Educação em consumo, na linguagem dos quadrinhos : uma análise crítica da revista Turma da Mônica Jovem

Criada em agosto de 2008, a revista em quadrinhos “Turma da Mônica Jovem”, ou TMJ, como é conhecida por seus leitores, tem estilo mangá e traz os mesmos personagens moradores do bairro Limoeiro, agora, adolescentes e com características bem distintas da turma tradicional. A presente pesquisa procurou desenvolver uma análise crítica de TMJ, dentro dos pressupostos teóricos e metodológicos da semiótica discursiva, buscando responder as questões: como a problemática do consumo é apropriada pela revista? Que estratégias enunciativas são utilizadas para inscrever o público infantojuvenil em seu discurso? A revisão de literatura faz uma triangulação dos conceitos norteadores do estudo: Quadrinhos, Consumo Infantil e Semiótica, trazendo, no centro do triângulo, a Educação, área de conhecimento principal da pesquisa e conectora dos três outros campos. Realizamos uma análise semiótica de um corpus composto por sete edições de TMJ que trouxeram como tema principal problemática relacionada à sociedade de consumo contemporânea, a partir de um universo de revistas publicadas, no período de 2012 a 2014. Dentre as categorias de consumo pré-estabelecidas ou que emergiram do discurso de TMJ, contemplamos: o consumo consciente, o consumo conspícuo, o consumo moralista e o consumo de cultura midiática. Por meio da técnica do grupo focal, desenvolvemos uma conversa com os leitores de TMJ, buscando entender como se dá a apreensão da problemática do consumo por eles, bem como que impactos essa apreensão tem para uma maior atratividade da publicação, dentre outros objetivos específicos investigados, nesse encontro. Durante a realização de três grupos, intitulados Leitores Iniciantes, Leitores Assíduos e Leitores Esporádicos, os agrupamos em duas categorias relacionadas ao campo do consumo e, também, da semiótica. O grupo do Pertencimento conhece e interage com a revista, em profundidade, promovendo um ajuste de sensibilidade entre o enunciatário (leitor) e o enunciador (revista), com características do “parecer ser e ser”. O grupo da Emulação deseja pertencer ao grupo dos leitores assíduos, mas como não possui as características para tal, as busca por meio da imitação, dentro de um regime do “parecer ser, mas não ser”. Os resultados da pesquisa apontam que o consumo está muito presente em TMJ, tendo aparecido como temática principal, em mais da metade das revistas analisadas. Ainda, ele pode ser considerado como tema central das histórias da turma, principalmente, no momento em que a revista utiliza sua plasticidade, na figurativização dos personagens e ambientes das histórias, para difundir um mundo de consumo a essas crianças e adolescentes leitores. Embora as revistas que se enquadraram nas categorias de consumo consciente e consumo moralista busquem passar alguns conselhos e ensinamentos para seus leitores, são as categorias de consumo conspícuo e consumo de cultura midiática, tratadas de forma pouco crítica e, por vezes, irresponsável que possuem maior grau de apreensão por parte do leitor, conferindo atratividade à revista. Entre outras conclusões, podemos afirmar que o discurso de TMJ se utiliza de narrativas simples (lineares e pouco complexas), bem como de uma figuratividade e de temáticas repetitivas, oferecendo a seus leitores pouco debate e reflexão, sendo um discurso da reprodução, sem aprofundamento, do dia-a-dia dessas crianças e adolescentes que, apesar de falar delas e para elas, não inclui muitas temáticas relevantes ao seu universo.

Práticas de militância nômades : experimentações rebeldes e novas estéticas de luta no contemporâneo

A presente dissertação, realizada no âmbito da experiência de militância deste pesquisador em três coletivos distintos, Brigada Indígena (2005-2008), Assembléia Popular (2009) e Fórum Municipal dos Psicólogos da Secretaria de Assistência Social da Prefeitura de Vitória (2009-2011), se propõem a discutir os modos de funcionamento e as formas de organização dos movimentos sociais na invenção de estéticas de luta problematizadoras das redes de poder e resistência instituídas no contemporâneo. Por meio da narrativa dessas experiências, procura-se evidenciar, no interior dessas movimentações, a gestação de práticas de militância (pré) ocupadas não apenas com a concretização de projetos, mas principalmente, com a experimentação de novos modos de existência avessos à lógica de funcionamento do aparelho estatal. Vamos, ao longo do texto, mostrar como esses coletivos caracterizam-se pela insubmissão às condutas regradas de espaços institucionalizados, exercitando levantes provisórios, anônimos, situados e descentralizados, instituídos por e instituinte de ecossistemas afetivos-políticossociais autônomos. As análises aqui empreendidas se fizeram no entrecruzamento dos aportes teóricos advindos dos trabalhos de Foucault, Lourau, Lapassade, Deleuze e Guattari, Hakim Bey, Michel Hardt e Toni Negri. Ao final, a pesquisa sinaliza a possibilidade de pensarmos uma antropologia rebelde, no qual grupos de afinidade com padrão horizontalizado de funcionamento interpelam relações hierárquicas e centralizadoras que marcam o modo de funcionamento da máquina administrativa do Estado e dos próprios movimentos sociais, potencializando agenciamentos nômades implicados na construção de espaços auto-gestionados.

Espectador Activo: Comunicação audiovisual institucional num mundo de redes participativas

Once delighted by the moving image advent as a new method of realistically presenting reality, the viewer has been reposition himself towards the audiovisual contents he consumes, as he is given the opportunity to create and share his own perspective of that reality. We are living in a new technological setting, governed mainly by factors of interactivity, digital systems and technological convergence. The research project that we will present in this paper focuses on the subject of participatory media and the way cultural institutions are increasingly facing the inevitability of a profound revision of their traditional parameters of unidirectional communication, given the increasing availability of tools for audiovisual production as well as the diversity of networked communication contexts. The Serralves Foundation with its Museum of Contemporary Art, in Porto, Portugal, was the subject of a fi rst study of an empirical nature: a series of audiovisual objects were developed, in order to generate material for analysis and proposition. In this new stage of the project, our aim is to identify new procedures and practices that may be effectively implemented within the institutional universe. We intend to propose effi cient audiovisual communication contexts, including the maximizing of the relationship between institutions and audiences regarding dimensions that are traditionally outside the institutional radar: identity, narrative and affection. The project is currently in the process of surveying and categorization, with the aim of producing a map of different vocations and positions of the various institutions in regards to the aforementioned issues, which require participatory communication.

Contemporary issues in the government and administration of Latin American megacities

This paper is the first to systematically analyze and compare the structures of city governance and administration for seven major cities in Latin America, four of which are megacities (population of over 10 million), and three others are large national capitals. U.S. and U. K. models of city administration are reviewed as baseline models against which differences in Latin American may be explored. Structures of Government in Latin America show several important features and trends: 1) the lack of metropolitan (cross jurisdictional) authority; 2) the existence of strong mayors and weak councils"; 3) high levels of partisanship; 4) overlapping rather than interlocking bureaucracies; 5) pressures towards the privatization of city services, but continuing tension over the desirability of public versus private control; 6) greater fiscal responsibility and autonomy; and 7), a continuing marginalization of public participation in megacity governance.In spite of these features, many cities throughout the region (regardless of whether they are megacity size or national capitals), are actively intensifying their efforts to develop more effective, accountable and democratic governance structures.

Recensao de: I. K. Healy, Social Work Practices: Contemporary Perspectives on Change, London, Sage, 2000.

Revista Lusófona de Ciências Sociais

The process of implementing answerability in contemporary Brazil

Abstract: The aim of this study was to characterize the trajectory of answerability in Brazil. In the light of studies based on the historical neo-institutionalism approach, formal institutional changes adopted at federal level between 1985 and 2014, and which favor the typical requirements of answerability - information and justification - were identified and analyzed through the content analysis technique. The conclusion is that the trajectory of answerability in contemporary Brazil can be characterized as continuous, primarily occurring through the layering strategy, and whose leitmotif, since its origin, has consisted of matters of financial and budgetary nature. Nevertheless, a recent influence of deeper democratic subjects on it has been observed.

Une quête d'identité par le détour : «Dans ces bras-là», de Camille Laurens

L'articulation savante entre éléments autobiographiques, fiction et détournement de conventions sont caractéristiques du travail de Camille Laurens. Dans ces bras-là (2000) peut être décrit comme une quête d'identité par le détour de l'autre. En effet, le roman s'organise autour des trois rapports dichotomiques autobiographie-fiction, femme-homme et écriture-langage oral. Le résultat en est un regard complexe et profond sur l'identité de Camille Laurens qui est ici une femme, un auteur, mais aussi la narratrice d'un récit.

Habiter l’enfance approche de l’habitat dans les premiers récits d’Eugène Savitzkaya

L‘auteur entreprend l‘approche de l‘importance particulière du rapport aux espaces habités ou inhabités dans l‘imaginaire et la construction narrative des textes fictionnels de l‘écrivain belge francophone contemporain Eugène Savitzkaya de Mentir (1977) jusqu‘à En vie (1994). Il s‘agit de souligner la pertinence de l‘habitat en tant que support des imaginaires de l‘enfance et de la poétisation du quotidien. L‘espace s‘avère en effet un repère symbolique et poétique chez Savitzkaya ; ce qui lui permet de s‘exprimer et d‘exprimer son enfance sur un mode autofictionnel.

Travelling to India: Eliza Fay’s narrative account of her voyages

Eliza Fay’s Original Letters from India (1817), initially sold to the Calcutta Gazette to pay off her debts, aroused the curiosity and interest of Edward M. Forster, while he was doing research for his best-selling novel, A Passage to India. In his own words, “Eliza Fay is a work of art.” (apud Fay 7) The value of E. Fay’s travelogue, comprising not one, but three voyages to India (in 1779, 1784, 1796) can be easily explained if we take into account the scope of its geographical coverage, the hardships of its historical context (the political chaos brought about by the fall of the Mughal empire and the consolidation of the British rule in the Indian subcontinent) and the heroism of the first person-narrator that emerges behind the descriptive sketches and the scenes of adversity and imminent danger. Thus the current analysis will focus on the E. Fay’s adventurous mode of narrating, e.g., the discursive situatedness of the traveller visà- vis the Other(s) (European and non-European peoples and loci) and the constraints imposed by the patriarchal idealization of the domestic Woman and their alleged feebleness.

An evaluation of SAFIRE’s potential to reduce the dose received by paediatric patients undergoing CT: a narrative review

Introduction: The purpose of this review is to gather and analyse current research publications to evaluate Sinogram-Affirmed Iterative Reconstruction (SAFIRE). The aim of this review is to investigate whether this algorithm is capable of reducing the dose delivered during CT imaging while maintaining image quality. Recent research shows that children have a greater risk per unit dose due to increased radiosensitivity and longer life expectancies, which means it is particularly important to reduce the radiation dose received by children. Discussion: Recent publications suggest that SAFIRE is capable of reducing image noise in CT images, thereby enabling the potential to reduce dose. Some publications suggest a decrease in dose, by up to 64% compared to filtered back projection, can be accomplished without a change in image quality. However, literature suggests that using a higher SAFIRE strength may alter the image texture, creating an overly ‘smoothed’ image that lacks contrast. Some literature reports SAFIRE gives decreased low contrast detectability as well as spatial resolution. Publications tend to agree that SAFIRE strength three is optimal for an acceptable level of visual image quality, but more research is required. The importance of creating a balance between dose reduction and image quality is stressed. In this literature review most of the publications were completed using adults or phantoms, and a distinct lack of literature for paediatric patients is noted. Conclusion: It is necessary to find an optimal way to balance dose reduction and image quality. More research relating to SAFIRE and paediatric patients is required to fully investigate dose reduction potential in this population, for a range of different SAFIRE strengths.

The impact of Sinogram-Affirmed Iterative Reconstruction on patient dose and image quality compared to filtered back projection: a narrative review

Objective: Summarize all relevant findings in published literature regarding the potential dose reduction related to image quality using Sinogram-Affirmed Iterative Reconstruction (SAFIRE) compared to Filtered Back Projection (FBP). Background: Computed Tomography (CT) is one of the most used radiographic modalities in clinical practice providing high spatial and contrast resolution. However it also delivers a relatively high radiation dose to the patient. Reconstructing raw-data using Iterative Reconstruction (IR) algorithms has the potential to iteratively reduce image noise while maintaining or improving image quality of low dose standard FBP reconstructions. Nevertheless, long reconstruction times made IR unpractical for clinical use until recently. Siemens Medical developed a new IR algorithm called SAFIRE, which uses up to 5 different strength levels, and poses an alternative to the conventional IR with a significant reconstruction time reduction. Methods: MEDLINE, ScienceDirect and CINAHL databases were used for gathering literature. Eleven articles were included in this review (from 2012 to July 2014). Discussion: This narrative review summarizes the results of eleven articles (using studies on both patients and phantoms) and describes SAFIRE strengths for noise reduction in low dose acquisitions while providing acceptable image quality. Conclusion: Even though the results differ slightly, the literature gathered for this review suggests that the dose in current CT protocols can be reduced at least 50% while maintaining or improving image quality. There is however a lack of literature concerning paediatric population (with increased radiation sensitivity). Further studies should also assess the impact of SAFIRE on diagnostic accuracy.

The effects of clinical support surfaces on pressure as a risk factor in the development of pressure ulcers, from a radiographical perspective: a narrative literature review

Purpose: Pressure ulcers are a high cost, high volume issue for health and medical care providers, having a detrimental effect on patients and relatives. Pressure ulcer prevention is widely covered in the literature, but little has been published regarding the risk to patients in the radiographical setting. This review of the current literature is to identify findings relevant to radiographical context. Methods: Literature searching was performed using Science Direct and Medline databases. The search was limited to articles published in the last ten years to remain current and excluded studies containing participants less than 17 years of age. In total 14 studies were acquired; three were excluded as they were not relevant. The remaining 11 studies were compared and reviewed. Discussion: Eight of the studies used ‘healthy’ participants and three used symptomatic participants. Nine studies explored interface pressure with a range of pressure mat technologies, two studies measured shear (MRI finite element modelling, and a non-invasive instrument), and one looked at blood flow and haemoglobin oxygenation. A range of surfaces were considered from trauma, nursing and surgical backgrounds for their ability to reduce pressure including standard mattresses, high specification mattresses, rigid and soft layer spine boards, various overlays (gel, air filled, foam). Conclusion: The current literature is not appropriate for the radiographic patient and cannot be extrapolated to a radiologic context. Sufficient evidence is presented in this review to support the need for further work specific to radiography in order to minimise the development of PU in at risk patients.

A narrative review on the reduction of effective dose to a paediatric patient by using different combinations of kVp, mAs and additional filtration whilst maintaining image quality

This paper reviews the literature for lowering of dose to paediatric patients through use of exposure factors and additional filtration. Dose reference levels set by The International Commission on Radiological Protection (ICRP) will be considered. Guidance was put in place in 1996 requires updating to come into line with modern imaging equipment. There is a wide range of literature that specifies that grids should not be used on paediatric patients. Although much of the literature advocates additional filtration, contrasting views on the relative benefits of using aluminium or copper filtration, and their effects on dose reduction and image quality can vary. Changing kVp and mAs has an effect on the dose to the patient and image quality. Collimation protects adjacent structures whilst reducing scattered radiation.