Human Discourse Research Articles

“I didn’t go into medicine just to be on the phone”: Emotional Expression as Sacrosanct During Derious Illness Patient-Physician Advanced Cancer Care Communication During the COVID-19 Pandemic

ABSTRACT Guided by communication accommodation theory, we studied 27 physician reports of patient-physician advanced cancer communication during the COVID-19 pandemic. Advanced cancer communication requires recognizing patients’ psychosocial states and collaboratively engaging patients empathetically to develop the shared understanding necessary to guide decision-making. However, physicians found their communication underaccommodated, stemming from personal protection equipment, social distancing, and telemedicine. Based on provider perspectives, our study identified that during advanced cancer communication, emotional expression was critical for reflecting care and concern to patients, and discourse management was central to showing interest and engagement to patients by their providers. The failure to convey emotional expression to patients meant rapport-building cues were missing, impeding discourse management when navigating difficult conversations about prognosis and end-of-life care. Despite efforts to adjust emotional expression and discourse management during the pandemic to address the needs of their patients, providers were dissatisfied with their communication outcomes. Physicians struggled to relay verbal and nonverbal emotional expressions effectively, supportively, and compassionately to patients when breaking bad news during advanced cancer communication, resulting in a profound source of moral and emotional distress.

Intelligent summaries: Will Artificial Intelligence mark the finale for biomedical literature reviews?

Key points LLM has attained generative capabilities similar to human discourse and can effectively summarize documents and extract information from texts. The development of R.A.G. systems will soon make these systems capable to browse databases such as MEDLINE and extract knowledge, creating summaries of the literature. These summaries may soon reach a point where they are equivalent to current reviews of the literature, possibly making them irrelevant. The availability of automated summaries of the literature may raise the bar of what is still worth publishing. Literature reviews may have to capitalize on human imagination, creativity and abstraction capabilities to survive the A.I. revolution.

Using Generative Artificial Intelligence in Medical Education.

Large Language Models (LLMs) are a type of generative artificial intelligence (AI) that produce realistic-sounding language in response to text prompts, giving AI the capability to simulate human discourse in various domains, including medical education.1 The pace of technological advancement is staggering, which comes with promise and peril. This Last Page summarizes some potential LLM uses in medical education.2 However, AI is rapidly advancing, and these uses will likely evolve as well.

Esej, czyli obelga dla współczesnego naukowca (?)

This article aims to present two complementary issues related to the contemporary perception and understanding of the essay. The first part explores various definitions of the term “essay.” As a distinct form of discourse and a separate literary genre, the essay has been the subject of extensive literature (relevant to both general literary studies and Polish studies). Despite sustained scholarly interest over a long period, there has been a noticeable decline in linguistic precision among those frequently using the term “essay” in modern Polish language. As a result, the word has become either meaningless (as nearly any text is labeled this way) or is associated with lower-quality, non-scholarly writing. The second issue addresses the current variations of essays being written today. It is easy to observe tendencies that blur the line between essays, literary columns, or fragments of autobiographical writing. These variations reflect a broader trend (or fashion) within contemporary humanistic discourse.

Institutional Trading and Managers' Complex Disclosure: Evidence From Conference Calls

ABSTRACTThis study investigates the impact of managerial linguistic disclosures on institutional trading behaviors during earnings conference calls from 2006 to 2016. Utilizing the linguistic Fog decomposition methodology on textual analysis, it analyzes how the linguistic complexity of managerial communication influences institutional ownership changes. Findings indicate that both obfuscation and informativeness of managerial discourse significantly affect institutional trading, with effects varying based on the informativeness of post‐call analyst reports. This impact is more pronounced under conditions of earnings quality uncertainty, suggesting a heightened reliance on managerial cues by institutional investors during such periods. Additionally, the study differentiates responses among investor types: transient investors are more sensitive to linguistic cues, while dedicated and quasi‐indexer investors focus on the informational content of disclosures. These insights enhance understanding of how managerial communication and analyst report informativeness shape institutional trading behaviors through linguistic complexity's influence on institutional ownership.

Effect of uncertainties in breach location and breach mechanisms on risk‐related classification of off‐stream reservoirs

AbstractOff‐stream reservoirs are artificial water storage structures that increase the flood risk of an area. In some places, related risk reduction plans are based on a risk classification of these structures, which follows local water resource management regulations. These classification methods typically follow deterministic qualitative guidelines that do not account for uncertainties. This study introduces a fourth‐step probabilistic approach that accounts for uncertainties related to simultaneous breach formation and breaking point location of off‐stream reservoirs, and proposes an alternative visualisation for their classification. The methodology is applied to a set of Spanish off‐stream reservoirs that are classified according to the Spanish normative. Results show that different breaking points and breach formations generate diverse classifications that can affect risk reduction plans. Additionally, we demonstrate that the proposed visualisation can be used for various purposes, including the case of the evolution of the categorisation in time, due to land use changes, which could be used by decision‐makers to understand which off‐stream reservoir requires a category update. These findings introduce a novel approach to managing uncertainties, which is crucial for developing resilient flood management strategies and contributes to the innovation discourse in flood risk management.

An assessment framework for digital participatory practices engaging youth in cultural heritage management

Digitalization offers opportunities for youth to engage in a wide range of digital-mediated civic activities, thereby fostering their digital citizenship. While embracing the potential of digital technologies, it is crucial to have a realistic understanding of the practical, ethical, and cultural considerations for implementing youth discourse in cultural heritage management and empowering youth initiatives in decision-making. Little research has focused on assessing youth digital participation in cultural heritage management for its impacts on fostering inclusivity, enhancing the levels of youth engagement, gauging the potential of digitalization, and facilitating youth initiatives. This paper fills the gap by developing an assessment framework for youth digital participation, comprising four criteria and thirty-five indicators. These indicators were validated through expert consultation and multivariate analysis and categorized into four groups based on their levels of priority. The framework provides detailed guidelines for applying these indicators across different phases of participation—envisioning, monitoring, and evaluating. Additionally, four recommendations derived from the framework provide suggestions on critical aspects of youth digital participation and guidelines to foster the impact of youth engagement in future participatory practices in cultural heritage management.

The Music Humanities Significance of the Standard Pitch 432Hz

This study focuses on the socio-cultural narrative reflected in the standard pitch of 432Hz, establishes an argument for representing the Semantic structure of music humanities, which is the practical line of humanities, and critically reflects on the main character of humanities that can be accepted as a general education text, which is the concept of humanities as an educational ideology. The purpose is to expand the framework of humanistic thinking based on and interpretive performance. Accordingly, in order to explore the historical trend of the concept of standard pitch, we attempted to analyze literature focusing on the pattern of pitch levels in Western society from the late 14th century to today and the discussion of political, social, and cultural aspects related to this in the 19th and 20th centuries. The major issues in the background of pitch standardization and the musical humanities implications of the historical identity of 432Hz were discussed. 432Hz expanded the horizon of the humanities discourse process on the communication value contained in cultural diversity and presented another possibility to converge on a musical humanities trajectory, which sheds light on the value of cultural solidarity through consilient thinking, thus contributing to social It provides a foundation for understanding that can be transferred to the terrain. Accordingly, this study embraces the humanistic message reflected in the history of pitch standardization to share musical humanistic reasons as practical humanities with society in general, and to expand the dimension of cultural literacy to another level by reexamining the social function of music. We hope that it will be accepted as a general educational text.

Does digitalization drive sustainable transformation in finance and accounting?

PurposeThis paper investigates the interplay among Finance-Accounting Digitalization (FAD), Advanced Finance-Accounting System (AFAS) and Accounting 2.0 and FinTech (AFT). It aims to elucidate how FAD impacts the adoption of AFAS, the evolution of AFT, and the ensuing sustainable evolution of finance and accounting practices.Design/methodology/approachA comprehensive survey was conducted from 2021 to 2023, involving 500 companies in Kosovo, spanning various sectors and sizes. The data were meticulously analyzed using SPSS and AMOS software, using structural equation modeling (SEM) to assess hypotheses, model fit and direct and indirect effects.FindingsSignificant relationships emerged between FAD, AFAS and AFT, highlighting the importance of computerized financial and accounting systems, the role of AFAS in achieving financial goals and the accessibility and adaptability of accounting data. In particular, the SEM analysis underscored a robust positive correlation between FAD and AFT, highlighting the transformative potential of digitalization. In addition, AFAS as a technological solution facilitates sustainability and operational efficiency. These findings provide crucial insights for future research and advocate for the use of digitalization to improve the efficiency of financial management.Research limitations/implicationsThe research is constrained by its focus on Kosovo’s companies, potentially limiting generalizability. Additionally, the study’s reliance on survey data might introduce response bias.Originality/valueThis research contributes to the literature by delineating the intricate relationships between FAD, AFAS and AFT, shedding light on their implications for financial and accounting practices. It underscores the transformative value of digitalization in these domains, offering novel perspectives for academic and managerial discourse.

Defining Unique Features of Discourse in Club of Funny and Inventive: A Study of Humor in KVN Performances

This article focuses on identifying the distinctive characteristics of discourse within the "Club of the Funny and Inventive" (Russ. KVN). The primary material for this study consists of team performances from the KVN television show. Attention is given to the challenge of defining the concept of discourse, along with a review of major approaches to its interpretation. It is demonstrated that humorous performances in KVN can be analyzed within the existing scientific paradigm as a communicative figure comprising three components: "reality – text – discourse," as well as being viewed as a specific communicative event. The authors examine the ontological characteristics of humor, highlighting its basis in contradiction and its sociocultural nature. Functions such as communication, socialization, identification, and differentiation facilitated by humor are described. The relevance of this research is underscored by the significance of KVN as a cultural phenomenon in shaping and developing humorous discourse as a whole. The article posits that KVN can be regarded as a distinct variety of humorous discourse due to its thematic and stylistic coherence. It is suggested that the specific characteristics and conditions governing KVN lead to the emergence of traits similar to those found in institutional discourse. The novelty of this study lies in articulating the antinomic characteristics of KVN discourse, concluding that their existence is intrinsically linked to the foundational contrast inherent in humor itself.

Linguistic accommodation strategies in Non-Arabic speaking doctors' interactions with patients in Saudi hospitals and its role in enhancing healthcare for them

From a sustainable development perspective in healthcare settings, the quality of communication between healthcare professionals and patients is crucial. The purpose of this exploratory descriptive analysis was to examine the communication strategies used by some non-Arabic speaking physicians in Saudi Arabia hospitals when communicating with their patients. Communication Accommodation Theory (CAT) was used as the framework for this study. Eight medical doctors were audiotaped, and the recordings were transcribed verbatim and coded by the researchers for the five a priori defined sociolinguistic communication adjustment strategies in CAT: 1) approximation; 2) interpretation; 3) discourse management 4) emotional; and 5) interpersonal strategies. The findings reveal that all doctors use convergence accommodation strategies. They focus mainly on approximation strategies where they pay great attention essentially to the quality of their language. It is recommended that this study be followed by a larger scale research.

Культура музейного соучастия как форма организации социальной консолидации

The article delves into the problem of social consolidation and the search for specific forms of its organization. Based on the experience of humanitarian scientific reflection and on the results obtained by other researchers, the author points out the complex and dynamic nature of various aspects of consolidation in each specific case, including in the sphere of cultural practices, museum activities and the culture of museum complicity, which are included in the problematic circle of discussion of the scientific article. The thesis is put forward that the most important form of organizing social consolidation is the culture of museum participation, which involves the creation of a certain museum product or service based on the joint activities of visitors, various communities and partners at certain stages of project implementation. It is emphasized that the analysis of scientific humanitarian discourse allows us to formulate a theoretical approach to understanding the relevance of studying the culture of museum participation as the most important form of consolidation, contributing to the cohesion of the local community in order to create favorable conditions for consolidation processes in culture.

Refugee Rights and International Law: Evaluating the Efficacy of Global Humanitarian Responses to Forced Displacement

The increasing scale of forced displacement due to conflict, persecution, and environmental crises has brought refugee rights to the forefront of global humanitarian discourse. This article critically examines the efficacy of international law in protecting refugee rights and assessing global responses to the growing refugee crisis. Through an analysis of key international legal frameworks, such as the 1951 Refugee Convention and the role of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), the study evaluates the adequacy of current policies in addressing the challenges faced by refugees. It highlights gaps in protection, such as unequal burden-sharing among nations, restricted access to asylum, and prolonged displacement in refugee camps. Case studies from various regions reveal how inconsistent application of international law undermines refugees’ access to fundamental rights, including safety, healthcare, and education. The article argues for stronger international cooperation, better policy implementation, and more robust legal mechanisms to ensure the protection of refugee rights. It concludes by offering recommendations for improving global humanitarian responses and creating more equitable and sustainable solutions for forced displacement.

Overcoming embarrassment in humorous narratives among Pakistani young men: A case study

This case study illustrates the use of humor support strategies by Pakistani young men in their conversation to overcome embarrassment and construct and maintain a humorous discursive frame. The present research draws on video recordings of Pakistani university young men’s conversation, analyzed using Hay’s framework of humor support strategies in relation to the pragmatic implicatures of full support. The findings reveal that laughter, overlaps, contributing more humor, repetition and contradicting self-deprecation are among the most prominent humor support strategies. These strategies not only indicate heightened involvement in the conversation but also serve to release the tension of being embarrassed. The study concludes that humor support is a coping strategy used by Pakistani young men for the release of the pressure of being in an awkward position and to open up space for the construction of humorous discourse.

Universalizing the particulars: neoliberalizing English language teaching (ELT) through outcome-based education (OBE)

Abstract Universities, once regarded as places for producing organic intellectuals and critical thinkers, now are targets of neoliberalism, where managerialist discourses and lexis are dominant in various forms. Students and teachers are transformed into entrepreneurs, consumers and customers through such discourse and lexis. As a neoliberal variant used in education today, outcome-based education (OBE) – focus of the present study – can be viewed as one such discursive attempt on the part of the universities with an aim to perpetuate neoliberal market rationality. Through in-depth semi-structured interviews with teachers at engineering universities in Pakistan, this study examines OBE-driven ELT pedagogy using Gramsci’s hegemony as a theoretical framework. We aimed to understand how OBE-based ELT tends to transform teachers’ subjectivities into neoliberal ‘selves’, the way it impacts pedagogy and learning of the English language, and how these subjectivities are resisted. It appears that OBE-based ELT circulates market logics in the ELT pedagogy and learning by viewing English language as a skill/commodity. Student learning and teachers’ pedagogical performance indicators are based on achievement of specific outcomes. Some teachers, however, argue that OBE-led ELT deprives them of their pedagogical experiences, freedom, and conceptualizations appropriate for their pedagogical approach. We therefore advocate de-centering and deconstructing neoliberal logics in pedagogy and suggest pedagogy of becoming, critical/dialogic language pedagogy and translanguaging as possible alternatives.

‘Start-Up Nation’: The Making and Performativity of an Empty Signifier

The article sheds light on the process of fabrication of a polysemous, ambiguous, and mocking French entrepreneurial expression – the ‘start-up nation’ – construed as an empty signifier. The fabrication of such empty signifiers in the discourses of entrepreneurship and management, what creates them and what they create, remains little explored questions. This article addresses the following question: how do repeated quotations of an empty signifier enable it to perform entrepreneurship? We trace the circulation of the expression from its first utterance in the political sphere by Emmanuel Macron, then French minister of the economy, through to the media and the scientific sphere, using a communicative analysis of Emmanuel Macron’s speeches (n = 4), press articles (n = 210) and academic productions (n = 30). We show the shifts in meaning and values that take place, in particular the way in which the ‘start-up nation’ takes on denunciatory and pejorative values, and is transformed from a political formula into a pejorative, decontextualized little phrase. Our results enrich the critical literature on management and entrepreneurship, particularly the analysis of the performativity of entrepreneurial discourse. By describing the manufacture of an empty signifier through its circulation in social space, the study reveals the counter-power potential of performativity. The results also highlight the surprising absence of an academic critical dimension.

Who Counts as Child? Using Child as Method and Fanon to Challenge Figurations of Childhood

Child as method is a critical and interdisciplinary approach interrogating figurations of childhood that engage, organize, justify (and perhaps even resist) sociopolitical processes. In this article, we start by presenting Child as method as a conceptual and methodological tool for critical research in childhood, education, and psychological studies and then show how it informed discussions of and about childhood in two different projects. The first concerns Legal Gender Recognition in the United Kingdom where a Child as method perspective highlights how the idea of developmentalism is embedded in figurations of childhood. This aligns with age conformities of “being more like adults than children,” while also showing how gender recognition and childhood have been built in opposition to each other. The second project mobilizes Child as method as a conceptual and methodological orientation to critically reflect on the role-played by age assessment practices in migration control in Greece. This highlights how “the child” becomes a trope within forced migration policies and practices, and how “childhood” performs a social condition in which children are represented as victims in state and humanitarian discourse. In doing so, this not only creates a “universalised” notion of childhood but also enacts epistemic violence. Indeed, these discourses mobilize action in the form of age assessment for those young people who do not look or perform like “real children,” establishing, in essence, who is and is not welcomed in the Western territory. The article ends by discussing Frantz Fanon as a critical childhood theorist. It depicts how Fanon’s contribution informs, conceptually and methodologically, the research analytic of Child as method. Together with Child as method, we put forward Fanon’s contribution to critical childhood studies while highlighting Fanon’s call for action from everyone, including children.

Climate risk maps as boundary objects for future forests

Climate change poses significant threats to ecosystems and biodiversity. Conventional management strategies often fall short, leading to uncertainties in addressing these challenges. Natural and environmental scientists play a crucial role by providing evidence-based guidance. Social science research, at the same time, highlights the complexity of transferring and applying knowledge across different social and professional groups and shows that further research is needed. Using a German case study, my research addresses this issue by examining the dynamics between predictive climate risk maps, intended as decision-support tool for forest management, the developing scientists, the receiving environmental managers and further political actors. Semi-structured qualitative interviews with representatives from these groups were conducted and analyzed, revealing that climate risk maps can function as predictive boundary objects, balancing flexibility and robustness. With their high level of visual and epistemic power, these maps generate knowledge tensions, facilitate interactions, and foster the implicit co-production of broader environmental management discourse. At the same time the maps are continuously contested, discussed, and updated through feedback, becoming themselves part of an ongoing informal co-productive process. This dual role creates ambiguity: they provide concrete answers to specific management related questions while highlighting simultaneously limitations that prompt more fundamental inquiries, driving an overall societal learning process. Hence, future efforts should enhance formal support for co-productive processes to ensure evidence-based advisory tools are scientifically robust, contextually adapted, and democratize knowledge dynamics through continuous dialogue, mutual learning, and integration of scientific as well as local knowledge.

Maida Herman Solomon (1891–1988): an invisible forerunner in the field of clinical social work

Purpose This paper aims (1) to create a sense of resonance with Maida Herman Solomon and her ideas, (2) to inspire a reconsideration of current management history (the unquestioned block box of dominant figures, dominant foci and dominant practices), (3) to bring Solomon’s contributions to clinical social work into present discourse in management and organizational studies and (4) to foster recognition for Solomon in her own field of social work, as forerunner in a developing profession. Guiding this study is the question: “What are Solomon’s key contributions and why is she overlooked?” Design/methodology/approach This paper features a novel methodology, ficto-feminism. The feminism in ficto-feminism is presented as ontology, epistemology, method and mode of writing. Ficto-feminism combines polemical (or prowoman writing) with aspects of collective biography, autoethnography and fictocriticism. As such, the paper contributes to the emerging feminist tradition of writing differently. The approach is an embodied and reflexive approach that engages with history to investigate the absence of women. Findings Maida Solomon was an educator, researcher, practitioner and advocate. Her contributions to the development and practice of clinical social work spanned over 60 years, and yet, she is little more than a footnote in the history of the field. Her contributions include authoring and implementing graduate programming, which continues to be the taken for granted training; penning some of the most seminal works and advancing theory; introducing academic and scientific approaches, which saw the field professionalize and adopt new standards; and helping to change the way that society thought about mental health and sexual health. A confluence of factors contributes to her marginalization and neglect: gender, ethnicity, the feminized field of social work and the stigmatized focus for her practice. Originality/value The paper combines assertive autobiographical and literary strategies to foreground an overlooked female leader in the field of clinical social work, namely, Maida Solomon. Drawing on biographical material, literature, media and archival material, this paper features a fictional but truthful conversation between the present-day author/writer/historian and the posthumous, historical protagonist (Maida Solomon). In so doing, the engagement with history is both one that deconstructs while reconstructing a historical account with both aesthetic and political implications.

The representation of sub-Saharan African migrants in the Tunisian written media: a corpus-assisted critical discourse analysis

ABSTRACT While the topic of migrant representation in media discourse has been extensively researched, a significant portion of scholarly attention is concentrated on Western media. This focus leaves a considerable gap in the study of media representations in transitional countries, particularly North African nations like Tunisia. This topic assumes greater significance in light of the recent surge in xenophobia towards sub-Saharan African migrants in the country – a movement partly instigated by President Kais Saied's anti-immigrant rhetoric. Utilising Corpus-Assisted Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA), this paper examines the discursive representations of sub-Saharan African migrants in Tunisian written media discourse, focusing on the 2022 and 2023 anti-migrant wave in Tunisia under the presidency of Kais Saied. The research findings reveal that while a glimpse of a humanitarian discourse was evident, the majority of the discourse was characterised either by biased neutrality or explicit prejudice. The research indicates a predominantly negative representation, categorising migrants as invaders, security threats, economic burdens, and moral hazards. Significantly, much of the discourse echoes the political anti-immigrant policy, suggesting a potential media alignment with the emerging authoritarian tendencies in Tunisia. This alignment harbours damaging implications for the safety and well-being of the migrant community, as well as for the overall human rights and democratisation process in the country.