Theoretical Objections Research Articles

How to Detonate a Semiotic Bomb: The Dynamics of Lotmanian Explosion in the Semiosphere

Abstract Lotmanian cultural dynamics involve change through textual interaction. Texts, offering vehicles for information, play a central role in this, with cultural change happening in two modes: gradual and explosive instances of texts that alter the semiosphere. This paper focuses on the process of explosion–an unpredictable mode of change in Lotmanian theory–through a metaphorical methodology, by introducing the concept of semiotic bomb. A semiotic bomb works here as a theoretical object that tries to harness the effect of explosion within the semiosphere. The concept of semiotic bomb serves as both a way to examine what is necessary for explosion to happen and as a theoretical exercise in attempting to predict the unpredictable in culture. We contend that cultural change must be understood in terms of sign configurations and information transmission through Charles Morris’s behavioral semiotics, and that this basis works as a complement of Juri Lotman’s cultural dynamics by grounding textual information on behavioral change and resignification. Taking a note from information and semiotic warfare, we look at what it takes for culture to foster change through the prism of Lotman’s theory, and how we could conceptualize intentional change through information manipulation and presentation. The paper offers a novel look into the logic of explosion within the semiotic theory of Juri Lotman and proposes conceptual avenues for exploring, analyzing and tentatively implementing the concept of explosion by the proposed idea of a semiotic bomb.

Activist care: acts of care as acts of citizenship

Care is activist when acts of care produce acts of citizenship: acts of breaking the dominant models of being responsible. This article has the theoretical objective of parsing how some acts of care become activist because they subvert the dominant norms of involvement and produce new ways of being mutually linked. They break established habits and social habitus, and they require new ways of acting and responding. This is what allows us to reinterpret care as a subversive practice, reshaping the political, affective and ethical boundaries. This can generate the condemnation and criminalisation of care in response.

The Role of Intergenerational Differences in Influencing Perceptions of Salary and Benefits: A Review Study

There are at least four generations represented in the modern labor force, each with their own perspectives on work values. The impact of Generation X, Millennials, and Generation Z on the workplace has been significant, posing challenges for organizations in developing a competitive compensation strategy that caters to each generation. The objective of this research review is to examine generational characteristics, conduct a thorough analysis of cross-generational perspectives and preferences, explore influences on compensation and benefits trends, and address the challenges of managing different generations, along with potential solutions. The underlying assumption is that there are shared similarities or differences in these determinants across generations. We conducted a comprehensive review of recent literature on generational cohorts and compensation and benefits to summarize findings from the past five years. This review will also serve as a foundation for future longitudinal research, aiming to uncover the latest insights into trends among organizational cohorts and other related factors, particularly in the realm of compensation and benefits, and how they intersect with other organizational contexts, potentially influenced by socioeconomic events. Researchers suggest that qualitative research or mixed methods, with their more robust methodologies and theoretical study objectives, are the most appropriate approaches to explore generation as an influencing variable in research.

Digital Skills of Medical Workers as a Staffing Priority in a Healthcare System

Introduction. Digital transformation is now integrated into all aspects of modern society around the world, including healthcare. Medical professionals actively use digital services and recommend various wearable devices to patients. The spread of digital technologies requires an appropriate level of digital literacy, which is one of the basic aspects of the professional skills of medical professionals.The purpose of the article was to study theoretical approaches to determining the concept of digital liter-acy skills of medical professionals based on an analysis of scientific literature.Materials and methods. In this paper, the method of content analysis of scientific publications on the dig-ital literacy of medical professionals was used. The authors studied and analyzed articles published in the PubMed database for the period from 2018 to 2023. The study was based on the definition of “digital literacy of medical workers” as a theoretical construct and object of study in the context of assessing the level of education in applied research.Results. There is a lack of broad research on the self-assessment of digital skills in different groups of med-ical professionals. It is necessary to obtain broader data on the digital literacy of medical workers in different countries and regions. Places with lower levels of digital literacy require more research in order to better understand the needs for knowledge, skills, and abilities among medical workers.

On Shared Leadership Modeling: Contrasting Network and Dyadic Approaches

Shared leadership is a dynamic phenomenon that has gained attention in behavioral science and management research over the last two decades. Network modeling is frequently employed to study this phenomenon, with the recent literature favoring a node-based approach over the traditional dyad-based approach. In this study, we investigate the differential impact of these approaches on shared leadership dynamics in student teams, specifically examining their effects on team task cohesion, team social cohesion, and team performance. We utilized multilevel structural equation modeling to compare node-based and dyad-based approaches in modeling shared leadership networks. Our findings indicate that increased leadership interactions positively influenced team performance and cohesion across both approaches. The dyad-based approach demonstrated a greater effect of leadership interactions on team performance, while leadership centrality significantly impacted performance exclusively in the node-based approach. This research contributes to the field by elucidating the differential impacts of node-based and dyad-based approaches, highlighting their strengths in capturing shared leadership dynamics and centrality effects. Our results underscore the critical importance of aligning theoretical foundations and research objectives with methodological choices in shared leadership studies. These insights enhance our understanding of shared leadership measurement and its implications for team outcomes, offering valuable guidance for future empirical investigations in this domain.

Educazione di genere e sostegno alla genitorialità. Una rete per le famiglie in tras-formazione

The essay presents initial findings from an action-participatory research project that resulted from collaboration between the FORLILPSI Department of the University of Florence and the Early Childhood Education Services of the Municipality of Livorno. Starting with an analysis of the changes affecting contemporary society and families, this research aimed to identify the resources and actions that have been promoted in the Livorno area over the last five years for gender and parenting education. The ultimate goal is to design and build an inter-institutional and inter-professional network that supports intra- and inter-family relations through an inclusive and transformative approach. The paper presents the theoretical foundations, objectives, methodology, and initial results of the project. It also presents the hypothesis of the steps to be taken to establish and operationalize the network.

Multidimensional Representation of Semantic Relations between Physical Theories, Fundamental Constants and Units of Measurement with Formal Concept Analysis

We propose several hierarchical graphs that represent the semantic relations between physical theories, their fundamental constants and units of measurement. We begin with an alternative representation of Zel’manov’s cube of fundamental constants as a concept lattice. We then propose the inclusion of a new fundamental constant, Milgrom’s critical acceleration, and discuss the implications of such analysis. We then look for the same fundamental constants in a graph that relates magnitudes and units of measurement in the International System of Units. This exercise shows the potential of visualizing hierarchical networks as a tool to better comprehend the symmetries, interrelations and dependencies of physical magnitudes, units and theories. New regimes of application may be deduced, as well as an interesting reflection on our ontologies and corresponding theoretical objects.

How to measure interdisciplinary research? A systemic design for the model of measurement

Interdisciplinarity is a polysemous concept with multiple, reasoned and intuitive, interpretations across scholars and policy-makers. Historically, quantifying the interdisciplinarity of research has been challenging due to the variety of methods used to identify metadata, taxonomies, and mathematical formulas. This has resulted in considerable uncertainty about the ability of quantitative models to provide clear insights for policy-making. This study proposes a systemic design, grounded in an advanced literature review, to demonstrate that the quantification of the interdisciplinarity of research can be treated as a process of decision-making in mathematical modelling, where alternatives choices are evaluated based on how closely their mathematical properties align with the theoretical objectives of the research design. The study addresses modeling choices regarding the stylisation of metadata into units of observation, and the operational definition of the conceptual dimensions of interdisciplinarity, presenting both established and novel methods and formulas. The final section discusses advanced topics in modelling the measurement, including a dedicated discussion on the difference in analysing the status of papers versus collective bodies of research; and distinguishing between reflective, formative, and inferential causal models of interdisciplinary research.

Franz Kafka and the Problem of Literary Reputation (On the 100th Anniversary of the Writer’s Death)

The article is structured in the form of the author’s reflections on E.G. Etkind’s essay “The Image of Kafka in the Soviet Union” (1980). The theoretical objective of the article is to substantiate the concept of “literary reputation” as applied to a foreign writer. It is proved that the literary and aesthetic discussion of the 1960s about realism and modernism was ideologically colored, and the Soviet reception of Kafka’s modernist work provides an expressive example of the formation of the writer’s reputation under the influence of the socio-political context of the receiving culture. Literary criticism, as well as reader reception, was dominated by the social theme of exposing totalitarian power and the destruction of the individual as its victim, while the metaphysical meaning of Kafka’s mythology of alienation was at best relegated to the background. Kafka’s reputation in the USSR should be seen as a function of one of the competing sociocultural discourses. It was created by the forces of the opposition intelligentsia on the basis of the elimination of metaphysical discourse and its replacement with the liberal-democratic discourse of freedoms, which asserted its dominance in conditions of degradation and decay of Soviet ideology. Today, 100 years after the death of the writer, a new phase of our dialogue with his work begins.

Joint activity in child-parent relations as a factor in the development of a younger student's personality: theoretical and experimental research

Introduction. Joint activity in child-parent relations contains a significant and poorly studied resource for the development of a younger student's personality. Unfavorable trends in the personal development of a younger student at the final stage of primary general education, such as a decrease in motivation for learning and self-esteem, increased anxiety, and social deficits significantly affect academic success, which determines the relevance and relevance of solving this problem. The purpose of the article is to present the results of scientific and theoretical substantiation and experimental approbation of the program of psychological and pedagogical support of joint activities in child-parent relations with a younger student as a factor in the development of his personality.Materials and Methods. The study involved 99 primary school students aged 10-11 years, studying in the fourth grade (50 boys and 49 girls), as well as their parents aged 29 to 53 years (80 mothers and 19 fathers). As diagnostic tools, the following methods were used: the method of studying educational motivation by M. V. Matyukhina (modification by N. C. Badmaeva); the method of assessing school motivation by N. G. Luskanova; the scale of personal anxiety by A. M. Parishioners (form "A"); the method of measuring self-esteem by T. V. Dembo and S. V. Rubinstein (modification by A. M. Parishioners); methodology of sociometry by J. Moreno (modification by V. R. Schmidt); questionnaire for studying the structure of subjectivity by E. N. Volkova and I. A. Seregina (modification by M. A. Pyzhyanova).Results. The article summarizes domestic and foreign studies on the problem of joint activity in child-parent relations as a factor in the development of a younger student's personality. The scientific and theoretical foundations, goals, objectives, content and stages of implementation, programs of psychological and pedagogical support for joint activities in child-parent relations with a younger student are determined. The results of the approbation of the author's program are obtained, indicating the optimization of the development of the main personal spheres of a younger student: motivational, emotional, spheres of self-awareness and subjectivity of personality.Discussion and Conclusions. As a result of the testing of the program, patterns of dynamics of indicators of the main personal spheres of a younger student in the conditions of psychological and pedagogical support of joint activities in child-parent relations with a younger student were revealed. The analysis made it possible to reveal the mechanisms of the influence of parental interaction in the process of positive joint activity with a child on the development of his personality.

Education amid the deluge of enhancement discourses

This article delves into the examination of the similarities and disparities between education and enhancement, with a particular focus on enhancement within the realm of NBIC (Nano-Bio-Information Technology, Cognitive Science). After scrutinizing how proponents of enhancement have delineated the concept of education, our investigation unfolds along two primary dimensions: the anthropological underpinnings of education and enhancement discourse and their respective objectives. Through this analysis, we assert that education and enhancement exhibit distinct characteristics and objectives, defying easy comparison for determining which approach is more conducive to human improvement, notwithstanding their superficially analogous theoretical frameworks and objectives. Furthermore, we aim to highlight the perceptual illusions that blur the demarcation lines between education and enhancement, in order to establish a clear and distinctive role for education amid the plethora of enhancement discourses.

Psychologism in the study of children’s semiotic development

Abstract This essay discusses the notion of ‘semiotic development in child development’ and highlights potential concerns for ‘psychologism’ when semiotics turns into cognitive semiotics. The notion of ‘semiotic development in child development’ indicates a transdisciplinary approach involving both semiotics, the general study of meaning and signs, and child psychology. This, however, invites the criticism of committing the fallacy of psychologism. Piaget was aware of this dilemma when developing his theory of the semiotic function as a united capacity in children’s cognitive development. Sonesson’s proposal of a general definition of signs in meaning-making is suggested to, at some points, meet the dilemma with psychologism in studies of children’s semiotic development. Starting from a phenomenological point of view in semiotics and integrating Piaget’s theory on cognitive development and meaning-making meet the study of subjectivity in intersubjectivity. On the one hand, the sign as a theoretical object is not reducible to any given psychological process or processes; on the other hand, sign meaning can only exist if there are beings (consciousnesses) capable of grasping and using signs.

The Network Infrastructure of Valued Discourse in the Russian Internet: Network Agents and Youth’s Digital Behavior

The study focuses on the relevance of identifying the communicative features of network agents’ interaction with a youth audience. This aims to enhance the effectiveness of the strategy for educating young users in traditional values by examining the broadcasting of constructive/destructive interpretations of value orientations.The theoretical object of the research is the network infrastructure of the Internet space on a socially significant agenda.The study’s issue is the communicative specificity of the information field dedicated to the transmission of interpretations of value orientations to an audience of young Russians. The paper examines a group of authors from a specific digital stream in the period from June 1 to November 1, 2023. The analysis involves 118 thousand units (385 VK communities) and 3011 respondents’ questionnaires.The purpose of the study is to determine the communicative characteristics of network agents producing content dedicated to the value agenda and young Russian users.

Critical Linguistics of The Crimea Bridge Explosion on The Guardian and CNN Online News

This research focuses on analyzing the types of grammar and ideological representations in the news texts of The Guardian and CNN online news using the Critical Linguistics analysis model of Roger Fowler et.al (1979). Then the Discourse Historical Approach from Ruth Wodak (2001) is used to know the historical background of this topic. This research uses a descriptive qualitative method to find out what types of grammar are contained in the news text and how the grammar represents the ideology of the news. The explosion occurred as a result of the conflict between Russia and Ukraine. This topic has attracted public attention, therefore, online news media such as The Guardian and CNN are discussing it. At this time online news media plays an important role in disseminating information, but in fact the language used in online news media can contain certain ideologies that benefit one group and harm other groups. Based on the results of Critical Linguistics analysis from Roger Fowler et.al (1979), it is found that the ideology of the two online media is anti-Russian and pro-Ukrainian. The findings of this study show that there are 28 types of grammar in The Guardian and 17 grammatical strategies in CNN. The type of grammar that often appears from both media is transitivity grammar. In representing their ideology, both online media often use negative lexical choices to give negative references to the Russian side. Future researchers can develop their analysis by using different theoretical studies and objects.

Fashion as a cultural analysis object

I reflect upon working on diverse fashion(-related) cases in the context of the Amsterdam School for Cultural Analysis. Drawing on Mieke Bal’s understanding of cultural analysis (characterized by interdisciplinarity, among others), I refer to some fashion and material objects I have looked at (e.g. a contemporary video by a Dutch designer, a wardrobe-suitcase of 1919 or the pandemic mask), while insisting on considering them as theoretical objects through the practice of clothes-reading. Rather than establishing programmatic grids to study fashion, I share my observations and interrogations on working with and through fashion. What follows resembles an ongoing inventory of my fashion interests, aspirations and inspirations as well as choices and doubts that altogether echo the performative gesture of research.

Digital technologies and mathematics teaching: An analysis of teacher professional knowledge

Professional teaching knowledge interferes with the planning and development of classes, which also relates to integrating digital technologies in the classroom. This study aimed to understand and discuss teachers’ professional knowledge for teaching mathematics with digital technologies. The methodology of this systematic literature review was composed of selecting 42 scientific articles in the ERIC, Latindex, Scopus, Scielo, and Web of Science databases and vertical and horizontal analyses of the indicated studies. The results suggest that the studies have similar structures with similar theoretical frameworks, objectives, and methodological procedures, identifying and classifying teacher professional knowledge based on knowledge achieved or that still needs to be developed. The teachers mobilize their knowledge by recognizing the potential of digital technologies for teaching mathematics critically and reflectively.

An Art of the Radio: Musique concrète and mass culture, 1941–1952

This article attends to the emergence of musique concrète as a theoretical object in Pierre Schaeffer’s writing between 1941 and 1952, seeing it as the logical endpoint of Schaeffer’s quest for an art proper to the radio. In this strong sense of the word, art is here positioned in opposition to entertainment, and as such Schaeffer seeks to separate the properly radiophonic from the impure, mercenary forms that radio had hitherto adopted. Schaeffer’s account of musique concrète follows this logic, seeking to cast off the vestiges of radio drama that remain audible in such works as Symphonie pour un homme seul. By way of conclusion, I suggest that grasping the entanglement of musique concrète with mass-cultural forms such as radio requires a mode of reading oriented not towards formalism or sonic ontology but towards the figure of the text.

თანაზომიერების პრინციპის თეორიული და პრაქტიკული ასპექტები (ქართული და გერმანული სამართლის მიხედვით)

The principle of proportionality brings governmental activities into a strict constitutional and legal framework and thereby contributes to the adequate balancing of basic human rights and public legitimate goals set by the state. In the current edition of the Constitution of Georgia, specifically, in paragraph 3 of Article 34, it is explicitly stated that the limitation of the basic human rights must correspond to the importance of the legitimate goal that it serves to achieve. The dogmatics and practice of the principle of proportionality have been developed in German law since the 50s of the 20th century and spread throughout the continental European legal system. In the present situation, the constitutional courts consider the principle of proportionality as a universal constitutional principle and evaluate the justification for limiting the basic rights based on the established practice. However, there is no unambiguous and doctrinal discussion-free approach to the individual components of the principle of proportionality, especially where the line is drawn between the scope of the legislative view and the constitutional requirement of proportionality. The principle of proportionality and its proper articulation in practice represents a crucial achievement, although it is necessary to adequately understand its dogmatic nature in order to avoid separate theoretical or practical objections regarding this issue. Key words: the principle of proportionality, legitimate purpose, utility, necessity, proportionality in the narrow senses.

The Choice Principle and the matrix verb fear in recent New Zealand English

ABSTRACT The present study investigates aspects of the non-finite complementation of the subject control verb fear using recent data from the New Zealand section of the NOW corpus. The matrix verb fear selects both infinitival and gerundial complements and a first objective of this article is to inquire into their incidence in the corpus selected. Another, more theoretical objective, is to test the applicability of the Choice Principle to a new set of data and a pair of competing complements not previously analysed from this angle. In earlier work, the Principle has been shown to be applicable to contexts of prepositional gerunds, and this article indicates that its scope can also be extended to contexts of bare gerunds. The article also places an emphasis on examining constructions containing a complement other than the one predicted by the Choice Principle, and the authors argue that in many such cases the principle affords a useful window for examining the difference in meaning between the two constructions.

Queer processes of Hong Kong as a global formation post‐2019: LGBTIQ+ Hong Kong migrants and their experiences in Taiwan

AbstractAlthough Hong Kong has always been transnational and its overseas communities longstanding, the queer experiences of diasporic Hongkongers have rarely been explored. Through interview‐based research, this article examines the experiences of LGBTIQ+ Hongkongers who migrated to Taiwan after the 2019–2020 Hong Kong protests, with the intention to accomplish three broader theoretical objectives. First, it introduces an intersectional approach to understanding the current Hong Kong diaspora by exploring how queerness came to shape and politicize a changing Hong Kong identity. Second, it considers Taiwan's role in global queer migration by investigating how it became a place of exception for LGBTIQ+ Hongkongers and, by extension, other ethnically Chinese queers. Lastly, it highlights how Hong Kong and Taiwan are linked by a structure of queer Sinophone consciousness, demonstrating how queerness and Chineseness are mutually productive and most amplified in transnational settings.