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

"Men shit, hur fan har vi kunnat glömma bort det?" : Falu kommuns socialtjänsts arbete gällande prostitution

The purpose of this study was to examine whether and how the social services in the municipality of Falun is managing social work related to prostitution. It is a qualitative study based on three focus group interviews conducted in parts of the social services organization in the municipality of Falun. The empirical data collected was analyzed from an intersectional perspective. Several distinct findings emerged from the study. Social work against prostitution does not exist in the social services organization in the municipality of Falun. The organization possesses no procedures or guidelines for this kind of work, and no preventive work or cooperation with other organizations is carried out. It also emerged, that several social work officers had a stereotype image of who a potential sex- seller could be. This fact may influence who would be able to get any support from social services regarding to this social problem.

"Jag slåss med rosa handskar, men de är fan inte fluffiga" : En kvalitativ studie om verksamheten Pink Gloves Boxing

Syftet med denna studie var att undersöka vilken betydelse verksamheten Pink Gloves Boxing haft för enskilda deltagares psykosociala livssituation, som öppenvårdsinsats i Borlänge kommun. Dessutom har syftet varit att undersöka vilka komponenter i verksamheten som bidragit till en eventuell förändring avseende psykosocial livssituation. Då studien ämnat fånga deltagares subjektiva upplevelser av Pink Gloves Boxing har det empiriska materialet insamlats genom semistrukturerade intervjuer med sex deltagare. Genom en tematisk analys av det insamlade materialet framkom centrala teman och subteman, vilka utgjort grunden i studiens resultatdel. För att analysera resultatet har en teoretisk tolkningsram tillämpats, vilken innefattat teorier om empowerment och genus. Samtliga informanter pekar på bättre fysik och ökad psykisk hälsa, av sitt deltagande i verksamheten. Stresshantering, aggressionskontroll och grupptillhörighet är exempel på förtjänster av ett deltagande, som informanterna framhållit. Gynnande komponenter som framträder i verksamheten är tränarnas roll, gruppen, träningsformen och verksamhetens upplägg, som exempelvis endast kvinnliga deltagare och gruppsamtal.

Little penguin Eudyptula minor at Middle Island, Western Victoria : current status

We examined the status of the Little Penguin Eudyptula minor at Middle Island on the west coast of Victoria during the species' 1999/2000 breeding season. The vegetated upper surface of the island had 292 occupied burrows at a density of 0.02/m². Peak dusk arrival occurred in January with 502 penguins coming ashore during a one-hour period. Little Penguins at Middle Island displayed important differences in breeding ecology from penguins in other Australian colonies. Early breeding combined with heavier adult and chick weights resulted in high breeding success. However, as Middle Island is a popular destination for day visitors, during the 1999/2000 Little Penguin breeding season, tourism ·was found to cause detrimental effects, including deaths of some eggs and chicks. There are also concerns for the conservation of the Little Penguin colony as faxes or dogs may readily access the island.

Papuan Spine-tailed Swifts Mearnsia novaeguineae on Boigu Island, Torres Strait, Queensland

Three Papuan Spine-tailed Swifts Mearnsia novaeguineae were seen together on 17 November 2004 on Boigu Island, Torres Strait, Queensland. They were watched for a period of 7 minutes as they circled low over a small freshwater wetland, and ~70 digital photographs of the birds were obtained. This record was unanimously accepted by the Birds Australia Rarities Committee as the first of this species for Australian territory.

Aspects of the ecology of swamp antechinus (Antechinus minimus maritimus) on a Bass Strait island

The swamp antechinus (Antechinus minimus maritimus) is a small insectivorous marsupial inhabiting closed heath and tussock grassland in south-eastern Australia. The species is considered 'Near Threatened' on the
Australian mainland. Populations persist on coastal islands off Wilsons Promontory, but their current status is unknown. This study investigated the density, diet and reproduction of the swamp antechinus on Kanowna Island.
Data were collected by live trapping in different vegetation types during four trips between August 2003 and January 2004. Higher animal densities (47-129 ha^-1) were found for Kanowna Island than for previously studied mainland populations (1-18 ha^-1). Examination ofscats showed that this species eats a wide variety ofprey types, with moth larvae a major dietary component, particularly during the breeding season. Births were estimated to have occurred between 28 June and 8 August, which is a longer period than reported for other populations of this species. Factors including reduced predation, restricted dispersal and increased food availability may be responsible for supporting this dense population.

Beyond the gap: great liberation through architectural design teaching in the bardo?

Tibetan Buddhists articulate the bardo as the gap that exists between one fundamental stage of existence and another. Its most common usage is to describe the interval between death and reincarnation, but more literally, bar means 'in-between' and do 'island' or 'mark'. The 'bardo experience' is thus any one in which the 'past situation has just occurred and the future situation has not yet manifested itself. Instruction in architectural design attempts to provide guidance in the process of guiding students across the bardo from intention, analysis, and theorisation, to the creation of architectural representations and products. As such the architectural academy operates within a history of methods and codifications which try to quantify and bring a level of certainty to this process.
Recently however, there has been a questioning of traditionally accepted ways of ‘knowing’ the world, which has manifested in challenges to received ‘truths’ and increasing interest in other, previously marginalised histories and knowledges. The critiques that flow from this questioning contend that objective cultural ‘truths’ are simply the discursive result of the dominance of particular ways of perceiving the world. The practice of architecture has not been immune from this. The field has become a subject, for instance, of sociological, feminist and postcolonial critiques. However, their bearing on the pedagogy of composing architecture remains fragmentary and contested. My interest in this subject is derived from a desire to use the opportunities presented by contemporary cultural shifts to develop design-based architectural research that will assist future architects to operate in the uncertainties of an irreducibly plural global community. This paper will explore some ways in which academic research might bear upon the design studio’s negotiation of architectural bardos.

Globalisation, food and health in Pacific Island countries

Pacific Island countries (PICs) are experiencing an epidemic of obesity and consequent chronic diseases. Despite investment in the development of National Plans of Action for Nutrition (NPANs) and interventions to promote healthy eating and physical activity, nutritional status appears to show little improvement. This paper presents a synthesis of the findings from two research papers that were prepared for a 2003 food safety and quality meeting in Nadi, Fiji. The findings indicate that although lifestyle behaviours might be the immediate cause of dietary imbalances, greater attention should focus on omnipresent influences of globalisation as a critical element of the nutrition transition in the Pacific. In particular, those aspects of globalisation mediated through the World Trade Organization (WTO) Agreements that are placing pressures on food security and fostering increased dependence on imported food of poor nutritional quality. Rapid, significant and sustainable improvements in public health in PICs require interventions that can tackle these underlying contributors to ill health. There are opportunities to explore the use of food regulatory approaches to influence the composition, availability and accessibility of food products. Within the context of the WTO Agreements the legitimacy of food regulatory approaches will depend upon the case to demonstrate the relationship between the intervention and the protection of food security and public health nutrition. The challenges in realising these opportunities are: 1) to have the capacity to construct a case, 2) meet the technical and financial demands to administer and enforce regulatory approaches, and 3) to take advantage of opportunities available and to be able to fully participate in the international policy-making process.