Lamppost networks*: stickers as a genre in urban semiotic landscapes

ABSTRACT

This paper examines the pragmatics of stickers as a genre prominent in communication in urban public space. Although normally small in size, stickers may quantitatively dominate signage in certain areas of cities. Stickers are examined here as localized communicative events that mediatize social practices through a range of complex multimodal and linguistic processes, based on data from the Digbeth area in central Birmingham, UK. An analysis of the distribution of stickers, their agency, audience, and the multimodal practices involved in their creation reveals that they bring together transgressive, artistic and commercial discourses and form a specific layer of urban communication, especially in areas of pedestrian transit within a city. A large number of stickers also initiate communications that can potentially be continued online.     

Digitizing Peircean semiotics to analyze students’ peer-review comments: classroom use of an application in open-source R

ABSTRACT

Statistical software applications are increasingly used to measure student engagement in the classroom. However, more work remains to be done to clarify how meaning is created and measured in classroom settings. With the growing use of technology in the classroom, students’ peer review has become a standard practice to improve students’ writing skills. This article examines the use of an open-source R software application based on Peirce’s sign theory to analyze students’ peer-review comments. Peer review is the assessment of student or professional work by others. The importance of open-source R as a platform lies in the fact that users can extend its code without having to ask permission. The results suggest a new approach, based on computational and social semiotics, to the assessment of students’ peer-review comments in higher education.     

China's reform,internal trade and marketing

Abstract

This article analyses Macau's casinos as an example for accumulation by dispossession, in which they serve to transfer wealth from Mainland China to Macau and the casinos' foreign investors. They also represent a model for economic development and this model has migrated to Singapore, where it also operates as a form of accumulation by dispossession. By requiring citizens to pay an entrance fee, Singapore's casinos explicitly appropriate other people's money. The efficacy for the use of casinos as economic development is interrogated here because Macau's casino experience has emerged as a model for economic development in Asia beyond simply Singapore.     

Women's interpretations of the right to legal abortion in Mexico City: citizenship,experience and clientelism

In April 2007, after a period of intense social debate, the Mexico City Legal Assembly legalized abortion during the first 12 weeks of pregnancy, which was an unprecedented development in women's rights in Mexico. Within the context of a proliferation of public discourses about women's citizenship rights changes in women's social status in Mexico, this article explores the extent to which the newly legalized character of abortion is interpreted by women as a right. Drawing on 24 interviews with women who had a legal termination of pregnancy between 2008 and 2009, this research shows that legalization opens up new and complex relationships between women as subjects of rights and the state. Such relationships are expressed as three discursive figures: legal abortion (1) as a concession from the government, (2) as ‘excessive’ tolerance by the state, and (3) as a right to be protected and guaranteed. The analysis shows that women's interpretations of the right to legal abortion are mediated by profound transformations, which Mexican society is currently undergoing. These include changes related to a shift from a clientist political culture to one more framed in terms of citizenship, the subjective effects of family planning policies, and their ambivalent relationships with Catholic notions of women and motherhood, and the effects of feminist discourses of women's citizenship, abortion, and reproductive rights.     

Politicians in Television

ABSTRACT

Television viewers, journalists and social influence analysts often use the term “television character” or “media-savvy person” when referring to people (also to politicians) who draw the viewers' attention and interest (Reeves, Naas, 2000). The purpose of the research presented herein is to answer two questions: (1) what are the differences in social perception of five main personality dimensions (“the Big Five”: agreeableness, conscientiousness, extraversion, neuroticism, and openness to experience [intellect]) of media-savvy politicians and those considered to belong to the non-media-savvy type; and (2) how traits attributed to media-savvy and media-un-savvy politicians remain connected with the viewers' political self-identification. A hundred journalism students, using an adjective list for “the Big Five” diagnosis (five dimensions of personality), were to identify their political beliefs as right wing, mixed, or left wing and to describe a politician they considered to be the most media-savvy and the least media-savvy person. Results indicate that media-avvy politicians are perceived to be more extrovert (dynamic), more open to experience, and more conscientious than their media-un-savvy counterparts; participants' (viewers') political beliefs reflect the importance of openness and conciliation in perception of media-savvy and non-media-savvy politicians.     

论第三代中央领导集体反腐政治体系的构建——党的权力运行秩序视阈下的解读

基于社会主义市场经济的不成熟、不完善,从而滋生大量诱发腐败的劣变生态因子的情况,第三代中央领导集体在继承我党廉政建设有益经验的基础上,积极探索构建反腐政治体系。在政党文化层面,积极推进观念化意识形态的创新,为有效有序运行党的权力提供科学而恒定的价值方向和准则规范;在内政治社会化层面,强化对领导干部的政党文化内化教育;在政治制度层面突出准则和规范的实施以及源头防治功能,推进制度反腐新路径;在政治关系层面坚持"以法为轨"的准则,推动新形势下党的权力运行民主化和善治化;在政治行为层面加强对反腐工作规律的认识和继续实行群众参与制度化建设。     

EU Democracy Assistance in the Mediterranean: What Relationship with the Arab Uprisings?

This article analyzes the European Union (EU) policy for democracy assistance toward the Southern Mediterranean countries and tracks changes in the last decade, with a special emphasis on the most recent period. It shows that the EU policy, which goes under the acronym of EIDHR, has evolved, but predominantly in response to internal dynamics rather than to developments in Arab countries. The EU has increasingly provided assistance to local actors on the ground in non-member countries and has differentiated its action in authoritarian countries from countries in transition. When it comes to implementing its own policy, however, the EU is less able to promote democracy than human rights, and most of the funds go to support projects centered on relatively uncontroversial rights such as women's and children's.     

“90后”大学生恋爱心理及矫正研究——以西安2000例“90后”大学生恋爱心理调查为例

恋爱是大学校园中持续被关注的热点话题,与前几代大学生相比,“90后”大学生表现出具有鲜明时代烙印的特点。通过对2000例‘90后”大学生的恋爱心理进行问卷调查,从恋爱现状、恋爱观、恋爱对象选择、恋爱行为、性心理及其行为等方面总结了其行为和心理表现,并在此结果上分析这一群体的心理特征,找出影响其特征的因素,旨在总结“90后”大学生的恋爱心理,对存在的问题提出矫正方法,寻求自我改变提升的方式。     

商业银行理财产品的法律性质研究

银监会将商业银行理财产品的法律性质定位为委托代理关系,但是实践中商业银行理财产品的运作方式与传统的委托代理关系相差甚远,那么商业银行理财产品的法律性质究竟为何？本文在对商业银行理财产品不同类别进行区分的基础上,对其法律性质分别予以了论述。     

“90后”大学生思想特点及引导路径探析

“90后”大学生群体的思想特点有：“我”成为个体的中心词;家庭中呈现依赖与反依赖的矛盾特性;社会追求上无所适从的矛盾心理等。这是特定的教育背景、生活环境以及身心发展规律等多方面因素影响的结果。在平等与互动中放大家庭的引导,在显性与隐性中渗透学校的教育,以内在与外在的方式催生社会自觉,应该成为对“90”后大学生进行思想政治教育的路径选择。