Digital Commons Network^™

Design Practice As A Discursive And Interrogating Performance, Li Jönsson

Nordes Conference Series

This PhD is focused on how design can play a role in engaging people in potential serious issues, or producing forms of knowledge that are still unstable, or controversial. The research objective is two-fold. At first, to engage my practical skills as a designer to further develop the notion of discursive design, this will be done through a series of hands-on explorations that in different ways aim to mediate and visualise the issue of concern. My role as a designer is meant to reveal new experiences, tell new stories by assuming design is about linking the imagination to material forms. …

Practice Theory And Human-Centered Design: A Sustainable Bathing Example, Lenneke Kuijer, Annelise De Jong

Nordes Conference Series

Within sustainable design, design researchers and practitioners are developing novel design approaches equipped to influence domestic resource consumption in a variety of ways. However, as it turns out, the outcomes of these approaches in terms of their actual effects on sustainability are not quite as high as the desired effects. This is often taken to be a direct consequence of rebound effects or unpredicted user behaviour. In an attempt to overcome these limitations, this article explores the implications of the combination of two research strands, practice theory and human-centred design that may assist designers by going beyond behaviour towards gaining …

The Disruptive Aesthetics Of Design Activism: Enacting Design Between Art And Politics, Thomas Markussen

Nordes Conference Series

The aim of this article is above all to construct a new conceptual framework for understanding how and why design activism in public space matters. The article sets off by providing a literature review of some of the existing theoretical frameworks in design research for understanding design activism. In so doing, I will identify a theoretical ‘blind spot’ in the research literature, which has blocked our view of how design activism functions as an aesthetic practice and not only a socio-political one. To remedy this shortcoming, I then introduce some notions from Rancière (2004; 2010) that enable design research to …

Recognizing Paradoxical Identities Of Design Managers, Ulla Johansson, Jill Woodilla

Nordes Conference Series

There is a need for designers with knowledge in business as well as business people with knowledge in design. Master-level education programs for this “in between” area are growing all over the world. We argue that the knowledge and identity of being “in between” is essential but also problematic. There is a danger that, similar to relations between men and (wo)men, the business way of thinking becomes the common ground for (design) management, and the designerly characteristics become decoration, rather than another ground. In order not to suppress the one or the other, we argue for a paradoxical identity of …

Facilitating Service Co-Production: A Dramaturgical Perspective, Zagros Hatami

Nordes Conference Series

Unlike products, the production and consumption of service occurs simultaneously with service users acting as co-producers of service. This role is significant as the quantity, quality and experience of service is often reliant on the quality of user efforts. Thus, service designers need to consider the co-productive roles various service actors are required to play at the time of service consumption. This awareness allows designers to facilitate this role taking process by setting the stage for users as well as other service actors to successfully play their part in the production of service. As service interactions are dyadic social interactions, …

Upon Opening The Black Box Of Participatory Design And Finding It Filled With Ethics, Marc Steen

Nordes Conference Series

In this essay, I bring together Participatory Design's (PD) tradition of critical reflection on one's own practices, and Science and Technology Studies' focus on specific activities ('opening the black box'), in order to explore the ethic of PD. I discuss three different forms of ethics-relational ethics, pragmatist ethics and virtue ethics-and provide several examples from practice, and argue that PD is 'filled with ethics': PD participants often find themselves in ethical situations and engage with ethics-even if they are unaware of these ethics and if these ethics remain implicit. I propose reflexivity as a way for PD practitioners to cope …

Dart: New Teaching Methods For Organizing Intuition, Maria Mackinney-Valentin

Nordes Conference Series

DART (Driver Analysis – Reading Trends) is a new approach developed by the author to organizing and developing intuition in the research and development phase of a creative process within the field of fashion and design. At its current stage, the model has been targeted teaching at design schools. The method is based on the author’s Ph.D. dissertation (“On the Nature of Trends: A Study of Trend Mechanisms in Contemporary Fashion”, 2010), teaching experience at design schools and methods from fashion forecasting. DART is intended to support design students on two levels: 1. To qualify the students’ sensibility or hunch …

Design And Possibility, Mads Nygaard Folkmann

Nordes Conference Series

A central element in design is the search for the new and not-yet-existing. Thus, design is a matter of the possible, of which kind of products and meanings can be made possible through design. The article attempts to propose a way of theorizing the field of the possible in design. The ability to deal with, mediate and evoke new possibilities and thereby creatively explore new territories of use, meaning and impact is seen as a defining factor of design. Using a phenomenological framework and stating the imagination as a central concept, the article aims at pointing in new directions for …

Design Interventions As Multiple Becomings Of Healthcare, Tariq Andersen, Joachim Halse, Jonas Moll

Nordes Conference Series

Research on design of IT traditionally treats the scientific knowledge production and the design of new systems as related, but separate processes. We propose the fruitfulness of practicing a closer relation informed by interventionist design research (appreciating a problem through attempts at solving it) and actor network theory (reality is enacted and constructed through our engagement with it). Through three concrete design interventions with cardiatric healthcare, we illustrate how diverse agendas of sociological inquiry and practical design considerations can coexist and come to enact health care in specific ways. We suggest this as a strategy of multiple becomings, wherein assemblies …

Giga-Mapping: Visualisation For Complexity And Systems Thinking In Design, Birger Sevaldson

Nordes Conference Series

Designers and design is facing ever growing challenges from an increasingly complex world. Making design matter means to cope with these challenges and to be able to enter new important design fields where design can play a crucial role. To achieve this we need to become better at coping with super-complexity. Systems Oriented Design is a new version of systems thinking and systems practice that is developed from within design thinking and design practice. It is systems thinking and systems practice tailored by and for designers. It draws from designerly ways of dealing with super-complexity derived from supreme existing design …

Living The (Co-Design) Lab, Thomas Binder, Eva Brandt, Joachim Halse, Maria Foverskov, Sissel Olander, Signe Yndigegn

Nordes Conference Series

Design research environments are becoming visible in many places, in universities, in design schools, in companies and in public organizations. What most of them have in common is a commitment to the exploration of the possible rather than the factual.

41st Chicano Commencement, 2011, San Jose State University, Associated Students

Chicano Commencement

41st Annual Chicano Commencement

"Aquí no se acabará, seguiremos triunfando con orgullo y dedicación!" The 41st Annual Chicano Commencement was held on May 29, 2011 at the SJSU Event Center.

Parental Edation, Family Income, And Peer Group On Children's Academic Performance In China, Chi Zhang

Bachelor of Social Sciences – Senior Theses

Previous studies have established that children from richer family backgrounds are generally observed to have higher educational outcomes than other youth. However, the mechanism through which household income affects the child’s outcomes remains unclear. Meanwhile, other studies point out that parental education and the peer effects also have influences on children’s achievement. This paper estimates the effects of parental human education, family income and peer group on children’s education performance using a data of about 300 students from primary and high schools in China which includes extensive background information at the student, parents and friend level. The research finds that …

Dealing With Barnard’S Regret: Accountability And The Zone Of Expectations, Melvin J. Dubnick, Justin P. O’Brien

Faculty Publications

This document discusses Barnard’s reflections on authority, responsibility, and organizational behavior, highlighting his regret over the limited focus on responsibility in his earlier work.

2011 Lsu Law Commencement Program, Lsu Law

Commencement Programs

No abstract provided.

Agenda: Best Management Practices (Bmps): What? How? And Why?, Houston Advanced Research Center. Environmentally Friendly Drilling Systems Program, Research Partnership To Secure Energy For America, University Of Colorado Boulder. Natural Resources Law Center. Intermountain Oil And Gas Bmp Project

Best Management Practices (BMPs): What? How? And Why? (May 26)

The Environmentally Friendly Drilling Systems (EFD) Program, managed by the Houston Advanced Research Center, works to identify, develop and transfer critical, cost effective, new technologies that can provide policy makers and industry with the ability to develop natural gas reserves in a safe and environmentally friendly manner. Funding for the EFD Program is through a grant from the Research Partnership to Secure Energy for America, established under the 2005 Energy Act. Within the EFD Program, some projects focus on technologies for developing energy sources in environmentally sensitive areas; others (like the NRLC’s BMP Project) seek ways to reduce the environmental …

Ua51/1 Collections & Connections, Jennifer Wilson

Collections & Connections

This issue of WKU Libraries' biannual publication features the Libraries' events that happened in the latter part of 2010 and early part of 2011, including the Kentucky Literacy Week, SOKY Book Fest, the Kentucky Writers Conference, the literary partnership with OCLC, and the US Bank Art Show. It also reports achievements made by the Libraries such as milestone publication efforts made by TopSCHOLAR, the Libraries' reception of the NEH grant for Alcott events as well as professional achievements of the Libraries' faculty and staff. Events of the Kentucky Museum and the Main Library are also highlighted.

Faculty Retirement Recognition Dinner 2011, Western Michigan University

Faculty Recognition

Faculty Retirement Recognition Dinner

May 26, 2011

Honored Guests:

• John W. Benson
• Nora H. Faires
• William H. Fenn
• Richard B. Hathaway
• Harold L. Hladky
• Richard J. Keaveny
• Cheryl H. Lyon-Jenness
• Paul L. Maier
• Peter G. Northouse
• Peter E. Parker
• G. Gwen Raaberg
• Steven C. Rhodes
• Robert J. Ricci
• Pamela Schuck Rooney
• Iskender Sahin
• Frank L. Severance
• Michael R. Stoline
• Robert F. Wait

The Observer, Central Washington University

Student Newspaper

Student newspaper for Central Washington University for May 26-June 1, 2011. Vol. 88, No. 8.

Thesis Proposal For: General And Specific Definitions: A Network Study Of Differential Association, Nicholas Hauman

Theses and Dissertations

This study examines a largely unexplored aspect of Sutherland’s (1974) model of differential association: the interplay of general and crime specific definitions favorable towards crime. Do individuals learn the specific techniques of a type of crime through interactions or do social interactions produce a general disposition towards all types of criminal behavior? Little prior research has been done on the influence of these definitions. Instead studies focus on only one or another, which leaves the details of general/specific definitions unexplored. With the aid of a mixed methodology of statistical and network analysis, this study explores general/specific definitions simultaneously by focusing …

University Board Of Trustees Elects New Members, University Communications, Illinois Wesleyan University

News and Events (Discontinued Series)

No abstract provided.

Social Capital In Online Communities, Matthew Scott Smith

Theses and Dissertations

Social capital is the value of the relationships we create and maintain within our social networks to gain access to and mobilize needed resources (e.g., jobs, moral support). Quantifying, and subsequently leveraging, social capital are challenging problems in the social sciences. Most work so far has focused on analyses from static surveys of limited numbers of participants. The explosion of online social media means that it is now possible to collect rich data about people's connections and interactions, in a completely ubiquitous, non-intrusive manner. Such dynamic social data opens the door to the more accurate measuring and tracking of social …

2011-05-26 Unm News Minute, University Of New Mexico Communication And Marketing Department

UNM News Minute 2011

No abstract provided.

Mcnair Scholars 2009-2010, Program Staff, University Administration

McNair Scholars Research Journal

No abstract provided.

Illuminating Distinction: Rural Modernization And The Invention Of The Countryside In Cajamarca, Perú, Jade Severson

Senior Theses

The district of La Encañada, located deep within the Andean sierra north of the city of Cajamarca, is in a state of transition. As the beneficiary of a 2006 collaborative project between ITDG-Soluciones Prácticas and the European Union, nine of the district’s communities received a solar panel stipulated for placement on each community’s local centro educativo, a school serving students at both the primary and secondary grade levels. Investment in solar panels was intended to complement a much more integral project designed to harness the resources available in the district and to thus empower peasant men and women and their …

Understanding, And Developing, Audience Engagement With Dctv, Eddie Brennan

Other

This research explores community members’ perceptions of Dublin Community Television (DCTV), its programming and its programme schedule.

Are All Immigrants Criminals? Societal Perceptions Across Select Social Groups, Catherine F. Tindall

Theses and Dissertations

This study explores the perceptions toward immigrant criminality in Utah of four distinct social groups: state legislators, immigrants, law enforcement personnel, and incarcerated immigrants. Each group was examined separately and found to have a variety of perceptions among their members. Themes emerged that provided insight into the overlap and complexity of these differences across social groups. Legislators appeared the most dichotomous: some believed immigration and crime to be positively correlated, especially for undocumented immigrants, while others perceived no such connection. Among immigrants, perceptions were extremely diverse, but generally represented by reference to an unsubstantiated stereotype that immigrants committed crime at …

Social And Historical Glimpses Of Ali Shariati's Thought, Ghanem Naguib Abbas, Wael Jabbar Jwda

Uruk Journal of Human Sciences

Ali Shariati is considered one of the Iranian intellectual figures affiliated with the Islamic movement, in addition to his interest in sociology; As he focused in many of his writings on depicting the social reality in the shadow of the religious establishment that was his time, and he wrote a large number of books specializing in the study of Islamic history in addition to his works in sociology. This is on the one hand, and on the other hand, his lectures, especially those he delivered in the Husseiniya Al-Irshad, were printed in notebooks and recorded on tapes until the total …

Are Languages Really Independent From Genes? If Not, Whatwould A Genetic Bias Affecting Language Diversity Look Like?, Dan Dediu

Human Biology

It is generally accepted that the relationship between human genes and language is very complex and multifaceted. This has its roots in the “regular” complexity governing the interplay among genes and between genes and environment for most phenotypes, but with the added layer of supraontogenetic and supra-individual processes defining culture. At the coarsest level, focusing on the species, it is clear that human-specific—but not necessarily faculty-specific—genetic factors subtend our capacity for language and a currently very productive research program is aiming at uncovering them. At the other end of the spectrum, it is uncontroversial that individual-level variations in different aspects …

The Psycho-Economic Model Of Ecstasy Consumption And Related Consequences: A Multi-Site Study With Community Samples, Arbi Ben Abdallah

All Theses and Dissertations (ETDs)

A Psycho-Economic Model of Ecstasy Consumption and Related Consequences: A Multi-Site Study with Community Samples By Arbi Ben Abdallah The consumption of mind-altering drugs is well recognized as a complex behavior entailing many different etiological precursors. To understand its complexity, drug use has to be considered from multiple perspectives. Over time, numerous theories have been advanced to explain drug use, the pattern of its use, and its related consequences. Because they approach such a behavior from slightly different vantage points, these theories offer unique explanations with different take on its genetic, physiological, psychological, and environment risk factors. A substantial body …