Exploratory Critique Research Articles

The Researcher as Storyteller

This article offers a first exploratory critique of digital tools' socio-technical affordances in terms of support for narrative creation by media researchers. More specifically, we reflect on narrative creation processes of research, writing and story composition by Media Studies and Humanities scholars, as well as media professionals, working with crossmedia and audio-visual sources, and the pivotal ways in which digital tools inform these processes of search and storytelling. Our study proposes to add to the existing body of user-centred Digital Humanities research by presenting the insights of a cross-disciplinary user study. This involves, broadly speaking, researchers studying audio-visual materials in a co-creative design process, set to fine-tune and further develop a digital tool (technically based on linked open data) that supports audio-visual research through exploratory search. This article focuses on how 89 researchers – in both academic and professional research settings – use digital search technologies in their daily work practices to discover and explore (crossmedia, digital) audio-visual archival sources, especially when studying mediated and historical events. We focus on three user types, (1) Media Studies researchers; (2) Humanities researchers that use digitized audio-visual materials as a source for research, and (3) media professionals who need to retrieve materials for audio-visual text productions, including journalists, television/image researchers, documentalists, documentary filmmakers, digital storytellers, and media innovation experts. Our study primarily provides insights into the search, retrieval and narrative creation practices of these user groups. A user study such as this which combines different qualitative methods (focus groups with co-creative design sessions, research diaries, questionnaires), first, affords fine-grained insights. Second, it demonstrates the relevance of closely considering practices and mechanisms conditioning narrative creation, including self-reflexive approaches. Third and finally, it informs conclusions about the role of digital tools in meaning-creation processes when working with audio-visual sources, and where interaction is pivotal.

An Exploratory Critique of Action Learning in Higher Education in South Africa: Barriers and Challenges

AbstractThis exploratory study investigated the perceptions of staff and students about the Action Learning implementation of Action Learning in higher education. Using judgemental sampling, a qualitative approach was adopted to collect primary data. Action Learning focuses on working with realistic life challenges of groups of students, supported and encouraged by a skilled facilitator to reinterpret the dated information and create new knowledge. A thematic approach was employed to analyse the data. Themes focused on the Educational System, Conventional Learning as opposed to Action Learning, and Challenges and Barriers in implementing Action Learning in higher education. The findings concur with the literature, showing that while Action Learning is a powerful tool for educational and personal development, there are several barriers in the present higher education system that impact on implementing Action Learning, including class sizes, inadequate training of lecturers and the diversity of the student ...

An Exploratory Critique of Action Learning in Higher Education in South Africa: Barriers and Challenges

An Exploratory Critique of Action Learning in Higher Education in South Africa: Barriers and Challenges

SCIENTISM AND ROMAN CATHOLIC THEOLOGY: TOWARDS EXORCISING THE ZEITGEIST OF INSTITUTIONALIZED TRUTH?

In a fable by Lincoln Steffens, he recounts the fate of a man, who, climbing to the top of a mountain, seizes hold of the Truth. Satan, suspecting mischief from this upstart, duly directs his underlings to tail him. When the demon reports with alarm the man's success – that he had indeed seized hold of the Truth – Satan remains unperturbed. ‘Don't worry’, he yawned. ‘I’ll tempt him to institutionalize it.’1The purpose of this paper is to offer an exploratory critique of the concept of institutionalized truth, as it is postulated within the epistemic traditions of scientism and Roman Catholic theology. Drawing on examples from each of these paradigms, namely, the conclusions of scientism, and the doctrine of papal infallibility, this disquisition argues that immutable truths, as championed by both camps, are in fact, questionable constructs, open to interpretation and criticism.

An exploratory critique of the notion of social cohesion in contemporary South Africa

This article seeks to situate the increasing salience of social cohesion in the context of the transition from apartheid to a post-apartheid society. It first part of the article focusses on the changing political and economic landscape post 1990. It pays particular attention to the role of Nelson Mandela as a symbol of national unity. While the fact that the African National Congress (ANC) government's economic policies under his leadership failed to have a fundamental impact on levels of poverty and inequality, Mandela's stature and ability to reach out to different constituencies created the conditions for him to be seen as a great unifier. His successors Thabo Mbeki and Jacob Zuma have also not had much success at the level of alleviating high levels of poverty and inequality while also not enjoying the same iconic status of Mandela. Starting in the Mbeki era but gaining momentum under the Zuma Presidency, the country has witnessed rising levels of community and labour unrest. In this context, the article argues that notions like social cohesion and ubuntu have assumed increasing importance as ways to stitch together a fracturing society. The latter part of the article argues that, with high levels of poverty and inequality, commodification of basic services and mounting social protests, it is difficult to deploy ideas like social cohesion, especially when new militant political subjectivities are challenging the hegemony of the ANC.

Antibiotic use for presumed neonatally acquired infections far exceeds that for central line-associated blood stream infections: an exploratory critique

To assess antibiotic use as a complementary neonatal intensive care unit (NICU) infection measure to the central line-associated blood stream infection (CLABSI) rate. Patient days (PDs), line days, antibiotic (AB) use, CLABSI and other proven infections were analyzed in consecutive admissions to two NICUs over 3 and 6 months, respectively, from 1 January 2008 until discharge. An antibiotic course (AC) consisted of one or more uninterrupted antibiotic days (AD), classified as perinatal or neonatal, if started ≤3 d or ≥4 d post birth and as rule-out sepsis or presumed infection (PI) if treated ≤4 d or ≥5d, respectively. Events were expressed per 1000 PD and aggregated by conventional treatment categories and by clinical perception of infection certainty: possible, presumed or proven. The cohort included 754 patients, 18,345 PD, 6637 line days, 718 AC and 4553 AD. Of total antibiotic use, neonatal use constituted 39.2% of ACs, and 29.0% of ADs, When analyzed per 1000 PD, antibiotic use to treat PIs vs CLABSIs, was either 14 fold (CI 6.6-30) higher for ACs (5.40 vs 0.38/1000 PD, P<0.0001) or 8.8 fold (CI 7.1-11) higher for ADs (48.3 vs 5.5/1000 PD, P<0.0001). CLABSI rates, present a lower limit of NICU-acquired infections, whereas antibiotic-use measures, about 10-fold higher, may estimate an upper limit of that burden. Antibiotic-use metrics should be evaluated further for their ability to broaden NICU infection assessment and to guide prevention and antibiotic stewardship efforts.

Sociology of Religion: Contemporary Developments—An Exploratory Critique from a Catholic Sociological Sensibility

This review essay provides an exploratory critique of one prominent contemporary sociology of religion textbook from the perspective of a Catholic sociological sensibility. It is written with the projection that the critique could eventually be expanded into a more systematic and exhaustive review of other major textbooks in the field. The textbook is analyzed in light of eight fundamental questions.

Modestly staffed and modestly resourced: An exploratory critique of women’s entry to rural and regional governance

In Australia, a significant shift has occurred in regional governance arrangements with the emergence of new forums for the practising of regional leadership. In this paper we provide a critical reading of a recent report on the representation of women in governance in rural and regional Australia as well as a textual analysis of the language in use around the entities reviewed in the report. We first consider women’s representation in regional local government. While women have increased their representation in elected positions in this sphere of governance, we argue they continue to occupy a marginal position. We then consider a range of institutions identified as making up the new regional governance arrangements. Our analysis suggests that many of these new governance bodies are modestly staffed and modestly resourced and are expected to facilitate/ coordinate networking activities. We conclude with a caution against viewing women’s involvement in new forms of nonmetropolitan governance as symptomatic of a shift in rural and regional gendered power relations.

Against social science?

This paper offers an exploratory critique of the role of social science subjects in hospitality management education programmes and questions the philosophies informing current provision in the field. It is argued that assumptions about the need to ensure the vocational relevance of social science teaching could lead to dilution of subject matter to the point that justifications advanced for the inclusion of social science in hotel and catering management courses lose their tenability.