Exploring the micro-politics of place: lifestyle migrants, collective identities and modes of belonging

Taking up Hopkins and Dixon’s (2006) call to attend to the micro-politics of everyday constructions of space and place, which necessarily involves psychological concepts such as identity, belonging and attachment, this paper aims to show how a critical socio-cognitive approach to discourse analysis is an effective means of unpacking the ways in which versions of place are (re)produced and negotiated through discursive practices, and in particular the ways in which ‘legitimate’ collective identities are constructed in relation to place. I focus on the contemporary social phenomenon of lifestyle migration. Within Europe, this typically involves relatively affluent northern Europeans moving to destinations in southern Europe that are strongly linked to tourism. Although lifestyle migrants are generally viewed by their hosts as ‘desirable’ migrants due to their perceived economic and socio-cultural capital, their integration into destination communities is often minimal. The question arises as to how these migrants construct modes of belonging in relation to their adopted home-place and how they relate to the other social groups with whom they share it. Using texts from a variety of sources, including in-depth interviews with British migrants in Portugal, I explore not only how migrants position themselves (and others) discursively in relation to places, but also how they are already positioned by discursive practices in the public sphere. I also examine to what extent the construction of a ‘legitimate’ mode of belonging involves the construction of intergroup cooperation within that place.

Predicting intention to work with social robots

The growing number of robotic solutions geared to interact socially with humans, social robots, urge the study of the factors that will facilitate or hinder future human robot collaboration. Hence the research question: what are the factors that predict intention to work with a social robot in the near future. To answer this question the following socio-cognitive models were studied, the theory of reasoned action, the theory of planned behavior and the model of goal directed behavior. These models purport that all the other variables will only have an indirect effect on behavior. That is, through the variables of the model. Based on the research on robotics and social perception/ cognition, social robot appearance, belief in human nature uniqueness, perceived warmth, perceived competence, anthropomorphism, negative attitude towards robots with human traits and negative attitudes towards interactions with robots were studied for their effects on attitude towards working with a social robot, perceived behavioral control, positive anticipated emotions and negative anticipated emotions. Study 1 identified the social representation of robot. Studies 2 to 5 investigated the psychometric properties of the Portuguese version of the negative attitude towards robots scale. Study 6 investigated the psychometric properties of the belief in human nature uniqueness scale. Study 7 tested the theory of reasoned action and the theory of planned behavior. Study 8 tested the model of goal directed behavior. Studies 7 and 8 also tested the role of the external variables. Study 9 tested and compared the predictive power of the three socio-cognitive models. Finally conclusion are drawn from the research results, and future research suggestions are offered.

Adaptação de um instrumento de rastreio cognitivo, o MoCA (Montreal Cognitive Assessment) para população cabo-verdiana

Dissertação de Mestrado, Neurociências Cognitivas e Neuropsicologia, Faculdade de Ciências Humanas e Sociais, Universidade do Algarve, 2016