Topical Agenda Research Articles

Scaffolding African Language Intellectualisation: The Case of Sesotho and Setswana at a South African University

The call for the intellectualisation of African languages has become a topical agenda towards their use as languages of teaching and learning in institutions of higher learning in Africa. In their enunciation of language policies, South African universities are guided by the Department of Higher Education and Training (DHET)’s Language Policy Framework for Public Higher Education Institutions (LPFPHEI). The thrust of this paper is to interrogate how the language policy of one university in South Africa enables the intellectualisation of African languages. The study deploys Ruiz’s notion of language as a resource to examine the potential embedded within the university’s language policy to foster the intellectualisation of Sesotho and Setswana for use as LoTLs in a variety of disciplines. The university is one of the institutions of higher learning with the most recently revised language policy approved in 2022, hence its selection as the case study. The paper concludes that an enabling language policy that speaks to the linguistic realities, coupled with a variety of support structures within the university and also spelling out the implementation plan is what will result in the fruitful re-intellectualisation of African languages.

Responsibility to report symptoms: Pursuing symptom reports from children in pediatric encounters

ObjectiveThe paper focuses on cases in which children disconfirm a symptom previously reported by their parents and analyzes how doctors and parents continue asking questions to elicit symptom confirmation from children. MethodsThe study employs Conversation Analysis (CA) to examine 50 video recordings of Russian-language pediatric consultations with 4 pediatricians and approximately 50 children. ResultsThe findings indicate two strategies used by participants to pursue symptom confirmation. First, calibrating question design via changing the questions’ format and narrowing the questions’ topical agenda to specify what kind of information is expected from the child. Second, changing the questions’ format (from content to polar) without adjusting the topical agenda. ConclusionThe paper argues that engaging children in medical consultations might be challenging because they do not orient to, and so do not perform a responsibility that is institutionally expected from patients, in particular, reporting medically-relevant information.Practice implications:The analysis shows that using polar questions about everyday activities and experiences relevant to the child and pursuing symptom reports by gradually narrowing down the questions’ topical agenda can be an effective way to secure medically-relevant information.

Challenger Society for Marine Science: Increasing Opportunity Through an Equity, Diversity, Inclusivity, and Accessibility Working Group

The Challenger Society for Marine Science (CSMS) is the learned society for marine scientists based in the United Kingdom, with a membership of over 470 people from >100 institutions, across all academic career stages. Members of the CSMS have been interested in improving the representation of a diverse range of identities in UK marine science, largely driven by their own experiences of inequity in the discipline, such as the challenges faced by women (Hendry et al., 2020). The structural exclusion of individuals by race, sex, ethnicity, social class, disability, sexuality, and the compound sum of these factors can result in a lack of diversity during recruitment and poor retention. Since 2021, CSMS has formed the first UK-wide equity, diversity, inclusion, and accessibility (EDIA) working group for marine scientists, with the aim of coordinating action to address the causes of exclusion and to improve representation across the discipline. The group of 25 volunteers meets each month to discuss a topical agenda, and the chair of the working group sits on the council of CSMS, providing EDIA input from the working group on society-wide strategic decisions.

제도 대화에서의 질문 유형과 효과성 분석 : 국무총리 인사청문회를 중심으로

The purpose of this study is to analyze confirmation hearings for Prime Minister Nominees from the perspective of institutional conversation analysis, to identify what types of questions politicians use and their effectiveness related to the institutional context. The data consist of confirmation hearings for the 45th former Prime Minister Lee Nak-yon and the 46th former Prime Minister Chung Sye-kyun, and were transcribed and analyzed based on the transcription system suggested by Gail Jefferson. The findings show that a confirmation hearing is a highly institutionalized conversation that has legal regulations on the turn-taking system and time limit for speaking with a clear purpose of verifying the qualification of bureaucrat nominees. Questioners set topical agenda and strategically used questions in the form of polar, alternative, and close-ended with prefaced statements implying specific presuppositions to limit the nominees' answers. Questioners recognized and performed their role under the institutional context, and at the same time played the role of an intermediary relaying the answer to the listener outside the conversation situation. Questions have significance in that they are being used as an effective means to achieve the institutional purpose of the confirmation hearing system.

Parteienwettbewerb im Bundestag nach dem Einzug der AfD und während der Corona-Krise: eine Analyse namentlicher Abstimmungen

While party competition is generally dominated by the conflict between government and opposition parties, the analysis finds interesting variations between opposition parties . Over the last few electoral periods, a clear convergence in the voting behavior of the Greens and the Left Party can be observed, not between the Greens and the liberal FDP . There is a dis- tinct separation between the extreme-right populist AfD and all other parties during the most recent electoral period, as all AfD motions were unanimously rejected by all other parties . Second, the request of roll call votes mirrors the respective parties’ topical agenda . In particular, the AfD requested roll calls on their core issues (especially migration) and on topics that ranked high in popular salience (especially in the context of the Covid-19 pan- demic) . Moreover, the data indicate that a cross-party consensus on policy reaction to Cov- id-19 during the initial phase of the pandemic quickly gave way to typical patterns of gov- ernment-opposition conflict while also indicating some intra-party conflicts, especially within the Christian Democrats .

Consumer Choice Modelling in Sharing Economy

Development of sharing economy creates new challenges and opens unprecedented business opportunities. In this economic environment, industrial enterprises can expand their direct selling strategies with the new business model “product as a service”. This option is the result of a shift in consumer preferences among clients of industrial enterprises. The development of the consumer choice model applied to sharing economy is a topical agenda, perhaps now more than ever. Such a model, if available, would help predict multiple scenarios of consumer behaviour and prepare the manufacturing companies for better interaction with their target market. This article makes an attempt to offer a consumer choice model in sharing economy, based on 4 types of possible consumer behaviour. The results of the article serve as a foundation of multi-agent modelling and quantitative assessment of abstract situations in the business-to-consumer market.

Automated text analysis for understanding radical activism: The topical agenda of the North American animal liberation movement

It is difficult to study radical social movements due to their often covert, fluid, and fleeting qualities. As a consequence, data limitations and/or theoretical disagreements abound within research on such movements. We contend that the texts produced by radical movements and their supporters provide a window into group features, and that recent advances in automated text analysis methods afford a means for unlocking these texts in a systematic fashion. We evaluate the contentions through an automated analysis of the radical animal liberation movement’s primary North American publication. Our application provides novel insights into the topical agenda of animal liberationists, and the relative attention paid towards networking, (non)violence, radicalization, and direct actions. Examination of these topics over time further reveals a number of ideological and tactical shifts, which are predictive of future direct-action events. This demonstrates the benefits of automated text analysis for the study of radical movements and their texts.

ЕВОЛЮЦІЯ БАГАТОСТОРОННЬОГО СПІВРОБІТНИЦТВА КОРОЛІВСТВА МАРОККО ТА ЄВРОПЕЙСЬКОГО СОЮЗУ: ВІД ПОЛІТИЧНОГО ДО ЦІННІСНОГО ВИМІРУ

The article focuses on one of the current areas of European Union cooperation within the Euro-Mediterranean Partnership, namely with the Kingdom of Morocco. The official Rabat has both a historical basis for cooperation with the EU (colonial past) and an established dialogue with the European Union from associate membership to the acquisition of a special partnership status in 2008. The purpose of Morocco’s special status in the EU is to: strengthen dialogue and cooperation in the field of politics and security; gradual integration of Morocco into the EU internal market through approximation of legislation and regulations. The main directions and areas of multilateral cooperation between Morocco and the EU are highlighted especially Rabat ties with leading European powers (notably France and Spain) as implementation of bilateral level and at the level of integration with EU as political body. It is revealed that the acquisition of a special status in cooperation with the EU aims to deepen cooperation not only in the economic, security and energy spheres, but also the human dimension of bilateral relations, which affects human rights and cultural and humanitarian level of relations. In particular, the topical agenda for bilateral Moroccan-European relations is migration issues, the problem of Western Sahara, which complicate dialogue somewhat. The leading role in Morocco’s relations with EU Member States is played by dialogue within the Francophonie, as well as interpersonal contacts in the fields of culture, education and science. These contacts are closely maintained between Morocco, France and Spain, and implemented the EU’s values policy mentioned in the Association Agreement. It is revealed that cultural cooperation plays a positive role in the fight against religious extremism and civil society building.

Debating or displaying political positions?

Abstract This paper investigates the reference statements and rhetorical functions of politicians’ reactive (“uptaking”) statements in parliamentary debates as well as their self-positioning effects. Uptaking moves may be used by speakers for pursuing strategic, global discourse aims. The specific properties of such ‘uptaking’ utterances and their sequential embedding in the unfolding discourse provide analysts with cues of speakers’ global interactional goals. Results indeed show how global and local pragmatic factors impact content, form, and rhetorical function of MPs’ uptaking statements. The data comprises four Austrian parliamentary sessions, which follow the inaugural speech each newly appointed Austrian chancellor has to deliver in the Austrian national assembly at the beginning of a legislative term. Overall, four fifths of the uptaking discourse units (consisting of ‘reference to previous statement plus comment’) refer to the government program, the inaugural speech or a previous MPs’ statement. Whereas a closer investigation of the reference statements seems to indicate a left wing vs. right wing rhetorical pattern (with left wing and center parties referring to ‘official’ sources, while right wing parties set their own topical agenda), investigating the rhetorical functions of the uptaking discourse units reveals a clear government vs. opposition (but no party-specific) rhetoric: Government party MPs praise the government program (or the inaugural speech), opposition party speakers criticize it. Both groups thus focus on the interpersonal plain of interaction. In contrast, argumentative (or counter-argumentative) uptaking discourse units which would indicate speakers’ willingness to enter into a rational discourse (in a Habermasian sense) with their political opponents are extremely rare. Through their rhetorical activities, the vast majority of government and opposition speakers thus reinforce and perpetuate already known political stances and affiliations in front of a third party (i.e. the general public watching the debates via TV or Internet livestream) rather than presenting themselves as rational, problem-focused politicians.

Populism as a keyword and as a meta-discursive resource for positioning in mediated political discourse

The recent spread of populist ideologies and rhetoric has resulted in growing scholarly attention to the phenomenon, and in ‘populism’ becoming a salient keyword in contemporary political discourse. However, while there are diversified academic conceptualizations of the term, its vernacular and public uses were hardly studied. The present study aims at addressing this lacuna, by exploring the inductive meanings and functions of ‘populism’ in Israeli mediated political discourse. To this end, we combined quantitative and qualitative analysis of the reference and linguistic context of a sample of 500 occurrences of ‘populism’, ‘populist’ and their inflections in major news outlets during 2012–2017; and detailed discourse analysis of their uses as a meta-discursive resource for positioning in mediated political talk during 2016–2017. Our findings suggest that political actors add a moral-evaluative layer to former conceptualizations of ‘populism’, and associate it with cynicism and inauthenticity – thus reversing and problematizing populist discourse. We found that ‘populism’ is a highly flexible and multi-functional positioning resource. It is used in all modes of self-, other-, present and non-present positioning, and strategically employed to challenge antagonists, defend oneself against challenges, manage political images, control the topical agenda of interviews or ensure quotability and news and entertainment values. Such uses reflect the dialogicity and self-reflexivity of contemporary political face management, and tensions between conflicting journalistic normative frameworks and professional practices.

Актуальная повестка дня в современной России: факторы формирования

Актуальная повестка дня в современной России: факторы формирования

Improving Livelihoods of Resettled Farmers Through Development of a Knowledge Base on Climate Change in Mhondoro – Ngezi District, Zimbabwe

Climate induced famine has had adverse effects and has been the worst disaster from which most resettled farmers experience and suffer from. It remains a topical agenda and a bone of contention in most countries of the global south. Despite remaining a challenge in most farming areas, the small holder farmers have struggled to come up with alternative livelihoods emanating from effective understanding of climate change. Hence using data from interviews, questionnaires and focused group discussions, this paper aimed at unravelling rural livelihoods which enhance local people’s understanding and grasping of the effects of climate change induced disasters in Mhondoro- Ngezi district. The study noted that smallholder farmers are applying conservation farming (CF), small livestock production, irrigation schemes like gardening, agro-forestry, gold panning and fishing. The research also pointed out that 62% of the local farmers were not satisfied with the level knowledge base they have concerning climate change. The snail pace development of a knowledge base on climate change is being held back by challenges which include poor service delivery by government departments, lack of resources, unclear selection of beneficiaries, extreme reliance on Indigenous Knowledge Systems (IKS) and policy inconsistency. The study recommended that agricultural extension officers need to be capacitated so that they train farmers on the importance of seasonal climate change forecast information. There is need for increased participation in the realm of development agencies (NGOs and government) and be more sincere with the participation of communities through the development of a knowledge base on climate change adaptation programmes.

Pursuing Answers to Questions in Broadcast Journalism

When an individual issues a question, an answer is normatively expected. If an answer is not produced, the questioner may pursue it. However, sometimes it is not the absence of an answer that is at issue but whether that answer is deemed adequate (i.e., fitted to the action and/or topical agenda set by the question). Broadcast interactions (e.g., news interviews, political debates) are a perspicuous environment for investigating sequences in which responses to questions are provided but not always treated as answers. This article investigates how pursuits of answers are designed and what they accomplish within such contexts. Three key elements of a pursuit's design are described: namely, its recognizability as a pursuit; its fittedness to the previous response; and its sanctioning implications. The analysis sheds light on a central means by which individuals can hold others accountable for responding and by which a specific form of trouble in question-answer sequences is repaired.

Competing Agendas in Upstream Engagement Meetings Between Celiac Disease Experts and Patients

This article examines discussions between innovators and patient users about emergent medical technologies in the field of celiac disease. Using discursive psychology and conversation analysis, the authors analyze participants’ talk with regard to the social activities performed. They find that the topical agenda, preference structure, and presuppositions incorporated in the innovators’ questions restrict patients’ scope for saying things in and on their own terms. Not participants’ intentions per se but what the questions indirectly communicate profoundly shapes the agenda of these meetings. This may explain why some of the difficulties of innovator-user interaction are persistent and hard to pinpoint.

Resource flow analysis for sustainable construction: metrics for an integrated supply chain approach

‘Sustainable construction’ is a topical agenda, with a great diversity of metrics, targets, performance measures and benchmarks. This paper explores a range of metrics and benchmarks that are based on understanding of the whole construction supply chain, together with its impacts on the global climate and resource base. It draws on new evidence from the UK resource analysis framework with an associated toolkit, the Resource and Energy Analysis Program modelling and data system. The resource flow and metabolism of the construction industry has been explored within this framework, by application of input–output analysis, at national and regional level. The result provides a first-estimate evidence base for issues such as ‘carbon neutral’ buildings, housing replacement against rehabilitation, local against imported materials and ‘one planet’ performance targets for sustainable construction. These first results also show future directions for improved methods of assessment and benchmarking.

“I think that's not an assumption you ought to make”: Challenging presuppositions in inquiry testimony

This article examines data drawn from a 2001 Ontario (Canada) provincial inquiry into the deaths of seven people as a result of water contamination in a small Ontario town. The examination focuses on question-answer sequences in which the premier of Ontario, Michael Harris, attempted to resist lawyers' attempts to control and restrict his responses. In particular, on the basis of the data it is argued that the power of cross-examining lawyers does not reside solely in their ability to ask controlling and restrictive questions of witnesses, but rather is crucially dependent on their ability to compel witnesses to produce straightforward, or “type-conforming,” answers to these controlling and restrictive questions. The witness whose testimony is analyzed was not compelled to produce answers that logically conformed to the form of the lawyers' questions (i.e., “yes” or “no”) and, as a result, often usurped control over the topical agenda of the proceedings. In this sense, the present work builds on Eades's conclusion that “we cannot rely on question form to discover how witnesses are controlled.”A previous version of this article was presented at Sociolinguistics Symposium 15, Newcastle, U.K., in April 2004. We thank audience members at that conference and two reviewers for Language in Society for comments on previous versions. The research on which this article is based was funded in part by a SSHRCC Regular Research Grant (#410-2000-1330) to the first author.

Managing adversarial questioning in broadcast interviews

This paper considers the notion of impoliteness through a detailed analysis of questioning and answering in confrontational television interviews. The paper first discusses the notions of politeness and impoliteness in discourse on the basis of previous research, paying particular attention to work generated by Brown and Levinson’s model (e. g., Culpeper 1996; Harris 2001) and recent critiques and alternatives to the dominant ‘paradigm’ (e. g., Arundale 1999; Eelen 2001; Watts 2003). The second part of the paper offers a close analysis of some resources through which participants manage adversarial questioning in television interviews. The analysis focuses on (i) the micro-level practices through which interviewers build question turns so that they impose particular agendas, carry damaging implications, or serve as vehicles of accusation and (ii) practices of answering through which interviewees address the implications of questions and resist the IR’s attempts to control the topical agenda of the interview. The analysis calls into question the usefulness of the notion of impoliteness for the analysis of confrontational discourse. The paper argues that if politeness research seeks to describe how utterances and interpretations are generated in interaction, empirical investigations in this field should be based on premises that are consistent with work in conversation analysis.

Right at the start: an agenda for research and development in teacher induction

Recent developments in teacher induction in both England and Scotland are bringing long-overdue improvements, but there is a range of issues in need of further exploration if policy is to be developed. Current evaluations have begun to reveal the absence of some important conceptual aspects of induction in the somewhat hasty implementation. Some of these have been well rehearsed in the literature over the years but have generally failed to make any impact hitherto in induction policy. This article picks up and discusses some of the conceptual tensions and weaknesses that have, or are likely to, become practical issues of quality, in both Scottish and English induction policies. These include the use of competence-based descriptions, the non-formal dimension of learning to teach, open narrative and focused approaches to classroom observation and feedback, individualism and a pupil perspective. The array of concepts is organised into a constructive, topical agenda which, it is argued, brings a much-needed formative dimension to research and development in this crucial area of professional learning.

Current trends in reward systems

Money is never far from most people's minds at home or at work. Even at a time of low inflation, as tax increases begin to bite, people look for ways of making up the difference in their living standards and preferably through their pay packet. Companies on the other hand have to anticipate the need for incentives to overcome skill shortages as the economy starts to expand and start to look for ways of ensuring that they hold on to their key people. Changes in reward systems are therefore always on the topical agenda. Here, the author examines what forms are they currently taking.

Liturgy, Prophecy, and Belshazzar's Babylon: Discourse and Meaning in Cleanness

"Liturgy, Prophecy, and Belshazzar's Babylon: Discourse and Meaning in Cleanness." Whatever problems Cleanness has posed those who have been provoked to write on it, the decipherment of its meaning has not been one of them. The poem's exhortations to the virtue of cleanness have generally been understood as homiletic in spirit, and like good homily the poem seems to explain itself and preempt the interpreter-all the more since it seems to address the Christian layperson. Recovery of the several "languages" that compose the text, however, reveals a work coded to prosecute a much more specific and highly topical agenda. Cleanness coordinates lexical and conceptual materials rooted in traditional liturgical and contemporary prophetic discourses, in order to indict the perceived failure not only of the priesthood but of the papacy itself. The poem's sacerdotal and institutional critiques converge in the profane liturgical ritual allegorized by Belshazzar's Feast in the poem's figure for a corrupt papacy, Babylon. In Cleanness's case, eliciting the ways in which the poem signifies involves recognizing the specificity and situatedness of fields of language such as the liturgical and the prophetic, and so reconnecting the poem to history.