Dissertations / Theses on the topic 'Language and culture – Europe'

This thesis investigates language and culture learning through technologies with special attention to the global and local dimensions of this process. Building upon three case studies experienced at the University of Bologna, the examination of the usage and the effectiveness of technological tools for language and culture learning is conducted in relation with the phenomena of student mobility and internationalisation of higher education. The primary focus is upon Italian language and culture, but other languages and cultures are also taken into account. Similarly, some specific technologies – i.e. the Moodle platform, the MOOCs (Massive Open Online Courses) and the context of mobile Apps – are spotlighted while dealing with technology for learning purposes in more general terms. The initial chapter is dedicated to providing a thorough methodological overview and raises the relevant critical issues which will be discussed in the following chapters. The second chapter is devoted to the E-LOCAL (Electronically Learning Other Cultures And Languages) experience, which resulted in the creation of the E-LOCAL Moodle courses for six languages and cultures and their institutional systematisation. The third chapter analyses the transition from the E-LOCAL Moodle course to the E-LOCAL MOOC course of Italian language and culture. The fourth chapter discusses the ILOCALAPP (Incidentally Learning Other Cultures And Languages through an APP) the experience and the usage of the UniOn! App for the incidental learning of languages and cultures, whose contents are geo-localised in the reference cities. To conclude, the final chapter provides a systematic reflection upon the results collected in the attempt to identify a possible theoretical framework for learning languages and cultures through technologies. In fact, the conclusions of this work summarise the current and future usages of the tools described, while also opening the path to new possible research perspectives.

In contradistinction to critical trends which have rendered Milton’s thought disembodied, this thesis studies how seventeenth-century material culture informed Milton’s poetry and prose at the epistemic level and by suggesting a palette of forms for literary play. The first chapter explores the early modern culture of fruit. At the epistemic level, practices of fruit cultivation and consumption inform Milton’s imagination and his vocabulary, thereby connecting their historic-material lives with their symbolic ones. Milton further turns commonplace gestures of fruit consumption into narrative devices that frame discussions of agency, aspiration, sinful and right practice. The second chapter examines two floral catalogues to discover how they find shape through the epistemologies of flowers, ceremony, and decorative arts. Here material culture shapes literary convention, as one catalogue is found to secret ceremonial consolation in its natural ingenuousness, while the other’s delight in human physicality upsets the distinctions between inner virtue and outer ornament, faith and rite. In the third chapter, urban epistemologies of light, darkness, movement, and space are examined through urban phenomena: skyline, suburbs, highways, theft, and waterways. By interpellating contemporary debates, these categories anatomise fallen character, intent, action, and their consequences. Milton’s instinctive distaste for urban nuisances is interesting in this Republican figure and is subversive of some ideologies of the text. Discursive and material aspects meet again in the fourth chapter in a discussion of his graphic presentations of geography on the page. Usually prone to analyses of textual knowledge, they are also informed by the embodiment of knowledge as material object. Milton’s search for a fitting cartographic aesthetic for the Biblical narrative and for the rhetoric of his characters leads him to an increasing consciousness of the ideologies energising these material forms. The fifth chapter explores Milton’s engagement with forms of armour and weapons. Military preferences for speed and mobility over armour help Milton explore the difference between unfallen and fallen being. Milton also uses his inescapably proleptic knowledge of arms and armour as a field of imaginative play for representations that are both anachronistic and typological. These lead to a discussion of imitation in the mythic imagination. In each of these studies, we witness Milton’s consciousness of his temporal and proleptic location, and his attempts to marry the temporal and the pan- or atemporal. In the conclusion I suggest that Milton’s simultaneous courting of the atemporal while he is drawn to or draws on temporal material culture imply an incarnational aesthetic.

This thesis argues against the claim of linguistic and cultural homogenization widely believed to be induced by the spread of English worldwide by looking at how native and non-native speakers alike re-appropriate the perceived model of 'Standard English' to fit the frames of their own culture and to express their own identity. The hypothesis that this thesis builds on is that the language each of us speaks reflects one's own individual background, the communities that one belongs to, and the identity that one wants to convey. As English is assimilated by the people of the world, their cultural diversity is re-expressed through the common language. By looking at the ways in which English is used in a multicultural setting and at the speakers' attitudes towards it, this paper makes a claim for an alternative to the current educational paradigm in refocusing English teaching on its potential for intercultural communication rather than on specific knowledge of Anglo-American cultures. In order to identify the cultural factors that are involved in the production of one's speech in English as a lingua franca situations, the Vienna-Oxford International Corpus of English (VOICE) – a collection of naturally occurring spoken interactions in English – will be used. Close attention will be paid to the communicative strategies that the participants use, to the way their identities are expressed in their speech, to instances of code-switching or to neologisms that they may use, and to the ways in which they accommodate each other whenever communication is not clear.

Language competence is decisively important in international business and could increase efficacy, efficiency, sales and profits. Language is an underresearched area in business studies though language constitutes management and the managers building structures, processes, cultures and personalities being the most vital working tool to get things done and make them understandable. Since 1970 Swedish companies lose market shares globally and in Europe. In an era requiring better foreign language skills there is a declining trend among young Swedish business people and students in other languages than English. The aim of this study is to investigate and analyse the role of language in intercultural business communication between Swedish expatriates and locals in Serbia, The Czech Republic, Ukraine, Romania and Bulgaria and indirectly also Russia and Poland. To understand the business culture in these countries the author has learned the local language in these seven countries taking 3687 private language lessons. This improves the researcher’s understanding of the culture and its people giving directness and depth in communication, independence and receptivity. This ethnographically inspired hermeneutic study holds semi-structured interviews with expatriates. Better language skills among expatriates – particularly in the local language - could make them more self-dependent and win contracts and it strengthens closeness to customers, relationship and trust, strategic view and ability and also operational effectiveness and efficiency enabling their companies to gain market shares. Using Weber’s ideal types the cultural significance structures emerge featuring the cultures in these countries showing that expatriates have to strengthen the ability of the locals in the areas of trust, responsibility and initiative, independent thinking, holistic view, win-win thinking and reduce fear while the expatriates’ own abilities in these areas are strengthened if they speak the local language. Language strategies permitting the expatriate to be more communicatively and linguistically self-dependent are having a common company language, using multilingualism or having the expatriate speak or learn to speak the local language where the advantages, disadvantages and characteristics of these and other aspects of the role of language are given in ideal types.

As many other ethno-cultural identities in Europe, the collective selfperceptions of Scotland's Gaels and the Sorbs of Lusatia are undergoing considerable changes. Proceding from the post-structuralist premise that discourse plays a crucial part in the generation of knowledge, power and social behaviour (Foucault, Derrida, Lyotard), the study addresses the ways in which the Gaelic and Sorbian elites incorporate the language aspect into narratives on cultural continuity and considers the implications of accelerated language shift towards English/German and the survivalist promotion of the ancestral medium for the maintenance of group boundaries. Its primary empirical data corpus comprises more than 100 interviews and a questionnaire survey (n=201) conducted during the late 1990s in peripheral parts of the Ghidhealtachd and bilingual territories of Lusatia, publications by Gaelic and Sorbian organisations, and relevant items from the local and national media. A brief exploration of the ways in which the two communities came to think of themselves as distinct reveals that a substantial legacy of cultural nationalism and pan-Slavism allowed the Sorbian intelligentsia to sustain a strong sense of ethnic difference throughout the 19th and 20th centuries, whereas Scotland's Gaels have never overtly embraced this paradigm in political terms. Their elite was confronted with its premises during their reinvention as Scotland's Celts and combined linguistic patriotism with calls for socioeconomic improvements during the 1880s, but it has been rather reluctant to portray contemporary and future users of the ancestral language as a distinct nation or ethnic group. To the present day, Gaels are inclined to perceive themselves to be a key component, and arguably the kernel, of the Scottish nation. The most significant overlap between Gaelic- and Sorbian-related revival discourses has been the notion that a complete decline of the traditional medium would seal the fate of the associated culture, though the underlying rationales indicate a gradual shift from an essentialising agenda of preservation and exclusion to a more liberal and pluricentric approach. A desire to withstand the homogenising forces of capitalist globalisation fuels purist attitudes with regard to specific cultural forms, many of which are thought to depend on the traditional medium and put native speakers with heartland links into positions of authority. At the same time, the Gaelic and Sorbian heritage are treated as sources of alternative values and wisdom, in which context Gaelic/Sorbian language ability is primarily valued as an access tool. Tensions between essentialist and dynamic perspectives also occur over the development of the languages themselves. They are enhanced by the assumption that the 'survival' of Gaelic and Sorbian depends in part on individuals who acquire and transmit them outside the bilingual districts, where an ability in the minority medium is more likely to generate subcultural, regional and political identities than a radical ethno-cultural reorientation. According to this study's findings, the linguocentric agendas of many Gaelic and Sorbian organisations can neither be attributed to a naive belief in linguistic determinism nor be dismissed as an entirely symbolic ingredient for the restoration of justice and pride where historic circumstances inflicted marginalisation and oppression. They are based on a justified concern that the complete demise of a linguistic boundary would make it impossible to generate separate discursive spaces, to which Gaelic and Sorbian culture have in most locations become reduEce d and for which a separate literature and separate electronic media are indispensable.

The aim of this study was to find out whether Europeans and North Americans differ as to what they consider to be best examples of four categories; namely vehicles, clothes, vegetables, and furniture. I compared the two continents with each other and tried to find out to what extent the cultural differences really influence the best examples chosen by the research participants. Further, I briefly

compared the prototypes with European females and males and North American females and males and tried to point out some differences between the two genders. Moreover I tried to connect the differences to cultural and gender related factors. The results show the existence of some good and some bad examples that were the same no matter if we looked at the European list or the North American one. However, as we have found out through our research there seem to be strong cultural reasons for the best examples the participants chose. It is a natural behavior to choose prototypes of categories that are well known by the research participants. The best known items are those which are present in the lives of the participants. So, for example riding a bicycle does not seem to be very common among people in North America. They consider bicycle only a lower average example for the category vehicles, whereas Europeans for example seem to use bicycles much more often. They place it on rank four out of 17. People seem to choose things they know or are interested in.

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This study aimed to study the linguistic behavior of nine Brazilian students, linked to the Federal University of Goiás (UFG) in the cities of Catalão, Goiânia and Jataí, participants in the International Baccalaureate Program (PLI) from 2012 to 2014 in Portuguese universities . The aim of this research was to understand the relationship between the Brazilian and Portuguese varieties and cultures in contact situations in Portuguese context, as well as to describe how these dimensions influenced the (re) construction of the Brazilian students participating in the research. Thus, a reading of the situation of contact between the two linguistic groups, speaking of Brazilian Portuguese (PB) and speakers of European Portuguese (PE), was made, showing the lexical- cultural approximations and differences between the two varieties that emerge from the situations experiences during contact. The core of this analysis is based on studies conducted by Bauman (2005), Hall (2011), Labov (2008) and Perini (2004) on language / culture / variation trichotomy and the relationship that keeps them linked to the subject in the readaptation process or construction of identity within the sociolinguistic view, and in other texts that were pertinent to the development of this research. The constitution of the corpus was based on the answers, in writing, provided by nine participants to the questions asked through questionnaires. The questionnaire consisted of twenty-two questions, which relate to the lexical variations of PB in contact with the EP, so as to highlight the most striking aspects of Brazilian culture and linguistic identity in a European context. The results of this research point out that the conflicts generated by the contact between theparticipants of the research with the EP are supported by linguistic, historical and cultural aspects that constitute the Brazilian and Portuguese communities, as well as the difficulty of some Portuguese in accepting the Brazilian variety as correct. The Brazilian linguistic identity was a constant hard all contact, because the results evidenced the occurrence of a possible adaptation to the situation of contact, by the participants of the research, as opposed to the disentangling of the Brazilian identity. However, the use of this system denounces the subject as an individual and / or collectivity socially situated in a specific group whose cultural and linguistic identity is soon perceived. Culture, identity and lexical variation constitute a process of self-affirmation of the subject in situations of contact with other groups. However, each variety occupies a very well defined position and therefore the differences of one in relation to another exist and are justified in the socio-historical constitution of each Portuguese-speaking community. As a contribution, this research will serve as a basis for the authorities to think better about the proposals and the educational policies that support the development of educational programs that aim at the training of undergraduate students abroad, as well as contribute with the existing studies that say respect the lexical-cultural variation between varieties of LP and to promote new studies related to the areas related to the thematic of this study.
Este trabalho visou a estudar o comportamento linguístico de nove estudantes brasileiros, vinculados à Universidade Federal de Goiás (UFG) das cidades de Catalão, Goiânia e Jataí, participantes do Programa de Licenciaturas Internacionais (PLI) no período de 2012 a 2014, em universidades portuguesas. O intuito desta pesquisa foi compreender a relação que se mantém entre as variedades e culturas brasileiras e portuguesas em situação de contato em contexto português, bem como descrever o modo como essas dimensões influenciaram na (re)construção identitária dos estudantes brasileiros participantes da pesquisa. Desta forma, fez-se uma leitura da situação de contato entre os dois grupos linguísticos, falantes do português brasileiro (PB) e falantes do português europeu (PE), evidenciando as aproximações e diferenças léxico-cultural entre as duas variedades que emergem das situações vivenciadas durante o contato. O cerne desta análise se sustenta em estudos realizados por Bauman (2005), Hall (2011), Labov (2008) e Perini (2004) sobre a tricotomia língua/cultura/variação e a relação que as mantem ligadas ao sujeito no processo de readaptação ou construção da identidade dentro da visão sociolinguística, e em outros textos que foram pertinentes ao desenvolvimento desta pesquisa. A constituição do corpus se deu a partir das respostas, por escrito, fornecidas por nove participantes brasileiros às perguntas feitas por meio de questionários. O questionário se constituiu de vinte e duas questões, as quais dizem respeito às variações lexicais do PB em contato com o PE, de modo que sejam evidenciados os aspectos mais marcantes da cultura e identidade linguística brasileira em contexto europeu. Os resultados desta pesquisa apontam que os conflitos gerados a partir do contato entre os participantes, alunos brasileiros, da pesquisa com o PE encontram respaldo em aspectos linguísticos, históricos e culturais que constituem as comunidades brasileira e portuguesa, bem como a dificuldade de alguns portugueses em aceitar a variedade brasileira como correta. A identidade linguística brasileira foi uma constante dura todo o contato, pois os resultados evidenciam a ocorrência de uma possível adequação a situação de contato, por parte dos participantes da pesquisa, em contraposição ao desvencilhamento da identidade brasileira. No entanto, o uso desse sistema denuncia o sujeito como indivíduo e/ou coletividade socialmente situado em um grupo específico, cuja identidade cultural e linguística logo é percebida. A cultura, a identidade e a variação lexical constituem um processo de auto afirmação do sujeito em situações de contato com outros grupos. Contudo, cada variedade ocupa uma posição muito bem delineada e por isso as diferenças de uma em relação a outra existem e se justificam na constituição sócio-histórica respectiva a cada comunidade lusófona. Como contribuição esta pesquisa servirá de base às autoridades para que repensem as propostas e as políticas educacionais que embasam o desenvolvimento de programas educacionais que tem como objetivos a formação de alunos de graduação fora do país, bem como contribuir com os estudos já existentes que dizem respeito a variação léxico-cultural entre variedades da LP e impulsionar novos estudos relacionados às áreas correlacionadas a temática deste estudo.

This thesis analyses the relationship between identity and language by evaluating Poland&rsquo
s accession to the European Union. It suggests that at the national level, language is a constructer and transporter of identity, which is created and recreated as part of a political programme. Thus, it questions the role of language as an identity transporter/ marker at the EU level. Within this framework, arguing that the European identity is created by the European elites, establishment of the European identity in Poland will be discussed and the role of language in the European identity formation process in Poland will be examined. The thesis will also evaluate the results of the language policies and multilingualism that aim to establish the European identity in Poland, and will draw attention to the results such as the dominance of Anglo-Saxon culture and English. Finally, by making use of Poland&rsquo
s EU accession, the thesis will point out the limits of language as an identity transporter/ marker at the EU level.

Proces tranzicije i projekti modernizacije uvećini postsocijalističkih društava u Evropi,samim tim i na Balkanu, realizovani su u formideformisane imitativne modernizacije ilikontramodernizacije. Romi su i daljeperiferija, ali ovoga puta Evropske unije. Prednjima je neizvesna budućnost u liku alternativa:perspektiva postmodernog totalitarizma satehnokratskom diktaturom, ili formiranječovečanstva kao zajednice ravnopravnihgrađana i naroda u duhu modela socijaldemokratskeglobalizacije sveta sa respektombogatstva kulturnih različitosti sveta, saglobalizacijom razumevanja i solidarnosti međunarodima Dakle, i na nama savremenicima jevelika odgovornost kakav će oblik, lik i suštinuimati budućnost čovečanstva – da li će se onorazvijati u ključu humanizacije društva iemancipacije čoveka, ili pak novih oblikasocijalnog, političkog i kulturnog porobljavanja.Upravo iz tog razloga, izučavanje specifičnostistvaralaštva Roma u kontekstu evropskogsistema kulturnih vrednosti ima veliki značaj.U savremenom svetu, Romi kao etnička grupasve češće postaju predmet interesovanjanaučnih istraživanja. „Simbolika likovneumetnosti Roma i evropski sistem kulturnihvrednosti” pokazuje se u današnje vreme krajnjeinteresantnom temom istraživanja, s obzirom nanjen teorijski i na praktični aspekt. Reč je o umetnostje u svojoj formalnosti dugo vremenabivala mimikrijska, zahvaljujući simboličkojvrednosti njenih artefakata. Mi jemultidisciplinarnim uvidom sagledavamo uobrisima. Likovna umetnost Roma ima svojkorpus koji je dugo bio zatočen u nacionalnimpredstavama izbegavajući oznaku romski.Identitet Roma, kao i njihov imidž u Srbiji iEvropi, sveden je na ovu marginalizovanudimenziju kulture, a kulturna tradicija Romapodvrgnuta je IRONIZACIJI IVULGARIZACIJI od strane većinske i drugihmanjinskih zajednica. Romska kultura,artefakti, umetnici formalno su nevidljivi inemaju prepoznatljivost u društvu. Ovaj rad jedoprinos osvetljavanju aspekta valorizacijeromskog kulturnog korpusa.
Transition processes and modernization projectsin most post-socialist societies in Europe,including Balcans, have been realized in theform of deformed imitative modernization orcounter-modernization. Roma people are still atperiphery, but this time at the periphery ofEuropean Union. They are facing uncertainfuture, with alternatives of postmoderntotalitarianism with technocratic dictature, orhumanity as community of equal citizens andethnic groups in the spirit of social-democraticglobalization, with respect for culturaldifferences and understanding and solidarityamong nations. Contemporaries bearresponsibility for what form and essence thefuture of humanity will have – whether it willdevelop in the course of humanization ofsociety and emancipation of people, or itsdevelepment will be directed toward new formsof social, political and cultural oppression.Therefore, the researh of specificity of Roma’screative work in the context of European systemof cultural values is of great importance.In contemporary world, Roma people as ethnicgroup are becoming the subject of scientificresearch more and more frequently. „Symbolicsof Roma’s fine arts and European system ofcultural values“ turns out to be very interestingtopic for studying, considering its theoreticaland applied aspects. This thesis isinterdisciplinary study with both theoretical andbroader cultural relevance, for this topic yieldsthe possibility for the analysis and dialog ofdifferent culturological value dimensions whichare built in centuries-long history of Europe.Study deals with a „specific illumination“ ofunlit aspects of Roma people and the field offine arts, their possible history, developmentalpaths and actuality. Today, this issue issignificant for plenty of reasons, since thisproblem is shadowed by many ephemeral studies which yielded modest results. This workis based on scientific analytical-syntheticparadigm. The main research problem addressedin this study is the question: whether thesymbolics of Roma’s fine arts exists in theEuropean system of cultural values, or whethersymbolics of Roma’s art reflects in Europeanculture. Descriptive, hermetical andcomparative historical methods were used in thestudy under the framework of synchronic anddiachronic approach. Because of the specificityof the research subject, thought experiment wasused as well, as logical principle of aestheticalanalysis.In this research, aesthetical discussion, evidenceof visible and invisible Roma’s art has beendeveloped, as well as evidence of elements ofsymbolics in the fine arts of Roma people in thecontext of European system of cultural values.Roma’s fine art has been mimicric for a longtime, because of the symbolic value of itsartefacts. Using multidisciplinary approach, werecognize its contours. Its corpus has beendetained in national notions, by avoiding labelRomani. Roma’s identity, as well as their imagein Serbia and Europe, has been reduced to thismarginalized cultural dimension, and Roma’scultural tradition has been exposed toironization and vulgarization by nationalmajority and other national minorities. Roma’sculture, artefacts, artists are formaly invisibleand unrecognized. This work contributes toillumination and valorization of Roma’s culturalcorpus.

The main theme of our doctoral research in Comparative Law is entitled " Language and Law in Africa." This research will analyze the relationship between African languages, customary law and modern law in Africa today. Obviously it is not an easy task. Because, Africa judged as a whole continent is a cross of races, cultures, languages and religions, which makes any attempt to inventory difficult and it puts the most important factor to be considered, the accuracy, on the top of the goals our work will necessarily require. Given the use of the stratigraphic method by anthropologists and other law theorists, which allows to analyze the components of the historical evolution of any country, African law has yet to be considered not only like an ancestral law. This theory led to the acceptance and kind of proved the existence of a non - writing society. Today we have already acknowledged that law existed into the traditional African societies through the archives and in its oral form (proverbs, legends, coded and encoded rites). The colonial power from Europe (in the name of some countries like France, Great Britain, Germany and Italy) set its roots in Africa during the nineteenth century, where indigenous people living in small communities had yet to be ruled under the national legal systems of these invaders - civil law and common law systems - ; as soon as the spread of knowledge was keen on the local authorities and native people who were willing to cooperate with the western assailants, regardless of their own tradition and local customs. Their settlement got rise to a rupture between the colonial administration and the structural patterns of the African traditional society in every aspect of their previous life (cultural, social, political and economic). But with time, African colonies had become more reluctant to cooperate with the colonial power and would have soon asked for the so- called "self - determination'" right for indigenous people. After their independence (in 1960), not only the pursuit for freedom but national identity (a concept emphasized in their constitutions) turned itself into the main priority of the grown-wise African nations. Language was - and still is - one the tool of disclosure which helped many European legal concepts and lifestyle set the dominance of colonial power. Today, customary law has become more flexible allowing in a certain way the diffusion of modern law; since there is some room for development of these new legal concepts which promptly requires the language to play its part, the life of indigenous people can only get better. Here also the national idioms have played an important role. A reason is not so far to seek, there is nothing more indispensable than language as a factor of integration, solidarity, respect for common values and peace. This is an ineluctable challenge for the African nations in a world more and more globalized, and we can just hope they are ready to gamble and carry on.

Gabriel Astruc (1864-1938), a French impresario of Jewish background, is mostly known for his collaborative work as an impresario with Sergei Diaghilev and his Ballets Russes. His role within Parisian musical culture at the fin de siècle, however, was much broader. He was a critic, creator of a leading periodical, producer of musical and circus events, music publisher, and associate of many important cultural figures of his day. Although Astruc has been mentioned in scholarly literature, his multifaceted activities have never been carefully studied. Following the revisionist initiatives of previous scholars (e.g., Pasler, Huebner, Garafola, Fauser), this project offers a new understanding of Parisian cultural life between 1880 and 1913. Rather than focusing on valued composers such as Debussy or selected avant-garde repertoire, this dissertation considers the panoramic perspective of the Parisian cultural milieu as understood by a well-positioned impresario who participated in diverse, but often intersecting, music circles. It reveals rich interconnections between Astruc’s entrepreneurial, managerial, and publishing endeavors that linked private fêtes and soirées that he produced in elite homes with his ambitious concert series, La Grande Saison de Paris, 1905-1913 – organized through his firm La Sociéte Musicale – and with compositions and contents published in Musica, the magazine he co-founded in 1902. It questions Astruc’s aesthetic preferences and argues that he helped to shape Parisian culture through the promotion, publication, and programming of balanced, eclectic repertoire of new and old, national and international, and light as well as weighty works. This study also chronicles the development of the Théâtre des Champs-Élysées, Astruc’s culminating project that was intended to embrace symphonic, operatic, and chamber performance and to experiment with new juxtapositions and integrations of the arts. Research for this dissertation centered on a compilation and a comparative analysis of wide-ranging materials found in Astruc’s collections at the Archives Nationales and New York Public Library. Unlike earlier studies of fin-de-siècle Paris, this project utilizes previously unexamined publications, musical criticism, published literature, and manuscript material, all originating from or related to Astruc’s diverse activities and observations.

The Islamic minority in France today is experiencing adversity as the government of France passed legislation stating that all facial coverings will be henceforth illegal, restricting or prohibiting religious symbols in various public spaces. Some Islamic women feel as though this is a pointed attack on women of the Muslim faith for their choice to wear traditional clothing which covers the face and body. There have been outcries that this is a human rights violation and restriction of religious rights. This project is an examination of the effects of France’s “burqa ban” and restrictions on religious symbols on both Islamic men and women who live in France. The goal of this project is to speak directly to those affected by this legislation and to understand the perspective and opinions of French Muslims. Records such as documented personal testimonies, legal archives, and transcriptions of in-person interviews are utilized to study the perspective of this minority in response to the controversial legislation. Neglecting to pursue an understanding of another culture and belief system will only yield disharmony among groups, and this research aims to avoid this phenomenon. In collecting the data, I set a goal to have and later discuss a better understanding of this issue and the people affected by it.

This thesis reexamines the beginnings of Swedish hardboiled crime literature, in part tracking its lineage to American culture and unpacking Swedish identity. Following the introduction, the second chapter asserts how this genre began as a form of escapism, specifically in Maj Sjöwall and Per Wahlöö’s Roseanna. The third chapter compares predecessor Raymond Chandler’s The Big Sleep with Roseanna, and how Sweden’s greater gender tolerance significantly outshining America’s is reflected in literature. The fourth chapter examines how Henning Mankell’s novels fail to fully accept Sweden’s complicity in neo-Nazism as an active component of Swedish identity. The final chapter reveals Helene Tursten’s Detective Inspector Huss engaging with gender and racial relations in unique ways, while also releasing the suppressive qualities found in the Swedish identity post-war. Therefore, this thesis will better contextualize the onset of the genre, and how its lineage reflects the fruits and the damages alike in the Swedish identity.

L'un des principaux défis géostratégiques actuels consiste à formuler les nouveaux objectifs ainsi que les outils permettant de répondre aux besoins de nos sociétés, beaucoup plus diversifiées qu'auparavant. Par conséquent, la définition même du concept de Smart Power ainsi que son contenu - les outils utilisés - requièrent une approche différente. Dans un environnement en perpétuelle mouvance, à la fois socialement, culturellement et géographiquement, un état d'esprit de sophistication semble nécessaire. Et c'est précisément à cela qu'une prise en compte des facteurs culturels pourrait contribuer selon nous. En effet, au cours des dernières décennies, la culture a acquis une importance sans précédent au sein des relations internationales et des questions sécuritaires. Cependant, en Europe, elle n'a pas encore trouvé sa place dans les politiques extérieures et la diplomatie. L'analyse des facteurs culturels et de leur influence sur les affaires étrangères et les relations internationales demeure quasi-inexistante dans les faits. Cette thèse a donc un double objectif : premièrement elle vise à démontrer le rôle fondamental que joue la culture d'un point stratégique, en tant qu'attribut de groupe, référant à un ensemble commun de valeurs, incluant les croyances, les normes, les attitudes, les comportements et les structures sociales qui définissent la réalité et guident les interactions quotidiennes. Deuxièmement, nous souhaitons établir ce que l'UE entend par culture européenne et le rôle qu'elle accorde a cette dernière dans ses politiques, en particulier dans les affaires étrangères, en comparaison avec les Etats-Unis et la Chine. Passant en revue une large palette de politiques européennes ou le facteur culturel est officiellement mentionné en tant que critère et/ou en tant qu'objectif, nous entendons démontrer son instrumentalisation politique et économique, au point de ne plus jouer - au mieux - qu'un simple rôle d'outil, dans les politiques européennes
In the last three decades, the realm of culture has acquired unprecedented importance in interpreting the nature of International Relations in scholarly as well as popular writings. However, factors involving culture that inevitably shaped international relations have yet to find their due space within the body of effective European policies and Diplomacy. One of the main challenges today for international relations is to formulate the new targets and tools aimed at societies and generations, which are far more diversified and culturally different. Therefore, the content and means of delivery of Soft Power require a different attitude, a mindset of sophistication in a vastly different culturally and geographically diverse environment. My hypothesis is cultural factor might contribute to that necessary change. The main goal of this research is to determine what the EU presently understands as constituting culture and the role it is given in its policies, specifically in foreign affairs. Deprived of a real recognition, culture has been nevertheless of utmost importance in this field. Arguing that culture has been used and abused as a political tool, my goal, therefore, is to paint a picture that reflects the European Union's conception of culture through its external action policies. The objective here is, first and foremost, to use culture as an analytic concept and demonstrate how policy discourse mobilizes it for political and economic means. Drawing upon case studies, EU policies analysis and a series of interviews of practitioners, experts and policy-makers (based on the Delphi method -modified), this qualitative research aims to analyze the links between cultural and social well-being governance, immigration policies and security, rule of law, and economic development, as well as explore the relationship between accepting differences, reconciliation, social well-being and the making of a European citizenship

This thesis re-evaluates the impact of the Statute of Pleading and its legislation of the languages of the law on the legal actors who worked in England's royal courts in the fourteenth century. In order to broaden the scope of existing research on the subject, this project puts forth a new interpretation of the Statute by proposing a different hypothesis for why the law exists in two linguistically variable forms on the records of the Parliament and statute rolls. By studying the legal professionals who worked in England's legal realm and their use of languages, this thesis argues that the Statute of Pleading---in each of its versions---is indicative of the legal training and education received by these individuals in the later medieval period, and also as an expression of their resistance to changing the written languages of the law.

Brown and Lenneberg (I954) and Rosch Heider (1972) were among the first to conduct psychological investigations to test the Whorfian view that language affects thought. They both asked about colour categories. The debate has continued with some research supporting a relativist (Whorfian) account (Davidoff, Davies & Roberson, I999; Borodistsky, 200I), and some supporting a universalist account (e.g., Kay & Regier, 2003; Spelke & Kinzler, 2007). The present thesis adds to the debate by taking three different approaches i.e., cross-cultural, ontogenetic and phylogenetic frames in which to carry out investigations of categorization of various perceptual continua. Categorical Perception's hallmark is the effect of mental warping of space such as has beenfoundfor phonemes (Pisani & Tash, I974) and colour (Bornstein & Monroe, I980; Bornstein & Korda, I984). With respect to colours, those that cross a category boundary seem more distant than two otherwise equally spaced colours from the same category. Warping is tested using cognitive methods such as two-alternative:forced-choice and matching-to-sample. Evidence is considered for the continua under investigation i.e. colour and animal patterns. Experiments I and 2 find evidence of categorical perception for human-primates and not for monkeys. Experiment 3 finds that Himba and English human adults categorize differently, particularly for colours crossing a category boundary, but also show broad similarity in solving the same matching-to-sample task as used with the monkeys (experiment I) who showed clear differences with humans. Experiment 4 and 5 tested Himba and English toddlers and found categorical perception of colour mainly for toddlers that knew their colour terms despite prior findings (Franklin et al., 2005) indicative of universal colour categories. In experiment 6, Himba and English categorical perception of animal patterns was tested for the first time, and result indicate a cross-category advantage for participants who knew the animal pattern terms. Therefore, a weak Whorfian view of linguistic relativity's role in obtaining categorical perception effects is presented. Although there is some evidence of an inherent human way of grouping drawn from results of experiment I and 3, results in all experiments (1,2,3,4,5,and 6) show that linguistic labels and categorical perception effects go handin- hand; categorization effects are not found when linguistic terms are not acquired at test and have not had a chance to affect cognition. This was true for all populations under observation in this set of studies, providing further support for effects of language and culture in perception. 4

International relations can be reviewed from different perspectives. One of them is through culture. In general, a lecture and an analysis of it from this specific point of view has been neglected, attracting much less attention comparing to other issues, like the political science, the international law, or the economics. The cultural perspective offers a mirror of the reality and can contribute to a better understanding of the external relations and on what is happening at other levels, usually considered as more relevant in the foreign policies and the traditional diplomacy, like politics, trade and commerce, or military issues. At the same time, this cultural perspective needs a transversal focus to offer a real insight and overview of the actual scope, due to the multifaceted feature of culture considered in its broad approach. The international presence and the role of culture within the bilateral relations is conditioned by the definition of the external cultural policies and the priorities and strategies in its bilateral relations with third countries. Sometimes the external cultural policies can have a close link with the internal cultural policies as well, being a projection of the internal priorities in the international context. The institutional structure and the competences of the different institutions can also influence in the role of culture in the bilateral relations of a specific country. Aside of that, there are other relevant factors that can be determinant in the bilateral relations, like the historical background or the bilateral political and commercial relations, among others. Culture in the context of the international relations and cooperation between Europe and Egypt includes from the institutional level, the bilateral and multilateral relations of the European Union, and its 28 Member States at an individual level as well. Otherwise, some of these European countries have had a long presence during the colonialist period, maintain historical ties, or have economic interests in Egypt. Within this framework, the different cultural policies are embedded in the external actions of the bilateral cultural relations and cooperation, where the cultural projection is a component of the public diplomacy as a form of soft power. The present research has as primary objective to get a deep inside of the bilateral relations, and the identification of some quantitative indicators and qualitative aspects of the European bilateral relations from the public sector, and makes a detailed analysis of which is the present situation of culture in the context of the international relations with a strategic country of the Arab world like Egypt. Getting an insight into the different facts, parameters and indicators allows to identify the different exogenous and endogenous factors which can have a determinant role, jointly with the explicit and implicit objectives, and other elements to consider, including priorities, strategies, instruments and activities. Actions taken into consideration are those from the European Union, and some of its Member States, which are reviewed and compared in a systematic way. This research takes as case study five of the European countries, the most populated of the European Union, and several specific fields. It starts checking the way how each individual country is presenting its external cultural policy in the official web, and followed by the cultural bilateral relations with Egypt. Then it is verified the role of the national cultural institutes, the archaeological cooperation, the higher education, the research and scientific cooperation, the presence of culture in the cooperation to development and the media. Finally it is revised the European Union's cultural presence through actions and initiatives in Egypt, and checked how the individual cultural bilateral relations of the selected countries fit together with them. The result offers a broad and comprehensive perspective of the presence of culture in international relations and cooperation in the particular case of Egypt. The analysis carried out allows concluding an insufficiently structured place of culture in the European external relations and cooperation with Egypt, the missed coordination among the different actors involved, the individual interests, and some incoherencies as well.
Les relacions internacionals poden ser examinades des de diferents perspectives. Una d'elles es des de la cultura. En general, una lectura i un anàlisi d'aquest punt de vista específic ha estat oblidat, i ha atret molta menys atenció comparat amb altres temes com són els temes polítics, el dret internacional o els econòmics. La perspectiva cultural ofereix un mirall on es reflexa la realitat, que pot contribuir a un millor enteniment de les relacions exteriors i sobre el que succeeix a altres nivells, normalment considerats com a més rellevants dins de la política exterior i la diplomàcia tradicional, com són els temes polítics, comercials o militars. Al mateix temps, aquesta perspectiva cultural necessita una mirada transversal per poder oferir una mirada profunda i al mateix temps global de la actual abast del tema, ja que abraça diferents àmbits de la cultura, que en aquest cas és considerada en la seva aproximació més amplia. La presència internacional i el rol de la cultura a les relacions bilaterals està condicionada per la definició de les polítiques culturals exteriors i de les prioritats i estratègies en les seves relacions bilaterals amb països tercers. De vegades les polítiques culturals externes poden tenir un vincle estret amb les polítiques culturals internes, sent una projecció de les prioritats internes en el context internacional. L'estructura institucional i les competències de les diferents institucions poden també tenir una influència en el rol de la cultura en les relacions bilaterals d'un país concret. A part d'això, hi ha altres factors rellevants que poden ser determinants de les relacions bilaterals, com són els antecedents històrics o les relacions bilaterals polítiques i comercials, entre d'altres. La cultura en el context de les relacions internacionals i la cooperació entre Europa i Egipte inclou des del punt institucional les relacions bilaterals i multilaterals de la Unió Europea, així com les dels seus 28 estats membres a nivell individual. Per altre banda, alguns d'aquests països europeus han tingut una llarga presència durant el període colonial, mantenen vincles històrics, o tenen interessos econòmics a Egipte. En aquest marc, les diferents polítiques culturals estan encaixades en les accions exteriors de les relacions culturals bilaterals i de la cooperació, on la projecció cultural és un component de la diplomàcia pública com a forma de soft power. La recerca té com a principal objectiu aprofundir sobre les relacions bilaterals, i la identificació d'alguns dels indicadors quantitatius i aspectes qualitatius de les relacions bilaterals des del sector públic, i fer un anàlisis detallat sobre quina és la situació present de la cultura en el context de les relacions internacional amb un país estratègic del món àrab com és Egipte. Aquest aprofundiment en els diferents factors, paràmetres i indicadors permet identificar els diferents factors exògens i endògens que poden ser determinants, juntament amb els objectius explícits i implícits, i altres aspectes que s'han de considerar, com les prioritats, estratègies, instruments, i activitats. Les accions que es prenen en consideració són les de la Unió Europea, i d'alguns dels seus estats membres, que són revisades i comparades d'una manera sistemàtica. Aquest treball agafa com a estudi de cas a Egipte, i també analitza a cinc països europeus, els cinc més poblats de la Unió Europea, i alguns dels camps culturals específics. Com a marc general es comença per veure la manera com cada un d'aquests països individuals presenta la seva política cultural exterior a les pàgines webs oficials, i es continua amb les relacions culturals bilaterals amb Egipte. Després es verifica el rol dels instituts nacionals de cultura, la cooperació arqueològica, l'educació universitària, la investigació i la cooperació científica, la presencia de la cultura a la cooperació al desenvolupament, i els media. Finalment es revisa la presencia cultural de la Unió Europea mitjançant les accions i les iniciatives a Egipte, i com les relacions culturals bilaterals individuals dels països seleccionats hi encaixen. El resultat ofereix una perspectiva àmplia i comprensiva de la presencia de la cultura a les relacions internacionals i la cooperació en aquest cas particular d'Egipte. L'anàlisi que s'ha portat a terme permet concloure que la cultura té un lloc insuficientment estructurat a les relacions exteriors europees amb Egipte, l'absència de coordinació entre els diferents actors involucrats, els interessos individuals, així com algunes incoherències.
Las relaciones internacionales pueden ser examinadas desde diferentes perspectivas, una de ellas es desde la cultura. En general una lectura y un análisis desde este específico punto de vista ha sido dejado de lado, atrayendo mucha menos atención en comparación con otros temas, como las ciencias políticas, el derecho internacional, o la economía. La perspectiva cultural ofrece un espejo donde se refleja la realidad, y que puede contribuir a una mejor compresión de las relaciones exteriores y sobre lo que sucede a otros niveles normalmente considerados como más relevantes en las relaciones exteriores y la diplomacia tradicional, como son los temas políticos, de comercio internacional o los temas militares. Al mismo tiempo esta perspectiva cultural necesita un enfoque transversal para ofrecer una visión detallada y al mismo tiempo global para conocer su alcance real, debido al carácter multidisciplinar de la cultura, considerada en su amplia aproximación. La presencia internacional y el rol de la cultura en las relaciones bilaterales están condicionados por la definición de las políticas culturales exteriores, además de las prioridades y estrategias en las relaciones bilaterales con países terceros. Por otro lado, frecuentemente las políticas culturales exteriores pueden tener vínculos estrechos con las políticas culturales a nivel nacional, siendo una proyección de las prioridades internas en el contexto internacional. La estructura institucional y las competencias de las diferentes instituciones públicas también pueden influenciar en el rol de la cultura en las relaciones bilaterales de un determinado país. Además de ello, también hay otros factores relevantes que pueden determinar las relaciones bilaterales, como los antecedentes históricos o las relaciones bilaterales políticas y comerciales, entre otras. La cultura en el contexto de las relaciones internacionales y la cooperación entre Europa y Egipto incluye, a nivel institucional, las relaciones bilaterales y multilaterales de la Unión Europea, así como sus 28 estados miembros a nivel individual. Además de ello, algunos de estos países europeos han tenido un larga presencia durante el periodo colonial, mantienen lazos históricos, o tienen intereses económicos en Egipto. Dentro de este marco las diferentes políticas culturales se encuentran incluidas en las acciones exteriores de las relaciones culturales bilaterales y la cooperación, donde la proyección cultural es uno de los componentes de la diplomacia pública como una forma de soft power. La presente investigación tiene como principal objetivo profundizar en las relaciones bilaterales y la identificación de indicadores centrados en diversos aspectos cuantitativos y cualitativos de las relaciones bilaterales europeas desde el sector público, y analiza en detalle sobre cuál es la situación presente de la cultural en el contexto de las relaciones internacionales con un país estratégico del mundo árabe como es Egipto. Esta profundización de los diferentes factores, parámetros y indicadores permite identificar los diferentes factores exógenos y endógenos que tienen un rol determinante, juntamente con los objetivos explícito se implícitos, y otros elementos que se deben considerar como son las prioridades, las estrategias, instrumentos y actividades culturales. Las acciones consideradas son las de la Unión Europea y las de algunos de sus estados miembros, la cuales son revisadas y comparadas de forma sistemática. Esta investigación se centra en el estudio de case de cinco países europeos, los cinco estados miembros de la Unión Europea más poblados, y en diferentes campos específicos. Se inicia supervisando la forma como cada país individualmente presenta su política cultural exterior en sus páginas web oficiales, seguido por una revisión de las relaciones culturales bilaterales con Egipto. Luego en diferentes capítulos se verifica el rol de los centros culturales nacionales, la cooperación arqueológica, la educación universitaria, la investigación y la cooperación científica, la presencia de la cultura en la cooperación al desarrollo, y los media. Finalmente se analiza la presencia cultural de la Unión Europea en Egipto a través de diferentes acciones e iniciativas, y como las relaciones culturales bilaterales de los países europeos seleccionados encajan con ellas. El resultado obtenido ofrece una amplia y comprensiva perspectiva sobre cuál es la presencia de la cultura en las relaciones internacionales y la cooperación en el caso particular de Egipto. El análisis llevado a cabo permite concluir un lugar insuficientemente estructurado de la cultura en las relaciones exteriores europeas con Egipto, la falta de coordinación entre los diferentes actores involucrados, los intereses individuales, así como algunas incoherencias.

A refugee faces many issues on their journey to safety, but the issues do not end once they reach a host country. Applying for asylum is an arduous process with long waiting times in most European countries, and a low acceptance rate. Lack of integration into a new community is one of the main issues faced during this time. Studies show that labour market opportunities are a successful tool to aid integration and help to close the employment gap between native residents and new arrivals. The employment gap exists due to lack of local language, employment connections, transference of existing skills, legal issues, and personal and health issues. This paper argues that early commencement of language learning, transference of qualifications and picking up the necessary new skills for employment, is a positive way to use the long waiting time to benefit asylum seekers. It is also important to support newly accepted refugees during their integration into the community. Reflecting on organisations and networks that currently exist for refugees, a new civic space is proposed in the city to improve the integration of users through labour market training and opportunities. Looking at the legislations in place for integration and existing pathways to residency, an example is shown of how it can be manipulated to encourage involvement in the labour market.

Despite having a rather weak family connection to Ireland, the American modernist poet Marianne Moore (1887-1972) described herself in a letter to Ezra Pound in 1919 as ‘Irish by descent’. This thesis relates Moore’s claim of Irish descent to her career as a publisher, poet and playwright, and argues that her decision to shape an Irish inheritance for herself was linked with her self-identification as an American poet. Chapter 1 discusses Moore’s self-confessed susceptibility to ‘Irish magic’ in relation to the increase in contributions from Irish writers during her editorship of The Dial magazine from 1925 to 1929. Moore’s 1915 poems to the Irish writers George Moore, W. B. Yeats and George Bernard Shaw, which reveal a paradoxical desire for affiliation to, and disassociation from, Irish literary traditions, are scrutinized in Chapter 2. Chapters 3a and b discuss Moore’s ‘Irish’ poems ‘Sojourn in the Whale’ (1917) and ‘Spenser’s Ireland’ (1941). In both poems political events in Ireland – the ‘Easter Rising’ of 1916 and Ireland’s policy of neutrality during World War II – become a backdrop for Moore’s personal anxieties as an American poet of ‘Irish’ descent coming to terms with her political and cultural inheritance. Expanding upon previous chapters’ discussion of the interrelation of poetics and politics, Chapter 4 shows how Moore’s use of Irish sources in ‘Spenser’s Ireland’ and other poems including ‘Silence’ and the ‘Student’ reflects her quixotic attitude to Irish culture as alternately an inspiration and a tool for manipulation. The final chapter discusses Moore’s adaptation of the Anglo-Irish novelist Maria Edgeworth’s 1812 novel The Absentee as a play in 1954. Through this last piece of ‘Irish’ writing, Moore adopts a sentimentality that befits the later stages of her career and illustrates how Irish literature, rather than Irish politics, has emerged as her ultimate source of inspiration.

By taking learning as the axis of scholarship, personal and social epistemologies have a common ground: experience and reflective action. I am not considering learning as a vehicle whose success is measured to the extent that a portion of the external world is appropriated, but as a qualitatively different way to see, understand and handle experience. A scholarship of learning is tightly bound to the experiential roots of objects of study that keep on changing in individual and collective histories. Therefore, a scholarship of learning is not a set of context-free skills but a complex process of transformation of its practitioners’ identity and agency over themselves and their object of study. Such two-fold construction orientates a discipline no less than the ways of knowing, acting and being of those engaged in its investigation. I propose that the object of study of Modern Languages and Cultures should be literacy in the multilayered symbolic codes (some of which are tacit) that make intercultural interchanges intelligible and effective. The scope of this dissertation, however, is restricted to the investigation of deep learning in literacy. My thesis is that Modern Languages and Cultures should not be limited to objects of study, such as language, discourse, texts, films, etc. but has to include the processes of agentification of the learner and making sense of his or her experience in a foreign language and culture. I advocate the investigation of the experiential roots of language and culture in a scholarship of learning which seeks to integrate research and education, on the one hand, and language and content, on the other. Experience and learning are subjective-objective processes, and so I advise the epistemological revaluation of subjectivity. I propose that subjectification (i.e. the construction of the subject) is not only relevant for human development and social well-being, but is a source of knowledge in the Humanities.

Les enceintes rubanées sont connues tant en Europe centrale qu'occidentale. Leurs plans variés ainsi que les découvertes qui leur sont associées ont toujours été sujets à discussion, suscitant les interprétations les plus diverses quant à leur fonction. Les hypothèses d'une fonction défensive ou d'une fonction cérémonielle sont le plus souvent avancées. On considère traditionnellement qu'une enceinte a été aménagée en une fois, dans un bref laps de temps et à sillon continu. La découverte de l'enceinte de Rosheim a mis en cause ce présupposé : un mode d'aménagement progressif, à partir de fosses oblongues y a été mis en évidence. Une fonction cérémonielle a été attribuée à cette structure. Un modèle d'aménagement des enceintes a ainsi été développé. L'étude de l'enceinte de Herxheim a permis de valider les conclusions élaborées pour Rosheim. A partir des deux enceintes, a été établi un schéma architectural, correspondant à un aménagement progressif à partir de fosses oblongues. L'étude a été étendue à l'ensemble des structures fossoyées - enceintes et palissades - rubanées. D'une application plus générale de notre schéma ressort que d'autres enceintes présentent ces caractéristiques. Il s'agit d'une technique de construction existant pour toute l'aire de répartition des enceintes. Un type de Rosheim a pu être défini auxquel, en analogie au site éponyme, une fonction socio-cérémonielle attribué. Un 2ème type d'aménagement, à sillon continu, a été mis en évidence. Il est également présent dans toute l'aire de répartition géographique des enceintes. Pour l'instant, aucune interprétation fonctionelle ne peut être proposée. Pour les palissades, quelques caractéristiques architecturales ont pu être établies. Compte tenu des données lacunaires, nous ne pouvons pas proposer une étude allant au delà de la simple description
Linearbandceramic enclosures are known throughout West and Central Europe, which is the studies region. The varieties of shape, as well as the structures themselves have repetitively fuelled the scientific discussion, in the process of which a variety of functional hypotheses have been created. The most favoured ones amongst these are the defensive and the ceremonial function. So far it was always presumed that these enclosures were constructed in relatively short time in one work process. With the discovery of the Rosheim enclosure this assumption was questioned. It could be demonstrated that the enclosure was built of a series of short ditches which were later angled. According to the structure of the enclosure and the finds ceremonial function was not feasible. The method of construction, based on the finds was reconstructed. This method was verified through the studies of the Herxheim earthwork. These studies lead to a classification of architectural characteristics. This study was then extended to all linearbandceramic enclosures, earthworks and palisades. The analysis demonstrated that more enclosures show similar features. It is therefore a feature that occurs in the entire area. The so-called Rosheim-type was identified, a structure that combines social with ceremonial functions. Furthermore a second type with continuous ditch can also be found in the entire are. Yet at this point no specific function can be allocated to it. Specific architectural methods could be established for the palisades, but based on the patchy basis we cannot currently offer a study that goes beyond a basic description

The dissertation examines early modern perceptions of the twin notions of simulation and dissimulation - which I refer to jointly as 'dis/simulation' - in various literary, social and semantic contexts and from a pan-European perspective. I look at how this thorny and controversial moral issue was addressed and discussed in a wide range of genres and texts and how it was disseminated to a broader readership. The introduction explains my approach to the subject, provides an overview of previous scholarship and includes a short excursus on three literary genres not discussed in detail in the dissertation. In the first chapter, I analyse the varied treatment of dis/simulation in emblem books. In the following chapter I explore the link between the problem of dis/simulation and early modern reform plans for poor relief, focusing on debates in Spain. Chapter 3 looks at texts from other European countries and establishes he connection between, on the one hand, learned and scholarly discussions of the problem of mendicancy, and, on the other, popular literature in which the deceptions and disguises of beggars, rogues and tricksters were a recurrent theme. The next chapter deals with the contemporary perceptions of courtesans and analyses the nexus between love, passions and dis/simulation. The last two chapters show that the problem of feigning and disguise became increasingly important in medical and physiognomical literature. I investigate how both genres addressed a cluster of relevant intellectual contexts relevant, including the possibility of reading the human countenance, the limits of dis/simulation and the morality of employing deception in the interest of healing. I conclude by considering the main contexts, themes and implications of early modern debates on dis/simulation and their gradual decline in the seventeenth century.

Thesis (MPhil (Modern Foreign Languages))--University of Stellenbosch, 2007.
Arts and Culture is one of the new learning areas in the grade 8 and 9 school curriculum. To understand and then express themselves in a correct and confident manner, learners need the correct terminology for Arts and Culture. The learners need more than the day to day terminology in order to participate in conversations focussing on specialised subjects such as music, dance, drama and visual arts. It is important to note that the idea is not to develop expert academics but it is an attempt to enrich children for life and give them more self confidence. The aim of this computer project is to provide an information website to assist the grade 9 learners in the Arts and Culture domain to develop the appropriate language needed in the learning area.

Philosophers, and theorists in other disciplines, have disagreed over the character, function and mechanisms of emotions. Amongst the persistent issues that have arisen is the question of what exactly emotions are. Are they a vivid perceptual awareness of physiological processes? Evaluative judgments? Dispositions? Neurophysiological states? Or perhaps an aggregate of some or all of the above? Typically, theorists who study the emotions have tended to divide into two camps. On the one hand there are those who adopt a broadly biological / adaptationist perspective, which emphasises the corporeal nature of emotions. On the other side of the divide are those who adopt a socio-constructivist perspective, which emphasises the cognitive nature of emotions. Proponents of the biological stance have tended to favour universal, basic emotions whilst socio-constructivists tend to favour the more exotic. In support of the latter approach a significant literature has emerged from ethnography, anthropology and cognitive linguistics. This literature adopts a “lexicocentric” perspective on the emotions. The biological/adaptationist perspective seems to capture something important and right about the essential nature of emotions. However, the aim of my thesis is to demonstrate that the basic emotions theory, as characterised by Ekman, is weakened by its failure to pay attention to, and fully to engage with, the literature regarding the effect of language on our emotional landscape, an area which has ostensibly been the domain of the social constructionist. I argue that what is required is a linguistically inclusive theory of emotion. Such a theory acknowledges that any coherent and comprehensive theory of emotion must include a robust linguistic and cultural element.

This thesis investigates the intertextuality of language policy, K-12 TESL pedagogies, and EL identity construction in the perpetuation of unjust TESL practices in these contexts. By examining the power structures of English language ideology through critical discourse analysis of recent California language policy, this thesis demonstrates English language teaching’s intrinsically political nature in K-12 education through negotiations and exchanges of power. Currently, sociolinguistic approaches to TESL and second language acquisition acknowledge the value of language socialization teaching methods. This requires the acceptance of cognition, not as an individual pursuit of knowledge containment and memorization, but cognition as a collaborative and sociohistorically situated practice. Thus, this project also examines the power structures in place that negotiate and enforce these ideologies and how these practices influence pedagogy and EL identity construction. Many English users are second language (L2) users of English yet authorities of English use tend to consist of homogenous, monolingual English users, or English-sacred communities, not L2 users of English. Often, this instigates native speaker (NS) vs. non-native speaker (NNS) dichotomies such as correct vs. in-correct use, and us vs. them dichotomies. These are the same ideologies that permeate the discourse of California’s Proposition 227 and some pedagogies discussed in the data of this research perpetuating culture wars between monolingual and multilingual advocates and users.

This thesis investigates struggles for meanings and social understandings of Europe taking place through cultural institutions, festival sites, and art projects. I claim that culture is a social field where meanings of Europe are made. I argue that meanings of Europe that emerge in these cultural sites are not prior or given, but are a result of struggles between the actors involved. They These meanings are to different degrees particular and autonomous, depending on the proximity of a given cultural site to the political structures of the state and the EU. This research identifies that actors who construct Europe’s meaning do so according to common patterns. Europe’s meanings evoke notions of unity – it is a symbol of coming together. At the same time, what different actors mean by Europe is an articulation of their particular ideals circumstances and aspirations, rooted in their direct contexts. In other words, in culture, there is but one Europe. There is not one Europe. This is confirmed by how Europe is understood by the immediate audiences of these cultural sites. It is perceived as relevant only when translated through familiar contexts – specific, local or national – and only then it is embraced. The background of the analysis is the significance of aesthetic culture in modernity, its role in making the nation, and its social imagining. This thesis examines the ways in which culture today demonstrates a similar capacity in regard to Europe, albeit in a micro scale. The methods employed are discourse and audience reception analysis, as well as participant observation. The empirical investigation comprises of a microanalysis of sites of cultural production. The case studies selected for this analysis, drawing on studies of cultural nationalism, include an online cultural outlet, an independent film festival and a transnational cultural festival, as well as a series of state commissioned contemporary artworks, all of which claim to be European in one way or another.

Sport le plus populaire de la planète, le football n’est pas un simple loisir permettant de se divertir ou de se dégourdir. Les historiens ont notamment rappelé comment, en Grande-Bretagne d’abord puis, dès l'entre-deux-guerres, sur le reste du continent, le jeu du ballon rond a conquis une place importante dans la vie politique des États-nations : les masses masculines ont notamment pu y voir un puissant vecteur d’intégration à la sphère publique. Cette dimension politique ne peut être ignorée dès lors que l’on s'intéresse au rapport des sexes dans le football. Les avancées sociales, économiques et culturelles dont ont bénéficié les femmes au cours du 20e siècle ne suffisent pas à comprendre les disparités observées dans le développement de la pratique féminine en Europe. Dans une étude statistique publiée en 2000, la Fédération FIFA souligne le retard de la Finlande sur la Norvège, le Danemark et la Suède alors que la condition féminine y est tout aussi avancée. De même, l'étude démontre que le taux de licenciées en Espagne est quatre fois supérieur à celui de la France ou de la Grande-Bretagne alors que la pratique s'y est implantée avec quinze ans de retard. En comparant l'évolution du football féminin dans les différents pays d'Europe, ex-monde communiste compris, de la première guerre mondiale à nos jours, nous tenterons de montrer dans quelle mesure le football a-t-il reflété la division des sexes dans la vie publique nationale et contribué à exclure les femmes de la gestion de la cité. Notre analyse s'appuiera, d'une part, sur des archives de différents ministères ainsi que des fédérations nationales et internationales de football et, d'autre part, sur la presse d’information et sportive européenne
Soccer - being the most popular sport on earth - is not simply recreation in order to entertain or to stimulate. Historians have reminded us how first in Great Britain and later, since the inter-war years on the whole continent, this sports has conquered a crucial place in politics of European nation-states: male masses have seen in it a powerful vector of integration into the public sphere. This political dimension cannot be ignored if one is interested in gender relations within soccer. Yet the social, economic and cultural progress of which women benefited during the 20th century are not enough to understand the disparities that have been observed in the development of women’s football in Europe. Actually, in a statistical study published in 2000 the International Football Federation (FIFA) underlines the setback of Finland over Norway, Denmark and Sweden even if the condition of women is as good as in its Scandinavian neighbours. The FIFA study also highlights that the number of licensees in Spain is four times higher that that of France or Great Britain even its practice developed fifteen years later. In comparing the evolution of women’s soccer in the different European countries including the former Warsaw pact countries from World War I until today this study intends to demonstrate how soccer has reflected the imbalance of genders in national public affairs and contributed to their exclusion. Our analysis is on the one hand based on archives of different ministries and national and international federations and on the other on European-wide sports press

Prior research in the field of culture and language education depicts the close relation between language and culture. Furthermore, such research emphasises that in order to understand and to be able to use a language properly, one needs to acknowledge that language is culture. Today English is a global language and a tool for communication in working life, in studies and when travelling. Hence, to be able to communicate in English one needs to know the cultural codes in these specific settings. Moreover, language teaching has many dimensions and according to the curriculum, teachers have an obligation to raise cultural awareness amongst pupils as well as teach fundamental values. The purpose of this paper is therefore to investigate how secondary teachers and pupils view and work with culture and how these views can be connected to the curriculum and to the syllabus of English Lgr.11. Through interviews with secondary pupils we found that their view of culture to an extent connects to the cultural content of the curriculum for Swedish compulsory school, Lgr.11. Through teacher interviews, we additionally found that even if the teachers had a broad view of culture that was connected to the curriculum, they did not always manage to convey their cultural teaching to their pupils.

L'idée européenne, depuis ses origines, s'avère être une notion d'ordre "culturel". Héritée du contexte socio-historique d'appartenance et transformée quotidiennement dans le processus de vie sociale, la "culture" des individus - et des groupes - façonne les visons du monde, dans l'espace et dans le temps. Le processus de construction des institutions européennes n'échappe pas à cette règle au point que la notion de "culture" ait couramment servi de référence aux projets européen, comme instance légitimatrice. Si les notions de "culture", de "valeurs" de "sentiments" européens ont jalonné l'histoire des discours sur l'Europe, leurs applications demeurent les mal aimées des Traités et budgets communautaires. Les Européens vivent ce paradoxe au nom du respect de la "subsidiarité" et de la "diversité culturelle". Ainsi à l'heure du passage d'une "Europe technocratique" à une "Europe démocratique" et de la désaffection populaire pour le vote européen notamment, nous avons observé que seuls les réseaux culturels européens, mi-institutionnels, mi-spontanés généraient auprès des Européens confiance et participation. A partir de l'observation de dix centres culturels issus de pays européens à Paris et ayant formé deux réseaux culturels (1, 2, 3 Cultures et Le Forum des Langues Européennes), nous tenterons de démontrer comment une action (inter)culturelle européenne fondée sur la communication et la (re)connaissance mutuelle peut aujourd'hui favoriser la construction d'une citoyenneté européenne cohérente et durable, dans une "Europe des cultures"
The very notion and idea of Europe has, since its very beginnings, always been of a "cultural" nature. Derived from the socio-historical context of belonging and undergoing daily transformations through the processes of socialising, the "culture" of individuals -and indeed groups - shapes our visions of the world, both in time and space. The process of building European institutions is not immune to this rule, to the point that the notion of "culture" has repeatedly been referenced by European projects as a legitimising device. Even if the notions of European "culture", values, and "sentiments" have historically marked the discourse on Europe, European Treaties and budgets remain reticent to apply them. Europeans live this paradox in the name of "subsidiarity" and "cultural diversity". Hence, amidst the shift from a "technocratic Europe" to a "democartic Europe", as well as the popular disaffection towards the European vote, we have observed that it is only those European cultural networks which, semi-institutional and semi-spontaneous in nature, foster trust and generate participation amongst Europeans. Drawing on the observation of ten Paris-based cultural centres pertaining to European countries (1, 2, 3 Cultures and the European Language Forum), we will attempt to demonstrate how an (inter)cultural European movement based on communication and mutual recognition can today favour the construction of a coherent and durable European citizenship, within a "Europe of Cultures"

Includes bibliographical references.
With an eye to the historical situation in which the novel is set, and into which it emerges, I examine the text’s negotiation of the problems of communication and communicability across different languages and cultures. I suggest Greene as, in this sense, occupied with many of the same concerns about the limits of representation of personal experience as are found in the "Modernist" movement. This reading of the text also takes into account an historically contextualised overview of the various colonial interests the novel presents - those of the "old colonial peoples" of Europe as opposed to the new American empire. In this light, I am interested in the text’s depiction of the meeting of characters of different cultural origins - specifically the encounter of the European and the American, and the "Westerner" and the "Oriental" - in order to investigate the pitfalls of communication.

Equity culture is underdeveloped in Central and Eastern Europe. The corporate sector's dependence on debt as an external source of capital, scarce and illiquid capital markets and distrust in corporate sharing are the reasons for this. Yet, according to a number of surveys, fIrms are dissatisfied with the existing forms of debt driven external capital. The barriers of access to capital and the cost of capital are high resulting in unattractive and inflexible financing options. However, the availability of capital is a necessity for corporate existence and economic growth. The question of the viability of equity financing development as an alternative to the traditional debt financing in the transition economies of Central and Eastern Europe puzzles many. National policymakers as well as domestic and foreign investors need this question answered so that time and effort is not wasted on pursuing unviable strategies and creating unrealistic investment plans. The development of an equity culture in the CEECs is the main focus of this study. We develop a theory-bridging conceptual framework through which we attempt to demonstrate what factors contribute to its formation. We maintain that fIrms seeking equity finance are the main drivers for equity culture development in a country. This demand is affected by the size of transaction costs these finns incur in the process of searching for, establishing and co-ordinating contractual relationships with equity providers. We establish that the size of transaction costs is detennined by a set of conditions stemming from internal (managerial) and external (macro-economic and institutional) environments impacting the firm. The conceptual framework is empirically tested using quantitative data on ten Central and Eastern European countries (CEECs) (EU member countries since 2004 and 2007) for a continuous period of thirteen years (1996-2008). Firstly, a relatively new graphical display method - the Co-Plot method - is applied to cluster the gathered data. This method facilitates benchmarking against two representatives of the equity oriented financial system (UK and USA) and two representatives of the bank (debt) oriented financial system (Germany and Japan). The outcome of this analysis is the identification of three separate groups within our sample ofCEECs (Leaders, Potentials, Laggards) in terms of the potential for equity culture development they exhibit. Secondly, a regression analysis follows. It determines causal relationships between the demand-based dependent variables and independent variables represented by equity culture supportive conditions. Regressions are performed while controlling for different finn sizes (Large finns, SMEs, Micro firms and the total number of firms) to detennine the driving factors of equity culture development for each firm size individually as differing effects are expected. Furthermore, we carry out the regression analysis while controlling for the groups of Leaders, Potentials, and Laggards on a case by case basis. Finally, a qualitative comparative analysis for three CEECs, Slovakia, Hungary and Bulgaria, (each being a representative for a group with different potential for equity culture development) is provided. Our findings suggest that CEECs belonging to the group of Leaders have the macroeconomic and institutional conditions necessary for the development of an equity culture in place and that it is the equity-oriented financial institutions and the managerial capabilities which require further attention so that equity culture can be fully developed. By contrast, countries from the Potentials group have the macroeconomic performance required for the development of an advanced equity-based fmancial system, however the conditions stemming from the institutional (including both quality as weil as adequacy of equityiii r I .1 oriented financial intermediaries) and the managerial environment need improving. The results for the group of Laggards indicate that in order for an equity culture to be able to develop, a complex set of macro-economic, institutional and managerial conditions requires attention. Furthermore, we establish that large firms do not necessarily require the presence of adequate managerial conditions for them to become the drivers of equity culture development. In the case of SMEs we fmd that it i& primarily the presence of appropriate institutional rather than macro-economic and managerial conditions that have to be satisfied in order for these finns to opt for equity finance. Finally. our results for micro firms imply that although the presence of adequate macro-economic and institutional conditions is important, however, it is not sufficient. It is the presence of appropriate managerial conditions which motivate micro firms to consider equity finance. Our study contributes to the existing literature in several ways. Firstly, it contributes to theory by providing a Dew conceptual perspective on the financial system development and finn financing options in transition economies typical for their limited experience with equity financing and an underdeveloped equity culture, such as the CEECs. Secondly, it provides contributions to practice by proposing managerial and policy recommendations, how to identify best investment targets, and how to support equity culture development should it be desired.

The purpose of this study was to investigate the role of Chinese language schools in Northern California in maintaining the Chinese language, culture and ethnicity in a multilingual/multicultural society. The study examined: (1) goals and characteristics of the Chinese schools; (2) curriculum and extracurricular activities; (3) sociocultural and demographic characteristics of principals, teachers, parents, and students; (4) perceptions of these groups about the success of the schools; and (5) problems and difficulties facing the Chinese schools. The sample of the study consisted of 800 principals, teachers, parents and students in five schools. Across all schools, it was found that the majority of the participants perceived the goals of these schools to be teaching the Chinese language and culture, and they were generally satisfied with the schools. It was also found that there was a lack of appropriate teaching materials; that the emphasis of instruction was on the Chinese language; and that the actual classroom teaching was normally teacher-centered. Significant differences among the schools were found in the background characteristics of participants, including their educational level, teaching experience, language usage and length of residence in the United States. The parents' reasons for sending their children to the school, their views of children's motivation to attend the school, and their engagement in Chinese school activities varied significantly across the schools. A significant difference was also found among student groups in their attitudes toward the schools. The findings of this study suggest that ethnic language schools can be valuable resources for multicultural/multilingual education; hence, an exchange of resources between the public schools and the community language schools would be desirable. Recommendations for future research include: (1) a longitudinal study of Chinese language school graduates to determine important elements that contribute to long term language and cultural maintenance; and (2) a study of the communication and partnership arrangements between ethnic language schools and public schools to determine policy implications for bilingual and cross-cultural education.

This dissertation is a qualitative case study exploring the process of culture learning in a Chinese as a foreign language (CFL) classroom. Guided by a socioculturally based theoretical perspective and adopting the stance of the National Standards, which says that language students "cannot truly master the language until they have also mastered the cultural contexts in which the language occurs" (1996, p. 27), this study describes how culture learning is tied to class practices aimed at developing students' language proficiency by exploring how culture and language are integrated in spoken discourse and interactions in the classroom. The research questions of the study focus on both the instructor's and the students' perspectives towards the interrelationship between language learning and culture learning and their actual practices in the dynamic, complex, and emerging speech community of classroom contexts. Through analysis of student questionnaires, classroom observations, instructor interview, and stimulated-recall sessions with students, this study examines the contexts of culture learning, illustrates how language classroom contexts shape and are shaped by all the class members, including both the instructor and the students, and describes how the classroom spoken discourse in the current advanced-level undergraduate CFL course provides opportunities for culture learning and how culture learning actually happens in this language classroom. The findings suggest that as the instructor and the students interact in the language classroom, it is not so much the particular pieces of cultural and linguistic information under discussion that delineate the actual culture learning process, but rather the active exchanges and sometimes disagreements between the instructor and the students that provide opportunities for interactive cultural dialogues and discussions. In other words, cultural knowledge and understanding are situated in actual contexts of language use. Language learning is also embedded in the same interactive and collaborative discussion of texts. By exploring the complexity of the culture learning process in the language classroom setting, this study adds theoretical and pedagogical support to the premise that culture learning should be an integral part of language instruction at different levels throughout the language curriculum.

Between 1945 and 1987, as part of its efforts to impose a Chinese identity on native-born Taiwanese and to establish and maintain hegemony, Chiang Kai-shek’s Kuomintang (KMT) government pursued a unilingual, Mandarin-only policy in education. This thesis studies the changing meaning of “becoming Taiwanese” by examining the school experiences of four generations of Taiyu speakers who went to school during the Mandarin-only era: 1) those who also went to school under the Japanese; 2) those who went to school before 1949 when Taiwan was part of KMT-controlled China; 3) those who went to school during the 1950s at the height of the implementation of KMT rule; and, 4) those who went to school when Mandarin had become the dominant language. Two data types, interviews and public documents, are analyzed using two research methods, focus group interviews as the primary one, and document analysis as the secondary one. This research found that there is no direct relationship between how people negotiated language, hegemony and Taiwanese identity. First, as KMT hegemony became more secure, people’s links to their home language became weaker, so their view of Taiwanese identity as defined by Taiyu changed. Second, as exposure to hegemonic forces deepened over time, people were less able to find cultural spaces that allowed escape from hegemonic influences, and this, along with other life-course factors such as occupation, had an impact on their contestations of language and identity. The study recognizes the role of human agency and highlights the interactive and performative aspects of identity construction. The results reflect the different possibilities of living with hegemony in different eras, and also show that Taiwanese identity is not fixed, nor is there a single, “authentic” Taiwanese identity.

Previous research has shown that language differences can cause cognitive differences, and that. the availability of certain lexical terms can predispose individuals to certain ways of thinking. The fundamental attribution error (FAE), or the tendency to favor dispositional over situational explanations, is more common in Western, individualistic cultures than in Eastern, collectivist ones. In this study, bilingual South Asian-Americans read scenarios, in English and in Urdu, and rated the extent to which target individuals and situational variables were responsible for the events. It was hypothesized that the availability of a dispositional word in the language of presentation would predispose participants to commit the FAE. Results did not support that hypothesis. However, there was some indication that familiarity with a language increases the tendency to commit the FAE. Possible reasons for the findings are discussed.
Department of Psychological Science

This is an inquiry into adult Mexican English foreign language learners' perceptions of the significance of culture in teaching and learning of English as a foreign language. The participants were Spanish-speaking adults studying at the university level in Morelia, Michoacan, Mexico. Working within the framework of qualitative-interpretative methodology, the focus of this inquiry is the investigation of the participants' perceptions of their experiences in the context of the inquiry in the classrooms. This context was an EFL course designed specifically for Spanish-speaking adults in Mexico based on the analysis of my personal experiences as an adult language learner and as an EFL teacher in Mexico. The research questions of this inquiry are: • What are adult learners' perceptions of beginning with an overview of the history and development of the target language? • What are adult learners' perceptions of learning about a particular target culture where the target language is spoken? • What are adult learners' perceptions of the inclusion of their maternal language and culture in foreign language learning? • What are adult learners' perceptions of working with awareness of language, culture and learning in the foreign language classroom? • What are adult learners' perceptions of explicit teaching in the foreign language classroom? The indications of this inquiry are that some adult EFL learners in Mexico perceive that an introduction to the target language and culture for the adult learner is called for in order to meet adult learner needs, along with the inclusion of the learner's maternal language and culture in EFL teaching and learning, an orientation to foreign language learning, and explicit teaching rather than other types of activities in the classroom. The practical application of these issues in the foreign language classroom with adults may not be indicated in all situations or appreciable for a" adult learners.