Science and Technology Studies Commons^™

Climate, Complacency And American Culture: The Role Of Narrative In The Era Of The Misinformation Amid The Anthropocene, Kayla Batalha

Bryant University Journal of Interdisciplinary Studies

This article explores the relationship between climate misinformation campaigns and narratives in light of skepticism and denial of climate change in the era of the Anthropocene. Beginning in the earliest moments of human existence, this paper establishes the importance of narratives in the founding of modern humanity and how such foundational stories has led to our current Anthropogenic world. It goes on to examine misinformation created and funded by politically powerful foundations and companies that distorts the current discussions of climate change among the American public. In leu of the abundance of climate misinformation, this paper also analyzes how the …

Game-Based Interventions And Their Impact On Dementia: A Narrative Review, Jiaying Zheng, Xueping Chen, Ping Yu

Faculty of Engineering and Information Sciences - Papers: Part B

Objective: The aim of this review was to examine the efficacy of game-based interventions for people with dementia. Methods: Seven studies that met the inclusion criteria were found in four databases. Their interventions and key findings were analysed and synthesised. Results: Game-based interventions for people with dementia are showing promise for improving cognition, coordination and behavioural and psychological symptoms. The generalisability of the findings is limited by weak methodology and small sample size. Conclusions: Game-based interventions can improve cognition, coordination and behavioural and psychological symptoms for people with dementia. Future research should include methodological improvement and practice guideline development.

Organic Interfaces; Or, How Human Beings Augment Their Digital Devices, John Hunter

Faculty Journal Articles

It is a central premise of the advertising campaigns for nearly all digital communication devices that buying them augments the user: they give us a larger, better memory; make us more “creative” and “productive”; and/or empower us to access whatever information we desire from wherever we happen to be. This study is about how recent popular cinema represents the failure of these technological devices to inspire the enchantment that they once did and opens the question of what is causing this failure.

Using examples from the James Bond films, the essay analyzes the ways in which human users are frequently …

Social Software, Groups, And Governance, Michael J. Madison

Articles

Formal groups play an important role in the law. Informal groups largely lie outside it. Should the law be more attentive to informal groups? The paper argues that this and related questions are appearing more frequently as a number of computer technologies, which I collect under the heading social software, increase the salience of groups. In turn, that salience raises important questions about both the significance and the benefits of informal groups. The paper suggests that there may be important social benefits associated with informal groups, and that the law should move towards a framework for encouraging and recognizing them. …

Where Does Creativity Come From? And Other Stories Of Copyright, Michael J. Madison

Articles

This Commentary on Lydia Pallas Loren, Untangling the Web of Music Copyrights, 53 Case W. Res. L. Rev. 673 (2003), observes that debates over a variety of copyright law issues can be - and in fact, often are - structured in narrative terms, rather than in terms of doctrine, policy, or empirical inquiry. I suggest a series of such narratives, each framed by a theme drawn from a feature film. The Commentary suggests that we should recognize more clearly the role of narrative in intellectual property discourse, and that intellectual property narratives should be examined critically.

The Narratives Of Cyberspace Law (Or, Learning From Casablanca), Michael J. Madison

Articles

Cyberspace scholars have wrestled extensively with the question of the "right" metaphorical approach to the Internet, in order to guide legal and policy decisions. Literary theorists have wrestled with the perception that cyberspace undermines conventional ideas about narrative. This Essay suggests that each group could learn from the other. Cyberspace tells a better story than literary scholars believe, and the lawyers should pay more attention to the narrative attributes of cyberspace. To illustrate the argument, the Essay proposes a specific story framework for cyberspace: the film Casablanca.

Environment As Master Narrative: Discourse And Identity In Environmental Conflicts (Special Issue Introduction), Krista Harper

Anthropology Department Faculty Publication Series

Although postmodern philosophers proclaimed the death of the master narrative of enlightenment (Lyotard 1984), the environment has become a quintessentially global narrative. Throughout the world, people are imagining the environment as an object threatened by human action. Environmentalism proposes to organize and mobilize human action in order to protect the endangered environment (Milton 1995). Sociologist Klaus Eder posits that ecology has become a “masterframe,” transforming the field of political debate (Eder 1996). The articles assembled in this special issue investigate the rise of the environment as a master narrative organizing political practices.