Search results for "Situated"

Brokerage from within: A conceptual framework

2021

Situated between various social worlds, brokers are highly mobile figures, in a physical and an ideational sense; they channel scarce information and resources, translate different languages and jargons, and mediate and facilitate between individuals and/or organisations, the local and the global, in a wide range of settings. Taking an in-depth ethnographic look at the actual work of brokers and their particular life stories, contributions to this special issue examine brokers’ successes and failures, their vulnerabilities and limitations, (changing) interests and motivations within the cultural contexts that these brokers are part of. By adopting a comparative perspective in a thematic an…

Police violence in West Africa : Perpetrators' and ethnographers' dilemmas

2012

This article explores the use of violence by police officers and gendarmes in Ghana and Niger. We analyse how popular discourses, legal and organizational conditions frame the police use of violence. Acts of violence by police are situated in this inconsistent framework and can be seen as legal and appropriate, despicable and brutal, or as useful and morally legitimate. Thus, every time the police use violence, they face a major dilemma: legally and morally justified violence can be a source of long-term legitimacy; but because of multiple possible readings of a certain situation (according to different, conflicting moral and legal discourses), the very same action has potentially delegiti…

The predominance of soccer in the sport and leisure habits of Spanish society

2014

The recent victories of its national football team in the 2010 World Cup and the 2008 and 2012 Euro Cups have situated Spain in the first place in the FIFA worldwide ranking, and provided it with widespread international recognition for both its decisive wins and the team's playing style. These victories mark the culmination of a dream long pursued by numerous players and coaches in Spanish football, but also by a Spanish society that is passionate about football. This article provides a descriptive overview of Spaniards' attachment to football, and tries to show its predominance in the sport and leisure habits of Spanish society. This task has been approached using diverse secondary source…

Investigating the Links Between Cultural Values and Belief in Conspiracy Theories: The Key Roles of Collectivism and Masculinity

2021

Research suggests that belief in conspiracy theories (CT) stems from basic psychological mechanisms and is linked to other belief systems (e.g. religious beliefs). While previous research has extensively examined individual and contextual variables associated with CT beliefs, it has not yet investigated the role of culture. In the current research, we tested, based on a situated cultural cognition perspective, the extent to which culture predicts CT beliefs. Using Hofstede’s model of cultural values, three nation-level analyses of data from 25, 19 and 18 countries using different measures of CT beliefs (Study 1, N = 5,323; Study 2a, N = 12,255; Study 2b, N = 30,994) revealed positive associ…

Quantifying and Processing Biomedical and Behavioral Signals

2019

Neurobiological roots of language in primate audition : common computational properties

2015

Here, we present a new perspective on an old question: how does the neurobiology of human language relate to brain systems in nonhuman primates? We argue that higher-order language combinatorics, including sentence and discourse processing, can be situated in a unified, cross-species dorsal-ventral streams architecture for higher auditory processing, and that the functions of the dorsal and ventral streams in higher-order language processing can be grounded in their respective computational properties in primate audition. This view challenges an assumption, common in the cognitive sciences, that a nonhuman primate model forms an inherently inadequate basis for modeling higher-level language…

Involving Universities in Regional Upgrading in the Periphery: Lessons from Northern Europe

2017

This chapter presents and discusses two cases of regional upgrading involving public-run universities in two Northern European countries, Norway and the Netherlands. More specifically, it illuminates how academic groups associated with the field of medicine took pro-active steps to establish and further develop regional coalitions which, over time, have resulted in situated learning. The focus on processes of university-regional engagement and mutual satisfaction in a context where universities are pressured to be globally excellent allow lessons to be drawn for regions in Southern Europe. Subtle transfer is nevertheless required to account for universities’ autonomies and organisational ca…

Romanian Households Dealing with Precariousness: A life-course approach

2016

This paper addresses the main pathways through which households avoid slipping into poverty in Romania by employing a life-course approach. Recent researches on social stratification found that in every country we can delineate a particular social layer composed of households living just above the poverty threshold, whose members struggle to reach a more secure prosperity while facing constant threats of downward mobility. Drawing on recent precarious prosperity research, and based on in-depth interviews carried out in 2013 with 25 households situated in between poverty and prosperity from a Romanian city (Cluj-Napoca), we use a life-course approach in order to account for the main routes i…

When the neighborhood educates: situated learning and collaborative artistic creation as a tool in the musical formation of the future teacher

2020

RESUMEN: Este estudio describe y analiza una acción artístico-pedagógica en el ámbito de la formación inicial de docentes y desarrollada en un barrio desfavorecido de Palma de Mallorca, España. Participaron 65 estudiantes del Grado de Maestro de Educación Primaria en la asignatura de Música y 3 músicos expertos, responsables de diseñar e implementar la acción. A través de una metodología cualitativa de tipo descriptivo-interpretativo, los resultados muestran: 1) algunas características que determinaron el diseño de la acción como son el aprendizaje situado, la colaboración, la creatividad y el compromiso con la realidad social del barrio; y 2) aspectos emergentes a partir de las valoracione…

Near zero energy islands in the Mediterranean: Supporting policies and local obstacles

2014

Abstract Based on a recent technical–economical analysis on the island of Pantelleria, a policy feasibility study for a complete upgrading of the energy system of this Mediterranean Island is carried out. Pantelleria, situated between Sicily and Africa, owns a large potential in terms of renewable energy resources, although there are some obstacles in turning it into a Near Zero Energy system. Starting from a deep energy system audit, the study proposes the project for a near zero energy island, through the efficient transformation of the different existing natural energy resources into electrical energy and heat: the solar, the wind-based and the geothermal systems. In this way, the island…