Abstract.Since the gene splicing debates of the 1980s, the public has been exposed to an ongoing sequence of genetic and reproductive technologies. Many issue areas have outcomes that lose track of people's inner values or engender opposing religious viewpoints defying final resolution. This essay relocates the discussion of what is an acceptable application from the individual to the societal level, examining technologies that stand to address large numbers of people and thus call for policy resolution, rather than individual fiat, in (...) their application. A major source of guidance is the “Genetic Frontiers” series of professional dialogues and conferences held by the National Conference for Community and Justice from 2002 to 2004. Genetic testing, human gene therapy, genetic engineering of plants and animals, and stem cell technology are examined. While differences in perspective on the beginning of life persist, a stepwise approach to the examination of genetic testing reveals areas of general agreement. Stewardship of life, human co‐creativity with the divine, and social justice help define the bounds of application of genetic engineering and therapy; compassionate care plays a major role in establishing stem cell policy. Active, sustained dialogue is a useful resource for enabling sharing of religious values and crystallization of policies. (shrink)

The study deals with the communicative interaction between the author, the hero, the text, the reader in a postmodern novel. A similar and ambiguous reality, on the one hand, sometimes led to the subjectivist hypertrophy, absolutizing the author’s world view, and at times minimized and devaluated the author’s identity, on the other. Therefore, from the end of the 1990s the ways of expressing author’s “Self” changed dramatically, which directly affected the means of creating a hero in the contemporary Ukrainian literature. (...) An important place in the communicative literary model was occupied by the text as an independent semantic unit and the reader as an interpreter of the text. The specifics of deploying the dialog between the author and the hero point to the transformation of their functions in the Ukrainian postmodern novel. Considering the statement of the death of the author proclaimed by R. Barthes, the former stops being the main holistic text creator, thus rather becoming its product and the way of expression. The author, the hero and the text have a certain integrity aimed at the interpretative game with the recipient, who diffuses the newly created semantic integrity into a diversity of meanings. (shrink)

Third World farmers are faced with development projects that foster one-way information flows from the government or organization to the farmers, despite the scholarly and practical interest in participatory development models. This article discusses why development projects do not better support power-sharing and proposes introducing sensemaking methodology into the planning and evaluation stages of agricultural development projects.Participation has been difficult to operationalize for many reasons including that communication models used in development are based on the transmission model of (...) communication in which information is envisioned as a thing external to people and communication is the movement of that information from the source to the audience. Sense-making methodology, however, is based on a constructing model of communication in which information is conceptualized not as external to people but a result of their observing and communicating activity. Communication is a constructing process. And the “audience” is not the target for messages but active participants in creating information. (shrink)

In the current social media environment, emotional branding communication has become a common marketing tool for brand owners, and therefore it has become particularly important and urgent to study it. Based on the perspective of brand equity theory, combined with the new characteristics of marketing communication in the social media environment, this paper constructed an emotional branding communication model in the social media environment. The system dynamics method was used to simulate and analyze the new product (...) marketing system to assess whether it could stir the emotional needs of the consumers and resonate within their hearts. This paper discusses the asymmetric communication of different brands regarding the same commodity to determine the impact of this exchange mechanism, that is, only the weak brands in the market initially adopt marketing methods, while the strong brands do not participate in social marketing activities. It was found that the influence of marketing frequency and marketing intensity on symmetric and asymmetric communications was different. In the face of different types of competitors, the marketing strategy of weak brands needs emphasis. Through unit consistency test, structure verification test, effectiveness, and rationality test, it was proven that the emotional branding communication model and new product sales interaction simulation model established in this paper were reasonable and effective. (shrink)

Spiritual Intelligence (S-Intelligence) introduced to achieve higher levels of knowledge and applying hidden knowledge. This intelligence is various in different people. When people work together in a team or set, these diverse influence on their performance. Facilitate the application of spiritual capacities by using abilities of S- intelligence is important to increase productivity teamwork. For this purpose, we provided a model of communication for individuals with different S-intelligence in performing team tasks. First, with the basics S-intelligence analysis and (...) interviews with experts, S-intelligence was divided in five categories. Each person according to their S-Intelligence and the role that play in teamwork (individualist, thinkist and pragmatist) from this aspect that he/she can by what kind of S-intelligences and what kind of role, has an effective team relationship, has been measured. With the 690 questionnaires among individuals with experience in teamwork and group communication, we have addressed to the measurement of their communication model. After derivation the data by fuzzy logic, we analyzed and presented an effective model of teamwork based on S-intelligence. (shrink)

The paper presents the results of the study of the impact and effects of communication models of public relations and organization–public relationships on company credibility and financial performance in companies in Serbia. The data were obtained by interviewing 415 respondents (PR managers, PR practitioners and marketing experts) working in 93 companies in Serbia. The dimensions of the organization–public relationships have stronger positive influences and effects on company credibility and financial performance than the dimensions of communication models of public (...) relations. The influence of the dimensions of trust, commitment, satisfaction and communal relationship is particularly emphasized. Of the four communication models, the strongest positive impact on company credibility and financial performance is achieved by the two-way symmetrical dimension, and then the two-way asymmetrical dimension. The dimensions of communication models of public relations and organization–public relationships have the greatest influence and predictive effect on the dimension of trustworthiness, followed by the dimension of expertise, and finally the dimension of financial performance. Therefore, a greater impact exists on company credibility than on financial performance. (shrink)

The rapid development of Internet technology has facilitated the dissemination of information that can threaten national security and public health, and effectively controlling the process of public opinion communication is an important topic in contemporary social network research. This paper establishes an official information-controlled public opinion propagation model based on the delay, latency, and conversion of public opinion communication under the control of official information. According to the influence and importance of the network nodes, we theoretically derive (...) the attitude conversion probability of the nodes, making the model more in line with the actual situation. Through actual cases, we analyzed the important influence of official information on the public opinion communication process and provided a theoretical basis for the government and relevant departments to supervise and correctly guide the public opinion network, which has certain practical significance. (shrink)

기술과 문명은 지구생태계를 교란시켜 왔고, 지구는 최대의 위기상황을 맞이하고 있다. 여러 곳에서 이상기후들이 발생하며 인간뿐 아니라 지구 곳곳의 동식물들을 위기로 내몰고 있다. 기술과 관련해서는 인공지능로봇에 지배될지도 모른다는 우려가 제기되고 있다. 인간과 비인간, 인간과 자연간의 대립에서 인간이 존재론적 우위를 점하고 있음에도 이 사태를 낙관적으로 바라보기에는 너무 늦었다는 진단이 나오고 있다. 이와 같은 비관적 태도에서 벗어나 생태공동체를 구축하기 위한 새로운 패러다임의 전환이 요구된다. 이러한 전환을 위해 인간과 기술, 그리고 자연 개념은 새롭게 정립될 필요가 있다. 이를 위해 우리는 메를로-퐁티의 몸 현상학과 살존재론을 이론적 (...) 근거로 하여 시몽동의 개체화발생이론과 앙상블 그리고 라투르의 ANT(Actor-network theory, 행위자연결망이론)를 살펴볼 것이다. 인간, 자연, 기술에 관한 논의는 기존의 개념적 틀에서 벗어나 새로운 의미를 가지고 패러다임을 구성될 것이며, 이는 생태공동체의 기초개념으로 작동하리라 여긴다. (shrink)

The aim of this work is to consider individual symptoms and areas of alienation in the history of mankind and in the modern information society, and the disclosure of its logic and patterns. Methodologically, the study is based on the historical, information and cybernetic approaches. The paper points to a positive feedback between the amount of knowledge in alienated form and figures of society, the development of its comprehensive intelligence. New forms of exclusion, which exist in the form of artificial (...) intelligence, robotics, and global computer networks, are analysed. The findings suggest a communicative model of the interaction of mankind with man-made external memory, which describes a non-linear process of communicating to it all human knowledge and intellectual abilities. It is emphasized that the contradiction between man and the material world created by him is the main contradiction of modernity. (shrink)

Digitalization, virtualization, commercialization, loss of integrity, polystylistics, liberation from any norms are the latest trends that determine the development of contemporary art. They influence the functioning of modern communication models that evolve in accordance with the achievements of technology and acquire mobility, variability and interactivity. Interaction between social processes and scientific and technological achievements is increasing, the essence of communication in the space of modern culture is being rethought, particularly, the boundary between the types of art is being (...) levelled. The latter phenomenon leads to the emergence of new instruments and methods of artistic creativity and expands the possibilities of artistic self-expression. One of the promising areas of artistic exploration is the creation of sound interactive installations. This paper proposes a classification of communication models that are based on the analysis of interactive sound installations. The classification is based on determining the degree to which audiences actions influence the final sound result of the creative action. The paper claims that the parameters of the exhibition space are important components of the installation’s structure and form. A dialogue with nature by way of incorporating sounds of nature, their imitations, and interpretations in art objects is found to be a current trend in interactive sound installations. (shrink)

Communication and behaviour of animals living ex situ has been one of the major sources of knowledge about wild animals. Nevertheless, it is also acknowledged that depending on the environment that the animals inhabit, there are differences in their communication and behaviour. With some species it is difficult to reproduce their natural environment to an extent that excludes deviations from the behaviour and communication exhibited by animals living in situ. In zoological gardens, welfare measures are introduced in (...) order to counteract the effects of the captive environment and to grant an individual’s good physical and psychological well-being. The relation between good welfare and species-specific communication and behaviour is discussed, and as a result, a general model of ex situ animal communication and behaviour is proposed. The suggested model is inclusive of differences between captive animals and free-ranging animals and serves to explain the welfare-related reasons underlying individual animal’s deviations from species-specific behaviour and communication. (shrink)

Name der Zeitschrift: Semiotica Jahrgang: 2018 Heft: 225 Seiten: 77-102.

In the past few years, social epistemologists have developed several formal models of the social organisation of science. While their robustness and representational adequacy has been analysed at length, the function of these models has begun to be discussed in more general terms only recently. In this article, I will interpret many of the current formal models of the scientific community as representing the latest development of what I will call the ‘Kuhnian project’. These models share with Kuhn a number (...) of questions about the relation between individuals and communities. At the same time, they also inherit some of Kuhn’s problematic characterisations of the scientific community. In particular, current models of the social organisation of science represent the scientific community as essentially value-free. This may put into question both their representational adequacy and their normative ambitions. In the end, it will be shown that the discussion on the formal models of the scientific community may contribute in fruitful ways to the ongoing debates on value judgements in science. (shrink)

I defend an empirically-oriented approach to the analysis and remediation of social injustice. My springboard for this argument is a debate—principally represented here between Tommie Shelby and Elizabeth Anderson, but with much deeper historical roots and many flowering branches—about whether racial-justice advocacy should prioritize integration (bringing different groups together) or community development (building wealth and political power within the black community). Although I incline toward something closer to Shelby’s “egalitarian pluralist” approach over Anderson’s single-minded emphasis on integration, many of Shelby’s (...) criticisms of integrationism are misguided, and his handling of the empirical literature is profoundly unbalanced. In fact, while both Shelby and Anderson defend the importance of social science to their projects, I’ll argue that each takes a decidedly unempirical approach, which ultimately obscures the full extent of our ignorance about what we can and ought to do going forward. A more authentically empirical tack would be more epistemically humble, more holistic, and less organized around what I’ll call prematurely formulated “Grand Unified Theories of Social Change.” I defend a more “diversified experimentalist” approach, which rigorously tests an array of smaller-scale interventions before trying to replicate and scale up the most promising results. (shrink)

Community engagement (CE) contributes to successful research. There is, however, a lack of literature on the effectiveness of different models of CE and, specifically, on CE strategies for the conduct of genomic research in sub-Saharan Africa. There is also a need for models of CE that transcend the recruitment stage of engaging prospective individuals and communities and embed CE throughout the research process and after the research has concluded. The qualitative study reported here was designed to address these knowledge gaps (...) and comprised of 36 key informant semi-structured interviews and fifteen focus groups with 50 participants. We interviewed selected stakeholders in genomic research in Nigeria: biomedical researchers, community rulers, opinion leaders, community health workers, and prospective research participants. We explored these stakeholders’ views on their understanding of community engagement, their expectations, experiences, and their opinions on acceptable processes of community consultation in genomic research. The methodological design, adapted from grounded theory, used the constant comparative method of data analysis; while normative conclusions were made using the symbiotic empirical ethics approach. Data analysis revealed five main themes important for successfully engaging communities in genomic research: effective communication, diversity of community gatekeeping, trust, cultural integration of research, and conservation of the research setting. From these themes, we have developed a four-stage model of community engagement that covers all stages of the research process; namely, the Community Approach, Intermediate phase, Collaboration and Post-research Cordiality model (CICP). This model could be used to improve the integration of CE in genomic research among local communities. (shrink)

Community engagement (CE) contributes to successful research. There is, however, a lack of literature on the effectiveness of different models of CE and, specifically, on CE strategies for the conduct of genomic research in sub-Saharan Africa. There is also a need for models of CE that transcend the recruitment stage of engaging prospective individuals and communities and embed CE throughout the research process and after the research has concluded. The qualitative study reported here was designed to address these knowledge gaps (...) and comprised of 36 key informant semi-structured interviews and fifteen focus groups with 50 participants. We interviewed selected stakeholders in genomic research in Nigeria: biomedical researchers, community rulers, opinion leaders, community health workers, and prospective research participants. We explored these stakeholders’ views on their understanding of community engagement, their expectations, experiences, and their opinions on acceptable processes of community consultation in genomic research. The methodological design, adapted from grounded theory, used the constant comparative method of data analysis; while normative conclusions were made using the symbiotic empirical ethics approach. Data analysis revealed five main themes important for successfully engaging communities in genomic research: effective communication, diversity of community gatekeeping, trust, cultural integration of research, and conservation of the research setting. From these themes, we have developed a four-stage model of community engagement that covers all stages of the research process; namely, the Community Approach, Intermediate phase, Collaboration and Post-research Cordiality model (CICP). This model could be used to improve the integration of CE in genomic research among local communities. (shrink)

Community engagement (CE) contributes to successful research. There is, however, a lack of literature on the effectiveness of different models of CE and, specifically, on CE strategies for the conduct of genomic research in sub-Saharan Africa. There is also a need for models of CE that transcend the recruitment stage of engaging prospective individuals and communities and embed CE throughout the research process and after the research has concluded. The qualitative study reported here was designed to address these knowledge gaps (...) and comprised of 36 key informant semi-structured interviews and fifteen focus groups with 50 participants. We interviewed selected stakeholders in genomic research in Nigeria: biomedical researchers, community rulers, opinion leaders, community health workers, and prospective research participants. We explored these stakeholders’ views on their understanding of community engagement, their expectations, experiences, and their opinions on acceptable processes of community consultation in genomic research. The methodological design, adapted from grounded theory, used the constant comparative method of data analysis; while normative conclusions were made using the symbiotic empirical ethics approach. Data analysis revealed five main themes important for successfully engaging communities in genomic research: effective communication, diversity of community gatekeeping, trust, cultural integration of research, and conservation of the research setting. From these themes, we have developed a four-stage model of community engagement that covers all stages of the research process; namely, the Community Approach, Intermediate phase, Collaboration and Post-research Cordiality model (CICP). This model could be used to improve the integration of CE in genomic research among local communities. (shrink)

Community engagement (CE) contributes to successful research. There is, however, a lack of literature on the effectiveness of different models of CE and, specifically, on CE strategies for the conduct of genomic research in sub-Saharan Africa. There is also a need for models of CE that transcend the recruitment stage of engaging prospective individuals and communities and embed CE throughout the research process and after the research has concluded. The qualitative study reported here was designed to address these knowledge gaps (...) and comprised of 36 key informant semi-structured interviews and fifteen focus groups with 50 participants. We interviewed selected stakeholders in genomic research in Nigeria: biomedical researchers, community rulers, opinion leaders, community health workers, and prospective research participants. We explored these stakeholders’ views on their understanding of community engagement, their expectations, experiences, and their opinions on acceptable processes of community consultation in genomic research. The methodological design, adapted from grounded theory, used the constant comparative method of data analysis; while normative conclusions were made using the symbiotic empirical ethics approach. Data analysis revealed five main themes important for successfully engaging communities in genomic research: effective communication, diversity of community gatekeeping, trust, cultural integration of research, and conservation of the research setting. From these themes, we have developed a four-stage model of community engagement that covers all stages of the research process; namely, the Community Approach, Intermediate phase, Collaboration and Post-research Cordiality model (CICP). This model could be used to improve the integration of CE in genomic research among local communities. (shrink)

Name der Zeitschrift: Semiotica Jahrgang: 2018 Heft: 224 Seiten: 269-293.

The article delineates a model of communication among human minds that is designed to work equally well for all kinds of nonverbal and verbal significance. The model thus allows for detailed analysis of and comparison among all varieties of human communication. In particular, the transitional stage of communication, which is termed the media product, is thoroughly developed and conceptualized in terms of mediality and semiosis. By way of mapping basic media dissimilarities that are vital for (...) differing communicative capacities, the model explains both how various sorts of significance can be transferred among minds, and why they cannot always be realized. The article furthermore suggests a semiotic framework for conceptualizing the familiar notion that communication is also strongly predisposed by surrounding factors such as earlier experiences and cultural influence. (shrink)

Models of the Church (published 1974) still seems adequate as an overview of the dominant types of ecclesiology in our day. It leaves open the question whether a single model could be found to harmonize the differences among the five described. To this end the author later proposed “community of disciples.” Well grounded in the Gospels, this model relies also on the post-Easter concept of discipleship as inclusive of the whole Christian life. Christian catechesis, ministry, and sacraments can (...) profitably be understood as means of fostering discipleship, which also demands missionary activity for its completion. The discipleship model is appropriate in an age of dechristianization, when the Church must necessarily assume the form of a contrast society. This model, however, needs to be appraised in the light of the other five, which in some ways supplement and correct it. (shrink)

The main objective of this study is to propose, from a theoretical approach, an alternative model of the communication process that includes intentionality, interest, identification, and exchange as part of the internal process of decoding the message experienced by the receiver. The proposal includes the subdivision of the responses offered by the receiver into two possible categories: one simple, which can mean the programmed response to a specific code; and another complex, which can mean a change and/or significant (...) transformation in different aspects associated with the recipient. Through a qualitative methodology, with emphasis on documentary review, and inferential and deductive reasoning, the proposed theoretical model has been developed and explained, highlighting the added value that it could offer to the understanding of communication. (shrink)

As it is essential to explore the influence of social communications on transportation routes in tourism, this article aims to examine the impacts of social communications on transportation routes in the field of tourism and to further explore the relationship between tourism destinations and their psychological perceptions. In terms of links between different tourism destinations in space and time dimensions, our empirical analysis draws the following conclusions: the behavior of tourist flow is a mediating variable on the links between tourist (...) psychological perceptions and tour routes; three modes of point-line interaction are presented in the space and time of tourism destinations; and the scenic city’s location, name, and features are important to tourists’ psychological perceptions. (shrink)

Numerous societal issues, from climate change to pandemics, require public engagement with scientific research. Such engagement reveals challenges that can arise when experts communicate with laypeople. One of the most common frameworks for framing these communicative interactions is the deficit model of science communication, which holds that laypeople lack scientific knowledge and/or positive attitudes towards science, and that imparting knowledge will fill knowledge gaps, lead to desirable attitude/behavior changes, and increase trust in science. §1 introduces the deficit (...) class='Hi'>model in more detail and shows that adhering to this model often fails to achieve its aims, which motivates the main question of this chapter: how can Ludwik Fleck’s theory of thinking collectives address the persistent problem of deficit approaches in science communication? I suggest that it can do so by exposing the deficit model’s implicit assumption of an expert-lay divide. Accordingly, §2 lays out Fleck’s theory and §3 contrasts it with contemporary debates about science communication. Following this descriptive work, §4 draws on Fleck’s ideas to make four concrete suggestions for further questioning the expert-lay divide. (shrink)

This paper analyses conceptual and experimental work in synthetic biology on different types of interactions considered as minimal examples or models of communication. It discusses their pertinence and relevance for the wider understanding of this biological and cognitive phenomenon. It critically analyses their limits and it argues that a conceptual framework is needed. As a possible solution, it provides a theoretical account of communication based on the notion of organisation, and characterised in terms of the functional influence exerted (...) by the sender upon the receiver. It shows that this account can be operationalised in synthetic biology, and that it can supply criteria and guidelines for the design and evaluation of synthetic models. (shrink)

Complementing earlier efforts to scrutinize the uses of models in the field of media and communication studies, this volume reassesses old perspectives and delineates new theoretical options for communication inquiry. It is the first book to undertake a philosophical investigation of the significance of modelling in the study of the varying phenomena, processes, and practices of communication. By homing in on the manifestations and purposes of modelling in ordinary discourses on communication as well as in theoretical (...) expositions, the essays collected in this book cast new light on the importance of models for communication inquiry. This volume challenges received view of communication models as mere diagrams and opens up new paths of conceptual inquiry in communication research. (shrink)

The discrete Deffuant model and its alternatives is a family of stochastic spatial models for the dynamics of binary opinions on f issues. Another parameter is also incorporated that prevents interaction between two agents whenever their opinion profiles are at a Hamming distance greater than the confidence threshold θ. By numerical simulations, it was conjectured in (Adamopoulos and Scarlatos, Complexity 2012, 17, 43) that one‐dimensional models exhibit a phase transition at a critical value θ critical approximately equal to f/2. (...) We report on recent mathematical results on this problem that originates from the community of complex systems. © 2016 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Complexity 21: 437–439, 2016. (shrink)

Persons of diminished capacity, especially those who are still legally competent but are de facto incompetent should still be able to participate in moderately risky research projects that benefit the class of persons with similar diseases. It is argued that this view can be supported with a modified communitarianism, a philosophy ofmedicine that holds that health care is a joint responsibility that meets foundational human needs. The mechanism for obtaining a substituted consent I call ``community consent,'' and distinguish this from (...) the usual family or surrogate consent for treatment. Care givers are included in the community that might consent for an individual who has no identifiable family members. (shrink)

Community detection is one of the key research directions in complex network studies. We propose a community detection algorithm based on a density peak clustering model and multiple attribute decision-making strategy, TOPSIS. First, the two-dimensional dataset, which is transformed from the network by taking the density and distance as the attributes of nodes, is clustered by using the DBSCAN algorithm, and outliers are determined and taken as the key nodes. Then, the initial community frameworks are formed and expanded by (...) adding the most similar node of the community as its new member. In this process, we use TOPSIS to cohesively integrate four kinds of similarities to calculate an index, and use it as a criterion to select the most similar node. Then, we allocate the nonkey nodes that are not covered in the expanded communities. Finally, some communities are merged to obtain a stable partition in two ways. This paper designs some experiments for the algorithm on some real networks and some synthetic networks, and the proposed method is compared with some popular algorithms. The experimental results testify for the effectiveness and show the accuracy of our algorithm. (shrink)

Practical reasoners are resource-bounded—in particular they require time to derive consequences of their knowledge. Building on the Timed Reasoning Logics (TRL) framework introduced in [1], we show how to represent the time required by an agent to reach a given conclusion. TRL allows us to model the kinds of rule application and conflict resolution strategies commonly found in rule-based agents, and we show how the choice of strategy can influence the information an agent can take into account when making (...) decisions at a particular point in time. We prove general completeness and decidability results for TRL, and analyse the impact of communication in an example system consisting of two agents which use different conflict resolution strategies. (shrink)

Debates about global justice tend to assume normative models of global community without justifying them explicitly. These models are divided between those that advocate a borderless world and those that emphasize the self-sufficiency of smaller political communities. In the first case, there are conceptions of a community of trade and a community of law. In the second case, there are ideas of a community of nation-states and of a community of autonomous communities. The nation-state model, however, is not easily (...) justified and is one that has been criticized extensively elsewhere. The model of a community of trade underlies both advocates of market-oriented development and exponents of global schemes of redistribution of resources and incomes. I analyze the work of Charles Beitz, Peter Singer, and Thomas Pogge to show that the assumption that global interdependence is beneficial is poorly justified. The model of a community of law, as seen in the work of Henry Shue and others, is the basis for arguments against state sovereignty and in favor of international human rights regimes. I argue that this model suffers either from a problem of practicability or of hegemony. Finally, the model of a community of autonomous communities uses notions of patriotism and sovereignty to maintain that disengagement and independence are the best routes to global peace and justice. (shrink)

We explore the social context of mathematical knowledge: Even though, the community of mathematicians may look homogeneous from the outside, it is actually structured into various sub-communities that differ in preferred notations, the choice of basic assumptions, or e.g. in the choice of motivating examples. We contend that we cannot manage mathematical knowledge for human recipients if we do not take these factors into account. As a basis for a future extension of MKM systems, we analyze the social context of (...) information in terms of Communities of Practice (CoP; a concept from learning theory) and present a concrete extensional model for CoPs in mathematics. (shrink)

Topics in Cognitive Science, Volume 14, Issue 2, Page 388-399, April 2022.

Gilberta Golinelli's book is set within an important area of utopian studies that, from the 1990s, also via archival studies, started to focus on the numerous utopias penned by women in the early modern English period. The book, significantly titled Gender Models, Alternative Communities and Women's Utopianism, analyzes some of the utopian writings by Margaret Cavendish, Aphra Behn, and Mary Astell. Golinelli did not choose to use the term utopianism on a whim, since the utopias of these authors are hybrids, (...) mixing other genres in their makeup: travel reports, theater, romance, letters.... (shrink)

Gilberta Golinelli’s book is set within an important area of utopian studies that, from the 1990s, also via archival studies, started to focus on the numerous utopias penned by women in the early modern English period. The book, significantly titled Gender Models, Alternative Communities and Women’s Utopianism, analyzes some of the utopian writings by Margaret Cavendish, Aphra Behn, and Mary Astell. Golinelli did not choose to use the term utopianism on a whim, since the utopias of these authors are hybrids, (...) mixing other genres in their makeup: travel reports, theater, romance, letters.... (shrink)

Few studies have been conducted into the use of mobile technologies at community-based organizations. Community sport organizations (CSOs) typically operate within a defined geographic area and rely on the primary support of volunteers. Based on the characteristics of mobile-based information services, this article proposes a model that provides a guide for CSOs to classify mobile applications through four mobile utility factors and three innovation adoption determinants (cost, skill requirements, and compatibility). The model is supported visually by the use (...) of Microsoft Excel generated “radar graphs” to illustrate desired practical and actual performance. The contribution of the theoretical model is one of providing a vehicle for evaluating mobile technology applications by CSOs to identify the potential effectiveness of mobile devices, particularly in a preadoption scenario. (shrink)

A deliberative model of politics has recently been criticized for not being very well equipped to conceptualize public spheres in world society. A first critique is that this model assumes a conception of public spheres that is too idealistic, because it presupposes counterfactual conditions of communication in public discourse that do not meet empirical real word conditions. Secondly, it assumes an antiquated notion of a shared “we” of political actors. Because of this it does not take into (...) consideration the “digital turn” and the ego-centering and depersonalizing effects of social media like Facebook, twitter, and blogs, which have led to a rapid decline of the public sphere. And a third critique states that the deliberative model ignores the fact that politics, and especially protests and revolutions, are not seminar-like debates but spontaneous, chaotic and sometimes violent expressions. So it is not just unreceptive for the “digital space” but also for gathering and protesting in real public places surrounded by military troops. I will argue that all of these critiques fall short. A deliberative model of politics allows us to address the tension between the ideal and the real, the “old media” and the so-called digitalization of public spheres as well as peaceful discourse and violent uprisings. Especially the concept of communicative power, a notion also used by Hannah Arendt, reveals the potential for future participation in digital spaces and public places. (shrink)