, and value judgements. I analyse how this yields organizations as cohesive wholes, and differences within and between industries. I propose the following sources of variation: replication in communication, novel combinations of existing knowledge, and a path of discovery by which exploitation leads to exploration. These yield a proposal for dynamic capabilities. I discuss in what sense, and to what extent these sources of variation are `blind?, as postulated in evolutionary theory.
ResearchGate has not been able to resolve any references for this publication.