DEVELOPING A CROWDSOURCED VIDEOGRAPHIC RESEARCH METHOD FOR CONSUMER CULTURE RESEARCH

The purpose of this study is to develop a crowdsourced videographic research method for consumer culture research. Videography provides opportunities for expressing contextual and culturally embedded relations. Thus, developing new ways to conduct videographic research is meaningful. This study develops the crowdsourced videographic method based on a literature review and evaluation of a focal study. The literature review follows a qualitative systematic review process. Through the literature review, based on different methodological, crowdsourcing and consumer research related literature, this study defines the method, its application process and evaluation criteria. Furthermore, the evaluation of the focal study, where the method was applied, completes the study. This study applies professional review with self-evaluation as a form of evaluation, drawing from secondary data including research task description, screenshots of the mobile application used in the focal study, videos collected from the participants, and self-evaluation by the author. The focal study is analyzed according to its suitability to consumer culture research, research process and quality. Definitions and descriptions of the research method, its process and quality criteria form the theoretical contribution of this study. Evaluating the focal study using these definitions underlines some best practices of this type of research, generating the practical contribution of this study. Finally, this study provides ideas for future research. First, defining the boundaries of the use of crowdsourcing in various parts of conducting research. Second, improving the method by applying it to new research contexts. Third, testing how changes in one dimension of the crowdsourcing models interact with other dimension. Fourth, comparing the quality criteria applied in this study to various other quality criteria to improve the method’s usefulness. Overall, this study represents a starting point for further development of the crowdsourced videographic research method.

The Impacts of National Culture on Safety Culture in the Global Oil and Gas Industry

Safety culture is one of the most-studied subjects in the safety literature today, although no agreement exists on exactly what it means. Most safety culture research has been conducted in high-hazard industries such as nuclear power, aviation, and offshore oil and gas production. Only limited research has investigated links between safety culture and the prevailing national culture. This paper proposes that efforts to build safety culture and improve safety performance in the global oil and gas industry will be enhanced if the safety culture maturity and the prevailing national culture are assessed and a location-specific plan is developed based on these factors. A model plan to improve safety performance for one multinational oil and gas company is presented.

Alice's anima or the obligation of a reading transliteracy

This paper suggests an analysis of "Inanimate Alice" by Kate Pullinger, Chris Joseph and Ian Harper as an example of a transmedia narrative that triggers a new reading experience whilst proposing a literary alterity between reading and performance. Narrative experiences that elect the visual plasticity, interchanging games and tactility as drivers of the creative process are not new. Yet, narrative experiences, which have been created in the gap between reality and fiction, have found on the digital realm the perfect environment to multiple hybrid experiences. Bearing in mind Walter Benjamin’s concept of Erlebnis and Erfahrung, a critical analysis of this digital fiction tries to illustrate how literary art finds its space and time in a metamorphosed continuum only activated by the “patient reader”. All the multimedia hybrids, which this digital literary work may have, challenge readers to interpret different signals and poetic structures that most of readers might not be accustomed to; however even among a cognitive dissonance, meaning is found and reading happens only if time, space and attention are available. All possible transmedia literacies can only respond to this experience of online reading, if they are able to focus and draw attention not to a simple new behaviour or a single new practice, but to a demanding state of affairs that assemble different objective and subjective value forms.

Selonteot ja oman toiminnan ymmärrettäväksi tekeminen

Summary: Accounts and making sense of action

Jäsenkategorisoinnin analyysi kulttuurisena metodina

Summary: Membership categorization device as a cultural method

Ästhetik und nachhaltige Entwicklung in Bergregionen

Die Bergregionen Japans leiden am Niedergang der regionalen Wirtschaft, des Sozialsystems und der Kultur. Dies wird im Zusammenhang mit dem Rückgang von Produktion und Verbrauch regionaler Ressourcen gesehen, der seit der Modernisierung und Globalisierung einsetzte. Durch das Sammeln und die Produktion von Ressourcen in der Landschaft und die Fertigung regionaler Produkte wird von den Bewohnern der Bergdörfer auch die Landschaft gepflegt. Seit die Nutzung von Ressourcen aus den Bergen allmählich aufgegeben wird, erobert sich die Wildnis den vom Menschen geprägten Lebensraum zurück. Sowohl in Mitteleuropa als auch in Japan gibt es Bewohner in Bergregionen, die weiterhin in ihrer Heimat bleiben möchten. Sie geben sich viel Mühe und betreiben großen Aufwand, ihre Landschaft zu pflegen und von ihr zu leben, was oft genug schwer fällt. Im Kontext der Rationalisierung der Moderne mögen sich ihre Beweggründe, trotzdem nicht fortzuziehen und auszuharren, als irrational ausmachen. Auf der anderen Seite stößt ihre kommunikative Lebensweise auch auf Sympathie und Bewunderung, und ihrer Arbeit für die Erhaltung der Landschaft wird eine gewisse Wertschätzung entgegengebracht. In dieser Forschungsarbeit wird die Hypothese aufgestellt, dass Landschaft, Produzent, Produkt und Verbraucher bei regionaler Ressourcennutzung über zwei Bedeutungsebenen der Ästhetik, nämlich durch „Kohärenz“ und „Sympathie“ miteinander verbunden sind. Es ist heute in der Regionalplanung erforderlich, die Themen mit regionaler Landschaft, Kultur, Sozialsystem und Wirtschaft, die bisher als einzelnen Aufgaben behandelt worden sind, zu bündeln und für die gesamte Entwicklung in eine Richtung zu zielen. Unter diesem Aspekt sind komplexe und sich selbst regulierende Entwicklungsmodelle nützlich, d.h. es ist dabei von Nutzen, dass Bürger sich selbst und ihrer Region bewusst werden und sie sich Raum für Entwicklung schaffen. Eine „Ästhetische Praxis“ kann dabei Produzenten untereinander und mit ihren Kunden in der Region mit „Sympathie“ aneinander binden, was zum Austausch und zur Weitergabe von Wissen über die regionale Natur mit ihren Ressourcen, die Naturanschauung und die innere Einstellung gegenüber der Produktion, auch über die Generationen hinweg, nützlich ist. Durch die „Sympathie“ zueinander erhöht sich auch die „Kohärenz“ in einer Region, werden die verschiedenen Interessensgruppen zusammengeführt, Gemeinsamkeiten erkannt und die Bindung an den Ort gestärkt.

Relación entre cultura corporativa y desempeño: Una caracterización desde las ciencias de la complejidad

La siguiente monografía busca dar una mirada descriptiva a la cultura corporativa y a su relación con el desempeño organizacional desde la perspectiva de las ciencias de la complejidad. Inicialmente presenta una mirada general de la definición de cultura y caracteriza los sistemas complejos para luego proceder a examinar como algunos fenómenos de la complejidad se ven reflejados en la cultura, revisando la propuesta de Dolan et al, que proponen los valores como atractores en el desempeño. Adicionalmente se examinan distintas formas y definiciones de desempeño organizacional y se identifican algunos estudios que apuntan a la correlación entre culturas fuertes y desempeño. Sin embargo Gordon & DiTomaso concluyen que no se comprende muy bien cómo funciona la relación más allá de la correlación. Finalmente se concluye que la complejidad presenta una opción para explicar cómo puede funcionar la relación entre cultura y desempeño a través de los valores como un elemento cultural que lleva a la emergencia. Sin embargo queda la incógnita sobre la aplicabilidad de estrategias para implementar lo estudiado en organizaciones y en el uso de herramientas de simulación para profundizar en la investigación

O impacto das diferenças culturais nas fusões e aquisições

A cultura é um conceito amplo e que traz consigo contextos históricos, valores e percepções partilhadas que, no âmbito social, influenciam as interações coletivas e institucionais. Desta forma, operações de fusão e aquisição, por mais que tenham particularmente uma essência econômica em sua origem, são diretamente impactadas por questões culturais, tendo em vista que estas são realizadas por pessoas, que aprendem a interagir e se expressar através de suas culturas. Este trabalho se propõe a fazer um levantamento teórico de como os autores entendem a influência da cultura nas operações de fusões e aquisições, de acordo com as bases teóricas da psicologia, antropologia e sociologia, propiciando ou limitando o alcance dos resultados desejados. Para compreender o cenário em que o conceito de cultura é investigado, também fizemos um levantamento das principais diferenças culturais levantadas em operações de fusão e aquisição, e que foram analisadas à luz dos conceitos de cultura abordados neste trabalho. Constatamos que, por não haver uma preocupação em se definir corretamente o objeto de pesquisa de cultura, os resultados acerca desta influência permanecem confusos e contraditórios. Com isso, torna-se difícil endereçar corretamente as perspectivas de ação no campo individual e coletivo.

Procedimentos de jogadores no jogo virtual Colheita Feliz: a virtude e a regra

This study based on moral culture research and the theoretical Piagetian perspective aims to investigate the relation between virtue and rules in the procedures of participants in the Internet game Colheita Feliz (Happy Harvest) – an Orkut application. By means of descriptive qualitative analysis, the behavior of 60 participants in the game was observed during two months. The participants’ performance ranking was analyzed according to the procedures they used. The results showed predominance of the crop stealing procedure in comparison with the crop cultivation procedure and allowed to consider that the action of stealing of the participants was not guided by the universal principles of virtue, honesty or lack of it (moral domain) but by the playing convention for the game (social domain) favoring the stealing procedure, and also by personal domain (choices) and mutual agreement among the subjects participating in the game. The data did not indicate connections between the participants’ actions inside and outside virtual and real fields with regard to stealing, and reinforced the idea that rules are conventionalized in the domain of a group and depend on social interactions by which mutual respect among peers must prevail. The data also shows that morality is not the regulatory actions in the game. The results also showed the importance of carrying out research on procedures used by computer game players since such procedures can demonstrate cognitive, moral, affective and social aspects perceived during playful interaction situations.

Pilot survey of expressed sequence tags (ESTs) from the asexual blood stages of Plasmodium vivax in human patients

Abstract Background Plasmodium vivax is the most widely distributed human malaria, responsible for 70–80 million clinical cases each year and large socio-economical burdens for countries such as Brazil where it is the most prevalent species. Unfortunately, due to the impossibility of growing this parasite in continuous in vitro culture, research on P. vivax remains largely neglected. Methods A pilot survey of expressed sequence tags (ESTs) from the asexual blood stages of P. vivax was performed. To do so, 1,184 clones from a cDNA library constructed with parasites obtained from 10 different human patients in the Brazilian Amazon were sequenced. Sequences were automatedly processed to remove contaminants and low quality reads. A total of 806 sequences with an average length of 586 bp met such criteria and their clustering revealed 666 distinct events. The consensus sequence of each cluster and the unique sequences of the singlets were used in similarity searches against different databases that included P. vivax, Plasmodium falciparum, Plasmodium yoelii, Plasmodium knowlesi, Apicomplexa and the GenBank non-redundant database. An E-value of <10-30 was used to define a significant database match. ESTs were manually assigned a gene ontology (GO) terminology Results A total of 769 ESTs could be assigned a putative identity based upon sequence similarity to known proteins in GenBank. Moreover, 292 ESTs were annotated and a GO terminology was assigned to 164 of them. Conclusion These are the first ESTs reported for P. vivax and, as such, they represent a valuable resource to assist in the annotation of the P. vivax genome currently being sequenced. Moreover, since the GC-content of the P. vivax genome is strikingly different from that of P. falciparum, these ESTs will help in the validation of gene predictions for P. vivax and to create a gene index of this malaria parasite.

History of health, a valuable tool in public health

The aim of this article is to highlight the importance of the history of public health for public health research and practice itself. After summarily reviewing the current great vitality of the history of collective health oriented initiatives, we explain three particular features of the historical vantage point in public health, namely the importance of the context, the relevance of a diachronic attitude and the critical perspective. In order to illustrate those three topics, we bring up examples taken from three centuries of fight against malaria, the so called “re-emerging diseases” and the 1918 influenza epidemic. The historical approach enriches our critical perception of the social effects of initiatives undertaken in the name of public health, shows the shortcomings of public health interventions based on single factors and asks for a wider time scope in the assessment of current problems. The use of a historical perspective to examine the plurality of determinants in any particular health condition will help to solve the longlasting debate on the primacy of individual versus population factors, which has been particularly intense in recent times.

CONCEITO DE MISSÃO EM JOHN STOTT E RENÉ PADILLA: RELAÇÃO ENTRE PROCLAMAÇÃO DA PALAVRA E AÇÃO SOCIAL

No presente estudo sobre o tema Conceito de Missão em John R. W. Stott e C. René Padilla procurei analisar a relação entre proclamação da palavra e ação social contextualizada no Evangelho. Esta dissertação desenvolvida no Programa da Pós-Graduação em Ciências da Religião, pertence à linha de pesquisa Religião, Sociedade e Cultura . A metodologia adotada na coleta de dados foi de uma revisão bibliográfica. O questionamento que norteou a pesquisa foi: qual o conceito de missão mundial em J. Stott e de missão integral em R. Padilla? Com as respostas obtidas, foi realizado um comparativo entre a teologia de ambos. No primeiro capítulo foi apresentado o conceito de missão mundial na teologia de J. Stott. No segundo capítulo, foi apresentado o conceito de missão integral na teologia de R. Padilla. Já no capítulo três, foi realizado um comparativo no qual ficou demonstrado que J. Stott em sua teologia da missão mundial prioriza a proclamação da palavra pela igreja, deixando o serviço de ação social para segundo plano, ao priorizar a necessidade da salvação da alma do pecador que se arrepende, mediante a aceitação Jesus Cristo como seu salvador. Em contrapartida, R. Padilla em sua teologia da missão integral coloca a proclamação da palavra e a prestação de serviço mediante a ação social de forma conjunta e indissociável para concretizar o anúncio do Reino de Deus na sociedade.