Collective Discourse Research Articles

Participação política e subjetividade – Narrativas de vida de trabalhadoras rurais do sul do Brasil

This study addresses the intersection between political participation and subjectivity from the analysis of the narratives of life of rural worker women. This is a qualitative study of nature exploratory, involving seven women in leadership positions in the social movement of the field, in southern Brazil. For production data was used for various instruments such as observation, field diary, informal conversations and interviews. The thematic analysis identified the political participation as a subjectivation device by producing links between public and private, at considering private as political, to structure a collective discourse and to open spaces to reinvention of ways of living.

Black Resonance: Iconic Women Singers and African American LiteratureEmily J.Lordi. New Brunswick: Rutgers University Press, 2013.

Black Resonance: Iconic Women Singers and African American Literature Emily J. Lordi. New Brunswick: Rutgers University Press, 2013.I thought I knew something about the history of music and artists like Mahalia Jackson and Bessie Smith; I thought I was well versed in the writings of Ralph Ellison and James Baldwin. I was wrong. Thankfully, Emily Lordi's brilliant Black Resonance: Iconic Women Singers and African American Literature took me to school. Not only does the book expand one's understanding of a myriad of iconic writers and singers, chronicling their collaborative histories, but also it offers profound and important readings of their insurgent works and their voices of freedom.At its core, Black Resonance is an examination of the shared histories, overlapping cultural discourses, and interconnections between the sonic and literary, between the artist and the writer, between song and text. Ever since Bessie Smith's improbably powerful voice conspired with the emerging 'race records' industry to make her 'the first real superstar in African American popular culture,' writes Lordi, black writers have memorialized the sounds and detailed the politics of women's singing (1). Pushing back at the conventions that separate popular culture and high culture, activism and cultural production, intellectual musings and the sonic boom, Lordi, a professor of English at University of Massachusetts, Amherst, offers a series of examples that contest and undercut the binaries and boundaries that anchor discourses around culture.Challenging the myth of the muse and the privileging of certain forms of expression, Black Resonance moves the conversation about this history, a series of artists, and our collective discourse around art, agency, and activism. It is not simply interesting intersecting vectors between writers and artists or the ways that writers, from Richard Wright and Ralph Ellison to James Baldwin and Nikki Giovanni, engaged the work of singers, from Bessie Smith and Mahalia Jackson to Billie Holiday and Aretha Franklin (and vice versa). According to the author, writers and singers are equal partners in the creation of aesthetics (5) and in the production and articulation of freedom Dreams (See Robin D. G. Kelley's Freedom Dreams: The Black Radical Imagination, 2002). Lordi remarks thatI stage them as collaborators, in the etymological sense of 'laboring together,' as they develop analogous expressive techniques. It is necessary that they know each other, or that vocalists sing about writers, in order for writers and singers to collaborate in this way. Their collaboration is not literal; nor is it perfectly symmetrical. Writers discursively co-create musical meaning when they write about singers. (5)In a chapter on Ralph Ellison and Bessie Smith, Lordi highlights the dialectics operating with their work, and their deployed aesthetics, narratives, and tropes, challenging the discursive privileging of the white gaze and its flattening of their meanings. …

The Measles Vaccination Narrative in Twitter: A Quantitative Analysis.

BackgroundThe emergence of social media is providing an alternative avenue for information exchange and opinion formation on health-related issues. Collective discourse in such media leads to the formation of a complex narrative, conveying public views and perceptions.ObjectiveThis paper presents a study of Twitter narrative regarding vaccination in the aftermath of the 2015 measles outbreak, both in terms of its cyber and physical characteristics. We aimed to contribute to the analysis of the data, as well as presenting a quantitative interdisciplinary approach to analyze such open-source data in the context of health narratives.MethodsWe collected 669,136 tweets referring to vaccination from February 1 to March 9, 2015. These tweets were analyzed to identify key terms, connections among such terms, retweet patterns, the structure of the narrative, and connections to the geographical space.ResultsThe data analysis captures the anatomy of the themes and relations that make up the discussion about vaccination in Twitter. The results highlight the higher impact of stories contributed by news organizations compared to direct tweets by health organizations in communicating health-related information. They also capture the structure of the antivaccination narrative and its terms of reference. Analysis also revealed the relationship between community engagement in Twitter and state policies regarding child vaccination. Residents of Vermont and Oregon, the two states with the highest rates of non-medical exemption from school-entry vaccines nationwide, are leading the social media discussion in terms of participation.ConclusionsThe interdisciplinary study of health-related debates in social media across the cyber-physical debate nexus leads to a greater understanding of public concerns, views, and responses to health-related issues. Further coalescing such capabilities shows promise towards advancing health communication, thus supporting the design of more effective strategies that take into account the complex and evolving public views of health issues.

Repercussions of imprisonment for conjugal violence: discourses of men.

ABSTRACTObjective:to know the consequences that men experience related to incarceration by conjugal violence. Methods:qualitative study on 20 men in jail and indicted in criminal processes related to conjugal violence in a Court specialized in Family and Domestic Violence against women. The interviews were classified based on Collective Subject Discourse method, using NVIVO(r) software. Results:the collective discourse shows that the experience of preventive imprisonment starts a process of family dismantling, social stigma, financial hardship and psycho-emotional symptoms such as phobia, depression, hypertension, and headaches. Conclusion:due to the physical, mental and social consequences of the conjugal violence-related imprisonment experience, it is urgent to look carefully into the somatization process as well as to the prevention strategies regarding this process.

Social Movement Discourses and Conditions of Possibility in Bolivia and Mexico

This work presents a comparative analysis of two Latin American social movements. The first case is the movement of opposition against the privatisation of water and sanitation services (ESS) in Cochabamba, Bolivia in 2000 and the second case is the movement of opposition against the project for a new international airport in Mexico City between 2001 and 2002. Both case studies illustrate how the study of collective discourses or collective action frames (CAFs) can be used to improve our understanding of social movements that emerge in the context of large infrastructure projects. The work argues that an important determinant in the development and life-span of a social movement is the extent to which the dialogical relation between collective discourses and processes of identity formation at the micro sociological level is allowed or hampered by other contextual and organisational variables.

Return to the radical edge?

Our article comes out of many playful dialogues and a shared revulsion with collective discourses, which ignore the sacred, and the rampant greed we (and our clients) endure as a result of advanced global capitalism. We presented at the conference jointly to share our relational creativity, and invited our audience to an interactive dialogue. We have argued together to write this article; please argue with us as you read it. Our hypothesis is that ‘there is an alternative to scientific materialism as the dominant discourse in psychotherapy’. Here are our notes, written together, about what this may be. We suggest it is about negative capability, emergence and immanence in (human) nature.

The role of beliefs in teacher agency

There is an ongoing tension within educational policy worldwide between countries that seek to reduce the opportunities for teachers to exert judgement and control over their own work, and those who seek to promote it. Some see teacher agency as a weakness within the operation of schools and seek to replace it with evidence-based and data-driven approaches, whereas others argue that because of the complexities of situated educational practices, teacher agency is an indispensable element of good and meaningful education. While the ideological debate about the shape and form of teacher professionalism is important, it is equally important to understand the dynamics of teacher agency and the factors that contribute to its promotion and enhancement. In this paper, we draw from a two-year study into teacher agency against the backdrop of large-scale educational reform – the implementation of Scotland’s Curriculum for Excellence – in order to explore these questions. We focus on teachers’ beliefs in order to get a sense of the individual and collective discourses that inform teachers’ perceptions, judgements and decision-making and that motivate and drive teachers’ action. While the research suggests that beliefs play an important role in teachers’ work, an apparent mismatch between teachers’ individual beliefs and values and wider institutional discourses and cultures, and a relative lack of a clear and robust professional vision of the purposes of education indicate that the promotion of teacher agency does not just rely on the beliefs that individual teachers bring to their practice, but also requires collective development and consideration.

The Christian Democratic Youth of Slovakia: Christian Legacy, Post-Socialist Memory and the Present Spirit of Capitalism

Abstract The subject of this case study is the youth political organisation Christian Democratic Youth of Slovakia (KDMS). The first parts of this paper are dedicated to history and the structure of organisation. Latter parts discuss the influence of historical memory on creating the collective discourses of KDMS and its civic engagements, ambitions and activities. The purpose of the paper is also to evaluate the role of religion and secularisation in KDMS agenda and also to discuss the ways how the ´christian heritage´ becames the source for arguments in political debates and opossitely how the christianity could be interpreted in the light of conservative and right oriented socio-economic and political worldview.

Social representations of safety in food services

This research aimed to evoke and analyze the perceptions of safe food through the perspective of customers at two different food service settings in São Paulo, Brazil. In-depth interviews (N=66) were conducted using a guide with open questions focused on the individual's perceptions of safety, knowledge of food-borne diseases and self-involvement in the food chain. The Collective Subject Discourse (CSD) technique, based on the Theory of Social Representations, was set as the framework for the content analysis of the individual speeches with the aim of writing a collective discourse representing the “voice of the customer”. Similarities and differences reflecting different socio-economic backgrounds came up: in general, the interviewees showed concerns about hygiene and good practices and recognized some food hazards, especially those of chemical and biological natures. In situation of social vulnerability, some customers showed greater concern with the guarantee of access to a substantial meal in face of economic constraint. Finally, most customers reported a passive role in the food chain and seemed to transfer to the restaurant staff the entire responsibility for the safety of the meals served therein.

A Map for Big Data Research in Digital Humanities

This article is an attempt to represent Big Data research in digital humanities as a structured research field. A division in three concentric areas of study is presented. Challenges in the first circle – focusing on the processing and interpretations of large cultural datasets – can be organized linearly following the data processing pipeline. Challenges in the second circle – concerning digital culture at large – can be structured around the different relations linking massive datasets, large communities, collective discourses, global actors, and the software medium. Challenges in the third circle – dealing with the experience of big data – can be described within a continuous space of possible interfaces organized around three poles: immersion, abstraction, and language. By identifying research challenges in all these domains, the article illustrates how this initial cartography could be helpful to organize the exploration of the various dimensions of Big Data Digital Humanities research.

Mudanças do Código Florestal: Uma Análise Institucional da Percepção de Produtores Agrícolas de um Município do Paraná

An extensive restructuring of environmental institutions is occurring due to search of greater awareness of environmental preservation. In Brazil, the discussion of environmental problems is not new and the topic is the subject of a current heated debate. The main current discussion is the new Forest Code (Law 12.651/12), mainly due to changes in relation to small farms. This study aims to verify the farmer’s opinion about these changes. To this, semi-structured interviews were conducted with farmers in a city in Northern Parana, and the data were analyzed by the technique of analysis of the collective discourse. It was observed that there are misconceptions regarding the interpretation of legislation, especially as regards the Permanent Preservation Areas and Legal Reserves.

Between Transmission and Translation: The Rearticulation of Vladek Spiegelman's Languages in Maus

This article examines the ways in which languages occur in the discourse of Auschwitz survivor Vladek Spiegelman, both in the graphic memoir Maus and in the interview transcripts used by Art Spiegelman as original oral source for his father's story. Drawing from contrastive analyses of the ocurrences of German, Nazi-Deutsch, Polish, and Yiddish in context, this essay proposes that, in his use of foreign vocabulary, the voice of Vladek as character in Maus has been to a degree reinscribed and ‘translated’ by Art Spiegelman. Instances of the reinscription of Vladek's languages include the foreignization of English through Polish, the rehistoricizing of a personal testimony through the collective discourse of Holocaust historiography (in German and Nazi-Deutsch), and the juxtaposition of traditional and contemporary linguistic usages (in Yiddish).

Complementary medicines in medicine: Conceptualising terminology among Australian medical students using a constructivist grounded theory approach

Terminology around the use of complementary medicines (CM) within medical discourse is ambiguous. Clear collective discourse within the medical context is required. This study reports the findings of a Constructivist Grounded Theory Method study used to explore medical students’ conceptualisation of terminology and associated value components around CMs as evidenced within their discourse community. The results show that terminology surrounding CMs within medicine is politically charged and fraught with value judgements. Terms used to describe CMs were considered, many of which were deemed problematic. Categorisation of specific medicines was also deemed inappropriate in certain contexts. Conceptualisation of CM terminology, categorisation and value implications, discriminated between levels of evidence for CMs and provided insights into the social change of medicine towards emergence of an evidence-based integrative approach. The results show that terminology surrounding CM is a social construct consistent with fluid conceptualisation and operationalisation in different social contexts.

The Participation in a Research and Study Group: A Collective Discourse Perspective

This research aims to analyze the collective discourse from members of a research and study group on their participation. In order to achieve this goal, we use a quantitative and qualitative approach. For the analysis of quantitative questions, we choose to use graphics in order to illustrate the opinion of the group members. In the analysis of qualitative questions, we choose to bring the members opinions in a single speech, using the Collective Subject Discourse methodology. Overall, the results point to the lack of time of the members to participate in the group and to the importance of deepening and glimpsing other studies about participation.

Transformation of discourse: multilingual resources and practices among Filipino mothers in Japan

Family language practice can be significantly influenced by social, historical, and political contexts, especially in immigrant households where a society's minority languages are used. Set in a large city in Japan, this study examines how institutional power can affect Filipino mothers' language use at home. Drawing from the cultural historical activity theory, this study examines both individual and collective discourses. After conducting individual interviews, participants and I collectively engaged in workshops, the topics of which included child–parent communications at home, experiences of Japanese schools, and multilingual development. Interactions during the workshops revealed the characteristics of the collective discourse to mitigate the repercussion from the dominant ideology and indicated participants' heightened awareness toward a supportive parental community. The findings also highlight the paradoxical role of English for Filipino women in Japanese society. English served as a resource to empower these women, but its economic and political power also hindered them from using their first languages at home. This study highlights the institutional power affecting Filipino mothers' language use and suggests the significance of cultivating a supportive parental community.

Getting over Europe: the construction of Europe in Serbian culture, by Zoran Milutinović, Amsterdam, Rodopi, 2011, 290 pp., US$70.20 (paperback), ISBN 978–9042032712

Zoran Milutinovi? sets out to inquire the ways in which “Europe” (or the many social imaginations of that name) was constructed “in Serbian culture, in the selected writings of leading writers and intellectuals between two world wars” (p. 9). Partly anchored in imagology, the study follows manners and practices of expression and transmission of social perceptions and images in literary discourses. Through cross- cultural contrasting, interpretations and analyses of primary texts, the book offers a thick and captivating snapshot of entangled intimate, personal and collective discourses of Europe. It examines wider transnational and more “local” Balkan and Serbian imaginations of Europe and of its purported zeitgeist throughout the historical crises and transformations following the “Great War” (1914-1918). The book’s nine analytical chapters delve into the discourses of key (predominantly) Serbian writers and public intellectuals between the two world wars – from Isidora Sekulic? and Jovan Skerlic? to Milos? Crnjanski, Ivo Andric? and others. In engaging with the discursive dynamics of identity construction between their personalities, their national-ethnic collectivities, multi-layered social roles and their intimate “Europes”, Milutinovic? distills themes that according to him underwrite and partly tie together the “European” and “Western” narratives of the different authors. His analysis unfolds as highly accessible to wider audiences beyond the confines of academia. It reads as an intimate dissection of original texts in ways that invariably raise questions about the cognitive and emotive structures shaping collective and individual imaginations of Europe in Serbia. This review will inspect in more depth three particular aspects of Milutinovic?’s narrative: the manner of his interpretation and analysis of primary discourses, the unique and hybrid genre of the text, as well as its sociological focus.

Violencia urbana y subjetividades victimizantes: sentidos y experiencias organizativas de las víctimas de la inseguridad en Argentina

In Latin America, the urban violence process introduced new modes to narrate the victimization experiences. In security's societies, subjectivities are reconfigured. Also, individual and collective discourses, and political practices, are redefined. This paper reflects about the discourses of organized groups of insecurity's victims in Argentina. Does the individual experience define the subjectivity? To be familiar of a victim sets the parameters from which the experience could be explained? Is the experience structured by preexisting concepts? From a series of interviews with relatives of victims of insecurity, this article reflects on the experiences of the collective subject produced by the urban violence. This investigation proposed a typology with five kinds of intervention vocabularies produced by organized groups of insecurity's victims: topical groups, categorical groups, local groups, manzaneros and minimum groups.

A EDUCAÇÃO A DISTÂNCIA COMO OPORTUNIDADE DE FORMAÇÃO PROFISSIONAL E TECNOLÓGICA

Certain questions surrounding the provision of professional and technological distance education lead us to reflect on the current reality in technical training. This research is situated within the context of two onsite polarities. Firstly, we asked the respective online education coordinators about the Brazilian Red e-Tec program. Secondly, we looked at the technical courses that are being offered by IFSul/CaVG. By means of the Collective Subject Discourse methodology, it was possible to provide a dialogue between the course coordinators and the theorists, which is used as the foundation of this study. Collective discourse highlights the importance of professional qualifications to improve the quality of life or the economic /social development of municipalities. Within this rubric, it also considers the acceptance of distance education as an opportunity for students, namely those who are not located near regular schooling facilities.

Percepção de idosos sobre grupo de convivência: estudo na cidade de Cajazeiras-PB

Objetivo: investigar percepções de idosos sobre grupos de convivência. Método: estudo exploratório, com abordagem qualitativa, realizado em seis grupos de convivência da cidade de Cajazeiras-PB, Brasil, no período de setembro a outubro de 2010, utilizando a técnica de discurso do sujeito coletivo. Resultados: dos 60 participantes deste estudo, 48 (80%) eram mulheres, 21 (35%) tinham entre 65 e 69 anos, 30 (50%) eram viúvos, 46 (77%) aposentados, 32 (53%) não concluíram o ensino fundamental, 40 (67%) moravam acompanhados de familiares, 25 (42%) tinham entre seis e dez anos de participação nos grupos, 33 (55%) participavam espontaneamente e 30 (50%) apontaram a dança como a melhor atividade desenvolvida no grupo. Diante dos questionamentos, foram obtidas as ideias centrais e os discursos coletivos representados por três temas: razões/motivos para idosos buscarem grupos de convivência; importância dos encontros com o grupo para os idosos; mudanças ocorridas na vida após o ingresso no grupo. Dos temas, foram extraídas as ideias centrais: solidão, lazer, convivência, liberdade, mudou tudo, vontade de viver. Conclusão: Os grupos proporcionam ganhos para os idosos, sinalizando entre estes o direito de envelhecer com dignidade e melhorando a qualidade de vida.

Usûl al-Fiqh antara Ahl al-Hadîth dan Ahl al-Ra’y

If there is any notion in which Islam is seriously concerned with more than anything else, it is the notion of freedom of expression. No doubt, Islam has recognized this and has even institutionalized it in the form of what popularly known as ijtihad. Rational exercise is the main trait of this institution, in which a mujtahid would employ a certain method to come up with whatever result he/she has discovered on certain legal issues. In the meantime, the science in which ijtihad is commonly used is called the science of Usûl al-Fiqh. This science also provides the guidelines on how intellectual exercise should be carried out. This paper is interested in exploring further this notion of ijtihad within the framework of evolutionist thinking. It assumes that the product of ijtihad, commonly called fiqh, has evolved from being an individual opinion, to become a collective discourse then to a religious dogma. Hence, the paper argues that while ijtihad is a precious gift, it is wrongly misappropriated by certain religious authorities to produce dogmas that can jeopardize the opposing views.