Critical Frame Research Articles

How Economically-Marginalized Adolescents of Color Negotiate Critical Pedagogy in a Computing Classroom

Background & Context: With the growing movement to adopt critical framings of computing, scholars have worked to reframe computing education from the narrow development of programming skills to skills in identifying and resisting oppressive structures in computing. However, we have little guidance on how these framings may manifest in classroom practice. Objectives: To better understand the processes and practice of critical pedagogy in a computing classrooms, we taught a critically conscious computing elective within a summer academic program at a northwest United States university targeted at secondary students (ages 14-18) from low-income backgrounds and would be the first in their families to pursue a postsecondary education (i.e. first-generation). We investigated: (1) our participants’ initial perceptions of and attitudes toward the benefits and perils of computing, and (2) potential tensions that might emerge when secondary students negotiate the integration of critical pedagogy in a computing classroom. Methods: We qualitatively coded participant work from a critically conscious computing course within a summer academic program in the United States focused on students from low-income backgrounds or would be the first in their family to pursue a post-secondary education. Findings: Our participants’ initial attitudes towards technology were mostly positive, but exhibited an awareness of its negative impacts on their lives and society. Throughout the course, while participants demonstrated a rich social consciousness around technology, they faced challenges in addressing hegemonic values embedded in their programs, designs, and other classwork. Implications: Our findings revealed tensions between our participants’ computing attitudes, knowledge, self-efficacy, and social consciousness, suggesting pathways for scaffolding the critical examination of technology in secondary education. This study provides insights into the pedagogical content knowledge necessary for critical computing education.

A simplified procedure for seismic collapse probability assessment of RC frame buildings

AbstractThis paper presents a procedure for simplified collapse probability prediction of RC frame buildings when subjected to ground motion intensities commonly used in designing buildings. For this purpose, seismic collapse probability of a range of RC moment resisting frame buildings are assessed at the design basis earthquake (DBE) and the maximum considered earthquake (MCE) levels of seismic intensity by conducting more than a thousand nonlinear response history analyses (NRHA) using a suite of 40 seismic ground motion records. The 13 buildings included in the investigation have different heights (5–15 storeys) and footprints (3–6 bays), are designed to different target maximum inter‐storey drifts (within the code specified limit), and have critical members detailed to sustain different levels of confinement and anti‐buckling demands. The NRHA results consistently demonstrate that the design inter‐storey drift and the anti‐buckling detailing of longitudinal rebars in the critical frame members strongly influence the collapse probability of RC frame buildings. The results also show that while RC frame buildings designed to reach 2.5% (or less) inter‐storey drifts and detailed for ductile seismic performance can successfully avoid collapse at DBE, avoidance of collapse at DBE cannot be guaranteed if RC frames are designed to reach a target drift of more than 2% and not detailed for full ductility. At MCE, collapse probability is found to consistently exceed 10% unless the building is designed to incur no more than 1% plastic drift and the frame members have ductile detailing. Based on the NRHA results of the 13 case study buildings, easy‐to‐use equations relating their seismic collapse probability at MCE with the design drift and a quantifiable measure of ductile detailing are generated and validated by comparing with the collapse probability obtained by NRHA of an independent RC frame building. The proposed equations provide a rapid, yet reasonably reliable tool for performance‐based seismic design of RC frame buildings, and enable designers to estimate seismic collapse probability of RC frame buildings without having to conduct cumbersome NRHA.

Orthodox activism as perceived by the population of the region: main frames

The article presents the results of a qualitative sociological study of Orthodox social activism and its social consequences, undertaken by the authors within the framework of the research project "Social Projects of the Russian Orthodox Church". An analysis of the mutual perception of Orthodox activists and the rest of the population of the region in terms of the implementation of Orthodox social initiatives allows us to identify four main frames of perception depending on the degree of awareness of secular subjects about their activities and attitudes towards interaction or avoidance of it: partnership, client, stereotyping and critical. The partnership frame is characterised by varying degrees of interest of permanent and situational (episodic) partners, the client frame is characterised by the perception of Orthodox charities and aid groups as substitutes for state institutions of social protection or education and the predominant disregard for their religious specificity. Stereotyping and critical frames, based on the attitude of distancing oneself from interaction with Orthodox activists and differing depending on the degree of awareness of their activities, can be considered as forms of negative self-identification of the non-church or weakly churched part of the regional society of their secular subjectivity in relation to Orthodox activists as bearers of alternative values ​​and lifestyle. The stereotyping frame is characteristic of citizens who are not aware of the extra-religious activities of activists (including both non-believers and believers who identify themselves as Orthodox), the critical frame is characteristic of disappointed activists. As a limitation for the institutionalisation of Orthodox social activity, the authors highlight the negative attitude of potential volunteers and activists to the installation of their churching as subordination to religious activity. The tendency to adopt Orthodox family values ​​and lifestyle is characteristic only of some employees of partner state organisations whose job responsibilities are related to the implementation of a social project to increase the birth rate. In general, the attitude to Orthodox initiatives of non-churched or weakly churched clients, partners, potential or former activists is characterised by a focus on separating religious and social activity and a lack of readiness to submit to religious discipline in the non-religious sphere.

A Critical Framing of Data for Development: Historicizing Data Relations and AI

A Critical Framing of Data for Development: Historicizing Data Relations and AI

Crossing the wicked frontier. Why sustainability science needs integrative research

Integrative research approaches have lost prominence in the scientific literature, and related concepts of ‘wicked problems’ and ‘post-normal science’ complement but do not adequately replace them. From a detailed examination of the foundational literature, three key principles are shown to be central to integrative research: (i) the knowledge cycle; (ii) representativeness and participation; and (iii) knowledge exchange mechanisms at the science–policy interface. As an example of the importance of the integrative research framework in the context of policy-relevant science, it is argued that the shortcomings of current climate change mitigation efforts arise from inappropriately ‘closing down’ the science–policy interface and focusing on a few narrow options acceptable to powerful stakeholders. This can lead to what is described as an ‘ascientific’ ratchet effect, where the knowledge cycle just loops endlessly between technology and capital, and science as a public good is excluded. An integrative research approach can ‘open up’ discourse to new ideas and actors and restore the iterative links between science–policy mechanisms. A theoretical framework is proposed in which the three concepts ‘wicked problems’, ‘post-normal science’ and ‘integrative research’ are nested together. Integrative research is a way to address wicked problems, sitting within the critical framing of post-normal science.

A complementary approach to Critical Frame Analysis and ‘what is the Problem represented to Be?’

ABSTRACT Critical Frame Analysis (CFA) is a method for analyzing policy framing by excavating rhetorical meaning. In contrast, ‘What is the Problem Represented to Be?’ (WPR) is a method for critiquing common assumptions underpinning public policy by questioning unexamined knowledges. CFA is constructivist WPR is constructionist. Can two policy methods from different research paradigms be used in tandem? Scholars do not agree if this is possible; those who do say little about why and how to do it. I argue that although CFA and WPR have distinct metatheoretical foundations, process-oriented researchers doing single case and small n studies can use both in tandem to produce more rigorous, critical scholarship. I explain why using them in a complementary fashion is not only possible but also desirable and illustrate how to do it by drawing on examples from three dissimilar policy debates about controversial gender practices like veiling.

Verbal behavior and the future of social science.

Natural language processing (NLP)-previously the domain of a select few language and computer scientists-is undergoing an unprecedented surge in popularity across disciplines. The ubiquity of language data, alongside extremely rapid methodological innovations, has magnetized the field, attracting researchers with the promise of measuring, forecasting, and understanding the most central questions in business, psychology, biology, sociology, the humanities, and beyond. The power of language analysis to reveal insights into human thought, feeling, and behavior has become a core interest emerging from recent technological advances, which are being probed to unearth deeply embedded truths about the human condition. However, NLP research has reached a critical juncture, sitting at the cusp of societal transformation in many aspects of daily life. The details of how NLP research develops over the next 3-5 years will define this transformation. In this emerging, near-infinite space of NLP-driven research, we provide a critical frame of reference for how, when, and why these technologies should evolve in a particularly transdisciplinary manner. Specifically, we discuss (a) the urgency of pairing existing and emerging NLP research with existing scientific knowledge, theory, and principles from the behavioral sciences; (b) the coevolution of NLP technologies; and (c) the practical implications and ethical consequences of expanding language analysis using broader psychosocial theories of the human condition. While our discussion focuses principally on using language as a window in the individual mind, this topic holds substantial implications for other disciplines and lines of inquiry, including the dynamics of social interaction and beyond. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2024 APA, all rights reserved).

Blockchain-based Pipeline Custody System (BPCS) for Preserving Critical Video Evidence

<p>The explosive development of network technology has driven the evolution of civilization, leading to the higher crime rate. Hence, CCTV cameras have been widely deployed to monitor criminal behaviors. The video of CCTV is considered as significant digital evidence. Due to the property of digital data, it is easily to copy and modify without electronic footprint, unlike the physical records. In case, the law enforcement starts to employ the blockchain technique due to its advantages, decentralization, transparency, and traceability, which can improve the legal effect. Unfortunately, blockchain network produces the tremendous overhead when it processes the data preservation based on the distributed communication. Thus, the gap and burden of data synchronization are the derivative issues. In order to solve the above problems, we aim to realize a blockchain-based pipeline custody system, so-called BPCS. The critical frame determination (CFD) technique is designed to catch the potential evidence image from the monitor, which is able to mitigate the storage cost of blockchain. Especially, the pipeline and directional ring strategy is proposed to aggregate the potential evidence in a batch file. This can reduce the burden on the chain of custody and shorten the time gap. The experimental results have demonstrated that BPCS can firmly possess the features of credibility and efficient through the comparisons and storage simulation.</p> <p> </p>

The European Union-Intersectionality Framework: Unpacking Intersectionality in the ‘Union of Equality’ Agenda

In recent years, the concept of intersectionality has gained significant prominence in the policy discourse of the European Union (EU). However, several scholars have noted a lack of engagement with intersectionality’s core social justice principles and stressed the need to carefully examine how intersectionality is taken up in EU policy. To contribute to this effort, the authors propose a new ‘EU-Intersectionality’ framework to analyse intersectionality in EU policy, combining elements of Critical Frame Analysis and identifying eight core criteria to operationalize intersectionality in EU policy texts and leverage its politically emancipatory potential. The resulting framework sheds light on how intersectionality has fared within EU policy contexts. Specifically, it asks which dimensions of intersectionality are captured, and which elements are left behind. We illustrate the framework by analysing the EU’s ‘Union of Equality’ strategies on anti-racism; gender equality; lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, intersex and queer equality; Roma equality and the rights of persons with disabilities. We conclude that the EU-Intersectionality framework allows to dissect the varied and conflicting ways in which intersectionality is operationalized within EU policies – while some aspects of the ‘Union of Equality’ agenda resonate with the social justice aims behind the concept, the use of intersectionality remains superficial and largely maintains the status quo. Our findings caution against the co-optation of intersectionality in EU policymaking, while recognising the progressive advancements made within the EU equality policy area.

Online Real-Time Monitoring System of A Structural Steel Railway Bridge Using Wireless Smart Sensors

In the transportation network, railway bridges are crucial for the transfer of both passengers and commodities. Railway bridges require continuous monitoring to observe their performance. A structural health monitoring system is one method for assessing the viability of a railway bridge structure. The functioning of railroad bridge structures has been extensively observed using wireless technology. This research aims to implement smart wireless sensors for monitoring the structural health of the railway bridge online in real-time during operation. Many sensor kinds were installed on the railway bridge, including strain gauges, accelerometers, linear variable displacement transducers, and proximity sensors. Geometric modeling and numerical simulation were performed to find critical frame locations on the railway bridge where the instrumentation sensors would be placed. In this study, MONITA® is employed for data acquisition modules. The MONITA® system consists of a combination of hardware and software that functions to retrieve, send, store, and process data. This paper describes the result of the establishment of this method to comprehend the performance of the steel railway bridge structure in real-time via the human-machine interface display dashboard. As a result, the monitoring system can appropriately be used to assess a structural railway bridge in real-time. This study may be helpful to practicing engineers and researchers in future studies of steel railway bridge evaluation. This could be a useful reference for future studies in implementing such systems as the railway bridge early warning system technique in detecting bridge damage.

The Poetic Logic of Panism: An Idealistic Reading of Gabriele D’Annunzio’s Alcyone

ABSTRACT In the 1970s, an influential Italian critic, Emilio Mariano, wrote that Gabriele D’Annunzio’s poetics ‘moves on a terrain of Neo-Idealism’. At that time, Mariano had already employed some excerpts from Giovanni Gentile’s works to interpret D’Annunzio’s poetics in his monograph Sentimento del vivere. In an academic environment that has tended to separate literature and philosophy as areas of inquiry, Mariano’s thesis received little further investigation by Italian critics. My article interprets D’Annunzio’s Alcyone through the critical frame of Gentile’s philosophy: actualism. The final goal of the article is to demonstrate that the poetics of panism, which is central in Alcyone, gives shape to some of actualism’s major tropes: the belief that reality is inseparable from the act of consciousness; the will to allow artistic activity to continue the creative work of nature; the idea that the immanence of spirit and matter is never accomplished permanently but rather continues endlessly.

Entanglements of feminist activism and gender equality policy in the Spanish and Swedish film industries: between convergence and critique

ABSTRACT This article compares entanglements between activist demands and policy in the Spanish and Swedish film industries using a critical frames approach. Considering contextual factors such as domestic discourse on film policy and resistance against gender equality, the comparison is based on deep insider knowledge aiming to deepen the understanding of feminist activism and its relation to policy in the two countries. In both Spain and Sweden, activists have demanded equality in the film sector since the seventies. Today, both countries feature gender equality measures and vivid feminist organizations. Based on current equality policies, reports from the Swedish and Spanish Film Institutes, documents from feminist filmmakers’ associations and interviews with activists, the article shows that feminist activists oscillate between strategically converging their demands to policy and criticizing reforms. Furthermore, policy echoes activists’ arguments but are less informed by ideas about structural inequalities. Activists in both Spain and Sweden stand up for the gender equality measures which have been implemented, but the Spanish activists are more prone to simultaneously voice criticism against the reforms..

Development trend of the application of image recognition technology in the process of sports training

Abstract In the realm of sports training, the role of accurate image recognition is increasingly crucial for the effective correction of athletic movements. This research paper delves into the application of image recognition technologies to analyze sports training actions. Initial steps include the enhancement of image quality by filtering and sharpening images captured at a sports academy. Advanced techniques such as target detection algorithms and critical frame extraction are then applied to these refined images. Evaluations conducted on the KTH and UCF Sports action datasets reveal an average recognition rate of 88%, with further breakdowns indicating lower performance in activities like walking, jogging, and fast running in the KTH dataset. In contrast, uniform recognition results are observed in the UCF dataset with an average rate of 89.2% across various actions. The findings underscore the effectiveness of image recognition in improving sports training methodologies.

INCORPORATING MULTILITERACY PEDAGOGY ELEMENTS INTO EFL SPEAKING CLASS THROUGH DIGITAL STORYTELLING

In a globalised world where cross-cultural communication is becoming increasingly
 important, the ability to communicate effectively in various contexts through spoken
 language is crucial. Multiliteracy enables individuals to communicate effectively and
 confidently in a variety of contexts, both within their own culture and across cultures.
 Digital storytelling utilises diverse modes of communication, promotes creativity and
 global communication, and integrates technology in the learning process, making it a
 valuable tool for multiliteracy pedagogy. Thus, the study aims to show how multiliteracy
 pedagogy elements are incorporated into English as a Foreign Language speaking class
 through digital storytelling. This is a pilot study in which thematic analysis is used to find
 the themes within four knowledge processes of multiliteracy pedagogy in digital
 storytelling activity. The findings show that through experience, the students can practise
 speaking in an authentic context, develop their language skills through conceptualising
 and analysing their stories, and receive feedback from peers and teachers. Therefore,
 digital storytelling achieves the purpose of representing all four elements of multiliteracy
 pedagogy, namely, situated practice, overt instruction, critical framing, and transformed
 practice which facilitate the growth of speaking proficiency.

Transphobic Truth Markets: Comparing Trans-hostile Discourses in British Trans-exclusionary Radical Feminist and US Right-wing Movements

British “Trans-Exclusionary Radical Feminist” (TERF) discourse has often been contextualised in fringe radical feminist thought, but its similarities to and alliances with right-wing trans-exclusionary movements in the US are notable (McClean, 2020). To understand the place of TERF discourse in an international wave of trans-hostility, it is necessary to understand how it converges with and differs from explicitly conservative counterparts. I place TERF discourse in comparison to trans-exclusionary discourses of the American Right (AR) using a Critical Frame Analysis, investigating the extent of shared themes and the role of ontological discourses across cases. I find that TERF and AR discourses converge heavily on frames and have a shared ontology, but draw on different repertoires to bolster their claims. Combining Harsin’s (2014) truth markets and Smith’s (1995) ideological code theory, I show how an ideological-code-like structure demonises and ontologically delegitimises trans people, demonstrating how reactionary frames can be granted cross-ideological appeal.

Borderless fear?

Abstract Studies have highlighted differences between right-wing populism in Western and Central Eastern Europe but suggested that discourses have been converging since the so-called “refugee crisis” in 2015. This article examines this claim by focusing on right-wing populist frames and affective communication on migration in Austria and Slovenia. Taking a communication-centred approach, the study is based on a critical frame analysis of 70 speeches from far-right to centre-right parties in parliamentary debates on migration between 2015 and 2019. The results show that right-wing populist discourses in the two adjacent countries have aligned in appealing to affects, particularly to fear and in framing migration as a threat to security and culture. Despite differences in mobilizing affects, the findings indicate a mutual alignment of right-wing populism beyond borders, signalling a potential risk of a broader right-wing populist bloc unified by fear of migration.

Enhancing robustness in video recognition models: Sparse adversarial attacks and beyond

Recent years have witnessed increasing interest in adversarial attacks on images, while adversarial video attacks have seldom been explored. In this paper, we propose a sparse adversarial attack strategy on videos (DeepSAVA). Our model aims to add a small human-imperceptible perturbation to the key frame of the input video to fool the classifiers. To carry out an effective attack that mirrors real-world scenarios, our algorithm integrates spatial transformation perturbations into the frame. Instead of using the lp norm to gauge the disparity between the perturbed frame and the original frame, we employ the structural similarity index (SSIM), which has been established as a more suitable metric for quantifying image alterations resulting from spatial perturbations. We employ a unified optimisation framework to combine spatial transformation with additive perturbation, thereby attaining a more potent attack. We design an effective and novel optimisation scheme that alternatively utilises Bayesian Optimisation (BO) to identify the most critical frame in a video and stochastic gradient descent (SGD) based optimisation to produce both additive and spatial-transformed perturbations. Doing so enables DeepSAVA to perform a very sparse attack on videos for maintaining human imperceptibility while still achieving state-of-the-art performance in terms of both attack success rate and adversarial transferability. Furthermore, built upon the strong perturbations produced by DeepSAVA, we design a novel adversarial training framework to improve the robustness of video classification models. Our intensive experiments on various types of deep neural networks and video datasets confirm the superiority of DeepSAVA in terms of attacking performance and efficiency. When compared to the baseline techniques, DeepSAVA exhibits the highest level of performance in generating adversarial videos for three distinct video classifiers. Remarkably, it achieves an impressive fooling rate ranging from 99.5% to 100% for the I3D model, with the perturbation of just a single frame. Additionally, DeepSAVA demonstrates favourable transferability across various time series models. The proposed adversarial training strategy is also empirically demonstrated with better performance on training robust video classifiers compared with the state-of-the-art adversarial training with projected gradient descent (PGD) adversary.

Climate Change as Represented in Corporate Social Responsibility Reports of American and Chinese Energy Giants: A Critical Frame Analysis Perspective

Adopting a critical frame analysis perspective, this study investigates how American and Chinese energy giants represent and frame climate change in their corporate social responsibility reports, and reveals the respective underlying motivations and ideologies. The results show that the eight energy giants all recognized climate change, barely diagnosed its causes, slightly interpreted its impacts, but placed heavy emphasis on their solutions. They divert responsibility and criticism, through representing themselves as a victim and solver rather than a contributor. The frames identified in both corpora include Emission Management frame, Techno-optimism frame, Countermeasures frame, and Stakeholder Engagement frame, with common and distinct characteristics across the two corpora. The analysis of representations and frames exposes shared motivations such as greenwashing, legitimacy, and stakeholder engagement. However, these motivations indicate distinct ideologies, with American energy giants’ ideological denial, a subtle form of climate denialism, and Chinese energy giants’ green growth ideology, striving for a green, low-carbon development while reducing emissions.

Securing development: Uneven geographies of coastal tourism development in El Salvador

Over the last ten years, El Salvador has emerged as a popular coastal tourist destination known for its beautiful beaches and world-renowned surf. Riding this wave, the government, international donors, and investors have championed tourism as a strategy to alleviate poverty, promote sustainable development, and address the country’s long-standing migration and security crises. Yet, while tourism has brought novel economic opportunities to coastal communities, it has also increased pressures on local people, land, and resources, as well as complicated gang-state security dynamics in complex ways. This paper contributes to geographic scholarship on tourism in the Global South by examining the uneven social and environmental impacts of tourism development on rural coastal communities in El Salvador. I use a mix of ethnographic and survey methods to analyze socio-spatial reconfigurations in livelihoods, land and resource access, and the securitization of space in a case study site from the country’s rapidly touristifying western coast. The results find that inequalities are produced through development-driven processes of socioeconomic and resource stratification between mostly affluent, White foreigners and domestic elites and poor Salvadoran residents. The benefits of job growth in tourism-related sectors are largely undermined by the loss of access to land, economic power, and community identity through the foreignization of space. These impacts are compounded by uneven geographies of securitization, which protect wealthy tourist spaces while exposing poor rural residents to both gang and state-sponsored violence. Advancing a critical framing of tourism (in)securities, the paper argues that rather than promoting sustainable development, tourism contributes to the insecurity and unsustainability of life for many poor rural residents, reinforcing rather than reducing incentives to migrate. By highlighting the socio-spatial production of inequalities in the context of tourism, the research calls for policies ensuring more just and inclusive tourism development in El Salvador and other Global South destinations.

How learning development and learning design can inform each other: reflections and discussion points

Learning Development and Learning Design have contributed to the transformation of higher education (HE) over recent decades, in the move towards a learner-centred approach in HE. While Learning Design is still somewhat ill-defined and emergent, practice has quickly gained traction since the Covid-19 pandemic, and it is now generally well embedded into academic training and institutional terminology (JISC, 2022). What does the intersection of these two ‘learning’ fields look like, and how could existing collaboration be strengthened for the benefit of learners? This poster aimed to promote discussion on the topic. The poster briefly summarises the history of Learning Design and explores commonalities in the two fields such as an interest in universal design, a focus on empathy, inclusivity, and active learning approaches. Then it explores the limits of Learning Design and gives examples of ways in which the author’s practice as a Learning Designer is strongly influenced by Learning Development. In particular, it discusses how Learning Development values, as laid out by ALDinHE provide a grounding for the author, and how the substantial body of work in Academic Literacies (Lillis, 2019) provides a critical framing for working with academic teams when exploring issues of belonging, identity and student learning within Learning Design. Finally, it explores how roles intersect, how practitioners from the two fields do (and could) work together, for example, to collectively deepen understanding about the learning experience and improve co-creation with students. It also outlines what adopting a strong ‘design’ approach could offer the Learning Development community.