Meta Themes Research Articles

Postmodernism and the Web: Meta Themes and Discourse

How are we to make sense of the Web and our involvement in it? This is no light matter, for how we make sense of what was, and is, delimits what will be. Thus, as more and more individuals, organizations, and communities establish a presence in cyberspace, the question of how to enact the new medium presents challenges to practitioners and academics alike. How might symbolic and economic activity be conducted and conceptualized? Different assumptions about the Web will result in disparate activities—and concomitant creation of different social, economic, and technological futures. The article outlines the discourses of modernism and postmodernism, and explores the phenomenon of the Web using a series of postmodern themes—a rubric of praxes and thoughts that characterizes the information age. We conclude that postmodernism illuminates thinking in the new information medium, just as modernism illuminated thinking in traditional physical mediums.

The Pinwheel Model of Bereavement.

The Pinwheel Model of Bereavement is a process-orientated model of grief which recognizes loss as a unique lived experience. The model and relevant nursing response are described using Margaret Newman's nursing theory of health as expanding consciousness. The model is based on research by Carter (1989) and clinical experience. The contextual theme for the model is "personal history." Six core themes are: being stopped, hurting, missing, holding, seeking, and valuing. Three meta themes are change, expectations, and inexpressibility. Capacities for "being with" the bereaved are identified for the practice of nursing.