Meaning-making System Research Articles

Diagnostic and Dialogic OD Approaches in a Collaborative Inquiry for Change: How and Why are They Successfully Coapplied?

Change leaders who want to invite members’ spirit of inquiry face a challenge; the conditions under which change practitioners successfully blend the strengths of diagnostic and dialogic approaches are not explicitly incorporated within the established theories. This article aims to describe how changing meaning-making systems (in other words, changing mindsets) can be crucial in facilitating successful coapplication of diagnostic and dialogic approaches. A new conditional combination (shared focus on realizing desired performance and change agents’ dialogic anchoring) for the emergence of the practitioners’ integrative mindset is examined, and its implications for research in blending diagnostic and dialogic OD approaches and related fields are discussed.

Emotions and Meaning in Transformative Learning: Theory U as a Liminal Experience

This paper examines the protective role of edge emotions in the process of transformative learning through the case study of the Theory U process. It explores the importance of learning strategies that foster emotional awareness and help learners cross the edge of their known meaning-making system into a liminal space of openness to unknown possibilities and discovery of new meaning. Self-reflective, contemplative, dialogue-based, and embodied pedagogies practiced in a safe community lead to emotional transformation. Relying on autoethnographic accounts and interviews with participants in the Theory U foundations program, we show how new meaning emerges through reflexive engagement with the edge emotions of fear, frustration, and sadness.

Meaning-making systems: A multimodal analysis of a Latinx student’s mathematical learning

This article discusses multimodal practices in the context of teaching and learning and how this idea might inform and facilitate mathematical learning, especially for Latinx students. We discuss qualitative data drawn from a study of an elementary bilingual classroom (age 10 and age 11) in a Midwestern city (USA) that is exceptional because the students successfully do high-level mathematics. We describe one class episode and one student’s use of multiple resources to create meaning. Through this we highlight the nature and relevance of multimodal practices for learning mathematics. This case highlights the necessity of creating environments, where students, especially those who have been historically excluded, use resources to make meaning and gain greater access to mathematics.

Reading the Visual: An Introduction to Teaching Multimodal Literacy

This is a book review of the book, Reading the Visual: An Introduction to Teaching Multimodal Literacy by Frank Serafini. It is a 189-page book published in 2014 by Teachers College Press. It discusses the evolving concept of literacy in the age of multimodality. Organized into three parts and framed by a prologue and an epilogue, the book begins with an introduction that sets the stage for understanding the multimodal world and its relevance to educators. The first part lays a theoretical foundation for multimodality, guiding educators in their instructional approaches. The second part presents a practical framework for engaging with multimodal texts, highlighting the significance of picture books in literacy education and exploring how students can interact with various multimodal formats both as consumers and producers. The final part examines ten distinct types of multimodal ensembles, including diverse formats like picture books (postmodern, wordless, historical fiction, informational), illustrated novels, graphic novels, cartoons, comics, advertisements, news reports, films, and digital media. In the closure, a helpful glossary provides readers with a comprehensive understanding of multimodal configurations and visual meaning-making systems.

Team Coaching and Personal Construct Psychology Theoretical Elaboration and Practical Implications in a Case Study

Since its original formulation, Personal Construct Psychology (PCP) has been expanding its range of convenience beyond the clinical field to many other aspects of the human experience. Its permeability has allowed many practitioners to extend Kelly’s contributions to various field of application and intervention. The present paper explores organizational functioning and team coaching, starting from the idea that it is possible to consider groups and organizations as meaning-making systems. Several contributions of PCP literature are outlined and a superordinate formulation is suggested. Finally, a case study is presented in order to underline PCP’s practical implications for team coaching interventions.

Heritage imaginaries and imaginaries of heritage: an analytical lens to rethink heritage from ‘alter-native’ ontologies

ABSTRACT Imaginaries arerepresentational assemblages of the past, ways to understand and(re)create history and projections of the self and others that ground ever-changing identities. They are embedded in the cultural meaning-making systems of each society. However, researchers and practitioners within the heritage field have not directly analysed heritage as a product-producer of imaginaries or conceived heritage itself as an imaginary. This conceptual article proposes imaginaries as a useful analytical lens to critically study heritage. Imaginariesenable us to uncover how people assume and signify heritage from various positions and experiences. Furthermore, this article aims to shed light on how alternative imaginaries grounded in non-western ontologies enable us to rethink heritage meaning and practice in the encounters and conflicts between different systems of meaning in daily life. More concretely, we identify three significant contributions of using imaginaries as a lens for the study of heritage. To illustrate our theoretical propositions, we incorporate empirical examples from ethnographic fieldwork conducted in the Ecuadorian Andes.

Religiosity Moderates Goal Courage and Self-Worth in Collegiate Christian Athletes

Research shows that the effects of athletics on virtue development are mixed. Religion provides people with a meaning-making system, community, and practices that can promote the cultivation of virtues and possibly enhance the impact of athletics on virtue development. Yet, little empirical research has assessed moral outcomes when religion and sport interact. The present study examines intrinsic religiosity as a moderator of the effect of athletic involvement on virtue and self-worth outcomes in collegiate student-athletes. Participants (N = 1930) were religious college students in the United States, 22% (n = 415) competing in an intercollegiate varsity sport. Moderated regression analyses revealed, contrary to predictions, that religiosity did not significantly moderate trait courage, trait patience, or goal patience. Consistent with predictions, religiosity significantly moderated goal courage, approval self-worth (i.e., the extent to which people base their worth on approval from others), and moral self-worth (i.e., the extent to which people base their worth on their own virtuousness). Whereas religiosity was associated with higher goal courage for non-athletes, the association was stronger for athletes. Religiosity was not associated with levels of approval self-worth for non-athletes, but the more religious athletes were, the less important other people’s approval was for their sense of self. Whereas religiosity was associated with higher moral self-worth contingency for athletes, the association was stronger for non-athletes. Applications for practitioners and future directions for researchers are discussed.

Strategic culture as a meaning-making system: towards a social semiotic account of multimodal cultural constraints in international relations

AbstractThe article reconsiders the notion of strategic culture using fundamental categories of general and social semiotics, which make it possible to systematise and instrumentalise this concept while preserving its broad scope. The proposed framework suggests a relationalist reconceptualisation of strategic culture based on Charles Peirce's semiotic theory, thereby helping to transcend the existing controversy about how culture-as-ideas, culture-as-artefacts, and culture-as-behaviour are related to each other in strategic culture. The suggested approach helps to clarify the problematic aspects of the notion of strategic culture by redefining strategic culture as a logonomic system (a system of rules of meaning-making) that constrains interactions in strategic affairs. Such reconceptualisation helps to study how strategic cultures are reproduced not only through verbal discourse but also through other artefacts and actions. Semiotic categories also make it possible to account for important distinctions between various elements of strategic culture and formulate principles that can guide the studies of this phenomenon. The article provides some examples from the Russian strategic culture to demonstrate how the proposed framework can be applied.

The concept of hysteria as mirror of the relation between clinical and cultural psychology

This paper theoretically examines how the psycho-pathological concept of hysteria has evolved since its emergence in antiquity, what causes contributed to it and how nowadays meaning-making systems of clinical psychology are mirrored through it. As has been shown, the transformation of hysteria is more closely related to the cultural psychology of feminism than any other disease before it. The 20th century in particular marked a significant change in the conceptualization of hysteria. From a highly sexist and paternalistic it became a political diagnose and finally was used, after getting banished from the psychological dictionary as an everyday pejorative personality adjective. It underwent a transformation within its gender classification, which was initially limited exclusively to women. Later, it became a psychiatric diagnosis, which was no longer durable nowadays and has finally changed into the concept of histrionic today. The analysis shows how, on the one hand, medical and biopsychological findings and, on the other hand, especially political movements and their cultural psychological processes of change form the basis of psychopathological concepts. It will be shown to what extent hysteria is exceptionally exemplary for this change in psychological meaning-making. In this context, the close connection between hysteria and the emancipatory development of our society could be emphasized.

Sport as a Meaning-Making System: Insights from the Study of Religion

Meaning-making has been one of the primary domains of religion throughout history, and some have claimed that this is religion’s central function. Yet, the modern era has seen a proliferation of other social institutions that generate meaning for people. Here we reflect on what religious meaning-making can tell us about meaning-making in secular institutions, with a particular focus on sport. Sport as a meaning-making institution is puzzling since sports are generally considered leisure activities, not serious enough to provide meaningful structure and purpose to human lives. Nonetheless, people do derive meaning from sport and we argue that because sport shares many features with religion, it offers a unique opportunity to examine a secular meaning-making institution. We offer a theoretical framework for the study of meaning-making that derives from our conceptual approach to religion as an adaptive system. We use this approach, and other anthropological research, to delineate seven general characteristics of human meaning-making systems: collective, constructed, subjective, narrative, relational, transcendent, and growth-oriented. These features of meaning-making systems highlight why sport has been so successful at offering meaning to sport enthusiasts, both fans and athletes alike. We conclude with a brief speculative evolutionary scenario that may explain our proclivity for seeking meaning, and why secular institutions will continue to fill that role when religious worldviews are not compelling.

Fulfilling the promise of the LPF: Comment on Morey et al. (2022).

In this commentary, I highlight a perceived reluctance in Morey et al.'s (2022) contribution to fully commit to a definition of the level of personality functioning (LPF), not as the functional consequence of extreme traits, but as an intrapsychic system that drives trait manifestation. I argue that for the LPF to reach its full potential to innovate the assessment and diagnosis of personality pathology beyond mere signs and symptoms, it is essential to define the LPF as a subjective meaning-making system located in biological systems that support the metacognitive capacities necessary for abstracting a sense of self. This view reflects the idea that personality does not simply describe a person (as traits do) but also captures how a person manages their self in relation to others (as LPF does). It implies a definition of personality that includes structural motivational components that fulfill an intrapsychic, organizing function, acknowledging the fact that traits alone are not enough to fully describe personality. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2022 APA, all rights reserved).

Exploring the literary element ‘mood’ in an award-winning Malaysian picturebook: A multimodal analysis

This article examines how an award-winning Malaysian picturebook for young learners entitled ‘The Magic Buffalo’ by Jainal Amambing utilizes visual and textual semiotic resources to develop the literary element ‘mood’. Knowledge of visual and textual meaning-making systems is necessary as it will enable young learners to achieve a deeper understanding of the literary element ‘mood’ in multimodal texts and also be visually literate. The literary element ‘mood’ is chosen because it helps to create the atmosphere and meaning of a story. In addition, this knowledge will also prepare young learners to deal with emotions in real life. The analysis is based on an adaptation of Painter et al.’s multimodal discourse analysis framework. The results of this study revealed that facial expression is the most prominent visual affect utilized in this picturebook, followed by bodily stance and ambiance respectively. The textual analysis reveals that the main character experiences an ongoing mental state, and un/happiness is the most commonly found emotion. The intermodal cohesion analysis clearly highlights how visual choices enhance the meaning provided by the textual choices. The use of visual symbols, facial expressions, and body posture help to corroborate and escalate the textual description of the characters’ emotional states. The study suggests that knowledge of visual and textual meaning systems will help young learners to critically analyse the literary element ‘mood’ and decode the meaning of multimodal texts.

Reclaiming the human in machine cultures: Introduction

The relationship between technology and culture has always been a contested issue in media and cultural studies. Ongoing advances in computing and Artificial Intelligence (AI), however, are posing new kinds of questions and challenges to the field. As many have argued, these technologies invite to rethink the relationship between technology and culture, positing the idea that not only humans, but also machines produce and construct ‘culture’. The goal of this themed issue is to consider notions such as ‘algorithmic culture’ and ‘machine culture’ from within the tradition of media and cultural studies, in order to move toward a conceptualization of culture in which machines are intertwined within human systems of meaning-making. In this introduction to the themed issue, we discuss why these emerging technologies and the human cultures forming around them are integral to the mission of media and cultural studies, and what the media and cultural studies tradition can bring into ongoing and future debates regarding the nexus of humans, machines, and culture.

Affective legacies: narrating the intergenerational transmission of racial feeling in oral history interviews

ABSTRACT This article explores the concept of affective legacies – the intergenerational transmission of affect through storytelling and embodied performance. I examine affective legacies as embedded in oral history interviews of school desegregation in rural North Carolina and what these oral history interviews teach us about how performances of memory shape our understandings of racism and racial integration as an embodied and affective practice. This study illuminates how affective legacies guide our relations, inform the way we perceive and remember, shaping an emotional meaning-making system that motivates our personal and cultural understandings and judgments as well as contemporary stories of racial struggles.

Meaning-making strategies on the balcony: The night sky in K. Taha’s Beschreibung einer Krabbenwanderung (‘Portrait of a wandering crab’)

The meaning-making system of the sky has persisted for millennia (Peters 2015). Yet, many of us do not relate to the importance of the connection with celestial sky anymore. One of the many contributing factors is our relation to urban systems, as well as densification and, consequently, the verticalization of living. As an example of the power of place-making strategies and its friction with the architectural set-up in high-rise mass dwellings and estates, the novel Beschreibung einer Krabbenwanderung by Karosh Taha makes use of the night-time sky in idiosyncratic spaces of the high-rise, such as the balcony. Here, the links between relations of time and space, the here and there (), as well as inside and outside spaces, become apparent and show a connection of the liminality of post-migrant identities. In an analysis of the access to the night-time sky and its concluding place-making strategies by one of the protagonists of the novel, I show how the balcony functions as a liminal space that is idiosyncratic for the mobile and mediatized identity in the western European high-rise dwelling.

Communalistic use of psychoactive plants as a bridge between traditional healing practices and Western medicine: A new path for the Global Mental Health movement.

The Global Mental Health (GMH) movement aims to provide urgently needed treatment to those with mental illness, especially in low- and middle-income countries. Due to the complexity of providing mental health services to people from various cultures, there is much debate among GMH advocates regarding the best way to proceed. While biomedical interventions offer some degree of help, complementary approaches should focus on the social/community aspects. Many cultures conduct traditional rituals involving the communal use of psychoactive plants. We propose that these practices should be respected, protected, and promoted as valuable tools with regard to mental health care at the community level. The traditional use of psychoactive plants promotes community engagement and participation, and they are relatively affordable. Furthermore, the worldviews and meaning-making systems of local population are respected. The medical systems surrounding the use of psychoactive plants can be explained in biomedical terms, and many recently published clinical trials have demonstrated their therapeutic potential. Psychoactive plants and associated rituals offer potential benefits as complementary aspects of mental health services. They should be considered as such by international practitioners and advocates of the GMH movement.

Translanguaging for academic reading at a South African university

Bilingual and multilingual academic readers in monolingual programmes worldwide – whose first language is not English – typically experience comprehension difficulties with English texts. This article identifies poor reading achievement as a pressing problem among multilingual students in South Africa. It complements the growing body of translanguaging scholarship challenging English-only norms in higher education by experimenting with fluid practices in an academic reading development intervention. The investigation addresses how literacy instructors could enrich reading university English texts in linguistically diverse higher education settings and push academic performance through a translanguaging stance and pedagogy. The study drew from sociocultural, heteroglossia and translanguaging fluidity theories using mixed methods. I propose alternative pluralistic practices that respect students’ identities, open spaces for heteroglot voices, and simultaneously use multiple languages to improve text comprehension and concept knowledge. Translanguaging integrates languages into one meaning-making system while deepening readers’ awareness of the different languages, including the English of the text. This humanising approach provides a safe space for first-year students whose languages and cultural repertoires are validated, legitimised and mobilised in their academic learning. The study concludes that translanguaging gives bi/multilingual readers an edge in academic reading and is recommended.

Vlogging as a Tool in the Self-Reflective Journey: Professional Identity Development as a Space Between

The authors present an interpretative phenomenological analysis (IPA) case study used to uncover the meaning-making system of professional identity development experienced by a graduate student completing a two-semester school counseling internship. The intern engaged in critical self-reflections as weekly vloggings, which are single-turn video monologs. The rigor of IPA allowed the researchers to explore the intern’s personal reflexivity as a space between what the intern was doing and his process of becoming a professional. The super-ordinate theme that emerged from the analysis in this case study was connecting the dots. . . it’s all about the kids. Findings from this research have implications in higher education and professional studies for creating a transformative learning environment and engaging individuals in the professional identity development process.

Narrative and gender as mutually constituted meaning-making systems

AbstractBoth gender and narrative are foundational to the ways in which humans engage in meaning-making. Arguing from evolutionary, psychological and feminist theoretical perspectives, we posit that narratives and gender are culturally mediated mutually constituted meaning-making systems: Narratives are defined through gender and gender is defined through narrative. To contextualise this argument, we define ‘narrative’ and ‘gender’ and review the extant literature on how gender is expressed in culturally mediated master narratives and how narratives are performed differently by women and men. Our core argument is that the very act of narrating is a gendered activity that constructs, represents and narrates gender as a primary category of human existence, and these fundamentally gendered ways of narrating then construct, define and reify gendered ways of being in the world.

Mutual Sense-Censoring, Generative Exploration, and Collaborative Change

Although several extant studies have focused on the discourse-based organizational change, the full potential of the change practices in global meaning-making systems has remained unexplored in the field of organization development and change (ODC) research. Hence, the major objective of this article is to develop systematic explanations on the power mechanisms in multinational corporations (MNCs) by proposing a model that implies the evolutional co-existence of various meaning-making patterns in the headquarter-subsidiary relationship. Furthermore, this paper attempts to explore the implications of some questions, such as what kind of leadership is more conducive for the constructive dialogic setting in the context of the headquarters-subsidiary relationship and how practitioners can facilitate a smooth transition from the mutual sense-censoring phase to the collaborative action phase in multi-cultural settings. The author uses a Japanese manufacturing MNC as a case in point and shows that the change practitioners are in charge of the crucial position to keep a good balance to create psychological safety in a dialogic space and to lead members to move ahead with the sense of crisis. Furthermore, from the viewpoint of leadership, the change leaders’ authentic self-descriptiveness can provoke organizational members to imagine and develop new ways of looking at the complex organizational realities.