Fan Culture as an Informal Learning Environment : Presentation of a NGL project

Fan culture is a subculture that has developed explosively on the internet over the last decades. Fans are creating their own films, translations, fiction, fan art, blogs, role play and also various forms that are all based on familiar popular culture creations like TV-series, bestsellers, anime, manga stories and games. In our project, we analyze two of these subculture genres, fan fiction and scanlation. Amateurs, and sometimes professional writers, create new stories by adapting and developing existing storylines and characters from the original. In this way, a "network" of texts occurs, and writers step into an intertextual dialogue with established writers such as JK Rowling (Harry Potter) and Stephanie Meyer (Twilight). Literary reception and creation then merge into a rich reciprocal creative activity which includes comments and feedback from the participators in the community. The critical attitude of the fans regarding quality and the frustration at waiting for the official translation of manga books led to the development of scanlation, which is an amateur translation of manga distributed on the internet.  Today, young internet users get involved in conceptual discussions of intertextuality and narrative structures through fan activity. In the case of scanlation, the scanlators practice the skills and techniques of translating in an informal environment. This phenomenon of participatory culture has been observed by scholars and it is concluded that they contribute to the development of a student’s literacy and foreign language skills. Furthermore, there is no doubt that the fandom related to Japanese cultural products such as manga, anime and videogames is one of the strong motives for foreign students to start learning Japanese. This is something to take into pedagogical consideration when we develop web-based courses. Fan fiction and fan culture make it ​​possible to have an intensive transcultural dialogue between participators throughout the world and is of great interest when studying the interaction between formal and informal learning that puts the student in focus

"Porque quiero casarme con un varón hermoso de la orilla del mar" Un análisis de lo grotesco femenino de María Josefa en La casa de Bernarda Alba

This essay is an analysis of the character María Josefa in the play 'The House of Bernarda Alba' (1936) by Federico García Lorca. It is hypothesized that the character of María Josefa can be considered a distorting mirror of the femininity presented in the play, and that through María Josefa this femininity is both revealed and problematized. The analysis adopts theories from the field of the (female) grotesque, using terminology both from Mikhail Bakhtin and Mary Russo. Throughout the analysis it is demonstrated how the character of María Josefa challenges the boundaries and norms which are dictated by Bernarda to control the women of the house. These conventions are challenged by María Josefa with the use of her loud speech, her dressed up appearance, and in her physical resistance. In this manner María Josefa is creating and embodying an alternate feminine view that is uncovered through her consistent provocation and by making herself into "a spectacle", a transboundary behaviour that is well interpreted within the theories of carnival, the grotesque body, and the spectacle of the female grotesque.

Lek och empowerment : de alternativa rummens roll i sociala rörelser

Play and empowerment: the role of alternative spaces in social movements The article examines the role played by alternative space in social movements and argues that it plays a crucial role in counter-acting feelings of powerlessness and facilitating the empowerment of subaltern groups. Alternative space is defined – using Benjamin’s notions ofshock, nature and history – as constituted by forms of interaction in which society is made to appear as history. To facilitate empowerment, alternative space must, firstly, provide a place for subaltern groups in which they are no longer subordinated; secondly, instill hope that social change is possible and encourage such change; and, thirdly, expand or consolidate alternative space itself. These tasks can easily enter into conflict with each other, since they sometimes appear to require alternative space to adopt more ”abstract” forms of interaction in which aspects of the social situation are bracketed and sometimes more ”concrete”ones in which such aspects are again given attention. In order to study how movements may relate to this difficulty, the article looks at three contemporary Japanese social movements with NAM, New Start / New Start Kansai and the General Freeter Union as central organizations. Only the third successfully combines the three tasks, in large measure through its skillful use of the play-element.

Creating Prestige and Global Networks through Conference Rituals

An international conference is a secular ritual which serves to create, recreate and shape global-wide translocal cultural sharings. Social anthropological theories and methods are used to show that, besides being an information flow junction, the international conference is a network crossroad and a way of socialising new members into aninternational research community. It is also capable of creating prestige and honour for the individual researcher,for the arranging research team, university and city. Rituals do not merely reflect the social relations or cosmology of a society, but are events that in themselves do important things through ritual forms and symbolic statements.

Game Audio in Audio Games : Towards a Theory on the Roles and Functions of Sound in Audio Games

For the past few decades, researchers have increased our understanding of how sound functions within various audio–visual media formats. With a different focus in mind, this study aims to identify the roles and functions of sound in relation to the game form Audio Games, in order to explore the potential of sound when acting as an autonomous narrative form. Because this is still a relatively unexplored research field, the main purpose of this study is to help establish a theoretical ground and stimulate further research within the field of audio games. By adopting an interdisciplinary approach to the topic, this research relies on theoretical studies, examinations of audio games and contact with the audio game community. In order to reveal the roles of sound, the gathered data is analyzed according to both a contextual and a functional perspective. The research shows that a distinction between the terms ‘function’ and ‘role’ is important when analyzing sound in digital games. The analysis therefore results in the identification of two analytical levels that help define the functions and roles of an entity within a social context, named the Functional and the Interfunctional levels. In addition to successfully identifying three main roles of sound within audio games—each describing the relationship between sound and the entities game system, player and virtual environment—many other issues are also addressed. Consequently, and in accordance with its purpose, this study provides a broad foundation for further research of sound in both audio games and video games.

PokerMapper: : mapping executive functions, poker playing ability and responsible gambling in online environments

Research objectives Poker and responsible gambling both entail the use of the executive functions (EF), which are higher-level cognitive abilities. The main objective of this work was to assess if online poker players of different ability show different performances in their EF and if so, which functions are the most discriminating ones. The secondary objective was to assess if the EF performance can predict the quality of gambling, according to the Gambling Related Cognition Scale (GRCS), the South Oaks Gambling Screen (SOGS) and the Problem Gambling Severity Index (PGSI). Sample and methods The study design consisted of two stages: 46 Italian active players (41m, 5f; age 32±7,1ys; education 14,8±3ys) fulfilled the PGSI in a secure IT web system and uploaded their own hand history files, which were anonymized and then evaluated by two poker experts. 36 of these players (31m, 5f; age 33±7,3ys; education 15±3ys) accepted to take part in the second stage: the administration of an extensive neuropsychological test battery by a blinded trained professional. To answer the main research question we collected all final and intermediate scores of the EF tests on each player together with the scoring on the playing ability. To answer the secondary research question, we referred to GRCS, PGSI and SOGS scores.  We determined which variables that are good predictors of the playing ability score using statistical techniques able to deal with many regressors and few observations (LASSO, best subset algorithms and CART). In this context information criteria and cross-validation errors play a key role for the selection of the relevant regressors, while significance testing and goodness-of-fit measures can lead to wrong conclusions.   Preliminary findings We found significant predictors of the poker ability score in various tests. In particular, there are good predictors 1) in some Wisconsin Card Sorting Test items that measure flexibility in choosing strategy of problem-solving, strategic planning, modulating impulsive responding, goal setting and self-monitoring, 2) in those Cognitive Estimates Test variables related to deductive reasoning, problem solving, development of an appropriate strategy and self-monitoring, 3) in the Emotional Quotient Inventory Short (EQ-i:S) Stress Management score, composed by the Stress Tolerance and Impulse Control scores, and in the Interpersonal score (Empathy, Social Responsibility, Interpersonal Relationship). As for the quality of gambling, some EQ-i:S scales scores provide the best predictors: General Mood for the PGSI; Intrapersonal (Self-Regard; Emotional Self-Awareness, Assertiveness, Independence, Self-Actualization) and Adaptability  (Reality Testing, Flexibility, Problem Solving) for the SOGS, Adaptability for the GRCS. Implications for the field Through PokerMapper we gathered knowledge and evaluated the feasibility of the construction of short tasks/card games in online poker environments for profiling users’ executive functions. These card games will be part of an IT system able to dynamically profile EF and provide players with a feedback on their expected performance and ability to gamble responsibly in that particular moment. The implementation of such system in existing gambling platforms could lead to an effective proactive tool for supporting responsible gambling.