The social meaning of Brisbane City Hall

Three major periods of Brisbane's history were selected for examination of the social meaning of Brisbane City Hall: 1908 to 1920 – during which many debates about a 'new town hall' occurred, 1921 to 1930 – the construction phase, and the 1930s – City Hall's first decade of public use. This study shows that Brisbane City Hall is a central place where multiple social meanings have been made by residents and visitors. A broad range of views about City Hall existed during the periods studied; views and meanings that are not captured by its epithets or covered adequately by the existing literature. This thesis is an introductory study of the social meaning of Brisbane City Hall – what was said about it, how it was used and its significance to Brisbane's residents and visitors.

Social Content of the International Sphere: Symbols and Meaning in Franco-German Relations, CES Germany & Europe Working Papers, No. 02.2, 2002

“The Franco-German friendship is rich in memories and gestures that are at once important and symbolic, and that characterize the exceptional nature of the relationship between our two countries,” reflects former French economics minister and European Commission President Jacques Delors. Such symbolic acts and joint memories are not primarily about cooperation in specific instances. Rather, more generally, they denote what it means to act together. They lend significance to a relationship; they signify what is “at stake,” or what it is “all about.” They are about a deeper and more general social purpose underlying specific instances of cooperation. They are about the value and intrinsic importance that social relations incorporate. Symbols contribute to the institutionalization of social meaning and social purpose in dealing with one another. In this paper I clarify the concept of “predominantly symbolic acts and practices among states,” systematically explore such acts for the bilateral Franco-German relationship between the late 1950s and the mid-1990s, and scrutinize the specific meaning and effects that these practices have helped to generate and perpetuate.

Trabalho na assistência social carioca na era César Maia

O presente estudo tem como objetivo analisar o trabalho na Assistência Social carioca durante a gestão César Maia na Prefeitura do Rio de Janeiro. Essa proposta, tendo como objeto de pesquisa o trabalho dos assistentes sociais na Secretaria Municipal de Assistência Social, interpretados aqui como sujeitos inseridos em um contexto permeado pelas contradições entre as classes sociais, baseou-se na leitura de que a interpretação dos processos sociais na ótica da totalidade social representa a possibilidade de apropriação do significado social da profissão, potencializando o pensamento no que se refere às condições e relações de trabalho. Sendo assim, o interesse foi decifrar a organização do trabalho subjacente à revisão da assistência social e perceber o espaço técnico da ação profissional. Isso significou tomar a teoria do processo de trabalho em exame e analisar o espaço de autonomia do trabalhador assalariado na gestão pública da cidade na época, assim como o contraste entre controle, qualidade dos serviços e das relações de trabalho. Isso implicou em revisitar o debate do Serviço Social sobre a categoria trabalho e conhecer de perto o modo como o sujeito profissional lida com o dilema do controle e da autonomia a partir de uma pauta de produção de serviços delimitada gerencialmente.

Análise antropológica da socialização das crianças no contexto social das famílias no trajeto do lixo no Aurá

Este é um estudo que aborda a socialização das crianças no contexto de vida no "lixão do Aurá", sob uma perspectiva antropológica. A partir da compreensão do significado e representação do lixo, assim como de sua forma de consumo se estabelece os elos explicativos que as famílias buscam empreender para socializar as crianças. A análise do material empírico parte de restituição das trajetórias de vida das famílias que impulsionados pela extrema pobreza migraram para o estado do Pará e chegaram ao lixão. Ao se reconstituir suas redes de parentesco, se percebe a reprodução de valores e percepções nas redes de sociabilidades que permitirão às famílias inserir as crianças as diversas situações de risco, violência e trabalho, para reprodução do grupo social e sobrevivência.

O Serviço Social contracenando com a arte para desvelar a realidade

Pós-graduação em Serviço Social - FCHS

Social Salience and the Sociolinguistic Monitor: a Case Study of ING and TH-fronting in Britain

This article examines the role of social salience, or the relative ability of a linguistic variable to evoke social meaning, in structuring listeners’ perceptions of quantitative sociolinguistic distributions. Building on the foundational work of Labov et al. (2006, 2011) on the “sociolinguistic monitor” (a proposed cognitive mechanism responsible for sociolinguistic perception), we examine whether listeners’ evaluative judgments of speech change as a function of the type of variable presented. We consider two variables in British English, ING and TH-fronting, which we argue differ in their relative social salience. Replicating the design of Labov et al.’s studies, we test 149 British listeners’ reactions to different quantitative distributions of these variables. Our experiments elicit a very different pattern of perceptual responses than those reported previously. In particular, our results suggest that a variable’s social salience determines both whether and how it is perceptually evaluated. We argue that this finding is crucial for understanding how sociolinguistic information is cognitively processed.

Verbs as Linguistic Markers of Agency - The Social Side of Grammar

Basic grammatical categories may carry social meaning irrespective of their semantic content. In a set of four studies, we demonstrate that verbs – a basic linguistic category present and distinguishable in most languages – are related to the perception of agency, a fundamental dimension in social perception. In an archival analysis on actual language use in Polish and German, we found that targets stereotypically associated with high agency (men and young people) are presented in the immediate neighborhood of a verb more often than non-agentic social targets (women and old people). Moreover, in three experiments using a pseudo-word paradigm, verbs (but not adjectives and nouns) were consistently associated with agency (but not communion). These results provide consistent evidence that verbs, as grammatical vehicles of action, are linguistic markers of agency. In demonstrating meta-semantic effects of language, these studies corroborate the view of language as a social tool and of language as an integral part of social perception.

A influência da relevância social no viés de grupo

Behaviors found in every culture, general human tendencies, are knew in Evolutionary Psychology as evolved psychological mechanisms. Those behaviors date back the Environment of Evolutionary Adaptedness, and a well know example of such behavior is the group bias (or intergroup bias). This bias consists of recognizing members of your own group and favor them, while disregarding or even harming outsiders. This behavior was and still is extensively studies, among the most important conclusions about this phenomenon is the Minimal Groups Paradigm, in which it was discovered that the group bias could trigger even when the groupings were done in following very arbitrary criteria. In the current study, our goal was to test if the participants, when playing an economic game, would behave in a similar fashion under a minimal group situation and real groups, with social meaning. With this in mind we made two experimental conditions, a Low Social Meaning one (LSM) where the groups were represented by letters (H, B, O and Y) in which participants would be ramdomly assorted to each group; and the High Social Meaning condition (HSM) in which religion was used as a group marker, containing the two most dominating religious groups in Brazil, catholic and evangelic, another group containing all the other affiliations e the fourth and last group representing atheists and agnostics. The ratio of donations in-group/out-group was roughly the same across both conditions. However, the amount of wafers donated to ingroup was significantly bigger in the HSM condition. By verifying which aspects of the individual best predicted the observed group bias, we discovered that the in-group Entitativity perception as well as the Group Identification were the most relevant variables, however, only in the HSM condition. Simultaneously, by verifying the generosity, biased or not, we observed that the agreeableness personality factor was the only variable able to predict it, and only in the LSM condition. We conclude that our generosity, or the lack of it, is for most part defined by our personality, the Agreeableness factor in particular. But this very generosity can be biased by the social meaning of the involved groups and that, if the social meaning is big enough, even people who, thanks to their personality, normally wouldn’t show generosity, are able to do so when the receiver is an in-group member.

A new educational technology for media and communication studies : mapping media in Australia and Sweden

This chapter reports on Australian and Swedish experiences in the iterative design, development, and ongoing use of interactive educational systems we call ‘Media Maps.’ Like maps in general, Media Maps are usefully understood as complex cultural technologies; that is, they are not only physical objects, tools and artefacts, but also information creation and distribution technologies, the use and development of which are embedded in systems of knowledge and social meaning. Drawing upon Australian and Swedish experiences with one Media Map technology, this paper illustrates this three-layered approach to the development of media mapping. It shows how media mapping is being used to create authentic learning experiences for students preparing for work in the rapidly evolving media and communication industries. We also contextualise media mapping as a response to various challenges for curriculum and learning design in Media and Communication Studies that arise from shifts in tertiary education policy in a global knowledge economy.

Aging in China and its impact on vehicle design

This study contributes to the growth of design knowledge in China, where vehicle design for the local, older user is in its initial developmental stages. Therefore, this research has explored the travel needs of older Chinese vehicle users in order to assist designers to better understand users’ current and future needs. A triangulation method consisting of interviews, logbook and co-discovery was used to collect multiple forms of data and so explore the research question. Grounded theory has been employed to analyze the research data. This study found that users’ needs are reflected through various ‘meanings’ that they attach to vehicles – meanings that give a tangible expression to their experiences. This study identified six older-user need categories: (i) safety, (ii) utility, (iii) comfort, (iv) identity, (v) emotion and (vi) spirituality. The interrelationships among these six categories are seen as an interactive structure, rather than as a linear or hierarchical arrangement. Chinese cultural values, which are generated from particular local context and users’ social practice, will play a dynamic role in linking and shaping the travel needs of older vehicle users in the future. Moreover, this study structures the older-user needs model into three levels of meaning, to give guidance to vehicle design direction: (i) the practical meaning level, (ii) the social meaning level and (ii) the cultural meaning level. This study suggests that a more comprehensive explanation exists if designers can identify the vehicle’s meaning and property associated with the fulfilled older users’ needs. However, these needs will vary, and must be related to particular technological, social, and cultural contexts. The significance of this study lies in its contributions to the body of knowledge in three areas: research methodology, theory and design. These theoretical contributions provide a series of methodological tools, models and approaches from a vehicle design perspective. These include a conditional/consequential matrix, a travel needs identification model, an older users’ travel-related needs framework, a user information structure model, and an Older-User-Need-Based vehicle design approach. These models suggest a basic framework for the new design process which might assist in the design of new vehicles to fulfil the needs of future, aging Chinese generations. The models have the potential to be transferred to other design domains and different cultural contexts.

Assembly and disassembly of temporary public spaces : establishing the theoretical needs

Contemporary cities no longer offer the same types of permanent environments that we planned for in the latter part of the twentieth century. Our public spaces are increasingly temporary, transient, and ephemeral. The theories, principles and tactics with which we designed these spaces in the past are no longer appropriate. We need a new theory for understanding the creation, use, and reuse of temporary public space. Moe than a theory, we need new architectural tactics or strategies that can be reliably employed to create successful temporary public spaces. This paper will present ongoing research that starts that process through critical review and technical analysis of existing and historic temporary public spaces. Through the analysis of a number of public spaces, that were either designed for temporary use or became temporary through changing social conditions, this research identifies the tactics and heuristics used in such projects. These tactics and heuristics are then analysed to extract some broader principles for the design of temporary public space. The theories of time related building layers, a model of environmental sustainability, and the recycling of social meaning, are all explored. The paper will go on to identify a number of key questions that need to be explored and addressed by a theory for such developments: How can we retain social meaning in the fabric of the city and its public spaces while we disassemble it and recycle it into new purposes? What role will preservation have in the rapidly changing future; will exemplary temporary spaces be preserved and thereby become no longer temporary? Does the environmental advantage of recycling materials, components and spaces outweigh the removal or social loss of temporary public space? This research starts to identify the knowledge gaps and proposes a number of strategies for making public space in the age of temporary, recyclable, and repurposing of our urban infrastructure; a way of creating lighter, cheaper, quicker, and temporary interventions.

The Population Consequences of Sex and Conflict

Natural selection generally operates at the level of the individual, or more specifically at the level of the gene. As a result, individual selection does not always favour traits which benefit the population or species as a whole. The spread of an individual gene may even act to the detriment of the organism in which it finds. Thus selection at the level of the individual can affect processes at the level of the organism, group or even at the level of the species. As most behaviours ultimately affect births, deaths and the distribution of individuals, it seems inevitable that behavioural decisions will have an impact on population dynamics and population densities. Behavioural decisions can often involve costs through allocation of energy into behavioural strategies, such as the investment into armaments involved in fighting over resources or increased mortality due to injury or increased predation risk. Similarly, behaviour may act o to benefit the population, in terms of higher survival and increased fecundity. Examples include increased investment through parental care, choosing a mate based on the nuptial gifts they may supply and choosing territories in the face of competition. Investigating the impact of behaviour on population ecology may seem like a trivial task, but it is likely to have important consequences at different levels. For example, antagonistic behaviour may occasionally become so extreme that it increases the risk of extinction, and such extinction risk may have important implications for conservation. As a corollary, any such behaviour may also act as a macroevolutionary force, weeding out populations with traits which, whilst beneficial to the individuals in the short term, ultimately result in population extinction. In this thesis, I examine how behaviours, specifically conflict and competition over a resource and aspects of behaviour involved in sexual selection, can affect population densities, and what the implications are for the evolution and ecology of the populations in question. It is found that both behaviours related to individual conflict and mating strategies can have an effect at the level of the population, but that various factors, such as a feedback between selection and population densities or macroevolution caused by species extinctions, may act to limit the intensity of conflicts that we observe in nature.

Disney: ideologia eta pedagogia

[eus] Ikerketa honek Walt Disney konpainiak ekoiztutako hainbat filmetan agertzen den edukia eta pertsonaiak analizatzen ditu. Pelikulak balorez eta aspektu ideologikoez beteta daude eta gizarte-ikaskuntzaren teoriaren arabera, izugarrizko eragina daukate haurren jarduteko moduan. Ideia horiek oso lotuta daude emakumezkoak gizartean hartzen duen irudiarekin, gizartean dagoen familiaren esanahiarekin eta gure gizarteko sistema politiko eta ekonomikoarekin. Beraz, animaziozko filmen aurrean umeen kritikotasuna garatzeko Lehen Hezkuntzako gelarako baliabide metodologikoa proposatzen da, umeek pantaila handian ikusten dutenaz hausnar dezaten.